Wow! I finish the piece, catch the chatter afterwards, but since Tuesday is raid night for me I don't have time to respond until tonight. And there's 49 posts before I get there.

>>It gets buried due to events before and after this scene, but someone
>>able to engage in proper, two-way communication with Neuroi-chan is
>>pretty damn game changing. I'm really curious for the reveal of how
>>she's able to pull it off.
>
>Yeah, I was a little surprised at how little attention that got. I
>wasn't trying to bury the lede. :)

Yeah, this fact struck me the moment I read it, too, but honestly, the facts that it wasn't front and center in the piece, and the subject matter seemed a little socially aware for a newly independent AI, made me think Neuroi-chan wasn't speaking at all. I thought she might have been acting as a radio transceiver, maybe, or at least being a friendly ear more than a conversationalist.

>>Shizuka has really come a long way from her starting point of being
>>scandalized at any witches being within arm's reach of G.
>
>She has indeed.

The grace by which the various witches have been shown to grow and change is one of the highlights of the whole series. In fact, one of the biggest reasons I love UF is the method by which you take anime characters who, in a typical anime show will never see one iota of growth in a hundred seasons, and turn them into strong, empathetic characters with real growth in a relatable way.

Granted, the fact that growth is coming is predictable (I knew Lucchini would finally start maturing the moment I read Freiburg the first time), but y'know what? I'm good with that. Very good with that.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge