The chapter begins with light-hearted repartee and playful insults at Kusanagi's expense from Yukawa. First, Kusanagi touches a floating ring that is part of one of Yukawa's physics demonstratinos. It ends up slightly burning Kusanagi's fingers. Yukawa remarks that he assumes a "basic knowledge of physics" in his lab and that the device is merely "high-school level physics," a slight dig at Kusanagi, who protests that he didn't take physics in high school. When Kishitani expresses gratitude for Yukawa's contributions to police cases, Yukawa playfully remarks that he only helps the police because he "can't bear listening to Kusanagi's faulty attempts at reasoning on certain occasions" and warns Kishitani about "catching whatever [Kusanagi] has that has turned his brain into a rock," which elicits laughter from Kishitani. These playful insults show the feelings of mutual friendship that underlie much of Kusanagi and Yukawa's relationship.

While Kusanagi is too proud to admit that he and Kishitani stopped by Yukawa's lab to seek advice, Yukawa is able to surmise the purpose of their visit and ask if they had resolved the murder case. In this way, Yukawa shows himself to be socially astute in being able to recognize Kusanagi's need for help without making it obvious. Despite his facetious comments poking fun at Kusanagi's intellect, Yukawa is able to help Kusanagi save face. At the same time, he is able to refrain from admitting his own desire to play a role in the case and contribute to Kusanagi's investigation. Beyond the apparent clashing of their egos, both Kusanagi and Yukawa enjoy a mutual friendship that satisfies their intellectual curiousity.

Kishitani expresses admiration for Yukawa, noting how Yukawa enjoys a reputation for helping to solve cases at the police station and goes by the nickname "Detective Galileo." Likewise, Ishigami in this very same chapter is revealed to have been known among classmates as "the Buddha." By virtue of their nicknames, Ishigami and Yukawa are held in parallel as two opposing geniuses whose unorthodox and nonconventional thinking make them comparable to great figures in history who were known for paradigm-changing and spiritual insights.

This parallelism with regard to character development occurs in another way: just as Yukawa refers to the murderer (in this case Yusako, though the implication is relevant for Ishigami) as "formidable," Ishigami likewise refers to Kusanagi as "formidable." Just as Yusako is Ishigami's counterpart, so will Kusanagi function as Yukawa's counterpart. For all of the playful mockery directed towards Kusanagi from Yukawa, based on Ishigami's reflections, we know better than to underestimate Kusanagi and discount his own powers of logical inference. Likewise, Kusanagi is warned not to underestimate the logical ability of his adversary, in this case Yasuko, whose genius Yukawa is able to recognize via the matter of the ticket stubs. The repetition of "formidable" sets the stage for the battle of wits between Kusanagi and Yukawa on one hand vis-a-vis Ishigami and Yusako on the other.

As already mentioned, Yukawa notes the genius evidenced by the way in which Yusako placed ticket stubs in her theater pamphlet. Later in the chapter, we learn from Ishigami's reflections that this was indeed by design. Having been advised by Ishigami, Yusako claims not to have noticed anyone or seen anything unusual while at the movie theater. Misato likewise corroborates Yusako's story as well. They are also able to recall the plot of the movie they had seen, and Misato talks about the movie with only one other classmate, according to plan. All of this is under the guidance of Ishigami. By juxtaposing Ishigami's design with Yukawa's conjectures, tension is created as we follow how the latter increasingly corresponds to the former.

Ishigami and Yukawa are former classmates, which apart from being a plot device that gets Yukawa emotionally invested and involved in the case, also shows the role of fate in causing their paths to cross. This will become increasingly relevant in the story as Yukawa's involvement increasingly becomes an obstacle to Ishigami's flawless execution of his plan. Hence, while the end of the chapter emphasizes how everything is proceeding according to plan from Ishigami's perspective, this is only to prepare us for Yukawa's sudden appearance at the end, which will become a confounding variable that disrupts Ishigami's ability to plan his scheme in accordance with strict logic.