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YES, we have even more answers!! As Young Magazine suggested a few chapters ago, it really does feel like this arc is reaching its climax.

Continuing from the last chapter, Watanuki explains to the others that there’s a reason for the Zashiki Warashi-lookalike coming to the shop at the time she did. He recollects all his interactions with her, including telling him about the dream she had in which she was trapped inside a cage and that a “woman with dark long hair and with a butterfly kimono belt” was trying to kill her. Yet, Watanuki says that nothing of that sounded like a “wish”. So he asked her to stay the night.

I like that he emphasized that he doesn’t even know her name. I mean, yes? I’ve been calling her “Zashiki Warashi-lookalike”, the poor thing. And Watanuki says he didn’t want to know it, much like he didn’t want to know about what kind of relationship she had to Yuuko.

Mokona sugests that the girl is not a human being, to which Watanuki consents and makes the big reveal: she was created by Yuuko herself!

Last chapter I ended my review saying that we needed an empty vessel for Zashiki Warashi. And the girl is exactly that. It’s not the dragon as I originally suggested (it was just a crazy thought), but the girl. We all weren’t sure if the girl had a soul of her own but having been created by Yuuko, she might be just like Maru and Moro: soul-less.

So, indeed Watanuki wouldn’t be so cruel as to swap this poor girl’s soul, because she doesn’t have one to begin with.

Watanuki explains to the others that Yuuko foresaw this way ahead and prepared everything to make sure that the girl would arrive at the shop at that particular time. Ame Warashi reforces that the Witch of Dimensions’ power was really amazing <- this is important to still set apart Watanuki and Yuuko’s powers. As I’ve been reiterating, we are watching Watanuki’s powers grow, but he is still way behind Yuuko.

Come to think of it, remember when Watanuki and the others found in the shop a kimono that fit just right for the girl? This was Yuuko’s doing as well, leaving a kimono there in the shop ahead of time!

Watanuki then says he will grant both Yuuko and Zashiki Warashi’s wishes (!!): he will transfer Zashiki Warashi’s purified soul into that girl’s body, who will act as a “vessel”.

What happens next is something I think is a first in a CLAMP manga: Watanuki stops everyone’s souls, except Yatagarasu’s. At first, the Yatagarasu questions him if he stopped time, but he replies that he still doesn’t have the power to do that, but instead he stopped everyone’s soul. I’m guessing that he did so as a precautionary act for what’s about to happen, but that’s not explained. But did the others hear what Watanuki is about to do? I’m not sure if he stopped their soul before or after revealing that…

Maru and Moro don’t have souls, as we know, so they are fine, but Watanuki asked them to “keep an eye” on Seoritsu-hime so they are no longer in the same room as them anyway. I wonder if Seoritsu-hime’s soul stopped too? It seems unlikely to me that Watanuki could do that. Speaking of which, I suppose the power to stop people’s soul came thanks to the wish granted by Masaki. I suppose soul-controlling includes stopping one’s soul.

He didn’t stop Yatagarasu’s soul because it can see the future with its eyes so it knew what Watanuki would do. The chapter ends with the Yatagarasu quoting itself that it won’t share anything that is said or done in that room.

So, as I have been saying, we are witnessing Watanuki becoming a powerful wizard, and the fact that he realized what to do with all these “pieces” of the puzzle is part of it. Sure, he made some mistakes along the way, and I’m glad he did. That’s part of the process. Carrying on Yuuko’s legacy is not a trivial feat.

I like the resolution here. I can see this as being something Yuuko would do and the not-so-straightforward way she did it must also be something she intended so that Watanuki could figure out the puzzle by himself and grow from it. What a way to keep a dead character still present in the story!

The fact that the girl had dreams that she was trapped in a cage and the the “Witch of Dimensions” was trying to “kill” her, the way I am interpreting it is that it could be some sort of “survival instinct” acting on since she was created for the sole purpose of becoming a vessel to receive Zashiki Warashi’s soul. It could be her so-called “soul” (for lack of a better term) fearing for what would happen to her. Let’s see if they will touch on that in the coming chapters, but maybe this will be left for us to interpret how we see fit.

But since the beginning, I never thought Yuuko could be back. One thing we know in the CLAMP universe is that the dead shall remain dead. I’m glad we cleared that one up.

We scratched two mysteries off the list! (I added and already scratched the Yuuko one that I had forgotten to include)

What still remains to be seen:

-The amber stone
-What will happen to the Zashiki Warashi-lookalike?
-Why was Yuuko trying to kill the Zashiki Warashi-lookalike
-The crimson pearl — Ame Warashi wanted Watanuki to give it to her so she could save Zashiki Warashi (from turning into a “Shuka”), maybe Watanuki will use it?
-Did Doumeki use his ring? Was that scene also omitted?
-Seoritsu-hime’s Book.
-Watanuki’s price for his soul-controlling magic.

14 pages for this fifth chapter of volume 7. 76 pages so far for volume 7.

Chapter 82 will be out on September 14th.