Thank you for your service, noble gull. While you have been troubled in your youth, as fellow sailors we have seen this ship from sea to port, and now we can find peace at last. Amen.
The bloop. THE BLOOP! Why must we be teased! Is the mermaid real or not?!
I wondered about that too.
AWW DAMN, I just now realized why that panel was there! I completely forgot about the initial premise. If it turns out to be true, then I hope this whole work doesn't get spoiled by the tags
It seems to me like the "Mermaid" that Segawa is talking about here is actually Koumoto.
1) Her talk about the "person I like", and the mermaid being "surrounded by friends", fits much better with Koumoto than the mermaid that supposedly represents her mother.
2) She starts to get emotional after Ibu openly hates on her in front of Koumoto, something we see to be a sore point for Segawa later on.
3) This scenario mirrors how Segawa tried to distance herself from Koumoto after encountering her bullies, feeling she's not good enough for Koumoto
It really lifts up this later scene for me even more, because Koumoto here is just doing what Segawa was already doing earlier on; pretending she's not talking about her feelings for the person right in front of her.
This manga is really cute and wholesome, I like it a lot but it also makes me nervous whenever Shou is alone. I can't help but feel that it would take one bad day for that girl to give up on life.
I feel like her mother "Shou have you eaten? Shou did you talk to Umi today? What are you going to do for the fishes tomorrow?"