Inuyasha Manga: 069 Indication

Awfully vague, aren't you chapter? An indication of what? The indication of Naraku's presence that Miroku totally ignored before? An indication to Kagome that Inuyasha isn't doing so well? Maybe there's an indication as to where Rouyakan is hiding his ipecac so that the protagonists can take it away. It would certainly be helpful to stop that guy from vomiting wolves at them every five seconds.

Hopefully Shippou can have an indication as to how he's going to get out of this fuckery.

The snarling wolves launch themselves at Shippou, who holds up a trembling fistful of leaves and grunts before he throws out his last defense.

Oooh, that's HANDY!

The wolves chomp and pounce on the copies of Shippou, giving him the chance to slip down a narrow gap between the tree and the well wall, sliding into its depths. As the leaves that once appeared to be Shippou scatter and fall, the wolves whine in confusion, looking around. Shippou laughs that they're a bunch of morons, but his head-first slide into the well brings his face straight into the dirt, knocking him silly. Seems like the wolves are in good company, there, Shippou.

He lays in a daze at the bottom of the well, the Shikon fragment he was carrying pinging as it lands on the earth next to him. It glows.

On the other side, Kagome is checking her watch, worrying out loud that Houjou will be waiting. However, she stops short on the way down the stairs leading to the shrine, twisting around to look back up them. She thinks she senses the very faint presence of a Shikon shard and whips all the way around, remembering how Inuyasha took HER piece of the jewel while yelling at her not to come back. She dashes back up the stairs, thinking he's returned for her. But, upon going all the way back to the well house and leaning to look down the well, she's disappointed to find that there's nothing in there. Kagome mumbles that she feels like an idiot now after returning all the way there.

Elsewhere, wolf and wasp parts are flying as Inuyasha uses his Sankon Tessou on them to rip them apart.

Seriously, where's that ipecac??

Inuyasha slashes through the wave of wolves once more, scoffing. Miroku is nearby with Kaede backing him while he tears through some more wasps and shouting that all this is getting them nowhere. He glares up at a drooling Rouyakan, whose eyes roll in a distinctly dazed fashion, suggesting that he's using the power of a Shikon shard. Inuyasha shouts back a word of disbelief, before Miroku states that finding this jewel fragment's location would allow them to destroy Rouyakan. I thought the Shikon fragment was merely a hypothetical here? I must have missed where that was confirmed to be the case...

Inuyasha asks where this jewel shard is, but Miroku informs Inuyasha that his insight isn't exactly the best while he watches Rouyakan drool and roll his eyes all the more. I'm guessing the pain of having the sprout eat into his skull is taking its toll on Rouyakan. Kaede says that they need Kagome's power of sight after all, which irritates Inuyasha. He shouts that they should quit their complaining, because Kagome's not there. Not since he blocked up the well and prevented her from coming back.

We're thrown back into the modern era after this, where Kagome is starting to get really annoyed. She's glaring down at her paper cup, thinking that whenever she would come back home for tests and lessons, Inuyasha would come to pester her at least every three days. Now it's been a week, and Kagome hasn't gotten so much as a message from him, which he should at least have sent out of courtesy.

Kagome's name is called, and Kagome looks up to Houjou sitting across from her in the "WacDonald's" restaurant, who asks if she's alright because of how spaced she looks. Well, if WacDonald's is anything like McDonald's, and Kagome's anything like me, she might be physically ill from consuming all the grease. Kagome remembers that she's supposed to be on a date regretfully, and apologizes to Houjou, asking him what he was saying. After a small pause, Houjou asks Kagome if she isn't overdoing it, and her heart thumps as she utters a noise of confusion.

Then she trails off in a denial, wondering why that idiot Inuyasha is all she can think about at a time like this. Houjou says he can sense it, though, even if Kagome begins to tell him "that guy" isn't really on her mind.

Yeah, let's call it "poor health" that she forced herself out in spite of.

This phrase really DOES linger with Kagome, though, as she's pulling herself back into her seat. She recalls the severity of Inuyasha's wounds and considers the possibility that they haven't healed yet, or even worse than that. She tries to convince herself that there's no way Inuyasha would die, but it's no use. Fist over her chest, Kagome apologizes to Houjou, telling him that she has to go because of this really bad feeling she has.

Houjou says he knew it and offers to see Kagome home, but she tells him that won't be necessary. On the street, she twists to apologize yet again and tell Houjou to invite her out again sometime. Don't tell him THAT Kagome! He's now more sure than ever that Kagome endured unbearable pain for the sake of seeing him as he watches her leave.

Yeah, we girls are usually pretty fast when we're just not that into you. Take the hint, won't you?

Kagome runs all the way home, jumping into the well and panting as she determines that it wasn't just her imagination - a fragment is nearby. She can't see it, but she can feel it. She falls to her knees and starts digging through the dirt at the bottom of the well, groaning and muttering the question of where it is over and over. As Kagome digs, she gets all the more desperate, and the Shikon shard on the other side shines brighter, trailing from an unconscious Shippou's hand by its chain.

The wolves have found out where Shippou disappeared to and are scraping at the sides of the well, trying to claw their way in. Shippou's eyes flutter open and he groans, quickly surprised by his first sight of the wolves trying to squeeze into the well where he lays. He stutters that they found him with a horrified, trembling expression.

Kagome is scraping back more dirt with her hands, sweating and panting while she thinks that she has to get back and see if Inuyasha is okay. Her desperate face says what she's thinking; that she wants to see Inuyasha. A bright light suddenly shines from below, surprising her.

What did I tell you? Drama! Drama all day long!

Shippou jumps into Kagome's arms, calling her name. She looks pretty damn happy to see him, and relieved as well that she managed to come back. That relief is short-lived, when she sees the wolves slowly succeeding at squeezing themselves through the gap left between the tree and the well wall. Fuck.

And you know what THAT means. Inuyasha couldn't even BREAK the well properly, that's what it means.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I try not to get too far ahead of myself when I'm reviewing, because unlike Yu-Gi-Oh, I've already read Inuyasha multiple times. Still, it's difficult, because I know what's going to happen, not only in the short term, but all the way at the end. So, I'll try not to be TOO terribly spoilery for those who are reading this along with your first foray into the manga.

That said, there will come a time, WAAAAAY in the future, for which Kagome's return in this chapter will become a precedent. I understand that in the anime, they mistook Kagome's grip on the jewel being the force that brought her through it, but it turns out that's not the case at all. If it was, the fragment would have traveled to her without her having to dig for it. It was at her thought that she wanted to see Inuyasha that she was transported, which gives us some sort of indication as to how this well works, but raises more questions in the process.

For example, how did Kagome get transported that first time if her desire to see Inuyasha is what helped her through this time? A vague desire to see a guy she hadn't yet met? *shrug*