Inuyasha Manga: 042 Within the Barrier

Anyone else wonder if RT had any trouble drawing Inuyasha differently during the new moon adventures? I'm no artist, so I can't very well say for sure, but it does seem like it would be difficult to take a character that is established to have a certain appearance and make them look different. Did she find herself drawing dog ears on the boy and have to start over on her draft of the layout of the comic? Did she sigh at having to fill in his hair with black instead of just leaving it the color of the page?

These are the questions that plague my heart, folks.

And when this is going on to boot. Myouga is being pessimistic, talking about the possibility that it may be too late anyway given his human body might not be able to handle a demon poison. Kagome's eyes fill with tears again as she asks if Inuyasha is really dying. Myouga suggests that he could try the "radical" treatment of sucking out the poison. Not only is that a piece of very widespread folk wisdom applied to snakebites and the like, but it's also a myth that doesn't actually do shit to help a poison victim.

But hey, if anyone can make a mythological treatment work, it's a mythological creature, right?

So Kagome doesn't say anything. She DOES stare tearfully, and is confused when Myouga tells her that she maybe shouldn't watch. She learns why when Myouga jumps onto the wound in Inuyasha's neck and balloons to ten times his original size while he gorges himself on his blood. Kagome and Nazuna recoil, clearly disturbed by this. Nazuna asks what the hell Myouga is, and Kagome answers that he's a flea youkai, so...

Myouga eventually rolls away, whining that he's stuffed, and a sweating Inuyasha groans and turns his head. Seeing this, Kagome smacks Myouga into the wall in scooting up to Inuyasha again, calling his name. Inuyasha's eyes are open and he asks Kagome what she's crying about. She expresses her relief that he's awake, because she was afraid it had been all over for him. He seems confused about this for a moment, until he turns his head away from her and scoffs at how pathetic she is. Kagome angrily asks what his deal is, because she was super worried, but Inuyasha doesn't seem to think this is a big deal.

Well fuck, if you're gonna be a douchebag about it...

A shuffle sounds behind them, causing Nazuna and Kagome to twist around and peer over their shoulders. They fearfully note that something is there, and Kagome holds the Tessaiga's sheath up like a bat again as she glares into the darkness, sweating.

Well, it's not that guy, because he's too distracted by Kagome's bag. He can't find the Shikon fragments he had earlier, and is looking pretty irritated by it. Check the freezer.

Back in the ante-room, Kagome holds the sheath over her head, prepared to club the little creature that snuck into their safe spot, but it begs her not to.

I'm sure it's REAL important to determine what it was Shippou was trying to imitate there. Although, I seem to recall his reproduction of Kagome was pretty perfect, so I don't know why he should have so much trouble looking like a fricken mouse to the point that others can't tell.

Anyway, it turns out HE'S the little devil that pilfered the fragments from the web!monk! Crafty little bugger! Kagome grins at the bottle in her hand, because it's not in the freezer after all. Shippou brags that he did it while the "monk" was distracted by Kagome and the others, and Kagome praises him on his good work. Shippou is quite the spy.

The web!monk eavesdrops on this conversation and curses them for their sneakiness. He notes that the shards are inside, though, and he's not above making another try for them.

Shippou asks how long they're going to be in there like that, and Myouga assures him that as long as Tessaiga's barrier is up, they should be fine. Until Inuyasha regains his powers, Myouga thinks it's better to sit tight than embark on some foolhardy plan. Kagome and Nazuna are both sullenly silent on the topic, as is the sleeping Inuyasha.

Some time later, Kagome notices that there is light filtering through the slats lining the room and wonders what time it is. Nazuna snoozes in a corner, and Shippou does the same, using an overfull Myouga as a pillow while he mumbles in his own sleep that he can't drink any more. Kagome, seemingly the only one awake, looks down at Inuyasha and sees sweat on his brow. She removes the ascot on her sailor blouse and uses it to dab at his forehead. He opens his eyes.

Kagome apologizes on the off chance she woke him, and Inuyasha looks away again, saying that she didn't. He tells her he's actually been thinking this whole time, and asks a stunned Kagome haltingly why she was crying over him. She answers again that she was afraid he might die. He pauses the conversation for a moment before muttering a new question about whether she could put his head in her lap. Kagome is cool with it, though she does look a little perplexed.

He's got her good and flustered now. Blushing, she reminds him that he said he couldn't stand the way she smelled before, but he admits that was a lie. Kagome wonders what in the world he's saying, then why her heart is hammering so hard. She attempts to confront him, but she mumbles he's already fallen asleep when she notes his soft snoring.

Kagome nearly jumps out of her skin when she hears someone suggest she should get some rest too. Nazuna observed that Kagome has been awake this whole time while Kagome shoves Inuyasha off her lap and onto his face. Kagome asks if Nazuna was listening, and Nazuna flatly says that it's a rather cramped space.

Outside, the trees whisper in the breeze, and inside, Nazuna is gazing up at the ceiling. She hangs her head again and wonders how it ended up like this, stuffed in the ante-room with virtual strangers waiting out an infestation of spider-heads. She still can't believe that her kind savior of a monk is actually a youkai. She looks at those strangers; Inuyasha with his head back in Kagomes lap, Shippou on his belly, and Myouga rolling around in front of them, all sound asleep. She thinks about what trouble has happened ever since they arrived.

Don't you listen to that piece of shit, girl! She's definitely angry at first, accusing the web!monk of being a vile youkai who deceived her. He claims that she has to understand his meager powers allowed his body to be taken over by a youkai, and it's all the fault of those horrible strangers she's locked herself up with. Nazuna asks what he means, and he explains that they brought the Shikon no Tama to the mountain, the jewel shards she mutters that she saw earlier. The web!monk tells her that since the jewel boosts a youkai's powers, the spider-heads came to the mountain to gain its power, and he couldn't hold them back anymore.

Nazuna stares at the sword in the door, sweat at her temple, while the web!monk goes on to ask if the Shikon shards are in there with her now. He says that in the morning light, the Spider-Heads have subsided, and he should be able to banish them entirely if he can boost his clerical powers with the jewel. He insists this would save him and everyone. Nazuna insists that she won't be deceived, and covers her ears when the web!monk calls her name again, but she's accosted by her own memories of him when she screws her eyes shut. She remembers how he came to her when she was mourning her father, surmising he was killed by spider-heads and offering to hold a memorial service for him. He also suggests that she stay with him, because solitude can be disheartening. She remembers his kind smile and opens her eyes again, filled with tears.

Ho gonna do it.

OH MY GOD.

Nazuna lays beneath the broken-down door, groaning and holding Tessaiga. Myouga sums up her actions with an air of disbelief, because somehow everyone couldn't figure that out from seeing it. Kagome wonders WHY Nazuna did it, and the web!monk chuckles through a dribble of spider silk out of his mouth that she believes in him and is WAY too gullible for her own good. Inuyasha is fully alert by this point and worries aloud about the Shikon fragments, but the web!monk tells him that it's too late as he chews on the shards of the glass bottle in his mouth.

Inuyasha lunges at him, calling him a bastard, but the web!monk isn't having that.

Oooooh, he's gonna get it now.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Lots of feelings getting the better of people this time around. In his vulnerability, Inuyasha admitted to lying to Kagome about hating the way she smells in another one of those "last possible moment" confessions I was talking about back in the Thunder Brothers arc, probably helped along by delirium and lack of sleep. This of course leads to Kagome getting flustered, because she doesn't know what this means. Hearing something like that makes one wonder just what other opinions Inuyasha might have been covering up with a blustery attitude.

Then, of course, we have Nazuna, whose only means of support after her father died ended up being one of those youkai she hates so very much. Unlike Inuyasha in this moment, she's trying very hard to fight her vulnerability and deny that she will be deceived again. But no one can just turn their feelings and memories off, and she can't help but WANT to believe what the web!monk is saying. She was duped once more by her own desire to hold the comfortable position of trusting in the man who helped and sheltered her, and distrusting the mostly youkai strangers whose arrival marked the beginning of all their current woes.

To contrast how well the emotions of these characters were handled, there were some points of irritation. Everyone knows my pet peeve in reading manga is when a character reiterates things that are plainly drawn, so they were probably also picturing me screaming at Myouga to shut his fat trap during that scene. It broke up the flow of the chapter so badly that I was taken out and reminded of the fact that I was just reading a story instead of seeing the real people dealing with hard emotions earlier. Thanks a lot, asshole.

Shippou's arrival in the room also made my eye twitch. He clearly didn't come in the door, given the barrier would have kept his youkai ass out. But he found another way in - presumably a mouse hole - but his transformation into a mouse was so large and bulky that he was just about as big as one of those human-headed spiders. Why couldn't THEY find the place he got in and invade the room from there? Clearly, RT didn't FORGET about Shippou, but struggled with finding a viable way for him to get into the room with Inuyasha and company, because this was her idea and it was pretty shoddy.

But I can at least stop to appreciate the fact that the very end of this chapter was a visual closing bookend. A couple of chapters ago, Inuyasha was thrown up against a pillar by his neck in his human form, in a weakened state. Now he's in the same position, but gaining strength as his period of weakness wanes. Very striking.