Inuyasha Manga: 022 Pleading for Life

I'm pleading for a CHAIR at this point. I still don't have anything in my new apartment that I didn't bring with me in the car, and the movers just called to to tell me that I still have another WEEK before the furniture comes. The floor is too hard for my bony, non-existent ass and my back is killing me.

But hey, at least I'm not Inuyasha right now.

You know there is, girl! Myouga told you, and as we've discussed, Myouga is a crafty little devil. Kagome asks Myouga if they'll be able to save the lord and all the trapped girls when they drive Tsukumo no Gama from the lord's body, and Myouga confirms this, saying that the demon is still a toad, and toads are especially vulnerable to heat. His plan is to pour a ton of boiling water on Tsukumo no Gama, and Kagome considers this a moment while Inuyasha lays bleeding on the floor behind her. Maybe think of getting everyone out of the line of fire first, Kagome?

Myouga goes on to say if she douses Tsukumo in boiling water, he'll flee the lord's body because it's so unbearable. Kagome looks annoyed as hell when she asks Myouga how he proposes that she start boiling water in a place like this. Myouga says that boiling oil would work just as well and Kagome yells that the oil idea is just as useless. Myouga must be hallucinating by seeing an abundance of water and oil everywhere in the damn room. Senile old fart.

Tsukumo no Gama's tongue wraps around Kagome's ankle while she's arguing with Myouga.

How she's still upright when being held by the LEG here, I'll never know.

Nobunaga shuffles over to Tsukumo no Gama, holding onto his injured shoulder until he restrains the frog by gripping him under the arm, telling his lord to stop and not do this. Tsukumo lets go of Kagome, who slams down onto the floor. Kagome sits up and looks behind her at Nobunaga, who tells her to find some water and boil it while he holds Tsukumo no Gama.

Inuyasha groans as he regains consciousness and pushes himself up, and Kagome says his name as though she's surprised he's waking up. Inuyasha claims that he was lying there listening to the stupid idea the whole time. He was just resting then, I guess. Kagome kneels next to him, fretting over his wound. Inuyasha just scoffs, saying that he was a fool for having mercy on the frog, then stands and raises Tessaiga again. He tells Nobunaga to stop shielding Tsukumo no Gama, but after a bewildered moment, Nobunaga stutters at Inuyasha to sheath his sword. Nobunaga reminds him that the lord's heart is still in the body.

Temper rising along with his voice, Inuyasha threatens Nobunaga with death too if he doesn't get out of the way. Nobunaga shouts that Inuyasha mustn't do that, and Inuyasha tells him that if he doesn't want that he should step aside. Nobunaga refuses, because if there's a small chance that the lord can be saved, he won't sit back and watch him die. Even if he wasn't a lord, Nobunaga wouldn't want him to perish.

Surprise! You're a decent person! Still, Inuyasha, Kagome and Tsuyu all stare at him and say his name in hushed tones as though he's a two-headed cat or a saint. Not sure which. He says that in this age of violence (that he shouldn't be able to reference as such because he has no other frame of reference for human culture) he might be made fun of and thought naive, but he feels how he feels dawg.

Inuyasha says fine, to which remark Nobunaga gives him a dumbfounded noise. Sheathing Tessaiga, Inuyasha says that he won't raise a finger to help, in the interest of seeing how Nobunaga manages to carry out his ideals. Nobunaga looks relieved and thankful when he asks if Inuyasha understands how he feels, while Tsukumo grunt-chuckles in his grip. Tsukumo easily fligs his arm back and strikes Nobunaga to the ground, thanking him for pleading for his frog-life. Kagome stutters out a plea to Inuyasha, who has sat his ass down and crossed his arms. He says that if he helps out, the lord dies, and that's the end of it.

Nobunaga leans up from his position on the floor and begs Kagome to hurry. She grabs Princess Tsuyu's wrist and pulls her out into the hallway in search of something hot. She thinks of fire and asks Tsuyu if there's a torch somewhere, but Nobunaga's monkey leaps ahead of them before Tsuyu even answers.

Back in the room, Nobunaga is getting yet another razor frog tongue to the arm, Tsukumo yelling that he's in the way.

You see Inuyasha's face? That is the face of a man who has had it up to HERE with this crap.

While Nobunaga lays in front of Inuyasha and groans, Inuyasha wonders if the idiot has been brought back to Earth yet. He sees Nobunaga open his mouth to speak, so leans in curiously. Nobunaga sticks to his guns, telling Inuyasha not to kill Tsukumo no Gama. Widening his eyes in surprise, Inuyasha continues to marvel at Nobunaga and his lofty notions.

Meanwhile, Tsukumo no Gama is shuffling down the hall after Kagome and Tsuyu, croaking that they won't get away. Kagome looks back and is horrified that their pursuer is gaining. The monkey (whose name I just refuse to learn no matter how many times I've seen it) is hopping back toward them from ahead in the corridor, holding a dish with a lit wick up above his head. Kagome congratulates him on work well-done, until he hops into her hands presenting the dish and it looks awfully small to her. I don't know what you thought he'd bring over, but it was never going to be a bonfire, Kagome. That dish is already about half his size, so I'm kind of impressed he managed to bring something THAT big.

Whoops, all that shit Inuyasha was complaining about Kagome bringing is all over the place now. What a mess.

Before Tsukumo no Gama can reach the kneeling Tsuyu, Inuyasha jumps in front of him, glaring. Kagome looks around from the floor in her face, identifying him out of the corner of her eye, apparently. Inuyasha cracks his knuckles while displaying them to Tsukumo, telling Kagome not to even bother spouting any more ideological drivel at him. Kagome begins to cry, because she's super attached to her ideological drivel.

Nobunaga crawls pathetically up behind Tsukumo no Gama, but at least he's being quiet for once. Meanwhile, Kagome stops crying upon seeing a can of hairspray that landed in front of her. She excitedly thinks that she CAN drive the frog out after all, and pushes herself into a sitting position, holding the dish of fire as Inuyasha promises to kill Tsukumo and leaps toward him.

That's using your head, girl! Of course, you're also destroying the ozone layer, but when you're also creating an infinite time loop with your adventures, that's small potatoes comparatively.

A frog-like spirit-ghost-thing flies right out of the clothes of the lord, and Kagome is amazed at the fact that she did it. As he's flying off, Tsukumo no Gama displays a prominent sparkle from his ghost form. Kagome alerts Inuyasha, and he leaps into action, saying she doesn't have to tell HIM twice. He pulls out a simple Sankon Tessou with claws on this one, shredding Tsukumo no Gama and catching the Shikon shard out of the air when it falls.

Nobunaga gives Inuyasha such an intense look of admiration as he says his name that I'm almost convinced they're gonna make out. Inuyasha looks over at him in confusion, probably wondering if there's anything in his teeth. Nobunaga grabs Inuyasha's hand and thanks him for his restraint. I'm sure Inuyasha would very much have appreciated YOUR restraint if you hadn't been so eager to hold his hand, Nobunaga.

Nobunaga states that the groaning, moaning lord is safe because Inuyasha was patient enough to wait for the demon to be driven out before killing it.

Nobunaga is man-crushing on Inuyasha so hard right now, and all because he doesn't get the whole subjugation-necklace thing.

Kagome walks up and tells Inuyasha to just leave it be. Meanwhile, Tsuyu calls out to Nobunaga from a little ways away. His heart hammers as he looks back at her and says her name too, title and all. She stumbles to her feet, tears in her eyes, and it appears that she's going to happily leap into Nobunaga's arms, but he falls over trying to embrace thin air. She was actually running toward the lord, whom she squeezes while she thanks Nobunaga for protecting him.

Suuuuure does... Awkward sauce...

Beneath a tree shedding cherry blossoms all over the place, Kagome raises her canned tea to the fact that they successfully saved all those girls and stopped Tsukumo no Gama's assholery. She asks if that isn't super great, but when she looks at Nobunaaga expectantly, he's sitting some distance away off the picnic blanket she and Inuyasha are sharing, staring the other way. Monkey atop his head too, can't forget that. Kagome encourages him to cheer up, but Inuyasha comes right out an calls him an idiot for defending the life of his romantic rival while almost getting himself killed.

Nobunaga hangs his head, chuckles, then lifts his chin again to look at the sky. He says Inuyasha's absolutely right, he's a moron. Inuyasha will say one thing in favor of Nobunaga's stupidity, though, and that's that it managed to save a man's life. Nobunaga looks back at Inuyasha with a smile, thinking that it helps to hear that. He stands with the help of a walking stick and says he feels a lot better.

Or, Inuyasha is just a REALLY slow talker.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It was a solid wrap-up compared to the last arc, but this arc also didn't require complicated rituals to get in and out of situations. All it needed was some good-old Kagome ingenuity. It was a very creative solution to the problem and I liked the throw-back to the beginning of the arc when Inuyasha asks why Kagome brings all this stuff with her every time she comes across time. The answer here is you never know what you might need.

My only issue with the climax is that it was awfully convenient that the lord didn't sustain painful burns from the implementation. One could hand-wave it away as Tsukumo no Gama having overtaken the body so thoroughly (the lord had even had the appearance of a frog for a while) that he was the only one that really got blasted by the fire, but the whole point of the plan was to make the LORD'S body uninhabitable for him. Of course, one could also say that while Tsukumo no Gama was the only one blasted with the fire, he left behind the body to flee from the heat faster. That could be it.

I'm going to miss Nobunaga. He was hilarious throughout the whole arc, and he was a real good sport too. Most of all, though, he chose to protect life all throughout the length of his appearance. He didn't do it because the lord was important to him, he didn't even do it because he was important to Tsuyu. He did it because the lord was a human being and didn't deserve to die trapped in a malevolent possession. The lord was as much a hostage as the girls, and Nobunaga recognized that and negotiated for his release well. Even Inuyasha has to compliment Nobunaga at the end, because even though he still thinks of Nobunaga's actions as stupid, that's only because they didn't take the path of least resistance. It would have been EASIER to just kill the lord along with Tsukumo no Gama, but Nobunaga didn't want to take the easy route. He wanted to take the RIGHT route and protect the lord's life over what is simple or even his own feelings.

He may not have gotten the girl, but he stood up for others and his own ideals, and that's pretty fucking hardcore. Respect, bro.