Watashi o Tabetai, Hitodenashi - Ch. 50 - The Blooming Thistles

[UdenEmpati]

Chapter 23 is where the girl who ate mermaid flesh is shown/explained. Also, I forgot Hinako was given mermaid blood. have the effecta of that been outlined yet (other than perhaps that being the reason she was the only one to survive the car wreck)?

I think all we've gotten confirmed is it's made her the target of every monster in this series thus far except Miko (in the predatory sense I mean). She likely survived the accident due to the same, but there's been no confirmation of anything else, as far as I can remember.

As per @ThanatosKaiAnastasi , all that's been confirmed is that Shiori's blood allows Hinako to heal more quickly. maybe it's also what's luring all the monsters to her, but that's not been confirmed as of yet.

 

[bluebutterfly15]

So, am I the only one worrying about what Shiori was doing with that classmate of their’s?

 

[blablablub]

If your grandparents had another child roughly at the same time as your parents had you your aunt/uncle would be the same age as you. That's not really strange. Maybe not so common but not strange either.

 

[nameless0ne]

Could this "aunt" have caused the accident that hilled Hinako's parents? If she found out that young Hinako was merrily playing with Shiori.

 

[geistchevalier]

My dumb ass thought that her name is Thistle Azami, when in reality it's just showing Thistle is called Azami in Japanese

 

[yanderecoverl]

By the way, we're at the 5th year anniversary of this manga running.
https://x.com/naekawa_sai/status/1960541241285992624

Perhaps it'll go to 8 years

 

[kaptenkeren]

When reveal the aunt : yay milf!
When reveal it's fake : aw....

Anyway, this Azami ... face looks same. Twin or all mermaid has same face? But at this moment everyone's face looks same...

 

[MathMols]

So, am I the only one worrying about what Shiori was doing with that classmate of their’s?

Now that you mention it🤔 What are the odds that she ate her?

 

[DVO19]

So, am I the only one worrying about what Shiori was doing with that classmate of their’s?

Quick snacc

Jk

 

[UdenEmpati]

Now that you mention it🤔 What are the odds that she ate her?

Between chapters 47 & 48, Shiori all but confessed that she loves Hinako -- at least, to the extent that she can. (this is how I read it, based on what I could decipher from the quality of TL work, anyway.)

She wants Hinako to treasure her like she treasures her family, and Shiori admits she no longer wants (if she ever did) to eat her, even though she will uphold her end of the promise to reunite Hinako with her loved ones - but, she asks that Hinako realize that in doing so, how much she'll hurt Shiori (and Miko, that Shiori would rather die than admit that out loud).
In ch. 48, Shiori spies the photo in Hinako's room, playing ignorant in front of Miko that she doesn't understand loving someone so much when you only spent a few years together. Miko comments that Shiori likely does know, because "it's not about how long you spend together that actually matters" - the implication that it's the weight of the moments spent and the subjective meaning within them.
Shiori reflects on her meeting Hinako, admits that she does know, "to the point that it's painful", and then unintentionally transforms when reaching for the photo once she's alone, before reverting and resolving to be the one Hinako treasures most.

And in Ch. 43, that student was getting friendly with Hinako while prepping the ribbons for the cookies for their class's part of the festival, commenting on how happy she was to see Hinako participating and chatting with her about stuff. And the whole time, Shiori was watching from the next table over. Not a lot of dialogue, but the sequence starts on p.10 and goes to about p.17 or so.

So my bet is Shiori is now starting to feel jealous that Hinako is opening up bit by bit, but not to her - and she's becoming possessive as a result. And I do kind of worry that, in offering to go and help her in Hinako's place in this chapter, Shiori did ....something to "remove the pest", as she might see it.
Whether that was eating her, or doing something else entirely (either as a "human" or as a "mermaid", we can't say yet), Shiori absolutely did something to her to get her to stay away from Hinako.
I do think she likely didn't kill the student; Miko would know something was up before too long, and it's a small town - a student disappearing during the festival would cause a panic, and I don't think Shiori's so dumb as to make trouble like that.
So she might have had a "talking to" to warn off the student to stay away from Hinako or something out of jealousy.

 

[ThanatosKaiAnastasi]

I think all we've gotten confirmed is it's made her the target of every monster in this series thus far except Miko (in the predatory sense I mean). She likely survived the accident due to the same, but there's been no confirmation of anything else, as far as I can remember.

Interestingly that's not true. The only explicitly explained effect of Mermaid blood is that it makes Hinako heal faster. From Shiori's description in Ch. 21, and from the timing of Hinako's flesh becoming attractive to Yokai, it makes a lot of sense to deduce that the blood plus the car accident lead to this special flavour. But Shiori never said that out loud, and we just learnt from the recent chapters that Naekawa is sometimes willing to retcon ambiguous details into a plot twist.

 

[Nautical]

Shes clearly her aunt from her wife's side

 

[Kagamisora]

First of all, the chapter's name "薊が咲う" where:
薊 means "thristle" and reads as "Azami", just like the character's name.
咲(Saki) means "blooming" but here, it's read as "laughing" (warau).
So just like Azami's appearance, on the surface, the title is "The Blooming Thristle. And just like how Azami revealed herself after the illusion'd disipated, the real chapter title is "Azami who laughs".

As for how Azami can manipulate Hinako's mind, I think it's because she's consumed Shiori's flesh, turning her into a non-human (hitodenashi) being, just like the legend of Yao Bikuni, who is neither monster nor human. And that's also the reason why both Tsubaki and Miko didn't recognize her as a monster but as a strange human.

 

[UdenEmpati]

Interestingly that's not true. The only explicitly explained effect of Mermaid blood is that it makes Hinako heal faster. From Shiori's description in Ch. 21, and from the timing of Hinako's flesh becoming attractive to Yokai, it makes a lot of sense to deduce that the blood plus the car accident lead to this special flavour. But Shiori never said that out loud, and we just learnt from the recent chapters that Naekawa is sometimes willing to retcon ambiguous details into a plot twist.

Aha, gotcha - been awhile since I read through, and had them reversed I guess (since expedited healing would explain surviving the car crash, at least in my mind).

Regarding what you mentioned about the timing including the car crash - I kinda wonder now if Hinako is not wholly alive post-accident, or wholly human (though maybe in a different way than Azami). Though I'd assume that's something Miko and others would pick up on, and I don't recall the Tanuki saying anything to that effect (even as she herself was attracted to Hinako to an extent; and the same for Ayame).
I see no reason for that to be the case, of that it would make narrative sense at present, but it's another tidbit that's going to be noodling in my head, now.

 

[UdenEmpati]

First of all, the chapter's name "薊が咲う" where:
薊 means "thristle" and reads as "Azami", just like the character's name.
咲(Saki) means "blooming" but here, it's read as "laughing" (warau).
So just like Azami's appearance, on the surface, the title is "The Blooming Thristle. And just like how Azami revealed herself after the illusion'd disipated, the real chapter title is "Azami who laughs".

As for how Azami can manipulate Hinako's mind, I think it's because she's consumed Shiori's flesh, turning her into a non-human (hitodenashi) being, just like the legend of Yao Bikuni, who is neither monster nor human. And that's also the reason why both Tsubaki and Miko didn't recognize her as a monster but as a strange human.

Would it make sense that she's eaten other monsters and acquired additional abilities?

Unless Mermaids have a range of powers (canon or just in terms of their lore within this story, I guess) that allows for everything Azami's shown pulling off here, I kinda wonder if she's spent her time growing stronger/more inhuman before showing up. The illusion thing makes sense given what all our Monster characters can do, at least, but the memory/charm stuff seemed new to me in general, unless there's some bit of the narrative I'm just not remembering. (Like if Shiori made Hinako forget their initial meeting, which I guess I should go back and check now.)

 

[Gothic_Catalyst]

Thank you for the chapter.

 

[Kagamisora]

Would it make sense that she's eaten other monsters and acquired additional abilities?

Unless Mermaids have a range of powers (canon or just in terms of their lore within this story, I guess) that allows for everything Azami's shown pulling off here, I kinda wonder if she's spent her time growing stronger/more inhuman before showing up. The illusion thing makes sense given what all our Monster characters can do, at least, but the memory/charm stuff seemed new to me in general, unless there's some bit of the narrative I'm just not remembering. (Like if Shiori made Hinako forget their initial meeting, which I guess I should go back and check now.)

The memory manipulation happened around the start of the series, when Shiori made Hinako realized that Miko had been manipulating Hinako's memories all that time.

In my theory, eating mermaid flesh will make you become a delicious in monsters' eyes. But the power you gains from that is base on the amount of mermaid's flesh/blood you consumed. That can explain why every monster wants to eat Hinako, who is a perfect prey, delicious and weak. But not Azami, since although she's also tasty like Hinako, the monsters are afraid of her power.

 

[Kagamisora]

Between chapters 47 & 48, Shiori all but confessed that she loves Hinako -- at least, to the extent that she can. (this is how I read it, based on what I could decipher from the quality of TL work, anyway.)

She wants Hinako to treasure her like she treasures her family, and Shiori admits she no longer wants (if she ever did) to eat her, even though she will uphold her end of the promise to reunite Hinako with her loved ones - but, she asks that Hinako realize that in doing so, how much she'll hurt Shiori (and Miko, that Shiori would rather die than admit that out loud).
In ch. 48, Shiori spies the photo in Hinako's room, playing ignorant in front of Miko that she doesn't understand loving someone so much when you only spent a few years together. Miko comments that Shiori likely does know, because "it's not about how long you spend together that actually matters" - the implication that it's the weight of the moments spent and the subjective meaning within them.
Shiori reflects on her meeting Hinako, admits that she does know, "to the point that it's painful", and then unintentionally transforms when reaching for the photo once she's alone, before reverting and resolving to be the one Hinako treasures most.

And in Ch. 43, that student was getting friendly with Hinako while prepping the ribbons for the cookies for their class's part of the festival, commenting on how happy she was to see Hinako participating and chatting with her about stuff. And the whole time, Shiori was watching from the next table over. Not a lot of dialogue, but the sequence starts on p.10 and goes to about p.17 or so.

So my bet is Shiori is now starting to feel jealous that Hinako is opening up bit by bit, but not to her - and she's becoming possessive as a result. And I do kind of worry that, in offering to go and help her in Hinako's place in this chapter, Shiori did ....something to "remove the pest", as she might see it.
Whether that was eating her, or doing something else entirely (either as a "human" or as a "mermaid", we can't say yet), Shiori absolutely did something to her to get her to stay away from Hinako.
I do think she likely didn't kill the student; Miko would know something was up before too long, and it's a small town - a student disappearing during the festival would cause a panic, and I don't think Shiori's so dumb as to make trouble like that.
So she might have had a "talking to" to warn off the student to stay away from Hinako or something out of jealousy.

Uh, I think you're overthinking about why Shiori went with the classmate, being jealous like that is so out of character for her. The only thing that concerns Shiori is other monsters preying on Hinako, that's when Shiori makes her moves to confront/eliminate them. Besides, Hinako isn't there with them to go with the classmate anyways.
I think it was likely because she's trying to change, learning to care for others in order to make Hinako return to her old cheerful self, and that's also what Miko said right after.

 

[beThereShortly]

This feels o hominous. I hope things wont turn too sour...

 

[Carn109]

A new challenger?
pls dont hurt fishwoman and Hinako's happiness