Tsubasa Chronicle/The Ghost Child's Face

The Ghost Child's Face
Season 1, Episode 21
Airdate	September 10, 2005
Written by	Hiroyuki Kawasaki
Directed by	Koichi Mashimo
ADR Writer(s)	Eric Vale
ADR Director(s)	Colleen Clinkenbeard
← 1x20 The Afternoon Piano	1x22 → The Memory That Cannot Be Erased
Tsubasa Chronicle — Season One

The Ghost Child's Face is the twenty-first episode of the first season of Tsubasa Chronicle, and the twenty-first episode overall. Syaoran trains some more, and finally meets the man behind the unusual oni attacks.

Guest Stars:

Plot Overview

A young couple are in the plaza admiring the moon. Suddenly, oni start to emerge. The man says they don't need to worry since the oni only attack oni hunters. Then the oni kills both of them. The mysterious cloaked figure is standing in front of the clock.

Fai and Sakura are out shopping when a newsboy runs by, throwing around flyers with the news about the couple being killed. Fai says they'll need to be extra careful, and that they should make something extra tasty for Kurogane and Syaoran when they get back.

Kurogane and Syaoran are standing on a bridge. Kurogane tells Syaoran to put a blindfold on, and walk with it on all the way to the café and back, never removing it. He says Syaoran needs to learn how to react to non-visual cues. He also orders Syaoran to take the sword with him. As Kurogane turns to leave, Syaoran asks him to buy some flour that Fai asked for. Kurogane tromps away, annoyed at Fai.

Syaoran puts on the blindfold. He gets a sense of the cherry blossom (sakura) petals falling around him, and catches one in his hand.

Kurogane returns home by himself with several bags of flour. Sakura asks where Syaoran is, and Kurogane says that he is still out training.

Syaoran is walking through an alley on his way to the café. He is becoming aware of the presence of living and non-living things, and the difference between the two. All of a sudden, a large mass appears in front of him and attacks him. He avoids the attack, but the thing continues to strike. A boy screams at him and rips off the blindfold, and Syaoran sees that the boy is Ryuoh, and the thing attacking him is an oni. Syaoran kills it with a strong kick, then gets admonished by Ryuoh for wearing the blindfold. The two of them sit down and talk. Syaoran explains about the sword training, and remarks that Ryuoh also uses a sword. Ryuoh says he loves to feel the strength of the enemy through his own hands, and that he loves to be challenged, waiting for the most powerful foe. Syaoran agrees, talking about how he likes to discover new things. Syaoran says there is something he is trying to get back, and he will get it back, no matter what. Ryuoh says he really likes Syaoran.

Back at the cafe, Sakura is working hard on a meal for Syaoran.

Syaoran and Ryu are walking down an empty street. Syaoran says Ryuoh can leave now, but Ryuoh wants to show him something.

Fai and Kurogane head to the bar, Clover. There, Oruha is singing again. They sit at the bar and listen. Kurogane thinks the song is stupid, but Fai sympathizes with the lyrics, which talk about being taken away. Fai says he's been waiting for someone to take him away, too.

Sakura puts Mokona to bed, and promises to work extra hard.

The song ends, and Fai and Kurogane finally get to talk to Oruha. She sits down, Fai buys her a drink, and she tells them that the new type of oni looks like a human being. While they talk, we see the cloaked figure in the square again. Oruha says that this human-like oni can control other oni. We then see the cloaked figure summoning up a bunch of oni out in the open. The waitress tells Oruha another customer wants to talk to her, so she leaves them. Fai talks about what she just said, and how it doesn't add up. He speculates that the oni are part of some system, being controlled by someone. But some unknown power is upsetting the balance - possibly Sakura's feather.

The cloaked figure remarks to the oni that they are getting harder to control as they get more powerful, which is why it's good he has his new power - the feather. Back at the café, the sleeping Mokona reacts, while Sakura hears the feather calling to her. She walks out of the café in a trance. Yuzuriha is skipping toward the café with Inuki, when she sees Sakura.

Syaoran and Ryuoh arrive at the plaza, where Ryuoh wanted to show Syaoran the largest cherry tree in Ōto. Sakura and Yuzuriha arrive too, and Sakura points ahead to where her feather is. She collapses. Suddenly, everyone senses an oni. Syaoran and Ryuoh rush ahead to battle it while Yuzuriha stays behind to watch Sakura. Two oni slayers are already there, but they can't defeat the oni, as it's more powerful than it should be. Syaoran senses a familiar presence in the plaza, and looks up toward the hooded figure. The man pulls off his hood, revealing himself as Seishiro, whom Syaoran knows from his past.

Notes

Locations

• Ōto: It is said that the oni only attack oni hunters and not regular human beings. This is why they take the shape of monsters. Fai says this means that there is someone controlling them, for some unknown purpose.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Syaoran continues sword training, during which he runs into Ryuoh again.

• Fai and Kurogane finally meet Oruha at the bar, and she tells them about the oni.

• They locate Sakura's feather, in the hands of Seishiro.

Characters

• We see more hints of Fai's past. Apparently he is waiting for someone to take him away.

• The hooded figure is revealed to be Seishiro, a figure from Syaoran's past. This is not an alternate version, but the same one Syaoran remembers from his home dimension, because he recognizes Syaoran in return. It was previously hinted that he knows something about Syaoran's fighting style, implying that he trained Syaoran.

Referbacks

• Fai is still injured from 1x19; he walks with a cane.

• Fai mentions his previous conversation with Kurogane in 1x19, where Kurogane implied that Fai does not value his life.

Trivia

Bumper

• Kurogane

Nicknames

• Fai calls Kurogane "Kuro-tan"

Allusions and References

CLAMP References

• Tokyo Babylon & X: Seishiro Sakurazuka. These two works are set in the same universe, and he appears in both of them. Seishiro appears to have some prior relationship with Syaoran, which would be similar to Seishiro and Subaru's relationship in Tokyo Babylon. However, as Syaoran is not gay it is most likely that theirs was just a master-trainee friendship, since Seishiro knows something about Syaoran's fighting style. Seishiro is controlling the oni with Sakura's feather, putting him directly in conflict with Syaoran, not unlike the conflict between Seishiro and Subaru at the end of Tokyo Babylon and throughout X.

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