A peek at Nagi’s brother, Professor Garan’s guidance finally becoming fruitful, and a disastrous day at the theme park… SO much happens in this volume, it’s hard to keep up!
Scroll to the bottom for a link to sample the series!
Author
This series is written by Modomu Akagawara (X), and Hyūganatsu (X).
The original author of the light novel also wrote The Apothecary Diaries light novel!
Genre & Tropes
High school life, fantasy, mystery, adventure.
Info about this series (ongoing)
There are currently three volumes published in English, and 13 in Japanese.
TL;DR rating
In my opinion, this was by far the best volume in the series as of yet. There is just so much payoff from the slow buildup that occured in the previous few volumes!
My thoughts on this volume (BIG Spoilers!)
As the previous volume ended on a crazy cliffhanger, I was very quick to continue reading. With just about every part of Nagi’s life is shrouded in mystery, she is still struggling with understand exactly who she can trust. While of course she should be able to trust her classmates and teachers, there could always be a traitor amongst them… Personally, the only people I truly trust in Nagi’s circle are Tsukuyomi Nomikoto, Hoshino, Monaka, and Touta. Everyone else is still up in the air. While Sagami and Miruru are almost absolutely innocent, they still haven’t fully won me over. When it comes to the actual teachers at school… I really only trust the principal.
It feels like Nagi isn’t as suspicious of others as I am though, as when Tsukuyomi Nomikoto helps her train, she can only envision herself running away from some scary outsider. It’s far more likely that should someone try to kidnap her, they would first try to win her trust, right? More than likely, it would be someone posing as student…and that’s more or less what happens in this volume! The would-be kidnapper was able to easily infiltrate Nagi’s school, and all she had to do was dangle a piece of evidence that she knew her brother to almost win her over! If Tsukuyomi Nomikoto hasn’t appeared when he did, all the training he did with Nagi would have been for naught.
I loved the would-be kidnappers character, as we still don’t know if she was actually a good or bad character. We know she wasn’t lying—she really was trying to bring Nagi to her brother—but her brother is a rather suspicious character! Honestly, I wouldn’t trust him… Why won’t he come out of hiding!? What happened in the future that he’s trying to avoid!? And how did he establish a relationship with someone as loyal as the would-be kidnapper? Hopefully my questions will be answered eventually…
After the events surrounding the kidnapping come to a conclusion, things calm down for a moment…but really only for a moment. This volume was an absolute rollercoaster—just as the calm, slice of life mood approached, something crazy happened to raise the tension!
Now…Let’s talk about what I would refer to as the most important revelation made in this volume: the traitor. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I didn’t trust him from the moment he was introduced several volumes ago. Him being portrayed as such a meek, easily stepped-on character always rubbed me the wrong way. He also seemed to have a sort of complex when it came to his own powers, so it would make sense if he had secretly become obsessed with researching ways to amplify one’s own power…like the naturalists that kidnapped Miruru a long time ago.
I wasn’t all that happy when he was assigned to be one of Nagi’s special interest teachers, but he did feel like an almost normal researcher during this time. “Maybe he’s just a terrible teacher, and really excels at during research?” I thought to myself more than a few times. But then when he and Nagi finally discovered her power in this volume, I went right back to doubting him. I was at first distracted by his childlike joy at finally being able to use his own powers—Nagi’s power is to greatly amplify other’s powers—he really did seem like a guy who had been depressed at the fact that he was surrounded by powerful beings while being powerless himself. I almost felt for him. Almost. It was when he warned Nagi directly after discovering her powers to not tell anyone—not even Tsukuyomi Nomikoto—that I knew he was no good. If he had just warned her to not tell anyone, I would have just stayed suspicious, as of course she shouldn’t be sharing the secret of her power! It would absolutely cause the naturalists to target her, if they haven’t already been looking for her. It’s the fact that he stressed not telling Tsukuyomi Nomikoto, someone powerful enough that he clearly wouldn’t even think to use her. He didn’t want her closest ally to know because he was planning on keeping Nagi all to himself, the snake!
When it was finally revealed that he was suspicious at the very end of the volume, I felt so vindicated. I was a little upset that it wasn’t Nagi, but Oruha that first realized how sketchy he had been acting… But I really can’t fault Nagi. She shouldn’t be placed in a position where she is forced to doubt those who should be her closest allies, like her teachers.
This volume ended on yet another cliffhanger, however with the way the events of this volume played out, there could be a huge disaster waiting in volume seven… There’s only one way to know how the story will play out, and that’s to read on!
Things I particularly enjoyed (spoilers)
❤️ Oruha shining in the house of mirrors—she really is such a complicated character! As I had been thinking she would end up being a more villainous character, watching her protect Nagi was quite surprising! In a good way, of course.
🧡 Touta reluctantly tagging along to the amusement park after Nagi specifically asked him to stay—he’s so cute, I love him.
💛 Finally seeing Nagi’s brother!! Honestly when I pictured him, I imagined him to be quite a bit younger, and with short hair. It took me a minute to even realize who he was.
💚 Watching Nagi slowly realize exactly what was happening in the amusement park with the chocolate—our girl is clever!!
You can read a sample of volume one below
You can grab this series for yourself below
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