Speaking of which, Kagome stands in the doorway of Kaede's hut and states she's going back to hers with a bitter look over her backpacked shoulder and a rhetorical question about whether that's alright with Inuyasha. Inuyasha loftily encourages Kagome to shut up and just go already. As she wraps a bandage around Inuyasha's middle, Kaede says with some irritation that Inuyasha and Kagome are fighting every time they come back. Inuyasha glares at her out of the corner of his eye and Miroku remains silently suffering all the drama with his eyes closed across the fire pit.
While she's disappearing behind the hanging bamboo curtain out the door, Kagome says she'll leave the rest of Inuyasha's treatment in Kaede's hands. She starts on her way, maintaining her sour look and silently complaining that Inuyasha is an idiot, because he's being so difficult about her stopping his fight with Kouga even though she did it out of worry for his physical well-being. You'd think the impulse to fight until death would be restricted to when his youkai blood takes over, but apparently he'll make a conscious decision to do just that with juuuuuuuust the right amount of toxic masculinity.
She props her knee up on the lip of the old well in preparation to jump inside, but Shippou stands up there next to her and asks her to reconsider, because Inuyasha's jealousy isn't like normal. She greets Shippou with his own name, and he launches into an explanation surrounding how Kouga was holding her hands and declaring that she's his woman - Inuyasha took that nonsense seriously because he's a "low-grade" kind of guy. Yeah, I'm sure you have NEVER gotten worked up over petty bullshit before, Shippou. NEVER. He proceeds to characterize Inuyasha as miserable and lacking self-esteem, conditions that can only be worsened by his love for Kagome.
She smiles and says she knows, but she's only going to be gone a little while, collecting bandages and medicine and the like. Ah, she's going for the old "make him sweat a bit" tactic. That never works in my experience, but, you know, I'm sure that this makes sense to a 15-year-old.
Meanwhile and elsewhere, a dark cloud has rolled in over the temple where Kikyou has been nursing all those soldiers back to health, and one of them states that it's been hanging out there all afternoon. As they all watch it, another says it looks rather ominous. Kikyou herself observes the cloud silently, and the spheres of light speckling its mass.
Her brows are heavy over her wide eyes as she thinks this must be Naraku's challenge. Naraku himself is, as per usual, sitting in his comfy room in his castle, recalling how Kikyou said it seemed Onigumo's feelings remained stronger than she thought. He pouts a bit over these feels, recalling "that filthy wild-thief" laying bandaged head-to-foot and immobile in that cave, intensity of his despicable thoughts growing while Kikyou sat by his side and kept him alive.
Also, I have to express some appreciation for one of Onigumo's feet up there as this strange lumpy creature munches on his calf. It makes me laugh and I don't know why?
Naraku broods over the revelation that the foolish human's yearning for Kikyou still linger in him. I have feelings from my school days that pop up randomly every once in a while, too. That's just kind of how feelings work, dude. He smirks with a scoff and says something is useless. Not sure what, but I can tell you it's NOT the incomplete marble he holds in his palm. Naraku accuses Kikyou of underestimating him, because now that he's obtain almost the whole Shikon no Tama, there's no point in him letting Kikyou live any longer. He's sure this is the end for her, because he's planning on sending her back to the afterlife.
In the most indirect way possible. Kikyou runs down a hill, her soul collecting creatures gliding alongside her, as she glares out of her periphery out of the corner of her eye. She curses Naraku, who's no doubt planning to have this thing following her eat up all the dead souls in the area. It's basically a gigantic Shinidamachuu, hovering over the forest like the UFO for a hostile alien species, while the smaller versions glance off of it in their ineffectual attacks.
Kikyou draws back her bow with shaking arms, worrying that if this gigantic monster eats all the souls, her body won't be able to move anymore. Her only hope is to destroy it while she still has the strength to shoot arrows. Unfortunately, strength isn't the only obstacle.
Kikyou lurches back, horrified that her dead-soul gasoline has been drawn right out of her. This just isn't her day.
Back at Kaede's, Miroku has turned an irritated look at Inuyasha lounging on his side while the rest of the group are served soup from a cauldron on the central fire pit. He asks if Inuyasha doesn't intend to go pick up Kagome, probably trying to get his moody ass out of there so they don't have to deal with him anymore. Inuyasha snaps back at Miroku to shut up, because it's way more relaxing without Kagome around. Sango suggests that if he's so fucking relaxed, then he maybe should stop acting so annoyed with everyone, because she's getting a bit sick of it. Miroku says that Kagome deserves some credit for being around Inuyasha so much as well, to which Sango agrees heartily, in her own words. Inuyasha glares out of his periphery at her.
Shippou stays quietly concentrated on his bowl of stew, remembering how Kagome asked him to keep secret that she was coming back soon from Inuyasha, because she wanted to make him worry. He plans to keep his promise. Good thing everyone is so preoccupied with the atmosphere Inuyasha has created with his bad mood, because otherwise Shippou's comparative silence might look a tad suspicious.
Miroku and Sango continue to disguise their provoking of Inuyasha as idle chit-chat, the former saying it's pretty obvious that Kouga's love is unrequited, and the latter saying it's truly nothing to be afraid of. Finally, Inuyasha has had enough, and he sits upright to bang both fists on the floor like the baby child he is.
After his super mature flounce, Inuyasha sits with his arms crossed over the lip of the well, thinking of Kagome as an idiot half-heartedly. Since he assumes she's not coming back soon, he also thinks it makes him seem like the one at fault. He wonders what it was that he DID. I don't know, kiddo, opened your mouth? That action in particular seems precede Kagome's irritation with you 9/10 times.
Gazing plaintively into the well, Inuyasha supposes that Kagome really is angry, and wonders what she's doing right now. Strangely disjointed thoughts that are interrupted by a powerful rustle of the surrounding trees, carrying a youkai's scent. He jumps to his feet in time to see the giant shinidamachuu bursting from the nearby trees. Inuyasha is alarmed by its appearance, but even more so by Kikyou stumbling from the trees herself not too far behind.
Pretty straightforward.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Kikyou must have been conveniently nearby her hometown if she was able to stumble over there with a gigantic creature sapping her energy the whole way. It makes some sense that she would want to be nearby, considering how stuck in her own past she is as a character, but did Inuyasha not notice this upon returning to the area? Guess she was downwind when they rolled up into town or something.
As usual, I think Inuyasha and Kagome's actions in this chapter are so authentic in their adolescence that it's endearing. They express pretty similar confusions on their parts in the argument, and what the other is angry about. While I do think Kagome was right to want to stop Inuyasha from fighting in his condition, she's being just as bone-headed as Inuyasha if she doesn't understand why she hurt his pride, and continues to do so every time she pulls out that emasculating sit command in front of Kouga. Also, while Inuyasha's childish refusal to apologize is worthy of an eye-roll, she's not much better with her manipulative move to make him feel bad by allowing him to believe she wasn't going to come back for a while. It's hilarious that they haven't figured out they're both assholes yet.
Though Naraku had to one-up them with setting loose a hit-shinidamachuu on Kikyou because he can't deal with his feelings like a 50-year-old should be capable of. In fact, it seems to be a bit of a substitution; instead of facing the emotions he's inherited from Onigumo, he'll just have something else get rid of her. The logic seems to not only be he won't have to worry about her being vaguely dangerous anymore, but also no more Kikyou, no more feelings. He's in for as rude an awakening as the young couple deflecting their own insecurities onto one another.
It's actually an interesting parallel between him and Inuyasha/Kagome - all three are trying to diminish the vulnerabilities they're experiencing by lashing out at the person who brought them up. The latter two are doing it to a far lesser extent than the former, but the discomfort of having squirmy emotions is brought up in all of them. Instead of facing the obvious on the inside, they direct their frustrations outside, but it won't work for any of them.
As we'll soon see.
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