Shippou shouts angrily that if Inuyasha destroys the well like this, Kagome won't be able to come back, and with tears in his eyes he asks if Inuyasha REALLY doesn't want to see Kagome again. Inuyasha scoffs and says that if she's there, he won't be able to concentrate on his battles. Yeah, because that's TOTALLY Kagome's fault. You'd be a PERFECT fit for a school board imposing a restrictive dress code on girls in the name of their male peers being able to concentrate, wouldn't you?
Inuyasha begins to walk off, telling Miroku to come along. Miroku asks to where, and Inuyasha reminds him they have a jerk-wad called Naraku they should be hunting down and killing. Pausing, Miroku looks back and calls out to Shippou, who denies knowing him. Through his angry tears, Shippou sniffles that he hates Inuyasha. Inuyasha tells Shippou he can do what he wants, which I'm sure includes moping by the ruined well, while Miroku casts a blank look in Shippou's direction.
Miroku turns back to Inuyasha, asking him if that wasn't a rather cruel way of going about keeping Kagome out of danger, though he does understand his need to do so. Inuyasha closes his eyes and tells Miroku to shut his face if he understands after a small moment looking surprised. Miroku DOES change the subject, opting instead to talk about how strange it is that Inuyasha being caught up in Naraku's plot fifty years before means that he's MET Naraku.
Inuyasha twists to look at him, mildly consternated. In his head, he's reminiscing about the promise Kikyou made to bring him the Shikon no Tama in order to turn him human with it. He also remembers the following day, when "Kikyou" shot arrows at him and told him to die, making him think he was betrayed. Inuyasha says that though he's technically MET Naraku, Naraku was disguised as Kikyou at the time, meaning Inuyasha doesn't know what he looks like.
Miroku says this is what is so odd, because Inuyasha doesn't know Naraku or why he has such a grudge. But he also suggests that maybe, since the late Kikyou was a priestess, that might be Naraku's connection.
Back in Tokyo, among a bunch of kids greeting each other in the school yard, Short-Hair and Headband are surprised to see Kagome. She looks back at them with a melancholy expression, and they immediately begin asking if she was cured of her rheumatism or beriberi or whatever her grandfather came up with this time. Her face makes a radical transformation into annoyance and shock at this, but she doesn't answer, as her friends are now commenting on her plain clothes instead of the school uniform. Headband asks if something happened, and Kagome says that her uniform got all covered in blood. Headband assumes this means that Kagome was vomiting blood, with a strangely curious face instead of horrified like you would figure.
As she's sitting in class later, Kagome thinks about how Inuyasha's injury wouldn't stop bleeding and she was really worried about him. She also ruminates on how tightly he hugged her before widening her eyes and remembering how he stole the Shikon shard she had while pushing her down. Realizing that he might have hugged her and lowered her guard for just that reason, she stands and slams her hands down on her desk, shouting that if that's how it was, she won't forgive him. Her teacher tells her to go stand in the hall for all the alarm she caused her classmates, predictably.
She amends her thought to say that it's only sort-of true, given that he's only HALF-BOY. You and your strange contemplations on whether or not your crush actually counts as a boy are treasures, Kagome.
We're thrown back into ancient Japan where Inuyasha is sitting with his shirt off in front of Kaede so she can spread a salve on his wound. She says that with an injury this serious, he won't be able to fight for a while. He tells her to shut up, because it'll close up in two or three days. Kaede should smack the shit out of this boy, because no one talks to the badassery that is her like that.
Inuyasha twists to ask her if she doesn't know something about Naraku, and Kaede admits she HAS been thinking about it ever since Kikyou was resurrected. She recalls that Kikyou said Inuyasha was the one who struck her with his claws and stole the Shikon no Tama, but it's obvious to her Naraku was had taken Inuyasha's appearance to do those things at this point. But instead of running off with the jewel right after getting it, like he could have, Naraku tricked Inuyasha into attacking the village and stealing it himself, arranging it so the real Inuyasha would be killed by the real Kikyou.
Kaede suggests that someone either wanted Kikyou and Inuyasha to hate each other or wanted Kikyou's heart soiled with hatred. Can't it be both? Inuyasha has pulled back on his fire-rat robe and looks over his now clothed shoulder curiously at Kaede. She explains that in Kikyou's possession, the jewel was purified, but soiling Kikyou's heart with malice would increase the malice in the Shikon no Tama and increase its powers. Kaede can only think of one person who would have wanted that to happen at the time, and asks the clearly enthralled Inuyasha and Miroku if they want to go see where that person was.
Why did you even bother to ASK, Kaede?
Kaede says that this Onigumo character committed all sorts of crimes to their neighboring countries, and ran to this village, probably to do the same. Kikyou ended up giving him shelter, though, prompting Inuyasha to ask why she would do that. Inuyasha is shocked to learn that the man was paralyzed and couldn't move. This just as they approach a cave that is half-overgrown with vines, and Kaede says the narrow fissure is the place.
Ouch. Despite all of these sustained and likely constantly painful injuries, Onigumo stayed alive, with Kikyou's help at least. He recovered enough to be able to sip gruel and talk, but Kaede frowns at the memory of his character.
One day, a child Kaede (both eyes intact) had apparently been tasked with taking care of Onigumo, sitting beside his mat and ringing out a rag in a tub of water. He addresses her as "runt" so she reminds him her name is Kaede. Onigumo asks her to confirm that the Shikon no Tama is in Kikyou's possession, and Kaede asks how HE knows about the jewel. He says that all the villains are after it, and Kaede assumes that he must be too, having been a villain before his "accident". Onigumo says it's awfully nice that the jewel gets more powerful the more malice it sucks up, but Kaede tries to crush this fantasy by telling him that it doesn't become evil because her sister keeps it pure.
Onigumo makes it personal, talking about Kikyou's frustratingly unruffled face, and how he'd like to see that face in a disrupted state instead. Kaede glowers at him. Later, she tells Kikyou about the conversation and how she hates Onigumo. Kikyou, of course, continues to display her unruffled face at the news of what Onigumo would like, and tells Kaede that she should forgive the man. After all, there's nothing more deserving of pity than a guy who's will likely spend the rest of his life laying in a cave, even if he's saying horrible things.
Kaede says that soon after, Kikyou died, directly following pinning Inuyasha to his tree.
Kaede had thought he burned to death in the fire without even his bones remaining, and her story is interrupted by Inuyasha when he asks her to hold up. He says that while Onigumo was a human, as she says, the guy he's looking for is Naraku the youkai. Kaede admits that no matter how evil Onigumo happened to be, there was no doubt he was human. Still, she trails off, as though there might be more she's thinking, but is unwilling to articulate at the moment.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? First thing I would like to point out is that it's looking like Kaede lost her eye when Inuyasha invaded the village to get the Shikon no Tama. She hasn't mentioned this to Inuyasha, though, and never will, presumably because of the scope of the issue. Kaede probably spent most of her life thinking that losing her eye was minor in comparison to losing Kikyou, and NOW thinking that it's minor in comparison to the conspiracy she, Inuyasha and Miroku are starting to crack together. Having lived with it for so long, and it being only a tiny part of a bigger problem is likely why she's not holding a grudge.
Also, because she's a seasoned badass.
With that out of the way, there was a lot of other stuff going on in this chapter that is all very interesting, though action is notably absent. Shippou's reaction to Inuyasha destroying the well and making it so Kagome can't come back is so well-done. I appreciate how well RT is writing this child's grief here, because it's usually so difficult for adult writers to get into the mindset of a little kid. Shippou's refusal to go with Inuyasha and saying he hated him was just as juvenile and raw as one might expect from a child like him, though, so it's impressive.
And of course we have Onigumo. I'm not going to call this an introduction, because he's not actually HERE at this point, but the information Kaede drops about him here is intriguing, mostly in HOW it's dropped. Kaede seems almost hesitant in giving Inuyasha and Miroku her thoughts on the matter, because she takes an awfully long while to disclose the story of her experience with Onigumo, prefaced with the statement that this is the only person she can think of that wanted what happened. This might be because of anything from feeling upset at recalling the things Onigumo said, or being unsure her train of thought is the right one.
Regardless, it's clear that there's some discomfort she's feeling by revisiting this particular part of the past. There was a reason she was keeping Onigumo to herself.
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