Inuyasha Manga: 227 Vanished Presence

That's where I'm headed too, though less "into thin air" than Naraku, admittedly. We started packing yet again today, hauling in the plastic totes from the closet on our balcony so we can start dumping our belongings in them for a team of movers, and we're not exactly quiet about it. I've alerted my job that I'm going to start working from home again starting mid-August. My husband is on his computer setting up a pass for the toll he's soon going to have to drive through for his own job. I'm gearing up to let our apartment know that we'll be moving out soon.

Because closing for our new house is on August 13th! 😀😀😀😀

I don't know about THAT guy, but I know my personal escape is going to be on a little over an acre covered in trees a few miles out of town. Reminds me of my childhood in the middle of nowhere, and I'm LIVING FOR IT.

The hairball monster admits with more gurgles that it doesn't know any more than I do, which elicits an incredulous outburst from Kouga. The creature explains that it was separated from Naraku partway, so it doesn't know what Naraku was thinking afterwards. Considering Naraku didn't seem to run back into the castle to PACK before he left, where the creature gained consciousness, I'm just a tad puzzled by this statement. However, the local smart guy Miroku says that this thing doesn't seem to be lying, so I guess we're taking it at its word. 

Its extremely inconsistent with the depiction of previous events word. 

Inuyasha curses this useless information, and the creature just kind of gurgle-laughs at him for his lack of satisfaction in the matter. Cracking his knuckles, Kouga scoffs and says it can't be helped that this thing doesn't know anything. Reading the somewhat disdainful look on Kouga's face as potentially a sign of violence to come, Kagome calls to him questioningly. 

Gee dude, wanna turn down the frightening overreactions a little? Just a little?

Inuyasha and Miroku just stare at the rain of flesh falling from the massacre of the monster, speechless, but not looking disturbed like the women and child. Kouga himself hoists a lump of flesh up by the few hairs still attached to it, just as Mohawk and Two-Tone jog out of the surrounding trees shouting for him. He flatly notes how they finally caught up, tossing the lump of flesh at them, which Two-Tone catches with an alarmed squeak. Mohawk recoils from the flying flesh. Kouga tells them to memorize this scent, and get the wolves to remember it too, which begs the question: they didn't know that scent BEFORE???

Miroku supposes aloud to Kouga that he intends to use the wolves for a blanket search, something that he probably should have been doing to begin with? Maybe? And Inuyasha asks what the point of this could be, considering the wolves would have sniffed Naraku out long ago if they had the ability. This excellent point is completely ignored, for Inuyasha finds that when he was offering it with his eyes closed and nose stuck in the air, Kouga had stood himself in front of Kagome to grasp her hands and tell her he had to go now. Inuyasha demands to know if Kouga is even listening, while Kagome just kind of endures Kouga's totally unromantic talk of giving her Naraku's head as a present the next time they meet. She forces a smile, but inside it's a HARD no on her part.

Bye, you worryingly unstable weirdo.

Miroku approaches Inuyasha as he's picking himself up off the ground, saying it may actually be a good strategy to rely on Kouga's numbers. Inuyasha snaps at him that this is naive, asking why Naraku would throw away this monster with his scent all over it if his scent could possibly be a clue to his whereabouts, concluding this would be FAR too careless of the originator of the scent. Wide-eyed and shocked, Miroku makes a noise of astonishment, Sango looking on in surprise from the background. Come on, guys, I know you like to play like Inuyasha is a moron, but really...

Inuyasha reiterates that Naraku is confident he'll never be found, which Miroku acknowledges as a point, before asking him to go one. Inuyasha makes his own balking noise, and Miroku refuses to let him get away with it, asking him where he thinks Naraku has gone. Do you have COTTON in your ears, buddy? If Naraku is so sure no one is going to find him, why do you think Inuyasha can just GUESS at where the dude is? Miroku says he's asking for Inuyasha's thoughts, Inuyasha glares and tells HIM to think about the rest of it, and Sango whispers to Kagome that Inuyasha didn't think about the rest of it himself. 

Okay, fine. If RT wants to pretend that Inuyasha not having any idea where Naraku might have gotten to is in his conclusions about Naraku's confidence at not being found, she's allowed to frame it that way. It's HER story. Even if it makes zero sense. 

Kagome thinks that Inuyasha WAS correct in what he was saying, though, contemplating the place Naraku ran to as the place nobody can reach. Meanwhile...

Someone's been busy, I see. 

Kikyou's visits to places she's noticed give off an evil aura have turned up squat; Naraku's presence isn't here either, nor has it been anywhere else. She's walking along the edge of a sheer rocky bank of a raging river when she hears a feeble voice referring to her. She looks over and sees an old man reclining against the exposed roots of a tree. 

"And you look like shit, what of it?"

Kikyou peers at him a moment, determining that he's human, and he's at death's door. Profound observation, to be sure. As old men are wont to do, he starts telling Kikyou about his past - namely, that he did a lot of evil and wicked things in it. He lists murder, theft and arson, just to name a few, and says that his philosophy was just to live doing whatever he damn well pleased. But since he's gotten old and ill, he admits that he also got scared about falling into Hell. Kikyou kneels down next to him, asking if he wishes to be saved. I doubt he would be wasting his breath if he wasn't coming to that point, Kikyou.

Old Dude over here says he's heard of a place where even old sinners like himself can get some salvation. As Kikyou looks critically down at him, he states that he was traveling just to that particular place, but he's pretty sure he can't go any farther. Somehow, Kikyou needs this shit spelled out for her, because she asks if he has a request for her. No, he's just weaving this whole sob-story for no good reason at all. Carry on, lady, no quests to be found here!

This guy takes his whole-ass katana and shears off the ponytail he's cultivated on the back of his bald old head, holding it out to her. He says that he wants at least THIS part of him to get to that place he mentioned. 

A couple of sky transition panels later, night has fallen.

Kagome says that they'll surely find Naraku if everyone is searching. Inuyasha shoots into a sitting position to glare at Kagome and ask her what she means by that, and if she's relying on Kouga after all. At least HIS insecurity isn't manifesting in bursts of violence. Just bursts of pathetic paranoia. Kagome responds with a suggestion that he's jealous, and his hackles are fully raised; he hunches next to her looking like a defensive hound, and denies being jealous at all. Kagome seems... Unconvinced. 

They stare at one another in silence, Inuyasha sweatdropping and looking expectant in his anger, and Kagome just blankly blinks at him. With a slight flush, Inuyasha suggests they drop the conversation, and Kagome adopts an annoyed visage while she reminds him that he brought up the subject in the first place. Seems to me that they already dropped it when they stopped talking entirely, but maybe I just don't comprehend awkward quiet in a conversation anymore. Am I supposed to continue a thread that has culminated in a few seconds of uncomfortable silence? I don't know, I've always been a social idiot and Covid has just made that condition worse.

To top off this sundae of awkwardness, the next frame is wider to show that Sango, Miroku, and Shippou snoozing in his lap, are sat farther up the hill, and their stares are being added to the veritable convention of stares. In spite of how obviously unwelcome Miroku's encouragement is, he urges them not to worry about them and keep talking. Inuyasha tensely says that's enough already, and Kagome thinks she's had quite enough herself. 

In the morning, we get a great view of another set of generic forested mountains. A couple of old men marvel at the fact that Kikyou has brought the hair of the dead this far, and she explains that it was the last wish of a dying man. One of the men she's talking to says that he's heard a rumor of an area of purification on Mt. Hakurei, where a great Buddhist priest opened up a temple there, in which all sins can be purified...

Yeah, the strange feeling that I'm going to be sick of looking at this mountain long before it's done being a setting. 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? For the second time, Kouga has been cast in a slightly sinister light, flying into a fit of disproportionate violence at the weak hairball creature. The ladies and child react with unease at this behavior, and there's a part of me that would like to label this as a juxtaposition between him and Inuyasha - a commentary on how Inuyasha's more "human" side to him makes him a far less frightening figure to their common love interest, and Kouga's "demonic" behavior here is part of the reason Kagome feels she cannot reject him outright even though she has no real interest in him. But there are no other moments building on this worrying behavior later in the series, nor is there an ultimate discussion between Kagome and Kouga regarding how he's more threatening than anything. Which is something of a shame, because it could have been an interesting element to add to the series as a teachable moment to any young men reading that beating up on weaker individuals is a HUGE red flag and they probz shouldn't do it. More's the pity.

What has been and is a repeated habit of framing RT continues in this chapter is portraying Inuyasha as this dunderhead incapable of real strategy or extrapolating the deeper meanings of events. There is no reason why Inuyasha's fair conclusions that Naraku must have hidden himself REALLY well in order to not worry about leaving behind obvious traces of his scent should be used to put down his intelligence, but somehow it's turned out that way? It really makes no discernible sense as it's laid out, unless RT is trying to imply that the only reason Inuyasha came to his conclusion is because he doesn't want to give Kouga's strategy any credit out of jealousy, which might have been a good punchline if the conclusion wasn't actually a perfectly reasonable one with perfectly reasonable logic. If his jealousy were meant to be joked about as his primary motivation, Miroku might have made a clever mention of that instead of some weird request that Inuyasha DIVINE Naraku's location despite the clear implications of the conclusion that Naraku had hunkered down somewhere no one knew about.

All in all, it's very clunky and unintelligible.

But, I will say I'm intrigued by how much HAIR and its personal identification qualities has factored in during the last few chapters, culminating in an old man's request to have his hair get to a place where it can be purified. His intent to erase all his ill deeds by putting a piece of himself in a special place is a rather SLY nod to Naraku's plan here, a natural mirror to Naraku leaving HIS hair behind as an indicator that he's still lurking just beyond the reaches of his enemies. As one regular man asks Kikyou to complete his pilgrimage to wash his slate clean, Naraku is leaving his refuse around with no care to its connection to him and his villainous history with the promise that he will not answer for his crimes. 

I'm kind of impressed given all the sloppiness in the rest of the chapter. One outta three ain't bad, I guess.