The priest who spotted her at the end of the last chapter is questioned by his apprentice, who isn't convinced Kikyou is a monster because she looks perfectly human to him from their spy-point in the trees. His master says that he just doesn't have the training to see what he does. Yeah, I'm sure it's "training" that you're employing to stare creepily at this pretty young woman and claim she's a monster. Sure.
The priest hears a call to him from beyond the tree, so he steps out of his hiding place, at least having the decency to act embarrassed that she noticed he was creeping. Kikyou informs him that she knew he was there the whole time, and he gets all the creepier when his excuse is that her beauty has entranced him. So much skeeve. Kikyou smiles coyly, though, calling him out for the joke she assumes he's telling.
Instead of denying this, the priest deliberately drops a paper scroll on the ground in front of him, asking Kikyou if she could pick it up for him. Kikyou isn't smiling anymore, giving him a quizzical look. He explains that the scroll is a scripture on exorcising demons, which is supposed to show a demon's true form immediately if one touches it. Way to give away your game, dude. Kikyou stares at him blankly for a moment, frowning. She plays his game, however, reaching for the scroll and picking it up without incident, much to the priest's shock.
Kikyou holds it out to him politely with a smile in place again, talking about how it's an awfully valuable scripture to be dropping all over the place. He's flummoxed that there was no reaction.
The priest's apprentice just stands there like a moron, not noticing his master's distress. Kikyou gathers the children around her to leave the spot while the priest wonders what all those shots that went through his body at once even WERE. His apprentice steps up to his doubled-over master, asking him what's the matter, because he's dropped the scroll by his feet again and frozen in place. The priest tells the apprentice to look at the scroll, which has unrolled a bit.
It's blank, which the apprentice notes with alarm. The priest watches the retreating priestess with her gaggle of children surrounding her, thinking that she rebounded the spell of the scroll, and it was the LETTERS on it that went through him. He realizes that Kikyou isn't a youkai or other strange creature, being far stronger and ominous than that.
He calls out to her and she half turns to listen, looking a tad annoyed that he's STILL talking to her. The priest tells her he doesn't know what kind of regret she's holding onto, but she shouldn't be living here, instead returning to where she belongs. The children around Kikyou throw some shade at him and grumble about how he's such a weird guy saying weird things. Kikyou remains silent, though, appearing somewhat melancholy now.
When she's parted with most of the other children, Kikyou is still accompanied by one little girl trotting along beside her and holding her hand. The girl asks Kikyou if she'll teach the children more about plants and flowers tomorrow too, but Kikyou doesn't answer, staring ahead of her with a distracted look. The girl calls her name again, and after yet another pause, she asks if Kikyou is going anywhere.
Kikyou smiles at her, then kneels down and sets her basket full of herbs on the ground to ask if the girl, Sayo, likes her. Sayo answers happily that she likes Kikyou a whole awful lot.
Elsewhere, someone is at a mansion asking about a youkai that supposedly steals the souls of young girls who have died. Someone else answers that it happens before the soul can ascend to heaven, and that many people have seen this theft with their own eyes. Within the mansion, Miroku is sitting with a Daimyou who looks quite upset, telling Miroku that it's sad enough that the princess passed away. If her soul was taken too, it would be devastating. Said princess's body is lying covered behind a curtain, a sword laid over her chest.
Miroku tells the lord not to worry, that he and his friends will protect that soul without fail.
He dismisses the notion with a "whatever" while the lord looks a bit consternated at it. Inuyasha complains that Miroku is an indecent guy, Kagome hunched beside him appearing a bit sheepish. She suggests that half of his absence is probably him paying attention to THEIR needs, which has Inuyasha puzzled and asking her what she's talking about. Kagome tries to come up with a delicate way of putting it, settling on the question if Miroku isn't deliberately letting them be alone together. Inuyasha's eyes are wide in his sudden realization of what she means.
Kagome claims that it looks like the body could move at any moment, her and Inuyasha's wide stares still fixed forward. A little sweatdrop between her eyes indicates this is an excuse, and Inuyasha turns an exasperated face to her to question if her fear is really all she has to express. She repeats the question, and accuses him of thinking about something indecent. OH PLEASE, KAGOME. Like you weren't setting the stage for those thoughts to come up. I don't believe for a SECOND that you weren't thinking the same thing!
Inuyasha scoffs and yells that SHE was the one who leaned on him, and she takes that as confirmation that he WAS thinking dirty thoughts. This is one of those occasional times that Kagome reminds me of what a DICK she is.
Meanwhile, Miroku has a sweatdrop of his own at his temple as he says that he has to get back soon, being so worried about the older princess's soul. A chubby-faced girl is hanging off a sighing Miroku in the next panel, pleading with him not to go. Shippou is in the background, snacking as is his habit, and dryly stating that it looks like THIS princess takes after her father. Good deal, given that she's been spared Miroku's sexual harassment because of it.
In the other room, Inuyasha grumbles about Kagome leading him on earlier, and Kagome grumbles about him even THINKING of such things in a place like this. Kagome, your projection is HARDCORE right now.
Inuyasha doesn't stop to question, shouting that it's here as he draws Tessaiga. With one swipe the fragile creature is torn apart, dropping the soul trailing from the dead princess's mouth. Said princess's body collapses back onto its bed as the soul returns into the mouth again, Inuyasha and Kagome staring. Kagome haltingly declares the soul safe, and Inuyasha sheathes Tessaiga again, saying that it seemed too quick a solution to the problem. Peering around Inuyasha's shoulder, Kagome shouts at him to wait. She alerts him to the fact that there are others outside, and they hurry to witness several flying past the moon, each carrying a whipsy ball of light in their spindly arms; the stolen souls of the dead.
Miroku emerges from the mansion too, looking harried with Shippou clinging to one shoulder and the remaining princess yanking his sleeve down the other. He shouts that they have to get going after the creatures, Inuyasha asking what he's been doing while he and Kagome stare in shock.
A lake next to the village Kikyou has settled in glitters in the moonlight. In the hut on the hill where Kikyou dropped off Sayo, the little girl lays awake among the rest of her sleeping family. She worries that Kikyou didn't look too happy earlier, because of the priest showing up. She sighs and shuffles to a corner of the hut to a big jar of water, pouring herself a drink, unable to sleep. A breeze blows and shifts the screen hanging over the door outside, allowing Sayo to see a clear figure passing in the night. The priestess clothes are unmistakable; it's Kikyou alright.
Kikyou makes a beeline for that lake, gazing out over it. Sayo has followed, hiding behind a tree, wondering what Kikyou is doing so late at night. She recalls the priest telling Kikyou to go back where she belongs and frets some more that Kikyou might be going off to somewhere else as she watches Kikyou from around the tree. Kikyou takes the tie from her hair so her loose ponytail is freed, and Sayo continues to spy while snake-like blurs descend from the sky.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? We're getting a glimpse here of how Kikyou is adjusting to her resurrection, and it doesn't appear to be easy. She implies that she's had to move around quite a bit, and not by her own will. Since the upcoming move she's contemplating appears to have started with the priest who called her out during the beginning of the chapter, I'm guessing there have been a few of those individuals who saw her for what she really was and forced her to leave.
I'm also guessing that she has to keep going to new places because she's likely to eat through the local supply of young girls' souls pretty quickly. Yes, this was undoubtedly a pretty rough time for young women to live in, but I still doubt there was a steady stream of their deaths to satisfy Kikyou's need for them, at least not sustainably in one place. Kikyou would probably have to wander a bit to find places with a few dead already pending for heaven.
Which brings me to how long these dead girls have to wait to get in. The daimyou Miroku was speaking with indicated that there's a delay. I don't know too much about Shintoism or Buddhism as religions, so maybe someone can enlighten me as to whether this is actually specified within the dogmas, or if RT made up this bit. It's not necessarily important. I'm just a bit curious.
As for Kagome and Inuyasha, their fumbling with their new relationship is about par. I made fun of Kagome for being a jerk to Inuyasha earlier for backtracking so thoroughly on her suggestions, but this is to be expected. Kagome has mentioned before that she hadn't been on a date or been hugged so intimately by a boy before Inuyasha, so it's understandable that she would be nervous about being alone with him at first. She wants to bring it up and draw attention to it, because it's a little romantic, but she also doesn't want to go too fast too soon. Also, girls are told to ignore their *ahem* desires, so her projection of them onto Inuyasha is kind of typical.
Sure, she may not have been imagining them doing the deed right then and there, but there's no way she hadn't at least PERIPHERALLY thought of the possibility. Let's not pretend that girls are any less prone to that than boys.
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