[DreadBringer]

Probably the start of a new arc.

Other than finding his gotcha, Hotaro strive to help others find or achieve their gotcha, such as Sabi's UFO enthusiasm. This is ofc to be expected of a boy scout who understands other living being's hearts and strive to help them.

Atropos claims that Rinne wasn't the type to care about bystanders before, while changing for the better now. Though it may be a case in Hotaro softening her up to partly regain her childhood persona (albeit she still mocks his help above as being poet), I guess I still shouldn't take Atropos' words at face value, like what Kyuun did to Neon before in their first meeting.

Kugimiya is Supana, but even worse, both share the belief that Chemies are only tools, and look down on Hotaro for having different belief. Hotaro's companions do care enough for him to stick up for him. Him being worse than Supana is shown in even Supana calling him out, to not focus on looking on the spy. This time, it seems that the fanbase don't take authority's words at face value of Hotaro being incompetent, usually the boy scouts got viewed as incompetent while being carried by plot armor, though this can lead into writing complaint about what's the deal with Kugimiya.

Gotta accept more that sometimes authority figures are just control freaks (like Tasuke in Revice) who impose their will on other people, and that they shouldn't be elevated as who knows best. Applies too to characters like more experienced assholes or villains who look down on the "naive" heroes. Or this may be caused by the show deliberately showing Hotaro utilizing the Chemies like Ghost throwback with BountyBunny + PanpakaParka. Kugimiya's infighting with Hotaro over different belief would be also unreasonable move though to insist that he knows best and take out potential valuable ally and view.

The actual spy is Harima though. Now I'm getting Revice vibe with this, in the middle Fenix arc, if Kugimiya isn't a bad guy, feels as if Kugimiya would be Tatsuhiko, who looks down on the hero (Hotaro, Hiromi), though he's well-meaning, while Harima would be like Chigusa seems to be kinder and more reasonable, to be more concerned about others' well-being, but they're the two-faced ones.