So, I felt comforted by the fact that Mira kept saying she didn’t know what she was talking about, because I also found this part hard to parse LOL Responding with my best guesses about things, in case you want to try talking through them with me!
But yeah, I also had the same interpretation as you when I read it. That she’s the “night” that Mira has been calling.
Re: forgetting: she made it sound like children of stars, like Mira, have an “incompatibility” with the sun. Because the sun’s light is too strong for children of stars, it makes them forget the “night,” and they try to summon her (I guess subconsciously) in order to remember her again. Because she was being avoidant of her illness for so long, that’s probably why this is the first time Mira has seen her—because Karutos forced her to the brink, making her finally confront her feelings about the “night.”
For the last panel you linked… I also feel more unclear about it. Before she was talking about how Mira forgot her (the night), but here she’s referencing light (her light?). When it continues on the next page she talks about how the light will return to her little by little as she continues to summon her/remember her. …Which is, I guess, how the little star appears between her and Karutos on the following page (…142, I think?). Because it was some of the light that had returned to her, maybe…
You can see the little star here, which appears to be “fixing” the night and making it disappear from his skin.
I’ll also go ahead and assume she fainted because she was exhausted by the whole experience. Being that scared and upset probably took a lot out of her.
It also looks like Rei found her, given that this panel appears with him walking into the fake bookshop. So we know he ended up in the same location as her, and then presumably brought her home.
Further thoughts on the end of the chapter
Very interesting new reveals about the nature of Mira’s “illness”. It looks increasingly likely that it isn’t actually an illness, as the main problem seems to be that people are startled by the sudden darkness and bully Mira for it. For Mira herself, this seems to have lead to mental health problems because of the bullying, but the direct “symptoms” tend to be neutral or even beneficial for her (like having the helpful little shadow guys around and getting to meet the star child). Judging from the fact that Caltos himself didn’t suffer any ill effects from the darkness, it seems to be rather harmless for others, too.
So, if you ignore that doing his little experiment without Mira’s consent and leaving her lying around unconscious afterwards is an obvious dick move… I think it’s actually not a bad approach to the problem. They do need to find out somehow if there’s something genuinely dangerous about the darkness or if the problem is really just people’s reaction to it. So far, Rei has been taking it very slow with Mira, but she can’t have a normal life as long as their knowledge about the “disease” is so patchy.
I finally caught up with the book club after being on vacation! I have to say that this part of the chapter confused me a bit, but it was definitely interesting. I also really love the artwork in this whole book!
My thoughts about chapter 5
I still don’t really understand the basis of Mira’s powers. Like the other girl she saw in the darkness was super confusing…….. I agree with Mira that I don’t understand what she meant. I hope that Mira starts to let her powers out a bit since they seem to be pretty harmless and she can make cute stars (?).
Also i really like カルトス! I love me a good morally ambiguous character! I think its hilarious that he just made a whole fake book store to see what Mira would do.
Yeah, it really was confusing to read through… I tried to interpret it in my post, but still At this point I think the only part about her powers that seems more negative is like… the “infectiousness” of it? Since otherwise it really does seem pretty harmless!
YESSSS good taste LOL I felt exactly the same way about all that!! Plus loving morally ambiguous characters!!
Confusing for me, too, if that gives anyone comfort. I am guessing more will be revealed in future chapters
ch 5 to end
Here’s what I posted last week with some edits based on how my understanding has developed
In the illness-night scene at the fake bookstore, I’m interpreting that as Mira looking at the night personified. But I’m not entirely sure how to interpret who this new character is. I’ll call her night-girl. she says every living being is born from a star.
Cut to amusing Mira freak out about eating stars and those cute stars with halos and wings
Night-girl says Mira calls the night to remember the light (because due to the brightness of the sun she forgets she is a child of the stars, ie, as the starlight is so much weaker and drowned out by the sunlight). I think that’s what she’s trying to explain to Mira when Mira says she doesn’t get it (me neither I’m only 50% confident about what I pieced together).
One thing I’m confused about is this whole forgetting thing. Night-girl says she’s always by Mira’s side but then later that she forgot her? Just when I thought I understood why Mira would have forgotten the star thing, I don’t get why Night-girl would forget Mira.
Then Night girl gives Mira a piece of star in a kind “collect them all to get healed” vibe
And what the heck. I grew up on Disney why does Mira faint? How does she end up in her room? The fill in the blank aspect of Japanese media is very hard for me. Migraine already answered this, it’s just really tough on the first read to sort through what I’m supposed to understand and what I’m supposed to make up in my head
I think the exchange between Mira and star-girl is supposed to be vague on purpose We’re probably just supposed to take away that Mira is a ‘star-child,’ who was born from the stars unlike other humans, and when she calls the ‘night’ she is also able to see the ‘light’ (I assume of the stars). Anything in more detail will probably be revealed later.
The art for this is lovelyyy it’s like even though it’s in black and white I can see the colours like when they were gathering the stars and making the jam etc.
I too am confused by this star girl in Mira’s darkness, my initial thoughts were hey that’s Mira but a light version and they’re gonna merge and become a light dark master of magic but the follow up explanation did not clear it up for me alas we’ll find out eventually
Beautiful, antagonist set up to come back later, mira talks to herself (or something).
Ah, reading the thread it seems chapter 5 was meant to be split across two weeks… I’m ahead!
Hmm, I thought the other girl was another version of Mira. I’m not exactly sure on what she was trying to say either but I thought it was like she only appears in complete darkness. Like, only when there are no other lights will you call me or something.
It was also interesting to have that other memory spell brought up again.
Honestly, for the first split second, I thought she was a gender-swapped young Rei. Then I realized this didn’t make sense and also thought she was some version of Mira.
It’s been a year since I read this, but I think my thoughts were that this was Mira talking to herself while she was disassociating, and that maybe this light-Mira came out this time because Mira used her power too much.
There’s not really anything deep to it. It’s just that the star girl kind of looked like Rei at first, because of the light, messy hair. So, for a moment, I thought it was something like Mira hallucinating a person she trusted to alleviate her fear and something something crossdressing-fetish, but then I realized that the star girl also looked like a light-haired version of her, so that theory went out the window.
Like several people here, I was also confused by the explanations. But I interpreted it more as Mira forgetting, rather than her being forgotten. Also, Kartos is nicer than I expected. I really thought he took her to a real public place and risked putting a lot of people in danger.
At this point I think the only part about her powers that seems more negative is like… the “infectiousness” of it? Since otherwise it really does seem pretty harmless!
I’m only 50% confident about what I pieced together).
why does Mira faint? How does she end up in her room? The fill in the blank aspect of Japanese media is very hard for me. Migraine already answered this, it’s just really tough on the first read to sort through what I’m supposed to understand and what I’m supposed to make up in my head 
We’re probably just supposed to take away that Mira is a ‘star-child,’ who was born from the stars unlike other humans, and when she calls the ‘night’ she is also able to see the ‘light’ (I assume of the stars). Anything in more detail will probably be revealed later. 
but the follow up explanation did not clear it up for me 
Rei is so pretty
