Inuyasha Manga: 217 Shiori's Power

I'll try to take some inspiration from little Shiori, then, because today I feel like I'm sorely LACKING power. As I type this cold open, I'm also between stages in cooking a huge celebratory dinner, I have to vacuum later, and shower, and it is the BUSIEST day of the week at work for me, with over 70 items I have to check the progress on over the course of eight hours. It's madness, and has effectively drained me of energy before noon. I'm sitting here yawning, and it's not even DINNERTIME yet. I haven't even managed to get most of my regular chores done yet. 

Laying it all out like that above, I think I'm going to need a lot more than just a little bit of inspiration though...

I feel like characters in this comic talk A LOT about how unforgivable they find the behavior of their enemies. Is that just me, or...?

Taigokumaru giggles, asking Inuyasha what his deal is, if he plans to kill him somehow. Inuyasha yells at him to shut his gob, claiming he won't hold back anymore. Just as much a warning to the little girl sitting in Taigokumaru's palm as a threat to Taigokumaru himself, I'm sure. Miroku wonders if there's any chance of Inuyasha winning, while Kagome, cradling Shiori's unconscious mother, is more concerned about if it's specifically possible to slay Taigokumaru without hurting Shiori. Since it's obvious that Shiori can't control the barrier, Kagome knows that Inuyasha will kill both her and her grandfather even if he cuts the barrier cleanly. 

This is all VERY amusing to Taigokumaru, who questions the assertion that Inuyasha has been holding back until now. He encourages Inuyasha to let him see that full power, shooting another echolocation attack at him. Inuyasha scoffs as the attack approaches, lunging forward with sword raised, at the same time lecturing Taigokumaru that the youki he's vomited at him is just the passage that his own youki needs. It's a rather wordy comeback for such a small window of opportunity. And we all know where he's going with this anyway.

It surprises Taigokumaru that Inuyasha's youki has enveloped his own, and that a whirlwind of both seem to be heading right back at him. At least, that's what the dialog suggests, because Taigokumaru's mask-like appearance doesn't really lend to changes in expression, it seems. Inuyasha thinks this is good, and urges the point of that swirl of youki to go straight through Taigokumaru's head. 

It's really looking like Bakuryuuha peaked the moment it debuted and is never going to move beyond that superfluous starting gate. Sango confirms that the attack was no good, and the barrier has gone back to normal. Kagome and Shippou peer up at Taigokumaru, providing the latter and former parts, respectively, of the astute observation that Taigokumaru remains uninjured. No shit. Inuyasha curses, saying that he was a bit too late? I guess he thinks if he hit Taigokumaru a second earlier, Bakuryuuha would have gone through? What in the world would give him THAT impression?

Taigokumaru chuckles, praising Shiori for how well she defended him. She is not taking THAT backhanded bullshit anymore. 

And just like that, Taigokumaru is flung out of the protective bubble Shiori is projecting, along with the other bats that were chilling in there. Inuyasha makes a shocked noise, while Miroku exclaims in disbelief that Hyakki clan have been ejected from the barrier. 

Taigokumaru curses his granddaughter, a lowly hanyou who kicked his ass right out of her barrier. Although, he does take a moment to acknowledge to himself that she has so much power - even HE wasn't ever able to manipulate the barrier like that. Suddenly, the realism on his characterization is gone. Too much self-awareness! Also, I guess Shiori was hovering in the air waiting patiently for his cogent thought to finish before she starts to tip and fall. Even in her rebellion, she's such a considerate granddaughter. 

Kagome exclaims that Shiori is falling, and Shiori's mother lunges forward, calling out to her in panic. She positions herself under her daughter, intending to catch her, but her attention is caught by the radiating concentric rings of Taigokumaru's echolocation attack heading straight for her. Taigokumaru petulantly says that he won't let a lowly human woman have Shiori, Kagome tries to pull Shiori's mom out of the path of the attack, and Shiori screams for her mother despite her own fall. 

Inuyasha jumps in front of Shiori's mom and Kagome, shouting at Taigokumaru. 

Uhhhhh... I sure hope that tangle of DEATH missed poor Shiori....

Thankfully, after a transition panel of the sun rising over the ocean, we're shown Shiori is okay. No word on HOW she didn't break her little body on the beach, or how narrowly Inuyasha avoided shredding her with Bakuryuuha along with Taigokumaru. Never mind those head-scratchers; the only pain Shiori is enduring right now are the mental scars as she bawls in her mother's arms, who apologizes for giving her a bad memory. Inuyasha and Kagome hang back speechlessly in the background, until Inuyasha turns to his team and suggests they head out, since there's no reason for them to stick around anymore. 

Myouga jumps up and down on Inuyasha's shoulder, protesting in disbelief and anger, asking Inuyasha just what he's saying. Inuyasha looks at him with some surprise at the fact that Myouga is still here. Probably expected him to have run away by then, what with the danger and all. Myouga reminds him, a little loudly, of the reason Inuyasha came here in the first place: to slay a youkai that could produce a tough barrier and let Tessaiga absorb said youkai's blood, thereby making it stronger. Shiori's mom hears this, of course, and tentatively asks if Inuyasha really came here to kill Shiori, still enveloping her in a comforting (likely now protective) embrace. 

Inuyasha confirms that was his aim at first. We all know how bad Inuyasha's aim is, so it's no surprise to anyone, least of all his friends. Miroku comments on the fact that the youkai in question is a tiny baby girl, and Sango adds that she's a hanyou, like Inuyasha. Inuyasha follows up with his own statement that he's not SO low that he would slay a child, and says he'll just find a villain who can create a stronger barrier and kill them instead. Like it's no big deal. Kagome makes the sparkly eyes at Inuyasha for his obvious moral decision. He passed the ethics test; someone buy him a fucking cookie.

Myouga, still suspiciously offended that Inuyasha refuses to murder a little girl, complains that Inuyasha wasn't like THIS before as he hops around on his shoulder. Inuyasha demands to know what THAT'S supposed to mean. Miroku, turning his head in a rather unnatural manner, like an astonished owl, suggests it means Inuyasha has grown up quite a bit. I think it means that Myouga has a thirst for blood in more than one way and he's getting the side-eye from me even more than ever now.

Shiori, honey, when Inuyasha said he would help you do whatever you decide, I don't think he meant for you to decide to let him slice you. I don't think that's a request he's likely to grant, all in all.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It has its issues, most of the same ones that Inuyasha habitually shows. RT's tendency to just gloss over issues she can't write herself out of quickly enough for taste/deadline shows here with Shiori just magically standing on the beach without serious injury despite her fall being made a big deal. And one does have to wonder, after thinking about it for a minute, how Tsukuyomaru even managed to get murdered when he had control of a barrier powerful enough to deflect Taigokumaru's attack, as demonstrated above. In fact, one wonders why he would GIVE UP the family duty of a barrier when it is clearly portable and he could have brought it to the village with him to protect his wife and daughter instead. On it's surface, this story is tragic, but it lacks a little logic under its thin skin.

Still, these are small complaints, and they don't really cut into the important core of this chapter: Shiori's badassery. Anyone who has, as a child, been made to defer to an adult family member who seems to take advantage of their power over them at every opportunity will have been cheering this girl on with gusto during this chapter. She kicked her passive aggressive piece-of-shit grandfather OUT OF HER BUBBLE, and it was something even HE had to admit he'd never been able to do. Not only is it courageous and amazing of a child like her to stand up for herself and her father against a tyrannous jerkwad like that, but she did it in a way that Taigokumaru couldn't have imagined; using his own tool for control against him. 

Shiori is my hero.