Inuyasha Manga: 173 Jealousy

I know those feels. For the longest time, I was a bit jealous of all those other bloggers with their professionalism and their fancy banner images, providing a representative visual of what they talk about... I felt inadequate. Until I decided to do something about it. No, I'm not increasing professionalism, because I'm not sure that's possible for me. I'm just a crass person. But I at least managed to throw together a low-effort banner that meets two basic criteria; showing everybody what I like to blab about all day every day, without assaulting everyone's eyes with an explosion of overlaid mismatched poorly-cropped characters plopped in a rainbow hellscape.

Thank your lucky stars that I didn't indulge my early-2000's internet origins by putting a sparkle effect all over that thing. I considered it, and it was awful.

Even if it might have matched Kikyou's shiny soul aesthetic above.

Kagome wonders just what the hell HAPPENED while she was away, but somehow I don't think knowing the context of the situation would make this any easier for her to bear. Inuyasha keeps his arms wrapped around Kikyou as he asks for confirmation that she knows where Naraku's castle is. She in turn asks what he would do if she told him, still nestled against his chest, but his grabs her by the shoulders and breaks their embrace so he can look her in the eye while he tells her he'd bust on in there and rip Naraku apart. Of course, because that worked so well the last few times you tried it, Inuyasha.

He extends the fantasy to include the lovely consequence that Kikyou wouldn't have to fight anymore. Kagome leans around her tree, eavesdropping with a painful look on her face. It might well be the picture you see when you look up "misery" in the dictionary.

Kikyou reminds Inuyasha of what she said earlier, about being the only one who can purify Naraku and completely remove him from the world. You know, when she gets around to it. She's been taking her sweet time thus far. Inuyasha protests, questioning who will protect her if she's attacked again like this, assigning himself as the only one who can in a similar fashion. If only being qualified for a difficult job were so easy as these two make it out to be. 

Kagome thinks Inuyasha's name behind her sad expression.

I'm sure that thick layer of drama will set real well Inuyasha, but have you ever considered that this isn't actually about YOU? I don't see how your feelings on the matter have much to do with anything here.

Regardless, he starts to babble about how he'd feel if he lost her again. Kikyou just bows her head and assures him that she won't suffer a fate like that again, giving no reason to assert such a thing. She's been working really hard to set up her second life as much like her first as possible, so it doesn't seem implausible that she'd set up her second death in much the same way. She DOES say why Naraku won't be able to kill her in the next panel - as long as he has Onigumo's heart that yearns for her, she's good. Funny she doesn't seem to consider it possible that he might find a way around that eventually.

From behind her tree, Kagome puts two-and-two together, determining that Naraku still having Onigumo's heart must mean that Naraku is in love with Kikyou. Again, if you call THAT love. She supposes this must be why Inuyasha is being so... I don't know, Inuyasha about the situation. Kagome leaves the sentence to trail.

Kikyou stands up again, repeating that she really should be going. Inuyasha calls her name once more, but she tells him it's about time he gets back to his friends, giving him a bit of a sidelong glance out of her periphery. He's finally speechless, all out of protests, yet Kikyou pauses all the same to say his name too, and while he's uncharacteristically shutting his trap relay to him her thoughts when all her soul-fuel had been drawn out and her powers were low. She wondered if she was all alone and done for. Kikyou smiles over her shoulder at him and the fact that he was there for her. He rushes forward, grabs her hand and pulls her into another hug, urging her to call for him if she ever needs him. She responds with his name, as usual.

Kagome isn't the only one eavesdropping on this scene. The next panel shows the above reflected in Kanna's good ol' mirror. She's holding it up dutifully for Naraku to see, and with a sour expression he tells her that's enough and to get lost. After she's gone, he's shown standing with his right arm out of his many layers of sleeves, and it's holding a sword. Is... is he gonna stab the jealousy he's seething about or something?

Naraku thinks about how this jealousy is Onigumo's, a remnant of his filthy human heart, and tightens his fist on the sword. He sticks his own BACK with that fucking sword, like it's a pin inserted under one edge of his spider scar and speared out perfectly from beneath another. A young samurai with IMPECCABLE timing hurries up to the hanging screen and peers into the room for the source of those ripping sounds he's hearing, calling out in question to his lord.

He's... surprised by what he sees, to say the least.

... Metal. He's even got the strip of skin with the spider scar on it clutched in his other hand, like a jacket he doesn't just wanna toss on the floor. A jacket dripping blood, so understandable. The samurai recoils and makes a frightened peep, having just enough time to register that his lord just skinned his own back before Naraku whirls around and slashes his samurai visitor across the chest.

The body thuds to the floor, in front of Kagura, who must have entered the room unannounced too in the last couple of seconds. She looks down at the corpse without the slightest concern, then looks up at Naraku and asks if he's gone insane like she's inquiring about the weather. He tells her to shut up and clean up his mess. Your arms and legs broke or something, Naraku? Clean that shit up yourself.

Grown-ass man expecting everyone else to incinerate his murder victims for him, I tell you...

Back at Kaede's, she and Miroku stand outside, staring up at the sky where they see a mass of glowing lights hanging out over the forest. Miroku lets a question about what they are trail, suggesting that he knows EXACTLY what they are, so Kaede confirms only in her head that they're souls of the dead. She wonders if her sister Kikyou is nearby. I mean, that, or a whole SHITLOAD of people just died right there and maybe you guy should get the fuck out of there.

Good thing the first assumption is true. Inuyasha stands in the wake of Kikyou's leaving with a melancholy look, thinking her name as though it's all kinds of confusing. Kagome finally makes her approach from behind her tree, and Inuyasha looks over his shoulder at her in mild surprise. The rules around when his super-nose works continue to be fuzzy, it seems. Kagome stares at him in deep sadness, and he reflects the expression, deducing that she must have seen what transpired.

She questions why he's not looking away from her. My guess is because he doesn't have a camera to take a picture before you turn tail and flee forever. But that's just a guess.

Meanwhile, Kikyou has made a little detour on her way out of the area, to that little fissure in the hillside that was Onigumo's cave. She kneels at the spot where he laid, identifying this as the place she sheltered and treated the wounded wild-thief. She touches the patch of bare dirt, reminiscing with the memory of Onigumo about this being where he was stuck immobile.

And we've returned to Naraku's castle now. All this teleportation has me reeling. Naraku is brooding again, sulking about the fact that even when he peels that spider burn off his body, even burn the shit out of it, it'll still grow back, never to disappear. The lamp's flame standing elevated next to him suddenly snuffs out and Naraku turns his glare over to the screen divider in the room to where Kikyou is striding into the room. This understandably has Naraku a bit taken-aback, and he says her name in shock.

"Who the hell invited YOU in here??"

Oh shit, you should have waited for Kikyou to show up, Naraku. She'd have sliced that spider off your back with her razor sarcasm alone. Might have been a cleaner cut.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I prefer action-oriented chapters, as I've said before, so the complete lack of it in this chapter made it a tad sluggish to me. That's not to say the chapter wasn't valuable, because it was, but it was a lot slower than I'm used to Inuyasha being. This is why I appreciated Naraku's little hissy fit in the middle there - it was a morsel of excitement in a chapter that is otherwise consumed with just discussion and cuddles. On the other hand, the discussion was about everyone's emotional turmoil, so it wasn't exactly BORING.

Inuyasha's dialog in particular was very illuminating. I made fun of him above for making this whole issue about him, but I do see where he's coming from. He feels responsible for what happened to Kikyou in the past, and doesn't want something horrible to happen to her again, or to fail in protecting her like he did way back when. That's the surface layer, but adding this new information that Naraku has feelings for Kikyou makes the issue a lot more complicated. It compounds Inuyasha's guilt, because not did all this happen because he failed to trust and protect Kikyou, but also because they were an item, and Naraku, guided by Onigumo's jealousy, wanted to split them up in the most horrible way possible. Perhaps if Inuyasha hadn't been involved in the budding romantic way with Kikyou that he was, this might not have happened at all.

He's just gotten another helping of grief to go with the first. And Kagome wonders why he's looking at her like he's ready to lay some hard truth on her right now. Come on, girl.