I can understand your frustration with Shuri and Sarasa living in Europe ten years later, but there are several reason this makes sense. Shuri mentions during the Chinese arch that merchants are better suited to change a country than the military. Hence their mission as merchants of the world, revolutionizing the world as they’ve done their home country. Also, if they immediately stayed in Japan, the people could’ve become much too dependent on them to lead the country. They didn’t want to step in as another monarchy or lead as public officials. They aren’t suited to that life, so they stepped back to let others lead and keep the flow of change constant instead of stagnating in their hands. I agree that later in life they’ll probably settle down there, honestly, after the passion of their legend simmers a bit.

Still, it’s amazing how well Sarasa, Shuri, Ageha, and Asagi all hold the story up together. Simply gorgeous chemistry.

I think the story needed a character like Ageha though, because he did provide a sort of steady presence while everyone else grew up around him. He acted as more of a support for Sarasa while she went through everything she did more than he supported anyone else, but I also liked the role he took at the end of the story, where he did the killing that Sarasa wouldn’t have to think or know about. The fact that he was a steady character who was well-connected and wasn’t going through a lot of trials of his own in order to offer aid to the resistance was unique in the context of the story, and I also thought it was interesting that he could go through ordeals that would bring about change in any other character, like the one in the prison, and just remain himself before, during, and after. And it was neat to get to see the things that set him on his course in life in those bonus stories, after everything had been said and done.

“I guess it didn’t occur to me to question how the democracy would be set up once the war was over, I think I just filled in a magic happily-ever-after elected government.”

I have studied quite a bit of history, as well as comparative government/politics, so I am very aware of just how complex setting up a democracy is. So a magic happily-ever-after democracy would have been very hard for me to swallow. It would have taken a full sequel to thoroughly examine the birth of a democracy, so I’m content with the nod that Tamura made to the issue in the Hayato story.

As for Ageha … well, I don’t love him as hard as some people. Yes, Ageha did awesome things. Ageha also had flaws, but he didn’t try to improve them, which meant his character didn’t have quite the explosive growth of, say, Asagi. I think that’s why I favor Sarasa, Shuri, and especially my darling Asagi more than Ageha.

And I agree about the main storyline not wrapping up their relationship in a satisfactory way. I think that was the only thing that disappointed me about the end of the story, but the after-story does an excellent job of resolving all those issues. And I forgot to mention the subtleties of that story too, I loved how Shuri’s disability was illustrated with the knot-tying, and I liked all the little ways that Shuri and Sarasa trusted each other while still being somewhat weary of one another.

I did remember that the two said they were going to travel (or traveling was mentioned at some point), but I was so disappointed when I read that they were living in Europe in the Hayato story. I guess it didn’t occur to me to question how the democracy would be set up once the war was over, I think I just filled in a magic happily-ever-after elected government. It does make sense that there would be problems. Maybe the story just didn’t strike me the right way because I never grew to like Hayato that much. He was the most suited to that type of odd man out story, though.