Toilet-bound hanako-kun vol 9 by aidairo

On a seemingly normal day, Nene rushes late into her class but thankfully makes it in before Sensei. Instead, she finds Hanako-kun sitting in the desk behind her, and he’s dressed like a normal student. What’s more, her classmates can see him, and they attest he has been attending classes with them this whole time! In the middle school, Kou reports early for his morning cleaning duty and finds Mistuba is already there. He seems perplexed by Kou's questions about School Mysteries. Upon comparing notes, it's clear that Nene and Kou are the only two that remember the school the way it seemed it was only yesterday, and why is there also a strange tower in the garden that also wasn't there yesterday?

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The jump in storytelling for this volume had even me doing a double-take, and I was just as confused as poor Nene and Kou, so I commend the mangaka for a solid disruption to the storyline. Some of the previous volumes had become a little predictable, especially because Nene kept getting kidnapped, but this was refreshing and a wonderful change of pace aside from still having some key obvious markers in figuring out the mystery. The School Mystery itself had a bit of a cruel twist to it, so this volume will tug a bit on the heartstrings of readers, which AidaIro has been showing mastery of throughout this series.

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 8-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2, vol 3, vol 4, vol 5, vol 6, vol 7, vol 8

Publisher: Yen Press
Publication Date: June 22, ​2021​
ISBN: 9781975311414 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Supernatural, Yen Press ​