Inuyasha Manga: 123 Intent to Kill

Excuse me, but I don't recall a license being issued in the previous chapters. Just who does this person intending homicide think they are? James Bond? Why, only the most brazen of individuals would be so bold as to invite such a comparison! They would have to wander around giving out their own name instead of an alias despite the fact that they should be lying low, and...

... Oh. Oh no.

Licensed or not, the intent here is pretty clear, even if it's also pretty clear that this isn't the scene RT named the chapter after. It's looking like Kagome might be defeated by it too, hanging off the ledge without the ability to pull herself up. She should have known that the chin-ups in gym were worth her weight to put in the effort. Kagome calls out a stuttering cry for somebody, but between a snoozing Kikyou in the tree surrounded by a barrier to keep out the drifting soul collectors and Naraku's inert puppet, no one is around. In fact that puppet's head, lying right next to the little doll allowing Naraku's continued observance, chuckles and says that no one will come to save Kagome. Everybody who would be inclined to rescue her are wrapping up their lives with elaborate death illusions, and they're screening their calls.

So to speak.

Kagome's feet scrape the wall of the ledge and some rocks crumble off into the flaming goo below her. They hiss as they dissolve, and Kagome shivers at the sight and sound. She calls for Inuyasha specifically, straining to reach the vines above her. She hears footsteps.

Not as sleepy as she let on I see.

She smiles, like she's having a casual conversation over tea, and holds up the doll Naraku was using to control his puppet. Kikyou supposes that Naraku must have really wanted to avoid getting close to Kagome if he's using such a device. I mean, would YOU want to get within 500 miles of someone who literally blew you up the last time you met? I don't think so.

And then, Kikyou crumbles the wooden doll with her BARE HAND.

Girl's work on her finger strength is LEGENDARY. But after Kagome watches the pieces of the doll rain down in front of her face for a moment, she expresses some amazement that... Kikyou can move. Not that she crushed a wooden doll to pieces with nothing but the flex of her hand. Either the fear of her dire situation has fried her brain, or Kagome is a little bit dense.

Kikyou tells Kagome that she could have moved any time she wanted. She just didn't want to. Sweetie, we're having this intervention because we care about you, and you need to know that the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem! Just let us help you overcome your nap addiction! But, no, she claims that she was just trying to determine what Naraku was up to. This intervention isn't going well. At any rate, she says that Kagome seems to be Naraku's greatest obstacle. Kagome is so dumbfounded by this, she forgets to ask Kikyou why she's not bothering to help her up with her SUPER STRENGTH.

Elsewhere amongst a stir of power in the mist of Naraku's illusion, someone is contemplating what would have happened if he had trusted Kikyou way back when.

What these two things have to do with one another I'm struggling to figure out. At least his next thoughts relate to him not knowing what happened after Kikyou's arrow shit him, reflecting on falling into loneliness. And death. Don't forget about the death. He seems to be more concerned with the loneliness, though, until he remembers his name being said by a certain someone. Kagome, whom he recalls telling him sweetly that he's no longer alone.

This memory prompts Inuyasha's eyes to open, as well as an internal question of where Kagome is at the moment. The illusion of Kikyou embracing him also opens her eyes and tightens her grip on the cloth at his shoulder. Inuyasha starts to understand that this is all Naraku's trap. His eyes are all the wider when he asks himself yet again where the hell Kagome got to. Illusion!Kikyou does NOT look happy.

Well, if one has a choice...

Inuyasha wisely keeps the thought that meeting Kagome allowed him to regain his heart to himself, but aloud he insists that there's just no way he can let Kagome die here. Presumably before he can think better of the idea, he tells illusion!Kikyou that he might be with her someday, but today is not that day. In response, a pissed illusion!Kikyou recedes from him, crackling with veins standing out.

Oh, that was woodgrain, not veins. Never mind.

It's at this point that Inuyasha seems to come to the full realization that this was all an illusion. Kikyou was never there to begin with. Good thing too, because if it really was her, he might not have survived that confession session. With a curse, he rips himself free of the flaming vines. He's still standing in the midst of a roaring fire, though, so that's a problem I think.

Or not, because on the next page, We skip over to Miroku's position collapsed in a mound of creepers. Inuyasha charges in, no longer on fire, screaming Miroku's name, and with claws at the ready. He slashes at the vines, knowing they're responsible for Miroku's incapacitation. Once they're ripped out of his right arm where they'd embedded themselves, Miroku leans over, bleeding, face in the dirt as he mutters about his arm in a panic.

Inuyasha seems somewhat unsettled to see the illusion from the other side before he grabs hold of Miroku by shoulder and wrist to steady him and shout him out of his trance. Miroku's eyes finally seem to see reality again and he lets out a small noise of confusion when he sees his right hand intact. He stutters to Inuyasha that the Kazaana had just been sucking him into it. Inuyasha takes this to mean that each illusion features its target's personal weakness, but he's not in a hurry to explain this to Miroku. He tells the still dazed priest that he should go find Sango, who should also be tangled up in the vines. Internally, his primary concern is still where Kagome happens to be, so he runs through the forest to find out, in a panic.

She's still hanging off the ledge with one hand, and a nearby vine with the other, while Kikyou crouches on top of the small cliff, doing nothing to help. They stare at one another wordlessly, and it's more than a tad awkward. The Shinidama Chuu float out from behind Kikyou and down behind Kagome, where they coil around and under her, much to her discomfort, judging by all the screaming.

Kagome thinks for a small moment that Kikyou is saving her, but Kikyou's intentions don't have that much goodwill behind them. She reaches out and takes the piece of Shikon no Tama hanging around Kagome's neck, prompting a little noise of protest and shock from her, and a question as to just what it is that Kikyou thinks she's doing. Though a little more halting. And a bit less forceful. I'm just projecting, is what I'm getting at here.

Kikyou holds the shard close to her chest in a possessive way, explaining that since she was the one who originally purified it, it's not for the likes of Kagome. After Kikyou says that she's had enough of Kagome and company (including Inuyasha?), the soul collectors fly off, leaving Kagome cartoonishly suspended in midair over the fissure in the ground for a panel. Then it's down she goes.

And THERE'S the chapter title!

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's turning up the villain up to 11 on Kikyou this time around. There's not much room for interpretation of this, because there's not much point in arguing that the point isn't for Kagome to die here. But since Inuyasha isn't in the picture for this meeting, and in fact Kikyou implies that she's a bit sick of his bullshit as well, I'm thinking he's not the crux of Kikyou's issues with Kagome this time around.

Instead, I'm inclined to interpret Kikyou's animosity toward Kagome here is a kind of irritation at the fact that Kagome is inspiring a greater fear than SHE is. Kikyou was face-to-face with Naraku, she was picked up and carried away by him, and despite all her skill and power, he doesn't consider her a threat. Kikyou was the one who purified and kept the jewel during her lifetime, she was the one who should have stood in Naraku's way, but Naraku is comfortable enough to just sit there with her right next to him.

The fact that he was able to trick her so easily the last time with fairly low consequences may be a factor, as well as the fact that she was acting helpless in his grasp earlier, whether it was true or not, might be playing something of a factor here. Regardless, Kikyou is peeved that Kagome's bold and candid approach to fighting Naraku seems to be more effective. Whatever plan Kikyou has to get Naraku in the end is something that she needs subtlety to pull off, but Kagome just waltzes around shooting arrows, and it seriously breaks her cool. Getting rid of Kagome would not only leave Kikyou the room to be as surreptitious as her plot requires, but it would also sooth her pride knowing that Naraku picked the wrong priestess to be afraid of. A twofer, for sure.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha's focus on Kikyou is almost fully broken now, and he's wandering around looking for Kagome rather than the original damsel. If Kikyou is peeved now, she's gonna be even more sour when she finds out that Inuyasha's greater concern for Kagome's safety was the reason he could break out of his illusion of death all by himself.