1.) As discussed in the last few chapters, the word I've been translating as "connection" here is 因縁 innen, which has a wide range of potential meanings: fate, destiny, tie, bond, connection, origin, pretext, justification, even the Buddhist concept of "hetu and prataya" (the direct causes and indirect conditions underlying each event). Some of those obviously don't work in context, but the rest were a tossup. I went with what I felt was the safest guess; if that connection turns out to be a destiny, I can clarify that later. :P

2.) I pondered Wisely's "voice" long and hard. He speaks in an old, humble sort of way, like everyone's mild-mannered grandpa. That serves as a reminder that his memories go back a much longer way than his apparent age would suggest. He is old in a way that very few characters in this are. (Road might be the only living match for him, if she is indeed still the first incarnation of the Dream memory, but that’s still no better than a guess.)

3.) So we have a glimpse of Bookman in captivity, presumably shortly before he made his escape, and the reveal that Bookman's escape was due to Wisely's actions in some way. Either Wisely did something that made the risks of an escape attempt worth it for Bookman, or he actually helped Bookman get free. Considering Wisely's nature, I've guessed that previous incarnations might have known the Bookmen, and possibly even this Bookman. If so, did he let a friend go out of sentimentality? Or did he just slip up and create an opportunity? Once again, every answer we get gives rise to five more questions.

4.) Then there's Wisely's annoyingly cryptic comment on Tyki's search for answers:   - ワタシから聞かずとも、ジョイド、おぬしはいずれ思い知るの。。。飲み込まれよう　そして引き摺られ - watashi kara kikazu tomo, Joido, onushi wa izure omoishiru no... nomikomare you, soshite hikizurare

More literally translated: Even if you don’t hear it from me, Joido, you’ll realize on your own... as if engulfed, then forcibly dragged.   So Tyki’s going to find out how he's connected to Nea whether he wants to or not, and knowing that is going to drag him off the course his life has taken so far, but to where? No idea. We only know that it will change things for him, somehow.

5.) The next couple of pages had me clutching my chest and wheezing hoarsely amid a tumult of complicated emotions. Mana's confused, desperate yearning! Nea's seemingly contradictory murderous love! All of... that. THAT. AUGH.

6.) Tyki accepts responsibility in part for the Earl getting away from him and Wisely and then finding his way to Nea. Since what's done is done, though, Tyki thinks maybe he can get some answers directly from the source, rather than from a tight-lipped (and now escaped) Bookman. So he extends the most fraught invitation to tea in the history of the world. I’m going to bet he didn’t ask anyone else’s opinion on that idea first because... uh.

7.) Wisely and the Earl head out, and meanwhile, Link hits Fiidora with half an arsenal of arcane techniques all at once. Fii-tan, understandably, cries uncle. He didn't attack Link out of malice, he just needed to get  the Earl free, and once that was done he had no beef remaining. He's... odd. Almost childlike, in an unsettling way. Very laid back, as Link noted. Naturally I love him.

8.) Speaking of Link, both of those spells were new!

"Needlebeak" is written 嘴針, an invented compound of the kanji for "beak" and "needle(s)", is read shibari, which is homophonous with the word for "binding," 縛り shibari. Good old Hoshino-sensei and her wordplay.

"Hundred-Feather Drill" is written 百羽錬成 (Hyappa Rensei), and is pretty literal. That's drill as in train, practice, rehearse, by the way; almost as if summoning a hundred feathers for a hundred different purposes was a practice technique he managed to weaponize. Wouldn't put it past him.

"The Hundredth: Deny" is a funny one. It's written 百式：禁 (Hyakushiki: Kin) but read Hakushiki: Kinji according to the furigana. The furigana reading is therefore very likely to be another play on words, but this one’s a bit beyond me, possibly.

 The kanji on their own mean "hundred," "formula/style/ceremony," and "ban/prohibition." I went with "Hundreth" instead of "Hundred Styles" because it's almost certainly part of the Hundred-Feather Drill, and shiki is an older adjective suffix. So, this is the hundredth feather of the drill, and its purpose is prohibition/rejection/denial. “Deny” sounded cooler than “prohibition” and was less easy to mistake for Japanese than “ban,” so.

As for the furigana reading of that final kanji (kinji rather than the correct kin): there are a number of possible meanings for kinji, including "approximation" (aka. "-ish"), "recent events" and "attendance (upon someone)."

With that in mind, it occurred to me that hakushiki, if heard aloud, would normally be assumed to mean "extensive/profound knowledge." Following that, the only meaning for kinji that makes sense is "recent events." Which leaves us with Extensive Knowledge: Recent Events no Jutsu. I can't guarantee this is definitely the joke she was making, but I chewed on it for easily two hours and this was the best I came up with. If any of you happen to know what reference she was making here, by all means let me know, haha.

9.) Aaaaaand there goes Nea, doing the most idiotically reckless thing he possibly could... unless he knows something about how Innocence works that the others don't. He doesn't seem all that worried that it's going to devour him and self-destruct by way of the Fall — I doubt he'd do this just because he's mildly annoyed about a nickname if he thought that was a likely consequence at all — but why not?

(Translating his lines in this scene were the most fun I've had in forever, incidentally, and I hope it shows. He’s like an apoplectic kitty, hissing and scratching without actually doing any damage whatsoever thus far. I love him.)

10.) Teeechnically Nea just says "eat food with you?" but Fiidora mentioned teatime earlier so I took a little creative liberty in order to get Nea's withering tone across properly. FUCK YO CRUMPETS

11.) "Back-from-the-dead guise" is awkward as fuck, I know, but bear with me. What he said in the raws was 天性したおまえのその姿, tenseishita omae no sono sugata. Tensei is straight-up reincarnation; the transmigration of souls, the cycle of rebirth, all that. The rest says "that form of yours." We don't really say "form" in English that way, and Nea's very glib, so I went with "back-from-the-dead guise" because Nea's implying that Tyki is wearing his own God-given face like it’s a costume of someone dead and gone. Which it is. Nea’s not too chuffed about seeing his old face prancing around on some oblivious baby Noah, clearly.

12.) Re: the next panel: holy cake-baking christ 

(@Noah: consider calming ur tit perhaps)

13.) Our very own Inspector Obvious, Howard Link, explains to Nea what a terrible goddamn idea this is, and Nea thanks him with -- wait for it -- MORE SARCASM. Link then announces that he will exhaust his strength attempting to stop Nea from doing this STUPID, STUPID thing. (The raws say 力尽く, which means "with all one's might" in the dictionary but the kanji literally say "strength + entirely exhaust," so. He intends a no-holds-barred takedown here. If there were any folding metal chairs around he’d be going for them.)

14.) haha oh god here we go, where's the kleenex, fuck

15.) So now we know what the time difference was like for Allen: he took Johnny's hand back there in the inn, but has only just now actually managed to emerge, and as far as he knows it's been no time at all. Wonder how long he'll manage to stay on the horse this time? (Hopefully, at least long enough to get to the Campbell mansion and find Katerina, as per Cross' suggestion.)

16.) I don't really have a lot to say about the next few pages except that I sobbed my way through translating what few lines there were. THEY HAVE SUCH A LOVE. Also Johnny is a reckless idiot, what was he planning to do?? Cushion Allen's landing with his own body?? Actually now that I think about it that's probably exactly what he intended. Fuck that, no, bye.

17.) That one page with the huge untranslated sound effect is noted in our translation gdoc as [Johnny screaming across entire page] and that was a general #mood for the whole job tbh.

18.) MORE EMOTIONS, SOBBING, WEEPING, ETC.

19.) Tiny note: the MS scanlation has Allen's little comment in response to Johnny's head-hug as "heavy" and I chose "can't breathe," but they both suit the purpose well enough. The raw just said くるしい kurushii, an expression of pain/discomfort which could have been due to either the weight or the smothering or both. :P

20.) Speaking of pain: ow @ Link’s face in that last panel. He got one thing he wanted (Allen's victory, snatched even from the teeth of defeat, a ray of hope for him re: his own probable future as Nea's next vessel) but lost something else he needed (Nea in control, so that Link might conspire with him and carry out Lvellie's commands). He's still torn, and not getting mended any. Wonder how long he'll manage to keep balancing on that knife's edge.

That's about it, I think! If anyone wants more kanji/kana transcriptions from the raws so they can double-check things for themselves, I'll be happy to provide them! I may also be open to answering meta questions here, though I'm currently on hiatus on my main. :)

Hope you've all enjoyed our release of this long-awaited and suitably glorious chapter! Please stick with us as we work to get the Re:Gray project (full rescanlation from the beginning, with the benefit of all we've learned so far!) off the ground. It's going to be fun, I promise. ♥