I'm hoping that's the case actually, because I'm lazy and don't want to start inserting a hyphen into a word I already have to constantly double check how it's spelled. Sorry guys.
The guy with the rake-looking grappling hook nabs himself a bird-thing by the jaw, drags it to the ground, and drives a spear into it while several of the wolf-bodied pups noms on the human torso up top. Another Gokurakuchou catches one of those pups in its talons, flying off with it. As Kouga bounces up the mountainside toward their goal, Kagome looks back over her shoulder at the carnage and gapes at the awfulness.
Kouga draws her attention back to the task at hand, warning her that they'll reach the next of the bosses pretty soon. She's alarmed by this assessment, and questions it silently a moment, because she's got a bit of a different perspective. She's the one giving warnings now when she alerts Kouga to the fact that she can see a Shikon shard straight through the mountain in front of them. Kouga only has a moment to give her an incredulous look.
A giant wing extends from the crumbling rock, which rains down on the battle below, catching one of the Gokurakuchou in the back and pushing it toward the ground. The rest of the birds speed away from the shadow of the behemoth bursting from the mountainside, but the wolf youkai stand and stare open-mouthed. One of them is in awe of the Gokurakuchou boss, and the other points out the thing's sheer size.
I'm going straight to hell.
Kouga seems to be a bit skeptical that these twin bird-brothers have been waiting for him, but they explain that they've been looking for those Shikon fragments that he's so famously inserted in his limbs. But, because they're lazy as shit, they decided it would be easier to make him come to them. Somehow. Kagome clings to the mountain wall as Kouga hangs from grips around her, almost acting as a net. He grins at what appears to him as everyone having had the same thought.
Leaning down, Kouga asks Kagome where their Shikon shard is, and she sees the gleam shining from a very ominous area, the mouth. Kouga has definitely lost his cocky smile now, in disbelief. The brothers, of course, are amused by this reaction. They confirm that the shard is there, and if he and Kagome want it so bad, they should walk right in there. Their feathered maw opens wide and they lunge for Kouga and Kagome, intending to get them in one clean bite, but...
Kouga races down the mountain again and deposits her on the ground in front of his surprised comrades. He tells them to protect Kagome, because I suppose he forgot they're fighting a load of bird-creatures or something. They begin to protest, expressing some doubt as to their extended ability to do what he's asking unless he finishes off the boss quickly, like they grew up on video games and don't realize the possibility that the rest of the flock might continue to attack in the efforts to distinguish themselves and fill a power vacuum...
Oh. Never mind.
Kouga snips that he KNOWS, okay, and grabs a double-pronged spear with which to dig the shards out of the boss's mouth. Kagome asks in disbelief if he's really going to attack that thing alone, and Kouga responds that he's the only one who can actually defeat it. I don't know if "can" and "has the express responsibility to do so because he's the one who ordered everyone into this battle in the first place" are really the same thing, but whatever.
One of the two guys to which Kagome has been entrusted, a guy with a black tuft of hair in between two lighter tones on the sides of his head, asks his sister or "nee-san" Kagome if she knows somewhere safe to go. Instead of asking why the hell she would know anywhere nearby to hide, considering she was kidnapped and brought here by THEM, she questions his reference to her as a sister. The guy with the mohawk says of COURSE she's their sister now, since she's the boss's woman now. Wait, aren't the alpha pair in a back the alphas because the rest of the pack are their CHILDREN? Shouldn't these guys be calling her their mother?
I mean, I know it's weird that their step-mom would be 15 years old, but it certainly wouldn't be unheard of in a period of history when dirty old men were going around marrying young girls all the time. Just goes to show how little RT really wants to have anything to do with THAT nugget of pedo-enabling shit. George RR Martin has got that market covered anyway.
Regardless, Kagome starts to reprimand these guys for making up family ties where their are none. Key word here is "starts".
The arrow sails in an arc that looks almost as if it misses the wing of the creature altogether, but...
Unfortunately, more Gokurakuchou are heading down to scoop them up, and all Kagome and her two supposed-to-be bodyguards can do is gape in morbid anticipation. At juuuuuuust the right moment, Kagome's name is shouted, and her eyes widen.
Kagome calls to Inuyasha happily and he calls to her with a worried look on his face, all sweaty and shit. This doesn't stop Kagome from launching herself into his arms, though, wailing that she was scared. Inuyasha asks her if she's hurt as Two-Toned Guy and Mohawk Guy stare in bemusement.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The sheer theatrics of the lead Gokurakuchou making their appearance was really fun, practically destroying the side of the mountain in order to get the drop on Kouga before he can get to them. It was a great plan to counteract his speed, as a matter of fact, considering they didn't count on Kouga having a way to know where those shards were before he came over. What a way to use superior size and strength strategically.
There's something regarding our duo of side-characters that I feel I should mention, even if I'm reading a bit too much into this: Kouga's self-appointed role of beating the Gokurakuchou boss is treated as the end-all be-all of the whole affair. Yes, the Shikon shards is why they came there, but the other birds are by all means posing quite a threat in and of themselves. Yet the rest of the battle isn't treated with very much care, here, by the characters' own admissions. They consider the danger to Kagome over once the boss has been beaten.
That gives me the impression that the rest of the wolf youkai don't consider themselves very important in the grand scheme of things. Once Kouga gets what he wants, mission accomplished, they can all go home, except those who died battling a lesser foe, of course. It's just a little sad, until Kagome treats one of those underlings of Kouga's with a little dignity and makes an actual effort to save him.
Like I said, it's so small that I'm reluctant to really call a point in the chapter's theme, but it was big enough to catch my attention. Make of it what you will.
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