Because I'm pretty sure just saying "exterminator" is just as good.
The two dude cleaning up the centipede's body whisper about how after its slaying, there's been one weirdo after another, but Inuyasha shouts at them to answer his questions. They continue to talk about him in hushed tones, though, determining that he's a youkai alright. Miroku steps in front of Inuyasha, pushing him aside to ask the villagers for his forgiveness - Inuyasha is merely his pupil in Buddhism.
Wow, that is the WORST lie that has ever been told, Miroku. Because these people are stupid, though, they start asking each other (still whispering) about what exactly a "pupil in Buddhism is supposed to be, and one of them answers that he thinks it's a servant to a priest. Yeah, go ahead, create bullshit answers out of thin air as to what that's supposed to mean instead of pointing out that it makes not a lick of sense and Miroku's a bad liar. Why not?
Inuyasha is taken in by this bullshit interpretation of the bullshit lie and gets in Miroku's face, asking him who's supposed to be his servant. Miroku tells him to back off, because he'll only cause more confusion if he keeps talking. Or make all their ears bleed with his incessant barks. Either way, it'll be no good.
Miroku eventually gets the villagers to open up about a youkai exterminator that had visited them, but when asked where the exterminator's home is, the villagers are clueless. One of them says they only meet when the exterminators come to them looking for monsters to slay. Didn't she ask you guys to call her if you had any more trouble at the end of the last chapter? How do you do that if you don't know where she lives? Smoke signals?
Kagome and Shippou sit on a log nearby, listening in but not actually participating in the conversation, which is uncharacteristically antisocial of the former. She's pulling the tab on an aluminum can as she marvels at the fact that there are people here who actually make a living off slaying youkai. It's not a really surprising thing when you think about it - youkai cause a lot of damage and it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that someone came up with the idea to capitalize off of their talents in the area of getting rid of the pests. Still, I didn't manage to think of the idea, so it would have been news to me too, I suppose.
Miroku asks one of the villagers if the exterminator is collecting the Shikon no Tama's pieces, and he answers in the affirmative, referring to a jewel that he's not quite sure on the name of. Much to Inuyasha and Kagome's mutual surprise, the villager says that he remembers the exterminator saying that this jewel originally came from her village. Kagome even twists around to give the man a mystified expression. Miroku turns to Inuyasha to ask if he knew about this information, and Inuyasha answers that he didn't, only having learned of the Shikon no Tama's existence once it was already in Kikyou's care. He never even THOUGHT about the origin of the jewel or where it came from.
Meanwhile, behind a massive log fence atop a rocky cliff, two men in one of two watchtowers call out that someone is back - someone named Sango.
Ahem, sorry. I got a tad carried away.
Someone congratulates Sango on her well-done job of obtaining a Shikon fragment, and presumably having placed it all nice and pretty in a little offering dish. The source of Sango's praise is her father, who claps in his prayer in front of the shrine they've put the shard on, while Sango asks if this shrine is enough to suppress the evil the fragment has accumulated. Sango's father admits that it probably won't, and Sango says that she thought that would be the case. He tells her that it's said the jewel was given to a miko who had the power to purify it fifty years before, but she died in a battle over the jewel. As if we needed the visual to remind us of who that miko could possibly have been, this story is overlaid with a picture of Kikyou on her funeral pyre. I don't know how I would have figured it out on my own, chapter, thanks. *eyeroll*
Sango's father states that until they can find someone with purifying powers to take on the jewel again, they'll just have to collect and protect the shards they come across in the village. He then tells Sango that she should get some rest, since they have more work to do later that evening. Sango stretches and pops her shoulder, not putting up any fuss, but her little brother isn't so cavalier. He's told that he too should go sleep, because he's already turned ten and it's about time he had a real battle. The boy, Kohaku, sweats and I have a feeling that he'll find it hard to follow any advice on resting.
Later, Kohaku addresses his sister again, hesitantly asking for her attention as a line of small ceramic dishes on fence posts shatter with the pass of a swift blade. Seems a waste of good dishware, but okay guys. Kohaku catches a small sickle attached to a chain as he questions whether youkai really breathe fire and poison. Sango lays on her belly over the porch behind where he's sitting, kicking her legs in the air while she pets Kirara, answering that sometimes that's the case. Kohaku sighs and sullenly gazes at his sickle, Sango sitting up to squat down beside him, asking if he's scared. He insists that he's not, but Sango can see right through him. She smacks him on the back, telling him not to worry, because all they ever fight is giant snakes and spiders and stuff like that.
I'm itchy again.
Sango says that their father once told her the scariest youkai are the kinds that can pass as humans, and if any of those kinds ever got hold of the Shikon no Tama it would be devastating. What do you mean "she's not actually being reassuring?"
Anyway, after dark and in the rumbling spooky atmosphere of a big castle, someone explains that every night a giant spider attacks them. On a sprawling porch, a man seated on a cushion with men seated on either side of him says that many of the inhabitants of the castle have already been eaten, and asks if the slayers kneeling in front of the stairway can kill it. Sango's father says that he and those backing him up are the most experienced in their whole village. The man on the porch, who looks kind of sickly with those bags and rings under his eyes, seems unconvinced.
Sango turns to Kohaku and encourages him to do his best, while Kohaku quietly calls his father a liar. I don't know, kid, you sure showed those dishes a thing or two back at the homestead. A strange noise echoes through the air and some of the castle guards inform the slayers that this is usually when the thing shows up, so they'll leave it to their team of exterminators.
A close-up on this ill person's face in profile still doesn't really reveal what sex they're supposed to be, so I guess they'll just remain ungendered for now. They say that they've been waiting for this day while wearing a little smile.
Back outside, the giant spider spits a whole load of spider silk from its mouth and the n00b Kohaku gets himself all tangled up in it right off the bat. One of the other exterminators comes to his rescue, cutting him out of the ropes of silk then reminding him to stay sharp when they're both safely back on the ground. Kohaku, shaky and flushed, agrees to do just that. Another guy smashes a morning star on the spider's big ol' head, and Sango's father pins it down with his crescent blade, all ready for a finishing blow. Sango leaps in with her boomerang at the ready.
The dudes all gather round to finish it off, morning star guy offering to smash its head again, and Kohaku realizes after some hesitation that he should get in there to help. As he's jogging to assist the rest of the team, a tiny spider wisps onto the back of his neck by a silk thread and Kohaku freezes in place. The rest of the exterminators aren't impressed with their examination of the giant spider, commenting that its size was the only thing of note about it. That's what she said.
Actually, what Sango said is that this was all way too easy and that the spider's evil powers seemed somewhat diminished to her sensibilities. She has barely enough time to contemplate how suspicious she finds the whole thing when a familiar blade flies through the air, slicing the heads of the two other exterminators clean off and embedding into the collarbone of Sango's father. She is taken aback and horrified, mostly the latter. Obvi.
"This hyper HD picture sure is something, innit?"
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I had kind of forgotten how incredibly brutal and horrifying those final images were. I remembered what happened (they don't really let you forget it), don't get me wrong, but there's something of a visceral feeling to the way those heads looked as they were being separated from their bodies. The expressions of almost-shock, like in that split second before dying they had ALMOST registered that something horrible had happened, was very well done. You know, for a cartoon in which almost all the characters look exactly the same.
Kohaku's setup is also very satisfying in how Murphy's Law was employed. Kohaku is meek and inexperienced - the very picture of innocence though he appears very adept at handling his weapon, because he hasn't yet used it on anything living, unlike his star sister who has done this work so many times that it doesn't faze her. So, not only is Kohaku nervous about the danger of the work, he's nervous that he won't perform to expectations, especially since his father's exaggeration to the lord of the castle to justify Kohaku's presence.
And since he's the weakest member of the team, he's the perfect candidate for possession - weak, but trusted and skilled enough to get kill the rest of them. Man, RT sure knows how to torture her darlings, doesn't she?
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