Unless the spiritual knowledge is for us, the audience, to parse from the hints and clues assembled throughout this manga.
Woah. Inuminati.
Kagome holds a hand to her mouth, gazing in horror at all the carnage. Even Miroku and Inuyasha are in awe of this as well, Miroku haltingly commenting on how the villagers fought the youkai, and Inuyasha on how most of them lost. Badly. Looking at one of the corpses dressed in armor, Inuyasha trails off in a statement about how there's no mistake, finishing the thought in his head that this must be the village of the youkai exterminators that they were searching for.
Off to the side, Kagome hears a noise and immediately takes cover behind Inuyasha, who responds to her cry that there's something over yonder by grabbing Tessaiga's hilt.
Inuyasha draws Tessaiga, shouting that this is a surviving youkai. Not just surviving, dude, THRIVING. That thing doesn't have a scratch on it, almost like it wasn't even IN this huge epic battle that we never got to see. It appears the giant cat-thing says that the voice it heard belonged to Inuyasha, so Inuyasha and Kagome are both at once flabbergasted by this thing talking. However, the voice speaks to the giant cat next, telling it to calm down and that these people are not enemies. Kirara nods its head and with a hiss shrinks down to the size with which Sango was greeted a couple of chapters ago, fluffy and compact. And without oversized fangs protruding weirdly from the mouth.
With a confused sweatdrop, Inuyasha gapes at the now tiny kitten, and Kagome peeks around his shoulder to comment on Kirara's new cuteness. Kirara scratches at its neck with a hind paw, and a speck of something leaps out of its fur right toward Inuyasha's face, with a joyous cry about how long it's been. After landing on Inuyasha's nose, Myouga proceeds to drink up his blood with his cone-like sucker. Inuaysha immediately smacks his own face, smashing Myouga before staring down at him with his sustained confusion. Kagome asks Myouga what he's doing in a place like this. Since he's never met Myouga before, Miroku is a touch mystified by him as well, asking if he's a friend of theirs. Shippou makes it a short explanation - Myouga is Inuyasha's retainer. Of a sort.
While Myouga exposits about how this is indeed the village of youkai exterminators, who have lived and worked in this spot for many generations, Miroku is shoveling a gave while Inuyasha pulls a dead man over to it. Inuyasha says he's not surprised that the youkai would resent the exterminators, and shoots Myouga a questioning glare as Myouga expresses some suspicion over how it's strange the youkai all decided to attack now. He's aware that the strongest slayers in the village were called to Saru Castle, so the village was somewhat vulnerable when it was attacked the previous night. Sweating, Myouga admits he has a bad feeling about all this, which is a gimme given how literally EVERYONE in this village but for a demon cat was killed. You SHOULD have a bad feeling about it, Myouga, especially since it happened right in front of you.
He expresses some worry for the people that went to the castle last night as well, wondering if they're alright. Ironic that Myouga can confirm 100% that the demon cat is still alive, but some both dead and alive people are holed up at Schrodinger's Castle.
At least, according to his side of the experiment. Our omniscient view allows us a peek in there, where someone is thanking goodness that at least one of those exterminators survived.
The Young Master must agree with me, because he orders grandpa and everyone else to leave, having had enough of their shit. Grandpa starts to protest, but the Young Master tells him he'd like to speak with Sango alone. After everyone skedaddles, the Young Master attempts to confirm Sango's name. When she doesn't say anything one way or the other, he must assume he has it right and continues with an apology for the fate that befell her family and other village companions. Silently, her brain is on a loop, asking why this happened. She continues to glare, however, seemingly suspicious of the Young Master who is being so hospitable after her terrible ordeal.
He's just in awe of her crazy enormous life force despite all that tragedy, because she's bearing those wounds without so much as a cry. The Young Master is taken out of his thoughts on this by a voice calling to him from behind some screens blocking the outside.
But, he doesn't, and Naraku feeds him some bullshit about going to the exterminator village as soon as he could at the Young Master's request. Question: how do YOU know where the fuck this secret exterminator village is when no one ELSE does? Does Young Master over here know where it is too? Man, if I were Sango, I'd be SUPER suspicious about this whole conversation she's picking up right now.
And she is picking up on it from beyond the screen, eyes widening out of shock when she hears Naraku say that it was attacked and destroyed. Her glare has a certain panicked quality to it when she wonders what the hell is even going on here. Probably a lot of things, but not least of all, your life is falling apart sweetie. Sorry.
Back at the destroyed village, Miroku is praying over a couple of the villagers' bodies before he covers them up completely with soil, Inuyasha standing dutifully in the background. On the already finished funeral mounds, Kagome is laying down flowers with a solemn air, Kirara watching her. Miroku says this is a tragedy, immediately followed by the complaint that he wanted to ask these people so many questions. Yeah, how RUDE of them to die before they had a chance to hear your pithy little inquiries, Miroku. That's just such inconvenient behavior.
Let it be known that I'm rolling my eyes HARD right now.
Inuyasha looks down at his shoulder to where Myouga is sitting, making a subdued assumption that Myouga knows something he's not told them yet. Myouga is perplexed at first, but then asks if Inuyasha is referring to the Shikon no Tama. Kagome asks Myouga if he came to the village to investigate the jewel and Myouga confirms this, having been wondering for quite a long time what the origins of the jewel are. After all, whomever is influenced by the jewel meets a horrible fate in the end, and Myouga claims that his concern evolves around what would happen to Inuyasha if he got proper hold of it. Just like the last time, I imagine.
Not in the least fooled that Myouga really cares, Inuyasha admits that he always thought Myouga would just run away, given all the danger having the whole jewel would generate. Stuttering and incredulous, Myouga demands to know how Inuyasha can say such a thing, after they have been reunited in such a fateful way. Inuyasha apologizes, but still questions why Myouga didn't ever hop on back to the group on his own, and Myouga is speechless. Kagome guesses he didn't think to look for them, Shippou that he couldn't have been bothered, and Inuyasha just assumes by Myouga's continued silence that either one of these suggestions hit the nail on the head with an exasperated look.
The scene switches back to the Young Master's castle yet again, where said Young Master is ordering Naraku to give him all the details of what he saw in the exterminator village. Naraku describes a high villager body-count, because the best lies start with a kernel of truth, and then presents the fabricated part.
The Young Master asks about this hanyou, and Naraku explains that Inuyasha has been going after those who hold pieces of the Shikon No Tama ever since it was shattered. A contemplative Young Master says that he has heard of this jewel, before Naraku tells him that Inuyasha wants to become a full youkai with the dark powers of the Shikon no Tama. Glancing into his periphery, the Young Master asks if Sango's village had a piece of the Shikon no Tama, and Naraku presents an "hypothesis" that Inuyasha likely attacked the village to get his hand on a shard a village full of Youkai exterminators were likely to have. As if you don't KNOW why the attack happened...
Looking depressed, the Young Master states the facts that not only has Sango lost her father and brother, but also her whole village in one night. Suddenly, the screen behind him rattles and falls.
So what did I think of this chapter overall? The structure could have been executed better, because it was definitely jarring to be jumping between each location TWICE within the same installment. I think the actions and dialogue of Inuyasha and company could easily have been rearranged so that all of it took place in one chunk, and then the bit at the castle could have done the same. It certainly would have made the pacing a bit smoother and less choppy. Of course, there might also have been a bit of space to fill if it were the case too, given RT's economical style.
That being said, the dramatic irony in this one is HEAVY; it's basically carrying the chapter. We as the audience know that Sango's village was destroyed by a horde of demons, none of which included Inuyasha, and at this point we can have a reasonable suspicion that Naraku is the one that sent them there, though it's not explicitly stated in the chapter. The way that he's familiar with this young lord in the castle suggests that he was involved in getting the strongest of the slayers there as well. Even when first reading this chapter, Naraku's mere presence (as well as his readiness to blame the whole thing on Inuyasha) is enough to have the reader jump to the conclusion that he's definitely the mastermind behind the slaughter of the village. Considering we've only really met the guy during ONE arc so far, that's a pretty impressive speed on setting up the gut-reaction for the audience.
I'm just a tad wary of the young lord as well. He didn't react emotionally to killing his own father, he's in league with Naraku, and his conversation with Naraku outside Sango's room felt just a little too scripted for him to be entirely innocent of knowing what Naraku is up to here.
Plus, there's something about him that creeps me right out.
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