ひげを剃る。そして女子高生を拾う。2

「俺は、お前に、普通の女子高生になってほしい… 普通に学校に行って、普通に友達を作って、いろんなことを学んで、それで大人になるんだよ」

And so continues the story. The writing is substantially improved in this volume - a mix of new characters, character development, new relationships between characters, and varied PoV narrations. As before, the audiobook is great! It's really nice watching Sayu grow and make friends, and watching Yoshida basically be her guardian. It's also interesting watching them having to confront various realities of her staying at his place, think about the future, etc. There's one character who is an irredeemable クソ人, and the book rightfully treats him as such. Also tw (and spoiler): there is an attempted rape/SA scene involving this character.

There were times when I wanted to scream at the other adults in the book (especially one of the romantic interests), but other times their good side really shows through. But seriously stop making jokes or suggestions that Yoshida should be into Sayu, or that it would be natural for them to fall in love, or that they resemble newlyweds, etc... especially in front of Sayu! It's just totally unbelievable to me, and inconsistent with their behavior otherwise. They still feel a bit wish fulfill-y and unrealistic at times, but it's way better than last volume. Also sometimes I just had trouble believing certain characters acceptance of various actions or situations.

For anyone expecting the worst: all clear on that front. If anything, it seems to be bordering on codependency instead.