@nutman451 When you are gentlemen of fine taste such as us it is inevitable to cross paths.
About Shirane, the concept of "divine messenger" includes humans that work as the representatives of the god's will, as Kukuri already is the avatar of Hakusan, the powerful one, i think it would be dangerous to have another god so close to her. And i dont think Kazuya is strong enough to give trouble to a god even if she was a minor one, like the one that served our Kukuri.
Dont mind me about what i said, i just wanted to vent a little, i still love Kiriha i just have been a little overly sensitive with some things. And Kiriha's "modern" behavior is totally the fault of Kanaka, the Bisexual God of Arouseness, that woman would go to anyone Kazuya father was just the most courageous one ( man must have some core strength to be able to put two buns in Kanaka's oven).
Oh yes, Kokuyou is totally the relief of the story,
any relief for that matter, but i really like her. Her interaction with Kukuri was really sweet, and behind her EXTREMELY strong poker face there is someone that truly cares, and funny enough... she is probably one of the weakest of the bunch.
Who Chisato? XD Poor girl got so thoroughly pushed to the side that i think most people dont even remember her, and unfortunately, i understand why she wasn't much liked, she was played too much as the tsundere and she couldn't hold ground with the other side characters. Kazuya male friends are just too iconic too.
I am hoping that the author dont just plays this fight with Shirane as "he was getting serious" and in the end, he is really stronger than her, Shirane wouldn't be Kukuri servant if she wasn't really capable and she showed that she has some impressive capabilities and i really hope the author doesn't downplay it just to keep Kazuya in the high. To me, this method of downplaying everyone around the MC is a lazy way to portray their strength and weakens the story enormously not only because this series has such an amazing cast of characters this makes the MC growth feel underserved.
It is always more fun when there are other strong characters besides the MC so that we can feel that their accomplishments are real... and this story, in particular, doesn't need to pull the stupidity i mentioned, because there is already a good explanation for why Kazuya is the only one that must kill Kanaka, him being the curse origin and the curse backlash, so no need to downplay people.