The woman being the culprit was a bit too predictable, imo. Like, from the very first part of this Chapter. What caught me by surprise though, was that there’s a face EX-ARM. That was really unexpected... and genuinely unsettling to look at. Also, she could’ve just said that the thief ran past her and she’d have made herself less suspicious, than saying that she didn’t see anyone when Minami clearly saw him run around the corner. But sadly, this is one of those “characters are dumb for the sake of the plot” kind of writing directions.
Now, here’s what’s bugging me. We know that the EX-ARMs are spread by the ‘Transporters’. An “organization”(?) whose motives/goals we still don’t know (which is perfectly fine at this stage). I’m sure one of them is money, because it was stated that the EX-ARMs are expensive on the black market (which makes perfect sense, seeing as how they’re super weapons). What puzzles me is that a nobody, like this Yuriko woman, got her hands on one. It made sense for the ‘Bathala’ smuggling syndicate to have them. It also made sense for Molau, a dictator, to get one as well. The “priest” was just a hypnotized/brainwashed pawn under direct supervision of one of the ‘Transporters’. What we can assume is that the ‘Transporters’ want to cause destruction/chaos in order to reach some end-goal.
So, how is it that a (financially) poor woman has one? Even if she got it for free, for whatever reason, what’s her purpose? Her EX-ARM (No. 20) doesn’t even have a destructive ability. It just lets her change her appearance. I pray that there’s a good enough reason for this, because if there isn’t, the whole thing falls apart.
Other than that, I liked the premise of her stealing money in order to treat her son. Simple yet effective at making us relate to her.