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THINGS SURE DO HAPPEN. THEY SURE DO KEEP HAPPENING. 

Anyway that’s the LAST chapter of xxxHolic we need to read before we head into the Tsubas Epilogue, so we’ll do that next! Only one chapter left before that whole journey is over. 

But thank you for reading along with me, and thank you extra to my supporters on Patreon! If any Patrons missed it I posted an extra Thank You post over there too, since we’re so close to the end, but either way we have:

First Tier of Patrons

Lycoris

Cwizumi

limitless_paper

MokoCharm

Qatari Pekarsky

Corinne Burr

CloudMenaceBird

Shynerdycactus

Stupid Kitsune

Luke Wilson

Riri

Fer E

Second Tier of Patrons

Until next time ONLY ONE TSUBASA CHAPTER LEFT!

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[8]

The break up vibe continues, with Watanuki still seemingly not realising how this sounds to Doumeki. 

Unless he MEANS for it to sound like it’s a path that Doumeki can’t follow him down. Which is possible! Watanuki IS constantly underestimating just how much Doukeki cares for him.

OH IS IT EGG? IS THE EGG ACTUALLY CONNECTED TO THIS AFTER ALL????

INTERESTING! 

Impressive, Doumeki, that means absolutely nothing to me right now. Please continue. 

(also are those the water bottles they used to fill the Acid Tokyo reservoir on the shelf behind him?)

OH WE DIDN’T GET ANY MORE

It DOES seem like the egg is related to this turn of events though - whether it will be needed to free Watanuki or do something for Doumeki himself. Either way Watanuki CAN’T use it, which is interesting, and only Doumeki can make the decision. 

It feels like we’re getting closer and closer to the actual Egg moment and I’m so excited to see what it will actually mean. 

In the meantime it looks like Watanuki has decided to become a living metaphor and has decided to start using Yuuko’s pipe. 

Which like, will make him cough at first since he’s not used to it - aka, the transition into taking Yuuko’s place the way he’s doing it is Painful because he’s forcing himself to keep her memory alive in a costly way, rather than naturally doing things his own way instead. 

But he’ll get used to the pipe in time, symbolising that he’s dedicated himself to the decision to be the Living Memory of Yuuko Ichihara instead of a natural Watanuki. 

YEAH HERE WE GO THE METAPHOR CONTINUES AS DESCRIBED

I also really like the unmoving image of the butterfly on the box - both because it’s “trapped in time” like Yuuko was, and also because now it’s just a flat image without any of the magic. It is just a static memory that can no longer change.

The SMOKE CURLING OFF INTO THE NIGHT ALMOST REACHING THE REAL BUTTERFLY BUT NOT QUITE GETTING THERE

I’M SCREAMING

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[7]

WATANUKI THAT’S ILLEGAL

(I actually don’t know how old Watanuki is maybe that’s entirely fine)

OH INTERESTING. 

Is this his price for seeing Yuuko again? Or his price for escaping the void?

Either way the implications of this are incredibly wild considering how much story is still left, during which Watanuki apparently can just never go outside again. 

Also VERY fun that the cloak takes on the appearance of Yuuko’s wings again HERE when they were absent before. Are they really there or is this a metaphor? Are they spiritually present but aren’t always visible? Or is this the underlying appearance of the price Watanuki is binding himself to? 

Extra fun that what used to be butterfly wings (symbolising growth and freedom) have now become a kind of net Watanuki is using to trap himself. Like he’s taking a gift and intentionally cursing himself with it instead. 

OH THE IMPLICATIONS GET EVEN WILDER. 

Watanuki is willingly giving ALL his time for this trade, meaning he won’t age either. 

But in doing so he’s kind of forgotten (or is ok with) the implications this will have on everyone around him. He had JUST decided to continue existing because he has people who love him, but now he’s trading away huge parcels of that existence for someone who is already gone. He can’t go out and visit Himawari or Kohane ever again, they’d have to come here to see him - and even then they will continue to age, but he won’t. Their lives will outstrip his and at some point they’ll have entire lives without him, and he’ll just be here as an unaging teen.

AND WHAT ABOUT DOUMEKI? 

Even if Watanuki condemned himself to this life, does he think Doumeki will go off and live without him? Does he know that Doumeki will probably still live here with him? Or does Watanuki not aging also affect Doumeki, since they’re so closely tied? 

(And does the egg do anything for this? Would the egg take Watanuki’s place, or could Doumeki trade the egg so he could stay unaging with Watanuki? I just don’t know!)

Either way WILD

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[6]

(ah the technical difficulty pages begin)

OK SO 

Immediately I’m not even sure what the point of Yuuko granting his wish was if it didn’t actually happen. 

Like she apparently had enough time to siphon all her magic around to decide who gets to remember her and who doesn’t, and to pay the price for Sakura's reincarnation, and how the store will sustain itself, and what will happen to Maru/Moro/Mokona - but the wish she actually granted on screen didn’t work?

I have to imagine this will be explained later because otherwise it’s a little baffling. 

I wonder if Watanuki internally CHOSE not to let the wish be granted, so that a little bit of Yuuko’s essence would be preserved instead? I would like that!

Even if, you know, the plot is kind of building itself around the idea that Watanuki is waiting around for the return of someone who really REALLY can’t ever come back. Like, all of Tsubasa is the exact reasoning why that can’t actually happen. 

(Unless Watanuki becomes Evil Wolverine? WILD IF TRUE MY GOODNESS)

(Or unless Watanuki kind of just keeps running the store indefinitely? And then finally sees Yuuko again once he dies? That would be the nicer version!)

(Or unless Evil Wolverine really did manage to pluck another Yuuko out of the multiverse and SHE shows up here eventually instead? Sounds confusing but not impossible!)

Either way we have options!

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[5]

WELL. That sure would be nice!

We don’t know what prices Watanuki and Lava Lamp picked to escape the void, but at the very least Lava Lamp seemed to think it would actually make people quite upset. 

But maybe Mokona means the collective “everybody”, as in all of existence? As in, them making these choices leads everyone collectively into the good future where the universe still exists? That would check out to me. 

(Even if it means that Sakura and Syaoran have JUST suddenly unraveled from existence and completely died all over again)

(Which I am also choosing not to think about)

VOID ESCAPED!

Also, reading just the xxxHolic side of things COMPLETELY skips over the Trapped in the Void bit, and all the sad deaths and panic and wishes made there. From this side it genuinely looks like they just dropped in to drop off his glasses and nothing else happened. Once again it must have been WILD only reading one of these manga without the other.

I mean this was already implied but we’ll let him have his moment!

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[4]

ARE YOU KIDDING MOKONA ACTUALLY EXPLAINED HOW TO USE THE EGG?

MOKONA REALLY IS JUST EXPLAINING LITERALLY EVERYTHING NOW?

OH MY GOODNESS I can’t even be mad that we didn’t get to hear the details, I’m just glad Doumeki has the instructions. 

OH YUP CONTINUING TO BREAK MY HEART THAT’S FINE THAT’S FINE THAT’S FINE

It’s super nice and convenientthat Mokona continued to explain the entire Egg process while Watanuki was sadly walking through the empty house but OOP DON’T LOOK NOW IT’S TSUBASA TIME

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[3]

CONFIRMED Mokona is completely ok. Even if it is wildly heartbreaking to see Mokona sitting next to Yuuko’s still smoking pipe, next to a butterfly branded on the little box, quietly staring up at the night sky. 

Wow! My heart continues to break.

AND EGG TIME HASN’T EVEN HAPPENED YET.

EGG TIME STILL AS ELUSIVE AND UNEXPLAINED AS EVER. 

JUST WHAT WILL EGG DO? LITERALLY NO-ONE KNOWS.

OOH and this is explained too! Wow Mokona has the answers to pretty much all of my questions tonight. 

A rare win for randomly occurring questions!

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[2]

OOP! People arriving? This is the same way Fai and Kurogane appeared way back on their first visit, so it’s nice to see it still works that way.

OH MARU AND MORO ARE STILL ALIVE? 

I kind of thought they would just permanently retreat into Disembodied Spell form and just never appear again, but I’m thrilled to be wrong! 

(Also curious about how they still exist when Yuuko doesn’t, since the universe has recently asserted that artificial people stop existing once their creator has died - Even if I hate that rule and am happy pretend it doesn’t exist. Do you think they function more like living spells than artificial people? Like how the Clow Cards could still exist without Clow Reed, once they had a new power source? It's Yuuko so anything is possible)

… well that works too I suppose!

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[1]

There were some technical difficulties behind the scenes for retrieving the files for this chapter so apologies for whenever that kicks in. But either way here we are with xxxHolic chapter 93 (ish)!

We open directly after the disappearance (read: very slow death) of Yuuko in the previous chapter with Watanuki in heartbreak city. (which, ME TOO)

On the plus side! Doumeki found Watanuki and has been looking after him while he was unconscious. 

On the down side! Yuuko is super dead and I will never recover.

At the very least Doumeki still remembers she existed at all so that’s a bonus!

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My work will never make me forget my queens 🫶

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yup, still love oz

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the moment she confesses her love she turns into a speck of light and vanishes

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[4 - redux]

Huge thank you to @five-p-m for hunting down alternate translations of this scene and putting them in the comments! I've edited this translation into the places that make the most sense to me (since Kodansha also had text in the wrong speech bubbles) and here we go! An actually readable version of these pages.

Some big changes include:

Lava Lamp and Watanuki actually feel like they’re talking to each other

It’s now clear they AREN’T planning on trading in Evil Wolverine’s curse

We can tell that Watanuki and Lava Lamp are going to help decipher appropriate prices for each other, to help arrive at the correct balance

And most importantly, they don’t just loudly announce “THE PRICE!” in the final panel, like Kodansha said. Here it’s much much clearer that their sentence trails off and they decide their prices off screen. When we return to them on the next page, they are opening their eyes again, having said their price where we can’t see. (see the Kodansha page below)

THIS ALL MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE.

Gosh, the difference a fluid translation makes? Incomparable. I actually understand the chapter now.

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hi! i cant believe you are really almost at the end of Tsubasa omg !! i fear the translation on the last chapter didnt really convey that indeed the price they are paying is to scape & watanuki basically says that it isnt possible for a person to judge the fairness of their own price but since he and syaoran are "the same but not the same", maybe they can be judges to eachother (and then the wording on the prices is vague bc hey, its clamp)

Thank you very much! It is quite a relief to hear that the translation really IS unclear and it's not just me. This scene makes a lot more sense the more I hear about other translations of it.

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[10]

WHAT A MOOD

I feel like this page is a pretty good summary of what it feels like to get to the end of Tsubasa.

Listen

Kurogane is actually hilarious. 

Timing? Could use some work! But yeah Fai is right I think we all need some rest Jfc

YEAH. 

YEAH OK.

Time to cry forever: got it!

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[9]

SURE! This might as well happen!

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[8]

SO JUST TO RECAP FOR MY OWN BENEFIT:

I don’t know what Lava Lamp and Watanuki were paying for

I don’t know for sure what they paid with - but it was probably the curse that Evil Wolverine laid on them somehow

(Not sure exactly what the curse DID, unless it trapped them in the void?)

(Unless they were in the void for other unexplained universe reasons)

Watanuki is probably correct that the price doesn't match the cost of their escape, but it worked!

This may or may not have consequences later (I mean PROBABLY YES right?)

Lava Lamp still has the mysterious unmarked feather that Was Actually Syaoran

AND HE ABSORBED IT THE SAME WAY SAKURA ABSORBS HERS

And - wait actually on that note

Sakura herself turned into a feather also, but a regular Sakura looking feather - even though those feathers were from her

But now THAT feather is absorbed by NOT!SAKURA

Which I also have questions about!

I suppose this could imply her soul was also split at some point, BUT I think it might also just be that her uh… that whole thing with her new body, which was a deliberate combination of a few things but was intended to inherit the ability to absorb feathers. 

So, even though the feather isn’t HER soul/memory fragment, she can still absorb it - and since she’s ALMOST the Sakura it came from (ie, she is the original person, and Sakura was the manmade clone made from the natural clone made from Not!Sakura, AND Not!Sakura has seen her entire life), it seems to work the same. 

So I kind of get the Not!Sakura side of things at least!

Though this does raise the slight question of: When Sakura (the clone) lost all her memories, did Not!Sakura lose those memories too, since she was watching the whole time? Or does she exist with full memory of Sakura's entire life (and rebirth) from start to finish? And if she does remember it all, would the feather even RESTORE any memory to her, or does it just give her more power?

Either way, Not!Sakura mostly makes sense!

No clue about Lava Lamp at all.