You're not wrong.
Inuyasha asks Sango if she's SURE she can't remember even one tiny little detail about the castle where she feel into Naraku's trap. Sango stares daggers at him, repeating for probably the billionth time that if she DID remember, she would already be there sawing off Naraku's head. She's a better person than I am, because I would have decked him for that snide mention of me falling into a trap, but she keeps her fists to herself.
After a small pause, Miroku suggests that they give up on finding the castle, to which Inuyasha pointedly asks what they should do instead. Miroku simply states that they find Shikon shards, because as long as they collect them, Naraku will have to come after them. Miroku walks over to Sango smoothly (at least according to the translation on the sound effects) and kneels in front of her, asking if that's alright with her considering how badly she wants revenge right away. She agrees that it IS annoying, and trails off in agreeing further that they should just go after the shards instead. Miroku insists he understands her feelings as Kagome and Inuyasha peer at him with wide-eyed curiosity from behind.
Elsewhere, nearby, a scattered group of men are picking around in some rubble of what looks to be various houses when one of them points out that a palanquin containing a sacrifice is passing by. Another man states that the procession is because the flood was particularly bad this time, and asks whose child is up for sacrifice this time. An old man says that "Suijin-sama" indicated with an arrow someone called "Nanushi-sama", someone high up in their little village, no doubt. Another gaunt and sorrowful man says that that is indeed the rumor, and yet another sighs that almost ALL the young children of the village have been given up as sacrifices now.
From behind a nearby tree, Inuyasha, Kagome and Miroku are eavesdropping. Miroku asks if they all heard that, and Kagome summarizes what she got as just a statement of sacrifices for "Suijin-sama". Up in the procession, a man in a bit finer dress than those around him hangs his head as he walks beside the palanquin. A guy behind him tries to commiserate by saying to Nanushi-sama that this is rather pitiful, and it's no wonder this doesn't sit well with the guy. Pretty insensitive way of saying that, jackass.
Nanushi snaps a question about what that guy was saying, then justifies the procession by insisting that it's to protect the village from Suijin-sama's curse. The palanquin has an ellipse-filled speech bubble issuing from it while Nanushi says that OF COURSE they have to give up their children. Suddenly right up next to them, Inuyasha asks if this "Suijin" isn't just a strange youkai. Nanushi and the rest of the procession gape, stuttering in their struggle to make sense of the weird kid in red that just showed up. Miroku pushes Inuyasha back in order to get into the view of the men, telling them to back Inuyasha no mind. He says he overheard their conversation, pleading with them to let HIM appease the god instead of their sacrifice. The men in the procession look hopeful, asking if Miroku can really do such a thing.
But Nanushi gets angry, shouting at Miroku for trying to confuse the people of the village; a trickster in nice clothes. The village men meekly protest that Nanushi hasn't even heard the stranger out, but again, Nanushi is having none of that. He scoffs, saying that if they rely on these suspicious people then Suijin will become enraged, and the village will be COMPLETELY destroyed. A look at the village's uprooted trees and houses half-buried in mud give an idea of how much worse he's implying it could be. Nanushi begins to cry, saying that now his OWN child is up for sacrifice, he can only pray like the other parents have done. He admits he STILL can't face the other children who may become sacrifices in the future.
Inuyasha glares at the man while Kagome and Miroku stare at his tears, wide-eyed and in Kagome's case, somewhat confused. But it's not Nanushi she's got her alarmed eye on, or at least not the elder.
Later, when they are settled around a campfire, Sango expresses her distrust for Nanushi, because there at the end, it seemed like he almost WANTED to sacrifice his child. Miroku agrees that it looks like trouble, before Kagome hesitantly says that she thought she saw something strange inside the palanquin. Sango encourages her to spit it out, despite how difficult a time Kagome is having actually describing it. Eventually Sango figures out what Kagome's on about, and informs her it was a mask she saw. Kagome's eyes widen and she seems blown away as Miroku further elaborates that it's for the sacrificial ceremony. Sango, you realize you were just criticizing a man for seeming to WANT to sacrifice his child earlier, and now you and Miroku are talking about the ins and outs of the ceremony around child sacrifice like it isn't a big deal?
Inuyasha tosses a pebble up to catch it, asking what the rest of them want to do. He questions if they should leave it alone, before he flings the pebble off to the side and produces a yelp from a nearby patch of grass there. A grass mat lifts to reveal a pair of eyes blinking at them from underneath, giving Kagome and Shippou something of a bewildered shock. Inuyasha asks who this bastard who has been following them since the procession left is, and said bastard stands, holding up the corners of a large blanket filled with unknown items while he approaches. He throws out an end of the blanket and the items fall out, everything from coins to a teapot to bolts of fabric.
Miroku holds up an incense-burner, studying it and commenting that it's awfully high-class. Sango spreads a length of fabric before her, saying it's also worth a lot. Secret-Santa-Kid is pleased that they've picked up the items he threw at them, because according to him that means he's hired these assholes to go and kill the Suijin with him. His words, not mine. Kagome gapes at the kid, trailing off in an assessment of him.
Inuyasha kneels in front of the cocksure youth, staring at him a moment while he stares right back, then knocks him over the head with his fist without the slightest change in his blank expression. Kagome reprimands him, reminding Inuyasha that he's handling a CHILD so roughly, but Inuyasha says she doesn't need to make a big deal out of it, holding the little dude by the collar and head to limit his angry thrashes. Shippou advises the kid that he should just apologize to the overgrown child, even if he doesn't mean it.
"Have fun at your playdate with a monster!"
An unmanned boat with a dragon bust adorning the front comes gliding through the lake toward the gazeebo the child is perched upon, and the men identify it as Suijin-sama's pick-up service. Well, at least the little dude doesn't have to SWIM to his death. Convenient.
Meanwhile, Secret-Santa-Kid is cutting through some bulrushes, talking about the pick-up ship as well, and how they can follow it to Suijin's place so they can beat up the god where he eats the sacrifice. He turns to confirm this plan with his newly hired crew, but they're bickering. Inuyasha is asking if the goods Miroku is holding aren't stolen, Miroku tries to pass it off as A-Okay, and Kagome is insisting that it is, in fact, NOT okay. Secret-Santa-Kid demands to know if they're listening.
Kagome asks Secret-Santa-Kid whose child he is, and he pauses suspiciously for a moment before he informs them that it's none of their business, calling them all assholes again. So, Inuyasha bops him on the head again, with the same hilarious blank expression as before. This changes when he leans down, glaring with exasperation at the kid when he lets him no that under no circumstances have he and his crew agreed to help their secret santa. Secret-Santa-Kid is flabbergasted by this, staring up at Inuyasha as the grass rustles in the wind around them. Eventually he stammers that if they don't hurry, the whole village may be destroyed as well as the single sacrifice. Inuyasha and Kagome look down at him in question.
Secret-Santa-Kid begins to spill the truth about the sacrifice, but Kagome as already figured it out. Pointing, she asks if he's the REAL child of Nanushi, and sacrifice to Suijin-sama. As he sweatdrops, Secret-Santa-Kid recoils, but says nothing at first. Miroku leans down to examine the kid now sweating bullets, saying that now Kagome mentions it, it does make a lot of sense. Inuyasha adds in a flat tone that it also explains his arrogance, like he's one to talk.
Miroku deduces that the child in the palanquin was a substitute, to which Secret-Santa-Kid finally responds that he is indeed the heir to the village head, Taroumaru. Awww, I was having fun calling him "Secret-Santa-Kid". He curses his father, who would always tell the other parents to grin and bear it when it was THEIR children being sacrificed, but made an about-face when it came time for his own son to be put on the chopping-block. Nanushi hid Taroumaru away, and took the child of one of their servants instead to put the mask on.
Loftily, Miroku suggests that he COULD call Nanushi a stupid father, but Inuyasha isn't nearly as generous when he flat-out calls Nanushi a stupid father. Kagome asks Taroumaru if he wants to save the other child and Taroumaru admits that the other child is a friend of his. From off the panel, someone says that they should go and get that ship, then. It's Sango, all decked out in her youkai-exterminating splendor, assuring Taroumaru that she'll be working for her own sake. Miroku reminds them that they're also saving a person while Inuyasha looks exasperated. Kagome sunnily suggests to him that they get going, prompting him to scoff and disregard whether it's a god or a youkai altogether.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The one point against it is that it wasn't nearly as beautiful as the last, so I had the opposite problem with this one in that I had difficulty finding panels that were worth featuring in the recap. Not that I think the chapter is HORRIBLE for this, by any means. That last one was a tough act to follow, and I feel a little like I was spoiled a bit by the overwhelming style of it, and that's why it may have been difficult to get that same effect out of this chapter.
And this chapter stands very well on the fact that it's giving readers a solid story for our group to interact with. It's clear this heartbreaking situation of a god's destruction of a village through multiple means (directly flooding the village while feeding on the young who would grow to sustain the community) is sustained. This is a village ready to break from the abuse it's taking, and it's no wonder the villagers under Nanushi dared to become hopeful that Miroku might be able to do something about it. But, it's also no wonder that Nanushi was immediately suspicious of this, because being under the thumb of an abuser for so long makes you wary of anything that could set that abuser off. Since he's taking a huge risk passing someone else off for his son anyway, he's already stretched to his limit as far as how daring he's willing to be. He may be a "stupid father" as Miroku and Inuyasha assessed, but he's also refreshingly complex for a character that we're never going to see again after this arc.
Speaking of refreshingly complex, I cannot tell you how amazing it is EVERY time I read this arc and see our protagonists interact as a complete team together for the first time. Every word, every action, every gesture is so... natural. It seems strange of me to say that, because that should be a given, but then I'm reminded of all those other stories I've read/seen in which dialogue is cardboard, characters are wooden and the dynamic between them seems forced because the plot demands it.
Here, I honestly feel like the characters BELONG TOGETHER. They mesh, even when they're bickering, because it all feels like they're reacting in a natural, understandable way. This is what makes Inuyasha so accessible to such a wide array of people - the characters are real and they behave believably, not just in response to what's going on around them, but to each other as well.
It's just at this point, RT hasn't QUITE gotten used to picturing them in a way that implies they're all in the area of the shot yet. I was scratching my head through most of the chapter trying to determine if Sango was actually around or not. I COULD pass that off as Sango not being comfortable hanging around like a bud at this point, but as everyone reading these should know by now, I'm not a fan of using headcanon to explain details that should be implied in the source material to begin with.
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