#dgm229

1.) Cover: LOVE YOU TOO, DUMBSHIT ♥

2.) Wait, since when can the present change the past? I stared at this for a while to make sure I had it right and yeah, that's definitely what it says:

現在[f: いま]だけが過去と未来を変えられる genzai (f: ima) dake ga kako to mirai wo kaerareru

w hat

3a.) I goofed up: the town is locked down with talismans, not tighter than the field of one such. Will fix when I can.

3b.) I'm not 100% sure if it should be Operation "Lola" or "Roller;" the katakana say "ro-la-," which could be either. I liked Lola better so I went with that, but if I get proven wrong later, this'll be here to prove I did consider the other possibility. :P

4.) "Only Kanda and the general have left since then" GOSH I WONDER WHERE THEY WENT? GEE

(I mean, I can't really blame them for not suspecting the heretofore impeccably loyal Tiedoll. They're still going to be kicking themselves in a little bit, though.)

5.) RIGHT IN THE SLAMMER, BYE. Hilarious as that was, though, it's really nice to see Kanda use his vicious reputation for good! His embarrassment over the charade probably lent it much of the genuine intimidation factor that chased off the Finders. It was a really effective way to keep them from searching the carriage, though I can't imagine it was fun to be Johnny back there, squished in with a worked-up Kanda and Allen (who was probably quietly goading him, to boot).

Extra note: I realize that "lololol" is extra non-period accurate but Hoshino literally wrote "wwww" there sooooo.

6.) Sweet Krory, hoping so hard he won't actually find them, pretending to look for them anyway to protect his place with the Order. Sad anxious baby. It looks like Chaozii's suspicious, which isn't surprising.

7.) That fukkin stream-of-consciousness background text panel felt like a personal fuck-you from Hoshino to every translator working on this, lmao. God.

ETA: There was actually more of it that we couldn’t fit in there. For real. The full section:

This is the next step. I must not stop. I have to get moving. They're desperate enough to bet their lives on this, after all, but I'm just as desperate to escape. To be frank, the bullets from Master's Judgement  were much more difficult to evade than the debt collectors. I really don't want to go through that again. It was practice, though, and after that, running from the debt collectors has been easy as falling off a log.

To make it clear, his monologue is a flashback from before he fled the Order, so it’s not about his current flight. He’s just talking about the repo men.

8.) Tiedoll and Johnny bonding over the loveliness of a starry sky is both tremendously charming and tremendously sad. Let the Science Division see the sky sometimes, Order?? Maybe???

9.) Allen can't even look at Tim's remains, and Johnny can't look at him because of how much it hurts to do so, this is THE MOST painful thing. I'm crying. I never expected to be this emotional about an animated blob of gold with creepy teeth and no eyes.

10.) My favourite part of the next page is Lujun's little aside on the left margin. YOU TELL 'EM, BUDDY

11.) lmao @ Johnny's eventual lack of surprise over Link being alive because he's a) ex-CROW and b) works for Lvellie?? I'm not sure what Johnny thinks Lvellie is capable of, exactly, but it's clearly more than he probably actually is. Despite his baking prowess, he is not actually magic so far as we know (unlike almost everyone else).

12.) ohhh mannnnn I was wondering if Allen would risk trying to recruit any more allies from the Order despite the risk of Falling, and here's my answer: resounding nope

It's killing me that despite how far he'd come re: relying on his comrades more, not trying to do everything himself, he... actually does kind of have to, this time? He can't trust anyone, himself least of all. There is a clear and present danger to everyone around him should they help him or learn any more than they do know, including but not limited to the Fall and/or Apocryphos' attentions. Kanda should stay behind, with the Order, for all those reasons as well as the current frailty of his used-up, exhausted body. So should Johnny, as he's essentially defenceless, and it's much harder to fight while protecting someone vulnerable. Going it alone is terrible for Allen himself, but the right call for literally every other reason, and I'm in pain.

13.) Okay the flashbacky bits are a little confusing, but most of those lines are from the third Reverse novel, the "Lost Fragments of Snow" story about how Mana and Allen met. I dug up my novel just to make sure of who said which parts of it:

Red: Why aren't you crying? (about Allen-the-dog’s death)

Mana: Guess my tears have all dried up.

Red: Didn't you share your lives? (again, re: Mana and dog)

Mana: If I grieve, the Earl will come... (re: Mana’s scrambled memory around the topic of sorrow summoning the Earl)

Mana: Because you were Allen [the dog's] friend, right? (Mana realizing why Red was crying over Allen-the-dog’s grave)

Allen internalized a lot back then, and in the moment is basically thinking that he can’t allow himself to grieve for Timcanpy, because it might draw the Earl’s attention to him again after he just barely escaped. I’m just. I’m in agony. 

14.)  There's one tiny odd thing in the next bit that might be nothing, but I'll include it just in case anyone else notices it and wonders: Allen does end the I can't tell you anything after all sentence with the "ya" sentence-final particle, which is mostly specific to southern Kansai dialects like Osaka-ben these days, but used to be more common across the country around the time this manga takes place. Old men using it is a bit of a trope in fiction, to show how old they are, lol. He also drawls his “nannimo” (extra n) a bit, which is -- again -- a bit odd. It comes off kind of unusually casual, but then, the rest of the scene is totally in character. I’m not sure what to make of it just yet. If I change it, it would be to something like “Can’t tell you nothin’ after all.”

15.) Poor, poor Johnny. He tries so hard, but he can't seem to keep up with Allen. :((

(T/N: SHAKIRA SHAKIRA)

Onnnn the other hand, I have a feeling Allen is about to pop out of the Ark with Kanda wrapped around his throat right onto the Canbell mansion lawn, so there's... that. They'll probably startle the heck out of Lucia. Gonna be good.

-

And there you have it! No big deep symbolism or huge reveals this time around, just some good old character interaction, but I'm pretty sure it's the gasp of breath before the next storm, so you'd better savour it while you can.

Till next time~~

@panthaleia