I had to look up an alternate title for this one, because the scanlation I have is called "The Two Kehais". Not only did our translator decide not to translate a word that has a few pretty close English approximations, but they stuck an "s" at the end of the word! Apparently the integrity of the Japanese language needed to be preserved here, but it's okay to modify it to indicate a plural in English. This is one of the stranger translation oddities I've seen; a weeb-flex that swerves at the last minute. Was the translator just unwilling to commit or something? Low-key bizarre.
Followed by high-key terrifying.
Just as Miroku identifies Naraku in alarm, a crescent-shaped projectile descends on them and slams into the side of the pit close to where they stand, destroying the railing along the path. Miroku and Sango lunge to the side to avoid the attack, and Kagura smarms from above that they'll lose their heads if they look down constantly. Now Miroku calls Kagura's name as well, sense of alarm smoothly transitioning from one troubling presence to another. Sango, on the other hand, went straight back to looking down into the pit to keep an eye on Naraku, and she draws Miroku's attention to the fact that their ultimate enemy has disappeared. There's a hopeful note to Miroku's comment that Naraku is running away, even now, perhaps thinking that maybe good conclusions about Naraku's level of strength might be a bit lower than feared.
He demands that Kagura tell him if Naraku is still "imperfect". She understandably has to ask for some clarification.
There are an AWFUL lot of assumptions at play here, Miroku, but I'm sure that you'll be revealed to be right regardless, as has precedent.
He concludes that Naraku's goal here should be (based on his assumptions, of course) to recombine his body into a stronger configuration. Kagura drawls an apology that she hasn't been told a thing about their purpose here, given that Naraku doesn't trust her and all. She suggests that Kanna, who stands next to her quietly, should be asked instead, but asserts that Kanna won't talk. As a final suggestion, Kagura says that Miroku and Sango can determine for themselves what Naraku's deal in the mountain is, by heading below. She helpfully offers to assist, swinging her fan at them aggressively. Such a generous gesture.
Several of her wind blades practically carve their section of the path out of the side of the pit, and it wastes no time in tipping away from the rest of the rock, Miroku and Sango sliding immediately toward the yawning abyss below.
On their way to a meeting with the boss.
Nearby in the caves at the base of the mountain, Inuyasha is lunging forward with a battle cry, Tessaiga raised. Opposite him, Bankotsu rushes for him too, a little smirk planted on his silent mouth. They both clench their jaws as they cross swords, Bankotsu's swipe repelling them back from each other significantly. They shrink behind the broad sides of their weapons while the fire from the attack blasts them, Bankotsu casually scoffing over his dangerous oopsie-daisy, like he made a mildly embarrassing typo in a corporate presentation.
It's raining burning rock, but that's just a little mistake, lol.
Inuyasha continues to be frustrated, fuming about how this is going nowhere. He wishes that the jerk Bankotsu was a youkai, because that would allow him to pulverize the snot with his Bakuryuuha. But since Bankotsu is human (a fact that is not the least bit evident enough for us to remember by ourselves), that's not possible. Ah, the conveniences of merely calling your obviously demonic character a human...
As Bankotsu doesn't have any youkai energy, despite being an evil zombie, the Bakuryuuha wouldn't be able to engulf and send back his enemy's youki. Inuyasha silently complains about how this was all Naraku's fault, with his forethought and cleverness in using HUMAN ZOMBIES as a nice offensive shield. He and Bankotsu keep staring at each other over the burning rubble while Inuyasha internally curses how there's no way to end this thing in one shot. Gee, dude, thanks for the whole PAGE of explanation. Can't imagine why it might be necessary to go through all that info in a series of though-bubbles.
It's almost as if one can sense their audience getting annoyed.
OUTSIDE the mountain...
So you're saying this guy still hasn't taken a bath?
Kagome pulls up level with Kouga on Kirara's back, telling him she feels the presence of a Shikon shard from two different locations, at the base of the mountain and the center about halfway up. When Kouga repeats the part about two different locations in disbelief, Kagome clarifies that the one in the center of the mountain seems like a big "clump" to her. He asks if she's suggesting it's Naraku, and Kagome responds that this is probably the case, though she seems rather on the subdued side in her reaction. I can't blame her, I really would not be looking forward to meeting up with the smelly weirdo myself.
Kouga affirms that he's caught the message, loud and clear, telling Kagome to lead him in the right direction. Then he inexplicably rockets on ahead, leaving the rest of them far behind even his dust-devil. Two-Tone questions why he's going so far ahead of them when he expressed a wish to be shown the way, but Kagome doesn't really bother to note the contradiction. She urges Kirara forward at greater speed to follow Kouga, her mind on... other issues.
Fair, we ALL remember the disaster that happened when you guys split up even a little bit the last time.
We're back in the caves again with Inuyasha and Bankotsu, the latter of which is again swinging around his massive sword in a circular motion. He asks Inuyasha what his problem is, given Inuyasha hasn't followed through on his aim to destroy Bankotsu yet. Inuyasha leaps up and toward the fiery attack, much to Bankotsu's shock, kind of pushing through the top middle. Bankotsu calls him a stupid bastard for this, now wondering out loud if Inuyasha had forgotten how his ass AND sword got knocked back just a moment ago.
Inuyasha just scoffs in response, having SHEATHED Tessaiga, his fingers clawed at his side. Bankotsu is distracted by his own bewilderment over the sword being put away.
And with that single swipe, inuyasha was able to free two whole Shikon fragments embedded in Bankotsu's arm. Where has that bomb aim been this entire series, Inuyasha???? He's been holding out on us the whole time!
Bankotsu's sword has gone flying, and as Inuyasha lands a distance away with the Shikon shards clutched in his fist and a trail of Bankotsu's blood following him the whole way, that sword lands point first in the rock floor of the cave. Bankotsu holds up his bloodied arm, finally looking a bit sour when he calls Inuyasha a bastard. Sorry bud, but you peaked when you held up an arm that was pure bone. Coolest moment, never gonna top it. Inuyasha holds up the Shikon fragments in response, reiterating how Bankotsu DID indeed have some of them inserted into his swingin' arm, something Inuyasha had his suspicions of since Bankotsu was SO much stronger than before. Bankotsu's good-natured chuckle is back, and he calls this a fluke, and suggests that Inuyasha is just lucky. I don't know, seemed like pretty solid logic to me, but I guess Inuyasha's reasoning isn't meant to be viewed as logical.
I bet if MIROKU said it...
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I share Inuyasha's attitude about his battle with Bankotsu; I find myself NOT very invested at all. It's strange, because this one has been building the whole arc, and I would be even MORE upset if THIS battle didn't happen than I had been when the confrontation between Bankotsu and Renkotsu hadn't happened. But the rising action doesn't appear to be accelerating at all here. RT keeps cutting away to more interesting and suspenseful character interactions, and even when she's depicting the main event, she spent an entire PAGE on Inuyasha's inner thoughts on why he couldn't just wipe this dude out with his ultimate attack. I'm almost convinced that RT HERSELF wasn't interested in developing this fight, and she struggled with filling it out appropriately.
The funny thing is, if she wanted to push the pause button more effectively, she could have inserted some explanation for why Bankotsu, and by extension his band of mercenaries, were so much more youkai-like than they really should be. I keep waiting for some kind of background from Bankotsu about why he's ALWAYS been so strong, why he's able to hold up that universe-sized sword, perhaps why the face paint they use seems to work on WILL alone, but there's been nothing so far. If RT HAD to bring the action to a screaming halt the way she has in this chapter, I would have much preferred to hear about those things, rather than what looks like a mere excuse in the face of a demonstrably youkai-ish character that is human in name only.
I also found Miroku's assumptions about Naraku's motivations a little more annoying than I probably should have. It's becoming one of my peeves in this story when characters just HAVE critical information about what's going on without having earned it, and this is striking me as another example of that. Given the amount of planning that this whole setup had to have taken, as I've detailed before, and the sudden surprise Inuyasha's barrier-breaking move was to Naraku, it just doesn't add up that he did this in response to his loss at that time. But there was no room to question the multiple logical steps skipped in this conclusion of Miroku's, and we're meant to just accept it as a perfectly reasonable one. I mean, RT could at least have made him mention how similar this setup was to the Kodoku situation that happened earlier. Then it might have at least more supporting evidence, as opposed to Inuyasha's simple deduction being brushed off as luck so that we don't make the mistake of thinking of him as smart or something. Sheesh.
This is why I appreciate Kagura's admission that she just doesn't know what Naraku's motivation or aim is, because he doesn't tell her anything. It's not immediately confirming Miroku's suspicions, and also doesn't give her additional information that she really shouldn't have. Makes her a little better in that regard.
But only a little.
Unrelated tangent: wishing my husband a happy 34th birthday today! I sure do love that man o' mine!
No comments:
Post a Comment