You can say it's both. In truth, I think it's Taichi's "ignorance" (not his fault, really) of the "real" Iori that soured their relationship especially for Iori, and their feelings changed along the events of Vol.4.

"Friends hurt each other. That's what being friends is like because humans aren't perfect." (Which effectively echoes with the title of this volume: Kizu, Wound/Imperfection.)

Yea, I got the feeling that the fork in the road was during the shared dream. The conversation could have ended with one side saying, "So shall we try again?" and it wouldn't have been an implausible outcome either.

That's not to say that Taichi choosing Himiko came out of left field. His monologues throughout the book showed a slow but sure shift towards a recognition that he and Himiko were compatible and made a good team with their strengths and weaknesses complementing one another, as well as a gradual development of feelings towards her.

The decision, in my view however, could have gone either way at that point, and Taichi could very well have made a different decision if the characters were to go back in time to the shared dream.

Aside from hints and snippets that are to be seen through out the first four volumes,
Vol.7 will give us a full arc that focuses on his "White Knight" altruism motif, that will ultimately put his identity and relationship to one of the most difficult test of all volumes. The selfish "Selfless freak", the good's, the bad's, and the potential of turning ugly, how he sees it, how he follows it, how it affects his relationships, and finally, how it identifies Taichi as a person.

I'm wishing for this volume's translation so bad, so that I can appreciate the details that I've failed to digest when munching the raws. :eyespin:

He gets a bit of depth in Vol.2, I'm predicting episode 9.
He's first major arc debuts in Vol.3.
He also gets a little bit of development in Vol.4 and Vol.6.
Vol.7 sheds light on his family.

Nah, episode 9 should be the concluding episode for the Kizu arc.

Episode 8 should be where Aoki and Taichi went to get Yui to come back again, and Aoki does some weird suggestion... I can't understand this part...

Didn't the BD/DVD release stated that there will be 5 episodes for Kizu?
My speculation basing on the novel chapters is like this:

- ep7 "The Collapse and Detachment of Their Bonds"
- ep8 " Working Together to Help the Collapsed" Part-1, ends with Taichi's resolution after the talk with Gou-san and Fujishima
- ep9 " Working Together to Help the Collapsed" Part-2. ends with beginning of "Hiking Turned Out to be a Battlefield"
- ep10 "Hiking Turned Out to be a Battlefield " and the rest of the volume.

He's basically trying to insist that now that Yui's understood the consequence of her strength, her impulsive desire to beat up people will be override by her concern of hurting others, which is a stronger impulse/desire by Yui's nature and the gimmick will trigger that instead. Aoki convinces her with the "Let's spend a night in the motel!" trick and the help of some literal-munching persuasion / word-bending by Taichi.

*Gives Chaos2Frozen a kiss on the cheek*

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh... 5 episodes of this intense drama? Man the rest of August is going to be a nightmare...But still, chapter 5-6 could very easily fit into one episode... Bah, no use saying anything now...

I suspected something like that given Yui's response :heh: