Inuyasha Manga: 181 Sango's Decision

Ugh! Finally! We've been trying to figure out where we're going to eat for hours now! It's just been an endless merry-go-round of everyone passing the buck to the next person by claiming they have no preference. No one even had suggestions, so we just made a list of all the restaurants within a few mile radius and tried to rank them on how much we felt like their food. When we found we felt exactly the same about literally all of them, we figured we were going to starve to death.

So what's it going to be? Fast food? Semi-fancy? Classic pub?

Or I guess we could all just feast on the profound guilt Naraku tries to feed everybody and lose our appetites THAT way. Whatever works.

Oh, btdubz, that splatter across the panel that Inuyasha is sensing? The scent of Kagome's blood. I'm guessing Naraku has lifted that barrier for Inuyasha to get a little whiff, just to rub in the manufactured delay, first sign that he's gotten a tad too smug. He chuckles and tells Inuyasha that Kohaku will kill Kagome, and won't ever disobey him, and that's the SECOND sign that he's reached critical smugness. Stand by for critical evil plan meltdown.

Inuyasha finally loses his shit and slashes that bastard right in his baboon-masked face. The body under the cloak crumbles away, revealing the little wooden doll inside with hair wrapped around it. Big shocker there. Inuyasha leaps right over the puppet's remains screaming Kagome's name, but it still works enough for Naraku to continue scoffing at him that he's too late. According to Naraku, since he erased Kohaku's mind, the boy shouldn't hesitate to kill Kagome. Sound logic, that.

Kagome wonders what the hell happened, because this Kohaku is nothing like the one before. But he's exactly like the one BEFORE before. You know, the little morose murder-brat who was the reason Sango stole Tessaiga. I'll give you three guesses as to why he went back to that shit, Kagome.

No time for guessing at anything, though, as Kohaku takes another swipe at Kagome and she dives sideways to avoid getting slashed again. The little bottle of Shikon shards falls out of ther pocket and onto the ground next to her hand with her maneuver, giving off a high-pitched ringing sound. Kagome notes this, alarmed, while Kohaku hovers over her, sickle raised once more. Naraku's command tells him a couple of times to kill her while she yelps his name to try and appeal to his revoked memory. Yet another command to kill Kagome issues in Kohaku's head, because he's just standing there now, sickle held aloft steady. He doesn't move to swing it down; he's frozen. Kagome eases out of her cringe away and forward, saying Kohaku's name more gently this time as he just stares down at her blankly. Still unmoving, though.

Kirara barrels out of the sky with Sango, Miroku and Shippou still riding her back, the former screaming the names of the two on the ground. No doubt she's able to see the blood on Kagome's sailor blouse. Shitshow ahoy. Kagome calls back to Sango, who wears a shocked and disturbed expression, not unlike the other two behind her. Shippou states with alarm that Kagome is injured, which changes Sango's look to devastated. It certainly does look like... exactly what it is.

Kohaku don't give a fuck that 50% is still a failing grade and that he may as well take the 0, he bolts off with those Shikon shards while Kagome whines that he took them. Meanwhile, she's surrounded by Sango and Shippou fresh on the ground with her, the little one saying her name in concern. Kagome stutters that she's not hurt badly, so they shouldn't worry, but Sango glares off in the direction Kohaku disappeared, speechless and mind on one track.

Sango shoots to her feet, ordering Kirara to stay with both their invalids, as Miroku is still looking a bit hard done. Way worse than Kagome anyway. By way of ominous farewell, Sango asks Kagome if the cut on her arm hurt. Kagome can only say Sango's name while she looks up at her. I don't really blame her, seeing as it's obvious that there's really no right answer.

Sango, when I suggested we just dine on Naraku's infamous guilt feast, I was being sarcastic! I didn't think you would take the anti-comfort-food and run with it!

She's never picking another meal ever.

Kagome stares after her, gaping and worried, Miroku doing the same, a very unpleasant idea of what Sango was up to occurring to him. Neither of them are in a position to go after or reason with her, though, so Kohaku finds himself hearing a series of tree branches snapping behind him as he bolts through the forest. Hiraikotsu arcs down in front of him into the ground as it makes its way back where it came, cutting him off mid-run. He looks behind him to see Sango walking through the dust her weapon raised, not at all as hurried as she was.

She says his name, brows drawn low, and Kohaku takes a defensive stance as he holds his sickle back behind him to easily swing if need be. Sango has to admit that it's just as she thought; Kohaku wasn't freed from Naraku after all, but came to hurt Kagome and steal the Shikon fragments.

They lunge at each other, Kohaku's sickle at the ready as Sango draws the sword at her side. Kohaku tosses the end of the weighted chain on his sickle at her, which wraps itself around Sango's blade and wrist. Encumbered, Sango watches Kohaku leap the short distance between them with his sickle poised to swing down. She blocks the blow at the last minute with Hiraikotsu's broad side in her other hand, shoving Kohaku the other way. While she exchanges bashes with her brother, she silently promises him that he won't be dying alone, because she plans to follow after him. Pretty extreme plans Sango has there, as opposed to Xtreme, which is what she usually presents as.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha has finally found his way to his injured friends, yelling Kagome's name. She twists to greet him from her seat on the ground along with Shippou, but poor Miroku doesn't even move, still slumped against Kirara. Hey, maybe somebody should check on him? No, Kagome suggests instead that Inuyasha go after Sango, whom she describes as acting strange earlier, and Inuyasha makes his way directly to her side to confirm that it was Kohaku what did this terrible scratch to her. Really guys, Miroku is in so much worse shape. Someone should REALLY check to make sure he's still alive.

Kagome insists the cut is more like a graze, and doesn't hesitate to tell Inuyasha that Kohaku didn't kill her even if he could easily have done so. Inuyasha flashes back to when Naraku confidently told him that Kohaku wouldn't disobey orders to kill Kagome, not ever. Miroku, who is still alive and conscious thanks for asking, rasps his hypothesis that Sango is off to kill Kohaku. Over a paper cut.

Inuyasha rushes to act on this information, running through the forest toward the siblings as he ponders how Kohaku DIDN'T finish off Kagome. He wonders if this means Kohaku didn't obey Naraku's order, and reasons that if this is indeed the case, Kohaku still has a human spirit in spite of being manipulated.

Which frankly should have been obvious even after Kohaku reverted to listless obedience at Naraku's request. Kid looks exactly like a call-center employee being yelled at over the phone about a late order. Classic human spirit being manipulated, except instead of monetary compensation, he gets to not remember horrible shit. Joy.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Naraku's hubris and gloating at the beginning was a tad cliche, but not in a tired, boring way. It illustrates the wider issues with Naraku's plans, rather than the flaw in just this particular plot. Naraku employs too many moving parts, too many people involved who cannot be relied upon to perform the complex functions he needs, because as much as he believes he's got them under close control, he can't. He refuses to understand that not every little variable can be accounted for, especially not when he can't account for something as basic as personal will. He understands juuuuust enough about the people he's using as puppets to tie the strings to their limbs, but ignores their flailing when he tries to jerk those strings. Even when he thinks he's incapacitated them to direct them the way he wants, he hasn't.

Wiping Kohaku's mind didn't erase his autonomy or basic nature. Like a beaten-down working class schlub, if he's reintroduced into an environment where he's not expected to obey and fulfill the boss's every whim, he's going to recover a bit of himself. The essential human spirit that Inuyasha mentions here can't be just waved away or buried forever, no matter how much Naraku wants it to be. The Saimyoushou might be perfect little worker bees wasps, but the underlings with personalities and wills can't be reduced to that efficiency in carrying out dastardly deeds, and neither can HE. A bit early for THAT conversation, but this is a tie-in to it further down the rhetorical road.

Right now, it's Sango's view on human spirit that is in sharp focus right now, and it might seem like she's being overly dramatic at first glance, but you can really get a good sense of why she feels so hopeless about this situation here. Kagome was only injured, but even a minor cut by Kohaku represents a much more horrible reality to Sango; her brother is still under Naraku's thumb. It's not just that Kohaku can be ordered to inflict pain, but also that he can be released from mindless servitude just long enough to be accepted into their fold again, however hesitantly. The larger reality here is that all of the above is against Kohaku's will; he has no say in ANY of it, robbed of his autonomy again and again to the benefit of no one but a fiend. If Kohaku's body and mind cannot be his own anymore, if Naraku has turned them into machines for evil, then it's no wonder she feels like killing Kohaku is the only way to give him back his freedom from the horror.

It's a good thing that Inuyasha is ever the optimist, huh? Though communicating said optimism is always something of an issue for him...

I hope everyone's new year starts out great! Greet 2020 with a smile!