#made it impossible for Watanuki to choose to not like

[izartn]

The thing with DouWata in Holic is that it would be bittersweet either way because of two reasons, even discounting Watnuki choosing to stay forever on the shop bc he's waiting for Yuuko in a kind of sunk cost fallacy way by the end of it.

1. Watanuki origins as O!Syaoran of Tsubasa substitute/not-exactly-a-clone in their world, which also means sharing the price for getting C!SyoSaku feathers out of that void he ends up with O!Syaoran at the end of Tsubasa, and paying for his anomaly continued existence. Syaoran has to keep jumping between worlds for an indefinite mount of time, and Watanuki also has to stay in one place for the same time.

Now, by Rei(I think it was Rei? Could been Rou who knows) we discover that the price was too heavy bc Watanuki was baby wish shopkeeper (and also a masochist who believes he doesn't deserve to have happiness or have a right to exist deep down), and that at some point he grows powerful enough that his existence is no longer so precarious he needs the shop interdimensional stability.

This means at the end of Holic he would have had to enter the shop as essentially a prisoner anyway; Yuuko did the most to bring his power up and to give him connections with the living world so he would keep going on, but she did set Watanuki as her successor bc it was necessary for his continued existence.

And this brings us to...

2. Watanuki grew powerful enough to physically the shop without repercussion (his dream-wandering doesn't count bc his body is anclated on reality I guess) about 100 years after entering it. By then our Doumeki has been dead for at least a decade or two minimum, if we think he lived a long life.

By being the wish-shopkeeper he has enough power he can slow down his aging to the point he's frozen in time a la Eriol of Cardcaptor. And that's when he just took the role at the end of Holic.

And given Eriol is half of Clow's soul and powers and still ridiculously powerful and Yuuko was said to be almost as good, good enough to keep up with whole Clow Reed and Watanuki is her heir and of the line of Clow himself, and his parents did something to make him look more like Clow and not like SyoSaku which may had implied effects on his metaphysical existence bc Tsubasa and Holic go on ridiculous paradox territory...

Watanuki is the kind of powerful magician who, in just being heir to Yuuko's shop, without needing to tie himself to it to the point he cannot go out like in canon, (which meant he needed to develop his power a huge amount just to be able to exist as a paradox bc Fei Wang Reed) would have outlived Doumeki by a large large large amount of years anyways. Think of Fai "has lived already many times your lifespan" Flourite re: Kurogane.

The point of Fai keeping the vampire blood and prey bond with Kurogane, even after he gets his eye back from C!Syaoran and his magic suppresses his bloodlust (bc vampirism isn't the only thing keeping his old ass going anymore lol) is that Kurogane now gets to live the long long lifespan of Fai's life with him, bc otherwise he would have died in a fraction of the amount of time of Fai's existence.

Doumeki and Watanuki don't have that kind of plot handed pass to long-lived married bliss. Which sound pretty 'wtf' bc KuroFai lives were terrible (specially Fai's) in a way DouWata backstories don't go near bc they're more grounded on modern Japan, ghost, witches and wish-shops included. But they get to be together for the next centuries or so they have left.

At best, DouWata could have kind of the Wish deal of Kohaku finding again Kudou after he keeps reincarnation, which the end of Rou plays with anyways, only we know Haruka and Shizuka weren't the same soul, and so Sayaka is just the next link of weird generation xeroxes of the Doumeki family...

Disgressing.

Going back to the start of this post. Holic would have had a bittersweet kinda ending regardless of if Watanuki keep on wishing to see Yuuko again and so keeping himself trapped on the shop (and that's just tragic not bittersweet bc even Watanuki must know by then, 100 years after everything, that's kinda impossible) bc:

1. Tsubasa's plot being intertwined with Holic demanded Watanuki to pay a price for a wish, and that made him sacrifice his ability to move out the shop and into the world.

2. He was powerful from the start but the way he needed to learnt how to use his powers so spirit's wouldn't follow him and reality itself wouldn't erase him, which meant, learning how to be Yuuko's successor made him measure his lifespan on centuries anyways.

I think he maybe could have capitalized on his fated (hitsuzen) connection with Doumeki, and the way they exchanged eyes and blood, etc, so if Doumeki made a wish to link his lifespan to Watanuki in a less tragic version of Holic where Wata learnt some healthy selfishness and wasn't keen on waiting forever for Yuuko trapped on the shop (that is, where he wasn't exactly Watanuki lol) it could been possible for these two to have a happy-ish ending.

The price would have been something awful or heavy, maybe both of them are trapped on the shop until Doumeki mortal family is dead bc he's severing his mortal links to follow weird powerful Watanuki to the sobrenatural so he's giving up any chance on a mortal life?? and he also takes on a bit of wata's existence price by result of the link?? So they may get out earlier than 100 years but not by much I think...

Watanuki in canon would never see the above as possible, bc he doesn't see it as worthy, himself as worthy, and also its pretty fucked up anyways bc Doumeki would be giving up almost everything. But Holic has always been about obsession, and the way Doumeki dedicates his life and family line to Watanuki amounts to the same in the end I think. I have a feeling Doumeki would make that bargain gladly if he could stay with Watanuki for the rest of their (now long long) lives.

It would also tie back to the "sharing burdens" (and thus wishes' prices) theme DouWata have going on until Watanuki pulls his, "I'm now alone and the shopkeeper and I must pay alone, and goodbye to any hope of a normal life, bc the only motherly-ish protector-type person I've loved who loved me back has left me all alone, and my existence was a failure of the universe bc space-time shaneaningans."

But yeah DouWata had no chance from the start on an uncomplicated happy ending, and it irks me when people point to Watanuki as the only architect of his misfortune. Like. NO. They would been fucked some way or another in the end. The two asholes don't make it better on themselves, and bear some responsibility for how they end up tragically star-crossed without making a fucking move, but they were doomed from the start.

You could say it was..

Hitsuzen.