Inuyasha Manga: 046 Shadow of the Self

This chapter title is very interesting, mostly just because of language and words. Notice how, in English, this chapter name is four words long. In the Romanized Japanese, however, it's written Nukegara. Just one word. What's more, when I looked up this word on Google, I found an entirely different translation: casting off skin. I also found a cool song by a cool J-band, but that's beside the point.

It's just such a head-scratcher to me, because this concept of a discarded or cast off portion of oneself has to be described in so many words in English, when it only takes one in Japanese. And yet, Japanese didn't seem to have its own word for pink and had to adapt an English word?

This world is mysterious and beautiful.

Meanwhile, Kagome is obsessing over something else entirely. She didn't see Inuyasha's shiny-eyed lean-in as a look of hatred, and as she's riding along in the wake of Kaede's horse with Inuyasha standing on its back end like a moron, she considers what it COULD have been instead. She wonders if Inuyasha really loved Kikyou instead, but she bumps up against the fact that Kikyou shot him to the Goshinboku with her arrow and thinks that maybe Inuyasha should be pitied for his unrequited affection.

While Kagome jumps to all her conclusions, Kaede twists to ask Inuyasha what's got him so antsy on his perch. He says he smells the youkai, and looks back behind him to find that Kagome is staring at him shamelessly. Inuyasha asks what's going on, to which she answers that it's nothing, though she continues to stare. He doesn't know exactly why, but this is really grating on his nerves, so he hops onto the basket on the front of Kagome's bike, questioning what her "pity" look is all about. I'm more interested in how she's managing to hold onto her bike with him balanced precariously on it like that.

Kagome lifts a finger to her chin and nervously says she was just thinking about something weird. He asks after what, but she's not answering.

You know perfectly well what she was thinking about, boy. You're always making shit weird.

Kaede seriously has no time for their teenage bickering, because she is determined to recover her sister's remains before this inexplicable bad feeling she has turns out to have some credence. There's no reason for Kaede to think her premonition isn't well-founded, because when someone's stealing bones, you KNOW they're up to some bad business.

And that bad business apparently requires a huge kiln with three separate smoke-stacks, billowing steam. Urasue walks around in this kiln giggling, because the crazy hot temperatures in there are apparently nothing to her. She thinks the baking has finished really nicely, and admires the vaguely human sarcophagus-like shape she kneaded carefully from Kikyou's bones and graveyard soil, hardened in her oni-oven. She whips out her scythe and swings it onto the sarcophagus-thing, right between where the eyes would have been and producing a big crack.

Hey, what do you know? That sarcophagus comparison wasn't too far off the mark.

I wish my shoddy works of art would turn into real masterpieces right before my eyes like that! Man, Urasue didn't even have to TRY!

Urasue starts referring to Kikyou's life as a priestess who slayed youkai after the Shikon no Tama, asking if this is correct. The Kikyou replica doesn't answer, but Urasue asserts that she's a servant that will collect the Shikon no Tama pieces for her anyway, commanding her to stand and fight. Replica!Kikyou staggers to her feet and then promptly falls over.

Confused, Urasue kneels next to replica!Kikyou and lifts her by her hair to get a closer look at her listless face. Urasue lets out a sound of disgust, taking Kikyou's head in her hands and determining that it's just an empty cast-off shell of a skin because the soul hasn't returned. Her level of sorcery should have returned the soul to the replica body, so she wonders if this means the soul has already been reincarnated into another body.

If Kagome's apparent fears are accurate, probably not for long. She probably wishes she was back at the end of the bridge with the whinnying horse, because she asks if it's really safe for all four of them to be crossing the bridge at once. Inuyasha is super cavalier when he suggests it might fall and Kagome makes a worried noise in response.

Ahead of them and out of the fog drifting across the bridge, a shadow approaches with a creak. Shippou observes that something is coming toward them, Kagome staring in surprise. It appears to be a group of shambling armored soldiers with lolling heads, half caked in clay, but Kagome asks what they are anyway.

Inuyasha cracks his knuckles, silently identifying them as an army sent by the old hag. He warns Kagome and Kaede that he's about to rattle the rickety old bridge before he launches himself at the soldiers.

Kagome screams while clinging to the chains of the bridge, while badass Kaede endures silently behind her. I want to be Kaede when I grow up, guys. The shattered bodies of the soldiers clatter over the side of the bridge with Inuyasha staring in confusion at their half-stone parts. Kagome screams again that there are more coming toward them, and quickly. Inuyasha curses, preparing to take them out too.

From a nearby ledge, Urasue is looking down on her visitors on the bridge. She wonders who these guys are and why they decided to show up JUST when she was so busy. It's always when you've got SO much to do, am I right? When catching sight of Kagome, though, Urasue's interest is suddenly piqued. She recognizes that face as the same one that her replica!Kikyou has.

Back down below, Inuyasha's shoving his claws through the new wave of soldiers, telling them to get out of his way, when one of their arms shattered at the elbow grabs onto his wrist. A few other hands are grasping at his hair and arm, but he's distracted by Urasue swooping down at him from above, scythe out.

See?? This is exactly why you shouldn't have all been on the bridge at once!!

Kagome and Keade are sliding down the caving bridge in terror when Kagome is snatched up by Urasue and carried away, Kaede calling out her name as she's falling. Kagome shouts out to Kaede and Inuyasha as well, then looks over at Urasue, stuttering. Urasue giggles and assures her that no one will be able to survive that fall, causing Kagome to disbelievingly twist around to the dangling edge of the bridge again while calling out Inuyasha's name desperately.

Back at the kiln, Kagome asks Urasue what she's doing. A fair question, because Kagome's hands have been tied and she's been deposited in what looks like a stone version of a round kiddie pool. Urasue is even filling it with water from an urn as she calls Kagome noisy, surrounded by baskets of herbs as well. Kagome notes that the water smells like medicinal herbs while the leaves float around her and she gets dizzy.

It must LITERALLY be like looking in a mirror. Kagome questions what's going on yet again, and is finally answered by Urasue introducing her to the resurrected body of Kikyou that she made out of Kikyou's holy bones. She tells Kagome that soon, her soul will be separated from her body by the soul-separating potion she lying in, and it will return to its original body if it is in fact a reincarnated soul. Kagome stares at the listless Kikyou next to her, horrified.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Urasue is my kind of villain. She didn't spend forever monologuing about how she was going to kill Kagome's companions to get to her, she didn't pause to explain this to Inuyasha, didn't fuck around with telling Kagome exactly what she was doing and why. She just fucking DID IT. Sure, at the end, she offered Kagome a little bit of context for what was happening here, but she didn't overshare and didn't indulge in it UNTIL Kagome was fully bound and helpless. She's actually being somewhat competent here, making her a little scary in addition to the situation she's created for Kagome.

Imagining being kidnapped in the manner Kagome was is frightening enough. For all she knows, all her friends who accompanied her there are dead, and she was spared only to be tossed into a smelly bath without any clue as to what it all means. To top it all off, a doppelganger of herself shows up and she learns that she's there essentially BECAUSE she looks like this empty shell of a body and her kidnapper wants her soul to power it. It's a pretty terrifying prospect, because it's clear that if Urasue could make an exact replica of Kikyou with her craft, it's not that much of a stretch to assume she's fully capable of stealing Kagome's soul too.

This chapter leaves me with one question though; if Urasue can fly, what the fuck did she need a bridge for?