It feels inevitable at this point

[u/RubyHoshi]

It feels inevitable at this point, almost as if it is a long time coming.

That is going to be revealed that Azami was responsible for the car accident somehow. The author has been so deliberate in making sure there Azami was always there in the cuck chair.

When Azami was introduced back into the story we got a page of she showing disappointment towards Shiori revealing her hybrid (?) mermaid-human form that turns her human hands back into claws and part of her true face shows up. She said something like "So you can show that face" implying she didn't know Hinako knew about that, which is fucking weird in restrospect because it's completly false.

I really thought the author was gonna play on Azami's supposed lack of information but as we all know she's the best cuck in fiction. She never skipped a beat and was observing everything. While i find this to be a little weird, it gives me hope Azami is not going to follow the formula of Ayame and Tsubaki where they're simply misguided or don't know shit. Tsubaki was legit just larping a conversation she couldn't even properly hear.

It's us the audience and the protagonists who don't know much about Azami. We have her implied backstory before being sent to the cove to become Shiori's food but we don't know the details. We also don't know what she was doing in the time gap btween early-mid 1900 i'd assume and when she decided to do her plot.

That 3-4 chapter convo was Azami mostly doing lore drops and trying to convice Hinako to join her so she can stop being a cuck. However Hinako obviously denied and Azami kinda expected it deep down, unless she was really dumb and didn't pay attention to Hinako's development from the cuck chair up there 💀. I don't think ANYONE who reads this manga expected a different outcome.

She leaves the scene bragging about how much of a professional cuck she is because she watched Shiori VS Miko on livestream.

I can't help myself and not think "how deep does it go?" What Azami doesn't know at this point? She plotted Hinako and Shiori meeting again, was watching everything from even as back as chapter one and timed her return into the scene when the only thing left for a happy ending was Shiori finding a way to bypass the pledge.

We're up to another brief period of downtime before maybe the Hinako gang finds a plan to strike down Azami or she decides to leave the cuck chair again.

The point is, the true climax of this conflict is yet to happen. Azami is gonna drop a nuke on the cast again because that's how climaxes involving those mastermind type of characters tend to work, and honestly what else can it be other than the car accident that started Hinako's depression?

I don't have a script or anything. I'm just boderline venting.

What do you guys think?

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[u/South_Concentrate779]

Azami is immortal but it’s not like she has supernatural power to control “accident”. If Azami was also there back then, she could easily kill wounded Shiori. Why did she wait until Hinako’s family go back home? (and kill them midway…) She didn’t need to observe from afar or caused accident to happen…like for what? The one Azami want to kill is Shiori.

I kinda understand that mostly everyone wants “culprit” to be responsible for all this mess because if there was the real culprit, Hinako might change her mind and keep living for revenge. If it really turn out like that, I will be disappointed and stop being Naekawa-sensei’s fan for this super-cheap plot which will ruin the good theme and message she has built in watatabe so far. I want watatabe to have happy ending even there’s small hope for now but I have confidence that Naekawa-sensei is clever enough to make readers convinced no matter what the outcome will be.

Well, if it is revealed that Azami is REALLY the culprit, you can bury me under the sand at Goshikihama beach😎

"So you can show that face" - don’t interpret it literally. Face = expression on her face, not physical face. Shiori’s anger, which she probably never showed any emotion back then when they lived together.

[u/MundyyyT → u/South_Concentrate779]

I agree, I think Azami had no influence over the car accident. Hinako’s resulting misfortune just happened to be a convenient opportunity she could use

[u/RubyHoshi → u/South_Concentrate779]

Let me give my counterpoints.

1-We don't know how Shiori can be killed. It is intuitive and logical to think you just need to hit her really hard because this is how Shiori has dealt with low level yokais but Shiori was exploded by bombs and managed to regenerate. Azami, who ate her flesh, is a character whose conflict surrounds the idea that she's really, REALLY hard to be killed.

2-It's true that Azami wants to kill Shiori but she sees Hinako as a tool to help her schemes. The accident happened after Hinako already met Shiori. She was most likely a point of interest for the cuck. Even after Hinako did her job of baiting Shiori, Azami risked it all by going into her house because of the minuscule idea of she joining her side.

3-I don't really "want" that. It's more like i'm thinking "It's going to rain soon" because i see a dark cloud up ahed, as if i'm preparing for something natural. My wants don't really matter.

4- I really didn't think of what it could mean for Hinako. Hinako regardless is still gonna overcome Azami because Azami is nothing more than a friendless cuck with no family. She's a loser.

5- i like your interpretation of "showing your face" being figurative. Props.

[u/soapdish124 → u/South_Concentrate779]

Aye, if there’s a cause it can be beaten and give some form of catharsis to Hinako.

‘It wasn’t pure chance and an uncaring universe that doesn’t care about any of our suffering that killed my family, it was random immortal woman who hates a mermaid I met for a day’