Yofukashi no Uta - Ch. 172 - What time?

[Substitution]

We get the ending where Naz becomes a human and Kou becomes a vampire and it ends like it begins but in reverse.

 

[popo53414]

NazuMiLF route?

 

[vmman]

I personally never got up that early to ever go to school!

Once I got up at 1:30 am and almost went to uni, thank god my mother stopped me lol

 

[buff730]

I had a feeling Kou would go back to school after they introduced so many characters from school from the last arc. He'll probably go back to school for a while since he was away for so long and it was sorta foreshadowed when he saw that teacher that one night. I think all the girls ended up falling for him so being around them will help him figure out his feelings for Nazuna. I also think Nazuna won't see Kou for a while because she'll be afraid to be with him since she thinks he might die if she drinks his blood again. I really think that the whole idea of dying from drinking the blood of the one you love will be wrong since Mahiru and Kiku's death seemed like they could've been from the sun. They'll just play it off as a joke that they got the theory wrong and Nazuna will just be annoyed she was away from Kou for so long because of it. We still don't actually know how a vampire can turn human or if it's even possible. It's all still speculation based on theories Haru and Kiku came up with.

 

[SardonicJester]

Plot twist: Kiku died from the sun and vampires don't die due to love

 

[SonicDisgaea98]

Kou seems to be losing interest in the whole vampire world, and trying to resume his normal life, which makes me hate him so fucking much with nazuna putting her life on the line just for him to lose interest like the kid he is. This wishy washy attitude of his won't do. First it was being emotionally stunted, then traumatized by his friend dying, now just losing interest in the whole thing. I don't think it's just because of Mahiro's death, he just seems absolutely lukewarm about the whole situation and has been for a while. I really hope the vampires hold their promise of killing him once the year is up. It feels like they are cool with him now and that is has robbed the situation of any urgency.

I mean, he had already established that he NEVER really had any attachment to being a vampire, and that at this point He's mostly just doing it for Nazuna. I think he still does intend to become a vampire, but that isn't his main motivation.

 

[SonicDisgaea98]

Plot twist: Kiku died from the sun and vampires don't die due to love

That would be such a cop out ending. Problem is, it's also the only ending that doesn't end in tragedy.

 

[SlankDombus]

Once again, honestly -

Susuki tells Kou she cannot drink his blood because there is a rumor that drinking the blood of a human you love will kill them.

Kiku figures out that falling in love with a human (and drinking their blood?) will turn you back into a human and kill you.

Both Azami and Kou realize Mahiru is likely to die. Kiku knows she is likely to die. 2+2=4. Is this not basically the story behind Nazuna's parents?

The sun has nothing to do with any of this. I'm not saying the sun isn't a pain in the ass or super inconvenient, like obviously it's enough for them to want to avoid it, but we've never heard anything about the sun killing a vampire. If the sun were powerful enough to outright kill a vampire then I don't think they'd be so casual about being around during sunrise or making sure to just stay in shade. Like, pretty sure sunlight comes through Nazuna's windows. I think it's very possible that being in the sunlight is irritating but no one has ever been panicked about it, and it feels like by this point that would have happened if it actually meant anything.

Idk, I'm just so confused. The author, time after time, explains exactly how all of these vampire rules work via the characters in the story and it has never once been wrong. And when it's something uncertain like Nazuna being a dhampyr, the characters will admit they don't know. So the fact that before all this happened, we were told both Kiku and Mahiru were likely going to die, and then that's what happened... I mean, I don't know. Clearly the setup here is now that Nazuna loves Kou, what will she do about drinking blood? But instead everyone's tying themselves into knots like "well that's not how it works, why are they even worried about it?" because it IS how it works, you guys. The author isn't being evasive about how the sun works...or any other thing. The author's not lying to us lmao.

And to be TOTALLY clear, I think that all sucks. I'm not even defending it as being good. But I feel like a lot of other people are coming up with thing after thing to try and make it seem not as lame as it unfortunately is. This is all me giving the author as much credit with writing as possible - I'm assuming all the shit they say is what matters. If they actually do pull some gotcha at the end about some thing they never even talked about, then that would be such a sad fumble and it'd really hurt my overall opinion on the story.

Edit to add: I was thinking about this so now I'm actually kind of curious - I'm starting to think a fair amount of people read through this whole story with the belief that the "in order to become a vampire, you need to fall in love" thing was meant to be a metaphor or just otherwise proven wrong at some point later on instead of that just actually being the whole premise of the story. It would just make a lot of the discussions I see make a lot more sense if people thought you were supposed to question everything provided as being unreliable narrator, when I personally think it's just an earnest romance story where love actually does something weird to vampire biology.

 

[TestAddress]

"It is either do it or do not."

- Goblin Slayer

 

[TestAddress]

That would be such a cop out ending. Problem is, it's also the only ending that doesn't end in tragedy.

Kiku died of old age, because time got her by drinking a loved one.

 

[catsdontsmile]

Once again, honestly -

Susuki tells Kou she cannot drink his blood because there is a rumor that drinking the blood of a human you love will kill them.

Kiku figures out that falling in love with a human (and drinking their blood?) will turn you back into a human and kill you.

Both Azami and Kou realize Mahiru is likely to die. Kiku knows she is likely to die. 2+2=4. Is this not basically the story behind Nazuna's parents?

The sun has nothing to do with any of this. I'm not saying the sun isn't a pain in the ass or super inconvenient, like obviously it's enough for them to want to avoid it, but we've never heard anything about the sun killing a vampire. If the sun were powerful enough to outright kill a vampire then I don't think they'd be so casual about being around during sunrise or making sure to just stay in shade. Like, pretty sure sunlight comes through Nazuna's windows. I think it's very possible that being in the sunlight is irritating but no one has ever been panicked about it, and it feels like by this point that would have happened if it actually meant anything.

Idk, I'm just so confused. The author, time after time, explains exactly how all of these vampire rules work via the characters in the story and it has never once been wrong. And when it's something uncertain like Nazuna being a dhampyr, the characters will admit they don't know. So the fact that before all this happened, we were told both Kiku and Mahiru were likely going to die, and then that's what happened... I mean, I don't know. Clearly the setup here is now that Nazuna loves Kou, what will she do about drinking blood? But instead everyone's tying themselves into knots like "well that's not how it works, why are they even worried about it?" because it IS how it works, you guys. The author isn't being evasive about how the sun works...or any other thing. The author's not lying to us lmao.

And to be TOTALLY clear, I think that all sucks. I'm not even defending it as being good. But I feel like a lot of other people are coming up with thing after thing to try and make it seem not as lame as it unfortunately is. This is all me giving the author as much credit with writing as possible - I'm assuming all the shit they say is what matters. If they actually do pull some gotcha at the end about some thing they never even talked about, then that would be such a sad fumble and it'd really hurt my overall opinion on the story.

I think it's still gonna be a gotcha but it will have to do with how nazuna's mother died and how nazuna was born which is still a mystery.

 

[SlankDombus]

I think it's still gonna be a gotcha but it will have to do with how nazuna's mother died and how nazuna was born which is still a mystery.

Nah I don't know if that really counts as a gotcha, at least not in the way I originally meant it in reference to the sun or other seemingly unimportant details. We know Nazuna's situation is a mystery and it is treated as such in-universe, so it's kind of expected we'll figure out more about that at some point. I would also hazard a guess that Nazuna's mom and dad dying still very much had something to do with love.

 

[Eighty-six]

Kiku figures out that falling in love with a human (and drinking their blood?) will turn you back into a human and kill you.

She doesn't "figure it out"-- she only "thinks" she knows (chapter 146, p. 15). According to Kiku, Haru instead thought that the way was to have a baby with the man you fell in love with (chapter 153, p. 5) and we know that's what she went with. Kiku never answers straightforwardly, even when asked, as to why she didn't try just having a baby with someone she loved.

Both Azami and Kou realize Mahiru is likely to die. Kiku knows she is likely to die. 2+2=4. Is this not basically the story behind Nazuna's parents?

It isn't. Kabura was well aware of Haru's pregnancy; Haru died because she stopped drinking blood altogether (chapter 68, p.8). Her husband told Kabura of all of this, and had died sometime after (chapter 68, p.9).

The sun has nothing to do with any of this. I'm not saying the sun isn't a pain in the ass or super inconvenient, like obviously it's enough for them to want to avoid it, but we've never heard anything about the sun killing a vampire.

Every time we've seen a vampire die and turn to dust, it happens in the sunlight... but when they're killed, they're also forced to hold a human belonging they had an attachment to, or they... have happen to them whatever happened to Kiku.

But the weakness objects aren't said to kill vampires-- Hatsuka talks about how the weakness objects have effect in direct proportion to the feelings for that object in their previous human lives (chapter 55, p. 13), so they only incapacitate them and make them vulnerable to being killed. Additionally, both of Kyouko's shown vampire kills are in the sunlight (chapters 39 and 81-- in chapter 39, the man howls in pain holding his possession, but focus is given to the rising sun at p. 9 and it's only afterwards in p. 10 where he's disintegrating in the sunlight; the pattern is similar in chapter 81, where Kyouko's father is only freaking out holding the lighter but is shown finishing his disintegration in the sunlight). In contrast, Kyouko uses Akkun's weakness object on him in chapter 55 and proceeds to repeatedly stab him while he's paralyzed, yet he's still far from dying.

Maybe the reason why nobody spells out that a vampire will die with too much sunlight exposure is because it's a no-brainer for them.

If the sun were powerful enough to outright kill a vampire then I don't think they'd be so casual about being around during sunrise

They aren't, though. Vampires have organized their lives around the night, and not the day. Even when Nazuna tries going to school, it's night school she goes to.

Like, pretty sure sunlight comes through Nazuna's windows.

First time we saw that happen (chapter 11, p. 14), she was already out of bed and the sunlight that shone on it.

Idk, I'm just so confused. The author, time after time, explains exactly how all of these vampire rules work via the characters in the story and it has never once been wrong. And when it's something uncertain like Nazuna being a dhampyr, the characters will admit they don't know.

And they were written to admit that they have no certainty about the most critical conflict catalysts for the Hokkaido arc.

Susuki relates a rumor among vampires that if a vampire sucks the blood of someone they love, that human dies; Azami, recognizing this is a rumor, consequently conjectures that Kiku's objective was to prove that she could love using Mahiru's dead body as proof. This was apparently off base-- Kiku wanted to die a human, and thought that if she sucked the blood of someone she loved, she would die. But she doesn't present any evidence for this, and her conjecture is opposed by Haru who believes that one can become a human by getting pregnant by the one they love (rather than sucking their blood). And now, Hatsuka is connecting the dots about something that he wasn't present for at all and could have just been asked about if he was so sure (it's without a "why didn't you just come and ask me" moment), and then, that would prompt the question of why nobody else in their vamp hangout group know what he did.

What's happening here is that multiple characters are being written as confidently speaking about something they're not fully knowledgeable of, or would have no reason to be fully knowledgeable of... but they're doing so out of motivated thinking (Kiku, Haru-according-to-Kiku) or out of an abundance of caution given the risks (everyone else).

This is even done with the weakness objects-- even though they're spoken of/demonstrated as weaknesses that leave them vulnerable to being killed in chapters 55 and 56, it's also said lackadaisically that they'll die from touching them "or something like that" (chapter 57, p. 4).

 

[SlankDombus]

She doesn't "figure it out"-- she only "thinks" she knows (chapter 146, p. 15). According to Kiku, Haru instead thought that the way was to have a baby with the man you fell in love with (chapter 153, p. 5) and we know that's what she went with. Kiku never answers straightforwardly, even when asked, as to why she didn't try just having a baby with someone she loved.


It isn't. Kabura was well aware of Haru's pregnancy; Haru died because she stopped drinking blood altogether (chapter 68, p.8). Her husband told Kabura of all of this, and had died sometime after (chapter 68, p.9).


Every time we've seen a vampire die and turn to dust, it happens in the sunlight... but when they're killed, they're also forced to hold a human belonging they had an attachment to, or they... have happen to them whatever happened to Kiku.

But the weakness objects aren't said to kill vampires-- Hatsuka talks about how the weakness objects have effect in direct proportion to the feelings for that object in their previous human lives (chapter 55, p. 13), so they only incapacitate them and make them vulnerable to being killed. Additionally, both of Kyouko's shown vampire kills are in the sunlight (chapters 39 and 81-- in chapter 39, the man howls in pain holding his possession, but focus is given to the rising sun at p. 9 and it's only afterwards in p. 10 where he's disintegrating in the sunlight; the pattern is similar in chapter 81, where Kyouko's father is only freaking out holding the lighter but is shown finishing his disintegration in the sunlight). In contrast, Kyouko uses Akkun's weakness object on him in chapter 55 and proceeds to repeatedly stab him while he's paralyzed, yet he's still far from dying.

Maybe the reason why nobody spells out that a vampire will die with too much sunlight exposure is because it's a no-brainer for them.


They aren't, though. Vampires have organized their lives around the night, and not the day. Even when Nazuna tries going to school, it's night school she goes to.


First time we saw that happen (chapter 11, p. 14), she was already out of bed and the sunlight that shone on it.


And they were written to admit that they have no certainty about the most critical conflict catalysts for the Hokkaido arc.

Susuki relates a rumor among vampires that if a vampire sucks the blood of someone they love, that human dies; Azami, recognizing this is a rumor, consequently conjectures that Kiku's objective was to prove that she could love using Mahiru's dead body as proof. This was apparently off base-- Kiku wanted to die a human, and thought that if she sucked the blood of someone she loved, she would die. But she doesn't present any evidence for this, and her conjecture is opposed by Haru who believes that one can become a human by getting pregnant by the one they love (rather than sucking their blood). And now, Hatsuka is connecting the dots about something that he wasn't present for at all and could have just been asked about if he was so sure (it's without a "why didn't you just come and ask me" moment), and then, that would prompt the question of why nobody else in their vamp hangout group know what he did.

What's happening here is that multiple characters are being written as confidently speaking about something they're not fully knowledgeable of, or would have no reason to be fully knowledgeable of... but they're doing so out of motivated thinking (Kiku, Haru-according-to-Kiku) or out of an abundance of caution given the risks (everyone else).

This is even done with the weakness objects-- even though they're spoken of/demonstrated as weaknesses that leave them vulnerable to being killed in chapters 55 and 56, it's also said lackadaisically that they'll die from touching them "or something like that" (chapter 57, p. 4).

I think I've realized that you and I just have very different ideas about what the point of this story is, which honestly, that's totally fair.

 

[Eighty-six]

I think I've realized that you and I just have very different ideas about what the point of this story is, which honestly, that's totally fair.

We haven't been talking about "the point"-- only narrative details. I'm pretty open about what "the point" could be beyond the obvious of it being a boy-meets-vampire-girl story.

I don't know what you're getting at.

 

[BadmanBlues]

Kou seems to be losing interest in the whole vampire world, and trying to resume his normal life, which makes me hate him so fucking much with nazuna putting her life on the line just for him to lose interest like the kid he is. This wishy washy attitude of his won't do. First it was being emotionally stunted, then traumatized by his friend dying, now just losing interest in the whole thing. I don't think it's just because of Mahiro's death, he just seems absolutely lukewarm about the whole situation and has been for a while. I really hope the vampires hold their promise of killing him once the year is up. It feels like they are cool with him now and that is has robbed the situation of any urgency.

Kou is still dealing with his grief and has become increasingly aware of the costs of being a vampire. What hasn't waivered is his affection for Nazuna. Besides, he's still 14, even if he feels older sometimes. The kid is going to make mistakes, and Nazuna already called him out on his jealousy - when she said that she didn't like it, but she agreed to the date to support Kou. His ungratefulness was unbecoming. But she's not the only one risking her life. Kou has almost died like three times now.

Anyway, Akira is still working through it. He's still working through it. Him spending some time with his friend and fellow mourner at school isn't something that will hurt. Caring for his friends is arguably the mature and responsible thing to do. That's what separates Kou from Mahiru. Kou values all his relationships, from friendships to romance. That's normal and healthy - and I would think less of him if he abandoned all the people who cherished him. It's very clear at this point that he's not going to do anything which would force him to abandon his friends.

Where you see disinterest, I see a lot of struggle. Many desires and obligations are pulling him in different directions. IMO that's human, not worth hating him over.

 

[BadmanBlues]

I'm still left confused about the Kiku thing. She always came across to me as the manipulative psycho gf with 50 exes (a few even becoming killers because of her irresponsibility), and you tell your homeboy is bad news, but homeboy thinks he can fix her and they be in a toxic relationship for the next few months or years.
Thought she was a good villain for the story, but everything after Mahiru left to be with Kiku, or at least since the Okinawa chapters, the manga just became dull somehow and felt like it was trying to nullify Kiku's role as an antagonist. I also can't buy that Kiku was truly in love with Mahiru and died like that since she likely cared more about the idea of being human again than anything else.
Another thing I want to mention is that I thought it was already established by Nazuna early on that the sun can't kill vampires in this world, so does that mean Nazuna was wrong and just based that fact off of her own experience (which wouldn't make sense since Honda or the other vampires would have mentioned that the sun was lethal or not at some point), or are Mahiru and/or Kiku alive and running about in Okinawa?
(It's probably been a year or two since I started the manga, so forgive me if my memory is spotty or I am wrong)

Sun can and does kill vampires.
Kiku explicitly warned Mahiru of the sunlight.
All the vampires are night walkers.
And the detective used sunlight in conjunction with a wedding ring to kill a vampire.

I agree that the whole thing with Kiku seems implausible. But it's only ambiguous to us, who actually witnessed her die in the early morning sun. Despite Hatsuka's firm claims about what happened, we still have information he doesn't. So, she may not have fallen in love, or the myth may be bullshit, or it could be true. We just don't know.

 

[SlankDombus]

We haven't been talking about "the point"-- only narrative details. I'm pretty open about what "the point" could be beyond the obvious of it being a boy-meets-vampire-girl story.

I don't know what you're getting at.

Sorry. I just mean like, you give this beautiful reply and all these sources but I just don't think any of it matters because I think the "falling in love" part of the story is way, way more important than the "with a vampire" part. I take what the author has characters tell us about vampires at face value because I think the story is about love and emotion in general so it would make most sense for it to actually be the reason for all of these things. To me that was always the premise from the beginning.

 

[BadmanBlues]

She doesn't "figure it out"-- she only "thinks" she knows (chapter 146, p. 15). According to Kiku, Haru instead thought that the way was to have a baby with the man you fell in love with (chapter 153, p. 5) and we know that's what she went with. Kiku never answers straightforwardly, even when asked, as to why she didn't try just having a baby with someone she loved.


It isn't. Kabura was well aware of Haru's pregnancy; Haru died because she stopped drinking blood altogether (chapter 68, p.8). Her husband told Kabura of all of this, and had died sometime after (chapter 68, p.9).


Every time we've seen a vampire die and turn to dust, it happens in the sunlight... but when they're killed, they're also forced to hold a human belonging they had an attachment to, or they... have happen to them whatever happened to Kiku.

But the weakness objects aren't said to kill vampires-- Hatsuka talks about how the weakness objects have effect in direct proportion to the feelings for that object in their previous human lives (chapter 55, p. 13), so they only incapacitate them and make them vulnerable to being killed. Additionally, both of Kyouko's shown vampire kills are in the sunlight (chapters 39 and 81-- in chapter 39, the man howls in pain holding his possession, but focus is given to the rising sun at p. 9 and it's only afterwards in p. 10 where he's disintegrating in the sunlight; the pattern is similar in chapter 81, where Kyouko's father is only freaking out holding the lighter but is shown finishing his disintegration in the sunlight). In contrast, Kyouko uses Akkun's weakness object on him in chapter 55 and proceeds to repeatedly stab him while he's paralyzed, yet he's still far from dying.

Maybe the reason why nobody spells out that a vampire will die with too much sunlight exposure is because it's a no-brainer for them.


They aren't, though. Vampires have organized their lives around the night, and not the day. Even when Nazuna tries going to school, it's night school she goes to.


First time we saw that happen (chapter 11, p. 14), she was already out of bed and the sunlight that shone on it.


And they were written to admit that they have no certainty about the most critical conflict catalysts for the Hokkaido arc.

Susuki relates a rumor among vampires that if a vampire sucks the blood of someone they love, that human dies; Azami, recognizing this is a rumor, consequently conjectures that Kiku's objective was to prove that she could love using Mahiru's dead body as proof. This was apparently off base-- Kiku wanted to die a human, and thought that if she sucked the blood of someone she loved, she would die. But she doesn't present any evidence for this, and her conjecture is opposed by Haru who believes that one can become a human by getting pregnant by the one they love (rather than sucking their blood). And now, Hatsuka is connecting the dots about something that he wasn't present for at all and could have just been asked about if he was so sure (it's without a "why didn't you just come and ask me" moment), and then, that would prompt the question of why nobody else in their vamp hangout group know what he did.

What's happening here is that multiple characters are being written as confidently speaking about something they're not fully knowledgeable of, or would have no reason to be fully knowledgeable of... but they're doing so out of motivated thinking (Kiku, Haru-according-to-Kiku) or out of an abundance of caution given the risks (everyone else).

This is even done with the weakness objects-- even though they're spoken of/demonstrated as weaknesses that leave them vulnerable to being killed in chapters 55 and 56, it's also said lackadaisically that they'll die from touching them "or something like that" (chapter 57, p. 4).

I think this is probably my favorite post on mangadex. Not just because I agree with it, but because you've sincerely engaged with the story in a rigorous fashion to do reasonable literary analysis. Engaging with stories isn't about speed, it's about how much you can get out of them. You're clearly getting so much out of this one, it puts a smile on my face.

 

[Jadeite_McSwag]

Thank you for translating this, I appreciate it heroes and keep up the great work