But at least somebody else can be relied upon! Who do we have...
Swerve.
Because Naraku isn't catering to an audience he has no knowledge of as a character anyway, we're not given the details of this oath or even a broad view of what was promised. Sitting in a cell, a sentry on guard outside the door, Kikyou can feel the swirl of a gigantic evil. She also feels it's time for her to go, and looks up at the barred window to her left. A few of her shinidamachu float in between the bars, across the room, and through the grid in the door as well. The sentry's initial confusion doesn't last long, because the shinidamachu wrap themselves around him with speed, or at least I'm assuming so. It's kind of difficult to imagine these creatures doing much else but drifting slowly, but...
The sentry screams at the coiling things, but that too doesn't last too long before his eyes glaze over and his soul filters out through his mouth. I think Kikyou's pets have killed him, until I see he's slouched but still standing when she sidles up to the door. She commands him to open the door and then bring her a bow and arrows. So, is he a zombie now? His spirit doesn't appear to be LEAVING, or fully separating from his body, so is he even fully dead? Did Kikyou murder this fool or not? I'm confused!
A ways away, on the rumbling evil mountain, Kagome and Sango crouch a distance from the passage inside the rock. Kagome offers comfort to Sango, whom she asks if the evil is getting to her and if she's okay. Sango has her knees drawn up to her chest and her gas mask pressed to her sweating face as she observes that Kagome seems just fine, by contrast. Kagome says she is at the moment, and Shippou also states calmly that he's perfectly well. A marbled atmosphere radiates from the shaft, and Sango says it would be even worse inside. Kagome agrees, wondering if Inuyasha and Miroku are alright.
Miroku claims that his harsh training (all that meditation under waterfalls) has allowed him to handle the amount of evil in here, whereas a normal human wouldn't be able to move. Not to toot his own horn or anything... They both look further into the black passage at the sound of a rattling boom. Inuyasha is sure there's not just ONE thing in here making all this racket. He hoists Miroku onto his back and runs along, and his passenger is looking half-terrified, probably trying to avoid vomiting all over Inuyasha's shoulder.
It's not long before they see a light at the end of the tunnel. Literally.
The weird dinosaur-headed dude lunges at the ogre-looking guy, latching its jaws onto the ogre's shoulder. It's got a ton of spikes on its back that look like stalagmites, which is totally awesome, and that's why I'm rooting for it. Is it strange I've picked a side already, when Inuyasha still seems to be hung up on the fact that they're fighting at all? What can I say? I'm American, and we're all about watching things fight for our amusement.
Miroku observes that there appears to have been many hundreds of youkai to start out with, and Inuyasha agrees. He assumes that the remains still floating in the gross liquid below are the ones that lost. Miroku says that those remains are what rained down on the village they visited in the last chapter, indicating the hole in the top of the mountain as the exit point. He still hasn't figured out what all this is set up for, though.
Meanwhile, the ogre twists the head off of the dinosaur, and there goes that twenty bucks. The dinosaur head is tossed carelessly into the youkai soup below, absorbed by the boiling muck. The rest of the body twists and stretches, wrapping around the ogre's waist.
Miroku goes over all the facts in his head, from the several hundred that start out to the way the loser is absorbed into the victor. He's slowly coming to a conclusion while the ogre complains that it can't leave, it looks up at the hole in the mountain-top, too far away to reach. It looks around, insisting that there was only one more left to beat, and then freedom had been promised. It suddenly glares off to the side, where Inuyasha and Miroku are still crouched on the ledge in the passage, declaring that Inuyasha must be the last one. Inuyasha recoils slightly, as would anyone faced by that thing.
Like so many other things in this chapter, though, this doesn't last long. Inuyasha doesn't want to be rude and deny the ogre what it wants, apparently, so he leaps right off the edge of that cliff hand on the hilt of Tessaiga. Miroku calls for him to wait just a bit late, but Inuyasha doesn't want to hear it anyway. He announces that the ogre is the origin of the evil, slashing at it with his blade.
Miroku screams at Inuyasha to stop, fearing his hypothesis about what this monster is might be correct. If it is, and the fight continues, then... something. Miroku doesn't finish the thought. Suspense!
Outside, night has fallen, and Shippou has produced some fox fire for Kagome and Sango as they wait. Sango complains that their companions are very late, and starts to stand, wanting to go and see if they're alright. Kagome holds her down by her arm, telling her she'll collapse if she goes inside. Her attention is drawn by the sound of footsteps behind them.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This one was mostly comprised of cool visuals, which is always a treat. RT's monster designs are a spectacle, quite the contrast to how samey her human characters can look most of the time. The detail that went into both of our brawlers today was astounding. I joked earlier that I was endeared to the dinosaur-type because it had those stalagmite spikes on its back, but it was true that those stuck out (pun intended) as a really neat detail on a monster fighting in a cave.
One of the things that struck me about this chapter was who was affected by the evil coming from the arena in the mountain, and who wasn't. Miroku and Sango seem to be suffering the most from it, while everyone else appears to range from mildly antsy (Kikyou) to in perfect health (Shippou). I'm not sure if I can spot a RULE here, because while Miroku is really having a ton of problems with the atmosphere, Kagome is a human with spiritual powers and NO training and she's not sick at all. Meanwhile, innocent Shippou is sitting pretty as the tainted demoness/priestess Kikyou has some reaction to it, though it's not clear if it's painful to her yet. There doesn't seem to be a spectrum that I can identify here, because it all presents as pretty random.
Inuyasha's use of Kagome's technology is so understated as to be almost conspicuous. I may have mentioned how refreshing it is to have characters from the past that don't freak out at advanced technology, and this is one of the moments I appreciate it a lot. Inuyasha has adapted fast to the tools Kagome brings from her time, and it's not a big deal to him OR Miroku. Writers of time-traveler stories, take notes.
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