#vol 232

[2]

I am emotional over the fact that this is the LAST image in my folder for the Splash Pages. We've seen them all! But here we go, final one:

Chapitre 232 - The World of Beginnings

If I’m reading the splash text the right way around it says:

From now on we’ll always be together.

Everyone’s support gave us courage.

IN WHICH ;_; THANKS CLAMP. 

Lovely to see the whole family alive and sitting happily together - just like they never got to do! I am very normal about this.

What a wonderful way to break my heart all over again. 

But I adore that they’re all here - including Mokona! They’ll all happy and smiling at the camera in their co-ordinated outfits. It’s nice that the Sakuras are on one side with Fai while Kurogane is on the other with the Syaorans (ie, cats on one page, dogs on the other). (And Mokona is Mokona so she goes wherever she wants)

It’s also nice that Fai and Kurogane are looking more to the side than straight ahead - because that makes them echo each other, even if they’re not side by side, and gives the slight impression that they're looking toward their family instead of the specific future, since that's their more direct priority.

Also if I had to guess I would say the tree is a callback to the dead withered tree we had a few chapters ago. Let's see - uh, Chapitre 43, which is more than a few chapters I suppose, but also Chapire 192 as well. If the tree was dead before because the future was broken, now the future is bright and beautiful and thriving - and full of sakura blossoms! This little family has saved the universe. 

[10]

WHAT A MOOD

I feel like this page is a pretty good summary of what it feels like to get to the end of Tsubasa.

Listen

Kurogane is actually hilarious. 

Timing? Could use some work! But yeah Fai is right I think we all need some rest Jfc

YEAH. 

YEAH OK.

[4 - redux]

Huge thank you to @five-p-m for hunting down alternate translations of this scene and putting them in the comments! I've edited this translation into the places that make the most sense to me (since Kodansha also had text in the wrong speech bubbles) and here we go! An actually readable version of these pages.

Some big changes include:

Lava Lamp and Watanuki actually feel like they’re talking to each other

It’s now clear they AREN’T planning on trading in Evil Wolverine’s curse

We can tell that Watanuki and Lava Lamp are going to help decipher appropriate prices for each other, to help arrive at the correct balance

And most importantly, they don’t just loudly announce “THE PRICE!” in the final panel, like Kodansha said. Here it’s much much clearer that their sentence trails off and they decide their prices off screen. When we return to them on the next page, they are opening their eyes again, having said their price where we can’t see. (see the Kodansha page below)

THIS ALL MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE.

[1]

It is ALL your precious memories! Ie, Everything is a feather!

Maybe the real feathers were the friends we made along the way. 

[7]

Not!Sakura continues to be the most relatable outlet of the emotion of it all here

Just heartwrenching grief to the point she can't even stand straight

Even though SHE knew this was going to happen ahead of time she is still just AN ENDLESS FLOW OF TEARS AND IN COMPLETE SHAMBLES over it actually happening

WHICH IS THE CLAMP EXPERIENCE FOR SURE

Is-IS LAVA LAMP HOLDING THE FEATHER STILL?

OH In the sadness of it all I missed that he was holding it in the previous page too

SO I GUESS IT WASN'T THE PRICE AFTER ALL?

THEY REALLY DID USE EVIL WOLVERINE'S CURSE AS THE PRICE TO ESCAPE THE UNEXPLAINED VOID?

WHY WAS THE FEATHER GLOWING THEN DOES IT JUST DO THAT

DOES THIS FEATHER GIVE THEM THE POWER TO PAY WHATEVER THEY LIKE FOR WISHES? Because that would actually explain a lot, actually. Even if I don't think it really is that it would be really funny, like a Curse-To-Wish-Price-Converter

I kind of want it

?????????????

[5]

So it is the feather then?

Though Watanuki is still disagreeing over the value of it, so maybe it's the curse?

...Is the the feather also the curse? I MEAN MAYBE

I'm increasingly suspicious that we won't find out all the consequences of this until the sequel. If we were looking for another "there is something that needs to be fixed in the universe" event, this certainly fits the description - a price paid incorrectly out of desperation.

But still! At least they’re on the same wavelength. 

... and xxxholic has a sequel too. HMM. Thoughts for later.

But all that aside, what we get here is them both solemnly explaining their thoughts and decision to - the universe, I guess? In which we can intuit that Lava Lamp is continuing to pay for THE THING HE ALREADY PAID FOR, because what other “sins” has he even committed aside from being heckled into doing a time travel by Evil Wolverine? How are all the prices they've paid not covered that - unless the universe is somehow charging them for the results of their decisions instead of just their decisions? Which doesn't sound very hitsuzen to me, so I'm not sure that would be it.

Whatever they're actually paying for Watanuki still doesn’t think the price is even correct and says as much, but I think the fact that they’re both CHOOSING to pay this price willingly despite the consequences is hopefully the thing that will get them out. 

Now if only that receipt ghost could clarify what exactly the transaction is. 

OH BUT IT WORKED. 

Oh gosh, ok, sorry Syaoran it looks like your feather remains may or may not be the price the universe is taking for your children to escape the void which they are being held in for unexplained and implausible reasons. 

But at least it worked?

Oh THIS I love though! 

10/10 Watanuki Lava Lamp bonding moment now that they both get to continue to live. 

[4]

This is one of those pages where I agree absolutely with (a) the actual conversation that is happening, and (b) the emotion being conveyed, however, (c ) the context…

The context drives me wild. 

Like. On hearing he has to pay a price STILL, Lava Lamp is despairing over the fact that the only thing they have to give is the Mysterious feather that was Syaraon (their dad) but Watanuki cautions a bit of temperance since they can’t pay too much without causing devastation to themselves in some way. And I LOVE the way he phrases it, it’s entirely beautiful and I adore that it’s coming from Watanuki, who has learned so much and come so far into stepping into Yuuko’s position. 

HOWEVER THE THING THAT DRIVES ME MAD IS THAT WE DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY’RE EVEN PAYING FOR, EXACTLY, SO HOW CAN THEY INTUIT HOW MUCH THEY NEED TO PAY?

I need like ONE line of dialogue from the disembodied voice of a receipt ghost who can just quickly say “Item; Price” and vanish again. 

Please receipt ghost you’re my only hope. 

To my DELIGHT Watanuki actually kind of captures everything I was stressing over (Thank you Watanuki). 

I get a little lost in the layout of the speech bubbles here, and I wouldn't call the translation exactly 'fluid' here, but I believe Lava Lamp is like “Oh I I think I know, let’s pay using the curse (which curse? No idea!)” and Watanuki is like “No it has to be something precious to you.”

Do I even know exactly what they’re talking about? Well not yet!

... Oh unless Lava Lamp is talking about the disembodied Evil Wolverine voice that keeps haunting them here? is THAT a curse? Wait ok, so if that is true I think I need to go back and recontextualise Evil Wolverine's final words as A BRAND NEW CURSE HE IS LAYING ON THEM DELIBERATELY ALL OF A SUDDEN WITHOUT SAYING WHAT IT IS, which matches his vibe exactly, but fuck you think there would be a limit to the amount of curses you can lay, ESPECIALLY when you are currently dying, and especially when he literally never pays the price for anything ever.

Actually I think I'd almost prefer it if Evil Wolverine trying to bump his prices onto them in his final moments, and that's what's caught them here, but let's not go too far off track.

When Lava Lamp says "I may know the answer! ... This is the final curse that Fei-Wang laid!" this is probably a very dicey word choice for saying they will try use Evil Wolverine's final curse as payment to leave the void dimension, and Watanuki says it probably doesn't count.

I think that's as good as I'm going to get.

Uh… sure!