Some daimyou is talking to one of his subjects about how good the priest that has appeared is, actually. This subject bows in front of the lord and says the priest himself insists he is good, but said subject doesn't sound too sure. The lord of the castle is willing to give the priest a shot, and kick him out on his ass if he fails like all the others.
The houshi is briefed on the situation: the castle's princess collapsed three months before and they've had no luck using any medicine so far, so they opted for turning to the Buddha instead. The houshi doesn't appear to be interested in this story, looking around and commenting instead on the opulence in which the lord lives, and how the local fiefdom must really hate him. The lord tells him to shut his peasant mouth.
The lord leads the houshi into a chamber where a young woman is laying out in front of a Buddhist statue, telling her that the priest has arrived. Kneeling next to the girl, the houshi continues to make unflattering observations, saying that the princess's plump face is "swollen". The lord barks that this is actually her natural face.
Really? The girl has been collapsed and sick for THREE MONTHS and she hasn't lost some of that fat? I call hijinks.
The houshi looks up and stands to get a closer look at the Amida Buddha statue that the princess is laying in front of, as he's told by the lord that he got the statue from a nobleman under him who'd gone broke.
The houshi narrows his eyes at the lord and tells him that he mustn't look inside no matter what he hears. Though the houshi didn't threaten to turn him into a pillar of salt or something if he looks, the lord stutters out an affirmative. After the lord is gone, the houshi points his staff at the statue and offers mercy if whatever's in there would come out peacefully. Judging by the fangs and look of malice the statue grows, I'm guessing a peaceful emergence isn't on the menu.
Outside the castle, apparently the lord and some of his servants are gathered, and they apparently hear the squeals of the weasel thing as it's being beaten. The lord wonders what the hell is going on in there, and one of the servants asks if they shouldn't look inside. The lord haltingly tells him to wait, because he remembers the houshi's explicit instructions not to interfere with the exorcism by looking inside. Some thumps and clatters around the castle makes the servant think that there's more going on in there than just an exorcism, but the lord tells him to just hold his horses.
After some time, the lord finally thinks it's safe to go inside and find out what happened, and asks the princess if the dead weasel on the floor is REALLY what caused all the trouble. He also asks where the houshi is, and the princess gets all kind of bashful in describing how he didn't give his name, but left in a "stylish" manner, whatever that means. A servant bursts into the room, calling for the lord in urgency.
Elsewhere, Kagome is riding along on her bike and Inuyasha is lagging behind her and Shippou's ride, gazing up at the sky. Shippou asks Kagome if she doesn't think Inuyasha's been acting a tad strange lately, and Kagome agrees with Shippou's assessment. Apparently, this gives Shippou the gumption to jump at Inuyasha and bop him on the crown of his head, calling him shit-for-brains. Inuyasha grabs Shippou by the tail and dangles him in front of his face with a menacing look, telling him to shut up because he's thinking about stuff. Shippou says THAT'S what's so weird, and he questions if Mr. Head-In-The-Clouds wants to keep searching for Shikon shards together with him and Kagome.
When night falls, we're back with the houshi, who's hanging in a hot spring wearing nothing but the glove he keeps on his right forearm. He's muttering about the shit-heads at the tool shop who paid him in peanuts for all the stolen stuff he brought them, which was a real pain to move too. My heart just BLEEDS for you and your struggle, you thieving jerkwad. He holds up the Shikon fragment against the dark night sky, all that's left of his bounty from the day. He mutters about how hard these shards are to collect.
Somewhere out of sight, someone is giddy about the presence of the hot spring, causing the houshi to look around in curiosity. He peeks around the large rock he was leaning against, surprised there's someone else on the mountain with him.
Inuyasha sits with his arms crossed on the other side of a tree, telling her not to worry because he's not interested in looking. Kagome looks ruffled and thinks he's such a rude guy, which seems like what she would call him for peeking at her anyway, so he's damned either way. She mentally whines about how Inuyasha seems to be saying that she's not as good looking as Kikyou, though she's not sure how Kikyou looks naked. Probably just like you. I would tell her not to worry about it, but honestly, part of being a girl is having to deal with the implied rejection of every little sign of disinterest members of the opposite sex feel for you, so I actually can sympathize.
On the other side of the tree, Inuyasha asks Shippou what he's stripping for as the little guy throws all his clothes off. He says he's going into the spring too, but Inuyasha pulls back on Shippou's tail, telling him to wait. Shippou happily tells him he should hop into the bath too, making Inuyasha sweat quite a bit. Clueless to Inuyasha's clear discomfort, Shippou says he always thought it was rather strange that Inuyasha refuses to bathe with Kagome, because he assumes it would be much more fun with everyone.
Inuyasha hangs his head in embarrassment, keeping his fist firmly around Shippou's tail and muttering that Shippou should listen to him. Shippou tells Inuyasha that when his mother and father were alive, they always used to go in the bath together, prompting Inuyasha to lean in and insist that Shippou wouldn't understand because he's only a child. Shippou counters with a question about how far Inuyasha has gotten with Kagome.
The cheeky little... Inuyasha is speechless for a couple of panels, looking down at Shippou with a mixture of alarm and mortification, until he wraps his fingers around Shippou's skinny neck and refuses to confess something like that to him.
Kagome apparently hears none of this, mumbling about how peaceful it is on her side of the tree.
The houshi, meanwhile, is getting himself dressed and out of there, having noted that Kagome is with a man. He sighs, because to him, this means he'll have to do something he hates; get violent. But not with Inuyasha and company, at least not right away. No, he's starting by striking what looks like a giant raccoon wearing clothes across the face, who asks the houshi not to make him do whatever plan he's relaying at the moment. The houshi taps the raccoon on the head with his staff, promising a reward for the work he's commissioning.
The next day, Kagome is pushing along her bike, and asking Inuyasha how long he's going to be mad at her. She tells him to think of it as a favor, because he got to see her naked. Oh yeah, almost drowning because you knocked him unconscious with a rock is TOTALLY balanced out by getting to see you naked, Kagome. Sure. Inuyasha claims he didn't actually see her, so Kagome leans over and asks the idle Shippou in her bike basket if he really did see. Shippou says that he wouldn't know, because he's the only sane person in the party right now.
From on top of a nearby cliff, the houshi and the raccoon peer down at Inuyasha and friends. The raccoon clarifies that he's only supposed to attack Inuyasha, and the houshi confirms this, saying that in the meantime, he'll grab Kagome. The raccoon thinks this is an awfully roundabout way of doing things, considering the man he calls Master Miroku should be able to take them all out with his right hand. Master Miroku calls the raccoon an idiot, saying that he should know THAT'S not an option.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Miroku's introduction was another excellent example of showing and not telling how a character functions. We're shown through his actions in the first half of the chapter that while he IS a legitimate priest with the power to exorcise demons, he's also quite the con-artist who is not above stealing all the shit he observed when he first met the lord. He's also not the most delicate of conversationalists, pretty carefree in bringing up how these random things about the place and people he's come to take advantage of, and not apologetic at all in offending them. He strikes me as a kind of Robin Hood character, though much more self-serving in robbing the rich.
I also liked seeing Inuyasha still brooding about their encounter with Kikyou in the previous arc. He's got a lot of new feelings and information to sift through, and it is looking pretty tough for him. I made fun of him above for putting his focus on hardening his heart instead of finding out who and for what purpose someone set he and Kikyou against each other, but in the end, I can't fault him for it. Having all those feelings for Kikyou dredged back up only to lose her a second time (as far as he knows), it's probably hard NOT to focus in on all the heartache he's experiencing and wonder if there's any way to ensure it doesn't happen again. I've been subject to this very train of thought before, and even though I knew pushing people away shouldn't have been a priority for me, I started doing it anyway with the blind belief that if I was alone, no one could hurt me anymore.
So don't fret, Kagome. He's just trying to avoid any future heartbreak with you, and approaching it in the worst possible manner.
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