Inuyasha Manga: 028 Foxfire

Main relationships are a funny thing in stories, because usually the relationship can go through a series of stages, some of which are a lot like the stages of grief. There is denial, anger, sometimes bargaining, followed by a couple different ones that are I identify as trepidation and exploration. Those are the ones that I look forward to seeing the most, when the relationship (doesn't HAVE to be romantic, by the way) is starting to actually develop with the passive observance of the parties involved.

Then, when you add ANOTHER party, things get a tad more complicated.

Wow, he must be freaking STARVING if he thinks instant noodles are top-notch cooking. Granted, there's that battlefield thing too, but the noodles...

Anyway, a darkness swoops down over the two of them, causing Kagome and Inuyasha to look up in bewilderment, noodles still trailing from Inuyasha's mouth. Kagome wonders why it got dark all of a sudden, just when a swirl of of something light appears in the air to puzzle her even further. Myouga jumps onto Inuyasha's shoulder, identifying the strange phenomenon as foxfire, at least tentatively.

A voice echoes over them, asking if they're the bastards that have the Shikon no Tama. Inuyasha and Kagome stare with mouths agape at the bluish fire, wonder at what kind of youkai this is left unfinished.

Well... that's... hmmm...

I got nothin'. 

The big pink ball floats over to Inuyasha and begins to chew on Inuyasha's irritated head with its tiny baby mouth, threatening to kill him. That is the least threatening threat I have ever seen. Inuyasha scratches his head, looking for all the world like he's trying to find patience, but he fails in that endeavor. He draws back his hand and smacks that pink balloon thing away from him. His and Kagome's eyes widen at the transformation it undergoes off-panel.

School-aged as Kagome and Inuyasha are, this might look a lot like that school assignment where you have to take care of an egg or sack of flour.

Yup, and just as irresponsible too.

The small baby child thing wants to know what Inuyasha thinks he's doing, and per Inuyasha habit of totally ignoring questions, he lifts this child up by its fluffy tail, examining it curiously. He identifies the kid as a tanuki brat in disguise, but the kid shouts indignantly that he's actually a fox. Kagome has a hand up to cover her gaping mouth as she stutters that this fox child is awfully cute, and wants Inuyasha to let her hug the kid next as she giggles girlishly. Inuyasha gives her a judgey face when he asks her just what she thinks this is. It's not a petting zoo, that's for sure.

All it took was that split second he was looking away for Inuyasha to feel himself being pulled down by the hand he was holding the fox with. Kagome and Inuyasha are both surprised to see that said fox has disappeared, and Inuyasha's hand is now weighed to the ground by some sort of weird statue. Kagome is appalled to see the fox has slipped over to her gigantic backpack and is rummaging through it, throwing her shit all over the place. He announces he's found the shards of the jewel he was looking for, holding them up in his tiny little fingers.

He jumps into the air and a swirl of that same bright fire pinwheels behind him as he claims the shards are his now and bids Kagome and Inuyasha farewell. Free from the statue's temporary effects now, Inuyasha yells, but the fox disappears in his swirl of fire. Kagome remarks that the creature is gone.

Or is it?

Probably the same reason everyone else wants the damn thing - he wants the power. He IS a tiny thing, after all.

Shippou says he's plotting revenge on his father's enemy. Kagome asks if his father was killed and before Shippou can answer, Inuyasha presumes he meant to increase his powers with the bottle of Shikon fragments that Inuyasha now examines in his hand. Shippou claims that he's strong without the fragments, but his explanation for why he wanted them is cut off by Kagome snatching them away from Inuyasha and demanding to know why Inuyasha is carrying them. Inuyasha protests her attitude, calls her a bitch, and Shippou has to shout a question about their listening skills as they begin to grapple over the shards. They turn their attention back to Shippou with puzzled looks, as though they had forgotten he was even there.

Meanwhile, soldiers are clashing with spears in a battlefield much like the one Inuyasha and Kagome were having lunch in, but pause in their fight to look up at the rumbling sky where a figure is flying through it. How easily distracted do you have to be...? Someone yells that something is coming as a pinprick in the sky grows larger. I don't know why these guys even had the wherewithal to look up at the sky in the midst of a battle, let alone not to dismiss the distant figure as a bird, but hey, I suppose I'd find any excuse to stop trying to kill other people too if I were in their position.

Not that it'll do them any good.

These fuckers swoop down and trash a good section of soldiers with one swipe, chopping haphazardly at bodies and sending everything from busts to heads flying. The survivors of this attack are in horror, and tentatively identify the threat as youkai. You don't say.

I guess this is some sort of weird demon safari or something? They look like they're just murdering these dudes for fun, so...

The one called Manten snorts and takes a curious look to the side before opening his oblong mouth and shooting a wide burst of fire at the men on horseback farther back from the melee force, pretty much incinerating them. Later, after they're all done with their mayhem, and Manten is munching on some guy's arm he didn't even bother to remove the armor from, Hiten talks about how much fun that mayhem was, Manten agreeing wholeheartedly with him.

Hiten is super stoked about all the uncontrollable power flowing through him, which he attributes to the Shikon fragments he's embedded in his forehead. He urges Manten to help him collect more, and Manten is all for it as he finishes his arm snack, saying that they'll waste everyone who has a fragment, just like they did that pesky fox.

Back to our protagonists, where Kagome is riding along on her bike and asking about Shippou's father, and whether he was carrying a Shikon fragment. Riding along on her backpack perched on the rear of Kagome's bike, Shippou says that "those guys" go around killing all the youkai who have Shikon shards. Kagome inquires as to who those guys are, and Shippou looks grim as he names them the Thunder-Beast Brothers. Leaping along beside them, Inuyasha curiously repeats this name. Myouga asks if they're Hiten and Manten, the hopelessly violent siblings he's heard about from Inuyasha's shoulder.

Inuyasha doesn't think it matters how violent they are, because if Inuyasha and company can kill them, they'll get a whole bunch of Shikon fragments. Arms crossed and sporting a superior look, Shippou says that a nobody like Inuyasha doesn't stand a chance against an opponent like the brothers. Inuyasha gives him a puzzled noise, as if encouraging him to say something stupid. Shippou identifies Inuyasha as a hanyou, due to his scent being mixed with that of humans.

Inuyasha's face is strangely mild in its annoyance, and he says nothing, allowing Shippou to continue by calling him inferior without the right to butt into youkai fights. Kagome turns to tell Shippou that he shouldn't say those things, presumably stopping the bike.

I'm kind of on Inuyasha's side here, to be honest.

Shippou starts crying uncle, asking for forgiveness, and Inuyasha stops hitting him, thinking that Shippou understands the lesson he was trying to impart - see gif above. Shippou reaches under his collar, smirking dangerously while he does so and claiming to have something for Inuyasha as his way of apologizing. This turns out to be another statue weighing down Inuyasha's hands, and this time Shippou slaps a sticky paper charm to it. He leaps back and laughs, telling Inuyasha that the charm has to be removed before he can move the jizou statue at all.

Inuyasha curses while Kagome stares open-mouthed. In the time she could have kneeled to help Inuyasha, Shippou claims that he hates committing violence against a lady, but jumps up and does a karate chop against her neck in an attempt to make her pass out. It doesn't fucking work because Shippou is a dumb kid, and Kagome turns to yell at him that his stupid chop hurt. He cowers at first, but them shoots some foxfire that she has to flinch away from. He pilfers the jewel shards off of Kagome again, running away and loudly planning to lure the Thunder Brothers out with them. Kagome grabs her bow and arrows after a moment of shock, demanding that Shippou come back, because now she's getting mad.

Inuyasha shouts after Kagome to get the charm off the statue before she leaves, but she ignores him. He's left behind, hands stuck under the statue.

At a nearby pond surrounded by tall grass, Manten is looking at his reflection in the water, humming with dissatisfaction. He mumbles that if he had more hair, he would be as popular with girls as his brother. HAHAHAHAHAHAA! Sorry, dude, it's not about how much hair you have, I guarantee it. He suddenly senses the Shikon no Tama and looks into his periphery where he thinks the feeling is coming from.

Uh-oh, looks like being chased by Kagome isn't your biggest concern right now. Manten identifies Shippou as the kid of that fox he murdered the other day. Shippou trembles, all superiority he showed to Inuyasha completely dissolved. But then he observes something pretty disturbing.

And the fighting spirit returns, as foolish as that may be. Shippou leaps toward Manten, screaming at him for his gall, but immediately gets batted away lazily by Manten. Manten hovers over Shippou as the groaning fox rubs his bruised cheek, demanding that Shippou give him the Shikon shards he's holding. Manten's mouth fills with the same fire blast he used to fry the army earlier, warning Shippou that this is the attack that awaits him if he refuses. Shippou curses, because he really is in over his head.

An arrow pierces the end of Manten's nose, much to his confusion. Kagome marvels at how her arrow managed to hit, even though it wasn't arc-shorteningly fatal. Manten looks irritated as he stares at Kagome and Shippou looks speechless.

Inuyasha is getting the short end of this stick.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I've always had trouble figuring out how old Shippou is. He's tiny enough to look like a toddler, but he's FAR more articulate than anyone of that age, so I kind of see him as probably between 9 and 11. Not old enough to have much experience in life or anything substantial, but old ENOUGH to be a little shit about those same things he has no knowledge about. He seems to genuinely believe he has the ability to get revenge all on his own, despite the fact that the Thunder Brothers killed his father, who was no doubt more capable than he is. I don't know what his plan was after he managed to lure out the Thunder Brothers, but he was never going to succeed. His age and inexperience is small potatoes compared to the huge ego he's got on him, and his assumptions that he can take the Thunder Brothers down simply because he's a full youkai.

It's an interesting hint toward the fact that this idea of hanyou being naturally inferior is so widespread. Shippou doesn't even question the notion that he, even as a CHILD, would be able to handle his revenge better than Inuyasha could. 

Inuyasha will end up turning these assumptions on their heads when he comes to the rescue. After he gets the statue off his hands, of course.