Inuyasha Manga: 098 The True Water God

Still no word on what makes this "true" god any different from their usurper except the holy weapon, but I'm guessing it's not any kind of hiring or electoral process. If it were, whoever put this deadbeat in their position would have sought to replace them with a more competent candidate LONG before Inuyasha and company showed up. If I managed to lose my keys to some random subordinate and got locked up in a room so they could pretend to do my job for a while, I would be fired so fast my head wouldn't even have TIME to spin. I guess this industry runs on slightly different standards of work ethic than I'm used to.

I think a boycott is in order.

In a small outbuilding on the end of a walkway, Kagome is crouched by the door while the children watch it with fear. Taroumaru says that fake!Suijin is getting closer and Kagome tells him to shut it. All she can think right now is to protect the kids until Inuyasha returns. The fake!Suijin stomps along toward them, but after a moment it seems to those inside the shack that he's passing them. Quiet outside as the lean toward the door, and Taroumaru voices the foolish hope that he's not coming after all.

A creak sounds above and behind Kagome.

Dammit! These were new pants!!

Screaming and screwing her eyes shut, Kagome fires an arrow at the peeping face of fake!Suijin, but it hits the support beam for the roof instead. Probably shouldn't fire arrows without your eyes open, Kagome. Fake!Suijin pokes his face up into the other side of the beam, chuckling that they won't get away from him.

Kagome yells at the boys to hurry and get out, and Taroumaru already has his fingers in the crack of the door ready to do so. Unfortunately, it won't open for him, and Shippou's expression is strangely blank upon seeing this. I would be freaking out, but maybe expression for more than one character was too much effort for such a small panel. The door isn't opening because fake!Suijin has stretched his body in order to wrap it around the building and over the exit. Meanwhile, fake!Suijin's face up in the rafters is telling Kagome that she'll be the first to die. She's nocked another arrow and is aiming for the face, but that tail-like arm she injured earlier wraps itself around her ankle and pulls her onto the ground.

She looks up to see that the holy weapon is descending on her point first, immediately ducking her head again and squeezing her eyes shut, thinking she'll be skewered. Before that can happen, though, a crash comes from the door.

Good job busting in to save the day, Inuyasha. Too bad you crushed Kagome while you were at it. Tessaiga is also reverted back to rust-stick because it touched the holy weapon, which might be contributing to Kagome's welling tear as she calls Inuyasha's name behind him. In addition to the lumber pinning her to the floor, obviously.

Fake!Suijin calls Inuyasha a bastard, arm holding the holy weapon hanging through the back of the roof where he was going to stab Kagome. Inuyasha actually refers to fake!Suijin as fake when he says the false god has shown his real character, and Kagome gapes at the new information. Inuyasha turns to ask if the kids aren't hurt either, and while Kagome stutters that she's fine, the children rise from the debris of the former door, complaining that they weren't hurt BEFORE Inuyasha turned up.

The tip of fake!Suijin's hat sinks beneath the lattice decorating the rafters, and Inuyasha shouts at him that he won't get away. However, fake!Suijin is already slithering snakelike in the water beneath the temple, away from Inuyasha. Inuyasha gives chase, running along the walkway trying to determine where the fuck fake!Suijin got to. A small pause to look around was all fake!Suijin needed to use his tail/hand wrapped around the ankle trick on Inuyasha and drag him off the walkway and into the water, much to Inuyasha's surprise. Fake!Suijin has stretched and wrapped his body around Inuyasha this time, changing Inuyasha's look to one of disgust as he glares at the scaled coil surrounding him.

What would you have done if he DIDN'T call you fake? Serve him cookies?

Inuyasha informs fake!Suijin that he heard all about how if he takes the holy weapon off of him, then he's just a regular subordinate. With a thrust of the blade at Inuyasha, fake!Suijin invites him to just try it. Inuyasha manages to barely lean out of the way of the blow, and the blade strikes one of the stilts holding up the walkway. It dissolves into foam, along with the whole side of the building above it. Inuyasha gapes at the dripping bubbles.

Kagome and Shippou are also alarmed at the effect of the holy weapon as the come upon the scene, where fake!Suijin assures Inuyasha that this time he won't miss. Inuyasha has recovered from his shock and offers a scoff at this statement. Popping his knuckles, Inuyasha encourages fake!Suijin to try and aim again, because before the blade lands fake!Suijin's body will be torn to shreds. He simultaneously makes good on his promise, ripping into a wide-eyed fake!Suijin's coils.

Inuyasha doesn't get even most of the way through them, however, before he's dunked beneath the lake water again, being cursed by fake!Suijin for taking some sizeable chunks out of his snake-flesh. Inuyasha's breath, scant as it is, begins to escape him. Kagome and the children run up to the side of the walkway, Kagome calling out to Inuyasha. She falls to her knees and looks over the edge into the water, mouth agape in a silent scream.

Elsewhere:

Yeah, and then you should suggest perhaps a different career-path for them. Maybe one that doesn't carry so much responsibility.

As they climb the rock, Sango urges Miroku to hurry it up, because she's kind of worried about Kagome and the others. Miroku reassures her that Inuyasha is with them, so they'll be fine, prompting Sango to ask if Inuyasha is REALLY that strong. She looks more curious than disbelieving here, so I suppose she didn't mean the question to be doubtful. Miroku, on the other hand, outright says that you have to ignore a few minor things in order to consider Inuyasha strong. Sango interprets this as Miroku trying to imply subtly that Inuyasha is a moron. Diiiiiiick.

A sound from Miroku marks his discovery of a sealing charm dangling from the rock. As if to confirm, a voice comes from behind the rock to ask if someone is there. Sango says it sounds like a young girl, and Miroku leans closer to the rock eagerly when he states that the Suijin must be a goddess. Said goddess instructs him to pull the charm off the rock quickly to let her out, and Miroku is only too obedient, Sango looking somewhat wide-eyed at him as he shouts his compliance.

Once the charm comes off, there's a flash of light from the rock before it crumbles and Sango and Miroku are able to view the Suijin with some alarm.

A tad too small for Miroku's tastes, I see.

Back with Inuyasha....

... He's dying. Juuuuuuuust brilliant.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? A very pleasing aspect of it was the fall-back to those horror elements that have been so iconic for previous chapters. It gives the impression that, despite the fact that we know this god is fake at this point, the protagonists fighting him are still WAAAAY out of their depth in dealing with him. At least one-on-one, because they've only had the opportunity to get at him one at a time so far since he separated them. Even Inuyasha is at a disadvantage with his youkai powers.

But that was a given from the start, since it appears that god and youkai powers tend to conflict. Kagome's experience fending off fake!Suijin was the real show-stealer here. It's not because she did particularly well, but because of her palpable fear in combination with fake!Suijin's caution in dealing with her. She was the only one who was able to injure him at the time, so while he was flitting around trying to use an entire building as a shield from her arrows, she was too scared out of her wits to notice this and use his hesitation to her advantage. It made the battle more interesting knowing both sides of the conflict were afraid of the other, but only one of them was really in a position to exploit a weakness.

At least, it's more interesting to me than two overpowered, overconfident dudes punching each other until one of them wins.