Inuyasha Manga: 052 Jewel Thief

Miroku's thinking a bit smaller for his next heist, because let's face it, stealing a tiny jewel is probably way easier than robbing a whole house while its owners stand right outside. It was no less masterfully done, though, which you have to hand to him. Not many people could pull off something like that, so there's no doubt this smaller job will be cake comparatively speaking. Inuyasha and company won't know what hit them... at least for a little while.

If you would promise to get him out of whatever jam you would be getting him INTO, maybe he wouldn't fret, hm?

At a sliding, scraping noise up on the side of the cliff their pass is rounding, Inuyasha and Kagome look up.

Lol at Inuyasha's face here.

"Did that boulder just call us bastards, or is there something crazy in my ear?"

Kagome, Shippou and the bike are shunted to the side while Inuyasha is hit full-on by the malicious rock. Somehow, Shippou is tumbling down the next to Inuyasha while he's trying to push back against the giant boulder. Weren't you beside Kagome a moment earlier? Maybe he bounced, or something...

Kagome peers over the edge of the pass, calling out to Inuyasha, but is pulled back suddenly by her collar. She screams as she's yanked into the lap of the quick Miroku, who is already pedaling lazily on her bike. He... learned how to ride a bike in a matter of seconds. You gotta be kidding me. It took ME a ton of consecutive weekends and quite a few tantrums to learn how, and I was a CHILD. I know being jealous of a fictional character is pathetic, but...

Fuck you, Miroku. Just fuck you.

Kagome recovers from a brief speechlessness to ask WHAT Miroku is doing and not HOW he's so damn gifted. He tells her to put her mind at rest, because since he's in service to Buddha, he can't POSSIBLY be a suspicious person. Not even when he's actively stealing and kidnapping, apparently. Sure, you TELLING Kagome that you're not suspicious will TOTALLY make her ignore how suspicious you're being, dude.

He says that Kagome just happened to come with the Shikon fragment he wanted to take. Well, if she wasn't convinced you were a sleazeball before, she is now, because she's fucking pissed at being talked about like she's some sort of add-on freebie. Down the cliff, Inuyasha strains against the boulder creature he finally managed to stop, and catches sight of the man riding away with Kagome on her own bike. He shouts out her name, wondering who the asshole who's spiriting her away is. Inuyasha shoves his fist into the surprisingly soft-looking face of the boulder creature, yelling at it to get out of his way.

Miroku looks back, seeing the racoon thing he abused transforming back into his racoon self and throwing his arms over his head, crying that he's going to be killed while the sword starts to come down.

For how often Inuyasha's face gets smashed into the ground through various means, I'm starting to ship them.

Kagome screams Inuyasha's name and elbows Miroku aside so she can run to him, which Miroku is cool with. She slides down the side of the pass next to where Inuyasha's legs stick out of the side of the hill perfectly perpendicular to it. A little later, once he's been set right again, he curses the strange houshi for doing that to him... whatever THAT happened to be. Inuyasha asks who the hell he was, and Kagome recounts how Miroku said something about being a servant to the Buddha. However, she's more concerned with what it was he managed to do with his hand back there, exposing his right palm in Inuyasha's direction and seeming to produce a strong pulling force from it. Inuyasha wonders the same thing from the other end; the strong wind that pulled him toward the strange man, and how he managed that from such a distance.

Kagome suddenly gasps and stands, exclaiming in displeasure and making Inuyasha look at her curiously. She complains that Miroku took off with her bike, which leaves Inuyasha speechless for a moment. He comes back at her with a note on her stupid priorities, because SHE was the one who was almost taken, calling her a bitch in the process. Inuyasha mutters bitterly that he can't take his eyes off her for two seconds as she stares off into the distance behind him. What are you doing, Inuyasha! You took your eyes off her again! Does irony mean NOTHING to you???

Kagome kneels next to him and apologizes, causing him a moment of flustered confusion wherein he denies being worried about her or anything like that. He was REALLY worried about the Shikon fragment she carries, and she sheepishly says that's WHY she's apologizing.

He is PISSED.

Sometime later, Inuyasha is leaping angrily past some dumbfounded villagers with Kagome and Shippou on his back as he screams that Miroku is making fucking fools of him and his posse. No, I didn't think that "leaping angrily" was possible either, but Inuyasha seemed to make it happen. He insists that their thief couldn't have gotten too far, because of how often the bike falls over. This prompts Kagome to ask if Inuyasha actually practiced riding it, and Inuyasha tells her to shut up.

See?? Inuyasha didn't learn how to ride it right away! I'm not sure if he EVER did, actually...

Imagine that. There are women in the world that don't fit his standard of beauty, but might very well be attractive to someone else. What a tragedy.

Fair warning, Miroku is going to bring out the WORST in my sarcasm, mark my words.

He's thinking that he should have brought the pretty-as-a-picture Kagome along after all, which would have involved him NOT respecting her shoving him away. He is the biggest piece of shit. Meanwhile, Kagome is actually pretty close by, asking Inuyasha if he's picked up any clues yet. Inuyasha yells at her to shut up, because he's confused by all these scents mixed together in the town. He's crouched on the ground, sniffing, while Kagome glances nervously at all the townspeople that have gathered around them, because they must look suspicious as all hell.

Inuyasha isn't paying a lick of attention, trying to catch that bastard's scent. A couple of men mutter about how weird it is that there's youkai in such a busy town, and a flustered Kagome hisses at Inuyasha that she's totally right. The men continue to mumble about how Inuyasha and Shippou look okay, but Kagome's weird clothes definitely put her into "youkai" category for them. She's shocked that they should think SHE'S the youkai here, and Inuyasha says this serves her right. Now she knows how it feels.

Still sniffing after all the negative attention has dispersed, Inuyasha is asked by Kagome if he really thinks their thief is hanging around in a place like this. She's begun to doubt that he would come to rest in a big town, but then spots her bike propped against a wall, being sniffed at by a dog. Inuyasha and Kagome stare for a moment before they go barging into the building, throwing open the door to call Miroku a bastard and bike thief, both of which are more than accurate descriptions.

I can't imagine MYSELF being very offended by Miroku walking away from me, but then again I've never been under the impression that I was some sort of irresistible beauty either. Maybe that would make a difference?

Inuyasha swipes at Miroku, shouting that his opponent is him, but Miroku deftly ducks. He pretends to be shocked at how violent Inuyasha is while the girls scream in the background. Grunting, Inuyasha shows off his claws again, and tells Miroku about his feeling that he's not going to give back the jewel very easily. Miroku holds up the fragment he stole from Kagome tauntingly, saying with a smirk that it shouldn't be in a youkai's hands. That doesn't make it any safer when it's in yours, man.

Inuyasha lunges toward Miroku with a curse, and Miroku hops over the railing that was lining the building, running into the road. Inuyasha follows, shouting at him to wait, but Miroku says he doesn't want to be drawn into a pointless fight. A couple of women stare in shock as they pass. Inuyasha draws Tessaiga, telling Miroku that he'll just have to die, then. Miroku glances over his shoulder in surprise at the sword.

Maybe not an ordinary human, but an all too ordinary douchebag.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I snarked about Miroku just telling Kagome that he wasn't suspicious above, even when he was doing rotten things, but it's not out of the question that saying he's a houshi does relieve suspicion at his expense a lot of the time. We're reminded here how his position as a Buddhist priest has put him in power over others, and he's used that power to steal before. This is a tactic used by actual real clergymen ALL THE TIME, too, in order to get away with all sorts of unscrupulous or reprehensible behavior. It's an element of realism, to be sure, but I'm not too crazy about it being made into a joke like this.

In the last chapter, the joke was okay because it was punching UP. The person he was stealing from was established to be an unscrupulous and underhanded asshole himself, not to mention incredibly privileged, so it felt justified. However, when he's GRABBING Kagome and telling her that it's all okay because he's a servant of Buddha? It has that sleazy implication that he's done this before, and gotten away with it. I'm pretty grossed out by the implication, but luckily, I'm not the only one. In the future, he WON'T be getting away with it, and he'll be called on that shit too, so I can take comfort in that at least.

Other than that, there's nice pacing around the fact that we haven't found out how Miroku's mysterious suction effect works yet. The question being extended into the next chapter builds anticipation for the reveal, and the other information that will come with it.