Just one more thing Grimalkin would stick her little nose in, no doubt. Recently, within the space of just a couple of days, she realized that not only can she jump directly from the floor to the dining table, but directly from the floor to the countertop. This has made cooking and cleaning IMPOSSIBLE until she's shut away in a different room; if she's not licking water off of drying dishes in the drainer, she's muscling her way in front of you as you wash dishes in order to lean over the sink and watch the water and soap swirling around, or trying to paw things out of the basin to play with on the floor (my silicone baking cups, most often), OR getting dangerously close to the stovetop when it's cooling down after the kettle's been on. She burned herself once, mildly, but that hasn't been enough to swear her away from the stove altogether, unfortunately. Now she wants to be on the counter all the time, and I can't so much as make a bowl of Cream of Wheat without her trying to stick her face into every single ingredient in turn to try for herself. Who knows how we manage to eat anything at all with her sniffing around during dinner time.
The upside to all this is I've learned to be much more responsible with the cleaning - I'm wiping down the counter constantly and washing, drying and putting away everything before she has a chance to rub up against it or eat something that could make her sick. As a result, the kitchen always looks very put-together now. Silver linings.
Probably none of those for THIS, though. Not just a hazard to our protagonists, but an environmental nightmare to boot.
Renkotsu yells that there's plenty of oil in the river to burn through, and Inuyasha and company have no escape. Inuyasha grimaces up at him, while Kagome haltingly announces what the glows in Renkotsu's neck and shoulder showed in the previous panel: Renkotsu has got TWO Shikon shards in his body. Inside the cave, Mohawk holds a fist to his mouth as a black cloud gathers around him, shouting that the smoke is wafting inside. Kouga groans, Two-Tone telling him in a panic that it's dangerous in there.
Kouga strains to push himself up, insisting that he'll waste that baldy for sure this time, Two-Tone kind of hovering behind him and looking unsure what to do about this declaration of unlikely action. He could restrain him, but it doesn't really appear to be necessary, what with Kouga not really being able to stand at the moment and all. Kagome runs to his side to discourage him, beginning to argue that he's badly injured, before Kouga yells at her not to stop him. He reminds her that Renkotsu is after the fragments in his legs, the implication being that Renkotsu is going to be coming after him regardless so there's no NOT fighting in this situation. Kagome begins again, though, trying to suggest that he can kick ass when he's better, seemingly not quite grasping how immediate a danger Kouga is really in here, for some reason. Must be the smoke getting to her head.
Inuyasha has already turned back toward the mouth of the cave in his undershirt as he says he's the only one who can really go out there and face Renkotsu. Calling to Inuyasha, she urges him to take the coat he just gave her, since it protects against fire, but Inuyasha insists she wear it because the wimpy wolf is no use to her. Kouga responds by growling that Inuyasha is a bastard, yelling at him not to get involved, this being something that he and Renkotsu have to settle between them. Inuyasha shouts back at Kouga to shut it, that he couldn't even die properly, and that it'll be even more annoying for him is Kouga's shards get stolen.
Renkotsu's still outside, asking what's taking so long, and if they've all gotten smoked to death instead of facing him. Inuyasha momentarily appears, turning his loud ire on him with another command to shut up, since he's on his way right at this very second.
I don't feel like Kouga couldn't jump up there either with the shards in his legs, and get shot in the face just the same. The end of the cannon blooms into an oversized fireball with a smoke accompaniment, a disbelieving Inuyasha being blown back in the blast. Kagome holds Shippou close under the fire-rat cloak, both of them shouting Inuyasha's name.
Inuyasha is about to fall straight into the flaming river when Kirara swoops in and he thunks softly onto the giant flying cat's back. Once he rights himself on his mount, Inuyasha praises Kirara and urges that they continue towards Renkotsu on the cliff. Renkotsu yells that he has no time to worry about Inuyasha, letting off another cannon shot. Inuyasha recoils, but he and Kirara are on a trajectory for collision with the bright flashbang regardless.
That had to hurt.
Renkotsu wastes no time pointing his cannon down at the mouth of the cave, which Two-Tone and Mohawk notice with dumb shock for a moment. They retrieve some of their senses just in time to shove Kagome back into the caves depths with a stuttered cry for her to take cover, then the entrance is blown away in much the same manner as above. Renkotsu lowers his cannon, staring down at the cave and wondering if he managed to get them.
He uses the boulders he knocked from the cliffside with his blasts to hop across his flaming river and enters what's left of the cave, finding a heap of bodies on the floor. He scoffs that they were all burned by the blast and died.
He sees the glow of the Shikon shards in Kouga's legs and immediately determines that he's taking them. Hey, remember when those things could only be seen/detected by Kagome and Kikyou? Anyway, Renkotsu reaches down toward Kouga's ankle when a swish of movement in his periphery catches his attention.
I'm going to blame Kouga's injury for him not totally taking Renkotsu's head off there. That would have been TOO cool.
Renkotsu drops his cannon on his way flying backward, right in front of a triumphant Kouga, who places a hand on it as he sits up, along with everyone else. When Renkotsu bolts up too, muttering in disbelief at the totally alive people he'd meant to kill, Kouga taunts him by calling him a moron and informing him verbally that he failed at murdering them all, BIG TIME. Shippou pipes up that Kouga should be grateful to Kagome for quickly shielding them all with Inuyasha's fire-rat coat. Not sure if Shippou is expecting Kouga to grovel in appreciation at Kagome's feet or what, but Kouga responds that he's not CRAZY about the fact that it was Inuyasha's clothes that saved his sorry ass.
Scoffing, Renkotsu asks if they really think they've one, shrugging off his back-basket to reach inside. No doubt suffering from tinnitus due to the multiple explosions he's had to endure in such a short time, Kouga stumbles to his feet as he demands Renkotsu repeat himself, to which Renkotsu responds by holding up two sticks of dynamite and a declaration that this isn't over because he's going to blow them all away. Shippou calls the dynamite explosive thunder-rods, a way more fun name even if it is prohibitively inefficient, as Kagome stutters out the question if Renkotsu is just plain stupid, because he'd be blown up with the rest of them if he lights those fuses in the cave. Renkotsu barks back at her to shut her trap, insisting he can't turn back now.
His captive audience gives him puzzled looks, as he ruminates on how he used Ginkotsu's Shikon shard for himself, and when Bankotsu finds out, he'll probably pay for that with his life. He seems to see ONE way out of that fate, though. Renkotsu addresses Kouga, declaring future ownership over those shards in his legs, lighting another flame at his thumb. He figures if he can use those Shikon shards in a fight with Bankotsu, he stands a chance of winning. Renkotsu's gone full mutiny, friends.
Inuyasha talking like he's known this dude for years or something.
Elated, Shippou shouts happily about Inuyasha being okay, and Kagome expresses great relief that he's only a little dinged up. He ignores this, still addressing Renkotsu, warning him that he has no intention of committing suicide with him. Renkotsu scoffs that he won't die, relying pretty heavily that the Shikon fragments won't be taken from his body. Or just fly out when he's blown to pieces, as is more likely. He passes the flame in one hand over both fuses in his other, announcing with a grin that this is not a bluff.
Inuyasha clenches his teeth in alarm, but wastes not a moment before he yells at Kouga to kick the moron toward him. Kouga does not argue, hitting Renkotsu in the back of his head with his foot and propelling him toward Inuyasha, who flings both Renkotsu and himself the rest of the way out of the cave and toward the still flaming water. A flash overtakes the determined Inuyasha before they hit the fire below.
They're BOTH bones now.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Renkotsu is getting hardcore desperate at this point, which is making him a bit more reckless than usual. His schemes have been the most careful and calculated out of the rest of the Shichinin-tai until now, which speaks to how his fear of Bankotsu has just overtaken just about every braincell. It makes some sense; he's already been warned that he's not allowed to be hoarding Shikon fragments for himself, so it's natural that he shouldn't have gone back to Bankotsu without several more at his disposal to fight for his life.
Except that using Ginkotsu's Shikon shard is easily explainable: he could say he used it to heal and enhance his strength for the purpose of going after Kouga's shards again, and shouldn't be even slightly suspicious if he offers it back to Bankotsu when he returns. Simple. The only obstacle is his insistence on holding onto this and Kouga's shards for the purpose of confronting Bankotsu, but the more Renkotsu pursues this coup attempt, the more questions I have. So far, Bankotsu has done nothing that I've seen that has given US a reason to question his leadership. In fact, he's led a wildly successful raid of a castle and has put himself out in front of their main opponents a couple of times. Sure, it's clear that Renkotsu resents Bankotsu for how young and slightly dopey he is, but that seems a little too petty a reason for the smartest of the team to launch headfirst into mutiny. I feel like there is some sort of missing motivation here, something either in their past lives so to speak, or something to do with their current employer, that RT is simply not getting around to telling us about.
I was very impressed with how she's managed to minimize the bickering between Kouga and Inuyasha in this one, though. Funny as it is, it can very fast cross the line into excessive territory, as it has done on occasion. They even made a very good efficient team at the end of the chapter, no bickering, all harmony for the sake of getting that dynamite out of the cave. I might be tempted to think that Kouga thought the odds of Inuyasha getting blown up were in his favor and that's why he wasn't whining about being told what to do, but I also don't think he's clever enough to make that kind of calculation.
And seriously, just imagine if Kouga had kicked Renkotsu's head right off his shoulders. The flesh on the skull dissolving, but his body still moving around because the Shikon shard is still in there? How AWESOME would that be?
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