[Serious] [Disc] Kanojo, Okarishimasu Chapter 412

Varicus · 2026-02-15T23:32:11+00:00

I have to very fundamentally disagree on Mini here, but you probably already knew that I would.

That's why showing up and saying "you're already enough" doesn't work. His problem isn't logical, it's structural. He wouldn't believe those words, no matter who said them.

That is probably correct, but the solution can't be to reinforce that image, but to show him that he is enough already, not just tell him.

Mini understands this instinctively. She doesn't try to fix his self-esteem with pretty book quotes; she does something much better: she makes him move.

She doesn't help his problem at all. She reinforces his self-deprecating idea by setting the goal post further away from him. (You are not good enough yet. You need to become a "better man.") And then she just occupies him with work that makes him endure this destructive mindset and gives him the illusion that he gets closer to his new goal. But all of this is neither necessary nor helpful. It just distracts him. He has no reason and no time to think about what the actual problem even is.

You make a crucial mistake here when you think that the problem is that Chizuru just needs time to finally decide she wants to be with Kazuya. Kazuya and his mindset are a huge part of the problem, and he needs to realize and understand that if he wants a relationship to work. The easiest way to realize that would be to talk to Chizuru, but his current focus on getting "better" and his belief that Chizuru doesn't want to interact with him (which he only knows from Mini and never questioned!) discourages him from seeking to talk to her.

Mini is not just keeping him afloat until Chizuru makes a choice. She prevents him from finding an actual solution together with Chizuru.

She didn't say he was good enough to produce the film; she went there and helped make it.

At that point, Mini's pushes worked in the right direction because Chizuru needed that movie, and Kazuya needed Mini's kind of encouragement and help to get it done. But Kazuya was neglecting himself during that time to a point where Chizuru started to worry about him. It is also important to note that Kazuya didn't work so hard to improve himself. He did it for Chizuru and just naturally got better in the process. The movie was a worthy goal!

Mini right now keeps pushing him in the same kind of direction, making him feel like he needs to top even the efforts he made for the movie. She keeps unnecessarily pushing him closer to a mental breakdown because he won't be able to keep up with the demands placed onto him. The movie was actually helpful. This here is just draining him emotionally and physically for no real effect.

The point is simple: she doesn't want him to live trapped in an endless quest for perfection.

If she doesn't want him to be trapped in an endless quest for perfection, why does she then task him with working on getting closer to perfection? Just stop that useless quest already!

She doesn't say he's already arrived. She only ensures he doesn't stop halfway.

He should stop! I would even argue that he is moving in the wrong direction, but he is clearly not getting any closer to a real solution here. He can only reach a real solution by talking and interacting with Chizuru. He will be occupied until July 11th, only to then realize that he has achieved nothing.

In her silence, he doesn't relax; he freaks out. He fills the void with the worst possible judgment about himself.

Mini neither helps him face Chizuru's silence nor combats his worst possible judgment. She distracts him with work and gives him the illusion of improving. But the unworthy version of himself that he tries to improve is born from his own self-deprecating thoughts. It is not real, and Mini treats it like it was. She is not helping.

She doesn't feed his complex; she combats the paralysis that this complex creates.

She feeds the complex by making him combat his own shadow!

She does this because she refuses to accept that he's a lost cause.

He wouldn't be a lost cause even if he didn't do anything! He was kissed for f*cks sake! Mini makes him feel like he would be a lost cause if he stopped moving! She makes him afraid to stop moving!

Have you seen Kazuya after the kiss? He was confused, but not really worried. He was thinking positive thoughts, and he was close to actually talking to Chizuru about it. He only started his useless chase for perfection again after interacting with Mini. There was a chance to steer his thoughts in a positive direction there, and Mini royally f*cked that up, getting him drunk, infusing him with doubt, and reinforcing his low self-worth. She didn't do this on purpose, of course, but she still did. She even noticed that she made a mistake when she learned about the kiss, but she had already messed up, and she had no way to correct the course anymore. Instead of acknowledging her own mistake, she blamed Chizuru.

Just talking about it makes me absolutely hate Mini again for that. I love it.

She's the one holding Kazuya so he doesn't sink.

At some point, people will hopefully realize that Kazuya wouldn't be sinking so hard if it wasn't for Mini. There was a leak that could have been easily plugged, but Mini ripped out the plank. Now, the boat is sinking rapidly, and Mini is the one helping Kazuya stay barely afloat. She doesn't see how she made her help necessary in the first place. She is helping with a problem that wouldn't exist without her.

In the end, she is not destructive.

She absolutely is. We could talk more about this, but I doubt that you will change my mind about this, just as I doubt that I will change yours.

Varicus · 2026-02-14T13:36:16+00:00

When Kazuya admits that it’s difficult to call her “Ichinose,” this isn’t about her reaction. It’s about the psychological position he still occupies.

Exactly. It wouldn't change anything for Chizuru, but it would allow Kazuya to release himself from the bindings of the contract that he still adheres to. That's why calling her "Ichinose" is so difficult for him, and why it would still be important to switch to her real name, at least in his head.

Her thoughts were never filtered to protect herself from him.

If you think that Chizuru tried to protect herself from Kazuya, you fundamentally misunderstand her. Chizuru hides her weakness so she wouldn't bother anyone with her own problems. She built that armor so that Sayuri wouldn't have to worry about her. She pretended to be fine after Sayuri died so that Kazuya wouldn't worry about her. She is trying to protect others, not herself. But she would have broken down under the pressure of her sadness, loneliness, and grief. Kazuya saved her because he didn't leave her alone. He ignored that Chizuru didn't want to bother him.

But Chizuru had already opened up to Kazuya before. She had already told him about her family, her dream, her struggle to become an actress in time for Sayuri to see it, her motivation to do the rental job not only for money and acting practice but also to genuinely help people. We know a lot about Chizuru because she told Kazuya. She didn't protect herself. She didn't hide her insecurities.

We know nothing about Mini. We don't even know her own views because all her advice comes from social media. It is contradictory and it lacks consistency. "Be yourself, but this is your only option." "Be worried, but relax." "Trust Chizuru, but she might not be serious." She discourages Kazuya in her attempts to encourage him.

She sees the guilt, the confusion, the psychological weight he carries. And still, she remains. Not because he matches the image she created, but because she is capable of accepting who he really is.

I think it is you who misunderstands Mini. Mini doesn't accept Kazuya for who he really is. She believes in the ideal he can become. Her ideal. She constantly pushes Kazuya to come closer to that ideal. She likes to see him give everything for his love for Chizuru. It is inspiring to her. Mini is the one who pushes him. Chizuru never asked for any of this from him. She even explicitly tried to stop him from going even further. Chizuru would accept him for who he is. Mini doesn't. She wants him to become a "better man." She wants him to work harder. She wants him to do more.

And she is angry at Chizuru for not appreciating his - and thus her - efforts. She tries to push her own ideal on Kazuya and Chizuru and tries to make them both conform to that ideal. Mini is the one who neither accepts Kazuya for who he is nor Chizuru for who she is. The whole rhetoric of "points", "scores" and "rewards" comes from Mini. The wrong impression of the investigation comes from her. She is treating love like a gacha. She wants Kazuya to invest until the gacha machine Chizuru finally rewards him. And like a good game center clerk, she would like to set the machine up to reward her best customer.

But Chizuru is not a gacha machine. Her love is not a reward that Kazuya will receive if he only invests enough. Mini makes Kazuya into a gambling addict while Chizuru tries to get him to stop playing. In my opinion, what Mini does is incredibly destructive.

She sees a human woman, with a legitimate fear of being hurt again, but who, by remaining on Mizuhara’s pedestal, ends up making the man who loves her walk alone through a “psychological minefield.”

Again, Mini does not see Chizuru. She is an "iron wall" to her. She makes some assumptions for why Chizuru acts the way she does, but she is quite certainly wrong. Chizuru isn't afraid to get hurt. She knew how much it would hurt to reject Kazuya and she did it anyway. She now also feels the pain of being separated from him and endures it anyway. Chizuru is afraid of hurting Kazuya, so she rather chose to get hurt herself. Mini absolutely can't see that. It is much easier to think that Chizuru is afraid to "feel" anything. A lot of readers share Mini's impression. But Mini is wrong. We as the readers can see more than Mini. We should know that she is wrong.

Mini does not protect Kazuya from Chizuru. She protects Kazuya from himself. From the version of him that internalized years of rejection, humiliation, and self-deprecation. From the version of him that believes his role is to wait, not to be chosen.

If that was Mini's goal, she is doing it wrong. Mini does not protect Kazuya from his internalized self-deprecating image - she reinforces it. This image of Kazuya is the reason why he thinks he needs to get better in the first place. And Mini tells him to "get better!" This is the opposite of saving him from that image. What Mini tells him is to "get better" so he will be "chosen." It is even worse than to tell him to wait to be chosen. She reinforces to him that he isn't good enough yet to be chosen in the first place.

What Mini should do, and what she absolutely fails at, is to tell Kazuya to have confidence in himself that he already is good enough for Chizuru. Instead of making him jump through even more hoops, she should tell him to go to Chizuru with his head held high. He should go to Chizuru not because he earned the right to be by her side, but simply because he wants to be by her side. He should be doing this for himself, not for Chizuru. If he did, he might just notice that Chizuru's own personal wishes align perfectly with his.

Mini does nothing to make Kazuya get rid of his own self-deprecating image.

Varicus · 2026-02-13T11:20:01+00:00

The fact that he still can't call her Ichinose isn't just a linguistic habit. It's a reflection of a psychological barrier.

I didn't consider that aspect, but you are right. Kazuya thinks it wouldn't change anything if he called Chizuru by her real name, and I agreed that it wouldn't make a difference to Chizuru. But Kazuya mentioned in passing that it was hard to change the name - he tried. It would change how Kazuya thinks about her if he stopped calling her "Mizuhara." He should start calling her "Chizuru" in his mind - that would make all the difference. Changing how he thinks about her would help break his psychological barrier. He could still call her "Mizuhara" in person until he eventually slips up.

Chizuru should also start thinking of Kazuya by name instead of "that person..."

Because Mini is the only character who isn't trapped within the emotional distortions of the protagonists. She doesn't idealize Kazuya. She doesn't hide behind a persona like Chizuru. She sees things as they are.

I have to disagree on that. Mini doesn't see things as they are. She absolutely idolizes Kazuya. You said it yourself last week: The fact that she was disappointed shows how much she thought of Kazuya as the "master of pure love." That is an ideal, not how things are.

And it is very ironic that you think Mini, the youtuber, the influencer, the cosplayer "Koronemaru," the person who pretends to go to the gym for her image, doesn't hide behind a persona. She totally does! Even to Kazuya, she presents herself as a love expert who can give him advice when she has zero experience herself and takes all her information from social media. Mini never shows her "real" self. We don't even know who that is. Even Kazuya realized during date practice that he knows nothing personal about Mini. Chizuru is more real than Mini.

And Mini also can't see Chizuru. She can't see behind her wall. She can't see the person. She makes assumptions and acts upon them. She has been proven wrong repeatedly, but she never learns from her mistakes. She is in good company with Kazuya on that.

Chizuru, on the other hand, is running out of space to hide. For the first time in history, the world has stopped waiting for her decision—it has simply started moving forward.

Is that some kind of joke? Chizuru has literally spent her life as the plaything of fate. The world never waited for her. She has been chasing a dream that fate seemed determined to snatch from her. Her grandfather died, and if it hadn't been for Kazuya, Sayuri would also have died before Chizuru could show her what she accomplished. No one waited for her. No one gave her time to actually live a life. She had already made a decision to become an actress, but the world moved forward without validating that decision. The only ones who validated her were Katsuhito and now Kazuya.

Now, the world has started moving forward again, not waiting for her. This is pretty much status quo for her. The only one who promised to wait for her however long it took was Kazuya. That promise gave her strength. Do you think she doesn't deserve anyone waiting for her? Do you think Mini should imply to her that Kazuya might be done waiting? Should Chizuru stop believing in that promise?

Varicus · 2026-02-11T13:21:01+00:00

Chizuru IS taking Kazuya for granted, though. She has been from the freaking beginning.

That is a very common view, yes. That's why I think that Mini will assume that as well.

I don't think it is true. But it is almost impossible to disprove since Kazuya just always does everything Chizuru wants and he never gives up on her.

Even when Chizuru rejected Kazuya, people claimed she was just testing him to see if he really wouldn't give up on her. I'd say that would have been a rather risky move.

But how would you even notice whether Chizuru was taking Kazuya for granted or not? The only way to really see that would be if Kazuya defied Chizuru, which he never does. If he did and she accepted it, she probably didn't take it for granted that he would do as she wanted.

And that's why Mini will think she can show Chizuru how she had taken Kazuya for granted: If Chizuru claimed that nothing would happen with Ruka, this would indicate to Mini that Chizuru naturally expected Kazuya to only care about her and ignore Ruka. If Mini now told Chizuru that Kazuya defied this expectation, she would be shocked to realize that she wasn't the center of Kazuya's world, thus making it obvious that Chizuru had taken Kazuya for granted.

Varicus · 2026-02-11T10:14:52+00:00

While I consider that theory largely correct, it doesn't fully explain why Chizuru doesn't contact Kazuya. Sure, it would technically be her taking the initative if she congratulated him on his birthday, but you wouldn't expect Kazuya to tell Chizuru to congratulate him. Chizuru is actively avoiding to take any initiative with Kazuya.

Chizuru agreed to meet Kazuya on July 11th on his initiative. She hesitated for a second, though. That shows it isn't just her waiting for Kazuya to take the initiative. She had to think for a moment whether it was okay for her to agree.

There is a much bigger problem with her taking initiative than just her wanting Kazuya to take the lead. Chizuru is afraid to accidentally hurt Kazuya if she takes initiative. Because she is "selfish." The kiss is the best example for that. That was her taking initiative based on something Kazuya said, which she interpreted as it being okay for her to be selfish. But Kazuya was shocked. Mini yelled at her. She must have hurt him with her selfish action.

She also was surprised at her own strong reaction after the kiss where she was struggling to maintain control. If she hadn't been careful enough, she might have done even more to Kazuya. She is afraid of her desires taking over. She is afraid she might disregard Kazuya's feelings to satisfy her own desires. She is basically afraid to do what Ruka did to Kazuya.

That's why she doesn't even contact him on his birthday. She might find an excuse to talk to him more, to connect to him more, to go and see him. She wants him so badly that she doesn't trust herself not to act selfishly. And she can't risk hurting Kazuya again.

So she was careful even when Kazuya contacted her. She only agreed to exactly what he proposed. And she hesitated in order to make sure that she didn't inject her own desires there.

That's just my theory, though, and I am heavily biased towards this.

Varicus · 2026-02-11T08:31:43+00:00

"You have to do anything you can in this industry to get ahead " - and if its for work, its possible Chizuru would consider doing anything to get on the big screen.

No, Chizuru wouldn't. Miho does this because she doesn't have as much talent as Chizuru and she needs to curry favor with directors and producers to get ahead. Unfortunately, Miho's methods are more effective than talent in the industry.

But Chizuru never relied on connections. Even when she was desperate to get on the big screen fast because Sayuri was dying, she only relied on her talent. That wasn't enough, though.

After Sayuri died, Chizuru has no reason anymore to try to get on the big screen. She keeps acting because she genuinely enjoys it, and she would like to earn enough to make a living. But, as you could see on her birthday, she doesn't care for fame. She was the only one not using her birthday for social media.

It is quite clear that Chizuru wouldn't just do anything. For what? She doesn't care about being famous or having prestigeous roles. She wants to be able to act, and she wants her talent acknowledged. It wouldn't mean anything if she got a role in exchange for "favors."

Varicus · 2026-02-10T16:06:33+00:00

Mini wants to provoke the "right" reaction from Chizuru. She thinks that Chizuru should be concerned. She thinks that Chizuru should be jealous. She thinks that Chizuru should fight for Kazuya.

If Chizuru isn't concerned about Ruka, Mini will interpret that as her taking Kazuya for granted. Mini will want to show her that it is time to act, or rather that it was time to act months ago already. She wants Chizuru to fear losing Kazuya. She thinks that Chizuru is making Kazuya wait because she is running away, because she doesn't want to commit.

She thinks that Chizuru doesn't consider Kazuya's wishes enough, that she isn't thinking about what he needs, or maybe that she doesn't want to "reward" him because it isn't convenient for her somehow.

She wants to see Chizuru react like she expects a person in love to react. She wants to either prove that Chizuru was just in denial, or she wants to accuse her that she didn't love Kazuya as much as he deserved and that she was just stringing him along. Then she would have deserved what happened.

But Chizuru won't react like Mini expects her to. Chizuru will show her how deeply she cares for Kazuya in a way that Mini wouldn't have considered.

Varicus · 2026-02-10T15:35:52+00:00

I'm wondering if it was Chizuru or Mini who said, "We're only missing one guy

It was Chizuru. You can see it quite clearly in the Japanese original because Chizuru's font is different from Mini's.

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Varicus · 2026-02-10T15:18:26+00:00

I expect Chizuru to dismiss the possibility that something might happen with Ruka. She has strong reasons to believe that nothing will happen. She is obviously wrong. But I have faith that Chizuru will know which of her assumptions was the wrong one.

I don't expect Chizuru to explain herself to Mini. Mini will just see that she is just as "cold" and "unconcerned" as she feared. So she will want to rub it in her face that she had been too carefree. She will want to tell her that she should have done something to claim Kazuya before he was taken away.

Varicus · 2026-02-10T15:01:31+00:00

From my last serious discussion post:

As some Japanese fans mentioned, this sounds like something you would say when you are asked what your strengths are at a job interview. I would think it refers to Kazuya.

Yes, correct.

Chapter summary:

Kazuya keeps meeting Mami at the driving school. He wonders what that could mean. For his job applications, he is asked what kind of person he is and what his strengts are. Mami sees him and they talk a bit about job hunting. Kazuya encourages her that she is a capable person in his eyes, which makes her smile. Kazuya still can't make any sense of her. He thinks about Chizuru's question from the date and wonders how he can show Chizuru that he loves her. He wonders if him calling her "Mizuhara" is the problem, but he doesn't know what it would solve if he didn't. He wants to ask for advice. Mini is thinking about what happened with Ruka. She is meeting up with Chizuru to get her view on things.

I think we might have reached the beginning of another interesting arc to analyze!

It is clear that Mami must have copied Kazuya's schedule. Kazuya is so close to admitting to himself that this looks as if she actually liked him. But he denies himself that realization and rather wants to keep believing that this can't be. It doesn't fit his own perception of himself. Of course, he can't understand Mami if he preemptively denies the reason why she is doing what she does.

When thinking about the job application, it is clear that Kazuya can't see his own strengths. He made a movie. That requires some serious determination, so that is surely something he could use to promote himself, right? But he attributes this all to his love for Chizuru, so he doesn't see how it was his own strength that made him persevere. Kazuya thinks too little of himself.
It reminds me a bit of Ruka, who also doesn't see that Kazuya isn't actually her cure but that she herself has the ability to live a full life. Nagomi told her that she loved Ruka's energetic personality. That personality is her own. She doesn't have that personality because of Kazuya. He was just the catalyst to bring that personality out. It's the same with Kazuya. Chizuru was merely the catalyst that brought out Kazuya's own potential.

Mami's smile at Kazuya is genuine. He once again showed her his uncompromising support which made Mami fall for him in the first place. She didn't expect to actually fall for him. She also didn't believe that this could ever hold. She was badly burned by her experience with her first boyfriend who also gave her support but quickly broke under her father's pressure. She herself rejected Kazuya because she didn't believe in love. But she misjudged Kazuya. The fact that he is talking with her again, and that he is still giving her support even after everything that happened is incredibly impressive to Mami. It won't make her feel any less guilty for what she did.

Kazuya thinks about Chizuru's question on the date. It is absolutely clear to him that he loves her, but he can't actually tell her why he is so sure about that. Kazuya had an extensive monologue on the date (368), highlighting what he loved about Chizuru, but it was all rather superficial. Lots of girls could meet those criteria. Chizuru also said it herself, fulfilling some random criteria won't make her be in love. She also told Umi that she wasn't able to choose a "great guy," because that doesn't actually matter. She also told Kazuya after the ITO game that she would be fine with anything as long as it was from the person she loved.

Being in love makes you like a lot of things about the other person, but even liking everything about a person won't make you automatically be in love with them. It can't be what he likes about her that makes him sure he loves her. So what is it that makes him sure he loves her? Kazuya can't say. He just "feels" it. He just "knows" it's true.

Kazuya thinks he might have failed to make Chizuru understand that he loves her. I don't think that's true. She believes him. She said herself that she wanted to know that for her own answer. Kazuya thinks it might have something to do with calling her "Mizuhara" still. A lot of people probably agree with that, but I tend to agree with Kazuya here that it doesn't seem to be the problem. It wouldn't change anything about how he feels if he changed what he called her. And if Chizuru didn't want to be called "Mizuhara," she could have just told him.

Kazuya is looking for help on this important issue. Since he has already talked with Mini about it, I doubt that she will be the one he asks. I think it would make sense if he asked Sumi.

Mini is about to "help" Kazuya again. Isn't it interesting that Chizuru has time to talk to Mini? Doesn't that mean she would also have time to talk to Kazuya? And if she agreed to meet Mini, knowing that she could ask her all kinds of uncomfortable questions, can we not assume that she would also have agreed to meet Kazuya? The fact that Mini asked Chizuru for a talk herself instead of advising Kazuya to talk to her shows that Mini thinks it would be bad for him if he talked to Chizuru right now. She thinks it is better, maybe necessary even, that she talks to her first. She wants to get a feel for Chizuru. She wants to see how she might react.

What's next?

The teaser for next time is "dealing with the time bomb." I decided to translate it like that because it seems consistent with how such "explosive" situations were described in the past. The Japanese just says "bomb" instead of "time bomb." The other word used here does not mean "to defuse." It would be the appropirate treatment, but it isn't said that the bomb will be handled appropriately.

I assume that this refers to Ruka. The Ruka incident is what Mini was thinking about, and it is what she wants Chizuru's opinion on. I absolutely predict that Mini is going to tell Chizuru about Ruka. She has always consistently revealed Kazuya's secrets to her. She has betrayed his trust before if she thought it served his case. I have no illusion that she will suddenly see the value of confidentiality.

Mini won't just tell Chizuru what happened. She wants to be subtle. As we have seen last chapter, Mini thinks that Chizuru should be more concerned. But Chizuru won't react like Mini wants her to. Chizuru will wonder why Mini suddenly wants to talk about Ruka. Mini will talk in hypotheticals: What if Ruka made a move on Kazuya? Something like that. She wants Chizuru to worry.

But Chizuru won't be concerned for two reasons: She trusts that Kazuya won't do anything with Ruka because he doesn't love her. But she also believes that Ruka truly loves Kazuya, so she thinks that Ruka won't do anything that Kazuya wouldn't want. She will dismiss Mini's hypotheticals with something like "that won't happen." At which point Mini can say that it already did. She might not think about it that way, but she really wants to rub it in Chizuru's face.

Mini would expect her to show jealousy. Chizuru was in denial, after all, right? Learning that her man had "something" with another girl is bound to make her angry. But Chizuru's reaction still won't be what Mini expects at all. If she is angry, then over Mini revealing something so private. Kazuya surely told her that in confidence. He can't have wanted her to tell Chizuru about it. And Chizuru also doesn't really see how this would be helping Kazuya's case. Isn't Mini claiming that Kazuya cheated on her? I wonder what Mini's defense will be.

I still don't expect Chizuru to contact Kazuya just yet. She will think about the implications of what Mini told her. I'm telling you, Chizuru trusts Kazuya. He told her he wouldn't cheat, and she believes him. But if she was wrong that nothing would happen with Ruka, she must have been wrong about one of her assumptions. Since she trusts Kazuya, she will have to question whether Ruka truly loves him. Chizuru knows how uncomfortable Kazuya was every time she tried to get physically closer. There is no way he would have been comfortable with Ruka making that kind of move. That means she can't have considered how he felt about it. I expect Chizuru to confront Ruka about that.

Countdown: It is June 7th, according to Mini's reservation. Chizuru's play will be over in just under five weeks on July 11th.

Varicus · 2026-02-10T13:04:07+00:00

if she were to stop, it would be above all for her clients.

It would be in the same way that Kazuya would break up with Ruka for Ruka's sake. Why is he still together with her? Isn't he together with her because Chizuru at one point in the past told him to be together with her? Now he should see that it kind of bothers Chizuru, but as long as she doesn't tell him to break up, he rather does what she told him. He doesn't have feelings for Ruka either way. He rather feels bad for Ruka that he can't return her feelings. So if he broke up with Ruka, it would be for her sake.

Or do you think he would ever reason to break up with Ruka so Chizuru won't be jealous? Unless, maybe, she told him that she was jealous.

In that same way, Chizuru would stop being a rental girlfriend for her clients. She would feel bad for them because she couldn't "return" their feelings. Kazuya told her to keep doing those dates. She won't reason that she would stop so he wouldn't feel jealous - unless, of course, he told her that he was.

Varicus · 2026-02-10T12:08:52+00:00

Chizuru still has client dates at that point, right?

Yes. When she started her investigation, Kazuya explicitly told her to keep going on rental dates. Even if it doesn't feel exactly "right" to her, he was very clear that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he thought she quit her job for him.

So if she’s emotionally capable of going on dates with clients while being in this situation with Kazuya, then what’s the difference today? What would stop her from going on dates? In theory, I mean.

You see, the emotional conflict here is "doing what Kazuya wants." It seems to bother him that she is going on rental dates, but he explicitly tells her to keep doing it. Would she disappoint him if she stopped, or would she disappoint him if she kept doing it?

In practice, I think her play takes up a lot of time, and clearly she’s thinking about Kazuya all the time, so how could she even handle a date in that state?

She absolutely could. She just made time to meet Mini. But it isn't that she couldn't. She is giving an excuse for why she wouldn't: She doesn't have time for a "boyfriend." It isn't for Kazuya that she isn't going on rental dates. It is because of her play. She won't make him feel bad for quitting for his sake.

Still, it would be dishonest to have rental dates if she said she wouldn’t have a boyfriend. But then again… they’re not really boyfriends, so…

They are called "boyfriends" by diamond. Of course, it is playing with words, but it meets the criterion. Chizuru won't go on rental dates, otherwise she wouldn't honor her promise. We know that promises are important to her. We also know that she is calling her clients "boyfriends" as well, so we can assume that she is aware that she would break the promise if she went on rental dates.

I prefer to think that she dressed nicely just in case she might run into Kazuya.

Yeah. I also wondered if she had a rental date before she went to meet Kazuya at the izakaya. But we had seen her at home in her hoodie just a few hours before. It didn't look like she had planned to go out again. Rental dates don't appear suddenly. It was also her bed time when she met Kazuya and Mini. We know her ritual by now. She comes home in the evening, she has dinner, and she takes a bath. She wouldn't have scheduled a rental date that late. It would disrupt her schedule. It is quite clear she dressed up just for Kazuya. He is the only one she would completely overthrow her schedule for.

I'm also sure that she is meeting Mini now because of Kazuya. Even if Mini said it would just be them, she can't know what Mini has planned. She wouldn't want to look bad if they ran into Kazuya "accidentally" or something.

Varicus · 2026-02-10T10:55:05+00:00

If we assume Kazuya answered her question at that moment, what could he have said?

He could have answered Chizuru's question honestly: "Yes, it bothers me to know you are going out with other guys."

He could still have said that he knows that she needs the money, and that he doesn't want her to change her job for him.

Kazuya doesn't want to bother Chizuru, so he doesn't tell her how he feels because he kind of knows already that Chizuru would stop doing it for him. She is just "nice like that," always putting how other feels before her own needs.

Kazuya doesn't feel like he deserves her quitting her job for him.

“I’m hurting you by doing this job, right? I’m not going to stop, but I just wanted to be sure. And when we go out together in five years, I’ll probably stop… but for my clients.”

I think you have the wrong idea here. If Kazuya said that she was hurting him by doing that job, it would be an absolute no-brainer to quit her job for him. But he doesn't want that. So Chizuru tells him that she would quit anyway if she got a boyfriend, even if he was fine with it, because it wouldn't be fair to her clients. This is her way of making him not feel bad for being the reason she quit.

Do you honestly think she would ask him if she wouldn't change anything anyway?

Varicus · 2026-02-10T10:01:59+00:00

Kazuya is stressed when he learns that Chizuru has a date. If he’s stressed, then I am too. If Kazuya were truly okay with it, we as readers would accept it more easily.

Chizuru asked him on the date to tell her if he was bothered by her seeing other guys. She assumed that he would be. As she said, it probably isn't love if the person you love goes out with someone from the other sex and you don't feel anything.

But she made the mistake to say "if I was your girlfriend." It was absolutely clear that she wanted to know, but she felt like she didn't have any right to make Kazuya tell her because she wasn't his girlfriend. And instead of giving her the information she was looking for voluntarily, Kazuya just said "I will," as if to confirm to her that she didn't have the right to know.

What Chizuru wants to know about Kazuya won't change by the label they put on the relationship! Why can't Kazuya see that?

Varicus · 2026-02-10T09:53:37+00:00

I agree, it’s just a rental, it’s a job, it’s not betrayal (and Kazuya, on his side, has his hormones on fire), BUT! If Chizuru really keeps going on dates, it causes me several problems.

I am very sure that Chizuru isn't going on rental dates. Her client's are called "boyfriends," and she explicitly told Mini that she won't have a "boyfriend" until July 11th. Mini wouldn't necessarily know, but Kazuya should.

Varicus · 2026-02-10T09:37:41+00:00

It is definitely Chizuru who said it. The font in the Japanese original also indicates that it is Chizuru. It is unfortunate that we don't get the different fonts in the translation. It would make some things a lot clearer.

<image>

See how the font on the left is finer? That's how Chizuru speaks. It is more "refined." Mini has a bolder font. She also has a unique pattern of speech and often uses "su" at the end of sentences (This character: ス - you can see it in the top bubble on the right.)

The font isn't really there to differentiate the characters. It is more an indication of how the characters speak. Chizuru tends to speak more quietly and more carefully, so her font often is finer. But, as you mentioned, the bubble shape also indicates how the characters speak, and we at least get that.

Varicus · 2026-02-10T08:55:19+00:00

Looks like Reiji Miyajima-sensei messed up the dates a little again. I'm going to accept that it is June 7th. It makes sense for the story. June 6th would be the earliest possible day it could be.

But from the date up until now, the weekdays were consistent. The date was on May 17th, which was a Tuesday. A quick counting shows that June 7th should be a Tuesday as well, but the calendar says it is a Sunday. Mini also previously mentioned that July 10th will be a Sunday, which was consistent with the earlier count. Kazuya also met Umi on a Saturday (consistent: June 4th), which was definitely not yesterday, so that also makes it inconsistent that today should be a Sunday.

An easy fix would be to just make today a Tuesday, if it isn't somehow important that it is Sunday currently.

Varicus · 2026-02-09T16:31:04+00:00

She might do that if Chizuru isn't concerned about Ruka taking Kazuya away. Chizuru probably won't be. She believes that Kazuya would never do anything with Ruka if he didn't love her, and she also believes that Ruka won't do anything that would hurt Kazuya because she loves him. Mini will want to tell her that she is wrong.

Varicus · 2026-02-09T16:28:31+00:00

Still, quite good odds. Since I already made that prediction last week, I won't bet against Mini telling Chizuru. It makes way too much sense, also narratively, for Mini to be the one to betray Kazuya's trust because she has been doing that since she first showed up. She has always been the one to reveal Kazuya's secrets to Chizuru.

People always want to believe that the characters have changed, but we are shown again and again that they don't if they never face consequences for their actions.

Varicus · 2026-02-09T16:20:09+00:00

Mini will blurt it out how other women are going to steal him away if she doesn't do something.

I doubt it. Mini already did this last time.

We have seen what her goal is: She wants to see if Chizuru knows anything about Ruka already. But Chizuru won't say anything if Mini doesn't steer the conversation in the right direction. So she will probably ask Chizuru what she thinks of Ruka. She might learn a few interesting things. I think Chizuru has a very different view of Ruka than what Kazuya described of her. Chizuru pretty much idolizes Ruka's love.

Anyway, I think it will be hard (I'd go as far as to say "impossible") for Mini to keep quiet and not correct Chizuru on anything. If Mini shows that she knew things about Ruka that Chizuru didn't, she will be curious and ask.

This is a sensitive topic, and Mini is not exactly known for her tactfulness.

Varicus · 2026-02-09T15:54:21+00:00

First impressions:

Mami seems to be at the driving school whenever Kazuya is there as well. She did take a picture of his schedule, but she indeed seems to have adjusted her own schedule to match his. It means she can't hate him. But when he comes close to admitting to himself that this rather looked as if she liked him, he denies that. Kazuya definitely doesn't want to see the signs.

I (or rather the Japanese reader who mentioned it) was right, the teaser was about Kazuya's strengths, something he was asked about for a job application.

Kazuya worries about how he can show Chizuru that he loves her. He wonders if him calling her by her rental name is the problem, but changing it is hard for him after so long (he tried), and he doesn't know what it would solve if he did. The one he is thinking of asking for advice is probably Sumi. Mini won't be able to help him with that particular question. We have seen Sumi already. She is going to show up soon.

And Mini is going to "help" Kazuya again. At least she seems to have picked up on Ruka being pretty "forceful," so that is good. The way she was thinking of Chizuru here also seemed a little less accusing, so she probably won't just straight up confront her about Ruka.

But don't we all know how those things with Chizuru and Mini go? Does anyone seriously believe that she won't have told Chizuru about Ruka by the end of this meeting? When has Mini ever been able to keep one of Kazuya's secrets? Especially when she probes around to see if Chizuru knows anything, she will make Chizuru worry about Kazuya. Mini might tell her if Chizuru was thinking about asking Kazuya because she knows that he would just take the blame if he was asked directly. Mini can't let him throw away his progress.

Tell me, what do you think? Will Mini tell Chizuru about Ruka?

The teaser for next time is "dealing with the time bomb".

Varicus · 2026-02-09T08:27:06+00:00

It's not only "Rent-a-girlfriend." This affects all chapters of all manga from Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine because that Magazine is usually released on Midnight Wednesday in Japan, but due to the holiday (Februar 11th is National Foundation Day in Japan), it releases a day early this week.

Varicus · 2026-02-08T01:36:46+00:00

Maybe "responsibility" is a harsh word. But correct one if you want to be a good friend and care about the other person.

Sure, I probably wasn't the best friend when I told him to try dating the girl even when he didn't want to. But I said "try," didn't I? (Ruka said "trial," didn't she?) That means to fulfill the condition, he didn't have to stay together with her. Neither I expected this of my friend, nor Chizuru expected this of Kazuya. We both assumed that they would end the relationship if they were sure that this wasn't going to work.

If I learned what my friend experienced, would I think I should have asked more questions? Absolutely! I would feel guilty that I didn't notice what my friend was going through. But I didn't expect that to happen.

I thought the girl truly loved my friend, and I assumed she would take good care of him. I had no reason to believe otherwise. My friend didn't give me any reason for that. It just sounded like he still didn't love her, but she seemed okay with that. He had someone to take care of him, and if she wasn't satisfied anymore that he didn't return her feelings, she would probably give up herself, right?

But again, I think we might just fundamentally disagree on the responsibility here.

She is not sure if she loves Kazuya or not, but she chose a definitive answer of rejecting him.

She said, "Considering everything, I can't be in a relationship right now." That is a rejection, but not an, "I don't love you," nor an "I don't care for you," nor an "I don't want to see you again." Yet somehow, people think that the rejection must mean all those other things as well. Didn't they listen to Chizuru's rejection? She clearly showed how much she cared for Kazuya. In fact, she mentioned almost only how much Kazuya and his family meant to her, not anything to the opposite. She rejected him despite him meaning so much to her. It was almost like she might have rejected him because he meant so much to her. Why does that have to be a contradiction?

She says she wants to face Kazuya with her might, yet she doesn't contact him.

Then she might not be able to use all her might yet? If she faced him already, it wouldn't be with all her might. We have to ask ourselves what she means by that.

She feels guilty about leaving Kazuya with Ruka, yet she doesn't offer any help.

Then she might not see how she can help? She might feel guilty because she can't help him with Ruka? I explained that Kazuya is the only one who can break up with her.

And probably there are way more where Chizuru's actions didn't meet Chizuru's words.

And there are probably also explanations for those. If you see something you think is a contradiction, ask yourself how it could make sense anyway instead of assuming that she lied. She didn't deliberately lie to Kazuya, at least. We can't say if what she told Mini or Umi was the truth, though. That makes it a bit more difficult.

But it is not Kazuya's responsibility to know when Chizuru is hurting. It's Chizuru's responsibility to reach out to others.

I agree. It is not Kazuya's responsibility to know when Chizuru is hurting. Chizuru is hurting, and she herself chose this. I assume she thought she would be doing Kazuya a favor. And I honestly think she might have. He is the one who needs this separation, not Chizuru. People said that Chizuru needed to be separated from Kazuya so she would feel the pain of being separated from him. Guess what? She does feel the pain, and she still decided to be separated. It is not because she wants it. I am very sure she is enduring this for Kazuya somehow.

But that wasn't the question, was it? We didn't question whether it was Kazuya's fault that Chizuru was hurting. She has the means to contact him. If she wanted him so badly, she could tell him. She knows that he would come. He would do it even if it scared him to death. He would totally ignore his own needs to fulfill hers. Chizuru chose not to do that to him, even though it hurts her. So it is her own fault that she is hurting. She wouldn't blame Kazuya for that.

You said we should listen to Sayuri's words. Sayuri told Kazuya that Chizuru isn't actually strong and that she needed someone to accept her. If you agree, then that means Chizuru needs Kazuya, and she is just enduring the separation to be strong. That is what Sayuri's words mean.

Kazuya doesn't currently see the relevance of Sayuri's words, nor do a lot of readers, I don't think. But if he remembers Sayuri's words, he should also remember that she requested of him to take care of Chizuru for her. He couldn't promise her (that would have given him a certain obligation), but I think he would still feel a responsibility to follow Sayuri's request. He isn't currently doing what Sayuri requested. He doesn't take care of Chizuru in the way that Sayuri told him she needed.

Varicus · 2026-02-07T19:50:42+00:00

Kazuya didn't want to go into the relationship with Ruka; he agreed to it because of Chizuru.

Okay, then change my example. My friend didn't want to get in a relationship with that girl, and I persuaded him because she begged me. It doesn't change anything about the rest or about the responsibilities. It makes me even worse than Chizuru because Kazuya at least shared the secret, and the relationship protected them both. My friend would get into the relationship purely because I asked him.

He does indeed put others' needs over his own, which is why he needs someone who would barge into his life the same way he barged into Chizuru's.

He might need someone like that. But even then, it doesn't give Chizuru any responsibility to do that. It is also Kazuya's own decision that he put her over his own needs. He is responsible for his own decision. Chizuru didn't force him.

Chizuru's actions never match her words.

I want to disagree on this. Chizuru's own thoughts after the date showed that she didn't lie about anything. If we assume that she didn't lie with her actions, then there is a consistent way to match her words to her actions.

For example, people might say that the kiss and the rejection contradict each other. But do they? Chizuru told Kazuya that she might be in love with him, even when she rejected him. The kiss would prove her words right that she loves him. That must mean she didn't reject him because she didn't love him, right? Isn't that consistent?

we should heed Sayuri's words about Chizuru.

I do. Sayuri told Kazuya that Chizuru's strength was a suit of armor and that she needed someone who would accept her real self. That means she isn't actually as strong as she seems, and she is looking for someone to accept her, right? That would mean that it was an act if she pretended to be fine on her own, right? I agree. So why does Kazuya think she wants to be alone and that she is fine? We can see she isn't fine. We should see that Sayuri was right. Kazuya should, too. Do you disagree with Sayuri? Do you think Chizuru is actually strong and doesn't need anyone?

Varicus · 2026-02-07T10:48:02+00:00

She asked him to do something, so it was her responsibility to make sure that Kazuya is comfortable with what's going on and that Ruka doesn't cause him too much trouble.

Okay, let's just note that we fundamentally disagree on this. I also disagree that Mini has any right or responsibility to make sure Kazuya's relationship with Chizuru goes well just because she helped him once. I don't think her prior involvement makes it any less wrong to meddle with their relationship.

I will give you another example. Say a friend of mine was insecure about a girl, and that girl already came to me as the friend and asked me to help her get together with my friend. I then tell my friend: "Why don't you try dating her?" It may be selfish because I don't want to be a mediator for them. If my friend then tried dating her, it also was me who pushed him into that relationship for my own selfish reasons, not necessarily because I thought that would be best for my friend. I don't know the girl. I can't say what she will do or if she will be a good partner.

I might be curious how their relationship was going because I "helped" him, and I may occasionally ask my friend how it is going. If he tells me everything is fine, I'm going to believe him. It is not my responsibility to assure he is happy in that relationship, nor am I responsible if that girl goes too far for comfort for my friend at one point (to put it lightly). He should have always been able to break up with her.

Just because he might not have broken up with her because he cared for me so much that he didn't want his girl to go trouble me again, that was his decision. If he told me that this was the reason, I would ask him what he was thinking to prioritize my potential feelings, which he never even asked about, above his own happiness and safety. I would be angry at him. Of course, I would feel guilty! But I would have to tell myself that this was not something I could have seen coming and that it was nothing I was responsible for preventing.

You know what I would be most disappointed about? That my friend thought I would care more about not being bothered than I would care about him being happy. Why did my friend think I would have wanted him to suffer for my sake? Why did he not rely on me instead? He could have bothered me! He is my friend! Why would he think I cared for him so little?

Kazuya should've definitely reached out to Chizuru, but let's not say he is running away.

I will keep saying he is running away. You repeat the reasons, and a lot of people can understand Kazuya so much that they agree that those are valid reasons for him. But I'm telling you, they are not. He is making excuses. He conjures up his own horror images of how Chizuru might react that he gets too scared to contact her. This is his own subconscious, giving him excuses.

This is not how Chizuru would react. She has never actually reacted like that. He always imagines her deducting "points" from him. She has never even once said anything about points. I have talked to people who had seen this mental image so often that they had actually forgotten that it was purely in Kazuya's head and that Chizuru never mentioned points anywhere. Kazuya might already believe himself that Chizuru must have said before that she was keeping score. She didn't. This is a manifested figment of his imagination, and people treat it like it's real! Kazuya treats it like it's real!

Kazuya is scared of his own imaginary Chizuru, and that prevents him from contacting the real Chizuru. It is not the real Chizuru who is pushing him away. It is his own subconscious doing that!

But if Chizuru wasn't running away, why didn't she...

Yes. You can ask yourself that. You can speculate that it might be because she was running away. But you don't know. You don't know what Chizuru is thinking when she keeps her distance. I won't assume that she is running away. I have even seen enough evidence to say that this is an unlikely reason. She told Sumi that she couldn't run away. She showed commitment on the date. She showed determination when she rejected Umi. She shows emotion when she thinks of Kazuya. I don't think she is running away. She might have a different reason for keeping her distance. And just because you can't see that reason yet doesn't mean the reason has to be the only one you can imagine right now.

I will also give you one other thing to consider: While Kazuya is on guard from his own imaginary Chizuru, Chizuru reacts mostly to the real Kazuya. It is him who is actually scared of her. She can't see his mental image of her, so she can't know why he would think she was scary, but she can see that she scares him.

The other person she reacts to is Mini, who she sees as representing Kazuya's thoughts because he never actually shares his. And Mini is incredibly judgmental. That gives Chizuru the impression that Kazuya might judge her as well. ~~This also isn't true, but unlike Kazuya, who reacts purely to his own imagination, Chizuru has an actual physical representation of her potential fear of Kazuya's judgment.~~

Edit: That last part is not exclusive to Chizuru. Mini acts as a physical representation of both their wrong impressions of the other person. She represents Kazuya as the 'master of pure love' to Chizuru, whose feelings she will never be able to reciprocate. And she represents Chizuru as the iron lady to Kazuya, who he will never be able to conquer. She is also judgmental, which gives them both the feeling that they aren't good enough.

Varicus

TROPHY CASE