Inuyasha Manga: 054 The Cursed Hand

Well yeah, Miroku's hand is so cursed that it LITERALLY sucks, but he's at least making the best of it. Most curses only come with negatives like bad luck and always getting sick at the park. Miroku, on the other hand, has managed to turn his sucky hand into a weapon that works in his favor, which makes it just a tad less METAPHORICALLY sucky. There's not much visible downside to being able to vacuum up your enemies. At least not yet.

Also, she was probably tired of standing and watching you not get SHIT done in this fight.

Over a shot of Miroku laying there with his eyes closed, Kagome says she's pretty sure he's someone they should be able to talk it out with. His beaded wrist and hand twitches.

Not really the best way to show gratitude for your defense, buddy. In fact, Kagome has switched sides and is now totally cool with Inuyasha killing Miroku on further consideration, clinging defensively to Inuyasha's shoulder. Inuyasha himself shakes a still reverted Tessaiga at Miroku while calling him a crummy priest. Miroku raises his hands in surrender and calmly bids everyone to slow down and talk things out.

Miroku begins by laying out the reason he's trying to collect the shards of the Shikon no Tama; to seek out and destroy a particular youkai known as Naraku. Inuyasha and Kagome sit and listen to him beneath a tree in which Shippou hangs out, attention span too short for serious conversations. Kagome repeats Naraku's name as a question, and Miroku responds by telling her that Naraku placed the Kazaana in his right hand as a curse, raising it up to show her.

Kagome asks what kind of youkai this Naraku is, but all Miroku really knows about this youkai is that it has a strong evil aura that consumes people. Kagome is surprised that he knows so little, and begins to ask how he plans to find it. It turns out that Miroku DOES have a tad more information than just that, though.

Rather than interest being piqued by this story coinciding with the spat between Inuyasha and Kikyou, Kagome is more interested in the fact that this demon borrowed appearances.

Miroku says that during the last battle between this creature and his grandfather, it appeared as a beautiful woman. Though his grandfather was quite the priest, he had a weakness. Kagome flatly suggests that this grandfather of his was a lecher just like him, and Miroku confirms this, not needing to ask how she might have figured.

Before Naraku escaped, however, it stopped to tell Miroku's dear old granddad that the Kazaana he has in his hand now would eventually consume him and his entire line if he has any children, being a heritable curse and all that. Inuyasha and Kagome sit silent at the end of this tale, staring curiously at Miroku. He tells them that his Kazaana grows in power and size every year as he's looking at his covered palm. Balling his hand into a fist, Miroku says that if he fails to kill Naraku, he'll be devoured in several years time as well.

This is all well and good, but when did that outright HOLE turn into that weird Kazaana thing anyway? Furthermore, how did your grandfather figure out how to cover it up so he could go about his daily life groping people without sucking them and everything in existence up?

So many questions that Kagome doesn't ask, just gazing at Miroku with pity. She's moved by the implication that he'll die if he doesn't succeed in his quest, and he confirms this stoically as well. He claims he doesn't mind if it happens, if that's his destiny, but somehow he's not really RESIGNED to sit around until it happens, and wants to get Naraku good before he goes. Since the Shikon no Tama has reappeared in the world after its supposed destruction, and in pieces no less, Miroku surmises that Naraku will also be collecting pieces to gain more power. He's pretty sure this is the case, because fifty years before their little conversation, Naraku almost got his hands on the jewel when he killed the priestess who protected it.

This remark understandably causes Inuyasha some eye-widening stress.

Yeah, that almost TOO-PERFECT reveal only ONE ARC after your encounter with a resurrected Kikyou laid that out pretty nice, didn't it?

Inuyasha grabs Miroku by his collar and demands to know what form Naraku is supposed to be borrowing now. Miroku gives him a "bitch, please" look as he answers that if he knew, he would found Naraku and killed it already. Inuyasha keeps going over this bombshell Miroku dropped on him in his head, that the creature who turned Kikyou and himself against one another is still alive and looking to collect the Shikon no Tama. Gritting his teeth and glaring at the ground, Inuyasha vows to root out Kikyou's enemy and make that fucker pay.

Kagome stares at him speechlessly for a moment, lifting the fragment of the jewel on the chain around her neck and looking down at it. She says that they're bound to run into Naraku eventually if they keep collecting fragments of the jewel while Miroku gapes at her and wonders how she managed to lift that fragment she has off him again. HAHA, probably the same way you did, SUCKER! Kagome is crafty!

Instead of answering his question, she proposes that they all collect the shards together. Miroku is mystified with this request, so Kagome explains that Inuyasha will really have no intention of handing over the jewel (to which Inuyasha interjects a "damn straight"). She asks Miroku what he thinks of the idea while Miroku scratches his head contemplatively. He looks away, though, saying that he really doesn't like getting involved with other people. Kagome reminds him that he'll die soon if he doesn't get Naraku, putting back on her look of pity, and this prompts Miroku to ask if she's worried about him. She looks like she's not really willing to go quite as far as saying that when Miroku grabs both her hands and gets REAL CLOSE to request something. Inuyasha looks around at the two of them at the exact right moment.

Said like someone who doesn't have to worry about nine months of HELL.

Inuyasha is trembling with rage as he glares at Miroku over this comment, and Kagome is flatly questioning WHY she should ever do such a thing. Apparently, her level of sarcasm isn't high enough, because Miroku apparently thinks she's actually considering this, sighing dramatically while he explains that he'll need an heir to continue his fight if he dies before he can get to Naraku. Inuyasha barges in between Miroku and Kagome to ask for a fucking BREAK from this thin facade of lechery from the lecherous monk. An annoyed Miroku reminds Inuyasha that he's actually a PRIEST, thank you much.

I wonder what the difference is...

Inuyasha tells Miroku not to bother Kagome with his weird requests again, and Kagome is agape at his defense of her. Miroku apologizes for his intrusion, because he thought she was just Inuyasha's companion, but it seems clear to him now that Inuyasha has fallen in love with Kagome. Inuyasha is wobbling and unsteady again at Miroku's words while Miroku apologizes again. Inuyasha's temper takes over and he shouts at Miroku that he's only using Kagome as a jewel detector. Kagome scoffs as she crosses her arms and turns her nose up at the insult, snottily saying that it's true Inuyasha has someone ELSE he cares about. Inuyasha looks taken aback and Miroku widens his eyes at the juicy gossip Kagome just dropped.

"I prefer to be only SUBTLY objectified rather than outright, Inuyasha! If you're going to do it, do it RIGHT!"

Serious conversations tend to degenerate into nothing when they're between stupid teenagers, kid. Don't worry, you'll get there too, one day.

But what's going on over here??

Why are soldiers always wandering around with their eyes on the clouds? Shouldn't they be focused more on the ground?

It's not like looking at the sky is going to do them any good either.

Is that a three-eyed horse right next to cyclops horse? If they breed, do they produce a normal horse?

Burning questions.

Anyway, the foot soldiers all scream at the oncoming cloud of youkai, and the next time we see them, they all lay bloody and dead as Inuyasha and company approach. Kagome screams, and Miroku comments on the atrociousness of the scene. The exposed rib cages cleaned out of all their bowels suggests to Miroku that this wasn't your everyday battle. Kagome asks if it was a youkai, and Inuyasha says it certainly looks that way. Miroku raises his right hand vertically and closes his eyes in prayer, bidding them to rest in peace.

Once he's lowered his hand again, he suspects that this isn't the work of low-level youkai, but rather one that has a Shikon shard. Inuyasha thinks about how he doesn't just smell blood on the scene, but also an abundance of something it takes him a little while to identify as ink.

He turns to Miroku to tell him that he has no intention of cooperating with him or handing over the Shikon shards. Miroku smirks, supposing this means they're in a race to pick up the shards separately. Let the marathon begin!

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I felt like it was too soon and too easy for Inuyasha to start getting information on who his and Kikyou's betrayer was fifty years ago. Or, maybe it was too late. After all, if a random Buddhist priest was walking around having heard this rumor, why hadn't Inuyasha heard it yet? At the very least, Kaede should have caught wind of it by now. Fifty years have gone by, and Miroku is the only one who managed to catch wind of the fact that Naraku was behind Kikyou's death?

How did HE hear about this? I'm guessing by way of his father and grandfather, but that brings up another question about how THEY found out, and why they chose to pass down this information. It doesn't appear that Miroku's grandfather pursued Naraku after he got cursed, and neither did his father, because Naraku was so good at concealing his identity. Miroku is the only one in fifty years who has had an avenue to drawing out Naraku in an effort to destroy him, or at least that's how he made it sound, because this is the first time in that period that the Shikon no Tama has been available to rotten demon creatures again. Did Miroku's grandfather pass down this information, gotten from his many encounters with Naraku, in anticipation of the Shikon no Tama showing back up again and being the avenue by which one of his progeny can lure out Naraku?

It's just strange that word of this particular part of the story wouldn't get back to Kaede and the village Kikyou lived in at some point before this. Miroku's family must have an uncanny ability to keep secrets for YEARS, because I don't know if I believe that there's a possibility that the subject wouldn't have been brought up at SOME POINT in SOME WAY in as long a time as fifty years. The fact that Inuyasha was unsealed and working with Kagome only took a few days to spread around to Yura.

Maybe that's one of the major differences between powerful youkai and priests; priests know how to keep their mouths shut.