Inuyasha Manga: 013 A Mother's Face

That one has to have the eyes of an eagle in order to see from that distance. Inuyasha has such good eyesight, but he still can't aim worth a shit. His hand-eye coordination has been shown to have some serious issues. What is UP with that? No concentration? Prior injury? Something medical? Maybe the boy just needs to practice.

Whatever the issue, he's probably going to need to suspend it a moment to get his mom out of the sky.

Oh, good, she recognizes him too. It's not just a case of mistaken identity. Kagome looks at Inuyasha, wondering what's going on, because she recalls that he said his mother had died just a little while before. A gigantic three-fingered hand reaches out of a bank of clouds that moved in awfully fast and crushes the carriage, making Kagome flinch and Inuyasha grit his teeth.

Did she just grow? The carriage wasn't any bigger than her when the giant-ogre-thing crushed it. She must have been stuffed in there REAL TIGHT. Also, what happened to all the other imps?

Kagome seems to be just as confused as I am, but with her askance rooted in shock. Inuyasha leaps forward with an angry grunt, but is deterred from his path by a burst of fire. The smoking gun is Jaken's smoking staff, as he stands perched on the giant-ogre-thing with Sesshoumaru, whose arms are crossed and face stoic. He tells Jaken that they'll talk first, and kill later, to which conditions Jaken agrees.

Inuyasha sits on the ground behind a steaming patch of ground Jaken's fire hit instead of him, looking up at him and Sesshoumaru with surprise. Inuyasha identifies Sesshoumaru, calling him a bastard too. Sesshoumaru smiles, pleased that his little brother remembers his face. I guess it's been a while since the family reunion, huh? Kagome is alarmed at this new information as Sesshoumaru finally sees her. She gulps, and Sesshoumaru maintains his sardonic smirk, recognizing her as a human girl. Kagome sidles up behind Inuyasha, stuttering as she asks what the significance of that is. Sesshoumaru says it's fitting for Inuyasha to hang around humans while his mother struggles against the chains pulling on her body and neck.

Again, Sesshoumaru, you're using words like "vile" to describe humans when YOU were the one who ripped a dude's head off. Maybe we just don't have the same definition of the word, and I'd need a human-to-demon tourist dictionary in order to communicate with the guy. I don't know.

Anyway, Kagome realizes that she was right, and Inuyasha's mom is actually human. Inuyasha cracks his knuckles as he holds them up for Sesshoumaru to see, asking him if he came all the way over to tell him that. Sesshoumaru calls Inuyasha an idiot for thinking he has so much free time. I don't know, you DO kind of look like you've been just wandering around looking for a damn grave. Speaking of which, Sesshoumaru tells Inuyasha the real reason he's here is to ask for the location of their dad's tomb. Inuyasha repeats those words like a question and says that he has no clue where it is.

Sesshoumaru says that if Inuyasha won't tell him, he'll just have to keep torturing the mom, as if her suffering isn't completely within his control. ASS. The giant-ogre-thing squeezes her, making her groan, to Kagome's horror. She stutters Inuyasha's name with her fists raised, but he's not paying any attention to her, scoffing as he glares at Sesshoumaru instead. He says Sesshoumaru must think he's stupid to pull this trick, because his mother has been dead for years. Well, I mean, he did SAY he thought you were stupid before, Inuyasha.

He says it again now, with a chuckle, telling Inuyasha that he brought his mother's soul back and even gave her a body for his sake. Inuyasha looks dumbfounded, and his mother reaches out a trembling hand toward him, stuttering his name. He's starting to consider the possibility that she might be real while she tells him not to worry about her, because she's already died once.

AH! Was her first death this painful, though? That's what I want to know.

Inuyasha, unable to watch his mother being squeezed to death, curses and leaps forward again to take off the giant-ogre-thing's arm with his claws. Inuyasha's mom falls to the ground and Kagome runs to kneel by her side, asking if she's alright. Inuyasha yells at Kagome to take his mother away from there, but...

Inuyasha's mom calls out his name, holding out her hands and emitting some kind of light from between her palms. A lotus flower appears in the light and bursts as Inuyasha is pushed into the light by the ogre hand, as well as his mother's open arms. Sesshoumaru does a Tarzan slide down the giant-ogre-thing's arm toward the light, but it's too late, because Inuyasha, his mom, and Kagome are shown to have already teleported away with the giant-ogre-thing shifting its hand.

Inuyasha groans as he opens an eye, laying face down on the ground. He sits up to see he and the still out Kagome beside him have been transported to a beautiful world of grass, a river, lily-pads and a gazebo type thing behind some mist crawling over the ground. Looking around, starts to say something about the landscape, when his mother interrupts him.

I hope Inuyasha's mom has her passport on her. She says it seems like Inuyasha really grew up, and Inuyasha replies that he kind of had to, given he was only a child when she died. She apologizes, as if she was somehow responsible for her own death, saying it must have been hard on him. He tells her it wasn't all that hard, and she shouldn't blame herself besides with a casual stance. Because he's an awesome cool son.

As Inuyasha's mom says his name in order to continue their conversation, focus shifts to Kagome opening her eyes. She sees Inuyasha and his mother talking across the way, and is glad that they're safe. She gasps, however, when she sees something a bit on the freaky side.

SHE'S THE SLENDERMAN!!

Or maybe not, but she at least appears to not really be Inuyasha's mom, as Kagome notes while looking at the newly subtle sidelong look Slenderman Mom is giving Inuyasha. Because things can ALWAYS get worse, Kagome realizes that she's not able to speak to warn Inuyasha that there's some kind of faceless creature posing as his mom. Shit.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I remember when I first read these chapters and immediately thought Sesshoumaru was already a character set up for tremendous growth. This was coming from a 16-year-old who didn't know her ass from her elbow when it came to writing and critique, so you know it was more obvious than anything I've commented on so far.

The thing about Inuyasha is that, right from the get-go, it's a story about race. Inuyasha's main issue is that he's a mash-up of two different peoples, humans and demons, and his motivation is to throw away one half of his identity and let the other half be who he is. His journey is about being part of two different worlds and never truly belonging to either one, which is a VERY big issue for bi-racial folks in Japan, ESPECIALLY those who are half-Korean.

Sesshoumaru represents everything that Inuyasha wants to become. He's powerful, he's slick, and he KNOWS this. As Inuyasha's older brother, and his only living family, Sesshoumaru is the default role model. He must have been even more so when Inuyasha was a child, seeing as how they've met before. The problem is that Sesshoumaru actively rejects Inuyasha by mocking him and expressing disgust for him, a metaphorical unobtainable ideal with a snobbish, mocking and superior attitude. Sesshoumaru is that Photoshopped image all of us have sighed wistfully at as we eat our kale chips and lift our weights. Well, if that image in the magazine also tortured our supposedly resurrected mothers as well.

Which is why Sesshoumaru is such a great candidate for development. At this point, he doesn't have much to distinguish him from Yura except pure brute strength. He has the same kind of attitude as her, though with a little more snob mixed in for that extra sour flavor. His sass, however, isn't the product of having genuine fun with murder and mayhem, as much as it is his desire to express how much better he is than Inuyasha. It's already obvious that he doesn't want to go to his father's grave to pay respect; he's after something in there that he thinks he deserves simply for existing as his magnificent self and not a dirty human or hanyou. He's seeking validation for his asshole attitude.

This suggests some insecurity. We don't know why he's SUDDENLY searching for this grave after years of not caring, but maybe, just maybe, some recent blow to his ego happened making him think he needed an inheritance from his father that he didn't give a shit about before. Too bad RT never tells us either way.

Fanfiction? GET ON THAT.