Inuyasha Manga: 160 Tessaiga Revives

Geez Tessaiga, rub it in my face why don't you. Inuyasha's giant sword is bitten in half and Toutousai fixes it in three days. Meanwhile, it's not just my tablet that's dying on me, but also my phone. Last night, it kept dropping internet connectivity, despite there being absolutely nothing wrong with my wifi. I spent the first half of today wandering around the internet trying to figure out how to fix it, leading me to have to factory reset the damn thing, and it STILL won't stay on my wifi. Talking to the manufacturer customer support got me a shrug and suggestion that I should contact my phone company for a replacement.

If only they had as much pride and emotional investment in their product as Toutousai has in his swords...

Does playtime USUALLY end with you getting your head split open? What are you, EIGHT?

Shippou, sitting on Inuyasha's shoulder, points out that Kaijinbou seems to be moving around just fine, despite his head injury. Kagome and Inuyasha are too stunned by this to speak, though the former silently draws the conclusion that Kaijinbou is being controlled by the sword he's holding. What tipped you off?

Kaijinbou goads Inuyasha into coming at him, bro, teasing that he must have gone weak at the knees with cowardice and this must be the reason he's hiding behind the weaklings he's hanging with. Inuyasha's shock turns to a sharp glare, but Shippou warns him not to get provoked. Inuyasha barks that he's not that simple minded, then immediately reasons that Kaijinbou came to fight him originally, so there should be no running or hiding from him, and leaps forward anyway. Oh, that will DEFINITELY convince everyone that you're not doing this out of defensive impulse.

Miroku shouts at Inuyasha to stop as he's being passed, along with Kagome left behind, and Shippou clings to her shoulder now accusing Inuyasha of having such a simple personality.

Aw, dammit! Didn't Shippou get Inuyasha's bullet-proof logic??

Toutousai starts droning about how he was wondering what all this uproar was about, but he's cut off by Inuyasha snatching Tessaiga out of his hands, accusing him of being late. As he bounces from Tessaiga's sheath and onto Inuyasha's shoulder, Myouga adds his voice to the chorus of discouragement Inuyasha is getting for his decision to fight. Inuyasha seems surprised he's there, presumably because Myouga is usually running away from fights. Myouga reminds him that Tessaiga can't transform when he's in human form. There's apparently no exception for when enemies call into question his courage.

Toutousai casually mentions how long a while it's been since he and Kaijinbou have seen each other, and Kaijinbou responds with disgust that Toutousai is still alive. Well, nice to see you too, douchebag. Toutousai spots Toukijin in Kaijinbou's hand and is being conversational as all hell when he acknowledges that Kaijinbou has made yet another evil sword, and asks what's up with the evil aura. He may as well be talking about the fucking weather. It's beautiful, I wanna be him when I grow up.

Kaijinbou chuckles again, convinced that they'll see now, once and for all who's the better sword smith between the two of them. Miroku asks for confirmation from Toutousai that he and Kaijinbou know each other, and Toutousai readily admits that Kaijinbou was a disgraceful student of his along with the fact that Kaijinbou has already been expelled from magic sword school. He explains that this dude...

Are you SURE the baby blood was why your sword could cut well? What was your methodology in this experiment? Did you have a control sword that DIDN'T contain baby blood? What about other material variables?

My point is, your findings wouldn't meet the rigor required to be published in Scientific American, and it's not even hard to be published in THAT rag.

Kaijinbou tells Inuyasha to draw, planning to smash apart Toutousai's prized Tessaiga right in front of his eyes. Inuyasha totally gives up on serious rationalization as he draws Tessaiga and shouts that there's no need to hold back on this bastard. Except the one to wait until Tessaiga can be in a useful form, of course.

Having made yet another transfer over to Toutousai's shoulder now, he asks in a panic if Tessaiga is stronger now. Toutousai says with absolutely zero concern for the situation that it's a BIT stronger, but Kagome says that "a bit" isn't nearly enough. Sango stresses that this sword Inuyasha is up against is made from the fangs of the oni who bit it apart, and Toutousai STILL can't bring himself to be worried, chuckling in a "this is gonna be GOOD" kind of way. Man, I wanna BE him when I grow up!

When Inuyasha plows into Kaijinbou sword-first, Tessaiga curves quite a bit, but at least it isn't damaged. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Inuyasha.

Ooh, that looks like it stings.

Sweating, Sango frets that just the clashing of the blades made Inuyasha bleed, and Miroku calls this Toukijin's cutting power. I'm guessing that's kind of like telekinesis, but for swords. Did Kaijinbou's baby-blood sword have a comparable "cutting power" to this one? Look, I'm just trying to get some actual data here instead of Kaijinbou's wishy-washy nonsense, stop looking at me like that!

As he lunges forward with Toukijin raised, Kaijinbou chuckles and says that it's all over. Inuyasha blocks the direct blow from his position on the ground with Tessaiga, but that "cutting power" bypasses this altogether to give him a few more nicks. Regardless, Inuyasha overpowers Kaijinbou, pushing him away and himself to his feet at the same time with a strong horizontal slash. Inuyasha is hunched and bloody, but strangely optimistic when he says he's relieved that Tessaiga seems to be just a little harder.

Ignoring the obvious innuendo there, because it's old hat in this series by now.

Shippou has found his home on Toutousai's shoulder, it seems, because he's still there when he declares happily that Tessaiga didn't break. Toutousai isn't quite as impressed, pulling on his beard and giving a lackluster "DUH" statement in return. Kagome is far more worried about her boyfriends body, though, implying that there won't be much of one left if this keeps going the way it is.

Kaijinbou finishes Kagome's thought with another chuckle and a statement that Inuyasha will be in shreds before the sword breaks. Inuyasha retorts that it's too bad that Toukijin's cutting edge is such a nasty customer, because its wielder's arm is nothing special. OOOOOOOH, sick burn! As a stir of power surrounds him, his canines grow, and his nails extend into claws, Inuyasha says Kaijinbou should have slain him on the FIRST swing, before his human form started receding and his hair turned gray silver. Again, Shippou's grin is wide while he observes that Inuyasha has started to transform, and for the first time, Kagome joins him in the smile, for dawn has finally come.

But almost immediately after this grand speech, Inuyasha gives Tessaiga a startled look, like it's not at ALL what he expected.

What's your problem, kid? Looks fine to me.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I found Toutousai quite delightful in this chapter, I'm sure you noticed. He was a great way to diffuse the tension here, because otherwise we might have taken Kaijinbou a bit too seriously. I think the point of Toutousai's lackadaisical attitude here was to have a person who know Kaijinbou personally to frame him in a non-serious way. Understanding that Toutousai is so much more acquainted with Kaijinbou and his body of work is reason to give his opinion of the guy more credence than everyone else's, and Toutousai's opinion is clearly "WHATEVER" all the way.

It's not only humorous, but it reinforces what everyone else has been saying this whole time - Kaijinbou isn't the enemy they have to be worried about. It's Toukijin. Not that it matters too much to Inuyasha, of course. He's just always got his focus on the guy talking shit. But even he did his part to totally de-fang Kaijinbou, with his ridiculous justifications as to why he should fight him.

It's almost as if no one took Kaijinbou seriously from the beginning. Good judges of character, the lot of them.