This is being read as an offshoot continuing Episode 1, which was previously read as part of the Visual Novel Book Club.
Current week start date: April 14, 2023
Previous Week (Week 3) 
Next Week (Week 5)
Pace
We’re aiming to read approximately 22.5 - 25k characters per week! A suitable enough end point will be selected each week and posted within the thread.
This week's endpoint: 23.9k
Mid 5/06.
Scene transitions and character count (Steam version)
| Location |
Character Count |
| School |
11 |
| Nine ball |
1 342 |
| Kakeru’s home |
3 930 |
| Kakeru’s home (Beginning of 4/30) |
5 378 |
| Street |
10 746 |
| Kakeru’s home |
13 849 |
| Street (Beginning of 5/01) |
15 498 |
| Nine ball |
15 574 |
| Musings + School (Beginning of 5/06) |
20 433 |
| Kakeru’s home |
21 907 |
| Station |
22 966 |
| Street |
23 565 |
| Street (Endpoint) |
23 861 |
Discussion Guidelines
- Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
- When asking for help, do your best to provide context. Pasted text, screenshots, descriptions, etc. Unlike book clubs we can’t flip to relevant pages, so we may need a little help identifying exactly what is being discussed.
- Feel totally at ease to ask questions or give your thoughts, any time! Clubs live and die by participation, and asking whatever question you have, no matter how silly it may seem, helps others who are reading it and even the answerer themselves.
- Have fun, and do your best to interpret anything said with as much good faith as possible
Participants
- I’m reading along
- I have finished this part
- I’m still reading but haven’t reached this part yet
- I’m no longer reading
4 Likes
Done! Good stuff once more.
Spoilers
It helps that these are larger chunks, but it feels like so much more happens each time now; it’s nice. I have to say, in spite of the bigger events, awkward small talk is my favorite thing this week. I loved that. Ｄｏ ｙｏｕ ｌｉｋｅ ＳＵＳＨＩ？
I guess Kousaka appears to be more firmly on their side even in her other personality. I always thought her attempts to attract Kakeru were mildly threatening in the context of her power, but it’s making it seem like she’s just way too into him. I’d still wonder if this was misleading, but considering we know she’s going to be the focus of an episode… I’m guessing she’s a real ally.
It’s interesting to me that they always skip through Golden Week. Last time it was the issues with Kujou, now it’s this order to sit back for a bit. That feels suspicious? I wonder what the hooded girl is up to in that time. I don’t know if I’m ever going to actually trust Sophie, so I’m always hesitant about the stuff they say.
I was thinking we’re beginning to fall into one of those periods of nothing much happening like episode 1 indulged in too much and was planning to come say that it’s fine so far IF they get things moving along again soon. Then I hit that last line or two and it looks like the MC is off to do something dumb. Bad ending incoming? 
Either way, surely something is about to happen, and given that, I actually think it’s still great pacing. They’re so much better at it this chapter. I guess starting off a story like this is hard; a lot needed to be conveyed to lay the groundwork.
I wonder what it could be that stopped that second death? Is it just related to the fact the group encountered Rigveda in the first place? Hard to imagine how the MC hanging out with his sister otherwise impacted things, unless Kousaka is somehow involved through their influence on her. Hmm.
I’ve also had the realization I kind of don’t mind Yoichi anymore. He’s not great but… am I just building a tolerance? Haha.
There’s kind of a lot I’m not touching on actually, happy to have so many threads to pull at.
4 Likes
Another fun week. I’m enjoying the game a lot so far! 
spoilers
There were a lot of funny scenes with Yuuki this week. I liked how when the MC was bringing up the topic of Sophie, he was thinking she probably won’t believe this while in my head I was like out of all the people, she will believe this. 
It was funny when she was asking if Sophie said anything special about her later on when they were talking about Kakeru being a 特異点 and then her complete disappointment when Sophie hadn’t mentioned her at all.
The sushi scene was great too, I had to screenshot that one
It looks like we confirmed that people can hold multiple artifacts so I’m still thinking Sora will get another one at some point based off of the OP video. The talk about her sigma getting larger also seemed ominous. Sophie didn’t really give us an explanation as to what it means for Sora but I get the feeling she’d end up like the fire guy from the previous episode or something similar if she keeps abusing her powers.
Yeah the end of this week’s reading kind of caught me off guard. It’s like he is purposefully trying to run into Ghost here which has to be the dumbest idea possible? I guess we’ll see what happens in next weeks reading but after all the emphasize on being cautious, this feels like a weird move. I don’t think Kakeru will get seriously hurt since he’s the MC and all but maybe Sora appears out of nowhere for some reason and her & Ghost fight it out? Although with Sora’s current ability, I guess she wouldn’t be any help in a fight either. It does feel like we’re about to hit a bad end though.
4 Likes
Another very fun week of Sora’s antics!
This week spoilers
If I remember correctly, in the “teaser” at the end of the Episode 1, the girl (probably Ghost) had a stigma on her cheek, yet here we see her activate one on her hand - which I found strange at first until Sophie confirmed she has multiple artifacts.
So it seems everything is pointing towards her being the Evil Eye user. I also have the feeling that the guy we see petrified at the end of episode 1’s true ending is actual Takamine, turned into a stone by Ghost… but since we never see his face, it’s impossible to confirm.
I also found it slightly strange that Ghost talks about herself with the おれ pronoun. While I have seen 僕 used by females, this is I think the first time I see a girl using おれ. Made me wonder if this is supposed to be a hint of some sort.
I also have the feeling that Ghost has some way to steal artifacts and that’s how actually has managed to collect several - instead of she being granted many from the start.
Still, as usual the most fun parts were the usual interactions, not only with Sora but Yuuki also having some great moments.
#UnreasonableDemands
If someone was going to break the 4th wall, it was going to be Sora…
Like everyone else mentioned, it was hilarious seeing Sora try to get Yuuki to open up and failing.
#MyChuuniSensesAreTingling
Looking forward to what happens next week.
5 Likes
Did the reading in 2 days, let’s goo! Can’t say I want to do that regularly, but with this actually being week 8…
spoilers
The stealing thing was my first thought as well. At this point we’re really running down all the fantasy/isekai tropes. At the end of first one there a mention that the scene with the petrified guy stonifying himself might have been faked to throw them off the real culprit’s tail and it would fit with Ghost doing her thing. I’m kind of sad if that is the case though, I kinda liked the idea of her just being this sort of belligerent person. I was hoping she’d be red herring for the cast.
Regardless, I’m enjoying that there’s a visible antagonist driving the plot right now. I was originally expecting episode 1 to lean into the mystery components a bit more, but that fell through and following the kind of random kid logic felt inconsistent at times. It’s enjoyable seeing actual events happen rather than just their speculation and it’s lead to better characterization overall now that they’re forced to react to things in the moment.
4 Likes
Just wrapped up both week 3 and week 4 today! Not a whole lot to add to the discussion (given that I’m over a month late ), but yeah, I agree overall that the strengths of this VN are definitely in the interactions, and not so much in the more action-y bits.
Now, some of that is admittedly a bit of bias; as a general rule, I prefer slice-of-life type stuff as opposed to the more shounen-y type of media. I am liking the little bits of lore that Sophie drops here and there, even if there is something about the way she speaks that it feels like I crawl through those sections. I’m not even sure why; she doesn’t use any particularly crazy vocabulary or anything, but I find (our darling chuuni girl aside) Sophie to be where I tend to stop the most and have to think a bit more about what was said before moving on.
Either way, at this rate, I think I should be able to finish up the VN by Monday/Tuesday, and then I’ll be able to jump straight into Episode 3 with everyone and actually read live.
5 Likes
