The Twiyor goodness continues 🥲
First thought that came into my head after finishing this chapter was that the latter part had some parallels to the end of the mole hunt arc; in both cases, Loid not only comes home exhausted from a mission, but his interactions with Yor - that is, him being forced to acknowledge his feelings about her, ends up pushing him to his limits.
In the mole hunt arc, he realizes that he refused to shoot Yuri because it would make Yor sad. While he doesn't explicitly say this, it's obvious that he considers his actions of not shooting Yuri when it was important for his mission, a weakness.
In this chapter, he realizes his confusion about how he truly feels about Yor. Again, he doesn't explicitly say it because, well, that's just how he is, but it's clear he's conflicted about her role in his mission, and ultimately, his own feelings.
Then of course, we have Yor telling Loid that she's happiest when she's able to help him. In the mole hunt arc, she expressed this by doing the chores and such the next day so he could rest, while in this chapter, she helped support him while they walked back home.
It's interesting how Loid seems a bit less open to acknowledging his feelings in this chapter than in the mole hunt arc. While in the latter, he at least admitted to himself that he has a weakness, but in this chapter, as soon as he starts debating about whether Yor is a help or a hindrance to his mission, he shifts the blame for everything onto himself, saying that he wasn't perfect enough, etc (exactly what Yor doesn't want him to be).
If we look back at everything that happened in this arc, namely, him putting himself in danger to protect Yor and also telling the SSS officer that he loves her (without any deception apparently), such uncomfortable feelings must have been a lot for his emotional constipation to deal with. So at this point, when he's on the verge of collapsing, it was easiest for him to default to everything going wrong because of his incompetence as a spy rather than to truly confront his feelings about Yor. But of course, that can of worms is fully open now, so I'm sure he'll have to reflect on it again one way or another...something for him to think about while in the hospital after this 😅
Speaking of which, we had two character deaths in this chapter. Tragic.
(Yuri lost his teeth again too, lol. He really should have a dentist look into that condition)
There were some good tidbits in the Japanese version of this chapter. Firstly was Chloe calling Yor "onee-san." While it's a term used for your older sister (Yuri calls Yor a more casual version, "nee-san") it can also be used to address a young woman, kind of like "miss." I'm glad that Chloe seems to like Yor after their first meeting!
The word that Yor uses when she tells Yuri she wants to "cuddle" with Loid is "icha icha," the same word that Anya always uses when the says "Papa and Mama are flirting" 😂 It means a variety of things in this context - "necking, flirting, cuddling, etc."
Yor dodging the darts without even having to think about it, she's just like 😑 And I knew it wouldn't feel like more than a mosquito bite to her!
I really thought Yuri was gonna get shot by Loid here. But in the end, it was Yor who took him down!
Speaking of Yuri, I like that he kept his development from the previous chapters and didn't revert back to hating Loid again.
I want to say that this is officially the end of the TV station/house party arc or whatever we want to call it, but I've been wrong about that for a few weeks, so who knows! I don't think we'll actually see Loid going to the hospital like Martha said, and him collapsing was just an unserious gag to end the arc with. But who knows? Maybe we'll get a short mission or something with Loid having another flashback in the hospital? Regardless, the next new chapter isn't until July 5th. Typically Endo doesn't take breaks between arcs unless something unexpected happens, so that makes it more likely we'll be starting a new arc next time.
Anyway, quite a lot happened in this arc that will affect the future of the series: Loid saying that he loves Yor (speaking the truth, if we're supposed to believe the SSS officer's assessment), Yor getting more comfortable being physically intimate with Loid, Yuri witnessing Loid's love for Yor firsthand, Chloe and other SSS people meeting Loid and Yor...it will certainly be interesting to see where all this goes!
