>>49422380
>It's clear that she surrenders it, but that isn't a positive thing, since it means putting Reimu in greater danger, as opposed to trying to actively hold back and keep her from getting killed, which was something the Ministry considered to be a serious possibility.
I agree that it is not necessarily positive, but it's not exactly what it seems either in my opinion either. Like that other anon said in >>49423809 I think it can be inferred that Kasen decided she needed to be hard for Reimu to do what Kasen thought was necessary, or else she wouldn't take things seriously in the first place. As ZUN says in the epilogue Kasen has started to get surprised by the same things as Reimu, and they're much more on the same wavelength so to say by the end. I think it's fair to say that the reason she thought to act like this was because it'd make Reimu actually help her out, even if it was probably a bit of a misreading on her part.
>The issue with this is that, until the Arm takes over, full body Kasen seems to showcase the best traits of both, which, incidentally, compliment the shortcomings of each half in isolation. She would've been far closer to the path of the hermit if she hadn't resealed the arm.
I don't know exactly where this is coming from honestly. The way that hermits work is never fully revealed to us but what we're told and seen would show us that an oni is self-reinforcing. Kasen is psychologically afraid of beans if you even show them to her. When you drink from Kasen's box you start acting like an oni, you hit passerbys for laughs and go around like a drunkard telling people to piss off. Suika in WaHH is greeting Marisa and Reimu by hitting them into the floor as flying mist, even in spite of her more jolly side. And Zanmu makes it clear to us that you move closer to the realm of an oni by absorbing beast-youkai spirits, which sounds strangely similar to Kasen absorbing her own evil spirit to become a full-fledged oni again.
And finally, it's the separation of her from her arm that opened up her mentality to pursuing being an oni again. If it was possible for her to grow as a hermit even as a full oni, she either did not believe so herself, talented in hermit arts as she is to not even be aware of the religious aspect of being a hermit, and her ability of guidance letting her plausibly gauge what it takes to become a hermit through experience of guiding others, humans and animals alike, for several hundreds years. And that's in the event it does not work on herself or isn't stemming from her being very capable at it in the first place.
>The core of this all ends up being that Kasen, only with her arm, takes this attitude of "I can change, but you, who haven't even gotten the chance to grow, cannot."
As outlined previously I think it's fair to say that an oni would have an insurmountable time becoming a hermit. Even if they fused, that would probably be true just from the spiritual aspect. Kasen also likely has the perspective to understand this, especially after the second time, so instead of letting her arm roam free to potentially break out, she keeps it beside her and talks to it, recollects with it and meditates with it. It might seem like it delves toward speculation, but with how closely the arm is linked to Kasen I do not think it is unlikely that her "training" involving the arm is leaving the arm to rot either. The arm's an oni like her, maybe a captive audience, but one that she understands and who should understand her. It's not impossible to say that Kasen is using her guidance or wisdom on the arm to help it become like her, which is what might actually let her move on from being an oni eventually as a being very much obsessed with worldly desire would be replaced by something far less so.
The alternative is her keeping her arm locked away forever until some shmuck finds it, since it can't die (and it's unclear if stopping her drinking would kill it or just her phantom arm) or fusing with it once she has overcome it as a celestial or at least as a greater hermit, which I find to be the kind of open end ZUN wants to leave us with.
By the time the final page of the manga hits I think she's simply well on her path to moving on. If you're deciding to take it in the opposite direction of stagnation outside of Touhou's sazae-time I think that's kind of on you. Another anon arrived in a similar place to me here >>49422115 separately, I don't think it's hard to reach this interpretation.
>Kasen is Kasen.
As per Komachi and Kasen's discussion about the Shinigami, I think that when Kasen stopped acting like Ibaraki-douji, she stopped being her. The arm wants to remain Ibaraki-douji, and that's where they split. If they are to rejoin, Kasen would have to convince the arm to stop being Ibaraki-douji, maybe "killing herself" in the process... But that's just how a youkai's nature works, when Kasen guides a youkai, they leave their old self behind and become something new. Just like Kasen.

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ZUN is now copyright striking Touhou OST uploads on YouTube. I guess he figured that with the AI debate behind him he can fully monopolize the…