I kinda love this subplot. Whatever Matsuri did, it's nice to see she cares about her child and her friend. Even including villain and ex-villain protagonists it's rare we see this kind of delicate focus on what legal guilt and internal shame mean for someone's place in society. There's gang and prison stories, and more attention to shame in serious lit, but the themes rarely leave the setting as much as they do IRL. People screw up bad. Often. And the aftermath can be really interesting in its complexity.
I know for a fact some female authors went through drama to the point they don't or can't see their children... And it feels like not my concern so long as they're not a serial sexual harasser or something. For someone reformed or at least no threat now it's heavy and rumors affecting their work aren't fair. Mothers also get a sexism layer as it's easy to remap our already gender-bias views on the usual family role into worse bias about no-contact orders. So I'm curious if Matsuri can't put her name out without it becoming at least a slight risk to an end-product.