Inuyasha Manga: 043 Inuyasha Revives!

Fangs, claws, ears and prickly attitude too, I'm sure. Not as prickly as the day before, obviously, but prickly enough to get rid of that monk he snapped his teeth at then. Then again, maybe being driven by that "I told you so" self-righteousness of assuming he was right to attack the monk to begin with will give him an extra edge. I imagine he probably won't mind telling Kagome that if she had allowed him to rip the monk's face off back then, they maybe wouldn't be in this situation.

Ignoring, of course, that in his heightened state of paranoia, he would have attacked anyone whether they were a demon or not.

Now that he has, he can enjoy the business-as-usual flippancy that always seems to come from pure youkai regarding his supposedly inferior hanyou powers. Joy.

See? See? What did I just say? Right on cue!

Shippou freaks out about how the web!monk is transforming much faster than Inuyasha while Kagome shouts Inuyasha's name. The web!monk promises to crush Inuyasha in his hands, but Inuyasha's shadowed face is looking pretty determined as he grasps at the burly arm holding his neck with both hands.

That's some powerful confusion he's got there to override so thoroughly his agony at having his ARM RIPPED IN HALF.

Inuyasha swings back his arm, cracking his knuckles, and comes back around for another blow with his Sankon Tessou, ripping right through the webbed limbs closest to the web!monk's head. His domed body collapses, but he only looks at Inuyasha as he lands in his periphery with what appears to be more like disgust than pain.

Meanwhile, Kagome and Shippou enjoy a double-high-five to celebrate Inuyasha being back to normal once more. Myouga cheers as well. Inuyasha stands cockily next to a length of webbing that still stands, cracking his knuckles some more and smirking as he tells the web!monk that his life is going to end right here. He lunges at the web!monk's head, intending to make him spit out the Shikon shards that he swallowed, because what was he doing putting those in his mouth anyway? He doesn't know where they've been!

The web!monk giggles, asking Inuyasha if he really thinks he's won. Inuyasha politely bids him to shut his fucking mouth as he slams the web!monk's face into the floor, pulverizing it. Myouga confirms that Inuyasha crushed the head, and Kagome hopefully asks if he got the bastard. Inuyasha peers at the spot the head had been and is confused, because it's disappeared. A popping noise behind him prompts Inuyasha to turn and see a pair of eyes emerging on another joint. The new head spits silk at him, but Inuyasha jumps out of the way and quickly lunges to swipe away the new face. Unfortunately, that's not going to be the end of it.

Oh snap.

A stuttering Shippou clings to a pillar, not quite able to describe what those heads are doing. Myouga says it's the power of the Shikon jewel at work. Nazuna kneels a little ways away with a look of shock and lifts the Tessaiga to stare at it, acknowledging it was her action of taking it out of the door that caused all this.

Inuyasha declares this whole head business a pain that he can alleviate by just smashing ALL of them individually. I'm pretty sure Inuyasha just invented the game Whack-A-Mole. He goes around smashing all those heads, but Shippou observes that new heads just grow out of Inuyasha's cuts, while Myouga says this is getting them absolutely nowhere. Kagome realizes that they have to get those fragments back if their efforts are going to be any good, and looks around. There's a glow emitting from one of the heads near the tippy top of the restored dome, and Kagome points it out to Inuyasha by instructing him that it's by the shredded monk's robes. Inuyasha launches himself toward it, and it glares at Kagome, growling.

Several arms started clawing at Kagome, Shippou and Myouga, causing them to flinch and dive away. One of the arms comes at Nazuna, still holding Tessaiga as she turns to flee, but she's seized around the middle before she can get too far. Kagome and Shippou call out her name while she's lifted as a shield to protect the head with the Shikon fragments from Inuyasha's blow. Inuyasha hesitates, and that's all it takes.

He goes on to say that if he were Inuyasha, he wouldn't have hesitated to tear Nazuna apart, a statement causing Nazuna some shock. She haltingly asks the web!monk to tell her the REAL story, not the lie he used to get her to take the sword out of the door. She wants to know if the monk behind the spider web has really gone. The web!monk admits that there never was a priest to begin with, being a lure to bring the hanyou with the Shikon fragments to the mountain. He sent the Spider-Heads to the mountain, waiting for the hanyou to hear rumors about them.

Nazuna, sweating, puts two and two together to draw the conclusion that the youkai holding her now used the Spider-Heads to kill her dad. The web!monk chuckles about what a pity it is that her father's enemy led her to believe he was an ally, and she was an instrument of his the whole time. Tears brimming her eyes, Nazuna makes a grunting noise as she shoves the tip of Tessaiga into the taunting head next to her, right between the eyes. Kagome and Shippou stare in awe at Nazuna attempting to drive Tessaiga further in, asking how the youkai DARES through gritted teeth.

It chuckles and moves forward, the blade slicing down the length of its webbed limb to show how little it's hurt by this.

You realize that NOT murdering people is the default and not actually considered doing them a favor, right?

Nazuna yells that she would rather have died back with her dad, so the web!monk offers to go ahead and kill her like she wishes, snapping those mandibles at her and preparing to pump her full of poison.

Oh RT, I see what you did with that lampshade...

Get some.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Nazuna's decision to face the reality of the situation, and confirm her suspicions was brave, despite how late it was in coming. That's what makes her feel like a real person, though, because real people are flawed individuals that often fool themselves into believing comfortable lies rather than critically examining their beliefs for a long time. A lot of the time, people go their whole lives not bothering to question the stories they've been told, even when they're faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Nazuna, of course, was swimming in a SEA of the stuff, so it may have been a lot harder for her to overlook the fact that she'd been duped. Still, I've seen people overlook just as much, so good on Nazuna for having the courage to bite the bullet.

Still, I do find myself wondering WHY the fake monk kept her around this long. His plan would have played out exactly the same way as he intended if he HAD killed her along with her father, so what was the point in keeping this human girl around? He clearly doesn't give a shit about her either, so it's not like he secretly loves her or any of that garbage. Perhaps he just anticipated being able to use her as a shield?

Or maybe RT's plans for her character arc overrode her actual usefulness to the villain. That seems more likely.