You know, people make fun of fangirls for constantly shipping the boys who hate one another, but I feel like there's a significant similarity between the two aforementioned plotlines that people also tend to conveniently ignore.
Inuyasha barks at Kouga to hurry up and silence the runt, and Kouga snaps back that Inuyasha should shut up and stop ordering him around. All the same, he leaps from Danny DeVito and claws into the ground where he was sitting, only to look up to find Kageroumaru perched on a tree branch above, mocking him for his poor aim. Seems he's already well on his way down the path to learning he and Inuyasha have much more in common than they thought.
Juuroumaru jumps listlessly at Inuyasha, who grits his teeth, putting considerable strength behind swinging Tessaiga sideways at the oncoming threat. When Juuroumaru effortlessly leaps into the air out of the way, Inuyasha calls him a bastard before he rebounds off a nearby tree to force himself back at Inuyasha. He just barely misses as Inuyasha flinches way back out of the way.
Shippou points out that Inuyasha is hitting nothing but air, while Kagome holds him for emotional support apparently as she states that Tessaiga is heavier and he's wounded as well. Miroku and Sango sit nearby staring at the scene as well. Kagome thinks it must be painful for Inuyasha just to stand. Funny it never occurs to her to conspire with her fellows in the peanut gallery to give him a bit of a hand? Sure, he would no doubt be peeved that they interfered, but that guy is peeved all the time. Not like it'll be much different than the usual.
Despite the pain Kagome assumes, Inuyasha swings his sword with a yell, just barely swiping shy of Juuroumaru's nose. Juuroumaru leans into the motion of the sword.
Then again, Juuroumaru runs down the blade and grabs onto Inuyasha's shoulders to slam him to the ground so fast that gravity may not have had time to work. Juuroumaru sinks his giant fangs into Inuyasha's shoulder and Kagome/Shippou react with a scream of his name. Kouga looks around from the tree branch onto which he had followed Kageroumaru and starts calling him shameful, asking if he can't figure out how to handle the dumb one. Inuyasha rolls Juuroumaru off of him to direct an enraged look and splutter at Kouga, followed by a curse as he shoves Juuroumaru away with a fist to his face.
Instead of making the most of on of the few hits he's managed get in, Inuyasha fires back at Kouga that HE hasn't exactly eliminated his designated target either. Kouga scoffs that it's no comparison, which might not be a bad point, what with Kageroumaru's smaller size and faster moves. Right on time, Kouga just detects something whizzing toward the back of his head and jumps out of the way before the tree he was standing in splinters into a million splinters. Kageroumaru is quite disappointed in missing Kouga, while Kouga is pleased with how he's starting to be able to predict his current enemy's movements.
The next panel is a little weird, because Kouga appears to be shattering the ground with a fist, either to slow his trajectory, or for some other indiscernible reason. Then an annoyed-looking Kageroumaru glares at the debris flying around him out of the corner of his eye. If you ask me, he really should have been looking where he was going.
Kageroumaru extends one of his knife-arms toward Kouga and angrily calls him a brat, but Kouga jumps straight up so Kageroumaru can run himself into the ground instead, literally. Danny DeVito bounces back, as he always does, and loops around Kouga, who does what he does best; kicks as hard as he can. Kageroumaru grunts as he bounces himself back out of the dirt. Again.
I don't know what Kouga yells at Kageroumaru before he brings his fist down into the ground below where the little guy is resting, because the speech bubble is blank. The Viz version says that he's declaring his final strike, which makes sense in conjunction with Sango's certainty that Kouga got the bastard, but when Kouga looks into the crater he created with his punch there's no sign of a mangled little youkai corpse. Kouga is mystified that Kageroumaru appears to have gotten away, then looks around in alarm at a noise coming from behind him.
Kouga looks dumbfounded that Kageroumaru popped up from underground, just as Inuyasha is approached again from the side by Juuroumaru, much to his surprise. Juuroumaru takes a mighty swipe at Inuyasha's already blood-soaked chest and sends him flying, punching a few more holes with his fingers in the process, judging by the blood covering them after the deed. Inuyasha is flung with such force into a tree behind him that the thing snaps right in half. He slides down the stump, groaning, Kagome and Shippou shouting his name in horror.
Calling Kageroumaru a bastard, Kouga charges at the little guy and once again punches the ground where he was sitting. Upon looking at the indent, Kouga finds once more that Kageroumaru has disappeared underground again and curses for it. He doesn't exactly have the time to spend on pissing and moaning, though.
While Sango and Miroku gape at the oozing new wound on Kouga's leg, he stands anyway to face his giggling foe, even if he is stuttering his curses now. Inuyasha's still slumped against the tree trunk, resting his eyes no doubt, so Kageroumaru laughs and suggests that he should eat Kagome's liver now. She and Shippou stare open-mouthed and terrified at the threat, but Inuyasha isn't beyond his own reaction.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It didn't disappoint with the expected bickering, though there was less of it than I've seen in similar subplots in other stories to accommodate for pacing. Good decision, because while Inuyasha and Kouga are chatty, they're not exactly the "banter" types. Their snide remarks are limited to reminding the other of the poor job he's doing, witticisms nonexistent. They're just both men of action, and that works just fine with the very fast flow of the chapter. Much like the last, each panel goes by very fast with little dialogue, so you feel the speed at which they're happening.
It's no surprise that Kageroumaru isn't above abandoning a fight he's losing to take a shot at one he feels is easier. He's got no incentive to follow the dynamic that his enemies have set up when it's not working for him, so going for the dude who's already been thoroughly fucked up is no doubt a much better prospect. Not to mention, the silent Juuroumaru is going to remain fixated on Inuyasha too, unless Kageroumaru tells him otherwise, so he'll get in two hits for the price of one. I love it when bad guys "bad" correctly.
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