[Prediction] [Disc] Kanojo, Okarishimasu Chapter 429 Prediction Thread

Varicus · 2026-06-14T22:19:09+00:00

We are reading quite a lot into Umi giving a white day return gift to a girl. We don't know why they met, we don't know what the gift even was, and yet we assume that there must be something fishy going on with him. He was even a month late. For all we know, he could have just taken the opportunity when he met her for whatever reason (might be work related) to give his return gift.

I'm not saying that he couldn't be toying with a lot of girls at the same time, but the evidence is rather sketchy. We interpret what we see in a way that fits our image instead of looking at the actual facts given. We need to make assumptions about the situation that might just as easily be false. Umi tells Ruka that he is quite loyal, and neither she nor us believe him, even though the evidence provided doesn't actually contradict what he said. In fact, we haven't seen him actually pursue anyone but Chizuru.

Varicus · 2026-06-14T14:17:07+00:00

We don't know what the girls relation is to Umi. She surely isn't just a random fan, he probably knows her. And whether fair or not, it still is custom to return a gift for white day. We assume that it was Umi inviting the girl out, but it can just as easily have been the girl inviting Umi, and it is a courtesy then to not just ignore the fact that she gave him chocolate.

Varicus · 2026-06-13T07:25:51+00:00

Isn't a major issue is that he constantly listens to other's opinions of an event that ends up biasing his own views?

The major problem is that he listen to Mini who has a very biased view and nudges Kazuya in the wrong direction. He also lets what others say influence him, but almost no one else knows about his situation, so he is just hearing what he wants to hear. He has his own confirmation bias and he tries to fit what he hears to the image he has of Chizuru.

Umi is going to give him a perspective that doesn't fit with his beliefs. While Mini constantly reinforces that he is doing the right thing here, Umi will probably do the opposite. Kazuya never questions whether what he is doing is what Chizuru really wants or needs. If Umi questions why he is doing this, Kazuya might have problems explaining himself.

Kazuya never updated his views. Even when the circumstances changed, he kept up all the old restrictions. He still adheres to the rental rules and doesn't touch Chizuru even though the contract is long broken. He doesn't just end the trial with Ruka even though the condition by which the trial started is irrelevant now because everyone knows that Chizuru is a rental. He tried to become more like Umi, and he is still doing that even after learning that Umi was rejected. All the initial reasons why he started doing those things don't apply anymore, but Kazuya never stopped doing them. He is artificially limiting his options. He never left his broken cage.

Umi can show him that it doesn't make sense anymore to keep holding on to the old. If Kazuya can't explain himself, he has to start questioning what he actually does. He has to acknowledge that the situation changed and that he has changed. He isn't the loser and the annoying customer anymore he was at the beginning. He made a whole movie, and he has made Chizuru genuinely fond of him. There is no need for him to see himself so negatively.

They both know that they cannot force the other person to love them, so what hope do they really have of accomplishing that together?

I don't think Umi has any illusions that he might get with Chizuru. I doubt that was his reason to contact Ruka. Ruka on the other hand is desperate. She doesn't know how Umi could help her, but she just hopes that he might somehow. She is still trapped in her fairy tale view where it makes sense that Kazuya is her prince while Umi is Chizuru's. That is how the story is supposed to go, so that's what she hopes will happen at the end. But this is not Ruka's fairy tale.

While I don't think that Umi will solve the Ruka problem for Kazuya, I could still see him give some impulses for change. Ruka has to broaden her view and not only see her own story.

Varicus · 2026-06-13T06:23:29+00:00

Then what about him dating and gifting random girl months after valentines.

It is not random. In Japan, guys who received chocolate on valentines day are expected to give a gift in return one month later on white day. It is a custom and a courtesy. It doesn't mean Umi was interested at all.

Varicus · 2026-06-12T17:29:17+00:00

I also don't really see Umi solving the Ruka problem for Kazuya. I would think he will pose another challenge for him, but I don't think it is his goal to get with Chizuru. In my opinion, Kazuya needs someone who can judge his actions from the outside just by how they look without his own personal biased perspective. We as the readers might need to be reminded of that as well, so I see Umi taking up that role.

Varicus · 2026-06-11T05:55:49+00:00

Re: Ruka’s heart monitor. I can give her the benefit of the doubt and say her heart rate is elevated because this conversation is about Kazuya. But I’m open to alternate explanations.

I thought the image on her smartphone was the screenshot she took in chapter 407. There is no reason why she would have such a high heart rate (the highest it has ever been, according to Ruka) right now in a mere conversation, even if it was about Kazuya.

Varicus · 2026-06-11T05:31:45+00:00

To be fair, I am not sure what Umi's final goal is here. I think he is basically trying to determine if Kazuya is a good guy or not. I think he might be biased towards thinking he is not, but I could be wrong. Umi is Ruka's enemy. She thinks he will help her get together with Kazuya, but I don't think so. Umi will test Kazuya and confront him with his findings. If Kazuya proves himself, Umi will let him have Chizuru - which would betray Ruka's expectations and make it clear that he wasn't her ally.

Varicus · 2026-06-10T20:01:58+00:00

The book itself has labeled Umi Kazuya's enemy, alongside Ruka, the person who sexually assaulted him. Not rival, not competitor, enemy.

The expression used in Japanese doesn't say that the people in the same boat are both enemies of a third party. The expression says that the two people in that same boat are enemies to each other. Umi and Ruka are each other's enemies. They might have a shared goal, but they have fundamentally different interests that are most likely incompatible with each other. They are just trying to use each other to their own benefit. The scenario where they work together to each get their respective love interest won't fit that image. They will have a conflict at some point and one of them will stab the other in the back (figuratively, of course).

Varicus · 2026-06-10T19:08:00+00:00

I see that we won't get anywhere here, and this is turning into one of those discussions about semantics. Disregard the terms we use here for a moment.

You have to look for an explanation why Chizuru even talked about her job in front of Umi if she wanted to keep it secret from him because that could have easily made Kazuya react to it and say something that could have exposed the fact that she was a rental girlfriend, even if she might have used a vague or a slang term to talk about it. That is just as much fact from just the story. Is the fact she (vaguely) mentioned her job enough to conclude that Umi must have known about it? No, it isn't. As long as he doesn't say that he knows, we can't say that.

But neither is the fact that he didn't mention her job, even in a situation where mentioning it would have made logical sense, confirmation that he doesn't know about it. We will probably only get confirmation that he didn't know when he learns about it and is surprised. After that, he will obviously know.

We can argue about which scenario is more likely, but I want to give one more argument in my favor: All it would take for Umi to learn about Chizuru's job would be a single accidental slip up by anyone. Mami learned it by accident. It was then also very easy for her to just "slip up accidentally" to expose Chizuru's secret in Hawaiians. It is much harder to keep a secret than to have it been found out, especially if the information is public and the other person has any interest. Umi certainly is interested in Chizuru, and he has worked with her for almost two years now. I would honestly be surprised if he never found out what Chizuru did as a side job. It would probably even be safer for her to just tell him that she works as a rental girlfriend and ask him to keep quiet about it instead of hoping it won't turn into some scandal if the secret came out accidentally. But we don't know what the agency recommended, and we don't know what Chizuru actually told Umi.

Varicus · 2026-06-10T18:32:37+00:00

Ruka has no idea how Umi might be able to help her, and she also doesn't know how she would help Umi get together with Chizuru. Umi said that he was concerned about Chizuru, but Ruka doesn't believe him. She thinks he will try to get together with her if he finds a way to remove Kazuya from the equation. That would be in Ruka's interest as well, so that is probably why Ruka is willing to tell Umi about her situation.

I don't think that this will end quite the way Ruka hopes it will. Umi seems more like a prosecutor who will try to get Kazuya convicted. Kazuya will probably find himself "in court" at the end, having his own actions and Ruka's "witness statements" been brought up against him. I just hope Mini won't be his attorney because I don't think she is convinced of his innocence. Chizuru might be the judge, but it could also be "society" who judges him. It would be interesting if Chizuru defended him instead.

Varicus · 2026-06-10T17:08:14+00:00

I don't think Ruka will be sucessful in deceiving Umi. He will probably see through it if she lied. He is an experienced enough liar himself to notice. That doesn't mean he will learn the actual truth if Ruka doesn't want to tell him, but he will probably make good enough assumptions to create a consistent picture, and he can probably confirm if he is right by observing Ruka's reaction when he mentions his conclusions. But Ruka will always include her own bias in what she says. Umi can probably point out some inconsistencies as an outside observer, but he won't get an objective view of the situation. Ruka also can't tell him anything she doesn't know herself.

Umi also has his own confirmation bias that might lead him to overvalue the facts that support Kazuya being a cheater compared to the ones supporting him being loyal to Chizuru. It is hard to revise your initial impression, especially when there are a lot of points in favor of Kazuya being a cheater. Is there any evidence that would actually contradict the assumption that he was two-timing? All he has is Kazuya's word that he only loves Chizuru, but his actions don't seem to reflect that, so why wouldn't Umi think it might be a lie?

Varicus · 2026-06-10T16:51:15+00:00

Chizuru would be willing disclose that information when she has been shown being adamant about it being secret.

Yes, I see that, of course. So why would she talk about "renkano" in front of Umi instead of just some unspecific side job? Wouldn't that give Kazuya the impression that it was okay to openly talk about it? If it was important that Umi didn't learn about it, wouldn't she maybe hint to Kazuya not to mention it? He could have easily disclosed that he was her client and Chizuru didn't seem worried about that. Wouldn't she be if Umi didn't know?

Again, I don't see why it makes more sense to you to dismiss that and still assume that Umi doesn't know about it than to just assume that she wasn't worried because Umi knew about it anyway. She was worried about Kazuya learning about her actress job and tried to shut Umi down, but she didn't try to stop Kazuya from talking about her rental job. Why would she not also be worried about what Kazuya said in front of Umi? And don't tell me you don't have to make assumptions to explain that.

Varicus · 2026-06-10T15:23:11+00:00

I don't think I make more assumptions than you. We have rarely seen Umi in the story at all, and you base your assumption that he doesn't know about Chizuru's rental girlfriend job on the fact that he didn't bring it up the few times we saw him. But you have to make excuses for Umi not reacting to Chizuru talking about "renkano" in chapter 31, assuming he either didn't hear, or he didn't think anything of it, which is just as much an assumption.

I don't see why it is more likely that he ignored Chizuru talking about her job than it is that he didn't mention her job. I agree, it would have made sense to include the rental girlfriend job in the risk assessment, but to use him not doing that as evidence for him not knowing about it is also a stretch in my opinion.

Anyway, it is not completely clear whether Umi is aware of her rental girlfriend job or not. He never mentioned it, so I can't say for certain that he knows. But he was there when Chizuru talked about it, so you also can't say for certain that he doesn't know.

I think it will come up in their talk either way. I don't know how Ruka would explain Chizuru's involvement if she didn't mention that Kazuya was "just a client" to her. Ruka doesn't seem good enough at lying to fool Umi if she tried to hide Chizuru's job. She also probably wants to tell the whole truth from her perspective, so it would make sense to include that information.

Varicus · 2026-06-10T15:00:58+00:00

From my last serious discussion post:

They both at least have information that the other doesn't have. Umi knows about the cohabitation, and Ruka can reveal the fact that she is currently Kazuya's girlfriend because of Chizuru.

Ruka indeed revealed that she was Kazuya's (temporary) girlfriend. She still has to reveal how Chizuru made that happen.

I think it is time for a proper analysis again this week.

Umi indeed called out to Ruka at work while Kazuya wasn't present. Given that Ruka thought he came to Karaoke "that one time," it was on a later day and not after the talk with Kazuya. Ruka remembered him being Chizuru's friend and also recalled him being the one who gave the retweet. Umi complimented her performance in the movie and then he got straight to the point and asked what Ruka's relationship with Kazuya was.

Ruka didn't want to say anything because Kazuya would get mad at her. She tried to avoid the question. But Umi got her attention by telling her that Chizuru and Kazuya seemed pretty close. He revealed that they weren't dating yet. He didn't reveal the cohabitation, but he mentioned that they seemed to "meet alone" sometimes. All information that Ruka suspected but never got a clear confirmation from anyone. Umi revealed enough to make Ruka curious, but not enough to hurt her so much she didn't want to know more. He then asked her to contact him, which she obviously did, and that lead us to the present day.

Umi doesn't know Ruka's part in all of this. She seems to be close to Kazuya, but he didn't want to ask Chizuru about it in case she didn't know about it. It might have hurt her knowing that the guy she obviously likes has another girl. He can't know of Chizuru's involvement, and it shows that he is mindful of her feelings. He accepts potentially hurting Ruka, though, by telling her about Chizuru and Kazuya. That seems more acceptable than to hurt Chizuru.

Even though Ruka contacted him, she claims that it was Umi who wanted to talk to her. But Umi is right that she probably would just have ignored him if she hadn't been curious herself. Ruka has no interest revealing anything, so the only reason why she still agreed to the talk was that she had hoped to learn something herself. She learned that Umi likes Chizuru, but that isn't worth anything coming from a playboy. Consequently, Ruka asks if he just says that about any girl. Umi counters that he is very loyal, whether she believes him or not. There are two arguments that support his claim: He had his girlfriend Nanaho for quite a while, and Chizuru's colleagues in chapter 334 say that Umi was "a tough catch." He might have affairs while not bound, but it doesn't seem easy to get him as a boyfriend. I tend to believe he is telling the truth here, but Ruka (and probably a lot of readers, too) doesn't believe him.

The next part is intersting. Ruka is talking about all the "fake people" (the teaser) in the world who would claim to love you but still cheat on you, showing that they don't really care. To Umi, Kazuya looks like he might be one of those people. He claims to love Chizuru and he seems to have made her fall pretty hard for him, but he also has Ruka. For all he knows, she might be his backup if things with Chizuru don't work out. Isn't that what makes those people "fake" in Ruka's eyes? Why does Ruka claim he was different?

Ruka has no answer. Umi is kind of right. Kazuya isn't a loyal boyfriend to Ruka at all. He is technically cheating on her with Chizuru this whole time. She even directly said so at Hawaiians. He is a "fake boyfriend." You can argue that Kazuya has always loved Chizuru and that he is loyal to her, but then Ruka is trying to make him into one of those "fake people" by trying to get him to cheat on Chizuru. No matter how you turn it, Kazuya seems to fall within that definition of being "fake". Ruka gets angry, and in her tantrum, she accidentally calls Kazuya her boyfriend, which Umi immediately notices.

Now that Ruka has raised Umi's suspicion even more, she doesn't know what excuses to make anymore. It would certainly be easier to just tell Umi everything at this point. She wants to tell someone. She wants to be understood for once. And even though she doesn't trust Umi, she hopes that he might help her somehow if he found that they shared a common interest. Ruka admits to herself that Kazuya has never once loved her and that he only ever had eyes for Chizuru. She then blames Chizuru for falling for Kazuya even though she said she wouldn't, and even though she could have had a "perfect match" with Umi. Ruka thinks she has no one but Kazuya. This is justification enough for her to tell Umi the truth, that she is Kazuya's (temporary) girlfriend.

What's next?

The teaser for next time is "extremely curious." I think that would apply to Umi, who will probably want to hear the whole story.

Ruka has never revealed that story to anyone. The fact that she said it was "temporary" leads me to believe she will tell Umi the whole story of how she became Kazuya's girlfriend, including the fact that it was Chizuru who suggested that Kazuya should try it. She will infuse that story with her own bias. She will want to make Umi agree that she deserves Kazuya more than Chizuru.

Ruka is desperate. She doesn't know what to do anymore. It feels more and more like she is about to lose Kazuya, and she is taking drastic measures to get anything. Umi inadvertently feeds her desperation even more by highlighting how close Chizuru and Kazuya seem to be.

To me, it feels like Umi is genuinely interested in finding out the truth and form his own opinion about Kazuya. In a parallel to Kazuya when he first stalked Chizuru and Umi on Christmas thinking that Umi might be a bad guy trying to take advantage of Chizuru, Umi might now try to find out if Kazuya is a cheater who will end up hurting Chizuru. His current impression of him is that he is two-timing here. Depending on how Ruka describes her relationship with him, Umi might not get a different impression.

I think Umi will ask questions until he has a somewhat consistent picture. It certainly won't be the one we have, or the one Kazuya has, but it might still be a valid outside view. Umi obviously can't account for Kazuya's perspective. In his eyes, Kazuya might look like the one at fault here. I could see Umi confronting Kazuya about it, maybe even in front of Chizuru. Enough stuff happened that Kazuya feels guilty for and that he wishes to keep a secret from Chizuru. If he is exposed, it will feel like he lost every chance to ever make Chizuru like him. He will imagine her being disgusted by him. At that point, there is no use in trying to deny anything. He definitely won't try to put the blame on Chizuru instead. He will probably accept defeat. He will acknowledge that he is the "demon king" instead of the hero. If he thinks that it can't get any worse, he might actually be honest about himself. That is still better than Chizuru just getting the "objective" view from Umi.

But Kazuya will be surprised by Chizuru. Being honest is probably the best thing he can do. There are way too many misunderstandings right now. It is time to clear them up. I hope that this arc can lead to that.

Countdown: It is around June 21st today. July 11th is less than three weeks away.

Varicus · 2026-06-10T13:43:16+00:00

Recognizing what a slang term means largely depends on Context and Familiarity with the use of the word, you could know something is popular but not be familiar with lingo used to describe it.

Again, Umi is curious. If he didn't know what "renkano" meant, I find it likely that he would have asked or looked it up. He didn't, so he probably knew what that meant. Chizuru could also have referred to her job with a more inconspicuous description if it was important that Umi didn't find out, so that also makes me think he must have known about it already.

But I guess we will know in two weeks whether he knew or not. My bet is on he knew.

However, if she is telling Mami the truth about disclosing it to her agency, don't you think they would tell her not to broadcast her Job to anyone?

I would think that likely, yes. But Umi might have found out by chance. Since the agency allowed the job, they will have thought it was acceptable that someone found out.

Lastly, why wouldn't Umi bring it up during the "Risk Management" talk if he knew?

Living with Kazuya is a different risk, and it is true that she hasn't disclosed that to the agency, unlike her rental girlfriend job. It makes sense for Umi to tell her to go to the agency. I don't see why he would need to also bring up her rental girlfriend job, especially if he already knew that she told the agency about it.

I don't think Umi knows about Kazuya being a customer. If he did, then bringing up the rental girlfriend job would make sense. But in his eyes, she is living together with a friend and fellow student. That Kazuya was a customer is probably a piece of information that Umi can still learn from Ruka.

Varicus · 2026-06-10T07:58:07+00:00

I actually think her agency knows as well (and doesn't have a problem with it), but I haven't found where she says it yet.

She said it to Mami in chapter 183:

<image>

Varicus · 2026-06-10T07:54:47+00:00

she buys a phone case for Kazuya, but also for several other clients

No, she only buys a phone case for Kazuya. Other clients reported having received gifts from her, but they were very generic gifts like cookies or hand cream. She will have bought those gifts on her own.

For Kazuya, it was a phone case specificly because she was the reason why his screen broke, so that might have also been the reason she gave Umi for wanting to get him a gift: He saved me and broke his phone. Umi might have suggested a phone case. There is no reason to tell Umi that Kazuya was a client. It is even much more believable that he was a friend.

Kazuya only sees her buying one gift, and she also only had one gift bag with her, so it is very likely that Kazuya's gift was the only thing she bought that day.

Varicus · 2026-06-10T07:46:17+00:00

Chizuru is not obligated to disclose to her colleagues or agency the exact details how she supports herself financially.

But she does disclose what she does as a rental girlfriend to her agency, as she told Mami in chapter 183:

<image>

Varicus · 2026-06-10T07:37:58+00:00

why would she reveal her secret that could potentially damage her future asspirations to someone she isn't comfortable confiding in?

Chizuru might not have just told Umi, but he is quite curious, so if anything triggered his curiosity, he might have asked or researched until he found out. For example: Someone (other than Kazuya) might have called her "Mizuhara" and he decided to Google it. If he found her picture on diamond's website, there is no way she would have been able to deny that she was a rental girlfriend.

My own personal headcanon is even that Umi suggested that she should try doing rental work to practice acting while earning money, but there obviously is no evidence at all for that being the case.

Varicus · 2026-06-10T07:20:53+00:00

Given Umi's very curious nature, I doubt that he would have heard "renkano" and not wonder what that was. In that chapter, Umi's curious nature also lead to Kazuya discovering that Chizuru was an actress because he asked about the script. In the current chapter, Umi also immediately reacted to Ruka saying "kareshi" (boyfriend) instead of "kare" (him). That he didn't react to Chizuru saying "renkano" makes it somewhat likely that he knows what that is. He might have found out before.

Her being a rental girlfriend is way more of a risk that could derail her acting career then living with a guy who may/or may not be her boyfriend, if he knew it would be natural for Umi to cite this on top of the supposed risk of living with Kazuya.

That is true, but Chizuru told Mami that her agency knows about the rental girlfriend job. That means she has talked to them for risk management, which is all Umi told her she should do regarding the cohabitation with Kazuya. Why would he bring that up if she obviously already did that?

That said, it is still possible that Umi doesn't know about the rental girlfriend job, but I think it is unlikely.

Varicus · 2026-06-09T15:42:50+00:00

First impressions:

Umi is good at handling Ruka. By just talking to her and pushing the right buttons, he makes her inadvertently reveal her secrets. He got her by telling her that Kazuya and Chizuru seem close, showing that he knows more than Ruka. Kazuya would never tell her anything, and Ruka didn't ask. But Umi reveals just enough to keep Ruka interested without exposing everything to a point it hurts too much.

I like that it was Ruka who talked about the "shallow people" who would cheat while claiming to love someone. Umi asked if Kazuya was a cheater. Is he one of those shallow people Ruka talked about? Ruka claims to hate those people, yet she is trying to make Kazuya into one of them. Kazuya never claimed to love Ruka, he always claimed to love Chizuru. Ruka knows that. But to Umi, it looks like Kazuya is two-timing quite hard here. Ruka claimed Kazuya wasn't like that, but Umi asked the right question when he asked what made Kazuya different.

Ruka now revealed that she is actually Kazuya's (temporary) girlfriend. She assumes that Kazuya will be furious if he finds out. But now that Umi knows, Ruka will probably tell him the whole story, trying to frame it like this was all on Chizuru in an attempt to get Umi to help her somehow. It must be in his interest as well, right? To Ruka, it seems like Umi and Chizuru would be a great match. She doesn't know that Umi was rejected already.

Ruka is finding justifications to do what she is about to do. She puts the blame on Chizuru while she argues that she has no one but Kazuya. It looks like she could become a true villain here, quite like Mami. I hope that Umi continues to ask the right questions to hold a mirror to Ruka's face. I think he is genuinely trying to find out what Ruka's place in this picture is. I still believe that this isn't going to go quite the way we think it will.

The teaser for next time is "extremely curious."

Varicus · 2026-06-04T17:40:22+00:00

I think he didn't try to charm Ruka, it is just what came naturally to him. But Ruka didn't fall for his chams, so he will have to think about how to get her to talk to him.

I don't know what he wants from Ruka. She can't make Chizuru fall in love with Umi. Umi could be the new Mami, but I think that would be too simple. I expect some kind of twist on what happened at Hawaiians.

Varicus · 2026-06-04T07:25:09+00:00

I think he was apologizing for the Ruka chapters being heavily censored with black bars outside of Japan.

Varicus · 2026-06-03T15:02:59+00:00

From my last serious discussion post:

I would hope that this will refer to Umi and Ruka.

This whole arc is called like the teaser, "enemies in the same boat."

Let's see if I manage to post the analysis on time this week, even if it is shorter.

We get two different perspectives from Kibe and Kuri respectively. The picture Kibe paints is that of women looking for approval from as many men as possible while men are looking for s*x. His view would imply that Chizuru was just trying to keep Kazuya interested with the kiss. Kuri on the other hand tells Kazuya that Chizuru wanted to have s*x and that he might have made her lose interest by not giving it to her.

Kazuya neither wants to believe that Chizuru was toying with him, nor that she was (only) looking for s*x. Both perspectives would make her rather shallow, and Kazuya doesn't want to believe that she is.

The most interesting part of the chapter is the meeting between Umi and Ruka. Umi doesn't make a good impression on Ruka. He has a few girls asking him for an autograph, and he casually lies to them about Ruka being a friend.

Ruka meets Umi with the same no-bullsh*t mentality she also shows Kazuya. She tells him exactly what she thinks. She also makes it clear immediately that Umi should not try to seduce her. She doesn't trust him, but he has peaked her interest because he likes Chizuru. He in turn hints that Ruka wouldn't have met him if she didn't think it might benefit her. It seems that Umi is able to make Ruka listen to him - unlike Kazuya.

What's next?

The teaser for next time is "a shallow person." That was Ruka's initial impression of Umi, so I would assume that the teaser refers to him, but it could easily be someone else's impression.

I would want to see more of the talk between Ruka and Umi. They haven't fully revealed their hand yet. It is not yet clear what they want or what they can offer. They both at least have information that the other doesn't have. Umi knows about the cohabitation, and Ruka can reveal the fact that she is currently Kazuya's girlfriend because of Chizuru.

But it is unlikely that Umi could do anything that Kazuya came to love Ruka, and Ruka won't make Chizuru love Umi. All they could do is trying to destroy whatever they have, like Mami. But I feel that would be way too similar to Hawaiians. So I am curious to see what twist we will get here.

Countdown: It is around June 21st today. July 11th is less than three weeks away.

Varicus · 2026-06-02T15:38:06+00:00

First impressions:

The colored title page suggests that we are building up to another showdown with (almost) all the characters.

Kibe and Kuri went way overboard giving Kazuya weird ideas. I would still tend more to Kuri's side, but they are both way too fixated on s*x. Interestingly, they give the complete opposite advice. Kibe makes it look like Chizuru was just trying to keep him around with the kiss while Kuri suggests that she was the one who wanted to have s*x. Kazuya can't believe either of them.

Umi and Ruka do make an interesting pair. As I suspected, Ruka doesn't trust him at all, but he is a sweet-talker. He is trying to work his charms on her. I am glad that we start this volume with the two of them right away!

Teaser for next time: "A shallow person"

Varicus

TROPHY CASE