Weekly Shounen Magazine's on break this week and I predicted that Ooima would break last week anyways so technically taking two weeks to write this was a smart idea that keeps my metas spaced out evenly and not the result of me being too tired to do any work for most of that time.
I haven't thought about it from that angle before but yeah, of course Fushi would be jealous of someone who has a parent who cares about them unconditionally. Even the trophy thing is a non-issue—they would honestly prefer being a trophy and doted on for doing their job than floundering around while the Beholder narrates their mistakes like they're in a nature documentary. They haven't run into this problem before because none of their friends have really had great (in their opinion) families. To the extent that it was a bonding experience between Fushi, Gugu, and Rynn and Fushi and Tonari.
Also about Fushi being jealous: this is something they would normally never share with anyone, especially Mizuha because they think of her as someone they have to save. The one time they tried to reach out to her for genuine friendship she rejected them (I'm referencing the mud ball scene when they last talked). But they've been consciously trying to treat Mizuha as, if not quite a friend, then an equal. These past two chapters the two of them have been positioned opposite each other sitting down, even though Fushi would probably rather be in a more alert standing position and Mizuha by all means probably should be lounging on the throne behind her. But she chose to stay on the ground with them instead.
Anyways my point is that rather than physical proof of trust like taking off their rope, Fushi wants to prove their trust to Mizuha by confiding in her. It matches Mizuha's way of taking control by pretending to give it away, by displaying weakness. Jealousy is a very human emotion so it counts as weakness for them and Mizuha, who's also jealous of them, Yuuki, Tonari, and even Hanna. But she'd never say that out loud because it would be cringe.
I really like the middle panel of Izumi's knocker and Mizuha. Something about its hand on her shoulder, how they're squished into the same panel together, and the way their heads are slightly inclined towards each other is both sweet and eerie. It reminds me of a family portrait.
You can here see that Mizuha has to struggle to raise her right arm to reach for the photo album. And her left hand is the one that slams it shut with a weird amount of force for a person who's crying. She even cradles her left hand later, like it used too much force or it did something she didn't want it to do. Although this could interpreted as evidence that the left hand can control Mizuha's body without her permission, I thought it proved that unless indicated otherwise (Mizuha speaking formally, Mizuha receiving a shock then acting strange, Mizuha mentioning "missing time"—not accounting for the possibility that she or the left hand are faking) Mizuha is the one in charge and is aware of what she's doing.
This is a good example of Fushi using their own experiences to understand the feelings of others. I've pointed out how in the past assuming they know what other people want has ended badly for them, but now they're just listening to what other people have to say, connecting it to their own emotions, and acting accordingly. Here, it's only because Fushi found a similarity between themselves and Izumi that they're able to provide context to the photo album for Mizuha.
Small clarification on why Mizuha didn't react to her gift the way Fushi hoped: Fushi feels like they need to relive happy memories that have become painful so that they never forget the people they love. They're fine if it hurts because they want to punish themselves for not being able to save their friends who've died. Besides, they're not human, so that's a moot point anyways. Even though the photos of her with Izumi move her like Fushi expected, Mizuha won't accept anything that doesn't contribute to her short-term happiness. She undervalues sadness while Fushi overvalues it.
Who could have foreseen that letting a group of middle school kids find their own way out of an underground base would end with them being captured...
"You're all talk," Mizuha says, as if she's not also all talk. She hasn't even killed anyone yet and she's acting like she's hot shit.
But really, although Mizuha's words to Hanna were harsh, like they've been with Fushi, she literally couldn't look at her while she was saying them. It felt more like she was sad and genuinely confused about what Hanna was doing there.
What was this... I wanted to make a comparison between "I'm not expecting anything from you" and something from earlier in the manga but I think I confused FnAe with Evangelion. To be fair they deal with a lot of similar concepts but the genres are way different (for now) so this is very pathetic of me. But although there's not anything specific I can compare it in FnAe, I think Mizuha's not entirely done testing Hanna. The fact that she's saying out loud "I'm not expecting anything from you" in itself is a clue that she's expecting something.
Whoever's in Fushi's body is doing an interesting job that's for sure. It looks about as fucked up as they do but in an entirely different way. Seeing the nameless boy's body with human eyes again is disconcerting, especially since he had lighter irises and these are dark. I'm hoping that it's Fuuna's knocker because I really like Fuuna's knocker and I think it's the most capable knocker we've seen so far. As for what it's doing there... probably killing two birds with one stone by ruining Fushi's life and murdering students.
Interesting how Mizuha's been treating the H.O.R.C. coldly and insisting that they don't care about her, when if it's true that Fushi's knocker is going to be killing people, then she must prefer that they stay alive. If death is the epitome of peace, then Mizuha's doing her friends a disservice by not killing them too. But the fact that Mizuha would rather wait for the physical world to be perfect than just die and go to Paradise shows that she doesn't think death is an entirely good thing. She also maintained good posture and a calm demeanor after the H.O.R.C. appeared despite not even trying to keep her composure in front of Fushi. She still doesn't want Hanna and Yuuki to see how much she's changed.
Bon, who has bodyguards, knows about the knocker situation, and is fine sticking a sword in a kid, is currently overseas, leaving us with Tonari and Fuuna (maybe). Tonari doesn't have her poison immunity (which probably wouldn't matter anyways unless the knockers are planning to drug her—which they might do if they need a hostage) and I doubt she's as fit as she was as an adult. Wait, Fuuna actually needs to be involved otherwise Tonari wouldn't be able to kill the knocker because she doesn't know to use explosives. Who's ready for them to blow someone up and get arrested.
Anyways this is really exciting because as I've said like fifteen times now if Fushi murders someone in public that's a problem on its own but on top of that they're a famous historical/religious figure. Easily recognizable. Someone's going to figure out they're immortal and that'll be an even bigger problem. And the only reason the knockers were able to do this now is because Fushi chose to let their guard down as a display of trust which Mizuha was confident she could get them to do otherwise they wouldn't have prepared this plan FUCK. She literally... it's because Fushi claims that they would do anything to make her happy. Regardless of whether or not they actually would, once she calls them out on it they have to follow through.
