xxxHOLiC Manga Chapter 198

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Watanuki is stunned that this dirty, injured young woman can see him even though he is there in the dreaming state. He knows the Crimson Pearl is in this apartment and the dirty woman inquires if Watanuki is a friend of the person who’s apartment this is. She’s being allowed to stay there by this person, who apparently has caused her injuries and caused the mess in the apartment. Watanuki is upset by the girl’s injuries being caused by another but this causes him to wake up.

Watanuki ponders why the woman could see him and the connection to Jorô-Gumo when Maru and Moro enters, announcing a phone call. It is Himawari so he goes to take the call. They have a chat about her school, the cold, the gloves Watanuki made her, the new ones he’s going to make her, and how Watanuki is going to use Doumeki until he complains. Since Watanuki had mentioned sending the new gloves to Himawari via Doumeki, Himawari-chan asks if Watanuki could deliver them.

Thoughts/Review: Well now, well now. I have to put the good stuff to second and speak of the case.

This dirty young woman is rather strange. For starters, she can see Watanuki, who should be invisible. Second, she isn’t freaked by Watanuki appearing in the apartment. Finally, she apparently takes a beating from someone who lives at that apartment and she puts up with it. Very strange.

Watanuki did get to ponder it much, but this woman is obviously more than a mere human.

I did note with interest that Watanuki mentioned he would have suffered injury had he made a mistake. I wonder if that comes into play later on.

Now, for the good stuff.

Yay, Himawari-chan!

OK, so we didn’t get to see her but she did make a phone call. Maru’s and Moro’s reaction to this was odd. They were very subdued and looked very concerned as they told Watanuki that Himawari-chan was on the phone. I wonder why.

Their conversation didn’t give too much away but I did chuckle that Himawari-chan teased Watanuki about his relationship with Doumeki, which did actually did get a small reaction from Watanuki. He’s matured but he’s still Watanuki.

The most interesting part is Himawari-chan wanting Watanuki to deliver the gloves in person. Now, that in and of itself means nothing. However, it strongly suggests that she wants to see Watanuki and I like that (though I’m still a fan of Watanuki and Zashiki-Warashi being a couple for some reason).

Hopefully, we’ll get more information about Himawari-chan next chapter and the status of her relationship with Watanuki because that might help me better understand the relationship between Yuuko-san and Watanuki.