Kare Kano vol 10

 In vol 9 the cultural festival finally begins.  The play Miyazawa and her friends perform is well received and strikes a chord with many people.  Jubilant in the success and the high she has from the performance Miyazawa unknowingly begins to create a rift in her relationship with Arima.  In a short time she has gone from willfully being alone to having a growing group to support her.  Arima on the other hand senses that the closed world with he and Miyazawa is quickly evaporating and he is sliding into a darkness that may consumer him with out anyone being aware.

     We begin with a flash back to Maho in her final year of middle school and how she came to have a boyfriend who is 12 years her senior.  She had decided to change up her route home in order to enjoy the gardens and homes of a more modern section of the neighborhood.  At one particular apartment complex she meets a young man who she assumes is a doorman.  A few days later she meets again as he treats a wound she received while stopping the girls she was with from shoplifting.  Yusuke is a dentist in the area who lives on his own.  She begins to go out of her way as much as possible so she can see him, enjoying his calming presence in her tumultuous life.  At one point she admits that she is in love with him, much to his horror.  Before things can get too complicated he tells her that she should leave him alone, that he is too old for her and he is not interested in being in a relationship with a child.  She appears to accept that only to return months later, after the was accepted into high school.  She convinces him that their relationship is something that will work out in the future and to have patience with her.  That she isn't just trying to rebel by chasing after a grown man with a career.  

    After the quick look at Maho's interesting situation the focus returns to school as the students head to Kyoto for their class trip.  Miyazawa groups up with all of her new girl friends and Arima is grouped with Tonami and Asaba.  Even though they are split into different groups they end up being together, exploring and sight seeing.  Many of them stand out among the crowd and draw unwanted attention at times.  In one incident Arima punches a guy who pushed Miyazawa after the other girls rejected their attention.  At one point everyone gets separated into smaller groups, with Miyazawa and Arima enjoying a relaxing afternoon visiting temples.  The following day she comes down with a cold, leaving him to worry about her.  As she comes out of a deep rest from the cold she catches a glimpse of the hidden personality of the man she loves, as he looks after her.  It is gone as soon as she sees it and is unable fully comprehend what it represents.  She asks him to start calling her by her first name, to try and continue the evolution of their relationship.  The trip ends up being mostly uneventful and the characters return home after much fun and adventure exploring the old capital.

    The final segment of this volume is a flashback of the high school entrance exam.  It shows the characters as they head to and work through the exam which will ultimately change many of their lives.  Miyazawa is in top form and quite confident she will be able to get the best score.  Arima ends up being late to the exam when he decides to head back to Shibahime's house.  He encountered the rest of the friends who were waiting for her, he tells them to go on ahead, that he will make sure she makes it.  When he arrives into the examination room, late, the disturbance interrupts Miyazawa's test taking aura and she falters slightly on the first exam.  With this circling back to a past that exists now because of what has transpired in the manga, we see it is Arima's fault that Miyazawa did not get the highest marks on the exam.

Continue on to volume 11.