[8]
HERE WE GO!
There he goes! He’s doing it!
I think I just said this but I feel like this conversation really encapsulates Watanuki’s entire growth up to this point - how he is so calm throughout this conversation, dropping the wise observations and the truths he's learned through empathy but doing it unflinchingly to hammer home the truth this person wants to avoid.
And then he says the Hitsuzen line! That more than anything really hammers home the full inheritance of Yuuko’s role. Which is WONDERFUL because look at that panel! He has that sense of mystic danger to him when he says it that just thrills me to no end. Here he is: Watanuki, Yuuko’s heir.
But at the same time it terrifies me that, hitsuzen being what it is, maybe this will line up with Yuuko’s disappearance, and Yuuko will be replaced just as Watanuki finally fully embodies the role she leaves behind. Which! I don't want! But would narratively be very tidy!
