Inuyasha Manga: 355 Using the Fragment

All I seem to have these days are fragments, of TIME anyway. My day is chopped into odd little pieces here and there to try and get tasks done, but they're never quite enough to complete to satisfaction. While it's not as bad as it COULD be, I've been struggling to keep up with things lately, because there are new things cropping up all the time that need to be fit into the schedule, and that takes little bites out of what's already allocated. Thankfully, most of those things cropping up are good and fun with new friends, but I'm going to need some chemical assistance before long just to be able to cram more action into less time. 

Not SO unlike our protagonist here. 

There is a Saimyoushou still hovering in the oni's stomach viewing Inuyasha from a distance, so that Naraku can get a view of what's going on in there. Having fully reconstituted his body again by this point, Naraku chuckles darkly about how Inuyasha's going to use the Shikon shard they have. Judging by the little smug smile he's wearing, he counted on this very thing. 

Kagome reluctantly holds the Shikon fragment in its little bottle out to Inuyasha from under his coat, saying his name warily. Inuyasha says a little silent prayer to it, asking it to PLEASE handle the remaining strength needed for their escape, and slaps the bottle to the side of Tessaiga, shattering it. The shard itself sticks to the sword and the steel pulses powerfully, causing Inuyasha's own body to reverberate too. 

Sango mumbles about Inuyasha putting the fragment onto TESSAIGA, and a hopeful Shippou pipes up about how it should make the sword powerful enough to cut out of the oni's stomach. But Kagome is still looking uncomfortable and unsure as she looks at Inuyasha. Maybe it's because THIS is how he looks:

Yeeeeaaaaah, something's not quite right here...

There's a cloudy, patchy effect over Inuyasha's hands gripping the sword, and he realizes that SOMETHING is flowing from Tessaiga into him. From her crouched position under the coat, Kagome adopts a horrified expression when she sees that the Shikon shard has darkened. 

Outside in his little bubble, Naraku chuckles again. He's aware that Inuyasha using the Shikon fragment means that it leaves Kagome's hands, and therefore it can't remain pure from her direct contact with it, succumbing instead to the evil atmosphere within the oni's stomach. Are digestive gases inherently evil, or is it JUST because they're in this evil oni? 

A combo for a straight-up bad time in this particular place. And it seems this has been noticed by the previously jubilant Shippou. He clings to Kagome, stuttering Inuyasha's name in fear, Kagome looking just as terrified as he is. 

Inuyasha's fangs lengthen, as well as his nails. 

A SLIGHT understatement. I would be spitting a string of at LEAST six curse words here.

Inuyasha sweats profusely with wasted effort, realizing that his body isn't obeying his commands, and that there's something up with his head too. He swings around to look at his friends, the terror of which become more prominent, Shippou stammering about him looking at them with his now monstrous face. He urges them to run away, though where they're supposed to run to, I couldn't hazard a single guess. 

Kagome jumps from under the protection of his coat and calls his name, running TOWARD him instead of away, against his advice. Shippou yells after her, but she ignores him, enduring the drips of acid from the ceiling that she can't quite do the same for, trying to shield her head with a raised arm. Her recklessness is only just beginning.

Bold move, even if it's just a choice between this and the acid as a method of death. 

Kagome holds onto Inuyasha tightly, sweating and her eyes screwed shut, silently begging him not to lose. Meanwhile, her ankles are sizzling in the pool of acid where she stands, Sango and Shippou calling out to her with concern. Inuyasha stands frozen with her arms around him, and as a point of light appears in the Shikon shard he'd slapped on Tessaiga, he seems to regain some of his control, at least enough to identify Kagome haltingly. 

That's an interesting new look you've got there, buddy. Like a rocker chick.

Kagomr looks up at him with a mixture of concern and pain, asking if he's okay. He turns in her arms, assuring her that he is indeed alright, but he needs her support a little longer. Arms now hooked up under his armpits and toward his shoulders from behind, she agrees, squeezing her eyes shut again and resting her cheek on his back. Once more, Tessaiga is encrusted in a jeweled shell as Inuyasha holds it outward, preparing for another swing. 

Outside, even the oni itself is looking down at its bulging stomach and grimacing at the light starting to emanate from it, and Naraku curses from within his floating bubble. He's clearly unhappy with the turn things have taken. Inuyasha lets off another volley of Kongoushouha, and the oni's stomach further inflates and glows with the white hot blast fired within. 

Even Taco Bell couldn't be more destructive. 

The oni's head has turned back to stone, and what would have been viscera raining down around the newly freed Inuyasha and Kagome is shards of rock. I hope none of those fall on their heads, because that might finish what the stomach acid started. Sango peeks from under Inuyasha's coat, noting that the acid has receded, Shippou stuttering in relief that they're saved. Miroku remains unconscious in between them. 

The puddle of acid Inuyasha and Kagome had been standing in has mostly disappeared, revealing their feet, all hatched over and mottled with burns, even while Kagome's remain in her shoes and socks. Kagome sighs in relief herself, but she appears feverish, still sweaty. Inuyasha spies the bubble barrier disappearing into the distant sky, and growls through his still elongated fangs and striped cheeks that Naraku fucking ran away AGAIN. Maybe Inuyasha can take some comfort in what it says that Naraku doesn't stick around to see if he can take on even the severely WEAKENED protagonists. 

In a rocky, desolate place, not unlike the one Inuyasha's group was just left in, Kanna is walking along with an escort of Saimyoushou buzzing around her. She pauses when a person in sandals and a long hem billowing around their ankles. 

Awkward switched homophones aside, I'm not sure the word "herd" fits here very well.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I appreciate how time has been respected in this particular chapter, and an emergency is truly treated as such. In the past, supposedly time-sensitive situations have been dragged out over an unrealistic period, and I felt like there was some time dilation going on so that it could be crammed with every possible interior and exterior reaction. Inuyasha is by no means the WORST offender in the over-bloated plot point department, to the point where what should take mere seconds seems to take an hour or more, but it HAS happened here. I'm just glad this isn't one of those instances, and things feel like they move along as quickly as they need to. 

The point about putting Inuyasha's group and the Shikon shard in a controlled atmosphere and separating Kagome from the fragment so it becomes corrupted easily are clever moves by Naraku, but I DO have questions about the apparatus. Did he FIND or CREATE the giant stone oni? If the former, what is the lore behind who or what is responsible for it being there? If the latter, did he use a similar method to the creation of the Rakan statues, the vague spell that Miroku mentioned? What makes the stone oni's stomach SO tough as to withstand volleys of diamond spears drilling into its lining? Without the setup necessary to really understand where this thing came from and why nothing unmodified by the Shikon shard can pierce it, the context for the cleverness is missing. The stone oni just kind of appeared in the story, just EXACTLY what Naraku required, no real effort needed. 

This is a perfect representation of the majority of the reason I'm so frustrated with Naraku right now, and I think others might feel the same. His plots have zero setup behind them anymore, and he basically has unlimited resources appear for them whenever necessary, so it doesn't seem to matter how many of them Inuyasha and company overcome. There's always going to be another one, at virtually NO cost to Naraku. They're not even wearing him down, just going through a string of meaningless trials over and over until at last the readership starts to wane and RT is told to wrap the thing up. 

There's a part of me that's a little surprised that Inuyasha's audience held out for as long as it did, because we're only really about two-thirds of the way through, and our protagonists are STILL being led around by the nose (LITERALLY) by a villain that doesn't seem CAPABLE of weakening in any meaningful way. Say what you want about Inuyasha fans, they really have an incredible amount of patience. 

YuYu Hakusho Manga: 055 The Secret of Devil Yo-Yos!!

Wait, have I been thrust back into the Yu-Gi-Oh manga? Granted, yo-yos aren't exactly a GAME with RULES, but they feel like something that a chapter of Yu-Gi-Oh might be written around. A big collecting entertainment fad in the '90s that recalls my childhood nostalgia and simultaneously leaves the comic in which it's featured SEVERELY dated? Meets all the requirements. I feel like the only thing that HASN'T come up in these stories is Pogs.

But let's face it, Pogs were acknowledged as lame even at the time. 

I wouldn't say pretending to suck hardcore is a "psychological" tactic. 

Grinning, Kuwabara admits he was outwitted, but the kick didn't kill him, so he reckons the kid isn't SO tough. Rinku just smiles back silently before sticking his hand into the drawstring pouch slung across his chest, saying he understands now why Kuwabara and the rest of the team were invited as guests to the tournament. Since Kuwabara withstood his direct attack, he promises to use more underhanded demonic tricks, holding up a small star-stamped disk he appears to have picked from the pouch. 

Is there any other kind? 

Kuwabara manifests an Aura Sword in both fists, crossing the blades and calling "batter up" as only a staunch baseball fan can. 

Rinku springs into the air, arms crossed until he flings one of them out with a cry of "shot", the yo-yos on all his fingers released. As they fly toward him, Kuwabara says splitting the toys apart should be a cinch, but then he appears to see something else that changes his attitude entirely. 

The most impressive part is how they don't look to be getting all tangled up. I can't play with ONE yo-yo without it tangling up with itself eventually. let alone one on each finger. Koto is also impressed, calling this a stylish move, describing it as a real good fake-out on Kuwabara's butt. Seems like most of this kid's moves require a bit of a fake-out.

Rinku walks the dog with a handful of yo-yos at once, casually asking what he considers his moronic opponent if he really thought he was just going to play around. I mean, you ARE a kid and your weapons ARE playthings... But the yo-yos spinning from his fingers tear up the ring floor as he explains that he sends his aura directly into the toys from his fingers and this allows him to control them all individually. To demonstrate, he throws his arms out and the yo-yos wriggle around on their strings, calling up the image of a coiled snake in the background again. 

Kuwabara recoils and has lost some of his cockiness in the face of this threat display. Rinku mocks that Kuwabara's dull old Aura Swords won't even be able to cut the string, and then extends his yo-yos' walk toward Kuwabara rapidly, who notices how they're digging up the very ground beneath them as they go. He's lucky they didn't do that to his flesh while making contact with him earlier, I reckon. 

Kuwabara's dodge buys him mere seconds before that swing around they do in the panel above comes back on him and whack him straight in the back and stomach at the same time, and it looks like they knock the wind out of him. From his spectator position at the edge of the ring, Zeru muses about how Rinku's powers work best through weapons, his yo-yos making up for his small size. Kurama is alarmed at how the toys go wherever Rinku wills, Hiei just kind of side-eyeing the action beside him. 

To Kuwabara's disbelief, the yo-yos start wrapping their strings around his wrists and ankles, and he is lifted off the ground at these points, angled to face his new puppet master. Koto announces just how she sees it, just before Rinku declares an "Around the World" trick. Kuwabara BARELY has a moment to express his alarm. 

Oof. If he wasn't so used to taking a beating from Yusuke to begin with, this MIGHT actually be fatal to him.

A many-eyed demon in the stands calls for blood, and another with NO eyes demands that Kuwabara be whipped around again. How does he know that's what's happening? Does he feel the vibrations/wind currents or something? Regardless of how this guy is perceiving the battle, he gets his wish, and Kuwabara is smacked into the floor of the ring again. On the sidelines, Hiei tells Kurama that he can't really say much for his coaching abilities, considering how his student is being laid the FUCK out right now. After an awkward pause, Kurama haltingly responds that he admits they haven't really seen much yet. Whatever THAT'S supposed to mean. 

Kuwabara is still getting dragged around, and STILL has the energy and vitality to complain while it's happening. He lifts his head from the ground, head, nose, and mouth bleeding, to threaten death upon the kid doing this to him. Rinku's smugness is dampened a bit when he acknowledges that Kuwabara is an awfully tough one to finish off, and this is just the first day of fighting. He muses that it's time to wrap this up. 

The ladies have only JUST entered the stadium at this point, Botan complaining that the tournament has already started, and Atsuko noting that the crowd is going wild. She wonders aloud who's winning when Botan points with distress at the ring below, drawing the rest of their attentions to Kuwabara floating at his child opponent's will in the air, like a kite tethered to many strings at the limbs. 

I'm sure the view is breathtaking. Kuwabara is speechless, but that appears to be out of tension rather than awe. 

Atsuko shades her eyes with a hand as they follow Kuwabara's progress upward, expressing some clueless alarm over the fact that if he falls now, he'll surely die, and that's too brutal. Koenma looks exasperated while he informs her that this is KINDA the point. Keiko's eyes are drawn DOWNWARD though, to where she spies Yusuke slumped unconscious against the edge of the ring, and she calls out his name. She starts shouting at him that his friend is in danger, criticizing his napping at this moment, and calling him a heartless creep, despite a call from the surrounding crowd to shut her trap. 

Oh look, it's the gatekeepers that EVERY event of a certain size seems to have, lol. 

Atsuko is not the least bit intimidated, no doubt due to her background relationship with shady organizations, and yells in the face of the guy on the right that her Yusuke is competing in this thing, so she's staying right here. His tongue wiggles out of his wide open mouth as he claims that her "hot and bothered" attitude is a point in favor of eating her (or, because we've tangled up our sexual euphemisms with food and eating, maybe doing OTHER things to her), but before he can make good on the threat a smoldering cigarette is put out on that protruding tongue. He turns and flees, crying about how much it hurts, as Shizuru placidly stares in the opposite direction. Botan comments on her novel method of exorcism, though it's not clear if she approves of it or not. 

Keiko screams down at Yusuke to wake up, and Atsuko, with her foot up on the back of Koenma's seat in front of her, yells at Kuwabara to stay up in the air and float like a butterfly. Koenma sweatdrops in annoyance, muttering that he's not with them. It's absolutely beautiful that these women are the loudest, most intense people in a stadium full of DEMONS. They are SQUAD GOALS. 

Koto is still commenting on the match, by the way, stating that Kuwabara is flying high, but it's a long way down. Kuwabara himself is yelling to be let down, the spectators in the stands calling for him to be dropped and gloating that he's dead now, and Rinku says to himself that this extreme height SHOULD do it. He declares that Kuwabara is going to go splat like an egg, and with a whir retracts his yo-yo strings from Kuwabara's limbs. 

Kuwabara screams as he goes down, Koto barking into the microphone that this is the end for him. But Kuwabara refuses that fate, commanding his Aura Sword to grow long out of his palm, pointing it directly at the ground. Rinku looks surprised at what comes next. 

He's battling with PHYSCIS today. 

Rinku is smiling again, though. He says it's a nice move, and Kuwabara is clever in a pinch, but his trajectory is sending him straight at the yo-yo slinging youth. Rinku is already throwing those toys right in his face again, per his stated intentions. Kuwabara reminds him that he has a SECOND sword, which at first Rinku isn't moved by, because a straight sword is easy to dodge. 

He is, once again, surprised. 

Why not? It's kinda like what YOU'RE doing. In fact, a smug Kuwabara claims as much, saying his sword is tracking Rinku much like Rinku is tracking Kuwabara with his yo-yos. It's apparently a technique Kurama taught him. So THAT'S what Kurama meant about not having seen much yet. 

Zeru calls with the first sign of emotion (concern) that he's ever shown to Rinku, telling him to jump back. Not that this advice would mean much when Kuwabara's sword can just grow to meet him. Rinku recognizes that as he watches the tip of the Aura Sword approach his chest. Kuwabara doesn't even seem to NOTICE the yo-yos closing in on his face, focused on stretching his aura that final amount and mentally encourage the runt he's targeting to ponder it in Hell. 

Cue the explosion of simultaneous blows - Rinku speared through the chest by the Aura Sword, and Kuwabara pummeled in the already hamburger face by a volley of supercharged yo-yos. Rinku utters an "uh-oh". Kuwabara stutters that he got the brat. Keiko holds her hands to her mouth in shock while Shizuru comments in deadpan how nice that final move was. Zeru is back to looking completely placid. Koto is in sweatdropping in shock. 

They really did do the funniest thing they absolutely could have in this situation!

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Despite the SLIGHT feeling that this ending is anticlimactic, I have to admit it is somewhat fitting. Matching Kuwabara with a literal child and having them literally knock each other out in a draw makes a statement about Kuwabara's level of maturity in relation to his own teammates. It acknowledges that while he's resourceful and clever sometimes, he's more of a "big kid" than any of the rest of them, and he's still got a ways to go when it comes to taking this tournament seriously. I'm reminded of how Kuwabara has a code of fairness in fights, and he's liable to be VERY disappointed by the way this EXTREMELY unfair event is going to unfold. It's being presented and run by humans that amassed unthinkable amounts of wealth by trickery and exploitation, so his more childish conception of justice is going to be challenged at every turn. For now though, it's just kind of funny how he's pitted against a little kid as a peer. 

I really love how the ladies handled their demonic harassers, because every single woman on the planet has had this experience. Some jerk tries to intimidate you out of participating whatever social or hobby event he's at because deep down, he's got this fear of his interests being FEMINIZED by your very presence. In this instance, their objection is stated to be against "human" participation, but the two big, beefy male aggressors hovering over four diminutive women is STARK. Whether YT intended this or not, it IS pretty cathartic as a woman to see other women succeeding in getting literally demonic men to fuck off and let them have their fun. 

It's also pretty stark seeing Koenma sinking in his seat and disowning the enthusiasm of the women around him. He thinks they're embarrassing, because it's beneath him to scream and shout at a sporting event. He's probably going to be cringing a lot as this event crawls forward, lol. 

Inuyasha Manga: 354 Unbreakable Wall

They're all supposed to be SO unbreakable. The people who build them insist that you can't get through, but even if all of them haven't been busted through, they've at least been scaled or gone around. Within my lifetime alone, there have been many walls put up and taken down, but there doesn't seem to be much between one and the other. All it takes is a shift of mindset and the direction of effort to get from point A to point B. You know what they say - it's much easier to destroy than to create, and that aphorism applies to everyone whether they are on one side of a conflict or the other. 

I wonder how long it will be before his lunch starts to disagree with him. 

Naraku promises Inuyasha and company, whom he calls bastards, that not even their BONES will survive the digestive process of this giant oni, and they'll never get out. Inuyasha yells at him to shut up and swings down Tessaiga, letting off a Kaze no Kizu that Naraku easily rises up in his barrier bubble above. Miroku rips the beads off his right hand and points his Kazaana up at Naraku, assuring him he won't get away, which OF COURSE summons the Saimyoushou. Shippou has climbed his shoulder and warns him to be careful of the insects' poison, but Miroku insists he doesn't give a shit. Naraku looks on with mild surprise, if the exclamation mark in his speech bubble is any indication. 

The Saimyoushou fly into Miroku's hand without hesitation. 

Inuyasha calls Miroku a damn fool, which is a little rich coming from the guy who led them all into this situation so boldly in the first place. He rushes over and forces Miroku's fist closed and downward, commanding him to close the Kazaana and not to be SO quick to kill himself. As Inuyasha steps off and Miroku is obediently rewrapping his hand in the beads, Sango rushes over to fuss over Miroku, who stutters that he's fine. 

Inuyasha has gone back toward the center of the stomach where he'll have more room, holding the gleaming Tessaiga out in front of himself, the blade having taken on a jeweled, faceted shine. He declares that he's going to rip through Naraku and the oni's stomach in one go. He shouts the Kongousouha attack, the diamond spears shooting out at speed, absolutely SHREDDING the Saimyoushou.

None of us are that lucky. Though Naraku's shredded body falls away, his remaining head and shoulders chuckles evilly, and the diamond spears just lodge into the wall of the pulsing oni stomach. Miroku can only manage a noise of disbelief as Sango voices the question herself as to how Kongousouha didn't work on this massive ogre's belly. It's not convenient to the plot, that's how.

Naraku's severed hand still balances the corrupted Shikon no Tama in its palm while it floats around, waiting to be reabsorbed into Naraku. Kagome notices this, wondering if Naraku is using it to strengthen himself. She nocks an arrow and aims, muttering that she just has to purify it, but when the arrow flies, Naraku scoffs smugly.

What did you expect? He's smart enough to remember what happened the LAST time you caught his ass with an arrow. 

Outside, Kagura continues to hover by the formerly stone oni, wondering what happened to Inuyasha and company. Acknowledging that this is one of Naraku's traps, she realizes it was a good thing she didn't fly into the oni's mouth herself. 

... Maybe being inside a giant's stomach isn't SO bad after all.

Looking over her shoulder at the oh-so-familiar malevolent presence at her back, Kagura sweatdrops while Naraku chuckles about anticipating the lives of his enemies ending soon by being dissolved into the great oni's stomach. We get another view of that disembodied hand with the Shikon no Tama in its palm, though it looks rather clear this time around. Naraku estimates the Inuyasha group's power to be too deficient to ever escape this gruesome fate he's concocted for them. 

Hakudoushi rather POINTEDLY asks Naraku's floating head how Inuyasha and company even found this place in the first place, as if he didn't KNOW. Kagura sweats even HARDER, wondering if the little brat noticed that she invited Inuyasha's team here. When Naraku claims not to have any idea how Inuyasha ended up here and asks Kagura, again rather POINTEDLY, what she thinks, she unconvincingly says she doesn't know anything. If she had balls, she'd have sweated them off by now. 

You're damn right. 

Kagome and Shippou have crouched on a mound of flesh out of the pond of stomach acid in the pit of the stomach, the latter freaking out about the acid getting steadily stronger, and the former with her hand clasped over her mouth and complaining how difficult it is to breathe. Sango has dragged Miroku out of the acid herself, and has her mask secured around her nose and mouth, though she notes that the acid is coming out of the surrounding walls they're forced to huddle toward, and despairs of what this means at this rate. 

Inuyasha turns to ask Miroku if he's able to put up a barrier, and Miroku says he can, but they won't be able to leave once the barrier is up. Plus, he's not looking too terribly well right now, looking feverish and sweating. Inuyasha says he's fine with whatever he can do, as long as he takes care of everyone, but he's able to discern that the Saimyoushou's poison has really started to take effect and the situation isn't the best. Tessaiga's blade is encrusted with jewel-like faceting once more as Inuyasha thinks he can't afford to be cautious and it'll be this time for sure. Every reckless decision justifies an even more reckless decision in the future, I suppose.

With Miroku's arms protectively around the girls and young fox, holding his staff out in front of them to produce the small sphere of protection around them, Kagome calls out to Inuyasha in concern. He turns to earnestly tell her not to worry, then twists to let out another Kongousouha. The spears cluster into the pulsing stomach flesh wall. 

Okay, is there a plan B? A plan C? 

Who are we kidding, there wasn't even a plan A. 

Inuyasha curses in frustration, then looks around when the acid around his feet starts to bubble all the more, also noting how hard it's getting to breathe. It's signaled to him that the oni's miasma has started to fill the area, but I would just put it down to the natural gaseous byproduct of digestion. You're literally just smelling the beginnings of farts dude. All the undulating nodes on the walls and ceiling start to up their production of MORE acid, and as it sizzles on the barrier Miroku has erected, Sango calls his name in concern. He insists he's alright, despite the statement being halting, and his sweating, feverish appearance. Kagome even points out to him how he's BURNING UP. Internally, he BEGS Inuyasha to hurry up. 

A little acid burns through the weakening barrier and onto Sango's Hiraikotsu, both her and Kagome gaping in alarm and Kagome trailing a sentence about the state of the barrier. It starts to collapse when Miroku falls unconscious and drops the staff, whole sheets of acid raining down on what's left of it. Inuyasha rushes over, taking off his red fire-rat coat in the process with a groan. 

The young folk would say they were cooked, but I'd say they WISH they were cooked before they ended up in a stomach like living sushi. 

Inuyasha looks up high on the wall where the stone spears from Tessaiga mark his first attempts at busting them out of there. Shippou clings to Kagome under Inuyasha's coat and complains to her that it's difficult to breathe, while she again holds her hand over her mouth and nose and agrees. 

Notice that Sango in the panel above has lost her mask? Turns out that wasn't an oversight on RT's part, because the next panel shows her carefully placing it over Miroku's face as he winces even in his unconsciousness. Inuyasha is once more thinking that there's now no time to waste, as if there was any BEFORE this point, and twists around to demand the Shikon fragment Kagome is carrying. 

Literally the last resort. 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This is one of those that give me mixed feelings. On the one hand, this is probably the best action we've had since Inuyasha got the Kongosouha move to begin with, and it's accompanied by some real tension. Though we HAVE seen Inuyasha trapped in someone's belly before, and that particular situation was more dangerous to him INDIVIDUALLY, due to him being in human form at the time, in some ways this is worse. He has Tessaiga here, but even its newest most devastating barrier piercing attack isn't doing jack shit, and his entire team is in this belly. It's not just his neck on the line, and given his lingering guilt about Kikyou's death and what he sees to be his part in it, being responsible not only his own demise but those of his closest friends as well would be some devastating last thoughts for him. There's a lot more on the line at this point, so that amps up the stakes a bit. After 350 chapters, RT still has the ability to make me sweat for these characters. 

On the OTHER hand, the way we got here was EXTREMELY clumsy and there is still no proper explanation for the steps we took to this spot in the story. The Moryoumaru/Goryoumaru connection remains obscure, the spell to create the Rakan statues and the purpose of such is opaque, and original purpose of Naraku placing the infant in the temple with Goryoumaru in the first place is unexplored. Despite my enjoyment of the action and tension this chapter provides, I am a little frustrated that there's not a lot of lead-up to it that makes any amount of sense so far. Anyone who's been reading the blog for a while knows I love a good setup and payoff, but this seems like a whole lot of payoff to very little (if any) setup. It feels a little like my brain is preoccupied by its confusion over how we got here instead of being present in the stakes of the moment.

As a little side note, Naraku's teasing tone came dripping through the screen at me when he was "casually" wondering how Inuyasha and crew got here. Kagura has GOT to know at this point that she's in a bad place. Not that there's much of a way out of it. Much like Inuyasha's group, she's trapped inside Naraku's machinations, and her dissolution in its acidic output seems inevitable. We'll see if she can manage to wriggle free as the protagonists are expected to.