Deep in Nobara brainrot rn all I can think is how Gege built her friendship with Saori from her very introduction just to randomly introduce Fumi in ch124 and have Nobara's emotional moment be about a promise we had never heard of to a girl we'd never met. Like my God this is such a weird creative decision? Saori is the ONLY person Nobara had ever mentioned from her past (mind you before ch125 we only knew about her grandma thanks to Word of Gege, Nobara had never mentioned her) then all of a sudden there's a childhood friend she treasured just as much?

Not to mention Fumi's POV in that flashback ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING. At the end of it we're left with way more questions about Nobara's past. What's the reason her grandmother isn't in one of her chairs? Where's the rest of her family? Why does she actually hate the village? We were led to believe it was because the villagers drove Saori away but Fumi's flashback stablished Nobara hated them BEFORE Saori came around so WHY? Why did she think everyone was crazy in that place and immediately latched onto the two outsiders? What could’ve happened that made a SIX YEAR OLD so adamant in hating everyone? And absolutely no insight on her being trained as a sorcerer in the countryside? Even when we know, per Nanako and Mimiko's backstory, how sorcerers can be persecuted by countryside folk because of superstitions? No? Really? None of that? Nothing at all? So we're just going to... introduce this random girl... instead of answering.... I see...

ANYWAYS either Gege completely lost it there or there is a plan that's going to make everything come together and blow my mind. I have my own theories about this and Nobara's comeback and her role in the culling games but that's a post for another day. In short—Gege gimme some info or ELSE