I made some fixes here and there, mainly cosmetic (missing sfx, wrong phrasing).

To note, I'm now current with the complete published chapters.

Chapters are published 12 pages per 12 pages and chapter 16 has only 24 pages for now.

The last 12 should come in the next weeks.

The Great Manga Detective (GMD) and his Deadbeat Assistant (DA) are discussing the case of "How to Break a Triangle":

DA: So you still think Erica is the guilty party responsible for Aya's disappearance?
GMD: Absolutely! When deciphering fictional cases like these, motive is paramount over evidence. Erica has all of the motive among the three friends. She an obsessive loner with no social skills.
DA: But what was the means?
GMD: I dunno. But it probably wasn't magic or yokai. Maybe Erica's grandfather was an eccentric scientist who dabbled in suspended animation, and invented a stasis capsule.
DA: That's pretty contrived as well! Literal plot device!
GMD: But I have to confess something. Something that has been bothering me for awhile....
DA: What's that?
GMD: I think we have misunderstood Miss Erica's motive.
DA: We have?
GMD: Absolutely. In the conversation between Erica and Aya (and the flashback) a few chapters back, Erica accused Aya of keeping her relationship with Koto secret. But the tone of the question, and indeed the person she was asking were off. If Erica was accusing anyone of keeping a relationship secret (which is suspicious anyway) it would have been Koto. It's not a question you would pose to someone Erica would have considered an outsider or an Intruder, since she and Koto had been friends previous to meeting Aya.
DA: OK.
GMD: So that's when I realized that if Erica's motive was jealousy towards Aya over Koto, which is what we've assumed, then the whole plot makes no sense.
DA: It doesn't?
GMD: Think about it. If Erica wanted Aya out of the picture, then why not just KILL her? Then stage her disappearance or make it look an adult pervert offed her. If she had the resourcefulness to keep Aya to herself for seven years, it would have been much easier to commit murder than go through all of the trouble of kidnapping and keeping her alive, which leads to a messy denouement anyway.
DA: A dead end really. So what's her real motive.
GMD: A really twisted plot development. Erica LOVES Aya, not Koto.
DA: WHAT?! But we assumed...
GMD: Again, think about it! Aya has no family anymore. Her mom's probably dead, and her grandparents are definitely dead. If Erica put her on ice for seven years, the time gap would destroy all of her peer relationships, especially with Koto. She's now exactly the kind of person who nobody would notice being in distress or duress. Predators like Erica are opportunistic, going for easy prey. Plus the theme of this manga is letting go of the past and evolving forward. If Erica is fixated on a fourteen year old girl, whose youth she can preserve despite the march of time, then she is even more of a twisted monster than we've assumed.
DA: Where the story is at now, Aya is staying in Erica's apartment, after breaking the leg of the triangle that keeps her connected with the wider world..... She's in danger.

Koto is just my kind of girl :( I would fall so hard for her

Koto is just my kind of girl :( I would fall so hard for her

"I can fix her" energy? Gonna take a lot of work since it feels like she's about to have a complete meltdown any moment.

last edited at Oct 10, 2024 8:50AM

The Great Manga Detective (GMD) and his Deadbeat Assistant (DA) are discussing the case of "How to Break a Triangle":

DA: So you still think Erica is the guilty party responsible for Aya's disappearance?
GMD: Absolutely! When deciphering fictional cases like these, motive is paramount over evidence. Erica has all of the motive among the three friends. She an obsessive loner with no social skills.
DA: But what was the means?
GMD: I dunno. But it probably wasn't magic or yokai. Maybe Erica's grandfather was an eccentric scientist who dabbled in suspended animation, and invented a stasis capsule.
DA: That's pretty contrived as well! Literal plot device!
GMD: But I have to confess something. Something that has been bothering me for awhile....
DA: What's that?
GMD: I think we have misunderstood Miss Erica's motive.
DA: We have?
GMD: Absolutely. In the conversation between Erica and Aya (and the flashback) a few chapters back, Erica accused Aya of keeping her relationship with Koto secret. But the tone of the question, and indeed the person she was asking were off. If Erica was accusing anyone of keeping a relationship secret (which is suspicious anyway) it would have been Koto. It's not a question you would pose to someone Erica would have considered an outsider or an Intruder, since she and Koto had been friends previous to meeting Aya.
DA: OK.
GMD: So that's when I realized that if Erica's motive was jealousy towards Aya over Koto, which is what we've assumed, then the whole plot makes no sense.
DA: It doesn't?
GMD: Think about it. If Erica wanted Aya out of the picture, then why not just KILL her? Then stage her disappearance or make it look an adult pervert offed her. If she had the resourcefulness to keep Aya to herself for seven years, it would have been much easier to commit murder than go through all of the trouble of kidnapping and keeping her alive, which leads to a messy denouement anyway.
DA: A dead end really. So what's her real motive.
GMD: A really twisted plot development. Erica LOVES Aya, not Koto.
DA: WHAT?! But we assumed...
GMD: Again, think about it! Aya has no family anymore. Her mom's probably dead, and her grandparents are definitely dead. If Erica put her on ice for seven years, the time gap would destroy all of her peer relationships, especially with Koto. She's now exactly the kind of person who nobody would notice being in distress or duress. Predators like Erica are opportunistic, going for easy prey. Plus the theme of this manga is letting go of the past and evolving forward. If Erica is fixated on a fourteen year old girl, whose youth she can preserve despite the march of time, then she is even more of a twisted monster than we've assumed.
DA: Where the story is at now, Aya is staying in Erica's apartment, after breaking the leg of the triangle that keeps her connected with the wider world..... She's in danger.

Wow! Thanks for this! It's interesting to see other people's perspectives on the series.
On another note, This chapter was painful to read, it felt like they were trying so hard to mend their relationship without proper communication :(

Funny how both "adults" are stuck in the past, even though they lived those seven years, but Aya is always trying to move forward.

She was abandoned by everyone, but she's still forging ahead and taking rational decisions. Aya is admirable. Erika and Koto, not so much: they're consumed by their failed teenage romance and both don't actually look at the present Aya but at the light of a star from 7 years ago.

There's an elephant in the room that's never addressed by any character: how did Aya get transported 7 years later?

Either it'll be part of the resolution of the triangle, or it'll stay something that happened without explanation. Both are fine for me, because we don't NEED to have an explanation for the story to move on.

I'm so proud of Aya, she's really giving it her all. She walked into that conversation willing to offer Koto a path forward like "let's start over," but Koto refused to even listen, and Aya refused to let Koto force her into anything. She's still got her feelings for Koto, and her desire to not hurt her friend, but she's still making the mature choice to protect herself. I don't even think she necessarily needs Erika either. If she hypothetically lost that connection too (not that I think it'll happen as of now) she's got her job and coworkers and she's remarkably resilient and resourceful for her level of experiences. I can easily imagine her living in a manga cafe or something rather than letting anyone push her around.

Bit of a tangent: a couple nights ago on Hazel's twitch stream I saw the 1992 Iranian film "The Mirror". It's about a little girl defying the helplessness you'd expect from a child, possibly even more from a little girl, to get home by herself after her mom doesn't show up to pick her up from school. It's a fucking excellent movie, and I'm bringing it up because Aya is reminding me of that little girl. Aya is still in many ways a child, but we tend to underestimate children. Perhaps her reduced experience doesn't just mean she might not know how to deal with things or predict certain outcomes, but she also hasn't had her confidence in her own feelings and perceptions over what an adult demands she think and feel instead squashed by negative experiences.
Aya, despite her depression and terrible family life, hasn't been beaten down and beaten into homogenous shape by larger society. She's a nail that sticks out and hasn't yet been hammered down. She's got the naive optimism of a child that if she works towards something she can achieve it, rather than the pessimism of Koto and Erika who assume their desires are very unlikely to be met unless they try to tip the scales rather than earnestly and openly pursue what they want.

PS: to Erika's credit she's taken Aya seriously and treated her with proper respect and care, unlike Koto. Of course, that's at least in part due to Erika's desire not being Aya, but she could have acted far worse than she has so far. Her unending internal negativity made sure she didn't lol. Erika is kind of on the opposite end of the maturity spectrum from Aya, experienced enough to be pessimistic, and mature enough to moderate her immediate feelings and take the long view. Koto is in the middle, experienced enough to be pessimistic and yet oh so immature in her refusal to listen to Aya and process any of the shit she's feeling.

last edited at Oct 10, 2024 3:41PM

Erika, after learning that her best friend and decade-long crush started emotionally abusing her girlfriend and then got dumped: "Surely now is the right time to tell her my feelings."

(I like Erika but she needs a reality check almost as much as Koto does lol.)

I know Erika gave Aya that advice to break up for selfish reasons but honestly, who can't say that this didn't need to happen. Koto and her trauma is a lot to deal with and Aya got her own shit she needs to sort thru. Its funny to me how Aya is (mentally) the youngest of the three but is the only one trying to help herself by accepting her new reality and move on in a healthy way while the other two are still slaves to the past. Erika and Koto can be together for all I care, I just hope by the end those two crazies don't drag my girl down with them, Aya deserves better

Erika, after learning that her best friend and decade-long crush started emotionally abusing her girlfriend and then got dumped: "Surely now is the right time to tell her my feelings."

(I like Erika but she needs a reality check almost as much as Koto does lol.)

Clearly, Erika is not very sagacious regarding this kind of things.
Like in chapter 8, even though Koto told her she broke up because she wasn't able to reciprocate that kind of feelings, Erika "She got a boyfriend. Surely Koto can fall in love now".

It's not like l hate her for that or anything.
Just…l can understand why Koto falls for an outsider and not her childhood friend.

last edited at Oct 10, 2024 1:48PM

I know Erika gave Aya that advice to break up for selfish reasons but honestly, who can't say that this didn't need to happen. Koto and her trauma is a lot to deal with and Aya got her own shit she needs to sort thru. Its funny to me how Aya is (mentally) the youngest of the three but is the only one trying to help herself by accepting her new reality and move on in a healthy way while the other two are still slaves to the past. Erika and Koto can be together for all I care, I just hope by the end those two crazies don't drag my girl down with them, Aya deserves better

Erika didn't tell Aya to break up with Koto, she told her to think about who Koto is and what she's been through. Aya's default in that situation was breaking up already, Erika pointed her down the path of that compromise she tried to offer Koto but couldn't. I'd imagine this has the effect of making Aya feel more confident in her choice and feel less like she's hurting Koto or being selfish, since it's a more informed choice on her part and a more deliberate fuckup on Koto's. Whenever Aya has asked Erika for help, she's given the best advice she can while also inevitably thinking about how that advice might help herself and beating herself up for it.

I know Erika gave Aya that advice to break up for selfish reasons but honestly, who can't say that this didn't need to happen. Koto and her trauma is a lot to deal with and Aya got her own shit she needs to sort thru. Its funny to me how Aya is (mentally) the youngest of the three but is the only one trying to help herself by accepting her new reality and move on in a healthy way while the other two are still slaves to the past. Erika and Koto can be together for all I care, I just hope by the end those two crazies don't drag my girl down with them, Aya deserves better

Erika didn't tell Aya to break up with Koto, she told her to think about who Koto is and what she's been through. Aya's default in that situation was breaking up already, Erika pointed her down the path of that compromise she tried to offer Koto but couldn't. I'd imagine this has the effect of making Aya feel more confident in her choice and feel less like she's hurting Koto or being selfish, since it's a more informed choice on her part and a more deliberate fuckup on Koto's. Whenever Aya has asked Erika for help, she's given the best advice she can while also inevitably thinking about how that advice might help herself and beating herself up for it.

I agree with this. I don’t think Erika is about to confess, there was no set conviction depicted in the end after learning Aya broke up with Koto. Surely it’s an option, as we see Erika hoping they’d break up earlier in the series. But I don’t know if Erika will still act on it, as she’s kept herself in check. All of the analogies and analysis thus far are very good at describing the inner workings of this manga. I think that Erika is focused on the present, Aya is focused on the future, Koto is focused on the past. The reason why I say Erica is focused on the present is because she’s been looking at Koto this entire time, and knows who she is now. Clearly Aya is represented by the future, as she keeps moving forward as everyone can see. Koto is the past because she wants to go back to the past and pretend like the last seven years haven’t happened. I have not seen anyone state that Erika represents the present in these comments, or I skipped around too much lol.

last edited at Oct 13, 2024 8:21AM

Congratulations, Aya-chan, on losing your virginity!

Congratulations, Aya-chan, on losing your virginity!

what

Congratulations, Aya-chan, on losing your virginity!

what

Congratulations, Aya-chan, on losing your virginity!

I think this may be that "brainrot" the kids are talking about.

last edited at Oct 19, 2024 2:09AM

Congratulations, Aya-chan, on losing your virginity!

So your take is that when Koto pushed Aya down, she forced herself on her and they had sex? And after this Aya broke up with Koto, because it was a rapey-like experience and she was feeling used?

Well I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not saying you're right either. Point is, we're not actually shown what happens after Koto pushes Aya down. Next thing we know, Aya is announcing she broke up with Koto - which is, to say the least, a very large and unexplained jump. It is indeed possible that the missing transition is a sex scene. Then again, maybe not.

We'll certainly find out. Later. Eventually.

^ Gotta say the hints are rather heavy-handed. She throws her down on the bed and pins her there, then we are shown the sky over the city (sky's darkening, time's passing), then it's night and Aya tells Erika she dumped Koto, and the angle hides her face but her thoughts about the stars looking blurry imply that her eyes are full of tears...

^ Gotta say the hints are rather heavy-handed. She throws her down on the bed and pins her there, then we are shown the sky over the city (sky's darkening, time's passing), then it's night and Aya tells Erika she dumped Koto, and the angle hides her face but her thoughts about the stars looking blurry imply that her eyes are full of tears...

Yeah she's teary eyed at the end, but like. She just broke up with someone she truly loved because that person wouldn't respect her. I don't think she needs any additional acute pain to be sad right there. And since we've got her internal monologue, which has zero hints of anything remotely like that in it, I seriously doubt the author intended us to read sex, consensually or otherwise, into that gap. Koto might have been thinking in that direction but I doubt she'd actually force it and I doubt Aya would go along with it.
And just on a metatextual level the author clearly wants us to care about all three of our protagonists and Koto's already on thin ice for being a sympathetic character. Making her go that far would pretty irrevocably push her over that edge into "fuck Koto she can just go die" territory with most of the audience.

Here's a pretty easy explanation for that gap in time: Aya was crying and it look her some time to calm down enough to make that call to Erika and start heading home. Hell, I'm surprised she could make that call without sobbing no matter how long she waited, I probably couldn't in her shoes. When my first love relationship broke up I couldn't even slightly talk about the subject for at least 4 or 5 days. Especially since it was a somewhat similar "We both still like each other but we can't stay together" situation (her homophobic parents found out about us)

last edited at Oct 21, 2024 10:31PM

I have next chapter and no, they didn't have sex or anything like that

I have next chapter and no, they didn't have sex or anything like that

No offense.
Really confused since translator is the one who makes the rule of no spoiler here.

Edited：l gotta say l lost all respect towards translator because he can't even follow the rule himself. Now who would give a fuck of no spoiler rule？It's not like l don't want to discuss it immediately when raw chapter 8 came out.

I'm grateful for translator's hard works and high quality translation. It gives me a place to discuss my favorite manga. However, l feel betrayal by now.

last edited at Oct 29, 2024 8:28PM

I had thought we wouldn't get an explanation for the disappearance and were done focusing on it, so those last pages were quite the surprise.
Even if you know someone that was spirited away, it takes a massive amount of perception to be able to pick up on it having happened to someone else. A lot of us can't even figure out something as simple as when someone's attracted to us, even with blatant hints.

Thank you Erika for spitting facts like that. Koto desperately needed to hear those things. I'm pleasantly surprised to see Koto holding up ok after the breakup. I was bracing myself when Erika was buzzing her intercom, fearing Koto may have trashed her own apartment or worse.

last edited at Nov 4, 2024 4:43PM

the jig is up

Yeah, we really didn't get much new information in this chapter except those last few pages, and then pow!

Kumagaya: "So, Aya, you just kind of have that 'has been spirited away' look about you." lol

And here's me thinking that I had made my peace with the whole, "JFC, Aya was spirited away for seven years and now she's suddenly back but nobody seems freaked out that she was spirited away for seven years (except Koto, and for her it was more the "no Aya" part and not the "spirited away and now back" part) so what the f*cking f*ck!?!" issue.

But now apparently it's back on the table.