In my experience, places that are THIS much of a pain to get into are rarely worth it. I mean, we already know the place is just full of bones and mist, and the two protagonists that have already been there are only really interested in going back for the shot at keeping a Shikon fragment away from Naraku. Seems to me like everyone involved in this breaking-and-entering scheme are in for a real drag, and that's putting it lightly.
The crumbling youkai horde drops like the rock it is, while the shocked Inuyasha group gapes in disbelief, Miroku narrating the fact that the horde is turning to stone. He observes the rays of intense light shooting through the gaps in the youkai, and throws his arm up in front of Sango, shouting a warning to avoid letting it hit them, since that appears to be what is making everything so rapidly fossilize. Kagura starts to fall out of the sky, no doubt because her feather is quickly solidifying. Inuyasha throws his arms around Kagome as the rest of the horde falls and the light from the doorway to the world beyond is unobstructed, trying to protect her from becoming a statue as well.
Gozu and Mezu appear to still be moving around, unfortunately, walking out in front of the door, apparently to survey the weird destruction the door has wrought. Ponytail's glare lands on a rattled Kagura, who balks at his glower, and he takes the opportunity while he has her attention to ask if she wishes to pass or not. Kagura looks absolutely pissed.
Maybe you should be grateful these dudes are throwing some shade, Kagura. It seems to be the only thing keeping you from becoming stone.
The gate shuts with a bang, and by the time it does, Gozu and Mezu are back on their pedestals, statues once again. While Inuyasha holds Kagome and they sit tight, in tense astonishment as they cautiously wait to see if the ordeal really is over, Miroku approaches Gozu and Mezu to confirm that they are indeed just massive inanimate carvings again. Sango steps forward to ask where Kagura got to, and Miroku says she must have escaped with as little concern as is possible. Kagome and Inuyasha are back on their feet again, the former wondering out loud if Hakudoushi knew that if you try to force your way past the gateway you'd be turned to stone; with special attention paid to the bits of rock that were once youkai littering the floor beneath them. Inuyasha suggests that Hakudoushi was probably using them and Kagura to test it. Who KNOWS where the kiddo learned that this might happen - I wonder if he employed that dude with the MASSIVE earlobes again, because he's the only guy I can imagine cared to talk about something this... removed from the interests of living people.
Hakudoushi is still hanging out on the edge of his angled cliff edge with a few hovering saimyoushou when he looks around at the sound of a step behind him. Kagura, looking haggard and in a trauma-fueled rage, calls him a bastard. Hakudoushi mockingly asks her what's up, and she asks a question I think she probably already knows the answer to: whether he gives a flying shit if she dies. He drawls that he had heard it was a gateway the living can't pass, but he didn't know exactly what that meant. Kagura scoffs through clenched teeth and as she slashes her fan at him, demands that the brat not fuck around with her.
Hakudoushi's eyes shift into his periphery in a glare at Kagura, and she doubles over, dropping her fan when she clutches her chest where her heart should be. She falls to her knees in speechless agony, while Hakudoushi asks sardonically if her heart hurts, his dismembered parts swirling and reforming in a little protective bubble. He informs Kagura that Naraku is squeezing her heart right now, as if she isn't duly familiar with that sensation and can't figure out what it is in the moment, the little boysplaining shit. He adds, conspicuously, that this is from wherever Naraku is, which seems to strike Kagura, most likely by how keen he is on claiming that he doesn't know Naraku's location, or wouldn't tell her.
Almost entirely reformed, Hakudoushi tells Kagura to remember that he and Naraku are connected, and she should think about that before she acts next time. She glowers at him as he adds that he's not someone the likes of her can kill. It only makes me very eager for the moment he IS killed, because it's no doubt going to be satisfying.
Though the exclamation to Kagome is set over an image of that fire-country smoking volcano, we see our protagonists are no longer in the smokey, barren area, and have moved to a flowery site next to a stream. Kagome confirms to Miroku and Sango, sitting next to a campfire they built, from where she and Inuyasha are seated by the bank of the stream, that there's no doubt about it. She recalls the light beaming through the open gateway and what she saw from the other side of it.
Well, at least it's not in question now.
Over a panel in which the massive skeleton of Inuyasha's father features heavily, Kagome concludes that SOMEWHERE in that world is indeed a Shikon shard. A little redundant, but fair, since Myouga pops back up on Inuyasha's shoulder to express his surprise that there really is a fragment in that place he insisted pretty hard couldn't have one. After identifying Myouga, Inuyasha squeezes the flea between his fingers, glaring and accusing the bastard of knowing about being turned to stone when Myouga asks in distress what he's doing. Myouga wails in response that he wouldn't have even gone with them if he'd known, and Inuyasha supposes that's true, but doesn't apologize, because fuck that old jerk, lol. Kagome hangs her head in the middle ground.
From fireside, Sango says that since they now know there's a Shikon shard over there, the excursion to the gateway wasn't a complete waste of time. Miroku agrees, and adds that Hakudoushi and Naraku are both living beings themselves, and can't pass the gateway any easier than the rest of them.
Good luck figuring out what that path was, because if there's one reason why that light from the gateway would turn intruders to stone, it's that rocks tell no tales.
Cut to smoke wafting across a night sky. Dead villagers lay in the burning wreckage of their town. One of the bandits that presumably set it one fire, on foot next to another mounted on a horse, complains that the village was awfully poor. Another one one the other side of the horseman whines that there's no rice or booze. I'd tell them to cry me a river, but that would probably put out his lovely flames. The other guy says this seems like a pointless kill, as if they aren't ALL pointless, and the horseman suggests they leave.
In the sky, a solid-looking pale cloud is approaching them, which the bandits notice with confusion. The cloud is made up of what look like a mass of odd pterosaur-like creatures, except with much smaller heads and beaks. The bandits think these might be birds, still hanging around in puzzlement. It was a bad idea. What they call "birds" are nearly man-sized and upon them in an instant, going straight for their necks, poking sharp beaks through their flesh to get at their screaming victims' blood. They suck the men dry of ALL their blood, practically MUMMIFYING them, as a curvaceous figure walks through the newest carnage advising the "birds" to not to fight because there are plenty of bodies to go around.
Anyway, Abi herself turns to the person identifying her in question, which is of course Naraku encased in one of his protective bubbles.
Ugh, the entitlement is real.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Well, at least it kind of makes some sense why the chain on the gate would just be a regular chain; it appears to be less about making it difficult for folks to get in so much as an extra little latch on the secondary source of death to anyone who manages to get around the first. This checkpoint on the border is REALLY dedicated to making sure you're a proper resident before you go inside, and you gotta hand it to them - at least Gozu and Mezu are providing some legitimate pathways to residence. That's certainly more than you can say for the checkpoints on MY country's southern border.
I am a little confused about what counts as this light hitting you. It certainly looks like ALL of the named characters, including Kagura, got a dose of this Medusa-radiation, and Kagome was able to look directly at the doorway in order to see the Shikon shard on the other side. Kagura in particular ended up on the ground where she was SURROUNDED by the stonified horde she brought with her, her feather turned to rock beneath her, but she didn't lose more than part of her sleeve. The best explanation I can come up with is that she was shielded by the long-boys flying in front of her, who were exposed directly to the light and turned completely to stone while she was still technically behind them and not being hit in full. Perhaps even the big chunks of them surrounding her still put her in their shadow so she wasn't completely bathed in it? But it's a very flimsy explanation, and convenient for all the characters very clearly getting an unhealthy dose of that light all throughout the first half of the chapter.
I'm not complaining too much - I like Kagura and want her to stick around, not least of all because I thought her confrontation with that little brat Hakudoushi was very badass of her and she continues to be a fun character to follow. Also, it reveals that Hakudoushi, being very much like Naraku, has clearly externalized his vulnerabilities, so Kagura's just serving a mini-version of her obviously hated master. Naraku doesn't want her around him in particular, but he still wants to use her in his service and considers her a useful pawn, at least for tiny Hakudoushi to play around with.
I don't know about Abi's character design. I kind of like her wild, feathered hair, but what's with those holed, incomplete gloves? Those wouldn't protect her from the sharp talons of her "birds", and they don't seem to serve much purpose beyond evoking the idea in a distant kind of way. It's just a strange design choice, and it would have been better if they'd been regular gloves. I couldn't say what RT was thinking with this, but it's kind of distracting in how it detracts from the rest of her appearance.
I swear, her character design has been running out of steam pretty badly as of late.
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