The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Before my morning of actually getting shite done, I’m going to talk about xXxholic Volume 10, which I read last night during break at work. I don’t know if anyone else who reads this blog likes xXxholic, but it will contain spoilers, so you probably should keep that in mind if you keep reading.

This volume was basically centered around the whole mystery of Himawari and what she is. There had always been hints of it, but back during the plot of the Spider’s curse, when Doumeki was searching for a way to save Watanuki’s eye in his shrine’s texts, and Himawari seems to release a bookworm that destroys the one book they need… since then, it’s hard not to wonder what she is. She’s obviously not a ghost, because Doumeki can see her for the entire series, but she’s definitely something supernatural. The supernatural really care about Watanuki, not to mention it’s been hinting that he has a destiny to play that entwines with the plot of Tsubasa pretty strongly… I had all kinds of theories about her being a spy for Fei Wong and so forth.
I didn’t end up getting anything like that, but what I got was completely fulfilling and engaging.
The first half of the book involves Watanuki helping out with getting well water that hasn’t touched any water from plumbing, which was located via a deal that Yuuko makes with a Neko-Musume. Yuuko needs a lot of big jars of this (who knows why, of course. One assumes for magical reasons, or for another deal she’s doing), so Watanuki and Doumeki go every day after school for a week or so to fetch more water. The main plot at this point is about a girl who stares at them as they get the water, but this ends up not to be the important part. On the last day, Watanuki and Himawari talk, and Himawari points out that Watanuki isn’t as energetic as before, and maybe he shouldn’t go and get the water today. Watanuki says he’s going anyway, of course… but then Himawari makes him pinky-swear that he’ll not over-exert himself. Seeing this happen hit me hard, because there had been entire story arcs before about the dangers of pinky-swearing and then breaking your promise. I envisioned Watanuki doing some sort of crazy chase or something to save someone in danger, and getting very fucked up, the moment I saw this…
What happens is a bit more subtle. They need to investigate inside the house to retrieve a cloth that Watanuki loses. Doumeki, who probably knows about the promise, tells Watanuki to stay outside, but he refuses, and a short adventure occurs. However, the moment he started drawing water, his pinky started hurting. We only learn this after the fact, though, when he relates the tale to Yuuko. She responds by pointing out that he lost the cloth right after his finger started to hurt.
The next scene is Watanuki using, by accident or on purpose, another of the dream balloons he bought from the dream vendor, and talking to Doumeki’s grandfather. He makes Watanuki confront the fact that Himawari seems to cause bad luck… Watanuki agrees that he now believes what Yuuko said, way back at the beginning… that there is no coincidences in this world: only Hitsuzen. Doumeki’s grandfather warns him to take his last dream balloon with him tomorrow. He does, but gives it to Kohane (during a nice meeting where he lists off a huge list of Yuuko’s faults… but ends with “I’m very glad I met her.”) on the way to school. This obviously worries Doumeki, who points out his grandfather didn’t tell him to give the balloon away… just to have it. Watanuki tries to tell him not to worry…

And then it happens. Himawari enters, has a conversation with Watanuki, gives him a gentle pat on the back… and Watanuki walks forward, stumbles and falls against a third story window, shattering it and falling three stories to the concrete below, covered in glass shards.

He’s saved by Yuuko’s intervention, as well as Doumeki’s grandfather, in a dream Yuuko conjures (one would assume that the dream balloon would have made a similar dream, if Watanuki had kept it)… this requires payment from three sources. Doumeki gives blood, as much blood as Watanuki lost… we see him bleeding outside of Watanuki’s room, trying to hold together. Himawari takes all of Watanuki’s scars from the accident… and the rest is paid by Syaoran… the real Syaoran. What he paid isn’t revealed… I suppose I should catch up on Tsubasa and maybe I’d know.
In any case, Himawari enters… Watanuki tells her that he’s realized she brings bad luck… and then, with the biggest smile on her face, she proceeds to tell him how she’s always been that way, and everyone besides her parents (and, apparently Doumeki, since his sacred bloodline protects him from most things like this… one would assume that blood transfusion might transfer that same protection to Watanuki, but it’s not revealed for sure yet.) that she gets close to gets killed, or has horrible accidents and bad luck. Just her expression during this whole speech and explanation is unsettling. She’s accepted this horrible thing she can do nothing about, and she refuses to let it break her, basically. It… it’s emotional but subtly. Then she says she was very happy to have spent time with him, and goes to leave his life forever…
To which Watanuki responds that he’ll be sure to cook up quite a meal for them once he gets better. Himawari says he’s a fool, and tells him he’ll probably die…
And then, bam, Watanuki says he doesn’t care, that meeting her was one of the best things to ever happen to him, and… BAM, that he loves her! Hit. Me. Hard. Granted, I have a lot of attachment to the characters, but man! That was quite the moment!

The volume ends with Yuuko telling Watanuki not to ask her to fix Himawari’s bad luck towards others, as the price would be all the happiness she would ever have. Watanuki show’s his character growth off by not immediately declaring to sacrifice everything to pay for Yuuko to do it… but instead to find ways to make Himawari happy despite her cursed nature… the final page has Yuuko telling Watanuki to rest, because he’ll need it… another bit of foreshadowing for the destiny that has been hinted at so many times before…

In any case, I don’t know if that walkthough of the plot was interesting, but this definitely fulfilled what I wanted out of chapters with such a foreshadowed reveal. Himawari’s condition wasn’t anything complex, but it was used the right way, and I loved every second of it.
Gods, I love xXxholic… I can’t wait until Volume 11…