XxxHolic: Volume 2

by CLAMP, 190 pages

Yûko decides that Watanuki needs to see what a real fortune teller is like, so after crossing paths with a charlatan she takes him to see an old friend. The old woman sees more clearly into Watanuki's soul than he does himself and she and Yûko share some secret smiles while they talk about him. Annoyed but impressed, Watanuki shrugs it off and goes about his schoolday and working at the shop, always looking out for a chance to talk to Himawari-chan, the sweet girl he's crushing on. He finds he might have some unwanted competition in his classmate, archery club star Shizuka Dômeki, with whom he's always arguing, and tries to avoid him as much as possible. But when Yûko decides they all need to have a ghost "story" party at Dômeki's family's temple, Watanuki has good reason to worry he'll be seeing a lot more of Dômeki in the future, whether he likes it or not.

Hmm, Yûko always seems to know more than she says, that sneaky space-time witch. She and Mokona (the black counterpart to Tsubasa's white fluffy bunny dimension gate creature of the same name and personality) really like their booze. I want to see their next customer. And I want to see another glimpse of the bigger story beneath the story. Yûko does actually say the words, "I wish...." in this volume as she sees the Tsubasa kids off on their journey--nobody says anything about it, but was that a contract, too? If so, what is she going to make herself pay to fulfill it? Sneaky, sneaky, I tell ya.