Inuyasha Manga: 033 Discarding the Scabbard

Discarding it? I thought we ended the last chapter with Myouga asking Inuyasha to USE the scabbard. What good is discarding it going to do him? What, does he need to drop ballast to move his balance like a hot air balloon or something? Maybe he's got to shift out of the way of the blast and getting rid of the scabbard would make him lighter and more agile. Somehow I don't think a scabbard would add that much resistance to a maneuver like that, but hey, what do I know?

I know this is the slowest freaking ball of rage-electricity I've ever seen, because Myouga even has time to say that the scabbard OUGHT to defend against the strike, telling Inuyasha not to think about it and just do. Inuyasha also has time to threaten Myouga with a thorough wasting if it turns out he was lying as he pulls the scabbard from his belt.

Hiten hovers in the air, cursing Inuyasha and promising to make the hanyou pay for his brother's death. He's still got a little of said brother's blood smeared on his face just visible while he shouts of course. Inuyasha isn't listening, though, because he's busy fending off the blast with Tessaiga's scabbard held up horizontally over his head, which actually DOES seem to repel all that energy being thrown at it.

Staring, Hiten is dumbfounded that below him, Inuyasha stands completely unharmed with a track running forked into the ground on either side of him, where the blast was redirected. Inuyasha holds his scabbard out in awe, while Myouga says this is just as he expected. He says that since the scabbard was made specifically for Tessaiga, there's no way it wouldn't be able to repel a lightning beast attack. Fair, I mean the sword itself DID repel Sesshoumaru pretty effectively, so I can believe that. My question is where this scabbard came from.

I realize it had to have been around since Inuyasha first came back with the sword, though we haven't actually SEEN it until the beginning of Chapter 20. Did Myouga point it out before they made their nondescript escape from Inuyasha's dad's gravesite?

Man, there was just not enough to the conclusion of that arc.

Anyway, Myouga is super stoked that his prediction was so dead on, and Inuyasha bristles at his word choice, pissed that Myouga seemed to be risking his life on a mere conjecture. Myouga hops around excitedly as he changes the subject, telling Inuyasha that they should finally get the fuck out of dodge now that they've avoided death successfully. Inuyasha has other plans.

OR, you could defend yourself with it until you can grab Tessaiga again. Let's not get stupid here.

Hiten calls Inuyasha impudent as he throws another ball of destruction at him, but Inuyasha's form is outlined in the ball while he pushes straight through it. Inuyasha yells that if he can successfully do that, he'll be able to smash Hiten directly. Hiten asks if Inuyasha is stupid, because he has one very big advantage.

That must have stung on a couple of different levels.

Kagome peeks over the hill she's hiding behind and is visibly worried. She looks down at a groaning Shippou as he opens his eyes. He turns to see his father's face and realizes his soft bed is his father's pelt. Wow, that's creepy and heartwarming at the SAME TIME. Weirdness abounds.

Kagome kneels next to him, asking if he's awake, and Shippou sits up, digging a little fist into his eye. Shippou asks what happened to Manten, and is shown Manten's corpse is sitting some ways away on another hill. Kagome tells Shippou that Inuyasha beat Manten for them, but Inuyasha is now in a whole mess of other trouble. They watch as Inuyasha dodges another blow from Hiten, who jokes that Inuyasha would rather be chopped up than barbecued. Funny haha.

Noting Hiten's flaming wheels with the invisible axles, Kagome surmises that he wouldn't be able to fly without them. She takes a look at her single arrow and gleefully starts saying that if she shoots the wheels with her arrow, she can trip him up. Didn't you say earlier that it's unfair for two people to be attacking one opponent at once? Or did that only apply when the one being ganged up on was Inuyasha?

It doesn't matter anyway, because after a few pats to her torso as though she might find it in her pocket, Kagome realizes she has no bow. Shippou, however, tells her to leave that to him. Much to Kagome's confusion, Shippou pulls a leaf out from under his collar and puts it on his head. He looks back at his father's fur a moment, saying that if he didn't help Kagome, his father would be angry with him. He then surrounds himself with foxfire and jumps into the air, Kagome at first stoked about the fact that he's going to transform. Unfortunately, she's confused again when she mistakes his new form for a snail at first because of its curlie-cue design, and he has to TELL her he's a bow.

Inuyasha tries to bat away Hiten's spear with his scabbard, but Hiten gets a hit in anyway, screaming that he's wide open. Kagome nocks an arrow in the Shippou bow with some difficulty, and just as Hiten is about to stab Inuyasha through with the spear, commanding him to die, Kagome shoots. Hiten pauses as he sees the arrow flying toward him.

Maybe Kagome thinks this ganging-up doesn't count because she didn't actually expect to get in the hit.

Hiten wobbles in the air, cursing, and Inuyasha realizes this is his chance. He reaches up, grabs Hiten's spear, and yanks on it.

How would you know, Myouga? You've never done ANYTHING reckless like bet someone's life on a possibility. Pfffft! Who even does that?

Myouga says that though Inuyasha is strong, he won't be able to do that for long, and yells at him to let go of the spear. Kagome asks Myouga when he got over to where they are, and Shippou does her worrying for her by wondering aloud if Inuyasha is alright.

While Inuyasha is presumably being electrocuted continuously, he still has the wherewithal to look at the scabbard and determine it's in his way. He promptly discards it, which nicely explains the title for me. Myouga hops around, calling Inuyasha a fool because no one told him to let go of that scabbard. Inuyasha is convinced that his flying fist will do a better job, though.

It certainly seems to have caught Hiten by surprise anyway. He goes flying into the ground and Inuyasha screams that he showed that neanderthal what's what. Neanderthal? Really? A human species known for its pop culture brute strength reputation is being used as an insult by a guy who used brute strength to knock out his opponent? Also, how does Inuyasha even KNOW anything about neanderthals?

Kagome is amazed that Inuyasha sent Hiten flying, and Shippou admits that it was simple but an effective technique. Myouga is now jumping around in celebration, calling Inuyasha great for managing to turn this into a contest of physical strength. Kagome is perplexed by his change in tune, because he WAS only just saying that Inuyasha was a fool.

Hiten sits up with a scoff, admitting quietly that this was the very first time in his life that he's been hit in the face.

He's clearly intending to make it the LAST time, too. Hiten charges at Inuyasha, shouting that this is the end. Inuyasha dives quickly to retrieve his scabbard before holding it up to catch the spear again so it doesn't land on his face instead. The spear begins to carve a crack in the scabbard as Inuyasha groans in his attempt to hold the blow back. Myouga panics while Kagome stares in shock.

Should have taken that moment Hiten was down to grab Tessaiga instead, Inuyasha.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The action was sustained and the stakes kept at that really high level I love so much. Kagome continues to be a problem-solver with Shippou's help, and it's looking like these two really do make for good support. I joke about Kagome being a hypocrite here in attacking Hiten where she wouldn't let Manten attack Inuyasha, but they really are different situations. When Manten wanted to "assist" his brother, it was unfair because Hiten already had the upper hand, so he didn't NEED help. Here, Hiten STILL has the upper hand, and Inuyasha really did require an extra shot, even if it was small. Even without his wheels, Hiten is still pretty formidable, and his anger seems to amp up his power too, so Kagome may not have really done Inuyasha any favors there.

Myouga was of course the real hypocrite here in all his different ways, and this holds its weight as a running joke in the series. He's good at KNOWING about dangerous things, but he's not so great about confronting them. That's probably WHY he's good at knowing about the dangerous things, because he also knows how to keep a healthy distance. All in all, he is the "book" smarts to Inuyasha's "street" smarts, and they make a good team that way as well, though their arguments about Myouga's cowardice continue.

My real problem with this chapter came with the fact that the scabbard wasn't introduced properly in previous chapters. The botched ending to the arc where they got Tessaiga puts out some shock waves into future chapters, it seems, and that is NOT a good thing. An object that was as important as the scabbard turned out to be needed something a tad more substantial than, "Oh, you can use that SCABBARD you inexplicably got somewhere at some time!"

Chekhov's Gun needs to be INTRODUCED in the first act, not pulled out of the ether in the third.