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Synopsis Watanuki Kimihiro can see spirits and other assorted supernatural creatures, which is quite a bothersome ability he strongly dislikes. On the way home one day, while plagued by some spirits, he is inexplicably compelled to enter a strange house. There, he encounters Yuuko, a mysterious woman who claims to be able to rid him of the ability to see and attract the troublesome creatures – for a price. She demands that he work at her “store” that grants wishes to people, and thus begins Watanuki's adventures through weird and wonderful events.

Shizuka Doumeki (百目鬼静)

Shizuka Dômeki is Kimihiro Watanuki's classmate and considered a rival by Watanuki. He is part of the school's kyūdō club and often participates (and tops) school competitions. Also because of his cool and calm composure he is very popular with the girls.

He lives in a shrine owned by his late grandfather, a priest in which during his childhood told him a lot of stories about folklore and shinto practices. However, despite his heritage, Dômeki has a nearly null ability of seeing ghosts or spirits, though he can still exorcise them. He does seem to be able to feel spiritual "pressure" and have a vague sense of their presence. One spirit he did see was the Lady in the Park that Watanuki often visited.

Dômeki has a pure or refreshing scent as noted by the Ame-Warashi. Kohane noted that Doumeki was a 'beautiful' or 'pretty' person, most likely referring to his spirit or aura. Naturally, Watanuki is bewildered (and rather agitated) by this. Dômeki cannot enter Yuuko's Store, the explanation why is later revealed on volume 8. His technique of exorcising spirits is by shooting them with an invisible arrow made of pure energy, as first revealed in volume 2.

Originally Dômeki could not see the spirits/ghosts that Watanuki could see (like that of the oden shop owner and the Ghost Girl who haunted a scary home) but after he shared both his blood and half his eye with Watanuki he was able to eventually see and experience what Watanuki goes through.

Dômeki's personality is a total opposite of Watanuki's. He has a cool, calm and often sarcastic demeanor. He barely speaks unless explaining folklore or asking Watanuki for impossible bento lunches (such as asking for food that is out of season or hard to find). He also has a deadpan sense of humor that is often dark and somewhat fatalistic. Much to the annoyance of Watanuki he seems to pop up everywhere, especially when Watanuki gets a chance to be with Himawari. He often replies in a one word phrase like "Hn" or "Oh". He is also very observant, and even though he does not show it he seems to be very protective of Watanuki, such as in Volume 5 where he stood for hours in the rain to make sure Watanuki was safe and in Volume 6 during the incident with the spirit in the park. Volume 9 of the manga through Dômeki's New Years dream we find out he looks like his late grandfather Haruka. His grandfather also knows more about Dômeki's past, and bears an uncanny resemblance to his grandson (though Watanuki points out that Haruka smiles much more).

Yuuko Ichihara (壱原侑子)

Being one extremely experienced in her industry, Yūko is not foolish enough to give away her real name like Watanuki. That aside, Yūko has served as a major catalyst for Watanuki's transformation, acting somewhat as his mentor. She loves to drink and eat Watanuki's wonderful cooking and dragging Watanuki on crazy outings at the drop of a hat.

Despite this immature and free-spirited attitude, Yūko has been known to be sage-like and serious when the time calls for it. Yūko seems to know the true hitsuzen that Watanuki will follow, and has often offered cryptic messages to warn him of impending danger or a folk tale that he should take a bit more seriously. She also seems to truly care about him, making sure he is safe at night, sending the Kudakitsune (pipe-fox) with him for extra protection, or calling Dōmeki when he needs saving.

Yūko is very powerful when it comes to magic and knowledge and is highly respected within the spirit realm. However, she doesn't often appear to get directly involved in things beyond whatever contact she has with those making wishes. Sometimes, she sends Watanuki to do jobs for her, such as when she granted a wish from Himawari. Yūko seems to take the role of someone playing chess when it comes to the big picture of things that are going on.

In Horitsuba Gakuen, she is a ruthless principal, who always climbs into rooms through the window.

Himawari Kunogi (九軒ひまわり)

Watanuki's main love interest. He has been infatuated with Himawari ever since the beginning of the series and even some cryptic remarks from Yūko like "are you sure she's good luck?" haven't deterred him.

Himawari is caring and kind towards Watanuki, but she has her own reasons in avoiding him becoming closer to her. For some reason she was born with the power to cause serious misfortune (although unintended) to those around her, an issue that even brought death to her grandmother and sometimes brought trouble to her friends.

Kimihiro Watanuki (四月一日君尋)

Watanuki is a high school student whose life has been a rather difficult one — not only have both his parents died, forcing him to live alone, but he is plagued daily by spirits that only he can see (both the ability to see them and the cause of their attacks are evidently heritable traits—apparently Watanuki's blood smells very delicious to spirits).

One day, Watanuki enters into an agreement with Yūko to work for her in exchange for the fulfillment of his wish–to never see spirits again. This marks the beginning of Watanuki's very involved part-time job, a fated meeting with a certain quartet from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, and so many "chance" happenings which occur not out of coincidence, but "hitsuzen".

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Personality:

Watanuki is known for a having both a volatile and caring nature to him. Depending upon the person he talks to, his emotions tend to be overly exaggerated. With Himawari he throws himself into the air accompanied by hearts and a "Himawari-chaaaaan!!" squeal. With Domeki, he almost always expresses irritation with various facial expressions, screaming, and arm motions that reminds Himawari of an angry cat. With the exception of these two and Yūko, Watanuki tends to address everyone around him with formality and kindness.

One of Watanuki's greater problems, especially early on in the manga, is his lack of self-worth. He found absolutely no value in himself and would often use himself to aid another, even if his life were at stake. An example of this is when he willingly gives up his right eye to the Spider's Grudge to save Domeki's, without considering how much his decision might hurt Domeki. He's forced to face up to this problem when trying to save the Zashiki-Warashi from the Joro-Gumo, when the spider matron harshly chatises him for his lack of consideration for both his own self and those who cared about him. Faced with the facts of how much he's hurt those around him, Watanuki begins to see some value in himself. He will still often use himself to save others, but now he is mindful of just how much his actions hurt other people.

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Life for Watanuki changes significantly once he starts working as Yūko's assistant (rather, her very indignant indentured servant) who not only cooks (wonderfully), cleans (diligently), and complains (constantly), but finds himself performing very odd jobs and learning more about the occult.



In later chapters of the manga Yûko allows Watanuki to experience things on his own to contribute to his growth and maturity. This was explained in Volume 8 of the manga, where the change of his character was shown when he saved the Zashiki Warashi from the Spider Queen. This was noticed by other supernatural beings as well.

Watanuki loses sight in his right eye after it was eaten by the Spider Queen/Ruler of Spiders in Volume 8, and Watanuki now shares half of his right's eye vision with Dômeki. Chapter 121's colored first page reveals that his eyes are now heterochromatic with one blue eye and one golden eye - gold being the colour of Doumeki's eyes.

After Yūko's death, Watanuki resolves to stay and care for the shop until he sees her again. In order to both stabilize the shop and break free of Fei Wong Reed's trap with Syaoran, Watanuki offers up the remainder of his 'existence'. As a result, Watanuki can no longer age nor leave the shop. He becomes the new master of the shop and takes up Yūko's role of granting wishes to those who come to the shop.

In chapter 186, we learn that 4 years have passed, and Doumeki is now studying folklore in university, something which Watanuki never ceases to be surprised at. Watanuki appears to have changed- he is seemingly calmer and more matured than before. In this chapter, he is seen lying lazily on Yuuko's chair, smoking away, just like how Yuuko was in the past. But he still cooks- Doumeki buys the ingredients (and his selection meets Watanuki's standards) and goes over (presumably daily, since only he leaves the shop) after studies.