Special Feature: Choices of the Heart 2
Chapter 08: Kaito's Regret
Kaito demonstrates that he is still willing to go to any extent to protect his mermaid; he still is in love with her. However, Kaito also yields to human Lucia's persistence, and apologies for what he said to her in chapter 07. Kaito realizes that his feelings for human Lucia are now too strong for him to be able to cleanly cut her off, as he had hoped to do earlier.
Chapter 09: Kaito's Heart
The way that Kaito shows such open concern (and even kindness) toward human Lucia in this chapter demonstrates how deeply he is coming to care about her.
Chapter 10: The Pendulum Swings
Kaito is jealous when he sees Lucia with another man; later, he is consumed with remorse after fighting with her about it. Kaito can no longer deny that he is, in some way, in love with human Lucia. Which means that he now loves two different women. Gakuto appears to Kaito in a dream, and warns him that his heart can only belong completely to one person. Now Kaito knows that he will have to make a choice again. Lucia, or the mermaid? The way that Kaito talks to Lucia at the end of the chapter would seem to indicate that he is leaning toward choosing her. But Gakuto's words still weigh heavily on his mind... and he has not made his choice yet.
Chapter 11: Kaito's Choice (II)
Kaito goes out of his way to be extremely kind and caring toward Lucia. Finally, at the end of the chapter, he tells her that the girl that he has been chasing before, his mermaid, was probably just an illusion. He sounds as if he is trying to convince himself... However, Lucia picks up on the importance of his words. She starts to ask him how he really feels about her, but before she can finish, the two of them are interrupted. (Image above.)
Chapter 12: Lucia's Regret
As far as Human Lucia is concerned, Kaito has officially morphed into Perfect Boyfriend Mode. For the first time, Lucia and Kaito interact with each other as if they are a normal boyfriend and girlfriend. They believe in each other, they trust each other, and of course, they still tease each other, and Lucia still has to call Kaito a pervert at least once every chapter. But other than that, they seem to have become a couple.
And yet, Lucia suddenly isn't sure whether to be completely happy about it, or not. She seems sad when she wonders if Kaito has already forgotten about her mermaid self. At the beginning of the manga, Lucia acted as though she could have been perfectly happy if Kaito fell completely in love with her human self, and forgot about the mermaid altogether (i.e., see chapter 05). But now Lucia seems to be second-guessing her own choice. Now she no longer wants Kaito to forget about her mermaid self...
Chapter 13: The Final Farewell?
Kaito is still in Perfect Boyfriend Mode, and totally in love with Human Lucia. But when Lucia realizes that she must journey to Gakuto's castle in order to save Caren and Noel, she appears to Kaito, perhaps for the last time, in her mermaid form. (Image to the right.) Lucia wants to say her final farewell to Kaito as a mermaid... Because, she thinks to herself, it is the mermaid that Kaito truly loves. And yet, based on Kaito's behavior in the past several chapters, it should be rather obvious, even to Lucia, that that is not the case. Perhaps Lucia wants to remind Kaito of the mermaid that he previously said was just an illusion... Perhaps now Lucia wants to win back Kaito's heart in her mermaid form, as well. Or perhaps what she really wants, more than anything, is for Kaito to figure out that his two loves are one and the same.
Chapter 14: Does he suspect...?
Kaito notices that shortly after his mermaid appeared to bid him a tearful farewell, Lucia is absent from school. Later, Kaito finds a sakura shell on the beach, which he thinks belongs to his mermaid. He hears human Lucia's voice calling out to him as he holds the shell in his hand. He looks down at the sakura shell and thinks to himself, "Could she be...?" Finally, at the end of this chapter, Kaito, seemingly on a whim, decides to give the sakura seashell that he found to Lucia as a present... a seashell, that is, that Kaito knows (or at least strongly suspects) belongs to his mermaid. Is Kaito beginning to figure out the connection between his mermaid and Lucia? Is he trying to drop Lucia a hint that he knows? Or is he, perhaps, re-affirming his commitment to human Lucia over and above his past love for the mermaid...?