I was avoiding this one because I am not a big fan of triangles, but damn this one is good.
I feel bad for Erika, specially because it might lead up to her having some part in the time-skip thing — like a “I wish she would just disappear” moment when she didn’t actually mean it but the god’s were like HA! SIKE giving her what she wanted but not really. And obviously if that were the case she would harbour immense guilt for all those years even if she didn’t actively made sure it happened, it was just a 14 year-old fit of rage that sadly turned out to be fulfilled, just a coincidence that it did happen (but in her head, and maybe the others, it could not be). However she seems to have matured a lot and if it turns out to be the case her past self could be framed as a culprit (despite obviously not being) she would be able to handle it, and something tells me Aya would not blame her at all, given that she knows the bigger picture (her family situation was not good and maybe there was something even deeper than plain abuse going on, like, the whole issue with the family being the source of the supernatural — her wishing for it, her family being related to the supernatural which would give her “powers” to grant her fleeting wish, etc).
I just don’t want Erika to be depicted as the sore loser of a love triangle even after 7 years. We saw on chapter 1 that she heard the whole confession and got pissed, she might have even confronted Aya somehow because of it, but ain’t no way 21 year-old Erika doesn’t have bigger mental fortitude to accept whatever comes. She might even have had it back then, but one will never know given the circumstances of the parts of the triangle disappearing…
It could also be that this last conversation she had was not with Aya herself but some… empty shell filled with whatever lead to the girl’s disappearance. Anyways, so much mystery. This one’s GOOD! I just hope the adults will actually be adults, like Koto being somehow mature like Erika is.
We can excuse her avoiding Aya for now because there is too much going on — the absurdity of it and the emotional baggage she carried around for YEARS. But the whole deal should get closure some way or the other. And I do agree with people saying that… a 14 year-old is still a 14 year-old even if she’s supposed to be your age. Even if they have all the means to prove it’s the same person and therefore by the law she’s 21 just like the rest of them, that’s still a frozen picture of a past where they were still children. The other party (Koto) might have a hard time processing being an adult and allowing herself to still harbour feelings for a middle schooler, even if it’s someone who once was the same age as her.
Anyways, time travel, ethics, love, etc. There is no “age is just a number” loophole here, fellas.
And Aya could be very much dead and by the end of it they’ll find out she somehow died the day before the festival. But then some shenanigans happened and she appeared in the future to find peace, put an end to what she couldn’t do before tragedy. Like she’s not a ghost but “artificially alive”, if you get my gist (I don’t).
