Inuyasha Manga: 305 The Discarded Arrow

Maybe it just couldn't be found. I imagine that with projectiles like arrows, you try to collect as many of them as possible after shooting them, but sometimes they're bound to get away from you. Especially when you're actually targeting an enemy, there might be complications in the retrieval of your ammo, in particular if you didn't manage to kill your enemy or there are many enemies that might target you in turn if you get too close. I mean, in this comic, there isn't a lot of room dedicated to practice shots. Kagome could tell you that one for free.

Damn, they just DESTROYED that pass. Ain't nobody getting over that thing now.

Hakudoushi tells Inuyasha and crew to just sit back and watch as the humans around them get turned into birdfeed, one of the cowering migrants behind them letting out a fearful noise. Inuyasha is in no way about to give up, though, and he scoffs at Hakudoushi's measly barrier as a red tint starts clouding into Tessaiga. He declares that he'll just cut right through it while he swings down, sending a new Kaze no Kizu at the bubble in the sky. It bends and twists around the barrier, Shippou identifying that barrier-cutting red Tessaiga that we all totally remember, and Kagome wonders aloud if it worked or not. 

The visual noise of Inuyasha's attack clears to reveal...

Of COURSE it is. Heaven forbid that these attacks aren't completely defunct by the time they would really come in handy.

I seem to be the only one who isn't surprised here, though. Inuyasha trails an unfinished question in disbelief, Sango stutters her shock, and Miroku appears completely flabbergasted that even Red Tessaiga couldn't pop the bubble. I can't be too hard on them, though. I have read this exact event four times now, so I have the benefit of foresight, hindsight, AND disillusionment. 

Kagura is less shocked, but still looking a tad disappointed that even Inuyasha couldn't cut Hakudoushi, silently cursing in her frustration as she hovers on her feather outside the barrier. She turns a nasty glower on Hakudoushi and wonders just what it will take to kill this brat. As is tradition with most insufferable little jerks - something EXTREMELY obvious.

Speaking of, something speeds through the air toward the barrier from behind! What could it beeeee?

Hakudoushi can't help but question just what that was. Just in case we were unclear about what just happened, while Shippou on her shoulder and Miroku in the background gape in continued shock, Kagome exclaims that the barrier has been popped. Inuyasha grunts and jumps into action, sending Hakudoushi another Kaze no Kizu in short order. 

ENTEI DOWN! The horse has exited the hospital!

With a mix of confidence and lingering shock, Miroku declares Hakudoushi GOT, with Kagome and Shippou staring up at the carnage with open mouths. Hakudoushi's head is all that remains of him intact, and it groans in agony before yelling at the nearby Kagura to pull him up. She's nothing if not prompt, because Inuyasha is soon shielding his face from the updraft she creates as she grabs Hakudoushi's head and rockets up on the wind, out of range. Sango observes that they got away, and Miroku says only Entei died. A little victory, but a victory nonetheless. 

Meanwhile, Kagome is wondering what the thing that broke Hakudoushi's barrier was, and she seems do have an idea, though is reluctant to consider it. She turns to Inuyasha, who's staring up at the cliff-face where something is sticking out of the rock. He jumps up to examine it more closely, identifying it as an arrow before twisting to look over his shoulder toward where it must have come from, but he sees no one there. 

Indeed, it appears that the figure on horseback and their child attendant have already headed off down the road.

Enjoy that advantage of anonymity and a presumed death while you can, lady.

Narrow sky transition panel to a remote tree-covered mountain, on the side of which is perched a lone building on a rock outcrop. Kagura is inside, sitting against the door as she watches the pieces of Hakudoushi swirl around in a new barrier. He's mentally cursing whoever the fuck broke his barrier while his disparate parts knit back together. Kagura is merely sour about what a tough little brat he is. Soon, his torso begins to re-form, and Kagura notices something on his back that causes her some surprise. 

Though I suppose it's technically something under that familiar scar on his back - she at first wonders if her eyes deceived her for a moment, but her certainty only solidifies when she thinks that though there was the sound of a heartbeat coming from him, the inside of his chest was actually empty. She staggers to her feet, his almost whole body still curled within his bubble, as she concludes that his heart is actually elsewhere. 

Back at the absolutely ruined pass, Inuyasha's whole group is standing in front of him, examining the arrow he's retrieved from the cliff above. Kagome in particular looks crestfallen at it while they acknowledge that the arrow broke Hakudoushi's barrier where Inuyasha's Red Tessaiga couldn't. We're still utterly flabbergasted that Red Tessaiga has been rendered useless, I guess. That wasn't predictable at all. Miroku, Sango and Shippou also appear to be drawing a certain conclusion of where the arrow must have come from if it could do that. Inuyasha hangs his head in moody contemplation. 

No disguise can hide it.

Except Inuyasha doesn't think so - in fact, he states outright that it's NOT her, much to his friends' collective surprise. Miroku points out that none of them SAID anything about it being Kikyou, but Inuyasha bets that they were all pretty much thinking it. I mean, it is the OBVIOUS conclusion to come to, after all. As Kagome looks on with concern, Inuyasha admits that he was thinking it too, at first, but he says there's none of Kikyou's scent on the arrow he's holding at all. It's some other kind of scent, one he's smelled before, but not Kikyou's. 

Sango asks if it's not someone they know, just before Miroku has decided to chip in that the power he felt at the time when the arrow was fired didn't feel as strong as Kikyou's to him either, as though Inuyasha's certainty gave him the "courage" to doubt it was Kikyou too. Joke's on you guys, then. Kagome is looking real melancholy as she wonders whose arrow it could have been that saved Inuyasha, then.

A few migrants come forward to suggest that it was Hijiri-sama's divine protection, and oh yeah, these guys exist! Kagome looks over her shoulder, appearing sadder than ever while she ponders this Hijiri person, which just goes to show that she is not buying a SINGLE BIT of this "not Kikyou" narrative RT is trying to spin. Miroku meanwhile urges everyone to hurry on to Hijiri-sama's town in order to intercept the large flock of vampire monsters headed over there, no doubt suddenly reminded of this by the interjection of the migrants. 

Elsewhere, the "mysterious" Hijiri is galloping on their horse, their little helper child flying beside them at top speed, telling them that they've almost reached the town.

"... I mean, we are PRETTY late, what with stopping to help out your ex-lover or whatever."

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I actually CHEERED when Entei bit it. That horse was overly large and it made Hakudoushi look even weirder than he already does, like a little fly on this massive creature's hide. It wasn't exactly intimidating, so I think Hakudoushi's image could only improve now that Entei is out of the picture.

But otherwise I'm not much of a fan of how RT is trying to lead me in this one. She's attempting to play off Red Tessaiga's impotence as some sort of shocking development, as opposed to the inevitable power-creep it is. I think she might have shot herself in the foot, too, because while this is a legitimate setback to Inuyasha's race to catch up to Naraku in power in order to be able to defeat him in the long run, it also sets a precedent. A more critical look seems to indicate a pattern of seeking out increasingly oddly-specified tools and tricks to shortcut his way to being on equal footing power-wise. That's going to be a real big problem later on, and cause some ridiculous twisting/justification to get it set on the right track again. I'm sure anyone who's read this one before too can see what I'm talking about, but suffice it to say for now, Red Tessaiga represents the beginning of a long and frustrating trend. 

Also, the weak-ass reasons that Inuyasha and Miroku have for NOT believing that this arrow came from Kikyou are just kind of insulting. We already know that Naraku's scent has been disguised before with a lot of flowers and water, and that guy is stank-as-hell. Also, a reduction in power is EASILY explained by injuries/illness due to falling in that poison river. I feel like RT realizes her audience has already figured out this is Kikyou, especially since it LOOKS like Kikyou under the bee-keeper getup, but she's really trying to preserve whatever surprise reveal she had planned anyway. She needs to cut her losses with this one, because the way she set this up was not subtle, and it's honestly embarrassing that she's over here insisting there are reasons for the characters not to believe it's Kikyou. 

Girl. Come on.

YuYu Hakusho Manga: 005 Her First Christmas!

Oops, I'm a few months late on this one, it seems. Just try to ignore that spring is in full swing right now, okay? I mean, the sun is coming up sooner and sooner, my seedlings are in their planters, and the birds are waking me up with all their chirping in the morning, but we can pretend right? I'll put on some carols and look at pictures of Santa Claus, and try to imagine snow on the increasingly dry landscape outside. The fact that I don't have to put on a hundred layers still kind of breaks the immersion for me, unfortunately. 

I feel like being a guide to the afterlife would make religion... unnecessary.

Botan doesn't answer, of course, but mostly because she suddenly tenses up from what she identifies as a spirit energy that is not at ALL Christmasy. Yusuke repeats the phrase "spirit energy" back to her as a question, so she explains that it's the aura that souls give out when they can't rest in peace, and it's one of the more difficult aspects of her job as a "Grim Reaper", because it's made up of resolving the spirit's conflicts so they can get off to Heaven. Yeah, human conflict? It turns out that's not easy to work through. Go figure.

Botan identifies the spirit as a depressed-looking young lady, in a jacket over a frilly shirt with a high collar accented by some sort of brooch. Yusuke lounges in the air behind Botan, looking curious but not overly invested, but Botan is immediately put-off; she says this one is a "fixated" ghost, meaning she is fixed in a certain spot by strong emotions, and those tend to be SUPER stubborn. She is, indeed, seated on the very edge of a bench in a long pleated skirt, and she's looking around at the people bustling around her, but doesn't appear to be ready to move. 

She looks like she perceives Botan just as Botan swoops in on her oar.

Oh, it looks like she ditched the oar, never mind.

Botan lays it on real thick with a big kitty grin and by pointing to her own face with both hands, introducing herself as a guide to the underworld, and saying that she's pleased to meet the spirit. Yusuke looks disgusted with this display and tells her to stop with the chipper intro already. The spirit says she knows who Botan is and why she's there, since a couple of other guides tried. She already told those others that she's waiting here on this bench for someone, so she doesn't really want to leave, thanks. 

Botan begins to inform her about her, *ahem*, condition, but the girl cuts her off to tell her that she KNOWS, but she's wanting to wait there all the same. Yusuke also takes on a kitty-face, but a significantly more mischievous one, and raises a thumb to ask if whoever she's waiting for is the Tarzan to her Jane. The note under this panel explains that this thumbs-up gesture is used when referring to someone's boyfriend, so I guess that makes sense, but that face Yusuke is using makes me think there's a little more to the euphemism than that. Feel free to comment if you've got a little more info!

While Botan tells Yusuke he's NO Mr. Sensitive, the girl tells them that the person she's waiting for is named Kenji, over a tinted panel with a boy giving a peace sign. The girl ghost says that they agreed to meet at this spot last year to spend Christmas together, but she fell REALLY ill on the day. She wanted to call him, but she didn't have much of a chance, seeing as she went into a coma and never woke up again. Botan wears a concerned expression as she reiterates the meaning of this - that the girl's desire to see Kenji intensified in her death and bound her to the place they were to meet. The girl says she STOOD HIM UP WITH NO EXPLANATION and wanted to apologize. 

... I guess she COULD conceivably argue that she literally ghosted him.  

Hang on, gotta go to pun jail for a sec.

Botan makes a sad noise, but Yusuke is incredulous. He asks her who would POSSIBLY expect an apology for getting sick and dying, telling her to let it go. I agree with him, because who'd even WANT to apologize to that kind of person anyway? The girl says he might be right, but she's content to wait anyway, and she likes sitting here, watching the people bustle by, daydreaming. 

I mean, it's a toss-up. If the trauma around this place and day are too much to handle right now...

Sweatdropping, Yusuke turns to Botan and asks if this is possible, and Botan says Christmas isn't her department, so she doesn't really know. There's a Christmas DEPARTMENT? And Botan, with all her gushing about the warm-fuzzies of the season, doesn't get to be a part of it??? INJUSTICE. Over a clock which shows the time as a quarter to twelve, Botan asks politely what time the girl and her beau were planning to meet last year, and the answer is noon. Botan advises the girl to take it as a sign that it's time to move on if he doesn't show, because it would do her no good to hang out here for the rest of eternity. The girl responds with silence.

The silence stretches to the next panel, which shows the clock at 1:30 now, and either Yusuke or Botan comments on that fact. Botan shrugs and says she really doesn't think the dude is coming. Yusuke is sitting next to the girl on the bench now, man-spreading for maximum comfort during the long wait, no doubt. The girl says that Kenji was usually a half hour or more late as if this is an explanation, prompting Yusuke to grimace and remark with disbelief that anyone who made him wait more than fifteen minutes got their lights put out. Seems like a disproportionate response, Yusuke, but okay. 

The girl admits hesitantly that she LOVES the moment he shows up at last, saying he's sorry he's late, as he's trotting toward her. Dude is sounding more and more like a major flake the more she tells us about him, huh? Yusuke jabs at his own forehead and says he just doesn't get it, and he's not the only one. I am just flabbergasted. 

After a while more watching the crowd, the girl recognizes a figure glancing over toward her among the throngs of people. All three of them stare, identifying the boy that's milling around the place as Kenji in shock. Yusuke turns toward Botan again, slowly beginning to voice what this means, before Botan interrupts him to excitedly declare that God granted the girl's wish. Kenji looks again in the girl's direction and starts heading straight over. 

Uh, can he actually SEE her...?

... Guess not. 

Kenji leans a knee on the bench right next to our original girl to talk to the flesh-and-blood one over the backs of the benches, apologizing again and giving the excuse that he overslept. What, slept until NOON, dude? I don't buy it. The other girl sits with her arms crossed and her back to him, informing him she's been there for half-an-hour and that she was about to take off. She should do that anyway, this guy is the flakiest MF in the universe. Get you a man who don't suck.

Kenji clams up for a second, looking off to the side contemplatively, then tells the other girl that she reminded him of something. They're facing each other now, her asking him what it was, though she still looks pretty peeved. He confesses that he used to go out with a girl who would wait for HOURS for him without complaining. Kenji says with absolutely NO remorse that he bet a buddy last year that this chick would wait for him at this very spot for FIVE HOURS, but the little prissy-pants (his words, not mine) didn't show and he lost 10,000 Yen. Oh, the injustice of it all. The other girl asks what happened to this first girl, and Kenji says he just doesn't know, and that they haven't talked since. 

How... how do you NOT KNOW? You didn't hear about her death through the grapevine AT ALL??? 

Anyway, Kenji says she was nothing special anyway, just someone to kill time with. Or deliberately kill HER time, anyway. Meanwhile, Yusuke is once again trying to punch the shit out of a corporeal target with incorporeal fists - he's pretty angry at this dude. Kenji says he's got another like her RIGHT NOW, and somehow this other girl and he laugh about this notion, despite the CLEAR INSULT this is on her. Just totally fails to realize that he's calling her nothing special to kill time with. She seems none too bright, unfortunately. 

Veins popping in rage, Yusuke asks Botan how he can clobber this clown, but she says he's not going to be able to do that in his current state. The original girl is sitting quietly, tears forming in her eyes. Trembling, she stutters that she would have waited those five hours if she hadn't gotten sick, and that she's stupid that way, a humorless laugh escaping her. The more painful irony being that she ended up waiting A LOT more than five hours because she got sick. She buries her face in her hands, Botan kneeling in front of her to try and persuade her not to cry, that it's better knowing all this than continuing to wait. Yusuke is still staring off in the direction Kenji and his new mark fucked off.

That's not unusual for you, though, kiddo.

Yusuke turns to the girl with his teeth still clenched in his not-at-all contained fury and yells at her to forget Kenji and erase him from her memory, never giving him another thought again for eternity. Recoiling, she meekly tries to tell him that she can't just DO that, but Yusuke growls in rage that "can't" means "won't" and she just "won't" if she keeps on sitting there on the bench like that. He seizes her by the back of her collar and DRAGS her off her seat of an entire year, ignoring Botan's impotent protests, and the more insistent ones from the girl, declaring that there's only one way to forget that good-for-nothing POS, and that's them going to party. 

Well, you know what they say. You've got to fight. For your right.

To party.

After all that crazy fun, Yusuke walks ahead of the girl, who staggers a bit, saying she can barely walk anymore. Why not just fly, since you're a ghost and all? Anyway, she exclaims that was the most fun she'd ever had in her life, if you'll pardon the inaccurate expression. Yusuke says it's too bad they couldn't have scored some beer, but the girl says she's not complaining, smiling wide. Pointing at her, Yusuke comments on this smile, and casually states that she's really cute when she does that. She blushes and covers her mouth in embarrassment, and Yusuke asks what's wrong, insisting he meant what he said. As she bashfully tucks in her chin, he goads her into looking at him, and when that doesn't work, he starts making his faces at her to try and get her to give him another smile. She relents and laughs that he's a big goof. The girl recalls in the moment thinking about it that Kenji never told her she looked cute, and Yusuke says it's Kenji's loss. It's all painfully adorable.

Yusuke comments on how hard it is to see beautiful things like this from a stupid street bench, and after a pause, she agrees. Referring to the city lights below, Yusuke suggests that the guy she'd waited a year for was down there somewhere, and she should give him a piece of her mind. She places a hand on her chest as she takes a short breath... then yells out over the city her thanks to Kenji for everything, and her goodbye wish that he'll be happy. What a cinnamon roll! I could eat her up!

Yusuke is literally turned on his head by this, and questions these well-wishes of hers, suggesting that she tell him to go to Hell, at the very least. She refuses, because, in her mind, if he hadn't done what he'd done, she never would have met Yusuke and had the best day of her... not-life is left off the end of the sentence, of course. Yusuke gives her a curious look, rendered mostly speechless. 

The next panel shows that Botan has rejoined them, and the girl is sitting right behind her on the flying oar. Botan asks if the girl is ready to go, who answers in the affirmative. Addressing Yusuke, Botan says she'll see the girl to the entrance of Heaven. He's standing astride a roof as he gives his blessing, so to speak, and offers the girl a parting haiku poem: "Don't let stupid jerks rag you around in life or the afterlife, okay?" He acknowledges that there's one extra syllable in there with consternation, before wishing her good luck. While the girl agrees to this sentiment with some sadness, Botan nervously laughs that Yusuke makes quite the point. 

The girl looks even more melancholy when she thanks Yusuke for everything, and she means EVERYTHING. No one has ever pushed her into actually enjoying herself before, I guess. Yusuke reminds her that he told her she's at her best when she smiles, and tries to persuade her to do so again, putting one of his shoes on his head to act like a goofball again. Nevertheless, her eyes are filled with tears.

Careful, Yusuke, your tough-guy persona is suffering. 

After the girl disappears in a flash of light in the sky, Yusuke's expression turns to a strange mix of quizzical and serious, and he makes a trailing comment hinting that he's got some new plans to be getting on with. 

Cut to what looks like an apartment building, where Kenji and the other girl he met at the bench are lounging on a sofa, the latter draped across the former's lap while he holds a phone to his ear. He says it's almost time to go see if his girl is still waiting for him, betting he wins this year with a laugh. Ah, I guess he WASN'T referring to the other girl hanging out with him when he said he has another just like our original girl - he must have literally meant that he was stringing another random chick along that we've never seen. What is WITH this guy???

Kenji is confused when he hears a click and a tone on the phone he was speaking into, then shocked when a new menacing voice floats through it giggling, asking how he can dare make a game of loyalty and trust. Shrieking, Kenji drops the phone on the floor, upsetting the position of the girl over her lap so she has to sit up in alarm as he draws his feet up to crouch on the sofa. The hand that was holding the phone is trembling, and he can't help but ask who THAT was. 

Another yell as knocking and tapping starts surrounding them, then more maniacal giggling. Kenji demands, unconvincingly, that whoever is doing this stop fooling around, but the voice says it's really just begun. Kenji starts trying to guess who the voice/strange happenings belong to, listing off a list of female names. The girl next to him suddenly questions just how many others he's been seeing and deceiving in this way, as if it's only JUST occurred to her that this might be problematic behavior. But Kenji is too busy fleeing to the door to try and get out of there to answer. It's stuck at first, but just as it opens and he can express a little relief that he's able to escape...

I mean why SHOULDN'T Kenji get a little Ebenezer Scrooge treatment? 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It was cute on its face, and it was unmistakably a good deed to help this girl have a good time to allow her to let go of her attachment to a very unworthy fellow. As a woman who has experienced the pain of being led on and made a fool of by a couple of guys back in her day, this one DID tickle my vicarious revenge bone a little. But honestly, ANY situation in which a bully buddies up to you to humiliate you in some way is applicable here - doesn't have to be in a romantic way. If only they would all get the shit frightened out of them by ghosts for treating the pain of others as entertainment. 

I did cringe a LITTLE when Yusuke commented on the girl's cute smile and tried to coax another from her. This is a peeve for a lot of women, including myself, because it indicates a certain level of entitlement to women performing pleasantries for them. BUT, in this situation, she was already really happy, smiled because of that, and only stopped because she was bashful over Yusuke's comment and became self-conscious, so he was just encouraging her to go ahead and express her joy in the moment. My cringe was really more of a reflex, and when I had a thought about it, I was relieved to be able to honestly conclude that it was about as unproblematic as any manifestation of this could get.

Kenji not knowing WHAT happened to our girl is still mystifying to me, though. I realize they're in a city, and there probably isn't a lot of opportunity to hear about these things without social media around yet, but really? Not one INKLING that something was up? Did he not have ANY friends or acquaintances in common with her that he could potentially hear the news of her death through? At the very least he should have had SOME curiosity about why this girl who so obediently waited hours at a time for him suddenly up and disappeared without a trace. I'm almost tempted to think that he DID know and he didn't want to seem like even MORE of an unfeeling asshole to his legit squeeze, in case disrespect for the dead was a hard line for her, but I think that might have been communicated in some way in the text. 

In any case, the only REAL problem I have with this chapter is that we just... never learn the name of our girl, but we learn the name of her tormentor pretty early on. We almost didn't learn the name of the little boy in the last chapter either, so I feel like this might be an emerging pattern with this comic, and a somewhat annoying one to me. It's not inherently bad not to name one-offs that won't be coming back, but it DOES make my job as recapper and analyst a little more difficult.