Gonna need a damn SPACESHIP for that at this point. Global warming has officially heated the Earth one degree Celsius, so no place on the planet is safe anymore. When the coldest place on the planet is melting, where can anyone go to escape the fires? I'm currently sitting in a haze of smoke that is wafting over from the next STATE, and my fight or flight response is screaming at me day and night, but my frontal lobe is telling me there's no option either way. There's nowhere to flee, and I can't exactly get to the rich, powerful system that allowed this to happen in the first place. Not by myself anyway, and not without a fleet of guillotines.
Is it bad that the guillotine jokes are seeming less and less like jokes these days?
As Kagura passes through the marbled atmosphere of the barrier, she contemplates how it appears to slackening. Then she has an epiphany, remembering that Naraku isn't here, and looking down at the two Shikon shards in her palm. You know what they say: when Naraku's away, the incarnations will play. Or, at least Kagura will get some dangerous ideas.
Back on the ground, Kagome kneels next to Kouga's injured leg, first aid tackle in hand, opining about the the horrible gashes in his calves. Mohawk and Two-Tone hover closer to Kouga's shoulder, the former asking in alarm if the Shikon fragments have been taken. Kouga responds with a pained groan. At the sound of a command to leave that bastard who can't even die properly alone, Kagome twists to look behind her, Kouga wincing in the voice's direction too.
That is correct! I would also have accepted answers, "... an idiot," and "... possibly suicidal?"
Inuyasha loftily calls Kouga pathetic for losing to that measly Kagura, and when Kouga suggests he could say the same about the wimpy form he's appeared in, Inuyasha says nothing in response. Two-Tone whispers to Mohawk that he had thought Inuyasha was a hanyou, and Mohawk whispers back that it looks like his suspicions are confirmed. Kouga looks pretty annoyed with this at first, until he smirks at Inuyasha and begins to reference some rumors he's heard about hanyou - being a gossip-prone youkai, after all. His expression becomes a snarl when he says that those hanyou who value their lives are said to never show their enemies their human forms. Kouga accuses a scoffing Inuyasha that he's got some nerve showing up like that.
I thought Inuyasha was smiling because he was about to deliver a scathing insult about how he didn't consider Kouga even a fraction of a threat to him. But instead he closes his eyes, admits Kouga has a point, and proceeds to pull out the currently untransformed and useless Tessaiga to declare he'll have to finish Kouga right here for knowing his secret. That's... almost a come-back. If you squint and tilt your head. Kouga yells at Inuyasha to bring it on, still sitting because it's clear he can't stand yet, and Kagome blithely asks if they weren't going to go get those stolen Shikon shards. Or maybe anything ELSE than engage in an impotent pissing contest.
One narrow sky-transition panel later, Inuyasha and Shippou are sitting behind Kouga on the bounding Kirara, as Kagome pedals her bike next to the giant cat, Sango perched on it at her back. Inuyasha draws attention to the very stark fact that there is no indication as to how he agreed to sit so near Kouga when he asks why Kouga is coming with them anyway. Kouga responds that he's not handing his Shikon fragments over to Inuyasha and company, but I still have SO MANY more questions about this scene.
One of which is answered when Miroku pops into the next frame on the other side of the bike, asking if Kagura isn't going back to the castle. Kagome confirms this, but more than that, the Shikon shards she's following seem to be moving away from Naraku's failing barrier. For once, Miroku can't make sense of this, and wonders what it means. Mr. Knowitall doesn't have a smart answer for something? Get outta town!
"He can get his own damn shards if he wants them so badly. He's got his own working limbs and everything!"
Kagura thinks this may be the time for her to escape, but she remembers the important fact that Naraku quite literally holds her heart in the palm of his hand. Being chained to the wall would be an easier restraint to slip. As she wonders what she's going to do about this, we get yet another sky-strip transition back to Inuyasha and company, because there's no doubt they have still more important things to say.
Inuyasha is addressing Miroku from his backseat on Kirara, asking for confirmation from Miroku that Kagura is running away with the Shikon fragments. Miroku, having jogged over to the other side of the bike to get within better range, shouts that this is possible, then asks if Inuyasha thinks the barrier is a bit strange as well. Inuyasha looks a bit taken-aback when Miroku poses the query of why he and Kouga are able to smell the location of Naraku's castle when they weren't able before. Considering Naraku sitting within his shifting atmosphere of miasma, Miroku elaborates that the barrier has weakened, suggesting that for the moment, Naraku's power has withered. Inuyasha begins to realize how similar that sounds when Kagome completes his thought - Naraku is a hanyou as well. As Inuyasha fully realizes the implication of this with one of those epiphany-starbursts, Kagome thinks about how Naraku might share Inuyasha's new moon human state.
That was totally worth the whiplash of rapid scene change RT is playing with here.
She keeps it up with the next page by switching abruptly to a new speaker trying out the Naraku topic as well, asking if that isn't the charlatan who was so disrespectful of Sesshoumaru in the past. No prizes for guessing this is Jaken, I'm afraid, tugging along the two-headed dragon thing that shows up every once in a while when it's convenient. It's acting as a bed to little sleeping Rin, snoring a little on its saddle. Sesshoumaru stands on the edge of a semi-steep embankment looking up at the sky as his strange entourage approaches from behind, saying that he detects this Naraku's scent. Jaken asks if Naraku's nearby, but Sesshoumaru answers with silence, no doubt fully aware he wouldn't have time to finish a sentence.
But man, if Rin isn't living the dream. I don't know a single kid who wouldn't have been stoked to fall out of a literal dragon bed and wake to a surreal fairy tale land with cool magical people surrounding them. Inner-child = JEALOUS.
Kagura smiles at Sesshoumaru, asking if he also smelled Naraku and headed over. Jaken looks between Sesshoumaru and Kagura rapidly, babbling at the former that Kagura is an offspring of Naraku, because his brain has been rattled by his fall and he can't think of anything to say other than already established information. After a pause, Sesshoumaru identifies her as Kagura the wind-user and grips the Toukijin she said he could have at their last meeting. Kagura says she's glad he remembered her, and bids him to let go of his weapon, because she didn't come over to fight.
She's shopping for an assassin at a discount, apparently. Kagura holds up her open palm to display the Shikon shard she stole, asking for confirmation that Sesshoumaru knows what they are - it's less patronizing than it sounds. Or, maybe it's not. I could be missing some cultural subtleties, and it's more than possible Sesshoumaru might consider it disrespectful either way. Anyway, Kagura offers him these two shards if he helps her to get out from under Naraku's thumb by murdering his face. She is no longer smiling, just to hammer home the seriousness of the request. As Sesshoumaru gives her an extended stare, Jaken and Rin sit watching this exchange with interest and a little mystification, at least on Jaken's part. Rin looks like she'd be shoveling popcorn into her mouth if she had any.
At last, Sesshoumaru speaks, stating plainly that she's betraying Naraku. I can't tell if he needed the pause to figure that out or if he's just being judgey. Possibly both. Kagura scoffs and protests that she's not exactly obeying Naraku because she likes it. She asks again, saying that she thinks this deal of hers would be advantageous to him. Those TWO WHOLE Shikon fragments will absolutely change his life for sure./sarcasm
Sesshoumaru tells her that, unfortunately for her, he has no interest in the Shikon no Tama, which seems to surprise the hell out of Kagura. I guess it didn't occur to her that this boy who considers himself the epitome of awesome wouldn't consider augmentation of his powers. Sesshoumaru suggests to her that she go ahead and use the fragments herself if she wants to be free. Kagura, in immediate defensiveness, tries to shame Sesshoumaru by implying that he's scared of Naraku, but Sesshoumaru says he just has no obligation to rescue her. He tells her that if she's not prepared to do it herself, she shouldn't even be considering betraying Naraku. Kagura is of course quite affronted by this dismissal.
At least Kagura's REALLY bad attempts at deflection are entertaining for those little bastards over there.
In a thorough huff, Kagura picks another feather from her hair and snaps that she underestimated Sesshoumaru, then sends his hair flying with the updraft when she launches into the air. Sesshoumaru watches her impassively, while she pouts that he's a damn jerk on her flight out of there. Jaken and Rin join Sesshoumaru staring after her, the former wondering if Kagura was really there to become a Sesshoumaru fan supporter, and the latter musing that Sesshoumaru is pretty strong. Assuming that's in reference to him refusing the Shikon shards, because she doesn't spell it out for me.
At the castle again, through a trapdoor and down a ladder, a gooey, bubbly mess oozes beneath a discarded kimono, insect legs twitching in the background.
Ugh! And I thought that Noh mask was Cronenberged to hell - it's like an orgy of exploded abominations!
Meanwhile, Inuyasha and crew are still on the chase, Miroku announcing that they've caught up and Kagura is nearby. I wonder how HE would know that, considering Kagome and her Shikon-sense are leading this party and he looks as though he's bringing up the rear. Back to being a know-it-all, I see. That didn't take long.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Good gracious golly, did RT go crazy on the scene changes. It's honestly a little alarming how poorly this chapter was constructed - SEVEN whole transitions, some with her favorite narrow sky panels, some more abrupt, but most of them highly unnecessary and even sloppy. It's clear that RT hasn't stopped struggling with flow when she's also trying to get across simultaneous plot points, but more than that, in this instance, she just didn't organize the conversation well at all. She wouldn't have had to cut back to Miroku drawing attention to the fact that Naraku was probably also suffering his monthly wane of youkai powers if she had just introduced that conversation earlier, perhaps as a lead-in to Kouga's lackeys coming to them for help in the prior chapter. And shifting the focus over to Kagura for so brief a moment of her contemplating what she was going to do if not flee was just a waste.
Perhaps the most infuriating transition to me was the one between Inuyasha and Kouga beginning to bicker with one another in their weakened states and the one where they're riding Kirara together. I understand that it was supposed to be a joke, but it presupposes a lot of incredibly ridiculous actions on the parts of the characters. RT is basically stating here that Inuyasha and Kouga stopped sniping at each other long enough to discuss the logistics of following Kagura, make arrangements, get onto or be lifted (in Kouga's case) onto Kirara's back, and start on Kagura's trail before Inuyasha ever thought to question why Kouga was coming with them? Or even question it AT ALL? He's well aware of how important those Shikon shards are to Kouga, since he's seen their effectiveness in helping Kouga in battle. Even as a snide sarcastic remark, it doesn't work well, because it's not making a comment on Kouga's weakness in the situation. In fact, it's drawing attention to his strength in not just sitting back and counting on them to get his shards back for him despite his injuries. And just exactly whose idea was it to have Inuyasha sitting on Kirara with Kouga ANYWAY? Could Miroku not have done so instead to minimize conflict? What even IS this scene??? There's not one part of it that makes any sense; it's just a really ugly lampshade on the fact that RT couldn't think of a plausible way she could get her confrontational wolf and dog sharing a ride to a fight, so she just kind of... ignored it.
The only part of this hot mess that worked was the conversation between Sesshoumaru and Kagura. The contrasts of their personalities really helps to further characterize both of them, but Kagura in particular. It brings how headstrong and easy to bristle she is, as well as how little she understands about actual freedom. She thinks she can simply hire someone to do the job of throwing off Naraku's yoke for her, but it doesn't occur to her that the passivity of this idea is antithetical to actual freedom. But Sesshoumaru, to my utter shock, disillusions her as to her shallow definition of the concept. He not only lets her know that no one else is obligated to help her, but if she isn't willing to take the risks herself, there's no point. Freedom isn't about doing whatever you want whenever you want and answering to no one. Freedom is about expressing autonomy, weighing risk to reward, and harnessing control of one's own life. Sesshoumaru seems annoyed that Kagura is betraying Naraku at first, but his dialog reveals it's not the betrayal part he's irritated with, but her unwillingness to establish HERSELF as a separate entity from Naraku before planning to assassinate the guy, and gives her a well-deserved, if a little short, lecture about it.
So, Sesshoumaru has good points now. And that's the best part of this chapter.
I'm not sure how to feel about that, so I guess I'll just be confused.
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