Some village headman asks Miroku if his friend the exterminator will really be able to slay the youkai this way, and Miroku assures this doubter of awesomeness that Sango is a specialist. Kagome is squatting by the other side of the building, wafting the fragrant smoke through a hole in the foundation from its billowing container with a fan while wearing a mask over her nose and mouth. Fruits of that lovely modern first aid kit, no doubt. Kirara sits behind her, probably to avoid getting in the direct past of the smell, as Kagome mutters about this feeling a bit more like an insect extermination.
She pulls the mask off with a hooked finger to yell at Sango if she's having any luck, and I'm guessing the answer is no. I have to guess because the focus suddenly switches to Inuyasha sits curled on the ground next to Miroku with his sleeves crossed in front of his nose, groaning. A couple of villagers note his youkai-appearance and wonder if HE'S been exterminated, and Miroku looks stares down at him. No kind words to spare for the suffering hanyou, I see. Shippou at least says that Inuyasha has a weakness to smells, though I'm sure Inuyasha would take the word "weakness" as an insult and bop him one good if he was feeling a bit better.
Miroku's eyes wander to the crowd of villagers, where he spots a woman with the collar of her kimono pulled over her head like a hood. He judges her quite the beauty.
Wow, I am the biggest asshole in the WORLD right now.
Inside a nearby mansion, the headman confirms with Sango that it was indeed a monster-mouse that was their youkai. Sango says that the nest has been taken out as well, but pushes a pyramid of dumplings toward him just in case they come back. She's instructing him on how to use these deadly snacks while Kagome and Shippo sit with a still nauseated Inuyasha, by the looks of his swirly eyes. She asks him if it's still painful, rubbing his back in an attempt to comfort him, but suddenly looks around and asks where Miroku got to.
Shippou informs her that Miroku went off with some girl, and Kagome scoffs with indignation. Sango scoots over to complain that he did it while everyone ELSE was busy working (or in Inuyasha's case, being sick) to boot. Shippou wears a stern look on his face as he says that this girl he left with was beautiful and matter-of-factly states that Miroku probably went to ask her to bear his child. Since this is the first time Sango has heard of him requesting this, she recoils with disgust. Kagome, however, has been desensitized and just lets her eyelids droop in annoyance as she thinks that's DEFINITELY a possible explanation.
Elsewhere, in a sprawling field, Miroku is walking with the beauty from earlier, repeating her story of formerly being a lady from a prestigious house. She continues with the inevitable "but", claiming that this house was attacked and destroyed in a battle and that she's the last survivor. With downcast eyes, she says that she wishes to revive her house by giving birth to a strong lord. Miroku finishes her sentence by arrogantly stating that must be why she set her sights on him. Couldn't POSSIBLY be because she knew this is exactly what your ego wanted to hear and she's luring you into a trap. Nope.
Miroku looks down at the skin with some sadness, asking the mantis a redundant question about wearing the girl's skin. He then asks if the mantis killed her and the mantis replied that it ate her insides. That's how a mantis grows to be big and strong, I suppose. It threatens to eat Miroku too, but Miroku holds up his cursed hand curled into a fist, telling the mantis that it will regret its choice of opponent/meal. It just repeats that it's going to eat Miroku, because it must be super hungry after not finishing his previous meal. Wasteful bastard.
Miroku rips the beads from his hand, yelling that the mantis will be the one eaten, by his FIST. Not to be confused with eating fist, which is the opposite. Miroku exposes the Kazaana, and it starts to draw in the mantis face-first. Somehow, though, the mantis's claws are the last things to be consumed by the void, pointy ends curling out through a surprised Miroku's palm. It IS pretty weird that they're not shrinking like all the other stuff does.
While Miroku hangs his head to the side, a rustle comes from a nearby tree and a lone giant saimyoushou wasp emerges from the leaves. It hovers for a moment before buzzing away, seemingly without Miroku noticing a thing.
Dammit, dude. You're supposed to be the SMART one.
Later that night, in what looks like an inn with a dog trotting past, Kagome and Sango are looking kind of salty as they eat from bowls. Miroku asks with some wariness if it's just his imagination that this meal came with some serious shade from the women in the room. Inuyasha mentions their suspicions about Miroku going off to pick up girls earlier, and tells him he's being judged HARDCORE right now.
Miroku just scoffs with a snide expression before abruptly turning serious to insist that this is just a big misunderstanding. He tries to make them feel bad by suggesting that they just can't bring themselves to trust him, but they are not buying it. Both of them state flat out that they don't trust him and he's probably lying. Miroku complains that he hasn't even said anything for them to determine is a lie yet. You just said it was a misunderstanding, didn't you? And I happen to KNOW that's a lie.
Still later, while the girls are tucked in beside each other with a sleeping Shippou in between, and Inuyasha is dozing as he sits against a wall, Miroku is awake, leaning on his left side as he examines his right palm as closely as possible with the cloth covering it. It's throbbing pretty badly, and he rolls over onto his back to sigh that this sucks. A more literal statement has not been made, my dude. He whines that it hurts, thinking that the mantis must have widened his Kazaana.
Shippou suggests it was because Kagome and Sango were being cold with him the previous day, and Kagome makes another noise in askance while gulping. Inuyasha, however, scoffs and says Miroku isn't sensitive enough for that kind of motivation. He's also not five years old, Shippou, so try to keep that in mind. Inuyasha changes the subject abruptly when he questions who's been following them, swiftly drawing Tessaiga to slice through the trunk of a tree I guess is obscuring his view of this mysterious person.
As the tree falls, Naraku's signature baboon pelt is spotted, and he turns to run while Inuyasha and Sango are still gaping in horror. Because Inuyasha didn't learn from the fact that he couldn't really discern the scent of Naraku's puppet before, he and Sango make to run after it blindly. Nice job wasting your time, guys.
The image of the puppet giggling evilly transitions to the actual Naraku sitting and staring off to the side at the wooden doll representing the puppet in the field. It appears to be making a strange "whooshing" noise that I imagined was what caught his attention, but on the next page it turns out that it must be the flapping of the saimyoushou's wings as it approaches the blinds from the other side. Naraku notes that it's back and it comes to rest on his raised hand like a bird or a hawk might. He's like an evil Disney princess, I swear.
After a moment of listening to its buzzing, which Naraku apparently understands, he smiles and mutters that it's as he thought.
So, what did I think about this chapter overall? There were three time-skips in quick succession, which I'm not too crazy about. Granted, this decision was undoubtedly made so that RT could remain concise and to-the-point, something that I appreciate in how little superfluous bullshit I have to deal with. But I think that the time of the extermination at the beginning of the chapter should have been pushed forward a bit so that we could see Miroku walking in on a meal while the others were wondering where he was and eliminate two separate time-skips. It would have made the chapter flow just a tad better.
Other than that, I enjoyed the little glimpse into what this entire arc will give us. This shows us that, though Miroku is the "smart" one in the group, he also has his moments of bad judgment. He recognizes them as such, though, and is driven to worry about the consequences of them. The fact that his philandering habits really have some negative effects for him sometimes is clearly a little upsetting to him, considering he looked angry when he was leaving the village. It's completely understandable that he might feel a bit miffed with himself over not being as careful as he should be, like anyone is when they're doing something they know they shouldn't be and a manifestation of all those warnings they've heard pops up to spit in their face.
Or is that just me?
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