Really enjoying reading this! Loving all the fantastical elements and Kasane is really sus.
Speculations
Like everyone else said, I think she might be related to the bug somehow, but I kind of think she might actually know something more about it than what she’s giving away? At least that’s how I felt from the really weird way she, as a researcher, was like “oh, maybe I’m the only one” (without even asking why that might be the case that she doesn’t bug out).
I don’t know if she’s causing the bugs herself (like, being the “magician” or related to the “magician” behind them), but I do think she ties into the bigger plot somehow. I also don’t think she causes them directly because it doesn’t seem like she knows the extent of the bugs.
Edit: Shame and suffering, need new eyesQuestion: The kanji combo “恒成” comes up, but I couldn’t find it in my dictionary. Any help? I kinda got what it meant in context, but I’m just curious.
Crazy speculations: referencing the title, what if Kasane is the God herself and is creating the bugs to have fun watching her “test subjects” behavior?
I’m not 100% sure, but from other posts online it looks like ビターン is used as a taunt (挑発), like “Are you chicken?” in American slang.
From Yahoo Answers:
I think Kon is telling Kasane that if he said something she asked him to do was 無理, he feels like she (Kasane) would just say he was being a scaredy cat. Or at least that’s how I interpreted it (I could be wrong).
I have only one question this time. This was much easier than the previous part.
Page 43
Kon: ほんとに跡形も無いんだもんな
Is that んだもん indicating reason here, with something being omitted before the sentence? Like “[Ah, it really looks different today,] because there’s really no trace of it anymore.”? Or is it just some sort of filler and the sentence is more like a straight “There’s really no trace of it anymore.”
Chapter notes
I liked how at the beginning of the chapter, Kon walked with us through places which we saw in the last chapter, but which look completely different now.
Also Kon will get zero points on his homework because it seems he writes Japanese in English class
And I’m feeling kind of sorry for Kasane. Being so interested in bugs, but being unaffected by them and having to always rely on others to tell you how the actual thing feels must be hard. Also explains why she needs an assistant. Glad to see she doesn’t seem to worry about it tho.
(Although having read all of your thoughts in this chapter now, she’s definitely a fair bit suspicious… )
Much like @Book9, I’m also wondering a bit about this whole “researching bugs” thing. Since it seems like they are all one-offs, researching details like “Can you also use your hands instead of your feet” seem a bit useless if it will never happen again. But then again, I’m not a bug researcher, and Kasane seems like she might just be naturally curious about all kinds of details, useful or not.
And apart from useless-seeming details there might be bigger patterns that are interesting. And yeah, of course, the human side. I guess, just like Kon, we haven’t seen Kasane much at work yet.
The latter. のだ/んだ can be used for emphasis as well as explanation. So it’s just emphasizing that there really is nothing. もの/もん can be used for explanation, but also to just express a bit of dissatisfaction/discomfort, which fits Kon, I feel. He might not be unhappy the plants have all disappeared, per se, but he definitely seems a bit uncomfortable with the concept of the bugs in general, so it’s probably a dissatisfaction with not really having a clear answer to anything, and now things just reset and we’re on to the next bug.
Funny I read the manga before the club started and went huh…what are you talking about … made me go back and look at it… didn’t even realize this when I was reading … nice catch!
. NOTHING TO SEE HERE! The word I thought it looked like made so much sense too hahaha
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