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...
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.
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.
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.
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