But before Kagome has to plunge right back into the depths of hell (as close to literally as she can get), she's embracing her soft bed and praising being at home with modern conveniences.
Her head is still dwelling on her experience, though, even if she can't quite believe it. She recalls Yura exclaiming the state of the jewel she stole from Kagome, and Kagome wonders who she was. All she knows about her is that she's after the jewel, and got it. Kagome sits up, ruminating on how angry Inuyasha is going to be when he finds out what happened to the fragment she'd been keeping. She imagines him calling her disgusting and saying that he's better off looking on his own. Smiling bitterly, Kagome says that it's damn right Inuyasha would be just fine without her. Well, maybe at this stage in your acquaintance anyway.
Kagome claps her hands together with a determined face, and promises to forget about the whole thing, because she's never going to go back there ever again. I wouldn't count on THAT any more than everyone being okay over there. The story isn't either; inside the shrine, as if replying to her resolve, the well makes a strange, haunting sound-effect.
At the table, Souta is asking his grandfather about how strong that seal is on it, and whether it will open back up again. Grandpa assures him that it's not, and Kagome isn't listening to either of them, enchanted by the oden sitting in front of her. Grandpa elaborates that he's plastered the well with ofudas, which he's convinced will stop any monster in its tracks. He turns to Kagome, telling her to put her faith in his charms too, but Souta points out that she's not listening as she continues to admire the oden, singing the praises of its very existence. She wipes away a tear, thinking about what a wonderful world she lives in. Picking up her chopsticks, she encourages everyone to dig in, and...
Inuyasha asks just who told her that she could go home whenever she felt like it. Well, Inuyasha, you certainly didn't ask her NOT TO, if you'll recall. Kagome is sputtering, too many questions about where he came from and how he got there to voice at once. He manages to pick out one of the questions from her gibberish and yells that he came from the well, of course. She repeats his words as a question and begins to protest before her grandfather buts in, saying that Inuyasha must be lying. The ofudas were handed down through many generations, after all.
I don't understand how that ensures that they work, but whatevz, Grandpa.
Inuyasha plucks one of the seals from his hair and asks if that's what Grandpa is referring to, telling him unceremoniously that it didn't work. Souta looks a little irritated with his grandfather as Grandpa cries over his ineffective protection barrier.
Inuyasha grabs Kagome by the arm and starts to drag her to the door against her protests, saying she's coming with him right that moment. Kagome's mother shouts at him to wait just one cotton-pickin' minute, and he turns to see what she wants. Kagome says "mama" like she's a godsend, but...
Kagome sees something draped over Inuyasha's sleeve, a couple of strands of hair that she points out with a shout. Inuyasha asks what hair she's talking about as she plucks them from his sleeve, and she wonders how he can't see them. The hairs wrap around her hand and slice it, and she tears them off of her the moment she realizes they're moving. Grandpa notices that Kagome's hand suddenly started bleeding, and Mrs. Higurashi asks how she got that fresh wound right in front of their eyes. With this, Kagome realizes that she's the only one who can see the hair.
She wonders if they're Yura's hairs amidst a flashback of Yura pulling up on the strands attached to her fingers. Kagome, suddenly panicked, bolts from the room, saying that it can't be so. Oh, but it is. She runs into the open well-shrine door.
The aforementioned family is just visible outside the well-shrine now, calling out to her, but she shuts the doors on them, telling them they can't come in. All the while, she's thinking about how she has to stop the hair from coming any further into her world. It's wagging and waving around from the mouth of the well like a weird fire or something when a lock of it shoots out, aiming at Kagome. She jumps out of its way so it hits the wall behind her instead and alerts Inuyasha that there's another lock in front of him.
He takes a wild swing, asking Kagome if it's there as he does so, but the hair parts and coils itself around his arm and leg. Kagome looks appalled, probably at his continually horrible aim and inability to take simple instruction. Kagome's grandfather pounds on the door, telling her to open it. Inuyasha, with his feeling of the hair on him, is able to tear through it, calling it scum. The severed strands just run back together again, which Kagome notes as she cringes against the door. She thinks there's just no end to it, watching Inuyasha struggle against the force that's invisible to him while he curses.
Kagome can think of only one way to make the strand visible, and that's by grabbing hold of it and slicing her hand deliberately. She mutters a sound of pain as Inuyasha looks on.
Inuyasha looks down as the hair uncoils from him and disappears. What, can he see it all of a sudden? Kagome crawls up the stairs and Inuyasha says the assault has finally died down. Well, no shit. Now that Kagome has time to think, she considers how strange it is that Yura is still targeting them when she already has the shard of the jewel Kagome had. It suddenly occurs to her that Yura is just after her and Inuyasha now, and starts running back toward the well. What was the point of crawling up the stairs if you're just going to leap back down them again. Damn kids and their energy...
She tells Inuyasha that they have to go back, and Inuyasha accuses her of not understanding how things work as he props a foot on the lip of the well. I think she understands how to get rid of nasty killer hair better than you, Inuyasha. Kagome says she really doesn't WANT to go back, but it's not really a matter of wanting to. She has to make sure her family isn't in danger. As she's contemplating this miserable reality, Something soft lands on her head.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Just a little on the convenient side for Kagome. She was the first to be attacked, but after that, Yura's hair was completely focused on Inuyasha and didn't pay any attention to Kagome, which gave her the freedom of movement to point out and make visible the main hair to cut. It's possible that Yura can only focus on one opponent at a time, or maybe that she doesn't consider Kagome worth her time, but the way the fight was paced and laid out, it seemed more like an RPG turn-based battle that RT was playing and decided would be fun to recreate in her comic.
I still really liked the idea of Kagome cutting herself and wiping her blood on the hair for Inuyasha to see. She really is smart and resourceful, which is a quality of hers that is continually reinforced. Inuyasha has picked up pretty fast that she is an asset to him, no matter how much he dislikes her, and is taking cues from her. Throughout their whole encounter with the hair, he didn't say anything snide, but listened to her suggestions at where he should aim without any questions.
Not that he won't EVER question her and her judgment from this point forth. It's just noteworthy that he's already begun to trust that she knows what she's talking about. That's more respect than I got from my coworkers in the field some time ago.
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