Oh, I just looked it up, and the cannibal was TouKAjin, not TouKIjin. How silly of me to get the two confused! It's not like I frequently get "derecha" and "derecho" confused in Spanish for how similar they are in pronunciation and meaning or anything.
... I'm screwed.
Sesshoumaru stands over Jaken's body while he draws Tenseiga, peering down at him. He sees a couple of imp-creatures slightly smaller than Jaken himself crawling through the bloody gap between Jaken's upper and lower halves, and they look like they're glaring at Sesshoumaru. It would be kind of cute if it wasn't so gruesome and weird.
Anyway, Sesshoumaru slices through them with Tenseiga, and they scream as they dissolve into nothing. There's a stir of power from Jaken, not very big, I'll wager, but he starts to blink regardless.
Jaken says Sesshoumaru's name in a questioning tone, and turns his head to look over his shoulder, where Sesshoumaru has turned his back to him. Hesitantly, Jaken asks if it's possible that Sesshoumaru saved him with Tenseiga, and Sesshoumaru asks if Jaken knows anyone ELSE who could do that kind of thing. Despite how roundabout and dismissive the answer is, Jaken's eyes swim with tears as he starts to pull himself together, deeply moved by the minimum effort Sesshoumaru has made.
Don't get distracted, Jaken. You wouldn't want your organs to be positioned wrong or, the gods forbid, some of them to be left behind, would you?
Sesshoumaru keeps facing away from Jaken, glaring at the opposite wall instead of his servant. He asks Jaken if Kaijinbou finished the sword they commissioned. As if he just remembered the sword that cut him in half (it would be seared into MY brain for eternity, I can tell you), Jaken confirms that indeed Kaijinbou forged the sword from the ogre's fang, and adds that Kaijinbou looked a bit strange. Sesshoumaru directs a sharp look out of his periphery as Jaken says it was as if Kaijinbou was being controlled by the sword.
Aaaaaaand we're back with Inuyasha and company, under a blanket of stars. Since it's the middle of the night, the "company" is snoozing scattered around a crackling campfire. In contrast, Inuyasha sits against a rock, glaring up at the black sky, cursing the night for being so long. Though his head is bowed like he's nodded off, Miroku suggests that Inuyasha sleep a bit. Sneaky bastard. Inuyasha seems mildly surprised by Miroku speaking only for a moment, then he scoffs and tells Miroku to leave him be, because he never sleeps when he's in human form.
Inuyasha says that there are all sorts of people out there who hate him, and he would be downright helpless if he was attacked now. Miroku turns his head to look in the opposite direction, glaring into the darkness, stating there might very well be use to Inuyasha's paranoia after all. Inuyasha hums in question, but Sango appears to understand, opening her eyes a crack and asking for confirmation that Miroku noticed what she did too. She sits up and clarifies that a terrible evil aura is nearby, staring in the same direction as Miroku now.
Miroku, Sango and Inuyasha stand, Miroku holding out his staff defensively in front of all of them, while Inuyasha remains in the back. He's the first one to speak, though, asking who the hell this visitor is. At the commotion, Kagome sits up out of her sleeping bag looking worried, and Shippou is the last to open his bleary eyes next to her. Kaijinbou states his name and profession with a chuckle, which elicits a question on the profession part from Inuyasha. After all, there should only be one sword smith coming to greet him at this point.
Inuyasha narrows his eyes at Kaijinbou, still not quite getting why this sword smith is after him. A crackle of energy surrounds the tip of the sword Toukijin, and it lowers to point at Inuyasha between his two friends on either side of him. Kaijinbou chuckles again, identifying him as Inuyasha, expressing some surprise that he's a human brat as opposed to a youkai. Inuyasha confirms Kaijinbou's name and asks him who put him up to this potential hit, but Kaijinbou just repeats that it's the SWORD that is after Inuyasha's blood, not him.
Miroku wonders what is up with this bizarre evil aura the sword is emitting, but he doesn't have to wait long for a clue, because Kaijinbou is only too eager to brag about the sword's origins. He tells them that Toukijin was forged from the fangs of the ogre who bit apart Tessaiga, the sword forged by that old fart Toutousai. His words, not mine. Miroku and Inuyasha gape, both immediately realizing that the only ogre Kaijinbou could be talking about is Goshinki. Sango is the one who voices the conclusion that the sword contains Goshinki's malice, though, not even looking like a slack-jawed idiot while she does it, smartie that she is.
Inuyasha has reformed his expression into a glare again, though. He says the Goshinki's pissiness won't do any good, and yells that Kaijinbou should come and get some, because he's prepared to beat Goshinki again. That fear he admitted to earlier must be cowering in the shadow of Inuyasha's stupid strong urge to prove himself.
Sango and Miroku leap in front of Inuyasha before he can do anything moronic, the former telling the dumbfounded hanyou to stay back. The latter insists that he leave the fighting to them. Now fully conscious, Shippou leaps onto Inuyasha's shoulder and shouts in his ear that he has no chance at the moment, while Kagome yanks back on his opposite arm, pleading with him to be patient.
Meanwhile, Sango is throwing her trusty Hiraikotsu.
Miroku reasons that a sword made from the fangs that broke Tessaiga WOULD cut Hiraikotsu pretty easily, so he reaches under his collar, shouting he'll have to take a different track instead. He throws a paper charm at Kaijinbou's face.
Kaijinbou falls backward to the ground, blood spurting from his forehead. While Shippou cheers how good Miroku got Kaijinbou, Kagome ponders how even though it looks like Miroku doesn't have any tricks up his sleeve other than the Kazaana, he does have his Buddhist powers to fall back on too. It looks like those Buddhist powers really fucked up Kaijinbou's face, too, with a line of mottled flayed skin standing out right down where his nose should be. And who said Buddhists were peaceful and nonviolent?
A pulse of energy comes from Kaijinbou's fist gripping the sword, and Inuyasha barks a warning to Miroku to watch out. He's only JUST able to lean out of the way of a strike down from Toukijin, which looks like it's just pulling Kaijinbou along for the ride. A ride that Kaijinbou appears to be thoroughly enjoying.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? One of the criticisms I see often leveled against Inuyasha is that it's a very "monster of the week" serial, but I just don't see it. To me, "monster of the week" is a disjointed, episodic type of story that doesn't have events connecting to one another, just focusing on the villain that happens to pop up in the hero's way at the moment. Inuyasha is very rarely like this, and the interconnected nature of this particular incident a perfect example of this, because the lead-up to it started WAY back with the Koharu incident. From there it's a very intricate series of challenges that just don't let up for the main group, which I appreciate very much.
The ability of RT to keep pushing Inuyasha and company to their absolute limits with interconnected battles is pretty admirable. It keeps engagement high because there's nearly always something going on, and more importantly, something pushing the characters to take action against a new threat or die. Part of how compelling this is, though, is how creative it is. The enemy here has devolved from Naraku's careful, calculated puppetry, to Sesshoumaru's commission traveling outside of his control. What makes it particularly clever didn't become clear until I realized that Toukijin is essentially a reverse-engineering project by Sesshoumaru, who undoubtedly KNOWS from the scent of Goshinki that this creature was a part of Naraku. Essentially, Naraku is STILL the one leveling attacks on Inuyasha, even when Sesshoumaru is the one behind it all.
Which is really freaking cool, when you think about it. Also kind of terrifying, because this gives the impression that Naraku doesn't even have to TRY to keep Inuyasha on the edge. No wonder Inuyasha has to admit that he's afraid here, which is another thing that's pretty admirable. I always feel like I can connect better to a main character when they show some vulnerability, especially male main characters, because I just don't see it very often in my own native cultural media. Your typical western male protagonist is cocksure, expert and always right in everything he does, a very common power-fantasy archetype that is entirely overused here in western media.
Not that this very archetype doesn't play itself out in this story, in the form of Sesshoumaru. Still, Sesshoumaru isn't entirely without vulnerability, not just in the emerging soft-spot for Rin. He cares enough about Jaken to bring him back to life with Tenseiga here, and shows some discomfort in doing it. Maybe it's just me, but the joke he cracked about Jaken putting himself back together seemed kind of on the awkward side, like what one might make if they find themselves in a weird situation and want to diffuse some tension. Also he's turned his back to Jaken while he's "putting himself together", either because he doesn't want Jaken to get the impression that he cares TOO much about his state of dismemberment, or because he finds it a bit indecent and wants to give Jaken some privacy. Either way, there's some reluctance to show vulnerability here as well, even if just a small way.
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