Inuyasha Manga: 050 The Torn-Away Soul

Girls, girls, can't we all share? I mean, as Urasue said, that soul is MASSIVE, so Kagome and Kikyou shouldn't have much trouble dividing it up between the two of them, right? Just take those floaty orbs that seem to make it up and divide them into two groups; one for each woman, with an equal number of orbs of equal size.

It might be a little more difficult to divide Inuyasha up, though. Unless, of course, we're willing to go Kikyou's route and make him a corpse first.

And she's not the only one who appears to still have a piece of autonomy left. Urasue's head giggles and prompts Inuyasha and Kaede to twist around to face it while it tells them that Kikyou's malice is driving her. Though most of the soul appears to have returned to Kagome's body, Urasue says that only the dark feelings Kikyou exudes now are suited for the body she made with her oni-craft. As Urasue begins to dissolve (remember: that's how you know they're REALLY dead), she talks about what a pity it is that a girl who was once such a pure priestess is now a pure creature of malice.

Growling through gritted teeth, Inuyasha leaps off in the direction Kikyou wandered, Kaede calling after him. Kikyou is still running away, intending to get as far from Kagome as possible in order to preserve what's left of the soul she holds, eyes rolling back and huffing as she does so.

Another superb catch by Inuyasha!

Kikyou looks down into the misty ravine she dangles over. Inuyasha grunts at holding onto her, then tells her that she can't go on like this, and she should return to Kagome's body. Kikyou looks back up at him with a mournful face and asks if he's suggesting that her new body just die. Inuyasha's eyes widen, as though he didn't really consider that as what he was saying. Kikyou elaborates that returning to Kagome means that she'll lose herself, and assumes this must be what Inuyasha wants.

Inuyasha is speechless for a moment, and this hesitation in answering causes Kikyou's face to darken as she flatly states that she WON'T give him what he wants.

But, if you fall, won't you die anyway?

Kikyou repeats her promise to only die when Inuyasha dies as she continues to electrocute him with her powers. Inuyasha calls her an idiot while telling her to stop already, but it's too late for that. The outcrop of rock Inuyasha is balanced on cracks and begins to fall, taking Inuyasha with it. His grip on Kikyou is lost, and he grabs onto the cliff-side with his raised arm to stop his fall.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

As Inuyasha climbs back up the cliff and over the edge, he wonders how it all came to this. He's at least astute enough to figure out that fifty years before, some creep disguised themselves as Kikyou and shot arrows at him while possibly the same creep disguised themselves as him and attacked Kikyou. Someone orchestrated the hatred Kikyou and Inuyasha had after that day for each other. Inuyasha makes his slow way back to Kagome and company, clutching his burned arm, wondering who it was, and for what purpose.

Kaede looks up at him as he arrives, and he asks after Kagome. Kaede answers that Kagome is still asleep, and inquires as to what happened to her sister. Inuyasha apologizes for not being able to save her, but doesn't divulge the details of Kikyou falling from the cliff. Kaede doesn't ask for those details, hanging her head in reservation instead. She convinces herself that Kikyou's existence in an imitation body powered by a malicious soul would have sucked, so she tells Inuyasha it's better this way.

Kagome groans in her sleep, and Shippou says her name with concern. She's sweating and twitching, Kaede surmising that she's having quite the nightmare. Shippou worries that maybe Kagome won't be the same when she wakes up, causing Inuyasha some alarm. Kaede seems worried that Kikyou's consciousness might remain as well, even though Kagome's forcefully-taken soul is back in her body.

Inuyasha watches as Kagome's eyes open, looking nervous. She sits up abruptly, sweating and breathing heavily, and alarming everyone around her. Kagome hunches over, shivering as Kaede calls her name. She looks up, breath slowing, and suddenly seems to realize there are others around.

Turns out she was dreaming about a math test that was filled with unanswerable questions. Inuyasha and Kaede stare, speechless. Inuyasha sidles up to Kagome, asking if that was all, and Kagome confesses that there was English after that fiasco. This girl is pure cinnamon roll. Inuyasha breathes a sigh of relief over the fact that this is the same old Kagome.

Kagome suddenly becomes aware of some absences, and asks about where Urasue and Kikyou have gone. After a pregnant pause from Kaede and Inuyasha, Inuyasha soberly tells Kagome that it's all over. In his head, Inuyasha wishes Kikyou a peaceful rest this time.

Within the ravine, and the river in the center, a hand extends from the water and onto a rock on the shore. The owner of that hand pulls herself up and onto the shore, then she stumbles into the adjacent trees, where small animals flee from her erratic movements.

No rest at all just yet, Inuyasha. Man, Urasue's assumption that no one could survive that fall was wrong on 4 out of 4 counts. I don't even believe that fall is deadly to anyone anymore.

Looks like Inuyasha and company are headed home on the next page, with Inuyasha asking Kagome if she really doesn't remember anything. Pushing her bike as she glances in Inuyasha's direction, Kagome slowly apologizes to him for not remembering a thing. Inuyasha tells her she doesn't have to apologize for it, looking away. From the back of Kaede's horse, Shippou observes that Inuyasha doesn't look too happy at the moment, and Kaede replies that she's not surprised by this, suggesting that they leave him alone for now.

Inuyasha continues to look melancholy, and Kagome tries to reassure him that he doesn't have to treat her any differently, given that she's still her, while also looking a tad annoyed with his mood. Inuyasha mentally argues that her soul, on the other hand, also belongs to Kikyou. Out loud, however, he puts on an air of annoyance himself, claiming she doesn't resemble Kikyou at all. Kagome wonders is that's really so, muttering that Inuyasha has looked at her with desire in his eyes despite what he says. Inuyasha turns to her to yell a question about when he's EVER done that. Does the beginning of the arc ring a bell?

Nice job! It's about time you started evening the fluster score, girl! As Inuyasha walks ahead of her to hide his reddened cheeks, Kagome tells him he's much more himself when he's angry. He tells her to shut up, but wonders what it means that he was relieved when he saw Kagome smile.

Behind them, Shippou and Kaede appear a little alarmed that Inuyasha got back to normal so very quickly. Kaede thinks Kagome is a little strange.

Well, I mean, the soul is KAGOME'S too, so shouldn't it be expected for her to have as much control over it?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? There's an awful lot to cover here. First I want to point out the imagery in which Kikyou expresses her happiness at still being alive after her fall. She's stumbling through a barren old battlefield full of skeletons and broken war instruments. It's so remote and forgotten that no one came to bury the dead after it, and the corpses were left to be picked apart and decompose out in the open. This is such a striking image because of how it reflects Kikyou's world now. She's essentially one of these fallen warriors, everything of her former life stripped from her or sitting forgotten as a relic of the past. Even her soul (or most of it) belongs to someone else now, and all she has are her memories of a death and betrayal that was part of a larger scheme she has no vision of just yet.

When Inuyasha told her to go back to Kagome, she didn't hear what he was actually telling her to do, which was to let go of her hatred and upset so that she could rest. What she heard was her former lover telling her that he didn't want her around. He wanted her and every trace of her to disappear so that he wouldn't have to deal with her anymore. It sounded to Kikyou much like Inuyasha was telling her to lay down and die so that he could move on with his life free and clear, and she could rot like those forgotten men in the battlefield as a minor casualty of the past.

Needless to say, this probably increased the anger and hurt that Kikyou feels regarding her resurrection.

The chapter also brings up a LOT of questions about the cosmology of this world. Specifically, how souls and reincarnation work, a topic I've wrestled with in the other manga I'm reviewing as well. It's not just the above question about attributing the soul to Kikyou rather than it's current incarnation, but also how we're supposed to understand the differences between Kikyou and Kagome, and how their soul can be split between them.

Because it's very clear that they're different people, probably due to their different lives and the circumstances that shaped them as individuals. But just WHAT is this soul that connects them, then? What does it do? What does it provide each of these characters that is the same, other than an appearance? If they're different people despite having the same soul, what base does that soul provide that bonds them together?

Furthermore, Kagome and Kikyou are now existing at the same time, with a split soul, and don't appear to be affected in any significant, long-term way by this (Kagome can't even TELL that Kikyou is still alive). If Kikyou only contains the hatred she had for Inuyasha at her death, or even her full lifetime's worth of soul, how is Kagome not feeling like she's missing a piece of herself, even in some vague way? Is it just that Kagome had no knowledge of this past life, and therefore had no attachment to the information? If so, why are these experiences stored within the soul anyway, if the individual they're attached to aren't attached to them in some fundamental way?

It was noted that the soul was HUGE, too, so I'm wondering if the sheer size of it is somehow the reason that both girls can function without the whole thing. Does the size mean that Kikyou's part was only one small piece in a long string of reincarnations that built up this large soul, or was it always that big for whatever reason? Is Kikyou's part of the soul so small a part that noticing its absence would be like missing a pebble on a riverbank?

Honestly, it mostly just comes down to the mechanics of what the soul is, how it functions, and what its purpose is for me. I feel like, without this information, I'm kind of lost in trying to figure out how Kagome and Kikyou can coexist like this. It's all very confusing.