Kagetora Volume 7

Summary: Nao ends up spending the night at Kagetora’s hanare when she’s locked out of her home one rainy evening. Neither get any sleep as Nao is attracted to Kagetora and he isn’t sure about sharing a bed with such an attractive girl. Later, Yuki ends up finding out they have a secret as Kagetora heads to a temple for some training to clear his mind. He lets Yuki know and Yuki lets Nao know. During archery training, Nao decides the archery club could use a change of scenery and so they go to the same temple. Yuki ends up going to the temple as well to bring Kagetora some food and ends up learning from Nao that she spent the night with Kagetora. Not only that, Nao confesses she has fallen for Kagetora. Yuki ends up spending the night at the temple as well.

Afterward, the archery club has their match and following that, Nao ends up confessing to him. He politely turns her down and she flees. At school, she’s depressed and Kagetora wonders what to do. He wanders to the archery club room even though he’s no longer a member and finds Nao there trying to get some practice. The two talk and Kagetora admits that he has feelings for Yuki. However, he can never tell Yuki this because of his job as oyakume to her. Nao decides to stay in love with Kagetora until she finds someone else. Yuki and Kagetora end up going home and Yuki, afraid of losing him, asks if he’ll be her oyakume for ever. He promises he will, but that saddens him due to its implication.

In the special story, Kagetora reads a journal of a male ancestor of his and a female ancestor of Yuki’s where they have an adventure together. The story is kinda similar to Yuki’s and Kagetora’s (oyakume and hime) but before he can finish reading, Kagetora’s brother interrupts and he never finishes. The story’s end has the two ancestors apparently getting together romantically even though they were oyakume and hime.

Thoughts: Segami-sensei has brought in other girls to be potential rivals for Kagetora and Yuki, but Nao was the first truly believable one in my opinion. While this volume resolves that love-triangle (mostly), the tone of the volume was much more serious with the teen love-angst and one wonders how they’ll get back on a more comedic track (if at all).

Del Rey wise, I’m glad the volume’s English adaptation is smooth still. That first volume was rough.