Rin2 was a wild ride and I really enjoyed it. That said, my favourite parts of it actually had no Rin in them. The reveal of Kyousuke holding Lennon curled up in his arms (which is spoiled by his trading card. Nice work guys! Thankfully I had friendos to keep me away from it), and obviously the baseball game where Kyousuke sets himself up as both a villain and a Christ figure for Riki, were such beautifully executed scenes. I was fully expecting the novel to pull something like this, but that in no way lessens the perfection of the first half (two thirds?) of Rin2.
I mainly want to focus on Kyousuke, he’s such an interesting character. He’s been foreshadowed as a Christ figure for ages, all the way back when he was reading his manga by the windowsill he was ‘holy’ and ‘innocent’ and all this other jazz because of Riki putting him on this unreachable pedestal, pure sweet perfection that Riki can never reach. And then, in Rin2, Kyousuke tears all of that down at a breakneck pace. He pulls a bunch of what I can only describe as Game Master Bullshit and puts himself very intentionally in a position where Riki thinks of him as a bad guy, forcing Riki to act. Thinking back on all of the previous routes, we’ve learnt all about the good intentions of humans, how no one is evil, and honestly Kyousuke’s plan to help Rin mature is Kanata-levels of nonsense.
This isn’t even a theory-crafting session, it is 100% clear to me that this is a test or ‘mission’, whether it will be revealed that Kyousuke in-universe is testing Riki or whether this will just pan out by the end of Refrain to be a final test for Riki, I’m not entirely sure. What I can say for sure is that I will not make Kyousuke my enemy. He’s so clearly being set up as Riki’s antagonist that I can’t possibly believe it can last. Riki also sees almost every other Buster as an enemy, this is totally blowing things out of proportion and I fully expect to have a ‘getting the band back together’ sequence either as the initial conflict or somewhere towards the middle-end to show how much they’ve all grown as characters.
I also noticed the final nod to the field trip at the end of the route, it’s happening. We’re heading full speed ahead towards a tragedy of Visual-Novel-starting proportions and I look forward to seeing how it all pans out. I honestly don’t care too much at this point about like, ‘predicting events’, I think the time for that is long past. Of course I will be constructing an interpretation based on the ending, but I’m not the kind of person to reach for a crazy interpretation, this is the part to take in what the novel is telling me (bearing in mind the themes of the previous routes) without restraint.
That said, if I may, I had mixed feelings on uncovering that Rin isn’t supposed to make it to the field trip. I wonder if that will change? I would find it strange if she were not part of the route, and certainly the ‘constructing the van’ portion of the novel that I think exists should involve all of the Busters. My current theory going in is that she also was part of the accident but Riki isn’t sure if she survived, and so only by believing that she had the strength to survive can he too pull himself forwards to face the truth, whatever that may be.
Anyway, enough theory nonsense, enough flowery words. I embark on the greatest journey of my Kazamatsuri experience soon… I’ll see you all on the other side of Refrain! 
Gee whiz would you look at the adorable spoiler… oh and there’s a Lennon there too 
