And do you know who else is understandably pissed? Inuyasha, leaping after Sango and cursing her for being such a bitch. Kagome, who has grabbed a ride on his back, tells him to not be angry, because she's sure Sango has a reason for her behavior. Inuyasha snaps at her to cut that out, presumably because it's not unreasonable to be angry over something like this. Still, Miroku runs level with Inuyasha (does he not have youkai-ish speed?) and reminds him that Sango was probably blackmailed by Naraku, explaining that holding Kohaku's life in exchange for Tessaiga is exactly the kind of thing Naraku would do.
Inuyasha yells that he knows all this, and it feels like an unfinished joke, because the next panel shows Naraku telling Sango to halt in her approach to him. He orders to leave Hiraikotsu on the ground before she comes any closer, and she drops it, with a smarmy comment about how wary Naraku is. DUH, girl-who-just-stole-a-sword-from-her-supposed-ally. Duh.
Sango demands that Naraku show her Kohaku, whom she presumes fled to the compound a few moments ago. Naraku scoffs and assures her that Kohaku is waiting for her, as Kohaku appears silhouetted in the screen behind him. Kohaku is speechless, but Sango mumbles his name, sweating. Naraku holds out a hand, ordering her to give him Tessaiga, and Sango stretches the handle of the sword to her hated enemy. Very slowly. Then her eyes narrow.
Sango slices straight through that ape costume that conceals Naraku, as well as some locks of hair, because she keeps her knives SHARP, yo. Naraku is nothing but amused by Sango's hidden weapon, while Sango herself is quite alarmed by what she sees when the baboon fur falls away.
Sango is quick to recognize the face of the Young Master of the castle that killed his weird spider-dad, and has the freaked wide-eyes to show it. Naraku points out that she must remember him, and Sango trembles with rage while she makes the connection. A little blood is at the corner of her mouth, and I'm not sure if she got injured before and I just didn't notice...? Anyway, Naraku lurches a bit as a swirling miasma grows behind him and Sango suddenly falls to her knees, to her alarm.
She looks down to find that some of the hair she cut off of Naraku is wrapped around her arm, and is pulling her to the ground. If Yura were alive right now, she would probably sue. Sango sweats while Naraku informs her that she is now unable to move, and he proceeds to chastise her for apparently thinking she could slay him all by herself. She curses the situation, until she sees Kirara slowly sneaking up behind Naraku as he's preoccupied with glaring at Sango. She glares too, with anticipation of Kirara's attack, at the last moment shouting at Kirara to kill that son of a bitch.
Kirara descends on Naraku, fangs and claws bared, but Naraku only seems mildly annoyed by this. He even grows a smile when Kirara's fangs sink into his shoulder, despite Sango's initial assumption that Kirara had gotten him good. Kirara, however, rears its head in pain, because this asshole tastes like poison, if I had to guess. The giant cat shrinks back to a little one again, screaming the entire way, and writhing on the ground in pain. Sango looks devastated as she screams Kirara's name, straining against the bonds of Naraku's rip-off-Yura hair.
Naraku smirks it up when he tells Sango not to be surprised, because his body is solidified miasma. He lets her know that her work is done here and he's letting her go, holding up Tessaiga, and she just glares at him while gripping her trapped arm. Naraku says the least he can offer her is some severance pay - by which I mean he offers to kill her by her own brother's hand. Sango narrows her eyes, looking somewhat confused in addition to her anger, at first.
We're back with Inuyasha and the rest of the crew when they run into a swarm of saimyoushou hanging around in the air. Miroku is alarmed by this, and Inuyasha continues to look pissed. Kagome hesitantly suggests that this means Naraku is nearby, maybe... and then the insects start drifting away from the group, one of them hanging out to take a significant look back at them. Miroku surmises that this means they're "inviting" them along, and Kagome puts it out there that this invitation is perhaps a trap.
Inuyasha scoffs and calls this all very interesting, cursing Naraku for his very likely intention of trying to kill them ALL off. Miroku holds up his cursed fist, realizing that the current injury to it makes it very convenient for Naraku that he can't use it. Inuyasha adds that Naraku had Tessaiga stolen, leaving him unarmed. As he stares at the beckoning saimyoushou, he also acknowledges Naraku's precise use of Sango in the situation, because everyone knows the exploitation of someone's emotional attachments takes a lot of dexterity.
Oh, he means Naraku's TIMING! Of course! I knew that.
Back to Sango again!
Naraku dispassionately tells Kohaku to stab his sister to death, and Kohaku approaches Sango to do the job, expressionless. She says his name, but Kohaku just raises his sickle to prepare for a strike. So, Sango screams his name, as if the problem was that he didn't hear her. Then she does a dumb:
Sweating, Sango urges Kohaku to remember her, and Kohaku appears seriously uncomfortable here. He turns his head to give Naraku a look, who glares and asks why Kohaku hesitates. What? You're surprised that the kid is thrown off-balance by human contact when you've brainwashed him so thoroughly that he doesn't even understand what it is anymore?
Behind Sango, someone shouts her name, and it will come as no surprise to anyone (save Sango herself) that Inuyasha and crew have arrived. Looking suitably distressed by the scene they walked in on, of course. Sango turns her trembling head and says Inuyasha's name as her grip loosens on Kohaku and she slides a bit, before collapsing into a pool of her own blood at Kohaku's feet. He just looks at her blankly.
Kagome's eyes fill with tears at the cruelty of it all, while Miroku states the obvious fact that Kohaku was forced to inflict all those wounds. I guess Shippou has the day off from playing Captain Obvious today. They must be on a rotation. Meanwhile, Inuyasha looks PISSED, growling and glaring at Naraku, calling him a bastard and all that jazz. Naraku just chuckles about what fools they were to come around even though they knew it was a trap.
Inuyasha takes a swipe at Naraku between the incoming locks of hair, but he misses, unable to even hit something that's shooting its own hair straight at him. Actually, Naraku has disappeared so that Inuyasha's claws just rip off the edge of the porch he was resting on before, and Inuyasha realizes with some bitterness that Naraku's fled.
The hair Naraku shot out of his head earlier responds to that assumption in the negative. Naraku's voice emanates from the hair, saying he would never just run when he has Inuyasha and company right where he wants them. The wriggling hair then turns into snakes, because he's not satisfied ripping off just Yura, but ancient Greek gorgons as well. Naraku's snakes aren't skilled enough to turn people to stone, but they do launch themselves at Inuyasha, though, so that's something.
At least it is until Inuyasha makes quick work of them with one swipe of his claws, asking sarcastically if that's all Naraku's got. His sarcasm turns to shock when the gooey remains of the snakes fall to the ground, sizzling, along with some burn wounds on his forearm. He groans about the miasma.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I again find myself annoyed by the constant whiplash I'm getting from switching back and forth between the separated parts of the group. This is RT's one weakness, and I know it doesn't really get better at any point, so I can't really hope like I can with my other review project. I just wish that these jumps between Sango and the rest of the group would be rearranged into just a couple instead of having one every couple of pages. Granted, this chapter was not as bad as it could have been, but it was still pretty jarring.
That said, I do like how methodical Naraku's handicapping of almost the whole team was. I take back my snide remarks about him not going exclusively for the dude who is already injured right now; he didn't overlook Miroku, just brought everyone else down to a similar level of disarmament. In very diverse ways as well, which is kind of brilliant. He really knows where to hit 'em where it hurts, where their strengths AND weaknesses are, and that's what makes his genius shine.
It's also a testament to RT's continued demonstration of HIGH skill in characterization when she can make strengths and weaknesses intertwine so beautifully, almost seamlessly in places. She made Inuyasha a little too reliant on Tessaiga to fight, so she USED that as a plot point. She made Miroku's Kazaana a bit overpowered, so limits its use in a creative way. She made Sango's skill in exterminating unusable when faced with the reflection of it in her brainwashed brother. I've seen writers trip over lesser obstacles in their character and plot development, but RT seems to just go with the flow so easily. Color me green, lady.
As thoroughly as she had Naraku prepare his pieces in this chess game, however, she's also left a very obvious hole in his vision. Kagome has no handicap right now. There's no way Naraku forgot about Kagome, given how closely she resembles Kikyou and his alarm at discovering this. And it's doubtful he would assume she's weak and nonthreatening, for exactly the same reason. He should be wary of Kagome having comparable powers to Kikyou if she also has her looks, more than ANYONE else. What's the deal with that?
Did he just have the rest of the pieces in place and figure this was going to have to do regardless of knowing nothing about Kagome's weaknesses? Sloppy, sloppy...
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