So I just registered in order to say thank you for writing this.
Having just gotten around to playing this game, my first run ended up being with Emi. After such, I took a liking to Misha and wanted to get to know more about her. Saddened at the apparent lack of route for her, I went with Shizune to see if there was maybe a branch that went more in her direction. Being someone of whom never plays (or should I say reads) a game such as this, after getting to the choice of whether or not to comfort Misha, I instinctively choose yes because I genuinely care for her and would be terribly upset otherwise.
What comes next... is awkwardly depressing.
Finishing off that path seems like it merely fades away instead of concluding (at least for Misha, though it felt a little unsubstantial for Shizune aswell).
What finally broke me down was during the good ending, after Misha's confession they made one slight change; showing her perk up to her cheery, mirthful self near the end just before they leave. It broke my heart as if it were as weak as Hisao's. I was watching her shove all that shit back into herself, putting on that mask and telling me it's all fine~!... And this was meant to be the good ending.
It cut terribly deep and no amount of prospect for her shown in the ending is able to allay the pain. D:
So, I did the only thing I could to remedy; search for a fanfic that does Misha justice! This one was the first one to pop up, so I guess I could of gotten any of the Misha fanfics here, but nonetheless, it's so far done everything I'd hope for.
I'm particularly enjoying the liberties you've taken to expand things and how well you've interpreted it into how it would play out in the game, enough to where I can easily imagine it. I initially thought that Misha's feelings for Shizune would of been part of the first conflict, or that it'd be something like Misha being confused about her sexual orientation. These could still be points of tension later on in the story along with her depression and self-conscious issues though, so maybe I shouldn't count it out. Giving plenty of ideas about the coming conflict and not simply defining it is great, especially when it doesn't feel like you're forcing them out of character to achieve this.
Of course, it was still great fun seeing the actual outcome and how Shizune is different due to this route. It feels very much like she realized sooner how she had been treating Misha over the past year because of Hisao's actions. By helping Misha sign in class for Shizune, or how Shizune is taking the council workload off of Misha or letting Misha do her own thing instead of keeping her around to translate all of the time because she knows Misha won't say no because of her feelings for her. It very much feels like Shizune feels bad for Misha after the turmoil with their relationship in the past and just wants her to be happy by her own merit.
You've just done an awesome job building this up, and any complaint I've had (like how Misha seemed a bit more forced onto Hisao than I'd expect near the beginning), were clarified later (Shizune along with others were purposely trying to get them together, and Misha was trying to not-so-subtly get Hisao with Shizune, hinting herself on accident). And I like how you're slowly filling in nuance things. I've wanted to know the reason Misha has trouble with speaking certain words or why she is so loud (having apparently gone through voice therapy after losing it, you can see the connection). Originally I thought it was autistic behavior but it appeared too particular and not overarching across everything she did. It's actually kinda funny; I was the introverted asperger in my class, and one of my friends was the extroverted asperger of the class. I was usually quite and methodical, while he acted more as the voice, which was exceptionally loud and theatrical (laughing loudly in a similar manner to Misha as well as holding exaggerated poses) on top of stuttering some words. The pairing of Shizune and Misha reminded me a bit of us, in a sort of strange way, which is where the initial thought came from. Anywho, it's been pretty fun finding these things out even though you didn't have to include them.
And now I can actually think of that "comfort" choice without being disturbed because you had Hisao do what I thought he'd of done in the game, that alone gets plenty of praise from me. Seeing the way the story is going though, I do hope she keeps her pink drills. I'd be sad to see those go in the end.
Ultimately, this is just long-winded praise towards you for writing this, giving me much needed closure for Misha. I'm looking forward to whenever you get around to updating this.
So~... thank you so, soooo much~, Profchan!
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