She's getting signals and hints that somewhere's off with her, and that's probably enough, as it's all slowly building up. It feels like one day, she'll see that one big "DANGER" sign, (whether Sato realises she's noticed or not), and then maybe actively try harder to interfere/do something about it.

I'd like to see her try to help Sato become less of a murderous and underhanded person instead of working against her. I could sort of see it happening too where she learns about Sato and Shio but also ends up learning about Sato's aunt so rather than turning her friend into the police or something she wants to help her become more normal.

Ah, thatd be cool. I'm too used to seeing every new character getting in her way, and Sato's a pretty solitary person too (aside from Shio), the thought of someone trying to help her (out of their own volition, not blackmailed) and Sato accepting someone's help never even crossed my mind. Tho I'd be worried that if bff does sympathise and offers to help, Sato still offs her cus doubts, preferring to keep their sweet life intact and secretive, and wanting to keep Shio's existence all to herself.

Faust posted:

Ah, thatd be cool. I'm too used to seeing every new character getting in her way, and Sato's a pretty solitary person too (aside from Shio), the thought of someone trying to help her (out of their own volition, not blackmailed) and Sato accepting someone's help never even crossed my mind. Tho I'd be worried that if bff does sympathise and offers to help, Sato still offs her cus doubts, preferring to keep their sweet life intact and secretive, and wanting to keep Shio's existence all to herself.

That's definitely a concern if things were to turn out that way. I think Sato would probably be a little bit more reluctant to deal with her the way she's dealt with others though unless she saw it as the only option.

Ah, that suspicious bag Sato had the teacher dispose of last chapter, I feel like it was probably Suu/the stalker being disposed of.

I think that was a flashback to chapter 2 (it's a direct continuation of the line on http://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/happy_sugar_life_ch02#51), when Kitaumekawa-sensei first finds out how terrifying Satou is, and she asks him to get rid of trash that had been sitting in that one room. This was long before Suu disappeared. In context, he's thinking about her long-term pattern of behavior going back months, and there are other flashbacks to chapter 2.

I still want to believe that Suu is happily living her life, having learned a valuable lesson from her encounter with Satou. She realized that her idol was flawed and that she didn't need her anymore, and also got the encouragement she needed to become the person she always wanted to be. That could happen, right?

who is Shyoko again?

Major feelsbad for Asahi tbh
And yeah, I can see why Shio would have those nightmares
Like my first thought/they could have meant that the mom was abusive, a source of stress, but I can understand that it's because of Shio's own guilt from having "betrayed" her.
Ah but man, this really feels bad, because you can't root for Sato/mc+everyone that seems okay/innocent without another party getting hurt. Sato's desires are selfish ofc (obviously), and it was somewhat okay at first because Shio was okay with it and want it too (from what she is currently conscious of at least) and because Sato's "happiness" didn't get in the way of anyone else's. And now rip, not anymore. And knowing that Asahi isn't a bad kid at all (not that he ever appeared to be a bad kid, we just didn't know anything of him), and how, ofc, he's also seeking his own form of happiness (in which Shio and his mother are necessary), it just feels very conflicting.

Ouch! Why the nails?!!!!

Damn it!

I've lost count of how many yanderes there are in this manga, haha
This chapter was really interesting.

Ouch! Why the nails?!!!!

Damn it!

Cus it's super painful, so yeah it's pretty fucked up
Then again, it's not like it'd be easy to hide. A kid walking around without fucking fingernails is a pretty clear sign that something is wrong, so I'm guessing that it's not like Asahi goes to school or anything.

Oh god, at this point I just hope Shouko can remain as the only person in the cast that isn't crazy, but it's looking a little unlikely given how she claims to be running away from reality.

Ouch! Why the nails?!!!!

Damn it!

Cus it's super painful, so yeah it's pretty fucked up
Then again, it's not like it'd be easy to hide. A kid walking around without fucking fingernails is a pretty clear sign that something is wrong, so I'm guessing that it's not like Asahi goes to school or anything.

I makes me cringe so much seeing nails ripped off. Even real life decapitation didn't make me cringe.

I still think the mother might have done something. Not to the level of their father, but Asahi said that he's lost all faith in adults, so I don't know if he feels that because his mother simply lost Shio to a crazy kidnapper. Since this is so psychological, my guess is that the stress of living in fear and having to raise a girl on her own when she probably wasn't self-sufficient financially before may have made her unstable or harsher with Shio than she should have been. It's certainly not unheard of. Like in Aishiteruze Baby.

...Then again, it's also possible that Shio's just projecting her fears of her father onto her last parental figure as well because it was so ingrained in her, so the lashing out really is imagined. Shio's memories are all messed up anyway you put it.

I'm still not convinced Asahi is a boy.... five years later and he's still a tiny stick thin figure? I could be wrong. It's just that all those clothes and being hidden and what not...

I'm probably just projecting thinking I want him to be a girl.

I'm still not convinced Asahi is a boy.... five years later and he's still a tiny stick thin figure? I could be wrong. It's just that all those clothes and being hidden and what not...

I'm probably just projecting thinking I want him to be a girl.

I don't think his father cared enough to give him the proper nourishment he needed, if he gave him any at all.

MegaWallflower posted:

Like in Aishiteruze Baby.

Thanks for inadvertently suggesting something that sounds fairly interesting. I'll have to give that a read at some point.

cameron posted:

I'm still not convinced Asahi is a boy.... five years later and he's still a tiny stick thin figure? I could be wrong. It's just that all those clothes and being hidden and what not...

I'm probably just projecting thinking I want him to be a girl.

Malnourishment would seem like a very likely problem in Asahi's situation both before and after his father died. On top of that it doesn't seem like he'd have played much as a kid anyways so developing muscle or anything like that would be pretty unlikely on top of everything else. And some people are just naturally scrawny.

So did Sato kill their mother?
Damn,if that's what happened, then it feels like the author is testing us if we can still ship satoXshio, :)))))))

Also, I have the feeling that everyone will suddenly turn on Sato at the end, I hope the author doesn't choose that ending.

I'm guessing the mother either is sitting in that room, a complete wretch, or has killed herself. From Asahi's memories, it's clear she was still alive after Shio went missing. it's entirely possible that she and Satou never even met.

Also, Shio's memories of her mother seem to indicate that the woman had completely lost it after running away from her husband. She was overly controlling, desperately trying to keep Shio from leaving their apartment. Perhaps this was out of fear of being discovered by her abusive husband, or maybe guilt over leaving Asahi behind. Whatever the reason, her own child lived in terror of her. It could be that Shio's fragmented memories selectively consist of all the bad things, but still, she definitely underwent some severe trauma at the hands of her mother.

It seems pretty clear that the life Asahi had imagined, the dream that kept him going through all the misery and abuse, had never existed in the first place.

I like that we finally get Asahi's backstory. He's the big enigma in the series, despite showing up repeatedly throughout.

There's a really nice contrast between him and Sato. Asahi has suffered his whole life from the consequences of everyone else's actions (his family, Sato, and now possibly Sato's friend if she chooses to do nothing). Meanwhile, Sato never suffers any consequences for her own actions -- at best she's a sociopath and at worst a complete monster, but the point is that, in-story, she gets away with everything she does. Sato also has plenty of friends and has had boyfriends in the past yet doesn't care about anyone but one person (Shio). Asahi never had any friends but cared immensely for the few people he had in his life with one exception (his father). They're like complete opposites.

This series has been super fun to read.

last edited at Dec 29, 2016 10:17AM

I like Asahi and it's pretty clear his backstory is meant to be sympathetic and sad, but goddamn, that huge grin on his face when he realized his dad was dead was terrifying.

Also, Shio's memories of her mother seem to indicate that the woman had completely lost it after running away from her husband. She was overly controlling, desperately trying to keep Shio from leaving their apartment. Perhaps this was out of fear of being discovered by her abusive husband, or maybe guilt over leaving Asahi behind. Whatever the reason, her own child lived in terror of her. It could be that Shio's fragmented memories selectively consist of all the bad things, but still, she definitely underwent some severe trauma at the hands of her mother.

When Shio first leaves the apartment, the mother memory's quite supportive. It's later on, after Mitsuboshi starts getting beat up that the demon shows herself, presumably because she actually was holding his hand at the time, whereas before she was looking for Satou.

Maaaan. I will have to write every character and then I won't have questions like "uh, who is it?" or read manga from beginning.

When Shio first leaves the apartment, the mother memory's quite supportive. It's later on, after Mitsuboshi starts getting beat up that the demon shows herself, presumably because she actually was holding his hand at the time, whereas before she was looking for Satou.

True. There's also stuff like this, and other memories that seem to indicate that Shio's mother could be controlling and perhaps violent after they ran away together. I think it's reasonable to believe she was both kind and caring and desperate and upset. This is why Shio's memories of her are so erratic - she was an erratic person. On two occasions, Shio remembers her mother grabbing her and shaking her while yelling at her for going out without telling her. A plausible explanation, given the information we have so far, is that the mother was terrified of losing Shio, and also somewhat unstable, after leaving behind Asahi to escape her abusive husband. So she probably showed Shio love and affection most of the time, but lost control and became violent when her fear was activated.

She wasn't necessarily a bad person, just someone who had suffered a lot and was the worse for it.

Of course, all that's just speculation that could be proved horribly wrong by the next twist....

Sato's gonna spin it as "i'm taking care of this person" probably

please don't kill her please don't kill her that's all I ask

shes going to die isnt she...

I want to say "Yay! I thought she might have feelings for Satou!" but this feels like a huge death flag.