Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

Okay smurf you game and your smurfing cliffhangers. It's one in the morning and I can already say that I won't be getting any sleep tonight because I so badly want to know what happens next. First, a quick impressions intermission.

Natsumi is a very socially inactive girl with the worst obligation of all; Prohibition of Falling in Love, which disallows her contact with the opposite sex; no physical contact is allowed, no eye contact is allowed and no crying in front of them is allowed. She has this obligation because she was accused and convicted of purposefully seducing a man with the ulterior motive of extorting him.

Chapter 4 mainly focuses on Natsumi herself and her past and present relationship with Kenichi.

Plot Synopsis

Chapter 4 starts with a flashback yet again and we see the events that led to Kenichi's "betrayal" of his friends. Back then Natsumi was a very extroverted and popular and always smiled, basically the total opposite of present Natsumi. The rebellion started just as a young Ken and Natsumi were in the sunflower field with Natsumi preparing to confess to Ken. Soon enough the survivors of the massacre were holed up in a cave and things aren't looking good. Ken, Sachi and Isono go out to scout and gather food and Natsumi plans on continuing her interrupted confession when they return.

Sadly it never came to that. Sachi injures herself falling from a tree as she notices troops approaching and Isono injures himself breaking her fall. They ask Ken to quickly go back and call for help. Ken starts running and soon finds himself chased by troops with orders to shoot him on sight. This leads to Ken running in a completely different direction than the base to be more safe.

Eventually he is found and no other than Houzuki appears before him. He gives him the chance to become a human useful to society, and the rest is history.

Cue present time. Kenichi moves in with Natsumi and tries to get her to open up, but to no avail. This goes on for a while until he decides to just tell her about who he really is. The two go up to the cliff with Ken's grave and just as Kenichi wants to tell her, Natsumi stumbles and Kenichi desperately saves her from falling but in doing so finds himself in that precarious situation in her stead.

Unfortunately Natsumi is endlessly scared of touching him to help him back up and so he ends up falling. Cue flashback two. No, really.

It turns out Ken actually had a pretty crappy childhood just after his sister left. He meets Natsumi strolling the sunflower field and his first words to her are a compliment for her ribbon. And from that point on they were friends. Sounds innocent and happy enough? Well Natsumi always hung out with Ken from that point on which takes things for a bad turn when a popular guy at school confesses to Natsumi and she promptly turns him down with Ken standing right next to her.

From that point on Ken is endlessly harassed by everyone at school besides Natsumi, who remains completely oblivious of his being bullied, partly because he desperately tries to stop it from showing. He stars being sure that Natsumi is only with him out of pity because otherwise he can't make sense of why she would ever want to hang out with 'someone like him'.

But Natsumi's goodwill persists and succeeds at keeping Ken from his lonesomeness. That kindness would be one he will never forget about.

Cue present day, Kenichi wakes up, having been rescued by one of Houzuki's men after falling just a bit and landing on a protrusion on the side of the cliff. Natsumi starts acting more friendly around Kenichi while the latter still waits for a good chance to come out and say who he really is. Around this time Houzuki calls for him again.

I have a feeling this will become important.

He tells Kenichi about when Natsumi changed so much from the cheerful outgoing person she used to be into the gloomy introverted one she is now. She was in detainment for no less than three months following her accusation (the accuser having a name that sounded awfully similar to the guy who confessed to her in the flashback) and the detectives resorted to anything to get her to admit her guilt. She came back out a broken person with the obligation of never again touching a man.

Fortunately Kenichi doesn't draw it out too long and tells Natsumi about his true identity soon enough.

Classy.

After an initial period of confusion and rejection Natsumi finally ends up smiling at the return of her long-awaited friend. Things seem to start going well as she actually begins to interact more with Sachi, Touka and Isono. But all too soon another problem arrives. When she asks if her obligation will never be cleared if she falls in love, and Kenichi confirms, she mumbles that it might be impossible, then.

And this is where Houzuki starts going total asshole mode.

Kenichi was actually oblivious of her feelings, by the way.

Kenichi relays this to Natsumi... and all progress is basically lost. She turns completely cold on Kenichi obviously trying to get him to hate her and detach herself from him. And just to pour salt into open wounds Houzuki calls for both Kenichi and Natsumi and informs them that Natsumi's parents passed away in a concentration camp, shattering that fragile hope Natsumi still held on to. And he goes even further and spells out what he saw in Natsumi's eyes, which is that her life is now meaningless.

In class Natsumi talks to Sachi, Touka and Isono and thanks them for spending time with her, praising them on their skills. Come nightfall Kenichi catches Natsumi trying to silently leave for the cliff. He manages to ultimately get her to not jump and when she breaks down crying, he embraces her, ignoring her obligation.

It's sad how this is hard to refute and yet he's the one without any obligation.

Just thereafter Houzuki enters the room with impeccable timing and has them both follow him to his office. He subjects Natsumi to a final test and says that if she passes, he will revoke her obligation. The test being she has to stare into his eyes and say, with passion, that she does not love Ken, rather that she hates him. It takes six hours and police guards to make sure Kenichi doesn't try anything insane but eventually Natsumi manages to say it just the way Houzuki wants to hear it. And he tops it off by saying "remember, you just spoke the truth".

The guards don't leave just yet and Houzuki leads them into a prison cell where he confronts Kenichi about his embracing Natsumi, which is a severe crime. Turns out Houzuki had tapped the obligation badges. And just before Kenichi confirms that he did it Natsumi speaks up and says it was her who initiated the contact. She gets a beaming smile on her face and finally declares her love for Kenichi as she hadn't been able to for all these long years. What I love about this scene most of all is Houzuki's reaction.

Irritation. And just as Kenichi vows to protect the three girls he rehabilitated, the chapter ends. smurfing cliffhanger.



Natsumi's arc was definitely my favorite so far. Focusing more on drama and the overall story rather than keeping it as a single somewhat disjunctioned plotline made for a far more compelling arc. I was quite interested in Natsumi's plight and her character arc was well executed. The flashbacks brought interesting bits of information and interaction and didn't overstay their welcome. An allround really enjoyable and interesting arc.

Kenichi is still being a great protagonist as always and... sorry I can't continue - the cliffhanger is killing me. Please excuse me while I, well, shut my eyes in order to see, I guess.