Just the opposite for me; I've been fired up! As I'm writing this, I spent the previous afternoon in a bike shop, looking for new e-bike, and left a check for one that I think will work rather well for me. My house is in a semi-rural area, but the small grocery store I shop at is just down the road from me, a ten-minute drive. Cars, including used ones, are so incredibly expensive right now, and I hate the idea of cars in general (from pollution to infrastructure) more every moment. So, I figured another kind of electric vehicle would be the better option. Still kind of expensive, but with just a little pedal-assist electric motor, I can go pretty fast while also getting a good amount of exercise when I pick up odds-and-ends in "town". Also, my husband and I are planning on taking a bike ride every weekend in the cute park nearby, so that will be fun!
I'm very excited, but I won't have the bike until the check goes through, so I have to wait just a TAD longer to feel the wind - and rain of the PNW - in my hair.
But at least I'm not in a thumping cave in the meantime.
Renkotsu works out that this means Naraku is now on the move. He looks down at the shard he took from Jakotsu still pinched in his fingers, wondering if he should use it. Dude goes to the trouble to nudge Jakotsu toward his downfall and take the fragment from him, and he's still debating the use of it? NOW he's questioning if this is a viable course of action?? How recent was it that he lost his shit and almost blew everybody up because he "couldn't turn back" again??? Renkotsu pisses me off SO MUCH.
After some vague thought about fighting or running or something that doesn't matter, he goes ahead and inserts the shard into his neck, getting a nice surge of power in the process. Good job on following through on your bullshit, you oscillating dipshit. He exits the caves through a crack in the mountain (not sure if it's the same one they went in through), and immediately spots Bankotsu gazing up at the sky on a rock nearby. Man, these Shichinintai are REALLY good at just being the places they need to be to meet up with their fellows coincidentally, especially the leader.
Bankotsu looks over and asks if Renkotsu is alright, and Renkotsu answers in the affirmative, silently making some calculations as he approaches. He assumes that the bastard who leads their dwindled group has other Shikon shards in his body too, Kyoukotsu's, Mukotsu's and Suikotsu's to make four in total. He recalls that the fragments they took from Kagome are also in Banryuu. Renkotsu takes stock of his own Shikon shard number, a total of three with his, Ginkotsu's and Jakotsu's. He draws up behind Bankotsu with the thought that they're ALMOST equal without Bankotsu's weapon, of course. No word on how he's going to prevent Banktosu from using THAT, because his next utterly delusional thought is that if he's going to do his little coup, now's the time.
So he's really the only one who's surprised when THIS is what happens immediately thereafter:
I mean, really. What did you expect, Renkotsu?
Bankotsu pulls two Shikon fragments out of Renkotsu's neck, and counting them between his bloodied fingers. He clenches them in his fist and suggests conversationally at Renkotsu that there's only one to go. Neck bleeding, Renkotsu shudders, spitting that Bankosu is a bastard, out loud this time. Oooh, someone grew the SLIGHTEST bit of a spine I see. Bankotsu smirks, pointing out that Renkotsu has been awfully stupid for a smart guy, hanging one of those FAMOUS RT lampshades on this whole debacle. He says that Renkotsu was thinking about unnecessary bullshit this entire time, and therefore is past saving. Real subtle.
Renkotsu grasps his own throat, presumably to stem the blood flow, and asks for confirmation that Bankotsu intends to kill him. Bankotsu holds up Bankotsu's hair pin, countering with the accusation that Renkotsu killed Jakotsu for his coveted Shikon shard, after all. Renkotsu staggers, asking how that is any different from what Bankotsu's doing now. Is he just not AWARE that his question was answered before he even asked it, or...? Bankotsu pauses as he listens to a saimyoushou, possibly the same one that carried over the hair pin.
Well, that was anti-climactic.
Bankotsu tells the dissolving remains of Renkotsu that what he's doing is different because he never betrayed his friends. Even Renkotsu's stupid ass should have been able to fathom that one. Not really that deep. Bankotsu closes his eyes and sighs over how lonely he is now, since he's the only one of his band of professional murderers left now. He'll have to forgive me if I don't feel bad, lol.
We shift back to Kikyou and Hakushin-Shounin, without a narrow transition panel of any sort, if you can believe it. Hakushin-Shounin tells Kikyou that he's gotten rid of his personal barrier, and suggests again that this dead miko wants to calm his soul and dissolve the larger crackling barrier over the whole mountain in the process. But he explains to her that his soul was smeared with malice and hatred while he was buried alive, and therefore he's already concluded that he can't be cured. Kikyou responds that she naturally doesn't presume to think someone like herself can save his soul, but she IS wanting to know for herself what he's grieving about. This word "grief" seems to confuse Hakushin-Shounin.
Awww, cute, the corpses are hugging! Wait...
Kikyou assures him that she HAS to embrace him in order for his malice and hatred to transfer over to her - trust her, she's not just being weird! What I thought she had divined at a distance before, the scene with Naraku kneeling and reassuring an inconsolable Hakushin-Shounin that it's okay for him to hate the people who did this to him, plays out for her now too. Kikyou draws back a little to say that he WASN'T crying because he hated the people of the living world. It dawns on him with her statement that she's right; he was crying because he wanted to die a proper saint, which didn't happen. He hadn't known at the time how weak he was, and was overwhelmed by his eventual realization of the weakness in his own heart.
Still hugging Hakushin-Shounin, Kikyou asks him for confirmation that this hurt him, and he gives her an affirmative. She gives Hakushin-Shounin a different reassurance than Naraku; that he's served the people more than enough, and that it's time for him to be free. She pleads with him to go free now, and after a small pause, Hakushin-Shounin asks Kikyou if it's really okay. Kikyou gives him the permission to let go he so desperately wanted, and he at last closes his wrinkled eyes.
What was that about not thinking you can save his soul, Kikyou?
Suddenly, the whole mountain seems to pulse, and Kikyou observes that the sacred grounds around it have been extinguished. The title has been said! Kikyou wins the chapter!!
Inuyasha is still leaping through the passage where he's following Naraku's scent, surrounded by shuddering walls of stone. If I were him, I'd be super nervous about a potential cave-in wiping me out, but all he's doing is pushing onward, yelling at Naraku to show himself. The wall to his right splits in half lengthwise, and he leaps away from it in alarm as the fissure practically explodes outward. He looks back warily, stone debris falling around him, as Bankotsu emerges from the hole he carved with his ridiculous, planet-sized sword.
He informs Inuyasha that there will be no seeing Naraku today...
Bankotsu is DEDICATED to this kill contract. I would admire the tenacity, but, you know. Murder. I don't care for it.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? First and foremost, I want to gush about the second half of the scene between Kikyou and Hakushin-Shounin. Don't get me wrong, it's SUPER weird that Kikyou can apparently get info on someone's emotional past through embracing them - much like Tessaiga's absorption power, it seemed to come out of nowhere and for no other reason than plot convenience. BUT, this is leagues less annoying to me, simply because of how emotionally RICH it makes the scene. I can overlook the abruptness of the obscure divination power because it's embedded in a warm gesture that in itself is comforting, supportive, tender. The close and intimate contact brings some solidity to the empathetic power Kikyou is bringing, meshing the physical sensations of touch with the emotional sensations of grief.
And her correctly identifying Hakushin-Shounin's real issue AS grief was so important. I maintain that Naraku is right about it being natural and okay for Hakushin-Shounin to feel negatively toward the people who buried him alive, but the fact that he actually misdiagnosed Hakushin-Shounin's real emotional distress makes a LOT of sense in the end. After all, it wasn't half a second after Naraku came and gave him permission to hate that Hakushin-Shounin started serving Naraku's interests, just like the natural helper he is. The entire reason why he served the community around Mt. Hakurei, the reason he suggested that he become a saint in such a horrible way in the first place, was because he WANTED to help his community spiritually. It was who he was.
So by extension, it makes sense by extension that when Naraku found his spirit lost in the dark, he was really mourning his inability to complete that task. It was such a painful feeling of failure and loss of a purpose that when Naraku suggested that he HATED the Hakurei community, Hakushin-Shounin fooled himself into believing it, just to ease the horrible discomfort of reality. I'm not going to lie; I've been there. But with a lot of wisdom and empathy, Kikyou was able to bring him back to the real issue he was having so he could acknowledge it and let that shit go.
Because what these high and mighty religious figures seem to struggle mightily with is the fact that they're human beings just like everyone else. We're imperfect beings, who do not have access to the knowledge of how everything will turn out for them, and therefore doubt in oneself and one's endeavors is going to creep in quite often. Since religion the world over tends to deal in absolutes, doubt is generally frowned-upon, and when it inevitably comes around, those most dedicated to the path do this self-flagellation thing and it's just...
All of this has just convinced me that KIKYOU now needs someone else to come around to tell her it's okay for her to move on too, poor thing.
What I DIDN'T like about this chapter was the flaccid balloon that was the ultimate confrontation between Renkotsu and Bankotsu. RT spent a TON of time in this arc building it up, Renkotsu was getting more and more anxious about how this would go when he finally made his move, he did so much to try and build that power up... and there wasn't even a fight. Bankotsu just took the Shikon shards and Renkotsu died without putting up a modicum of a conflict about it, besides whining like a baby the whole time. With how much setup there was about the two clashing when the time came, the result was little more than a shrug at the audience. Did the publisher/editor demand a cut to get a little faster to the end of the arc? Did RT just get BORED with the whole Renkotsu thing?
I do know one thing - I feel robbed.
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