Inuyasha Manga: 245 The Shichinin Grave

What shall we pack up for this grave visit? I've always wanted to grab a picnic basket and a parasol to stroll the cemetery like a wealthy Victorian lady, but I have a feeling that's not the intended feel here. More like I should gather up the EVP and EMF recorders and strap a video camera to my chest so we can get every bump in the night on tape. Listen, I love the campiness and ridiculous nature of ghost shows, but don't ask me to monkey around like that myself, chapter. I'm not down.

I'm not down with apologizing for things that can't be helped, either. No one expected you to protect the Shikon shards while you were unconscious, Kagome, come on.

As Inuyasha reasonably tells Kagome not to worry about it, and somewhat less reasonably that they'll get the shards back later, he's got his back turned to all of them while he rummages in the bushes nearby. This is even more suspicious when he turns around with a plastic bottle filled with a sloshing dark liquid, telling her to drink it. He even produces another bottle and a bamboo flask and throws them to Sango and Miroku, ordering them to do the same. It's real shady to be sure, and he's creeping me out a bit with it. 

Kagome peers down into the bottle, fingers over her nose, asking what this strange liquid that looks and smells like blood is. Some kind of vampire conversion? Myouga hops up on Inuyasha's shoulder to tell her never mind and just drink it - he says it's his special medicine. The only thing that would make this more disturbing is if he were dressed as a Catholic priest.

Myouga explains that he sucked out a LOT of their blood to get the poison out of there and save them, so he recommends his blood potion as the quickest way to replenish their blood and return them to health. Not sure drinking blood is a legit way of making more in your veins, but sure, whatever dude. Sango presses her fingers to her mouth as she swallows some, accepting it as necessary while still acknowledging it's intense. Miroku's choking it down next to her, encouraging them all to just endure it. He wipes his mouth, smearing blood, while he reiterates that Inuyasha protecting his out-of-commission friends restricted his movements quite a bit. Even though she looks sadly at the bottle in her hands, Kagome thinks he's right, and resolves herself to get better quickly. 

Shippou runs onto the scene with a sack slung over his shoulder, Kirara at his heels, announcing to Myouga that they've returned with more ingredients. Myouga praises him for his good work, Shippou dumping the contents of the sack out before him. It's a bunch of FUCKING SNAKES. JUST FUCKING SNAKES. Myouga latches onto one of the snakes and draws its blood until he's a LUDICROUS size, dwarfing the pile of serpents, then rolls up to Shippou holding out a fresh plastic bottle, only to spit all that blood into it.

If Myouga started a dieting company, he'd make BANK, because I'm losing ALL of my appetite looking at this panel. That shit is nasty. 

Inuyasha's gaze shifts to his periphery as his nose twitches, but a whirlwind is already well visible behind him. In no time, Kouga is skidding to a stop right next to Kagome, startling her with a shout of her name. He grabs a hold of her shoulders and says he's relieved, asking if she's really alright. All she does is acknowledge him with an alarmed expression.

Boys, just kiss already.

Later, Kagome recognizes Kouga's opponent as Jakotsu when he describes the enemy as a man using a sword like a snake. Kouga is clasping kagome's hands and staring straight into her face when he tells her the jerk joked she was dead. Kagome counters his intense expression with a forced polite smile, elaborating for him that he came because he was worried. 

Inuyasha gets between them and smacks Kouga's hands away, demanding that Kouga stop grabbing Kagome's hands all the time and threatening to really kill him. Kouga levels a serious glare at Inuyasha and comments on how big a mouth he has for how poorly he protects Kagome. Inuyasha balks at the insult to his protection skills, as Kouga lists a couple things he's observed on getting here; Kagome's hands are cold rather than their usual warm, her lips are fish-belly white instead of cherry-blossom pi
nk. He gets pretty poetically descriptive for a guy who calls his rival "Dog-Turd" on the reg. 

Speaking of which, he addresses Inuyasha as such before his next outburst.

Oh man, do I doubt THAT! 

Inuyasha can only seethe with Kagome peeking out meekly from behind him, drawing out a hesitant "bastard" label. It's super awkward. 

Shippou's got Inuyasha's back, though, also fuming in Sango's arms at Kouga's accusation. His encouragement to tell Kouga otherwise doesn't go anywhere, unfortunately.

Miroku changes the subject abruptly, casually asking Kouga if he's after Naraku too. Kouga treats his affirmative answer as a given, crossing his arms haughtily. Miroku asks if he's gotten any clue about the Shichinin-tai or Naraku then, to which Kouga responds with confusion at the Shichinin-tai part of the equation at first. He quickly cottons on that Miroku must be referring to the Jakotsu or whatever bastard, the zombie with the smell of burial soil. Miroku concludes that Kouga's already met them, then - something we've already established a few panels ago. You'd think the SMART one could keep up with the conversation, but I guess not. 

A narrow sky transition panel leads to one panning over wooded hills, and then another bisected one zoomed in on a couple of stones and planks of wood toppled at a small broken shrine. Someone is introducing it as the Shichinin grave of chapter title fame, where the corpses of the seven mercenaries were once buried. The unknown person points out that it was recently destroyed, though.

Cursed doesn't even begin to describe it if you managed to find the ONE lady in the world that the guy behind this grave robbery is hopelessly obsessed with. Bad luck, bros. 

A somewhat constipated-looking Kikyou agrees to do a purification of the grave, and the villagers who led her there thank her for putting them at ease, but she mentally confirms that this is all JUST to sooth them on the surface level. There's already no evil presence remaining in the place, having been cleared away long ago. She turns to look at a looming mass in the distance. 

I can think of a couple guys who would pay ANY sum to get to a place like that in this day and age...

Kikyou takes a stroll considering how she has no sense of evil anywhere nearby because of that abnormally pure mountain. Is there a way in which mountains are NORMALLY pure? At a rustling, Kikyou suddenly perks up thinking she senses something else - a Shikon fragment. Up ahead on the path, she comes across a house where a cluster of people hang out on the porch. Kikyou peers as she gets closer, at a man who is wrapping a bandage around an old woman's wrist, assuring her it will be fine and instructing her to apply more salve in three days. The old woman thanks him, a gaggle of children hanging out around them. They make an odd couple indeed, but Kikyou focuses on the man specifically. 

Nah, she can't POSSIBLY have found another Shichinin-guy. He's doing the literal OPPOSITE of murdering!

A child carrying an even tinier baby child on her back notices Kikyou and remarks on her beauty, a little boy in the background also entranced by the newcomer, it looks like. Kikyou kneels down next to the girl and asks who the dude is, and the girl answers that it's Suikotsu, the doctor. Suikotsu himself asks the little girl, Chiyo, if they have a visitor, and Kikyou responds not with her name, but a request for confirmation on his. To her eyes, the Shikon shard in his neck shines as he says that yes, he is indeed Suikotsu, asking for her name in return. She gives it, contemplating the inevitable corruption of a Shikon fragment when inserted into the flesh of a human or youkai with an evil heart. She notes that this man's shard hasn't become the least bit corrupted, though, watching him carry around the numerous kids in his arms and on his shoulders. 

Gee, Kikyou, maybe that mountain you thinking makes everything so pure around it has something to do with this?

After another narrow sky transition panel, night has fallen in the surrounding hills, and Miroku is leaning on an elbow, the girls and Shippou fast asleep behind him. He tells an awake and sitting Inuyasha that he can stand watch so Inuyasha can get some much-needed sleep, but Inuyasha tells HIM to go to sleep instead. Miroku says he's fine now, and he doesn't believe the Shichinin-tai will be attacking too soon anyway. Inuyasha mumbles that he hopes that's the case, and Miroku counts off the members of the Shichinin-tai that have already bitten the dust; Kyoukotsu by Kouga's testimony, Sesshoumaru killed Mukotsu, and Ginkotsu - Miroku asks a rhetorical question about if Inuyasha got him - and suggests that the mercenary group has taken a pretty big hit themselves. Inuyasha agrees half-heartedly, clearly not really believing it himself. 

He says he thinks it would be best to go out and find them, taking them out before they have a chance to coordinate a new attack on them. Inuyasha considers the many clues he can use for this purpose, including the smell of burial soil and corpse, seemingly having forgotten how unreliable that one has been for him most recently. Another one is "lowlifes" with Shikon shards in their an tell-tale indicator. With both of them, Inuyasha thinks he will definitely be able to find out the villains. No room whatsoever for another wrench to be thrown into the works, I see. 

Yet ANOTHER narrow sky transition panel later, we're back at Suikotsu's little clinic, where all the kids have been tucked into their beds. Suikotsu tells Kikyou that all these children have lost their parents to famine and disease and he's been taking care of are fast asleep. Kikyou sits a short distance away, at the still crackling fire, as she watches him dote over the dozing kids. Or, more specifically, she's watching his NECK. 

Not a bad plan, by any means.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The comedy at the beginning was a welcome decompression from the tension of the last few. If there is one thing that RT's background in comedy stories has perfected in this one, it's her intuitive understanding of when a punchline is absolutely needed. Everything from the plastic water bottles from the future being used to administer a dubious ancient remedy for blood-loss to the bloody drool hanging from the nauseated "patients'" mouths when they found out what was in what they were drinking was perfectly executed. An added little bit of amusement I got out of this that I don't think was intended but tickled me all the same is the sense I got that Myouga had never used this "medicine" on humans before. Like it's a youkai remedy that he's used before on other youkai, but didn't necessarily think about if drawing blood from a pile of snakes and making humans drink it would be effective? He didn't really have TIME to consider it, so I certainly don't blame him if it didn't occur to him, but that's absolutely HILARIOUS to me. 

Kouga's criticism of Inuyasha was interesting, because it was relatable from just about every angle. I felt for Inuyasha because I had SEEN him beating himself up over what happened to his friends, a position that is very familiar to me. I'd also seen the situation snowballing far out of Inuyasha's control, with the knowledge that there was damn near nothing he could have done to prevent it, all of which Kouga HADN'T seen. On the other hand, I have been in Kouga's position before too - seeing the after-effects of a disaster and thinking that it could have been avoided if someone had done BETTER. I've also been in Kagome's position, where I'm stuck in between two blustering weirdos arguing over whether I'm better off in this or that condition, and I'm never even ASKED what I think could be done to make my situation better or avoid trouble in the future. An interesting scene asking you to consider multiple perspectives. 

I'm happy to see Kikyou again in this one, since it's been a minute since she's shown up, but she hasn't really had a chance to do much except meet up with a Shichinin-tai herself. The more interesting part of this equation is the friendly neighborhood doctor adopting children and healing people obviously being a member of the mercenary group. Kikyou's first introduction to the group being the very picture of internal conflict between two disparate natures might say something significant here.

Or it might not. :)

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 303 To Pierce the Darkness

By all means - it's been keeping me awake lately. My husband is a mechanic at a warehouse, and his hours at work have always been a tad irregular. Previously, he would get up at 2 a.m. in order to make it to his job across the bridge at 4 a.m., then come home at around 4:30 p.m. It changed over the last week, so that now he's leaving at 7:30 p.m and coming home at 9 a.m. It's wreaked HAVOC on both our sleep schedules, and just as crucially, our comfort in bed. I've gotten so used to him being there that when I wake up in the middle of the night and he's not next to me, I can't get back to sleep. 

We're both DREADFULLY tired nowadays, as you can imagine. 

I'll take some yawns over THIS problem any day, though.

As a recap on the end of the previous chapter, we see the final wisps of Shada's monster among the rest of the ka, someone reiterating that it was destroyed by the attack from the shadows. He's still clutching at his chest, wincing in pain. Beside him, Priest Seto urges him not to give in yet, preaching that they have to keep fighting as long as they have an ounce of soul left. Very fitting. Also, it looks like there are speed-lines behind them while Shada is doubled over in his saddle and agreeing - are they riding a full tilt right now? And Shada is still keeping his balance on the back of his horse despite the pain? Shit, dude, this guy is kind of a badass. 

Anyway, Priest Seto says that the moment they turn their backs to the darkness is the moment the kingdom falls. He then turns to the ACTUAL cavalry behind them and instructs them to follow thief!Bakura, commanding the guard to evacuate the city, and open the palace to the refugees. Sounds generous, but really they're just going to squeeze all those refugees into a torture cell together. XD 

They all accept these orders without hesitation. 

Yami is still stuck on his silent insistence that there has to be a way to find their foe in the darkness, completely missing the fact that he's being shown-up in leadership skills by the guy in the big tall hat. Kalim calls to Priest Seto and reminds him that Duos dealt Diabound a pretty deep wound, suggesting that it can't be as powerful as before with one of its hands missing. Priest Seto hums to show he's listening as Kalim continues to make assumptions: he says that IF the range of Spiral Wave is shortened, they should be able to determine its position when it attacks. That is a BIG ASS IF, friend, and dependent on whether or not anyone has managed to calculate all the possible ranges of Diabound's Spiral Wave. Still, he offers to use his ka as bait, telling everyone to attack when Diabound shows itself.

Yami and Priest Seto look behind them at Kalim in alarm for a moment, presumably considering the proposal. Priest Seto accepts this plan, adding that Duos's Aura sword can mark Diabound's position if Duos can hit Diabound with it. Again, "if" is doing some heavy lifting here. I hope it's lifting with its legs at the VERY least. Priest Seto and Kalim gallop off with an affirmation of action, the former calling to the injured Shada to protect the pharaoh. This can only end well.

Yami thinks after the two charging forward, sweating bullets and making groaning noises. Shada sucks up his own pain, I guess, and tells Yami how very unwell he looks, since Slifer was injured by thief!Bakura's attacks. Telling his king he looks like shit? My respect for him grows despite myself. Shada says that Yami's life will be in danger if he continues to fight, pleading with him to take Slifer and go back to the palace, and leave the rest to the priests. It's not at all that he's having a hard enough time staying on his OWN horse without babysitting Yami.

I don't know, bro... sitting there sweating isn't really accomplishing much... Not to mention, Yami has to acknowledge through his own moaning pain that Slifer was badly injured and is almost out of power. As the city-dwellers run from the crumbling and smoking buildings under the direction of the guards, Shada tries again to reason with Yami. He reiterates to Yami that he's the literal embodiment of a god to these people, like Ra shining a light of hope on them, his very existence lighting the shadows of the world. Damn, if that isn't a whole lot of empty flattery. Yami croaks that he's not a god, and (discordantly) says he'll never forgive thief!Bakura for trying to put out the lights of the world. Okay, dude, you don't have to forgive him, but that doesn't mean you have to be a sitting duck, either!

While Yami stubbornly stares up at his sky dragon writhing in the air above, Shada appears to have an shocking epiphany regarding this that he'd rather not believe. He wonders if Yami is using Slifer as a decoy. 

Kalim and Priest Seto are catching on to Yami's fool intentions too, the former stuttering that he'll surely be attacked if he keeps making Slifer climb so high up in the open like that, the latter questioning why Yami would DO this. I don't know, man, maybe because his stupid ass makes a more tempting target for the villain obsessed with him? Just a guess. Slifer presumably keeps getting up in altitude, which is pretty good for catching a certain someone's eye.

Thief!Bakura plans to use one attack to eliminate Yami's ba, or life force, and that will take out the ka too. Nice and tidy. He's got that manic grin again when he invites Yami to die along with his god, and commands Diabound to attack. The Spiral Wave shoots out at Slifer, and as the god-monster dissolves in the blast, Yami groans all the more. The shot blasts right through Slifer's coiled body, blowing into separate segments. 

Hope this if-heavy plan works, because I think Yami is pretty much spent as bait.

Right in front of Duos, the residual energy an the trail it left behind from Diabound's attack is fading. Though he growls in frustration, Priest Seto shouts to indicate this as where Diabound has been hiding, and commands Duos to pierce the darkness. He said the thing! The thing in the title! Duos throws his Aura Sword at Priest Seto's order, and it embeds itself smack in the center of the remaining point of light at the origin of the attack. Pretty much pierced the OPPOSITE of the darkness, but whatever. Thief!Bakura is in some disbelief at seeing this, apparently. 

And in classic Yu-Gi-Oh style, thief!Bakura promptly switches to a triumphant smile, asking if Diabound's attackers are blind as though they're right in front of him. Complete attitude 180, as usual. Both Yami and Priest Seto look on in horror, though the former is looking a tad more run-down. 

Turns out the Aura Sword is actually skewering a flying eyeball ka with tiny stupid wings rather than Diabound, something a sweaty Priest Seto can't seem to wrap his head around as possible. Again, as though he's still talking to people in range of his words, thief!Bakura explains to literally NO ONE that they've forgotten holders of Millennium Items can summon ka from the Shrine of Wedju, and he borrowed a weakling that didn't cost him much of his personal energy because he knew they'd try something like that. A close-up of Priest Seto's beady eye is shown before Thief!Bakura keeps talking over an image of the dissolving eyeball - he says he TOLD them that they can't catch Diabound as long as the darkness exists, and it's now his turn. 

Is he just using one of these monsters as a megaphone or something????

Yami is slumped on the neck of his horse, huffing in exhaustion. He considers Ra, the light of hope, the only thing that can defeat the darkness, and it appears to hearten him at first before he remembers that his energy to summon it is already gone. He then hears someone call to him in his own head and his eyes widen. 

An... invisible cavalry has arrived? Emotional support cavalry?

Yami just sort of gapes at first, and Yuugi has to call out to him again before he seems to catch on that he and the others are really there. Or perhaps he's unable to see them at first just like everyone else. It's a little unclear. Either way, Yuugi says that half of Yami's soul is still with him, reaching out a semi-transparent hand to cover Yami's as the puzzle swings below. 

That's the most threatening sunshine I've ever SEEN. 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The desperation of the situation is palpable, as is the scrambling of the characters to do something about it. I made fun of how tenuous the assumptions that led to this flimsy plan of the priests are, but the lack of time and accurate data made them absolutely inevitable. It was probably the best set of "if"s they could have come up with, and that helped to make their questionable solution somewhat realistic as well as more heroic, in a way. Despite the massive amount of variables and unknowns in the problems, the priests weren't locked up in despair or inaction. They took their best shot anyway.

I thought Yami's stubborn refusal to leave the battle was at first a little annoying, but I was pleasantly surprised with how WELL it worked in the whole context of the chapter. It made sense that he would be encouraged to retreat for his survival, since as a living embodiment of a god, he would be a symbol of the endurance of their kingdom for the people. But the snag is that no one else would be a tempting enough target to attack. No offense to Kalim, but he's a small-fry, and in lieu of satisfying his desire to kill the pharaoh and all hope for a viable future with him, thief!Bakura would have just had Diabound dart around firebombing the city from random directions. Yami HAD to be the bait, as the only one who could draw thief!Bakura out, so he wasn't just a self-indulgent martyr - he was making a rational, reasonable decision to give everyone else a better chance of beating thief!Bakura. It was a much-needed motivation to his action to help solve the problem I was talking about in the previous chapter's analysis, because it contains strategy, and isn't just vague heroism for the sake of it. A very satisfying rectification of that problem as well.

And I LOVED how thief!Bakura used Yami and the priests' resources against them here. I should have seen it coming, as it was set up way back when we learned that holders of the Millennium Items can summon from the collection of ka in the Shrine of Wedju, but the payoff was far enough off from it and in such an unexpected place as a SHIELD that I was completely caught off-guard in the best way. Clever move on KT's part. 

The only thing I'm still scratching my head about is whether or not any of them can actually HEAR thief!Bakura? Seriously annoying that we're this far in the story and I STILL have trouble telling what is and is not dialog.

Inuyasha Manga: 244 The Lives of Friends

Oh yeah, I should really check in on those. I left Facebook a while ago because it wasn't showing me posts from my friends in order to fit more ads in my feed, so I no longer have a hub of communication to lean on - I have to be a bit more proactive and reach out to everyone individually these days. It wouldn't be a big deal, but I've always got the idea in my head that I'm BOTHERING them when I text or call? I've always been shy about making contact because I'm worried I'll interrupt whatever is going on in their lives and end up being inadvertently insensitive. Anyone else feel like that?

This is the sort of life event that SHOULD probably be interrupted, though.

Renkotsu asserts that whether his friends are dying from the fire or Mukotsu's poison, Inuyasha can't save them. He also interjects a comment in there that Inuyasha and co killed Mukotsu, which isn't QUITE accurate. More of an enemy-of-my-enemy situation going on there, but Inuyasha doesn't really bother to try and correct him, lacking the time. He just growls and lurches forward with Tessaiga raised, yelling at Renkotsu to shut his trap. 

The chain wrapped around the blade from Ginkotsu's arsenal below tug back on it, ax attached to the end dangling behind Inuyasha's back. Ginkotsu yanks Inuyasha backward toward him, and the ax swings perilously above Inuyasha's head as he loses his balance. As Ginkotsu gurgles Inuyasha's name, a door opens in the armor over his chest and a massive spinning spike emerges from it, a big fat whirring thumbtack with screw threads wound around it. Ginkotsu is planning to disembowel Inuyasha is the worst possible way. 

Still on fire and falling, Inuyasha complains that he just doesn't have time to entertain this potentially gory bullshit. The gore era of this story has mostly passed. We've moved onto body horror, Shichinin-tai, keep up.

Ginkotsu downright FALLS APART as he tumbles down the stairs, like he's Meryl Streep or Goldie Hawn.

THAT'S more the vibe we're going for. 

Renkotsu just kinda stands quietly in the middle of the stairs, looking almost bored. Meanwhile, the burning building behind the collapsed gate erupts even further into flame. Inuyasha starts panicking over the state of the temple again, yelling his friends' names. Renkotsu continues to stand silently as Inuyasha bounds up the stairs, screaming at him to get out of the way. Inuyasha pushes off a step in an impressive flying leap.

Aaaaaand he's gone.

Renkotsu turns to look where Inuyasha disappeared, thinking that it must be too much even to pause and kill him. Better not catch him complaining about that - generally it doesn't occur to NORMAL folks to stop and murder people when they're strolling let alone when they're in a hurry, but I certainly wouldn't have blamed Inuyasha for the extra moments there in this case. Renkotsu decides he won't chase after him too hard, since he's already gotten a pretty good idea of who Naraku is, and he has Kagome's little bottle of Shikon shards between his forefinger and middle finger now. 

A small swarm of Saimyoushou descend upon Ginkotsu, not to grab his Shikon fragment, but to lift what's left of his torso and carry him off. I guess they can rebuild him. They have the technology. 

I can just hear you all now...

NARROW SKY TRANSITION PANEL! With a rustle sound effect. Then Inuyasha rushes back into the temple compound, yelling Kagome's name.

Looks bad, bro, looks bad!

Kirara stands in the midst of the burned-out building, surrounded in a different, spectral kind of fire and lifting a charred beam in the process. Inuyasha spots this and calls out to the great cat, rushing forward to help push the beam aside. Beneath, he finds a trembling Shippou still casting a protective barrier of Fox Fire around the unconscious group, and tears start welling in his eyes when he acknowledges Inuyasha. Inuyasha kneels, noting that Shippou has been keeping everyone safe with his powers, but Shippou gurgles, downright inconsolable.

Sure hope Kagome used her future knowledge to the fullest and taught everyone in the group CPR just in case. She didn't? Well, shit.

Inuyasha lifts Kagome in his arms, yelling her name, but she obviously doesn't respond. But he DOES hear a snappish command not to shake her around. Inuyasha identifies Myouga as he hops over, who sighs and instructs him to take everyone CAREFULLY to an open area. However, the sweating and anxious Myouga suggests that he may only be able to offer his condolences at this point. Inuyasha continues to look wide-eyed and horrified, which, no shade. Hope is in short supply here.

Meanwhile, we pick back up with Kouga where he's about to face-off against Jakotsu, and it looks like we didn't miss a thing. He's just asking what Jakotsu meant by that thing he said, you know, about Inuyasha's impending death. When Kouga reminds Jakotsu he said something about Inuyasha, Jakotsu questions what he IS to Inuyasha, clearly a little threatened by the spry fur-clad hunk's relationship for a moment. But Kouga denies giving any kind of shit about Inuyasha - he wants assurance that the cute girl who travels with Inuyasha isn't in harm's way. 

You'd think the guy would be relieved to hear Kouga's more into girls, but dude just HATES being reminded that women exist apparently. 

Kouga asks for a repetition on that point from the bastard, descending on Jakotsu in a flash and just missing him with a vicious hook into the ground. Jakotsu manages to jump back, cursing as he swings his sword again, the zigzagging blade forcing Kouga to leap backward himself out of range. Kouga skids to a stop on the ground while Jakotsu admits how surprised he was by that one. He glares, thinking this is the first time someone's been able to avoid his sword, and concluding that Kouga might be a bit of trouble.

By the time he's done thinking, Kouga's already receding in the distance, kicking up his dust devil and yelling Kagome's name. Jakotsu calls after him to wait just a minute, but Kouga shouts over his shoulder that he doesn't have time to waste on scum like him, but warns him he'd better prepare to die the next time they meet. Sounds familiar. Kouga's entourage starts running after him, Two-Tone shouting for Kouga to wait, and Mohawk considering how EASILY Kouga just withdraws from conflict. 

We're back with Inuyasha, who sits with Shippou sobbing at his side. They're next to the laid out supine bodies of their three human buddies, still and unresponsive. Shippou wails that it's all his fault, because he directed their retreat to the temple, but Inuyasha tells him to stop crying. He begins to speak of his own role in the issue, punching the ground beside him as he internally wishes that he had figured out who Renkotsu really was. He hasn't really had the time to consider how little good that would have done him, unless he'd just gone for Renkotsu's throat immediately, so I'll allow it. 

He picks back up Kagome, cradling her to his shoulder repeating her name silently, begging for forgiveness.

At least it wasn't an awkward misunderstanding due to Fox Fire shenanigans this time.

In shock Inuyasha sputters out the beginnings of an exclamation that she's alive, and Kagome says her head is spinning. Inuyasha's attention and awe is drawn off-panel, where Myouga says he did the best he could, having sucked up a lot of blood with the poison. He's still drawing on Miroku's collar at the end of the line, swollen to a size even bigger than Shippou, and getting even BIGGER. He doesn't exactly look like he's enjoying his feast, a vein popping in his head, eyes screwed up in concentration. When Miroku twitches back into consciousness, he has an even worse time, Miroku stroking at Myouga's smooth round body like he does a woman's backside and muttering how glad he is that a dream projection bore his child. 

Myouga rolls away after a disturbed noise, while Shippou rushes to Miroku's side as he's opening his eyes. Miroku complains about what a disappointment it is to learn it was all a dream, Shippou adopting an annoyed expression, flatly commenting on Miroku's dreaming of girls. He turns to Sango, whose eyes have also opened, asking if she's okay. She answers in the affirmative, albeit in a dazed, dreamy way. The pocket-sized Kirara sits on her stomach in solidarity. Inuyasha stares, gaping, utterly speechless.

From his arms, Kagome apologizes for making him worry. He suddenly snaps out of his stupor and caustically calls her an idiot, asking what she's saying sorry for. Then he sets her back down on the ground and whirls around, facing the other direction, eerily quiet again. Kagome calls his name, but he doesn't respond. Shippou appears at his side and peers at him, eventually asking what's up with the hypocrisy, given Inuyasha told HIM not to cry. Kagome is in mild disbelief at this claim.

Myouga rolls over too, telling Shippou to stop joking, because he's never seen Inuyasha cry in all the time he's been serving him. Shippou has climbed up on Inuyasha's arm, urging Myouga to take a look and see for himself. Myouga leaps onto the opposite arm, fully intending to see those tears, but Inuyasha irritably flings both of them off his limbs, yelling at them to shut up.

These aren't mutually exclusive, you know.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I was actually expecting to complain about how drawn-out the whole affair was, but I'm glad I can't actually do that. I remember the struggle between Inuyasha and Ginkotsu/Renkotsu being a bit more intense than it was here, or perhaps longer? Rereading it now, I'm thinking it was just an illusion produced by the fight being split and distributed between chapters, and the ticking clock on Kagome, Miroku and Sango's lives. Inuyasha did just leave the fight unfinished as soon as he could manage, and I think this genuinely confused Renkotsu, who was clearly goading Inuyasha into a protracted "revenge" conflict. He wasn't counting on Inuyasha actually giving a shit about whether he could still save his friends instead of giving them up for lost, and that made all the difference. 

It was the same story with Kouga, who just up and left when he determined that he cared more about the state of Kagome than beating a weird new enemy. The Shichinin-tai have largely been operating on the assumption that the human portion of Inuyasha's group is pretty much... already dead, and for good reason. They're a practiced and professional band of mercenaries that are very good at killing, so it's not unreasonable for them to simply treat the thoroughly poisoned victims to be effectively on their way out, especially after tons of smoke-inhalation. But they really didn't seem to count on the protagonists NOT assuming the same things that they are; Renkotsu and Jakotsu both act as if their opponents should also treat the deaths of their loved-ones as a foregone conclusion, completely forgetting that they've been dead for a decade and their terrorizing of the landscape has been all but forgotten. 

Not that I blame them for it, since they're literally just picking up where they left off - in their view, it's been no time at all since their heads were cut off. Just gone one minute, back the next. 

Inuyasha's visible relief at the recovery of his friends and seeing him cry was incredibly moving. We've seen him in various states of emotion before, and he's always tried to keep his tough-guy persona in every previous moment, failing to a certain degree every time. But he COMPLETELY broke down here, pushed to his emotional limits, and his attempts at denying his overwhelming feelings are lukewarm at best. He's still not used to being vulnerable, it's obvious, but if this had happened earlier in the series, I very much doubt he would have shed a tear despite a comparable intensity. His discomfort at dropping the grumpy caustic mask is overridden by his natural comfort with the people around him. It's an incredibly heartwarming moment, and so sweet seeing him hold Kagome both before and after she woke, like he's afraid she'll disappear. 

Damn near gave me diabetes, I swear.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 302 Surprise Attack! Power Attack!

Absolutely nothing is a surprise to me anymore, including the power being used to throw these so-called surprises at all of us. Political ineptitude? Predictable. Inaction in the face of multiple crises because they ultimately benefit moneyed interests? That was my first guess. Under-privileged peoples being increasingly ignored or actively hurt because our fucked-up systems demand a blood sacrifice like the ancient gods of old? Tell me something new. 

Hell, the only thing that would actually raise an eyebrow from me these days is the creeps in power stepping down and giving up their enormous wealth for the greater good. That would come out of NOWHERE.

Or from the shadows, as it were.

Slifer fizzles and writhes in the air, while Yami reflects with disbelief on how Diabound can hide in the darkness between the stars. He worries that if Slifer takes another surprise shot in the dark it's finished, AND that Diabound will be able to attack any point in the city from that high up. His strategy to force Diabound up off the street really bit Yami in the ass, didn't it? He doesn't have time to dwell, though - he knows he HAS to protect the innocent lives Diabound might target.

How is KT producing all of these poster-worthy shots, man??

Yami's horse skids to a stop at the foot of the small hill that thief!Bakura decided to pause on, finally catching up. Thief!Bakura laughs, asking if Yami now sees how NOTHING his royal power is before the big bad king of thieves. He claws the fingers of his hand, palm up, covered in ACTUAL blood, as he states that all lives of both men and gods are in his hands. I'm guessing that's Akhenaden's blood from when he half-ripped out the Millennium Eye? I guess there wasn't any time for him to clean up, so makes sense. 

With the speed-lines in the next panel, you're kind of tricked into thinking that Yami has spurred his horse back into motion, but thief!Bakura appears stationary as he continues talking in the one after that? He offers to tell the "great pharaoh" why he's so much more powerful, claiming that his thirst for death and literal blood on his hands is the will of the Millennium Items. Yami sweats, questioning the assertion in his head. Thief!Bakura enthusiastically explains that the souls of his fellow thieves from Kul Elna sealed into the Millennium Items are using them as a direct line to him from hell, telling him that the one who gathers all seven items together will be granted a special "shadow power" and will rule the world. 

Thief!Bakura is downright exuberant at this prospect, but Yami doesn't respond with anything more than a glare, hiding his shock behind it. Still holding out that bloodied hand, thief!Bakura demands the Millennium Puzzle from Yami, threatening to bombard the city until it looks like the surrounding desert if he doesn't get what he wants. You know, like an overgrown toddler taking a shit on the carpet because he didn't get a toy at the store. Yami grunts, recalling that Diabound is hiding in the shadows, able to attack the city whenever it wants, and he REALLY doesn't want anyone else innocent to die. 

I hope he watched a lot of movies with Yuugi in the present day - the villain that promises not to hurt anyone if they get something and then immediately goes back on their word the moment their desire is secured is one of the most basic cliches. In fact, a quick peek into thief!Bakura's head on our end confirms that he's going to kill Yami no matter what he does, at the very least. Meanwhile, Yami acknowledges that if thief!Bakura gets all of the Millennium Items, the world will be condemned to eternal night. Leaving out the part that it won't matter how many innocents he's saved now in that circumstance, of course. 

Slifer is still writhing in the air, by the way. Yami looks up at it, thinking it still has a bit of power left, and realizes there's still one way he can draw Diabound out of hiding so her can know where it is. He thinks hard at Slifer, commanding it to listen to his thoughts. In the meantime, Yami takes off the puzzle and holds it in the air in front of thief!Bakura, who gloats that Yami wants to do this the easy way with his bloodied hand raised. Yami just thinks about the number of seconds he'll have while thief!Bakura's attention is on the puzzle, which he estimates to be three or four, more likely the former. 

Slifer dives right for thief!Bakura's head at Yami's direction to surprise attack him. It indeed doesn't take long for thief!Bakura to look up and notice with horror what's happening.

But as Slifer gets closer and closer to where he's sitting, thief!Bakura just scoffs, grinning despite the screech of the god-creature bearing down at him. In the space of a tense pulse, Yami's eyes widen and he freezes.

At least it was a fairer gamble than any appeal for change to the status quo.

Yami sits as still as he can with his jaw clenched, tensely staring at the claws curling in front of his eyes. Thief!Bakura says that even the swiftest of gods can't move when its master is held hostage; with Slifer hovering in mid-dive above him, he points a bloody finger at Yami as he reiterates that his goal is to get all the Millennium Items, and he can't do that as long as Yami is alive. Eyes wide in horror, Yami tries to deny to himself that this is his last moment, but thief!Bakura soon utters a "Muut" order to him, which VIZ notes is Ancient Egyptian for "Die". I don't know if I should be cringing more at VIZ's translators insisting on carrying the gratuitous foreign language use through to its English readers, or KT's initial gratuitous foreign language use in the first place. I'm cringing at both, regardless.

A splatter of blood claims the next panel. 

Now THAT was a surprise attack.

Thief!Bakura recoils in alarm, his bloody hand feeling the pain of Diabound's severed wrist as he wonders just what the hell happened here. Yami gapes, realizing in wonder that his savior is Duos, Priest Seto's spirit. Good thing he reminded me, because I'm still having trouble remembering all of these guys and which ka are associated with whom. A couple more spirits that I'm failing to identify are hovering in the background as well, an eagle with a man's body and a winged lion. Yami looks around to see the cavalry has arrived.

Took their sweet time, didn't they? Well, Priest Seto thinks they're just in time, anyway. Kalim asks his pharaoh if he's alright, and Yami responds he's fine, while thief!Bakura's horse rears and he groans that they're all scum. Priest Seto's focus is on Diabound, that he draws attention to as it launches itself back into the sky and dissolves into the night. Yami warns them all that it's hiding in the darkness so it can launch another surprise attack. Shada notes the dust cloud of the fleeing thief!Bakura on a nearby ridge as him disappearing as well. 

Yami shouts that they have to protect the city's people, and can't let thief!Bakura continue his killing spree. After stating that Diabound is totally invisible, Priest Seto calls for them not to fear, even though they can't see their enemy - he encourages them to aim the attacks of their collective ka at the sky. Before they do, though, a starburst extends from horizon to horizon. The shocked spirits watch the light beams swirl, until a blast extends from the epicenter and engulfs Zerua, the eagle-headed ka at the forefront of the formation. I only re-learn that its name is Zerua when Shada clutches his chest in sympathetic pain with his monster. Kinda feel bad for forgetting it now. 

A half-shadowed and grinning thief!Bakura asserts that he can't be beat in city warfare as long as there is darkness. He promises that the Nile will run red with the blood of the priests and Yami's subjects. 

Cool affirmation, bro, but doesn't this whole debacle prove that there are some things that AREN'T worth doing to defeat the bad guy?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? As fun as this battle is, it's putting into sharper relief a problem this conflict has had since thief!Bakura first burst into the palace: thief!Bakura's goals and motivations are so much more... tangible than Yami's. While I don't know all the details yet, there seems to be a clear line of cause and effect to thief!Bakura's actions, and this gives them a much more developed foundation. The same can't be said for Yami, who's trying desperately to be a good, upstanding king, but this is such a vague concept that it ends up producing the kinds of nebulous and meaningless statements like the one above. It also pits his own attempts at protection/kindness to his people against themselves, because he bumps up against the knowledge that thief!Bakura will kill a whole bunch of innocents in the city if he doesn't get the puzzle, but will plunge the world into chaos if he DOES. And this isn't even taking into account the very NATURE of being a king that will eventually be buried in expensive gold and finery in a tomb built with slave labor. His insistence on saving his innocent subjects is at fundamental odds with his position above them. It depends on them having LESS and being oppressed by him. 

And part of vagueness is due to the issue that Yami just doesn't have many memories in this world. He's missing a LOT of this context, so it's hard to build a solid set of underpinning motivations or working goals for him. But another part of it is the fuzzy nature of the "good guy" that Yami is being cast as here, which is kind of a RESULT of the first part. As much as I understand the impulse to want to save EVERYONE he can in this situation, but it strikes me less as a genuine love for his subjects (whom he doesn't remember ANYWAY) and more as trying to preserve his own pure ideology. It's so much less personal when he's missing the lived experience of being a pharaoh to these people, so it comes across as a video game he's trying to do an angelic run on.

But I like the potential poster. I support the potential poster.

Inuyasha Manga: 243 Smell of the Shichinin-tai

Can't be pleasant, that's for sure. Corpses aren't known for smelling sweet even a few hours after death. But they HAD been dead for a few years, so I'm guessing most of the more nasty scent of decomposition was probably long gone before resurrection. I guess that does beg the question, since they have their flesh back, what scent they've kept. Is it musty bones or rotting meat? Inuyasha hasn't really specified anything other than "grave dirt", but that's not a particularly distinct smell to someone without a dog nose. Dirt is dirt to me, so he's going to have to elaborate if he wants to get the concept across.

Dammit, Inuyasha, this is precisely why you always confirm the kill! Especially with zombies!

Inuyasha leaps over the toppled roof, hand at the ready on Tessaiga's hilt as he asks Ginkotsu if he STILL wants to fight. Ginkotsu responds with a gurgle and shooting his grappling hook at Inuyasha, which is as good a confirmation that he's not there to talk out their differences as any. Inuyasha knocks the hook away while drawing his sword, yelling that it's useless. Ginkotsu wordlessly launches several weights from over his back, each pulling a separate wire. They wind around an alarmed Inuyasha, wrapping around his middle and every limb. Once he's landed on solid ground again. Inuyasha tugs on these wires, finding that one wound around his arm was drawing blood, but he doesn't seem upset so much as annoyed. 

Ginkotsu slurs that he got Inuyasha, but Inuyasha accuses him of possibly being dumb, because...

I wouldn't say drawing blood isn't WORKING, but Inuyasha is doing a good job treating it like water off a ducks back, at least.

Ginkotsu actually breaks the damn stairs as he tumbles backward down them, the sheer weight of his machinery carving through them. Inuyasha watches and scoffs, halfway through a smug statement of victory when he notices the smell of smoke. He looks back up the stairs to where he sees it billowing from inside the temple, in a state of shock that Ginkotsu's return couldn't produce. 

He yells Kagome's name and starts leaping back up the stairs in order to get to her, but pauses when he sees Renkotsu at the top. 

Looks like he's revealing a much anticipated eyeshadow palette. 

Inuyasha is confused, because he was so convinced that this guy smelled like a regular human before, and Renkotsu notes the bewildered expression on his face, asking sardonically what's up. He correctly guesses the obvious fact that Inuyasha's good nose seemed to indicate that kind monk Renkotsu didn't have a eau de corpse-and-burial-soil whiff on him. Renkotsu doesn't really have to explain the trick, because Inuyasha scowls as an epiphany that it's this PLACE hits him, but Renkotsu gives him the long of the short of it anyway: he chuckles that it was worthwhile to stay in a temple that has burial soil all around it, allowing his scent to blend in. It also didn't hurt that he stole the clothes of the monks that USED to live here, which was enough for Inuyasha's nose to not catch wind of anything funny.

Inuyasha's teeth grind in fury, his next realization coming out as the accusation that Renkotsu killed the priests here. Renkotsu admits that they were the ones Inuyasha saw earlier, the charred bodies he was burying when Inuyasha came in. Inuyasha's nose twitches. Clearly, he has run out of ways to express his pure rage at this deadly ruse.

The flames crackle around Kagome and friends snoozing uninterrupted in the burning temple. Shippou is also still out cold on Kagome's shoulder when Myouga hops up and calls out to him to wake up. 

Man, Myouga really got the short end of the youkai-ability-stick, didn't he? Getting flattened every time he helps someone out with it.

As Myouga flutters down from Shippou's palm, Shippou drowsily tries to determine what happened to him. He remembers falling asleep from the smoke incense from the burner that priest brought in before finally noticing the flames licking at the walls and freaking out. He flits between Miroku, Sango and Kagome, wailing at them to wake up, but he's not having much success.

Inuyasha is still growing at that bastard Renkotsu outside, cursing him for setting fire to the temple. Renkotsu describes it as a ceremonial pyre to send them to the afterlife, laughing that Inuyasha's group was just about dead from poison anyway. Inuyasha has heard just about enough, raising Tessaiga over his shoulder and charging, yelling at Renkotsu to get out of his way. An ax on a chain wraps around Tessaiga's blade from below, a projectile launched from a Ginkotsu that managed to pull himself to his feet again. 

Was Renkotsu some kind of circus performer before he joined the Shichinin-tai or what? This seems more like a big-top show than a battle at this point.

Renkotsu pulls back on his OWN set of wires attached to Inuyasha, no doubt thrown out with the fire on them on the prior page, chuckling that he's not letting Inuyasha pass. Inuyasha winces against the fire, cursing up a storm. Though his hair appears remarkably untouched by the flames, I'm still imagining that burning hair smell and it's like 1000x worse that what I'm thinking the Shichinin-tai smell like.

I just REALLY hate the smell of burning hair. 

After a narrow sky transition panel to the surrounding misty forested hills, Kouga's entourage is speeding along, wolves first followed by the humanoid ones. They seem surprised by something ahead, and Mohawk starts to alert Kouga himself, far in front of the pack, of the smell of fire and smoke. But Kouga snaps he knows, but he's much more worried about the smell of corpses and burial soil.

Then a flash like lighting strikes out before him.

Jakostu stands on a nearby hill, and pulls back the blades of his sword into place at the hilt casually. He asks for confirmation that Kouga is the leader of the wolf tribe, looking more curious than anything. Kouga's two lackeys sweatdrop, Two-Tone muttering that another strange dude has come out of the woodwork. Coming from the fur-clad cave-dwellers, that's a little rich, but also neither here nor there. 

Kouga calls Jakotsu a bastard, deducing that he's the ally of that Kyoukotsu defeated not too long ago, owing to the fact that they have the same smell. Kouga asks if he's come for his revenge, but Jakotsu takes a moment to examine Kouga through an unrelenting stare for a couple of moments. He assesses the short loincloth something of a turn-on, but in the end sighs, frustrated that Kouga is STILL not quite his type. Kouga tries to consult with Two-Tone and Mohawk on what this idiot is even talking about, but they both claim to have not the foggiest idea. Their expression tell a different story, though.

Swinging his sword lazily, Jakotsu promises to finish Kouga off quickly. Kouga claims that's HIS line, but he's not really the one with the upper hand here.

Oh yeah, he hasn't heard the punny name yet.

Jakotsu tells him to stop resisting, because he's in a bit of a hurry, having been promised that he can see Inuyasha's last moments if he hurries this little task up. He's not counting on it, but he clearly has some hope despite his lowered expectations. Weirdly, I want to say good for him? Meanwhile, the little bit about Inuyasha's impending last moments catches Kouga's attention, and he's caught in an alarmed disbelief.

Back at the temple, now ENGULFED in flames, Shippou has all his unconscious friends shoved in a pile against the transformed Kirara, who probably did that labor. Shippou has got his hands full with maintaining his foxfire projected out all around them in a protective bubble, trembling little arms flung out. He stutters for them not to worry, that he's here, and promises to protect them with his foxfire until Inuyasha shows up. But he wails, not particularly confident in his ability to hold out that long. This is when Myouga calls out from Kagome's neck that their breathing has STOPPED.

How long can YOU go without breathing?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? For once, I can say that the many cuts and jarring switches between characters works here. There are many different related things happening with different characters, and it's all important to the bigger, VERY STRESSFUL, picture. Not only is it crucial to know how Kagome, Sango and Miroku are doing while Shippou tries to protect them, it's important to know how tied up (literally) Inuyasha is and how it's preventing him from coming to their rescue, it's important to see Kouga learning that Inuyasha and his group are in danger, and it's important to understand that it's all happening at the SAME TIME. And the constant snapping between all their circumstances builds tension effectively by creating this feeling that you can't pay attention to everything at once; like Inuyasha, you cannot PHYSICALLY handle all of the shit that is going down, and it magnifies the natural anxiety of the situation.

After all, it's very clear, especially by the end of the chapter, that this is the most vulnerable Inuyasha and company have ever been. Even when they've come close to death before, they've still been actively fighting and struggling. Most of the group being lost in unconsciousness and unable to wake up for so much as a snarl at the enemy is SCARY. We have never seen them in such a dire state before, let alone so many of them together, so there's fewer avenues for them getting help. It really makes the reader question their assumption that these characters are going to make it to the other side of the crisis. 

I mean, I've read this story multiple times, so my questioning of that fact is diminished to damn near nothing. But for a NEW reader...