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settana · 7 years ago

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My “ending” to xxxHOLiC

These are some random notes about a manga I planned drawing but dropped it due to RL issues. I just wanted:

- Watanuki to be happy

- Doumeki to use the egg

- Doumeki to stay by Watanuki’s side and not to let him die alone

I will leave the notes here as well as some pages I drew:

(1) More than 100 years have passed and Sayaka Doumeki (Shizuka’s great grandson) is the one visiting Watanuki. A child is running happily in a temple, feels eeriness, turns around and sees a gigantic spirit.

(2) Watanuki complains about Sayaka Doumeki oversleeping. Meanwhile, he receives a visit from an old man named Toshihiro-san. He asks Watanuki if his family is causing him trouble as he knows his family hates him and some even want him dead. He thanks the shop keeper for taking care of his dying father when no one in his family wanted to as he was a senile dying old man who couldn’t even go to the bathroom by himself and had no teeth. Therefore, Toshihiro-san thinks Watanuki had the right to claim the old man’s body and bury it in the shop. Watanuki agrees.

(3) Doumeki wakes up and finds a letter next to him. He rises from his bed and exits the room Watanuki assigned him at the shop. He is greeted by the old man Toshihiro-san. He answers back as he would greet Watanuki’s clients. Toshihiro kindly tells him that is no way to greet your grandfather. He also congratulates him about receiving an award for his university research. The award ceremony had been yesterday, and Toshihiro asks Watanuki about what it felt like to leave the shop to attend it. He claims he still isn’t used to this modern world.

(4) Mai, Sayaka’s half sister, comes running towards the shop, asking Watanuki for help. The children belonging to the Doumeki household are getting kidnapped and no one knows their whereabouts. Then, Mai tells Doumeki he is already late for work and that he forgot his watch, so she brought it with her. Doumeki has trouble putting on the high-tech watch and stares at it, then at her. Watanuki asks him if he drank too much last night, reprimanding him.

(5) Mai walks to the temple with Doumeki. She asks him if he made any move. He tells her they danced together at the award ceremony. Mai remembers the first time Sayaka met Watanuki, when he was 7 years old and arrived at the shop, looking for the shop keeper despite his family being against it as they believed Watanuki was using Shizuka Doumeki’s body to empower a Kuroukoyu. For some reason, their grandfather, Toshihiro, believed in the shop keeper and visited him often, befriending him and asking him for requests.

(6) As soon as Mai arrives to the temple, an old lady starts to scream in pain. Doumeki runs to help her, but she slaps him, telling him that she hates him as much as she hates her father. Mai is the one to help her and reprimands her because she was doing experiments with Haruka Doumeki’s writings. Mai calls her “Ai-grandma”.

(7) Doumeki returns to the shop the next day. Watanuki starts giving him the usual instructions but Doumeki fails at them. He doesn’t know where each item is, can’t use his watch as he doesn’t understand it and did not do the errands Watanuki asked him to do three days ago. He also asks where Maru and Moro where, to which Watanuki replies if he is making bad taste jokes as both are long gone and he shows him their tombstones.

(8) The old lady whom Doumeki tried to help, named Ai, visits Watanuki. He tells him that he hates him for taking his father’s body and that she wants the body back. She believes the Doumeki children are cursed because of him, and that him possessing the body of Shizuka Doumeki is what is keeping the curse alive. Watanuki tells him he will do anything on his power to help the Doumeki household but that he is unable to return the body and won’t give any further explanation of his choice. Ai starts breaking the items on the shop on an anger rush and tells him she will claim it by force. Doumeki returns from an errand and calmly watches Ai storm off.

(9) Watanuki stares at Doumeki, then grabs paper spells and launches them at him, using a magic circle. “You are still alive huh?” Watanuki tells him. “These spells were made by Shizuka Doumeki, those would kill anyone except its own heritage.” Doumeki asks him “Did you just try to kill me?” To which Watanuki replies “I have to take precautions”. He glares at him demanding answers. Doumeki tells him he is not feeling well. Watanuki prepares a room for him to rest and cooks for him.

(10) Watanuki and Mai talk about Doumeki’s weird (and anecdotical) behavior. Watanuki believes it could be related to the missing children phenomena and wants to solve it as quickly as possible. Mai wonders if it could be related to the Kuroukoyu. Watanuki explains what the Kuroukoyu is: a strong, maleficent force that bends space and time guided by the innermost desires of the person summoning it. Bending space and time will alter dimensions, hence, the destruction of many of them, deaths and rebirths will be altered, and the distortion would create a ripple in time. To summon that force, you need both pure radiant energy, malicious deathly energy, young souls, a powerful catalyst and someone with overwhelming magical power.

(11) Ai reminiscences about her past.

(12) Ai’s father, Shizuka Doumeki, had her when he was 32. During her childhood, he was never there, always going to some strange place and visiting some guy her mother called Kimihiro. She also witnessed her mother going out with another man in secret a few times. Toshihiro, the oldest, told Ai to have faith in her parents.

(13) Ai grows to be a teenager. She realizes her parents do not love each other, but do not hate each other as well. The strange man whom Kohane is seeing is coming home more often. She screams at her mother, telling her that she is cheating. Kohane smiles and tells her that Shizuka already knows that and that he is ok with it and that someday she will understand the position her parents are in. Ai starts crying saying that she doesn’t like this situation where her mother is seeing another man and his father is always away with that other guy. He accuses Shizuka of cheating her mother with that man, to which Kohane replies that they are friends and that both men need each other.

(14) Kohane gets stabbed by the man she was seeing. It turns out he was a guy with psychological problems which Kohane thought she could help and fell in love with. The man screams no no no, and hugs her, telling her that he is sorry. Ai and Toshihiro run towards their mother. They try calling their father but he isn’t answering since he was at the shop. Kohane is taken to a hospital but dies on the way there, in the ambulance. Shizuka Doumeki arrives at the moment Kohane’s body is being covered and at the time her death is being registered.

(15) Present time. Another child from the Doumeki household disappears. Watanuki notes that he can’t sense their souls, as they are being taken perhaps to summon the Kuroukoyu. He gets worried. He instructs Doumeki to kill him if anything happens and gives him another powerful ring which will make him able to shoot arrows that are able to pierce anyone, even if they have magical powers or pure energies. Doumeki is shocked to as why he would need such a thing. Watanuki confesses he is right now the only one with overwhelming magical power across dimensions and that he could be able to accidentally summon the Kuroukoyu if the circumstances were met as his desire to meet Yuuko grows stronger each day. He asks him about the catalyst, the pure energy and the malicious energy. He tells him the catalyst is a magical place, like the shop itself. The pure energy emanates from Shizuka Doumeki’s body, that his soul containing his energy is trapped in the shop. Doumeki asks why is that and Watanuki replies that he magically froze Shizuka Doumeki a second before his death, which technically makes him alive and radiating pure energy. He also tells him Haruka Doumeki stopped visiting him when he made the choice not to let Doumeki rest in peace. Doumeki is shocked and when he demands to know why he did it, Watanuki leaves, stating that he already knows too much and that he has the right to reserve things to himself as Sayaka is keeping a secret from him. He reminds him that on his 30th birthday, he gave Sayaka the chance to ask for a wish without Watanuki knowing what would it be about, in order to respect his privacy. It appears the wish was higher than what Watanuki anticipated, resulting not only in an unknown deal for Watanuki but Watanuki being severely hurt. He confesses he is curious to what that wish was, that took as a payment the whole time both Shizuka and Sayaka gave up to take care for Watanuki, an extra payment from the temple, an unknown extra payment Watanuki has no knowledge about and Watanuki being hurt to the point of agonizing. Doumeki opens his eyes wide. He looks shocked.

(16) One night, Ai appears at the shop ready to take her father’s body. She is accompanied by creatures from other dimensions. Watanuki recognizes them as mercenaries and knows where this is going.

(17) The creatures start attacking Watanuki with spells to make him slow down. There is a long fight for power, and Watanuki is restraining himself as he does not want to kill anyone. Doumeki arrives bringing an errand for Watanuki and upon watching the scene, goes to help Watanuki who is being tied down with multiple spells. He pledges Doumeki to not let Ai find the body. However, Ai manages to find it while Watanuki is busy fending off the creatures and sending them to their dimensions.

(18) Ai screams furiously. The body is alive and frozen with a spell but there is no soul inside it. A horrid voice speaks up “We had a deal, Ai” and proceeds to stab her. Doumeki rushes and uses the ring to summon an arrow that exorcises the dark mass that stabbed Ai and hugs her. Doumeki starts crying. “Ai.” he says. Ai says “… daddy?” Watanuki is shocked. He whispers “Doumeki… Shizuka.”

(19) Ai confesses she wanted to try summoning the Kuroukoyu herself to be able to reverse the past but dies before explaining what she wished for. Shizuka hugs her and tells her that her dad loves her, no matter what. Ai bleads to death.

(20) A short funeral is carried on by Watanuki and Shizuka. Watanuki decides this is not the right time to question him but is curious about what happened as well as where is Sayaka.

(21) Sayaka is dead, Shizuka tells him. He died after the graduation ceremony during his sleep. He is Shizuka Doumeki occupying Sayaka Doumeki’s body. Watanuki demands to know what happened but Doumeki remains silent, in deep thought with a troubled expression and demands to know what Sayaka’s wish was, which resulted in Watanuki getting hurt. Watanuki tells him he has no idea. Syaoran, Fay and Kurogane arrive at the shop.

(22) Sayaka’s memories about how he met Watanuki and dealt with his family hatred towards the shop keeper. More about the reason why most Doumekis hate Watanuki is explained in this part. Also, Syaoran and Watanuki talk about the hatred and Syaoran suggests Watanuki for him to go to the temple himself to apologize and return the body. Watanuki also tells Syaoran he has a request for him and gives him a powerful sword.

(23) Ai’s funeral is going to be carried at the Doumeki temple. Watanuki decides to assist and to give back Doumeki’s body. He remembers why he froze it: he just couldn’t accept Doumeki’s death. He had taken care of senile old Shizuka for years after the Doumeki household had kicked him off the temple. He was there on Shizuka’s death bed, holding his hand and telling him everything would be alright, even though that was mostly for his own reassurance as he could not imagine a world without his friend. So he had unconsciously stopped time, hence, freezing Shizuka before his last breath. After realizing that, he decided to keep it that way as he couldn’t let go. Sometimes he thought about giving Doumeki peace and freeing him but his own selfishness would not allow it. He also took notice that Ai, Shizuka’s youngest daughter, was doing witchcraft and could possibly use the pure energy emanating from his body to do harm to others, as energy can be transmuted into good or evil energy as long as it is powerful.

(24) Watanuki hears a short explanation from Shizuka Doumeki: His soul is occupying Sayaka’s body. According to the letter Sayaka wrote, which Shizuka found upon waking up in Sayaka’s body, Sayaka was going to be murdered so Watanuki would be left vulnerable (As a side note, and this isn’t what Shizuka tells Watanuki, his vulnerability lies in having no one to carry the egg item in case it is needed). We see a flashback: Sakura foresaw it in a dream. Yuuko foresaw it before her death and gave an item to Sakura to transfer soul portions from the same higher soul (the main soul mass to which Shizuka, Sayaka and every other Doumeki reincarnation belong). (Metaphysics). Sayaka’s soul was bound to be expelled from his body by a curse, killing him. To avoid that curse, a new portion of the higher soul belonging to Sayaka should occupy his body. But first, Sayaka would have to cease to exist. So Sayaka takes Watanuki to his award ceremony, asks him to dance with him but has not enough courage to take steps further as he would have liked to have his lasts moments with Watanuki. Even so, he is determined to keep Watanuki safe in spite of dying so he drinks the potion Sakura gave him, expelling his soul and letting another portion of the higher soul enter his body. Said portion results to be Shizuka’s soul who was trapped in his body due to Watanuki freezing him upon his death and that portion being the nearest in Earth to enter Sayaka’s body. The soul carries the memories as well.

(25) Watanuki decides to go ahead to the temple, without notifying Doumeki, who is busy talking and drinking with the Tsubasa crew. Toshihiro kindly greets Watanuki when he arrives and tells him he is sorry for his loss. The rest of the family is surprised to see him for the first time, as they have heard about him but had never seen him. He apologizes to the whole household and tells them that he has brought Shizuka’s body back with him. Using magic, he teletransports the body into the temple using magic. He also tells them he is sorry for Ai’s loss and since he decided bravely to assist the temple himself, the Doumeki household starts considering his apology.

(26) Watanuki sees a few kids running. He recognizes the children as the ones that had disappeared. He doesn’t get enough time to be confused as a great mass starts to wrap around him. Syaoran, Fay and Kurogane come running into the temple to help him. Doumeki also runs into the temple. Toshihiro looks surprised. He exclaims that he was supposed to be dead. Watanuki realizes Toshihiro was the one that would murder Sayaka.

(27) The children souls gather around Watanuki and evil entities as well as small devils appear on the temple. Kurogane, Fay and Syaoran battle the entities, while the other members of the household run for safety. Doumeki grabs his bow and arrow and starts shooting at the black mass with 100 eyes that is covering Watanuki from head to toe. Watanuki realizes the temple has become the catalyst, as it has strong magical power. The black energy that had manipulated Ai into trying to steal her father’s body is there, as the maleficient energy. Only pure energy was needed for the deadly formula to take place. Toshihiro is shocked. He explains that as a head priest it was his duty that there should be no distortions in this world and that he considered Watanuki a distortion which had to be eradicated from their dimension in order to secure the safety of the people. That granting wishes in exchange of asking for prices was a distortion as it took elements from many dimensions and they believed that playing across multiple dimensions could damage the current dimension, as well as summon the Kuroukoyu.

(28) Mai begs her grandfather to stop, Watanuki is a good person, she screams, but she is killed by one of the rampaging evil entities. Her soul is pure. Yuuko’s image appears in front of him and Watanuki tries to keep sane but a kaleidoscope of Yuuko’s image approach him, as well as the memories. He unconsciously releases magical energy and the Kuroukoyu is activated. Time starts to distort and the sculptures in the temple start to disintegrate as well as the whole scenario.

(29) Watanuki is no longer covered in a black mass. He is emanating both black and golden energy himself. Syaoran remembers Watanuki’s conversation with him which happened last night: Watanuki tells him he has become a menace now and that if he should ever accidentally summon the Kuroukoyu, to kill him with the special sword he is going to give him. He gives him the sword and makes him swear as the price for it. Syaoran states that he does not want to kill Kimihiro, but he states that it is necessary for the safety of the worlds.

(30) Syaoran runs towards Watanuki ready to kill him, screaming in the process and with tears in his eyes but his chest is pierced by an arrow and his whole body is pushed back towards a temple pillar due to the impact. Shizuka shot him using the ring Watanuki gave him. Fay and Kurogane are confused and Syaoran begs them to please kill Kimihiro before he destroys dimensions. Shizuka tells him he will not allow it and would rather see the world disintegrate than allow Watanuki’s death as he is loyal to him, not to the world. The world gave Watanuki to him. We see glimpses of Doumeki’s past, his father, the relationship with his family and the reasons why he spent so much at Watanuki’s shop (Note that even in the manga he wasn’t planning on going home, there are hints tha he doesn’t get along with his family and has no other friends). (Also, note that because of that reason his energy isn’t pure and that even Ai managed to get the body with the soul, the Kuroukoyu would not work.)

(31) Watanuki enters a trippy world where he remembers Yuuko and his past. He wants to stay there but his conscious part screams back at him to stop everything. He also manages to scream “Doumeki… kill… me… please…”

(32) Syaoran is bleeding profusely and the entities are killing more members of the Doumeki household. Fay tells Syaoran and Kurogane that the malicious energy that wants to achieve the Kuroukoyu is emanating from Watanuki’s own heart and had been maturing in this dimension. He used Ai, Shizuka’s daughter, to grow but had always been subconsciously controlled by Watanuki himself, as when someone’s energy grows overwhelmingly as did Watanuki’s, both their good side and dark side are magnified, and his darkness and obsession with Yuuko is what created the presence of an outside maleficient energy which attached itself to Ai in order to capture Doumeki Shizuka and avoid him from reincarnating back into Sayaka’s body but it failed, as Watanuki had no idea that it would happen. Fay notes that the souls of the children were taken by the maleficient energy itself but their bodies were maintained intact, as only their bodyless souls were needed. Toshihiro’s intentions were to stop the existence of said maleficient energy, moved by his duty as a priest but also harboring hate towards Watanuki. They look around and see Toshihiro dead, due to the demons rampaging around.

(33) Watanuki starts bleeding and Fay tells Doumeki that Watanuki is resisting against it and if he manages to fully resist it, he will die. Shizuka looks at the egg and realizes now it’s the time. Doumeki uses the shapeshifting ring Watanuki gave him but instead of launching an arrow, he throws the egg.

(34) Watanuki’s memories of Yuuko start disappearing. Mirrors start breaking and black butterflies are torn apart. Watanuki sees the following memories: He entering the shop but no one was on the sofa, and a client appeared and requested for help. It turns out in his memories he was the one accidentally helping the clients. In the case of the girl with the bad habit, he finds a ring lying around and decides to give it to her, without knowing why he is doing so. He hears a voice in his head, a female one, telling him ‘there are no coincidences, only the inevitable’.

(35) Watanuki faints and dreams with Haruka. Long time no see indeed. Haruka smiles and tells him even though he was angry at him for freezing his grandson’s death, doing so allowed Shizuka’s soul to be the one to enter Sayaka’s body and Shizuka would never let him die, even if that meant the end of the world. Watanuki wants to cry just from knowing that. He states that there are no coincidences, just the inevitable and tries to remember where he heard that from. Haruka exhales smoke and tells him that who knows. Haruka also reveals Sayaka’s wish: for him to stop aging until the day Watanuki dies. The additional payment was that Sayaka’s body would have to go from time to time to other dimensions and that if he died, he would no longer reincarnate.

(36) Watanuki wakes up. He sees Shizuka, Fay, Kurogane. Syaoran lies next to him, his wounds covered. They talk about what happened and ask Watanuki what he remembers that happened from the first day he entered the shop until now. All of his memories have been modified as Yuuko does not appear on them and he remembers staying in the shop due to been trapped with Syaoran as the payment he had to give in order to leave.

(37) Shizuka had always wanted to be a doctor (stated in the original manga) so he decides to train himself in other dimensions traveling with the Tsubasa crew. As they are about to part ways from Watanuki, he goes closer to him and gives him a soft peck on his lips. Then returns to the magical circle and goes to other dimensions, leaving Watanuki shocked.

(38) Time has passed by. Watanuki decides to convert the shop into a travelers’ safe spot where travelers from all over the world and dimensions can rest and eat delicious food, as well as receive medical care by Doumeki. Watanuki is in charge of the hospitality. The payment are items from multiple dimensions that serve as a purpose of giving them to those who might need it, similar to what the shop did. The Tsubasa crew join Watanuki and Doumeki for a new years’ celebration, as well as princess Sakura and princess Tomoyo. Everyone is celebrating happy new years eve with delicious food cooked by Watanuki himself. Watanuki still smokes the kiseru but does not remember why he does it.

(39) Two girls arise from the travelers’ stop. They are the equivalent to what Maru and Moro were, except they were created from Watanuki’s and Doumeki’s bonds, which were also what created the travelers’ stop.

(40) Watanuki tells Shizuka/Sayaka “Guess we’re stuck together forever huh?” to which Shizuka smiles and they kiss while no one is looking while everyone is cheering with their drinks. (Ending theme: 大晦日の宇宙船 by Suga Shikao, available on Spotify)

Those are some quick notes, I was planning on analyzing characters backstories, twists and some more but now I don’t think I will have time to draw everything so I’ll just leave this here. (Also Toshihiro has Kohane’s eyes and mole).

Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Here is a deleted page. I decided after drawing the manga panels that Shizuka would find Sayaka’s letter by his side instead of Mokona giving it to him. Also, Mokona isn’t seen after the timeskip.