And that notion is cracking me up.
Okay, no more jokes about an ingrown hair demon. Maybe.
Kagome refuses to come out, because she can't stand being covered in demon muck and blood and dirt anymore. She can't believe that there was a time when hot baths didn't exist, without realizing that's not entirely true. She COULD have a hot bath in this time, but it's not quite as easy as turning on a faucet, and her lazy modern ass don't wanna deal with the work.
Back at the village, some men are discussing how Kagome is having a bath, but they're convinced it's a purification ritual to increase her spiritual power. They're just intent on deifying her, aren't they? Another man mentions that if any man peeks at her, he'll be cursed by the gods. I have so many questions for this guy. Who told you that? Why are you telling others when they didn't say anything about peeking? Why would YOU think about peeking on a fifteen-year-old girl?
Oh, never mind, it was just a clumsy lead-in to a panel where Inuyasha is sitting up in a tree glaring down at Kagome as she's scrubbing down. RT, you are BETTER THAN THIS.
As Kagome dives beneath the surface to swim a bit, she recalls how Kaede told her and Inuyasha to work together to find and protect those jewel shards she created in the last chapter. Kagome is convinced that she doesn't have any power, and she doesn't want to work with Inuyasha because he's a meany-face. She rises up out of the water, feeling clean enough to leave the pool now and looks up to see Inuyasha glaring at her from the top of a nearby rock outcropping. She sits back down in the water rapidly, calling out "SIT" in the process.
Inuyasha plummets to the bank below, right behind Kaede, who casually greets him. He tugs on the subduing necklace, cursing himself for forgetting about it. Kagome pops out of a bush some distance away, calling Inuyasha indecent for peeping on her. Inuyasha calls her an idiot for thinking he was there to look at her, and begins an explanation that Kaede interrupts him to finish: he came to steal the fragment of the Shikon no Tama that Kaede is holding up. Inuyasha sits cross-legged with his back to her, acknowledging her for understanding. Kaede laments about how bad the future is probably going to be.
Kaede tells him once more that he has to join forces with Kagome in order to get the jewel, to make sure it ends up with him. She's a sly one, that Kaede, appealing to Inuyasha's want of the jewel to persuade him.
Kaede notices that Inuyasha is crouched and growling at Kagome, and asks him what's up with his face. She doesn't get an answer before a mother and child peek around a bush and ask for her. The mother speaks of another daughter not present, and Kaede asks if she suddenly collapsed. Presumably after they've spoken for a moment, Kaede tells Inuyasha and Kagome that she has to go back to the village, and requests that they try not to kill each other while she's gone.
Inuyasha and Kagome stare at her as she goes, and after a quiet moment in which Kagome goes back to tending her drying modern clothes, Inuyasha tells her to take off the ones she's wearing.
Kagome says that with his attitude, there's no way they'll be able to work together. He scoffs, saying it's okay with him that they don't work together, because he can do it all by himself. He's a big boy. Kagome asks if he really thinks he'll be hunky-dory without her, and without waiting for an answer, she starts stalking off. Inuyasha inquires as to where she thinks she's going, and Kagome states that her decision has been made, she's going home. She says goodbye to
She says stopping her is useless, but Inuyasha isn't concerned about stopping her from leaving. He just wants her to leave the Shikon no Tama fragment with him before she goes. Kagome holds up a drawstring bag, that she must have taken from Kaede earlier, and instead of handing it to him, shouts "osuwari" instead. Inuyasha does another face-plant, cursing her as she walks away, swinging the bag around her forefinger and saying that she'll keep it. She is a boss-ass bitch.
Meanwhile, Kaede is being led to the scene of the collapse she had been told about earlier by the victim's mother. Said mother follows Kaede into the room in which her daughter is lying, saying she was just fine earlier. Kaede offers to look her over, and when she does take a closer gander, she notices something strange that widens her eye. Kaede stumbles back, advising the mother to do the same as she begins to ask what's wrong.
The daughter sits up swiftly with arms stretched out in front of her, like the stereotypical sleepwalker. She floats up from the floor, as if strings are attached to her shoulders and elbows, and her mother marvels at this with an open mouth. In fact, it looks like strings are actually wrapped around her fingers in the next panel, and Kaede identifies them as hair with confusion. Another strand is wrapped around the handle of a meat cleaver in the corner.
What the hell is a meat cleaver doing lying on the floor of some peasant's house? The hell??
Elsewhere, in the forest, Kagome approaches the old well she emerged from a couple days before. As she moves to look inside, she thinks she should be able to get home from there, but getting a peek into the shaft makes her gulp. At the bottom are bones, and Kagome remembers Kaede telling her that the adjective attached to it is "bone-gobbling" because youkai remains are taken there to be disposed of. The bones disappear after a few days.
Kagome recognizes the bones as those of Six-Arms McGee, and she'd better be careful, because she came after Kagome for the jewel before. Who's to say she won't come after a fragment? Kagome crouches next to the well, unable to jump in for fear. As she wonders what to do, a bird flying overhead drops out of the sky and Kagome looks over at it curiously. It's in pieces on the ground, as though it was chopped up, and Kagome is confused by this.
She attempts to stand, but is accosted by some invisible force, cutting her shoulder and cheek.
Evil Grown-Up Anne-Marie introduces herself as Inverted-Hair Yura, but she doesn't expect Kagome to remember her name. In fact, she doesn't expect Kagome to remember anything, given she's about to kill her. Yura raises her hand dramatically, and the hair netted around Kagome slices into her, covering her in cuts. A strand even loops around the drawstring bag containing the jewel fragment Kagome was carrying, and Yura tugs it into her hand instead.
Yura pulls it out of the bag and despairs at what's become of the Shikon no Tama. Kagome tugs on a bundle of hairs, demanding that Yura give the fragment back. Don't do that, those are sharp! Yura is unperturbed, pulling the sword from the sheath at her side and telling Kagome she's allowed to die now as she lunges at her. Kagome leans backward to avoid being cut by the sword and tumbles over the wall, falling in head first toward those terrifying bones. Yura flings her sword into the well like a javelin, shouting that it's useless to run away. Dude, you think she would run away into a WELL? That's the stupidest assumption ever.
Confusion dawns on Yura and she yanks the sword back up to her by a strand of hair attached to the hilt.
Meanwhile, Inuyasha leaps out of the trees toward a nearby roof, remembering Kagome's parting words to him and scoffing. Inuyasha thinks he feels a lot better when she's not around anyway. It's a little early to be deceiving yourself like that, don't you think? Suddenly, Inuyasha is surrounded by a gaggle of flying women carrying every sharp implement known to man. They swing at him carelessly, and he easily leans away to avoid the blows.
He grabs the handles of at least two of the weapons against him, stomping on another woman's hand to make her let go of a knife, demanding to know what the hell is wrong with them in the process. Multitasking. He does it. Inuyasha pulls their limp bodies up from their collars, looking confused as he realizes that they're women from the village.
Some distance away, Kaede is dragging herself on the ground with a great bloody stain on her shirt, begging Inuyasha not to hurt the girls. Inuyasha carelessly tosses aside one of the girls as he greets her, and leaps over to her to examine her condition. He asks her what she's up to with that blood, as though she's bleeding on purpose or something, and Kaede asks him if he couldn't have been a bit more delicate with his wording. Uh, no Kaede, he's Inuyasha. He doesn't DO delicate. Just multitasking.
The women are in the air again, and Inuyasha glares at them warily, asking Kaede if he's their target. Kaede doesn't answer his question, probably because she has no idea who the target is, but she does say the women are being manipulated by someone else. Kaede asks where Kagome is, demanding that Inuyasha call Kagome over. Inuyasha says it's not a problem for him to beat them all by himself, but Kaede tells him he really can't. Kaede thinks this next time he absolutely can't brush off working with Kagome.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I have to admit that the first part with the village men talking about Kagome's bath really soured my mood on the chapter at first. It didn't need to be there, the joke it was leading into wasn't even all that funny, and I just felt like it was superfluous all around. Take out that panel and have the scene with Inuyasha watching Kagome bathing play out as it did, what changes? Nothing. It's not like a curse ACTUALLY descended upon Inuyasha for peeking at a bathing priestess, and it's unnecessary context for a scene that's already pretty funny. If the "curse" thing NEEDED to be included, I'm sure there were more graceful ways to get it across, but the way it was implemented was heavy-handed and clumsy.
But the rest of the chapter was very satisfying. The banter between Inuyasha and Kagome is hilarious, and I already love their dynamic. They're both very reluctant to engage with each other in their own ways, and when forced to interact, they're acting like the children they are. RT is really good at capturing both of their relative immaturities. Inuyasha is a wannabe-loner who wants to do things his way and doesn't want to compromise; Kagome is a sarcastic little shit who just wants to go home and not have to deal with the fallout of her actions. I love them both.
The introduction of the villain is pretty great too. She already has a distinctly playful way about her that I'm always enchanted by every time I read about her. You can tell she has FUN murdering and manipulating people, and her flippant attitude is so deliciously evil. We haven't gotten her motivation for targeting Kaede so adamantly yet, but the last panel leaves us with the impression that she wants her head. We'll see if RT tells us why.
Anyone else find it ironic that everyone else appears to have longer hair than Yura, but Yura is the one who works with long strands of hair?
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD
ReplyDeleteI mean, right????
Delete