Tsubasa Chronicle – 29

Summary:
Sakura is concerned about Syaoran, but she continues the race at his urging. The next obstacle in the race consists of various geysers shooting up while the racers navigate a canyon. Using her intuition, Sakura is able to avoid all of them. She pulls up to Kurogane, but another explosion occurs above them. Kurogane uses his ship to knock Sakura out of the way, but the blast crashes him into the water. Kurogane also wants Sakura to keep going, so she does. Meanwhile, Syaoran and Ryuuoh, using the sensor, figure out where the interference is coming from. At the race headquarters, Kurogane presses Tomoyo for the truth until she admits that she was the one who was responsible for the interference during the qualifying race. The purpose of all this was to return the feather to Sakura. Tomoyo explains that the feather, which was considered a mysterious energy source, was found one year ago. A little while later, Tomoyo heard from someone that this feather belongs to Sakura, but this occurred after an official announcement had already been made about it. Since everyone was now interested in the feather, the company couldn’t just hand it over to Sakura anymore, so they made it the race’s prize. Tomoyo hadn’t been worried that Syaoran and company would lose because that person had said to believe that in their group’s strength.
Kurogane wants to know who “that person” is, but before Tomoyo can explain, one of her aides tells her that they’ve located the person sabotaging the current race – it’s coming from their own company. Actually, Syaoran and Ryuuoh are already there after having asked the medical ship to take them back to the Piffle Corporation building. They find that the culprit is actually Tomoyo’s secretary and that he’s ready to shoot down Sakura’s dragonfly. With some quick thinking, Syaoran and Ryuuoh work together to defeat the laser in the room and stop his plan. Sakura, meanwhile, has arrived at the final obstacle: a wall of water with a hidden exit. With the help of the wind, she finds the right place and flies through to the finish goal. She’s the winner of the race and the feather. However, Syaoran is not quite ready to celebrate though because he knows that there’s another criminal still on the loose.
At the victory ceremony, Tomoyo hands the feather over to Sakura. However, before Sakura can absorb it into her body, an explosion behind her throws her down. In the smoke, a figure appears and disables Tomoyo’s guards – it’s Dr. Kyle. He uses his powers to pull the feather towards him, but fortunately one of Mokona’s 108 Secret Techniques – the super-sucking power – gets it back. Syaoran quickly returns Sakura’s feather back to her. Kyle says that this is just like what happened in Jade Country with the unusual living thing (Mokona), a statement that causes Fye, Syaoran, and Kurogane to realize that this must be the same Kyle from back then. Kyle says that in each world, they can find the same faces but different people, but he warns that there’s no way for them to ascertain if it’s really a different person. With that, Kyle leaps up and disappears into a void.
Tomoyo comments that this really was like how that person said it would be. When Kurogane asks her again who she’s referring to, Tomoyo reveals that the person is none other than Princess Tomoyo – the one from Kurogane’s world. It was Princess Tomoyo who had told Tomoyo in a dream that travelers would come looking for the feather. After clearing things up, Tomoyo then has a private chat with Kurogane. He wants to ask her something, but stops himself. When she encourages him to continue, he asks her how Princess Tomoyo was in the dream. Tomoyo replies that the Princess was energetic and happy when talking about Kurogane. She had also said that Kurogane would definitely come to understand what true strength is.
The next day, it’s time for Syaoran and company to leave. Tomoyo promises to Sakura that her company will create the technology to cross over dimensions so that they can meet again. Before he disappears, Kurogane asks Tomoyo, if she has another dream, to tell Princess Tomoyo that he’ll definitely return.

Hrm, it’s a bad sign to me that the animation quality has started to deteriorate. Aside from that though, I don’t have many complaints. The story was different from the manga, but all of the important stuff was the same (though switched around a little). The major addition was the part with Syaoran and Ryuuoh defeating Tomoyo’s secretary. But like I’ve said before, this keeps the plot interesting for those of us who’ve read the manga (and those of you who haven’t won’t know any better). I’m still rather impressed that they managed to cover most of Piffle World (21 chapters worth) in just three episodes.
Well I had hoped that the next world would be Shara Country, but it appears to be anime original stuff. The group seems to be returning to a country that they’ve visited before and are going to be pursing a dragon.