RT didn't take long getting us to the payoff for the previous arc, did she? In no time at all Inuyasha is cutting right through that pesky Naraku's barrier. And here my stupid ass is, prepared to make this rush-order my 500th review on this blog. That's right - I've officially written roasting recaps and analyses for 500 total chapters of two manga here, which might be the most batshit thing I've ever done. If not batshit, it's putting way more effort into this content than RT spent creating it in the first place. And if that isn't an argument for reader-response criticism, I don't know what is.
... The miasma is still detectable outside the barrier? Or is that just the remnant of Naraku's scent before it disappears behind the barrier?
Either way, Inuyasha lets out a primal yell as he slashes that barrier like it's an offensive jello mold. The castle wobbles into view, Inuyasha noting it with nervous triumph and the smallest of sweatdrops. Naraku's not looking the most comfortable either.
A close-up shows Naraku's slack-jawed alarm while he wonders who the party-crasher is. Whoever it is, they can damage his barrier from the outside, and clearly that upsets poor sensitive Naraku a bit. He turns toward the stilted building, yelling at Kagura to get her ass over to the disturbance, her responding with a little surprise of her own. I guess she was rather absorbed in watching the showdown in front of her.
Sesshoumaru has worked out that Naraku has a visitor, and snarks that he feels sorry for whoever it is, being unable to meet him alive after coming all this way. He punctuates the last part of his statement with another swing of his sword, which sends more pieces of Naraku's body flying, raining down around Sesshoumaru himself. Naraku seems to have momentarily forgotten his barrier being busted into, gleeful in his assessment that it'll only take a bit more. He thinks at Sesshoumaru that he'll soon be eaten up by the flesh building around him, and become a part of it.
Meanwhile, Kagura floats toward the breach in the barrier on her enlarged feather.
No, she's not taken-aback by his strange ballet pose and how it's not even clear that he's on the ground at all - she's noticed that Tessaiga is red now.
As Kagura touches down in front of Inuyasha, he acknowledges her with a combative shout. She asks for confirmation that he was the one who cut the barrier, and Inuyasha sarcastically fires back that she should be able to tell by looking. Then he declares her incapable of standing up against him now, so he barks that she'd better stand aside if she understands that much, because otherwise he'll rip her apart. He's still got a sweatdrop going there, though.
Kagura has one too, though, and considers him as he is now; someone who may actually be able to kill Naraku. She extrapolates her freedom from such an outcome, too. But she notices there are some Saimyoushou hovering in her periphery, silently cursing them. Kagura flips open her fan, telling Inuyasha that she can't step aside because she's being watched, a statement that seems to surprise Inuyasha a little.
Sure hope those wasps aren't Naraku's EARS as well, otherwise you just played yourself, girl.
The wind blades Kagura shoots at Inuyasha ricochet off the flat of Tessaiga's blade, and Inuyasha gapes in disbelief. He feels there's no murderous intent in the attack at all, something that MIGHT have been strange if she hadn't just outright declared she was pretending to fight. Not that he has any reason to take her at her word, a default stance that probably should have been considered a couple of arcs ago instead of being shoehorned in here, but I digress...
More movement out of the corner of Kagura's eye catches her attention; there's a whole swarm of generic youkai on their way to back her up. Or keep her honest, rather.
Kagura wordlessly rises back up into the air on her feather above the carnage. Naraku becomes momentarily distracted again as he glances to the side, knowing whatever has broken through is getting closer. He's bitter that damn Kagura failed to kill whatever the hell it is, glowering off beyond the courtyard. Sesshoumaru, no doubt feeling neglected, points out that Naraku's concerns seem to be elsewhere, and Naraku admits that he won't be able to have a leisurely battle with him like he originally intended - he's gotta spring for that perfect youkai power he's got his eye on immediately.
Dude doesn't look thrilled, and I can't blame him. Getting eaten up by Naraku appears to be a rather... squishy process.
Almost simultaneously, Inuyasha leaps into the scene from above, screaming at Naraku. Naraku glares up at him as he asks for confirmation that this is his real form. Not that Naraku's going to have the time or patience to repeat the delicate "work-in-progress" phrasing he presented to Sesshoumaru. A better angle at Naraku's expression shows he's a bit more on the disbelieving side than the annoyed one while he beholds that it's INUYASHA who's broken into his palace. Inuyasha gives him no room to recover from the initial surprise, offering him a quick Kaze no Kizu as a gift.
He's gotta bring SOMETHING, especially since he wasn't invited to this particular party.
Accepted with the kind of grace we've come to expect from the gross bug-tentacle-man. He is just so utterly mystified by his bubble being popped twice as his torso falls to the ground.
The first thing Kagura notices as she flies over the scene is that Sesshoumaru has been covered in the sentient pieces of Naraku; where he stood is now a big mound of flesh, but not for long. The mound splits before Inuyasha, and crumbles away to reveal a totally unscathed Sesshoumaru, having wrapped his sword arm over his head and knelt in the thick of the swarm of flesh. Seriously, the guy doesn't have so much as a SCRATCH. Clearly there wasn't much time for the digestion to kick in.
Inuyasha gapes at his brother emerging from the pile of muck, who stands and suggests it's rather ironic that the flesh Naraku meant to consume him with actually ended up protecting him against Kaze no Kizu. He's looking far more smug than he has any right to right now, considering Naraku would have had him dead-to-rights if he'd have been uninterrupted.
As it stands, though...
He picked the wrong week to pause spying on Inuyasha and take up spying on Sesshoumaru instead.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This one had a better pace than the last few, for sure. The action moves as fast as it should, and I don't ever feel like scratching my head over something taking longer than it should, or happening in in a flash if it should have been drawn out a bit. I think part of it is the good decision of RT not to cut over to the Sango and Kohaku drama she's developing elsewhere, but most of it is entirely organic. Not only did everything that was happening in the chapter feel like it was happening in a nice smooth procession and at a believable rate, but we get a good excuse to move away from the repetitive hack and slash when following Kagura to meet Inuyasha at the edge of the barrier. It felt natural, and their interaction was much more interesting than the sterile overture between Sesshoumaru and Naraku. As "negative" and mistrustful as it is, Inuyasha and Kagura have something of a rapport with one another, a bit of colorful interaction to act as a base for Kagura to acknowledge that Inuyasha seems to have gotten to a point where he can have a shot at Naraku, and Inuyasha can notice that her fighting doesn't have the heart (heh) behind it that it usually does.
Naraku and Sesshoumaru, on the other hand, haven't fought each other before, and their banter is more on the level of distant disdain. Both of them have this cold, sarcastic tone with the other, and their motions they go through seem a bit mechanical. Sesshoumaru is reacting to Naraku as the classic snob he is - he's clearly disgusted and annoyed with Naraku, and this was obviously not how he wanted to spend his evening, so of course he wouldn't be very into this fight. But Naraku's timbre has a similar bent, even though it's not obscure that the only reason he's "invited" Sesshoumaru over is because he admires and covets his power. On the inside, he's practically over the moon at the prospect of taking that power, but on the outside, he's adopted a lot of Sesshoumaru's affectations and attitude, almost as if he's wanting to pick up a bit of the regal identity of his prey and not just the nifty powers...
I don't know if it reads like that in the original Japanese, though. In any case it certainly contrasts a bit with the more casual association Inuyasha and Kagura seem to have developed.
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