Not title related, but the last couple weeks were one HELL of a ride for me and most everyone else I know. With Elon Musk finally going through with his purchase of Twitter (grudgingly, it seems) and terrorizing/eliminating the workforce there, an uproar has arisen that I don't think anyone foresaw. I've not been on Twitter - my social media home for the past few years has been Mastodon, so I thought the most this whole debacle was going to affect me was to give me a good laugh at the SqUiDlOrD's expense. I was VERY wrong. There's been an influx of new users into the Fediverse from Twitter, and we've all been scrambling to accommodate everyone. I've been on way more than usual to give advice and comb through the federated timeline to find new folks to follow/interact with, and there have been WAY more than I can keep up with. By 11/3, there were over 200,000 new people, including KATHY GRIFFIN.
So to say that this has been a major disruption to some of the more popular instances is... a bit of an understatement.
Still, if YOU'RE looking for a new platform to join after the utter disaster of the Elon Musk Twitter takeover, you can find a list of instances (servers) here to choose from depending on your interests and what's available: https://instances.social/list#lang=&allowed=&prohibited=&min-users=&max-users= , and feel free to follow me on @Writch@pagan.plus . I just posted pictures of my cinnamon rolls.
They are good.
Yeah, dude, you have NO idea.
This seems to be confirmation to him that the barrier around Mt. Hakurei was to conceal the evil within; a bit lit the chocolate coating surrounding the sickly sweet cream center of a Cadbury Creme Egg. You can't convince me those things aren't a pure evil delivery device, fight me. Miroku and Sango run along the tunnel until they are shocked to find themselves emerging from it onto a fenced-off path running along the edge of a cavernous pit, another path shown even farther up its sheer face, and there are probably more as you zoom out. Miroku calls this a corridor, but it strikes me more like one of those gallerias with multi-storey walkways that look onto a central fountain/courtyard type setup. All it needs is a couple escalators and some shops, and voila, Naraku can go full capitalist.
Sango pushes her mask over her mouth, citing the terrible evil aura in there. There's a rustle above them and they look up to be even more surprised than before.
These are evidently not the kind of youkai you feed every day, because they're looking mighty hungry to me.
Sango identifies them as Naraku's youkai, and Miroku says they're not content with hiding anymore, ripping the beads from his right hand. Before he points his palm up, though, they spot a few Saimyoushou hovering in the horde, and Sango jumps out in front of Miroku poised to throw Hiraikotsu, warning Miroku not to used Kazaana, and avoid the inevitable poisoning that would ensue. Her boomerang rips through the mass of youkai handily, and Miroku supports her by throwing out his paper charms and neutralizing the ones still in one piece, calling this "judgment". Hm, I think I pulled that Tarot card for today. Odd.
Seems to me that the ONLY ones who could come all the way up there are ordinary humans. Kagura sort of acknowledges this with a subsequent comment about how that jerk Inuyasha wouldn't be able to come in at all. While Sango recognizes Kagura a bit late, Kagura says she'll observe their courage for getting this far, before slinging some crescent wind blades from her fan and promising them they won't get back alive.
Sango and Miroku book it along the path just before the blade smashes the area they had been before, totally obliterating it. A fresh wave of weak youkai fly down from above, and they have to battle their way through it, Sango interpreting this to be a command for them not to go any farther. Miroku concludes that this has to mean Naraku is nearby and they're on the right track, shouting out to Sango to go the way he is. I would expect this if the path forks, but it doesn't seem to, so I don't know what this panel is doing here except as a filler of some sort.
They run for a set of stairs leading to a higher tier of the path, and Kagura scoffs, calling them fools as she throws another wind blade their way.
Sango yells at Miroku to go on ahead, but he refuses, while the horde continues to descend on them. Declaring that their priority should be to determine Naraku's location, Sango throws Hiraikotsu to slice through the fresh wave of youkai horde, with the added bonus of heading toward Kagura on the other side. Kagura looks mildly shocked that Sango seems to expect to clobber her next, then adopts an angry expression when she swings her fan upward and reminds Sango that she's a wind-user. The motion redirects the oncoming boomerang up and away from its target, eliciting a curse from Sango.
As she follows the arc of Hiraikotsu up, Sango sees a familiar figure standing on an even higher tier of the path - Kohaku standing there looking over the railing at her impassively. Sango stares in alarm at her little brother, very effectively distracted. Kagura mocks her with a sardonic question about why she's looking away, waving the fan again.
Oooh, buddy, that looks like it hurts!
The force of the blow from her own weapon propels her onto the floor, landing hard on her side and groaning as she falls unconscious. Miroku yells her name, jumping back down to her side of the stairs and running to her side. He kneels next to her, confirming for himself that she's conked out entirely.
The youkai horde start for Miroku again, but he turns to meet them, yanking the beads off his hand in the process. Kagura reminds him that the Saimyoushou are at the ready, so he shouldn't be able to use the Kazaana for fear of their poison. Miroku suggests that she doesn't know very much about him; he says that if he can trade beloved Sango for a marginally longer life, then he doesn't NEED his life at all. Convoluted sentiment, but heroic all the same. He points his black-hole hand at the oncoming youkai.
Well, you know what they say. Garbage in...
Kagura leans away from the wind pulling at her from Miroku's hand, in disbelief that he really did open it. Again, that hindsight dramatic irony tickles me. Meanwhile, the Saimyoushou fly into the Kazaana, and pain shoots through Miroku, making him groan and sweat. He still holds up his arm, though, knowing all the while that the poison of the insects is spreading through him quickly. Sango lays there, helpless.
Narrow sky transition panel! Kagome is standing at the base of the mountain, Shippou's poofy little fox tail poking out of the crook of her arm, and she mutters with worry that Sango and Miroku are late getting back down to them with a report. They're TOO late, so Kagome is sure something has happened to them. A bubble from off-panel tells her to wait here, while Shippou gurgles in her arms. She couldn't step a ways off that barrier for the kid's sake, I guess.
Inuyasha appears with Kirara mewling on his shoulder, announcing that HE'S going to run and check out the mountain himself. Kagome makes a questioning noise, asking what he's saying, because she was pretty sure he couldn't step on sacred ground like any other non-human.
I don't know if you should be so confident in the rules of this barrier. They let through murderous creepoids with mild nausea while rendering harmless baby children like Shippou completely inert. Who knows what an exception to the strict binary might mean for this overly sanctimonious wall?
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I have indicated before that Kohaku is my favorite character, and I am delighted to see him almost every time he appears, but "almost" is the key word here. It really seemed like his only purpose showing up when he did here was to incapacitate Sango and create drama. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; drama is after all precisely why we read stories. But when the drama is obviously contrived and it's clear that the creator didn't care enough to present a REASON why a certain drama was arising. Kohaku wasn't fighting, for all we know, he has NO REASON for being there. Now, if RT had inserted a couple of panels where Kagura was instructing Kohaku to reveal himself to Sango to distract her, or better yet, if Kohaku wanted to take a peek at this mysterious woman whose face won't leave his memory, that would have shown us the first domino being toppled. As it stands, given how Kohaku expressed resistance to the idea of fighting Sango, it's very conspicuous that he should just show up to a fight with her in it out of the blue.
Seeing Miroku unreservedly fighting to stay with and protect the knocked-out Sango is somewhat sweet, but I'm a little bummed that her badassery was cut so very fast. I'm not complaining, because despite the abrupt trigger for her to lose her concentration, I know why it had to happen. Honestly, while Kagura may be grateful for a chance to exercise her battle skills, she just doesn't have the loyalty to Naraku to put up a good enough fight to match Sango and Miroku together, nor does Kohaku. It really was necessary to take ONE of this power couple out in order to squeeze any amount of tension out of the scene. Still, I kind of wish it could have been Miroku to go down? Although, I also get that he has to have the opportunity at some point to declare some reciprocated feelings for Sango, and that may as well have been now. I'm just a brat and want to cheer on Sango the slayer. Sue me.
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