Al Bundy? Is that you!?

(That was my first thought when reading this part.)

I thought Nacchan loved Kyouko and would've wanted to go out with her, but I guess there was stuff holding her back

It's not said as explicitly as in many others, but it's the usual stuff, isn't it? Societal pressure to create a "family unit", having stable employment, etc. She missed because she was scared, and later, she hit also because she was scared/already committed to this path and didn't want to feel like sacrificing Kyouko was meaningless.

I think you're missing the real issue here. Kyouko didn't choose to date the guy out of social pressure or anything like that. She chose him because she had an inferiority complex towards Kyouko. Although she might have loved Kyouko, she envied her beauty and class and felt she couldn't measure up. Being with the guy was easier because she didn't have to compare herself to him. Plus his attention made her feel special, the exact opposite of how she felt when hanging out with Kyouko.

In any case, Nacchan and Kyouko's relationship will never work unless Nacchan gets over her inferiority complex and envy.

last edited at Mar 30, 2021 2:35PM

The epitome of "I dont know if I wanna be her or be with her"

It's just that!
The thing that happens to Nacchan isn't a problem of societal pressures. Nacchan was jealous of Kyouko, all those who wrote that got it right. At first she was elated to have someone so cool liking her, then she started resenting her for being continually better than her.

It's very telling (and from a narrative pov even heavy-handed) that all chapter long Nacchan keeps calling Kyouko cool, so cool, super cool... and at the same time she keeps calling Ryunosuke lame, lamer, the lamest. When she has to pick a lover, who does she choose? Ryunosuke.

She chose the one who doesn't give her feelings of inadequacy/inferiority. As a psychology case, it's textbook. As is her sorrow later when she realizes she let her complexes screw up her good judgement as she loves Kyouko not Ryunosuke.

Can anyone explain the scene where Nacchan gets upset and ghosts her after Kyouko gives her her newest book? She's excited for her at first, but then visibly changes after Kyouko says that "that [the books] are all she has." They also flash to the books later on.

Is it because she took offense to Kyouko saying "they're all she has" but to Nacchan she's thinking "that's a lie because look at all the things you have that I dont?"

Can anyone explain the scene where Nacchan gets upset and ghosts her after Kyouko gives her her newest book? She's excited for her at first, but then visibly changes after Kyouko says that "that [the books] are all she has." They also flash to the books later on.

Is it because she took offense to Kyouko saying "they're all she has" but to Nacchan she's thinking "that's a lie because look at all the things you have that I don't?"

That was my reading of it too. But this latest chapter has made me want to go back and re-read the whole thing so far.

Can anyone explain the scene where Nacchan gets upset and ghosts her after Kyouko gives her her newest book? She's excited for her at first, but then visibly changes after Kyouko says that "that [the books] are all she has." They also flash to the books later on.

Is it because she took offense to Kyouko saying "they're all she has" but to Nacchan she's thinking "that's a lie because look at all the things you have that I dont?"

that, and if someone who is currently making a living off of being a published author tells you that it's no big deal because it's the only thing they have then... what even is your much more pedestrian job? you sell shoes. what the fuck kind of accomplishment is that compared to someone who's got the chops to be a published author? you don't design them or even make or repair them. you just hawk shoes someone else decided should be sold in your store. who's going to be impressed or interested in that?

What do you expect? Nacchan is a straight girl, her feelings for Kyouko will never go past friendship. Nacchan wanted to be with a man right from the start, so how can Kyouko compete with that? She’s crying because she knows she just used Kyouko.

Nacchan is a straight girl, her feelings for Kyouko will never go past friendship.

[citation needed]

So far this story seems to be another examination (like Kakeochi Garu) of how the combo of biphobia / bi erasure and compulsory heterosexuality fucks up young Japanese women. From the evidence we're given in the story so far, Nacchan is no more straight (nor lesbian) than Midori in Kakeochi Garu. I think the people pointing to Nacchan's jealousy and confusion about being with / just plain being Kyouko have it essentially right, but also look at how her coworker talks about her age and singlehood, and the ambivalence with which she reacts to it.

I'm really curious to see where this one goes. Kakeochi Garu bounced all over the place before it resolved and everybody was convinced it was going to end in doom and misery for most of its run, and I feel like Battan made it all work out without any sleight of hand or cheap narrative tricks, so I'm content to let this play out a bit more before getting too anxious about where it's going. Also I continue to love her art – so expressive and fluid and cartoonish without feeling lazy or cheap.

Nacchan is a straight girl, her feelings for Kyouko will never go past friendship.

[citation needed]

So far this story seems to be another examination (like Kakeochi Garu) of how the combo of biphobia / bi erasure and compulsory heterosexuality fucks up young Japanese women. From the evidence we're given in the story so far, Nacchan is no more straight (nor lesbian) than Midori in Kakeochi Garu. I think the people pointing to Nacchan's jealousy and confusion about being with / just plain being Kyouko have it essentially right, but also look at how her coworker talks about her age and singlehood, and the ambivalence with which she reacts to it.

I'm really curious to see where this one goes. Kakeochi Garu bounced all over the place before it resolved and everybody was convinced it was going to end in doom and misery for most of its run, and I feel like Battan made it all work out without any sleight of hand or cheap narrative tricks, so I'm content to let this play out a bit more before getting too anxious about where it's going. Also I continue to love her art – so expressive and fluid and cartoonish without feeling lazy or cheap.

I know you specified Japanese women because of the culture and various elements in the country along those lines, like tradition. I think though, it's honestly a fairly global thing, maybe in different ways and sometimes for different reasons. There is a constant push for heterosexuality being the societal norm, having a family and raising children, carrying on the legacy. This goes for men and women I believe, where people will deny themselves the possibility of a same sex relationship for any number of reasons, it's unfortunate.

last edited at Mar 30, 2021 11:55PM

I specified Japanese women because that's the context I see Battan writing within. Comp het is indeed a global thing. I can't think of a culture where people can live free from cisnormative and heteronormative pressures. But in particular, I can't name a character in either of the Battan series I've read who hasn't been deeply affected – shaped, even – by a pressure to turn away from pursuing their authentic desires and towards the socially accepted norms of Japanese society. Even Tazune, bless his heart, was just trying to do what he thought was accepted of him as a man, or running away from not fitting those expectations.

I specified Japanese women because that's the context I see Battan writing within. Comp het is indeed a global thing. I can't think of a culture where people can live free from cisnormative and heteronormative pressures. But in particular, I can't name a character in either of the Battan series I've read who hasn't been deeply affected – shaped, even – by a pressure to turn away from pursuing their authentic desires and towards the socially accepted norms of Japanese society. Even Tazune, bless his heart, was just trying to do what he thought was accepted of him as a man, or running away from not fitting those expectations.

Makes sense, apologies for assuming. I think we're on mostly the same page though, as you mentioned the pressure of the norms of Japanese society. I said Japanese culture and tradition, which I think Battan's writing and perspective is affected by as you're saying, because from what I know a lot of the society pressure comes from old traditions and the like.

Kyouko is obviously still in love with Nacchan. Never stopped to be.

I wonder if something will develop between Kyouko and Ruriko. And maybe make Nacchan jealous enough to drop everything and go back to Kyouko.

I can see Ruri going the way of Nacchan too at first. She says she's not interested in "Sayama", but she gets all the same pressure Nacchan got.

like i just want to point out that this her older sister's OLDER friend so there's an age gap even between kyouko n nariko.
there's s high chance kyouko groomed nariko n hence the way she looked when she realized kyouko is talking to her LITTLE SISTER n even if it's not really that, we all know is not for s good reason so :/
in conclusion, amazing art but im out

Wow... that's a major conclusion jump after a single chapter, making massive assumptions about all sorts of things, including the relative ages of the characters. Fascinating considering that we learn in the second chapter that Nachan is about 11 years older than Ruri and probably OLDER than Kyouko if not the same age and that their relationship was not quite what we assumed it was. They held hands and went out together, but there wasn't any sign of them being intimate and Nachan clearly balked at the concept when Kyouko pretty much blatantly confessed.

Based on the second chapter, I'd say it's clear that Nachan had serious self-esteem issues and while she has feelings for Kyouko, she also envies her too much to be able to have a healthy relationship with her.

Since I like to look through useless data, the timeline seems to be as follows.

In the first half of Chapter 2 Nacchan is 25, at the beginning of chapter 1 Kyouko is described as "an older friend of my sister", so unless it's poor wording, she's probably a bit older than Nacchan (not to mention she looks older too). When Kyouko meets Ruri in chapter 1 she notes, that she is "in middle school now", which suggests she wasn't when she was still meeting Nacchan, which puts Ruri's age at the end of chapter 2 as at most 12.

In Chapter 1 Ruri is 14, which means at least 2 years has passed since events in chapter 2, so Nacchan is 27+ and Kyouko probably a bit older than that.

That's about it, I don't think I've missed anything. I guess it is unknown how much time has passed between Tsurumaki's introduction (when Nacchan's 25 is mentioned) and their falloff, so that might add something, but I don't think it would be more than a year.

That is if the story actually has a consistent timeline.

last edited at Mar 31, 2021 11:29AM

In the first half of Chapter 2 Nacchan is 25, at the beginning of chapter 1 Kyouko is described as "an older friend of my sister", so unless it's poor wording, she's probably a bit older than Nacchan (not to mention she looks older too).

Or the meaning could be "an older girl who's a friend of my sister," which wouldn't tell us anything about the relative ages of Kyouko and Nacchan. Not that the exact size of the age gap matters in the slightest, of course.

I wonder if something will develop between Kyouko and Ruriko. And maybe make Nacchan jealous enough to drop everything and go back to Kyouko.

I really, really doubt that she would react that way to her ex-girlfriend getting intimate with her 14-year-old sister. She'd be more likely to slap Kyouko and tell her to leave them alone for good.

I really, really doubt that she would react that way to her ex-girlfriend getting intimate with her 14-year-old sister. She'd be more likely to slap Kyouko and tell her to leave them alone for good.

More importantly, I don't think there are any feelings from Kyouko's side to Ruriko. She just invites her, so she can give in to melancholy and look at Nacchan. She kissed her because she broke down while thinking about Nacchan. Ruri is just in the middle of that mess and happens to look almost exactly like her sister.

Ruri's feelings are also very immature, to begin with. She's not really in love with Kyouko, she's in love with the concept of a refined, beautiful adult. Because "she's not a kid", hence she can't go out with some kid now, can she?

If there were to be such a development, it would probably require a timeskip of 4+ years. But I guess that's what interesting about this story - it can go in every direction and at this point, I can't even begin to guess which way the author is planning to take it.

... Can I really think that this is the era of useless lesbians? Omg I don't know what to do with all these mixed feelings on me now

I had a feeling it would be something like this. Kyouko and Naachan were in love, Naachan became jealous and scared so she decided to abandon her relationship with Kyouko, but ended up regretting it in the end. Honestly I'm a little upset now, like @TurboTime said, I seriously doubt there'd even the slightest bit of chance of them getting back together after she finds out Kyouko's been messing around with her little sister.

I hate how good this author is at writing stories because of how real it feels.. but at the same time I can't help but read them because of how good they are lmao

I really hope both Kyouko and Naachan come to talk again so they can you know, talk.. People should realize that talking solves a lot of problems, but well, people should listen more too..

Actually, this author gives me Shimura Takako vibes, in the way their characters are multi-layered.

Cant agree more

the ending is sad ending for the little sister..

Hello.

I love Battan's style and I was sad that this series was stalled for 6 months (even though it's been over for a while). I contacted Stan (Cyan Steam) about it. He gave me the raws and free rein to do it if I wanted to, so this is technically not a snipe.

I translated and typesetted everything myself.

I'll do the remaining two chapters eventually.

last edited at Oct 25, 2021 4:24AM

oh thank god i was afraid it was dropped TT_TT

Battan is one of my favorite authors, thank you so much for picking it up <3

thank you Rehashed Scans!!