It sure feels like things got fast-tracked all of a sudden...? I'm sure the author is eager to get to the meat and potatoes, but this didn't really feel like a direct continuation of ch. 3, and then we suddenly skip from Ota to Himawari... Also pretty disappointed the cliffhanger was for nothing, just to drum up attention...
Hopefully the rest of the series doesn't rush, I actually quite like the premise.