A review by prationality
From Far Away, Vol. 2 by Kyoko Hikawa

5.0

Welcome to volume 2 of From Far Away! In this volume Izark and Keimos learn the measure of each other, Rachef is super weird and what's this about Noriko being adopted??

New (recurring) cast member Seer Gorya who is Rachef's main seer and vassel makes his first appearance and we learn a little bit about the "chimos", an animal that's a bit like a chinchilla and can help a person teleport.

Noriko continues to try her best to learn the language while Izark continues to tell her he doesn't understand when she babbles. I appreciated the minor digression into why Noriko is so determined to be useful. Noriko learned, from a young age, that unfortunate things can and will happen, but dwelling does nothing. Channeling that anxiety about her future into creating a present she feels fulfilled in, is the core of Noriko's character. Does she wanna get home? Yes. Does she know how? No. instead of focusing on THAT she is focusing on how she can help others who are offering her so much.

Izark has a sadder back story, of which we see a brief bit about and some of which Keimos makes guesses at. Izark also resolves to find a solution that does NOT end in Noriko, aka The Awakening of Doom and Destruction, dying.

Keimos is fucking crazy. I don't mean he's reckless or does nonsensical things. I mean he is a psychopath, maybe a sociopath. I don't know if he distinguishes between right and wrong. For him it's "strong" and "weak", you're one or the other and if you're strong he cares about you existing...until you prove stronger then he.

Rachef shows a bit of his true colors here when he unleashes a power of his. His motivation basically being it's less of a pain to do this then if he gets hurt and is useless to me.

Meanwhile the villagers of Calco waste no time speculating about Izark & Noriko nor does the Mayor mind asking Izark to handle their bandit problem. Shameless!!