I remember dreaming about monstrous evil when I was a kid - that kind of grotesque twisted monster in nightmares sliding out of the shadows to spook me awake again. The kind that stuck with me while I cowered under my sheets and kept me from swinging my legs over the side of my bed to run to the bathroom, just in case the creature was waiting to grab my ankle and pull me under. Those kinds of monsters less frequently occupy my nightmares these days, and when they DO show up they have significantly less psychological impact. What gets me THESE days is the kind of evil manifests in a systemic form over generations to benefit a few privileged people over everyone else, literally killing innocents in the name of profit.
As you can imagine, my nightmares are rather opaque nowadays.
And how easily distracted you were. You trying to make me regret defending your intelligence this whole time or what?
Inuyasha concludes, of course, that the real villain is still in the castle, and curses that he can't hang about. Any more than he's already been doing, anyway. He jumps high into the air above the gaping decoy oni and slams his fist down into his face, demanding that he go quietly back into the building. He's clearly trying to punch a new hole into the roof for them to enter through, splintering the roof tiles under them. Probably not going to be able to walk him to the door, so this might actually be necessary.
... Which is precisely what you guys came here to take care of? Surely little Shippou isn't ALREADY having memory issues? Inuyasha has been hitting him over the head too much, it seems.
Kagome notices there's a light coming from the the princess's chest, a bit alarmed. Meanwhile, Miroku, Sango and the old exorcist run up from the pit, Sango asking for confirmation that the the oni transformed into the princess and ate all the priests and priestesses that came to exorcise it. Miroku repeats what the oni princess said about him being the 100th one, warning that what she's really eating is the spiritual energy, wanting to eat that of 100 people in order to resurrect completely. Nice round number, but it's probably a mess in ounces.
Back with Kagome, the light bursts from the princess's corpse and flows into the oni-head's mouth. Shippou wonders aloud what it is she's eating while both of them look on in absolute horror. Having finished her meal, the oni princess explains to her uninvited guests that she had previously stashed 99 people's spiritual powers in the lady's body, and she just needs one more little morsel to fill up. I mean, fun fact that you were using this corpse as a larder of a sort, sis, but why are you taking the time to tell Kagome all this?
Full disclosure, I guess, because after the oni princess admits she failed to devour Miroku's powers, she asks Kagome what she's carrying near her chest. Gasping, Kagome presses a palm protectively over the Shikon shards she knows are there, and the oni princess chuckles. She says they might be a more effective method of resurrection than a measly human's powers. Kagome recoils at the implication that she intends to eat her. I'd say eating you is rather incidental in the whole deal, really going after the Shikon fragments, but if being the main course rather than a side dish makes you feel better about the whole raw deal...
Kagome and Shippou bolt as the oni princess lunges at them, having to dive out of the way at the last second so that she gets a mouthful of splintered wooden column rather than tender human flesh. Things are about to get worse for her.
More like YOU finally showed up, Inuyasha. Geez dude, you've been preoccupied with a decoy for several minutes by this point.
Speaking of the decoy, it lies on the floor below the new hole in the roof Inuyasha was kind enough to make, surrounded by castle guards with their swords drawn. They cautiously speculate that he might be unconscious, during which talk he slowly transforms back into a human form. The porch-golbin old man stutters that it's Tono, just as said Tono's body dissolves into dust before their eyes, taking them aback.
Inuyasha points Tessaiga at the oni-head princess with Kagome cowering behind him, calling the oni a bitch for taking over the princess's body. The oni princess laughs about the foolish humans that buried her head beneath the castle while prattling on about a protection against evil, of all things.
The frankly STUPID proximity is why she was able to put a death-curse on the princess and borrow her form, storing the spiritual power she stole from her other victims in her actual body. Inuyasha concludes that Tono was set as a guard for the body, and the scapegoat for when the real form might be discovered. Nice when he's allowed to come to reasonable conclusions without being made fun of.
Weeeellll, that didn't last long.
Miroku, Sango and the old woman arrive, the former asking why the oni princess didn't leave the tomb until now. Of all the burning questions, he has to know THIS? As she acknowledges him with disdain, Miroku says that she even gave HIM a lot of trouble, and with that amount of immense evil power she should have been able to break out of there at any time. The other 99 people she took down in such a short amount of time were apparently chopped liver, I guess. The oni princess says that she would have been absorbed and controlled by a much larger evil entity if she had come out before.
Inuyasha and crew stare in shock, the implications clear. Just to make it a LIIIIITTLE clearer, though, Inuyasha repeats the key phrase back at her as a question. She namedrops the only lump of evil who has vanished recently this time: Naraku. And now that he's gone...
And with that, she punches yet ANOTHER hole in the roof to flee up into the sky. I've counted THREE holes that the people actually living here will have to fix now, and that makes my brand new homeowner's heart very anxious. She looks down to chuckle at them again, threatening to eat to her heart's content outside the castle, one or two little priests here and there. Less of a hassle than bulldozing through this group to swallow those Shikon fragments, I guess. She's an opportunist, if nothing else.
Inuyasha swings down Tessaiga, refusing to let her get away with those intentions, and the resulting Kaze no Kizu tears off yet MORE of the roof as it rockets at an alarmed oni princess. Shippou stands on Kagome's shoulder, shouting his certainty that Inuyasha got her, but we know what his premature judgments mean by now. There's a rumble, and the oni head continues to hang in the distant sky. Inuyasha curses, Shippou shocked that she's still alive, Kagome bemoaning the fact that Kaze no Kizu didn't reach the disembodied head.
Escaping the attack emboldens her, and the oni princess starts to brag that she's just getting started, rambling about her plans to regain her body and stalk the lands once again. But she hung out too long, surprised by a force pulling at her from the ground. Miroku is holding up his uncovered right palm at her.
Our heroes end up back where they started, catching the old exorcist lady up on what the oni-head princess was talking about. The old lady suggests that since this Naraku fellow is out of the picture, the youkai around here are going to rampage. Miroku says that seems about right, and the old woman is absolutely STOKED by how much busier she'll be and how business is booming. Miroku makes a shocked noise, and Inuyasha advises her to just retire, telling her he thinks she's a fraud right to her face. Kagome chuckles nervously that he shouldn't be so blunt, while the old lady counters that if she hadn't been around, Miroku would have been eaten. A fair point, even if Sango is also fair in muttering to Miroku how overconfident the old lady is. Miroku is actually pretty confident she'll live a LONG time himself.
As they head out of the area, leaving the old exorcist to her ill-advised business, Miroku says this is going to become a problem. He reminds them that all the hidden youkai will be way more active with Naraku gone, but Inuyasha scoffs, classifying these as weak-sauce lame-o's that were hiding from Naraku and they can make quick work of. No problem.
Speaking of overconfidence...
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? There's a reason why people always make fun of the villain monologue explaining their whole plan during the climax. Clearly RT wanted to make it explicit that Naraku's presence was kind of oppressive to the less-powerful youkai in the area, and they laid low while he was a big player in town, but having the oni-head just chat it up with the heroes in order for them to learn that? A tad ridiculous on its face. If there had been some kind of motivation for the oni-head to give them whatever information they wanted, perhaps it would have seemed more natural - holding the lady template hostage in some way, for instance. She was already dead, so there's no moral ambiguity there, anyway. As it stands, the oni-head princess just seemed weirdly casual about all of her interactions, even when she was flitting from one plan to another when her way was blocked. RT could easily have gotten away with making her seem a bit more nervous and uncertain, but she was the furthest from that vibe. All in all, a forgettable villain that I'm not going to miss too much.
But I will probably miss the old exorcist, though. She was a lot of fun in how unexpectedly useful she was, and how energetic she is. Though she doesn't show up again, I agree with Miroku; I'm fully committed to the headcanon that she lasted a LONG time, bungling her way through every exorcism she manages to bag.
Can we have a manga about THAT? Somebody ask RT - I hear she's on Twitter now or something.
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