[1593] I win

[tambo]

Look at the last panel in particular. Look at her eyes and the flood of tears rolling down her face. That does not look like a woman who has it together. That looks like a woman who's about to lose it.

People "lose it" in all sorts of different ways.

From personal experience - every woman I've ever known who has expressed strong emotions has done it in a unique way.

[NinjaDefenestrator]

COMIC!

...wait, where’s Grandma? Argh. Maybe next comic if Fred doesn’t segue away. Back to current comic.

So Piro did the right thing here in terms of refusing to answer a very personal question, although his demeanor (and Kimiko’s) pretty much answers it for him. Gentlemanly conduct, good job.

Megumi...sigh, poor girl. Focusing on her friend’s story to stave off having to think about the monumental changes in her own. However, I think those tears at the end indicate she’s starting to accept her new circumstances as an awful reality- could a “monster” like her, especially such a powerful one, ever have a regular love life?

[NinjaDefenestrator]

From Kimiko's perspective, she is scoring the guy she wanted. How about Piro? I see a 20something guy feeling weirdly rejected and not knowing why, and then suddenly having another friend throw herself at him. Emotions and hormones are probably running wild. I just don't think that he is making rational choices about long-term relationships, nor could he expected to be, under the circumstances.

Besides, how much of his decision-making is affected by Kimiko pretending to be Miho? Nothing? That seems to run contrary to the running commentary in 1510 and 1512 and 1519. That's kind of a heavy recurring theme - expressed by three different people - to be dismissed as "nah, they all knew what they were doing."

Miho's panic wasn't about him. Piro currently has no idea what caused it. That misunderstanding will eventually be resolved. What happens next?

1527 is the very tip of this particular loose end. Nothing has been revisited; nobody has closure. It would be weird for this to fizzle out into "okay, he's with Kimiko now, all well and good."

I am with you here. Piro and Miho’s story isn’t over yet, even if they don’t end up together. I think it’s still a tossup whether or not their relationship is ever possible, although he’s obviously going to be with Kimiko for the foreseeable future.

He was pressured into the relationship with Kimiko from all sides. Yes, he eventually “chose” her by joining her in the bathroom, but that was with his conscience right there pushing him into it with both hands, on top of everyone and everything else in his life screaming that he had to be with this girl. Only a few people (Largo, Yuki, Seraphim) were even aware that Piro had a choice to make in the first place. Everyone else, including Miho herself, assumed that Kimiko was his only option and expected them to be together, and that was a whole different kind of pressure.

It remains to be seen how Fred will handle this complicated love triangle. Will he wrap it up by giving them closure and letting them fade into the background permanently because the kitsune saga is so much more interesting? Or will he put them on the back burner and come back to them in a few more years? My guess is the latter. I think the next time they encounter each other (Megagamers, hopefully?) will tell us a lot.

[cidjen]

I think Kimi also 'knows' or deduced from Piro's not_completely_at_ease state, as should be clear from the interview with the broken laptop. That's why she's trying to help Miho. That's why she was 'channeling' Miho and 'playing' the role of Miho, both to the mob and to Pick. Question is, what is her motive... Once upon a time I cooked up that Miho broke up with Piro, because she wanted to save Piro from certain death from the mob, in case he came to Japan to see her at the pre-pre-previous cycle, which he was possibly talking about doing back then (she even caved in to his stalking and gave him the ASC address, only to come to her senses later (or someone told her to ditch him instead? That would have been an interesting line)). Now Kimi had a go at that, but contrary to Miho, Kimi is a now-famous celebrity, who already can't be just shunned away... Or so she thinks, Erika's example shows otherwise....

[StClair]

That is such a broken smile in the last panel.

[S1arburst]

He was pressured into the relationship with Kimiko from all sides. Yes, he eventually “chose” her by joining her in the bathroom, but that was with his conscience right there pushing him into it with both hands, on top of everyone and everything else in his life screaming that he had to be with this girl.

Right? That bothered me too.

[cidjen]

Idk if I was on about this topic before, tl to search ... I actually did, way back...
But thinking about the emotional link between characters, as a sign of, so to say, infatuation? It seems that quite a strong one can be detected going from Piro to Miho. As in, she loves him. And it seems to have been going only one way, because he doesn't love her. (Yuki detects this link, but being a novice MG, she gets the direction wrong). One example is quite early when Piro had been walking somewhat above a train line and was visibly distraught , it's hard to not think he was considering jumping it... At about the same time, Miho had a fall in school lavatory, rescued by Ping and Largo. Then Miho tried to break that link (or actually revive it ?), by causing a crying scene in the shop (although to her loss, Yuki was there and broke it by telling him the tears were fake). Also see Miho's emotional reaction to Piro berating her, when he rescued Largo from the depths of the Cave of Evil. In the last chapter? Kimi was wearing scenic makeup to make her look like Miho, and the effect of her 'I love you!' (and the snuggles?) was pretty dramatic on Kohl's end; then the icing on the cake of this construction: the effect of Piro helping Kimi flush the toner/makeup, while Miho feels like being goosed, while talking to Ninja Gran. Hence her desire to go and talk to him. Thence will the real choice really happen.