Headcanon.
Kagome, Myouga and Shippou peek around the door jamb to the ante-room they were still hanging in, Kagome finding the light from the Shikon shards is still visible where Nazuna stuck the Tessaiga. Well, so much for my headcanon, huh? Kagome sees that the light is swirling strangely, and points out to Inuyasha that thy appear to be blending with the youkai's body. Inuyasha pops his fist out of the spider mouth and questions this assertion. Kagome tells him that the light is marked by the sword, and he had better get a move on. The main web!monk's head grins and chuckles.
Within the cramped tangle, Nazuna's halting thoughts about being unable to breathe are interrupted by self admonition at being so stupid. She remembers how she trusted the kind old face of the "monk", not knowing he was the one who did all the damage, and even helped him to become more evil. She curses herself and her gullibility.
Suddenly, a clawed hand pulls aside one of the joints caging Nazuna, and it turns out to be a glaring Inuyasha.
Inuyasha urges her to hurry up and grab onto him, and she looks flabbergasted, asking if he intends to help her. He tells her that she's just on the way to his REAL target, the Tessaiga visible some ways beyond her. She seems confused that he's headed for the rusty sword, but she doesn't have a ton of time to ask questions, because the limbs all around her and Inuyasha begin to constrict about them even harder than before.
The nasty faces of the web!monk pop up around them as Inuyasha pushes back against the constricting limbs and Nazuna screws her eyes shut and grits her teeth against the pressure. The faces promise to squish the brats, and Nazuna is pressed further against Inuyasha while she tells him to forget about her and get going. She says in exchange, he can get revenge. Inuyasha is only left speechless for a moment, then he tells her with a glare to fuck off with wanting him to avenge her father.
Inuyasha is reaching for Tessaiga when one of those web!monk faces spits some spider silk at him and it wraps around his ankle. Then three joints come down on him all at once, back stomach and side, forcing a grunt out of him and Nazuna out of his grip before he's absolutely surrounded by the web!monk's flesh. Pretty soon, only half his forearm is visible hanging from a tangle of joints blocking him in. The web!monk chuckles, anticipating how soon the Shikon jewel's power will completely disperse throughout his body.
Nazuna looks up and sees that the Tessaiga is still stuck in the web!monk's limb just behind her and she quickly reaches to grab onto it. She offers it to Inuyasha's hand sticking out of its flesh-prison, bidding him to grab on. Inuyasha's fingers twitch at contact with the sword.
Nazuna accepts her cloudy position as target guide, though, as one of the web!monk's heads zooms toward her on the limb. She promises she won't move, even if Inuyasha has to cut her as well. He doesn't have to, though, because he's deft enough with Tessaiga that he slices just beneath her like he's carving a ham. Nazuna is flung off to the side, right next to a dissolving web!monk head, which curses her.
Nazuna and the web!monk head fall to the floor, groaning. The web!monk head is in some serious denial, insisting that it's not dead yet, and can still feel the power of the Shikon no Tama. Inuyasha shuts that shit down by sticking the point of Tessaiga into the middle of this final face and dissolving it right in front of Nazuna. She breathes a sigh of relief that it's finally all over.
Inuyasha turns around with the reverted Tessaiga resting on his shoulder, but Nazuna awkwardly catches his attention again with an actual THANK YOU for saving her. Inuyasha tells her that he was REALLY paying the web!monk back for all the trouble he caused him, half of which he blames Nazuna for, by the way. Nazuna stares, possibly waiting for Inuyasha to exact payback on her as well, but he's distracted by the spinning chunk of jewel on the ground that's what remains of their adventure with the web!monk.
Sometime later, Inuyasha and Kagome are back in their boat, with Nazuna telling them that she'll be fine with a village nearby. Kagome tells her to take care, and Nazuna grudgingly thanks Inuyasha again because he turned out to be a nice youkai. He just scoffs at her.
When they're out on the river once more, Kagome asks if Inuyasha's body is all the way back to normal. Inuyasha assures her that it is, but looks over his shoulder to begin a warning, which Myouga says he understands already and would like Inuyasha to allow him to finish. He elaborates that if it were to get out that Inuyasha loses his powers on the new moon, it could mean life or death, so Kagome and Shippou must never tell anyone about Inuyasha's weak point. Inuyasha himself balks at the reference to it as a weak point, and insists that they should just call it a secret instead.
Kagome, resting her chin on the heel of her hand, realizes that Inuyasha really IS back to his old self. She remembers when Inuyasha said she smelled nice and wonders if she heard wrong.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The fact that Inuyasha was able to keep such good track of where the Shikon fragments were AFTER the sword marking them was pulled out really bugged me. The chapter was named for this, after all, and it seemed like an explanation as to how he would know where they were was left out. With the webbed limbs moving around here and there, Inuyasha's view of where the sword had been pulled out being obstructed, and the location suddenly switching from above to below Nazuna, I feel like there should have at least been a panel with Kagome pointing out where the shards were now, to Inuyasha. Or maybe Inuyasha could have commented or thought on the fact that the place where the fragments were pointed out to be smelled a bit different. Otherwise, I don't know how he would have come to realize where that spot had moved, because without the location of the sword giving it away, his only way of knowing should have been Kagome.
Other than that, I really like decoding what Inuyasha means when he says flippant and dismissive things to people. I've mentioned before how Inuyasha doesn't really communicate well, and it's partly because of his chauvinistic need to conceal his true feelings, and partly because his social isolation makes it difficult for him to properly articulate how he feels anyway. In this instance, he refuses to "get revenge" for Nazuna, claiming that he just doesn't feel obligated to because she's caused him so much trouble. If he REALLY thought she had been such a pain, though, he wouldn't have gone on that "side-trip" to wrap an arm around her and save her.
Essentially, he was saying that her LIFE was more valuable than her desires for REVENGE, and he didn't really give a shit about the latter when the former was a more immediate concern. The primer for this was when he pushed aside the flesh blocking her in and squeezing the air out of her, looking exasperated that she was dying so easily and not putting up a real fight because she felt bad about mistakenly trusting her father's killer. To Inuyasha, there's no point in dwelling on that crap; it's done, over with, and even if it was stupid, it doesn't mean she should die for it or put a dead man's retribution over her own life. The present is what Inuyasha is fighting for, not something that can't be changed.
Pretty wise for someone who can't seem to actually say it.
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