[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Shikijin

I've managed to read up to chapter 22. Somehow this book reads very fast. Maybe it's the short length of chapters

Spoiler:

Saying that "Hanekawa didn't learn nothing from Tsubasa Cat" is not totally exact. However, her real issue is explored exactly in this volume, and possibly it will be somehow resolved in the end. For this reason, it doesn't make much sense joking about her not partecipating in a harem competition, whether the harem competition will actually happen or not, because right now she is in the middle of tuning up. Though in any case I don't think that there is really a need to resurrect the Hanekawa/Araragi/Senjougahara love triangle for the finale.

Also, I think the phrase "She doesn't show that she's upset over anything" is a bit of a misunderstanding of the character. It is more correct to say Hanekawa doesn't know that she's upset over anything. She was surprised to be upset when she saw her house burning. You make it sound like she just needs to be more outspoken. That's not her issue.

Spoiler:

It still sounds like something brought up in Tsubasa Cat already. For example, Araragi asked Hanekawa why she wasn't upset over her father hitting her. She's taking everything in stride, believing that she's fine with anything that happens.

It was wrong of me to say that she knows that she's upset, but I find it hard to believe that she believes nothing that's happened emotionally affected her. It's more like it bothers her, but she naturally defends her mental stability by rationalizing the stressful event to be perfectly justified.

One example is her crush on Araragi. I don't believe that she thinks she has no affection for him. I think she thought she liked her current position as Araragi's confidant, but became unsatisfied when Senjougahara got much closer to him. It's the "grass is always greener on the other side" mentality. Then, even though it bothered her, she reasoned Araragi's relationship in a way that she could tolerate, like maybe along the lines of "Senjougahara needs Araragi the most, and her emotions show that".

So yeah, Hanekawa has shown that some things bother her, but she reasons them in a way that she thinks they're not a big deal. It's her way of coping. She tolerates a lot of crap that she shouldn't have to tolerate. She knows the crap, but she doesn't know that she doesn't have to take it.