Sounds badass. I'm picturing a cozy little micro-society out in the wilds where ladies hang out together, gather and cook delicious food, do all those cool creative necessary things like sewing and weaving and gardening and make it all artsy, providing moral support and work together for the good of the community... all while drinking the blood of their enemies from skulls. I'd inquire about an application, but I also think perhaps I'd be on the menu if I ever approached, so it might not be worth the risk.
Seems they've met an old man with a basket on his back in the middle of a forest path, who says it's no lie, he saw it himself. He must be savvy to the fact that this group is a little wary of rumors from strangers these days, to be insisting that he's not lying like that. He goes on to say that he went into the woods to find some herbs and got lost, and while wandering around, he came across a valley. The valley must have been flooded or contained a river or something, because we get a view of his memory of the place and there's some water, but he doesn't mention it. He recalls a group of only women carrying something between them onto a rock overcropping the water, and they were laughing about something before throwing their parcel into the river he hadn't indicated before. He had a curious peek at the parcel rolled up in a grass mat as it floated by, and was horrified by what he saw.
Siiiiiiick. In multiple senses of the word.
The old guy shivers and says it certainly wasn't the work of humans, and Miroku responds generically. After when I assume the old man skedaddled, they're still talking about a possible community of oni-women as they proceed through the woods. Presumably it's Miroku who says he can't feel a lot of evil energy in the area, though, despite how the panel is all landscape. The next one shows Inuyasha asking Kagome if she senses any Shikon shards. She says she senses nothing, but Sango says that they should be checking out every single suspicious place, looking over her shoulder at Miroku for confirmation. He agrees, adding that they need to take any remaining Shikon fragments before Naraku does. Kagome affirms this much as well, thinking on their objective to prevent Naraku from completing and polluting the whole Shikon no Tama.
Elsewhere in the rustling forest, a samurai in armor is using his katana as a crutch to limp his way through the shallow water, panting. Freshly wounded from some battle or whatever is my guess. He sees a woman leaning a bucket into the water just at its edge, and he calls to her, asking if there's a village nearby. She gapes blankly at him and observes that he's injured, and by the next panel, we get a view of the hut he's been led to, where someone is asking for confirmation that he's escaping from a war. The samurai gives her an affirmative, but he's stuck on one simple fact.
At the very least there should be some other deserters for something hanging out in here.
The woman he's sitting across from, the headwoman I presume, flatly tells him that there are indeed no men in this village because they all died in wars. The young woman who brought him to the village before, identifiable by the beauty mark near the left corner of her mouth, hovers in the background with her tray, expressionless. The samurai doesn't say anything to call out the bullshit he's hearing, despite thinking it still AWFULLY suspicious that he's also not seeing any children or older folks.
In any case, after nightfall, he's shown lying sprawled on his back on the floor of some building, snoring. When he opens his eyes in confusion, hums and sits up, asking if he fell asleep, it's implied that perhaps the drink he was offered upon arriving there might have been drugged. He looks around and further questions the place he passed out, identifying it as a small temple. Next to him, he notices an altar with offerings on it, sitting underneath a scroll on the wall with what looks to be a religious painting of a woman on it. It's easy for him to notice in the dark that the painting is glowing, and he shuffles over on his knees to investigate it, poking a finger at it. Anyone who's seen a horror film, or even read THIS very comic up until this point, knows before he draws his finger away with a creepy goo stringing between it and the painting that this guy has made a fatal mistake.
Maybe dying in that war he ran away from would have granted him a... LESS fucked-up death. That's one hell of a maybe, though.
Elsewhere, Miroku looks around in alarm. Inuyasha is carrying Kagome on his back as he runs along in a big hurry when he asks Miroku about the evil energy he felt. Miroku confirms this while they rush through the forest undergrowth, definitely off the beaten path, saying it was only for an instant but clearly not something he could ignore. They burst out of the edge of the forest into a rocky area surrounding a gentle river. It appears to be daytime, so perhaps it WASN'T night when the samurai got skinned? Sure seemed to be at the time though. Weird.
Inuyasha and company meander over the large rocks to examine the place, Sango suggesting it's the valley from the old man's story. Miroku agrees that it very well could be. Shippou is the first to spot something from where he clings to Kagome's shoulder, which spooks him quite a bit since it's floating down the river much the same as, again, in the old man's story. Kagome makes a hesitant noise, looking at Shippou in worry as he trembles and points out whatever is coming down the river, and cradles the poor kid while asking if whoever it is is dead. Inuyasha has waded into the water to approach the floating figure, humming at a limp young man he pulls from the river by its shirt collar. Thankfully, he appears to have all his skin.
He seems to take being manhandled pretty well. Or, at least, doesn't care so much in the next panel, much more preoccupied with the depression over his fiancee being missing and so far being unable to find her. Hanging his head, he sits opposite to Inuyasha and company with a campfire between them and introduces himself as Shinosuke. He was forced to march out for battle a mere THREE DAYS before he was supposed to get married, and after war horror and grievous injuries, wasn't able to return to his village until TWO YEARS later. When he was finally able to limp back in with a cane and his arm in a sling, his home was burned out and abandoned, leaving no trace of his fiancee Wakana.
Kagome and Sango look on him with MAJOR pity, the former uttering a single ineffective word at the sadness of it all. Shinosuke relays his rock-bottom moment, where he was at his wit's end, not knowing if Wakana was alive or dead, when he heard a curious rumor about a woman-only community. Miroku and Inuyasha perk up at this SECOND reference to a female-exclusive village, though differing in a pretty major detail. But they don't say anything about it, no doubt not wanting to worry the poor guy even more.
Shinosuke says that this community is supposedly for women who have lost their husbands and children in wars, and he's heard they cooperate to live, which is... you know, implied by the word "community". He concludes with his grasping at the possibility that Wakana went to live there, and Miroku provides a gentle affirmation that he's heard him. Meanwhile, Kagome leans toward Sango and whispers behind her hand (which is placed on the side of her mouth between her and Sango, so I'm not sure what that's doing to wrangle the sound away from their guest), asking if she thinks this rumor has anything to do with the other rumor about the oni-women. Sango reckons so, since they're both concerning a community of only women.
Miroku assures Shinosuke that they'll accompany him to the community of women, and Shinosuke is cool with this, but says that they have to FIND the place first. Inuyasha is casting a sly look over his shoulder when he tells them that it looks like the community has come to find THEM. Up on the top of the slope leading into the valley, a couple of women carrying baskets on their backs stare down at the group with curiosity.
In the next panel, we're back outside the hut in the forest that the samurai found himself at not long ago, the headwoman confirming that this is indeed a community for women who have lost their relatives in war, and it's a meager living.
Notice someone missing?
Shinosuke does. He looks bitterly disappointed as he haltingly says he sees. Kagome sadly reiterates that Wakana isn't here, and Sango utters how unfortunate this is. Miroku asks Shinosuke on his way out of the hut what he's going to do now, and Shinosuke replies that he's going to search for her some more. He insists there's no way he can give up, since the only girl he wants to spend his life with is Wakana. Adorable and so sad. This just sparks more commentary from our ladies, Kagome remarking upon how committed the guy is and Sango admitting how jealous she is. Kagome's expression brightens like a lightbulb has been turned on in her mind and looks over at Sango in askance. Looking harried, Sango tells Kagome not to read too much into that.
Inuyasha and Miroku are having their own conversation on the community of women, the former asking the latter what he thinks. Miroku is silent at first, so Inuyasha glances around, asking if Miroku can feel any evil energy or something, because he can't find anything suspicious with his nose. When he looks back, he demands to know if Miroku is even listening to him, because Miroku has LATCHED onto some lady and is assuming how lonely she must be with just women around. Yeah, if women are such bad company, why are YOU always getting in their faces, dude? But the woman affirms his suggestion - the THIRST at least is pretty strong.
A hand planted on the side of his head in exasperation, Inuyasha thinks there might not be any evil energy in this place after all.
And pure discomfort from everyone else.
Instead of acting on the murderous rage, Sango flatly asks if they shouldn't get going, given that this isn't the community of oni-women they've been looking for. But the headwoman, who presumably heard that little mention of a community of oni-women, suggests that they stay for the night, causing Sango and Kagome to turn and look at her in surprise. Lurking back there, all suspicious-like... The headwoman argues that it'll be getting dark soon, though she does add that they can't offer them a lot of amenities or anything.
Miroku doesn't need any convincing whatsoever. He all but jumps to humbly accept the offer on behalf of their group, Sango's shout at him in protest going ignored. One of the village women calls for the ladies in the group to come with her, while the headwoman instructs the gentlemen to follow her. Sango's eyes are wide in shock at this and Kagome voices the question at them sleeping separately - that's never been a thing before, now that I think on it.
An oil lamp is burning in a room, I suppose sometime later, where Miroku is telling Inuyasha that he's starting to think they maybe continued their journey after all. He's clearly trying to look reasonable and dignified, but the moment that Inuyasha points out HE'S the one who wanted to stay so bad and Shippou asks if Miroku's not satisfied hanging out with them boys, Miroku hangs his head and sighs. Shinosuke looks miserable the whole time, but I'm much more sympathetic to his REAL problem.
Speaking of which, after a couple of panels showing the dark foreboding rustling tree canopy and a lone building on the edge of town, where our beauty-marked girl stares out the latticed windows of the sliding door anxiously. She says Shinosuke's name sorrowfully. A voice behind her suggests that she wants to return to her beloved man's side, calling her Wakana, no surprise there. It's also no surprise that the voice is coming from that glowing painting on the scroll, which assures her that she'll be able to see Shinosuke again soon, but it will be here in this room.
HOE DON'T DO IT.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's a tad chopped up for my taste, but I don't think that could really be avoided. The gang to be informed of the rumors, the samurai needed to demonstrate how the ladies did things, and there needed to be another lad connected to the mystery too in a way that was sympathetic. Although RT MAY have been able to get away with not having the samurai part in there - the dramatic irony here isn't strictly necessary and it might have been just as cool to see another guy go into the forest dismissing the rumors early in this chapter and then have his corpse turn up in the next one.
Then again, the fact that a samurai deserting a war only for his skin to end up youkai chow is a pretty poignant choice for a victim. This is after all the Warring States period, and for a story set in that backdrop, there has been surprisingly little in the way of examining what it's like for people having to participate in a perpetually warring society like that. Sure, there's the occasional explanation that such-and-such is an orphan because their parents died in a war, or this village was wiped out, but not a ton regarding the people who actively fight in these conflicts. The Shichinin-tai are the only exception I can think of, but they were in the thick of things because they were mercenaries and had a bit of bloodlust, not because they were conscripted against their wills.
But here we have two guys in this story who were compelled to fight, and their lives were made much worse for the trouble. And the scene at the end of the chapter suggests pretty clearly that Wakana is ALSO being compelled in some way to commit violence, though in an indirect manner, against a loved one. There appears to be a theme developing about the various ways in which violence is perpetuated through unwilling subjects who just want to live their lives but must do the bidding of more nefarious entities. Which is a conversation I am totes ready for, let's do it!
No need to make too much about Miroku being a dipshit again, though. Just another day ending in "Y" as far as I'm concerned. I feel bad for Sango, having to be paired with such a weirdo, but, you know, it could be worse, I suppose. Could be paired with, like, KOUGA or something...
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