Royalty is a crappy concept to begin with, but divine right with the added ability to control blood-sucking pterodactyls? That's a true menace. It's bad enough when people with an inflated sense of their own importance are given control of the finances and well-being of entire empires. Those guys ALREADY dole out some serious injustices based mostly on whim. Nobody needs a jerkwad feeding their population to a hungry pets too.
Come to think of it, that must have happened at least a couple of times in actual human history, which just makes me sad.
I swear, the Inuyasha group comes across a village that has been wiped out in some fucked-up way every other chapter now. This is wildly unsustainable.
As Inuyasha and his friends stare at this scene with varying degrees of alarm and sadness, Inuyasha reiterates that this is not the first time they've seen this, and Kagome gasps that this is cruel. More like exceedingly WEIRD - my first thought upon finding a bunch of people spontaneously mummified despite being fully exposed to normal decomposition conditions doesn't suggest malice so much as a freak localized event. But, then again, I don't live in a world with an abundance of demonic forces. At least, none that manifest in this manner.
Miroku and Sango kneel next to one of the bodies and Miroku confirms it's drained of all blood, just as they all expected. Sango suggests that this is the work of youkai, and Inuyasha agrees, saying that some nasty fucking thing has gone absolutely bonkers while they were dicking around in the fire country. What a shame they missed the new Naraku puppet dancing onto the stage.
Narrow blank transition panel. We cut to that "nasty thing" Inuyasha was referring to: Princess Abi sitting on a small outcrop of rock jutting out from a wider gentle cliff side, right next to a gaping cave. She's addressing Naraku, who hovers out in front of her in his bubble, barely bothering to confirm his name before she asks what's in it for her if she helps him with her particular powers. Naraku in turn asks her what she's using her "birds" to collect massive amounts of human blood for.
Cue the insensitive "yo mama" jokes.
Naraku just asserts that this mother of Abi's is dying, but Abi counters with a statement that her mother is NOT dying. She just ate a poisonous youkai and diluting the poison with human blood. Uh, not how that works, but sure. Naraku, in his infinite arrogance, encourages Abi to continue collecting all that human blood so Mommy Dearest can get well soon, and promises to make it possible for her to gather even more blood if she helps him out, making it so no one else can get in the way of this important work.
As he says so, a branched tendril folds out from his back and he slashes in her direction with it, his expression blank. Abi catches what looks like a long pole as it's about to pass over her head.
Uhhh, bro? You still haven't mentioned HOW she's supposed to help you out with her powers?
Nah, he just fucks off, disappearing into the sky with a trail of weird flesh/miasma in his wake. Abi scoffs that he's a fishy guy, staring into the sky after him, when her mother suggests that they can use him. Abi looks over her shoulder at the cave, from which her mother croaks that Naraku has a powerful youki, but he's a hanyou. Ah, the root of like 90% of the mistakes made concerning this guy. Abi says she noticed the hanyou thing, and her mother tells her it's not a problem, since they can just suck him dry if he makes any funny moves. Ew, the innuendo there is giving me the ick. Abi agrees, but she resolves to get all the blood she can first. Yeah, why worry about what this suspicious guy benefits from you taking this precise course of action, especially when he so carefully avoided saying so?
Cut to a village that is NOT decimated for a change! Hooray! We zero in on a particular house in which people are presumably discussing the nearby villages having been attacked by youkai, and if their village is likely to be next on the list.
So, Miroku would prefer to just LIE to them about the odds? That's politician shit, dude.
Miroku asks the men they're speaking to not to worry, since THEY'LL slay the youkai, and the men are practically overjoyed with the prospect of these teenage strangers killing the incoming horde for them, but no one criticizes MIROKU for inflating their hope in a situation literally NONE of them have faced before. Thankfully, he's still liable to get a Hiraikotsu to the back of his head when he suggests that the only payment for protecting the village is food, beds, and a couple of pretty girls. Sango gives him a chance to repeat this tasteless request, and he says it was a joke. Kagome flatly says that he doesn't have to say that shit out loud, and the village men finally begin to question if they should leave the safety of their village in the hands of these weirdos. Odd place to draw the line, guys.
Inuyasha's dog ears twitch at a screeching noise outside. He stands and states that they're here, Miroku agreeing, and the village men make nervous noises. Too late to rethink this whole teenage demon-vanquishing team deal.
Why do people keep calling these BIRDS? They look nothing like birds!
Whatever the fuck they are, Inuyasha scoffs that they REEK of human blood, and lets loose an all-time-classic Kaze no Kizu on the flock, tearing at least the first wave of them apart. As the tattered remains of them fall out of the sky, the Inuyasha crew can see a fresh wave on the way down, Kagome announcing the obvious fact that more are coming.
Suddenly, a glow starts to emit from the oncoming flock, and upon closer examination, it's clear that flames are flickering over the skin of the creatures. Shippou stutters that they're burning as they start landing on the VERY FLAMMABLE roofs of the village dwellings.
So much for staying inside and away from these monsters...
A group of non-flaming hot "birds" descend upon an old man and a little boy, the latter of which bawls in terror, before Inuyasha smacks the foremost creature with Tessaiga at the last moment. He comes pretty close to hitting the poor almost-victims as well, honestly. Sango rushes forward with Hiraikotsu raised, shouting that the villagers are being forced from their homes to be attacked, which... more DUH moments, but whatevz. She takes out several "birds" with a sweep of her giant boomerang. Another wave descends, and Miroku complains what a pain all this is as he rips his sealing beads off his right hand and points the Kazaana at the offending flying menace. And they say INUYASHA is unfairly annoyed when he has to help people, lol.
He vacuums up a few of the "birds" when another cloud of entirely different flying menace comes up behind the creatures in their support, but it's one they're all familiar with. Saimyoushou buzz for Miroku, identified in alarm by Kagome as she pauses in drawing her bow, and Shippou hangs off Miroku's shoulder to shrilly warn him that he's got to put his Kazaana away lest he be poisoned. Miroku is already groaning in frustration and wrapping the beads back around his hand.
Inuyasha gapes up at the sky in shock, faced now with the commander of this composite flying army.
I love that she gave the spear to one of her "birds" and it's awkwardly holding it in its beak like it has no idea what to do with it, lol!
Inuyasha asks who the hell she is like he's a stop-motion Barbie doll fighting over bathroom turf, suggesting that she's an agent of Naraku. I guess Abi tries to play dumb by parroting Naraku's name back at Inuyasha in the form of a question, so Inuyasha adds that the presence of the Saimyoushou are the best proof. Abi says she doesn't care about them, she didn't call them, and admits she has no idea wheat happened between the plucky band of adventurers below and Naraku, but she's a bit cross that they killed her "birds".
Just a bit cross.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Abi is turning out to be shockingly credulous and incurious. This could be chalked up to worry over her mother and the time-sensitive issue of getting her better making her a bit single-minded, but she seemed plenty relaxed when she was talking to Naraku earlier in the chapter. There's the implication with her multiple ellipses that she wants to remain tight-lipped due to distrust, but she shows Naraku all her cards anyway, corrects him to insist that her mother is getting better, and is a little too receptive to the idea that she can gather a ton more blood with his help. She asks virtually NO QUESTIONS before Naraku leaves her with a new weapon, not even when she comes across people who seem to know and hate Naraku. I would be just a LITTLE curious to know why there's a whole group of the buggers that seem to hate the guy I just teamed up with, but she just shows ZERO interest, even where her own alliances sit.
It doesn't even read as arrogance as much as just plain stupidity. She's absolutely spoiled for choice and hasn't even been successfully challenged in her efforts to collect blood yet. What POSSIBLE reason could she have for teaming up with Naraku at this point? It doesn't make any sense. At least the villagers were DESPERATE and it was believable that they would rely on a group of barely pubescent little nerds to help them out because they had no other choice. Abi is just going along with Naraku because... the plot demands it, I guess.
I'm pleased with how that strange mottled glove ended up useful at the end of the chapter and turned into talons, because I was quite perplexed by its purpose in her design in the last chapter, but everything else about her is one-dimensional and frustrating in its simplicity. Frankly, it should be HARDER for Naraku to convince potential allies to team up with him at this point; he should be struggling to convince people it's worth it, and it would have spruced up his evil shtick just a tad if his reputation of betrayal and manipulation were starting to catch up with him. One of the frustrations people have with Naraku is that he tends to use the same tricks over and over, and in the course of a 500+ chapter story, that starts to get repetitive, so it would have been somewhat refreshing for him to have to adapt as well.
But the gods forbid we see new challenges arise from Naraku's repeated bad faith. That would make things a little interesting, and we can't have that. No, just stick a cardboard cut-out of a character in there for Naraku to use and throw away like he always does, because RT couldn't be bothered to use her one of her more notable talents and make Abi a believable person. Seriously, was she sick when this arc started, because I can't think how else she would fail to work her characterization magic on a more interesting-looking character.
Disappointing.
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