So I guess the question is now, what or who is going to kill Komachi this time? Akira's father? Perhaps the Teacher? (The way he was smiling after Satsuki told him about the corpses rubs me the wrong way)

1 year ago I had said the mc must have triggered all these deaths somehow and someone reply to me then they compared to what if spider man don't have anyone to protect or something like that so the story could progress. Well it finally be brought up now, still not sure if that's her fault but it seems it wasn't just all coincident

possibly. that's what the prez says, though if it's true, and if he believes it actually, are different matters. i agree coincidence would be a bit of a stretch though

wonder if teach is somehow testing satsuki...but i guess that would only work if he had the genuine intention to kill someone...

last edited at Apr 20, 2023 8:09AM

tfw you are nihilistic and depressed

Also, the teacher was smiling like that over the corpses due to scientific interest. It does indicate poor instinctive empathy but that doesn't actually mean anything.

Moreover. Komachi is just like me fr.

last edited at Apr 20, 2023 9:33AM

Man, I hate to say this, but President Blockhead has a point for once. :-/ Also, Komachi's trauma is showing its ugly head again. I really, really don't want to learn what her family life and background are like, but since it looks like we are barrelling full-steam towards the ending foreshadowed in chapter 1, it seems like we have no choice but to finally open that can of worms.

^ if Komachi's life is entirely normal and half of her depression is an ouroboros of "why am I like this" then I'm going to spam 5 star reviews for this manga literally everywhere possible

Tbh I think Komachi is the one responsible for the increase in deaths, since I'm pretty sure she wasn't the first person Satsuki saved only the first one at the start of the manga. Since Satsuki already had started studying methods that would kill some one and had the knowledge to save her I assume she's been saving people for a little while at least and it didn't seem to increase the number of deaths in the school.

not only that but Satsuki is already known as a liar at the start of the manga, her "life-saving" antics have been a thing for a while before the manga starts so it really would have had to have been her saving Komachi's life specifically that presented the "curse" that is now aiming to kill a whole lot more people.

last edited at Apr 20, 2023 9:49AM

^ if Komachi's life is entirely normal and half of her depression is an ouroboros of "why am I like this" then I'm going to spam 5 star reviews for this manga literally everywhere possible

That would be an awesome twist, indeed. I am not convinced that it is likely, however, since this manga has so far been much more interested in people doing horrible things to each other, rather than mental health and self-sabotage...

damn, Komachi really went and said "at the risk of someone else being slightly inconvenienced, death is preferable"

Once again she reminds me in a lot of ways of Tokiko from Ryoko's last manga, though I'd rather wait until more's revealed before trying to draw comparisons. But if you read Walk to Death you probably get what I mean.

With more revealed, there seems to be even more comparisons one could make. Very much get what you mean and agree.

I kinda thought there was a yin and yang type of thing going on with Satsuki and the Pres, but after this chapter it kinda feels more like that describes Satsuki and Komachi more. Satsuki saving Komachi repeatedly is feeding into whatever issues Komachi seems to be having/causing and vice versa.

I'm locking in my prediction. Satsuki saving Komachi that first time is the catalyst for all the corpses, universe wants Komachi dead LiS style. The endgame is Satsuki will have to confront her "save everyone" worldview, she'll have to choose between sacrificing Komachi or risking everyone else. It's gonna be interesting to see what the author wants to say at the end, should Satsuki let go and accept death or is it better to keep raging against the dying of the light? So far her obsesssion with saving everyone has not been presented in the best light.

someone mentioned it so i reread chapter 1, and yeah, it pretty much explicitly states what's going on. funny, i'd kinda forgotten that

The concept that everyone is fated to die as a result of Satsuki's actions has been referenced 3 times: twice from Kai and once from Satsuki right at the start of the manga.

But they don't add up. Kai claims this started when Satsuki enrolled. Satsuki pins everything on the day she first saved Komachi, a year later. And I'm more willing to side with her, not only because she's speaking from the future.

We've seen Satsuki trace a clear chain of events after Michiru nearly burned Miho to death: Michiru's love took a twisted turn after she saw Satsuki attack Miho in the pool. Satsuki only got so aggressive with Miho because of the way she treated Komachi. Miho only relapsed into bullying Komachi because... Satsuki saved her that first time.

Continuing forward: Seo took advantage of Michiru's instability to trick her into killing Miho over some unstated history. Miho found out about it and now seems to be inciting a war trying to get Seo killed. Events keep rippling forward and this sense of mob justice is affecting more of the school.

I'm fairly sure there's a misdirection going on.
Satsuki's overwhelming guilt leaves her feeling responsible even for those minor connections. We know she's been obsessively saving people for years yet it's the first time with Komachi which is most important. Which leads me to believe fate isn't truly responsible for the ultimate tragedy; that's a direct result of Satsuki's own actions. There's no evidence of fate literally demanding a death for every life Satsuki saves, despite Kai's superstitions.

But it's undeniable there's an insane amount of deaths happening exclusively around her. There is a supernatural force at work here, just one that might not work like Kai thinks. After all Michiru's death didn't cause it to stop. Both meanings, metaphorical and literal, could simultaneously be true. And the answer probably isn't as simple as "let one person die to save everyone."

The question always comes back to Komachi's role. Why does Satsuki put her at the heart of it? Why not one step removed, blame saving Miho in the pool?

Well Komachi enrolled at the same time as Satsuki. She's happened to be present for many accidental deaths, including the choking boy and the girl in the library. And there's something deeply wrong with her that seems to get ignored because both sides paint her as nothing but an innocent victim.

(Once again it's impossible not to draw connections to Tokiko, which could be a great meta-misdirection on its own but I'm sure Komachi won't end up unsympathetic either.)

I don't think we're near the end yet but I do think we're at the start of Satsuki finally waking up a little to Komachi's danger. And maybe Sensei can start applying some more scientific method to the mechanisms of fate.

^
Exquisite comment! 100000000/10
I really like this analysis. Thank you!!

I'm fairly sure there's a misdirection going on.
Satsuki's overwhelming guilt leaves her feeling responsible even for those minor connections. We know she's been obsessively saving people for years yet it's the first time with Komachi which is most important. Which leads me to believe fate isn't truly responsible for the ultimate tragedy; that's a direct result of Satsuki's own actions. There's no evidence of fate literally demanding a death for every life Satsuki saves, despite Kai's superstitions.

this is a very good point, actually. to be specific about re-reading ch 1, the future-satsuki narrating it clearly seems to believe she doomed everyone by saving komachi, but as you say it's also clear she has been saving people for some time (it's how she became usotsuki after all!) presumably without breaking fate

I was proven correct, although it doesn't feel all that good because damn, poor Komachi. :(
I would suspect Komachi is something like a redemption for Tokiko. Tokiko was always portrayed with a sympathetic lens but the last word in Walk in Death is given to someone who fundamentally blames her for what happened, making that feel like the Word of God on the issue. That never sat right with me, because implicitly advocates abandoning a moral responsibility to help people by going "well if it's their fate then who are we to disagree". Now that we've got that exact same perspective being put in the mouth of the principle antagonist it feels even more to me like this is a relitigation of that framing.
My prediction: the narration from the end of the first chapter is not Satsuki at the end of the story but Satsuki before the climax of the story, in her darkest hour before she rallies, goes "actually fuck the class president and fuck fatalism," and forces a Good End to happen. And then Satsuki with live happily ever after with her 3 girlfriends (Komachi. Akira, and Miho) :)

last edited at Apr 21, 2023 2:32AM

@BLAMEY: An excellent analysis, thank you.

last edited at Apr 21, 2023 4:40AM

I feel like we are really close to the end of this arc, which makes me wonder if the final arc will involve Akira's dad or if we are going to have other arc before that?, Because everything in this arc now is leading for us to believe that Komachi is the main and final point of it, so I don't think the President and his friend will have a conclusion on this arc

I also wouldn't be surprised if the teacher dies this arc, it's too "convenient" for Satsuki to have a source of authority on her side, especially with how relatively easy he was won. And that would definitely be a turning point the pace couldn't return from. Prez has a history of killing teachers, too.
Actually speaking of that: it sure is a major hole in his argument for non intervention that he's deliberately used his premonitions to kill people at least twice. I bet Satsuki realizes that at some point.

Wait so why does Akira hates the teacher? she sure looked angry when Satsuki mentioned him (There is a vein in her face in that shot) did I missed something?

last edited at Apr 21, 2023 1:24PM

Wait so why does Akira hates the teacher? she sure looked angry when Satsuki mentioned him (There is a vein in her face in that shot) did I missed something?

I think it's a complicated "i'm happy that more ppl believe her but that also means that she'll rely on my less so i'm conflicted" kinda feeling

She's also fought with that teacher over her "bad behavior" in the past, Akira's introduction to the manga is her storming out of his class and kicking the door down on her way out.

Wait so why does Akira hates the teacher? she sure looked angry when Satsuki mentioned him (There is a vein in her face in that shot) did I missed something?

I think it's a complicated "i'm happy that more ppl believe her but that also means that she'll rely on my less so i'm conflicted" kinda feeling

Hmm yeah, I think eventually we would have an conflict between Satsuki and Akira

She's also fought with that teacher over her "bad behavior" in the past, Akira's introduction to the manga is her storming out of his class and kicking the door down on her way out.

But it's a bit weird because there was an entire plot about saving his life a while ago and Akira didn't showed an emotion like that

Wait so why does Akira hates the teacher? she sure looked angry when Satsuki mentioned him (There is a vein in her face in that shot) did I missed something?

I think it's a complicated "i'm happy that more ppl believe her but that also means that she'll rely on my less so i'm conflicted" kinda feeling

Hmm yeah, I think eventually we would have an conflict between Satsuki and Akira

She's also fought with that teacher over her "bad behavior" in the past, Akira's introduction to the manga is her storming out of his class and kicking the door down on her way out.

But it's a bit weird because there was an entire plot about saving his life a while ago and Akira didn't showed an emotion like that

She probably realizes that the teacher doesn't deserve to die, even if she doesn't like him.

Yep, that settles it, Komachi has the makings of a psychopath.

oh hell no komachi better not get shoved into some inheritance struggle later