There's something almost eldritch about the prospect of coming face-to-face with whatever is generating a significant power or obstacle in your life. There's so much of our existences that are out of our individual hands, conditions that are set up and maintained by entities with a limited tangible presence, but an ENORMOUS reach. Thinking about how damn near everything in my life like the clothes I wear, the air I breathe, the food I eat, has been manipulated in some way by the flow of money/power between strange unknowable wealth machines instills in me a deep cosmic horror.
Maybe meeting a mummy with the power to generate a mountainous purifying barrier that is so indifferent to the actual virtues and sins of the people it judges is similar. Smaller in scope, but ultimately in the same vein.
We're so sorry that your lazy ass has to do just a little more work, Renkotsu.
He supposes that there was an advantage for Inuyasha being a hanyou after all, what with his youki being the only thing that disappeared in the barrier. Inuyasha scoffs that his body actually feels a lot better thanks to his youki being gone, and this irritates Renkotsu, who pisses about how Inuyasha isn't one to "talk small". That's a strange way of putting that Inuyasha has decided to speak on this as more of an advantage than not, but I don't know if this is just a more direct translation that doesn't go over well or if the translator themselves mangled the sentence. Either way, Renkotsu tries to re-frame this transformation in a negative light by pointing out that Inuyasha is nothing more than a human brat now, while firing a shot from his cannon. Inuyasha runs to just avoid the projectile, his maneuver on the less... springy side now.
As he books it in the midst of the flying debris from where the cannon fire hit, he thinks he doesn't have the time to worry about Renkotsu now, resolving to run until he finds his way into the mountain. Hopefully he doesn't just follow your ass in there while you're blindly navigating the interior of a mountain you aren't familiar with in order to find your friends/Naraku. This is definitely the best way to prioritize your current issues, pal, FOR SURE.
Narrow... sparkle transition panel, I guess. Sango opens her eyes with a groan and is quick to notice that Miroku is lying sprawled on top of her with alarm.
Why is it always just when you think things can't be worse?
Sango stammers at Miroku, who remains passed out. She pulls herself out from beneath him only to cringe at a stab of pain in her abdomen, remembering that she was hit by Hiraikotsu. The youkai hovering close by rustle at her while she leans over Miroku and tries to shake him awake, and notices the beads unwound from around his hand. Enduring another stab of pain, Sango is looking disturbed about the story she's able to derive from this visual, that Miroku opened his Kazaana and took in the saimyoushou's poison. More urgently now, she shakes him and calls for him to wake up, but he remains unconscious.
Shaking, Sango wonders what she should do now, on the precipice of death as she is, muttering at Miroku in fear. Tears well up in her eyes and one drops, splashing on Miroku's cheek. For some reason THIS manages to wake his ass up, his eyes opening and a moan escaping him. Sango addresses him with some relief, and he sighs in relief upon seeing her, haltingly saying he's happy she's awake. Sango looks back over at the threateningly close youkai, only to turn back in yet more alarm when Miroku suggests to her that SHE can at least go forward. She snaps that she won't, stuttering that they have to go together, but he raises his cursed fist to state that he's more or less done too much.
While there's no question as to why they haven't died together ALREADY with the youkai right outside the door, so to speak.
After a moment of silent NOT dying, Miroku starts to wonder what's going on. He comes to the realization that slowly starting to feel better, and sits up with an arm around Sango as an anchor. Sango addresses him questioningly, and Miroku poses a question of his own: why aren't the demons hovering nearby attacking them? Coming down from her drama high, Sango twists to look, trailing in her notice of the same thing now that Miroku's said something. A tentacle extends from the crowd of minor youkai and stops dead when reaching a point in front of it where it crackles and pops.
Sango articulates that it's been purified (or narrowly avoided such) in tentative disbelief, Miroku observing that they can't seem to enter. He realizes that they've entered a space of sacred ground again, being so strong as to even purify the saimyoushou's poison in him, presumably why he's feeling a bit better. Miroku stands with a little effort, inviting Sango to get going with him, nodding ahead of them and asserting that there's something there. Sango asks for confirmation that he's alright, and Miroku gives her his assurance, joking that they failed to die together.
The drama drug really punched a hole in her memory, didn't it?
There's a rumble elsewhere on the mountain, where Inuyasha is half dodging, half being thrown from an explosion from Renkotsu's cannon. Renkotsu saunters through the mist toward Inuyasha with a chuckle, wondering aloud how long Inuyasha will be able to run. With Inuyasha backed up against a sheer cliff of rock, Renkotsu adds that they've found themselves at a dead end, but Inuyasha notices a breeze whooshing between two rocks behind him.
Renkotsu yells at him to die, as you do, firing the cannon yet again. There's another explosion of rock and debris from the cliff face, and when it clears, Renkotsu strolls up to the newest crater he's made in the stone, supposing that it's all over now. But the black stain on the cliff shows no remains, and Renkotsu is at first puzzled by the lack of a body. He soon figures it out, though.
Gotta admire the squeeze Inuyasha was able to perform there. That doesn't look easy to get through.
Guess who strolls up now? Jakotsu greets Renkotsu and asks him what he's up to, an inquiry that is answered with his own name drawled back at him. He tells Renkotsu that he heard from Bankotsu that Ginkotsu has been blown up, and Renktosu confirms this, revealing that he heard from the same source that Suikotsu bit it too. After a pause, Renkotsu asks the INCREDIBLY suspicious question about what happened to Suikotsu's Shikon shard. Does he think he's being at all subtle here? I sure hope not. Jakotsu airily responds that he handed the thing over to Bankotsu, the "duh" on the end merely implied. With a hum, Renkotsu considers how Jakotsu isn't a very greedy guy.
Well, in the specific case of Shikon fragments, anyway.
Renkotsu becomes quite nervous, because it's bad for him that the Shikon shards are being accumulated in Bankotsu's hands, and he supposes that Jakotsu's fragment will soon be joining the rest of them. Before he resolves not to let that happen, of course. With a sly grin, he tells Jakotsu that ACTUALLY, some very interesting things are going down.
Cut to Inuyasha trotting aimlessly through a whole-ass cave system, light from the moon streaming in through cracks similar to the ones he squeezed through to get there. Inuyasha is impressed with how deep this hole has gone into the mountain, wondering if it leads all the way to the center of the mountain. Suddenly, he hears a swish in the air behind him and leaps out of the way just before something slams into the ground where he stood. He looks to where the blow came from as a voice says it's JUST like Renkotsu said.
THIS is where the greed manifests. Right here.
Jakotsu giggles that he's super happy, while Inuyasha grasps the still sheathed Tessaiga in front of him for its protection. He remains warily silent, Jakotsu continuing on to say that he's been waiting an AWFUL long time to have a shot at getting him. It's entirely obscured which of the many ways he could mean that phrase, but at least it's clear from Inuyasha's grimace that he is here for NONE of them.
Another narrow sparkle transition panel leads us to Miroku and Sango running through more barrier mist, until they find themselves among the grand pillars and railing where Kohaku, Kanna, and Bakotsu were hanging out a few chapters ago. Sango is in awe that they had ended up in a place like this, Miroku commenting that it looks a lot like one of those mountain temples. Miroku silently adds that this is an intense purity, seeming to indicate that they've reached the very heart of the sacred grounds.
They quickly reach the dais on which the mummified monk is sitting, his hands crossed in front of his chest with beads hanging off of them. Sango identifies the Sokushinbutsu with alarm, Miroku addressing him directly as Hakushin-shounin.
If you want to abuse the word, maybe?
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? One of the things I keep being reminded of as this story goes on is that one of its key appeal factors is how accessible its characters are. They feel like genuine people, react to things in genuine ways, and in this particular case, fail to be logical in a very believable manner. Inuyasha convinces himself that his top priority is still just to find his way into the mountain, ignoring the fact that whether he keeps trying to discover a cave or stops to face Renkotsu, he has no good options in this situation. In his human form, his only weapon a sword that will stay a blunt rusted slab, he's not got great odds in a fight right now. Still, running to seek the way into Mt. Hakurei with Renkotsu on his heels doesn't afford him any better chances either, as is emphasized at the end of the chapter. It wasn't Renkotsu himself that followed him in there, but he's forced to confront the fact that ending up wandering in a strange cave system has probably TRAPPED him more than anything. But ultimately, it was understandable why this might have seemed the better option when he made his decision, especially when he ended up being pushed further into it by his very environment.
It's also somewhat understandable that Sango doesn't IMMEDIATELY clock the fact that the youkai are hanging out, but not advancing at first. She wakes up in pain, Miroku is unconscious from saimyoushou poisoning, and she sees a mass of youkai nearby - right off the bat the situation is hopeless and fraught enough that it's no wonder her mind immediately jumps to the conclusion that this is the end. Miroku doesn't figure it out right away either, just as discombobulated as Sango and with just as much reason to look at the youkai sitting just within view and assume they're about to attack. His first clue as to the truth of the matter was that he was starting to feel BETTER from the deadly poison, an internal barometer that Sango didn't have. It was a clever, straightforward way of helping two characters who were too injured and afraid to take careful notice of their real situation.
My only real question here is what the STRUCTURE of this barrier is at this point. Is Crazy-Eyes up there producing a smaller, more concentrated barrier around him and his isolated temple, and then a thinner bubble of a barrier surrounding the whole mountain, with Naraku and his youkai hanging out in between? I'm not quite clear on how this works, but it doesn't surprise me. Just as it's one of RT's great strengths to make her characters accessible and understandable in very important ways, it's one of her weaknesses not to give the mechanics of these things much thought.
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