Harapeko Oyako to Motokare Yanushi - Ch. 22

[lolfacesayshi]

you know, this thing really picked up once the author decided to stop spinning the wheels in place and actually let the story progress
unfortunately it does seem like the daughter is not as much of a priority as their past and present relationship drama, which isn't necessarily bad, but sure does feel like lost potential

I mean, the daughter is important because she's kind of the source of the limbo they're all stuck in right now. And until it's fully revealed what she is, the characters seemingly aren't allowed to go fully one way or another. I wanna say that the kid's origins doesn't matter, that they can still just marry and be a happy family of three, but it seems that the story is dead set on making the first handful of years out of the fifteen missing ones to be THE MOST IMPORTANT of this story.

Is she her daughter with the dead guy, knocked up in their short time together? Cool, then the story could go into helping her deal with grief and moving on, with or without MMC.

Is she the mystery woman and dead guy's baby, so what we have is a foster parent who feels obligated to the memory of two people she's indebted to (presumably)? Okay, then it's time to shift the story focus to the daughter, have a trip to their grave, cry and hug and go "we are still a family".

Because currently nothing is happening, since all three of them are keeping each other at arm's length.

 

[allaboutTHEBEES]

Love to see this one again! Thank you for the translation!

 

[Kaito57]

I’m starting to think that those two lived in constant poverty for the last 14 years : that’s the only explanation for their appetite…

 

[javajulien]

...isn't that how it usually works? By most people's standards, it's a good thing if she was faithful to her husband for his whole life....

 

[RezaKingA]

This single panel resulted in the ego death of every Eren self-inserter lmao

 

[Zikeang]

In the earlier chapter when they're talking over the phone and it's so distant and impersonal and they just never call again breaks my heart. Thanks for the translations!

I think takaharu just has the emotional capacity of a fish. He obviously loved and cared for kyou in his own way and in that call he just didn't know whether it was right to or how he should support her, so he does it in his very cold and stiff way

 

[lovolo]

There's also some ambiguity as to what exactly was going into her parents' divorce, and why it necessitated her dropping out of college. That, and the one flashback involving Minori's father--and the fact I don't think she once describes the man as "her husband"--is another point that isn't made clear, and left either to a future chapter to reveal, or simply up to the reader's interpretations as it's less important than what's right in front of Takaharu & Kyou, here and now.

The other guesses I have to fill in the rest of what you've stated, are that Kyou's parents divorcing would disrupt her financial situation to the point she couldn't stay enrolled (she also mentions having to get a job), and given she raised Minori all on her own, she had no "backup" in family--either hers or the father's--to rely on, meaning that she found herself either cut off, or otherwise unable to go to them for help.
(We see in her little delirium of being sick that she worries over having ingredients to feed a younger Minori; from where I'm sitting, you don't worry over having ingredients--for something like onigiri--unless you're really on your own and responsible for everything, and are struggling to take care of both yourself and your child.)

But they also only dated for a couple months before she dropped out and disappeared. It was enough that they left a lasting impression on one another, of course--but as you said, Kyou's disposition is one of selflessness, putting the needs of others before herself.
She does it now with Minori as would be expected, but we still see it during the Christmas Cake chapter, when Takaharu has to press her for what she wants for a cake, because she just defaults to what Minori would like.
And the current tension between them is both characters feeling like they can't press forward in what they want, now, out of obligation and out of deference/respect and because it "might be too late" -- and as of ch.22, we can see that Kyou would not be opposed, except that she believes Takaharu wouldn't commit to that step...because he didn't before, either.

Honestly yeah great observation.

 

[Snuffsaid]

Why are we trying to spin it like he's supposed to look for her? And how would he even do that when she ghosted him?

Well, if after a few months he could contact her on the phone like he did... couldn't he just keep checking on her? we know he thought of her here and then, that's not up for question.

But we have his sister saying that he shouldn't act in a way that'll lead him to have regrets. I take this to mean that he regretted not pushing harder to keep kyou in his life. she suggested they split, he didnt do the work to keep them together. it's okay for them to make mistakes