With more memory feathers collected Princess Sakura is finally starting to remember parts of her life before the accident - all except Sayoran. This reflection on her partially restored memories provides a much-needed thematic counterpoint to the adventures of the group, which had been making the story a bit monotonous until now.

With her new memories, Sakura has also developed an adventurous real that I'm sure is going to drive the rest of the group crazy. We leave the story with Sakura imprisoned in a castle with kidnapped children - a result of her impetuous behaviour - but her rash actions may prove positive because the group may now be able to find the missing children of the village of Spirit. ( )

We begin to see the price Syaoran is going to have pay. So melancholy. ( )

The volume concludes the Koryo arc, as the kiishim takes the Ryanban back to her world, where she promises him her sons want to welcome him. Shudder. The reader gets the best of both worlds here - the main characters don't compromise their integrity by slaying the villain, but the reader still is assured that the evil man will be punished for his cruelty. After the two are gone, with the Ryanban's screams lingering in the air, the team return the feather to Sakura, make their farewells, and head to the next world. A brief interlude shows us what the big bad guy is thinking; we've seen him before now, but his motives and actions are still mysterious at this point. The next world is an interlude of rest. No feather, but no battles either; instead, Syaoran discovers a tiny underwater city, given "sunlight" by the shining scales of giant glowing fish. I was pleased the series took a moment to explore a world where nothing was at stake, but just demonstrated the immense variety of worlds accessible to Syaoran and his friends.

From there, the team travels to the country of Jade, and walk into a fairy tale. I love the fact that the different kind of worlds allow, and even require, a new kind of story for each arc. Hanshin was a fighting narrative similar to Pokemon and Angelic Layer, Koryo was a feudal fantasy, and Jade offers a Gothic fairy tale merged with a mystery. On top of that, the overarching story is a mysterious and mystical adventure of hopping between worlds that involves many unknowns.

The fairy tale in Jade describes a princess and a feather, and the world jumpers are immediately intrigued. Long ago, a princess received a mysterious feather. The feather was said to grant the princess power. Soon after, her parents died, and then the children in the surrounding village began to disappear one by one. Hundred of years have passed, and the castle has crumbled, but the legend is revived in Jade as children start disappearing again. The travelers are warned not to travel north, but they do, and are met with great hostility. They inform the villagers they are writing a book on legends and history, and Dr. Kyle stops the villagers from further harassing them. The doctor offers them shelter in his house, and the men begin to explore the area. The castle is surrounded by an impassable river, though, and none of the children can be traced in any other direction. One night, Sakura actually sees the princess. She thinks it's a dream, but the next day a child is missing. A short time later, Sakura sees the princess again, and sees several children following her. She climbs out her window to follow them, and sees the children walking across the river to the castle! Unfortunately, she drops asleep in the middle of the snowy field before she can return and inform the others. Tension reaches unbearable levels in the village, as village men attack Syaoran and blame Sakura for the missing kids. Meanwhile, Sakura wakes up in chains in a room in the castle.

The adventure surges forward, and I am still consuming the story like a kid with her ice cream. The characters are awesome, the artwork is amazing, and the story is really great. As I wrote before, the versatility of different worlds inspiring multiple narrative genres adds fun to the story and an eagerness to see what's next. The ending of this narrative suggests that something more than the mystical is going on in Jade, converting the fairy tale into a whodunnit, and I like it. I can't wait for the next volume to see how the Jade arc ends. ( )

In this volume we get to see a bit more of Syaoran and Sakura's past and how they became friends. Sakura is beginning to regain more of her memories but is curious about the mysterious gaps where Syaoran is supposed to be. The new world they travel to embroiles the dimensional travelers in an ancient curse involving a princess and missing children which has resurrected itself.

This volume of Tsubasa didn't have any of the confusing and dark panels of fighting which the last couple did which made it an exceptionally nice experience for me. This story has left me very curious to learn the resolution of what is happening to the missing children and how Sakura is involved. ( )