#️⃣ 6️⃣ Chapter 4 | NO. 6 〔ナンバーシックス〕volume 1️⃣

[Kroki]

Welcome to week 5 of NO. 6 〔ナンバーシックス〕 vol 1 book club!

Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 (here) | Chapter 5

Week	Date	Chapter	Page count	End Line
5	March 30	4	~33 pages	End of chapter

Discussion Guidelines

• Spoilers should always be hidden using spoiler blur.

• When discussing a specific section, please mention where you are in the book, ideally by chapter so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.

• Feel free to read ahead if it’s exciting, but please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week.

• If you have a question about grammar, vocab, cultural things, etc - ask! That’s a welcome part of the discussion too, and other readers will be happy to help.

Are you reading along with us?

• Yes!
• I’m reading at my own pace
• I’m just here for the discussion

[fallenfrost]

I’ll add my thoughts below because of spoilers but I can’t believe we’re already almost at the end of the book. I plan on buying the next few books (I’d buy them all but I don’t think the later books have pretty obis do they? I’m thinking of waiting and seeing if they get some before buying them). Is anyone else planning on continuing with the series too?

Thoughts on chapter 4 (mostly about character design)

So I finally discovered why Shion looks like that on the obi. When I first saw it I actually thought it was supposed to be Nezumi because white hair + red eyes = rodent according to my brain so I was initially kind of confused when I realized it wasn’t him. I thought it might have been intentional, like trying to make Shion and Nezumi reflect each other or something lol.

Either way I really feel for Shion this chapter. He suffered a lot

[eefara]

@fallenfrost

(I’d buy them all but I don’t think the later books have pretty obis do they? I’m thinking of waiting and seeing if they get some before buying them)

再会 #3 has been announced for a (iirc) May release, so I’m hoping we get more as well. There’s only four volumes left without full obis, so we should get close, if not complete the set hopefully.

[Pashmina]

I’m trying to remember what happened chronologically.

Chapter 4

I’m a bit confused how the West block is set up. So apparently, the correctional facility is set up there, but apart from that, it’s the Wild West over there? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a facility like that in a more controlled area to oversee what’s happening there?

The water blister thing did suffer from the ‘it’s mentioned, so it’s obvious’ foreshadowing, though after diving through trash soup I wouldn’t be surprised if you caught nasty things there.

Oh my god Nezumi is so edge-lordy, I guess he’s intentionally being a tease, but it takes a sweet soul like Shion to endure it.

Those mice are so fricking cute! I love them so much. Named the chestnut(?) one already Chichi in my head. So I guess they’re real mice! And they like to be read to, my heart is exploding. Having a cute animal assistants is a bonus in every story.

Poor Shion can’t catch a break. Within 48 hours he’s had to witness a dead body, have his sperm requested, witness another grueling death, be wrongfully detained by your local friendly fascist government, jump out a driving and exploding car, dive through literal shit water, have a parasite be born out of your neck alien-style, and be left with permanent marks on your body.

I mean, I kinda DO agree with Mr Mouseboy, they could look worse, they look kinda cool, ngl. From just reading it, I expected far worse, for a moment I thought he’d turned into a literal snake or have a snake head coming out of his back Voldemort-style. Seeing the illustration on the covers and in the manga, it was kinda anti-climactic, lmao. My reaction was kinda like when they revealed the birthmark in Ready Player One ^[1].

Edit: Why is the formatting f’ ed up?
Edit2: Apparently the hlines caused it

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1. don’t read this book if you haven’t, it’s the worst book I ever read ↩︎

[Pashmina]

I am done with my vocab pre-study lists and I try to be as vague as possible, but I’m really curious about the next chapter–we have some, let’s say interesting vocab terms in there…

[Shiori]

Chapter 4 Thoughts

I really loved how that scene with Shion suffering was written. Since this book is in 3rd person, it would have been easy to give a straight forward account of the events. But instead there is this surreal, feverish description of everything that puts you right in Shion’s head. It is really well done and refreshing.
I also liked Nezumi quoting Macbeth for making the soup, and Shion’s 「そういうスープなら遠慮する」(笑)
The fact this is the second time it is mentioned, and seems to be one of Nezumi’s favorite books (he’s read it enough to quote it off cuff) I wonder if there are themes in Macbeth that parallel him or the story to come

[Shiori]

@fallenfrost

Is anyone else planning on continuing with the series too?

Assuming the remaining 30 pages don’t randomly get really bad, I am definitely planning on continuing!

[eefara]

Chapter 4

@Shiori

The fact this is the second time it is mentioned, and seems to be one of Nezumi’s favorite books (he’s read it enough to quote it off cuff) I wonder if there are themes in Macbeth that parallel him or the story to come

The whole series is (so far) steeped in literature; honestly I love looking up whatever quote is used at the beginning of chapters and trying to figure out what about it made the author select it for that chapter.

[Kroki]

@fallenfrost

Is anyone else planning on continuing with the series too?

I’m planning on that. I got all volumes digitally some time ago so I’ve been committed even before starting

I’ll probably even keep to the 1 chapter per week / 1 volume per ±month pace.

[Pashmina]

I also plan to keep on reading, there’s just too many open questions!

[Kroki]

Week 5 while it's still Sunday here

Yeah, sure. The memories of Shion’s mother are a useless dead weight, but Shakespeare books are totally useful. Mhm. You sound like my grandma, Nezumi…

The moment I thought Nezumi went too far and they start to fight (?) it all turns into a comedy where Nezumi is more worried about Shion not hitting his head on books or something than actual being attacked.

You worry about him, you do!

So yeah, transformation scene is here! Shion becomes his sexier self except that the process sounded so horrible… ouch.

Nezumi was so passionate trying to save him and talking to him… This one was my favorite part there:

なんにも知らないくせに。セックスも本もケンカのやり方もろくに知らないくせに、生きてなくていいのかよ。

Nezumi who’s used to death the way he is, must know that 16 is not that late to die, and yet this is what he feels about Shion specifically dying.

There was a word I had to look up. I got it was something flirty, but from tsuya I got “glossy/shiny” vibes, so yeah:

艶っぽい - tsuya-ppoi - (adji) romantic, spicy, coquettish

[Kroki]

@Pashmina (tried to answer your post but seems like that didn’t work)

About the West Block

@Pashmina

Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a facility like that in a more controlled area to oversee what’s happening there?

Somewhere in chapter 1 West Block was described as a fortress existing to make sure no crime happens in the actual city.
So I’m imagining that as a separate area people don’t usually go to that started off with having a gate and correctional facilities (out of aight out of mind) and then people waiting for the entrance permit started settlements there and boom, you have a very bad neighborhood and cops with suitable attitude for such a place.

P.S.: yessss : are so cute!!

[Makochou]

Oh wow, what a chapter!

Chapter 4 thoughts

First they are swimming through the waste water, luckily with goggles, but this sounds really difficult to bear. Good that they are able to escape. And yes, I would also definitely had afterwards.

Then we find them in Nezumis home and I must say for me it was really unexpected to get a home described with so many books in it. (Books seem to be important in dystopias or anti-utopias I have not read so many books of this genre but all had something to do with books).

When Shion was scretching his neck and reminded of Yamase I was shocked, thinking: "No way!"And cold ase was running down my back. I didn’t want to imagine this and also not wanted to read about this … but it totally made sense that he got infected with that as Shion was in the area on both incidents. Now it’s a good question whether this is something from the government or something they also don’t know of. Hmmm …

Good thing, that Shion before forced himself to watch Yamase closely so that he knew what exactly happened and Nezumi could help out.

Chapter 4 replies

@Pashmina

Those mice are so fricking cute! I love them so much. Named the chestnut(?) one already Chichi in my head. So I guess they’re real mice! And they like to be read to, my heart is exploding. Having a cute animal assistants is a bonus in every story.

I also find them really cute and Chichi is such a lovely name!

@Pashmina

From just reading it, I expected far worse, for a moment I thought he’d turned into a literal snake or have a snake head coming out of his back Voldemort-style.

Same here! I was afraid the next frightening scene would happen.

@Shiori

The fact this is the second time it is mentioned, and seems to be one of Nezumi’s favorite books (he’s read it enough to quote it off cuff) I wonder if there are themes in Macbeth that parallel him or the story to come

Oh, that’s an interesting thought! I need to check my knowledge with Macbeth I think we did read Hamlet in school and watched Macbeth though, so probably checking the internet..

@Shiori

I really loved how that scene with Shion suffering was written. Since this book is in 3rd person, it would have been easy to give a straight forward account of the events. But instead there is this surreal, feverish description of everything that puts you right in Shion’s head. It is really well done and refreshing.

Now that you mention this, I totally agree. This could have been more neutral or objectively describes, but we get this feverish way and not “Nezumi did A, B, C and Shion reacted Z, Y, X”.

@eefara

honestly I love looking up whatever quote is used at the beginning of chapters and trying to figure out what about it made the author select it for that chapter.

Trying to understand .. so you skip the chapter before actually reading it to get the quote, then checking the quote and then reading the chapter? A little confused about the “quote is used at the beginning”

@Pashmina

I am done with my vocab pre-study lists and I try to be as vague as possible, but I’m really curious about the next chapter–we have some, let’s say interesting vocab terms in there…

That does make me curious. Good thing I can continue reading right now

[Biblio]

books

@Makochou

Books seem to be important in dystopias or anti-utopias

Books cannot be altered after the fact. They might have wrong information from the beginning, but once it’s printed, that’s how it stays. It’s basically the only real way of recording the truth of the moment. Taking away access to information from the citizens is always one of the first steps of totalitarian regimes which are usually the ones depicted in dystopian stories.

@Makochou

“quote is used at the beginning”

In the digital edition at least, the quotes are at the beginning of each chapter, directly after the chapter title.

[Kroki]

That’s starting from vol 2 I think?
The first one didn’t have this?

[Biblio]

I had to check, but you are right. I didn’t even notice that this was new in vol. 2.

[eefara]

Ah, thanks! I had also forgotten there were no quotes in volume 1, haha.

[Makochou]

Thanks all, now that makes sense with the quotes to me! Hope this is the same with the physical editions