#chapter 146.1

[bestbonnist]

@yuriolympics2023 prompt 2: Contradiction.

The "contradiction" is in how Mizuha calls Hanna dull, and how Hanna worries that her normalcy will rub off on Mizuha, but they both want to continue their relationship anyways.

[bestbonnist]

There's no way that Chapter 146.1 wasn't deliberately referencing this exchange. Mizuha crouching in a pose similar to Ueno's. Hanna coming in like "wow... you're having a horrible time huh? Can I help?" Mizuha trying to end her friendship with Hanna and freaking out when she succeeds vs. Ueno doing the same and quietly accepting that she failed. Sahara knowing that Ueno didn't mean it vs. Hanna finding some truth in Mizuha's words and responding accordingly. Also:

Their friendship origin story is similar to the scene where Hanna speaks up for Mizuha. Unrelated thought: Sahara can easily say that she wants to be like Ueno and Ueno likes that but Mizuha both encourages and abhors the idea that Hanna might be putting her on a pedestal. Not only that... they're talking about a contest where they won medals. Ueno won a g—

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 146.1

Mizuha's relationship with Hanna and her relationship with Fushi parallel each other. Hanna accidentally rejects Mizuha directly before Mizuha meets Fushi. Mizuha's crush on Fushi begins while Hanna hugs her from behind. Mizuha goes out of her way to greet Hanna in the halls but doesn't acknowledge Fushi at school. At the beginning of one chapter, Mizuha hugs Hanna for comfort, and at the start of the next she asks Fushi to hug her after instructing them to love her. Mizuha approaches Fushi in a private space at school, backing them against the wall and reaching for their hand much like how she did with Hanna in the infirmary. Coupled with Mizuha's removal of her hairtie, there was a space where Hanna should have been in Chapter 145.2, so transitioning that into this scene is a natural follow up.

This chapter is also a reference to the first chapter that really fleshed out Mizuha and Hanna's relationship. Hanna walks down a path alone, the same one she did after telling Funa's group of friends that they didn't know Mizuha at all. Behind her there's a wall covered in ivy with a fence at the top, which uses the same motifs that the cover of Chapter 120.1 did. Like in that chapter, Mizuha's waiting for Hanna around the corner. She was probably waiting for Hanna specifically.

Hanna takes this opportunity to reach out again, and not for the first time she offers to listen to what's going on with Mizuha. Specifically, she says Mizuha should tell her what she hasn't told her yet. Despite hinting at it with the delicacy of a brick, Mizuha never said directly that she had a crush on Hanna, so this wording is what prompts the kiss.

But given Mizuha's shift in recent chapters, I'd actually say there's another, less pleasant reason for it. In the previous chapter, she was going to use a kiss to cement her control over Fushi, and her kiss in this chapter is a continuation of that thought. Hanna was the first one to speak, and said things like "are you all right" and treated Mizuha hesitantly, which could be interpreted as pitying (and you wouldn't pity someone who's above you, only below). She had control of the conversation and was exercising it, so Mizuha kissed her to take that control away and change the topic to something besides herself.

Mizuha also kissed Hanna impulsively, meaning that unlike her attempt to kiss Fushi, this was an emotional reaction. This still lends itself to her using it as a means of taking control, but it also shows that although the two are outwardly similar, what was premeditated has now because instinctive. Mizuha's rapidly internalizing that controlling everything is the best way to handle her problems, which isn't a good sign for her psyche.

When Mizuha says "I like you" that strikes me as somewhat sad. It doesn't have any feeling to it, and her head is downcast so we can't see her eyes. It's like she's just going through the motions, which, as I said earlier, is to distract Hanna from her weakness. Mizuha has had difficulty confessing in the past: she continuously danced around the truth in her conversations with Hanna, and when it came down to it she couldn't tell Fushi she loved them. I'm not sure what the nonchalance with which she can say she likes Hanna means.

Whenever Hanna turns the topic to something Mizuha doesn't want to talk about, she deflects by bringing up her romantic intentions with her. This is an exaggerated repetition of their previous conversations: Hanna asks Mizuha if she wants to talk but Mizuha always finds a way around it, sometimes by insulting Hanna to get her to leave. Hanna then gives up easily because she's been hurt. This is the main reason they're relationship has stagnated for so long: because they stick to their usual routine instead of saying the things they really want to say.

This is a neat little detail because the angle and focus on Mizuha's eye are the same in both scenes. This was the scene where she thought "what I want is Fushi" like they're an object, which indicates that she also wants to possess to Hanna in some way. Anyways, Mizuha conflates romantic relationships with control because all the people who've told her they love her (both romantically and platonically) have praised her trophy-like qualities, so this is a learned behavior that's been around for a while. This shows itself again later in the chapter when she asks Hanna to be her number one.

Mizuha asks the question "why do you think that?" twice in this chapter. The first time, she wants to know if people can tell she's in love with Fushi. The left hand likely told her all about Hayase's successors, including how their most important duty is to have a child with Fushi, so she may be questioning the source of her love for them. Right now, she's also trying very hard not to show anyone anything that could be construed as weakness. So if she knows what gives her away, she'll stop doing it.

She repeats her question after Hanna says she thinks Fushi thinks about Mizuha a lot, but while making eye contact and with a shadow covering part of her face. This is mildly threatening because it's when Mizuha realizes that Hanna probably heard her conversation with Funa. Hanna was there for the confrontation that was so humiliating that she ended up running out of the room. Also, if she knows about the circumstances of Kahaku's death, this could easily be a display of resentment towards Fushi for treating her like a consolation prize.

Hanna already knew that Fushi had crazy powers because they showed the whole Handicrafts-Occult Club that they could replicate a bubble tea drink, but she didn't know about the knockers until she eavesdropped on the conversation in the previosu chapter. So that's why she brings up Yuuki, and why Mizuha says that he's in on it. I was confused about this part so I thought I'd include my explaination here.

So the part of the chapter where Mizuha asks to be Hanna's number one—very interesting for multiple reasons. First of all, Mizuha asking to be Hanna's most important person, followed by Hanna gently refusing because she doesn't understand what Mizuha means, is the same as when Fushi said "I don't really know what love is, but I'll try it if you want" after they asked Mizuha if there was anything they could do to make her not want to die, to which she responded "you could love me." She recognizes this as a rejection, but instead of getting distraught like she has in the past, she decides to be an asshole.

I had a talk with @kahak about this, and so a lot of my thoughts on this line were affected by it so I'd like to credit them here.

I initially thought that this was just Mizuha exerting power to make herself feel better again without really meaning any of this, but assuming that she believes what she says here, it reveals a lot more about their relationship. Even if Mizuha's not actively thinking it, there's only one "number one," and if that's her then it can't be Hanna. The appearance of Fushi, someone who Mizuha could pass the role of winner that she loves and hates off to—brought all of Hanna's flaws to the forefront. Mizuha can tolerate imperfect friends. That's not the problem, it's that Hanna is dull. The opposite of a bright, shining trophy. If a romantic relationship with Fushi will give Mizuha the perfection she wants, then if she gets too close to Hanna her dullness will rub off on her. So it's this weird combination of fear and forced pity (to cover up her weakness because that's the underlying theme here) that drives Mizuha's words.

And this hits Hanna particularly hard because she thinks Mizuha's right: in her mind, Mizuha's friendship was never going to be a lasting thing, and she was always ready for Mizuha to just stop hanging out with her, but at the same time prepared to enjoy it while it lasted. Hanna regulated herself to being Mizuha's sidekick, as shown when she gave her the feather hairtie because it was "too flashy" for her (then Mizuha made one for her, too. That's probably important). Because of this, Hanna thinks Mizuha looking down on her is entirely her own fault.

I couldn't say what the left hand was doing in this chapter, and like I've said in the past unless there's anything to indicate that Mizuha has a gap in her memory I'm not speculating. But in this chapter she just watches Hanna leave without doing anything, then almost snaps out of it and gets up to apologize. And then immediately afterwards, she turns around to go find Fushi. There's no way the left hand wasn't involved with that. It's going out of it's way to prevent Mizuha and Hanna from making up.

I generally get everything wrong when I'm predicting new plot points (everything except the big ideas), but at present Mizuha has two friends left: Yuuki and Tonari. Tons of students have feather hairties now, so Mizuha could really easily decide to replace Hanna with a perfect friend. Given her recent penchant for kissing people, I'm going to remind people again that Kasabe is out there, has a hairtie, and a collage of Mizuha framed in her room.

One more thing I want to mention: somewhere between running away in Chapter 145.2 and her appearance in this one, Mizuha ditched her light colored sweater for a darker one. This manga has a lot of attention to detail, so either someone gave it to her (for some reason) or her other one is dirty (it got blood on it maybe?) Regardless, this might be relevant later. For now it contrasts with the clothes Fushi wears that aren't shaded at all and makes them look more like opposites.

[bestbonnist]

FUCK...

[bestbonnist]

[bestbonnist]

I love your blog and I am SO glad I wasn't the only one who not only wasn't surprised by the kiss but also saw Hanna and immediately went "Ah, yes. Lesbian". Ooima blease just let her and Mizuha be GAY...

Thank you! Mangaka whose works are in heavily circulated magazines often have more restrictions imposed on them by publishers, like, say, not drawing girls kissing (unless it's portrayed as an accident or used as fan service or even just a fucking joke, which are some things I never want to see again). I doubt that it's an official rule, but when Ooima first brought the idea up she would have been heavily discouraged. So I wasn't expecting a kiss, actually, although I was reading the manga and writing my analyses under the assumption that Mizuha had a crush on Hanna. I would like to downplay my excitement and call it a pleasant surprise, but the evening after I read Chapter 146.1 I kept smiling and laughing at nothing, which is one of my rarest moods and the best one to be in.

[bestbonnist]

hii i was wondering if u could explain a little about chapter 146! like why funa was there in the start and what is going on between mizuha and hanna, its all confusing to me but im still curious to understand this chapter. im terrible at keeping track of the story which is why i read your analyses!

Sure I can explain! Actually, I'm going to explain a lot just in case. Let's start with what Funa was doing on the first page.

Fushi started Chapter 145.2 in Funa's form and then returned it, knowing that if no one else is occupying an empty body the ghost who it belongs to will be automatically sucked in. Their intention was to make sure the knockers wouldn't be able to repossess Funa's body, and ideally they would have recreated her body somewhere far away from Mizuha. But the school is fairly well maintained and any roots Fushi left lying around would be torn down. So with nowhere to reconnect to Fushi only had the duration of their conversation with Mizuha to stretch their roots as far as they could, which was not very far. I have helpfully pointed out Fushi's roots going in the same direction that Funa is coming from below:

Because they put her in a spot relatively close by, Funa assumed that Fushi wanted her help and came back. There was no real reason for her to keep quiet, but from what we've seen of her personality I'd say she wanted her entrance to have an element of surprise.

Hanna was out in the hallway because in Chapter 145.1 she saw Mizuha go up to Fushi to talk about something related to their matching hair-ties. She probably intended to intervene earlier, but then heard some things that made it very difficult to step in. After Funa shushed her, she decided that fantasy battles weren't something she was equipped to deal with and that there was nothing she could do in that situation that could help Mizuha, felt useless, and left. From a narrative standpoint, that's why Funa was there at the start of the chapter.

Now I'm going to try to boil down the conflict between Mizuha and Hanna to its essentials on both sides. Hopefully, after reading this you'll have a better idea of what's at play during Chapter 146.1 as well as in future chapters.

Mizuha and Hanna's interactions have always been formulaic: Hanna reaches out to Mizuha to lessen her physical and emotional burdens, and Mizuha reaches out to Hanna to test her friendship and to maintain their distance. They're caught in a loop where both of them want to be closer, but fundamentally misunderstand the intentions of the other. Let's start with Mizuha's part:

Mizuha wants a relationship with someone who will accept her weaknesses, but that wish has been altered by a childhood with Izumi, who can't handle anything less than perfection. Because of that, she's divided all of her relationships up into the person who's perfect and the person who's not, the one being controlled and the one doing the controlling, the trophy and the winner. Because Hanna lets Mizuha dictate the nature of their relationship, she must be the perfect friend Mizuha's been searching for.

But Mizuha—who like Izumi, prioritizes perfection—finds Hanna disappointing. She was hoping for someone who would center themselves around her like a planet orbits a star, but that's not what Hanna thinks friendship is. For the most part, she follows Mizuha's lead, but when she sees Mizuha in distress and reaches out, it's an infringement on the pattern they've set. Ultimately, Mizuha's more comfortable with someone who'll follow whatever instructions she gives them, like Fushi. But more than that, Hanna can't give Mizuha the second thing she's been searching for: immortality.

So she's not the perfect friend. If her friend is perfect then Mizuha will have room to be imperfect, but Hanna isn't so she can't so logically Mizuha should sever their relationship like she has with everyone in the past. Despite this, Mizuha still makes a feather hair-tie to give her so that they can share their prize and proof of friendship. This is Mizuha's first and final attempt to explain that Hanna might not be unique or perfect, but she's special to her.

Fushi drives a huge wrench in this because they're everything Mizuha has been looking for in a friend, no matter how unrealistic those expectations were. It's why she confided in Fushi almost immediately after they met while it took her over a year before she began testing Hanna. Compared to the bright, shining Fushi, Hanna's dullness is obvious until it becomes apparent that Fushi isn't as perfect as she first thought, and was using her like a trophy too. So Mizuha is emotionally all over the place and in Chapter 146.1, her thoughts about Hanna explode to the surface.

Hanna thinks that being Mizuha's friend is more of an obligation than something she does willingly. Mizuha is a pretty fish and Hanna is the dirty bucket: she needs the bucket to breathe but she's meant to be in the ocean. She didn't know that Mizuha valued their relationship at all, so when she asked Hanna if she would be sad that Mizuha died, Hanna didn't know how to respond.

After that, Hanna realizes that her hesitancy has hurt Mizuha quite a bit, and when they find her and Hanna gives her a hug, it's proof of her resolve to change. Even if Mizuha says she's fine, Hanna's learned that that's not necessarily true, so she's decided not to take Mizuha at her word anymore. Ironically, following her without question was exactly what Mizuha wanted Hanna to do.

When Mizuha tells Hanna this in Chapter 146.1, it comes as a shock because Hanna stopped putting her on a pedestal a while ago, and she tears off the hair-tie she gave to Mizuha because she's angry at herself that Mizuha still assumes she thinks of their friendship like it's nothing.