Yuuko Ichihara

Yuuko Ichihara is one of the main characters from the xxxHOLiC anime and manga.

Yuuko is the owner of a mysterious shop in Tokyo. She is a dealer in wishes as she will grant the sincere wish of anyone who is willing to make an appropriate sacrifice in return; the price is always equivalent to the weight of the wish, no more, no less. In the case of Watanuki Kimihiro, who sought to be rid of the evil spirits that plague him, the price was a long period of frequently demeaning servitude. As a result, she now has Watanuki as a sort of "personal assistant" to clean, cook, and perform other tasks she considers beneath her. She keeps Watanuki close and searches for him whenever he's in trouble in order to protect him. This is a connection she shares with Doumeki who's always by his side in the hardest moments due to his ability for exorcism.

Appearance
Yuuko is a tall, thin woman with pale skin and long black hair down to the back of her knees. Her hair is cut in many layers having front bangs up to her eyebrows, then another layer, reaching up to her jaw, and a layer at her hips and a final one at her knees. Her eye colour is usually red though sometimes it changes to purple or even a turquoise blue so it is suggested that she changes eye color randomly and so, her real eye colour is not known. She always wears a kimono at her home (though she would prefer to wear a more revealing outfit when she goes out in public) but she never wears the same thing twice. When Yuuko wears a kimono, she usually has accessories to accompany it. For example, if her kimono has a rose pattern with lace, she will wear a rose in her hair and a lace choker and bracelet. Also, when she has the time, Yuuko will style her hair is a neat yet creative fashion and will always decorate her hair with some sort of accesory such as coloured pins or chopsticks. Like her clothes, Yuuko has never been seen with the same hair style other than letting her hair loose. On some occasions, the length of her hair is shorter than it looks. An example can be observed during the episode where the Twins are introduced, her hair is tied up in a small bun almost impossible to hold all her hair.

Personality
The eccentricity of this character confuses readers because her guidance of Watanuki grants him a state of spiritual and paranormal awareness of great importance. Therefore some of her resolutions are meaningless at first, but eventually the plot reveals the origin of her wise decision.

Many times she seeks to act as a spectator, but in most cases, her intervention yields results that govern the speed and dynamics of the plot. Her histrionics confuses Watanuki, but end up involving him in serious situations, in which Watanuki, is driven by it as part of it. She's fun and respectful of all beings, being these kind or not. According to the manga, good and bad are concepts that humans decide, and these do not apply to non-human. This kind of thinking occurs when, for example, she decides not to intervene to prevent someone from their mistakes or endangerment, since "everything is a matter of fate" (hitsuzen). Though she acts sarcastic, bossy and annoying towards Watanuki, it's quite evident that she cares for him, as it was seen when she died; "my wish... is for you to continue existing". Sometimes she uses her lecherous side to disturb Watanuki (to her great amusement). She also loves alcohol, which traduces in sending Watanuki to the drugstore every time she's got a hangover.

Towards close friends, Yuuko shows a very different side of herself than when she is with a customer. With close friends like Oba-chan or Watanuki, she is kinder and more open to them. She shares more opinions and thoughts with them. Though she is close with her friends, she still keeps serious feelings to herself, not wanting to burden others with her serious problems. We, as readers see these unmentioned or hidden thoughts through monologues by Yuuko when she is alone. Many of these hidden worries are not revealed to other characters (such as Watanuki) even after she dies as she never reveals it to them. Also, even though Yuko is sometimes open about her feelings towards others (telling Watanuki that she is happy that he is at the shop), readers can see that most of the time, her feelings go unsaid. The reason to why Yuuko hides her feelings from others is unknown but it is thought to be because she doesn't want to get hurt or too attached, mostly because she knows that one day she will vanish.

As the plot advances, we can see that she sometimes acts immature to keep Watanuki from realizing the gravity of the situation around him. Yūuko received many nicknames because she never revealed her real name due to a kind of spiritual self, because, as she herself says, who knows the name of another person can control it.

Abilities
She's a sorceress of great power and spiritual energy, who has gained multiple titles with her renown, but she is commonly known as The Witch of Dimensions, due to the travel she sent on the characters of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, in search of Sakura's feathers. Besides the ability to travel in time, she is powerful enough from handling dangerous objects and protective seals, create powerful barriers to protect (and even instruct Watanuki on how to create them, as she did on the night of the Hundred stories ghost / horror (Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai) and then sending Mokona to his side to play with words to block spirits in a full moon night, and she can also talk on good terms with any character of the nonhuman realm, including ghosts, gods, spirits and among others, which often saves Watanuki from death. When doing magic, Yuuko often summons her magic circle.

Among her other abilities beside granting wishes, traversing dimensions, she can also create gods for other worlds (which was a wish made by Ashura of Tsubasa), manipulate time (demonstrated when she had Mokona transport the Tsubasa group from Shara to its ancient past of Shura), and speak through Maru and Moro as well through other people's minds. In the anime, when she sends a letter to Watanuki, her responses to him are in "real-time", depending on Watanuki's reaction. In the xxxHolic movie, she gives a glimpse of how powerful she can be when she faces the collector, even though she does not use any offensive attacks. She effortlessly dodges most of his attacks and is seemingly unscathed from a direct hit.

All of Yūuko's customers must pay a price in order to grant their wishes, which can be no more or no less than the one demanded, or else harm will come to one's way. She is not one to tell the customer the most direct way to solve their problems because in the end, it can only be solved with that person's own realization and resolution to change themselves. Often if the person lacks the sincere determination to change themselves, an ironic disaster -that even Watanuki, who wishes to stop them from hurting themselves, cannot stop- will inevitably befall them. In Volume 8 when the Tengu-Karasu seek her help to save the Zashiki-warashi, their payment; the Tengu Fan was more than the required price. To balance it out, Yuūko sent out Watanuki to assist them.

Her abilities are not unlimited and may almost seem like a curse as it appears that she is unable to do anything for anyone or grant any gift (other than feelings) without it becoming a binding transaction. She possesses knowledge of all types of magic objects that exist, many of which are in her store.

Trivia

 * Her true name is not yet revealed.
 * She had a past relationship with Clow Reed.
 * She is the one Fei Wang Reed wanted to revive completely to prove he was superior to Clow Reed who could only freeze her time, eventually causing the events of both xxxHOLiC and Tsubasa.
 * She has a specific outfit that she always wears whenever she shows up in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.
 * In Horitsuba Gakuen, she is a chairwoman and a Literature teacher who always climbs through the window.
 * She has the longest hair in the whole series.
 * Yuko is an alcoholic. This however, is pretty obvious as she is most of the time seen drinking wine, beer or other alcoholic beverages. The most is that she is seen drinking sake with fish as she called it really delicious.
 * Interestingly, all of Yuko's customers in the story are all female - with the exception of the old man that received the cage filled with "Illusion Birds", birds that can only be seen its shadow in the full moon. Watanuki and Doumeki are not included as they are employee and friend respectively.
 * Yuko is hardly seen wearing the same outfit all the time, since she only wear them once (she never wears the same outfits twice, except for the black dress that she used to sent the Tsubasa gang to another dimensions which she is seen in anytime there's a plot point related to Tsubasa, and a kimono with butterfly wings attached to the obi that is seen mostly in Watanuki's dreams).
 * Her real eye colour is not known as she changes it most of the time to fit with her outfits. However, the most consistently used color for her eyes is a wine red.
 * Her recurring theme is the butterfly. Almost all of her outfits have a butterfly design to it. An example is her OVA kimono, the obi is designed to resemble a butterfly.
 * This butterfly theme is especially symbolic since this was the theme for the outfit she chose to die in. Incidentally, in an earlier chapter when Yuuko used a location spell that turned a handkerchief into a butterfly, she mused that "if it had to go farther, it would turn into a bird". So she being the butterfly who fades away and Kimihiro - her successor - whose symbol is the bird is the next level to go farther.
 * Kakei makes a reference of her when Rikou asks him why Watanuki can't leave the shop (Drug and Drop, Ch 6).