The reaction to this latest chapter is honestly just embarrassing. Reimu didn’t show “uncertainty” and Marisa didn’t “fumble”. She confessed honestly, knowing rejection was possible. Reimu clearly shut it down. That’s fine. Calling it a “fumble” or framing it as Reimu being unsure just reveals how many people don’t see Reimu as her own agent at all. She’s treated as a prize Marisa has to get to, or some idiot that’s just not aware of her feelings. Not as someone who can simply… not reciprocate? Especially since she never had a clear “I love her” moment like Marisa did? What really pisses me off is that the story itself set all of this up too.

Regardless, kudos to the author. Now comes the interesting part where we wait and see whether they’ll go the standard “Reimu realizes her love” route, or actually have the balls to say that rejection isn’t a failure to be fixed and people aren’t obligated to reciprocate your feelings. ( super radical idea, innit? )