Yes, it was a miscalculation, but I take comfort that it wasn't as bad as THIS one:
Luckily, Kagome must have gotten wise, because this terrible fashion mistake will never show up in the rest of the chapter, let alone the manga. She's back in the same old school uniform she's always been in as she approaches her school, sighing and looking melancholy. She thinks the sight of the school looks nostalgic now, for some reason. Her friends run up to her from behind, Short-Hair and Headband, calling to her. Looking over her shoulder at them, she wishes them a good morning, though she doesn't seem as excited to see them as they are her.
Headband takes this for being "carefree" I guess? Short-Hair is pretty agitated too, telling Kagome that something is really bad. Confused, Kagome listens to Headband begin her explanation by telling her just exactly where she was supposed to have been while off school: in the isolation ward at the hospital with TB. Kagome is of course speechless, though I might have been inclined to ask Headband why she thought she needed to lay all this out for me if I were in her place, given that I was (supposedly) living it. It's almost as if there's an invisible audience behind Kagome for which this information is the punchline to a joke, huh?
RT, you're better than this.
Anyway, Houjou is sitting astride his bike in the next panel, stopping to exchange greetings with a girl who runs to catch up to him, hailing him with a waving arm. As they talk about whatever, one of our exposition fairies explains to Kagome that this new girl is a first-year student who has been cozying up Houjou for a little while now, and Houjou doesn't seem annoyed by this. It looks like Headband and Short-Hair have pulled Kagome behind a ro of bushes they're all peering out from behind now at the pair walking along, like stalkers. Short-Hair asks Kagome what she's going to do.
Kagome holds her chin as she questions why she would need to do anything and if this isn't just fine. Headband tells her to hold on a sec and Short-Hair spells out for Kagome that she might lose Houjou to this new girl if she leaves this alone. And if she were to "do something about it" she would be a psychotic weirdo and he wouldn't be attracted to her anymore anyway, so seems like a lose-lose sitch now doesn't it?
But Kagome has a far more practical answer to all this, and it's that she's not even dating Houjou, okay? Both girls look somewhat disturbed by what looks to be a sudden revelation. Don't worry, it's not that Kagome's just not interested in Houjou and doesn't give a shit whom he dates.
And these busybodies are vindicated when Kagome practically screams in their faces that she never wants to be reminded of a guy like that ever again. Way to lean the fuck in, Kagome. She doesn't need their help being reminded of Inuyasha, though, because she's thinking about how he told her he doesn't want to see her face again later sitting in class. During completely unrelated subject matter, no doubt. She wonders what's with that stupid dog-eared dude anyway, suspecting her and the confident skirt-wearing Kouga, who happens to be hanging over her head too. She glares at nothing in particular, grumbling internally about Inuyasha being the pits.
Back in Feudal Japan, Sango and Shippou peer down into the dark well Kagome went into to get away from Inuyasha. Sango asks if it's not a regular old well, extraordinarily attached to Kagome's "country". Shippou answers in the affirmative, but complains that for some reason only Kagome and Inuyasha can travel between the two worlds. Frowning into the mouth of the well, arms crossed, Shippou mutters that this would all be done with if Inuyasha would just go over there.
Elsewhere, Kaede is laying herbs on a mat next to a fence where Inuyasha himself is perched. She asks him why he won't go over to Kagome's place, of course, because no one can be invested in anything but Kagome and Inuyasha's strange relationship right now. Inuyasha demands that Kaede shut up, though I can't help but wonder why he's sitting there next to her if he doesn't want her company. I want her company, and I'm not even in this manga. #let'sbefriendskaede
No, Inuyasha is lost in his recollections about Kagome holding Kouga, telling him to stop fighting because the wolf is seriously hurt. Inuyasha thinks she's a jerk for sticking up for such a guy, and then remembers how Kouga declared plain as day his love for Kagome. He wonders if ANY girl would be tricked by such flattery.
In yet ANOTHER location, someone is asking Miroku to see them next, and he bids them to... stand in LINE??? Yes, this motherfucker has a LINE. For palm-reading, of all things, and the line is made up of village women wanting their fortunes told. He tells the woman whose hand he's holding right now that her palm is a good one; she'll have a long life and lots of children. She's really excited by this, and Miroku takes this opportunity to ask her if one of the children she bears could be his. She smacks his hand and laughs, calling him a tease.
Well, at least he's not dwelling on relationships that have nothing to do with him.
He too is sitting by a fence, and on the other side of it an annoyed Sango and Shippou have appeared. The latter asks what he's up to, while the former sarcastically thinks about what a father he would be. They must have convinced him to cut that fortune-telling shit out, because the next panel has him telling them that it's no use rushing things and it'll have to wait until Inuyasha calms down. As she walks along behind him, carrying Shippou on her back, Sango accuses him of being too easy-going, but Miroku tells her to let it go. He also tells them not to go so near the well in the future, giving them a significant look.
Shippou indignantly asks him why, hopping up on Sango's shoulder and balling up his tiny fists defensively, but Miroku just asks him to think of Inuyasha's personality.
Kagome adds that Inuyasha gets jealous a lot, and after an initial wide-eyed stare, Headband sucks her own fountain drink out of her cup, looking halfway between irritated and bored. She says that getting jealous just means that he loves Kagome, and Short-Hair, wearing the same expression as she pops a fry in her mouth, tells Kagome that whoever this guy is, he's devoted to her. The part she doesn't say out loud is that this whole thing is pathetic. Don't you regret getting so emotionally invested in this bullshit, girls?
But that's when Kagome drops a bombshell by suggesting that if he WAS devoted to her, then she could put up with the rest of his crap. Immediately, her friends lean forward, suddenly interested in how he may NOT be devoted after all. Looking a bit on the down side now, Kagome says that the guy she's talking about had another love a while ago that he can't seem to get over. The girls stare in... suspense? Anger? Affront? Not sure.
Come to think of it, Kagome might benefit from having a mother figure who doesn't just shrug her shoulders at her wandering off into the past for days at a time.
Kagome is taken aback, blinking away shock as she begins a weak protest. Headband tells her to listen, arguing that this guy she's speaking of is the worst possible sort. She lists off all the bad traits Kagome listed before, violent and selfish, and Short-Hair follows up with the interpretation that he's two-timing Kagome, whatever that means. Heart hammering, Kagome stammers that this is true, but provides some counterpoints to what she was pissing and moaning about before; he's quite nice, strong and reliable.
Sweat-dropping, the girls meekly ask if Kagome LOVES this guy, secretly thinking that she's being tricked. Kagome is left speechless by the question, choosing to focus on her fountain drink instead. Both girls look at each other, in unison concluding that she DOES love him, like so many of their other thoughts.
At her family's shrine, a rustle in the bushes and the sound of something sliding accompany a picture of Kagome's room.
Inuyasha strikes a defensive pose, like he's afraid Souta's going to hit him, and stutters nonsense syllables. Souta continues to munch on his snack, asking if Inuyasha remembers him and reintroducing himself just in case. Inuyasha awkwardly affirms that he remembers, so Souta asks if he's there for a visit, looking very sunny about it. Having determined that Souta is no threat to his mission, he closes his eyes and is surly when he says that it's KIND OF a visit. His eyes pop right back open again when Souta says that's great, because it means Inuyasha and Kagome couldn't have had a fight. Souta then cheerily grins and informs Inuyash the the reason he said so; Kagome was in a REALLY bad mood earlier.
Surprised to see Inuyasha hunched and looking nervous again, he asks what's wrong. Inuyasha doesn't answer out loud, dwelling in his head about how obstinate a girl Kagome must be if she's still upset.
Coincidentally, Kagome has arrived back at the shrine, climbing the stairs up to the property limply and sighing. She recalls her friends advising her to break up with Inuyasha and find a better guy, wondering what's up with them. Inuyasha isn't such a bad guy, after all. Yeeeeaaaaah, but you did kind of talk him up like that, didn't you, Kagome? This is the danger of complaining to your girlfriends about a dude they've never met and are unlikely to ever know.
She slides open the front door and announces she's home in the most lackluster manner ever. Upstairs, Souta excitedly cups a hand around his mouth and calls to her, much to Inuyasha's shock. Before Souta can make too much noise, he claps his palm over Souta's mouth and turns him around to shake him by his collar, warning him not to breathe a word about the visit to Kagome. When Kagome walks into her room, she finds Souta sitting on her floor, alone, coughing like he's had his throat wrung, chips spilled on the floor beside him. She asks what's with HIM now, just wandering into other people's rooms.
Later, as she sits in a bath, Kagome ponders the fight from LAST chapter from Inuyasha's side. She realizes how it must have looked when just when Inuyasha came to rescue her, she defended Kouga. Depressed, she supposed it was her fault after all.
Too bad Inuyasha can't hear her reflections.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? My jokes about everyone being too invested in Inuyasha and Kagome's relationship were mostly tongue-in-cheek. In fact, a good majority of characters weren't too terribly interested in the resolution of the fight at all. Sango seemed more interested in the well at first, both she and Shippou more interested in Kagome's eventual return later, Kaede seemed to just be making conversation with the dark cloud hanging out behind her, and Miroku wasn't much concerned at all. The only ones who were only had maximum interest because it was drama and their lives are not nearly as exciting as Kagome's. Not that they know just how exciting Kagome's life is...
That being said, it does KIND OF draw into sharp focus just how grating a chapter centered around the aftermath of a petty argument is. When most characters aren't invested in the argument itself, and the only characters who are happen to be portrayed as shallow school girls who are getting VERY limited information about the issue, the question as to why any of the audience should have any level of investment crops up a lot. I understand that resolution is necessary here, and both teenagers are hard-headed little shits, so apologizing for them is going to be a trial, but a part of me was just bored with it all. Maybe that's just my age talking, but it was so very juvenile.
Though I did appreciate the dramatic irony in how little Kagome's friends really understand about the situation. There's a whole context in Inuyasha's actions and attitude that they are just not going to get, which makes Kagome's complaint that they don't understand he's not a bad guy all that more entertaining.
I suppose the joke in the beginning where Headband is going into detail about one of Kagome's grandfather's lies regarding where she's been is part of the setup for their lack of context, but fuck it. I'm still annoyed by the level of detail she's giving to someone who is supposed to have been just released from just that issue. It's excessive and comes across as gimmicky and pandering and I hate it.
So there.
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