"Flesh&Blood" Vol. 12 - Pirate Series Reading Club 🏴‍☠️ ⛵

[ekg]

Good point about Kaito’s illness. He’s just in not in a good place here. :C Also, I do feel for Nigel here.

[eefara]

Ah, chapter 6 note I forgot to mention in my previous post: 松岡 finally got the chance to correct her typo waaay back in volume 1! She listed one of the Elizabethan sea dogs as Thomas Frobisher, when it should’ve been Martin Frobisher; Geoffrey correctly states that Rick is a fan of Martin’s, so that was a nice catch!

Also, while I was flipping through my book looking for the guy’s name, I noticed you forgot an illustration @ekg! It’s on page 87 in the book.

[ekg]

Would you be able to help out with that one as I don’t have a scanner on hand at the moment. >_> If it’s just one image, I mean. Sorry. <3

[eefara]

Sure! My picture’s not likely to look as nice as yours, but I can add it!

[ekg]

We’re a great team! ^>^

[eefara]

Chapter 7 done. Holy crap, I was expecting something tamer. We’re with Vicente, and he’s already been softening up Raul for us. The interrogation has begun, and Raul’s spilled the beans as to Kaito’s route after being “encouraged” by Vicente and his horse. Vicente and Alonso take a break at an inn as a storm threatens to break; Vicente still has lingering doubts as to Alonso’s loyalties, but they get to chat a bit and Vicente’s reassured as to Alonso’s loyalties yet again.

Alsonso questions the accuracy of Kaito’s predictions, to which Vicente doesn’t fly off the handle, a nice contrast to Vicente’s treatment of Raul, which easily strays into vicious territory. Alonso points out that they really don’t have many data points as to the accuracy of Kaito’s predictions; that and his obvious affinity for England make lead him to not being entirely forthcoming in his predictions for Spain. It’s not quite enough to convince Vicente, who recognizes that instead of England vs. Spain, Kaito seems to fall on the side of “all war is bad”, so he’s feeling confident that Kaito hasn’t been knowingly try to mislead the Spanish. Somewhat hilariously, Alonso says that while he was invited to join the Peace Faction, he turned them down specifically so アスコリ wouldn’t have any ground to act like he was Alonso’s superior, haha.

Vicente goes to keep watch over Raul, letting him know that he (Vicente) intends on dumping Raul in jail once Kaito’s rescued. Raul attempts to bargain with Vicente, promising to hand over compromising documents that would incriminate some of the Peace Faction leaders in return for Raul’s safety, but the man almost immediately eats his own foot as he tells Vicente that care and consideration for others is all an illusion (hence his offer to betray the smugglers). Case in point, Vicente’s love for Kaito is probably going to turn to hate someday and he’ll end up murdering Kaito. Shockingly, Vicente is none too happy with this but has to prematurely stop beating Raul because he can tell Raul doesn’t really care. Raul suggests that Vicente let off a little bit of steam by having rough sex with him (?!) and Vicente turns him down, saying he’d rather violate Raul’s corpse (?!!).

…Whew.

[ekg]

Yeah, Raul offering sex is a bit of a revelation here, to say the least! He’s a complicated character for sure. ^^’ I like how Vincente also shows a lot of sides to himself in this chapter.

[eefara]

Chapter 8 done. …Man. I need some time to sit and process this.

[ekg]

yeah, this one is a lot to take in for sure.

[eefara]

Oh man, I just looked at the illustration for this chapter… Absolutely perfect. Man, I didn’t anticipate events turning out like they did… Why do I need to go work, just let me read more.

[ekg]

Yeah, that art is lovely. Even if it’s also super sad!

[eefara]

Man… So chapter 8 was a wild ride. Vicente and co. catch up, and Kaito offers to sacrifice his freedom yet again…

Man, I can completely and 100% say that I did not see Vicente’s actions coming. Him agreeing to give Kaito up so that Kaito would be happy in England… I really, really wish I could’ve seen inside his head when he heard the TB diagnosis.

I suppose I can be happy with this; Vicente willingly giving Kaito up is better than him forever chasing after him, feeling bitter… At least we get the tidbit that had the two met under different circumstances, Kaito totally would’ve fallen for him. You all heard 松岡先生! It’s canon in an AU timeline!! Aaggh. I wonder what Vicente’s role is going to be in the story going forward. And now I’m even more worried about Nigel. I like to think 松岡先生 made sure he was unconscious before Kaito told Geoffrey he was his #1, but our harem chances are looking grimmer and grimmer. It’s time to clone Kaito so everyone can have him, haha.

Raul showing fear at catching Kaito’s disease was a really nice, unexpected humanizing touch.

Aaaagh… I hope this isn’t the end of Vicente’s role in the series. He even gets promoted to Vincent at the end! We can’t leave him like this!

[ekg]

@eefara

I hope this isn’t the end of Vicente’s role in the series. He even gets promoted to Vincent at the end! We can’t leave him like this!

Let’s not forget that there is still the planned attack on England and all of that Armada stuff!

[eefara]

And Kaito left that note for Vicente as well! Makes me wonder if Kaito remembered to grab his photo of Kazuya and him, or if it’s still sitting in one of Vicente’s books…

[eefara]

…Aaaand done! Chapter 9 was a great way to end the book; we got to meet everyone on the Gloria once more, and we got to check in with Kazuya! Maaaan, I can’t wait to see if he really makes it over. Will G/N get to meet Kazuya? Aaaah, I’m so excited! Will he come over then cross back? Stay in 16th century England? Fail entirely and never meet Kaito? The possibilities are endless!

This last chapter also gives a nice, brief rundown of the named sailors on the Gloria; I should really make a list we can reference…

I’m kind of shocked we were able to wrap up the Spain arc in this volume after all; I was totally thinking it’d fall over into volume 13. But new adventures await! I hope we get to stay at sea for a bit before returning to Plymouth; I want to hang out with the sailors and Blackie more!

I’ll probably see if I can read 妖精の分け前 before starting on volume 13 otherwise I’ll never get to it. There’s also one more doujin story I haven’t gotten to, but I think it centers on Raul, so it’s tough to read.

Man, I finished volume 11 back in mid-February…crazy. It doesn’t feel like that long of a break. Granted, I was reading a ton of F&B extras in between, so I never really left.

[ekg]

@eefara

I should really make a list we can reference…

I put them in the cast list for the listening thread. Check the extras thread I think, unless I also listed them in the main thread cast list?

[eefara]

I’ll check there; thanks!

[eefara]

So I had some more thoughts on chapter 9; I meant to type them down earlier, but better late than never. Most are during the Kazuya scene, and I’m just kind of skipping around, so in no particular order:

• Amy saying that it was super suspicious she wanted to go to the library was hilarious. “My mom’s definitely going to know something’s up! My excuse is that I’m just here with a friend!” Great touch.
• I wonder if Amy and Kazuya’s theory of the “fairy door” (or whatever you want to call it) consistently opening is going to hold water. On one hand, it makes logical sense and is convenient. On the other hand, it’s too convenient, at least for story reasons. Can you imagine giving Kaito the happiness of visiting family and friends whenever he wanted? I can’t.
• Kaito’s 18 now! I took a quick glance at the character profiles in volume 13 and saw they still had his old age listed; I need to peek ahead and see which volume it gets corrected in. XD
• Kaito calls himself and Lily “tunnel divers” (トンネル・ダイバー), which I thought was an interesting term. I wonder if it’s a reference to a song/band of some sort? Just since Lily is mentioned as a JIm Morrison fan right after.
• Speaking of Lily, I’m glad we’re getting another opportunity to meet with her (hopefully). I’m curious what thoughts/solutions she’ll have for Kaito once he tells her what’s up.
• I wonder if the time slip really is related to fairies? In a story like like this first instinct is go, “nah, doesn’t seem realistic”, but since one/multiple ブッカブー, the groundwork’s been set, so now I really like the explanation.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got highlighted in my book; once I can finish up one of my other book club books (last week~) I just be able to jump on volume 13!

[ekg]

@eefara

Kaito calls himself and Lily “tunnel divers” (トンネル・ダイバー)

How did I miss this?! XD

[eefara]

Just a heads up that I finally uploaded the missing picture! It’s the one for chapter 4, page 87.