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.
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.
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. :)
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