MERMAID MELODY PICHI PICHI PITCH
Text translation, chapter 20.
Original story by Yokote Michiko
Manga artwork by Hanamori Pink
Translation by Kotetsu, not to be redistributed without permission!
Archived at http://www.boukenshin.net/pitch/

Translator's Notes:
This is my first time translating a manga, and I'm not yet a very advanced
student of Japanese, hence, there are bound to be mistakes.  I tried my best
to faithfully translate as much as I could, but there were parts where 
characters spoke using slang words that weren't in any of my dictionaries.
Still, I think I got the gist of what I didn't understand. 

I didn't bother to translate sound effects, nor the words appearing on 
every sign, nor all of the [small text] words in the story.  For purists, I 
know, this is a tragedy.  But I chose to go for expediency, which means 
that I've translated only dialogue and *most* of the [small text] passages, 
at least the ones particularly cute and/or important to the story.

I am also not entirely faithful to the punctuation in the original.  
Mainly, there are places where I have added punctuation, since the original 
Japanese dialogue consisted of long, convoluted constructions, which would 
not make sense in English without the addition of punctuation.

Terms of address (like "Onee-chan," which means "Older Sister") and 
meaningless exclamations (like "Kyaa!") have also been left untranslated.

----------------------

Translation Key!
This is spoken speech.
<This is thought.>
[small text] comes before a translation of those tiny, scribbly words
 	sometimes found floating inside or outside a word bubble.
** denotes a panel in which nothing is said.
(1) is footnote #1.  (2) is footnote #2, etc.  Footnotes come immediately
 	after the passages that they refer to.
Pages are separated by a dotted line.

----------------------

MERMAID MELODY PICHI PICHI PITCH
Episode 20

----------------------

Kaito:		I'm going to protect this girl!

Gakuto:		Kaito, you fool...

Gakuto:		Prepare yourselves.

----------------------

Mermaids:	<Sara, return to your true self.>

Sara:		......!

Sara:		That sort of song can't erase my suffering---

----------------------

Sara:		<When I knew that Mitsuki had left me behind, I...
		 Nobody can understand this suffering.>
		<That's right.  It was the same as if I had lost every-
		 thing in the world.>

Sara:		<Love, and such...  I thought that it was all a lie.>

Mitsuki:	Sara...  Whatever happens to me is fine.  I just don't
		want to make you suffer anymore.

Sara:		<But...>

Sara:		<Mitsuki didn't really forget about me...?>

Written on music: "Remembrance"

----------------------

Mitsuki:	Sara...

Sara:		<I thought that I didn't want to hear Mitsuki's excuses.>

Hanon:		Tarou-chan!!

Hippo:		Hanon-sama, you mustn't go!!

Sara:		<But did Mitsuki leave me, the princess, behind, for the
		 sake of my kingdom?>
		Ah...
		<Was it that I was the only one who didn't understand how
		 everyone in my kingdom felt, how precious the princess
		 was to them...?>

----------------------

Mitsuki:	Sara!  No matter what sort of reasons there might have
		been, hurting you so much like this was my sin alone!
		No matter what I have to do, I want to make up for it...!!

Sara:		Mitsuki...  How can you say that now...  Now...
		<Why do I feel so sad?>

Hanon:		Sara...  Even though Tarou-chan loves only you...
		This much...  So deeply.

Mitsuki:	Sara...

----------------------

Mitsuki:	Sara...  Let's end this now.
		Since you wish for it, if it will make you happy, I
		offer my life to you.

Sara:		Mitsuki...

Hanon:		Stop!  It can't be like that - you're wrong!!

Hanon:		<The roof is crumbling?>

Hanon:		TAROU-CHAN!!

----------------------

Karen:		The song...  We can't hear it anymore?

Rina:		Even though Luchia is right beyond this door!

Noel:		Right now, let's believe.  Believe in that song... and
		in everybody!

Karen:		Right.

Rina:		Yes...

Yuuri:		What a shame, isn't it?

Eriru:		This is the end for you, the e~nd, the e~nd.

----------------------

Gakuto:		Why are you getting in my way?  Why won't you take my
		hand?

Gakuto:		It's incomprehensible.

Luchia:		KAITO!!!

Luchia:		<I have to do something.  But right now, stupid me, I
		 can't do anything...>

Kaito:		Don't worry!  You'll always be there, right?  You said
		that you believed in me.

Luchia:		Kaito...?!

----------------------

Hanon:		Tarou-chan...?

Coco:		Sara...?

Hanon:		No.  Are they...?

Coco:		Sara?!

Baaya:		Sara-sama!!

----------------------

Sara:		Mitsuki...  I love you.  And I'm sorry.
		<Mitsuki...  Back then, I could only hate you.>
		<Because I must have been the one who was the most 
		 frightened of the love between a mermaid and a human.>

Hanon:		Sara's color...  It's become orange!

Hanon:		Hippo!  Take Tarou-chan to a safe place!
		Sara, I'll go on ahead of you!  We need all seven of 
		the princesses in order to defeat Gakuto!

Hippo:		Hanon-sama, please take this with you!

Hanon:		Thank you!

**

----------------------

Coco:		Sara...

Sara:		Are you all saying that you trust me?

Coco:		Because we're friends...  Right?

Sara:		Friends, huh...

----------------------

Gakuto:		Since you want that mermaid, I'll give her to you, Kaito.
		Join your power with mine...

Kaito:		Ku...

Gakuto:		...Guaa!

Kaito:		Absolutely not.  Even if you make it so that I can no 
		longer move, I'm still not such a docile, obedient child.

----------------------

Gakuto:		...You don't understand how our clan has suffered!

Kaito:		I can't understand!  I'm only Doumoto Kaito.  I'm not
		any other person!  And that's my answer!!

Gakuto:		To refuse my invitation twice... is unacceptable.
		Just as you wished, I'll slice you up until you can
		no longer move...

**

Gakuto:		CHECKMATE.

----------------------

Kaito:		Not yet!

Luchia:		...Kaito!

Kaito:		Now's your chance!  Hurry up and go!

Luchia:		But...

Kaito:		Hurry!!

Kaito:		Your friends...  They're just beyond that door, aren't
		they?  I'll be fine, so hurry up and go!

Luchia:		<Kaito...  But something like that...  I just can't do it.>

Kaito:		Guaa!

----------------------

Luchia:		KAITO!!!

Gakuto:		...If you want me to stop, give me that pearl.

Kaito:		Don't!  Don't give it to him!!

Luchia:		<If I hand over my pearl, the peace of the ocean will...>
		<But if it keeps going like this, Kaito will...!>

----------------------

Eriru:		Well, well.  You don't have anywhere left to run.

Mermaids:	<Luchia must be right beyond this door...!>

Mermaids:	<Luchia!!>

Karen:		You mustn't give up your pearl!  If you do that, then--

Rina:		<No way...  Kaito was Gakuto's younger twin brother-->
		Karen...  Luchia will never forsake Kaito.

Noel:		That's true.  The peace that we wish for in the ocean,
		is not something that can come to be because of someone's 
		sacrifice...

Maria:		You understand well, don't you.  All you can do is say
		pretty words, but you can't really do anything at all.

----------------------

Gakuto:		That's right...  Good girl.

Luchia:		<Aqua Regina-sama.  I sang for the sake of everyone in
		 the ocean.>
		<But that was because I had my friends.>

Kaito:		DON'T!

Luchia:		<Because I had Kaito...>

Luchia:		<What I wish for is to protect the happiness and the
		 smiling faces of the people that I love.>
		<When I give this up, I won't be able to fight... I 
		 won't be able to sing.>

Aqua Regina:	Mermaid princess Luchia.

----------------------

Aqua Regina:	Is it truly all right for you to give up?  You still
		have friends who still will not give up, don't you?

Luchia:		Friends?!

----------------------

Hanon:		Luchia, thanks for waiting!

Hanon:		This thing is really amazing, isn't it!

Maria:		Na...!

Eriru:		You--!!

Rina:		Hanon, you're safe!

Hanon:		Well, yeah!  But I was a little rude, I guess.  Hanon-chan
		right now is a little bit scary!

Kaito:		And I, too.  Just because I'm in a situation like this,
		doesn't mean that I'm beaten yet.

----------------------

Gakuto:		Uwaaa...!

Kaito:		Uoooo!

Gakuto:		Na...!  Where did that power come from?!  It should 
		have all been absorbed into me.
		Why...?!

**

----------------------

Kaito:		There is someone that I have to protect, so I become
		stronger...!
		It's over, Gakuto.

Gakuto:		This is...  One half of my power...?
		A bright and powerful aura...

Luchia:		Kaito...!
		<Aqua Regina-sama.  This is the power of belief... The
		 power of love.>
		<We can still sing.  For the sake of everyone's smiling
		 faces!>

----------------------

Gakuto:		The end, you said?!  That's the only thing that I wish
		for.  I'm the one who desires the end!!!

Gakuto:		Dark Lovers, follow me!!!

Gakuto/DLovers:	DARK ROSE FINAL STAGE!!!!

----------------------

**

**

Rina:		That's...

**

----------------------

Rina?:		SARA...!

Gakuto:		Na...!

Sara:		Let's not hurt anyone any more, Gakuto.

Coco:		Sara...

Rina:		That's the orange...

Karen:		We're all here...?!

Noel:		The seventh mermaid princess!!

Luchia:		Everyone, let's sing!!

----------------------

Gakuto:		I WON'T LET YOU!!!

Voices:		<Give us light!  There's already been too much loneliness
		 in the deep sea.>
		<Fight!>
		<King of the Panthalassa!!  Fight with the cursed power of
		 our clan!!!> 

Aqua Regina:	That cannot be.

Gakuto:		Na!

----------------------

Gakuto:		AQUA REGINA!!!

Aqua Regina:	The future is something that you open with your own hands
		and your own heart.  Because the seven princesses have
		gathered together,
		Your believing hearts, your feelings of love, are stronger
		than anything else...

Luchia:		She's been resurrected...?!

**

----------------------

Aqua Regina:	Now sing, a song of peace and love.

----------------------

Aqua Regina:	Combine the melodies of the seven oceans...!

Kaito:		This is... the song of the princesses...

Gakuto:		Gu...
		I won't let you...  I won't let you!

Luchia:		Gakuto...  Your hatred is only hurting your own heart...
		Nothing can be born from that.
		No matter how sad you are, fate is not something that 
		you can overcome by using violent, harmful power.

----------------------

Gakuto:		Ku!

Gakuto:		Sara...  Will you no longer return to me...?

Sara:		...Gakuto...

Gakuto:		Everything has slipped from my hands...!

Luchia:		!

Somebody:	LUCHIA!!

**

----------------------

Gakuto:		SARA!!!

Sara:		Gakuto...  Won't you end this pitiful battle?

Gakuto:		Pitiful battle...?  Sara, is that what you truly have
		to say?

Sara:		Haven't you noticed yet?  Everything that we did was 
		only spreading sorrow and emptiness.

Sara:		Uu!

Gakuto:		Sara...?!

Gakuto:		That wound is--!!

----------------------

Hanon:		That wound...  Is that from when you protected Tarou-
		chan...?

Sara:		The key rod...

Hanon:		Right.

Sara:		So...  Sing...  And take courage from that song.
		So that in the end, we can carry out the final mission 
		of the princesses.

Sara:		Thank you, Coco.  You were truly my friend.
		<And Mitsuki...  I'm sorry.  It looks as though I truly 
		 never will be able to be together with you.>
		<You loved me so much.  Now I will fulfill my duty, just
		 as the princess that you loved should do.>

Coco:		No...  Sara, you're going to re-create the seal with that 
		key?!  ...Wait!

Hanon:		You mustn't...  Tarou-chan will be grieve for you!

----------------------

Aqua Regina:	Sara will now atone for the sin that she has committed.
		That was a sin which can never be forgiven.  However,
		it was perhaps a sin that anybody could have committed...
		Luchia, you are the one who can combine the hearts of the
		seven princesses into one.  Together with your friends,
		think of Sara, and sing...

Mermaids:	...Sara, receive this feeling!

Sara:		Thank you.  Luchia.  Coco.  Hanon.  Everyone...
		<And Mitsuki...>

Gakuto:		Sara...

**

----------------------

**

Sara:		Gakuto...  Why did you accept my seal without trying to use
		your rod?	

Gakuto:		It's all right... Sara.  When I lost that power, it was the
		end of this body as well...  But more than that, when I lost
		your heart, even if I had won the world, I would have been
		all alone.

Gakuto:		It's warm...
		This is the warmth of your hope, isn't it.

DLovers:	Gakuto-sama...!

**

Gakuto:		You all...  Even when you return to your original bodies,
		you still worry about me...

----------------------

Gakuto:		...My one and only brother, Kaito.

Gakuto:		After I was separated from you, I was raised alone as the 
		king of the dark, deep ocean.
		<The castle and the sea monsters, too.  They were only illusions
		 that I created...  I was always alone.>
		I envied you.  The storm in which your parents died was my
		signal...  Sara was torn apart by love, and committed a 
		grave mistake.  I loved Sara...  She shared my same yearning,
		and suffered from the same fate.  I truly loved her.

Gakuto:		For Sara's sake, I didn't care what sort of tragedies I 
		created, or who I might have injured.  No matter how many
		kingdoms I destroyed, or how many lives I stole...
		But, of course, the end result of all of that was nothing...

----------------------

Gakuto:		Kaito...  I admit my defeat.  You, too, were also fighting
		against your own fate, weren't you.
		Please...  Take care of your princess.

Kaito:		Yes, Gakuto... No.
		Onii-san...!

**

Gakuto:		Goodbye, Sara...

Sara:		No.

----------------------

Coco:		Sara...

Baaya:		Sara-sama...!

Sara:		<Mitsuki...  I realized when I met you again.>
		<That there is somebody, right now, who needs me more than 
		 anyone else.>

Gakuto:		Sara...

Sara:		<Somebody who looked at my hurting, wounded self with the
		 same eyes that you looked at me with...  I can never
		 leave him.>

Sara:		<In the end...  You were the one who taught me.  About love...>

Mitsuki:	Sara...

Aqua Regina:	Gakuto's ocean will embrace them both in a peaceful sleep.
		Soon a new life will surely be born.
		The Princess of the Indian Ocean...  Keep this, until the day
		when you will meet her again.

----------------------

Mermaids:	Let us sing a song to pray for Sara's reincarnation.
		Right...!

Song:		If the wish is fulfilled
		Then what is waiting next?

Song:		Now this grand dream
		Will bring happiness until the wish is fulfilled

Mermaids:	<Sara...  We will absolutely meet again.>

Hippo:		Yuuri-san...

Song:		When there is a battle,
		The meaning of love is questioned

Song:		A thousand stars are twinkling...

Mitsuki:	Sara...

Song:		Of course I'm just a girl!
		I cannot live in dreams alone
		Please foretell that I will be loved

----------------------
		
Kaito:		Luchia.

Song:		Now, with myself full of hope

Song:		"Toward life beyond the dream"...----

Luchia:		Kaito.

----------------------
[2-page spread]

Kaito:		At last, I've found you...!
		Luchia.

Luchia:		And... I'll never let you go again.

**

Girl:		Something is coming...
		Is it my prince...?

To be continued in Volume Five.
	

</end chapter 20>