9-10

I feel sort of bad for Mimimi being left hanging like that, but she doesn't seem to mind too much, and now that the blue haired cat is out of the bag, Aoi's cynicism in the face of this new possible romance comes off as especially broken. Tomozaki failing to navigate this elegantly is more, to me, a product of his social training being incomplete. I'm so glad he's not a blubbering fool now that feelings are out in the open, even when punching above his own weight, so to speak. Speaking of, I enjoyed the reprimand from Mizusawa about the self depreciating comments Tomozaki has learned to lean on. He made good points about it getting tiresome when the people around you don't buy it and comes off as humblebrags even when not intended.

As for Kikuchi and her rewrites, I find it fascinating that both she and Tomozaki have the acumen to see through the subtle misdirection Aoi puts on a front with. I'm dying to figure out what caused her to be this way.