~Hakurei Shrine~ > Touhou Addict Recovery Center
Foul Detective Satori web-manga discussion thread.
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Suspicious person:

--- Quote from: Roashiki on March 30, 2022, 01:23:40 PM ---So given the progression of events should we expect Eiki or komachi to be the next victim? I also hope we get to see yuuka since it's been awhile since we've seen her.

--- End quote ---
Way it looks, seems like we're getting some of that PoFV disrespect as we are entering straight into MoF arc (if we go by the chapter / arc title + introduced cast of characters. Kinda funny since MoF's "incident" doesn't strike me as a proper generalized incident like the previous ones (PoFV included), but I digress.

With this, we wrap up a relatively short IN arc. Nothing much happens aside from possessed Mokou looking around and having some instropection. The parts of the chapter that stand out to me would be the ones where EvilHu not seeming particularly happy while thinking if Humanity lost to Youkai plus sort of blaming such situation on the current state of the Hakurei Shrine.

As a Vengeful Spirit who seems to hail from an earlier era, her concerns and displeasure with the current situation are quite interesting and may even be hinting towards who she could have been back as a Human and what her motives are. Although I still wouldn't get why she hasn't seriously harmed her previous possession victims.

I'm not really expecting ZUN to suddenly decide to focus on the backstory of Gensokyo, but with Mizuchi seems to me like she can be a good opportunity to present the state of the pre-gensokyo-as-we-know-from-Akyuu.

There aren't a lot of speculations regarding her that I know of, but considering her previous targets and her displeasure with the current Hakurei Shrine, it's clear that her worldview is suspiciously outdated for the current Gensokyo, where the Humans receive medicine from the rabbits, news from the tengus, bunch of utility items from the kappas, household servants in zashiki warashis, and so on ... so with all that, I'm kinda leaning towards her possibly having been a peace keeping human who fought on the side of humanity and was really not happy when it was decided that people and youkai should coexist or something.

Which kinda makes the coming MoF arc kinda interesting, as it features gods instead of youkai : is she gonna target Moriya Shrine ? And why ? Until the next proper confrontation, I don't think we're gonna learn anything serious about her.



And still regarding her identity, specifically her source for inspiration : we all know that ZUN usually take inspiration from  (mostly) Japanese folklore or distinguished Japanese figures for some of his characters, plus a little Touhou spin: some girls are inspired BY legends or people, some girls are straight up supposed to BE such or such legendary being or figure, while some take some kind of vague inspiration from some legend or figure but has not much to do with said legend or figure (like Kagerou and Kosuzu), or even go the Mokou and Kaguya way here ZUN add an extra history in established folklore and historical figures : I ain't seen nothing about "Miyadeguchi" anywhere, but I've seen some speculations pertaining to some "Deguchi" fellas, such as Mr Onisaburo Deguchi (the more illustrous and possible one imo) or even Ms Nao Deguchi that are associated with the Oomoto religion. I'm not like super familiar with Oomoto thingy or any text written in relation to that faith, but imo, Ms Miyadeguchi Mizuchi might either follow the Kosuzu and Kagerou (who are named after Japanese people who have accomplishement that can be associated to their characters) ; OR go the Kaguya and Mokou route where ZUN could add his little spin on actual people (a bit unlikely as the "big things" regarding these people happens after Gensokyo getting sealed after 1885). Not something to take seriously, but just something that may or may not be of relevance.



And while this other reflexion comes a bit late, with Mimain't being an entirely new character, her fixation on Marisa as favorite possession target goes from "kinda sus" to "actually weird" : why would she seem to be comfortable inside of a complete stranger ? AND even notify said stranger than one of her neighboors (Alice) is KO'ed out cold, especially if since Mimain't doesn't seem to be super fond of Youkai ? Really weird to me, and I hope ZUN's gonna bring some explanation in the future. For the Marisa thing, I'm willing to think that Mizuchi and her suspicious association with water (considering that's what one of her medium for possession is) go really well with Marisa, who is innate affinity with water. Not sure about the whole Alice business tho



And finally, a bunch of takeaways from the latest chapter 17 :
- Nitori with that new drip
- Sanae being a good girl who follow the rules and get a proper title card intro with her grandma. Also being super cute
- Actual suspects for us filthy readers ?!
- Satori being late to the scene ... again
Roashiki:
The detective being a step behind the mastermind is a pretty old trope but satori as of late feels less like the product of that old trope but more of the incompetent detective type. As for Marisa I  honestly think that was biggest mima bait I've ever seen but now that I read your post I think there might be something more to  Mizuchi claim of considering Marisa her favorite to possess. If Mizuchi really was on a anti youkai force it would've put her in direct conflict with the hakurei maiden and essentially designating her as a rival of sorts. We also know that Mizuchi has been watching reimu for some time (and yet those two haven't aged 🤔) and must have felt that Marisa was a kindred spirit. When you add in Marisa's affinity for water the result would probably be an insanely compatible body for possession.
Suspicious person:
Chapter 18's been out for quite a while now

As it's still in the early stage of the MoF arc, nothing much is happening now. While I don't think that there's much to read into the characters she's possessing most of the time, possessing Nitori is kinda weird since Mizuchi didn't acquire her technological savviness, so she's not getting much of those electrical tasks done. This makes it clear that picking Nitori is about infiltrating Youkai Mountain first and foremost. I'm kinda curious of Nitori getting KO'ed in the future is gonna be tied with the main cast's investigation, as Youkai mountain is pretty distant from the previous locations setting wise.

That said, current possession timeline plus bunch of other things :
- Mokou : unpossessed + KO'ed in Human Village
- Nitori : possessed in Human Village
- Sanae : went in the Human Village, confirmed not possessed because Nitori is the one who got hopped on
- Miyoi, foxes and tanuki : clearly not possessed, not sure if relevant even

As for the usual vengeful spirit exposition this time, Kanako and her lovely roommate's talk about how Vengeful spirit, aside from youkai, can also possess gods / divine spirit due to being similar in nature, I feel like it would be less convoluted if ZUN just say what vengeful spirits can't possess cuz at the point we're at it seems like they can possess pretty much anything sentient or something.

Still on the vengeful spirit talk thingy, I find it interesting that they mould say that Vengeful Spirits typically target the target of their grudge, since Mizuchi has clearly harmed more than one person at this point. Reimu's personality is such that it's hard to think that anyone would bear a grudge towards her, and some kind of generalized grudge towards Gensokyo or the Hakurei Shrine seems kinda abstract (although I can see it serving as a justifiication for Mizuchi not going "poof" in case she does manage to get her revenge, as a vengeful spirit). And even if she is genuinely aiming for people with connections to Reimu, her actions are a bit haphazard and without lasting consequences for her victims, like what does she really do ? As expected, her motives need to be properly unveiled in order to make sense of a bunch of stuff.

And finally, a bit of a weird impresion, but just like MoF (the game), gods seems like they might be a bit of a central theme in this new MoF arc : aside from the Moriya gang, we also have a gorgeous looking Goddess of Misfortune in Hina (who gets to enjoy a proper role in an official work), and others than can arguably be considered as water gods (kappa) and wind gods (tengu, once Aya and her the kin comes to light later). Kinda interesting considering the Vengeful Spirit talk about youkai and divine spirits being possession targets from earlier.

Only weird part this chapter to me is the small chip that drifts by end of the chapter : was it some random machine part that she randomly threw away or something that is to be of use later on ? It's been a while since we've had a drinl-related possession, so there is no way we're suddenly get some kind of weird new possession based of items she's fiddled with

Anyway, until Mizuchi's endgame is properly revealed, random-what-if-theory-with-not-much-bearing-towards-anything-here : since ZUN is trying to go for a mystery-ish story, what if he took inspiration from Agatha Christie, who he's taken inspiration or made references towards in the first time ? Like, Mizuchi pretended to attack people in the order they commited incidents while actually having one specific aim since the beginning ? Imo that would make her actions somewhat, since it's not like she specifically aimed for the masterminds behind incidents specifically. Like, MoF's gonna end and as we enter SA arc, Satori'll feel targeted but Mizuchi would just aim for something else inside of the Underworld or something. Crazy speculation, but imo that would be kinda cool.



Finally, a bunch of takeaways :
- Kawashiro branding on a Nitori machine : Kawashiro brand is quite common in fanworks, but this is the very first time (correct me if I'm wrong) it pops up in an official capacity. Was it artistic discretion or something made with the blessing of ZUN ?
- Random kawaii uguuu kappa mob trying to wrestle the position of most popular kappa mob from Wahh's black haired kappa
- Zero kappa backpacks
- Long haired Suwacc
- Super short Suwacc (like half the size of Kanako)
- Expressive hat of Suwacc (it mimics her eye's expressions !)
Lebon14:
The fact that we get some more Flandre action is quite surprising. That murder look she gave off in one of the panel gives her a definite vampire personality..
Suspicious person:
Been a while, but chapter 27 (?) is out, and some stuff in there seems to have interesting implications :

After a weird MoF arc and a rather lengthy UFO cast intro, besides the usual possession & dump, it seems like there are a few things that may relate to Mizuchi's identity this time, namely the surprised reaction from Reimu regarding her name being Miyadeguchi, which reminds me that Newhu hasn't introduced her properly to the non-readers ; but also the fact that Mizuchi is likely proficient in barrier techniques (I assume she's the one who trapped the gang in Myouren temple), which is extremely suspicious as the only barrier specialists we know generally play a very important role regarding Gensokyo's balance / protection / admin work thingy ; plus the added bonus of her being a bit of a relatively new in Hell.

We haven't had new dialogue from her yet, but these make her identity very, very suspicious, even moreso considering her evident distaste of Youkai, her displeasure with the current state of the Hakurei Shrine, plus her getting shocked over thinking if Humans lost a while back. I hope Reimu's gonna explain who she's supposed to be in a month or two, cuz Reimu seems to know something regarding her name (else why she'd act so surprised).

On the possession tracking side of things, memory needs a bit of refreshing but imo it's somewhat like this :
- End of Eientei arc : goes from Kaguya to Mokou
- Goes to the Human Village, possesses Nitori  and scout Youkai Mountain probably
- Somehow possess Sanae in the Human Village at some point and go to the supposedly locked down Moriya Shrine
- QUITE PROBABLY possess Marisa (again) at the end of MoF arc
- Somehow possesses Byakuren
- Has either left or is still stuck around Myouren temple somehow
Anyway, since Myouren temple is all barriered up and since all the important residents are all still inside, I'm actually expecting Mizuchi to still be around Myouren temple this time. I think it would be funny if she went back to Marisa like usual but got unlucky and is currently stuck dealing with Flandre during her hitman part-time job.

Dunno at what arc ZUN is gonna stop, but if we go to a TD arc I'm curious to see what she's gonna do with the more Human-friendly faction of the bunch, plus eventual Tojiko dynamics.
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