Foul Detective Satori web-manga discussion thread.

[Lebon14]

...and we also have a new chapter of Foul Detective Satori! A pretty long one at that!
Things are getting pretty interesting.

[Suspicious person]

Finally, some goddamn Alice dialogue ! ... is what Alice fans would have probably loved to say lmao

It's good to see that there is a proper reason given to this manga's events seemingly following the orders of incidents happenings instead of just being a simple revisiting of the old cast.

While we haven't been told outright who the Eternal Criminal possessed after possessing Yuyuko, I'm still willing to think it went the getting-served-by-Youmu-to-the-guests route, as Yukari says that she probably got possessed before telling Ran and Chen to set up a perimeter in the netherworld.

Anyway, here's what we currently know about Mima the Eternal Criminal's profile :

-Is a vengeful spirit
-Sort of a badass down there in Hell
-Wants revenge against Gensokyo
-Got some sort of vendetta against the Youkai and Hakurei Shrine
-Been around for long enough she could watch over the very old Scarlet Mist incident to unfold
-Strong enough to possess even Yukari
-Probably SUPER petty, as Satori who knows her a lot assumed she must be snickering somewhere for outsmarting everyone in the netherworld, while Reimu who's goot great intuition assumes the spirit is doing all this to scare her

There is absolutely no way this is some rando we're dealing with this time, considering all that ... In WaHH for example, there was a proper explanation given for Aunn's familiarity with the Hakurei Shrine, but the Eternal Criminal this time sounds like someone who's had personnal involvement with the events of the world ... it would be pretty difficult to shove in a completely new character, so hey ... the temptation to say that it's Mima is very strong this time ...

She also seems to have a liiiiiiiittle penchant for possessing non-Reimu characters who enjoyed playable status. This might quickly get proven wrong as we enter Eientei, where most of the non-Reisen ladies haven't been playable yet ... If I'm right here, then Reisen is gonna be the next one to experience a surprise early retirement. But if it's not her, then I'm curious to see if the Lunarians who consider themselves as Humans are gonna be hardly affected by possession like the "normal" humans, or if they're gonna get KO'ed too.

[nintendonut888]

I would be lying if I didn't think it might be Mima in my darker moments, but I think there is one fatal flaw with that reasoning: It sounds like they have been sealed in Former Hell for a long time, considering Satori is treating their escape as an urgent matter, to say nothing of the fact that she originally hailed from the current hell. Also, considering all Satori knows, I think she would tell Reimu if she knew the one after her personally. Even with that said though, I can't rule it out completely - there's just too many unanswered questions.

On a similar note though, speaking as a PC-98 fan, I think it's interesting that the Eternal Criminal's MO of targeting those who took part in past incidents would conveniently leave out PC-98 and start at EoSD. When you think about it:

HRtP and MS: Took place in a different realm, would never get Reimu's attention.
SoEW: Neither perpetrator is related to one another anymore, and one has presumably not been seen for over 15 years. Would not draw a correlation.
PoDD: Both Chiyuri and Yumemi are long gone from Gensokyo.
LLS: The only viable incident. But Yuka has long since left Mugenkan and become a solitary youkai, one whom would probably not even tell others if she were possessed.

Thinking like that, it'd make sense to start at EoSD and work forward, if they were aiming for consistency in order to taunt Reimu.

[Suspicious person]

It sounds like they have been sealed in Former Hell for a long time, considering Satori is treating their escape as an urgent matter, to say nothing of the fact that she originally hailed from the current hell.

Reimu says in the latest chapter 10 that the Eternal Criminal deliberately following the order of incident is probably in order to show Reimu that she has been watching her all that time. Mima or not, the Eternal Criminal could observe her one way or another, else she wouldn't necessarily attack in that particular order and target people who were involved in these incidents. I think here the motive to get back at these people in particular should be of importance later on. It just seem weird that we'd have some completely new and unrelated girl have some kind of personnal reason to target characters we know, especially we haven't been told some kind of grudge anyone could hold towards ALL of these victims. Probably another way of getting back at Reimu for the next reason :

Also, considering all Satori knows, I think she would tell Reimu if she knew the one after her personally.[/ispoiler]

Actually she kinda did, in her conversation with Yuyuko, who already guessed that the Eternal Criminal had a grudge against Youkai AND the Hakurei Shrine. This latest chapter 10 has Yukari telling Reimu about the Vengeful Spirit's true nature and motive too, but like Yuyuko, she doesn't seem to refer to its exact identity.

[Lebon14]

New chapter up and might be the last one, and hopefully, just for a while because the artist had to drop out for health reasons.
In this chapter, Satori gets told by Patchy by having her own mind read. Hehe.

[Suspicious person]

https://twitter.com/thgairai/status/1431869577525297163

A bit late, but it has been announced that the Mima manga the Detective Satori manga is set to resume serialization.

Not much detail is known aside from there being a new artist handling the art, and we're gonna have to wait for the end of next month (september) for updates on who that artist is gonna be and when the serialization will restart for real.

So yeah, it's been like what, 5 - 6 months of wait or something ? At any rate, I hope things are gonna go well and the new person isn't gonna get crapped on too hard over their artstyle, and also get ZUN to confirm for real if the Eternal Criminal is that villainous ghost who has been eternally absent from 2hu titles for a long time or not

[Branneg Xy]

https://twitter.com/thgairai/status/1431869577525297163

A bit late, but it has been announced that the Mima manga the Detective Satori manga is set to resume serialization.

Not much detail is known aside from there being a new artist handling the art, and we're gonna have to wait for the end of next month (september) for updates on who that artist is gonna be and when the serialization will restart for real.

So yeah, it's been like what, 5 - 6 months of wait or something ? At any rate, I hope things are gonna go well and the new person isn't gonna get crapped on too hard over their artstyle, and also get ZUN to confirm for real if the Eternal Criminal is that villainous ghost who has been eternally absent from 2hu titles for a long time or not

Serialization has resumed on 25/10 (Comic Walker vet. )
https://comic-walker.com/viewer/tw=2&dlcl=ja&cid=KDCW_AM21201276010016_68
under the new graphic direction of" Akimaki Yuu(Twitter Profile) https://twitter.com/youkia2237 "

[Suspicious person]

I'm pretty satisfied that the series is back, and am quite okay with this new artstyle.

However, here's a few nitpicks pertaining to a bunch of details :
- Character designs are not like exactly like how they were previously : most glaring example being Meiling's clothes in the recap : these are not her clothes in the SDM arc ; the lack of [[HeartShapedObject]] around Satori's neck, unlike the previous Satori design with the previous artist, but instead the somewhat "usual" noose like design of the 3rd eye arteries ; and Satori's hair being much neat instead of messy like normal
- The lack of title card for character introductions : we get Eirin, Kaguya, Reisen the first, and even Mokou, but no title card to introduce any of them, unlike how it was usually done for the previous arcs, or even how it's like in other 2hu mangas

Be that as it may, I'm quite satisfied with what we have.

As for the plot and speculations, the most sus thing in the chapter would be the unidentified person who came to talk to Mokou towards the end of this chapter 12. Since we're clearly in the IN arc, possible candidates for who that person could be should be Keine, Tewi, or even Marisa, if we go by people Mokou is familiar with. I personally think it should be a possessed Marisa. She has already been possessed a few times before (according to Satori's speculations) so imo there's no reason for the spirit to come back to her. Although I can't exactly see where things are gonna go from here.

Anyway, I've reread the series and came up with a little mini theory (that might be wrong according to chapter 9.5). First of all, let's try to outline a timeline of possessions made by the Eternal Criminal in the SDM case, AND mention the events following said possessions plus mentioning certain facts that may or may not be relevant :

In the SDM arc :
1 - Sakuya gets possessed ; serves Patchouli very suspicious coffee ; Patchouli gets KO'ed and possessed
2 - A Satori-free investigation happens ; non-possessed Sakuya gets imprisonned ; possessed Patchouli still in the bed and under surveillance
3 - Patchouli wakes up ; library gets investigated ; weapon of crime (coffee mug) is gone
4 - Patchouli tampers with Meiling's tea at some point ; Sakuya uses her get-out-of-jail oujo-sama ; Meiling gets KO'ed ; Sakuya found in the kitchen but not in jail
5 - The Eternal Criminal leaves Meiling at some point before Flandre attacks her and the detective arrives

Not sure if it's a particularly important detail or a completely irrelevant one, but imo the coffee mug disappearing is pretty interesting since around the time it happened, the Eternal Criminal has to be inside Patchouli for her to tamper Meiling's tea later on ... imo, the logical explanation for this would be that the Eternal Criminal had an outside accomplice. So who could it have been ?

Here's the thing : with the benefit of hindsight, we know that the Eternal Criminal target the Reimu / the Hakurei Shrine for some reason : Patchouli getting attacked is none of Reimu's business whatsoever, yet Marisa comes to Reimu and tells her what happened, AND even goes as far as to exaggerate the fact to get Reimu involved (despite Reimu expressing her lack of interest and later Sakuya mentionning that it's none og her business).

This is definitely something that didn't go public, and the people who are aware of what happened are clearly aware of the state Patchouli is in (that is, comatose and out of energy, but definitely NOT dead) : how come Marisa was aware that something happened to Patchouli BUT still got the facts wrong ? (chapter 1) Kinda sus if you ask me. And also, back to the weapon of crime disappearing, that is mentionned after Patchouli wakes up (but is still possessed) and check the library with Reimu and Remi (chapter 3). Before that, however, when everyone was gathered so that Orin could reveal the culprit, Reimu and Marisa, SDM outsiders, were there for some reason (chapter 1) ...

I wouldn't be surprised if Marisa came to the library to borrow a bunch of stuff INCLUDING the coffee mug. The possibility of someone sneaking into the library and taking books has even been mentionned by Remilia (when she is checking the library with Reimu and the possessed Patchouli), and most certainly refers to Marisa when she talks about burglars since Marisa's hat is the image we got at that moment.

(The simplest coffee explanation would be that possessed Sakuya cleaned it up before going into Patchouli for real, but the coffee spil still being there while Patchouli is KO in the very first page kinda goes against that imo)

Anyway, it should be obvious that I'm saying that Marisa giving some off that 3rd impostor energy.
But before debunking it with whazt chapter 9.5 says, let's continue that line of thought for a bit :

In the PCB arc :
1 - Possessed Marisa arrives with some booze; drinks with Yuyuko ; Yuyuko gets possessed and drained
2 - Yukari enters the fray ; discusses the situation with Reimu and Marisa
2.5 - At some point, and with the benefit of hindsight, Yukari gets possessed sometime around here ; manages to save a bit of power for later use
3 - Possessed Yukari orders Shikigami to round up ALL of the netherworld's phantom populace ; disappears sometimes after
4 - Yuyuko wakes up, goes with Satori to Hakurei Shrine to look up for Marisa ; on the way, in the forest of magic, Satori picks on traces of the Eternal Criminal's thoughts ; Satori and Yuyuko arrives at the Hakurei Shrine to look for Marisa, but Possessed Yukari just picks up Marisa and send her to the forest of magic
5 - Satori and Yuyuko raises suspicion on Marisa & reveal the Eternal Criminal's true target (Reimu) ; Hakurei Shrine enters lockdown
6 - Netherworld phantoms rounded up, Satori doesn't find the Eternal Criminal there
7 - Marisa takes care of Alice (cute); gets caught and interrogated by Satori, Yuyuko, and a very smug Youmu ; Satori mention that it's obvious that she helped the Eternal Criminal get aroung, but aside from inconsistent memories that proves that Marisa has been possessed before, nothing consequential comes from this ; Marisa reveals that while she came to Alice's house of her own volition, Possessed Yukari was the one who sent her here
8 - Back to the netherworld, Satori tells the Shikigamis that Yukari has been possessed & they should look for her ; Satori tells Marisa she doesn't know if her possession has been planned
9 - Yukari (not possessed anymore) comes to Reimu, tells what she thinks the Eternal Criminal's motives and next target are ; Reimu is back in the action, leaves Hakurei Shrine and flies off to Eientei
10 - Marisa reaches Hakurei Shrine ; Can't find Reimu ; suspects a still-possessed-Yukari targeted her ; leaves off ... destination unclear

A very convoluted and confusing arc. However, this arc has something that goes against my 3rd impostor Marisa theory in its Marisa monologues of chapter 8 and 10 and especially the Marisa - Satori confrontation in 9.5 ... this too, however, made me come up with another reflexion / theory regarding the Eternal Criminal's ability : back in the SDM case, Sakuya is revealed to have no memory of making the coffee whatsoever, while Patchouli does remember tampering with Meiling's tea ... imo, the Eternal Criminal's memory affecting powers are not properly clarified. I wouldn't be surprised if the Eternal criminal's memory erasing abilities reached much further in order to allow what I assume a villainous Marisa to seem innocent in front of Satori.

Also, it's kinda weird to me too that Marisa would just bolt out of Hakurei Shrine to search for Reimu (instead of just waiting there). Searching all over Gensokyo makes no sense either. There shouldn't be any reason for Marisa to know where to look if she was going to depend on Reimu's intuition to begin with. It's weird that she would move decisively like that. Maybe the Eternal Criminal have some suggestion abilities too ? Kinda gratuitous here, but food for thought ...

And even if you put that aside, before possessed Yukari takes Marisa away in step 4, Satori has already felt the Eternal Criminal's thoughts in the FOREST OF MAGIC. Marisa's turf. Why would she stay there ? Perhaps to stay close to her accomplice ? At any rate, I'd say the Eternal Criminal's presence in the Forest of Magic is more important than Alice getting possessed : why it settled around there is kinda suspicious.

And finally, and this happens in the beginning, just before Yukari gets possessed, she MEETS UP WITH REIMU AND MARISA. The fact that apparently Marisa seems to be the Eternal Criminal's favorite possession target is a bit of a red flag too.

Even the Satori - Marisa confrontation in 9.5, which should have absolved her, is kinda weird too, if you consider the discrepancies between some of Marisa's statements and reality (specifically her arrival in Hakugyokurou and meetup with Yuyuko) : possessed or not, that was just incorrect. Sakuya and Patchouli just don't remember stuff instead of getting confused like that.

I initially thought Youmu was possessed in the PCB arc, but after giving a bit more thought, Marisa is much more suspicious than her.

Anyway, bottom line, here's what I think the manga isn't telling us :
- The Eternal Criminal's got an accomplice in Marisa
- The Eternal Criminal's possession effects on memories are not just simple forgetfulness, and might be more
- Marisa's status in general : unwilling helper or an accomplice with mysterious motives ?
- The Eternal Criminal is Mima

On the new arc, a few comments too : the girls mention that the Eternal Criminal might become really dangerous if she possess someone with a really dangerous ability, but imo, that's not really correct. The Eternal Criminal has already possessed Sakuya and Yukari, two characters whose abilities pretty much allow them to do what they want : if the Eternal Criminal had sinister objetives towards Reimu, she could've totally gone for it. And if the Marisa being a bad girl theory is correct, I still wouldn't believe that Marisa would harm her bestie. It would be extremely suspicious too if the shadow figure we see towards the end of chapter 12 turns out to be Marisa, considering all that ...

[Lebon14]

Great write-up, Suspicious person.
Also great summary.

I love the new artist.

[Suspicious person]

Latest chapter 13 is now out ! Dunno if it's just me, but it feels to me like there's been quite the mood shift ever since the new artist took over. Dunno if it's just the artstyle or the story this time

Anyway, as expected, the shadowy figure is indeed Marisa ... I might be a bit biaised in finding her suspicious (considering what I previously brought up), but honestly I think this should solidify Marisa's position as being closer to the side of the no gooders than on the side of those who are actually helpful this time around ...

It's EXTREMELY WEIRD and suspicious that Marisa would straight up go to the bamboo forest to look for Reimu, and even enlist Mokou's help to try to search for her, as if it was certain that Reimu was in the bamboo forest ... Marisa believes that a still-possessed-Yukari took Reimu away, but we, as readers, we know that Yukari shouldn't be possessed anymore around the time she contacted Reimu, and couldn't have transmited the vengefulona spiritus to Reimu since they didn't share a drink, so we should know from the onset that Marisa's theory is wrong. But for her to suppose that Reimu would pop up in the forest and more specifically in Eientei makes no sense : if she suspects Yukari, why go to the bamboo forest ?! And also, what connection could there be between Yukari theorically kidnapping Reimu then somehow sending her elsewhere ? That makes no sense at all, UNLESS Marisa is in on whatever plot the baddie's got this time.

Marisa's insistence on getting in Eientei (despite being rejected by Reisen and the guards), along with the fact that she strung Mokou along with her puts me on the side of the people who believe that the two shadowy figures at the end of the chapter should be Marisa and Mokou (especially since one of them has a long staff-like thing that ought to be a broom)

The only mystery in this chapter to me is the letter : how did it find it's way in there ? But considerin gthat Yukari was the last known character to be possessed before this, it's possible that she would be used as an explanation (there could be other ones tbh)

Marisa is most definitely extremely suspicious and has been of more help to the Vengeful spirit than the investigation efforts. IF she indeed turns out to be one of the shadowy figures, then her planning her break-in 30 minutes before what's stipulated in the letter doesn't do her any favors. My assumption is still the same here she is an accomplice, but the question I have remains the same too, still : is she a willing helper or an unwitty accomplice who's been controled in some way or another ?

[Lebon14]

Yeah, it's a really interesting chapter. Thanks for the write-up, SusPerson

[Suspicious person]

VERY late, but chapter 14 has apparently been out for quite a while now. Haven't had a "proper" chapter these last december releases so I'm quite surprised by this one.

Got a bunch of "meta" things to say about stuff that aren't related to the Eternal Criminal's actions, but when it comes to this latest chapter 14, as expected the shadowy figures were indeed Marisa and Mokou, and the Eternal Criminal's strike coinciding with their intrusion is quite incriminitating, moreso than expected.

Since Marisa got captured but Mokou (as the omniscient narrator says) escaped, it is reasonable to expect the Eternal Criminal to have clung onto Mokou for her getaway. Imo, all the weird attention given to Reimu's weird behavior (like c'mon girl, you've kicked a dozen of godly asses, why get scared of a vengeful spirit) is the usual red herring. My expectation would be that things went this way !

- Probably possessed Marisa meets Mokou
- Probably possessed Marisa and Mokou go to Eientei + try to break in
- Probably not possessed Marisa gets captured, possessed Mokou gets out with the Eternal Criminal

I REALLY hope that something of consequence is finally gonna happen with the next Satori - Captured Marisa confrontation instead of some kind of repeat of Chapter 9.5, else things gets way too repetitive, and repetitiveness + that molasses pacing is not gonna make for the most pleasant of reading experiences.

As for the Eientei folks, I think this last chapter makes them look really bad since the Eternal Criminal got to do her thing again ... think about it : you have EIRIN (the same Eirin who helped establish the Lunar Capital, who figured the heroines's plot and counteracted it in SSiB, who masterfully handled LoLK from the comfort of her home, who is basically one of the smartest people in the series) : freaking Eirin gets warned ahead of time, gets challenged by the perpetrator, even gets a proper schedule for when the thing is gonna happen and still gets owned (outsmarted) ?! Even if they're immortals, letting her princess get in harm's way is not exactly great optics imo. The Eternal Criminal is clearly being built up as this masterful schemer of sorts, but outsmarting freaking Yukari and Eirin in the same week is dangerously bordering Mary Sue territory. No matter what happen, by the time she gets revealed, she BETTER be a major league player kind of character in Gensokyo, else everyone else will end up looking like a bunch of frauds.

Besides that, a few, uh, weird takeaways ?
- Reisen "S" Inaba dangerously looking like she need a fat serving of those holy hand grenades, she has always been considered to be the only "normal" girl of this series (bar her crappy naming sense), but ... uhhh, I can't help but wonder if she's gonna be as unhinged in her future appearances. Hopefully not (unless you're into that, in which case more power to you)
- They're nerfing Satori too much :((((
- Satori casually storing suspicious craniums inside her desk, some questions could be asked here, but I doubt anyone would want to hear the answers. Also Orin best dog

[nintendonut888]

I'm just going to drop my crazy theory here while there's time:

The possessed is Reisen, and the person behind the door is not actually Marisa. It has been established in past works that among the things Reisen can do with her ability to manipulate waves is to manipulate sound waves - even claiming that she could communicate with rats using ultrasonic sound if she wanted to. It's well possible that she can essentially function as a voice changer. Now, to what end she would be doing this, I don't know, but the first chapter made a point about how the Criminal can make use of her victim's powers, with Reimu musing about "powers she doesn't understand," so it's made me suspicious of Reisen, whose powers would be nasty in the hands of such a villain.

Also, for what it's worth, Reisen developing sadistic tendencies as a response to her long-term mistreatment is one of the less surprising character development moments. I'm more surprised it'd be directly depicted. Her scenario in AoCF proved my long-held suspicion that she's basically one bad day away from snapping.

And lastly, I'm kind of surprised that a Lunarian would fall into a coma after being drained by the criminal. I was under the impression that Lunarians are closer to humans than most supernatural beings, but I suppose they've ascended far enough beyond human that they're still considered spiritual beings.

[Suspicious person]

Chapter 15 out for a while, hmm.

Nothing much happens in there, aside from a big surprise at the end
The whole talk with Marisa trying to make Reimu look suspicious doesn't seem to add much imo considering how suspicious Marisa is already. And if you consider the fact that she also popped in the bamboo forest to look for Mokou in order to help her find Reimu, with no hint about where Reimu might've gone ? Yeah, all this possessed Reimu talk is honestly a red herring, like I've previously suggested ...

Anyway, while the smarter characters supposedly know the motives of the villain (unlike us filthy readers), honestly the endgame of the Vengeful Spirit is what interest me the most : what is there to gain by antagonizing all the major players aside from one hell of a whallop by the end of the series ? This seems to me like a legitimate question since she also seems to make her future target obvious (meaning allowing future targets to prepare)

So like aside from giving Reimu a bad time, does she gain something from all of this ? Like, at the very least empowering herself with the magic power she stole ? Cuz honestly temporarily disabling people doesn't seem terribly scary to me, and, again, antagonizing the major players is reasonably not gonna end well for her ...

Anyway, when it comes to the surprising ending of this chapter 15, the only possibility that does pop in my miserable mind is the scenario where a possessed Mokou intercepted Satori in her way to get the truth out of Marisa, and left her in quite the miserable state.

Marisa being quite suspicious is not exactly in the realm of theorys anymore, but her role in the Vengeful Spirit's plans and whatever info could be gleaned from her via mind reading should be very important : previously we already had that situation where possessed Yukari WARPED HER OUT as Satori & Yuyuko were going to see her at Hakurei Shrine, then possessing & erasing her memories before the Satori-Marisa meeting at Alice's house (Hakugyoukurou arc) ... this time Satori gets freaking dropped on her way to pry the truth out of Marisa ... that is ONE TOO MANY BAILOUTS

Whatever big reveal ZUN is planning to do for this manga has got potential imo, but the freaking slow pacing plus the fact that we still don't know the identity of the big bad cat nearly THREE YEARS into the serialization is quite jarring tbh. The fact that the next "incident" is Touhou 9, considering how much of an outlier Touhou 9 was, really makes me think that we're gonna get a somewhat substantial reveal either at the end of this IN arc or in the next one.



Also, a few minor takeaways :
-Akyuu's headcanon about Mokou being a ninja is lowkey appropriate
-The radiance of Eientei cuisine is only matched by the Eirin's forehead
-Extremely rare instance of bodily injury (not some super brutal ones thankfully), AND it's on a beloved character, they're REALLY nerfing Satori way too much :((((

[nintendonut888]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, I think you may be misreading something from the Hakugyokurou arc. The timeline I see the possessions in that arc is:

>Yukari gets ambushed by the criminal and possessed
>Yukari's gaps are used to attack Alice and drain her
>Presumably, while Yukari is still compromised, she is repossessed and takes Marisa to Alice's house. Possibly just to taunt everyone and show another victim has been taken?
>Yukari is drained and abandoned, where she then revives enough to go see Reimu

It's confirmed that Marisa was possessed when she visited Hakugyokurou, but there's no indication she has been possessed a second time. If she had, she wouldn't remember going to Alice's house, and only one person can be possessed at a time.

Also for what it's worth, Satori being bad at fighting has always been a thing. I forget the exact source but ZUN always envisioned her as someone not great at fighting, and Koishi implies as such in SA extra as well. Symposium of Post-Mysticism also seemed to imply that Satori may less be "sealed away" underground so much as she's taken refuge there to get away from humans. I read her strain at reading minds to be more of a psychological limit than a physical one.

[Suspicious person]

Ah yeah, Marisa came to Alice's house by her own will after getting gapped by possessed Yukari, but that is a bit of an impression of mine for reasons I'll mention later. Aside from that, I don't think there was a Yukari repossession around the time :

>Yukari's gaps are used to attack Alice and drain her
>Presumably, while Yukari is still compromised, she is repossessed and takes Marisa to Alice's house. Possibly just to taunt everyone and show another victim has been taken?
>Yukari is drained and abandoned, where she then revives enough to go see Reimu

Yukari's gap doesn't drain magic power, the Vengeful Spirit's possession does, and Alice got possessed since she fell into comatose. Plus, Satori also clearly says that there is no sign of external injuries, so it cannot be an attack besides possession. Besides, The Vengeful Spirit only possess one person at a time, and repossessing Yukari is very unlikely since Yukari was capable of taking action and could easily flee when freed. This is how the chain of events would be in case of a Yukari repossession :
- Yukari attacks Alice, gets the vengeful to possess her
- She nicely wait there somehow ???
- The vengeful spirit finishes draining Alice, possess Yukari again
- Repossessed Yukari takes Marisa to the Forest of Magic

Possessing Marisa might have a bit of an issue too, unless the Vengeful Spirit tossed Yukari right after gapping Marisa and hypothetically possessed her, and more importantly is NOT something that was explicitly mentionned in chapter 9.5 where Satori confronts Marisa, however I don't think it's an impossibility. My main reason for thinking that kinda goes with my suspicion about how the plot may be going : my theory regarding this series is that Marisa is working with the Vengeful Spirit, for some reason or another, and the Vengeful Spirit relies on the memory erasing effects of its human possession to deceive Satori's mind reading abilities. The fact that POSSESSED Yukari gapped Marisa away JUST BEFORE Satori gets to see her is what makes me think that way, or Marisa randomly accurately figuring where exactly did Reimu pop up, or Satori getting attacked on her way to see Marisa in the last chapter 15 : if Marisa had nothing incriminating inside her memories, why bail her out ?

When it comes to Alice however, we actually never saw when exactly she got possessed, there was this assumption that she got recently got possessed when the manga showed her to us. My impression was that it was possible that she got possessed way earlier before the PCB arc took place : my theory on the chain of events would be that :
- The Vengeful Spirit escapes from the SDM and goes to the Forest of Magic to get Marisa
- The Vengeful Spirit casually help itself to Alice's magical power on the way (weird occurence considering that it's currently aiming to show to Reimu that the possession happens to the places where the big incidents happened) then ditches
- The Vengeful Spirit goes back on track and does the Hakugyoukurou thingy
- (chain of events that I previously mentionned happen)
- Possessed Yukari gaps Marisa away from Hakurei Shrine, notify her on the way that Alice is knocked out cold

It's very likely that Marisa didn't get possessed after she got gapped away, even moreso since if she was plotting something with the Vengeful Spirit (as I assume), she shouldn't have any such memories of plotting at this time (cuz of previous possession), UNLESS she had a hand in Yukari's possession at Hakugyoukurou (if the small drinks on the table were of any relevance or are just extra bonuses from the artist).

It's confirmed that Marisa was possessed when she visited Hakugyokurou, but there's no indication she has been possessed a second time. If she had, she wouldn't remember going to Alice's house, and only one person can be possessed at a time.

Satori brings up that there is a high probability that Marisa has been possessed multiple times, so possessing someone more than once should not be an issue, especially if it's a human who doesn't suffer from the possession side effects Youkai face. It's likely that what happened is exactly as what she told Satori, and it's likely that no Marisa possessions happened after Yukari gapped her, but imo, if she had no incriminating memories to be deleted at the time this happened, there would be little reason to take such brazen action and blow possessed Yukari's cover (along with the legitimacy of the phantom gathering, which wasted quite a bit of time)

[nintendonut888]

First, when I said "attacked with gaps," I meant "used Yukari's gap powers to travel to Alice's house and attack her." Sorry about that vague wording.

Satori's impression that Marisa was the primary host was before she actually talked with Marisa. Afterwards she revised her theory once she determined she wasn't lying. And while it's true a gap in memory may not be something Satori would be able to note per se, she would definitely be able to tell if Marisa was actively conspiring with the criminal or lying during her interrogation at Alice's house. At most, Marisa is her pawn, not a conspirator. And besides, working with someone to hurt Reimu is the one thing Marisa would absolutely never do, no matter the reason. That alone is enough for me to dismiss the idea out of hand, personally.

As for Yukari being repossessed, I admit it's a bit of conjecture, but it's the only thing that makes sense to me. There's a lot we don't know about the details of this spirit's possession, but given Marisa somehow went to Hakugyokurou while possessed, attacked Yuyuko, and then left without any memory of it has given me the impression there's some degree of post-possession amnesia, where the person is kind of out of it and just kind of moving on automatic (otherwise, anyone would realize something had happened).

If Yukari were in such a state, it'd be easy to repossess her. And there's something to support the idea of quick repossession, as well. In chapter 9.5, this is Satori's initial theory of what happened:

>Marisa gets possessed while investigating Meiling's attack at the SDM
>Travels to Hakugyokurou, attacks Yuyuko
>Marisa gets repossessed directly afterwards, goes to attack Alice

Whether or not this is something that can be done, Satori seems to believe it's something the spirit is capable of, and she knows more about its methods than anyone.

Alternatively, Yukari was drained right before switching to Alice, then repossessed afterwards. I don't think there would be a problem with using someone after draining them, since they're just being used as puppets to begin with. It's a little vague on how exactly Yukari reserved some energy, since the illustration just showed a flower hidden in a gap, but we can assume she accessed it after being drained and abandoned.

I'll admit though, the "Alice was attacked before the arc even started" theory is interesting, but given the timeframe other victims have recovered I can't think of a way that would work. Plus, if you look at the frame when Alice's body is shown, there's an overturned teacup, suggesting she was attacked via liquid and not through old-fashioned possession (like I'm assuming happened to Yukari, Marisa, and Sakuya). Still, I'll keep that in the back of my head.

[Suspicious person]

the "Alice was attacked before the arc even started" theory is interesting, but given the timeframe other victims have recovered I can't think of a way that would work. Plus, if you look at the frame when Alice's body is shown, there's an overturned teacup, suggesting she was attacked via liquid and not through old-fashioned possession (like I'm assuming happened to Yukari, Marisa, and Sakuya). Still, I'll keep that in the back of my head.

Yeah, it may seem kinda weird that Alice's possession would last much longer than Yuyuko's (if she Alice was possessed before Yuyuko), but at the same time, unlike the other victims, she had nobody to nurse her back to health. If she was possessed first, maybe that could have played a role. At any rate, while Satori detected traces of the Vengeful Spirit's thought in the Forest of Magic (Alice and Marisa's turf), it's not specified that it's anything besides mocking thoughts, and at this point Yukari is the one that is still possessed (between step 2 and step 6). If Marisa was being naughty, I wouldn't be surprised if the Vengeful Spirit decided to set her base near her ally since she's got nowhere else to go.

Although I'm not really sure about the situation surrounding Alice's tea, previous cases were as such : Patchouli got KO from the coffee that possessed Sakuya served and obviously tampered with, same goes for Meiling after drinking something that got tampered by possessed Patchouli, and likewise for Yuyuko drinking the booze brought by possessed Marisa. This might be reading too much into a mere panel, but imo if you've got a teapot by your immediate side, the chances of getting served by someone else goes down quite a bit. All previous liquid possessions happened in relation with them being served by a possessed person, which is why I was kinda thinking that for Alice's case, mmaybe, JUST maybe it was a regular old boring possession ,although her waking later than Yuyuko kinda suggests that she might have been possessed just as our attention is brought to the forest of magic. At the time, the way things stand is as such :
1 - Vengeful Spirit leaves SDM
1.5 - (???) + the Vengeful Spirit getting in contact with Marisa
2 - Possessed Marisa brings booze to Yuyuko, Yuyuko gets possessed
2.5 - The Vengeful Spirit had to leave Yuyuko in order to get Yukari
3 - Marisa and Reimu meets Yukari, Yukari later gets possessed
4 - Various events happen, Satori detects traces of the Vengeful Spirit's thoughts in the Forest of Magic
5 - Still possessed Yukari sends Marisa to the forest of magic
6 - bla bla previous argument, either repossession or Yukari ditching

Maybe the Vengeful Spirit infected her tea, dunno


And since we're talking about liquid related possession, I'm actually kinda curious about how did Marisa get possessed after the SDM arc. Regular non liquid possession is something that Vengeful Spirits are capable of doing (even brought up when the culprit being a Vengeful Spirit is revealed), but hasn't actually happened "on camera" in this manga. Although this might get clarified depending on whether Mokou is currently possessed or not.

At most, Marisa is her pawn, not a conspirator. And besides, working with someone to hurt Reimu is the one thing Marisa would absolutely never do, no matter the reason. That alone is enough for me to dismiss the idea out of hand, personally.

I also don't think the endgame of the Vengeful Spirit is about harming Reimu, since there were quite a few opportunies to do just that previously : for example, she could have just used a possessed Sakuya (before Reimu was made aware of the possessions) to do a surprise attack featuring time powers, or used Yukari and possibly attack Reimu when she was confining herself. Even most of the previous victims didn't particularly suffer any serious harm (despite magic loss supposedly being serious for Youkai) : weak Patchouli still got to move around, while Yuyuko is plenty capable of giving a freaking piggyback : the only person who truly have been harmed at this point would be Satori at the end of Chapter 15 : if the big bad's motives aren't about seriously harming Reimu, then Marisa getting enlisted doesn't seem off the table. I'm leaning more towards the Marisa-is-an-accomplice route because I can't picture Marisa to get manipulated at convenience, plus the things that require a proper partner that is on the ball in the more recent chapters.

While Chapter 9.5 generally seem to absolve Marisa at that point, I think there are too many suspicious things surrounding her circumstances for her to be totally clean :
- She got Reimu to be involved in this whole possession ordeal back in the beginning, EVEN exaggerated the facts (saying that Patchouli is dead) to get Reimu's interest
- Seemingly being the Vengeful Spirit's possession target (like why), with Satori suspecting her to already having been possessed multiple times
- Her intrusion in Eientei, which even coincide with the Vengeful Spirit's letter's threat

And while it's true a gap in memory may not be something Satori would be able to note per se, she would definitely be able to tell if Marisa was actively conspiring with the criminal or lying during her interrogation at Alice's house.

Still going by the angle where Marisa may be a conspirator, imo "refreshing" Marisa should not be too much of a challenge : something that seems suspicious to me happens in the start of the IN arc, where Marisa, somehow, figures out exactly that Reimu is in Eientei and even enlist Mokou's help to get just there : before this happens, an supposedly good Marisa was trying to rely on Reimu's intuition to find the Vengeful Spirit, but couldn't ask Reimu since she went to Eientei after a not-possessed-anymore Yukari told her about the Vengeful Spirit's intentions : if Marisa was going to rely on Reimu's help to find something, how did she figure Reimu's current location with exact precision ? Especially if she wasn't made aware of the Vengeful Spirit's objectives ? Extremely suspicious to me, what's with her randomly getting a bunch of highly accurate information. I think things probably went this :
- Reimu goes to Eientei
- Marisa doesn't find Reimu, may have met up with the Vengeful Spirit
- A possibly possessed Marisa goes to meet Mokou
- Possibility that the Vengeful Spirit is moved onto Mokou, since she wasn't on Marisa anymore at the time of the capture

IF Marisa is indeed an accomplice instead of just an unwitting pawn, her motives would currently elude me. Unless it has something to do with the identity of the Vengeful Spirit who is totally M*ma

As for the mysterious, unidentified and enigmatic Vengeful Spirit's motives, I think the revenge she wants to take on Gensokyo has gotta be something that's a little bit different from just harming everyone, especially Reimu (since Marisa wouldn't harm her bestie). Still not sure what her exact objective is or how her plan's endgame gonna be.

[nintendonut888]

The whole "Patchouli is dead" thing honestly just seems like a running gag to me. Everyone is so excited over a murder mystery they keep calling the victim "the body." I wouldn't read too much into it, since I'm pretty sure Marisa isn't the only one to use this line.

As for Marisa figuring out Eientei is the next location, it's true that it isn't shown on screen, but I think it's a fair argument that she simply put the pieces together like Satori did. After all, even someone with no interaction with the surface at the time like Satori was able to figure out Eientei was the next target after gaining some basic information about the incident orders - someone directly involved like Marisa would be able to connect the dots together.

Rereading past chapters for this, I'm even more convinced Marisa isn't an accomplice. When she visits the shrine to look for Reimu, she shows clear concern and confusion, despite nobody else being around. Unless we're talking David Cage levels of bad mystery writing, there's no reason for her to "fool" anyone in this circumstance. That being said, I do find it curious how in the most recent chapter, she seemingly forgot why she came to Eientei in the first place until Eirin prompted her to remember. That is strange, but I reserve judgement until we see more. I suppose I can't rule out the theory that she was intercepted by the spirit on her way to Eientei, but then why would she remember meeting Mokou in the first place?

And lastly, as for the spirit's motives, I think it not attacking Reimu yet isn't so much that this isn't its ultimate goal as it's a classic trope of the villain wanting their victim to suffer before striking. A lot of its movements, from these elaborate escapes/infiltrations to mimicking the order of the incidents seems to be done with the express purpose of taunting and/or scaring Reimu. If its motive is revenge, it makes sense it wouldn't just go the most straightforward route. Because otherwise yeah, it would have been game over the moment Yuyuko was taken over.

[nintendonut888]

The translation isn't up yet, but I was able to understand most of it in Japanese, thankfully. The most important detail of the chapter below:

We have a name: Mizuchi Miyadeguchi. Sorry Mima fans.

[Suspicious person]

Can't believe Mima's back with a new design AND even a new name ! New girl's apparition is a bit hampered by the medium being a black and white manga cuz we don't know how her color scheme is gonna be like : what's the color of her hair ? The color of her eyes ? Are her clothes really black and white plus a bit of grey for the metallic parts ? Chara design wise, aside from really looking like Shion after a failed burglary attempt, she looks a bit like she could've come from Criminal Girls but much less salacious methinks.

Also she seems to have a bunch of paper dolls with her. Aside from vengeful spirit business, could she be proficient in Onmiyoji techniques ? Since paper dolls are stereotypically associated with these ...



Anyway, I'm a bit less inclined to think that Marisa would collab with the baddie now cuz this girl is a complete stranger of the evil variety. Although Marisa being completely clean would not only be boring but make a number of things look really weird to me, what's with a lot of Marisa - Vengeful Spirit moments plus her actually following the Vengeful Spirit's timing in the Eientei break-in ...

Possession timing with Kaguya inn the Human Village seems also kinda sketchy since she's possessed at the very least Yukari before that, yet Kaguya was already in Eientei when we reach there. While I'd like a clear-and-cut clarification, I kinda suspect that ZUN is probably not gonna give that, hmm.

For this IN arc, my new impression of the timeline for possession would be as such :
- Vengeful Spirit leaves Yukari, possesses Kaguya in the Human Village, probably runs SUPER FAST towards Eientei to prevent plot holes
- Completely not possessed Marisa and not possessed Mokou coincidentally go to Eientei to perfectly act in a manner that's consistent with the Vengeful Spirit's plans ?!?!?!!!!
- Possessed Kaguya pretends to be not possessed Kaguya, suggest a plan to Eirin while trying not to laugh, later pretends to get KO'ed later in order to match the plan that she presented to Eirin when the supposed time for the Vengeful Spirit to strike comes
- Not possessed Marisa gets captured, a propably not possessed Mokou gets out of Eientei
- The Vengeful Spirit sees Satori approaching, gives her a whallop, may or may not have been done while possessing Kaguya
- Possessed Kaguya and a relatively fresh out of Eientei Mokou fight each other (typical), Possessed Kaguya gets defeated, the Vengeful Spirit leaves her
- The Vengeful Spirit and Mokou fight, Mokou gets possessed at the end of it



As for the Vengeful Spirit knowing a bunch of stuff including miscellaneous info she shouldn't know, if I was right about the paper dolls thingy, maybe she uses shikigami too and rely on them to spy around and get intel. Cuz if that is so, then her knowing about all the things that happened on the surface would make more sense.

Her angle is still not sure, but as someone who allegedly comes from an era where there was more chaos in Gensokyo, she most certainly comes from an earlier and more violent period in the history of Gensokyo. And since she is a Vengeful Spirit who seems to have a grudge with the Hakurei Shrine and Gensokyo, maybe back when she was a human, she did plotted or did something really bad that turned the residents of Gensokyo (and the Hakurei Shrine of the time) against her. Who she was as a human and what was her relationship with the Hakurei Shrine might seem suspicious for now, but it should be unraveled in not too long hopefully.

It only took 2 to 3 years for her reveal, but what she is aiming for and how she is gonna get handled is going to take a bit more time. It's quite convenient that the next "incident" is TH 9, which involves afterlife administration people : if any exposition is going to be done, that seems like the perfect time to me.

[nintendonut888]

I'm not sure why Kaguya getting to Eientei before Reimu is a plot hole. As vague as Gensokyo geography is, PMiSS made clear that the human village is closer to Eientei than the Hakurei Shrine.

Anyway it pleases me somewhat that more people are finally catching on that this is less of a mystery story and more of a monthly drama serial. I never took seriously the idea that this was a solvable mystery from the moment the spirit's existence was revealed in the first arc, but it seems more people are accepting this as of the newest chapter's developments.

[Suspicious person]

I'm not sure why Kaguya getting to Eientei before Reimu is a plot hole.

No no no, I didn't say that that's a plot hole, just that the timing between Yukari to Kaguya possession is ridiculously tight, especially since Reimu flew straight to Eientei just after Yukari told her about Newhu's plans.

As for the mystery part, honestly, it's about the first arc and only that that seems like a "proper" mystery one, what's with the various hints presented in there allowing to guess the nature of the culprit (Ex : me, who figured out that the culprit is a spirit that came from the underworld because of Sakuya not knowing she did anything + Chireiden gang's involvement). Fantasy mystery stories generally are limited by the fact that you need established rules & setting to allow the readers to make reasonable guesses but also involving supernatural elements : Touhou, however,  has an established setting that allows it not to suffer from that problem (as I showed in the previous example), but FDS hasn't really done much of what you'd expect from regular Mystery stories for the newer arcs.

Regardless of how the story is currently, the first arc and the "Detective" part of the title really lead one to believe that this is a mystery series, after all what else would a detective be for ? I think it's reasonable to expect a "detective" story to be about resolving a bunch of mysteries as the story progress. However the arcs that follow the SDM one give sudden revelations rather than hinted or guessable events, like the reveal of Yukari having been possessed or Kaguya's possession as she went to the Human Village.

I think that for the reader who came in fresh without knowing how the story is gonna develop in the future (as in everybody who followed this since its inception), the manga is more like a wild goose chase with new unhinted revelations coming one after another : after the latest chapter 16 and with how Satori keeps getting put away from the plot, how the manga is gonna be viewed is obviously gonna change, but I don't think it's appropriate to say that this wasn't a mystery manga from the get go, since that was clearly what it was at the start.

Also, while some possessions were straight up revealed without any hints of any kind, the mystery part of this manga was generally about "who was possessed". While there definitely has been a general change in the tone of this series + a fight scene even, I really don't think ZUN is suddenly gonna transform this into an action manga or throw away the "mystery" part altogether. The motives of Mimain't are still not revealed, and the same goes for the plan she got in store to achieve that. Stuff like figuring how her powers properly work and what are her means (for example how she seems to know stuff she reasonably shouldn't) could potentially require figuring too.

[Lebon14]

I love love love the design of Mizuchi. Mima lovers needs to take another huge L.
Also, I wonder where the story will go from here.

[Roashiki]

Ch 17

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.

[Suspicious person]

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.

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.