XXXHolic, Volume 13 by Clamp

Watanuki still occasionally slips into dreams, but he's trying to be more cheerful about things. His worry about Kohane-chan makes him determined that he must see her and help her out of the difficulty she is in.

Kohane, meanwhile, is rapidly losing her cachet on the television show where she used to make appearances and answer questions, and this is driving her mother absolutely crazy. Her mother is determined that Kohane make more appearances and become even more famous, but her reason is not out of love of Kohane, or even love of the money that Kohane makes for her appearances, she does it to punish her husband, who left her for another woman in his company that he was having an affair with.

She wanted to have the last laugh and prove by making Kohane a success that she got the better of her husband, and to show him that she didn't need him. But the emotions and Kohane's being seen as a false medium have her all twisted up inside, and make her more determined than ever to have Kohane come out on top. She thinks that Watanuki is somehow to blame for what is happening with Kohane.

Watanuki and Domeki go to see Kohane's program at the local TV station, but must sneak their way inside because the general public isn't allowed to view the program. On the program that day is a distraught young woman looking for her husband, who has left her and she is worried and wants to know if he is still alive. The other psychic tells her he is still alive, but Kohane, who is swathed in bandages from the attacks on her, tells the woman that her husband is dead, and that his body is standing upright in a small place. But then, Kohane whispers that the woman knows this, because she is the one who killed him.

The woman goes mad and attacks her, asking her who told her to say such a thing, and she says her mother told her to lie, which is true. Lie so she would be accepted as a real psychic again. But everyone in the studio assumes that she was lying about being a psychic all along, and looks to her mother to explain why.

In the confusion, Watanuki and Domeki come forward to defend Kohane, and after the program (in which Kohane recieves apologies and sympathy from everyone, and a slap from her mother, goes with Watanuki to Yuko's shop. For Kohane has a wish to be granted, and while Watanuki still can't remember much about his life, he might still be able to help Kohane-chan. But what is Kohane's wish, and what payment will Yuko ask for in return?

Weird stuff is happening, both to Watanuki and Kohane, and stuff outside the shop is being affected. Time and space are ripping, and Yuko's shopgirls aren't able to stop it any more. Both Sakura and Syaoran make a return appearance and Watanuki loses his glasses on the dream plane, but apparently doesn't need them any more. He can't remember so much about himself, and we eventually find out why, but not why he had to lose those memories, and apparently the memory of ever making a deal that would cause him to lose them.

Kohane is the main focus of the book, and it looks like Sakura and Syaoran's paths will cross again at some point with Yuko and Watanuki, as one of Sakura's memory feathers appears in the story. The drawdown to the end is near, but it's happening slower than I thought it would.

I have so many questions about this series, and I won't stop reading now. Whatever future comes in this series, I still want to read it.