Inuyasha Manga: 262 Black Light

That's right, it's time to bust out those black lights again! The beginning of September heralded that pumpkin spice, costume isle, themed candy, and creepy decorations that mark the Halloween season over here. It seemed like the moment the 1st hit, there were signs of autumn spooky celebration popping up like the dandelions of the previous season. My local grocery store put out pumpkin carving kits and pumpkin spice cookies overnight, and it seems to have come earlier than ever, not just because it's a super popular time with a clear aesthetic that companies rush to capitalize on sooner and sooner, but also because it does NOT feel like autumn yet. Climate change has thrown off the timing of the season, so it's still summertime by nature's broken clock.

Come to think of it, wildfire might become a major theme of coming Halloweens, so maybe the humble black light is on its way out after all.

Sorry, Kikyou, I know being Miss Doom & Gloom is your thing. Carry on. 

Since she's been limping along due to the barrier causing her some serious discomfort, Kikyou has arrived a bit late to the scene where the children are still huddled next to the medical hut. They call out to Kikyou when she approaches, a greeting she doesn't return, since she's a bit distracted by the adult corpses with deep gouge-marks in them laying about. She suggests tentatively that this is Suikotsu's doing, to which an older girl responds that Suikotsu did return with a kind face, and trails off for the boy next to her to pick up the thread with the beginning of a statement that Suikotsu has already fucked off, which he also almost immediately abandoned. Kikyou gets the message despite the kids' trauma-driven incomplete statements, thinking that Suikotsu did indeed kill the villagers as she had thought. Wasn't a very pleasant conclusion to draw, but an obvious one, for sure. Kikyou regards the mountain, and thinks that its barrier is no longer effecting Suikotsu, wondering if this means his Shikon shard is even further corrupted than before. Also a pretty obvious conclusion to draw, even if not so great to think about.

Narrow sky transition panel!

How did you guess? 

With a swing of his sword, Jakotsu speculates that Sesshoumaru is actually just barely managing to stand because of the barrier. Sesshoumaru gives him a sharp look, and raises Tokijin into the air for the blades of Jakotsu's sword to wrap around, wordlessly. Before he knows it, Jakotsu is being yanked forward. 

If Rin wasn't being used as a shield over there, wouldn't it have been funny if Sesshoumaru had performed a throwback and thrown Jakotsu at Suikotsu? I would have DIED laughing.

Jakotsu barely manages to land kneeling on the ground while Sesshoumaru swings around to face him, rushing at him to swing Tokijin violently down on him, prompting a just-in-time leap backward from Jakotsu. Resenting Sesshoumaru's smooth moves and calm face, Jakotsu realizes pretty quickly that he's slowly being forced AWAY from the barrier. With the conclusion that the barrier must truly be hard on Sesshoumaru, Jakotsu yells at Suikotsu not to move away from the mountain. Suikotsu says he doesn't need to be told this extremely obvious thing.

I do NOT see. Not even a LITTLE do I understand why you would want to murder a cinnamon roll like Rin. Completely incomprehensible. 

Suikotsu is frustrated that he couldn't kill the brats in the village because of his good-guy-doctor persona stopping, but he's pretty sure that he'll be able to now. Even though he's closer to the purifying barrier than ever before. Makes as little sense as Suikotsu wanting to kill Rin like she cut him off in traffic and he's got uncontrollable road rage. Rin herself whimpers out Sesshoumaru's name in an almost pleading way, eyes pointed toward him in her periphery because she can't quite turn her head without serious injury. Jakotsu asks cockily if Sesshoumaru understands that Rin's life is literally over if he slips up. Not sure if it's native to the original Japanese or is a translation choice, but I don't think I like his use of the word "wench" here in reference to Rin. I feel like the more bawdy interpretation of it is how we get SUPER SUS sequels that promote child grooming.

Jakotsu swings that sword yet again, saying that that life being over thing will happen sooner or later anyway, of course. Like a life ended at eight years old is the same as one ended at eighty. Sesshoumaru blandly notes that Jakotsu is using precisely the same style as before. Then he swiftly throws Tokijin behind him as the interconnected blades fly outward, and Jakotsu somehow has time to question this action. There's a "whacking" sound, and...

Whoops, clearly Sesshoumaru doesn't know that the reanimation agent isn't in Suikotsu's chest. Nor in Jakotsu's, which is his next target.

Yeah, it's a little disappointing that a double-attack so cool just WON'T work.

Without the slightest indication by his expression above, Suikotsu has collapsed to his knees like he's truly been felled by the blow, and Rin frantically starts to crawl away from him. She has just gotten back to her feet, arms reaching for Sesshoumaru as she calls for him, when a hand on her back flattens her right back into the dirt, face first. It looks like it STINGS something fierce. Suikotsu holds her down as she turns her head in horror to see him hovering over her, Tokijin still sticking out of his chest. His face is just about as pleasant as is possible to be when he insists that she's not getting away. Sesshoumaru glares over his shoulder, the closest he will ever come to showing the alarm no doubt coursing through him. 

The masculine urge to randomly blurt how attractive or not random folks are around you at the most inappropriate times, lol.

He chuckles that Sesshoumaru's aim is off, and that they won't die from these NORMAL mortal wounds. I mean, to be fair, Sesshoumaru probably should have figured that a walking corpse would probably not be killable in the conventional sense. Suikotsu eagerly asks from behind Sesshoumaru if he can kill the brat he's pinning down yet, speculating that it's possibly because he's wounded that his doctor alter ego is afraid to come out at the moment. It's now or never by this evaluation. 

Sesshoumaru rips his hand from the hole he put in Jakotsu's torso as he turns, but Jakotsu calls him a fool, elatedly declaring he's too late. Suikotsu informs the flinching Rin that she's about to die as he thrusts his not!Wolverine claws down at her... 

He's getting poked ALL full of holes today. 

The figure of Kikyou on a horse with a twanging bow sits in the distance, brow knitted as she considers how Suikotsu's Shikon fragment light has been polluted black. She trails in a thought about something he can no longer do, never finishing. Kikyou is clearly having a little difficulty stringing these thoughts together, honestly. 

After a moment of glancing back at Suikotsu, knocked backward into a supine position, Rin jumps to her feet again and runs to Sesshoumaru, calling out to him once more as she can be reasonably sure that she's not going to get flattened this time. Jakotsu beats a hasty retreat, freaking out a little at how scary he find Kikyou. Kikyou herself staggers past Sesshoumaru and Rin, who watch her approach Suikotsu with passing interest. She kneels down next to Suikotsu, who addresses her gently by name.

Better be certain this time. Wouldn't want to get shanked by a discount mutant. How fucking EMBARRASSING would that be?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Sesshoumaru acquiring a helpless little person who is ABSOLUTELY incapable of protecting herself has put him in an increasing number of situations where he has very little control, and I think this is interesting for him as a character. He still has a superior attitude that gives him no interest in "proving" anything to an opponent, as evidenced by his complete silence in the face of all Jakotsu's implications as to how he's feeling near the barrier. BUT, he's still uncomfortably aware of being hamstringed by having to PRESERVE a life where he would before have just slaughtered carelessly without regard for collateral damage, as well as having to deal with his own body being affected by the nearby barrier. These have given him a level of creativity and strategy that was absent before (as I recalled above, he could just sling whole people around before with little to no consequence), which I appreciate, despite how ineffective it was in THIS particular circumstance. It's also given him more of a stake in the overall situation, even though I still think it's a small one in comparison to the others - it's so obvious how ridiculously out of place he is in this conflict with Naraku, especially with the appearance of KIKYOU, who's actually LOST shit because of Naraku's garbage. My appreciation of Sesshoumaru's fight in spite of the disadvantages he's afforded in this chapter is bumping up against my irritation over the fact that he's here AT ALL. 

Speaking of Kikyou, it seems she's allowed to show some vulnerability here, limping and so clearly in pain. The portrayal of her as ill and uncomfortable from the barrier is typically very well-done - the expressions she's given LOOK like the nausea you get during the flu, where it's difficult to move for fear of blowing chunks. They could have done with a little more of the sweats showing, but perhaps it's also unfair for me to expect her stoneware body to have sweat glands. 

What REALLY struck me about her role in this chapter is that despite how visibly uncomfortable and impaired she is, despite Jakotsu having seen Sesshoumaru before RIPPING into one of his own, she fires one arrow and it strikes absolute TERROR into Jakotsu, who turns tail and RUNS. He's certainly had his moments of fear in battle with Sesshoumaru, but that guy doesn't even BEGIN to freak out Jakotsu the way Kikyou just has, inducing to him to flee the moment he first catches sight of her, and she didn't even attack HIM. It gives Kikyou an air of badassery that surpasses all of the other characters, including the darling Sesshoumaru, and you all can fight me if you think otherwise. Kikyou could kick everyone's ass, change my mind. 

Finally, the fact that not!Wolverine Suikotsu is never allowed to be right about not changing back for more than two seconds is becoming a little funny. Dipshit should have learned after the last time to keep his mouth shut about his assessments that his good half isn't coming out any time soon lest he jinx himself. He must be full to BURSTING for how often he's had to eat those fucking words of his.