Quite liked the last few chapters.

Uh, how does one copy magic by looking.

Sharingan!

Meh. I still don't like her, so I still don't care about her budding relationship.

She thinks she's riding high. But the thing is, all the higher-ups know two things about her.

1. She's a traitor, and nobody likes a traitor
2. She's an ambitious woman, and they're male chauvinists--look what they used her to do to the other ambitious women at the company.

She thinks she's using them. They used her, and soon they will discard her. And she will be easy to discard, because she's dirty, and her clever tricks will do her no good when all the old boys close ranks against her.

And by "fun" she means, everyone's going to go yandere on each other's ass.

I can sort of see why she's such a walkover. I mean, there's this whole dark side of socialization in Japan, right? But normally when that kind of dynamic is happening, people are just sort of pushed by being aware of how people are looking at you, catching a smidge of what they're saying kind-of-behind-your-back and stuff. But she gets it all, allll the toxic thoughts that happen whenever she makes a ripple. If you're a quiet type to start with, it could beat you down.

Anyway I liked this.

Ugh... Gross. I don't get this obsession with yuri authors to push the story towards "yay pregnancy!" with lesbian couples...

As others have pointed out, this isn't a real thing. Hard to "get" something that doesn't exist. Considering that procreation is an incredibly basic biological drive common not just to humans but to all life (cuz any species that didn't have it, didn't reproduce and so they're, like, gone), it's almost surprising how very little yuri has anything about it.

Well, this continues getting more and more fucked up. This version of science babies is edging more into magic babies, but fine, whatever. The basic idea that the two can have a kid would be sort of nice, if it weren't for the specifics.

Good grief, what would that stupid "mother" have done if MC had been a one-night-stand type, done Nadeshiko the first night and then discarded her with neither aware that you need protection before putting a finger in? Yeah, the whole thing is pretty insane, makes no sense, and I hope we get to see some fun times between the two of them again soon because it will sure be more coherent than the plot.

last edited at Dec 20, 2023 2:59PM

Great chapter. The little sister and cheek poke thing fucking melted me. Also Chiheerow. This isn't related to anything, but I'll also share that for some reason I really, really like the name Chihiro.

I like the name Chihiro mostly because it's the girl's name in Spirited Away.

Well, that was easy.

That ending... She's actually a tsundere! :D

Sort of a tsunyan. "I-it's not like I want to gush crazy all over you, or anything!"

The "best friend" line surprised me, but it didn't ring that weird once I thought about it. I mean, Kase thinks more like a typical guy athlete than like a modern ordinary person of either gender, let alone like a typical Japanese young woman. For her, spending time with someone and running a lot of races with them = friends. Doesn't matter if they've never said a meaningful word to each other, what's that got to do with friendship?

And that attitude in turn explains why she considers this person a friend and yet had never before considered telling her anything much about herself . . . to her, that's kind of irrelevant. What makes them friends is that they spend time trying to run faster than each other. And to be fair, that in doing so they sort of passively absorb a sense of the other person's character. Communicating facts with words isn't really part of the deal.

I don't think that this arc is that bad at all.

You think Kase putting her long-term relationship up for a bet isn't bad?

I would say something like "it's not a bet if you know you're going to win" but I need to caveat the fact that that's also the gambling addict's motto

Well, athlete, gambling addict . . . it's kind of similar really.

Yeah, there's this line between being hypercompetitive and bitchy at each other on one hand, and conspiring to kill someone's career with lies and manipulation, on the other. Junko's in villain turf now.
Not that it BOTHERS me, depending how things work out. I'm just saying, objectively she's at that "decided to be evil" position.

We need a Hatesex tag.

It's . . . already tagged with that.

I'm kind of in the other direction from some people here--what I find hard to believe is actually the interludes of nonviolence and the sexual tension, not the attacks. Well, that and the heavy-handed stalking--if you're not allowed to kill her, and you've agreed to that provisionally, then whatever, let her get some food--ideally, find some way to do actual surveillance so you can catch her if she tries to grab someone's soul or do anything else illegal, rather than just sort of getting in her way without a purpose.

But for me the problem here is, the comic has this premise: Obsidian is a murderess, probably a multiple murderess. Specifically, she has tried to kill the female lead and has killed the person in the world who mattered the most to the female lead. It appears to have been premeditated and done with enthusiasm and pleasure. Since then, heroine seems to have spent her whole life training to be badass enough to take Obsidian down when she meets her again. This is "My name is Inigo Montoya" territory, not teen sex comedy hijinks territory. It doesn't even really matter if she can't remember doing it; if she isn't a completely different person with a completely different personality, she's basically an amoral killer and probably needs to be put down before she starts up again. (Well, with the mind control powers it will probably turn out she was mind controlled or possessed at the time--but until this theory is floated in the comic it shouldn't figure into the heroine's motivations)

That means,
IF
you take the premise seriously, the only question should be does the female lead use her to track down her superiors before doing her in, or just kill her now and investigate further without that bonus. The question should NOT be, do they fuck.

So that's my problem here: The comic has a serious and somewhat tragic premise, but it does not take it seriously. Rather, half the time it blows it off for quick lulz. Most of the time when the heroine attacks Obsidian, for amazingly good reason, it isn't even resolved, they just cut away and it's vaguely assumed it came to nothing. And it isn't even gallows humour, which I can appreciate. Rather, I find the comedy undercuts the serious premise, and the serious premise makes the comedy seem stupid.

It's a pity because I can see two different decent comics here, which appear to be spoiling each other.

last edited at Dec 11, 2023 12:33PM

Ah, you just have to love the rigid adherence to rules and hierarchies... /s

I do find myself wondering if, while you could still expect some disapproval, the overall tone would have been more positive and less threatening if she'd been a guy.

I dunno. I feel like Tan Tailan + Ming Wei is getting extra kudos precisely because they're the secondary characters and a lot of people just have a preference for that, and maybe also because people like it when the "masculine" half of the pair is the one taking the initiative.

But for my part, I am coming to really quite like Yu Dingdang--totally girly, but cheerful, self-confident and very much willing to take the initiative. She cares about the rules no more than the general does. Plus that thing with the scroll copying was clever and cheeky.

Because things go so fast nothing actually feels impactful. We got a kiss, but I don't really care because they shoved a hundred other things in this chapter that it feels unearned. Like lol a random summons for an arranged marriage and then MC just randomly stumbling upon the Princess's diary conveniently changed her mind about the relationship.

I kind of agree in general, but the "conveniently changed her mind" thing is I think a tad unfair. She didn't change her mind. She was already sweet on the girl. It was fairly clear that she was only saying "Whoa, slow down" because she was finding everything a bit too fast and overwhelming, not because she had any intention of saying "no" in the end. So then suddenly the thing she was trying to ease into is taken away, of course she's going to be reacting like "Hang on, you can't take that away, I was just getting ready to eat it!" Sure, they do the diary thing to sort of crystallize her resolve a bit more, but the direction of her thoughts and feelings was clearly already there.

There's an obvious solution here. The emperor wants dynastic succession. The girls have plenty o' magic. I'm sure magic babies could be arranged.

Does the princess have other siblings?

Well if not, she and the nun are gonna need to make some magic babies if the kingdom isn't to fall in the next generation.

Do they count as useless lesbians?

Well, they both seem fairly useful to the COMPANY . . .

So, that erotic scroll . . . I couldn't help noticing that it's yuri. Yeah, the general knows.

So how likely do we think it is that Tan Tailan and Princess Ming are to end up with each other.

100%

Yes, I expect that when Tai Tailan is keeping an eye on Princess Ming, she will let nothing escape her . . .

I don't see what the long range plan here is. I mean, just how long does she think she can keep that secret from a wife who's head over heels for her, no matter how gullible?