I don't know. It looks like Erika took everything from Aya for the last seven years. Took her roles and took her place at Koto's side.

I wonder if Erika made a wish on Tanabata for Aya to disappear and that led to the current situation. And at the end of a cycle of seven years, the wish expired and Aya came back. I think Erika isn't blameless in all this.

Even if Erika made a wish on Tanabata for Aya to disappear, I would hardly call that blame. No one expects a wish like that to come true. And she's still Koto's friend, so "taking her place at Koto's side" is a really nefarious way to put "being a friend". Unless she knowingly did something to send Aya to the future which doesn't seem likely as she's just as confused as the others, blaming Erika seems really weird.

Somehow I can't trust Erika either. It's nice that she's trying to push Koto to face Aya, but it feels she's doing this more for her own sake than for Aya or Koto. Like she just wants Koto to move on so she can get a chance herself.

On top of that it's highly suspicious that the last conversation Aya had in the past was with Erika. What did they talk about?

last edited at Sep 30, 2023 5:47PM

Erika hasn’t demonstrated any nefarious intentions so far (even a few chapters later) other than feelings of guilt and wanting to help Koto return to who she used to be. Nor of any overt ill will towards Aya (I don’t feel she did even as a child). Of course, her feelings for Koto still exists and there’s an inherent selfishness in that she hopes Koto looks her way. And of course, we still don’t know what really happened on Tanabata so she may still play a villainous role. However, judging from the author’s Twitter account, she’s quite fond of Erika as a character. So I don’t think she’ll be writing her into someone too horrible.

last edited at Sep 30, 2023 5:49PM

Somehow I can't trust Erika either. It's nice that she's trying to push Koto to face Aya, but it feels she's doing this more for her own sake than for Aya or Koto. Like she just wants Koto to move on so she can get a chance herself.

Oh no, the horror, she wants her friend to move on from her traumatic experience to have a chance to do something that will not harm anyone. The villain.

Unless Erika is secretly a youkai or mage or something, seems hard to blame her for the timeskip.

"it's finally over" could be anything from "grandpa was abusive" to "grandpa was old and fighting cancer in lots of pain" to "grandpa had dementia"

Somehow I can't trust Erika either. It's nice that she's trying to push Koto to face Aya, but it feels she's doing this more for her own sake than for Aya or Koto. Like she just wants Koto to move on so she can get a chance herself.

Oh no, the horror, she wants her friend to move on from her traumatic experience to have a chance to do something that will not harm anyone. The villain.

Moving on from the traumatic experience and moving on from Aya aren't the same thing. Besides, is she doing this for Koto's sake or for her own sake? That matters too.

That said, I don't remember saying she's a villain. I merely said I can't trust her.

"it's finally over" could be anything from "grandpa was abusive" to "grandpa was old and fighting cancer in lots of pain" to "grandpa had dementia"

Those interpretations wouldn't explain her behavior in the first chapter. If her grandfather was a good person and was sick or something like that, why did Aya felt she had no place in the world? It felt like she wanted to run away to somewhere far away.

Moving on from the traumatic experience and moving on from Aya aren't the same thing. Besides, is she doing this for Koto's sake or for her own sake? That matters too.

That said, I don't remember saying she's a villain. I merely said I can't trust her.

I think she genuinely wants the former, but also can’t help hoping for the latter. But I think that’s very normal for anyone who has held onto an unrequited love for this long. Even if you were the kindest person ever. I don’t think that makes her untrustworthy. She can’t force Koto to like her - and I’m sure if she were to have tried it would’ve been while Aya was gone anyways.

Those interpretations wouldn't explain her behavior in the first chapter. If her grandfather was a good person and was sick or something like that, why did Aya felt she had no place in the world? It felt like she wanted to run away to somewhere far away

I think grandpa may have been distant/emotionally unavailable and she may have been neglected. But they haven’t delved into it yet so who knows. Aya doesn’t seem like someone who carries a huge amount of trauma imo, so I’d like to think the abuse didn’t run deeper. But again we shall see.

last edited at Sep 30, 2023 6:40PM

I think she genuinely wants the former, but also can’t help hoping for the latter. But I think that’s very normal for anyone who has held onto an unrequited love for this long. Even if you were the kindest person ever. I don’t think that makes her untrustworthy.

She feels untrustworthy to me because the way she framed the conversation seemed kinda manipulative. She never really asked Koto how she feels about Aya right now. Rather, she said "if you moved on already, you have to make it clear." Koto never said she moved on so why is Erika going there from the get go? It feels like she's pushing Koto in that direction in a moment when Koto hasn't even figured out her feelings yet. That's not what a good friend would do imo.

But you're free to disagree. These are just my impressions. It's not like anything is confirmed just yet.

EDIT: By the way, another thing I realized after reading the chapters again is that Erika lied to Aya in chapter 2. When Aya told her she and Koto had started dating, Erika said "I already knew." However, in chapter 3 she told Koto she found out they were dating from Aya just now. I don't think she would lie to Koto so I think she lied to Aya. But why? What's the point of lying about something so insignificant? It just made her look petty.

I think grandpa may have been distant/emotionally unavailable and she may have been neglected. But they haven’t delved into it yet so who knows. Aya doesn’t seem like someone who carries a huge amount of trauma imo, so I’d like to think the abuse didn’t run deeper. But again we shall see.

Aya did seem like she was carrying some trauma back in chapter 1 though. And also, she had a clear sense of relief when she found out her grandfather was dead. Look at this dialog:

Erika: It was a shame, you know, about your grandpa

Aya: You're wrong, Erika. The first thing that came to my mind was that it was finally over.

If you look at Aya's line on its own, then yes, various interpretations are possible. But when you add Erika's line and Aya's reply, things start to feel like there's something fishy going on. Erika said "it's a shame" and Aya's like "you're wrong, it's not a shame, it's finally over." So there's something deeper going on here. Hopefully we'll get more clues soon enough. Maybe when Aya and Koto have their date. I'm looking forwards to that.

last edited at Sep 30, 2023 8:22PM

I just want to give each one of these girls/women a hug. They're all trying so hard to be mature even though it's such a tough situation!

"it's finally over" could be anything from "grandpa was abusive" to "grandpa was old and fighting cancer in lots of pain" to "grandpa had dementia"

Those interpretations wouldn't explain her behavior in the first chapter. If her grandfather was a good person and was sick or something like that, why did Aya felt she had no place in the world? It felt like she wanted to run away to somewhere far away.

Taking care of someone sick can be pretty brutal and draining. Especially if there's dementia involved.

This manga continues to do a great job of advancing the plot and characters while keeping tension high by drip-feeding us both answers to questions and new mysteries. Interestingly Aya's the closest we have to a viewpoint character since we, like her, have no idea what happened in the seven years since her disappearance. It feels like discovering the mystery of what happened to Aya is intimately linked with discovering the mystery of what motivates these characters and what they've done during these seven years, which is great.

The revelation about Aya's grandfather did give me another theory. While I do still like the idea that Erika made a Tanabata wish along the lines of "I wish Aya would go away," I think maybe Aya also made a wish along the same lines ("I wish I would go away"); in fact, that lines up very well with the attitude she expressed in chapter 1. It takes two to Tanabata, after all, so it makes some sense that the magic could only happen if two peoples' wishes lined up with each other. If so, this would add even more complexity to Aya and Erika's already extremely complex relationship.

Koto's still the weakest part of this manga to me, but hopefully her date with Aya will give us more insight into her. Though it also makes me wonder...when should we add an Age Gap tag? lol

Just in case people miss a key element that's maybe obvious only to people who know some Japanese: The kanji for Tanabata is 七夕, with characters meaning "seven" and "evening". Tanabata is held on the 7th of July (7/7). So this is highly highly related to the 7 year time skip.

This one is interesting, looking forward to see more. Hope it's not a sad ending...

Mr. Jones posted:

EDIT: By the way, another thing I realized after reading the chapters again is that Erika lied to Aya in chapter 2. When Aya told her she and Koto had started dating, Erika said "I already knew." However, in chapter 3 she told Koto she found out they were dating from Aya just now. I don't think she would lie to Koto so I think she lied to Aya. But why? What's the point of lying about something so insignificant? It just made her look petty.

She lied to Koto.

In first chapter, we can see she overheard the acceptance by Aya of Koto's confession.

So, in that café, she pretended to have heard it from Aya. Sounds an innocuous enough lie. It's true that Aya told her. She doesn't have to go out of her way to say she was spying on them seven years ago.

ergzay posted:

Just in case people miss a key element that's maybe obvious only to people who know some Japanese: The kanji for Tanabata is 七夕, with characters meaning "seven" and "evening". Tanabata is held on the 7th of July (7/7). So this is highly highly related to the 7 year time skip.

It was already mentioned in the previous comments.

She doesn't have to go out of her way to say she was spying on them seven years ago.

I don't know that she doesn't have to, but she definitely wouldn't want to, because spying is kinda creepy...

last edited at Oct 1, 2023 3:46AM

People are really convinced Erika is the bad person here. I personally don't see it, and for me, the claims all feel like they're reaching (aside from maybe she wished Aya away and obviously didn't think it would come true).

Aya is doing really well considering it all! Koto is tiresome. Everyone is in strange positions here. Say what you want about Erika, but she's actually doing things regardless of her motivation. Aya is being cooperative and meeting people from her past head-on. Koto is avoiding it all. It's hard, but especially with how everyone else is doing, I really don't have patienice for her.

Yeah, I'm all aboard the Erika is the villainess train.

Koto is apparently stuck mentally at age 14.

she has the right attitude by not giving any fucks about the time skip/age gap and still going for kotos poontang

last edited at Oct 1, 2023 6:30PM

I really like Erika's character and how her blunt 14yr old self carries through 7 years later - the plot would not be moving forward if it wasn't for her lol. Really not getting the villain vibes, just because she is crushing on Koto, she can't do good things for her because then she has ulterior motives - like OK, guess she can't be a good supportive friend then?

She's been presented so far as trying to help both Koto and Aya with this weird situation, I can see the tatabana twist happening, but the rest doesnt match up to what we are being shown so far

Koto acts like someone with guilty conscience, avoiding Aya.
There's something off in her behavior...

Btw, drama club play name: Wishful Thinking; main role: Ushio Aya (chapter 2/25)
-there actually was the written clue! (mentioned before)

What if it was something what Koto wrote in her script what was connected (or caused) Aya's disappearance?

In chapter 1/27, last pic, Koto is observing a poster "TANA - BATA as a theme", so, Wishful Thinking was written by Koto (and later in manga Aya confirmed telling about her wish to play main role because it was first Koto's script)
Koto was also a witness while Aya was reciting a poem about a hidden place (wishful thinking).
She dropped the drama club and stopped writing scripts, after.
And when friends described her after Aya'a disappearance, she obviously was in a state of shock for a long time.
There could be more about Koto's connection with disappearance of Aya than we know now.

Erika acts too cool for someone possibly involved in Aya's disappearance. No traces of guilt in her behavior.
She mentioned their last conversation too casually for something with hidden intentions to cause disappearance of someone.

That’s a very interesting theory and one I think would be exciting to see if true. On the point of Erika seeming too cool to be guilty, one could also argue that Erika’s quick reaction to take initiative and do something could be a result of feeling guilt.

Which actually leads me to thinking: what if BOTH Erika and Koto made a similar Tanabata wish (in terms of your theory about Koto being responsible via script writing and Erika because she’s seemingly the number one suspect). So they technically made the “wish” together?

I hadn't considered the possibility that Koto's script may have played a role in Aya leaping forward in time. The issue with the theory is I don't see a motivation for Koto to wish that Aya would disappear, while both Erika and even Aya herself are shown to have plausibly wanted that. But on the other hand, Koto is the character we still know the least about, so maybe that'll change in future chapters as we learn more about her.

Oh? Koto?? Master manipulator??? Looks like she's really changed in those seven years, god damn.

There's something really fishy about Koto's script. It has Aya and Koto's names in it instead of the character names for the play (and Koto wasn't even acting for the play if I remember correctly). Is this the same script or something else entirely??

What's going on here, Koto? What are you doing? You looked kind of aloof during your date, but now it actually seems like you're super obsessed with Aya, even more so than 7 years ago....

On another note, that little Aya flashback suggests her mother leaving her with her grandpa was a pretty traumatic moment for her. Abandonment issues?

And poor Karen. She looks like she's getting ready to pursue Koto properly now, but I wonder if she knows that Koto writes creepy fanfiction about herself and a high-school aged Aya. lol

last edited at Oct 24, 2023 6:57PM