Chapter 3
Kuon's lines from the previous page are repeated.
Splash page for chapter 3 ("A Place Where We Can Always Belong"):
Kuon wonders when she first fell under the control of the madness known as love.
In a flashback, Kuon sees her mother crying. Kuon tells her mother that she's there for her, and that she (Kuon) will take her father's place. She asks her mother not to look so sad.
Kuon childishly tries to comfort her mother, not suspecting that her own existence might be anything other than the product of two people's love.
Later, Kuon's mother tells her that she's looking more and more like her father every day, with her dark hair and her dark eyes. She also tells her that she finds it annoying, and that she hates her. As her mother strangles her, Kuon realizes something: her mother was never looking for a replacement for Kuon's father.
All Kuon wanted from her mother was to be loved.
When Kuon wakes up, her mother is gone. Her father tells her she'll never see her mother again. His eyes are the same color as Kuon's.
Back in the present, Kuon tells Shindou that love can be a sort of madness or a dangerous weapon, and that while she may be considered inferior by Shindou's morals, she won't forgive anyone that dares to harm a single hair on Asou's head. She'll get revenge on them by any means necessary. She adds that this might be an example of the "absolute obedience" that Shindou mentioned before. Asou realizes that Kuon really might care for her.
Shindou laughs, and asks Kuon why she wants to be in love, if that's really how it is. Why would she want to shackle herself with that sort of madness? Kuon replies that even if she were in Eden, she'd want to have a happy ending.
She remembers her mother telling her that she was nothing but a cast-off skin, an empty container that looked like her father. She tells Shindou that she's found a woman who breathed life (literally, a soul) into her empty shell of a body. Shindou asks Kuon if Asou is precious to her, and Kuon says yes-- having Asou in her heart makes her happy. Shindou then says she understands and that it will be enough if Kuon and Asou have a relationship of absolute mutual trust. She says that Kuon will be a great asset to the team, but that they'll change her partner if she disrupts the order of the club or if her grades drop.
Shindou leaves, and Asou embraces Kuon. She tells Kuon that she loves her. Kuon is happy to finally hear those words from Asou. She's been waiting to hear them.
Like magic, Asou's passionate words melted Kuon's cold heart. Kuon always wanted to fall deeply in love.
Asou, in what I'm assuming is an imaginary flashback, tells Kuon that her hair is pretty and that she really likes silky hair like that.
Kuon had been waiting to meet someone like Asou, and to find a place where she could always belong. She's finally found both. She's found a person who's precious to her.
As Kuon is going down on Asou, she tells Asou she loves her and asks Asou to echo the sentiment, even if Asou might not fully understand it. Asou tells Kuon she loves her, then repeats herself with a more serious word for "love."
We skip ahead to some time later. Kuon is telling Asou to hurry so they aren't late to practice. Asou scolds Kuon yet again for not addressing her politely enough.
