Sometimes I wish I could discard mine these days. Then I wouldn't have to suffer the heartbreak of hearing about every little injustice and wanton act of destruction in the news day after day, with no relief. How do the politicians do it? Do they go through an elaborate rearrangement process like Naraku, or do they have the benefit of being born without a conscience at all? I'm always in utter amazement when I see them walking around as if their policies aren't ACTIVELY hurting their constituents and their environment, and there's a part of me that can't help but be a little envious.
Where can I get that level of absolute emotional numbness and dissociation from the suffering of the world at large, dammit????
He actually says that he rummaged around in her soul a bit is all, super casual-like. He adds that the speck of darkness he found in there was all thanks to Inuyasha being unable to give up on Kikyou. Passing the responsibility for your manipulation onto other people? Shnooky sure is a chip off the old block. He says that it's a shame, and asserts that if he'd just had a moment longer, Kagome's soul would have broken. Really? Because from where I was sitting, Kagome looked to be pretty effectively refuting all your shitty little attempts at controlling her.
But Inuyasha only just showed up and can't really call out this lie, so he gets defensive instead and growls a question about what it is Shnooky even WANTS here. At this moment, Miroku and Sango ride in on Kirara, calling out to Inuyasha. Shippou, who came in with them, immediately appears at Kagome's side and cries her name, alarmed that she's out cold and asking if she's okay. Miroku identifies Kagura and Kanna in a somewhat accusatory manner, and Kagura responds with a drawl that they survived. She does not seem surprised, because why WOULD she be? She's fought them way too many times to underestimate them like Shnooky has.
Speaking of, Shnooky asks them smugly how many people they killed at the castle, Miroku and Sango looking disturbed by the infant, wondering if this was the one that roused the castle folk into a murderous frenzy. Miroku responds after a moment that it's too bad for Shnooky, because he doesn't kill without good reason. Or if the opponent is a youkai. Those are fair game. To be fair, maybe Miroku's not giving a more accurate or nuanced response because he's more busy trying to work out the puzzle of this baby's form.
I guess it's LESS creepy, but "perfected" is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?
Though hesitantly, Miroku does accuse Shnooky of being Naraku's human heart. Shnooky asks him why he thinks so, and Miroku claims that Naraku's objective in hiding at Mt. Hakurei was very likely to create a stronger body and to lose his human heart. He recalls Naraku saying that he severed the human part of him that was attached to Kikyou so that he could get rid of Kikyou for good. I don't remember him saying that, but cool story Miroku.
Head inclined, trembling, Inuyasha asks if this brat is the human heart that yearns for Kikyou. He snaps his head up to express his rejection of the idea, citing the disgusting way the kid plays with peoples' emotions as to why the idea has to be wrong.
Shnooky talks about how he can see deeply into peoples' hearts, where any human has hidden personal suffering, regrets or hatred. But he goes on to say that if there's any emotion he DIDN'T inherit from Daddy Naraku, it was just the one: the suffering of yearning for Kikyou. So, he's speculating that he might be the PHYSICAL human heart of Naraku, but he still doesn't have any feelings for Kikyou lurking around in there? I don't know, it's hard to make heads or tails of this nonsense.
We get a couple of significant shots of Inuyasha, Miroku and Sango looking serious as they listen, while Shnooky asks where they think those feelings really ended up. Then he immediately assigns them to the sea of creepy flesh-lumps Miroku and Sango found before. Miroku silently repeats the assertion that the lumps of flesh are the discarded heart, but as a question, as though he doesn't quite buy it. Shnooky then says that this is why he's incapable of suffering or regret, because the flesh-lumps take all that shit for him, I guess.
Inuyasha growls the conclusion that Shnooky just distorted Naraku's twisted heart even MORE, calling him a "monster of the heart". I'm glad HE'S getting something out of this, because it's like WORD SALAD to me. Inuyasha draws Tessaiga as he declares he has no more questions, and advises Shnooky to say his prayers.
To no one's surprise, a bubble appears around Shnooky, Kagura and Kanna, which bends Inuyasha's attack around it. Well, Kagura is a LITTLE surprised the brat can put up a barrier, wondering just how "sophisticated" he is. If that's the word you really want to use.
A track of Kaze no Kizu flows into the bubble barrier, sending ripples through it, and Inuyasha is shocked that the attack appears to be absorbing. Uh-oh, we've seen this before, and it's not a good sign that Inuyasha seems to have already forgotten. The barrier glows and power starts shooting back out of it. Miroku yells at everyone to take cover.
At least they're not in a rubbery youkai stomach that will bounce it back at them forever this time. Little blessings.
The whole temple is ripped apart by Kaze no Kizu, which is probably not too far off from how things would go if it had struck its target anyway. Luckily, all our protags are out of there, and Inuyasha looks over his shoulder to find that Kagura, Kanna and Shnooky are hovering over the hillside wreckage in their protective bubble. He just gapes, cursing about how Kaze no Kizu was returned. Clearly there's no point in taking another shot.
Shnooky chuckles from Kagura's arms, telling Inuyasha not to think this is over though, because he's planning on a comeback... sometime. Inuyasha yells at the little bastard to shut up, beginning to threaten repercussions the next time Shnooky comes for Kagome. Shnooky giggles again, telling Inuyasha that's not it, and Kagome is the only one left in the world that can see the Shikon fragments. Don't know how that's in contrast to what Inuyasha was saying, because he seems to be admitting outright that he's going to be trying to use Kagome again. Miroku asks for clarification as he and Sango stare up in alarm, because everything this kid says needs sorting out, for sure. Shnooky taunts them with the statement that there's only a few shards left of the Shikon no Tama.
Dude, no matter what, Naraku's going to find some way to submerge that jewel in pure asshole vibes. He doesn't need Kagome's help for that.
Inuyasha asks Shnooky if he's fucking STUPID, thinking Kagome would ever work for the likes of Naraku, and Shnooky scoffs, claiming that there are a number of ways he could crack that girl as long as Inuyasha can't forget about Kikyou.
Inuyasha just gapes, sweatdropping a bit. The barrier and those inside it zoom off into the sky, and Inuyasha internally curses, considering the unconscious Kagome in his arms. He silently apologizes for going off on his own again, thankfully NOT adding an apology for giving a shit about Kikyou. I think I'd lose it if he did that.
Elsewhere, Kagura has conjured one of her feathers and the infant-team is currently riding on THAT instead of flying around in the bubble barrier.
He's just pissy that he doesn't get to retire early like he planned. Should have invested in that diversified portfolio instead of putting all his eggs in one basket! XD
Narrow sky transition panel, with a little tree-covered hillside for flavor! Miroku is kneeling at the side of a stream, with Shippou and Sango standing next to him, looking over their shoulders. As he fills a water bottle with the stream water, Shippou asks if Kagome will be alright, commenting that she's still sleeping. Miroku assures him that Inuyasha is with her, and leaves it at that. It's a comforting non-answer.
Inuyasha is sitting next to her like the loyal pup he is, saying her name softly as she lays there in a patch of grass. As if in response, she opens her eyes with a light groan, and Inuyasha says she's awake, possibly in relief, although his nervous sweatdrop lingers. Kagome looks up at him, a somewhat lengthy silence stretching between them, until she says at last with a smile that she remembers now that he came to save her after all. Rather than sighing in relief that she recalls the rescue over the pain of him not being there, he acknowledges his eventual coming to help, but immediately apologizes too. He's beginning to blame the whole ordeal on him not being there, but Kagome assures him it's okay while she sits up.
Well what do you want her to do? Rub your nose in it like you made a peepee on the rug or something??
That's actually an enormously funny picture...
Inuyasha regard the tired and sad-looking Kagome with the "knowledge" that if he had taken just a little longer to get there, he'd have lost Kagome too. It doesn't occur to him that he just has Shnooky's word on that, though. Kagome suggests flatly that if he hears another clue about Kikyou, he'll run off again anyway. Inuyasha insists he won't leave her side again, but Kagome out-and-out calls him a liar. Shit, girl, tell me how you REALLY feel.
Inuyasha sweatdrops again, stumbles over his words, and starts to say that he's not lying, and Kagome cuts him off, repeating that he's a guy who would leave. She asks just how long she thinks she's known him for - which, I should remind my dear readers is LESS THAN A YEAR canonically. Just to put her "wise and seasoned" expectations of him into perspective. Kagome admits that when it inevitably happens that he hears some whisper about Kikyou and leaves, she'll get understandably miffed, and that much is obvious to her. Inuyasha can say nothing at this point than her name again, resigned.
And really, how angry can you get at a guy who's THIS oblivious to his own tendencies?
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I don't think there's much in the way I can really glean about what's going on with Naraku from the conversation with Shnooky at the beginning. This is partly because he is straight-up LYING about a couple of things, things the audience knows much better about. Kagome was on the edge of breaking OUT of his little mind game when Inuyasha burst into the room, not breaking DOWN. Her taking responsibility for her own emotions and working them out means she's LESS likely to be broken by these tricks in the future too, so Shnooky's ominous statement that he'll come back to do the job properly next time is just a bald-faced falsehood. Since these things are all rhetoric to induce some nervousness and paranoia in Inuyasha, it's difficult to take the rest of what he's saying about where and what the human heart of Naraku is at face value too. Everything he's saying could be fully made up, especially if it trips up the enemy or puts them on the wrong track. All disinformation is good disinformation when it comes from Naraku or his underlings.
And let's face it, it's all the more likely to be disinformation considering how nonsensical it is. Shnooky rambles for several panels about how he COULD be the physical human heart, then turns around and says that he doesn't have longing for Kikyou? So am I supposed to conclude from this that Naraku didn't separate Onigumo's whole heart from him, but the specific emotions that was keeping him from killing Kikyou? How did THAT work? And why does Shnooky talk as though he's speculating about whether he's the heart, then concretely tells Miroku that the flesh-lumps are actually where the heart/longing for Kikyou is? It's all very muddled and confusing, not particularly clear, which would make some sense if it were all a lie made up on the spot to confuse Inuyasha and crew.
There's also a possibility that RT herself didn't quite know where she was going with all this yet and tried to muddle her way through a conversation she wasn't particularly sure about either. She clearly didn't bother to check whether Naraku actually said the things Miroku said he did before writing this chapter - I DID check, by the way, going back to where Naraku talked their ears off in Mt. Hakurei, and he didn't say a single fucking thing about his motivations for getting rid of his human heart or even the fact that he did that at all. All he said was a bunch of stuff about how foolish humans and Inuyasha & company are, told them about how Kaze no Kizu was caught in the flow of his youki, and buzzed off with a few THOUGHTS about going to confront Kikyou. Even if those little hints were out loud, there's no possible way Miroku could have gotten the whole story from them. This is another example of RT giving her characters knowledge they SHOULDN'T have because she's misremembering, doesn't care, expediency, etc.
In any case, where this chapter actually does fairly well and is memorable is the very end, where Inuyasha and Kagome have a chance to talk about what happened. At last, the emotional buildup from the past few chapters regarding the tension between Inuyasha and Kagome over Kikyou gets a lot of the nuance left out of the rest of the arc. I love what's not said here - Inuyasha is sweating and nervous the whole time, indicating a level of discomfort with both what he did that put Kagome in danger, and the act of putting it all out there. But he leaps into taking responsibility anyway, refusing to take Kagome's light regard of the situation and run with it. He chooses to do the hard thing and face that he rushed off at a rumor WAY too easily and that ultimately hurt Kagome. His apology and promise not to commit the same mistake CLEARLY was not easy, but he doesn't balk at the emotional challenge, and he tries to do right by Kagome.
If it is not crystal clear by this point why Kagome really likes Inuyasha, you're not paying much attention. The way he immediately and honestly makes the effort to own up to and make up for his mistakes ALONE makes him prime fantasy boyfriend material. Girls, get you a boy who is willing to do THIS.
And Kagome's honest dialog here seemed a continuation of her revelations while in Shnooky's clutches. There is an acceptance of how Inuyasha is going to react when he hears about Kikyou, how she will react to THAT, and how overall natural this is on the whole because she loves Inuyasha. She doesn't make any promises not to be angry, in fact acknowledges that she WILL be, and that's just going to have to be the way it is. While it may seem a little harsh, I do appreciate that she calls out Inuyasha on his lie never to go after news of Kikyou again, because part of her acceptance of her reality of being in love with Inuyasha is also accepting that he still and will always on some level care about Kikyou. There's no getting around that. It comes with the implication that she knows Inuyasha's feelings about Kikyou and his inability to give up hope that she might still be around is also COMPLETELY NATURAL. So, though she can't help feeling angry and hurt about him going off at the news of the other girl, she also on some level understands that Inuyasha can't help himself either.
Despite them being dumb teenagers, Inuyasha and Kagome's discussion here is REMARKABLE in its relative maturity. It acknowledges both of their feelings without dismissing either one, and is able to come to the conclusion that they will be able to get through it when the situation arises again. A lot of ADULT couples need therapy when shit like this comes up, but two fifteen-year-old dipshits were able to work it out. I'm impressed.
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