So after the mild rage I experienced after having to deconstruct how awful the implications of the previous chapter was, I'm ready for the FUN kind of horror that this comic can pretty reliably provide. By the looks of that title, it seems like this chapter is prepared to partially make it up to me. I can't say it can ever FULLY redeem the bad taste left in my mouth by the previous chapter, but at the very least it can put some distance between me and my need to give Miroku all the criticism he's not getting from his so-called friends. He'll lay low in this one if he knows what's good for him.
Especially when I have a whole new group of douchebags riding up on the first page to distract me in a large caravan of bandit horsemen, one of whom exclaims that they've got women and sake, and another suggesting to their boss at the head of the parade that they live it up tonight. Death flag, if I ever saw one. Said boss and the first few men galloping close behind him are alarmed by something they see just ahead.
Something you most assuredly should not be messing with.
So, as you might expect, they dismount and get closer. You know, like idiots. The boss identifies this thing with some confusion as a lump of flesh, and one of his underlings says chillingly that it seems like it's alive. They all start stabbing the thing with their myriad spears and swords, because poking it with a stick is always SUCH a good idea, and when the the underling's blade slides out, a hand is gripping it loosely. This surprises the bandits, but for some reason doesn't prompt them to get back on their horses and fuck off. They just stand there as a man rises up out of the ball of flesh, dumbfounded. There is a very familiar spider scar on this man's back.
How do you spend your life in an age when entertainment was mostly stories around a fire and ever fall victim to something like this? It's the era of mother fucking ghost stories, you guys are WEAK.
Cut to Inuyasha rushing at the reader, catching a whiff of Naraku's scent, apparently, and leading the others in its direction in a hurry. They run into the remains of the bandit caravan, corpses, overturned carts and all, stopping dead in alarm. Clinging to Kagome's shoulder, Shippou proclaims they've all been killed, while Kagome stutters that it's an awful scene. Inuyasha kneels down next to a body lying face down on and mutters that they're bandits, then something else seems to take him aback.
Too graphic? Or is it just that RT is no Jhonen Vasquez and has no good way to depict that level of gore?
Either way, all the corpses are conveniently face down as Inuyasha confirms that they've all had their faces taken off. Kagome kneels nearby, and turns to Inuyasha to tell him that there's a survivor. It's a woman reclining absolutely petrified in Miroku's arms as he tries to soothe her. I'd advise her to watch his hands, but I think she's so traumatized by being kidnapped by bandits and then watching those bandits be massacred by a man born from a ball of guts, molestation is probably not even on her RADAR at this point.
Sango kneels in front of her and asks who did this to her, and she lifts a shaking hand to her cheek, fixing her lap with a thousand-yard stare while she drops that it was a man with no face. Makes sense in combination with his observation of the missing faces, but Inuyasha gapes like it's some sort of unbelievable revelation. Dude, that kind of deduction doesn't even reach the level of amateur, so just cool it.
A sky/tree-shot transition takes us to the faceless man himself, still naked as a babe, and kneeling by a body of water, head in his hands, while a stolen horse tied to a nearby tree whinnies. The man lowers his hands to look at his reflection in the water, to reveal that he's gotten himself a face. One of the bandits he murdered stares back at him, and he must not like it very much, because he immediately tears the features from his head, tossing them onto a bloody pile of other bandit faces he stole.
Someone steps up to the pile of pilfered faces while the faceless man's spider-scarred back is turned.
Dude has a beauty mark and everything. This is the worst possible monster he could confront.
He has a doughy hunched companion behind him, who warns him to be careful, calling him "Musou". Musou just warns him to stand back, then goes back to addressing the faceless man, asking him where he came from and why he does such atrocious things. I think you can glean the answer to the second question if you're keen, Musou, but if you were, you might have high-tailed it by now. I mean, all that face is missing are some shoujo sparkles.
The faceless man wonders where he came from, but tells Musou he's drawing a blank. Then he reaches out with a weak gesture and tells Musou to give him his face. Musou, of course, does not comply, holding out his branching staff as his expression hardens and he states that the faceless man is resisting despite his actions. Much like a bloodthirsty cop, Musou uses this "resistance" to justify yelling that he'll punish this creature, and bringing that staff hard down on the faceless man's skull, which is as soft and mushy as an infant's and just caves at the pressure. Musou's tag-along calls out in his certainty that the leading holy man got the monster.
He spoke too soon. The faceless man lunges toward Musou like he's using the staff as a monorail right toward his shocked and horrified, if not still handsome face. After a brief panel showing Musou's eye in profile amid a series of chilling sound effects, Musou's follower stammers out his name before screeching in fear and running in the opposite direction. The faceless man says Musou's name too, in a halting, experimental way. Next we see, he's kneeling by the water again, head in hands, a little distance between him and Musou's face down corpse in the foreground.
That asterisk? It indicates a translator's note that points out that the faceless man sounded gruff and youkai-like before, but more human-like when he speaks with Musou's face on. So, this translator is essentially telling me that they are more interested in conveying important story information than a useless Japanese lesson I never asked for? I'll be goddamned and go to hell!
Back with Inuyasha and company, who are now running like they're late for an appointment (Kagome riding her bike), Kagome speculates that the "man with no face" the woman behind them referred to is another new Naraku incarnation. Wait, did they just leave that poor traumatized lady in a field of corpses and a dwindling will to live? These are our heroes, folks. Inuyasha calls over his shoulder that it has to be something like that. Surely he would know, with his sense of smell that can detect that Naraku musk. He can smell the blood ahead, at least, noting it in alarm.
When they arrive, everything is on fire, and corpses are lying every which way, one of them with a sword still sticking out of its back. Inuyasha declares this is the faceless man's doing, but Miroku points out the bodies still have their faces, and these killings don't fit the faceless man's MO. Inuyasha turns to that smart-ass and says with complete confidence that he smells him - it's Naraku's scent. He declares that the bastard is still in the burning village, raising his claws at the ready.
Inuyasha sees a living woman, screaming as she shields and crying baby in a hunched position, a figure on horseback looming behind her. Inuyasha intercepts the spear thrust down at her by the horseman before it can skewer her and her child, clawing it in two.
Inuyasha yells at him not to play innocent, and demands confirmation that he's one of Naraku's offspring. The artist formerly known as the faceless man replies with confusion, asking what the fuck a Naraku is. Inuyasha is taken aback by the innocent tone he's taking, even more when the not-so-faceless man asks if Inuyasha knows about him, or what he is. Face reflecting the highest of suspicions, Inuyasha utters a phrase of disbelief.
Miroku steps forward and asks the no-longer-faceless man if he's the one who killed all the bandits and stole their faces. The man with a face says this is true, but those faces were all bad, so he couldn't use them. He touches his new cheek and declares this one okay, though. Sango leans toward Kagome, around whose shoulder Shippou peeks warily, and mumbles that the dude doesn't seem to be joking. Kagome mutters back that he doesn't even know about Naraku, or himself.
While she's thinking that this is a different kind of Naraku incarnation than they've seen before, we cut to familiar mansion in a familiar marbled creepy atmosphere. Inside, Naraku watches the scene between Inuyasha's group and the not-so-faceless man in the mirror Kanna holds up for him like she's a cheap Ikea TV stand. Naraku scoffs that they've finally met, and admits in his head that the formerly faceless man was born from him, "with the most abominable flesh", whatever that means. Regardless, Naraku birthed this new monstrosity just for Inuyasha, apparently. I hope he included a gift receipt in the box, because I'm pretty sure that's a present Inuyasha's gonna wanna return.
Back with Inuyasha and his new customized Naraku Incarnation, the previously faceless man is looking over the fiery destruction he's caused, saying that he felt like if he murdered some folks, he'd be able to remember who he was.
Apparently the kind of asshole who complains about "just" having fun. Wouldn't be surprised to find out his name is fucking KYLE.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm always so excited when the classic horror pops back up in this comic. It's always so well-done and creative, and this latest example is no exception. The lump of flesh just abandoned in the middle of nowhere was reminded me of this disembodied amniotic sack, a parody of a normal human gestation. It's made all the creepier by the psychological aspects to the faceless man's character - his vague feeling that he should kill to jog his memories, and his strange sense of vanity prompting him to discard any face that isn't perfect just solidifies him as a classic psychopath, along with the way he talks to Inuyasha, like he's just talking about the weather or making other small talk. It's somewhat chilling.
Much better than the annoying I had to endure in the previous chapter, and the main group managed to behave in this one too, so I have nothing to complain about in this one! Inuyasha got to sensibly use his nose in this one too, which I'm always stoked about, considering sometimes RT seems to forget that Inuyasha has it when it's inconvenient in the moment.
I would say I'm happy as a clam this time around, but while I was writing up this post, I got the news Miroku's English voice actor, Kirby Morrow, has passed away from unknown causes at 47, joining the Miroku's Japanese voice actor, Koji Tsujitani, who passed in 2018. Miroku as a character is trying, and he REALLY pissed me off in my previous review for this manga, but his voice actors were giants, and they will be missed. Rest in peace, Kirby and Koji.
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