Re: The bond.
CLAMP, while I love them, has issues stopping angst once they've really started it. Look at X. Once the angst starts, it's like a snowball effect, and builds. They haven't seemed to find a way to remedy their massive angst once they put it out there.
I believe that they'll have a similar problem here, especially when it comes to Kurogane and Fay. While I'd like to say that maybe CLAMP will surprise us and they'll live at the end, I was having the same thoughts as Tatasenko, at least in the respect of them having to die for the bond to be broken.
Sadly, CLAMP tends to either stay happy with very little angst, or go super-angsty with very little happiness once the super-angst hits. It makes me sad to think that TRC may be heading down this super-angsty hole, since it's already kind of gone there, with very little, or no chance of ever climbing out of it.
Hopefully they'll prove me wrong, but I don't plan on getting my hopes up about it.