The suspense continues as this chapter mainly focused on Fiona figuring out what to do with the whole "Desmond is at the symposium" situation, while Anya still hasn't gotten a chance to get close to him. But while the arc is still in the build-up phase, it did offer some interesting insight about Fiona.
Her line here intrigued me the most, and has further interesting implications in the Japanese version.
The fact that Fiona is willing to let Twilight sacrifice himself if he feels it's necessary shows how much she truly loves him. She doesn't love him "selfishly," as in, if he wanted to sacrifice his own life for a mission, she wouldn't stop him just because she doesn't want him to. This is in contrast to how I feel Yor would react in the same situation - she would definitely protect Loid even if he didn't want her to, not because she's "selfish," but because she sees him as much more than just his goal as a spy, something Fiona doesn't want to see. It's hard to say if this contrast will become a plot point in the series later on, but I thought it was an interesting reveal from Fiona. There's also the fact that she knows that Yor would be upset if Loid got out of bed, which shows that even she can see how caring Yor is after just a brief interaction.
And what makes it even more interesting is the ateji used in the Japanese version. I've written about ateji before, but it's when a writer uses a kanji with a particular meaning, but the furigana (the kana translation above it) is telling us to read it as a different word. In this case, the kanji is "love" but the translation is "pride." So she's saying "For that is my pride (love)!"
The fact that she means "love" but says "pride" indicates that she wants others to believe that she's doing everything she can to support Twilight in his mission because of her pride as a spy and his mentee. When in reality, she's doing it because she loves him. As unhinged as Fiona can be, I still find her an interesting character and, like Yuri, she's a character who has potential to grow for the better as the series progresses.
But Fiona wasn't the only one who had some nice development in this chapter. Even though he only appeared briefly, I like that Damian is sticking up for Anya when Emile and Ewen still insist on being jerks to her.
Damian also gave us this notable bit of information:
Why is Donovan going to the hospital? We don't know how long this has been going on, but I would assume it's somewhat recent. Assuming Donovan is indeed involved with Project Apple and other types of illegal experiments, he could either be 1) overseeing a new experiment, 2) undergoing further experimentation on himself (to enhance whatever abilities he has), 3) he's just getting his own personal checkup for experiments done on him in the past, or 4) he's been secretly visiting someone else in the hospital. Of course, there could be other reasons, but those seem the most plausible to me as of now.
This panel made me snicker~ Please handle your tiny gremlin with care 🤣
Some more panels of Anya being her hilarious self. As much as I've been loving all the focus on the other characters in the recent chapters, I missed her silly antics!
It really does seem like Endo is building up to Anya meeting Donovan. As I mentioned in my previous chapter review, it will be a major event since Anya will allow us to finally get insight into Donovan's thoughts, something we haven't gotten compared to literally every other character. I still have a theory that Donovan is able to "hide" his thoughts from other mind-readers, or some other reason that makes it difficult for Anya to clearly know what he's thinking. Or maybe someone will interfere with the meeting, like Loid, Yor, and/or Fiona? That Surjay guy will probably make an appearance too, since why else would we be given the information that he's at the symposium? There's still so many possibilities with this arc, I can't wait to see what happens next! 😯
As a little bonus, Endo made the below new illustration with the chapter release. I can totally relate to melting Anya considering how hot it's been all over the world lately 🥵 Stay cool everyone~
