Inuyasha Manga: 220 Naraku's Objective

Again, no points for guessing. Unlike his descendant 4chan, Naraku isn't just doing it for the lulz. But LIKE them, he's pretty transparent in his motivations if you're viewing his shenanigans from the right angle. Being all coy and "mysterious" may work when goofing around on Sesshoumaru, since Sesshoumaru hasn't had a lot of experience with Naraku's creepy amalgamative properties. But we know better, dear audience. I know for me, Kagura's run-in with Naraku in his "time of the month" still kind of sticks out to me as the moment that really drove home how this piecemeal creature picked and chose his parts. 

The dramatic irony is palpable. 

That's right, Inuyasha has lost those friends of his. Or rather, they lost him to go check out that Shikon shard sense Kagome was having before, Miroku encouraging him to go on ahead to find Naraku's castle. But now he's getting a little frazzled because he doesn't know what's going on with Naraku's scent starting to disappear. He wonders if this means that Naraku's barrier has closed; no thoughts on why it opened in the first place. I guess it's not exactly pertinent right now, and he'll find out soon enough, because he's resolved to hurry so he doesn't miss his chance to slip in. Entirely fair - I've missed a fair amount of opportunities for thinking too hard about adjacent issues, so I have no room to criticize.

At the castle Inuyasha is trying to rush to, miasma marbles the atmosphere while Naraku chuckles darkly at the stoic Sesshoumaru standing before him, expressing how honored he is to have the princly figure visit him at last. He promises to give Sesshoumaru an appropriate welcome, which comes across much better as a threat in text than I thought it would. Maybe it's how Naraku is creaking as he says it. 

Sesshoumaru's expression suggests he gets welcomed in this manner a lot; maybe wanna step up your hosting game there, Naraku.

Sesshoumaru scoffs, mumbling about scrap youkai mashed together, and asks Naraku if this is his full form, thoroughly unimpressed. Hovering over Sesshoumaru, all lumpy and spindly and everything in between, Naraku denies that this is his real form, introducing it as a work in progress instead. Naraku the positive self-improvement guru - SWERVE. Speaking of which, Naraku sends out a lightning fast tendril at Sesshoumaru. 

Yeah, you wish he was just aiming to kill you.

A ways in the background, hanging out near the stilts of a nearby outbuilding, Kagura stands watching the scene quietly. She doesn't get it, wondering what killing Sesshoumaru gains for Naraku, but then has an epiphany of what Naraku might be trying to pull. She doesn't share her thoughts, just lets them trail, but I assume she's caught up to the rest of the class. 

Meanwhile and elsewhere, Kagome is alerting her friends that the Shikon fragment is close. In the next panel, she's riding on Kirara behind Sango, so I guess they just left Kagome's bike somewhere random. Several hundred years before it was invented. Clearly this girl has never watched a dystopian time-travel movie in her life. Anyway, Miroku suggests that it's rather troubling that this Shikon shard is so close to Naraku's castle. Kagome agrees, and adds hesitantly that she thinks it might be a SINGLE fragment. 

Sango glances over her shoulder at Kagome with a critical look, who recalls that Sango's younger brother has a single Shikon shard in his back. Sango herself remains quiet, but inside she's wondering if it's Kohaku in disbelief. Good guess?

Back at the ranch (overrun with a horde of youkai), Rin has tucked into that melon and is asking Kohaku if he doesn't remember anything. He confirms that's the case somberly, and Rin probes in more specific terms, about his mother and father. After a pause, turned away from Rin so she can't see his sulky expression, he claims he's forgotten them. She makes a non-committal noise, wondering to herself if it's really that he's forgotten. In his own mind, Kohaku thinks that it isn't as though he's forgotten as he seems to remember something vaguely terrible.

It's almost as if Rin reads his mind when she suggests that it's really something Kohaku doesn't WANT to remember. Kohaku hums, giving her a curious look. 

... How are you BOTH ripping my whole heart from my chest at the same time??

Things are quiet between them for a moment until Rin asks if she's said too much, explaining that she's often told to shut up. My dear sweet baby child! Kohaku assures her it's okay, and it's been a long time since he's talked to someone like this. And that's the salt in the gaping wound between my ribs. Thanks. 

At the sound of a rustle outside, Kohaku lurches onto a knee, suddenly alert. He blows out the flame in the lamp burning nearby while Rin asks what's up. He tells her to be quiet, clearly not picking up on the entirely undramatic irony of him being yet another person to tell her to shut her trap. Sadness. 

Kohaku's eyes widen in recognition when he spots Sango. Sango in turn stares at the building and wonders if Kohaku is inside. 

Yeah. Good guess.

Back at the... other... ranch, nightmare-form-Naraku is towering over Sesshoumaru with his various limbs and organs propping him up high, while Sesshoumaru draws Tokijin. Fools about to face off. 

Undoubtedly one of the benefits to designing your main villain as a horrible Cronenberg monstrosity is that you can make fight scene look like utter nonsense and it still looks fine. 

Hunks of flesh Sesshoumaru sliced off fall to the ground, and Naraku holds up his severed tentacle, pausing the attack. Sesshoumaru smarms that a low-grade youkai like Naraku won't be able to lay a finger on him. Considering Naraku isn't attacking you with fingers so much as weird boneless appendages, that's probably too narrow of a statement, dude. Naraku chuckles at Sesshoumaru, maybe because the same thing has occurred to him, and Kagura watches tensely in the background. 

She's the first to spot the lumps of Naraku's flesh on the ground wriggle around and reconnect with one another, sweatdropping anxiously. What comes next is... well, I'm not sure what to think about this:

I mean, ew, but also meh.

Another set of tendrils drive at Sesshoumaru, he cuts them off, and their severed ends jump up from the ground to wrap around his empty sleeve. He looks annoyed. In contrast, Naraku's grin grows wider as he giggles internally about how the pieces of him Sesshoumaru is mincing are being wrapped around their liberator. He's about to mentally reveal what this means when it fully hits Kagura that he's trying to absorb Sesshoumaru into his body. DING DING DING, we have a winner! Though I've already mentioned that there are no points for guessing the obvious, so...

Sorry, Kagura, your prize is nothing. 

Inuyasha is wandering around in what looks like an empty wilderness, by the way. He's alarmed and unnerved by what he picks up as SESSHOUMARU'S scent, wondering what's going on. I'm more surprised by how Inuyasha didn't pick up on Sesshoumaru's scent until right now - how RANK must Naraku be to waft his musk MILES ahead of Sesshoumaru's anyway??? He should probably consider a bath or something...

Inuyasha notices as well that Sesshoumaru's scent seems to just vanish at a certain spot, so he whips out that Tessaiga of his. Despite phrasing it in the form of a question, Inuyasha has drawn the ONE conclusion he can from the odd disappearance of his brother's smell in the area he'd followed Naraku's scent to. Unless, of course, he's willing to consider that Sesshoumaru stepped into some sort of wormhole into a different dimension. 

... Which will be a reasonable thing to think a bit later in the story. Just not now.

And lucky for you, it's big enough you don't even HAVE to have proper aim!

So what did I think of this chapter overall? There's just a little bit of an issue with the conclusions a couple of characters draw in this one; not quite as bad as in the past, but it is a little weird that Kagome and Sango's heads both seem to jump right to Kohaku when Kagome mentions it's just one Shikon shard she's sensing. They haven't gotten to a point in the story where they know precisely where ALL of the fragments are yet, so I think it would have been better for them to be shocked by it being Kohaku instead of just suspecting it was him. 

And Kagura really should have understood from the beginning what Naraku was up to - SHE'S the one who saw his body spread out in the basement there only a few chapters ago, so I should think Sesshoumaru ending up mixed in there would have been the FIRST thing to occur to her when he was invited over to play. I get the impression from the title and progression of the chapter that RT was trying to make this minor mystery out of it, but it really wasn't difficult to figure out from the off, so a lot of her efforts there were a bit superfluous. 

At least Inuyasha had enough clues to draw his conclusions, and put them together in a reasonably short amount of time. One out of three ain't bad? Strange, considering RT has been making him out to be a bit of a dunderhead, at least in relation to his more discerning companions. Perhaps since they weren't there, he was able to exercise a little intelligence without it being overshadowed or mocked.

Otherwise, I rather enjoyed this chapter, in the sense that it was tragically cathartic in a way. Kohaku and Rin just continue to demonstrate how lonely they have both been for a long time, and how their trauma hasn't really been explored in a healthy way. Their lives have been steeped in tragedy, and neither of them have had the opportunity to just DISCUSS it with anyone - Kohaku is surrounded by enemies and is probably under the influence of magical brainwashing half the time, and Rin's only companions are a couple of adult youkai who don't really listen to her. It's clear that they found almost immediate comfort in just having someone to talk to who GETS what they're going through. It's a really beautiful connection they made under the strangest of circumstances, and I am LIVING for it. Not to mention how emotionally competent Rin is when teasing out Kohaku's issues and commiserating with him... She sure as hell didn't get that from her two new dads. Rin's got a big heart, and even when she's expressing it in very sad terms, it's adorable.

Finally, it tickles me to no end that Naraku CANONICALLY stinks to high heaven. I mean, are those tentacles or cartoon stink-lines wafting out from him?? Not the greatest thing to think about right now - I'm getting ready to venture out to get my second covid shot, and when I come back, I'm hoping I'll be feeling well enough to make honey-lavender cupcakes for my birthday, or at least well enough to celebrate my birthday in ANY capacity. Thinking about Naraku's stench will probably only contribute to potential queasiness, but at the same time... it's just too funny.

Wish me luck with THAT dilemma.