Oh, this chapter was a lot tamer than I expected (What did I expect? No clue...) and pretty sweet and hopeful on the other side. Perhaps Niji is done with her outbursts... for now...? And I keep my fingers crossed that Komugi will continue growing and become happier and more assertive and not spiral the second Meguru makes things hard for her again (this sort of development isn't linear after all).

I've been thinking about the interactions between Niji and Remu. At the start of the story Remu says she says that Niji is the first person she thinks of when she wants to be understood... but then, Azuki comes along and Remu shares a much more embarrassing secret with her. Of course, Niji says "You're my number one too", because she's desperate for Remu to love her the most.

In the latest chapters, when Remu is worried about people judging her, the people who come to mind are her mother and sister. She's hardly even thinking about whether Niji still likes her or not, just about whether Niji will ruin her reputation. In fact, when she lies and says that the dolls are for Azuki's sake, she mentally apologizes to Azuki because she hates the idea of using her as a scapegoat.

I wonder how Niji's crush originally developed. Did Niji's feelings develop before or after they became best friends? Was it something like "Niji and Remu kept hanging out, so Niji developed feelings"? Or was it "Niji kept trying to get closer, and so they ended up best friends"

It's really starting to come together now. I fucking love that the characters that represent the prescriptive idea of normalcy have their own weird fetishes and strange feelings as well. God it's getting so interesting.