Talk:Takako Sugiura/@comment-397235-20141205123207/@comment-397235-20141207022448

But Izumi never believed Takako. She was horrified by what she almost did. It's not until she finds her with her dead friend that she changes her mind, and she says, and I quote: "Misaki...you really are..." She's genuinely shocked by that; she really doesn't like Mei, but up until then that's all it is.

Besides, how do you think she'd have reacted if, instead of finding Mei apparently preparing to use her best friend as a pincushion, she'd gotten there in time to see Mei save the life of someone who's turned the entire class against her? It might be enough to rethink her own stance toward her.

The rest of the class, of course, has given up on trying to kill her after Yumi dies. Basically they all decided, as one, "To hell with this, I'm leaving!" It's only Takako who keeps going after her; it all came down to her and Mei there; nobody else was willing to help her, which is, I suppose on some level, sad.

Mei is willing to kill Reiko because she knows beyond the shadow of a doubt she's the Extra, and she wants to protect Kouichi from that trauma. It's not quite the same situation...and I don't think Takako, who went out of her way to not kill someone who is, to paraphrase Tom Cruise in Collateral "fucking with her Countermeasures," would then turn around and ignore an act of genuine, undeserved mercy. Most people would at least hesitate at that point, and every second she's indecisive is a second Izumi is closer to finding them.