gonna have to reread this just to see if I missed any of the underlying darkness prior to chapter 3

Backstory for both characters: check
The one that's more in depth is also quite heavy: check
Confirmation of my suspicions raised by last chapter (see my last comment in this forum): check
She is starting to realize her feelings: check

All that’s left is for the yuri romances to progress further...well, at least that’s what I think (ᵕ—ᴗ—)

We’re only on ch 4. It’s time for a romantic rival to be dropped into the storyline! :-)

last edited at Feb 8, 2025 4:34PM

gonna have to reread this just to see if I missed any of the underlying darkness prior to chapter 3

Chapter 1 is the only one I can remember having such an underlying darkness, but there might be a tiny bit in 2 that I might be forgetting.

Super good so far, sadly doesn't seem like it will last long with how quickly her core flaw is getting addressed.

gonna have to reread this just to see if I missed any of the underlying darkness prior to chapter 3

She was pretty sinister in some of the earlier chapters I do think you may have missed it, it was there for sure

HELL YEAH

Extremely understandable backstory

Please explain to me chapter 4 like I'm five, I didn't understand it

I love them i love them i love them

Please explain to me chapter 4 like I'm five, I didn't understand it

Kira Kairi is a beautiful girl. Many people fall in love with her. She doesn't understand why. In the past, this has made her friendships with her friends difficult.

Kurata Hikaru is a poor girl without any skills. Her mother is very skilled at many things, but has experienced many hardships thru love. She becomes good at learning, and wants to use good schools to become rich.

Hikaru falls in love with Kairi.
She loses her ability to learn.
Hikaru confesses her love to Kairi, because she wants to be rejected and heartbroken.
Instead of rejecting Hikaru, Kairi suggests they become a couple. At first, Kairi wants to see Hikaru suffer, and fail, because she doesn't understand love and wants to destroy it.

But then she starts falling in love with Hikaru.
It's not clear if Kairi is more disgusted with herself because she's falling in love, or because she is by trying to destroy a person in love with her.

(n.b.: this text has not been peer reviewed by my six year old daughter, because I'm not sure her other mom will approve… or me, for that matter.)

Nice art...
This has a certain je ne sais quoi

Things are moving... In the right direction...?

Also, what kind of jerk ass elementary kid call their classmate “slut”

Real sixth graders may shock and dismay you.

Also, what kind of jerk ass elementary kid call their classmate “slut”

Real sixth graders may shock and dismay you.

*shivers* can't wait to experience that

Also, what kind of jerk ass elementary kid call their classmate “slut”

Real sixth graders may shock and dismay you.

Children's innocence allows them to be both uniquely kind and uniquely cruel.

This relationship is progressing real fast but somehow it doesn't feel rushed. I actually like the pace, it's just sad that it might mean this story won't last long.

Also, what kind of jerk ass elementary kid call their classmate “slut”

Real sixth graders may shock and dismay you.

Seriously, grades 6-8 were when all my classmates got really obsessed with sex and losing their virginity, while of course shaming everyone who managed to do it, reflecting our split mind about sexuality. Haha you're an ugly loser who can't get laid, how dare you have had sex that's awesome you shameful slut. In classic precocious kid fashion I thought everyone was crazy. I was like you don't move into a different ontological category when a penis touches you for the first time, this is all made up nonsense, but they thought I was the one who's crazy lol.

last edited at Feb 9, 2025 9:53PM

Please explain to me chapter 4 like I'm five, I didn't understand it

Kira is tired of people she does not know falling in love with her. From her perspective she's not doing anything, just existing, and then suddenly now and again a stranger who intensely wants things from her appears. Worse yet the unwanted attention causes her social problems, so it's experienced as an imposition that she starts to resent. "You have no idea who I am and yet you show up, demand the most intimate things from me and fuck up my social life in the process??" Which is a fuckin mood, though I didn't experience it myself until I was in my 20's, and which has mercifully subsided now that I'm an old hag.

Then Hikaru shows up and she thinks it's going to be more of the same, except Hikaru actually asks to be rejected. There's this dynamic in social justice circles that might be illustrative here, where sympathetic people on a higher rung of the social hierarchy get verbally abused by those lower on it because people who deal with bigotry can't take it out on the actual bigots but you can yell at a friendly straight person or whatever. It's a kind of displacement, the people you actually want to yell at won't ever understand why you're yelling at them but the friendly straight person will see and understand your pain, so you take out your frustration on them instead. Hikaru actually isn't shallow in the way Kira disdains, despite her uncontrollable infatuation she has her priorities and asks to be rejected, but Kira sees her as a convenient outlet for her frustration so she decides to mess with her. As she gets to know her she realizes she's treating her as a prop in her internal drama the same way people who don't know her asking her out do, and starts to feel guilty about it. And catches feelings in the process.

There's a trope in medieval Arabic literature (you're an extremely precocious five year old, we're assuming) where a character gets asked by a monarch to become an advisor, and the character refuses, because they're a pious person who does not sully themselves with ugly demands of power, their priorities correctly concerned with heaven rather than earthly matters. The offer to become a vizier establishes the worth of the person, and the rejection of the opportunity for more social status establishes their piety. In a sense Hikaru established her worth by asking to be rejected, because what is not demanded can be freely given. Kira can love her back and feel it uncoerced specifically because Hikaru never asked to be loved.

last edited at Feb 9, 2025 11:27PM

This manga is so good! I really hope it doesn't end soon.

There's a trope in medieval Arabic literature (you're an extremely precocious five year old, we're assuming)

Gonna get my daughter some medieval Arabic literature to read… otoh, seeing how little she cares about pre-Christian Irish literature, maybe i should wait a few years

There's a trope in medieval Arabic literature (you're an extremely precocious five year old, we're assuming)

Gonna get my daughter some medieval Arabic literature to read… otoh, seeing how little she cares about pre-Christian Irish literature, maybe i should wait a few years

I recommend that you do NOT start with One Thousand and One Nights. I tried reading that when I was 8 and it gave me nightmares. Also it's pretty horribly racist and sexist. Like people are usually aware of the basic premise that a king that is executing his wives so the latest one gives him a cliffhanger story every night that never ends to forestall the execution, but it's usually left out that he's doing that because his wife cheated on him with an African slave during an orgy so now he's too traumatized being emasculated by a black dude to ever let his wives live longer than the wedding night. Can't cheat on me if you're dead! Medieval problems require medieval solutions. Super wholesome stuff for an 8 year old.

last edited at Feb 10, 2025 3:49AM

This relationship is progressing real fast but somehow it doesn't feel rushed. I actually like the pace, it's just sad that it might mean this story won't last long.

Someone said it was announced to have about 8 chapters. Intended as a short series. It's got a solid and consistent pace, so I'm leaning in that direction.

last edited at Feb 10, 2025 11:51AM

Someone said it was announced to have about 8 chapters. Intended as a short series. It's got a solid and consistent pace, so I'm leaning in that direction.

It's meant to be a short series, but I doubt they announced specific number of chapters in advance. Could be 3 volumes for all we know.

Someone said it was announced to have about 8 chapters. Intended as a short series. It's got a solid and consistent pace, so I'm leaning in that direction.

It's meant to be a short series, but I doubt they announced specific number of chapters in advance. Could be 3 volumes for all we know.

I don't remember the exact chapters but they've definitely promoted this as a short, limited serialization. That's typically about a volume. I doubt it's going anywhere near 3 volumes, especially with it's pacing so far. I don't think 3 volumes would be promoted as a short series--at least I've not seen that before. We'll see though. It's great either way.

last edited at Feb 11, 2025 12:47AM

It’s so good! why does it have to have such short volumes...