Then, softly: “I don’t have a mother anymore. So… I have become her.”
She never talks about how her mother left. (Death? Abandonment? Illness? The franchise leaves it ambiguous, because for Ichika, the cause matters less than the result.) She never cries on screen. She never lashes out at her friends for having complete families. She never uses her loss as an excuse for bad behavior. Seta Ichika - I Don-t Have A Mother Anymore- So...
Ichika did not return to university. Instead, she stayed in their small apartment, surrounded by her mother’s restoration tools, half-repaired kimonos, and notebooks filled with conservation notes. For two years, she barely created anything. Then, softly: “I don’t have a mother anymore