Never mind the fact that Kurosaki had to possess super human speed to have reached them while they were in an elevator.

——

As revealed at the end of the previous chapter, we see Teru trapped in an elevator with a somewhat disturbing Akira and a very angry Kurosaki has gallantly arrived to rescue her.

Those beginning panels of Kurosaki’s anger are pretty frightening; it’s been a while since we’ve seen him in this state. In fact, it’s hard to say which of them looks crazier, especially when Kurosaki grabs the knife with his bare hand. But what really gets me is that good old Dengeki Daisy humor popping up right when you least expect it. Normally the random bit of humor might make an intense scene like that anticlimactic, but the readers are so used to this sort of development that it’d be more surprising if you didn’t expect it. I always enjoy how Dengeki is determined to uproot typical shoujo manga clichés and then point out exactly what they did to the reader.

While I would have preferred to see Teru’s strong and confident side come out against Akira, I think her reaction was much more realistic. Akira is an almost nightmarish figure for her because of this bloodlust he has for her whenever they meet. He’s unhinged in a childishly cruel way, meaning he’s unpredictable and probably wouldn’t mind beating Teru into the ground given half the chance. Those flashback scenes of her declaring war on Akira were humorous and made us respect her as a strong heroine, but it seems more fitting for us to be presented with Teru’s weaknesses before she brings out her strength.

In comparison, the rest of the chapter was a bit sparse. The older members of Team Kurebayashi (as they’re now called, it seems) continue to be cryptic and it turns out Rena’s fiancé skipped lunch because he was with Chiharu, unsurprisingly. The only mystery about this guy is what his face looks like, if the author is planning to show it. As much as I want to anticipate it, I just can’t think who the person could be. But hopefully it will be an exciting reveal.

Poor Rena, her bad luck with guys has almost become overdone. It seems like she’s the author’s fallback victim for bad boyfriends. The whole engagement device was really sudden and out of place. Yeah, Rena’s rich and all, but to pull a fiancé out of thin air like that messes up the continuity somewhat. However, I’m willing to look past all this depending on how well Rena and Kiyoshi’s budding relationship is handled, which will hopefully be very soon.

GO Rating: 3/5

[kissmanga]