Actually, this is more of breakdown of why I don't think the common (?) theory of him aiming to switch Akiho and Sakura's lives is true.
It just bugged me a lot and I need to sort these thoughts out of system. Because if Kaito does want the girls to switch places, then that would count as malicious intent on his part (cuz doing so would harm Sakura which is like the biggest tabooboo in CCS land). And that doesn't align with what I see in the portrayal of his character so far.
Yea, he may be sneaky but there has been nothing to suggest that Kaito is a cruel or evil person. Far from it.
So I'm going to attempt to prove the "switch lives" theory wrong and come up with a possible new one at what his real goal might be.
(others may have thought some of this up already but I've been out of the loop on CC as a whole to mentally recover so...just please give me space, thanks)
Remaining chapters
Let's start with the technical stuff first.
CC will end with vol 14 and right now we are currently at 69 chapters with ch 70 to be released at the end of January (so within a few days).
Usually a volume has 5-6 chapters with each one being about an average of 30 pages long. If so, the story should end with ch 70 or 71, right? Since vol 13 ended with ch 65 so ch 66-69, which are already out, fills up 4 chapters of vol 14 already.
Well, final manga volumes can be thicker than the regular volume by having more pages in the final chapter(s).
This happened with Pandora Hearts (the only other manga I have on hand that I can use as reference for this matter). Its final Japanese volume (24) had 70 more pages than the previous vol 23 and the final chapter alone totaled around 100 pages. See below photo for comparison:
Yea, so at the very least I think we might get 1 or 2 more extended chapters after 70 to wrap everything in the story up properly. 3 chapters maximum if we're really pushing it.
It can't be 5 chapters because then the story would end end at vol 15, not 14.
Right? Right. Ok, next.
EDIT: I stand corrected because ANN announced in an article last year (?) it would end at vol 14 but apparently, there was a mistake and now it'll end at vol 15. So yea, there's 5 more chapters of story after ch 70!
2) The possibility of a "simulation" or a dream-like scenario where the two "Alice"s experience switched lives.
Kind of something similar to the final judgement in the first arc where Sakura faced off against Yue before becoming the master of the former Clow Cards. The part where she went unconscious and saw a world where everybody forgot who they loved most?
Yea, that's exclusive to the anime series. It didn't occur in the original manga where Sakura stayed conscious, fended Yue off and won a lot faster.
If such a thing were to be added to CC's finale, you're going to need at least 3 out of the 6 chapters left for the desired...emotional impact.
But even so, when we've spent a whole two volumes in the fantasy world of Clockland already, adding another layer to this "dream" the characters are already in...it's kinda superfluous and tiring, to be honest.
Not to mention, you need pages to wrap up other things as well. Like addressing Sakura's control over her growing powers? How are they gonna close that out?
What about the European magicians? Will we know what they'll do once they learned Akiho isn't the artifact anymore?
So many things to do before ch 75.
Creating and diving into another reality adds a whole other problem to the pile and frankly, even with the Exchange card, I don't believe there's even enough magic to be able to pull off such feat either.
But more on that later because there's something else that I must address before that.
3) Clues aren't direct and premonitions aren't exact.
There seems to be some collective perception that Momo's hint for Sakura back in ch 50-51 is suggesting Kaito intends to have Sakura replaced with Akiho and that's why nobody recognizes Sakura when she runs around frantically asking everyone what's going on.
Bzzt. Wrong.
The hint was not that she was going to be forced to switch lives (because if that were true, where was Akiho then?) but rather, Sakura was going to be thrown into the world of the story of Alice in Clockland. In other words, Momo's book.
Notice how all the houses and trees and stuff resemble props within a play? And how the school play eventually ended up connecting with the story in the book.
Yea, the hint was telling everyone that the finale will take place in a fictional setting.
As for why none of her family and friends recognized her in Momo's simulation, the opposite actually happened when Sakura became "Alice" after entering the book.
In the hint, Sakura remembers everyone but nobody knows who she is.
In the book, Alice!Sakura doesn't remember who she herself is but all the Clear Cards that took on the image of her loved ones (and therefore, are representing her loved ones) do.
In other words, the hint was meant to throw everyone off of what to expect while still giving us a clue of what will occur in later chapters.
(side note: this also sorta brings to mind a line that Alice in the AiW books said: "Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't.")
And the meaning behind the hint became clear quite recently to me too.
Sakura was able to break the spell on her and recall her true identity by remembering the bonds she has with the people important to her. This effectively indicates that the memories we have with others are a large part of what defines who we are.
That if we don't lose sight of our connections with those dear to us, we won't lose sight of ourselves either.
Just like how Akiho recalled much faster about who she herself is by remembering never forgetting her feelings for Kaito.
Next, the premonitions.
Keep in mind that while Sakura's dreams fortell the future, they are also a product of her mind trying to sort things out while she's sleeping.
The things we couldn't readily process while awake (like confusion, shock, etc) would often be set aside in our unconsciousness to be dealt with later. Notably during the time we're not awake.
And I believe that the brain would try process those things to the best of its ability...but it can only do so with the information it already has available on hand. So anything you're not aware of or don't know yet, something else will be used as placeholder instead.
For example, the cloaked figure that Sakura pulled the hood off to reveal (a soulless-eyed) Syaoran underneath. That actually foretold that she will confront the Dreaming Card and an imposter Syaoran (aka Kaito in disguise) in Momo's book.
When she was still dreaming of MCF (sp?), she wasn't aware of Kaito's true identity as a magician yet so she kept seeing Syaoran in the cloak who always wore an expressionless face that she couldn't decipher. Because she didn't know that person was going to be Kaito.
But after she learned Kaito could use magic in ch 54, she no longer saw MCF!Syaoran in her dreams anymore.
Additionally, the Akiho who Sakura saw in her dreams turned out to be different than what's happening now.
In her dreams, Akiho is not conscious and always wearing her ritual dress with a vacant expression on her face. Like an empty doll.
But in the book, Akiho is awake despite the fact that her memory was temporarily subdued and she is wearing a noticeably different outfit. The dress of the Red Queen.
Her expressions are solemn but her eyes are very much alive in contrast to the Akiho in the dreams.
As for the serpentine winged dragon, no one smart should've expected it could represent anyone else other than Kaito.
On the corner of Kaito's robes as well as the back, there is the symbol of the dragon.
But as Sakura didn't suspect Kaito of anything yet at the time when she started having these dreams, her mind used the image of a dragon to clue her in on who she will be confronting later on.
However, it should be noted that none of what Sakura saw in the dreams suggests that she will switch lives with Akiho.
It only foretold that she will meet and confront these figures (the imposter Syaoran/Kaito in disguise, Akiho, the Dreaming Card and the dragon/Kaito as his real self) within the book.
And that future she saw already came to be as of these past two volumes.
4) The creation of the Exchange card
It should be pretty obvious by now that the whole synchro plan was for the sake of creating the circumstances needed to establish the foundations of this card.
Through Akiho and Sakura sharing feelings and bits of memories across their joint dreams, the idea of a "trade" has been incepted into Sakura's mind early on so that she will eventually create a card that can function as a link, a channel, for an exchange to be possible on immediate demand.
Throwing her into the book and making her "Alice" was just the final push to materialize the card into existence. Because the cards are born from Sakura's inner emotions, the events that led up to this point were meant to foster a certain feeling within her for that purpose.
As "Alice", the heroine, she was faced with the dilemma of the Red Queen's loneliness and inability to leave Clockland. That is what developed a wish in her to save the Queen (Akiho).
A desire to help Akiho by saying "I should've taken your place".
With that desire, a new card is born.
My prediction was correct (partially). Kaito was betting on this with the combination of his two plans (the synchro + the story of Clockland). He wanted to utilize the heroine's tendency towards altruism to bring about the card he needed.
As long as Sakura wanted to save Akiho, she would be able to birth the card needed for such a task.
However, none of that necessarily means he intends to use it to switch their lives. The only definitive thing out of this was that he wanted a specific card from Sakura all along...which is also what he's been saying all along, too.
How he intends to use the card may not be what everyone is expecting.
5) Conditions that need to be met + conflicts that may arise in using Exchange.
There are several things we need to ask before we come to any conclusions, chiefly among them the following:
Who can use the Exchange card? (read: is likely to use it in the current scenario)
And do the conditions differ depending on the person using it? Along with what their respective wish is?
First off, let's remember that the four central characters are all within a rather ambiguous space at the moment.
While the Clear Cards are there in the book and were created by Sakura, she was told that not all of them would not outright obey her commands. Or at least, they are following her subconscious will rather than her conscious one.
For example, when Sakura was fighting off the Dreaming card, trying to escape the book with Akiho, only to realize she didn't truly leave the book and what she saw was only a dream. Her attempt to leave was an illusion...a dream that she wished for as clarified by Kaito after it broke.
In other words, it can be interpreted that what Sakura truly wanted deep down was to believe that everything happening around her was not real. That it was a dream.
We should also note that Kaito, as the author/creator of Clockland, has some significant control over this field as well. They are playing on his turf right now so he has a slight advantage over them.
At the very least, the ones that seem to hold the most sway over the turnout of the story are the two most powerful magicians present (Sakura and Kaito) as well as the one whose choice will influence them the most (Akiho).
Moreover, we should also remember that he was able to use Clear Mirror to disguise himself as Syaoran.
As such, who can be called "master" over a Card may have been blurred within the book. It's possible the cards can respond to the will of anyone.
Depending on whose hand they're being held in and perhaps also, provided that the order they give doesn't conflict with Sakura's subconscious desire.
So now it becomes the question of who Exchange will fall into the hands of...
If it goes to Sakura, there are two ways this can play out:
Kaito reveals the truth about him and Akiho along with his wish to Sakura and asks her to use Exchange to fulfill it.
If his wish is for her to switch lives with Akiho (and therefore, harmful intent), of course Sakura would refuse and his plan will fail on the spot.
So naturally, it can't be that. Frankly, this approach makes no sense and further rules out the switch theory. Kaito cannot afford to fail in his quest to save Akiho so he needs a plan that is as airtight as possible with a higher percentage of succeeding.
Relying completely on Sakura's goodwill won't give him that because he knows Sakura isn't a pushover. He knows she wouldn't just say "yes" to anything drastic even if it's to save a friend.
A more likely possibility is that he would offer himself in exchange for Akiho's life.
His priority is to save Akiho and the most immediate danger is the book inside her. More than switching lives, he needs that book removed (and there's no guarantee that switching lives will remove the book anyway).
He is willing to sacrifice everything he has, including his magic and what's left of his dwindling life, to get it out of her.
In which case, Sakura would also refuse because not only would that hurt Akiho if she loses Kaito but it would also be assisted suicide. Which is something she would never consent to (and also extremely inappropriate for a story with a young age demographic).
Sakura would never consent to sacrificing someone else no matter what the cause, especially when she still knows nothing about Kaito. And when she does learn the truth about him and his and Akiho's past, it will just make her refuse to let Kaito die even harder.
This part of the theory hasn't taken into consideration of what other cards she might use later (like Rewind) but I think we can say with some certainty that Exchange in Sakura's hands would be a dead end for Kaito so he will probably do his best to not let it go to her.
Now, if Exchange falls to Kaito, then it's a question of what his true intentions are with this card.
Everyone wants to perceive that he wishes to switch the girls' lives.
But I...simply do not believe there's enough time to bring about something that cosmic-sized of a change (along with all the action it entails), prevent it, resolve the issues at hand, have Sakura's party learn everything about Akiho and Kaito's pasts, reconcile...and then dedicate the entire last chapter to SyaoSaku being loveydovey with each other for fanservice. If the last 5 chapters are all 30 pages each.
Also, it seems a little too obvious to be true and there are too many contradictions that can make this go wrong.
For one, if we follow by the rules of magic, magical transactions usually need to be equal in value on both sides to be done successfully. Otherwise it will either not go through...or there will be severe consequences to make the transaction even.
So the definition behind Exchange shouldn't be that different.
Frankly, in the case of Akiho and Sakura's respective lives, they are not in fact equal.
They may share some things in common (being chocomint fans, of the same height, etc) but those are all surface similarities and nothing deep.
Since they've led different lives and had different experiences, they would naturally have different feelings, different hearts and therefore, different values.
What is important to Sakura is not the same for what is important to Akiho. For instance, the people they love most are different and thus, inexchangable.
There are also things that Sakura has that Akiho doesn't (magic, family, happy childhood, etc) and that goes the same the other way around, too. Akiho possesses things that Sakura doesn't have either (passion for books, emotional scars, trauma, and a deeper understanding of darkness due to a sad past).
Adding that up, the exchange would be doomed to fail because Akiho and Sakura are too distinct from each other as individuals to be switched smoothly.
Kaito is a magician so on top of knowing how different Akiho is from Sakura, he must be aware of this rule as well.
Furthermore, if the Exchange card takes into account what the user sees as equal in value for a trade, then he would fail there too.
Because of course he would place more importance on Akiho's life than Sakura's or anyone else's.
The scales would be tipped and maybe the magic might not even start up because the conditions for a fair trade have not been met to initiate it.
There's also the possibility of Kaito exchanging positions with Akiho.
In fact, he and Akiho are on more even standing than Akiho and Sakura are.
They share similar backgrounds (lonely pasts, traumatic and abused childhoods) and both are in danger of "dying" with their time running out (Kaito from using too much rewind, Akiho from the progression of the artifact that will erase her soul).
Since Kaito possesses a lot of innate magic while Akiho has that book filled with magic inside her, he can have Exchange put the book inside him while Akiho receives his magic. Doing so, Akiho's soul is preserved at the cost of his own.
But does he really want that with how much his life has been shaved off already from the multiple rewinds?
Doubt it.
Because besides saving her soul, Kaito wants Akiho to live a long and happy life as well. He didn't do all this work just to extend her life for a few more days or weeks or months. He wants her to have a future.
Moreover, even if it can save her soul, any method that forces magic onto Akiho goes against the biggest principle he's been standing by this entire time: that Akiho doesn't need magic.
That she isn't less valuable because she doesn't have any powers.
Whether it be from Sakura or him, it doesn' t matter. He does not want Akiho to change since she's already fine as she is now. She's fine being a normal person.
Giving her magic goes against the moral of their story and most of all, would validate the cruel criticism Akiho's clan had always thrown at her which is something Kaito would want to avoid at all costs.
So any way that ends with Akiho gaining magic is a no no.
Because as long as she has magic, whether as an artifact or a magician, Akiho will always be in danger of being taken back by her clan to serve their own purposes.
They only have any interest in her if she contains power within her. If she doesn't, they will give up trying to reclaim her. That is the best outcome Kaito could hope for. Hence why he wants the book removed because then the magicians will stop chasing after Akiho for good and she can finally live in peace.
One more thing. A switch of lives means uprooting what has established the girls as the people they are now...which is gonna be incredibly hard to do.
Not only does it mess with personal history and relationships and therefore, effectively change who they are, it can screw up world through... some effect.
The girls have already lived 13 years, they made their mark in the records of time. The logic that constitutes them individually are already imprinted on the fabric of reality. This is not easily undone, rearranged and stitched perfectly back together.
And the price to attempt it sounds like it would be too much as well. It's not something Kaito alone can pay for. Not even with his and Sakura's magic combined.
Again, his major goals are 1) to remove the book from Akiho foremost and 2) to ensure that nothing that makes Akiho "Akiho" changes.
That includes the things that are the most precious to her. Her appreciation for books, her cherishment of Momo, the friendships she's made in Tomoeda.
And also, her love for her parents.
She may not have known them but she still treasures the fact that she had parents once, that she is the daughter to someone. The few things she does know about her mother and father, she keeps close to her heart. She wants to hold onto whatever she has of them because she has nothing else of them to keep.
Kaito understands this more than anyone because Akiho told this to him herself.
And the fact that Lilie, Akiho's mother, was also a significant person in his life is more than enough to deter him from ever wanting to sever the connection Akiho has with her parents. Because Lilie is an important part of Akiho, too. If Akiho loses that, she will no longer be the Akiho that she is now.
In short, switching Akiho's life with another's might turn her into a girl who has warm family and friends and a happy, sheltered childhood and all...but that girl wouldn't be the same Akiho in front of him at this moment.
Therefore, I must conclude that exchanging Akiho and Sakura's lives is probably not what he's aiming for. Because that ultimately means changing Akiho from who she is now into someone entirely different.
She would not be Akiho anymore if that happens.
6) Kaito's true wish + the endgame he wants
This is the part where I throw out a new theory.
Even if it's not an exchange of lives or magic, there will still be an exchange of something.
A wish and a price to pay for that wish.
Kaito wants the book that has been carved into Akiho's body to be removed.
The book has been implanted by the powers of many, many magicians from both the Association and Akiho's clan. And over the years, more magic has been added to its pages through all the books Akiho had read.
The amount of magic within her, though not specified, must be enormous. For it to be taken out without harming the vessel (Akiho) would require a very hefty price.
Kaito's life and his magic might not be enough. Hell, even adding Sakura's magic into the equation, overflowing as it is, might not be enough either because she is still only one person against the hundreds of magics and taboos stored in Akiho.
So what can Kaito offer, something that only belongs to him, to make it so the book no longer endangers Akiho? What does he alone possess that can match in equal value for the fulfillment of that wish?
Perhaps his own existence?
As in, erasing it from the world? That's a pretty big offer, isn't it?
Like it was discussed above, any tempering with the events of time is a very difficult thing to accomplish. In the magician society, it is also a widely known taboo. You don't mess with the workings of time and even the altering of one person's life in the flow of it can result in some significant change.
But see, if this is indeed possible...then the task is "easier" to carry out with Kaito precisely because there a very few people who are aware of him. In fact, the less others know about him, the better. It would not create such a big backlash if he were to disappear.
Because he thinks he didn't make enough of an impact on anything that would be hard to forget and also probably believes that everybody wants to forget about him.
He has no blood relatives looking for him so he believes he doesn't have a true home or family to go back or belong to.
The Association only ever saw him as a tool to be used and is out to kill him for taking Akiho (the artifact) away so they definitely won't miss him.
And nobody in Sakura's party really understands what he's after. They only suspect he's scheming something so they think the worst of him because they lack information to consider otherwise.
Moreover, Kaito had also went to great lengths to hide his personal information from being discovered. He doesn't want people to know about him because that will make disappearing much more difficult.
Knowing him and his self-loathing, his belief and depression that he'll always be alone, his guilt over that blank book comment that brought this fate upon Akiho (the person he loves most) and how little time he has left to live anyway, Kaito is definitely in the mindset that there would be no problem if he were gone.
For him, it might even be preferable. This way, Akiho can be saved and he (as the "villain" he thinks he is) can exit this story, this world, so that it could have the "happy ending" he envisioned.
Though I suspect he wouldn't request for an ending on such a massive scale either because again, he cannot risk anything that could change Akiho from who she is now.
He'd still want his efforts to remain, to keep everything that built up this story to stay (taking Akiho away from her clan, bringing her to Japan, letting her meet and befriend Sakura, enacting the magic of Momo's book to remove the artifact, etc) so that it preserves Akiho's foundations as her own person.
He would just want to blot himself out. So that only he is forgotten after this is all over.
Akiho can still have Momo, her friends, her memories of her parents, the life she's lived up till now. It's only Kaito who wouldn't be there like he originally was.
There may be blank spots left behind where he used to be but since not many people knew about him, he trusts the world can fill in those blanks on its own. Like history correcting itself by creating little "coincidences" or whatever to explain and make sure things make sense.
For Akiho, he knows he can at least entrust her into Sakura's care after he's gone. That might be another reason why he allowed them to form a close friendship in spite of the dangers it could've posed to Akiho (i.e. the artifact reacting to Sakura's magic and reaching closer to completion, thereby shutting Akiho's consciousness down).
It wasn't just for the sake of the synchro and creating the Exchange card he was waiting for. It was also because he needed a good person to be there for Akiho, someone who is capable of protecting her when he no longer could.
And for sure, he has confidence in Sakura because everybody knows Sakura will never abandon a person in need.
As long as the book is removed, the European magicians won't come after Akiho anymore. Sakura and co can take good care of Akiho because they are kind people. They will give her a safe place to stay, away from all the troubles of magic.
Including him, who believes his value lies only in his magic and was the source of this whole mess to begin with because of his affiliation with magic.
To make up for his "sin", for what he accidentally did to Akiho, Kaito is more than willing to step aside and vanish so that he doesn't get in the way of Akiho being happy.
However, he could not be more wrong because he still has absolutely no idea just how much Akiho loves him and therefore, how it's inevitably going to change her, to destroy her, if he erases himself from her life.
She is who she is because of him. If it weren't for Kaito making the choice to take her away from her clan, to save her from the doom of losing her soul, she never would've gotten this far. She never would've survived to become the Akiho she is now. Never to know what love is, to make friends and to realize that she's always had the choice in the matter of her own happiness.
Kaito taught her all that. He gave her that chance when no one else did.
He is the lynchpin of her existence. The reason why he's the most important person in her life.
She was able to become who she was because he was there for her, to support her and encourage her and to protect her and love her as she should've been loved.
Take him away and everything that they both worked so hard for will become undone. It doesn't matter how well taken care of she is by people like Sakura afterwards, they can never fill the hole he'd leave behind.
That void will always hurt her because she knows something, someone, is missing from where they should be.
Only he can fill that spot in her heart. No one else can.
He is the only person for her. He is the only person who knows best how to let Akiho stay Akiho.
And Akiho's greatest task in this story is to make him see that.
To make him realize that there is someone who will be deeply affected if they were to lose him and that's her. The one he cares most about and wants to save the most.
If he doesn't want Akiho to change into something she isn't...
If he doesn't want to see her worst off than she is now, a hollow husk who will grieve the loss of him forever...
If he truly wants her to be happy, then he has to listen to her. He has to believe her when she says "I love you. I will never be the same without you so don't leave me. Stay with me."
With that, I think I can picture the order of what might happen for Akiho and Kaito.
Akiho will be saved first with the removal of the book.
Then Kaito will be saved next through some other miracle means with Sakura's assistance.
But for sure, it is Akiho who will contribute the most to stopping him from dropping off the edge of no return. That loss will be hers to bear if she fails to so the one who has to put in the most effort to save Kaito will also be the person who loves him the most.
And she'll do that all without the need for magic. Just like she's always done to get by.
She just needs to be herself, to just be Akiho.
After all, Akiho is the true main character of "Alice in Clockland" whereas Sakura is the stand-in heroine for the sake of manifesting the magic Kaito needs.
The world of Clockland can bend to her will because she is the Queen.
Likewise, the story of Clockland can end however she wishes it to because she is in fact, the real Alice.
Kaito weaved this tale for her sake, for the real Alice.
Therefore, only she has the power to stop him. Only Akiho, the real Alice, is capable of turning him away from death and giving him reason to want to live.
Kaito wants the best and happiest ending for Akiho? Then don't go. Don't disappear.
He needs to understand the importance of his connection with Akiho. He needs to understand what it is that his most beloved reader truly wants in order to properly give her the most satisfactory "happy ending".
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