I guess there are worse ways for a guy to go.
Inuyasha struggles to get up as he shouts at Kouga to get out of the way. While Juuroumaru approaches Kouga, he starts drooling at full force again, which can only mean the one thing that Kouga wasn't around to witness the first time. Still, that legendary intuition should be kicking in any time now, right?
Right?
Inuyasha is up and in the air, swinging down his sword once more, and issuing one final warning: out of the way, or he'll slice through Kouga as well. Kouga directs a gape of disbelief to his periphery, beyond which Tessaiga's razor blade is coming down fast toward his back. Kageroumaru bursts from Juuroumaru's slavering mouth.
Kageroumaru declares that Kouga's realized his mistake too late, brandishing his remaining whole scythe-arm. Inuyasha of course tells the wormy bastard to shut his trap. As Tessaiga comes down like the harbinger of death it is, Kouga darts to the side, leaving the only ones in its path the twins.
Inuyasha thinks it's over as he hunches in his exhaustion, and says aloud that it took long enough. You're not kidding. I don't know if this technically was the longest fight we've seen thus far, but it sure FELT like an eternity. I feel like Kageroumaru and Juuroumaru should get the posthumous award for being the biggest pains in the ass.
Kouga knocks Inuyasha over the back of his head with a fist, calling him a jerk. When Inuyasha turns to give him a "done with your shit" glare, Kouga accuses him of using that swing to try and kill him too. Inuyasha remains quiet, for once, while Kagome runs over, stuttering at Kouga to wait. She latches protectively onto Inuyasha, putting herself between him and Kouga, while Kouga complains that Inuyasha swung that sword down without the slightest hesitation. She claims it's because Inuyasha knew Kouga's speed would allow him to dodge in time, and Inuyasha holds his head high as he puts Tessaiga back in its sheath. He's still quiet, and I'm beginning to get suspicious here. Too little energy for blustering buddy?
Kagome turns to Inuyasha, asking for confirmation on her little hypothesis, but Inuyasha just closes his eyes and asks what Kouga is whining about. Inuyasha musters enough of a shit to bark at Kouga that if he keeps up the racket, he'll get torn apart for real next time. Kouga lunges forward and says it's fine if Inuyasha still wants a piece of him; he can just fucking try it. Calls him a zombie here too, so he seems aware of how dead-tired Inuyasha is right now.
So, in a perfectly rational move, Kagome shouts at Inuyasha to sit, slamming a guy whose grievous injuries almost killed him a couple of minutes ago into the hard ground. Kouga pauses in a fighting stance, but he's got the "dafuk" face on here as Kagome kneels next to Inuyasha's flattening carcass and tells her wolf-admirer that he should withdraw for today. Inuyasha, rightly, asks why she did that in a less-than-pleased way.
She stands again to clasp her hands in supplication before Kouga, thanking him for what he did to save them today, the perfect generic greeting card grateful. Sango says to Miroku that it seems Kagome's not really being sincere here, and Miroku replies that her fake gratitude might not be enough to make Kouga beat it. Kouga stares at Kagome, saying her name, to which she gives him a questioning noise. He grabs her hands and states she's his woman again, expressing the distaste he has for leaving her with the "Dog-Turd" all the time. She just puts on the most uncomfortable supplicating smile in the world and endures it. C'est la vie.
Veins popping and irate but still stuck in the ground, Inuyasha thinks Kouga just doesn't know when to stop. I'm inclined to agree. Luckily, Kouga DOES stop eventually, raising a hand in farewell while assuring Kagome that he'll always come to save her when she's in trouble. Then he speeds off with the customary tornado at his heels and a goodbye, Kagome waving him off as well. Miroku lets out a sigh, but whether it's from relief or shame that he was wrong, it's impossible to tell. He's wearing a sweatdrop though, Sango next to him narrating Kouga's exit.
Inuyasha pulls himself up out of the dirt, yelling at Kouga to wait, but Kagome orders him back in place with another sit. He mutters that Kagome is a bitch for letting Kouga get away again, and she starts to trot out the same reason she had before; his condition. Inuyasha demands to know if she thinks he would lose to the Wimpy Wolf.
She tries to deflect with a friendly offer to look at his wounds, but he insists that he's already said he doesn't need medical attention. Correction, boyo, you said this happens all the time, not that you don't need treatment for it. Just because your injuries could be classified as chronic illness by this point doesn't mean that they don't need attention.
It's Inuyasha's turn to deflect when he asks Kagome what was with her attitude earlier, when she was sucking up to and flirting with a guy like Kouga. Ugh. Men. Can't tell the difference between flirting and diffusing. Kagome's eyes widen is alarm, and Inuyasha keeps shooting off his mouth about how he couldn't watch such shameful behavior. He's about to call her another name when he opens his eyes and is greeted by THIS:
It's at this point that they're interrupted by an irritable Miroku and Sango, the former asking if they can go now that the conversation has come to a close, and the latter stating that the priest would like to see his wounds tended. Inuyasha and Kagome appear in utter shock that they're not the only people in the fucking world.
Ahhh, oblivious adolescence. They'll be back to thinking the planet revolves around them in no time.
Elsewhere, at a hut where injured soldiers are milling about in bandages and birds are fluttering about on this fine day, Kikyou is adjusting strips of linen on a clothesline. She perceives a rustle behind her, so she walks to the treeline, asking Naraku what he wants. A not-so-mysterious voice answers with a chuckle and the compliment that her senses are as sharp as ever. Naraku emerges from the trees behind her, baboon disguise slung over his arm. Neither one of them are smiling.
Kikyou says that there's no reason she WOULDN'T notice him, since today isn't the first time she's noticed him skulking around. He does it pretty often, apparently. Naraku scoffs and says he has to be careful about her, so she asks him point blank why he doesn't just kill her. Oooh, she's bringing out the tough questions. Naraku doesn't answer, turning the proposal over in his head. He knows his surveillance would be over if he just murdered her, but he doesn't FEEL like it. He questions why that is. Kikyou hates him after all, and he's allowed this dangerous woman to stay alive far too long, but why?
Speaking of things that take far too long, the occurrence of that inquiry in his brain. Kikyou suggests that there's something inside him that's the culprit.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm glad the battle with the twins ended, because I wasn't kidding above; it was starting to drag. It's a good thing RT had a good pace going with the action, because if she didn't, it might have felt all the longer. But still, the longer the fight went on, the more the cracks were starting to show, as I was pointing out in the analysis of the previous chapter. And as fun as Kageroumaru and Juuroumaru were at first, they weren't INTERESTING enough to sustain a fight and my attention as long as was attempted. With more complicated villains, it might have been fine, but there wasn't enough dimension to the twins for them to remain cool for long.
Besides, they were just set-dressing for the real continuing conflict between Inuyasha and Kouga, and more importantly, the tension in Inuyasha and Kagome's relationship. Inuyasha is right, he can take the physical hits like a champ, and he doesn't need a lot of doting. But when his dense pride is hurt, his hackles immediately go up and he starts lashing out. Kagome isn't much better at taking blows to the ego, so Inuyasha's backlash accusations that she was just flirting with Kouga was an equal jab in the opposite direction. They both know the buttons and the effect pushing them affords, but they are never prepared for the consequences of the MAD-style arguments they get into. Like all teenagers, they haven't quite figured out that the nuclear launch codes are last-resort asshole-material.
Really, the unique teenager-ness in this argument is so perfectly balanced on both ends. As usual, they seem like real people, and I can't help but be impressed by how accessible and relatable it is.
Speaking of relatable, how deep Naraku had to have buried those emotions for them to never even occur to him as an explanation for his behavior.
Boy... been there.
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