"Flesh&Blood" Vol. 8 - Pirate Series Reading Club 🏴‍☠️ ⛵

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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Chapter 8 thoughts

Turning to Kaito POV in this chapter. He’s cooled down now, taking in the reality of his situation - he’s reliant on Vincente for anything he might want or need at the moment, as frustrating as that is. He’s also scared of what might lie in wait for him in Spain. From his history studies, he’s reminded of the various cruelties taking place in Spain in this era. :fearful:

As was hinted at in previous chapters, there’s a full-blown storm going on and the ship is taking a beating. I can’t imagine how scary it must have been to be onboard a galleon as it weathered a real storm. I’d be terrified honestly. ^^; Well, Kaito doesn’t want to go down with the ship, stuck in the captains cabin, and so venture outside. I wanna scream to him it’s way more dangerous on deck (getting flushed overboard, or getting hit by flying debris), but Vincente is there to at least tie him to the mast, as a precaution. :grimacing:

Well, things are not looking great for the ship as the foremast is broken. Everyone is desperately grasping hold of something to not get washed overboard. That’s when Kaito spots the goblin from before among the waves.

Me reading Kaito’s internal monologue of how he should go about alerting the Spanish crew about the goblin, fearing they might laugh at him - me thinking: surely there are more important things than pride at stake, Kaito! XD Not to mention, I’d rather fear a reigniting the whole witchcraft discussion with the priest! :eyes:

And Kaito is having a hard time getting anyone to part with any money for his heathen appeasement ceremony. In fact he demolishes a rosary to get a medal to throw into the water, which is again, not great going forward with that priest onboard, but at least it seems it works! O_O :relieved:

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Wasn’t it an ordinary necklace with the medal attached to it? :thinking:

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No, it was a rosary (page 160, 数珠 = rosary), and the medal had a depiction of Saint Nikolaus on it :sweat_smile: Not great, Kaito! XD

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Ah, I misremembered! Thanks :slight_smile:
And yeah, that was a bit unfortunate that it was a medal of St. Nikolaus :flushed:

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I couldn’t figure out what Kaito said in Spanish (?) though, again with the katakana madness! ^^;

on page 161 (looking like Apple seed XD) whut? Here in katakana: アパレシード

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Oh that’s what one of the sailors says. My Spanish is waaay below my French, so I did not understand the word itself, but now I researched a bit and it seems to be aparecido which seems to be the participle of aparecer - to appear. So “it appeared…” is what the sailor seems to say.

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Thanks, that makes more sense. ^^’

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Chapter 9 thoughts

If Jeoffrey is unrealistically nice, then a deeply religious person like Vincente is as well, being way to logical about what Kaito was doing in the end. But, it does make him a nice guy, so I’m all for it! XD. in any case, Vincenty lectures the priest on the commonality of superstitions among sailors, trying to normalize Kaito’s actions as best he can. Not that the priest has much interest in getting his belief that Kaito is inherently evil overturned. :eyes:

I wonder a bit about the use of the word taburakasu - Jisho.org by the priest, referring to what Kaito has done to Vincente. I guess it just means, Vincente is the one being deceived (the priest making this accusation), but the additional meaning of being seduced is interesting in this choice of wording. :eyes:

Also, more biblical quotes on p 167, I’m too tired to even attempt that one! ^^;

Well, as much as I really dislike the priest, it IS pretty enjoyable to read about Vincente putting him in his place! :joy: so overall a fun chapter? (though I also wanted to slap the priest toward the end of his tirade. :sweat_smile: )

p 173
A question. Vincente is talking to his crew mate, Peres, and Peres asks him why he’s kept quiet about Kaito understanding and speaking Spanish, that Peres was very surprised to hear him speak it. I, must have been speeding a bit too much, because now I don’t know when that happened. :thinking:

Also, Vincente, already knowing about Kaito and Jeoffrey, is being pretty normal (but still dull headed here) in suggesting it being perfectly fine for them to sleep together. XD Well, he’s right and it really shouldn’t be a big deal if you have no feelings going on, but then again, he’s the enemy, so not the best bedfellow there is. Poor Kaito choose to spend the night reading instead. ^^; But, there is something there-there I feel between these two in how the scene is portrayed, as a calm and at peace state falls between them. :eyes:

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Yes he comes across as being really nice, doesn’t he? I suspect this is his true nature all the way - he just attacked Kaito on the hill because he was so shocked by the news, and he had regretted it often, and I think not only because he wanted to win Kaito over.
Or do you think he is just mocking this in order to make Kaito come to the Spanish side?

Also, I’m not sure how religious he really is - at least he is pretty well-grounded in logical thinking and not superstitious as all, as it seems.

Do you mean this one? (I don’t have page numbers, so blindly guessing…)

畑は世界なり。良き種は天国の子供なり。毒麦は悪しき者の子供なり。これを播きし仇は悪魔なり。収穫は世の終わりなり。刈る者は御使い達なり。されば毒麦の集められて火に焚かるるがごとく、世の終わりにもかくあるべし

Luckily, one only needs a few words to be able to pull this out of a bible search engine :rofl:
Here is the part (Matthew 13:38ff):

38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40 As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.

I enjoyed that a lot as well! Good to see that Vicente is not afraid of him and can handle him.

Are you asking when it was that Kaito spoke in Spanish to Perez? That was in the scene we discussed last time, when Kaito snatched the medal from his neck. He had asked for money beforehand, and I think he did not have any other options than doing this in Spanish.

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Oh, not I remember. There are the different L L for the “”. As you say, making that request would have had to been in Spanish. Tbh, I forget which is which of the L’s and I hardly look either. I’m not used to punctuation to work like that I guess. :sweat_smile:

Also, thanks for the Bible quote. I guess that one fits the scene well. ^^’

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Chapter 10 thoughts

Well, that escalated quickly! :eyes: First Kaito is confronted with Leo checking on Vincente, and another argument takes place. then after, he’s accosted by the guy in Vincente’s crew that believed in the water sprite, on the direction of Escobar of course.Kaito is rendered unconscious.

Waking up, Kaito finds himself having been tossed into the sea. Lucklily, the broken mast is still floating about, and so he can grab hold of something to keep himself afloat. :fearful: Things are NOT looking good for him. Jeoffrey come quickly!! :sob: But, here, Kaito, is actually convinced that Vincente will come back for him, so there’s some budding trust being built for his enemy now. :eyes: But, at the end of this chapter, Kaito is pretty much desparing, having also lost the pouch where Jeoffrey’s key and the photo of Kazuya was kept. :cry:

p 186
Language question: 毳立 = 毛羽立つ けばだつ to become fluffy​? けばだ - Jisho.org Edit did a different search and it seems so 毳 - Jisho.org I guess, it’s again with the old school writing style and choice of kanji that pops up in these books.

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Didn’t he leave his wallet with the photo on the desk in Vicente’s cabin? Or did he put it into his pocket again at some point? :thinking: Don’t remember exactly but I thought it was only the keys that he lost.

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When climbing onto the mast in the dark water, he notices he’s torn his trousers and there he realize he’s lost the key (where he also had put the photo). :face_holding_back_tears: It just makes his despair hit harder, knowing he’s lost his only connections to both Kazuya AND Jeoffrey. :sob:

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spoilerish

I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t continue to read now! :sob:

Chapter 11 thoughts

Well, Vincente wakes up only to find Kaito missing. He expected to be woken by Peres, but of course, Leo’s meddling has kept him asleep. And so, it’s already night when he gets out on the deck. He pretty quickly puzzles the pieces together and goes to confront Escobar about Kaito. :eyes:

This priest is basically the evil genius of a Bond movie, with a need to confess the deed before the confrontation. I guess, it gives Vincente time to act (so I’m not complaining much as I just want him to turn the ship around already!!!). But, yeah, Vincente also realize time is of the essence here and gets going!

Talking to Peres he gets the final piece of the puzzle together, the dumping of the mast and Kaito with it. And it’s already been an hour in the cold water, even if Kaito has remained on top of the mast, things are not looking great. :fearful: But with the broken masts it’s not easy to maneuver the ship. His previous mistaken idea of using the smaller boat to row out there, seems it shows a bit of a short-coming for him - comparatively, with the skill-fullness of Jeoffrey’s handling of Gloria. :eyes: Also, clearly, Vincente doesn’t really have the same amount of clout as a captain - with his crew being rather undisciplined as well. :eyes:

Nooooo…it doesn’t stop there…I really need to sleep though. Y_Y

Okay, read the beginning of chapter 12 and now I stop! :sleepy:

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There is indeed a reason I sped through this like crazy :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Couldn’t read any Monday, but I’ve read three chapters since then. Let’s get to it! I can’t tell if these are getting shorter or I’m getting faster at reading them. Maybe both? I like being able to cruise along, not gonna lie.

Chapter 4
No comments here, haha. Pretty straightforward chapter. The good stuff comes in in…

Chapter 5
Now we’re at it. Some thoughts, in no particular order:

  • I really like the 『』 to mark the Spanish, though I noticed there was no furigana overlay like there initially was with the English and small bit of Spanish, waaay back in volume 1.
  • Which leads to me wonder: at one point レオ says 『ビセンテ様…!』after Vicente tells Leo to apologize to Kaito for starting their shoving match in the boat. What is the 様 doing here? Up until this point, all of the English titles of respect have used that person’s actual title or rank, and we see other instances of Spanish where the men address Vicente as “señor” or “maestro”. So was the 様 used because 松岡先生 wasn’t sure what Leo would call Vicente here? Was it just a slip-up? Anyone remember what honorific(s) Leo used in the previous times we’ve seen him?
  • Man, another case where we can really see how Kaito’s grown. The boy attacks Leo and jumps off of the ship in a last-ditch effort to swim to shore.
  • Aaaand speaking of that, Kaito still had his photo of Kazuya on him, right? :frowning: That sucker is gone for sure.
  • I thought there was a nice parallel after Kaito gets pulled back up onto the rowboat. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but it brought to mind the end of the chase at La Rochelle: Kaito’s pulled from the sea after jumping into it to escape an enemy. Kind of a weak parallel, granted, but I was feeling those vibes when I was reading. :person_shrugging:

Chapter 6

  • And here the truth comes out. Better to get it out in the open early, I suppose, and you can clearly see the guilt’s eating Nigel alive. I was proud of Geoffrey at least for acknowledging that he did the exact same thing Nigel, prioritizing Kaito over their decade-long (or however long) friendship. I wonder how things are going to turn out. :frowning:

Took a sneak peek at chapter 7 before I steel myself to be responsible and get back to my actual day job, and it looks like it’s from Vicente’s POV. :pleading_face: 松岡 the god just keeps giving.

(Chapter 6 spoilers)
Syyyyymbooooolism :smiley: (Ugh, this scene was tough to read :sob:)

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Somehow I failed to quote you ^^; but the Vincente-sama is just a sign Leo is closer to Vincente than any other of his subordinates, so he’s allowed to use his name. Also, he’s not his “captain” as Leo serves Vincente in a personal capacity. Still, the -sama is necessary to show true respect for his master. :slight_smile:

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That makes sense. :thinking: Just thought it was weird to see out of the blue, haha.

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It’s so amazing to read both your comments, lets me relive the whole book once again :blush:

So I could be wrong but from instinct I’d say that using さん or the title or “señor” is like normal politeness, where 様 is proper keigo and feels to me much much more humble. So Leo wants to stress that Vicente is like a god for him, and he wants Kaito to behave the same.

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I’m glad you’re having fun! ^o^ I’m really glad we’ve managed to keep a stable core of readers for this series; it’s a ton of fun to bounce ideas and excitement and speculation and stuff off of everyone. ^o^ I’m hoping to catch up with ekg soon, and then we can soldier on until we meet up with you again. o7

(Chapter 5 spoilers)

I guess overall I wasn’t asking what meaning 様 was adding to Leo’s statement; it’s definitely a sign of respect, and helps to show how much he thinks of him. I’m just wondering why 様 in particular was used, instead of, say, 卿 or 閣下 or a katakana-ized Spanish specific honorific? Is it a matter of what titles Vicente has, and it’s not societally correct to use one of those with him? I don’t think we typically see the plain Jane 様 (or さん, ever), so it took me by surprise to see it here.

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