xxxHOLiC 185 translation

[starlady]

!!! page 01
Watanuki: ...Doumeki.

Doumeki: What?
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!!! page 02-03
Watanuki: ...I will succeed to this shop.
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!!! page 04
Watanuki: Yuuko-san said that she would grant my first wish,

But I won't get rid of the power to see spirits.

With this power,

And with this shop, I can grant the wishes of different people and of things that aren't people,
And protect this shop.

I'll keep it for a long, long time.
----------------------
!!! page 05
Watanuki: Until I can meet Yuuko-san again.
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!!! page 06
Doumeki: You'll do the store while you're attending school?

Watanuki: I won't go.
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!!! page 07
Watanuki: That's not it.

I can't go.

I can't leave this store any more.

Doumeki: ...What do you mean?
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!!! page 08
Watanuki: That

Is the price.
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!!! page 09
Watanuki: Because I've decided to hold it
Forever,

I've decided to pay the "time" within me as the price. [TN: "Time" written "moments."]

I can't leave the store any more.

I won't age any more.

Doumeki: Does that mean you won't die?
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!!! page 10
Watanuki: There's no living thing that doesn't die.

No matter how much we wish, people die.
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!!! page 11
Watanuki: So
I too will die.
Someday, absolutely.

But
Until then
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!!! page 12
Watanuki: Until I can meet Yuuko-san,

For a long,
Long time,

I will be in charge of this shop.
----------------------
!!! page 13
FX: Rustle

Doumeki: So this

Is his
...Choice, huh?
----------------------
!!! page 14
Doumeki: So therefore this, only once--
No, that there will be no more than one necessity to use it.

Certainly...

I can't use it on him.
----------------------
!!! page 15
FX: Soft clink

FX: Inhalation

FX: Cough cough cough

Cough...
----------------------
!!! page 16
FX: Inhaling

---

It's actually downright freaky how much Watanuki looks like Clow. Also, how perfect a touch is it that he coughs the first time? Can you still get lung cancer if you're not aging? Watanuki, futoukou! Sort of.

Comments

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about the thanks--I both appreciate them and feel weird about accepting them, which is why I tend not to reply specifically to thanks-only comments. Thanks, Japan, for giving me this strange hangup (for the same reason I'm also bad at saying "You're welcome." I'm way more likely to say "No prob" or "Don't mention it" or the equivalent).

A good deal of the series was spent on his creating relationships with other beings and realizing how much he meant to others, and he clearly isn't honoring that right now.

I agree completely, and was too lazy to write out my personal equivalent of what you said before. I don't think Yuuko anticipated Watanuki's strong personal affection for her (aw, Yuuko!). I hope that Doumeki, Mr. Voice of Reason, is able to find some sort of solution with the egg--I think that Watanuki's basic idea isn't bad, but the impression given of his execution of it raises a lot of red flags.

I personally believe that he was meant to look like a combination of Clow and Yuuko (his eyes and build are very similar to Yuuko's, after all).

I would buy this, though I was thinking today that technically Watanuki was brought into being to fulfill the roles Jr. wouldn't due to being absent--so what was Jr. originally supposed to do? Be friends with Doumeki and Himawari? I suppose, since Yuuko is the source of the anomaly, it's not really possible to know objectively, but it's still an interesting thing to wonder about.

I think in any case Watanuki accepting death puts him several legs up on FWR.

[(Anonymous)]

Your comment about his attachment made me realize, she's been putting on an act in front of all the holic and tsubasa regulars that masks personal concern with caprice and selfishness. Though Kurogane appears to be the only person who actually bought the act.

I'm guessing that was a combination of guilt and feeling it was necessary to leave less of a mark when she eventually left...which makes her and Watanuki pretty much the same. Darn Yuuko and her double standards.

I'm not sure about him being meant to meet Himawari. He was attracted to her solely on a subconscious death wish. If it had been Syaoran, he most likely would have let her avoid him like she did everyone, and without Watanuki she would never have known Doumeki was a safe zone. She would have spent her life alone without the anomaly that created Watanuki.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly re: Yuuko's act. She did have limits to her powers, but she stretched them pretty far for all our heroes, and I would definitely agree that it was at least partly guilt, since it was out of love (or some kind of attachment) for her that FWR twisted everything out of shape.

That's a good point about Himawari. I still find it a bit weird to contemplate Jr. being best buddies with Doumeki, though.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, Doumeki didn't necessarily *have* to befriend Syaoran, either. Himawari just has issues that meant he almost definitely wouldn't have.