Her mother, eh? So whatever this is that has a time limit, it has to do with her mother, I take it.
To be honest, this wasn't too bad of an arc, all things considered. Marika still went way overboard, but ... It had some cute moments, even if I don't really like how she conducts herself most of the time. This clearer backstory also feels like it takes some of the edge off how she always seemed to present herself as a sculpted image of Raku's 'ideal girl' from 11 years ago.
But I still don't like the fact she put so much effort into an image generated by a little kid's ramblings that might not have had much thought put in them in the first place.
But I can appreciate that the memories of him gave her the strength to push forward.