When I wrote 'out of place', I meant in relative to the rest of the story. If the narrative were about the two of them murdering the husband and getting away with it, then it would have felt more organic. In this case, the woman just casually reveals that she was imprisoned by her husband for an extended amount of time, but the other girl has no reaction, and then it just ends with she going back to her husband instead of the police, with Tsubaki telling her to "hang in there." I would call this the real softening (and trivializing) of abuse because the narrative is treating an egregious case of domestic violence and human right violation as a tough marital situation that the woman just has to power through. It doesn't even feel right in that conversation because Yuki seems more distraught by the fact her son is turning 20. It's not about how realistic or likely such an situation is, but bringing it up and doing nothing about it just makes it feel cheap, and it took me out of the story. If you left that line untranslated, and told people to guess it with the hint that it was about Yuki's reason for not visiting the cafe, few people would have guessed it right because the narrative and surrounding context don't give it the gravity it deserves.
last edited at Jun 19, 2026 8:23AM