Inuyasha Manga: 040 New Moon

They say new moons are all about new beginnings and starting over from scratch, but who wants to do that every month? It's stressful to start again, because that means building everything from the ground up, from nothing. Like starting a brand new game of Minecraft, you don't even have your basic tools to help out and have to rely on your bare hands for a while. Sounds like powerlessness to me.

And I'm sure Inuyasha can attest to that.

But first...

Things are looking pretty bad for the old guy, huh? It's because of this that Nazuna stutters she can't just LEAVE the monk there, but he tells her to hurry and go because his meager powers won't hold the spiders back for long. Looks to me like your meager powers have already fully failed, dude, but maybe the spiders aren't doing as much damage as they could be right now and I just don't know it.

The monk suggests that Nazuna can at least go to Inuyasha and his party, saving herself. Nazuna's eyes brim with tears, but I feel very little sympathy for her because Kagome rescued Inuyasha facing FAR more spiders in the last chapter. Sure, she had Shippou's foxfire too, but Nazuna could surely knock the few spiders she has to face away and drag the monk out of there. She's just being a lazy chicken at this point.

Back in the woods, Kagome is kneeling in front of the very different-looking Inuyasha, the only word she's able to speak being his name.

With the summation of just WHAT it is about Inuyasha that isn't right at this moment done, Myouga explains that hanyou like Inuyasha lose their youkai powers for a short period of time. He says that hanyou don't reveal that time to others because they're so vulnerable, and that time for Inuyasha must be the first night of the month when the moon doesn't appear. Kagome realizes this means the new moon with a look of surprise.

A monthly period of vulnerability in which Inuyasha is overly cranky and irritable? Somebody get this boy a menstrual hut.

Myouga hops over to Inuyasha and asks why he couldn't have at least told HIM, but Inuyasha responds that Myouga would obviously have run away by now if he knew. Myouga doesn't say anything to refute this at first, then indignantly asks if Inuyasha trusts him THAT little, prompting Inuyasha to cite his pregnant pause as PROOF that Myouga would have run.

Kagome throws her indignant hat into the ring too, questioning why SHE couldn't have known instead as Inuyasha recoils from her lean-in. She says she wouldn't have insisted they sleep in this nest of youkai if he had told her, and asks if he couldn't have trusted HER a little.

Ouch. Inuyasha says lacking trust is how he's always lived, so she has no right to complain about it. Kagome hangs her head and apologizes, but when she looks back up, tears are pooling in her eyes and she warbles that he could have trusted her a little. Inuyasha flinches back at this sight, but leans back toward her to try and tell her it's no time to be crying. She presses the heels of her hands into her leaking eyes and says that he's always trying to do things in his cold uncaring way.

Then she explodes at him angrily waving a finger in his face as she says that it's because of that they've ended up in the worst possible situation and calls him an idiot. Inuyasha is now leaning away from her, flabbergasted by her sudden change in attitude.

Shippou broods in the foreground, eventually raising a determined fist while he thinks that he's the only one that can protect them now that Inuyasha has degenerated into an incompetent human. He resolves to hang tight. This is a kid that has WAY too much to prove. All he needs is to be in a dive bar wearing a cowboy hat.

Some nearby bushes rustle, and get looks of dread from every member of the party, until...

Oh, it's that clumsy jerk who's also a coward. Nothing to worry about here.

Inuyasha identifies her while Kagome asks if she's alright. They apparently hear from her about the state of the monk back at the temple, and she ends her story with a plea for them to help him because he's still alive. Nazuna asks if the youkai Inuyasha isn't strong, and Kagome doesn't know what to say, given the current state of said youkai Inuyasha. Kagome turns to the tree behind her, which Inuyasha has seated himself on the other side of, asking him what should be done.

He scoffs and says this really sucks. Agreed.

He stands up and tells Kagome they should go, not intending to overstay his welcome in such a dangerous place. Nazuna stares, confused by how Inuyasha has turned into a human now. Inuyasha reminds her that she didn't want a youkai's help to begin with, but Nazuna interprets this as an intention to run away and abandon the monk with growing anger. Inuyasha is fine with her putting it that way, though, so Shippou turns to Kagome with a question about what they should do next.

Kagome contemplates this for half a second before she gasps loudly. Inuyasha turns and looks at her inquisitively. She holds up a finger to her chin and sheepishly admits she left the Shikon fragments in her bag at the temple. Inuyasha stares at her in shock, then in anger.

Things are quiet at the temple despite the human-headed spiders crawling around on it, but not for long.

Thanks for the verbal update Inuyasha. Also, is that supposed to be "blasphemous" that Nazuna is saying? I'm not sure what being basphemous is.

Inuyasha tosses Kagome his Tessaiga, which she catches with a bewildered look. She begins to ask a question, but Inuyasha interrupts to tell her to wait there with Nazuna and she can use the Tessaiga to fend off the spiders even though it won't transform. Then he charges into the temple with a quivering Shippou still clinging on his shoulder, trying to convince himself to hang in there.

Kagome tells him to take care with Nazuna hanging silently in the back. After a pause, Nazuna asks if Inuyasha will really help the monk, like she wasn't the one to ask him to. Kagome assures her that despite appearances, Inuyasha does have his good side. She's more concerned with when his body will return to normal, though.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha heads back to the room they were occupying before, which is now covered in spider silk. He notes that Kagome's stuff doesn't appear to be there anymore when some shuffling noises sound down the dark pathway. Inuyasha holds up one of the grave markers and commands Shippou to use his foxfire. Shippou complies, lighting the marker aflame, and Inuyasha launches it like a javelin into the darkness. The flames catch near a shadowed lump.

Hit the nail on the head there, Shippou.

Inuyasha surmises that dragging the heavy bag around was the reason the spiders didn't come after them when they fled. Then he leaps into the room, shouting that they must have been after the Shikon shards the whole time. The spiders lunge to meet his attack, but Shippou throws some more fire at them while Inuyasha knocks them away with a flaming grave marker. He suggests to Shippou that if they can burn the spider silk completely, they should be fine, and Shippou is stoked that his foxfire can save the day as he shoots another blast of it in front of him.

Inuyasha runs toward the bag, but pauses as he's distracted by something other than the silk draped over every available surface like a gaudy Halloween haunt.

Oh, who am I kidding? I would totally LOVE this haunted house.

Inuyasha looks at the old man's head lolled to one side with its eyes closed and wonders if he's dead. Outside, Nazuna is informing Kagome that the monk has been protecting the mountain from the Spider-Heads with his priestly powers and holding memorials for those killed by them to ensure they wouldn't be resurrected. I don't know if he's been doing a terribly good job, then, considering there are a SHIT TON of heads in there that have to belong to every single person on the freaking mountain.

Crouching and hugging herself, Nazuna says that the monk has been taking care of her ever since her father died too. Kagome thinks it's a little suspicious that the Spider-Heads were able to get THIS violent with the monk doing all that and starts to wonder if maybe, the monk has done something himself.

Back inside, Inuyasha approaches the monk and calls to him. The monk responds, recognizing him as Inuyasha though his eyes remain closed. He reaches toward Inuyasha while asking for help and Inuyasha curses, grabbing onto the old man's wrist and telling him to hold on.

Oh hi, Mister Fantastic, didn't see you there. When did you get this gig as a villain in a Japanese horror comic?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It seemed to have just about everything that I've always loved about the manga as a whole. It started with Inuyasha and Kagome having a serious talk about what trust in each other means. Inuyasha has lived a life in which it could mean death if he gives away too much about himself and his vulnerable points, a state of being that will be elaborated upon even further in just a few chapters. It's entirely natural to him to keep this vulnerable period to himself, because he's never been able to trust anyone with the information. However, Kagome is absolutely correct when she says that if he HAD trusted his companions, they wouldn't be stuck in this dangerous situation they're in now. She had no reason to believe that he would be in a weakened state, so assumed that everything should just be business as usual. It's understandable that she would be frustrated by how closed-off he is when it led to them nearly being killed.

It's unfair of her to judge him as an idiot for this, though, because as I said, hiding this part of his life is only natural to him. Normally it keeps him safe, and he had no way of judging how this old habit would end up actually endangering them because he's never really had constant companions like he does now. Taking into account the will and expectations of those who travel with him has never been something he's had to consider before.

Then, of course, there's the humor elements, which range from Kagome making her own horrible mistake of leaving behind her bag and Shikon shards to Shippou flipping between his little delusions of grandeur and a sense of fear at having gotten in over his head. I often deal with being afraid through humor too, so I really appreciate the sprinkling of this element throughout the awesomely grotesque images in the chapter. It strikes a wonderful balance, and also adds a human component to all of our characters in the complexity of their emotions and reactions to all the environmental obstacles they face.

Inuyasha's idea to use the grave markers as torches to scare away the spiders was BRILLIANT and another one of those creative solutions that I just love seeing in this manga. RT makes her characters into MacGyvers with the ability to work with whatever is available, and I can't get enough of it.

Finally, our cliffhanger is a sudden punch that always leaves me blinking, wondering if that's REALLY the end of the chapter. I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been when it first came out.