Inuyasha Manga: 215 Shiori's Barrier

Lucky. I think I could use a barrier of my own, for various different reasons. I could say it's because I'd like to protect myself from falling debris, since my parents down in Colorado recently had reason to think about that. I could say it's because people shoot each other for breakfast over here in the good ol' US of A, and I keep getting bullet-proof vests advertised to me anyway that increasingly look practical. I could even say it's because I would like to keep people 6 feet away from me at the grocery store during an ongoing pandemic, because they really don't seem to like keeping their distance. 

But really, I think the number one reason I could use my own barrier is that I'd like to walk in all kinds of weather while staying nice and dry and comfortable. A wet jacket is no fun, especially when you have to walk an hour or more for essentials.

Kiddo has amazing eyesight - I don't know if I could identify MY mommy from that distance. Odd for a bat, even if she IS only half a bat. 

A pair of huge eyes appear behind Shiori, a sight that gives seems to unsettle Inuyasha a little. Mom is still hugging the cliffside behind him, with a similar expression. Taigokumaru moves forward to reveal himself in the light, giggling that he thought he had heard some sort of noise. Shiori's mom yells his name in fresh rage.

Hmm, I guess the cliffside was a bit closer to the cave than I thought. Either Taigokumaru is dwarfing the distance with his massive size, or there's not really a clear scale here...

Mom reminds Taigokumaru of the terms under which she handed over Shiori, that he wouldn't attack the village anymore, and trails off in her accusation of him not upholding his end of the deal. Taigokumaru chuckles, and mocks her for actually BELIEVING that. Well, the innocent act didn't last long, did it? He asked if she really honestly thought that a youkai like him would keep a promise to a human like her. Says the guy who DEPENDED on her believing such a thing in order to shaft her in the first place... 

While Shiori's mom looks furious that Taigokumaru is arguing that it's her own fault he's garbage, Inuyasha looks thoroughly unimpressed by this bullshit conversation. Mom demands Shiori back and Shiori calls to her longingly, appearing only too eager to leave the cave. But Taigokumaru says this isn't an option, because Shiori has to be the barrier protector for the rest of her life. He praises her magnificent performance of the duty, in fact, following after her father in so perfect a form, you wouldn't know she's a hanyou. Backhanded compliments to encourage a child to work harder for praise and affection? The assholery just keeps piling up, doesn't it?

Inuyasha suggests to Mom that the only way to get Shiori back is by force, and she seems a bit on the skeptical side that he can DO that. Inuyasha points out that the old bat is a bit on the overconfident side (a state he would know by experience, no doubt), and he's moved in front of Shiori, so Inuyasha reckons he can take the this guy out without hurting the little girl. Clearly he hasn't broken the news to this little girl's mom that he's only here to murder her too. 

So, Inuyasha, further settling himself comfortably in the role of unthinking shooty-cutty-guy, lets loose a Kaze no Kizu at Taigokumaru in the stated belief he can just wipe him out. Wasn't there something about a big bad barrier that was tied to why you were so interested in confronting the bats from the beginning? Or am I misremembering?

Hm, guess not.

For some reason, the very character that told Inuyasha about the fabled power of this bat barrier, Myouga, bounces around on Inuyasha's shoulder in indignant shock that Tessaiga's blow has been repulsed. Memory problems EVERYWHERE! Sweating, Myouga mumbles that the Hyakki Bat barrier is terrible, as rough as the rumors indicated. 

Taigokumaru first asks who this brat who's attacking him is, then...

Inuyasha curses, perched with Mom atop the intact crest of the short cliff, which is now curved precariously over the hole cut out from under it by Taigokumaru's echolocation attack. Taigokumaru giggles some more, promising he won't miss the next time. Shiori begs him to stop and not to hurt her mother, swearing that she'll fulfill her duty as best she can. Taigokumaru asks if Mom and Inuyasha hear Shiori, because she gets it. Then he poses this bullshit question about whether they think Shiori can really be happy if she returns to the village now. As opposed to hanging out miserable in a cave for the rest of her life? She sure does have some great fulfillment prospects, huh?

But Taigokumaru is hamming it up, saying he knows that the villagers hate Shiori because she's a hanyou, and that's why they brought her to him so they could save themselves. He concludes with a phony implication that he couldn't possibly send his precious granddaughter back to that disgusting village. Inuyasha glances wordlessly at Shiori's mom, who hangs her head in shame. 

Well if that isn't more relatable the older I get.

Shiori's mom admits that Taigokumaru wasn't lying; Shiori and she are rather despised in the village. Mom says it's better in the end that Shiori is with the Hyakki Bats. Inuyasha scoffs that this is naive, and Mom shoots him what looks more like a glare than a questioning glance, such as Kagome is displaying. She's probably annoyed at how massively Inuyasha has misinterpreted her hopelessness. Inuyasha elaborates that youkai never accept hanyou as a companion, even if they're relatives. Shippou pipes up that he's accepted Inuyasha, and HE'S a full youkai, and Myouga does the same, but Inuyasha snaps that these small fry are just using him for protection in the end. 

Miroku smoothly changes the subject to how they won't be able to get anywhere if Inuyasha can't break a certain barrier. Sango asks if that isn't what Inuyasha came here for in the first place, prompting Kagome to remind the audience herself that if Inuyasha slays a youkai that can create a powerful barrier, absorbing its blood with Tessaiga's blade, the sword's power will increase and it will be able to slice through Naraku's barrier too. She knows that there's no way Inuyasha would slay a little hanyou girl, though. 

Meanwhile, in the cave, Shiori sits in the growing dark, desperately wanting to see her mother. Tears brimming in her eyes, she wishes her father was alive, and wonders why he died. A blatant indication that there was a reason other than natural causes if I've ever seen one! 

Clocked in for the night shift of murder, eh boys?

The bats form a dark cloud on the horizon across the water next to the village, getting Miroku's attention when he exits Mom's hut. Sango follows him out and finishes his exclamation of alarm, identifying it as a swarm of Hyakki Bats. Mom pushes aside the mat over her door to state they're heading for the village, Inuyasha and Kagome approaching the door behind her as well. Kagome makes a noise of concern, but Inuyasha just wears a classic glare.

The bats descend as actual shadows on the village, grabbing a few free-roaming dudes and chowing down on them right then and there. Hiraikotsu tears right through them quickly, though, returning to Sango atop Kirara, who is hovering behind the gaping Inuyasha, Kagome and Miroku as they run to the scene. The human victims lay bloodied and motionless on the beach, being lapped at by the waves, and there are quite a few of them, leaving Kagome and Shippou gaping in utter horror. Shiori's mom says the bats are intending to eradicate the village entirely, which sounds exactly like what a douchebag who wants to flex his muscles would do, so that's an entirely fair assessment. 

The bat-mob comes back around to have another go at the village, and Miroku rips the beads off his right hand, telling everyone to stand back so he can thin them out a bit. He declares the Kazaana, which pulls in a stream of bats before a familiar echolocation attack shoots down from above him. Inuyasha has to yank Miroku out of its way by the back of his robes so he doesn't get obliterated. 

Typical - starts a fight and then complain when you throw a punch right back.

Mom stares open-mouthed up at Taigokumaru, as if awed by the cojones on this guy to pull this kind of assholery. Not literally, of course. I assume that's why he's wearing pants. Inuyasha yells at this bastard, but trails off when he sees that in the palm of Taigokumaru's hand sits poor Shiori, who is in shock over the village being destroyed. Taigokumaru tells her to ignore them, because they're the ones who bullied her and her mother. He urges her not to worry either.

Dunno Inuyasha, why don't you start swinging your sword at the problem like you do with every other one these days?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Taigokumaru is so frustratingly familiar - he's every scumbag emotionally manipulative patriarch whose "traditional values" form a network of exclusion that paint the outsiders as beneath everyone in a select group of elites, of which he is the leader, of course. He deals with the outside group only when he has to, and never thinks twice about waving off any complaints or outright abuses they suffer. To a rational person, it seems pointless and hypocritical that Taigokumaru would make a deal with Shiori's mom just to break it, especially when he thinks it's absolutely unacceptable that Inuyasha and co killed his family when they are the aggressors. But the classical patriarch only thinks in terms of the in-group's benefit and superiority, and more specifically, his own. Because Taigokumaru thinks of humans as a resource to be controlled rather than autonomous creatures, he doesn't feel like he owes them a fair deal; THEY'RE the ones who owe HIM the meat on their bones. He'll PRETEND to negotiate with the village for their salvation, but only to get his. After that, he'll just go back to treating the out-group like dirt, and blame their base, stupid, gullibility for believing they could be on a level to negotiate in their own to begin with.

Which is GREAT characterization for a guy who's going to disappear after this short arc (spoiler alert). I'm starting to notice a pattern in this series; the one-off mini arc characters who never show up again tend to lead more interesting and richer lives in the short time they're given, and in the meantime, our mains are sort of becoming caricatures of themselves. The latter part of that statement is kind of inevitable for a long-running series full of episodic content, because there's a tendency for the author to rely a bit more heavily on a simpler and more accessible tropes for their characters as time goes on. You can usually see the way a character has gotten less nuanced when you compare them at the beginning of the series to them at the end, so this is something you generally expect to see.

The former part of that statement is a bit of an oddity, though, because RT has a talent for creating memorable characters with very little time. It's kind of astounding how relatable she can make a one-off character in just a chapter, actually. But that ends up acting against her as the series wears on, and she's grown used to writing Inuyasha and friends with a less nuanced pen, while giving their short-lived co-stars very thoughtful and interesting development in little to no time flat. It's a vivid contrast, and not one that is flattering, to say the least.