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.
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...
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.
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.
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