♬∞ Punch♏︎Tsubasa ☉☯

[10]

Evil Wolverine wants to know your location

Also very like Kurogane to see ~something happening~ and immediately go to try fight it. Luckily Fai stopped him.

Oh! Oh are all the Sakura/Syaoran magic circles trying to restore worlds that have been destroyed?

No wait that makes no sense. The other way around isn’t it - protect them from being destroyed in the first place. 

It seems Evil Wolverine was doing a Time Compression but the parent Sakura and Syaoran are very firmly hitting the cancel button. 

Seems good to me! We love to see Evil Wolverine looking so frazzled. 

Well!

From context I’m going to assume these shards of glass are reforming together? Reconstructing a world? Or maybe even reconstructing boundaries between dimensions?

They’ll tell us next time for sure but Big Magic sure is happen either way. 

[9]

Back in the present [(Jam Jar Syaoran)(Lava Lamp's Dad Syaoran)(Daddyaoran)] mentions CHOOSING which future they want to happen, and him and [(Jam Jar Sakura)(Lava Lamp's Mother Sakura)(Sakura Sakura Sakura Sakura)] pull out their magic circles. 

OH actually that reminds me. Back when Lava Lamp was saved from the time compression I think I had wondered how his mother would have access to Cardcaptor Sakura’s Magic Circle (™) if she was not Cardcaptor Sakura. And this answers it! She had her wand for a while. Just like Cardcaptor Sakura's magic circle was Clow Reed's when using his wand.

That was… a much simpler explanation than expected. Maybe.

Also I visually really enjoy how the Sun in Sakura’s magic circle overlaps and almost perfectly aligns with the Sun in Syaoran’s magic circle. That’s a very fun touch. 

It looks like the power of everything happening threatens to blow them all away, buy [(Jam Jar Syaoran)(Lava Lamp's Dad Syaoran)(Daddyaoran)] and [(Jam Jar Sakura)(Lava Lamp's Mother Sakura)(Sakura Sakura Sakura Sakura) grab Lava Lamp and Super Sakura to keep them safe. Meanwhile Fai protects Kurogane AND grabs Mokona with perfect timing.

IT'S THAT INSTANT MOKONA SAVE THAT I LOVE TO SEE!

Uh… Meanwhile! This is happening!

Whatever this is!

Clamp Tsubasa SToRy CHRoNiCLE Official comic

recent doodles

[6]

Yuuko’s wishes are always impartial - she doesn’t get to pick and choose wishes she thinks will work out well. If someone pays the price, the wish is given to them no matter how it turns out. Fai hasn’t been reading xxxHolic so he doesn’t quite get that yet, but it’s ok, because now he gets to learn it in a soul crushing event instead. How fun!

Meanwhile we’ve seen that kind of ominous silhouette behind Fai before too. Let me see if I can fish it out of Piffle. 

I’m not super sure who it’s implying. My money would have been his twin if we hadn’t already seen what happened to them in the end. Perhaps I’m forgetting something. 

Either way Kurogane’s moving on with the plot and asking the question we were dying to know. 

WHY SHE IN THE JAR THOUGH?

Flowers and Smiles.

[3]

There’s a tiny time jump here, so we can infer that Syaoran actually told the entire story of everything he saw from start to finish. He didn’t jump to any conclusions (he very very very much didn’t jump to conclusions) because hey, magic book, who knows? It could be anything. He didn’t say “I think I saw your past”, he said “here is a detailed summary of everything” and let Kurogane confirm or deny what it was.

But Kurogane confirms his fear that it is, indeed, his past. And Syaoran is still feeling the pain from it.

But Kurogane isn’t. There’s no remorse or shock or anger that Syaoran saw any of that. Because he’s in a much better place now, and he knows absolutely that it was an accident and any undue emotions wouldn’t help the situation. I MEAN, ok so we’re talking about Kurogane, so undue emotional outbursts probably weren’t on the table in the first place, but his attitude to the whole thing is so very calm, and reassuring, and plain. Because as much as this is about Kurogane, it’s Syaoran who is suffering right now, and he wants to mitigate that as much as possible. Because Kurogane’s suffered these exact same events (but so much worse) and he doesn’t want that same suffering for Syaoran. We’ve already seen that in action. Even though it’s not quite the same, he doesn’t want Syaoran to have the same character development that he went through

But but but. But.

Syaoran is so anguished over the idea that memories are something private. Or, more specifically, memories belong to you, the owner of said memories, and that they should not be messed with or viewed without your permission. It helps that Kurogane’s memories were an intensely private part of him, but even that aside, you could make the same argument for any memory he might have seen.

Which, a) applies perfectly to this situation, because it was terrible, and it’s not something Kurogane was willing to go around telling people about

And b) strikes right into the core of Syaoran, because he doesn’t have memories like this. He has no childhood that he recalls. It’s an important issue for him.

But also c) it tangentally touches on Sakura’s situation, who’s memories were stolen from her without her permission, and has to build her personality back up from scratch

And maybe d) relates to Syaoran in ways he doesn’t even know yet.

Because there is the faint possibility that it’s not just his memories that don’t actually belong to him.

Because he doesn’t have any. All his memories are built from the ground up from the moment he met Sakura, and that might mean his identity and existence, also, don’t actually belong to him.

But I’m just wildly guessing at this point.

EITHER WAY. 

KUROGANE STRIKES RIGHT TO THE CORE OF THE ISSUE IN A SIMPLE SENTENCE GODDAMN

[4]

HERE WE GO HERE WE GO

THE DADS ARE GOING FOR IT! THEY'RE LEAPING RIGHT BACK AT EVIL WOLVERINE!

THE DESPERATION OF IT ALL

I DON’T THINK THEY EVEN THINK THEY CAN EVEN DO ANYTHING TO HIM THEY’RE JUST HOLDING HIM OFF WHILE THEY STILL CAN

AND LAVA LAMP THROWS IN EVERYTHING HE HAS AT GETTING TO SAKURA

Oh it's really getting to me now this is really it

AHHHHHHHHHHH HERE IT ALL GOES AHHHHHHHHHH

OH THEY GOT HIM! DIRECT HIT!

EVEN EVIL WOLVERINE WASN’T EXPECTING THAT!

THAT’S WHAT I LIKE TO SEE!

AND LAVA LAMP DID IT!

AHHHHHHHHH HE DID IT

HE DID THE THING THAT WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO DO SINCE PAGE 1 OF THIS MANGA

AHHHHHHHHHH

[3]

OH THAT IS SO ROUGH TO SEE

THEY CAME SO FAR AND STILL JUST CAN’T DO IT

HERE WE ARE AT THE END OF EVERYTHING AND WE JUST AREN’T ENOUGH TO TAKE ON EVIL WOLVERINE HIMSELF

THIS IS NOT QUITE THE RESULT WE WERE HOPING FOR

AT LEAST THEY'RE NOT DEAD?

OK!

OK ME TOO!

I DON'T KNOW WHAT MADE THEM YELL BUT YES I AGREE

OH BUT THEY’RE UP AGAIN.

That’s actually way better than I was expecting. 

Maybe they were yelling in urgency that his window is closing? It looks like the pocket dimension is completely breaking away to nothing and Lava Lamp is RIGHT THERE on the EDGE of being ripped apart by the universe but he’s GOING FOR IT ANYWAY

ALL OR NOTHING TIME THERE HE GOES

OH!

I had a thought while writing the tags and had to come back. This is Lava Lamp's Kurogane moment! At the end of Seresu! When the world was closing off Fai from the rest of reality and it was only Kurogane reaching for him that saved him!

Hang on I'm sure we can find a picture of that

YEAH HERE WE GO

THIS IS THAT MOMENT BUT FOR LAVA LAMP AND SAKURA

WILL WE BE 2/2 FOR DESPERATELY SAVING YOUR MOST IMPORTANT PERSON FROM A COLLAPSING DIMENSION BY THROWING YOUR HAND IN DESPERATELY AND TRYING TO PULL THEM OUT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE?

[4]

OH THAT’S SO SUPPORTIVE

GO LAVA LAMP FULFILL YOUR DREAMS! GRAB HER HAND!

YOU CAN STILL SAVE HER (?)

I’m not convinced that they’ll be able to save both Sakuras here but still let’s see how it goes!

Points for trying!

AHH THE HUSBANDS FACING EVIL WOLVERINE TOGETHER

We had this moment before already a few chapters ago BUT WE HAVE IT AGAIN SO I’M HAPPY ALL OVER AGAIN. AND THIS TIME WITH THE REAL DEAL.

THE PARALLEL STEP.

THE MOVING IN SYNC.

They are massively injured and things aren't looking amazing but they’re buying time for Lava Lamp to save his Sakura and they’re facing Evil Wolverine down IN PERSON instead of through a portal this time. 

Also Fai has his magic back now SO REMATCH?

KILL HIM??

MURDER TIME I BELIEVE IN THEM!

[3]

PLEASE RESUME HURLING ME OUT THE WINDOW THIS IS TOO MUCH

Fai tenderly letting his magic fall to his hand, not as if its his, but gently, as if holding the last remaining memento of Syaoran. Adding the -kun to his name to make their bond clear, despite everything that's happened

(And how, if he takes the magic back, this part of Syaoran will be gone - but then maybe, this part of Syaoran will always be with him too)

And Kurogane picking up his sword (in his remaining hand), as HIS final piece of Syaoran. The sword that they went shopping for together in Outo. The sword that he trained Syaoran how to use. The sword with his iconic flame on the hilt. 

AND HIM ASKING WHY HE COULDN’T HAVE USED HIS ENERGY TO STAY ALIVE INSTEAD OF APOLOGISING

BECAUSE THEN HE’D STILL BE HERE

Oh I'm BROKEN. Both of Syaoran's dads holding the piece of him that they shared one way or another. Kurogane taught Syaoran his swordplay, that central part of Kurogane's identity that means so much to him, and Fai's magic was used by Syaoran directly - the magic that has been THE defining feature of Fai's life, and this is the part of it that they BOTH used.

AND IT'S NOT ENOUGH. THEY DON'T WANT THESE THINGS BACK.

THEY'D RATHER HAVE THEIR SON.

[2]

We come back to LAVA LAMP CLUTCHING THE FEW REMAINING BROKEN SHARDS OF SYAORAN TO HIS CHEST 

FAI AND KUROGANE ONLY JUST GETTING THERE, FIGHTING THROUGH THE HOWLING WINDS AND THEIR MASSIVE INJURIES TO SEE THE DYING FRAGMENTS OF THEIR SON FALLING AWAY

AS LAVA LAMP HOLDS THE SHARDS OF GLASS TO HIS CHEST IN DESPERATION

And Fai’s stolen magic hanging in the air above them

:’D Tsubasa

Yup! It’s Tsubasa!

Yes this is absolutely the most painful way to expand on this moment, thank you Clamp