It's not just for zombie mercenaries. A holiday weekend is apparently an excuse to withdraw from another demonstration of an urgent problem that leadership has been refusing to address for DECADES now. I don't know how I'm supposed to reconcile these people claiming that they're caring and benevolent with them taking the first exit from actually fighting for the safety of one of our most basic institutions, but clearly I'm supposed to take their impotence in stride. Since I'm all at once sick at heart for current events, angry, and numb, I probably don't have the room to criticize the contradictory statements/actions/inactions of these metastasized dinosaurs.
Won't stop me from seething that they're taking up the valuable space that someone less corrupt could use to make lives better or less perilous.
Has Bankotsu waltzed into this fight just as blind as Elon Musk into his supremely stupid Twitter deal? WHY??? Bankotsu has the advantage of friends and a boss with a vested interest in him succeeding. Why aren't they telling him BASIC SHIT??
Ginkotsu fires his weighted wires to wrap around Inuyasha and bind him, but as Inuyasha says when he recovers from the initial surprise and calls Ginkotsu a fool, he's a bit too late. As Inuyasha's signature blast nears a gaping Bankotsu, he identifies it as the Kaze no Kizu in alarm. Oh good, at least he got the NAME of the attack from Naraku. Doesn't seem to have done him much good. He holds his gargantuan monster sword across him defensively like a shield as the blast connects with him.
And everything behind him too, of course.
The other ongoing scuffles pause, Kouga looking over his shoulder from a distracted Renkotsu waving multiple flaming threads at him, Suikotsu glances over in confusion with Miroku joining him despite still keeping his staff raised in defense, and Jakotsu calls out to Bankotsu, forgetting all about his whip-like sword still flailing through the air over a staring Sango. Inuyasha stands at the origin point of several long gashes his technique carved in the ground, and the leveled building at their end, Kagome and Shippou wondering aloud if Bankotsu got GOT. Bakotsu's sword stands with its point stuck in the ground, a big crack in its wide face, like a cut in flesh. Bankotsu himself is nowhere in sight.
But just when Inuyasha started gloating, telling the assumed annihilated Bankotsu to suck it...
Well, the damn thing IS bigger than a barn. Even someone with aim as shitty as Inuyasha's couldn't fail to hit it.
Inuyasha is flabbergasted as he stares at Bankotsu, who turns to Ginkotsu to praise him for rescuing his big brother. Ginkotsu gurgles at the acknowledgement, even though it's pretty clear it's bullshit, Ginkotsu's actions being well after Inuyasha let off the Kaze no Kizu. All the same, Bankotsu is now surrounded by the Saimyoushou, and he loses his patience with them, yelling that he GETS it already. He tells Inuyasha that this is it for today, and Inuyasha is all the more astonished, shouting that Bankotsu has GOT to be kidding right now. To be fair, it DOES kind of sound like a weird joke.
Renkotsu takes a swig from his gourd and spits fire at Kouga, yelling at him to move. Kouga jumps up and out of the way, still hanging up at the top of his leap when Renkotsu drives the Ginkotsu tank underneath him, to his confusion. Renkotsu doesn't give a shit, he's focused entirely on "that girl", Kagome, who is realizing that Renkotsu and his death machine are headed straight for her in alarm. He shoots Ginkotsu's guns at her, intending to get her before she blabs too much. Inuyasha and Kouga both shout her name impotently while Ginkotsu's shots explode the earth. The debris rains around Miroku, also yelling her name in concern.
That blouse is the real MVP lately, huh? I don't know how it's not only so durable as to withstand a sabertoothed monster using it as a makeshift scruff, but also not causing Kagome to be strangled in the process.
Her bow has suddenly reappeared too, so you know shit is about to go down. As Renkotsu curses her escape from the gunfire, Kagome is back on the ground and has an arrow nocked and the bow drawn, pointed at him, shouting his name as a threat.
Not exactly following through, though. Sadly.
Might have something to do with the rumble that she notices beneath her feet, to be fair. In the space of a panel, the ground actually starts to crumble under her, and she struggles to keep her balance as the earth threatens to swallow her up. Inuyasha yells her name again, and he must have wasted no time leaping to her side, because he's got a good grip on her shoulders on the next page. They're both gaping at the Ginkotsu tank in the midst of the earthquake, with the rest of the Shichinintai perched at various points on it, and also enduring the shaking ground. Bankotsu calls this "grandiose" with annoyance; an exaggerated repeat of Naraku's desire for them to get out of there right the fuck now.
Back at the mountain...
The babies are not having a good time. They're having a bad time.
Kohaku twists, telling Rin she needs to get out of there now, before the youkai in the shadows find her and tear her apart. She asks about HIM, but he assures her that they won't attack him, more firmly ordering her to go. Rin stutters an affirmative, glancing back at Kohaku in worry as she runs back out of the mouth of the cave.
Where Rin left him, Jaken is literally grovelling to Sesshoumaru, begging for forgiveness and offering the excuse that Rin ran off on him before he could stop her. Sesshoumaru glares at the misty mountainside jutting up a short distance away, silently contemplating Rin being in the barrier, like it's still in question or something. Sesshoumaru takes a small step forward and Jaken starts freaking out, waving his arms and insisting that Sesshoumaru mustn't go, reiterating what they BOTH should already know - even HE'LL be purified if he steps onto sacred ground. Sesshoumaru tells him to shut it, and to look behind him.
Rin fades into view out of the fog, and Jaken calls to her in surprise. The moment she sees them, she breaks into a run again, happily identifying Sesshoumaru. As she draws level with them, Sesshoumaru asks for confirmation that Kohaku is inside the barrier, and she tenses, making an alarmed noise before falling into awkward silence. Jaken warns her not to lie, since Sesshoumaru's nose can't be fooled, and she hangs her head over her hammering heart, wondering again if Sesshoumaru wants to kill her friend after all. I do NOT envy this kid when she reaches dating age, because she'll be worrying about this question more often than not. Gracious, it's worse than dad waiting on the porch with a shotgun.
As Sesshoumaru watches the mist drift along the face of the mountain, he ponders youkai existing inside the sacred grounds. He thinks he's figured out Naraku's trick. Probably thinks that's impressive too. *eyeroll*
Back at the murder-castle, Inuyasha and company are still trying to keep their footing on the roiling earth, while the Shichinin-tai drives away on Ginkotsu, Bankotsu wishing them farewell. Inuyasha lunges for them with Tessaiga raised, insisting that these bastards aren't getting away, but a wall of rock juts out of the ground in front of him and blocks his path forward, to his alarm.
Not long enough of a while, if you ask me.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Kagome pulling that bow out of nowhere to fire off a single shot was still a little frustrating to me, but mostly just because it seems that it was remembered at the last second that Kagome could have had SOME agency in the situation. The retaliation against Renkotsu appears not to be planned, because there was no effort to depict Kagome with the bow consistently beforehand. The previous chapter made her a bit of a fifth-wheel, so I don't know if it occurred to RT until the very end of this one that Kagome could play any role at all. I would argue that she might still not have played a role with her minimal action anyway, considering the battle was already over and the Shichinin-tai were already on their way out by the time she defended herself, but taking another look, I do believe that single shot served a purpose.
The Shichinin-tai as a whole were loathe to leave even at their employer's behest, but Renkotsu in particular is panicking that Kagome has the ability to BURY him just by talking to loud. It makes sense for him to take a gamble on one last cannon fire at her in order to get rid of her, because in HIS experience, she's not been able to fight much, even when she's fully conscious. But NARAKU knows what Kagome is capable of - he was blown apart once by her and is lucky to be alive. He's aware that all it takes in one arrow for her to fell yet another of his hired thugs, and having lost two already, that's not a chance he's willing to take. It's not exactly clear on that page, but I think if Naraku hadn't started shaking things up to give the Shichinin-tai a head start out of there at the very moment Kagome started to shoot, she probably would have landed the hit and Renkotsu would have eaten it.
As usual, Naraku's meddling is keeping alive the most annoying parts of this story.
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