What if it's delayed? Because they're doing something now, it'll matter later? A, what's it called--the butterfly effect? A butterfly flaps its wings, and on the other side of the world, a hurricane appears because of it?

[ That's the right thing, isn't it? Ritsuka's knowledge is such a strange patchwork at this point; half the time, she doesn't know if what she knows are real things she's read or learned, or things that she's intuited and cobbled together from lectures. ]

But even if they're "just" cultural bonding activities, what's wrong with that? Who wants to be alone all the time?