I have just re-read chapters 16 and 17
I can sympathize with Koto's feelings of fear and anxiety of losing Aya . But I gotta admit I felt icky with them living together. Aya's literally a minor/a child.
No matter what they do and no matter how hard she forces in the idea that she wants to make it work, Koto has to TRULY accept that time has already changed them both. The difference is that Aya, understandably, seems to want to risk it living her life NOW with koto in the background and not beside Koto.

Honestly, I would totally be fine if Koto actually locked Aya up. Unfortunately, the story obviously won't go to that way.

last edited at Feb 19, 2025 12:45PM

I can't understand why there's still people who see Aya might fall for Erika in the future chapters. I am not saying this cause l fucking hate her, but you literally need to change the whole Aya's miserable childhood to make that goddamn bullshit happen in the first place lol.

Sorry if l disturb the peace with my boring whine post. Though l actually dgaf ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
(To save someone who feels the needs to scold me for being mean at every opportunity

I have translated some of the author(Kabocha)'s illustrations of this manga on the reddit. Have a look if you are interested lol. I use the same user name there.

I wouldn't count myself as an Erika defender, but having read your posts from the last 5 pages I'm just trying to understand your logic. She had an argument with Aya and she wrote something on the the tanzaku. That seems like an entirely normal thing. All your quotes are just guesses at what she could have said, so I'm really not sure where your confidence is coming from.

Coming from the guilt which has tormented Erika nearly a decade.

And again, writing a wish on a tanzaku is like throwing a coin in a wishing well or blowing out your candles on your birthday, no one actually expects the thing being wished for to literally happen. I don't understand the leap from "wrote something on tanzaku" to "committed violence upon someone".

Yeah. It's just a wish. I hope one day when you find out your best friend wishing bad things upon you and actually throwing a coin in a wishing well for this, you can be as understanding and empathetic and kind as you did towards Erika right now.

You got me there, had a good chuckle x)

When people are so judgemental of others, for actions that most are deeming normal or at least understandable, I always wonder if they truly have really high moral standards or if they are just cruelly missing empathy. I won't say which one I think it is, but have my guess.

┑(￣Д ￣)┍
Surely you won't be judgemental of others action according to your own moral standards lol. (Then what are you doing now???)
You indeed seems like the type of the people I always hate most.
I am not gonna reply you anymore.
Bad logic might be infectious…

Same apply to @Blastaar.
You know what? I think you are really annoying and not even worth wasting my brain cells to talk. However, the thought of wishing you disappear have never cross my mind even though you are just a stranger on the internet to me. You should feel ashamed of your malice.

the only 'terrible thing' erika did in the past was make a wish that someone they are jealous of/angry at disappears lol. What angsty teen hasn't wished someone would disappear.

Yeah. Typical "What angsty teen hasn't done or said something" defense lol.
I can understand as a immature teen couldn't help her thought like"My life would have been much better without that fucker". But actually act on it, especially when "that fucker" is one of your best friends, for the stupidest reason ever like "oh, she steal my crush who l like first even though she has no way of knowing it cause my cowardice", is a totally different story.

Please be explicit. What do you mean by act on it? Beyond making a wish at Tanabata which no one would reasonably expect to be literally actualized, what did she do?

Well, well, well. Another Erika's defender showing up yelling "She has done nothing wrong" is indeed one of my enjoyment now lol.

Look. She not only has the thought of wishing someone disappear, she actually writes it on tanzaku and hangs it up on bamboo. The hint in https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/how_to_break_a_triangle_ch17#34 is very obvious. She also apparently had a fight with poor Aya, who sincerely takes Erika as her best friend and has no way of knowing Erika's secret love. Considering Aya's good character, it must have been Erika's one side argument. Like hysterically screaming at Aya "l like her first", "Koto would eventually love me back if not for you", "You are just a stone between us", "l never consider you as my friend", "Why wouldn't you disappear?".
Yeah. What did she do? Ofc goddess Erika did nothing wrong ┑(￣Д ￣)┍

Like I said, this person is writing fanfic—the same fanfic over, and over, and over (although now with imaginary dialogue). Normal logic has nothing to do with the argument.

“Normal” would be understanding that lots of people wish for someone to disappear all the time without ever expecting that the person will actually disappear.

Like me. Right now.

At least she had said something towards Aya.
Ofc we can't be sure of what she actually said but bad enough to torment her in the past seven years, to the degree Erika doesn't even think she has the right to confess.
Are you going to deny this normal logic?

last edited at Dec 31, 2024 12:27AM

the only 'terrible thing' erika did in the past was make a wish that someone they are jealous of/angry at disappears lol. What angsty teen hasn't wished someone would disappear.

Yeah. Typical "What angsty teen hasn't done or said something" defense lol.
I can understand as a immature teen couldn't help her thought like"My life would have been much better without that fucker". But actually act on it, especially when "that fucker" is one of your best friends, for the stupidest reason ever like "oh, she steal my crush who l like first even though she has no way of knowing it cause my cowardice", is a totally different story.

Please be explicit. What do you mean by act on it? Beyond making a wish at Tanabata which no one would reasonably expect to be literally actualized, what did she do?

Well, well, well. Another Erika's defender showing up yelling "She has done nothing wrong" is indeed one of my enjoyment now lol.

Look. She not only has the thought of wishing someone disappear, she actually writes it on tanzaku and hangs it up on bamboo. The hint in https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/how_to_break_a_triangle_ch17#34 is very obvious. She also apparently had a fight with poor Aya, who sincerely takes Erika as her best friend and has no way of knowing Erika's secret love. Considering Aya's good character, it must have been Erika's one side argument. Like hysterically screaming at Aya "l like her first", "Koto would eventually love me back if not for you", "You are just a stone between us", "l never consider you as my friend", "Why wouldn't you disappear?".
Yeah. What did she do? Ofc goddess Erika did nothing wrong ┑(￣Д ￣)┍

the only 'terrible thing' erika did in the past was make a wish that someone they are jealous of/angry at disappears lol. What angsty teen hasn't wished someone would disappear.

Yeah. Typical "What angsty teen hasn't done or said something" defense lol.
I can understand as a immature teen couldn't help her thought like"My life would have been much better without that fucker". But actually act on it, especially when "that fucker" is one of your best friends, for the stupidest reason ever like "oh, she steal my crush who l like first even though she has no way of knowing it cause my cowardice", is a totally different story.
Don't misinterpret my words, l know this type of selfish teens actually exist irl. It's still terrible.
To think Koto or Aya would never do such things towards Erika. She is really suck as their friends.

If your whole argument is based on the outline of her possibly yelling at aya and that wish, then there is a million different things that could mean, and each have just as much validity.

You are right. So my whole argument is only trying to point out your reading of her guilt (she had ulterior goals for aya and koto getting back together) is wrong. Erika feels like she has no right to confess even before Aya comes back. That guilt must have been from another horrible thing Erika had done seven years ago.

last edited at Dec 30, 2024 5:52AM

It's kinda funny to me in all the talk of potential moral flaws and good person vs bad person and theorizing why Aya disappeared, nobody ever really mentions that scene from the end of volume 1 where Koto appears to be writing How To Break A Triangle as a script, planning what Aya does before she does it. And I think honestly it's understandable to shelf that because it's still so wildly inconsistent feeling with every other scene of the manga so far. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if we found out that was retconned out and replaced with something nowhere near as sinister looking for the volume lol. It's so disconnected tonally and thematically from everything else, and it clashes so hard with Koto being a) mostly passive and b) getting dumped by Aya anyway, that even if I want to analyze it all I can really do is throw some wild curveballs and hope I get lucky with my guesses rather than actually build a theory based on the story.

Thank you for totally ignoring Koto's character in the entire manga which make fucking sense cause you are a Koto hater.

The end of the volume 1 is not even something hard to predict. Koto really not a reactive character as everyone here (lol) seems to believe, she is very active. She is the kind of girl who wouldn't hold back when it comes to her love. She tried everything she can to just by the side of the girl she loved. And she always managed to find her. She even confessed to Aya twice while her first confession was totally ignored. How many people actually have half courage of Koto? To think Erika never dare telling Koto how she feels lol.
And I never deny l do have bias against Erika. But she caused (it doesn't matter if she has intention) a ton of trauma on my girl and made her cry. At least Aya can make up for it (healing Koto etc). Erika is useless and can't help thinking of when she can have her goddamn shot, which is not even what Koto wants.

What exactly makes you think Koto being passive? That's a fucking insult towards her fascinating personality. Just like (some people on reddit) calling her a pedo it's reducing the complexity of her character.

@Gabinomicon

trumps your knowledge that she yelled "kuso" instead of literally "bullshit" that one time. :)

LOL
Where does this one even come from?
As much as l hate Erika, l will not frame her on something she never did.

@Eukene
I never think you are one of Erika defenders. But l got to admit l hope everyone turn on her because what she had done seven years ago (fought Aya and wished her away) is so unforgivable.

which would get Erika doing things like childishly racing up the stairs and shouting swears in the middle of club meetings. 

@Gabinomicon
LOL
In fact, Erika had never shouted swears in the middle of club meetings. Though l can somehow speculate a bit why translator chose to translate that word the way he had.
Remember this, we are not even equal in discussing this manga considering you eventually have to rely on other people to translate it for you. It's a good example now.

Also, my take about erika feeling like she had no right to confess was because she had ulterior goals for aya and koto getting back together. She knew it wouldn't work out between the two, and she was hoping it would finally get koto to move on so she could confess. 

Another Erika's defender trying to find a way to excuse the terrible thing she had done back in middle school lol.
Let me remind you. Erika has been tormented by her guilt in the past seven years. You can see in chapter 8 she also didn't think she has the right to confess when she and Koto were high school students.

This is all your speculation not the actual content in the text. The guilt could be very much coming from she actually stabbed Aya to death seven years ago lol.

Thank you for providing the ultimate proof that no one needs to pay any attention to what you say about this series ever again.

I suspect that I’m not the only one who will find it a considerable relief.

LOL
You are the one asking for actual evidence while giving nothing in your own theory.

You can't even explain why Erika still feels guilt even if Aya has come back now.

Erika had mentioned before about tanabata day but aya swore she was only there til the day before. She has definitely lost time she can't remember. Might also have to do with what happened to her grandpa that night.

But Aya also had a sense of deja vu, suggesting memory suppression of the last day, rather than her having been whisked away early and Erika talking to a different Aya.

Then please please please explain (with evidence from the text ofc lol) where exactly does her guilt come from.

If she 'wished' for Aya to disappear, and Aya disappeared, that would explain guilt. That doesn't mean Erika knew her wish would really cause Aya to disappear. There is no evidence that Erika knew or knows she has supernatural powers, and there is evidence against: she 'wished' for Aya to return but didn't expect it to work.

If she lashed out at Aya for daring to date her crush, and Aya disappeared, that would also explain her guilt.

But l do think she did the both: fought Aya and wished her disappearance.

Erika’s distraught expression in the last panel suggests that she’s telling Aya that she loves Koto, not that she’s attacking Aya.

I need actual evidence in the text, not your personal speculation.
Sounds familiar, cause it is lol.
It could very much be she hysterically screaming at Aya that Koto would love her back if not for her existence.
Plus the Tanabata wish she wrote and the guilt which has tormented her so far… looks like my speculation is more concrete than you.

This is your usual bullshit—unless middle-school Erika was aware that she had the supernatural power to send Aya into limbo with a Tanabata wish.

Calling that facial expression/body language of Erika’s as her “hysterically screaming at Aya” is a prime example of what a ridiculously poor reader of texts your bias renders you.

Then please please please explain (with evidence from the text ofc lol) where exactly does her guilt come from.
The fact she doesn't even think she has the right to confess her feelings to Koto is telling.

Look, you’ve said over and over that absolutely nothing anything anyone says will ever change your opinion of Erika, so you might as well stop trolling and pretending that you give a flying f*ck about anything resembling “textual evidence.”

But in the spirit of fair play, I’ll repeat one last time what I and others have said any number of times before and which you’ve ignored: Erika’s guilt can be easily explained by the fact that when she was young (“a child,” just like Aya at the time) she wished for something to happen to Aya, and then Aya disappeared. Just like any number of people in real life have said something in anger to someone and then regretted it when something happened to that person.

This is all your speculation not the actual content in the text. The guilt could be very much coming from she actually stabbed Aya to death seven years ago lol.

last edited at Dec 28, 2024 11:47PM

Erika’s distraught expression in the last panel suggests that she’s telling Aya that she loves Koto, not that she’s attacking Aya.

I need actual evidence in the text, not your personal speculation.
Sounds familiar, cause it is lol.
It could very much be she hysterically screaming at Aya that Koto would love her back if not for her existence.
Plus the Tanabata wish she wrote and the guilt which has tormented her so far… looks like my speculation is more concrete than you.

This is your usual bullshit—unless middle-school Erika was aware that she had the supernatural power to send Aya into limbo with a Tanabata wish.

Calling that facial expression/body language of Erika’s as her “hysterically screaming at Aya” is a prime example of what a ridiculously poor reader of texts your bias renders you.

Then please please please explain (with evidence from the text ofc lol) where exactly does her guilt come from.
The fact she doesn't even think she has the right to confess her feelings to Koto is telling.

last edited at Dec 28, 2024 11:15PM

Erika’s distraught expression in the last panel suggests that she’s telling Aya that she loves Koto, not that she’s attacking Aya.

I need actual evidence in the text, not your personal speculation.
Sounds familiar, cause it is lol.
It could very much be she hysterically screaming at Aya that Koto would love her back if not for her existence.
Plus the Tanabata wish she wrote and the guilt which has tormented her so far… looks like my speculation is more concrete than you.

And isn't internet a place letting people say whatever they want? As long as they don't insult users, l can't see any wrong of it. I saw some users here had made post making others feel rude and condescending. Why are you only aiming at me? Because l hate Erika? Well, that would never change ┑(￣Д ￣)┍

Well, not strictly. Some of what people want to say could be a crime, like organizing a group to murder me would be, while other choices could have a bad impact on others like triggering someone's PTSD. I'm intentionally using examples you haven't done to make a broader point.

That said, I understand why people would have a strong reaction to being able to change Erika's face with a man's. Even if your real position is "I would otherwise accept Erika's character design on a male character and I find it strange that the fashionable model has only worn a skirt as part of a costume" (I'm like 90% sure you think this), a reader could misunderstand the phrasing you used. The reader could also be a woman who has been judged harshly for their clothing choices, which typically leads to feeling defensive. This person would be less uncomfortable and more receptive to what you want to say if you made it clear you aren't one who likes to police how women dress.

Ofc women can dress whatever they want. None of my business lol. I just want to express what l feel about Erika's taste in clothes. Like @Gabinomicon also said Koto is dressed very immaturely. At least Koto chooses skirts or dresses sometimes, which let me feel more feminine. It's really laughable and ridiculous a stranger's opinions (without personal attack) on the internet can trigger anyone's Ptsd.
If that's the case, I will suggest them stop using Internet from now on.

last edited at Dec 28, 2024 10:38AM

@Aikosaurus
I had seen you interact with Kabocha on the Twitter (you use the same user name) so l know you can speak Japanese. What do you think about " 琴から連絡来てたんだ " ? Could it be Erika's talking?
It's interesting both English and Chinese translator have made the same mistake. l got to admit it's a good way to tell they actually can't speak Japanese irl if that's not a misreading.

And isn't internet a place letting people say whatever they want? As long as they don't insult users, l can't see any wrong of it. I saw some users here had made post making others feel rude and condescending. Why are you only aiming at me? Because l hate Erika? Well, that would never change ┑(￣Д ￣)┍

I know there's pants only for the ladies but why Erika never dressed in skirt…

Aya is dressing in a more childish way

Because she is still a kid… bro

Btw, have any idea what happened on Kabocha recently? She haven't updated her Twitter nearly two months

Have never seen Erika dressed in anything other than long pants. If there's a pressure for women to dress femininely in Japan, Erika clearly DGAF. We can switch her face with a man at any moment and wouldn't feel out of place.

Meanwhile 21 year old Aya when we first see her is dressed very immaturely,

LOL 21 yo Aya never exist
what are you smoking sis

It's incredible how hard you are going at this. Just reveal after reveal. I hope you never stop posting on this forum. This is borderline performance art. Did you actually not understand the person you are replying to, or did you choose to pretend for an opportunity to be mean?

It's called a gentle reminding
You are a bit overreacting

last edited at Dec 26, 2024 5:12AM

As an aside, something else I recently noticed wrt maturity: 21yo Erika is very deliberately trying to be mature, but only where other people can see her. She puts a lot of effort into her fashion and appearance,

Just a perfect example showing how love is blinding your eyes

Meanwhile 21 year old Aya when we first see her is dressed very immaturely,

LOL 21 yo Aya never exist
what are you smoking sis

last edited at Dec 26, 2024 3:31AM

Well, it's about time to tell whose Japanese is better LOL

Is there anyone who can speak Japanese providing their opinions?
Btw, l think @Genevieve is correct.

This is all child Erika, which I avoided talking about. I think it's clear she was something of an ass as a child, but largely meant well. Whatever she did with Aya was different enough than her regular behavior that it's tormented her this long. Aya herself has commented on how different and how much more responsible Erika is as an adult.

Oh. Has this different and much more responsible adult Erika ever think of apologizing to Aya of what she did to her seven years ago? We also can see Erika couldn't even hide her jealousy in chapter 13, towards a 14 yo kid, how an incredible mature woman she's become lol.

I also don't think not giving your friends your blessing for their relationship when you like one of them is really that bad. Sure, the kindest person would want to give it if circumstances allowed (healthy relationship, not an adult dating a child, etc), but this is a really high standard. Many of us were not there as teenagers. Some of us harbor these kinds of thoughts as adults, but hopefully manage to keep it to ourselves and not act on it.

See Fuyuki from There Is No Love Wishing Upon a Star, that's what you should do for your love one. You want them to be happy. Erika only wants her own happiness even as an adult.

If you see not giving the blessing as an irredeemable sin then I think you need to say a lot more about what the basis of your morals are and how this goes in conflict with them in an unforgivable way. At least, if you want us to understand you need to do that, given that it's not at the level of something obvious like murder. I do get you have strong feelings. My own life experience thus far has not led to me having strong emotions about Erika.

Erika is the murder despite not being her real intention. She led to Aya's disappearance which literally killed middle schooler Koto, the girl who had everything written on her face was also gone with Aya. Have you ever think how a lovely couple Koto and Aya would be if Aya didn't get spirited away? To think my girl do everything she can managed to date the girl of her dream (while Erika doing nothing but blaming Aya for stealing her Koto lol), then losing it out of nowhere all thanks to fucking Erika.

Even if it turns out to be something else, the author is a good enough writer that there is likely some explanation other than Erika just sucking.

Erika is already suck as hell considering she can't give her approval towards her two best friends relationship. Not only that, she went fighting Aya for daring to accept Koto's confession while she did nothing to tell Koto her feeling, showing she's biggest jerk as their friend. Ofc, there would be explanations from the author telling us Erika is a normal human being thus making mistakes lol. I think l will not be surprised. Just hope one day Koto and Aya can cut off this selfish snake.

Because Erika has shitty self esteem and beats herself up for because every thought she has. From the very beginning of the Erika hate in this thread it's been driven by people reading Erika's negative self hating intrusive thoughts and assuming they're factual statements instead of distortions caused by her bad self esteem and depression.

You are pretty Koto hate to me in case you didn't know lol.

Ffs one of the things Erika feels guilty about, completely inappropriately, is her acting and modeling, because she's gotten that seven year "head start" on her former rival that the competition is over. Even though the alternative would be Erika completely shutting down and doing nothing for seven years, an absurd standard to judge yourself against.

Yeah. It just took her seven years to finally want Aya to come back. Ofc she feels she's gotten that seven year "head start" on her former rival.
LOL at competition is over.
Well, the competition really ever get to start?
Erika never thinks she can ever beat Aya at acting, which is true cause she nearly panic (lol) when she stands on the same stage as Aya (chapter 17).
Not to mention Koto doesn't even pay attention (or just doesn't care) for why her childhood friend never has a relationship in those seven years. Do you think there's a possibility Koto would choose Erika over Aya???

You know what? Erika obviously thought Koto would eventually love her back if not for Aya's existence. Just like people who would choose to fight their crush's lover. "uh but I liked them first ". Bah, who cares? Liked them first and did nothing. Only had magical thinking of "one day she will fall for me!". The truth is, she won't.

Here's a fun experiment: clear your mind, and reread the manga. Every time you get to Erika thinking to herself, skip it instead of reading. Just look at what other characters think and say about her, and her actions and expressions without paying attention to her thoughts. She still comes across as depressed but otherwise just a good friend, always down to help her friends even if she grumbles a bit while doing it. She looks a lot like Natsumi, Akari's girlfriend in Otherside Picnic.

You just got to admit the way Erika react towards Aya is really creepy (first third of chapter 13) even without knowing her internal thoughts and hidden agenda.

I'm not saying Aya would go to Erika's advice because of her crush on Koto. Aya would go to Erika for advice, as we've seen her do multiple times already, because they're friends.

Yeah.
The only time Aya went to Erika for advice was chapter 9 but which, merely because she thinks Erika has a lot of experience regarding this kind of affairs.
Who in the world would want to ask advice from a friend who is far more childish than you when you intended to run away from home???

Castles in the air never run out of construction materials—because they consist of nothing substantial.

Only because you lack this kind of abilities (detect obvious hints all over the ground etc) doesn't mean others have to give up their talent ┑(￣Д ￣)┍

When Aya returns, she thinks it’s the day before the Tanabata festival, but Erika seems to remember a conversation with Aya the night of the festival. And then Aya seems to get a flash of such a memory too. So one or both of the characters have incomplete or incorrect memories. That’s what we know.

LOL
As l said before, Aya returned with her uniform on because of the day she got spirited away is not Tanabata festival (Saturday).
There's two conversation for sure.
No.1: an unpleasant confrontation Erika had with Aya before Tanabata day due to they both having their uniform on (chapter 13, chapter 17).
No.2: the day of Tanabata day. But we don't even know that's real Aya or the Aya who has time traveled again.

From Erika's perspective, the No.2 conversation is the last time she saw Aya before the disappearance.

And it's pretty obvious Aya is the one who has incomplete memories due to her supernatural encounter (chapter 13).
@Gabinomicon
You can see Erika doesn't even want to face the reality she had that No.1 conversation with Aya lol.

And as to all this blather about Erika’s guilt: as has been pointed out many times before, it seems likely that Erika did have some kind of negative thoughts about Aya and/or such an encounter with Aya after Erika saw Koto kiss Aya.
Then Aya disappeared. For all anyone knew for seven years, the most likely explanation was that Aya had been abducted and murdered. So it’s completely natural that Erika would feel bad about how she and Aya parted ways. Asserting that the only explanation for Erika's feelings must be because she did or said something dire to Aya is, as usual with this person, entirely unsupported.

Then why she still feels guilt after Aya came back. It just doesn't make sense.

The request might be understandable, in a psychological sense, but it is completely unreasonable. Nearly abusive, even. "Give up your dreams and obvious desire to grow and be independent, to stay home and isolated so I feel safer about you."

It's not even particularly rational from a fear perspective; since they have literally no idea how Aya disappeared in the first place, they have no reason to think staying home will keep her safer from disappearing again than anything else she might do.

She apparently can't be rational due to her trauma lol.

last edited at Dec 23, 2024 7:28PM