I'm on my final fragment too - the last fragment of my sanity. Over the past week I suffered a somewhat painful sinus infection that gave me some severe sinus headaches, so I had a lot of difficulty actually focusing on anything for too long. I'd already been feeling pretty useless, because I've been struggling to actually GO to my chapter DSA meetings, due to a number of things cropping up every time there's been one on the calendar, not the least of them various sicknesses I don't want to spread. My actions lately have been relegated to the phone and internet, which just highlights to me how small and insignificant my voice really is in the grand scheme of things, and that in turn throws me into a fresh bout of stress and despair.
No wonder a new ailment pops up every week. My body can't take the unraveling of my mind.
Naraku says in absolute certainty that Inuyasha's Tessaiga cannot cut him again, but Inuyasha is disentangling himself from the horns and spikes of Housenki, asserting that this fight isn't over yet, so he doesn't know WHAT Naraku's on about. He doesn't protest, though, when another branching tentacle reaches behind him into the crater in Houseki's body, surrounding the Shikon shard there with little flanges to pick it out. It's Kagome's turn to wear the Captain Obvious hat, because she shouts from atop her bone-bird that Naraku is trying to take the fragment.
Still, it took this alarming shout for Kirara's riders to wake to the alarm, and Sango responds by throwing her Hiraikotsu and severing the tentacle before it can return to the main body. Kagome affirms that the tentacle has been sliced, as if she's the only one with working EYES, before Miroku takes the mantle of the expositor to state that Naraku can be cut when he's OUTSIDE the barrier. I mean, why else would he even HAVE a barrier, dude?
Anyway, the stump of tentacle still lodged in Housenki starts gushing some nasty, bubbling shit that is definitely NOT blood.
I think Naraku might be the ONLY person on the face of the planet who could actually benefit from crunchy claims about detoxifying shit.
So fast it can only be made out as a blur of motion, another of Naraku's tentacles strikes Inuyasha straight off of Housenki's head, slicing him up a little as well. Then it branches into flanges again and finishes its job delicately picking the Shikon fragment out from between the diamond spears. Naraku chuckles that he finally has the last of the Shikon shards, Inuyasha's whole group, including him, gaping over the phrase like it's unexpected or something. I thought we already knew this?
I guess Inuyasha was still hovering in midair for the last couple of seconds, because that's where he is when Housenki comes barrelling at him like an oncoming train.
At first I thought it was Housenki himself that threw himself at Inuyasha, still single-mindedly targeting the youth as an enemy, but from the angle of the crash depicted here, and Naraku's cold comment that he has no more use for Housenki immediately after, I think Naraku must have flung him instead.
Miroku yanks the beads off his Kazaana hand, threatening not to let Naraku get away, Sango casting him an irritated look over her shoulder as she says his name in warning, because SHE at least knows where this is going. Naraku scoffs, holding up a familiar little orb-like nest, which immediately starts spawning a whole shit-ton of giant wasps.
Despite how obvious this course of events was, Miroku identifies the Saimyoushou with a dumbfounded gape, while Sango tells him in no uncertain terms NOT to use the Kazaana. Isn't he supposed to be the SMART one? I know I've asked this question before, but he just keeps being dumb, so I really can't help repeating myself.
Naraku invites Miroku to choose the relatively quick death of taking in the Saimyoushou's poison, or the slower one of wandering around this graveyard until... well, Naraku doesn't say starvation, but that's the implication. The perpetually shocked group stares up at Naraku with alarm, Miroku asking what he means. I imagine Naraku being condescendingly patient while he explains that the river of blood that brought them all here has disappeared, so there's no avenue through which the Inuyasha crew can return to the living world.
From where he's been deposited in his father's remains with Housenki's skull lying next to him, Inuyasha gapes. From Kagome's shoulder, Myouga reminds them that he TOLD them they might not be able to make it back, and she gives him a horrified look from her periphery. I guess it pays to listen to your elders... SOMETIMES. Miroku, in a defiant rage, yells at Naraku that that path back should be closed for HIM as well, as if it couldn't possibly have occurred to him that Naraku has made other arrangements. Because that's what he DOES. Naraku just scoffs smugly again, confident that he alone can return.
Inuyasha uses Tessaiga as a crutch to push himself back to his feet, not liking at ALL how smug and relaxed Naraku is looking.
He spies a glitter in the distance, which quickly expands into a blast that smashes into his barrier, much to the Inuyasha gang's further surprise. I don't think they'll ever have a moment to recover from their alarm, especially considering the next panel.
Family reunion. Take two. Hope it goes better than the last time we were here.
The perpetually shocked gang is, big surprise, gaping at the sudden appearance of Sesshoumaru. Inuyasha even lets out a little half-finished noise of question, peering up at his brother from their father's skeleton. Naraku is speechless too, but in the wary, uncomfortable sort of way. As he wonders how Sesshoumaru GOT here in the first place, sweatdropping, he scoffs and asks whether big brother came to rescue his hapless younger sibling, labeling this presumed purpose as "kind". It's a very wooden joke. And I should know, knowing how many of those I've made on this blog over the years.
Sesshoumaru doesn't answer - he's looking up at his father's skeleton with something akin to deference. Inuyasha is asking himself what the FUCK Sesshoumaru is doing here, the companion of Naraku's wonderings, when Sesshoumaru darts from the air straight into Inuyasha's face.
Man, what the shit was that for???
Kagome gasps from her perch, and a cry of Inuyasha's name issues from Kirara's back. Inuyasha groans in frustration and pain, opening one eye to glare at Sesshoumaru. As a guy who has already had ENOUGH shit kicked out of him during this fight, he did not need this, and it shows.
His crew unanimously decided to descend to his aid, Kagome yelling his name and Sango and Miroku giving Sesshoumaru a wary look. Inuyasha at last finds the words to ask out loud what his bastard of a brother thinks he's doing, and Sesshoumaru immediately responds with a snide reprimand for his failure of a half-breed kid brother damaging their father's grave. He's just jealous that Inuyasha actually has a purpose for being in this story at this point.
Sesshoumaru is already turned halfway back to the hole in his father's rib cage and a swift exit. In no time, he's facing Naraku in the sky again, Toukijin drawn, calling Naraku scum. He's got a mean name for everyone. Naraku just scoffs.
Inuyasha's cursing again, as Jaken, who was apparently left behind in the dog-daddy's remains, says Sesshoumaru's name in a whimper. From his skull's vantage point, Housenki looks hard at Inuyasha, or at least, I imagine him to do that. It's kind of hard to tell. For the first time in a while, he speaks, calling to Inuyasha, addressing him as "kid". Kagome and Inuyasha look over their shoulders at him, with apprehension and irritation, respectively.
By and large I feel like you can bet that if Inuyasha is standing, he's fighting. There are very few exceptions to this rule.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's not that I didn't LIKE this chapter, on a surface-level, comfortable sort of way. This story has been going on long enough that the sheer inertia of my initial enjoyment is enough to carry me through the rest of it, even if the repetition is starting to get to me.
Because we've been here before. Our protagonists being manipulated into fighting someone they don't have to by Naraku, not being able to get through Naraku's barrier, Sesshoumaru showing up out of seemingly nowhere (from the protag point of view anyway) to save the day, we've seen all of it in some combination in the past. Even the setting is recycled, so there's not a lot that's new here. The most frustrating part of the chapter was Miroku, YET AGAIN, being unable to use his Kazaana due to the presence of Saimyoushou, making him effectively useless once more. In fact, it's only Sango that has so far been able to put up any kind of resistance, and that was more in defensive rather than offensive maneuvers.
The narrative itself seems to prevent the rest of the group's PARTICIPATION in the conflict at all, and I think that may be the very center of what's been bothering me about this arc. A majority of the team has to sit back and WATCH the action, offering commentary and worried screams, little more than an in-universe audience for a play. One of the things I've always LOVED about the Inuyasha team is how well it gels, how their different abilities and skills have played off each other in the past, and how their different personalities have helped or hindered that. And it's not any more new for a majority of the team to be shunted off to one side while one or two characters fight, but here it seems especially egregious because none of the other characters can jump and leap or even fly like Inuyasha can, so they just have to stay suspended in one spot in the air like that to avoid doing something that might cause them to plummet to their mortal deaths. But as the reader from beyond the fourth wall, this is VERY boring to read about, and irritating, because it feels like Inuyasha could have come here all by himself and it would have made no difference in the story at all.
All of this culminates In Sesshoumaru's appearance, and makes it seem like the only reason HE has to be here is because RT was committed to making most Inuyasha's group impotent in this battle, but needed a deus ex machina to help everyone out of the situation. Up pops our favorite racist pretty boy to not only provide a distraction for the villain for a little while, but also open up a path of escape for everyone afterward! It gives the unfavorable impression that RT keeps him around as a get-out-of-jail-free card for those times when she needs someone that much stronger than Inuyasha's crew, because his bland-ass character sure as hell doesn't have any personal reasons for being invested in ANY of this.
Look, guys, I love Sesshoumaru just as much as any Inuyasha fangirl. In my youth I had a pretty big crush on the guy. But come on, we have to face the facts. He's a tool, both in the literary sense and the colloquial.
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