Seven?! No sir. I had a friend and her boyfriend over for a few days last week and that just took all the energy out of me. It was great fun, don't get me wrong; we went hiking a little at a couple of easy trails on the peninsula, ate at a few local restaurants, went to an antique mall up north, and watched the whole of Midnight Mass since my friend doesn't have Netflix and hadn't seen it yet. But I am so severely out of shape both physically and socially that the minor amount of activity just wore me right out. I can't even IMAGINE the amount of energy I would have to have in order to parade around in a group of seven when I'm exhausted after just FOUR.
Exactly the face my friend made when I lost my shit trying to drive everyone to a restaurant from Google's shitty directions. Ileana, if you're reading this, I'm really sorry, lol!
Kagome's concerned look is actually directed at what looks like an army marching past a few scattered villagers. They wonder if it's a war, but one particularly intuitive guy says it looks like they're off to exterminate something, out in force though they are. Not sure what about these guys carrying flags and following leaders on horseback in formation suggests an "extermination" rather than "war", but I guess SOMEONE had to come to the right conclusion despite the lack of actual information.
The man continues to expound upon the situation without any evidence, saying to a couple of fellows in the fields that it appears the border guard was wiped out. At least this seems a little like just a regular old rumor in how it's presented. Another guy says he heard it was terrible, and not like the work of humans at all. He wonders aloud if it's true that they're cursed by a zombie from the Shichinin grave. This phrase appears to really catch Inuyasha and company's attention.
Miroku approaches the gossiping men, asking if they can talk for a moment. Inuyasha questions Miroku for asking these men about the situation, but Kagome asserts that there's no way they can ignore this. While he stands with his back to them, Miroku and the surprisingly-informed squatting village man, the rest of both groups surrounding them in curiosity. The village man tells them that the Shichinin grave is a burial mound meant to appease the spirits of the Shichinin-tai. Miroku repeats the name back to him as a question.
The village man says it's a 10-year-old story, about a group of seven mercenaries that came to them from farther east. Not the retainers of any lord, they just wandered from war to war, taking up killing jobs wherever they could. Freelancers for murder, of a sort. Inuyasha's whole entourage, including himself, gives the man curious looks. Over the backdrop of a burning building, the village farmer says the mercenaries were strong enough to do the work of one hundred soldiers.
The village farmer continues the tale, saying that after a lot of atrocities, several daimyou were a little nervous about the power of these guys, and joined forces to subjugate them. It was quite a struggle, though, and the man raised a finger to punctuate the statement to Miroku, who has no doubt that this would be true. The Shichinin-tai managed to evade their pursuers for a while and begin an escape to the mountains, but the mercenaries were few and the professional armies were many (and decidedly NOT made mostly out of defenseless villagers like they were used to slaying by the dozens, I'm guessing). They were eventually seized in a burned-out village a little north of this one. The village farmer says the Shichinin-tai were all decapitated and burned; the locals were afraid of being cursed and erected a little stone shrine-like structure to appease the homicidal band's souls.
At the conclusion of this story and the definition of the Shichinin grave, Miroku is the only one who speaks, and just with an affirmation that he sure did hear that spooky campfire tale. Kagome asks meekly about what the village farmer said earlier about being cursed by a zombie.
The face of a girl who isn't sleeping a WINK tonight.
After a narrow sky transition panel, the gang is walking along, with Miroku still musing aloud about the whole zombie deal they just heard about. Sango asks what he thinks, and he begins to express some doubt that this is just the rabble gushing forth after Naraku's evil aura disappeared. Out in front of the group, Inuyasha admits he's not sure if this is a zombie or a youkai, but he turns to look over his shoulder, saying they're already heading in that direction. He suggests they'll just wipe the zombie out if they cross paths. He gives ZERO fucks.
Our transition panel is fancy this time - it contains MOUNTAINS. The backdrop of the flock of horsemen from before, galloping along the road toward a figure sauntering in the opposite direction. The leading rider yells at the figure to get out of the way, but he just makes a half-distracted noise back at them as they get closer. They have to skid to a stop in front of this one guy standing in the middle of the road, like slamming on the breaks for that deer meandering onto the pavement.
Then, with a flash like lightning, the heads of the nearest horsemen AND their horses are severed, as well as the nose of the leading mount. Clearly its face was a little too long for the precise measurement that went into its dismemberment.
Certainly not the shambling brain-hungry corpse I'M familiar with. George Romero was quite a bit after this time, though, so his pop-zombie films couldn't have been what the leading rider was thinking of either...
Anyway, a couple of other riders have to take the lead now that the guy up front and a couple of others have lost their heads. One of them stutters a curse at Jakotsu here, while the other barks at the foot soldiers to surround him. They close in around Jakotsu, who watches them do so with a lazy smile, saying this brings back memories. He swings the sword from over his shoulder again, and one of the foot soldiers has JUST enough time to call him a fool for swinging for them from all the way over there before he and the others around him get sliced straight through the waist.
One of the horsemen cringes away from the halved men falling next to him, in shocked disbelief. He asserts that Jakotsu must be using some sort of dark spell to get away with that, but Jakotsu giggles in response that magic isn't what he's got there. As he swings again, he adds that it wasn't magic before his death, nor now.
Not far away, Inuyasha definitely seems in more of a hurry before, leading his group in a dead sprint while Miroku asks about the blood he smells. Inuyasha replies that it's not just from a few people either. He keeps a troubling additional smell to himself, too, sweatdropping as he tries to place it. Eventually he realizes it's the smell of graveyard dirt. I guess Kikyou hasn't shown up enough lately, so the scent had slipped his mind.
Beholding the bloody bodies and flags laying in that perfect arc around Jakotsu in the middle, Miroku mumbles about the village they passed earlier, while Sango exclaims in disbelief that whoever that guy is, he got them all by himself. Jakotsu kind of looks around in a ditzy daze, catching sight of Inuyasha with curiosity. He shades his wide eyes and leans forward, wondering excitedly if it could indeed be Inuyasha. He IS a very distinctive fellow, not much of a chance mistaking him.
Inuyasha, flanked by a tense Miroku and Kagome, asks in wary suspicion how this bastard knows him. Jakotsu's eyes get all kinds of shiny as he squeals that Inuyasha is so CUUUUUUUUUTE. Everyone adopts a weirded-out look, save for Kagome, who just kind of looks confused. Weird, considering she should be the LEAST confused out of all of them.
He's a classic homophobic stereotype. Ask Kagome about Disney and she'll tell you all about it.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's a shame that I covered this chapter a couple of weeks after Halloween, because this had ALL of the spooky vibes. The chilling tale at the beginning came through in the reactions of the characters, all of them clearly disturbed by the story even long after they had left the village on their way. Kagome hugging Shippou close at the mention of women and children being hacked to pieces was particularly evocative of the MOOD this telling had inspired. Even Inuyasha couldn't help but carefully listen in, despite his initial disinterest in learning about this local folktale. And his subdued attitude afterward was unnerving; you could tell it really got to him too, and his response was to just assert that they would kill the zombie if they happened across it.
Jakotsu mocking his soon-to-be victims over not being able to identify him was shiver-inducing as well. Though the soldiers thought he looked a little strange in the way he dressed, it didn't even OCCUR to them that he could be the walking corpse they were looking for, and that made all the difference. He looks just as human as anyone else, and that carries an implicit level of trust; a lowered guard that can easily be taken advantage of. Despite how brutal he is, and how much amusement he derives from being so, he's NOT a youkai, and therefore he can exploit a level of "humanity" that a youkai cannot.
This is a prominent theme going forward. This arc basically shoves in your face how much the HUMAN monsters can get away with, and how few *AHEM* barriers exist for them to commit atrocities when they have a human ally who is, shall we say, morally compromised. There are also HEAVY implications that a sliding scale of "purity" based on human-ness is inherently unfair, much like it's unfair that Inuyasha should be looked down upon for being hanyou. So, look forward to all THAT, it's gonna be a ride.
Obviously, I'm not THRILLED about the predatory gay stereotype that Jakotsu fills here, considering he is the only character in the whole series that is unambiguously homosexual. The only saving grace for him here is that he is one of seven characters who are all predatory in various ways, so the message isn't necessarily that being GAY is what makes him predatory. Still, it's not a GREAT look, and this will forever be one of the most disappointing parts of this series. A shame, because I'm not joking when I say I really love this guy's design.
Finally, I'm still a little confused about how Inuyasha and company DIDN'T end up crossing paths with Kouga at ALL. What was the point of them noticing each other in the area when they wouldn't meet up? A few filler panels to round out the chapter? Why are you LIKE this, RT???
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