Huh. This was an interesting chapter that brought up a few odd points. I was going to start by saying what I thought of Matsuri's character and wondering why people hate her so much, but then Cryssoberyl said most of it for me, so I'll just quote them.
When I first read the RAWs for this chapter (read as in "looked at the pretty pictures") I thought Mei was badass and that Matsuri was just an annoying bitch but reading the translation I have to say that I agree with Matsuri to some extent. Until now Mei has been using Yuzu for her own comfort and didn't give a damn about her feelings. Hopefully that'll change in the next chapters and Mei starts fighting for Yuzu's love.
I think we can definitely say that Mei realizes she's legitimately attracted to Yuzu, both physically and emotionally. But the thing is...
For Mei, sexuality is a tool. It's a useful means of getting what she wants. She went along with the male teacher in order to protect the school. She repeatedly uses sexual gestures toward Yuzu as a way of getting her to do what Mei wants, whether kissing her to keep her quiet or attempting to seduce her to ensure she remains a source of comfort. And the same thing just happened again. Faced off against Matsuri, Mei uses her sexuality as a bludgeon to send a message to Matsuri about what belongs to her.
So even though Mei is truly attracted to Yuzu, with one exception she's only been able to employ it as a kind of bargaining chip for Yuzu's attention. The exception is the kiss at the end of chapter 8. There was no artifice or planning behind what happened there, it was spontaneous, on both sides. Mei was overtaken by genuine desire, and you see her own reaction to it. She's startled.
I don't know how she ended up like this - maybe it was the affair with the teacher, or maybe something earlier - but that's how Mei sees sexuality right now, as a means to an end. Hopefully Yuzu can help her back toward a healthier and more fulfilling sexuality. I have confidence in her.
Thanks as always for the hard work, Yuri Project.
Beyond that, one of the odd things I noticed was Matsuri has been, essentially, extremely honest with Yuzu. Certainly, she's been maninpulative, but if anything she's shown a lack of filters and subtlety in what she's told Yuzu.
She wants a date? She tells Yuzu to go on a date with her.
She's jealous of Mei? She tells Yuzu she can't accept Mei taking her place in Yuzu's life.
She's in love with and sexually attracted to Yuzu? That is exactly what she tells her.
Even her attempts to drive a wedge between Mei and Yuzu have been based on truth. Mei really does use sexuality as a tool and she really has been taking advantage of Yuzu's kindness to gain comfort for her self.
Out of all of this, Matusuri's behavior has been almost commendable. If she really does love Yuzu, and I have no reason to think she doesn't, then I wouldn't expect her to give up at the first sign of trouble and she hasn't. But, more importantly, her tactics have been mostly on the up and up. She hasn't resorted to violence, hasn't lied or started spreading roomers or even tried blackmail. The worst thing she's done, so far, is kiss Yuzu without her permission, which is admittedly bad, but Mei has gone much further than that and Matusuri's rightly noticed that it's a tactic that Yuzu seems to respond too. She actually forms a rather interesting mirror to Mei. While one of them looks bright and upstanding on the outside, she's pretty twisted on the inside. Conversely, the other happily looks degenerate, but seems to be pretty upstanding when it really counts.
At the moment, I'm predicting she'll go to Yuzu and say "See, this is what that girl you love is really like. She's just using you. Please love me instead." Although, she'll probably be much more manipulative about it.
The other odd thing also comes courtesy of Matsuri. Up until meeting Mei, she was, apparently, straight. After getting a rather adult kiss from Mei, she seems to have done a complete 180. It could just be that she had never met anyone she was attracted to before then (poor Matsuri), but that would seem to run counter to her reaction to the teacher in the beginning. I wonder if there's anything too that.
I'm not sure what Matsuri can realistically do with this picture.
- Showing it to Yuzu wouldn't accomplish much. Yuzu already saw Mei casually using her sexuality, so it won't be news to her. If anything, it might actually make Yuzu wants to help more to rid Mei of this habit. Even if Matsuri is going to try and misrepresent what happened, Yuzu is still going to listen to Mei's version before doing anythging.
- Blackmailing Mei probably wouldn't work. She'd just brush it off with a "do whatever you want, I don't care".
- Releasing it has no clear benefit either. It's going to make Matusri looks bad in Yuzu's eyes, and push her toward Mei to help her deal with the fallout. And there's a good chance there'd be no fallout anyway. Mei'd just ignore it by acting her usual cold, dismissing any query from her schoolmates with a "mind your own business". Her grandfather seem to have decided to let her be a teenager for the time being as well, so no intervention from him either.
About the next chapter....
Well, I'm pretty sure that Matsuri is going to blackmail Mei. I think maybe she'll do something like: ok, I want you to push away Yuzu, don't go near her, don't even speak or look at her anymore because if you do I'll show the picture.
Because, we all know that Mei wants to take over the school so maybe if her grandfather look at the picture she's going to lose credibility or maybe Matsuri is thinking of showing it to Yuzu's mother and who knows what's going to happend if she finds out about this two.
So reading the posts of my fellow Citrus fans,I'm not so sure anymore of how Matsuri is going to use that picture, but maybe like some of quote I used maybe she is going to threaten Mei of releasing that picture in the school and maybe the news, you know how Mei's grandfather is an important person and a scandal of that size means great shame for the Aihara family, "Mei Aihara assaults minor" type of stuff, even though Matsuri only had say the truth she can be very cunning too and now I think that she is going big with that picture, after I've read the opinions of all of you and I've re-read this chapter, maybe she is going to play the victim of a supposed abuse, We know that she thought Mei was going to hit her, but either way hitting her or kissing works for her What do you guys think? Think my idea is too far-fetched ?
P.S. Also forgive me I don't know how to add the black lines over the spoilers, if anyone can tell how to do it, I will edit my comment.
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