You can't fool us, chapter. We know they're basically the same person by now, separated only by the flimsiest of articles. Take away Clark Kent's glasses, or give Mitch McConnell back his leathery wings and fiery breath to kill the poor people seeking his ill-gotten hoard, and is anyone really surprised? Musou's power of regeneration and the ability to steal faces clearly doesn't distinguish him from Onigumo at all, as evidenced by his apparently "natural" tendency to kill and maim like he's going for a record. But it's a real cool upgrade, at least.
I've been curious for a while; what exactly is the distinction between a garden-variety thief and a wild-thief? Is it just the level of zeal with which the thief conducts themselves, or is it their living environment? I'm genuinely not sure if this classification is actually useful.
Anyway, Inuyasha growls that this bastard is Onigumo after all, as though was even a QUESTION in the first place. RT is nothing if not the bluntest of story-tellers. It does come as an understandable surprise to Kaede, though, who has to address Miroku on the point, trailing a question if it's really true. Miroku confirms that this guy is indeed Onigumo, who submitted his body to a committee of youkai to create the mess of a biological organization called Naraku, but he's calling himself Musou these days. For tax reasons, probz.
Musou says he's recalled everything, including Kikyou dying back in the day. This is mentioned over a panel of Kikyou's funeral pyre, but I'm not sure how he could be remembering a part he couldn't have been around for. That's not really Inuyasha's concern though; he yells at Musou that HE'S the one who fatally wounded Kikyou in the first place, but Musou calls him stupid and asks why Inuyasha thought he let the youkai eat his body in the first place.
And it's somehow a SURPRISE to you that this plan fell through, huh?
Yup. He says completely unironically that when he got that new body and tried it out, nothing went the way he wanted it to. The very first thing he did after he came out of the cave was run up behind the woman he sold his soul and body to get and tore into her. And not in a sexual way, just to clarify. The part he's upset over, apparently, is that he didn't get to fuck her before he murdered here, and it's pretty wild.
Miroku notes that Onigumo's consciousness still existed once Naraku was born, while Kaede realizes that since Naraku's body is an amalgam of youkai, their collective desire to get rid of Kikyou overrode little old Onigumo's. Meanwhile, Musou is still pissing and moaning, now about how Kikyou died following after that damn hanyou. Kikyou was dead, the Shikon no Tama was burned with her body, and to top it all off...
Everyone thinks that this must have been Naraku, who has made an uncharacteristically good decision telling Onigumo to fuck off first and foremost. It was all downhill from there, clearly.
Anyway, Musou continues with his sob story, stating that he doesn't know exactly how long he slept since then, but when he woke up, he was in this weird lump of flesh and brought back into the outside world like a newborn. If a newborn were sliced out of their amniotic sack by a bunch of not-very-bright marauders. It's actually not that great of an analogy, come to think of it. Miroku considers how Musou remembered nothing about even Naraku when he came out, before asking him, just to clarify, if this means he HASN'T taken any orders from Naraku. Musou scoffs that he doesn't take orders from anyone, and just slashes and burns people he doesn't like. Ah, to be THAT simple.
He says it's Inuyasha's turn to be slashed and burned now.
This is the guy who was pissing and moaning that the previous owner of these clothes got blood stains on them, and here he is, tearing them apart.
Kaede is alarmed that Musou is transforming, while Miroku barks at her to get back, in the most respectful way possible, of course. A cloud of Saimyoushou has arrived on the scene too, as per usual. I'm assuming because Miroku is rather vulnerable to these bugs, he's especially unhappy about this. Inuyasha's completely focused on Musou, though. He says he doesn't know what Naraku intended by bringing Musou out, but to him, Musou and Naraku are one in the same, the nemesis of Kikyou. With these final words roared at Musou, Inuyasha draws Tessaiga and lunges at him.
Unintimidated, Musou tells him to shut his face, and extends his spiked arm out at Inuyasha in a flash, which Inuyasha bisects length-wise handily with gruff shout. But the level of inconvenience this causes for Musou is... negative.
Bad hug, bad hug!
Kaede is still lost, in disbelief over Musou wound closing itself around Inuyasha so fast. Miroku confirms for her that Musou's body has the ability to regenerate abnormally fast - he was hit before with Kaze no Kizu and should have been pulverized, but the dipshit is still around, so...
Meanwhile, Inuyasha calls Musou impudent (an ironic term for Inuyasha to be using, if he even knows what it means in the first place) as he parts Musou's flesh again with his claws from the inside. He lands back on the ground among a shower of meat chunks from Musou's diced arm. It obviously doesn't stay in pieces for long, reforming seamlessly in the next panel. Musou acknowledges that though Inuyasha's sword is strange, it's unable to cut his body, that reformed limb of his flailing this way and that through the air cluttered with wasps. It's a literal nightmare wrapped in gross fetish porn.
Inuyasha has run out of smart words to call Musou, so he settles on "jerk" in this round. While Kaede remains speechless behind him, Miroku holds up his beaded right fist and groans that in this situation, his Kazaana might have been useful. Kaede observes, with some question, that Naraku is protecting Onigumo, and assessment Miroku agrees with, seeing as how he's being blocked from using his Kazaana by the saimyoushou. He is, for ONCE, mystified by what Naraku's goal could be here. He appears to keep that admission to himself, though, so it doesn't count as humble.
Meanwhile, Naraku is hanging out in his castle, as you do, staring intently at his hand. Dude, I know quarantine over the past year has had us all bored out of our minds, but REALLY...
... Not a covid symptom, sure, but that's not normal, and you should probz get it checked out by a licensed professional.
Anyway, cut back to Inuyasha letting loose another Kaze no Kizu, carving through Musou once again. His many chunks bounce onto the ground, crawl back into the correct formation, and reseal into a full Musou monster. Those clothes he whined about before are now completely obliterated, but he doesn't seem to care, standing naked and hunched before a shocked Inuyasha. Why he's surprised, I haven't a clue, since this has happened more than once in front of him by now.
One-Trick-Pony over here can't fathom a way to destroy someone that doesn't involve blowing them up with a magical sword. Why am I not surprised?
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Musou is an interesting character to be sure. His psychotic tendencies are only matched by his odd naivete - not only did he think at the time that he would be able to control the youkai that formed his new body once he gave them the old one, but he continues to be baffled by the fact that he couldn't to this DAY. It just never seemed to have occurred to him that he WOULDN'T have full agency in this new body that he shares with a bunch of other sentient creatures he made a conscious, cogent agreement with. Which, come to think of it, might make some sense from the angle of his lack of empathy. If he doesn't consider anyone other than himself full and complete individuals with their own goals and ambitions and feelings, why WOULD he consider the possibility that they would have any amount of control over what he considers to be HIS body? They just exist to give him what he wants, and don't influence him or his bubble in any significant way beyond that. It's stuff like this - the character depth and logical thought-processes behind even a minor-ish villain - that RT is really good at.
I also like how our main know-it-all Miroku didn't immediately come to the correct conclusion about why Naraku might be doing what he's doing with Musou here. The audience is given only the slightest of a clue too, with just the page-and-a-half of Naraku commenting that his connection with Onigumo hasn't been severed. It's a much better setup for a satisfying reveal of why Musou was brought out in the first place, and doesn't give us the impression that our main characters are weirdly omniscient about the situation. It's certainly preferable to being thrown out of the story because RT didn't have the time or patience to develop her rough ideas properly.
No comments:
Post a Comment