Inuyasha Manga: 118 Kodoku

Isn't that a grid logic puzzle where you have to put the correct number in a square based on which numbers are in its row and column? I used to play those all the time back in college, when I didn't have to think so hard about my life or what I was doing with it. Just go through the motions and get all the right answers, right? Man, those were the days. Now my brain feels burned out all the time and I can get some terms confused.

Oh well, at least there's always manga, where I can feel comfortable in constant confusion.

To be incomprehensible, of course. Or "mysterious", anyway. See what I mean about getting terms confused? Anyway, she's here because the plot demands it, dammit!

Kikyou doesn't answer Kagome's question, just... glaring wordlessly. Sango notes silently that this priestess looks a LOT like Kagome. She walks straight past Kagome and her friends, heading for the passage into the mountainside, flustering Kagome. She shoots to her feet with bow and arrows in hand, telling Kikyou to wait up. Sango calls her name in warning, and Shippou is apparently in disbelief that Kagome is going after Kikyou. Kagome shouts over her shoulder for Sango not to go in for the purposes of not being "got" by the evil, and instructs Shippou to stay beside her.

The two clam up, staring after Kagome. Sango urges tiny Kirara to follow Kagome, and Kirara bounds toward the passage as well. Once they're all gone, Sango references that priestess in a trailing sentence, and Shippou simply says that it's Kikyou. Over a panel of Kikyou walking down the dark shaft, he says that Inuyasha was in love with her, a long time ago. Boy, I hope Shippou gives a more thorough explanation than that, because I don't think it does justice to what a clusterfuck her even being alive right now really is.

Kikyou puts a hand over her chest, worrying that the dead souls she stored in there are trying to get out. She wonders if the evil inside the cave is affecting them, because I guess they just sit there like a brick normally. She also notices that Inuyasha is in the midst of the evil ahead, which she also looks a tad concerned about. She's gotten over her murder impulse toward him fairly well, hasn't she?

A rumble floats down the shaft from the big cave at the end.

I'm surprised a rumble is all Kikyou heard when this is going on just down the hall. She would make the BEST neighbor.

Miroku yells at Inuyasha to put Tessaiga away, because he mustn't fight. He shouts back over his shoulder that if he DOESN'T fight, he'll die. So, because Inuyasha has expressed that he has the time for a long explanation, Miroku breaks down for him the fact that this youkai he's fighting has fought and defeated countless others in the pit, who have been absorbed into him. The ogre, having politely waited for Miroku to finish, informs Inuyasha that he's going to die, and then he'll be the only one to leave there alive. Through the hole in the top of the mountain, evidently, because he won't be fitting through that passage, clearly.

His previous hints a bit too subtle for Inuyasha, Miroku compares this situation with a "fuko" spell, which produces a "kodoku". Inuyasha all but scratches his head as he glares over his shoulder at Miroku, thinking he's speaking nonsense again. It's finally hit me that Inuyasha is the stand-in for a stupid, clueless American who is terrible at understanding the slightest bit of nuance or culture. We are one in the same. I'm not sure how to feel about this...

Miroku regales us with the process of "fuko"; a variety of poisonous insects, lizards, frogs and other animals are put into a single container and made to kill each other, the last one surviving becoming a "kodoku" with the help of the spell. Of course, that means this cave is such a container for creating a "kodoku", and even if Inuyasha defeats this conglomerate youkai, he will be absorbing the loser. The ogre remains quiet, only a slight hiss issuing from him. Inuyasha grimaces at Miroku when he says that no matter who wins here, their bodies will fuse together. Clearly this idea is distasteful to Inuyasha.

The ogre laughs, opening the mouth in the face superimposed on his gut that he got from that dinosaur thing. It shoots a burst of fire at Inuyasha, who jumps out of the way. He blocks the rest of the blast with Tessaiga's blade, telling Miroku to cut the speech, because there's no way to get out of this but to kill this creature.

So, get your ass in gear, Miroku. Chop, chop. What are you waiting for?

Maybe it's HER:

She doesn't really look like she's up to the task either, though, especially not when she catches sight of Inuyasha below. He looks shell-shocked when he sees her up top, too. Their awkward reunion is punctured by the restless souls in Kikyou bursting from her body, feeling the confines of uncomfortable teenage excuses for communication, if I had to guess. Kikyou's eyes widen in alarm, and the realization that she won't be able to move if they continue to leave her.

Inuyasha gapes at her distress, while the ogre behind him laughs; the souls escaping Kikyou have been sucked into him, just as Kikyou herself observes in disbelief in the next panel. She figures out the "kodoku" connection just like Miroku before toppling over the edge of the ledge, Miroku looking after her in shock. Inuyasha gapes too for a moment.

Again, to be incomprehensible. Or to save the day. But that obviously isn't working out well, given how Inuyasha is bopped one real good by the ogre as he's running to intercept Kikyou before she hits the rock below.

Kagome is still running along the shaft, because she is slow as hell, apparently. Also, she's again asking herself why Kikyou is here, because she just doesn't get it. She also thinks there's somebody ELSE here, and it's evidently not the little kitten monster Kirara running along next to her. No, it's someone with a Shikon fragment who's come awfully close. She trails in speculation about who it could be, but the next couple of panels give away that she's probably hit the nail on the head by showing a silhouette with long wavy hair being blown by a strong wind on top of a jagged mountain.

And outside, Sango is pumping her fist saying she fucking KNEW it.

Naraku stares at the caldera in the mountain, certain that his conglomerate monster will come out of there soon. His thoughts reflect the spell that Miroku was describing earlier, with the last remaining survivor in there being "the one". The one what?

This begs the question: how did Naraku get to the top of that fucking mountain without a working body anyway? Did Kohaku carry him again? Boy is stupid buff by now...

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Kikyou is a bit on the shady side of illegitimate here, when you think about what lead up to this moment. She just happened to get called to Naraku's side at the time when he was in the midst of building a new body, requiring a caravan to travel there, so you know she wasn't following some vague trail of the guy she had heard from Kagome about. She goes to where she feels a giant evil amassing, with no explicit intentions either way, but we have to assume to vanquish it. Then she's unable to really DO what we assume she went there to do because she loses all her juice to the monster and has to pass right the fuck out.

It's no wonder everyone is asking WHY she's here throughout the chapter, when it looks from most angles like a contrivance. You would think her meeting with Naraku at this very crucial time would have been more than just chance. You would assume she would have been able to hold her own at least a tad before fainting like every damsel in distress ever. She's a damn LEGEND, for fuck's sake! I would expect her to be just a little more discerning about any situation where she felt like she might lose all those souls, too, considering she's faced it before.

It's not the worst shoehorn I've ever seen, no. After all, it at least makes sense that human vassals knowing nothing of Naraku's true nature that he's tricked into thinking they're in service to would search for a talented healer to cure his ailments, and there's no one more talented. And you could conceivably say that Kikyou wasn't going to walk back out of that shaft to face Kagome, Sango and Shippou's inevitable questions about what she's there for and why she left and what's going on. Way too embarrassing, and the girl's got SOME pride. Still, the first question was asked three times in this chapter alone, and that's not exactly drawing attention away from the fact that Kikyou just went into the "kodoku" chamber to pass out and be a liability.

Looks like Miroku is the only one that's available to loosen that spell after all. I don't envy him, because I wouldn't want to do it if I were in as much agony as he seems to be right now. Not that I loosen spells on the regular when I'm feeling well or anything...