Thanks chapter, but I've decided to focus on my mind this year. I'm trying to use most of my free time getting back into picking back up linguistic pursuits, and working a bit on my original writing. I've got a few ideas that I'm just pantsing away to see where they take me, because my well of creativity has been feeling a bit dry for the past few years. I have a suspicion that I was focusing a bit too much on other peoples' creative work, fixating on rather than taking inspiration from it. Luckily, I feel like I've finally loosened my grip on the stuff that I latched onto before, and I can turn my attention to the stories I want to tell. It seemed like a loss at first, letting go, but I've come to realize I'm ready.
Don't know, Inuyasha. Maybe you can find it by senselessly hacking away at it for the 50th time in a row?
Musou giggles that he's slowly getting used to this body, while he aims another spiked arm at Inuyasha. Inuyasha leaps aside to dodge the Mr. Incredible fist, and it craters the ground instead. Fresh off of that dodge, Inuyasha just manages to perceive a lightning fast blur above his head before it slashes down on him and tears into his shoulder. This scorpion tail-ish limb is followed by a regular old hand shooting forward on Musou's rubber arm, which wraps around Inuyasha's neck.
Dammit, that stranglehold is going to cut off even MORE bloodflow to his brain!
Miroku astutely observes that Musou has transformed again, with dismay, I'm sure. Meanwhile, Kaede is freaking out, demanding to know what the hell happened to this dude's body. I love that she's the only person so far who has something of a normal reaction to this so far. Miroku mansplains that Naraku is a conglomerate of a ton of different youkai built around Onigumo as a connector, and that Musou is a detachment OF Naraku. For some reason, the next natural topic of discussion he wants to start in this thread is how MANY youkai were mixed in with Musou when he separated from Naraku, instead of, I don't know, how they're going to get Inuyasha out of Musou's multi-youkai'ed grip. He also wonders how Musou can regrow, and if he's immortal, which is at least a LITTLE closer to where his head should be at, so I'll allow it.
Meanwhile, Inuyasha gets speared right through the stomach by that scorpion-tail-like limb, planting a slack-jawed wide-eyed look of shock on Inuyasha's face. Through all this, though, Inuyasha manages to spit out a word or two of angry protest. He swings Tessaiga and unleashes another Kaze no Kizu at Musou, who is blown apart once again. It gives Inuyasha a new moment of reprieve once again, at the very least.
How in the hell did all the flesh SURROUNDING that particularly important piece shredded, and not the piece itself? The level of convenience here is STAGGERING.
Regardless of how lucky Musou happens to be not to be dead at the moment, seeing this organ collecting the surrounding diced parts around it, and completing that spider scar on Musou's back like a serial killer's puzzle, it catches Miroku's attention. As Musou continues to coalesce back into a full person instead of an overturned Halloween anatomy mannequin, Inuyasha hauls himself up from the ground using Tessaiga as a crutch, complaining that this is happening again. He has to admit to himself at leas that he can't keep this up forever, no matter how tough he is.
At this moment, Miroku calls out to Inuyasha about the spider on Musou's back. He runs toward Inuyasha, explaining in a hurry that the pieces of Musou are collecting around the general area of the spider scar. At first, Inuyasha is confused, asking what Miroku is talking about regarding a certain "area" of Musou's body. Miroku yells that he saw the part sitting just under the spider scar pulsating, and trails off while stating that this is probably where that important part is. Inuyasha finishes Miroku's statement with a thought about a heart.
Inuyasha, for the love of all that is good, don't SUCK at aiming this time.
Looking at the cracks left in the ground by the numerous times he's already used Kaze no Kizu, Inuyasha thinks that one of those countless lines spread out from his signature attack is bound to hit Musou's heart. Of course if that logic were valid, then he definitely would have gotten it by NOW. Regardless, he throws ANOTHER Kaze no Kizu at Musou, yelling his certainty that this one should crush him. As it heads straight at Musou, Inuyasha thinks desperately that it'll work, but with gritted teeth and an expression that suggests perhaps MAAAAAYBE he's not so sure.
Suddenly, a crescent of razor-sharp air speeds out of the sky from Kagura sitting on her feather that Inuyasha identifies as one of her wind blades.
Clever gal that she is, she knew when a bullshit protagonist win is playing out.
Her blade slices all the way through Musou and slams into the ground, throwing up debris. While Miroku looks on in shock and Kaede wonders just what in the world THAT was, Inuyasha calls Kagura a jerk and complains that she knocked Onigumo's heart out of Kaze no Kizu's path. Miroku takes that as confirmation that Musou's weak point is his heart, and Inuyasha scoffs at this, probably 75% or more of the way to calling him Captain Obvious. Instead he points out that, at any rate, they're not exactly trying to hide it.
Indeed, the Saimyoushou have converged upon Musou's torso, lifting the spider-scarred piece of it into the air as the rest of him twitches before ascending in mincemeat form after them as though towed behind on strings. Inuyasha puts away Tessaiga, but commands Miroku to come with him after them, to which Miroku gives an affirmative. As they're on the wasp's trail, Inuyasha thinks that he had guessed Musou was no ordinary Naraku offspring. Though it's clear that Musou is Onigumo after all, Inuyasha has realized that it's MORE than just that. He recalls the time when Kikyou fled the giant shinidamachuu, her souls escaping her against her will, and that that was to eliminate her and therefore Onigumo's feelings for her. Inuyasha works out that Onigumo would be quite the interference for Naraku, and wonders if that's why he brought Onigumo out like an offspring.
Inuyasha is, surprisingly, starting to ask the right questions. But he doesn't dwell on them long, concluding that right now, Kagura and the saimyoushou are being used to protect Musou. He watches them retreat into the distance.
Sky transition into a shallow swampy area, where Musou is whole again, standing from the water and surrounded by wasps. Musou curses that jerk Inuyasha, and his doing the same useless thing over and over. For the first and last time, Musou and I share a frustration. He looks around, wondering just where it is he's ended up.
In Hell to meet his maker, I presume.
Naraku gives him a devious little smile, calling him Onigumo at first, and then correcting himself to address him by his new chosen name, Musou. He then muses on how they've come to face each other like this. Whether it's how he knew both his names, or the pompous faux-philosophizing, Musou is able to correctly identify Naraku for who he is.
Something that they really need to have a series of joint counseling sessions to work out, by the looks of things.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's really frustrating, because there's nothing interesting about this fight. It could have been visually interesting, if I hadn't seen RT do better on the creative points in many prior chapters. The best part of it was when Musou was pulling the old "watch this hand while I bring down a surprise strike from above" trick, but that's also pretty basic as far as fight dynamics go.
I think what's at the core of my disappointment here is that RT is hanging the gaudiest and loudest lampshade on the fact that she couldn't think up a more creative way for Inuyasha to almost beat Musou. She draws our ATTENTION to the fact that Inuyasha is doing the same thing over and over at the very end of the chapter, acknowledging that it's absurd, but for some reason, just a couple of pages prior, implies that it might have worked if allowed to proceed in that one instance even though it hadn't worked any of the other times before. RT writing herself into a corner only to shrug her shoulders and teleporting the characters out of trouble seems to be an increasing occurrence in this comic, one I didn't really notice until I started looking closely. Sometimes it can't be helped, because there's literally nothing else to be done, but in this case... she could have just made Inuyasha hold off on a direct attack due to Musou's flailing obscuring limbs until the moment when she wanted him to actually attack the part that mattered. It would have been THAT easy. Have Miroku note that the spider scar on Musou's back pulsed or something when flesh was being drawn back to the main body.
But no, we get, "It never worked! Until it did!" narrative hijinks instead. Really, it doesn't get much more eye-roll worthy than that.
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