Title: Rainbows After Storms Vol. 6
Author: Luka Kobachi
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 163
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance, Yuri
Publication Date: October 21, 2025
The Story
Mai has interjected herself into Chidori and Nanoha’s lives. After all, Nanoha and Mai are childhood friends, so there was no way she wasn’t going to be included amongst them. Still, Mai knows their secret and decides that she’s going to have some innocent fun with it, but after seeing how cute they are as a couple, she can’t bring herself to tease them about their relationship. Despite this, Mai and Chidori end up bonding a bit when they start discussing the upcoming school trip.
An old issue with Chidori resurfaces in the form of her self-image. She’s still ashamed of her body, so Mai ends up giving her some advice. She also vaguely talks about romance with her, all of which is for Nanoha’s sake, but because Chidori is the way that she is, she doesn’t want Nanoha to know what they had talked about. The problem is that Nanoha noticed the two of them getting along recently, and she calls it into question. When Chidori says it’s a secret, Nanoha feels as if it were like a dagger through the heart, as they have never kept secrets from one another.
When they get to the school trip, Nanoha flips on Chidori, seemingly, from out of nowhere, telling her that she’s been having fun without her, and then leaves her behind to go do a class activity. This blindsides Chidori because she has no idea what Nanoha was mad about, especially since this dramatic change happened so suddenly. Chidori ends up getting peeved and refuses to talk to Nanoha, nor does she want to initiate the apology. This causes a rift between them that could put their relationship in serious jeopardy!
Characters
First, we have Mai. Even though she knows about Chidori and Nanoha’s relationship, she opts to keep her knowledge of it a secret out of respect. Even though she has some tomboyish tendencies, she showed that she can hold back and lock them away when needed. This was seen when she decided to tease them about their relationship, but in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to when she saw how cute they acted towards one another. The power of their love was enough to melt her sassy heart! Instead, she becomes an ear to lend to Chidori, even going so far as to give advice. It must have been hard because she knew what Chidori was talking about, but couldn’t let her know that she knew the reason for her concerns. Mai is turning out to be a good friend, but I wonder when the ice will break and she reveals that she knows about them?
As for Nanoha and Chidori, I think both were in the wrong for their little quarrel. I get why Chidori didn’t want to tell Nanoha about the advice she received from Mai. First off, they were on a bus in front of the entire class, which might cause their secret to be blown. Second, with the way Chidori loves her, coupled with her personality, it would have been way too embarrassing for her to even talk about what they had discussed.
On Nanoha’s side of things, getting so bent out of shape over a secret like that is very unbecoming of her. To snub Chidori out of the blue wasn’t far at all, and no matter which way you look at it, Nanoha shares the majority of the blame here. Nanoha even said it herself… they’ve been dating for over a year now. She should know exactly how Chidori is and figure out that what she kept secret was probably something personal and embarrassing. She should have eased into finding out what it was rather than do a heel turn from seemingly out of nowhere. Sure, Chidori should have opened up, but her personality and her anxiety issues make it hard for her, which is why it was up to Nanoha to remember that about her and ease into things. I would say the blame here is 80% Nanoha, 19% Chidori, and 1% Mai for not just telling them she knows, which would have made that conversation a hell of a lot different.
Final Thoughts
This was a tad frustrating to read because of Nanoha’s actions on the school trip. The fact that she got insanely jealous over a secret Chidori had after seeing her hang out with Mai felt a bit out of place. Plus, Nanoha and Mai are childhood friends. If Chidori didn’t want to talk about things, why wouldn’t she just contact Mai and ask her what was going on? Yeah, I could see it be an issue of possibly exposing their relationship to Mai, but this is where Mai’s blame comes in because she should be open and honest and let them know she found out. Especially now, since Mai seems to be bonding with Chidori. Maybe I’m jumping the gun and rushing things, and this will end up happening? This volume could be the setup for that event to take place.
Outside of that, we did get some cute moments with the girls going out bra shopping for the school trip, but maybe it’s because I’m not a girl, so I don’t understand the logic here. But why would they care about buying a new bra for the school trip? I mean, they are going to be rooming with one another; do they really need to impress each other with the type of bra they are wearing? Plus, if they all go shopping for a bra together, won’t they know what they’re going to be wearing, thus taking the entire point of it away? Are they expecting to parade around in their bras for the boys to see or something? Like, I don’t get decisions and worries like that sometimes.
I also feel that Chidori needs a breakthrough with her character. We saw the damage her timidness did in this volume. If this isn’t a wake-up call to get her to be more open and honest, then I don’t know what is. She doesn’t have to be like that with everyone, but if she started with Nanoha, that would make a world of difference in their relationship. We’ll see if any of this pans out. I’m sure it will, but with us just barely reaching the halfway mark on this series, I feel there is plenty of time to ease into this.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
