Kotonoha Kanade, a fourth-year undergraduate student in Saitama University’s Ikeda Lab, presents herself as a cheerful, supportive junior to her peers, masking a turbulent inner world shaped by societal expectations and lingering guilt. Her high school infatuation with a math teacher drove her to academic excellence, but a martial arts accident during a semi-platonic outing led her to unintentionally harm him, cementing a belief in her own unworthiness of love. Childhood bullying and rigid parental demands to conform further pressured her to bury her authentic self beneath a carefully constructed façade of "normalcy." This ingrained pursuit of conventional romance often clashes with the lab’s analytical approach to love, prompting her to sidestep direct involvement in their experiments. Yet her inherent kindness compels her to aid colleagues when called upon. Her unresolved insecurities resurface during a relationship with Naoya, who seeks to reshape her into his idealized partner, culminating in a traumatic kidnapping. Though rescued, her passive response and swift return to routine underscore her avoidance of confronting emotional wounds. Kanade’s arc revolves around a conflict between craving acceptance and an inability to assert autonomy. While peers like Yukimura affirm her value and Himuro offers mentorship, her growth remains hindered by self-blame and a habit of apologizing for her pain. Post-trauma, she deflects from healing by prioritizing others’ needs, reinforcing cycles of dependency. Trained in martial arts by her grandfather, she inadvertently ties this skill to romantic failure—her reflexive self-defense maneuvers mirror emotional barriers that complicate relationships. Despite these struggles, her role as a mediator between the lab’s unconventional methods and societal norms positions her as a grounding presence, contrasting the protagonists’ extremes while reflecting universal tensions between conformity and selfhood.