I was going to make lame jokes here about mikos working the night shift or something, but in formulating them, I realized I don't really know what the hell a miko even IS. It's often translated as "priestess" or "shrine maiden", but those terms don't really denote much context except a vaguely religious one. A brief trek through the internet, talking like 10 minutes here, showed me that the girl training to do trance-work and act as an oracle through deity possession, of a sort, was not at ALL the shallow picture I had formed in my head. It's another example of what I've been learning a lot lately; misinterpretation is a function of never questioning the first thing that pops into your head, and that can persist for a long time. Long enough that the misinterpretation almost becomes a personality trait in the afflicted if they don't learn to recognize when to have a little skepticism.
But enough of this after-school special bullshit, let's watch this douchey puppet-master talk to some weird old lady.
And by "my sake" he means "my petty stalk-and-prank shtick".
Tsubaki says his name like she's trying it on for size, asking what he's going to do for HER if she lends him her power. He says he'll give her the Shikon no Tama, and excuse me while I bust my GUT laughing. I mean, who the hell would believe that a dude they just met looking to make a shady deal is going to give them something so... transformative? Tsubaki must think it's funny too, because she gives a little giggle as she bows her head, hiding her profile with a curtain of white hair.
Damn, where can I learn that neat trick?? I wanna turn into a nine-year-old again when my only significant concern was incomprehensible math problems in a textbook.
Sassy Kagura mutters her surprise that the old bat transformed, and said old bat fires back that this is her TRUE form so she'd better watch her tongue. Uhhhh, yeah lady, someone who fought with Kikyou fifty years before is going to TRULY look like a PYT with premature greys. You're not fooling anyone, honey.
Least of all Naraku, who brings up the fact that she fought over the Shikon no Tama with Kikyou fifty years ago again too. Don't know how I should feel about being on the same page as HIM, but never mind that. He repeats that she was defeated, because Naraku really loves those not-so-subtle digs, and asks Tsubaki what she wanted with the jewel. With a little smirk, he suggests it was for eternal youth, and she returns his sneer. They sit in silence while he looks at her, evaluating her form as that of a woman who sold her soul to a youkai to keep her youth and beauty, but not a high-ranking youkai, so he figures she's looking for stronger sugar daddy youkai powers.
Tsubaki says that she'll believe that Naraku will hand over the Shikon no Tama for now. Strange, considering that line made me believe that she's really over 60 even LESS. Maybe her teenage form really is reflective of the true naivete within after all. Or maybe she's just bored and looking for something stupid to do on a Saturday night.
After class, Kagome slouches off, sighing. She frets that she's also forgetting what she learned earlier, like she's steadily being left behind by the rest of her class. I don't know what she expects when she spends all her time in the literal fucking past. Can't go forward when you keep stepping back, girl!
As she sulks, her friends Short-Hair and Headband whisper about her not looking very happy, the latter supposing that it must be her ex. Short-Hair asks if Headband is talking about when Kagome was dumped by that rotten, two-timing, jealous, selfish, violent guy (literally the description, word-for-word), and Headband confirms that she thinks this drama is still surely dragging on. Because teenage romance is quite insidious like that.
They flank Kagome, and when she makes a noise of confusion, Headband bids Kagome cheer up. Short-Hair assures her that if she studies hard for exams, she'll be able to forget. Headband asserts with a determined fist raised that this isn't the time to be thinking about boys anyway. Kagome gives Headband a bit of a mystified look, repeating the phrase "about boys" as a question, but guesses scary accurately that they're talking about Inuyasha here. She apologizes for not telling them, and Headband expresses some surprise that something ELSE happened in the juicy Ballad of Kagome and Mysterious Jerk.
... Shia surprise?
Kagome takes a look at her watch that she suddenly has and says she has to be going or else the impatient Inuyasha might come to pick her up. As she twists to wave at them while jogging away, both girls are sweatdropping big time, Headband thinking in disbelief that Kagome and her weird boyfriend have gotten back together, and Short-Hair wonders if Kagome's exams will be okay. I wouldn't bet on it, but I guess it depends on what she means by "okay".
In another time, Inuyasha sits up on a roof in Kaede's village, arms and legs crossed and a sour look on his face, mentally grumbling about how Kagome is late. The sun is setting, and he recalls that she SAID she'd be back before dusk. It's a fucking tragedy, I tell you! Meanwhile, on the ground, Kaede pauses in her walk with basket full of herbs in arm, to consider the swirling darkening atmosphere around her. Miroku walks up behind her, but instead of doing his usual sexual assault, announces his presence by addressing her. She addresses him in turn, and Miroku notes aloud that she seems to have "felt" the same thing he has. Kaede confirms that indeed, there IS something evil creeping about, as if it's crawling all over the ground, in the grass.
Kagome has arrived at the well, heaving her overstuffed backpack over the side. The moment her foot lands on the ground next to the well wall...
She cries out in pain and yanks her foot back up, muttering in confusion. She thinks she's been bitten, but there doesn't appear to be anything around that could have sunk its little fangs in her ankle. Inuyasha, however, has just sauntered onto the scene, pissing and moaning that she's late. Heart hammering, she whimpers Inuyasha's name, still shaken. That must have hurt like hell for her to be so upset. Every time I felt like something bit me, it wasn't much more than a sting, and I just shrugged it off as my imagination.
Granted, it probably WAS just my imagination all those times.
We get a shot of clouded skies as well as rushing through the grass from our own perspective, to a familiar figure in the distance.
"Good job, now her ankle will be sore for a few days. We sure showed her!"
Nah, the snake opens its jaws with a little pressure from its mistress's fingers to show that Kagome's blood is still dripping off the ends of its fangs, and Tsubaki praises it for bringing this to her. Are those fangs sterilized? Because I feel like there's no point in doing that blood test otherwise.
Back in the village, Kagome is INSISTING that she's not making up the fact that something "prickly" bit her. Either that or she accidentally stepped on a cactus. Holding up the edge of her sock to peer under it, Inuyasha says there's nothing like a bite mark in there. She begins to whine in protest, but is overwhelmed suddenly by a jolt. She reaches just below her collar, wondering if that was the Shikon fragments just now. When she pulls the vial of them out she's surprised to find that those little crystals have turned black.
And just when you think RT can't cram any more nasty surprises into this day, the vial cracks and shatters right in Kagome's palm while she watches with wide eyes. Miroku, Inuyasha and Sango all stare in shock, questioning, alarmed. She's falling backwards, the black shards she observed before their prison break now embedded in her skin, around her clavicle, a frightening fact that does not escape her notice.
Wondering what the hell kind of trippy shit this is? Apparently the shards now in Kagome resonate with the rest of the jewel tainted by Naraku, slowly destroying her. Tsubaki kneels at an illuminated altar, hovering a hand over an offering dish containing that little Pac Man of a Shikon no Tama of Naraku's. She mutters that the effect of this destructive blood magic extends over Kagome's body and mind, and therefore both are moved to Tsubaki's will. Don't know how much a body and mind breaking down will be capable of, but I guess we'll find out.
Naraku hangs out in the dark recesses of whatever lair Tsubaki is in, behind her, warning her not to take Kagome lightly. He would know how... explosive she can be, but Tsubaki scoffs. She points out that Kagome didn't even notice that she'd been cursed; Naraku had said Kagome was Kikyou's reincarnation, so Tsubaki admits she was wondering how much of a handful she would be, but while she trails off in her assessment, she doesn't look at ALL impressed.
Tsubaki asks what Naraku wants now, if he would like the curse to kill Kagome, or something else. Naraku chuckles in sinister delight, suggesting that they make Inuyasha relive a familiar little nightmare, one in which he dies with his beloved girl. That last little bit appears to have been an internal description - no doubt Tsubaki has heard ALL the youkai gossip over the past fifty years and has a pretty good idea of what Naraku is speaking. At this point who DOESN'T know the messy end to Inuyasha and Kikyou's relationship?
Inuyasha leans over a comatose Kagome, yelling at her to hang in there, while Miroku bends over her from another angle and says that the Shikon shards have burrowed into her body. Does he have some sort of compulsion to state the obvious all the time? He turns to Kaede, looking to her for confirmation on what this is, and Kaede affirms that this must be related to the odd evil they perceived earlier. She's right on the money when she thinks that someone put a curse on Kagome.
KILL HIM AND EAT HIM!
Sorry, I channeled Dave Anthony for a moment there. My bad.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It certainly capitalized on that primal aversion we have to having things burrow beneath the skin. I don't know too many people who don't shudder at the thought of having something foreign lodged into them, even more if that thing is conscious, living in some way. The Shikon no Tama is no crawly insect, but the fact that it seems to have a malevolent will makes it somehow very believable that it might try to jump into a body. It already has an established history of being used as an evil pill to enhance evil, so this non-consensual jump to infect a victim with evil doesn't feel like much of a leap. Pun intended.
But I find Tsubaki somewhat uninspired as a villain. A woman driven to extreme lengths to keep her youth and beauty is so overdone. Sure, there are a few indications that there's more to her motivations than that, the Mona Lisa smile when Naraku guessed she was obsessed with her looks and her flippant resolution to believe Naraku "for now" were pretty enough little hints, but they feel hollow to me. Perhaps it's because they've come across as empty in my past reads, or because these genuinely seem like things I might do myself in order to attempt throwing off a person who was coming uncomfortably close to judging me accurately.
Maybe it's because Tsubaki is just an oracle possessed by a demon instead of a god, and even for the the good-thing-but-evil trope, I'm having a little trouble figuring out what the damn difference is.
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