Another Watanuki-centred episode. And a quite touching one as well. I love the theme they used for this episode. The case is like this: Yuuko is away on some mission, leaving Watanuki alone. He then runs into a strange woman, and the two become friends. Very soon, they find out about each other that Watanuki lost his parents while the woman lost her son. It’s easy to figure that both start caring for each other. Every time his school finishes, Watanuki meets up with the woman.
The great thing is that there’s something fishy about this woman. After a while, she starts to give Watanuki a strange cold-like illness. It starts with a few innocent coughs, though very soon he faints while in PE, and the episode ends with him, phoning Yuuko, coughing up blood and collapsing. It must be really hard to believe that someone you care about actually is making you horribly sick. Especially in Watanuki’s case. He’s finally found someone who can understand him, though now it seems that he’ll have to cut ties with her. That was the great thing about this episode.
Watanuki and Himawari also spent a lot of time together during this episode. Without Domeki, for once, as he’s busy preparing for an archery tournament. It’s quite interesting to see. Especially seeing that Watanuki’s silly behaviour greatly entertains Himawari. So far, this is the second two-episode arc in xxxHolic, and I’m wondering what else will happen in order to be able to cover for another episode like this. It’ll definitely be interesting.
my initial reaction when reading this part in the manga was speechless. as u said, how can someone u care about cd make u sick(also foreshadowing the recent chapters). But what i love about this eps is that Watanuki is a really, really nice person and he has a lot of people who care for him (Doumeki and Yuuko)Can’t wait for the next eps!! Oh, and i luv ur reviews!!