Wait a moment... Is that seriously a gym uniform??? She's not going swimming, she's playing a game that may require her to SLIDE. I don't know how any of these girls are supposed to play properly when they risk serious bruising and scrapes from doing so. Who came up with this stupid idea?
Kagome isn't much concerned with that, because she's too busy going over how Inuyasha yelled at her not to come back and pushed her in the well while she called his name three days before. That is a POWERFUL preoccupation she has there. She wonders if Inuyasha meant for them to never meet again as she sighs once more, and someone calls her name. Accompanied by Short-Hair, Headband excitedly thrusts a thumb behind her, telling Kagome that Houjou from Class B wants a word.
He looks a little worried when he asks Kagome if she actually has other plans, because she doesn't answer right away. She hangs her head thoughtfully, saying she doesn't have any solid plans, trailing off when she thinks that by then, Inuyasha may have come to pick her up. Because her friends are eavesdropping gossips, Headband calls for Kagome to go for it from a distance, with Short-Hair reminding Kagome that she stood Houjou up last time. Kagome and Houjou both look mortified, asking at the same time how Short-Hair knows that.
Short-Hair comes and collects Kagome for a whispered heart-to-heart, steering her away from Houjou with an arm around her shoulder and a command to come with her a second. She tells Kagome to just DO IT, but Kagome wants to know why she should. Short-Hair whispers a question about if her suspicions that Kagome likes someone else are correct, and Kagome sweats, caught off-guard. Kagome blushes as she's flanked by both other girls while they present their evidence; she's been sighing a lot lately, and hasn't been worried about her studies.
Her protest that these things are just them trails off, because she remembers once more how it's all because Inuyasha hugged her so tightly back then. Short-Hair points an accusatory finger at Kagome and says it must be unrequited love. Kagome is alarmed, and shouts at Short-Hair that she must be kidding, because who would want a selfish, violent guy like THAT? Houjou wonders to Headband who Kagome is talking about, and Headband has no clue.
Back at the shrine, Kagome is visiting the well-house again. Her backpack is deposited on the steps leading down to it as she leans both hands on the edge and glares into it. She wonders why she had to be thrown around by Inuyasha's selfishness anyway, though I'm not entirely sure what that means. After a pause, Kagome jumps into the well, landing crouched with her arms straight out in front of her. It looks pretty impressive, actually.
Buyo has jumped up onto the edge of the well to meow at her down there, her first sign that she hasn't gone back in time. She wonders out loud if it's really no good, retreating back into her head as she balances on her knees and wonders what Inuyasha is doing now.
Lucky audience that we are, we get to travel to Kaede's village in Kagome's place, and see a hut that has been sealed up from the outside with those sticky charms Miroku has been known to use in his fake exorcisms. Someone inside demands that the door be opened while thumping on it, but that's not going to happen. Inside, Shippou tells the literally kicking and screaming Inuyasha (because his hands are tied) that it's no use, all those charms sealing youkai like them within the hut. Inuyasha wants to know why he has to be sealed up in the first place, and yells through the sweat pouring down his face that he'll find Naraku and kill him. He repeats the demand to open the door.
A plea for Inuyasha to be quiet and go to sleep stops Inuyasha's struggle cold. He looks behind him to find that Kagome is asking him to confirm his wounds haven't healed yet, looking worried. Inuyasha stares, heart thumping and stuttering her name.
Miroku appears, observing out loud that Inuyasha still won't settle down. Inuyasha calls him a bastard while he and Kaede slip through the door, and he reminds Inuyasha how much trouble they went through to protect him with the wards. Inuyasha makes a lunge for the door while it's still open, claiming he's getting out of there, but Miroku holds him back with his staff. Miroku asks Kaede to stick another charm on the door, and Kaede complies, already halfway there.
Claiming to understand Inuyasha's impatience, Miroku tells him it's impossible nonetheless. They have to wait for Inuyasha's wounds to heal completely before they can make a move. Inuyasha has calmed down enough to have shrugged out of his shirt and laid on his belly to exposed his back wound to Kaede to treat with whatever's in that medicinal jar she's holding. She asks if Inuyasha really takes Naraku so lightly as to take him on injured like he is, because it seems to her that his concern for Naraku was why Inuyasha trapped Kagome on the other side of the well. Inuyasha remains silent, but looks thoughtful, while Shippou watches him and wonders if that's what it was after all.
Miroku glares at Inuyasha, saying that he really doesn't want to lose his life needlessly, so Inuyasha needs to recover quickly. Inuyasha twists to shout at him to stop talking like that, sitting up in a cross-legged position, and informing him that this is why he's vowing to fight from now on. Miroku looks amicable when he tells Inuyasha he has to go to sleep quietly now, but that changes pretty fast.
Later, while Inuyasha and Shippou lay on the fire-rat robe spread out beneath them to try and get some rest, Shippou says he wonders what Kagome's up to right now, earning a sidelong glare out of the corner of Inuyasha's eye. He calls Shippou a stubborn brat, and tells him to just forget about Kagome already, still rolled over and facing away. His expression becomes softer when he thinks that as long as Kagome is ALIVE somewhere, it's fine by him, because he wouldn't be able to stand it if she (Kikyou included) died again.
In a large cave among some rolling hills, Rouyakan is asleep on his back, snoring among a stash of vases and skulls. Looks like SOMEONE had a good time last night. A silhouette appears in the mouth of the cave, backlit and foreboding. It's Naraku shrouded in his baboon cloak, snapping some of the bones on the stone floor with his step into the cave as he bids Rouyakan to wake up. Rouyakan blearily blinks open his eyes, muttering in question.
Naraku says he must have overestimated Rouyakan, considering he was unable to kill a single wounded hanyou. Seems you're super slow to have only noticed that DAYS after the fact, Naraku. Rouyakan tells Naraku to shut it, because that job wasn't anything like he thought it would be. He asks Naraku why he doesn't kill Inuyasha himself, if he hates the hanyou that much, and Naraku explains that he's in the middle of a transformation that makes it impossible for him to make any moves toward that goal as of yet. However, he's sure that right now is the easiest time to take away Inuyasha's Shikon fragment.
Rouyakan isn't interested, because there's nothing in it for him, and no reason for him to risk his life again. He tells Naraku to go home, because he's ready to head back to dreamland to sleep off that hangover pounding in his head. He didn't explicitly SAY anything about a hangover, but I think I'm safe in assuming. Naraku holds up a flowering seed, and in the next panel, the SFX depicts Rouyakan bloody murder screams emanating from inside the cave.
Naraku informs him that the rice seed newly planted in Rouyakan's forehead has a Shikon shard in it, and left alone, its roots will eat away at Rouyakan's head. Sweating, Rouyakan clutches at the air around his head in desperation and confusion, before Naraku warns him that pulling the seed out by force will kill him. Rouyakan stutters at Naraku to take the seed out, and Naraku says he'll do THAT when Inuyasha has been defeated.
Rouyakan's response, word for word:
In the hut, Shippou is snoozing on the sleeve of the fire-rat cloak while Inuyasha is laying on his side beside him, coughing softly.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Kagome and Inuyasha really are two peas in a pod, aren't they? Kagome may be more eloquent in expressing herself, but her denial of having feelings for Inuyasha is just as vehement as Inuyasha's of having feelings for her. She's not any better at arguing against them either, and ended up getting herself into a date that she had no desire to go on because of it. Her denial seems to be based less on bravado and more on the fact that she doesn't WANT to be into a violent selfish guy. It's a valid concern, for sure, because violent selfish guys don't have a great track record of treating their partners with respect. Still, Kagome isn't afraid of Inuyasha when he's in a bad mood, and doesn't take any of his shit, so I don't think there's much to worry about here.
The obstinate Inuyasha needing to be literally locked up in order to keep him from chasing after Naraku while seriously injured was strangely delightful to me. Like Miroku, I can understand his frustration, but it's endearing to know just how much the people around him care to make sure that he heals proper before he goes out to fight full-strength. He's in a worse way than he cares to admit, and his friends know him well enough by now to figure out how bad it is, even if he's not coming out and saying it. Of course, at this point in their relationship, I believe Miroku when he says that he's making sure Inuyasha heals simply to ensure that he doesn't have to give his life needlessly as well. Still the seeds of friendship are blooming.
Speaking of which, I'm fascinated with these tools Naraku's been using to coax and (in Rouyakan's case) trap his pawns into trying to murder Inuyasha. How does Naraku come up with these ideas? Does he test them out on unwilling subjects like some sort of mad scientist before he gives them to the people who are going to use them as weapons in his war? Or is he just talking out of his ass when he gives such precise descriptions of what they'll do?
And when the seed was inserted into Rouyakan's head, why did the panel feature the outside of the cave instead of the action itself? Usually when the cutaway and scream device is used, it indicates a scene change, but this one just split the scene right down the middle. It was super jarring and took me right out of the chapter. Had me scratching my head a bit, I have to admit.
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