"Flesh&Blood" Vol. 15 - Pirate Series Reading Club 🏴‍☠️ ⛵

[pyororon]

Also finished chapter 2

It’s nice getting the info leading up to Kaito’s return from Kazuya’s perspective. It really helps fill in some of the blanks from Kaito’s dreams. Kazuya seems like a really good strategist, he has a whole well thought out plan and he’s carefully preparing and testing along the way. I feel like he and Nigel could get along if you ignore any potential Kaito related jealousy.

追い求めていたのは自分だけじゃない。再会を望んでいたのも自分だけじゃなかった。

Oof, poor Kazuya… I sense some angst coming soon.

@eefara

I’m wondering who opened the tunnel way back in vol. 1; I don’t remember any instances of nine popping up, but it has been a while…

For some reason I thought Kaito rolled down the hill a bit before going through so I thought it might be that but I looked back and that never actually happened. My current thought is maybe it was the little girls?

Speaking of those girls, Kazuya seemed like he didn’t know anything about them after the incident but didn’t he run into one of the girls at the library? Here he learned about the fairy story from a librarian as well instead of from her. Are there actually some differences between Kaito’s dreams and what actually happened? Or maybe the timeline is confusing me and him meeting the girl came after and just wasn’t covered in this chapter.

@eefara

Kazuya’s been up to some stuff, I must say. He’s gotten pretty good at: a) lying to his parents, b) dealing drugs, and c) avoiding the police, all in the name of preparing himself to figure out where and when Kaito went and how to follow him.

He’s really not kidding when he says he’ll do anything. It’s going to be interesting to see how Kaito reacts to Kazuya’s changes and vice versa.

@eefara

I believe this is the first time we’ve gotten Nigel’s POV in the main series, no? He’s featured quite a bit in various short stories, but I think this is the first in the main series.

I think it is, I can’t wait! Got to be the saddest timing for one though

@eefara

@ekg

it finally explained why Kazuya never appeared on the Hoe (because he was merely testing things out before finally going through with it - only to end up bringing Kaito back instead in the end.)

I was wondering if this was the case, but (and it’s been a while, granted) I seem to recall the Kazuya in Kaito’s dreams actually falling through the ground, as if Kazuya took the tunnel. Your memory should be fresher than mine @pyororon; do you remember? This would’ve been, what volume 13 I think.

My memories are not the most reliable so I had to check but you’re right, he did disappear through the ground in that dream. I guess it’ll be a while longer before that mystery is solved

[pyororon]

Finished chapter 3

First Nigel POV! We start off with him overseeing work on the Gloria at the docks. He hasn’t realized that anything is up until Joe brings him a meat pie that’s secretly laced with the sleep medicine they used on Kaito. He knows Geoffrey well enough to figure out then what he has planned and what’s likely happening now while he’s unable to move. There’s even a flashback to when he first met Geoffrey just to drive home how important he is to him.

This is such a sad situation but I had to laugh a little when Nigel was thinking that the match for who gets Kaito isn’t over. I feel so bad for him but that one was kind of over before it started

He wakes up at Buckland Abbey and gets an explanation on the current situation from Kit. Geoffrey has been arrested and thrown into Newgate prison on charges of treason. Drake did try to intervene but was only able to stop the rest of the sailors from being taken away as well. Nigel has no plans on giving up on Kaito and Geoffrey easily and immediately intends to head for London to save them or die trying. Not alone though as Kit decides to lend a hand, which seems like it’ll be an interesting(chaotic) combo. I don’t think they’ve been left alone together too often, maybe Kit will finally be able to be around Nigel without the danger of a fist to the face. Thank god for him though since he pisses Nigel off enough that he can’t stay too depressed. Currently it doesn’t seem like they know about Kaito’s disappearance yet.

I hope we get way more Nigel perspectives in the future.

Once again couldn’t help peeking at the first page of the next chapter and omg! A Vicente chapter?! I was not expecting that.

[eefara]

@pyororon

I feel like he and Nigel could get along if you ignore any potential Kaito related jealousy.

Same here; I could see them plotting all sorts of money-related schemes together.

@pyororon

Oof, poor Kazuya… I sense some angst coming soon.

I highlighted that exact same sentence in my copy, haha.

@pyororon

For some reason I thought Kaito rolled down the hill a bit before going through so I thought it might be that but I looked back and that never actually happened. My current thought is maybe it was the little girls?

Oh, that could work. I believe the older one (Amy?) mentioned to Kazuya a few books back that she’d already heard stories of fairies kidnapping people from her mother/grandmother, so I could totally see them “trying it out” one day, only to run into Kaito.

@pyororon

Speaking of those girls, Kazuya seemed like he didn’t know anything about them after the incident but didn’t he run into one of the girls at the library? Here he learned about the fairy story from a librarian as well instead of from her. Are there actually some differences between Kaito’s dreams and what actually happened? Or maybe the timeline is confusing me and him meeting the girl came after and just wasn’t covered in this chapter.

Oh, that’s…a good point. Hmm. Originally I was thinking that he meant he wasn’t sure what happened to them in that he wasn’t sure what they ended up doing after he met the older one in the library, but maybe that’s not the case? I might need to go back today and see if I can hunt down that passage…

@pyororon

My memories are not the most reliable so I had to check but you’re right, he did disappear through the ground in that dream. I guess it’ll be a while longer before that mystery is solved

Dang. I’m so curious!

Edit: So regarding this:

@pyororon

For some reason I thought Kaito rolled down the hill a bit before going through so I thought it might be that but I looked back and that never actually happened. My current thought is maybe it was the little girls?

So I found the passage with Kazuya talking to Amy: volume 12, chapter 9. It was indeed the girls who had already opened the tunnel when Kaito arrived, and Amy had learned from her grandmother that you have to circle a fairy ring 9 times on a full moon night to open the tunnel. And re-reading chapter 2 from this book, Kazuya mentions he got two clues in relation to the time tunnel: the first was a librarian mentioning that it was an old folktale to have people disappearing on the Hoe, and the second goes unmentioned. Given that Kazuya was reading a book on Celtic beliefs on how this world and the afterlife were connected in the dream in v12c9, right before Amy talks to him, I’m inclined to think everything still matches up and 松岡 just didn’t want to repeat the information he got from Amy.

[pyororon]

@eefara

Given that Kazuya was reading a book on Celtic beliefs on how this world and the afterlife were connected in the dream in v12c9, right before Amy talks to him, I’m inclined to think everything still matches up and 松岡 just didn’t want to repeat the information he got from Amy.

That makes sense thanks for checking! Seems like the dreams are accurate then which just makes me all the more curious about that last one

[eefara]

Finished chapter 3! As always, Nigel’s POV tends to be rather melancholic; he’s such a good boy who gets dealt such hard hands in life. I suppose I can accept Joe drugging him on Geoffrey’s orders as for why he wasn’t involved in the end of the last book, but you’re going to have to keep working hard to fully apologize, author!

There’s not a lot to recap here; Nigel is drugged by Joe and taken to Drake’s manor, where he wakes up with Kit for company, haha. Geoffrey’s been taken to London and imprisoned in Newgate prison for trial by the Star Chamber, accused of colluding with Spanish spy Kaito by the very trustworthy 蠍. Nigel and Kit decide to head to London to rescue Geoffrey and, presumably, Kaito; they both seem to assume that Kaito’s there with Geoffrey, which makes sense.

Understandably, Nigel’s pretty upset with Geoffrey’s actions, making all these plans without Nigel’s input or consent. These two have been slowly moving out of alignment over several books, so hopefully this is all a good trigger for them to sit down and talk. It’s just going to get worse if they don’t; Nigel even declares here that he’s still not giving up on Kaito. I thought Kaito laid down the way things were last volume with the kidnapping attempt, i.e. “I love Geoffrey, and that’s all there is to it”, but maybe I’m misremembering.

Took a peek at next POV as is now becoming tradition, and oh my sweet jesus. Vincente!!! First Kazuya, then Nigel, and now Vicente? We are not worthy.

Ah, and @pyororon, do you remember that one dude in London who tipped G&N off to how they could get Kaito absolved in court on exchange for Kaito giving him a prophecy (which we never saw)? I wonder if he’ll pop up here again.

@pyororon

I hope we get way more Nigel perspectives in the future.

Man, wouldn’t it be wild if we got mostly got nonstandard character POVs in this volume? That would make this an 11/10 for me easily then. (Also, I’m hoping we don’t move to Geoffrey and any torture he may/may not be undergoing. I can barely stomach torture scenes, volume 5 was really hard to read. )

@ekg

So, which Petronius is referenced on p 67? Petronius - Wikipedia or Petronius Maximus - Wikipedia or someone else?

I’m betting the former, who was known for being a pleasure seeker in life. The latter just appears to be a well-known politician, so unless anyone has objections I’ll add the former to the list.

[eefara]

Finished chapter 4. I’ll be out of town until next Thursday, so I’m not sure what my free time is going to look like. Could be I can sneak a couple of chapters in, could be nothing gets read, so I wanted to go ahead and at least read this one more.

We’re back with Vicente, who hasn’t really recovered. He seems quite depressed in the clinical sense of the word. Seems he’s hoping the best way to push through this heartache is to just never love anyone ever again. Poor guy.

Leo comes to tell him that King Philip wants to see him for a secret discussion, so the two set off. Leo is going through the unlucky combination of “angry and upset that Kaito would ‘betray’ then to go back to England” and “becoming a rebellious teenager”, so we have a nice section of him describing how he’s going to massacre all the people of England, if only he could be allowed to sail over there and fight. Vicente doesn’t really take it to heart; he even tells Leo about his love for Kaito, to Leo’s disgust. I was honestly pretty impressed; I wouldn’t have thought Vicente would admit it to anyone.

Anyway, Leo runs off and Vicente reflects that he hasn’t been there to support Leo through these hard times and vows to, making that his new reason to go on post-Kaito. I’m wondering how their relationship with evolve. Leo and Vicente had better meet up with Kaito again, or I’m gonna be mad.

We don’t actually get to see what King Philip wanted to say to Vicente, so it’s either inconsequential or we’re hopefully guaranteed another V chapter this book. And next chapter I’ll need to prepare myself for, just in case. I’m a bit nervous. :X

There’s a whole bunch of names and knightly orders I need to look up, but haven’t. Hopefully I can remember to get back to them…

@ekg

[Re: ch 5] This was very difficult reading.

Agh. I need to prepare myself 200%.

[pyororon]

@eefara

As always, Nigel’s POV tends to be rather melancholic; he’s such a good boy who gets dealt such hard hands in life.

I’m always so impressed how Matsuoka sensei manages to make all of the different character perspectives so distinct and match everyone’s personalities so well

@eefara

Geoffrey’s been taken to London and imprisoned in Newgate prison for trial by the Star Chamber, accused of colluding with Spanish spy Kaito by the very trustworthy 蠍.

I think this was actually information from one of Walsingham’s “different” spies since they mentioned 蠍とは別口. Not that it makes any difference since that spy is definitely working for Raul as well.

@eefara

Ah, and @pyororon, do you remember that one dude in London who tipped G&N off to how they could get Kaito absolved in court on exchange for Kaito giving him a prophecy (which we never saw)? I wonder if he’ll pop up here again.

I had completely forgotten about him until I read this. If the prophecy turned out well for him maybe a potential ally in London?

@eefara

Man, wouldn’t it be wild if we got mostly got nonstandard character POVs in this volume? That would make this an 11/10 for me easily then.

I would love that, the different perspectives have made this volume really fun so far.

@eefara

(Also, I’m hoping we don’t move to Geoffrey and any torture he may/may not be undergoing. I can barely stomach torture scenes, volume 5 was really hard to read. )

I’m worried about that as well, circumstances made it so Kaito got off relatively easy but I kind of doubt it’ll be the same for Geoffrey.

@eefara

I’ll be out of town until next Thursday, so I’m not sure what my free time is going to look like. Could be I can sneak a couple of chapters in, could be nothing gets read, so I wanted to go ahead and at least read this one more.

I’m in almost the exact same situation but I’ll be back on Wednesday. Have a nice trip!

[eefara]

@pyororon

I’m in almost the exact same situation but I’ll be back on Wednesday. Have a nice trip!

Nice! Hope you have a great trip as well!

[eefara]

I’ve started chapter 5, but it’s slow going. We move to Geoffrey’s POV, and the situation is bad. I might have to read this one in chunks…

[eefara]

Chapter 5 done, thank god. Pleeeeaaase, pleeeaase Nigel, rescue Geoffrey. I can’t stand to read much more than this. I don’t even want to do a recap; I hate reading torture scenes. I would rather read 10 chapters of Raul’s horrifying sex life. I’m going to go read something happy now to make up for it.

Minor thing I will note, Raven is back. Glad (?) to see him again?

[pyororon]

Got a bit distracted when I got back but finally got back into it today.

Chapter 4

We get a glimpse into what’s going on with the Spanish side. Vicente is still devastated about losing Kaito while Leo is angry, having taken Kaito’s actions completely as betrayal. This has caused a bit of a rift in the two’s relationship. Seeing Leo’s change Vincente realizes that in his grief he hasn’t been there to support him enough when he’s also struggling and decides that from now on he’s going to try and change that.

I wonder if they ever ended up finding what Kaito left behind, still no mention of it so far.

@eefara

Leo and Vicente had better meet up with Kaito again, or I’m gonna be mad.

I bet/hope they’ll end up having a very dramatic reunion on the battlefield!

Chapter 5

That was a rough read. Poor Geoffrey… It seems like there’s definitely a time limit on his rescue and it might not be long…

Chapter 6

Back to Nigel’s perspective where he and Kit are waiting to meet someone. That someone being…

@eefara

Ah, and @pyororon, do you remember that one dude in London who tipped G&N off to how they could get Kaito absolved in court on exchange for Kaito giving him a prophecy (which we never saw)? I wonder if he’ll pop up here again.

Maybe you were really a 予言者 all along @eefara

They meet up with Robert to see if he knows of any way they can save Geoffrey. From him they find out that there’s something up at the Walsingham house, and that Geoffrey is being tortured and likely won’t be able to hold out much longer. But unfortunately he can’t think of any plan to get him out without exchanging him for Kaito. That is until Nigel mentions giving a bunch of money to Sir Raleigh, then suddenly something comes to him. But of course the chapter cuts off before they explain the plan. Man I’m dying to know!

[eefara]

@pyororon

I wonder if they ever ended up finding what Kaito left behind, still no mention of it so far.

Oh, I had almost forgotten about that! Man, I hope so.

[eefara]

Finished chapter 6. Man; my feelings are all over the place. Nigel and Kit are in London, and they’ve contacted Robert Cecil for help. Honestly, I was a little surprised he came back into the picture; I had basically written him off since it had been so long since he had last appeared. I figured Matsuoka-sensei had also forgotten about him. But no! He’s here and ready to save Geoffrey! …But Walsingham is a tough nut to crack, and it’s not until Nigel suggests they petition Walter Raleigh for aid in the form of money for a trip to the New World and the service of the Gloria to carry passengers that an idea occurs to Cecil. Matsuoka chooses the best possible time to end the chapter, riiiight when Cecil’s whispering the plan. >.< Aaaaagh, what’s the plan?! Dang it, I don’t want to switch perspectives now!

I have to say, I like the artwork for this chapter; the perspective feels really nice, and it matches the tense atmosphere nicely!

@pyororon

Maybe you were really a 予言者 all along @eefara

I have to channel our boy while he recovers from the tuberculosis. :')

[eefara]

Chapter 7 completed. We return to Kaito, 3 weeks after he’s been admitted to the hospital. He’s healing up nicely, as expected; his particular strain of tuberculosis has no defense again modern-day antibiotics, so while recovery is slow, it seems like it’ll only be a matter of time before he’s released. Interestingly, the hospital he’s taken to is a real place, though according to their current website they only seem to treat patients with terminal illnesses.

Also as expected, Kaito’s pretty anxious about what Geoffrey’s up to right now. Good thing he doesn’t know…

Detective (John) Reevers shows up for an impromptu visit and is able to do a little bit of grilling, to no avail. Kaito’s sticking with the “I have no memory of what happened”, hoping that the old “the event was so traumatic my brain is blocking it out for my own sanity” will hold long enough. He hasn’t been able to contact Kazuya yet, but it looks like it’s only a matter of time. Man, I’m wondering how things are going to go down with him and Kazuya; Kaito’s dead set on returning to Geoffrey and co.; will Kazuya join him? Or somehow find his own peace in staying in the 21st century?

I enjoyed seeing the evidence Reevers has built up in regards to Kaito’s case and what happened to him, incidentally. So far we have:

• An advanced case of tuberculosis
• (Dunno if Reeves has this bit of info, but I imagine he does) Said tuberculosis is extremely unusual as it responds extremely well to a single antibiotic
• Kaito has a ‘T’ branded onto his hand
• Kaito was barefoot when found, and despite it being spring, his feet were mildly frostbitten
• Kaito had dirt underneath his fingernails

I’d love to see what conclusions he comes to after putting this all together, haha. I’d love to get a peek into his head to see how the wheels spin.

I’m actually pretty fond of the illustration for this chapter. No real reason, I guess; the hoodie just looks comfortable.

[eefara]

Chapters 8 and 9 finished, and with that the book! Whew, this was a good one; even though it’s all pretty much setup, it’s been so exciting to have so many different POV characters. Nigel and Kazuya are welcome additions, and we even managed to squeeze in Vicente!

Chapter 8 was a long one; we’re back with Kazuya, who’s brought a bag of goodies to Kaito: his father’s old laptop, some books, some candy, and the stuff Kaito entrusted to him when they reunited on the Hoe. Man, I have to say, Kazuya’s getting crazy possessive of him already; the section where he started talking about if Kaito wasn’t comfortable going back to St. Christopher’s, he’d even petition their parents to send them to school on the continent had me going . I think I mentioned before that Kazuya was going to have some work to do if he wanted to match up to kidnapper Nigel, but it seems I don’t have to worry, haha. All this single-minded devotion makes me think that he’s going to at least try to accompany Kaito to the 16th century. Whether that’s going to happen, or if Kaito’s going to go without him… I don’t know. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to get real sad.

Kaito tells him about having dreamed about Kazuya and his new height, which Kazuya immediately takes to mean that Kaito’s been crazy missing him. Yep, this won’t end well… There’s a bit of reminiscing about back when they were cute little kids; it took me re-reading a few sentences to figure out whether some of this section was set in the past or not at times. Not sure if I was missing obvious markers or what.

Kaito’s mother shows up after a bit; possibly going for that “fashionably late” entrance, now that I think about it. It’s amazing; Kaito has complained often about her self-centeredness, but we’re shown here that he wasn’t exaggerating much, if at all. The meeting consists of Tomoe bringing snacks she personally likes, eating them, then leaving. Barely a word of concern for her son, and she even straight up tells him that his father will be visiting on the weekend because his golf buddies guilted him into doing it. >.>; Kaito’s brother Hiroaki will also be visiting; I hope we get to meet him, I don’t think we have yet. Kaito speaks about two words the entire time before Tomoe leaves, Kazuya escorting her out.

Kazuya plays the part of “devoted friend who is in awe of how wonderful his friend’s mother is” to perfection, even theatrically collapsing on the floor in tears, talking about how sorry he is to have let Kaito disappear like that. Interestingly, it seems that Tomoe might’ve been slowly setting him up as a replacement for her son, taking him out shopping constantly and stuff. We also get the very interesting bit of information that, when Hiroaki was still in the womb, there were rumors of Tomoe’s husband having an affair with someone who worked at his company. Kazuya guesses that that’s the reason why she doesn’t seem to give particular attention to Hiroaki, since he just reminds her of that period in time. Man, the more I learn, the more messed-up Kaito’s family is. Can’t blame the guy for wanting to escape, Geoffrey or no Geoffrey.

Chapter 9 was really short in comparison; about a page long. Kaito seems to be doing research into why Geoffrey’s not listed in any history book, which…was an interesting way to end the book, I thought. Is there supposed to be any doubt that the world he went to isn’t just straight in the past, but instead is a parallel world? Maybe he just wants to set his mind at ease, but I’m a bit suspicious, given how the book could have ended perfectly well at the end of chapter 8.

Overall a fantastic entry in the series, I thought. I’m really glad, since I was pretty disappointed with how things shook out in volume 14. I hope volume 16 is just as good; I presume things will really begin moving then.

[pyororon]

Finished up the last few chapters last night. This was such a good volume! I’m really looking forward to seeing where things are going to go from here in this arc.

Chapter 7

Back to Kaito, he’s still hospitalized getting treatment for his tuberculosis but starting to recover, with the possibility of being able to leave the hospital approaching. When he’s about to go on a walk around the ward he gets an unexpected visit from detective Rivers(?) who questions him about what happened when he was missing and seems to have some doubts about his memory loss. From the perspective of someone with no knowledge on the time tunnel stuff this case must be a huge mystery.

@eefara

I’d love to see what conclusions he comes to after putting this all together, haha. I’d love to get a peek into his head to see how the wheels spin.

Same, it would be really interesting to see if he could come up with something probable from all of that information while staying within the bounds of common sense or if he’ll end up getting close to the actual truth. I wonder how much he’s taking Kazuya’s actions and what he was researching into account.

Chapter 8

Kazuya comes to visit Kaito in the new facility he’s hospitalized at. We get a lot of insight into Kazuya’s thoughts in this chapter and it’s clear Kazuya’s feelings about Kaito definitely aren’t at a normal best friend level. It’s not really clear yet if they’re romantic or not but there’s definitely some obsession going on there. Kazuya’s got this whole future he’s planning for with Kaito without realizing Kaito has completely separate plans that don’t include him. There’s no way he’s going to easily let Kaito go back alone. I can’t tell if I’m looking forward to or dreading that reveal because that’s gotta hurt

We also get a look at Kaito’s mother Tomoe from the perspective of someone other than Kaito and I feel like she’s somehow worse than Kaito described. It didn’t seem like she actually cared about her son, she barely even spoke to him. Also was there an implication there that Kazuya thinks she’s interested in him but not making a move because of the risk because if so that’s so gross he’s literally her sons age

@eefara

it took me re-reading a few sentences to figure out whether some of this section was set in the past or not at times. Not sure if I was missing obvious markers or what.

I had the same issue, that part was a bit confusing.

@eefara

she even straight up tells him that his father will be visiting on the weekend because his golf buddies guilted him into doing it. >.>

Yeah geez I couldn’t believe she flat out said that to her hospitilized son

Chapter 9

This one was really short. Looks like the reason Kaito wanted a laptop was to look into why he’d never heard of Geoffrey when researching Drake before. I guess we’ll find out if Geoffrey only exists in the other world or if he also possibly existed here too but died before he could do anything that would be left behind in records?

Any thoughts on when you’d plan to start the next volume @eefara?

[eefara]

@pyororon

Finished up the last few chapters last night. This was such a good volume! I’m really looking forward to seeing where things are going to go from here in this arc.

Right? There were already endless possibilities going into this arc, and I’m really happy with how things are moving along. Kazuya is definitely the biggest question mark going forward; the boy’s a loose cannon.

@pyororon

Any thoughts on when you’d plan to start the next volume @eefara?

Does next week sound good? I’m aiming to start next Tuesday or Wednesday; this week has been awful for my reading, so I’m likely going to be playing a bit of catch up on Monday/Tuesday for my other books.

[pyororon]

Sounds good! Gives me some time to diversify my reading a bit, I think Flesh&Blood makes up about 40% of the non-manga books I’ve read at this point

[eefara]

I noticed you reading 死に戻ったモブはラスボスの最愛でした over on natively; you’ll have to let me know how that is.

[pyororon]

Will do, it seems fun so far