Is cute. But I still can't understand this kind of misunderstanding situation. I've met some real scary looking dudes and girls before... But I never back down or be scared when talking to them. Is it a japan thing? Maybe?
@Nyaaa Actual violence is rare in Japanese society because that society is geared to punish social disturbance instead. In a society geared towards punishing violence, the initiator of violence gets the boot. In a society like Japan's, BOTH sides involved in the violence get the boot. This is why the Japanese avoid the mere potential of violence. They don't want to get blamed by society for getting involved in disturbance.
Another way of looking at it: If you get beat up by someone your peers would assign blame to that someone. In Japan, your peers will assign blame to YOU for somehow getting into a situation where someone found an excuse to beat you up. After all, everyone else manages to avoid tussles, why can't you?
@AbsurdAsparagus We're talking schoolyard tussles, not violent crimes.
@Nyaaa It's a legacy of Confucianism, or rather Mencius' interpretation of it. In Imperial China the law (which the Japanese adopted) used to punish everyone involved in public brawls without regards to who started it. From a collectivist standpoint, the problem isn't that some members of society have a predilection towards violence but that violence in public disturbs the regular flow of society. By punishing everyone the system removes the need to assign blame and applies pressure directly on everyone to force them to avoid the act of violence itself.
If anyone's curious, this looks to have two more chapters, but only two more chapters. It seems that it ended after a single volume, as mentioned on the author's twitter page. Which really sucks, this one had some great potential.