Frankly, even if an explanation for that enormous strength is forthcoming in the next chapter or two, I doubt it will be satisfying. If it's not "surprise, he was a youkai all along" it'll likely be some flaccid handwave dismissal of the issue. So, I'm trying not to be too invested in it, even though it is really the only thing I've been consistently wondering about throughout the whole arc. I'll distract myself, by building my OWN strength! My husband and I have been riding our bikes every Sunday for the past month, and I've been able to go farther every time. Getting slowly back into shape is exciting, right?
Not as exciting as waving around an unnecessarily large halberd without rhyme or reason, but still...
Why do I get the feeling that Bankotsu doesn't have to say his prayers QUITE yet?
Bankotsu holds up his bloodied fist and calls Inuyasha a bastard, almost seeming OFFENDED that Inuyasha is going for all his Shikon shards. As if it's somehow UNFAIR in a fight to the death to take away an opponent's additive advantages. Inuyasha confirms that he fully intends to rip out those Shikon fragments one by one, but Bankotsu just smirks, cracking the joints in his upheld fingers. I'm getting whiplash from this guy's instantaneous change of attitude all the time.
Inuyasha thrusts a claw at Bankotsu, who calmly leans out of its way. Then...
Knocked back with a force that makes you skid to a stop a good distance away, with an INJURED hand? How embarrassing.
Bankotsu tells the hanyou not to belittle him, referring to himself in the highest possible esteem in the process. He brags that there's no way he'd have been the head of the Shichinin-tai just for fun. It's his skills alone that he gives credit for his ability to manage the band of mercenaries before he was even resurrected with the Shikon shards, as he runs at Inuyasha again with his raised fist. I mean, sure, I could be convinced that he's skilled at leading a team. But I'm still bumping up against the fact of that sword being too heavy for other humans to lift. Not even the BODYBUILDER lifestyle could explain that shit.
Inuyasha manages to dodge the next punch Bankotsu aims at him, but he's blindsided by another one literally IMMEDIATELY.
Sure leaning pretty heavily on those Shikon shards in the present, though, aren't you?
As debris clatters down around the downed Inuyasha, Bankotsu scoffs that he got the sucker. Inuyasha winces, a large welt formed on the whole right side of his face, but it's not for nothing. He's mutters about how Bankotsu must have put some in his left arm too. He stands and tells Bankotsu that his style is surprisingly easy to understand, despite how sardonic and pompous Bankotsu is coming across. Probably because Bankotsu's "style" so closely resembles his own, if I had to guess. Bankotsu gets the gist, suggesting that Inuyasha is saying he let himself be hit as a little test. Once again, Bankotsu makes a run for Inuyasha with his fist raised, wondering out loud if Inuyasha will take his Shikon fragments first, or if he'll twist of Inuyasha's head instead. Bloody and bruised, Inuyasha just glares at him out of one eye.
Narrow darkness transition panel? With a rumble sound effect. We see the pathway around the pit in the mountain, with the section that Miroku and Sango formerly stood upon gouged out of it. Somewhere else, presumably further down, Hiraikotsu is sticking out of the side of the pit, the lower half of it obscured.
Sango calls down into the pit if Miroku is okay, to where he's hanging with the rope she's holding down wrapped around his fist. They must both have joints of fucking STEEL to not have their arms dislocated or broken right now. Miroku answers that he's just about okay, whatever that means, and takes a moment to glance down below him, noting a whole hill of youkai corpses collected at the bottom of the pit. He calls up to Sango to try coming down, a no doubt challenging process that is not shown.
The next we see of the two is when they're walking at the bottom of the pit, over the countless youkai bodies strewn about. Sango trails in her awe of how many there are, and Miroku sees this as confirmation that he was correct, and this is precisely where Naraku rearranged his body. The movement of a pale, fleshy, infant-like form catches their eyes off to the side, and they gape in horror at it, mostly speechless until Sango asks rhetorically what the hell it is. It's joined by a few others crawling around over the youkai corpses, just like it, prompting the comment that it's not just the ONE.
I hope that vegetable soup I had last night is enough nourishment for the next day or two, because this shit is making me lose my appetite HARDCORE.
Sango hesitantly calls these lumps of flesh, and Miroku agrees, thinking it's almost as if something is trying to be born. I know that knowledge of how conception and birth was on the scarce side back in the day, but even a cursory observation of nature should tell you THIS is not how that shit works.
Outside the mountain, Kouga has discovered yet another entrance to the cave system, which he calls Kagome over to. She flies over on Kirara, confirming that she can feel the presence of a Shikon shard. Clearly nervous, Shippou asks Kagome from her side if they're going in there, and says they've GOT to, and FAST. Not only does she sense the fragment, but that it's becoming more and more corrupted every minute.
Meanwhile, Inuyasha and Bankotsu are lunging for each other again.
Am I going to have to separate you two?
Inuyasha's arm seems to twinge painfully, and he internally curses for his strike losing in the simultaneous blows. In his momentary distraction, Bankotsu punches him HARD yet again.
Bankotsu sarcastically asks what the problem is again, saying he's even going out of his way to use his left arm to punch Inuyasha, claiming that should make it easier to take the Shikon fragments? To deduce they're in there, maybe, but he's already DONE that. This is less taunting and more nonsensical than anything. In any case, Inuyasha groans in response - his face is all KINDS of banged up now. Bankotsu lifts him out of the rubble by the collar and punches him AGAIN, asking if he's finished already. He drops Inuyasha on the ground, and Inuyasha falls like a sack of potatoes. A SILENT sack of potatoes.
Complaining about what a disappointment Inuyasha is, Bankotsu says he thought the hanyou would have been stronger than this. Then Bankotsu lifts Inuyasha once more, by the throat this time, assuring him that he has no interest in torturing the weak. In fact, he has no interest in weak guys at all. Bankotsu demands that Inuyasha die, just before a "WHACK" sounds in the SFX.
Shame the shards that were helping him brutalize you before are still in his left arm, though.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I continue to be MAD underwhelmed by the fight between Bankotsu and Inuyasha. I don't even know if this can properly be CALLED a fight at this point. They both just keep pulling the same moves on one another, until Inuyasha just lets himself be pummeled for the sake of getting close enough to slowly take shards off Bankotsu. Nothing new or clever. It's tedious at best, if not a little upsetting watching Inuyasha get the shit kicked out of him.
The strength of the chapter once again lies in the more interesting things happening on the periphery, more specifically, Miroku and Sango's exploration of the pit. The youkai corpses aren't exactly new either, and reminisce on the whole Kodoku situation, but those creepy little flesh-lumps? An odd mystery element that shakes things up a little, considering this is certainly NOT how Naraku's new form coagulated the last time. When they saw his face in the midst of the darkness in the pit last time, it was fully formed, and didn't even have so much as a sweatdrop to indicate effort. Clues that point to these things being somewhat separate from him.
And the weird wriggling motion the flesh-lumps are implied to make in the chapter? Thoroughly disturbing. I always love when we can return to the horror elements in this comic.
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