I don't know if I believe that. Every time I think some kind of limit has been reached, for stubbornness or stupidity or malevolence or what have you, it turns out that boundary can be pushed just a bit further. Living at this point in history is just teaching me that nothing is a match for the desire to maintain the status quo AT ALL COSTS. Facing rising fascism? Absurd levels of inequality? Actual existential threats to the human species? You will always find an alarming number of people arguing that nothing should ever change ever even though all our current practices were what got us INTO these messes. Just capitalism your way out of all the drawbacks of capitalism! That makes sense, right?
Don't point out the insanity of it, Kagome - something else I've learned is that they've rebranded obviously unhinged nonsense as "alternative facts", so it does literally NO good.
Inuyasha says that they have no time to sit around discussing it, then yells over to Kouga, who he suggests is still hanging around (informed by his Super Sniffer, no doubt). Kouga steps over the hill that was concealing them, his lackeys peeking out from behind it. Two-Tone mumbles that Inuyasha is onto them out of worry, but Kouga asks ol' "Dog-Turd" what he wants now. Inuyasha tells him to stay here and protect Kagome. When Kouga walks over to stand next to Kagome, asking what's going on, Kagome explains to him that Miroku and Sango have been gone behind Mt. Hakurei's barrier for a bit longer than they should have been. Inuyasha insists he's the only one that can go, despite the fully human and armed Kagome being RIGHT THERE - clearly what he REALLY means is that he's not willing to let her go by herself and not have himself there to protect her in case Naraku jumps out and gets her. But he's not going to SAY that, of course. Instead he reiterates that the sacred grounds shouldn't be as harmful to him as a full youkai.
Kouga wraps an arm around Kagome's shoulders and encourages Inuyasha to get after it, saying he doesn't mind one bit. Inuyasha yells at him in a sudden rage not to hug her shoulder like that, nor TALK to her at all either. But without any more insecure deliberation, he turns to run through the barrier, only calling over his shoulder that Kouga is dead if anything happens to Kagome while he's gone. He fades in the misty barrier, Kouga's underlings wondering if he'll be okay and asking if the barrier wouldn't ALSO be painful for a hanyou like him as they walk closer. Kouga doesn't engage in the speculation, but Kagome says Inuyasha's name softly while she watches him go, pleading silently with him not to overdo it.
Inside the barrier, it crackles around Inuyasha as he pushes through it. He's not stoked about how this feels, thinking it's much worse than he imagined. But he keeps going like the stubborn little monster he is.
Meanwhile, farther up the mountain, and after a small dark transition panel, Sango's Hiraikotsu is dropped across the newly created gap in the stairs up to the next level in the path ringing the mountain's center pit.
Miroku has never before sounded so much like a frat bro.
The horde holds off on attacking him, Miss Kagura silently staring as he advances along his makeshift bridge and the stairs beyond, not giving them any orders. Miroku sweats bullets, scoffing about even this rabble valuing their lives. Kagura wonders in astonishment about the health of that priest, given how much poison from the saimyoushou he must have taken in through his Kazaana. But not only is he still moving along, he pauses to heft Sango's giant boomerang over his OTHER shoulder before he starts racing back up the stairs weighted down with both. It doesn't escape him that the youkai horde is immediately on his tail the moment he bolts.
Even more massive wasps fly into his Kazaana, and he is once again wracked with poisoned pain. Leaning casually on the railing, Kagura thinks that the bastard is really desperate, and she's not particularly interested in ending up in that hand-void of a dude behaving like a trapped rat, so she resolves not to get too close. Not that it matters. As he huffs it along the path with another life weighing on his shoulders, sweating bullets, Kagura considers how unfortunate it is for Miroku that Naraku isn't in the direction he's going.
The horde keeps following Miroku, creeping up behind him, and he silently pleads that they get no closer as he keeps an eye on the movement in his periphery. He trails in a thought about what will happen if he opens up the Kazaana one more time as he topples onto his face. He keeps a protective arm around the still unconscious Sango, straining to look over his shoulder, with a groan. Miroku thinks at Sango to forgive him.
I think you'll both be lucky if she even gets the CHANCE to forgive you, friend.
Narrow sky transition panel! A sneeze rings out among the hills, which comes from a shivering sniffling Jakotsu, grumbling about how cold it is for him. Next we see him, he's riffling through a trunk next to an overturned cart with its occupants slain, the implication being that he murdered them for a proper shirt. A true highwayman if there ever was one. He pulls out a kimono that he doesn't really seem to like, but he hums that it will have to do. As he's shrugging it on, he hears his name behind him, and turns to see Bankotsu approaching with a wave, and stating he's been looking for his fellow mercenary.
Guess what we get another of to indicate the passage of a little time? Bankotsu and Jakotsu sit on the steps of a small shrine building, where Bankotsu says he heard from the saimyoushou that Suikotsu is also dead. Jakotsu confirms this, sighing that Suikotsu had a miserable ending. With a small gasp, Jakotsu reaches beneath his collar, claiming to have just remembered something - the Shikon fragment that he pulled so improbably from Suikotsu just before he flounced, something he calls a souvenir. Bankotsu stares at the shard in his palm, saying Jakotsu's name softly to ask in disbelief if he's giving this to him. Jakotsu responds that it was Bankotsu in the first place who told them to hand the shards over when they had them.
What's your definition of "good"? Apparently being the only one in the world Bankotsu can really rely on, because that's his elaboration when he claps Jakotsu on the back with an elated expression. He adds that Jakotsu is just a tad weird, but that doesn't matter, and Jakotsu laughs in a little disbelief at the declaration from his leader. I don't think Bankotsu has much room to talk, but this is probably why they get along so well.
More narrow sky transition panels! And one that depicts some spidery lightning effects rushing past the viewer. After briefly taking over Inuyasha's point of view in pushing through the barrier, we see him in profile, still running but sweating quite a bit in the amped effort. Panting through gritted teeth, he says with some difficulty that it was just as he thought, he's not being purified, and is "okay". Just because you're not disappearing in a puff of smoke doesn't mean that you're okay, dude.
As if to illustrate my point, Inuyasha suddenly falls to a knee with a groan, wondering why his body won't move anymore. He supposes that this means he'll be in danger if he goes any farther, and proceeds to ask himself what's going to happen now. The answer comes pretty much right away, with a voice behind him asking what's wrong and if he's not going ahead.
... Son of a SHIT.
As Renkotsu approaches, he talks about how unlike Inuyasha it is that he shouldn't notice an enemy in the area that arrived before him. Inuyasha strains to stand, and practically whines that it's Renkotsu again, before smarming that the Shichinin-tai seems to be a bit short-handed. Renkotsu doesn't respond to the sarcastic remark, hoisting his cannon onto his shoulder, commenting that Inuyasha was in a hurry to go forward before, but even a hanyou should be purified if he continues on. The barrier energy crackles around Inuyasha's shoulders while he growls in reply.
Renkotsu demands that Inuyasha get to that appointment to be purified already, firing a shot from the cannon. Inuyasha still has the strength to leap out of the way well in advance of the shot landing, so THAT'S good. The bad news? Mid-spring he's suspended in the air with a nasty electric shock from the barrier, like a dog crossing an invisible fence line. Renkotsu scoffs that it's over, but as the smoke from the cannon shot and fried youki clears away, the moon overhead shines on a fully intact Inuyasha lying just beyond the crater from the shell he avoided before.
Inuyasha moans, then calls Renkotsu a sucker and begins to declare his living state, pushing himself up on a fist. Note that neither his hair nor claws are shown during these panels.
Come to think of it, that makes the most sense.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Flawed as this arc has been, one of the things about it that I find so impressive is the ability of RT to steadily build and maintain the pressure on these characters as she has. With a few strategic releases here and there, she's managed to keep the tension at the snapping point for a long string of chapters. The balance of letting the characters and audience breathe a little by letting up the tiniest amount, then pulling that string even tighter than before keeps one on the edge of the seat. This is another of those latter moments, where we're all (including Inuyasha!) wondering what else can POSSIBLY go wrong, only to be handed yet another, worse difficulty. RT's adherence to the adage "torture your darlings" is damn near perfect, and you have to hand it to her for that.
But once again, I have to question her on the particulars of the MECHANICS of the world she's barely built, because the ending of the chapter brings up one pretty hefty question. Principally, it's implied that being "purified" for a youkai is akin to death; there's no coming back from purification, and you're gone the moment you cross that threshold. This would also imply, in my mind, that if Inuyasha's youki has been purified behind the barrier, it is similarly GONE, unable to be recovered once out of the barrier. But, spoiler alert, it is NOT. I will not give you any hope that there is an explanation as to how Inuyasha got his youki back either. This is one of those things that just BUGS me about the series.
Still, the exchange between Bankotsu and Jakotsu was a little funny, huh? RT's comedy chops are as sharp as ever.
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