Joe's status:

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/the_guy_she_was_interested_in_wasnt_a_guy_at_all_ch112_5#13 "he stayed in Japan to raise Mitsuki"

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/the_guy_she_was_interested_in_wasnt_a_guy_at_all_ch112_5#7 "Joe-san turning into a dad"

So we still don't know what's with her biological parents, or his legal status, but he seems to have been Mitsuki's effective 'dad' from when she was smol (skateboard photo, and compare to Aya's 'before'. It's not just "go stay with your uncle for high school." I don't recall if we know when Kanna left for America.

A few pages later (https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/the_guy_she_was_interested_in_wasnt_a_guy_at_all_ch113_5) "he adores his niece". Just that. There's no mention of him actually raising her, which I fully expected to see here. Damn.
After binging the whole thing, there is no explicit confirmation nor denying whatsoever. And the "becoming a dad" line works for BOTH the "became her legal guardian" and the "no daughters of his own so he loves his niece as a daughter" scenarios, to rub salt on the lack-of-info wound.
But, betwen that lack of info, and the info we DO have (that he has been willing to leave the country leaving her behind, twice), the most likely scenario we have is the "he is not her legal guadian but she's living with him for some JIS-standard plot device".
WHich is the BEST possible scenario. He leaves with Kanna, and leaves his store and house to Mitsuki so the two lovebirds can start their 300+ chapters lovey-dovey adult life right away after school.
MAKE IT HAPPEN!

See, my interpretation of that is less that 'he has been willing to leave the country leaving her behind' as that she isn't his kid, and there are other family members he could have passed her off to had he decided to leave the country with Kanna. I suspect he is her closest living relative and likely was on good terms with her when whatever happened to her parents happened. She seemed kinda chipper for the dead parents card to have been freshly drawn, I admit, but her guardianship at that time was likely not set in stone yet. In that scenario, throwing her to a cousin or great aunt and going to chase his dreams outside the country is something many would not have blamed him for doing, but that he himself would have seen as abandoning her. He'd think about it, since it is a huge disruption in his life that he surely didn't plan for, but he knows if he actually left if would be a huge regret no matter how well things turned out.

Alternatively, her parents are alive, but are also an absolute mess such that even if Joe isn't her guardian on paper he's been the only real adult in her life for a long time.

Quick, someone get the girls from “our love is disgusting”
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/our_love_is_disgusting_ch01

Depending on whether her interest is specific to dolls or just doll sized human shapes, Remu might be totally down for a borrower gf like the lady here.

Cliched as it might be, I was really expecting it to be a matter of her family refusing to go along with the Gensokyo plan or work with Youkai and thereby be killed so they don't get in the way of it. Instead it's "Hey, we were already saluting our youkai overlords, why didn't we get a piece of the pie?" Which as far as motives for revenge go... it is one, I guess. But any claim to moral high ground or righteousness becomes kinda laughable at that point. "How dare you do a thing I would happily do in your place if I hadn't been murdered!" So yes, I am also Disappointed by the Motive.

Admittedly, I'm still not 100% sure why she (and presumably her whole family) got offed. My best guess is that the Hakurei went along for philosophical or spiritual reasons, while the Miyadeguchis went along out of self interest; and that wasn't good enough to be trusted.

last edited at Feb 25, 2025 3:45PM

-Marcie Fleach in an unseen timeline, facing down an evil witch-

"You may have stopped my nefarious plan, but you arrived too late to stop me from placing an unbreakable curse upon you, girl!"

"Curse, huh? What kind? Slow, wasting death? Terrible misfortune?"

"In this life, and in all others, you will be subject to an unpleasant but inescapable nickname."

"You're kidding, right?"

"(insane witch cackle)"

You got that right. I was expecting this to get dark, but to think she was capable of ... Real Person Fiction! (horror shriek) She didn't even change the names!

Joking aside, it was expected to be semi-delusional mal-adaptive coping to her circumstances, and now we get a better idea of what her specific circumstances are. I look forward to seeing what she does about things when she finds Remu doesn't fit with her impression of her. Will she back fill the twist into her fiction and pretend she knew it all along? Will she double down and go off the rails on insisting her imaginings to be reality?

Nice blue screen mask on Kokoro.

@eromancer Short version is that these two are adversarial true immortals (death does not stick, any and all damage will be undone) several centuries after the inciting incident. It is canon that they still fight and kill each other regularly, but is strongly indicated to be a 'going through the motions' sort of thing or just how they choose to pass time since they also interact peacefully in the present. Shippers are all too happy to tint that as an enemies to lovers situation, which could implicate the ongoing violence as extreme S&M.

Yeah! I've heard of 'vegetarian vampires' but this is ridiculous! :p

When you're so good at bullet hell you can even dodge the mystical light of kiss censorship.

Hex look surprised, Channeler's expression could also be an intense stare, especially considering the shoulder grab. I guess the real question is if one or both are currently possessed.

It could be, or it could be something Reimu as a miko (if a less than stellar one at actual miko-ing) is more suited to pull off. Channeling of gods, channeling of spirits, I'm sure there's some degree of metaphysical similarity there.

Eh. I'm glad they did finally get together, but it ended up happening along the fairly orthodox [confession finally lands]->[Fast forward montage with token fluff]->[roll credits] track. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that "I want you" should have broken down that wall, and then the chapters after would be a nice wind down to the ending as the world has a chance to breathe as it shows off the (honestly, pretty minimal) differences now that they're officially romantic.

(Side note, chapter 25 appears to have been overwritten by the new chapter)

Well she already decided to be gay, break laws (of robotics) so why not just say no to deletion?

Not just cute, downright adorable.

Ya' think?

Seriously though, hell of a thing to be in a situation where the girl who blackmails you, encourages you to commit delinquency, and gets into fist fights with you is the only one that seems interested in knowing the real you rather than the role you've been inhabiting. Would have been bad enough without the nice-girl yandere best friend.

The bit after waking up and Kokoro was there... that's full on horror.

I feel it's a situation where she always had the potential, but desperation and lack of confidence were holding her down. Remember that chapter with the ghosts?

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/sorry_but_im_not_into_yuri_ch24#12

She's clearly got some kind of innate magnetism to her, given that that scene is before she doses the ghosts accidentally. Once she got actual non-awful friends and some genuine love she was able to get out of her own way.

English is a little off on Nanoha's speech bubble. Could either go "How is my Fate-chan so sexy like this?" or "How can my Fate-chan be so sexy like this?" I think.

And yeah, doing that sort of thing in the middle of the day when the kid's coming back from school, come on! On the other hand, Fate does go on missions for long stretches of time, so I can understand if Nanoha was impatient when she got back.

Wow, with the black smoke coming out of that filter I think she needs to replace it more often; it's probably seeing more heavy use than the design specs assumed.

Yeeeaaah. There's mixed signals, and then there's holding a stop sign and being shocked that people actually stop.

To be fair, prez seems to have been kinda into it both times VP got forceful, in chaps 17 and 21. Granted, she quickly snaps out of it. But there's a moment before the biting or choking that respectively follow where she looks less than dismayed to me. To say nothing of the tsun response the kabedon got.

Yeah, his opinions were derived 75% from being an overprotective father, and 25% being a haughty nobleman who cares about how the opinions of other haughty aristocrats can affect his family's prestige. But he got over both of those things here.

Yeah, I was also assuming she was taking a new angle for her mercantile ways. Around when she started talking about her mother I realized 'Oh, this is probably legit' because it was just too banal in the details for someone trying to wring sympathy, but very real, and no less awful. No wonder she's trying to get rich quick, with that sort of background.

Honestly, I was thinking to myself: 'If Toudou hadn't had character development, she would have gone in there half-cocked trying to bluff them that she had some kind of authority only to end up in a gofer position and come up with the brilliant idea of dosing them.' Which, y'know, would be a terrible position to be in for someone who isn't into yuri.

^^ I could kinda see that.

"You knave! You ruined my coat! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get things that aren't too small?"

"... Yes."

"Ah."

"I'll introduce you to a local tailor I go to once we're done here."

A lot to like about this chapter; whether it's prez losing composure or just the advancement of a couple of relationships (and one being put on hold, in an unexpectedly sensible decision). Honestly surprised Banryu knuckled under so much, but if she's into that sort of thing so long as it doesn't impact her rep, then good for her.

I am curious how some of the dangling threads will get resolved. Kurohime seems a bit too into Toudou to just be handed a new crush out of nowhere, but the latter is looking pretty darn locked in with Rin at this point.

Lastly, the bit with 'my kill list' in special font was beautiful, I'm curious if the raws did something similar.