Confirmation
- All the ghosts up until now have been weaksauce
- Michi needs to protect Aizawa(?) from (???)
- Michi has become a certified ghost-puncher
Yep we're a battle manga now.
We were long overdue to meet a character with some spiritual know-how. Neo's wording is purposefully vague (she always uses 'that/that thing/the one here/it') so I didn't want to directly attribute her dialogue to Aizawa. It's already hard enough guessing her connection to Michi.
It is possible Neo is referring to the young Michi, or even the mark itself, given the way she flipped sides the moment she saw both. But it seems clear she recognized Michi from the start and knew this was her school; it felt like she was testing Michi to see if her memories were still gone. You can also get a glimpse of Neo's cool cat/demon pupils when she appeared at the window, which might be more than just a stylistic choice. And of course 'Karasuma' uses the kanji for 'crow', like her inky crow familiars. She mentions she was given her powers, which makes you wonder by what?
If Neo has some kind of pact with a ghost it could explain her eyes but also why she couldn't enter the school until she found a weak point in the barrier(?) and had her crows open it up? I'm assuming that's what happened? Interesting there's a barrier keeping things out of the school in the first place, not just Aizawa in, and that it apparently doesn't prevent minor ghosts from entering, just strong ones? Like a shark barrier. It seems almost certain Michi is the one who constructed to begin with.
A last bit of Neo trivia but Dorothy is crazy for height gap/giantess yuri so it was only a matter of time before taller girls started showing up.
It's hard to tell how much Aizawa knows; maybe she recognized Neo too? But one thing's for sure: that girl does not want to give up on life, and it's nice seeing Michi come around to that fact after spending the last volume denying it, likely to cope with her own powerless insecurity and feelings for Aizawa that keep getting harder to ignore. Sure Michi, that ghost isn't special to you.
It hit surprisingly hard seeing the girl who's communicated through bubbly dumb dork expressions for 99% of the manga suddenly terrified for her unlife. At least she's finally able to touch Michi, which Michi is just going to have to learn to love.
The drama club's whiteboard says 12 days till the festival, presumably? Safe bet this volume is going to have some festival dates. You don't set up a spooky dark maze if Michi's not going to get felt up by Aizawa in there.
The Seta bullying never stops. It's a little fascinating how Dorothy worked a token guy into a yuri manga to act as an easy plot device and punching bag without feeling egregious, out of place, or a shipping target. Truly the embodiment of 'I'm here too'.