[karice67]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

Spoiler for My Thoughts on Volume 7:

I've actually tried that against my fiance when we were in middle school.

Spoiler for response:

!!! you actually asked someone to pretend to be your boyfriend?!

Originally Posted by Xacual

Spoiler for Novel 7 + 8 Speculation:

Is that how novel 7 ended with Kuroneko confessing and then a short time skip and they are going out? If so then I can see Novel 8 being about the missing days at least at first.

Spoiler for response - vol.8 speculation:

That's what I'm thinking too. And I bet the celebration party the day after the confession (and thus, apparently before Kyousuke accepts) is going to be awkward!!

Originally Posted by winkel

Spoiler for My Thoughts on Why it won't work:

That is not Kirino's personality. She's not going to idly go off to the side and let Kyousuke move on without resolution. Otherwise the drama that happened this volume would have never occurred.

Make no mistake, if Kirino is really a bro-con (and this volume pretty much suggests she is) she will not take Kuroneko's conquest lightly. Whether they already had their fight, and had come to terms with each other behind the scenes this volume (we still don't know what that phone chat was about) or whether the final battle is yet to come, there will be a battle.

The resolution will not come from Kyousuke 'finding his true feelings' because he has already established his feelings for all the characters. Suddenly turning into a siscon and 'realizing his feelings' after the major event this volume instead of during it would be a cop-out and an unnatural progression. Kirino pretty much laid bare her stance, and he is aware of it. He made his choice. The question now is how hard Kirino will fight in light of Kuroneko's sudden development to convince him otherwise. Not him suddenly realizing his feelings because he already knows them, but Kirino forcing them to change into falling for her.

Spoiler for response:

I completely agree. Except perhaps about whether he really knows her stance...I have the feeling we'll be seeing more of that before the story ends.

Originally Posted by 00-Raiser

Spoiler for reply:

Well, I think rather than explaining his decision, I'd still like to see how he views the situation. Is he absolutely amazed at the unexpected turn of events? Is he going out with her because he discovered he felt the same way about her, or did he agree to see if he could feel the same way? Did he not reject her and is going out with her because he didn't want to hurt her? Of course it'll be forever before I find out since I can't read japanese

From the summaries I've read the development between the two sounds satisfying enough for me. If Kyousuke isn't going to be with Manami, Ruri is an excellent alternative.

Though you mention how Kyousuke keeps thinking how cute she is. It's possible this is because Kyousuke is the narrarator. The only way for the author to give his readers a good image of what Ruri looks like, Kyousuke is the one who has to tell us. Of course if he spends more time describing her than the others girls, well...

Spoiler for response:

His reaction will probably be in vol.08 (see above), but I would say that he is DEFINITELY interested in her romantically. His reactions to her throughout the volume scream it.

He describes the others as well, to some extent. It was the way he describes them that struck me: with Kirino, he's always getting annoyed at how she treats him (it's almost as if Fushimi-sense is writing himself into Kyousuke); with Ayase and Saori, he reflects on what could have been - he's quite curious about what it'd be like if Saori chose to use her ojou-sama persona with them more - and he's quite in awe of her leadership abilities; with Kuroneko, besides focusing on how cute she is, he consciously or unconsciously keeps referring to her voice as "gentle", and refers to her as a "precious underclassman".

Oh, and he also notes that they're all like little sisters to him in one way or another.