This chapter I'll mostly be analyzing Mizuha's behavior. There's been a huge shift in her treatment towards Fushi since the last time she talked to them, and I wanted to take the time to consider why this happened because I know many people find Mizuha difficult to understand. Not me though. I understand perfectly.
Mizuha starts this chapter with a plan, and that plan is to pressure Fushi into admitting they were wrong to meddle with her school life. As we can see when she prepares to abandon the feather hairband early in the second page, she's not actually upset that they wrecked the symbol of her friendship with Hanna and Tonari, so there's another, greater purpose to this confrontation. All of her questions are deliberately worded to make Fushi look bad, she gives them orders to follow, and demeans them. The first part of this chapter is just her asserting power over them, and it's super effective.
This isn't to say that Mizuha's done a complete one-eighty since Chapter 140.2. The sequence on the very first page of this chapter captures her internal conflict very well; she initially reacts to Fushi's words with the same affectionate smile she usually gives them, but then she covers it with a calculating expression. It's not that she hates Fushi now, it's that any happiness she gets from their care is drowned out by the sting of rejection.
Mizuha's desire to overpower Fushi didn't just come out of nowhere either. Like Izumi, Mizuha has always strove for perfection in herself and others. The reason she likes Fushi so much is because they're the embodiment of that perfection, and her goal was always to obtain them in some way. But Fushi appeared in her life as someone who was really, really eager to help her in any way they could. Mizuha quickly became emotionally reliant on them, meaning she could expose her imperfections in front of them, and that experience was better than putting on an act all the time. In a sense, she was controlling them already, but in a way that Fushi accepted, so it was fine. At least until it all came crashing down in Chapter 139.2. A quick recap:
In this scene Mizuha has, again, killed someone without remembering it. Fushi knows, but instead of treating her with kindness like they did the first time, they're angry and scared of her. For the first time Mizuha trusted someone to know everything about her, and they abandoned her. In Chapter 145.2, Mizuha's bubbling resentment at Fushi bursts out. Everything she does is designed to tell Fushi, "you thought I was controlling before? No no no. THIS is controlling, motherfucker!" Yes that's verbatim.
But Mizuha's perspective didn't shift immediately after they left her alone. For the disrespect she displays in this chapter, she'd have to lose the belief that they're a god first. So let's take a look at Chapter 140.2, where she pleads with Fushi to leave Izumi's knocker alone. From Mizuha's viewpoint, they've gone from hating her to going on revenge trips in her name. There is something really obviously wrong with this, and more than that, Fushi tosses aside their weak try at heroism in favor of attacking Izumi's knocker in a cruel and inhuman way. To her, they're still a god, but not the benevolent kind that'll grant wishes. Although they ceded this time, Fushi is now an unpredictable nuisance in Mizuha's life. There's no way that she can coexist with them.
And then some dumbfuck took this mess decided to enable it. If the left hand happened to tell Mizuha that Fushi usually hates Hayase's successors actually, but made friends with one of them who killed himself and that's why they care about her, that would explain their contradictory actions, and it would taint all of their well meaning gestures. And if the left hand then told Mizuha how cool her ancestors were and how they were meant to take charge of Fushi? And that they could take Fushi in a fight and one time even managed to kill them (with its help, of course), and that actually it thinks she's special, and even better then all the other successors? Yeah. With the left hand around to boost her confidence, Mizuha is free to manipulate Fushi without any repercussions.
Which brings us to the kiss. In the Jananda Arc, Hayase used her tongue to try and claim Fushi for herself, and there's a similar thing going on here. Mizuha doesn't express her affection with kisses. In the past she's only ever wanted company and a hug. So this kiss isn't a loving kiss, it's the ultimate proof that she can control Fushi: they hate her, and yet they make no attempt to stop her. Dominating her would entail an intimate relationship, and by combining that with her power trip Mizuha reduces it to another form of control.
Obviously, that's not all that's going on here. The one who tried to kiss Fushi (in Chapter 139.2 too) was the left hand—not Mizuha, although I analyzed it as such because the two are beginning to blend together—which has all sorts of weird implications I can't even begin to understand, but it does probably mean that its goal is different than what Yuuki predicted, and maybe different than the other knockers'.
Funa appears and Mizuha is faced with the consequences of her own actions. She's not the one who killed Funa, but she's cooperating with the one who did. If your cold medicine murders someone, can you be held responsible? In the second half of the chapter her cold act snaps and she freaks out completely. Mizuha hates to have people judge her, so Funa knowing her secret and just existing in general is terrifying. Her reaction got especially intense after Funa said she saw the inside of her room, so I'm wondering if there's something in there we don't know about.
And that's all on Mizuha! Back to Fushi, who didn't really do much this chapter. There's something very fucky about them saying "well I tried my best" when they haven't done anything at all. @eko-thoughts (hiya) noticed—and I'll paraphrase here—that Fushi sounds resigned to failing because they can just try again with the next reincarnation. Directly after that their speech bubble cuts Mizuha's head off which is just—exquisite framing. I love it when mangakas fuck around with that.
Anyways just so we're clear, Fushi knows what a kiss is. They know what a romantic relationship is, they know that Mizuha is in love with them. I just find it strange that they didn't react negatively to her touching them at all, because they have in the past. Hell, when Kahaku hugged them they had to throw up. Now they're just completely neutral. And I'm done with Fushi's part.
I don't have much to say about Funa, other than I thought her knocker was just dicking around when no one was looking but I guess she's like that all the time so it must have been method acting. "Horndog." "Skeeved out." I want her to appear more just so the translators can get more of her dialogue. She has good bitchy energy.
Two more things I'd like to point out: (1) Yeah that's a collage of Mizuha in Kasabe's room. If she doesn't have a crush I don't know what the hell that's for. (2) Mizuha dropped her hairband on the way out of the room and she's going to talk to Hanna soon. Whee.
