Kohane Tsuyuri

nihongo|Kohane Tsuyuri|五月七日小羽|Tsuyuri Kohane is a fictional character in the Clamp manga xxxHolic. Her first name in kanji is translated as "small feathers" and her last name literally means May 7th. She is introduced in volume 9 of the manga.
Watanuki Kimihiro and Kohane first met underneath a sakura tree that had the spirit of a woman that Kohane could sense (and was supposed to lay to rest). Upon their first meeting Kohane could feel that Watanuki was like her. She is around 11 years old, and is widely known in public as a child prodigy, medium and exorcist. Due to her abilities she has been invited to and has featured on many paranormal-based TV shows.

Kohane is a somewhat quiet and lonely girl due to the upbringing she has had. She also acts very maturely for her age, and even though she may be severely criticized she keeps her composure well.

Watanuki seems to be the only person that can make her smile due to the care and genuine concern he has shown her.

She mentioned to Watanuki that she hasn't been called by her first name for as long as she can remember, noting Watanuki calling her "Kohane-chan" as a first. She appears to have a crush on Watanuki, and is the only one in the series so far that calls him Kimihiro-kun.

Due to the restrictions imposed by her mother, Kohane doesn’t have many friends. Watanuki seems to be her only friend and is the only one to call her by her name. She and Watanuki seem to have some sort of connection: both can see spirits and their family names are related.

In volume 10 of the manga, she mentions that she hasn't been to school since her first year of elementary school. Watanuki has so far been the only person to show a genuine desire to protect Kohane from harm.

Kohane may have more powerful abilities than she chooses to show, as in chapter 139 after her mother hurts Watanuki she gives her mother a warning: "Mother, you can do anything to me, but I won't forgive you for hurting someone I care about".

Yuko also hinted that as Watanuki managed to bring Kohane into the shop, it means that, like everyone else who ever entered there, she also has a wish to be fulfilled. At the end of chapter 153 while Watanuki was comforting Kohane, Yuuko and Domeki were discussing Kohane's circumstances. Yuuko hinted that Watanuki and Kohane's bond is strong or rather their hearts are closer than anything, suggesting that Kohane may have an integral part in Watanuki's Hitsuzen.

Chapter 155 revealed just exactly what Kohane's wish is: for her mother to be happy. She blames herself for her mother's state and so wants to take responsibility for removing the darkness, surrounding her mother. In exchange for her wish, Kohane has offered up her entire power to Yūko. Yūko then states that it is too much, and will also include the rumors about Kohane. The true source of Kohane's power of exorcism was then unveiled - her body was in fact holding one of feathers, which was retrieved by Yūko.

In the anime series, Kohane sorted her relationship with her mother by herself and retired from mediumship without losing her power of exorcism. She is last seen with her hair cut short, beside her mother who started to touch her again. The source of her power, just like most references to the Tsubasa series, was omitted from the anime plotline.

Kohane's Harassment

Kohane's mother often books Kohane into ghost-hunting shows in which Kohane receives harsh criticism because she reads events differently from (or rather more accurately than) the other mediums. In chapters 147-148 Watanuki heard the news that after Kohane failed to locate a woman's missing daughter during a live ghost-hunt show, Kohane was badly beaten. Her house was found badly vandalized with the words "Liar" and "Evil" around it.

Kohane's Mother

Kohane's mother will go to great extremes to make sure that she takes every advantage of Kohane's abilities for her own material benefit (their home is scattered with clothes and jewelry everywhere), even after their house is vandalized. She also makes sure that no one interacts with Kohane, especially not Watanuki, going so far as to physically hurt him. Kohane is also not allowed to touch any objects deemed “impure” by her mother and does not eat “impure” food either (her food is vegetarian just like the food monks eat to purify themselves). Kohane is also not allowed to have toys and only has rudimentary furniture in her house. Most of the time Kohane's mother is seen on the phone arguing or rather bartering with TV producers on the she will get if Kohane will guest or perform an exorcism for them.

According to Kohane, her mother does not dare to touch her as she also considers herself an impure person. After having an argument with her mother and being protected by Watanuki, she is taken to Yuko's shop where she reveals that her mother was caring and kind at first, but her demeanour changed after her daughter's powers awakened, and she helped her discover that her husband was having an affair with one of his co-workers. Since then, Kohane has been able to sense a dark aura growing around her mother and is afraid that one day that aura may engulf her entirely.

After Kohane was rescued and brought to Yuko's shop as a result of the TV station incident, Kohane was finally able to express feelings of sadness at all that has happened to her. At Yuko's place Kohane and Yuko discussed for the time being, she and her mother should live separately for her mother to heal on her own.

In the anime XXXHolic Kei, Kohane seems to have resolved her issues with her mother. Kohane's background and her mothers reason for being rude and brutal to her daughter was never fully explained as it was in the manga.

Abilities

Like Watanuki Kohane has the ability to see and sense spirits. She also has the ability to exorcise them as well. One incident was the female ghostly customer of Yuko Ichihara who didn't realize that she was a ghost. The ghost wished to rid herself of the scary presence in the house that she stayed in. Later the living family on the same house called Kohane to eliminate the lost spirit.

She can also sense curses or other types of malicious auras on a person. When Watanuki made a pinky promise with Himawari Kunogi (which later caused him to fall from the second floor at school), Kohane was able to sense what he had done and predict that he would suffer ill fortune.

In one of the Supernatural TV shows she guested on along with other mediums Kohane was able to sense the secondary spirit of a woman who committed suicide in the abandoned building. Since five of the mediums only sensed one spirit, this had a bad effect on her popularity. She was called a fake and, to Watanuki's horror, on one of his visits Kohane was covered in bandages after being pushed down the stairs. Her home was vandalized and her answering machine was filled with threats.

In chapter 150-153 during another Ghost TV show appearance she and another medium was to find the missing husband of a lady. The other medium said that the husband was still alive and well. Kohane whispered to the lady that her husband is dead and in fact is buried in the lady's home, also citing the woman killed her own husband.

Also, in Chapter 156, Kohane relinquished the source of her power of exorcism ( feather) as payment to Yuko for fulfilling her wish. However according to Yüko, her ability to see spirits is still intact, as it was a natural talent of hers. Yüko also states that the time when Kohane gained her power of exorcism and the time when Sakura's feathers were scattered doesn't coincide, meaning that the time-space continuum is starting to collapse.

In chapter 158 Kohane was advised to live with "that woman". The woman being the old lady who told fortunes (and is in crossovers to the Kobato manga). This way she can be near someone with similar abilities to her. The old fortune teller also said that she plans to pass on her knowledge to Kohane later by training her so that the craft and her connection would not die.

Differences from the Anime (XXXHolic Kei)

The second season of XXXHolic, titled as XXXHolic Kei, finally introduces Kohane in the series. She made her appearance in Episode 5, "Kohane". The episode where she meets Watanuki underneath a haunted Sakura tree coincides with the manga. However the anime switched some of the manga subplots such as her initial injury and her criticism by other mediums along with her mother's violent verbal behavior towards her (Eps 8-10). In the manga this does not take place immediately, the anime skips the scene before she was injured where she returned Watanuki's umbrella from their first meeting and noticing the pinky promise with Watanuki. In episode 9 Kohane's mother injures Watanuki by spilling hot tea on him. This does not happen until a little later in the manga storyline.

Episode 10 is a total alteration of the manga story of Kohane and her psychic reading of a woman in a haunted house. In the anime, after Watanuki watches the TV show that featured Kohane with other spiritualists (in the manga Watanuki only heard of the show and never watched it), Watanuki returned to Kohane's house. He found Kohane being "water cleansed" by her mother.Watanuki takes Kohane away and brings her straight to Yuko's place (in the manga she does not meet Yuko till chapter 155, this is farther along from the manga arcs and way after Watanuki's accident)Kohane is seen in this episode sleeping beside Maru and Moro, whereas in the manga Maru and Moro has never been in the same scene nor meet Kohane.The same episode features Watanuki giving Kohane the final Dream Balloon (in the manga he gave this to her before her injuries). The mediums also stopped their condemnation of Kohane, once the body of the woman she saw in the haunted building was found (in the manga she was relentlessly persecuted until her rescue by Watanuki in chap 154-155)

Most shockingly she cut her hair in the anime after she decided to retire from being a spiritualist and mended her relationship with her mother. Kohane briefy re-appears in Episode 11 of XXXHolic Kei to thank Watanuki. Though the timeline from the anime and manga counterpart is different Kohane asked Watanuki " Who did you make a pinky promise with?" after noticing the malice surrounding Watanuki. It is still unclear whether she will take a bigger part in the anime as she has done in the manga.