Forgive me, but I don't give a FUCK about what that man's wish is. If we have to conk him over the head and drag his unconscious ass into the doctor's office, he is GETTING vaccinated. He can waffle and hand-wave all he wants; we are in the middle of a damn pandemic, and he is higher risk. My grandmother went in to get her own vaccination last week, because she remembers I've forbidden her from getting sick. My damn fool of a dad better remember too, before I smack him one!
THIS winged dipshit, on the other hand, can get fucked. His bat-ass probably already has covid anyway.
Remember those angry village men who ganged up on Shiori's mom? Well, now they're stammering that INUYASHA can be the one to take care of the bat-mob, begging him to please do something. Inuyasha recognizes them as those guys he pummeled before, and says he would have wasted Taigokumaru even if they hadn't asked, only to help and bring back Shiori. These guys look downright scandalized by his deliberate support for Shiori, and one of them asserts that she's an ally of the Hyakki Bats. Inuyasha suggests that what they REALLY mean to request is that he get rid of them altogether. The two men, with transparently hateful glares, confirm that this is exactly what they expect because Shiori is a youkai child after all. Just said the quiet part out loud like that. Wow.
Kagome and Mom stare over at the men with disgust, the former thinking how utterly cruel their attitude is, especially since Shiori was separated from her mother and went to live with the Hyakki Bats for the sake of the village in the first place. Sango leans over to ask Miroku if these aren't the kinds of guys Inuyasha would hate the most. Miroku responds that it's understandable, since this is the kind of treatment Inuyasha has gotten himself in the past. Shippou stares wide-eyed over Miroku's shoulder like he's expecting a fight to break out. Kagome calls out to Inuyasha tentatively; he HAS been strangely tolerant of this bullshit from the village men, not really pushing back against it thus far.
Inuyasha raises his voice to address Shiori, asking if she heard that, and warning her that it might not be very nice returning to a village full of people who hate her for no reason. She identifies him as the guy who accompanied her mother to the cave earlier in the day, looking down at him with a curious expression. He offers to help her, if she still wants to come back to the village.
I mean, if you've totally disregarded endearing yourself to your captive granddaughter at this point and are just relying on being stronger than this guy who is clearly better at it than you, then there's one BIG way in which he could get the upper hand...
Taigokumaru giggles, asking for confirmation that Inuyasha is hanyou too, because he sure smells that way to the big ol' bat. He suggests that Inuyasha is remembering his own abuse, and pitying Shiori through projection. Shiori looks even MORE intrigued by Inuyasha now, knowing that he's the same as her. Always a step behind in the conversation, but a sweetheart nonetheless. Inuyasha insists that she decide now whether she wants to return to the village or not, and she's pretty sure she wants to go back with her mother, but she still hesitates to say so. Her grandfather suggests that she understands if she stops protecting him with the barrier, then her mother's life is forfeit. It speaks to how big a piece of garbage Taigokumaru is that he outright admits at this point that he's extorting a tiny little girl.
Frustrated, Shiori exclaims that she doesn't understand, and asks what she should do. Taigokumaru acts outraged that this brat would confuse Shiori, and fires one of his echolocation attacks again. It doesn't seem to actually hit anything, nor does Inuyasha appear to dodge. In the next panel, he's just standing on the ground, cursing. I kind of wish I had someone to yell at RT not to confuse ME like this, but alas, I do not. Probably for the best, honestly, because a true parallel would be just as much of a dick to me as Taigokumaru is to Shiori, and I don't have a child's compliance anymore.
Inuyasha draws Tessaiga and bids Shiori to just protect herself with her barrier. This statement has Taigokumaru in angry disbelief, and he calls Inuyasha a brat again as that there brat releases a one of his signature Kaze no Kizus.
Not that we expected this to be easy or anything.
Taigokumaru looks down at Shiori sitting in his palm and praises her for a job well done. Meanwhile, Inuyasha observes a little too late that Taigokumaru has a hug barrier surrounding him, as well as the rest of the bats. Inuyasha had THOUGHT that if any part of Taigokumaru's body had gotten outside the barrier, they'd have had a chance, but he supposes that this means Shiori can't adjust the size of her barrier. Look at this little scientist! Performing experiments and drawing conclusions from them! Adorable.
Taigokumaru points himself at them and a whole group of crackling energy fans out from his mouth. It might be that he's diving at them and his attack is stretching to either side, or a phalanx of bats are coordinating each of their echolocation attacks at the beach. It's kind of unclear. Inuyasha turns and tries to warn the villagers to watch out and run away, in a somewhat lack-luster manner. Gee, I wonder why.
Oh no, the village men who beat up Shiori's mom are getting knocked around too. Say it ain't so.
When the attacks clear, men are laying splayed out among several deep trenches carved into the sand. Kagome expresses horror at the destruction as she and Shiori's mom sit sprawled to the side. Some of the villagers sit up and confirm for us that they're not dead, but one severely injured man bleeding from the head reaches out a shaking hand in supplication for someone to save him. Shiori's mom looks upon him with pity, then shoots to her feet, running to beg Taigokumaru to stop.
He hums at her in question, and Mom reiterates that the village was at peace when his son, Tsukuyomaru, lived there, because he protected them. She says that Tsukuyomaru wished for his daughter to live in peace and for the village not to be attacked all the damn time. Shiori looks down at her mother, eyes wide, as Shiori asks Taigokumaru to consider those feelings of his son.
Taigokumaru laughs about these feelings she references, calling them nonsense. The only feelings that make sense are Taigokumaru's, apparently. And Taigokumaru feels that Tsukuyomaru was a damn fool, even though he was his son. According to Taigokumaru, Junior hastened his own death by falling in love with a human. The implication is clear enough here that Inuyasha and Kagome look all the angrier and horrified for it in the background (respectively), but Shiori's mom is so taken aback that she's speechless for a moment. Then she has to ask just what Taigokumaru means by this.
He reminds her that she said herself Tsukuyomaru wanted her village protected, and adds that Junior threatened to abdicate his position as protector of the barrier inherited through his father, even leave his own bat clan, if this request of his couldn't be managed. Taigokumaru calls this a degeneration of his youkai heart to the level of a human woman's. That's rich coming from a guy whose ideology seems to be 99% shared with the human alt-right.
Mom looks close to tears down below while Taigokumaru starts to make the connection between Tsukuyomaru standing up for his human lover and their baby, and his death. Before he can get it out, though, an infuriated Inuyasha interrupts to spit a trailing accusation that Taigokumaru can't POSSIBLY mean what he's building up to - that he couldn't have POSSIBLY done something to his son. Taigokumaru takes this in stride, giggling again to confirm that he did indeed.
Took a while for him to spit it out, huh?
Mom faints, and Kagome and Miroku kneel on either side of her, the former calling out to her in worry, the latter encouraging her to hang in there. Inuyasha calls Taigokumaru a bastard that he'll never forgive, and vows to tear that piece of shit apart. Taigokumaru chuckles and tells Inuyasha he can TRY, but reminds Inuyasha that Shiori can't adjust the size of the barrier. He warns Inuyasha that if by some miracle he manages to cut through the barrier, Shiori will die too. Inuyasha appears to balk at this, snarling, but hesitating to charge like he would normally have done.
Meanwhile...
Taigokumaru may as well have poured pig's blood all over our girl here.
She's gonna go ape-shit.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The only real complaint I had was how drawn out the revelation that Taigokumaru murdered his son was. I don't know if there was anyone who didn't see it coming, especially when Shiori made it a point to wonder why her father died before. All the stretching of that scene did was fill a couple of pages, and I get the feeling that RT wasn't quite sure how to take up that space otherwise. It would have been more classically dramatic otherwise, but as it stands, it seems more intentionally delayed.
Otherwise, I'm really rather impressed with the way this chapter, and Inuyasha, set up Shiori's outcome as her choice. In particular, Inuyasha is careful to put the ball in Shiori's court, gently but firmly. He has a lot more patience with her than he does with some other younger characters he's dealt with before, which in itself says a lot. Part of that is undoubtedly because she's a girl, but the other part is that he seems to realize he's in a unique position to sort of mentor her in this situation, since he grew up much like she did. Feeling torn between two sides of a conflict that resent you for existing in that position canNOT be easy, but Inuyasha doesn't sugarcoat it for her; he outwardly tells her that returning to the village probably won't be pleasant for her.
And yet, even as he's pointing out how awful both the Hyakki Bats AND the human villagers are outwardly being, he reframes this issue as a CHOICE for Shiori. Up until this point, Shiori has only known herself in the context of how others view her, and how others can use her. The humans in the village eagerly give her away to her grandfather, who makes her sit and project a barrier all day. But no one ever told her she had the power to choose what SHE wanted to do and where she wanted to go. Being encouraged to take control of what she wants and have some agency in her life, even with someone else's helping hand, is confusing to her at first... but it's POWERFUL.
It also returns some depth and nuance to Inuyasha's character that we haven't gotten the opportunity to see in a while. Inuyasha is actually extremely kind and empathetic, and he's perfectly willing to help others even if he sometimes complains about it. His real complaint seems to not be HELPING so much as SAVING - this chapter has shown that he doesn't just want to rescue helpless victims, but ASSIST others in asserting themselves, showing them how to carve out that place for themselves like he had to do.
Inuyasha's got some wisdom deep down in there. REAL deep.
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