they are still SO special to me even if in retrospect i really could've handled the balancing act of "yasu genuinely thinks the mastermind is her best friend and the one who understands her the most and she's actually on the mark there" a little better

just, like. yasu at first being in awe of "a-chan" since she's Cool Like A Witch and then like

slowly teasing out her identity

what "a" might want, really

and then going

"you know what, no matter what happens, no matter what your plans are"

"i accept you anyways"

some of it came down to how, like. yasu wasn't a "real person" in similar ways as kakuya, and as she struggled to deal with that, seeing someone else that Got It to a certain extent made her REALLY defensive

and like

at the end of the day

yasu was willing to go to bat for kakuya despite (or really because) of everything she'd done and go "no we shouldn't toss her in a black hole actually what is wrong with literally ALL of you"

reika supports her! not for good reasons that she could explain without sounding astonishingly gullible, but still