I was wondering how they could possibly continue this one, since it wasn't high on the list of stories from the anthology I thought needed any sort of follow-up, but this works.
I know the original work is Japanese, so there was no intended real-world connotations, and yadda yadda yadda, but...the original skin tone change made sense even within that context. Like, I vastly prefer the darker shade for the character, and as a POC, I had a visceral reaction to her...
"I wasn't the one who destroyed your book." That was unexpected. I wonder who did it then. I'm also glad she now fully gets why Mao wants to hide her identity; that it's less Mao trying to trick a friend and more so absolute terror at having even a fraction of that cultist obsession targeted at...
"Never leave my side."
Oh, you mean like a daughter or some--
*licks her blood*
...I knew it from the romance tag, but just once I want some cute found family shit.
Was that supposed to make me feel any sort of sympathy for this guy? Because it didn't. Made me dislike him more actually, since now it's clear he wasn't even under some kind of suggestion spell or anything. He just ditched his best friend/crush of his own free will. Like an asshole. Then didn't...
MC is basically everyone's little sister now, and that's adorable as hell. Wonder if she actually figured out why she got the flowers though. These protags have a habit of being dense at the worse times.