Haikei, Arishi Hi ni Saku Hanatachi e - Vol. 4 Ch. 17.1

[MangaDex]

 

[Beltaro]

Link to like the raws.
I don't want to dwell on the situation in the credits page here; it's weighed on me plenty already. The last thing I want is to hurt an artist by doing this. I have to trust everyone can cooperate and keep the translations more private.

The theme this chapter is maturity.
It's well understood Kasumi wants to be protected and pampered - it's why she followed Haruyo's offer in chapter 1, as crazy as it sounded. She's had a traumatic experience and no outlet. She knows pain, which is why she's so determined in return to protect Haruyo. Outside their roles Haruyo is much more innocent and sheltered. And Kasumi values that over her own safety. If she'd known her meeting with Aoyama would end that way but still needed to make it, I don't doubt she'd go without Haruyo's knowledge a second time.

However part of valuing Haruyo is respecting the promise they made after Sayori and Mizuki's arc: Kasumi wouldn't hide anything from her anymore, and so she won't now. It's a little surprising, given how typically manga break that sort of honesty and trust between characters. But it's sweet that as much as she pains her to tell the truth Kasumi knows it would hurt Haruyo more to create distance between them. Maybe it's guilt weighing on her, maybe it's desire for what came next, but their relationship continues to grow nicely in the proximity of all these rotten flowers around them.

When I said they lapsed from their roleplay several times in the TL page, it was mostly Kasumi re-establishing authority over Haruyo. In Haruyo's case it was shock at what was happening. It's always been cloudy how conscious Haruyo is of how intimate they're being but there's little doubt over what Haruyo felt here. Haruyo likes to touch Kasumi, but this is the first time Kasumi has actively asked to be touched. And she knows Kasumi's feelings about it. Haruyo reverts to her middle school self because it's a level of maturity she can't roleplay through. It's that slow yet sudden exploration of each other done in innocence that epitomizes young romance. Where touching knees and tying ribbons turns up the sexual tension like nothing else.

And in stark contrast we have Aoyama. We don't know what happened yet, but it's safe to say it was way too fast and not at all innocent. Aoyama's maturity was forced on her, and the fallout has brought nothing but pain that she can't help but spread to others. As I commented last chapter, Kasumi is wrong. I don't think Aoyama ever planned on hurting Kasumi. But she couldn't control herself when Kasumi re-opened old wounds. And so she gave Kasumi some scratches that needed closing too. There's a mirror drawn between Kasumi trying to overwrite her painful memories with Aoyama and Aoyama being unable to bury her past with Yurika. Cycles of abuse and all.

It's very early to judge Yurika, and Igarashi likes to toy with impressions. It wouldn't surprise me if the story tries to paint Yurika in a better light, and I won't be surprised if Igarashi has the talent to do so. Igarashi is making a strong opening statement Aoyama and Yurika are quite opposite from Kasumi and Haruyo. I once worried over reassuring everyone the latter only had a 1 year age gap, which was very deliberate by Igarashi to refocus the difference between them. It would have come in titles and artificial seniority while their life experiences were roughly the same. It was Kasumi's buried trauma that was the true gap between them, something Haruyo still has no idea of.

Now Igarashi is going all the way with Aoyama being a 1st year in middle school and Yurika in her last year of high school when they met; I'll safely assume that's the maximum 6 year age gap. The relationship itself is the trauma. And Yurika is still here to haunt her in something potentially dark enough to make Sayori and Mizuki look like 'kiddy shit.'

I doubt there's anything happening between Aoyama and Yurika right now. It's entirely possible Yurika is lingering around because she regrets what happened. That she came back to teach here because she values the school in the same way she wanted the Class S letters to continue. After Mia and Yamabe I assumed every pairing would find a happy ending, no matter how unlikely. But this looks pretty damn unlikely. There's still the second half of 17, which is seemingly an uncomfortable flashback. Igarashi said she wanted to make sure she got these next few chapters right. Though that could mean a lot of things after the boxcutter chapter.

 

[NinjaGoemon]

Casual toxic yuri enjoyers when the problematic 6 year age gap school relationship walks in the room

 

[sebaasdf]

Every time I see a manga about a romance, and one character becomes a teacher and goes back to work on the same school they had their love stories feels creepy. Here will obviously be toxic, but sometimes they show it as something good lol

 

[UdenEmpati]

I think my favorite part of this was the contrast between Kasumi & Haruyo when they were flipping in and out of their roleplay.
It's clear that Kasumi will default to "protecc mode", and it's honestly astounding that she told Haruyo at all about what she went and did in seeing Aoyama. But I also think it's supremely important, because it highlights how important Haruyo is. The promise they made to not keep things from one another, and thus an honoring of their relationship (in all its myriad forms) won out over Kasumi's desire to protect/insulate Haruyo, and to simply shoulder the burden herself.

AND, that ties into her dropping character in telling Haruyo to not pursue confronting Aoyama. That very brief-but-explicit "sit down" was all the more a standout as Kasumi flipped "out" of little sister mode, only to fall back into it in an entirely new manner when she asked Haruyo to touch her.
Admittedly, I was worried that it would awaken some of that darkness in one or both of them in that moment, that's surrounded them with the other girls in this story. When she asked Haruyo to dig her nails into her knee, it felt like a line was about to be crossed, and we were seeing them start to teeter down the path of the Box Cutter Pair, after a fashion.

But Igarashi nailed it with their expressions in the aftermath. No pain, no malice, no weird feelings of domination or taste for pain. Just soft blushing expressions as Kasumi had her hurts overwritten and Haruyo discovered a new facet of what exists between them. It had the potential to be a dangerous moment, and yet their trust in and feelings for one another allowed them to thread a needle that, amazingly, keeps them on this Path of Light, where so many others seem to be falling by the wayside into darker themes.

Just amazing, the amount of care Kasumi & Haruyo have for one another, and the amount of faith they have in one another. Their relationship grows by the chapter, I feel, in small and steady ways, and it's a treat to see.



I am grateful for what you've done in bringing this to those of us who are unable to read Japanese. I hope that those who read it, continue honoring Igarashi-sensei's desires to not see her work tainted, and that you feel you are able to continue the superb work you've done here into the future.

 

[rkbrillantes]

Just really love the flipflopping dynamics between the two and our MC being spoiled and then spoiling the oneesama/kouhai.

Pg11 to 14 is the first time we see Sumi being that demanding with Paruyo. Also, the first time we see her make a face like that. "It feels good when oneesma does this" I feel guilty witnessing this scene as a reader. lol

Also, that sensei and the girl. I guess we're gonna see why she's behaving like that.

 

[Amerine]

I always try and skim through to like the official work when I can, so thank you for including a link to it so it's a little easier to do on an iPad

 

[Attqqqq]

Boy sure hope we flashback to some well adjusted, wholesome and respectful relationship-having with these two

 

[Colonel-Picquart]

Not quite the route I expected from Sumi as a trauma response but overwriting the bad memories with slightly kinky memories of Haruyo scratching up her thighs does feel quite natural and, dare I say, sweet?

Also holy shit the other girl's abuser is a teacher??! How quick was her training time turnaround? Jesus this arc will not have a happy ending, merely a cathartic one.

 

[onedumninja]

I bought all the volumes to support the author. I don't want her to be sad or hurt by fan translations but without them I never would have bought it or had the great pleasure of reading such a wonderfully deep and moving story. I can't even read the volumes I bought cuz I only know english T_T

I hope author-sensei doesn't lose heart too much. We love this story but have no way to show it in our language

 

[UdenEmpati]

Also holy shot the other girl's abuser is a teacher??! How quick was her training time turnaround? Jesus this arc will not have a happy ending, merely a cathartic one.

Well - from what I could find, a bachelor's is the most important part of the process, which takes 4 years on its own.

Given Aoyama was a 1st year middle schooler and is now 3rd year high schooler (and Sensei was a 3rd year high schooler when Aoyama met her), that makes six years, which is technically enough time for her to have graduated, gotten her license, and started teaching.

 

[youdontknowwho]

Me last chapter: Aoyama needs an adult
Me this chapter: No, not this adult

I'd recommend that people buy the digital volumes because they're pretty cheap. I bought them on Bookwalker for about 700 yen each. Don't wait for it to be officially available in your country (because a series might already be axed at that point). Even just read the new chapter on the official site and like it would help a lot since Arisaku is serialized online.

 

[gimme_yuri_plz]

Thanks for the chapter! 🙏

 

[keleryn]

Also holy shot the other girl's abuser is a teacher??! How quick was her training time turnaround?

Looks like a 6-year age gap where it was a high-school third year (grade 12, age 17-18) with a middle-school first year (grade 6, age 11-12).

Now that the younger girl is 17-18, the teacher would be 23-24. She could even be in her second year of teaching, given four years of college.

 

[Birdo878]

I would actually love to buy physical editions of the manga, but I don't think they're available outside of Japan, if at all.

 

[DentalCow]

Glad to see I was right about the age gap (or maybe not glad lol) Yurika being a teacher might be worse case scenario. Especially being kasumis teacher and haruyos club advisor. When the raws were posted I thought it looked like haruyo offered to touch her but I think it being kasumi is way more devastating. As sweet as the moment is I can't help but wonder if this will really overwrite those memories and if haruyo is really ready for this. After all we've seen before that sweet sugar can be deceiving. Speaking of those two one prediction I had last chapter was that kasumi would hide this from haruyo and instead confide in sayori. Glad to see she's being honest but I would have loved to see sayori get protective.

 

[noobplant]

Oh no.

 

[feignedremoteness]

the first page/chapter illustration is so out of place with the manga’s usual style that it’s almost a jumpscare

 

[strawberrymilk0192]

toxic lesbian couple infects healthy wholesome relationship

 

[beThereShortly]

Thank you so, so much for the update!