A baffling concept at first blush, but the more I think about it, the more handy it appears. I've used plenty of writing templates for all kinds of projects for plenty of purposes, and they've all saved me a lot of brainpower on design that I have NO head for. There's no way I'd be able to figure out how to fashion a standard brochure or resume without a little leg-up; I just don't have a creative talent or interest for it. Likewise, for someone who doesn't have the first clue how to fashion themselves a lady has to have some kind of guideline for it, right? A paper doll that indicates how a lady functions in the wall from dress, to demeanor, to behavior? That might be a bit helpful to someone who doesn't have a head for that kind of thing normally, undoubtedly.
Come to think of it, maybe I could use a lady template myself...
Is that MORE or LESS nerve than it takes to murder more than a dozen people with no repercussions at all?
Inuyasha raises Tessaiga and warns oni!Tono to prepare to fucking die, but his response is instead to swing his captive by her hair in front of him. Inuyasha pauses as she passes in front of him, shrieking. Shippou exclaims that oni!Tono is using the girl as a shield, Sango shouting at Inuyasha not to use Tessaiga. She has taken up the mantle of Captain Obvious in Miroku's absence, I see.
Sword still drawn but pointed behind him to avoid an accident with the hostage, Inuyasha leaps toward oni!Tono with claws outstretched, giving him a good Sankon Tessou scratch in the shoulder. And I do mean a GOOD one.
Damn, that looks like it stings.
Oni!Tono busts through the ceiling and onto the roof, Inuyasha shouting at him to wait the fuck up. While they face off on the roof, the castle staff breath a collective sigh of relief about the ogre and Inuyasha having gotten the hell out of there. The Porch Goblin old man calls them fools for relaxing too soon, turning to the princess's attendant and Sango and barking at the women that they should protect the lady of the house. The attendant stutters and Sango somehow gathers from this that the princess is in the underground tomb of the oni's head. Stammering some more, the attendant confirms that the princess said she wanted to show it to Miroku.
Against Kagome's calls, Sango bolts, saying she's going to get Miroku. She's immediately joined by the old exorcist woman, who claims that she's coming along for how much safer she'll be than here. Sango is taken-aback, especially when the old lady asks if this isn't just as well. The exorcist suggests that Sango is worried that Miroku and the princess are getting rather more intimate than is appropriate, even claiming that the tomb would be a good place to have a romantic affair. I mean... if you're a creep, maybe? Flustered, Sango asks in frustration why the hell this old woman is talking about this now. Or ever, really. Freaky old ladies should keep their weird opinions about what makes a good boinking opportunity to themselves.
I'm starting to think Inuyasha was right and this old bag should have stayed the fuck home for this one.
Better hope that's not one of this guy's kinks - he's been known to get hot in strange situations.
Miroku has gathered that she the oni princess intends to eat him, which isn't much of a deduction, but oh well. Can't be the brains of the group every second of the day, especially not when you walked your stupid ass willingly into a suspicious hole to begin with. Double entendre intended.
The oni princess reiterates that she's eaten all the priests and priestesses that came to exorcise her, with the pile of bones still there in the pit to illustrate her point. She's been counting too, because she says Miroku is EXACTLY the 100th one. What does one get for eating 100 religious leaders? A picture on the wall and a coupon for a free slice of pie? Not quite. The oni princess asserts that after she devours Miroku and his powers, she'll resurrect completely, saying farewell to her makeshift form. Pretty good incentive, and it has the added bonus of making Miroku sweat all the harder.
Back up top, Kagome is kneeling next to a guy lying belly-down on the floor, her first-aid kit cracked open on her other side. While another woman stands by with a towel should the doctor require it, Shippou dismisses the man's shoulder wound as superficial, and Kagome just mutters that she needs to stop the bleeding. Presumably they finish up with him before wandering deeper into the mansion, where even more bodies lie strewn in the dark. Perched on Kagome's shoulder as she runs through the maze of death, Shippou laments that the oni got them all. Kagome insists that some of them may still be alive and presses on.
The doorways littered with fallen men and women continue to recede into darkness, Kagome calling out to someone who might just be injured. She finds herself in the bedroom Tono secluded himself inside, and sees a set of curtains behind which a person lying down can just be made out. At first Kagome hesitantly suggests it's someone asleep, as if someone could sleep though THIS racket, and there aren't more grim reasons someone might be lying down in here.
Not in the pit and Miroku nowhere to be seen? CURIOUS.
Kagome reaches out to jostle the princess, wondering what's going on, because she was supposed to be down in the oni's head's tomb. But before she even makes contact, Kagome's hand freezes and she snatches it back to her chest in horror, in disbelief that the princess is dead. Is that your expert medical opinion, not even having checked her pulse?
Inuyasha is still on the roof, by the way, taking swings at the ogre as it plays keep-away with his passed-out hostage. Cursing the ogre for dodging all over the place, he has to pause when he sees something funny.
It seems to him that something is fishy with this oni, just running away and not attacking, as if it's trying to buy time. Well, for how long it took you to figure that out, Inuyasha, it sure served its purpose, didn't it?
Downstairs, the oni princess looks up, mumbling that someone has touched her lady template. Well... almost. Miroku just kneels there and sweats in confusion. Not sure what he would say even if he DID know what she was talking about.
Sango soon comes barrelling down the stairs, calling for Miroku, and is shocked to find the appearance of the princess has gotten a bit more, um, horny. I promise, it's the last one! Sango is taken aback at first, then lifts Hiraikotsu for a swing, about to let an accusation fly too. That is, before her knees buckle and she freezes in place. In horror, she notes that her body won't move, and Kirara is no better off, even the giant sabertoothed cat rendered completely stationary in the paralyzing atmosphere.
The old exorcist woman leaps to action, throwing her salt at the oni princess, Sango staring agape at the action. Though this does literally nothing, the oni princess IS a bit shocked that her "evil chains" don't affect the old fart. Miroku takes full advantage of the puzzled pause, directing the old lady to throw ALL her salt. She swings the whole pot, asking if she's doing the thing right, and Miroku lifts his fingers with a strained grunt. Energy crackles between the particles suspended around them.
Miroku is generally not picky about a copped feel, so you know oni princess here is particularly nasty.
Her head alone flies up and out of the pit, cursing Miroku of amplifying the ash salt as she does so. Miroku watches her empty clothing drop to the ground in front of him, wide-eyed and traumatized. Now free, Sango staggers forward reaching out and stuttering at Miroku, ultimately sitting in front of him to ask if he's okay. He answers that he thought he was going to die, voicing his surprise that the old exorcist lady managed to throw off the evil chains of the oni princess. She just cluelessly asks if there's supposed to be an evil aura in here. Sango and Miroku sweatdrop, the former amazed that she REALLY didn't feel it, and the latter thinking that she's an incredible person, in a certain sense.
The old woman asserts this isn't the time for cowards, cursing the oni and that solo head that got away. Miroku and Sango look on seriously, either because they're not happy with the implication that they were just frozen in fear or because they still have business to tend to. It's not clear, but it's probably both.
We're back with Inuyasha on the roof, who is still puzzling over the nature of the watery ogre before him. Or, rather, he's shocked to find that the evil aura has INCREASED suddenly.
And this is the point at which I would shit my entire soul.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I know I'm having a laugh a lot at Miroku's expense in this chapter, what with him being frozen and unable to do anything while someone tries to use him for their own gain, which might seem a little callous to anyone who DOESN'T remember a few arcs earlier when he appeared to be doing the same with a certain princess on a mountain. That particular incident stuck with me until now, so this seems a little like poetic justice in that light, in a somewhat indirect way. Still, the scene where he and soon Sango are frozen and conscious of the horror awaiting them is a VERY scary one, and reminds me a lot of sleep paralysis. The experience of being unable to move while a demonic figure of some sort hovers over you, threatening you in some manner, is familiar enough that it sent chills down my spine.
Yet RT still managed to bring some humor into the situation with the old woman throwing salt around haphazardly, making her obliviousness into a SUPERPOWER, in a way. It was strangely brilliant, because up until this moment, everyone including the audience has been wondering how in the hell this woman managed to think she had any business in this fight. It's a wonderful twist to make her IMMUNE to the sensitivity to evil that literally paralyzes everyone else and makes them ineffective in the critical moment. And her sassy comment that they're actually just cowards - that is some QUEEN shit right there, go off.
I also really liked seeing Kagome having the opportunity to play emergency medical assistant in this moment, especially since it led her to discovering the lady template in the recesses of the castle. This was critical to not only treating the injured castle staff as less disposable in the context of the narrative, but distracting the oni princess enough that she wasn't able to deal with both Kagome and Miroku at once. It utilizes all of the characters really well and keeps them all busy, which hasn't happened in a while.
Except for Shippou. Poor kid is just always hanging around, boring as shit.
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