FUCK

Drama approaching. It was a fun fluffy ride, but we gotta climb this hill so we can fly down happily~

Please tell me this isn't an old girlfriend or crush

Please tell me this isn't an old girlfriend or crush

It is. She's a predatory senpai.

last edited at Aug 2, 2019 11:25PM by

Please tell me this isn't an old girlfriend or crush

I don't know about "ex-girlfiend" but Igarashi definitely had some sort of relationship with Chidori.

holy shit she fucking spooked me. I click next page and all of a sudden a panel of this creepy girl wearing all black with oddly calm eyes fills my entire screen and I thought i was cursed

Please tell me this isn't an old girlfriend or crush

It is. She's a predatory senpai.

That seems like jumping the gun a bit given we have so far been told almost nothing of either her, their relationship, or why the latter ended...

...I don't know, but everytime I spot their braceletts I get a happy :) (the shower-scene last chapter possibly gave me a double-happy XD)

That was definitely a nice detail to see, yes. ^_^

Please tell me this isn't an old girlfriend or crush

I don't know about "ex-girlfiend" but Igarashi definitely had some sort of relationship with Chidori.

It's the Senpai Chidori give the "non friends" chocolates back on the flashbacks chapter and the reasonshe cut her hair back then. She is also the reason Chidori said she will not fall in love again before meeting Nanoha.

Well, Igarashi sempai isn't the one who broke up the relationship. It was Chidori. As for her reasons, it's not clear yet.

It looks like it was an uncomfortable relationship for Chidori, that made her sad, even though Igarashi seemed like she wanted to keep it working (hence the Honmei choco).

I guess we will now know why Chidori put an end to it and swore off love (not for long though).

last edited at Aug 3, 2019 8:17AM

When I look back at the details, the Chidori-Igarashi story isn’t nearly so straightforward as I thought it was. What (I think) we know:

Chidori had feelings for Igarashi that she calls “being in love” in the previous school year. I had thought of this as a relationship, but what Chidori says is, “My feelings were a mess. I was always upset or crying,” and that she “decided to put an end to it.”

So it sounds like there had to be an “it” to put an end to (i.e., some kind of relationship rather than just “an end to” Chidori’s own feelings).

I had also assumed that a problematic relationship must have been the senpai’s fault, since Chidori is such an adorkable little cutie-pie with Nanoha, but we don’t get any hints about anything the senpai did or didn’t do, just how Chidori felt.

On the other hand, Igarashi and Chidori apparently haven’t been in contact since well before the term started in September (when Chidori cut her hair) until Valentine’s Day, even though in Chidori’s mind the “it” with Igarashi wasn’t actually “ended.” So that’s not a very proactive relationship on Igarashi’s part.

So Chidori’s previous experience is rather more ambiguous than I thought—judging by the actual evidence of the text, it might have been a formal “we’re dating” (secretly, of course—this is Chidori after all) relationship, or a flirtation/crush that affected Chidori emotionally back then but the senpai was only trying to seal the deal in February.

A final question is: how did Chidori and the senpai spend time together in the first place? The gang are first-years when Chidori and Nanoha meet, which means senpai (who in the narrative present has graduated) must have been two years ahead of Chidori. (I think—I always get Japanese school years fucked up in my head.)

last edited at Aug 3, 2019 9:34AM

Everytime an old ex or rival menacingly(ゴゴゴゴ) arrives in a yuri manga boss fight music starts playing in my head

So, Chidori cut her hair "September of [her] freshman year" to declare to "never fall in love again".
The Japanese school year begins in April, and September is just after summer break.
So presumably she had some "it" with Igarashi between April and end of Juli and/or during Summer break.

The following February / half a year later, the Valentine's Chocolate thingy happened (Ch.10&22)
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/hana_ni_arashi_ch10#11
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/hana_ni_arashi_ch22#12
(two flashbacks, same time-frame, different POV)
Chidori already has them feelz for Nanoha and decides to "end it" with Igarashi.

Half a month later / Spring, Nanoha confessed to Chidori and they're a couple ever since... in secret, of cos.

A final question is: how did Chidori and the senpai spend time together in the first place?

I kinda thought Igarashi may have been a member of the literature club.
I can't base this on anything but a hunch caused by
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/hana_ni_arashi_ch04#5
Chidori thinking "Somehow, it feels strange having Nanoha here" [in the club room].

Me thinks, that maybe, just maybe, Chidori had a one-sided crush on her senpai, confessed before or during summer break, didn't get the desired reaction (judging from the card later, prolly something amongst the lines of "you like me? ...like, in the gay-way? um, can't we be just friends?"), and cut her hair, still secretly swooning over her senpai because hearts can't be convinced so easily as getting a hair-cut.
But, she developed feelings for Nanoha over the time, then - half a year later?! - by Valentine's Day, senpai changed her mind, sent her the chocolate as well as that implicative card ("These aren't just as friends") - but, too late gal, Nanoha has her hooks deep into Chidori's heart already, so Chidori (incidentally spurred on by something Nanoha said) went to Igarashi and told her her true feelings "Yeah, thanks but no-thanks. I mean, what did you expect, keeping me on arm's length for half a year... I MOVED ON, BIATCH!" (-paraphrased).
Lucky for her, a few weeks later she finds out that Nanoha is one whose Love is the same as hers~

That's what I get from the text so far, but I wouldn't mind if things turned out to have happened differently / more dramatic, for the sake of suspense...

last edited at Aug 3, 2019 12:09PM

[Snip for space]

Me thinks, that maybe, just maybe, Chidori had a one-sided crush on her senpai, confessed before or during summer break, didn't get the desired reaction (judging from the card later, prolly something amongst the lines of "you like me? ...like, in the gay-way? um, can't we be just friends?"), and cut her hair, still secretly swooning over her senpai because hearts can't be convinced so easily as getting a hair-cut.
But, she developed feelings for Nanoha over the time, then - half a year later?! - by Valentine's Day, senpai changed her mind, sent her the chocolate as well as that implicative card ("These aren't just as friends") - but, too late gal, Nanoha has her hooks deep into Chidori's heart already, so Chidori (incidentally spurred on by something Nanoha said) went to Igarashi and told her her true feelings "Yeah, thanks but no-thanks. I mean, what did you expect, keeping me on arm's length for half a year... I MOVED ON, BIATCH!" (-paraphrased).
Lucky for her, a few weeks later she finds out that Nanoha is one whose Love is the same as hers~

That's what I get from the text so far, but I wouldn't mind if things turned out to have happened differently / more dramatic, for the sake of suspense...

This all fits quite plausibly with the relatively few details that we know; as you say, there’s room for things to have been/go in a very different direction as well.

I kinda want the senpai to have been more of a jerk, though, mainly because she threatens our adorkable duo, and because I want an appropriate target for NANOHA SMASH!

(Smash with the power of love, of course.)

Oh wow

holy fuck not this fucking shit again

Well, with Chidori having been all about "not my kind of love"... senpai could have gone the disgusted/no-homo route, but toying with Chidori for the attention until Chidori was like "love suxx..." and called it quits.
Now she's back, she could be mean and stuff and find out about the girls' secret relationship and go on to threaten Chidori to tell everyone about her gay-ness (pretending it to be a valuable lesson for her kohai).
Eventually she spills the beans to all of their friends, but twist being them all going like "Oh... yeah, we knew." :P
...during the moment of relief, Nanoha who learned about Igarashi being all mean to her precious cleavage-girl might then smack the b**ch up.

I really hope the author is much more creative than me .-.

Thanks for ferreting out the backstory chronology! Need to think about that for a while.

last edited at Aug 3, 2019 3:54PM

ah shit here we go again

Strap in boys and girls, this one's gonna be rough

A final question is: how did Chidori and the senpai spend time together in the first place? The gang are first-years when Chidori and Nanoha meet, which means senpai (who in the narrative present has graduated) must have been two years ahead of Chidori. (I think—I always get Japanese school years fucked up in my head.)

See here.

I kinda want the senpai to have been more of a jerk, though, mainly because she threatens our adorkable duo, and because I want an appropriate target for NANOHA SMASH!

(Smash with the power of love, of course.)

Nanoha doesn't smash, she casts Starlight Breaker.

A final question is: how did Chidori and the senpai spend time together in the first place? The gang are first-years when Chidori and Nanoha meet, which means senpai (who in the narrative present has graduated) must have been two years ahead of Chidori. (I think—I always get Japanese school years fucked up in my head.)

See here.

You’re right—I had totally forgotten that next page, which is a condensed (and somewhat cryptic) replay of the Chidori-senpai relationship.

Looks like (at least) senpai flirting with her by praising her long hair, adding some salt to Chidori’s decision to cut it. (I mean, a haircut is a traditional way to signal a fresh start, but it means even more here.)

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/hana_ni_arashi_ch32#7

Girl what u doing here now?! Trying to stirr up stuff between the couple??

Lots of mangas here with almost the same thing happening, an ex lover coming to trouble the main couple and leaving after unfinished things are talked through XD

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/hana_ni_arashi_ch32#7

...somehow, when I went through the entire thing yesterday, this chapter magically slipped through my fingers (and memory).
Your explanation makes a lot of sense too ^^ So, she indeed had been a member of literature club... Seems she was intentionally flirty with Chidori too... >.< what on Earth could she have done to make Chidori swear off love for a while?

Strap in boys and girls, this one's gonna be rough

...read this and realized a moment later how (ecchi) manga ruined me for life. ^^;;;;