Haikara-san ga Tooru

Benio Hanamura is a Taisho-era girl who refuses to fit the shape society has prepared for her. She prefers kendo and adventure to traditional lessons in femininity and believes marriage should be her own decision. That conviction is tested when she learns her family has already engaged her to Shinobu Ijuin, a handsome half-German army officer whom her first encounters have given her little reason to like.

Trying to escape the arrangement only draws Benio deeper into Shinobu's life, his family, and a changing society where she must also learn to support herself. War and disaster soon reach far beyond their private arguments, turning their relationship into part of a turbulent historical moment. Benio has always insisted on choosing her own path; now she has to discover what that freedom costs when the world around her refuses to remain stable.