Inuyasha Manga: 292 A Special Woman

Oh, like I've never heard THAT one before! It's always one of two things: you're too special and precious for him to "ruin", or you're so special and precious that you can't be exposed to the horrors of the world and he's the only one who can keep you safe. Either way, this phrase is bad news, and I've both experienced and heard some shady shit go down when connected with it. Chapter, do we honestly have to do this? Can you just spare me?

Although, to be fair, Sango is pretty special to be able to sustain an attack on a man like this. That combat training against youkai really put her a cut above the rest.

Miroku is shown clenching his injured arm as it continues to drip blood, and tells Sango that he's going to expel the youkai that's hanging out in her gut. She, of course, doesn't respond with anything but the creepy vapor coming out of her possessed mouth. And another swing at his head, this time with the sword. Miroku ducks that too, grabbing his staff off the ground as he does so, and raises it to block yet another slash of the blade. 

Sango bends back her arm to put a little more force behind her next swing, bringing the sword down in the middle of the staff that Miroku's holding defensively across his chest. He counteracts the force of the blow and throws her backward, where she lands on the rock on her back with a thud, and the sword is knocked out of her hand toward Kirara, who looks down at it and recoils a little. Miroku is on top of Sango, but not in the sexy way he wants; he's got his fist speeding down toward her stomach to try and make good on that promise he made a moment ago while he pins her with the rest of his body, but...

She's going to slice him into pieces before he gets CLOSE to punching that salamander-infant out of her.

Sango deftly takes this opportunity to jump backwards out from under Miroku while he watches in a bit of a daze. He smiles, admitting she's fucking SCARY to have as an enemy. Sango lunges at him again, and this time slashes his OTHER arm, forearm this time, as he holds the staff up again in defense. But now she's close enough to grab by the arm, and he doesn't waste any more time.

Yeah. Friends.

Sango coughs, and the slimy little egg the headwoman was shoving in her face pops out, splatting on the ground. Immediately, Sango goes limp against Miroku's shoulder, not responding to his calling her name. Miroku sinks into a sitting position, cradling Sango but still BEYOND exhausted, and breathes a sigh of relief that he made it through the whole ordeal. 

Inuyasha comes leaping onto the scene, Kagome and Shippou on his back, with both he and Kagome yelling for their friends. Once Kagome has dismounted Inuyasha (stay out of that gutter, kids), she runs over to Miroku and demands to know what happened, observing that he's wounded. Miroku just confirms that he is indeed wounded, clearly without the energy to really respond fully, or maybe just still recovering his head. 

Shippou has knelt next to the egg and comments on it curiously, because all he's seen so far are salamanders. Miroku seems to have gotten back enough sense to explain that it's a "Body-Snatcher" egg, and says that if the egg had hatched, he might have gotten hurt a lot worse. Or straight-up killed. That's always a possibility. Inuyasha seems confused that Sango would be controlled by the egg, given it's not like her to make a mistake like that, what with her youkai-extermination experience and all. Kagome repeats that Sango got very upset and lost it when she saw Miroku getting all cozy with another woman. Miroku looks exhausted again, picking up on the suggestion that it's HIS fault this happened. 

I'm not going to say it's his fault, but I am going to say he probably shouldn't be surprised that Sango beat his ass so hard after seeing him completely ignore her feelings, even if she WAS possessed at the time.

So, in in the next narrow sky transition panel, there's some light farewell conversation regarding a couple of someones going back to their hometown together. Shinosuke and Wakana confirm, the former more than the latter. I thought that village they came from was all burned out and abandoned? Oh well. Shinosuke begins to thank Inuyasha and his crew for all they did, but Inuyasha dismisses this gratitude, saying that they didn't really pay all that much attention to them anyway. Such an Inuyasha way of saying he doesn't want to take credit for an incidental good thing that happened because he was up to something else, lol. Because Miroku is not in the sending-off party (just Kagome and Shippou are there), Shinosuke expresses his desire to also thank HIM for his part in his and Wakana's happy ending, but Inuyasha tells him not to worry about it.

Don't know about confusing - more delicate than anything else.

Sango begins to apologize, saying it's all her fault that he got hurt, which, yeah, fair. Miroku looks utterly ridiculous with a Band-Aid slapped across his cheek, especially for at slash that might have required stitches in reality. He tells Sango not to worry about it, proceeding to apologize for his bad habit with women causing her some distress, adding that even Kagome was a bit peeved with him over it this time. Honestly, it IS about time someone got irritated with him over his shitty behavior, although I have a feeling that there's not enough emphasis on the more problematic aspects of it...

Sango twitches uncomfortably, stuttering that it's not something he has to apologize about, saying she was just being careless, and his actions really had nothing to do with the thing. She's kind of turned away from him and they remain silent a moment while Miroku looks at her. After the pause, he says he's going to tell her his feelings, and he wants her to listen to them all the way through to the end. She looks over at him with wary interest.

And Miroku takes the title prize!

On the other side of a nearby tree, Inuyasha, Kagome, and Shippou sit and eavesdrop, Kagome and Shippou just a little off to the side and half-hidden in the foliage so they can better see what is going on. Inuyasha is just leaning carefree against the tree, though, snarking that Miroku is STILL going to fondle other women's butts regardless of all this "special" talk. Kagome hushes him.

Meanwhile, Miroku tells a blushing Sango in heart-pounding nervous wreckage that he never thought he could trust and rely on a woman to the degree he has with her. That doesn't sound sneakily misogynistic at ALL. Miroku then goes on to say that BECAUSE of his trust and reliance on her, he feels like he can love her as a woman. DEFINITELY not sneakily misogynistic! Sango expression in profile is shadowed and frozen, and Kagome from behind the bushes looks absolutely furious at this rejection. Miroku concludes that Sango is a friend to fight alongside, and this is how he feels. 

Sango hangs her head, and the peanut gallery is up in arms - Shippou asks if Miroku is REALLY saying that Sango is just a friend to him ("friendzoning" term fans, eat your hear out), and an infuriated Kagome says that she'll never forgive him for how mean he's being right now. Inuyasha lazily twists to look around the tree, the very picture of boredom and not giving a shit. 

Sango speaks up, stuttering that she knew that already, without him having to tell her, tears welling in her eyes. She's fully turned away from him, but she's trembling in holding back her emotions, saying that it's not like she thought he'd be in love with her or anything. Miroku looks at her out of his periphery and says her name, but she's already getting to her feet, asking if this conversation is done now, and saying she's off, no doubt to shed a few heartbroken tears. 

But Miroku says that this conversation is actually just getting started. He looks at his cursed hand wrapped in cloth and beads, throwing out a bunch of hypothetical ifs: if when their battle with Naraku is over, if his kazaana is healed, if he's still alive...

Did that about-face in record time, didn't you, Miroku?

But Kagome is suddenly all sunshine now, having forgiven all those "mean" things he said earlier like she said she wouldn't, and sparkling at what she has declared a proposal. I would sooner call it leading Sango on, but okay. Inuyasha and Shippou have leaned a little closer to the scene too, the former suddenly a little interested.

Sango drops back down into a sitting position, and when Miroku says her name again, she mutters into her hands that she will. Suddenly, they're facing each other, and Miroku has grabbed Sango's hands, asking for confirmation that she WILL indeed bear 10 or even 20 of his babies. GIRL, RUUUUUUUN. No, she enthusiastically agrees to that ridiculous number of children. I weep for her future. 

Sango takes this opportunity to suggest that this means he'll do something for HER in return, namely, not cheat on her anymore. I side-eye the word "anymore", given this has been an OFFICIAL relationship for half a second. Miroku just continues grinning at Sango, not answering, so she asks again, squeezing his hand all the harder and looking a little menacing. His expression has devolved into an awkward frozen half-gape. Then he looks away wordlessly, and this refusal to promise such a thing tells Sango all she needs to know about his future propensity to cheat. 

In the bushes, Shippou asks if the conversation is over NOW, Kagome looks on with a supremely irritated face, and Inuyasha says in his renewed boredom that this whole situation will probably get more complicated from here. Odd that he's the reasonable one right now.

Cut to some spooky hills in the misty evening.

They decorate for spooky season earlier every year, it seems.

An old monk in this temple shakily asks who goes there, in response to a shadowed figure stepping toward him in the darkness with a folded fan in hand. He doesn't have any time to react; with a slash and a splatter of blood, he's lying wheezing and nearly dead on the floor. Kagura has knelt next to him, having placed Shnooky on the monk's carved-up torso for obscure but nefarious reasons, I'm sure.

Shnooky lays there on the old guy, listening to him wheeze for a minute or two, while Kagura sits by and wonders what the brat is even DOING. She works out that he's checking out the geezer's heart after she sliced him half-to-death, but beyond that, she's not able to figure much as far as intentions go. Shnooky turns his head and tells Kagura to finish the old dude off after a moment, saying he's all finished up here.

We don't see her putting the poor guy out of his misery, the next panel skipping to the part where they're flying through the air on Kagura's giant feather. Shnooky at last complains that he didn't see anything, and supposes that though the man they killed was a high-ranked holy guy, he was still just a regular old human after all. 

Are you sure baby didn't just need a nap?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm not going to say I HATE it or anything. After all, it was a little awesome seeing Sango ANNIHILATE Miroku as she did, and their relationship isn't the most problematic I've seen in media by a long shot. Still, there are enough problematic elements to this and their conversation about it that it made me cringe a little. Especially when we have a recent example of a relatively mature conversation on relationship status between the main couple not too far removed. 

Beginning with Miroku's part of the conversation, there are so many things about what he said that ruffled my feathers. He fully admits to not really seeing Sango as a romantic option because she's been placed firmly in the battle context. This in and of itself isn't a horribly misogynistic thing, because we compartmentalize relationships like this all the time, and it's hard to compute people outside of a certain relational context once we're used to seeing them fill a particular role in our lives. What irritated me and gave me asshole-vibes (more than usual from him, anyway) was the comment that he never thought he could come to trust and rely on a woman like he has Sango. It implies that he doesn't consider women in general to be reliable or trustworthy most of the time, and that smacks of trying to manipulate Sango into feeling better about his rejection. "See, you're not like other girls, so I can't just use you up and toss you out like those other ones!" just doesn't have the same polite ring to it, I guess.

The other issue I have with his little speech is that there is NOTHING at all connecting the part before Sango gets up to go and the part after that. None whatsoever. Essentially he just told her that he's not attracted to her, but later maybe if he's not dead they can get married? Not much sense is made here. The most generous interpretation I can come up with is that he's saying that once the context of them fighting Naraku together is done and over with, he'll be able to actually see her as an option because they're not both risking death all day every day and can settle down. But it comes across as more another manipulative tactic to avoid any disharmony between them so they can get this job done and he's leading her on so she won't act all EMOTIONAL (read: GIRLY) while they're trying to fight in the future, especially because he DOESN'T answer when she asks point-blank if he'll cheat on her. 

Let's address that too, actually, because Miroku isn't the only one acting like a tool in this interaction. As I said above, Sango is acting REAL entitled to have an exclusive relationship with this guy who is KNOWN for being a bit of a floozy. Of all the things I have against Miroku, being promiscuous or having a libido isn't one of them, because there's nothing inherently wrong with that until he's being abusive toward the people he's with. I think that Sango expecting a guy who is as horny on main as Miroku is to just drop that and become monogamous on a dime is not only unrealistic, but weirdly possessive. They weren't even an official couple before this moment, but the use of the word "anymore" suggests that she was already considering his moves on other women to be a slight against their nonexistent relationship. That's unhinged shit right there. Not cool. 

I've never really been much of a shipper, so I didn't have an opinion on this pairing the first few times I read this series. Going through the story with a fine-toothed comb as I am though is really dredging up some not-so-nice things about Sango and Miroku's relationship in particular that don't sit right with me, and I'm becoming just a tad repulsed by it, not going to lie. Again, this isn't the WORST pairing I've ever read, but goodness, it could be a lot better. 

My favorite part of the chapter was seeing my girl Kagura being cool in the last two pages. Best part of the whole thing, for sure.

Inuyasha Manga: 291 Sango's Whereabouts

Don't know where that little grotto/cave is that Sango is chained up in, but I can't decide if she's better off in THERE or going back above where someone WILL punch her in the gut. Man, did Sango get a raw deal in this arc. Being restrained and forced to eat nasty amphibian eggs, then inevitably being forced to cough them up with a violent blow to the stomach? I've had some bad days, but I don't know if any of them can compare to THAT garbage. 

It's a good thing she's a tough girl. She's going to need to be, unfortunately.

"Just that I'd like to slurp it up. Is that weird?"

The salamander explains that a hanyou skin is much better than a regular human's, estimating it to worth five or even ten men's. Is it just like, more nutritious, or...? It casually plans, to Inuyasha's FACE, to eat him and finish up its resurrection right quick. Inuyasha scoffs that he doesn't know what the salamander means by all that nonsense, but he doesn't want to be made to laugh by the "threat" that the big amphibian is going to eat him, drawing Tessaiga. Mid-leap at the salamander, the village women shoot up out of the water and hover in front of it as a human shield. 

Or, at least they did for a moment. Then they full-on launch straight at Inuyasha and collide with him, and they're not the only ones.

Kagome was still standing on that big rock, by the way. As the stone breaks up beneath her feet, she loses her balance, and either her or Shippou flying off her shoulder shriek. Inuyasha calls out to Kagome in concern, because he doesn't have anything more pressing to worry about than if Kagome scrapes her knees or something.

A pair of unknown hands catch Kagome by her shoulders before she falls entirely, which she seems alarmed by, and it's revealed in the next panel to be Miroku, shouting about how the salamander has shown its true form. That was... an entirely superfluous mini-mystery, but cool, I guess. Kagome says Miroku's name like she's surprised he's there, perhaps assuming he was BUSY with something else, considering the last time she saw him. 

Miroku yells at Inuyasha to try and route the women over to him, and Inuyasha complies, throwing out an arm so the women clinging to his front to stop him are flung in Miroku's direction. With a cursory plea for forgiveness toward one of the zombified women traveling toward him, he starts throwing hands, quickly punching each of the ladies in the stomach. They in turn cough into their hands, then pass out on the rock below, a wriggling salamander infant trailing from their unconscious mouths. Miroku couldn't be bothered to catch THEM, I see. Shippou recoils in horror at the salamander he saw come up from one woman's stomach. 

Inuyasha comes to the same conclusion as Miroku, which is that these salamander infants were the ones controlling the women of the community all along. The parent salamander laughs that these women were weak at heart.

How weak of them to be affected by petty things like the deaths of loved-ones! What rubes!

The salamander cites this as the reason they sought to soothe their aching hearts and the hanging scroll in the Temple of Kannon. Kagome muses on how she could have SWORN one of those flying scrolls just flew past her a minute ago, not having been IN the temple herself to recognize it more clearly. Miroku fills her in on how the salamander monster in front of them had been sealed inside the scroll she saw, and she makes a noncommittal noise, because she's still missing a few dots to connect for this to be an "ah-ha" kind of moment. 

Inuyasha asks the salamander why it decided to come out NOW, and it chuckles that while it doesn't know exactly what happened while it was sealed away, but it did pick up that a great source of evil arose and gave it a little baby boost. Kagome speculates that this might be Naraku's influence, which is a fair conclusion to draw given his more pervasive miasmic form of evil. 

Miroku looks around at a couple of women from the water moving toward him, Kagome and Shippou - oh yeah, there are women to knock around. Inuyasha assures him that he'll take care of the big salamander guy, and Miroku agrees that he'll in turn "take care of" the women. Big yikes.

There must have been a line here where Miroku asked for Sango to jump in on this action too that the scanlator forgot to include, because in the next panel, Shippou is asking Miroku what he's talking about from Kagome's arms, telling him Sango isn't here. As Miroku grapples with another possessed woman, pushing aside a her blunt staff, Kagome asks him if he didn't even NOTICE Sango wasn't there. He makes a questioning noise of his own in response and, jabbing the woman in front of him in the stimach with her own staff, asks what Sango is off doing then. Kagome gives him a worried, pleading look, telling him that Sango disappeared when she went off after the women alone, after they spied him two-timing her with one of the village women. He sweatdrops and looks highly uncomfortable with this information.

Kirara bounds over by Miroku's foot, meowing up and him in small kitten form. Kagome says Kirara's name in surprise while Shippou remarks on the drenched fur of the cat.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha raises Tessaiga above his head and invites the giant salamander to go. It just reiterates its intention to eat the hanyou.

The salamander parts rain down in an anticlimactic gore shower into the water. I hope the community isn't depending on that as a drinking source...

Kagome looks a little shocked for some reason, while Shippou shouts that Inuyasha got the thing with a delighted air. But Miroku and Kagome turn to see that they've still got zombie salamander women shambling towards them. Kagome questions how the village women are still being controlled now that the main youkai's been defeated. Clearly this isn't a "head vampire" type deal. Miroku states that it looks like they'll have to remove the salamander infants from the women's stomachs one by one. Should be easy, what with them just walking up to get punched in the guts like that. 

But Miroku's not planning on doing this involved work himself. He immediately turns to a perplexed Inuyasha, barely asking for confirmation that he's aware how to get the salamanders out of these women's stomachs before he announces he's leaving the rest to him so he can leap on the transformed Kirara's back, thinking of Sango. Watch, he comes back and Inuyasha's performing complicated surgery on the women. I don't know if that would be funny or tragic.

Did Shippou NOT point out to you that Kirara was wet? 

Something comes hurtling at them through the water from below and Kirara has to dodge to avoid it. Miroku sees down on the bed of the lake/river, there's a dark figure with a familiar ponytail and outline floating near what looks like a cave with... an raised grate at the entrance? Did... did they NEED to put a gate blocking the way into an underwater cave? Who was going to wander down there and waltz in, except fish???

Anyway, just in case you hadn't guessed it was Hiraikotsu that had come at Miroku and Kirara in the water, we see it bursting from and arcing over the water in the air above. Sango has risen from the water herself and catches it without any fanfare. And last but not least, Miroku and Kirara burst from the lake/river as well, the former shouting Sango's name. 

Honestly, I'm a little in disbelief as well. The idea of Sango being FORCED to do anything by those weird village waifs is a bit of a stretch.

Kirara bounds forward while Miroku announces he's coming to save Sango right now. By punching her in the gut. *Ahem* Sango throws Hiraikotsu again and it SHATTERS a rock nearby when Kirara leaps to the side again to avoid it. Meanwhile, Sango jumps out of the water and onto a rock outcrop next to her, tapping it in what looks like a very deliberate manner with her fist. Once Kirara gets close enough, Miroku leaps off and runs toward Sango, shouting her name some more. Before he can reach her, Hiraikotsu hits like lightning between them and bounces back up to be caught by Sango, Miroku thrown backward in surprise. He has to duck when Sango swings the giant boomerang at his head, while it at last dawns on him that getting rid of her belly-salamander won't be as easy as it was with the village women. Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.

He shifts mental tracks, knowing he has to get closer to her. Somehow there's a bit of distance between them again, and she's running to swing dispassionately at him again, though they were JUST right next to one another. Miroku aims and throws his staff like a javelin at her.

Whoopsie Daisy!

Miroku announces that he's got her now, and runs at her with his right fist already balled up and ready to go. But Sango makes a slashing motion, or at least a slashing sound effect that the close-up of her empty expression doesn't really show the accompanying motion for, and there's blood spatter over the panel following it. 

Cut to Inuyasha standing among a smattering of unconscious women laying around on the rocky bank, having already performed the dark deed Miroku requested comfortably OFF-panel, while Kagome stabs a salamander-infant with one of her arrows. Awkward-sauce. He's looked around in surprise at the sudden scent of blood he's smelling, Kagome responding in question, but neither of them seeming to move very quickly to see why or how this is the case. 

No surprise that it's Miroku, whose blood splatters on the rock next to his feet and he grips his arm tightly where Sango had cut it a moment ago with the sword she rarely uses. He sighs at her, and tells Kirara not to worry when the saber-toothed feline's head swivels toward him and his injury. He insists Kirara should leave Sango to him, that he'll "deal" with her.

I feel weird hoping homegirl throttles his stupid ass, considering she's possessed, but this is the position RT put me in.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I do think there's an interesting implication in the scene where Miroku has to be informed that Sango isn't actually there and is missing. I checked in my official Viz version of this chapter (took a bit of digging around in a closet, lol), and it does appear that Miroku said that he AND Sango would take care of the village women in there. Regardless of which version of this chapter is more accurate to the original Japanese, the sense of Miroku taking Sango for granted and just kind of expecting she's around and available to help out whenever. Since she confessed her feelings for him so brazenly back at Mt. Hakurei, he can't really claim to be ignorant of that aspect of their relationship either, so there's also a HINT of exploitation of that as well - like she'll be a pliable resource for him no matter what he says or does because she likes him. 

So it might very well be a valuable lesson for this character to remind him just who the hell he's dealing with, honestly. Sango's the only member of this team without magical powers and kicks SERIOUS ass, to the point where they've all come to depend on her, Miroku especially. There's a little justice in Miroku learning how difficult things would be for him if Sango didn't like him as much as she does, and give her the respect she deserves for only being annoyed with him when he's on one of his flirt-binges. All the same, I'm not sure the upcoming resolution of this conflict really addresses Miroku's tendency to take Sango for granted, but we'll see, I suppose. I don't remember the end of this arc all that well, to be honest, it's been a while since I last read it. 

Also, can I just say, I liked this arc better when it was called the Oni's Head Castle arc? Similar angry sealed youkai that was given extra power by Naraku passing by, similar Sango jealousy side-plot, and thankfully lacking in our heroes having to punch women to exorcise them of youkai influence. The way RT just kind of quietly skipped over how she had Inuyasha gut-punch a bunch of ladies proves just how proud she is of this poor recycle job. I'm not going to get over how she could have done something interesting with the setting of a secluded community for women escaping and healing from the horrors of war being taken advantage of by a youkai, but THIS is what she wrote instead. Big cringe YIKES.