Inuyasha Manga: 010 Distress

Damn right Kagome's distressed. She was covered in FIRE the last time we were with her. What's more, it's fire that has been transmitted by strands of HAIR. Anyone ever smelled burning hair? It smells like someone lit a joint full of dried Titan Arum. It also lingers something awful, so long after Kagome and Inuyasha defeat Yura, he's going to be leaning away from her fanning the nasty smell away from his sensitive nose.

Ugh... Burning hair... That is cruel and unusual punishment, Yura.

Kagome wishes someone would help her as she's curled up beneath Inuyasha's shirt, but the words don't quite come out. Inuyasha watches her burning with mouth agape while Yura says that even her bones will be burned. Inuyasha turns a nasty glare on her, calling her a bitch, and Yura asks him if he's sad. She lifts her sword again and tells him that she'll be kind enough to let him join Kagome in death soon.

Before she can slice him, Inuyasha dips his claws into his already existing cut across his chest, cracking his knuckles as he lets the blood drip a moment. He flings the blood at her, calling this move "Hijin Kessou", or as Yura acknowledges in the next panel, Blades of Blood. Most of the crescent-shaped red blades fly past her, but one of them takes off her sword hand cleanly, to her surprise. It flies off in a spurt of blood and is only held aloft by the many strands of hair attached to the fingers and hilt of the sword.

Inuyasha notices that his bonds have loosened as Yura has lost a little control with one of her hands. She just looks confused.

See, my reaction would probably be a bit more... passionate.

Inuyasha chuckles, mocking Yura for not being able to control her hair without her hand. She just holds her comb up in her mouth instead, and says he should be a bit more gentle with a lady. Why? Don't think you can win unless he's letting you? Behind Yura, the skulls hanging from her nest clatter and sway. Yura slides the strands connected to her remaining fingers past the teeth of her comb in her mouth, and this causes the skulls to fly at Inuyasha, knocking into him.

Against his initial shock, Inuyasha starts shattering the skulls with his fists, yelling at Yura not to waste his time. Looks like she grants his wish.

I guess she has more control than he thought. Inuyasha groans at the sword being pulled back toward a leaping Yura, as she talks about what a shame she wasn't able to get his head by just a tiny bit. She sends the sword back at him again, suggesting that she try it out once more. Yeah, maybe this time he'll just stand still for you to behead him. Instead of doing that, Inuyasha throws more of his blood-blades at her, only to be blocked by another wave of skulls and hair.

Suddenly, Yura's hand and sword stab Inuyasha through his shoulder blade from behind, skewering him. Yura mocks him by asking where he's looking while she emerges from behind her hair shield, then makes a downward swinging motion with her hand to knock Inuyasha against the rocks below. Bleeding over the edge of the rock, Inuyasha curses, and Yura lands to walk toward him with a cocky sway of her hips. She scoffs at him, saying that his being a hanyou wasn't good enough to take her on after all.

Yura tugs the drawstring bag she stole from Kagome out of her cleavage, pitying Inuyasha for wanting to use the jewel inside to become a real youkai. Inuyasha doesn't say anything out loud, though he glares at the bag. Yura, after having replaced the bag in its hiding place, draws her sword to her attached hand, while using the detached one to lift Inuyasha's hair out of her sword's intended path. She tells Inuyasha to hold still so she can get a clean cut and not stain his pretty hair with his blood.

As she swings the sword, Inuyasha lunges forward, requesting Yura spare him her big talk. A splatter of blood later...

You maybe shouldn't have shown where you were hiding the fragment to him, Yura. Just saying. He says too bad for her, but she's not quite as finished as he seems to think.

What in the world does it take to kill this woman??? Inuyasha is amazed that the hole he put in her chest didn't even faze her. It's even worse, she's making JOKES about it. As Yura pins his hand to the ground with her sword, she tugs the drawstring bag from his fingers and admits it was a pretty sneaky way to steal the Shikon no Tama, though. No, it wasn't. That was about as blatant a grab for the jewel as any.

Yura calls him a sore loser, catching the recovered bag. Inuyasha doesn't even look like he's listening to her as he gapes, wondering what Yura's weakness is. Luckily, while he's thinking, something else catches her attention, tugging on her hair from behind. She twists to look what's happening.

Yura, for the first time, looks disturbed, thinking Kagome should have been burned up. Funny that phrase, "should have". Ever notice how it NEVER reflects reality?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Inuyasha took a BEATING, which is what kept the tension really high throughout the whole chapter. Though I don't think anyone was fooled into thinking Kagome was dead at the beginning (or at least very few were), it did successfully create the illusion that Inuyasha was all alone now, without so much as moral support. HE believed that he was alone now, and therefore the audience is free to believe it.

The chapter was also very successful in creating the illusion that Yura is invincible. Though Inuyasha's blows were significant, Yura's home turf and her continued flippancy in the face of her injuries makes her seem unbeatable. It's a very unbalanced battle, and makes the danger of the situation that much more potent.

Kagome's reappearance at the end is almost poetic, in how she disappeared at the beginning only to show back up unexpectedly to save the day. She's like a phoenix. A QUEEN PHOENIX.