Recap: Haruka is up to her usual pranks when she gets cornered by the disciplinary committee. Haruka is yelled at for attempting to fix an old bench and making trouble. She is then hauled off to the disciplinary committee’s room for judgement.

After what can only be considered an abuse of power and childish school bullying, Haruka snaps, nearly tossing her seat at Kanata. It is only by Yuiko’s intervention that Haruka is stopped from doing something she would not be able to undo. After this event someone makes up a flier revealing that Haruka’s father is an con artist who attempted to murder someone. Beaten and broken the rest of the Little Busters try to comfort her and learn that that Haruka and Kanata are actually twins.

Fuck your bench.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: The big reveal finally hit us. Maybe this is just me but I thought they were twins from the start. They are the only characters with that shade of purple in their hair. I can’t really complain about the flow of events however. As expected Haruka is treated with as much respect as ever by Riki and the rest of the Little Busters. Also, who litters an entire campus with flyers like that? And they dare to call Haruka a troublemaker.

We are clearly diving into Haruka’s route now. Ever since Little Match Girl was cited in Komari’s route I’ve been expecting one of these stories to be about abuse and it seems like we have found that route. It’s a cheep emotional grab perhaps but watching Haruka get bullied was hard to take. This disciplinary committee is almost humorously broken. Playing at judgement like gods over the school, it’s disgusting to say that least. Haruka is one of the more sympathetic characters in Little Busters and her breakdown felt especially human.

I guess they are roommates after all.

There is a degree to which people become what they are told they are. I’ve seen it in life. Tell someone they are brilliant and they try hard to keep that praise. Tell someone they athletic and they work hard to stay in shape. I think it’s a fairly natural thing for people to get a good portion of their own self image from the people around them. Tell someone they are useless and well.. you get my point. It goes without saying that this route has me kind of fired up. There was a part of me that really wanted to see Haruka toss that chair right at Kanata, as wrong as it would be. Regardless of how this all plays out in the end, I think I will have a hard time forgiving Kanata.