Though not Naraku specifically, who is the master behind the puppet of the title. He's no Jim Henson; rather he's an internet troll who can't help but make sock-puppets to attack all the people he wants to fuck with.
Still, Kagome tells a speechless Sango that Naraku is dead, while Shippou looks on in shock as well. Miroku is the only one who is skeptical, thinking that it was FAR too quick to be the death of the Naraku HE'S been chasing after all this time. Inuyasha appears to be under no such suspicions, growling as he thinks about the Naraku who killed and made so many people suffer, including himself and Kikyou. He kneels down next to Naraku's head so he can unmask him, eager to see his real face in a grim sort of way. When he does, he and Miroku's eyes widen in confusion and surprise.
Kagome and Shippou gape some more, Kagome's confusion keeping her speechless while Shippou shouts that the body is moving without a head in shock. The head itself sits up on the tip of its severed neck and Naraku chuckles, saying he hasn't died. Despite the obviousness of the statement, Miroku is still flabbergasted that the head is still alive and talking to them. He asks himself what's going on, recalling that Naraku's appearance was nothing like this the last time they met, given that Naraku definitely had a complete head, full of luscious locks to boot.
He doesn't try to contemplate for long, because he and Inuyasha simultaneously charge with determination toward the tangle of tentacles, because alliteration, that's why. They're both successful at hacking limbs in pieces as they dodge blows from them, but each of those limbs reforms quickly in the wake of their destruction. Sweating, Kagome despairs that the tentacles are growing back fast, wondering if this is a result of the Shikon shard he's holding. However, taking a closer look, she rules this out as a possibility, because the fragment hasn't dissolved in Naraku's body at all by this point.
Sango questions how she could have been so blind as to miss that Naraku was a vile youkai as she was traveling with him. She hadn't felt an evil aura, and still doesn't, even now. She struggles to determine just exactly what Naraku is since that lack of an evil presence is bugging her at the moment. Peering intently at the wriggling limbs of the body up against Inuyasha and Miroku, she has a revelation, shouting at them to attack the unmoving portion of the chest, still covered in baboon fur. Inuyasha and Miroku look back at her questioningly, and Naraku's severed head isn't smirking anymore as it curses them for figuring it out.
Inuyasha grunts as he runs Tessaiga right through the part Sango instructed, and just like that...
Naraku's severed head sinks into the ground, and all the tentacles Inuyasha was fighting so hard before just crumble and fall around him. Shippou, more savvy to the way youkai go, much more appropriately says that Inuyasha got him this time. Kagome is gaping more for good measure as Sango remains in her pained bitchface in her lap. Miroku stares at the crumbled tentacles around him, stating in some disbelief that they turned into dirt.
Inuyasha repeats Miroku's phrase as a question, prompting a kneeling Miroku holding the doll in hand to draw Inuyasha's attention to the fact that it has a strand of hair wrapped around it. Miroku explains that this is the puppet art, speculating that the hair is Naraku's own. He looks back at the discarded baboon mask and says that the Naraku they were fighting was a fake, being controlled by the real one from a safe place.
Meanwhile, back at the young master's castle...
An old man bows next to the screen in front of his master's room, asking what that strange noise was. Young-master/Naraku assures the old guy that it wasn't anything, then looks over to where the Shikon fragments he gathered into a nice little pile lay in the middle of a piece of paper, congratulating himself for stealing them from the exterminators' village. He also internally gloats about he's assumed the leadership role in this castle, and now he has status backing him up. He assumes that THIS time, all his efforts should be enough. Enough for what, you may ask?
Well young-master/Naraku isn't talking about that. He's thinking instead about what further use Sango the exterminator can have for him and his mystery cause.
We rejoin Inuyasha and company at the exterminator village where Inuyasha is pissily asking what is up with Sango. He's complaining to Miroku that Sango couldn't remember what the young master looked like while he shoulders a big log burnt at one end, and Miroku tells him to just shut it and keep tidying the place up. He then reminds Inuyasha that since it's Naraku they're talking about, they can't go back until they detect more of his crimes or Inuyasha has any bright ideas. Besides, Miroku points out that Sango still has all those wounds and shouldn't be moving around a lot, even if she DID remember.
Inuyasha gets all up in Miroku's face about letting Sango stay in bed for ten days, because Inuyasha would have been up in three. Miroku says with some annoyance that if it were him, he'd be in bed for a whole month.
Kagome enters a barely livable hut in the village with a smile, greeting Sango and offering some medical attention from the first aid kit in her hands and a bucket filled with cloths. She's surprised to find the bed in there unoccupied, and Shippou lets out an alarmed shout that Sango is indeed gone.
She peers at Sango, speechless a moment before fretting that she's not really sure what to say, knowing that telling a woman who is now all alone in the world to cheer up wouldn't do at all. This gives Kagome an exciting idea; that they and Sango join forces once Sango is all healed up. Sango contrasts Kagome's excitement for the notion with continuing to blankly hang her head. Kagome continues by trying to sell the deep down virtues of Miroku and Inuyasha, and Shippou can't help but question her use of the term "deep down".
Sango wears a glare when she asks Kagome if she has a Shikon fragment. At first confused, Kagome pulls the chain holding her fragment from beneath her blouse, reiterating that they had recovered it from the fake Naraku's remains. Just in case you didn't realize that happened or something. Sango says that this means Naraku will come after it again, then turns her glare on Kagome and accepts the offer to go along with Kagome and her crew. Kagome gives her a sidelong stare, asking if she's planning on avenging everyone. She all but says, "well, DUH," and begins a statement about the Shikon no Tama that Kagome finishes; it was born in this village. Kagome explains that they heard about it, but trails off when she gets to the part about all the carnage they encountered when they came to the village.
When Kagome looks up, Sango is walking away, hunched. Kagome asks after her with an honorific attached to her name, but Sango tells Kagome she can call her just "Sango". Then she says she's willing to give Kagome and the others some information, since they were nice enough to bury the dead.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm conflicted about Sango's realization that the imitation Naraku was a puppet after all. At face-value, it was a great way for Sango to be useful outside the fight. It shows that she's not just competent in combat and techniques against certain types of youkai, but she also has a wealth of knowledge about the obscure ways youkai can range an attack. In this way, she's kind of like a human Myouga, but specifically with battle knowledge rather than overall history.
But when you think about the WAY in which she came to her conclusion, it doesn't make all that much sense. Sango's unique in the group from this point on because she's the only one of them that doesn't have supernatural powers (kicking just as much ass as any of the rest of them too). Sensing that this imitation Naraku didn't have youki, or even the correct scent as Inuyasha might have noticed, should have been the domain of one of the other youki-sensing characters. Specifically, I would have thought Miroku would have noticed this before anyone, being as experienced as he is in feeling out energies.
Not that Sango CAN'T have youki-sensing abilities, because perhaps that's something you can learn rather than an innate ability. Still, it seems to me that someone ELSE should have figured out that the imitation Naraku didn't have any youki before Sango really gave it much thought. After all, she wasn't expecting to feel youki from Naraku for a long time, so it makes sense that it took her a long while to realize that she didn't feel it. The others don't have an excuse.
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