So was this a partial attempt to explain why Runa's face is always so impassive? Thanks for the chapter. Though I'm expecting in an upcoming chapter for Chekhov's gift card to pop up again or for Runa to either bench press Akari in a rather out of pocket way or to ambush human chair her. I'm still expecting to see some more over the top powers from Omochi... Like a human scale humanoid mecha that Omochi will use to perform some more covert wingwoman...shipping....matchmaking while at the school.
Though on the other hand I think it would be hilarious if a later plot point ends up being that Runa is mistaken and she just encountered someone else named Akari. I mean her hair changed quite a bit over a decade so her expecting Akari's hair to remain the same over that length of time I think I would be a humorous twist to have the real "Akari' show up and escalate things.