Isn't THAT a fucking mood for 2020? I had so many plans for this year. We just moved to the place that we've always wanted to live back in October, and I was going to start earnestly building a life and growing roots. During the past four years, I've felt I was in transition, a weird liminal time in which I couldn't really feel at home, and I was looking forward to that ending. It was my ultimate dream to settle into a space that felt permanent and comfortable.
But wouldn't you know, 2020 crashed through the door, punched me in the face, and told me I wasn't allowed to be comfortable. Something about how I'll quarantine in constitutionally compromised America and like it? I don't know, it was real rude. I suppose I should feel lucky not to have a broken nose in addition to my broken dreams, to be honest.
Satsuki isn't just weighing on Shippou's mind by the looks of things. Kagome sadly stares into space reminding the audience herself that Satsuki believes in her fake Shikon fragment to bring her dead brother back home. Girl has some hardcore delusions, and they're about to bite her in the ass.
The next page reveals that the hill Satsuki was heading down in the previous chapter was the river bank, and her house in LITERALLY situated under the bridge. This girl is an actual troll. All she needs are riddles. Inside, she sits next to her "brother", laying on a mat at the back of the hut, asking if he's planning on getting better soon. He gives a noncommittal affirmative while Shippou stands speechless in the center of the room. Satsuki's "brother" gushes about how long she's suffered, and how he'll make her happy from now on, to which Satsuki responds with a hearty agreement, but Shippou remains rigid and disturbed, stuttering Satsuki's name. He tells her to come over to him.
Satsuki's "brother" identifies Shippou as part of the group staying at the headman's place, the friendly little grin he's been wearing this who time starting to look super creepy, despite not changing at all. Shippou insists that Satsuki come across the room quickly, but she addresses him with confusion as her "brother" sits up and wraps a restraining arm around her, keeping up his incessant smile. He politely asks Shippou to bring him the Shikon shards from the other members of his group, but Shippou isn't buying it. He launches himself at Satsuki's "brother", demanding he let her go.
Satsuki's "brother" hunches to keep his arm securely around her throat while she looks up at him in horror. He drops the politeness, but not the little smile, when he warns that little runt Shippou that he'll break Satsuki's neck if he doesn't get those fucking Shikon shards. Satsuki struggles in his headlock, asking who the hell this dude is, and he chuckles, maintaining his lie that he's her brother of course. What a piece of shit. Shippou lunges again, demanding that the youkai show its true form, and shoots tendrils of foxfire in Satsuki's "brother's" face.
Did you already forget that she was questioning your identity not FIVE panels ago? Miroku's paper charm didn't JUST leave a bit of a scar, I see.
It's official. Those fucking things cause brain damage.
Shippou literally calls the actual lizard-person an asshole (Inuminati confirmed), and shouts that he won't forgive him, throwing another tiny fistful of fox magic at the imposter. It takes the form of a giant snake with its jaws opened wide, about to chomp down on the lizard-man's head, who flinches away in alarm. While he's bowled over by great serpent, Shippou grabs Satsuki's arm and urges her to be quick, pulling her toward the doorway. She stutters agreement, but looks back at the imposter getting mauled by the snake over her shoulder.
Back in the hut, the lizard-man is rolling an thrashing on the ground, though the giant snake seems to have disappeared in wisps of fox-smoke and leaves. When he notices this, he also notices that there's one of those little wooden jointed toy snakes that's clattered to the ground. Multiple veins pop on his lizard head and he draws out an angry exclamation. He rushes out after the fleeing Shippou and Satsuki, catching up with scary speed, likely because he's taken out an extra pair of limbs and is working all six of them as he warns them that they won't get away. Both Shippou and Satsuki look over their shoulders at the pursuing threat, and the former curses that the lizard-man has already noticed his trick. He pulls out what looks to be a little spindly wooden horse, claiming that this is its moment, to become an impressive stallion no doubt. Shippou turns to Satsuki, tells that her to escape ahead of him, and she stutters back that she couldn't possibly do that.
Well... that's significantly less impressive than the cool snake he produced a couple of minutes ago. Maybe he spent a majority of his baby fox magic on his serpent illusion.
Yeah. We'll say that.
Satsuki calls back to him as the hobbyhorse carries her off into the distance, but Shippou is too busy dodging a strike from the lizard-man's stretchy lizard-tongue to notice.
... Because apparently he figures he can just use Shippou as a hostage to get the Shikon shards from his friends instead. I feel like the lizard-man might be severely underestimating the kid who totally owned him with a snake illusion just a few moments ago. Must be that brain damage again.
Shippou spits back that the lizard-man should have just targeted HIM in the first place, yelling that he won't forgive him for deliberately trampling all over Satsuki's feelings. The lizard-man's neck inflates, and he blithely says that Shippou's baby anger is amusing to him, asking if he's going to try to fight. Shippou lunges with an enthusiastic affirmative, and is immediately greeted with a giant lizard-loogie from the lizard-man's chuckling throat - digestive fluid, he explains, though I'm not sure HOW through his mouthful of the nasty stuff.
Tumbling out of the way, Shippou narrowly avoids the loogie, which splatters on a rock that was behind him instead. The rock dissolves all the way through.
Damn, this little bastard has EXPLOSIVES? I'd be running for the hills if Shippou came at me with that shit. Of course, beating ME in a fight is admittedly a low bar to clear...
And the lizard man doesn't appear to have any trouble stepping over it. He just kinda looks at all the mini explosions happening around his feet with the barest of interest. While he's (somewhat) distracted by that, Shippou declares the time is now, and flies at the lizard-man, clamping his little jaws on wrinkles of skin on his neck. This at least seems to get his attention, inspiring some mild shock. The lizard-man narrows his lizard-eyes and calls Shippou a bastard, demanding he cut that shit out, before smacking him so hard as to send him flying into some nearby tall grass. He disappears in there somewhere, so the lizard-man approaches the patch of grass, menacingly chuckling that playtime is over.
But instead of finding Shippou huddled and hurt on the ground, he's greeted with a glaring Inuyasha walking out of the tall grass, prompting a confused noise from the lizard-man. Mistaking Inuyasha for Shippou, he asks if he hasn't learned his lesson that transforming into something weird doesn't work. Inuyasha, of course, asks if this piece of garbage is picking a fight with him, and typically does not wait for an explanation or response.
The lizard-man squeaks that Inuyasha is REAL, then shrinks down to a regular-sized lizard wriggling on the ground. It's not really clear if Inuyasha's punch just undid some sort of transformation for this thing or if it just shrunk to make it easier to run away, but I'm guessing it's the latter. It doesn't work, though, because he isn't fast enough to avoid the blunt end of Miroku's staff pinning him to the ground through his back. Miroku kneels down and examines the creature, and identifies him as the youkai he exorcised from the headman's house the day before. Welcome to the party, guys, glad you're all caught up.
Bruised and battered, Shippou groans upon awaking from being knocked unconscious, and likely has a pretty bad concussion. He looks up to see Inuyasha, stuttering his name in confusion, and Inuyasha greets him like they just came across each other in the grocery store. He says that it seems Shippou really gave it his best, before Kagome and Satsuki invade the grass and kneel next to him, followed by a leisurely strolling Sango. Kagome pushes him upright as Satsuki calls his name with tears in her eyes asking if he got the youkai. Shippou hangs his head and begins to admit that it wasn't him, but Inuyasha.
Shippou stares speechless up at Inuyasha while Satsuki thanks him for his bravery. Miroku gives us the run-down of how the lizard-man couldn't beat the dream team, so he targeted Satsuki instead, because apparently I can't be trusted to glean that for myself. Shippou is still moping that Satsuki had such a bad time because he got involved with her, so he turns to her and apologizes. She pauses a moment, then says she's decided to stay with the village headman after all. Tears well up in her eyes again as she admits that she knew the whole time that her brother wasn't coming back. I'm not going to use the "sedate me" gif again, but... those vibes.
Satsuki puts on a big fake smile, but I believe that she's being entirely honest when she thanks Shippou and says she's glad she met him. I think I'm getting diabetes, someone stop the river of sugar flowing directly into my EYES. Shippou silently bids her happiness, thinking about how he's also lost his parents, but he can keep going since he's not alone.
Then this:
Thanks for cutting me off the sweetness pipeline, RT. Could have done it less abruptly, but...
So what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm beginning to see a pattern in how much better RT seems to write relatively low-stakes short stories, as opposed to high-stakes longer ones. This is the second chapter in a two-chapter arc, Satsuki is not someone we are particularly well-acquainted with, and the consequences for failing to protect her are very low for Shippou. The villain in this one is such a weakling that you never feel like he's a real threat, and are certain that Inuyasha's group can easily take care of him.
And yet, Satsuki was given so much dimension and character in the previous chapter that you can't help but be invested in her situation. It's also a situation that a lot of girls/women can relate to on a personal level; strangers impersonating family or friends for nefarious purposes. Her desperation to believe in a comfortable fiction is pretty universal too. Her confused and yet longing look over her shoulder as she's fleeing the youkai who took advantage of her fantasy of having her brother back is utterly heartbreaking because it's so relatable; you can see her very dreams being crushed as she watches that quartz crystal shatter, hence the title, I'm sure. It's all so palpable in its feels.
Shippou's heroism in this chapter is top-notch too. Despite being too obvious about how disturbed and scared he is, he does try earnestly to get Satsuki to get away from the imposter without blurting that it's not her brother. He puts getting her safely away from her captor before fighting, and when he gets to the fighting part, he puts everything and the kitchen sink into it, though his small size and inferior strength puts him at a disadvantage. Even Inuyasha has to be impressed with his effort.
Finally, Inuyasha giving Shippou the credit for taking the imposter out at the end so he could look good to Satsuki: that's such a big brother move, I can't even. The way that this chapter managed to develop the relationship between Inuyasha and Shippou in a significant way with such a scant action is an immeasurable success. Its practically surgical in its precision.
It's a shame that RT kind of seems to lose her vision in the larger stories she attempts to tell. Her talent lies in personal and interpersonal stories, and trying to cover bigger, high-consequence plot-lines kind of makes stuff like this - everyday relationships and their intricacies - get lost in the enormity of it all.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, of course.
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