Flesh & Blood novel - Informal Club - Now Reading!

eefara · January 8, 2026, 1:44pm

Replies to shitsurei, chapter 1

Woo-hoo! Congrats on one chapter down!

I was beginning to doubt myself, and then @Makochou validated me. I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts as the book goes on. Here’s a ship for you for now:

It’s a model of the Revenge; the original ship was built in 1577.

Don’t feel bad! Everyone’s got different stuff going on, so might as well take advantage of your free time and enthusiasm! Plus it keeps the thread active and bumped, haha.

Ch. 3 replies to Makochou

I would love to see that alternate scenario of Vicente carrying Kaito off right off the bat. Apparently there’s a short story the author wrote that may talk about that, so I really want to read it.

Yeah, based on how ill he seemed to be popping out of the time tunnel in the first place, he probably didn’t have much more to contribute than he already did, haha.

Oooh, so this is one thing I love about the series: we meet many different characters speaking many different languages, Matsuoka-sensei usually does her best to make sure the reader knows who’s speaking what. I think I’ve only come across one instance where I was pretty sure she typo’d the type of quotation marks used (as in, one character was probably speaking x language, but the wrong quotes were used so it looked like they were speaking y).

Ch. 4 replies to Makochou

Lmao, poor, probably long-suffering Rufus. Imagine needing to go get your boss for something urgent, and you have to go find him in a brothel, haha.

Kroki · January 10, 2026, 4:26pm

Chapter 2

They have successfully distracted me from the time travel with the horrors of trying to find lodgings in a touristy area in the middle of the season.

With the whole taiko conversation, I thought something will happen in the museum. Ugh, that was unexpected and unexpectedly graphical.

Mixed feelings about the beginning of the whole thing - the way Kaito is half zombified going towards the sound, instead of the modern “accidentally slipped and now it’s isekai” is giving me some serious destiny vibes. Anyway they managed to grasp Kazuya so well, I’m synchronized with him instead. Poor guy, this was horrible to see and live with.

eefara · January 10, 2026, 4:36pm

Reply to Kroki, ch. 2

Lmao. I’m shocked they decided to just wing it. Imagine losing your best and and you still don’t have somewhere to sleep for the night, haha.

I think I mentioned it to Makochou above, but they get pretty…creative with the sound design in the drama CD for this section as well. It makes the whole thing worse 100%.

Kroki · January 10, 2026, 6:25pm

Replies (ch 2)

Also wing it without internet, that’s a whole another level lmao

That is so confusing! There is no cutting happening (right??) we just can’t see that hand, so why would they add any noise at all…

Me last week: why did @Makochou read until “page 80” and not “end of chapter 3”? That’s a weird place to stop (not that I know what’s going on there)
Me now: god, I have ran out of any possible energy to continue, let me stop for now and continue another day
Book: page 82
Me: ah. I see now…

Chapter 3 up to page 82 haha

Too much text! Can I have a dialogue? Any dialogue? Please???
I now totally see why this wasn’t animated or adapted into manga - how would you even go about doing that for this kind of chapters…

Ok, history was easier to read after eefara’s post, thanks for that!
I’m confused as to why we’re introducing Vincent so fully in such a format. If we’re going to have this guy with Kaito any amount of time it’d be nice to discover his beliefs through conversations or something? But I guess we got into Kaito’s full backstory too, so maybe that’s just how the author is going to introduce everyone?

Did we just have 3 ladies named Mary in one chapter?

The one that ended up being executed
Phillip’s ex wife
Vincent’s sister

Or did I misunderstand something from this infodump of a chapter?

And also:
サンタ・クルズ侯爵閣下
Uhmm??

eefara · January 10, 2026, 6:38pm

Replies to Kroki, Chapter 3 up to page 82

Maybe just some narration with a quick storyboard of events in the background? You could probably cut some of it, too.

Nope, that’s basically right; two historically important ladies name Mary, while Vicente’s sister is named Maria.

So this is a combination of titles/honorifics.
サンタ・クルズ - Santa Cruz, the name of a town in Spain
侯爵 (こうしゃく) - marquis/marquess. In British peerage it’s below a duke and above an earl, so pretty high-ranking
閣下 (かっか) - a generic honorific for “your Excellency”

So altogether you have “His Excellency the Marquis of Santa Cruz”.

Kroki · January 10, 2026, 7:38pm

About the Santa thing

Ohhh this makes more sense that Santa Claus (サンタクロース apparently) I read originally

The way we added the title to the city instead of name took me off guard too. This is a very good preparation for Honzuki…

Thanks for the links!

basilsauce · January 10, 2026, 10:31pm

I just finished chapter 3 and don’t think this book is overleveled.

The first two chapters were comfortable for me but once I got to that Chapter 3 infodump, I got slammed with a higher rate of new vocabulary than I’ve seen in a while. It felt like reading did back when my vocab deck had 5,000 fewer words than it does now.

It got a lot easier again when the history ended and characters started talking. (I still decided to take a break and come back the next day, because I was just DONE after all that history) But still, even in these easier parts I feel like the variety of vocab choice is consistent with other books around level 35, give or take a level.

shitsurei · January 11, 2026, 9:00am

Chapter 2

Well, wasn’t expecting that particular way to get isekai’d.. like other people mentioned, it was kinda gross

I’m a little sad we’re leaving Kazuya behind.. he was starting to grow on me, and I’m feeling bad just thinking of the PTSD this kid is going to have going forward..

I know that Kaito is about to go there, but I’m also a little bummed for him that he doesn’t get to go see the museum. I would be very upset if I was supposed to go to a museum the day after I got isekai’d..

Anyway, now I’m on to *gulp* chapter 3..

暁のルナ · January 13, 2026, 3:59am

Finally catching up a lil. People already said most things I’d say

Chapter 1

Was bored for a lot of it, but the history was a lil cool, and some tasty angst in the last 1/3rd. It seems pretty implied that かずや(?) has some feelings for 海斗 - or maybe I’m projecting

Hope 海斗 is able work through his issues a bit more now that he got that (quite surprising) wakeup call

Decent amount of new-to-me vocab to keep things mildly interesting… But also a lot of semi-forgotten words or readings that I keep having to double check. So this will be good for getting me back into shape

Looking forward to ch 2

shuly · January 13, 2026, 6:52am

finally finished ch1 today… proud of myself though… (first level 35 LN ever)
and within 2 weeks (as the original schedule made it!)

(recording % in natively so pages read is slightly behind by ~2, but that’s fine)

This book is insanely difficult for me…if I was reading physical would be dropping this so fast…but ttsu and deepl breaking down some walls… also learning a lot, especially seeing so much grammar all mashed together… The N1 grammar is like ugh…but it is nice to see some of the N2 stuff I don’t see that much…I’m definitely spending a lot of time reading and rereading some of this stuff.

…and 14% means I can pull this off and actually finish! on top of that maybe by the end of march if no distractions… slow and steady… hoping the story stays interesting (dreading the history dump that is coming… please don’t bore me gotta stay motivated so we can meet some friendly pirates)

shitsurei · January 13, 2026, 7:49am

mid chapter 3, a little past pg 80 I think?

Holy heck this chapter is long
I have made it past the dreaded history dump, but in Vicente’s extended narrative which is better, but still not the easiest. I see that there’s conversations later in the chapter so if I can just get to there…

I got up in the middle of reading this chapter and came back to it half an hour later.. I somehow missed the transition from Mary #2 to Mary #3 and was very confused why Vicente was going to meet her first thing in the afterlife.. I think I maybe skipped reading a page? But it’s too late to go back now

Edit: Oops didn’t mean to reply to you eefara

Makochou · January 13, 2026, 10:40am

Welcome!

That’s so cool! Cool that you are reading through and challenging yourself. Are you also cross-reading the comments from the original schedule threads?

Chapter 2 replies

This makes me want to check for the drama CDs The more I read about our thoughts of this scenes the more 怖がる it gets with imagining the sounds of the drums and wind and thunder and zombie-like Kaito.

Oh, that makes sense! Like realizing you are now couple of hundred years earlier but the information from the museum would have helped a lot there! What a terrible timing with the time slip tunnel.

You made my day! And @shitsurei now stopped around there, too

Mid-Chapter 3 (page 80) replies

Yeah, it got easier after the history dump, but I totally agree that Vicente’s extended narrative is still not the easiest. Cool, that you are here

Chapter 3 replies

Wow, that sounds interesting. Is that in the short story collection mentioned in one of the first posts?
But yeah, I would be interested too, but only if we also get the Kaito x Drake meeting. I would have felt really frustrated if Vicente would have carried Kaito in that scene.

Sounds like we will get many more scenes with people speaking different languages. That’s cool. I’m really looking forward to it!

Chapter 4 replies

Agree, I would not want to check all the brothels either. +laugh+ I like how they talk to each other with joking, half-joking, sarcastic tones.

Makochou · January 13, 2026, 10:56am

And some more chapter thoughts

Chapter 5

It’s so cute how Kaito reacts to getting バレた and calling himself an idiot. We also get to see how the reality sink in, how Kaito is realizing that he is there all alone, not knowing a way back and thinking that probably everyone will give up searching for him.
It’s really cute how Jeffrey tries to make him feel better. I fear I would feel comfortable in his presence He feels like a strong dependable person (putting aside his “love” life backround we already know off).

I really zoomed through this chapter. It was so exciting to be there with Kaito getting his anxiety and cheering him on. I really wanted to know what happens, so the book followed me everywhere that day.

Wood (? How do we spell his name?) as a subordinate for Sir Francis (Franchis? - ah, all those Katakana names are driving me crazy ). Regardless, witnessing the scene where Wood, Jeffrey and Kaito were talking was really hard to bear. I was hoping that Kaito had thought of a good story and is not バレたing himself. But because I did not know enough of the context in that world yet I was not able to detect whether it was safe for him or not. I was really emotionally absorbed in that scene.

Then we get to know that Jeffrey will take care for Kaito, but that he won’t take him with him for free like Kaito’s “Tanaka-sama” (I wonder if there was some Tanaka, or this was a good educated guess from Kaito as there are a lot of people with this name) and that Kaito said he would bite if Jeffrey would try to force himself onto him. In that scene I was not such a fan of Jeffrey but I guess taking into consideration the time that might have been pretty okay behavior. But what I remember from this scene the most was the difference in power for both of them.

Ah and now I remember the talk about Kaitos age. That they decided it would be 15, because from 16 on he would be treated as an adult. That was a fun discussion between Kaito, Jeffrey and Rufus (where Jeffrey actually helped him out).

Oooh man, so much happening in one chapter. No wonder I rushed eh zoomed through this

Chapter 6

I like Nigel. He is the ship’s navigator and seems to be a good friend of Jeffrey. And same as Rufus x Jeffrey conversations I like the vibe of Nigel x Jeffrey conversations

Obviously Nigel is really mistrusting our loved Kaito. Kaito is cleaning the captain’s cabin when he notices Nigel observing him. When Nigel tries to threaten him, Jeffrey is coming back. And then Juan is there informing everyone that an underling of Sir Francis arrived. Again? I though. But this time it seems to be Drake! And it seems we will get to meet him soon. Now that I was kind of thinking that this would probably take some time before we get to meet him.

When only Jeffrey and Kaito are left and Kaito had fixed Jeffrey’s clothing, Jeffrey wants to give him a ご褒美 which is a kiss. First totally suprrised he feels the lips touching but then he is trying to resist. And somehow this escalates quickly and Jeffrey (apparently joking?) asks what sin is bigger: To take on’s own life or to sleep with a guy? He even took out his blade. — I did not think of this situation as a joke. That was definitely too much. And here it is once again sinking in for Kaito, where he is right now and that he won’t get to meet Kazuya again and that nobody is on his side. A lot of tears. I would have loved to hug Kaito.

Kroki · January 13, 2026, 11:46am

@Makochou you’ve got some serious lead here!

I want to ask about the difficulty past chapter 3, but I’m too afraid of the answer

shuly · January 13, 2026, 2:29pm

not the original…cuz already too much to read suppose I could do that mayhaps… maybe sometime today I’ll browse through the orig ch1 comments

eefara · January 13, 2026, 2:43pm

That’s fantastic! You’re doing great, shuly! ^o^ Sneaking a peek at your previous books, this is way higher level than your usual, so slow and steady is the key. Please feel free to post here if any grammar gives you issues!

If worst comes to worst for the history dump, my summary of it should follow the book pretty well; the summary is a bit broader than how the book writes it, but you should be able to follow it pretty point-by-point if needed. And if you need to skip it, it’s not the end of the world.

Another one’s clear!

I know you did, no need to be shy.

Chapter 2 replies

I definitely recommend them; they’re a lot of fun to listen to. Assuming you like the voice actors they got for the cast, of course. They’re unfortunately physical only, but if you look around you can find them…elsewhere.

No, unfortunately not. F&B has a disgusting amount of side content (lmk if you want to see my ginormous spreadsheet, haha), and that particular story isn’t included in that book above.

Chapter 5 replies

It’s definitely Sir Francis in this case. As for “Wood”, I always mentally read his name as “Ward”, I believe (didn’t go back to check the kana for him), but most of these characters don’t have official romanizations that I know of, so Wood’s also probably just as likely.

I figured the latter. Kaito was probably betting that Geoffrey and Ward wouldn’t have any other exposure to Japanese names/people, so he gave the equivalent of “Smith” as his master’s name.

Yeah, it’s definitely not the best look for him.

Chapter 6 replies

All right, we’re done here everyone, pack it up.

(I don’t have my book on me, so) this is ユアン, right? I’m pretty sure that romanization is supposed to be Ewan. (Sorry, I don’t normally nitpick romanizations, but didn’t want you thinking Geoffrey had a Spanish or Portuguese crewmember on board. )

As much of an ass as Geoffrey is being, it does help to show just what kind of situation Kaito’s in for sure. Gotta get that culture shock in somehow, I suppose.

shuly · January 13, 2026, 3:05pm

turns out week 1 posts for original club were only 17 or something …

there was more to read here

nikoru · January 13, 2026, 3:49pm

I don’t know whether eefara is deliberately keeping all the sweet content from everybody (if so: apologies!), but the REAL original club is here: "Flesh&Blood" Pirate Series Reading Club 🏴‍☠️ ⛵ - Book Clubs - WaniKani Community
(you should be able to read it even without WaniKani account)

We collected as much information as possible about the real historical people, places and events in the story, and in further volumes (I think from vol. 4 onwards) I started building a diagram depicting all the real-world connections between the people (it’s called the “Royal Wallpaper” iirc). Enjoy

eefara · January 13, 2026, 4:02pm

Whoops! I wasn’t purposefully hiding anything, I just forgot to mention it. If it’s the price I must pay for there being so many F&B clubs, so be it. Thank you for the reminder nikoru!

And I do highly recommend those interested visit; we’ve got a lot of stuff over there!

shuly · January 13, 2026, 4:32pm

remember seeing that before…but that looks like a lot to read… so for now bookmarked