I feel like there's a point to be made here, but I can't quite put my finger on it...
Get it?
At the back of the group, Sango asks an abnormally quiet Kagome what the deal is with her silence. After a short pause, Kagome admits that she's getting the very faint sense of a Shikon fragment. This gives the boys up front some pause too, undoubtedly caught off guard by the sudden return to their main objective after having been off-track for such a while. Or the fact that Kagome was quiet for so long about it. I'm personally kind of confused about the latter myself.
The setting skips to where a bunch of chickens are clucking around in the midst of a town littered with corpses, the men and women splattered with and lying in puddles of their own blood. Kagome squeals with alarm and clings to Inuyasha's sleeve, who somehow looks surprised? Dude, couldn't you smell all the blood before this point? Miroku trails off in a sentiment of disgust and Sango kneels in the dirt to identify the tracks left by whatever did this, a group of beasts, someone (not sure who) speculates. Inuyasha concretely identifies the scent he's picking up as that of wolves, and Kagome repeats this in disbelief. I too cannot believe that NOW Inuyasha's nose seems to work. That thing is almost as terrible as his aim...
Miroku points out that it's a tad strange that the villagers that have been killed were not eaten, and the livestock that would have been more suitable prey for wolves anyway, chickens and nervous horses still penned up, remain untouched. It's a pretty good reason for him to think this wasn't done by ordinary wolves. Sango turns to Kagome and asks her where the Shikon shard is now that they're in the vicinity of where she sensed it, but she sweats and stutters, only to admit that it's no longer there, like it just ran away.
Or, you know, the person who has it ran away. That seems like the more logical conclusion.
A nearby tree emits a rustle and the little girl from the previous chapter pops her head out from behind it, looking wary. Sesshoumaru regards her from his periphery, looking a bit peeved at her return. She dashes toward him, hugging a big leaf and her water flute to her chest. She kneels next to Sesshoumaru and presents him with the leaf, which turns out to act as a plate for a roasted fish. Because Sesshoumaru is actual garbage, he smacks the offering out of her hands. DOUCHE. BAG. And a liar, because he can't move when he's lounging by himself in the woods, but suddenly can when he's knocking away any attempted assistance.
The little girl scrambles to sweep the fish back onto the leaf, as Sesshoumaru tells her to mind her own business, because he doesn't like human food. Uhhh, dude, you realize humans are omnivores, right? They eat everything. Does he eat nothing? The girl looks sheepishly over her shoulder at him, probably wondering the same thing.
Later, while the moon rises over the roof of some building, the girl has waded into what looks like a fishery, judging by the fencing on one side. She's leaning over and submerging her arms into the water up to her elbows, before pulling out a fish with her bare hands. Her arms are also cute and chubby and I love her. Men with torches yell at her from the side of the fishery, calling her a "culprit". She stares up at them, fish still clutched in her hands.
As she limps away, they talk about how creepy she is for not crying even once while they whaled on her. Almost as creepy as a grown-ass man who kicks and punches a little girl and complains that she didn't cry when he did. And when I say "almost", I mean it's nowhere near as creepy. One of the men, an old one, explains why this shouldn't be surprising, given that she stopped making a peep when she saw her whole family murdered by thieves.
Daylight streams into Sesshoumaru's recovery ward through the branches above again, and he's looking a bit better, actually. He observes the little girl peeking out from behind the tree again more directly this time, at least.
Ahem, sorry, I didn't know I had a parental instinct until this very moment.
Sesshoumaru looks away from this new offering rather than slapping it out of her hands, which is a marked improvement in his attitude. He tells her not to bother, and she slumps, sighing. She has to look back up at him in surprise, however, when he asks her what happened to her face. She just stares, not answering, so Sesshoumaru assures her that she doesn't have to say if she doesn't want to. He makes a strangely accurate assessment that she can't speak.
Later, the little girl skips along the road in the village, humming a little song, judging by the musical note issuing from her. Kind of contradicts her "not making a sound" characterization so far... She passes by all the houses and instead heads for the shore of a lake (not sure if it's the fishpond from before) bordered by a short sheer cliff. From this cliff, a slouching roof of thatching connects to a series of boards acting as a wall. A broken pot sits just outside, the final indication that this girl isn't the least bit taken care of as the villagers who beat her would have themselves believe.
When she steps inside, she's surprised to see movement from another already in there. A man with a broad, snout-like nose, exposed fanged canines, and one eye scarred shut, asks her if this shack is her home. She nods in the affirmative, clinging to the side of the "doorway" in uncertainty. Suddenly, a scream and the cry of wolf sounds behind her and she twists to look at what's going on, her guest joining her. He curses the fact that he's already been found and while the little girl cringes from the carnage of her fellow villagers being chomped on by wolves, he darts out of her "house", wading into the pond beyond.
Bad move. The wolves look up from the villager they're currently ravaging, noticing that he's on the run. They follow him into the water and are much faster, clamping down on his arms with their jaws and causing him to cry out. On the shore, a much younger man, wearing furs and surrounded by a crowd of wolves that were suddenly docile, chuckles that he's got the damn thief now. The wolves that retrieved him from the water drag the little girl's unexpected guest ashore. He says the name "Kouga" pleadingly.
With a trembling finger, the unexpected guest pushes a Shikon shard toward Kouga, who picks it up and examines it, chuckling. He turns and begins to walk off, so absorbed with the elation of having his shard back, he's completely ignoring the guy he chased down so diligently. The unexpected guest asks Kouga if he's going to let him go, and breathes a premature sigh of relief.
The little girl watches the top half of her unexpected guest's head fall to the ground with a thud, cringing on her hands and knees now. Kouga turns to his obedient wolves and tells them that the job's over, so he's moving on out of this village. He invites them to eat as many villagers as they want, though, an invitation they happily take advantage of. The girl watches in horror as the men and women of the village are pounced on by the wolves and their throats are torn out. Her fingers are curled halfway into fists and they block her mouth as though she's fighting the urge to let out the scream she doesn't have.
Meanwhile, Jaken has found Sesshoumaru and prattles on and one about how terrible it is to see him in such a state. He's undoubtedly lucky that Sesshoumaru's state is so sorry, because he'd get a fist to the face for those comments for sure if Sesshoumaru had his full strength. As it is, though, Sesshoumaru's fist is employed in helping him sit up and an attempt to stand. Jaken begs him not to force himself, but Sesshoumaru insists he's "going back". To where? Who the fuck knows. Probably to resume pretending that he has shit to do.
The little girl is running through the forest nearby, wolves close on her heels and winded already. She's unlucky enough to get her toes caught on a raised root.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's all at once cute and horrifying watching this little girl trying to help somebody while she clearly cannot help herself. She's practically a personification of a child's need for guidance, which makes the fact that she is in such a neglectful and even abusive environment all the more heartbreaking. It's clear that she's been orphaned rather recently, given the lack of awareness a lot of the men who beat her have of her story, and the fact that she's been living in that hovel at the edge of the village. No child who is as young and naïve as this one could survive long like that. If she were any older or wary, she wouldn't have approached Sesshoumaru at all, or even have robbed the fishery without being a bit quieter about it, at least.
And Sesshoumaru knew from the beginning that she had no idea what he was or how to care for him; he's annoyed by her attempts at first. It's pretty obvious that he's exasperated by her persistence and wants her to leave him alone, turning up his nose at all her offerings. He only really finds cause to pay closer attention to her when she walks up to him having been injured herself. The very least he has to be aware of by this moment is that this child has no one looking after her, and has no idea what to do in order to look after herself.
I mentioned a couple of chapters ago that it was likely Sesshoumaru's only functional relationship was with his father. He's almost guaranteed to know what it looks like when a kid is well taken care of, and this is not it. Even a relatively independent child, like the kind I imagine Sesshoumaru had to have been, needs guidance and protection. Since this girl very clearly HAS none, he's the only one who could respond to her peril the way an adult of her own kind should be.
All he has to do is emulate his father's ROLE toward him. Should be easy considering how eager he is to emulate daddy in most other respects. What could go wrong?
No comments:
Post a Comment