Oh what fun! It's been so long since I've been on a scavenger hunt. Literally, I think the last time was when I was in high school and the new girl in class had a birthday party at which we wandered around our small town looking for various trinkets hidden by her mom. We were told it was a cultural thing, but I forget which culture it cam from, because... it was over 12 years ago and I'm fucking old. I do remember that we got to keep the things we found, though, and I recall I found a hat. It was stylish and I kept it for several years because it was rare I had anything stylish, despite the fact that my wavy locks could not abide hats. I lost track of it at some point, however.
Because it was over 12 years ago, and I'm fucking old.
What are our clues again? Vegetables and darkness? That narrows it down.
The monkeys are pulling a Shippou, clinging to Kagome's arms and shoulders as they insist that the go-shintai should be here, demanding the villagers give it back. One of the villagers has paused in tilling the ground to assert that he doesn't know anything about it. Kagome and the monkeys hear a thump in the distance, and the leader yelps that "he's" already here, a clear reference to the boulder-laden Inuyasha. Panicked, one of the other monkeys asks the villagers why they're so carefree, and the leader claims that their very LIVES are in the balance. Or their poor tender scalps, anyway. The two men just gape at them in confusion because they have NO IDEA what these little bastards are on about.
Inuyasha emerges from the edge of the forest, panting and dragging the boulder behind him, accompanied by Shippou. The villagers recognize him as the guy they pegged as a god earlier, stuttering the imposed title at the distinctly... unimpressive figure he's come to be. Kagome looks over her shoulder at him blankly, while the monkeys peek over it in fear. Inuyasha demands to know what the progress has been on this Sarugami situation, warning the monkeys that they're dead if this rock isn't removed from his hand soon. Kagome expresses how impressed she is that he got down here so fast, and the monkeys balk at her stepping up to him, telling her not to get too close.
A whole crowd of villagers have gathered from the field, questioning if Inuyasha was really tricked by the monkeys' spell, the man up front asking Inuyasha if he's really an Inugami. Understandably frustrated, Inuyasha shakes his fist and yells that he said he WASN'T from the beginning. I certainly saw no such denial, but maybe he thought his obvious bewilderment at being labeled such was enough of a statement on the matter. Shippou smarms from the top of the boulder that Inuyasha is probably the furthest thing from a god. Says the full youkai.
Kagome explains to the villagers that it seems only the Sarugami-sama can lift the spell, and Inuyasha confirms this.
This, of course, earns Inuyasha a "sitting". He whines that she's a bitch as he lifts his face out of the dirt, arm twisted up and still stuck to the boulder beside him, but Kagome kneels to encourage him calmly to just sit there and look pretty. Good thing he's got those super healing abilities, or that might actually have been a problem, huh? The villagers resolve to split up and look for this damn thing, because it'd be a pain if this fake god guys rampages. Bowing, Kagome apologizes for Inuyasha's attitude, as he glares. She's pretty sure they don't know shit about the go-shintai, though, based on how they're acting.
There's a VERTICAL sky transition panel this time with some cawing birds! Different! Then Sango, sauntering into frame behind Miroku, announces they're back. Miroku is wide-eyed in the foreground, saying Inuyasha's name.
Having a bad day, Miroku, what did you THINK he's doing?
After some time searching under the floorboards and in the pond according to an unattributed speech bubble, the conclusion is that there is no go-shintai around. Sitting on the edge of another porch with Sango, Shippou and the monkeys, surrounded by villagers, Miroku says that a lot seems to have happened while he was gone. What looks to be the modest headman at the edge of the panel admits it's a real problem. Miroku claims he'll be able to figure out something with his Buddhist powers, inspiring awed noises from his audience, the leader monkey asking if he'll really be able to find Sarugami-sama. He affirms this, but says he can't use these mysterious powers until morning. The monkeys all accept this and tell him it's no problem without hesitation, but Sango and Shippou stare blankly.
Sango leans over and asks what he's up to, and Miroku whispers back that he just figured they could stay the night. She murmurs that this seems irresponsible, but Miroku brushes this off, saying that he's sure it'll be fine in the end. Meanwhile, the monkeys are congratulating themselves on their narrow escape, and Shippou deadpans about how they're being deceived. Don't know why they're so quick to trust Miroku, but the villagers are starting to think something stinks about all this, gathered in a knot and muttering in suspicion between themselves.
I think this is the part that Inuyasha would say stinks.
Surly, Inuyasha tells Kagome that she doesn't have to hang with him out there, and she should go inside the house with the others. She suggests he might be lonely out there by himself, but he looks the other way and denies this, calling her an idiot. She stands, saying that if she's in the way she'll leave, but Inuyasha quickly yelps that she's not in the way. Kagome sits back down with a happy little word, Inuyasha still looking a bit peeved as he confirms that she's wanted here. Don't want to be TOO eager to have company, the toxic masculinity won't like THAT.
Kagome echoes the headman's words before when she thinks that this whole business is a real problem, though. She wishes they had another clue, and almost in response, Kagome spots a woman walking along the porch holding a dish that appears to be GLOWING.
Yeah, Kagome, haven't you ever heard of bio-luminescent varieties of CABBAGE?
The dish ends up surrounded by onlookers, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, the monkeys, and the headman. The latter asks what he's looking at exactly, and Miroku asserts it's something holy. The leader monkey stutters in its presence, asking for confirmation that these veggies came from the fields, while another f the monkeys asserts that this is Sarugami-sama's light. They each recall the clues that their Sarugami-sama informed dreams gave them; dark, damp, stuffy, cramped and stinking of vegetables. From this they begin to draw a conclusion that Inuyasha, who has once again dragged his boulder over to the center of deliberation, finishes: he says it HAS to be a field after all. The monkeys hop up on his shoulder, the leader shouting that it's definitely buried underground, and Inuyasha starts a leap into action, declaring that he'll rip up the land around the village.
Kagome "sits" Inuyasha again, the monkeys knocked every which way with the impact, as the headman cries over the prospect that Inuyasha might NOT be joking about that (even if he hopes otherwise). With a hum of slight hesitation, Kagome asks if she can be shown something.
These poor people, menaced by the friends of a ROCK they have no way of knowing is special.
The leader of the monkeys climbs up the side of the barrel, threatening the villagers with curses for their unintentional insolence, another monkey once again accusing them of REALLY stealing it. The headman explains that he found it on the edge of the village and thought it might make a good pickling stone, and Kagome interjects for clarification that the go-shintai was actually OUTSIDE the Monkey Forest.
The monkey leader yells that the headman is a liar, insisting that the go-shintai was enshrined within the forest, and while the headman verbally shrugs for not knowing what else to say, the other two monkeys state their own perspective as spirits who treasured and protected the stone, even back during the fire. They recall carrying the go-shintai from the burning shrine, torched due to war, to desperately try to save it. After carrying it a ways away, the leader monkey panted that it would be okay there, and almost immediately got distracted by acorns. All three of the monkeys started collecting them, marveling at how many there are, and wandering away from the go-shinati in the dirt as they discovered more farther away.
It's at the end of this account that the monkeys start to realize what must have happened, the leader clapping to punctuate his revelation. Just in case we all missed it, Kagome reiterates that they just admitted to forgetting entirely about the go-shintai.
Don't know WHY, honestly. What kind of a god gives cryptic and misleading clues as to his whereabouts for followers while refusing to manifest to people nearby?
Wait. OOOOOOOHHHHHHH. All of them. The answer is all of them.
Sarugami-sama allows his sprites to hug him as they wail that they wanted to see him, and also that he stinks of veggies. He asks if they've been up to anything while he was taking that pickling class, and the monkeys claim they didn't do anything, prompting Inuyasha to drag his boulder up and demand some attention for his condition. How he managed to squeeze that thing into the building is beyond me. Regardless, Shippou is riding it again, commenting that what they did to Inuyasha seems to have been forgotten entirely. Absent-minded little creatures, aren't they?
Narrow sky transition panel with tweeting birds! Miroku is telling the headman that if he builds a new hokora for Sarugami-sama, he'll protect the village, and the headman/all the villagers behind him bow in acceptance of the task. How the hell ELSE are they supposed to get through the winter with their greatly reduced crop without divine providence? Meanwhile, Inuyasha flexes his newly unglued fingers as Kagome asks him if he feels better without a giant rock attached to him. He just says this affair has been one hell of a detour.
Kagome turns to Sarugami-sama, who tells her she's a super smart girl to have figured out where he was. She smiles and says it wasn't a problem; super easy, actually. Inuyasha tells the monkeys next to him that they were just too stupid to figure it out, to which the leader retorts that Inuyasha too was more than ready to dig back up those fields to find the go-shintai. Those in glass houses and all that.
Sarugami-sama looks up at the sky and says he had been eager to get out of the pickling barrel, because he was nervous that something bad might have gone down outside. Kagome inquires about his implication of a disaster possibly striking.
Kagome appears alarmed by this news, Inuyasha in disbelief, as Miroku trails in a hesitant statement himself. Sarugami-sama says he can't be sure what it was, but he did follow its presence from his perch on the barrel. Inuyasha and Miroku ask in almost a panic where it went, and Sarugami-sama says it vanished. With further prompting from Kagome and Sango, Sarugami-sama elaborates that it didn't fade or anything, just went POOF. Kagome looks to Inuyasha, who says he's certain it has to be Naraku. Sarugami-sama adds that the evil was heading in the direction of "ushitora", northeast according to Kagome in the next panel.
Less a detour than an information booth.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's charming in its simplicity, and I appreciate the synchronicity of the characters walking into a situation that would eventually lead them precisely where they need to go, even if they don't know it going in. I also like the little mystery Kagome ended up solving; it wasn't super cerebral or anything, but the answer to the riddle Sarugami-sama gave wasn't immediately apparent. It was easy to see how Inuyasha and the monkeys wouldn't necessarily have understood how crucial the phrase "stinking of vegetables" might be here, since failing to take every piece of information into account is the number one reason why riddles can be a bit tricky for people. Also, the answer not really being within one's personal experience, so it escapes our list of natural conclusions. I don't imagine Inuyasha or the monkeys have done much pickling before.
Granted, I can't imagine KAGOME has done much pickling before herself either, being a modern girl and all. But it's not so out of the ordinary to come across these random bits of otherwise useless historical information while studying these days - I know it's happened to me on more than one occasion that I've learned something I hadn't intended while doing research and such. I'll give it a pass, even if I think that perhaps Sango might have been better qualified to solve this one. She was away for the whole first half of the mini-arc, so her involvement wasn't deep.
Not thrilled about the interaction between Kagome and Inuyasha in this one. His sulking was understandable, and her wanting to keep him company while he had to sit there stuck to a boulder is also completely within character, but the lack of substance to make room for a shallow joke left the whole scene a bit hollow. Aside from Inuyasha suggesting Kagome leave, her threatening to take him up on the offer, and him retracting, they are sitting in awkward silence, both at the beginning and the end. There's no conversation, no discussion about the situation they're in, or their greater suspicions about where Naraku might be... just nothing. It was painful, all the more when you're reminded that this is supposed to be out main couple and they don't appear to have a THING to talk about.
I mean, at least have them chat about the damn weather, RT. SOMETHING to maintain the level of chemistry they've had so far. Gonna bore me to TEARS with this shit...
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