Ōto Country

Outo Country

Previous World: Jade Country
Next World: Edonis Country

Ōto Country (桜都国) is one of the worlds visited in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. It is a virtual country existing within the confines of Fairy Park, an amusement park operating in the country of Edonis. While not a tangible destination, Ôto has its own unique culture and customs, as well as a thriving economy based on the yen.

Ôto resembles an early twentieth-century Japan, though with a handful of modern conveniences implemented to facilitate the operation of the game. First-time players have their knowledge that Ôto is a virtual world wiped from their in-game memory, and thus act as if everything were completely real. They are met by a welcoming committee and asked to register, choosing a name that cannot be changed without leaving the game and forfeiting any progress made.

Its name means "Cherry Blossom City", and there are cherry trees and logos of this flower. In Suki Dakara Suki, Hinata's institute was the "Outo Institute" and it carried the same emblem as the city.

Story

Outo in the manga

Before landing in the next world, the story cuts back to Clow Country, where a wounded King Touya speaks to Yukito about the attackers from another dimension and the seemingly neverending sandstorm which has suddenly sprung up around the Clow Ruins. King Touya doesn't like the fact that Sakura is under the care of Syaoran, whom he has an unflattering opinion of. Touya recalls speaking about this matter with his father, King Clow, who advises him to "believe in the future".

The party arrives in the world of Ôto, where an 'all-girl welcome party' ushers them on to City Hall to register their arrival in the city, as all foreign visitors must. After questioning the sometimes helpful clerk Blanche, the group learns that it would be in their best interest to register for an occupation so that they can earn money to use in Ôto, but postpone their decision for now. Fai registers them under pseudonyms but doesn't tell anyone what they are, much to Kurogane's annoyance. They trade in their old clothes and find a place to spend the night.

Cat's Eye Cafe sign

During the night they are attacked by demons, which Syaoran easily defeats. The next morning they learn that defeating the demons has earned them a monetary reward, and Kurogane and Syaoran choose their occupation as oni (demon) hunters. Having watched Syaoran fight the prior evening, Kurogane calls Syaoran out on being unable to see out of his right eye. Syaoran vows that his disability will not make him a liability in battle. The pair will gather information by walking the town, fighting monsters and looking for clues about this world's feather.

Meanwhile, Sakura and Fai have elected to run a cafe, in order to gather potential information about this world's feather from customers. Yuuko (having watched the Makimura Kaori anime) suggests the cafe be called the Cat's Eye.

Cat's Eye Cafe

When Sakura wakes up, Syaoran, Kurogane, and Fai have finished setting up the cafe and obtained uniforms. Yuko also sends them 5 chocolate desserts via Mokona. Kurogane refuses to eat his until coerced by Fai.

• Note: The chocolates are a gift from Yuko, made by Watanuki, for Valentine's Day. As the tradition goes, the girls give chocolate to the boys, and a month later, on White Day, they have to be returned. (xxxHolic Ch 37)

The Chart of the demons in Outo

Later that evening, Syaoran and Kurogane fight some demons in an alley, when a couple of rival oni hunters show up: Yuzuriha Nekoi and Kusanagi Shiyuu. During this encounter, Kurogane finds out what aliases Fai gave them, and is mortified. Yuzuriha and Kusanagi introduce themselves in the cafeteria Cat's Eye and teach the group the demon classification in Ôto:

The demons are divided by ascending strength into the following levels: To, E, Ho, Ni, Ha, Ro, I, and each level is further subdivided from 5 to 1 in ascending strength. The most powerful demon is ranked I-1.

The demon that attacked the group was a Ha-4 (medium) level demon, but Kusanagi remarks that this is unusual, as only demons of Ro level or above can attack citizens.

Back at the cafe, Sakura has an intimate moment with Syaoran: she acknowledges how hard Syaoran works at recovering her feathers even though she has no recollection of him, and apologizes to him for the injury and pain he endures in his quest to help her. She guesses that they must have been important to each other, but when she tries to force her memory, she blacks out because of the conditions of their collective wish: she has to forfeit all memory of Syaoran, never to regain them, in exchange for the power to travel the worlds in search of her memories. Syaoran tends to the unconscious Sakura, and although he is hurt by their situation, he renews his resolve to help her.

The next day, Kurogane and Syaoran go to the City Hall Information Office seeking clues to the Ôto feather. Kentarou and Takeshi suddenly appear and test their fighting prowess in a surprise sparring match; Kurogane and Syaoran hold their own and the match ends in a draw. Following a clue from the information office, they visit the mystic, Erii, who tells them that unusual events have been occurring all over Ôto lately, but the most notorious event was the appearance of a new, supremely powerful demon that is rumored to also be very beautiful. To find the demon they follow another clue that puts them on the trail of the only person who has seen the demon so far: a lounge singer named Oruha who works at the Clover Bar.

Kurogane, unable to enter the bar with Syaoran, takes Fai along to find the CLOVER Bar and Oruha. Syaoran and Sakura stay in the cafe to wait for them to return. Suddenly, Ryuu-ou and Souma enter the Cat's Eye, where Ryuu-ou, having declared Syaoran his rival, challenges him to a duel on the spot, and they fight inside the cafe.

En route to CLOVER Bar, Kurogane and Fai are attacked by another group of unusually strong demons. Fai, after desperately trying to fend off the demons, is incapacitated(sprained ankle) as he tries to sacrifice himself to save Kurogane. Kurogane is prompted to utilize his "Chii Ryuu · Jin Embu" (Earth Dragon Dance) technique to defeat the demons. In the battle's aftermath, Kurogane yells angrily at Fai for trying to throw his life away so casually, which Kurogane despises.

Back at the Cat's Eye cafe, Ryuu-ou is still wrecking the cafe fighting Syaoran; Kusanagi shows up and stops Ryuu-ou, forcing him to apologize for destroying things. They all clean up the mess and introduce themselves properly. In the background, a stranger lurks in the shadows, watching them.

Kurogane and Fai have found CLOVER Bar, and are waiting inside while Oruha sings the song "CLOVER" (in the anime, she sings "Kaze no Machi e").

• Note: in the anime, events are different from the manga. In the manga, Oruha is not at CLOVER Bar and 2 chapters, later they finally find her singing.

Her song done, Oruha takes a break to talk to the two adventurers. She tells them that the demon she saw had a human form: a beautiful boy.

Back at the Cat's Eye cafe, Syaoran and Ryuu-ou come to an accord, and impressed by Syaoran's warrior spirit, Ryuu-ou declares them to be friendly rivals. Yuzuriha and Sakura get along well, and the two also come to regard each other as friends. Their camaraderie is interrupted by the appearance of more demons outside of the cafe. After defeating some of the I-4 level demons, the demons begin to regenerate, which is not supposed to happen and catches them off guard. Ryuu-ou comes under renewed attack by the demons, and Syaoran assists his newfound friend. Syaoran is unhappy at how weak his attacks seem to be and resolves to obtain a strong weapon to augment his melee abilities.

Fai and Kurogane return to the cafe, and Kurogane, mistaking the Ôto-version of Souma for his world's version, asks if Tomoyo is with her. Kurogane then recalls what Yuko said about meeting people in different worlds.

Their investigations done for the day, the five travelers have a drinking party. Fai, Sakura, and Mokona get a little drunk and start singing. A serious Syaoran then asks Kurogane to teach him how to use a sword. Kurogane accepts. Kurogane then notices that his four companions are being obnoxiously drunk, and he sternly sends them all to bed.

• Note: The drinking scene was cut out in the anime

The next morning, everyone but Sakura have hangovers. Kurogane and Syaoran go shopping for weapons at a nearby shop, which is run by an old sword master named Chanan, who recommends the sword Souhi for Kurogane and the flaming Hien sword for Syaoran. Syaoran begins his training, and Kurogane tells him not to draw his sword unless he intends to use it with deadly earnestness.

Elsewhere in Ôto, demons attack the citizens when they should not normally be able to, and their behavior points to interference by a mysterious and powerful entity.

Continuing Syaoran's training, Kurogane says that Syaoran depends too much on his eyes to fight. To teach him how to sense his surroundings without seeing, Kurogane blindfolds Syaoran and sends him on an errand for Fai, then returns to the cafe to await his student.

The piano scene, "You are my love"

• Note: In episode 20 of the anime, a new scene is added in which Fai leaves Sakura in the Cat's Eye cafe to buy a new bag. Oruha enters the Cat's Eye and proceeds to play a song on the cafe's new piano. Oruha request Sakura to sing along with the song "You Are My Love" which causes Sakura to faint because the song allows her to trigger a memory containing Syaoran which has to be taken away immediately.

Syaoran, after wandering many hours trying to complete the task that Kurogane gave him, Syaoran begins to learn how to sense the things that surround him and he's beginning to distinguish those living and non-living things. When dusk has arrived, Syaoran is being attacked by a demon that he does not sense. Luckily, Ryuu-ou passes nearby and sees him, he removes Syaoran's blindfold and helps him defeat the demon.

Meanwhile, Kurogane continues searching for clues about the powerful and elusive I-1 demon. His investigations lead him to believe that someone or something is tampering with the natural order of things in Ôto and that the demons are now being controlled by someone.

Syaoran and Ryuu-ou, having talked for a while after Syaoran encounters a disastrous demon, then come upon two famous oni hunters who are defeated right in front of them by a demon that is much more powerful. They spotted a hooded man before them. Syaoran is shocked to see the face of a man he met before in another world, who introduced as Seishirou. Syaoran is even more stunned because Seishirou recognizes him, which is that this Seishirou is the same from the world where Syaoran meet him. Syaoran and Ryuu-ou flee in the face of many demons that appear who is under control of Seishirou.

Syaoran flashes back to the time he met Seishirou in Clow Country. Syaoran had found a book that Fujitaka was looking for, and some bandits attacked him to take it. After they defeated Syaoran, Seishirou appeared and defeated them with powerful melee attacks. Seishirou revealed to Syaoran that he was also after the book, and asked Syaoran to look at it. Seishirou noticed that it is undecipherable to him and confessed that he was searching for a pair of sibling vampires (affirming him that they do exist and they're not just legends) and that he might find information about them in this book. Seishirou then remarked to Syaoran that he could tell Syaoran is not from Clow just like him, Syaoran was also from a faraway place. Seishirou noticed that Syaoran was blind in his right eye, and told him that he could not see from one eye either, his right eye was crystal. Syaoran made a deal with Seishirou, promising to help him decipher the book in exchange for Seishirou teaching him to fight.

Desperate for answers, Syaoran and Kurogane meet up again and head back to City Hall, but no one there seems to know of or even acknowledge the existence of a new demon type. They also ask about Seishirou, but Blanche cannot give (or is not allowed to give) the information they want. Instead, she sends them to the Dwarf Tower for answers that only oni hunters can enter and even then only a few of those had managed to make it all the way to the top. Syaoran and Kurogane fight their way through the tower and get more than they bargained for.

Back in the Cat's Eye cafe, Sakura falls asleep, and Seishirou shows up looking for Syaoran and Kurogane but finds Fai instead. Seishirou reveals that he too can travel between dimensions, using the magic in his crystal right eye - which he bought from Yuuko. Seishirou states that his magic is limited, so he must use the power of the Otou feather to continue his mission to find the vampire siblings. Fai falls at the hands of Seishirou and his demons, much to Mokona's dismay.

File:SumomoKotoko.jpg

At the Dwarf Tower, Kurogane and Syaoran have reached the top to find the two people who can answer their questions: a giant Sumomo and Kotoko. Sumomo confirms that the only demon capable of controlling the rest is a level I-1 demon. Sumomo then warns them that someone is about to die at the Cat's Eye cafe, causing Syaoran and Kurogane to rush back to find Fai missing and a message from Seishirou to meet him in battle later that night. Syaoran entrusts the Princess to Kurogane, telling him he'll be in charge of dealing with Seishirou if he doesn't come back.

All around, Ôto is falling apart in a cataclysmic way as more and more monsters appear. The people of Ôto begin to flee the city, although Yuzuriha and Ryuu-ou refuse to abandon their new friends, Syaoran and Sakura. Syaoran finds Yuzuriha and Ryuu-ou. Seishirou, reveals that he killed Fai at Cat's Eye Cafe.

The demons, whose behavior has been altered by Seishirou, begin attacking everyone in Ôto. Thinking the I-1 demon is somehow connected to the vampires he is hunting (based on a rumor he heard that the I-1 demon can grant "eternal life", which Seishirou thinks could actually be "eternal undeath"), Seishirou is out to find the I-1 demon, even if he has to kill each and every person in Ôto.

Syaoran fights Seishirou but is ultimately overwhelmed and defeated by Seishirou's immense power. Instead of dying, Syaoran wakes up in a pod in the world of Edonis, a place called Fairy Park. Fai is waiting for him and the others with an amazing explanation.