The implication that Michi and Young Michi might be acting independently makes me think of the situation from Honkai Impact 3rd with Senti and Fu Hua. As I'm aware most people on the english speaking internet have not and will not play HI3, a spoiler summary:
Fu Hua got shot in the face by the primary antagonist of the story. Realizing this was about to happen, she used her special supernatural powers to turn into a ghost and haunt a magic feather (there's a technobabble explanation for this but it doesn't matter). However, Fu Hua's body did not die as she expected: The antagonist picked her almost dead body up and put it in a magic healing tank (again, technobabble) and the basically but not quite fatal bullet wound healed over the course of a few months. The newly healed brain then developed its own new personality, one still thinking that she is "Fu Hua" but also someone who is impulsive and totally cool with revolutionary violence rather than a stoic and austere person who strictly controls her actions like Fu Hua is. There's a whole arc with this new Fu Hua as a villain, but eventually she gets converted to the good guys and gets nicknamed Senti (short for Sentience lol). A lot of people ship Fu Hua and Senti, which imo is fun, although some people bristle at it claiming that two people sharing the same body hooking up would be incest somehow lol.

Would any of this be remotely relevant? Probably not. But hell, maybe Michi had a near death experience that created a ghost of herself without actually killing her. It'd be a better plot than some kinda split personality-based concept at least. Another possibility I can imagine is that "young Michi" is not actually Michi but a dead twin sister she blocked out the memories of or something?

The shoujo aesthetic keeps getting stronger every chapter and I love it!! Also love how consistently Aizawa's written as super ADHD lol the manga gag was super cute

hot exorcist at your area

I can never repeat enough how impressed I am with Aizawa setting the mood of the manga. Her dorkiness keeps it all afloat, and when she's terrified it all comes crashing down. Her heartache and despair is as vivid as her playful joy. She's full of mysteries but her emotions are as loud and clear as can be.

Michi's profile is low-key concerning... maybe it's just because she's been too busy dealing with ghosts, but it's like the girl has been living her life on auto-pilot. Detached from earthly existence.

I see it as evidence she's a shell of a person after getting her memories sealed. From middle school to high school, Michi went from outgoing and sporty to a reclusive stuttering mess. Even she seems confused by the transformation sometimes, and there hasn't been a decisive incident it's pinned on. Or there's plenty room to believe the change happened after she entered high school, with how she forgot speaking to Kasumi and Aizawa. Though at the same time she was likely still a bit distant considering she didn't have any close friends that would have wondered why her whole personality changed. Maybe everything related to her powers is blocked which rewrote a lot of her identity.

I could also maybe tie this into Michi's constant repetition of wanting to help Aizawa despite always reminding herself she's powerless. It's like she has the muscle memory of knowing there's something she should be doing here. Her avoidant attitude towards ghosts might not have always been the case, considering how upset she gets feeling like Neo is mistreating them. She might have been an exorcist herself, one that worked to save ghosts more peacefully.

lol same, If figured ol' multieyes was a primary antagonist. Honestly still kinda conflicted about the rather extreme deescalation of tension that comes with Girl Neo coming through and bullet timing all the ghosts in the school. Wonder if we're going to end up rebounding hard from this in some way.

I think if anything the potential tension just rocketed up. This chapter shows none of the ghosts we've seen so far were a serious threat, but there's something out there Neo (and Michi?) can't handle still putting Aizawa in danger. And with Michi being given the means to defend herself, confrontation is inevitable. Like when a survival horror game hands you your first weapon and you know it's not any comfort.

And if I had to guess about primary antagonists, this dark figure could be the same as the conspicuous one on the left here that appears to be making a little eye collection.

Neo also comments young Michi's(?) powers are failing which might be why ghosts are getting in. We did see she couldn't do anything to the shed ghost. Neo's exorcism shouldn't be a permanent solution and more ghosts will likely get back into the school. I'm also thinking back to that ghost seemingly going for the mark on Michi's neck, as if that's what attracts them.

Also interesting is that Neo herself couldn't enter the school — it seems like she needed to use her crow familiars to break open a spot at the 3rd floor window. So my guess is the barrier around the school is keeping powerful ghosts out but weak ones can still slip by, and as Neo said Aizawa's(?) presence makes them more aggressive. This would also imply Neo isn't fully human, which might explain her eyes.

Neo also alludes at the very end to there being something unique about Aizawa, and how Aizawa has the potential to go very right or very wrong. Aizawa does seem to be a pretty unusual ghost, with how quickly her powers are developing over the past two months.

(Something maybe important to keep an eye on is I don't remember Aizawa ever being shown along with another ghost? The shed ghost was oddly gone the moment she came in to save Michi.)

To speculate, I think Neo came here fully intending to put Aizawa down after hearing she'd become dangerous. Which means Aizawa might not just be sealed for protection, but for everyone else's protection from her too. It's almost certain Neo knows about the circumstances of Aizawa's death and sealing, considering how she comments on failing Michi in some way. It's important to note Michi only got called Kurotori-san in her presence this chapter, so it's certain they knew each other, and she recognized the school at the start despite sounding like she'd never been before.

Wait if the exorcist new Michiru when she was young why didn't she say anything to her when she went through that window? Or even react at all? Throughout the excorcism she didn't act like there was anything special with Michiru or that she knew her at all until the very end.

I'm positive she knows Michi lost her memories. She turns right to her and essentially asks "It's been a few months. Do you know how this all started?" When she doesn't get a response she moves on. She was very likely checking to see if Michi's memories came back and keeping her distance otherwise. It's also the only other time she opens her eyes a bit, when she first sees Michi. It's hard to notice until you know what her eyes look like.

Would any of this be remotely relevant? Probably not. But hell, maybe Michi had a near death experience that created a ghost of herself without actually killing her. It'd be a better plot than some kinda split personality-based concept at least. Another possibility I can imagine is that "young Michi" is not actually Michi but a dead twin sister she blocked out the memories of or something?

Young Michi is something I can't even begin to guess at this point. I initially thought she was something like the embodiment of her repressed spiritual powers when they first awakened, but just about anything could be the case. It's also weird we're first introduced to her with Michi becoming her in a dream, but everything else suggests she's autonomous.

It seems the more her presence manifests the worse things might be. I don't know if it's supposed to be a good thing that she's becoming more able to affect the world around her and Michi. We'll see. I hope not because that could end up very bittersweet, though it would be an interesting setup based on what's happened so far.

That brought up more questions than it answered, and things are really getting interesting now...

Wait if the exorcist new Michiru when she was young why didn't she say anything to her when she went through that window? Or even react at all? Throughout the excorcism she didn't act like there was anything special with Michiru or that she knew her at all until the very end.

She could have been trying to avoid aggravating whatever caused Michi to lose her memories or breaking their seal (if they were sealed for a reason).

I think Aizawa becomes more powerful the longer she's observed (even if she's not aware of it(?)) the more powerful she becomes and that acts as a beacon for the other, weaker ghosts because she's relatively powerful and doesn't seem actively hostile to them or humans, offering a safe "hunting ground "
This is primarily thought because she was an idol in life and they're lifted up by observers/ fans

last edited at Nov 17, 2023 1:57PM

Arrrghhhh, what has Michi forgotten about all these people? It's killing me, I want to knoooooooooowwwwww

Wait what’s this about michi’s memories being gone? When did that get established?

Wait what’s this about michi’s memories being gone? When did that get established?

At the end of chapter 12 when Michi couldn't remember going to the summer festival.

She also doesn't remember

• Talking to Kasumi before they became friends
• Apparently being close with Aizawa before
• Knowing Neo
• That she even attempted to speak to Aizawa last chapter

The last one is her getting her memories wiped in real time, so we can assume it's all related to Aizawa, the seal, and her younger self. We do see young Michi's shoes as she's running away from Aizawa.

Though it's fine to be lost on this stuff. It's all minor details without much context that I'm sure will get explained in greater focus later. It's not necessary to the story right now.

Starting this manga, I never imagined they'd work up the tension like this.

Starting this manga, I never imagined they'd work up the tension like this.

Starting this manga, I never imagined they'd work up the tension like this.

Wait what’s this about michi’s memories being gone? When did that get established?

At the end of chapter 12 when Michi couldn't remember going to the summer festival.

She also doesn't remember

• Talking to Kasumi before they became friends
• Apparently being close with Aizawa before
• Knowing Neo
• That she even attempted to speak to Aizawa last chapter

The last one is her getting her memories wiped in real time, so we can assume it's all related to Aizawa, the seal, and her younger self. We do see young Michi's shoes as she's running away from Aizawa.

Though it's fine to be lost on this stuff. It's all minor details without much context that I'm sure will get explained in greater focus later. It's not necessary to the story right now.

Thank you very much! I think the only memory think i took note of was her not remembering talking to kasumi and I did not read into that.

Edit: after reading chapter 12 it seems like I only read the first half for some reason because I did not remember the rest of it and that was some serious stuff

last edited at Nov 18, 2023 12:45PM

So Michi is actually a ghost? Has she become fully physical or is she possessing someone unknowingly?

What a bombshell

Ghost Yuri.
Good stuff

Name a better male character in a yuri than Seta
I'll wait
In fact, name another good one

Funny guy, he adds so much. I like male characters in yuri, they give some nice variation to the characters.

Dorothy-sensei keeps drawing Seta more and more feminine lol. Maybe the shocking twist ending of the series is that Aizawa will eventually possess his body and trans it to her liking. The world's first afab trans woman idol.

I also have a feeling Seta is going to turn into a girl

last edited at Nov 22, 2023 3:16AM

We don't know for sure what exactly young Michi is at the moment, but I feel like she's the one that makes Aizawa more powerful. As Neo's comment on Michi/young Michi's power being somewhat reducing recently, if we look back to the shed ghost incident, didn't it show that young Michi was being helplessly against the shed ghost but at the same time, Aizawa gained the ability to possess Kasumi's body?

This is just a wild guess but what if young Michi is the manifestation of Michi's feeling/regret/coping mechanism that causes her to forget about Aizawa's cause of death, but that manifestation desires to save Aizawa/make her stay so much it attract other spirits to feed her more power, even giving Michi's own power to her. I'd say this is a wild guess because there weren't evidences of Aizawa feeding or even interacting with other spirits, but I believe there's still a high chance that Aizawa's power growing has something to do with Michi's power reclining.

This series just keeps getting more interesting. Something big is probably gonna happen at the cultural festival. It's been a bit since I've had a series I really look forward to each month.

Great chapter as always!

Ah yes, the good ol nebulous bloodspewing Japanese cough
At least we MIGHT know about how she died

Is… is that ghost hunting down Aizawa’s idol group one-by-one? I know this series had a dark side, but zoinks.

Ah yes, the good ol nebulous bloodspewing Japanese cough
At least we MIGHT know about how she died

In fairness, the Bloody Cough of Doom is a pretty common trope throughout the world. Even Shakespeare made use of it it. It makes sense, since coughing up blood is generally (although not always) a bad sign no matter where you are.

Either that ghost is following the members, or it's haunting the studio. If the former, they'll take it with them to the school festival, and won't that be fun. :3
Wrt the cough, we didn't actually see blood. She wiped her mouth with her hand and it was clean. Still probably a haunted spectral ghost cough of the damned, but not quite that serious yet perhaps.
Also damn is having that big an age gap in an idol group a thing? I don't really pay attention to them much but I would expect a 16yo and a 22yo to be in different groups based on starting so far apart if nothing else.