Tsubasa, Volume 22 by Clamp

Princess Sakura of the Clow lost her memory in a burst of feathery wings when she found an ancient symbol amongst the ruins uncovered in her Kingdom. With her on the night she lost her memories was her best friend and a man she was already in love with, Syaoran. He brought them to Yuho, the time-space witch, and set out to find the feathers that hold her memories.

But there was a price; even if he could recover all her memories, she would never remember him. He was willing to pay that price, and he acquired two travelling companions: The Ninja Kurogane, and the Mage Fai Flowrite. He was also given another companion, a small cute lump with bunnyish ears named Mokona Modoki, who acts as memory-feather detector, link to Yuuho and a gate detector that allows them to cross into different worlds to continue their search.

Now, though, they have discovered each other's secrets. Kurogane wanted strength and equated it with unequalled skill in battle, but was under a curse to lose strength if he killed someone- and recently lost his arm in a bid to free Fai to join them on their journey. Fai was one of a set of twins who killed his brother to escape torment because Twins are deemed unlucky, and Syaoran was a magical clone made by Clow Reed, who set up this entire situation in the first place to resurrect himself in the Clone's body.

The clone stole one of Fai's eyes, along with half his magical powers, and now Fai isn't even strictly alive any longer. He's become a Vampire, only able to feed off Kurogane. But this place they have come to now- the country of Japan that Kurogane came from, Seresu, is a place for them to rest- Kurogane's Queen, Tomoko, has arranged for it to be so with Yuho. Here, Kurogane recieves a biomechanical arm delivered by Fuma, who has been running errands for Yuho to pay off his debt.

Meanwhile, Sakura is in a coma, her spirit fled into the world of Dreams because of the emotional pain she dealt Syaoran. The worlds are starting to unravel. Even reason itself is crumbling. Not only Clow Reed and Fei-Wang Reed are trying to make events unfold as they wish, but the heartfelt desires of Sakura, Syaoran, Fai, Kurogane and those who love them are trying to bring about different outcomes, and the tension between their plans, hopes, dreams and heartfelt wishes are warping reality itself, as well as logic.

But when Fuma's brother, Seshiro, shows up, he takes exception to Fai being a Vampire now, but decides not to kill him in favor of tracking down the ones who turned Fai in the first place. But when Syaoran sees that Seshiro has one of the memory feathers belonging to Sakura, Syaoran challenges his old mentor to a fight to reclaim the feather. He wants to use it to enter the realm of dreams and bring Sakura out of her coma.

But even if he wins the fight, will entering Dream cause Sakura more damage and emotional anguish then she has already experienced? And will his other self, his clone, show up to battle him? How will Sakura react when one of them will get badly hurt- and both are identical?

Yes, this series is definitely drawing to a close. Things are really happening now, but so much has changed! Over the course of the series pretty much everything has changed about the characters. Even our assumptions about who they were and where they were coming from have pretty much all turned out to be wrong. Or at least misleading.

Sakura chose to give up her memories. The Syaoran she traveled with and apparently knew on her homeworld was merely a clone. Fai was a murderer. Kurogane was under not just one, but two curses. It's like we can barely trust what we knew, and the future is open and fluid. Who's to say what we think we know now isn't also still wrong? Hopefully it's right, but who can know?

I've read books with unreliable narrators before, but in this story, everyone is unreliable! You can't trust anyone to be telling the truth about themselves, or even to know the truth about themselves. After all, Syaoran didn't know he was a clone, and Kurogane didn't know he was doubly cursed. Nor could Sakura remember that she had chosen to give up her memories. At least, I don't think so, and not at first.

This could be horribly depressing to read, where you can never be sure of who someone is and why they are helping (or hindering) you- or even if they characters you have come to care about are who they say they are, but I found it very interesting to read, and I still want to see more, to see what people really are and what the outcome of this whole situation will be.

Readers, be prepared to be confused and constantly subjected to changing understandings of who all the main characters are. It's not an entirely stable story, but I'm hoping that if we stick with it, eventually, all will be revealed. Recommended.