About the only experimentation I do these days is with cooking, and that's only when I forget an ingredient for a recipe I had planned. I recently had to make some breakfast burritos without onion, because somehow I'd convinced myself that I bought one at the grocery store the last time I went shopping, to the point where I didn't check until I'd already gotten WELL into the process of making the burritos. I threw some onion powder in with the bell pepper I'd managed to remember to buy and hoped for the best, but I don't think it turned out as good. There's just not as good a variety in texture without the onion. It's not inedible, so I suppose the experiment wasn't an absolute failure or anything, but I still wish I had just remembered to put the stupid onion on the grocery list.
I hope this doesn't have a further detrimental effect on my willingness to try something different when I find my plans can't go forward as expected.
That thing is SO WEIRD.
Both his underlings and Inuyasha's group approach Kouga, calling out to him with varying degrees of relief. At Kagome's voice calling his name, he turns and greets her, looking surprised. Inuyasha intercepts Kouga before he can get all touchy with Kagome, getting right in his face and asking what the fuss is about, Kouga in turn complaining that he has to talk to Inuyasha first.
Sango addresses Miroku, who is kneeling by the body of the dead abomination, and he affirms that it's obviously a mishmash of different youkai. He looks up to see the last of the glowing orbs dissipating in the sky. Sango asks if they're souls, but Miroku says that's not the case, claiming they're instead "haku", which the translation characterizes as "spirits". Not sure what the difference is? Both Inuyasha and Kouga turn to question what that is.
Inuyasha expresses his understanding as the haku stuff allowing the corpse to move WITHOUT a soul. Kouga notes that whatever the case, this isn't normal, and suggests that someone was controlling the thing. Suddenly, he's got an arm around Kagome, as she nonchalantly wonders aloud if Naraku is involved. Kouga asserts that it stinks of Naraku while Inuyasha FUMES in the foreground.
It's only a moment before Inuyasha leaps over and brushes Kagome straight out of Kouga's side-hug, and they're in each other's faces again, Kouga asking what his deal is, Inuyasha asking why he's got an arm around her like it's normal. Kouga answers that it IS normal for lovers meeting again after such a long time, and Inuyasha is nearly apoplectic, cracking his knuckles and threatening to kill Kouga, demanding to know who EXACTLY he thinks are lovers here. Kagome sweatdrops, telling Inuyasha to stop in a deadpan tone.
Inuyasha rounds on her, telling her to shut up. Do you think he knows he's not making a case for himself here? He says that Kouga is taking advantage of Kagome's ambiguous attitude, which sounds suspiciously like he's accusing her of leading Kouga on. Kagome responds with confusion, asking how he can say that. When he returns her confusion to her, she spells out for him that he's blind to how it affects her when he goes off with Kikyou, which makes her angry. Inuyasha falls into a shameful silence, something Shippou comments on from Sango's shoulder, as she observes that he can't really object to that statement. It's not UNTRUE, that's for sure. After a moment of consideration, Inuyasha points out that he hasn't ever hugged Kikyou's shoulder like Kouga just did to Kagome, but Kagome crossly says that's NOT the point she was making. Then she explodes into a tirade about how when he meets Kikyou, he withdraws into his own little world, and he doesn't get to take her for granted just because she restrains herself from going off about it.
Well, that was a long time coming. And I do mean a LONG time. I hope Kagome's getting it out of her system, because I'm so over this.
Kouga smugly reads this display as Kagome completely and totally hating the "dog-turd" Inuyasha, telling Inuyasha to suck it. Not that he'll be able to hear Kouga over the dirt packing into his ears. Kouga's underlings are both thinking that it seems like Kagome is completely IGNORING Kouga, though. They wisely keep this assessment to themselves.
At his first opportunity, Kouga grabs Kagome's hand and pulls her close, looking into her eyes as he bids her goodbye, since he's leaving. She questions how soon he's going, but in the polite, neutral way one might to an important guest who visits the house. Kouga promises to find the guy pulling the strings in this case, the sooner the better. Miroku deems this a worthy occupation of time, citing the pieces of youkai scattered a long way in every direction, and Sango agrees that the corpse in front of them isn't the only one moving by its haku.
A narrow sky transition panel puts us in front of a couple of farmers hoeing their field. One of them hums in question, presumably to a noise that in the nearby trees. This is immediately preceding a mantis-armed, tentacle-faced creature popping out of the foliage to lunge at the men, who scream in horror.
They're extraordinarily easy to kill, aren't they? I'm reminded of the parasite yadori sanagi, but chances are these new pests don't have a nest that can be destroyed to get rid of them.
With Kagome trotting along behind him, bow on her shoulder for easy access, Miroku approaches Inuyasha and asks how it's going. Inuyasha says he can still smell many of these creatures in the area, so they've only really made a dent. Another sky transition takes us to the gang reconvened and traveling at speed, but Miroku is on the ground running like Inuyasha, and Kagome is on Kirara's back behind Sango. She apologizes to Sango for taking Miroku's spot, but Sango says she doesn't particularly mind.
Meanwhile, a grumpy Miroku runs next to Inuyasha and demands he just apologize to Kagome already, because this is a problem for him. Inuyasha still doesn't seem convinced this little spat is any fault of his, but Miroku doesn't appear to be paying much attention to that.
Yeah, you're not earning my sympathy with that shit either, dude.
Inuyasha suddenly catches the scent of a youkai and human blood, alerting the others that whatever it is this time seems to have gotten a village, who all react with tense alarm. Indeed, ahead there is a multitude of human corpses laying about, and something else... disturbing.
Looks like SOMEONE has been well-fed.
Cursing, Inuyasha draws Tessaiga and brings it down on the creature with a yell. As its "haku" escapes it, Inuyasha looks over to find another massive silhouette looming a short distance away. Inuyasha comments on yet another of these fuckers lurking around, and goes for this one too.
Those stripes are TOTES infringing on Sesshoumaru's style. I hope he has a lawyer.
The rest of Inuyasha's group gape in alarm, Miroku wondering aloud just exactly WHAT is going on here. Inuyasha turns and makes a questioning sound, so Kagome spells out the obvious to him - that all of these composite youkai are becoming closer and closer in form to humans. Pausing to look down at the creature he just took down, Inuyasha agrees that it does look much more human in appearance compared to the first mishmash model, and trails in a statement about what it looks like. In her head, Kagome thinks it's as if all the youkai composites so far have been experiments, and speculates on whether the ones they come across in the future looking more and more human.
Elsewhere, Kouga continues to run his underlings ragged, who as usual plead for a little mercy on the pace. Kouga isn't very sympathetic when they express the want to rest because they're going to DIE, claiming their whining makes them sound so helpless. But he skids to a stop anyway when he looks ahead again and sees a very familiar figure of a child dressed in white jacket and ballooning hakama ahead.
Hakudoushi correctly identifies him as Kouga, leader of the Wolf Tribe, further elaborating on his interest in him being narrowed to the Shikon shards in his legs. The underlings express confusion on the childlike appearance of Hakudoushi, while Kouga just asks directly who the hell the kid is.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's serendipitous that Guillermo Del Torro's interpretation of Frankenstein came out recently, because I was already thinking about this movie when I got to this chapter, and this whole "experimentation with animating dead bodies" thing is giving HEAVY Frankenstein vibes. Hakudoushi also has a history of dismembering (and decapitating) youkai en masse in an attempt to gain something material out of their parts, so the precedent makes this whole scenario all the stronger. The question remains as to why he's assembling the youkai parts in an more human configuration as he goes, and that mystery is well set-up for pondering by the reader; with how much emphasis there is BOTH visually and in dialog about it, a lot of curiosity can be built around WHY that might be.
Also, I can't gush enough about how WEIRD these creatures are. Y'all know how much I LOVE a great monster design, and I'm loving all of them in this one. Amazingly grotesque, 10/10.
All I can say about the relationSHIT drama I've already said, so I won't repeat myself on that front, since you already know how I feel about it. I WILL say that it seems RT has only just remembered that Kouga has jewel fragments in his legs, as a way to continue to make him relevant in the overall story despite his main "make Inuyasha jealous" purpose. The fact that we went through a whole subplot of going to the border between this world and the next for a single remaining Shikon shard and Kouga was barely mentioned at the beginning of it, and yet he pops back in now to exacerbate the tension between Inuyasha and Kagome, shows just where his value lies for RT in the narrative. It's REAL CRINGE.
In any case, I am looking forward to him fighting in the next chapter. Whenever he's forced to fight, it's a fun show.
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