Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE Manga Vol. 16

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SPOILER Summary:

When Mokona detects a feather under the building, Syaoran heads down and dives into the underground water source as Kamui observes a feather entering Sakura and thus removes the Tokyo Government Building’s barrier. Kamui and Syaoran end up fighting with Syaoran getting a beating under the waters. Kamui is one of the vampire twins that Syaoran’s mentor Seishirou was looking for. Kamui detects this in Syaoran’s thoughts and decides to kill Syaoran. Fai senses this and goes to help Syaoran, who has turned to “Dark Syaoran” and who gives Kamui a fight. Kamui senses that Syaoran is “game” (“prey”) and is amazed that a shell of a human has so much power. With Fai now in the water, Kamui asks if Fai is the owner of Syaoran, which he denies.

Meanwhile, Yuuko-san detects the seal breaking off the Syaoran at Fei Wong Reed’s place. We learn that the Syaoran fighting Kamui is in fact a clone and the real Syaoran has been in the capsule. Fei Wong had captured the real Syaoran to create a clone for the purpose of collecting Sakura’s feathers. However, before the clone was complete, Syaoran removed his right eye and inserted it into the clone, thus giving the clone part of his heart/soul. Fei Wong tried to remove the eye, but discovered that doing so would destroy the clone. In the end, Fei Wong decided to let it be. As long as it did its the job Fei Wong wanted, he didn’t care. After this, we see that Fei Wong has killed his female assistant, Xing Huo.

Back in Acid Tokyo, the real Syaoran is coming and the seal continues to come off Syaoran-clone’s eye. Fai wants Syaoran-clone to keep that soul and so uses his magic to do this. However, its no good and the eye complete comes out, looking like the yin-yang symbol. Syaoran attacks Fai and defeats him, while causing the water to float in huge chunks. As Kurogane arrives with the sleeping Sakura, he sees Syaoran-clone with the defeated Fai, eating one of his eyes for the power contained therein. Kurogane prevents Syaoran-clone from eating the other eye but takes damage for his trouble. However, now Syaoran-clone can use Fai’s magic.

The real Syaoran arrives and takes back his eye as Sakura’s soul, still encased in the center where the water once was, screams for her companions. The two Syaoran’s fight and Kurogane has Mokona get his sword, but as it comes out of the critter’s mouth, Syaoran-clone uses Fai’s magic to take the weapon. Syaoran talks to the clone, telling it why he gave the clone half his heart and if Syaoran-clone didn’t gain a heart of his own after his adventures with the others and went berserk, Syaoran would kill the clone. Thus, he attacks the clone after summoning a sword. Sakura begs for Syaoran-kun not to be killed and so Syaoran hesitates, which Syaoran-clone uses to stab him in the leg.

Syaoran-clone frees Sakura from the encasement and forces another feather there into her. Kamui is about to attack when Subaru, who’d been trapped, tells him not to. After sensing no other feathers, Syaoran-clone starts to leave, which Sakura begs him not to do. He briefly looks at her before leaving through the opening that Fei Wong gave him in order to continue his mission to find all her feathers. Subaru catches the unconscious Sakura and is joined by Kamui. Kurogane sees the symbol on Syaoran’s shirt and recognizes it as the mark of those who killed his mother. Yuuko-san, via Mokona, confirms this but tells Kurogane that Syaoran doesn’t know where his mother’s killer is. Fai, who’s critically wounded, is in dire straights and after being asked, Yuuko-san states there is a way to save him.

Thoughts/Review:

Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE Manga Vol. 16 was an amazing volume. CLAMP managed to turn everything about this manga upside down. All along, folks figured that the Syaoran with Fei Wong was an evil one, doing Fei Wong’s bidding. Indeed, even the writing monkey’s at Bee Train assumed this, as seen in the anime adaptation of the manga where their story went off on its own from the manga (and clearly before this story-arc…basically, everything after episode 42).

What interested me was how the real Syaoran is using a sword that looks like Syaoran’s sword from Cardcaptor Sakura. Indeed, his Raiteishourai lightning attack spell is what CCS Syaoran often used when aiding Sakura. I wonder if this is the Syaoran from CCS, only years later considering he’s a descendant of Clow Reed, which Syaoran from CCS was as well. ‘Twould be interesting, no?

Plus, this manga does explain a story from xxxHOLiC (the winged creatures stealing souls), which while William Flanagan figures this to be true, he wasn’t sure. It is true and in a future Tsubasa chapter, we’ll see the scene from the xxxHOLiC story.