Inuyasha Manga: 359 Hitoukon

Apparently, this chapter title means "Roots", which I hope is someone's name or SOME kind of proper noun. I've never been much of a fan of scanlators keeping random words untranslated, especially when it comes from a language that is not based in the same writing system as the target language. I mean, you took the time to convert the kanji/kana characters into the alphabet, it would be the same amount of work to go the rest of the way and just translate the word. Even when I was learning Japanese for a while, I didn't appreciate this, because it certainly didn't help me learn. It just seems like a flex on the people reading. An extremely SHALLOW flex. 

To be fair, "Root" would be a pretty cute name for a dog. Even a giant wild mountain dog. 

Inuyasha and company are listening silently to the claim that this was definitely some youkai, wearing serious expressions. Afterward, while Inuyasha is on his hands and knees sniffing the ground in the forest, Miroku admits that this probably has nothing to do with Naraku, but he doesn't want to pass it by. Kagome asks Inuyasha how his olfactory investigation is going, and he responds with a hesitant question of whether this is really a youkai whose trail he's following. Miroku makes a surprised noise, and Sango asks what he means. He turns to inform them that there's no smell here except that of a mountain dog. 

A narrow sky transition panel takes us to a village, probably a different one than that which engaged the Inuyasha Crew's assistance. A man in a high lookout post rings an alarm bell, yelling that a mountain dog has come. A mother lunges for her children playing outside, urging to hurry and come indoors, but she only just embraces them when she twists around at an alarming growling sound behind her. 

Holy FUCKING shit! Is THAT what they mean by a mountain dog???

We get a close-up on that branching scar-like thing around this giant dog's eye. Then it suddenly drops the corpse of the woman in its mouth as it lunges for the other woman and her children, who hunches down over the kids to try and protect them from the oncoming threat. Clearly this attack ISN'T just because it's hungry.

A weight on the end of a chain flies straight forward, embedding right in the dog's eye surrounded by that strange scar, before it can reach the mother and children. As you may have seen coming, the other end of that weighted chain, a sickle, soars toward the dog next, a familiar black-clad boy directing it from the chain's center. The sickle slices straight through the dog's neck as it roars, which is pretty impressive, considering how much smaller the tool is than the animal. I really don't know HOW that would be possible without a bigger blade and a lot more force.

But okay, more unbelievable things have happened in this comic, so what the hell. 

Kohaku walks forward silently, saying nothing in response to the mother's stuttered gratitude. She then screams when the severed head of the dog shudders all on its own. It catapults in the air, rocketing off into the distance. Kohaku curses and runs after it, into the forest, keeping his sickle-chain at the ready as he looks around cautiously through the trees. 

Great, he's got the poor kid farming for XP. 

Kohaku twists around at the sound of something coming at him from behind. The head of the dog's head chomps down on Kohaku's arm before the boy can react, but he's able to pull his bleeding limb from the front teeth's tenuous grip, crashing to the ground. Again the head flies for him, but he's prepared this time, once more slicing straight through the offending skull. It once more lands in the dirt, and this time the scar around the eye starts writhing, bubbling up out of the dog's flesh. A strange, branching entity rises up out of the head and flies to escape. 

It really does look like a bunch of tree roots, huh?

Kohaku watches with mouth agape as this creature splashes into the river and starts swimming upstream like a spawning salmon. He runs after it along the back of the river, thinking it's trying to escape him into the mountains. 

Back in the village where he left the headless giant dog, Inuyasha and company have arrived, asking the villagers who did this as they're tying ropes around the dog's body to drag it away. As if Inuyasha couldn't SMELL Kohaku there. Haltingly, one of the men says that it was just a kid, but he says that he had the same style of clothes as Sango, indicating her. She looks taken aback while another man asks if this was a friend of hers. Kagome and Shippou gape, the former immediately wondering if it's Kohaku. DUH, girl. 

Another interesting question: why was Inuyasha pretending not to know it was Kohaku? Weird. 

Cut to the woods where Kohaku is picking through felled trees and branches, having lost the trail of the creature. A noise off-panel alarms him yet again, and he automatically throws his sickle toward the source, which he didn't realize at first is a boy with his own sickle staring with mouth wide open up the hill at him. Alarmed, Kohaku pulls back on the chain in a hurry, re-routing the path of his sickle upward where it slices through a low hanging branch. The kid continues to gape at all this like a fish, until someone calls to him, calling him Daichi. A man with a bundle of twigs tied to his back comes onto the scene, Daichi identifying him as his dad, and he peers at an awkward and silent Kohaku. 

You could say that, though Kohaku doesn't even offer that kind of vague answer as Daichi's smiling father finishes tying the bandage around Kohaku's arm. He does give his thanks, though, while he thinks hard about how he MIGHT still find that weird root-like youkai. He's on his feet and halfway out the door to do just that when he turns and thanks the father and son again, informing them he's on his way now. Daichi's dad seems confused by this, and sets his hands on Kohaku's shoulders, bidding him to wait, because night will be falling soon. He invites Kohaku to stay in their home for the night, Daichi affirming from the fire in the center of the hut that this is a good idea. Sleepover! Kohaku doesn't answer straightaway, looking hesitant. What's wrong, kid? You in some kind of hurry?

A narrow sky transition panel takes us back to the giant dog head lying there where Kohaku left it, still showing signs of where the branching youkai hung out around its eye. Inuyasha has led the group to the spot, where Miroku observes that this creature was finished off here, but Inuyasha says he just DOESN'T get what Kohaku is supposed to be doing here. It just looks like regular youkai extermination to him. Even though earlier he claimed that the dog just smelled like a regular dog and NOT a youkai before. 

Thankfully, Sango is about to address that very angle, kneeling next to the head as Inuyasha asks her what's up.

Finally, a professional assessment of what actually matters.

Sango suggests that the youkai she's talking about is probably a "hitoukon", informing Kagome that it's a grass root youkai when she asks about it. Damn, there are youkai of LITERALLY EVERYTHING, aren't there? Sango says they have possessed animals and humans, and they primarily feed on human blood. No shortage of carnivorous plants for us here.

In the little father and son's home, Kohaku's clothes are being scrutinized for how odd they are. Hey, some of us are eccentric dressers, deal with it. The two hosts and guest sit eating around a big bowl of what looks to be stew, cozy as can be. Daichi's dad asks if Kohaku does some sort of side-show, which seems a little rude, but Daichi himself gushes about how great Kohaku's sickle chain is, inquiring about who taught him how to wield it. After a short pause, Kohaku bashfully claims not to remember, though in his head he credits his father and everyone in his village. 

Later, the moon has risen high in the sky, and the three of them lay sleeping under the same cover. Daichi sits up, rubbing his eye sleepily, and goes outside to answer nature's call. The branches above the tree trunk he's watering rustle, and he looks up in alarm. 

Seriously? You're going to ambush a guy while he's taking a piss? That's even more rude than the dad was before!

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm glad that there seems to be a reason for leaving the word "roots" untranslated in the title! But I found this one a little weird, due to the number of questions that kept popping up and breaking my immersion. Inuyasha seems genuinely surprised that Kohaku is behind the beheaded dog, despite using his nose to lead his team straight to it. RT has forgotten Inuyasha has a super-smeller before, but I can't quite recall a time when she forgot in the SAME chapter where he's actively using it. That's really awkward, and doesn't indicate how well she's managing her story and team. 

In addition, she seems to be running out of innocuous stuff to turn into youkai, and this is her most awkward idea yet, I have to say. Not that I think it's necessarily a terrible idea in and of itself, because I think there's a way to turn something as unthreatening as a grass root into something terrifying, but I don't necessarily think it was pulled off here. It comes across as more goofy than anything else, even in the final two panels of active possession, which were the spookiest by far. The giant dog it was possessing was frightening enough by itself without being possessed by... grass. 

That was another oddity that kept probing at my brain: it was an AFULLY big dog, bigger than all the humans, but there's no indication that it grew or was considered abnormal in size at all, nor did it return to a more normal size once the parasite youkai was gone. Am I meant to believe that these giant mountain dogs are THAT fucking huge?? Absolutely wild.

One thing that I'm digging about this chapter is Kohaku getting a little positive socialization in. Daichi and his dad seem genuinely kind, patching him up, letting him stay with them for the night, feeding him. It was so touching that there was no doubt it would turn sour, and in such a way as to further convince Kohaku that he's unfit for human companionship. He'll blame himself and his being there for Daichi's possession, and get away from them as fast as possible to relieve them of the general tragedy he brings to these happy situations. Though Naraku's commands to him don't have a THING to do with this particular incident, he is out on Naraku's orders, chasing the very youkai that is possessing Daichi, which will be enough of a link to trigger his perpetual guilt around the horrible things happening to people he comes to care about. 

The quality of these scanlations are quite fuzzy, and I think it's likely to be their condition from now on. I believe I've entered the point in my downloads where I was grabbing the translated files back when they were first coming out, and they were being hastily scanned and sloppily posted to satisfy a rabid fanbase. Apologies for that - they're at least readable for the time being. Hopefully they stay that way, even if they aren't as pretty as some of the previous pictures!

Inuyasha Manga: 358 Illusion

There's precious little that ISN'T illusion in this comic. Between youkai taking on human appearance, the villain constantly making me do double-takes to check what's supposed to be reality and what's not, and one of the main group primarily dealing in childish prank illusions, it's a wonder half the chapters aren't named thus. I even had to check, because I could have SWORN that there was another chapter with this name so far, but I only found one that was somewhat SIMILAR. 

Reusing chapter names might not be too far in the future, though. The chapter count is getting pretty high, after all, and there's already been some recycling of CONTENT, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Those sparkles are probably distracting all by themselves. 

Sango identifies this glittering man as that good-looking medicine seller she's heard so much about, but doesn't seem all that enchanted yet. She in fact looks wary, sweating a bit, brows drawn down. His pupilless, mirror-like eyes stare as he offers to give her his antitoxin, and in the next panel is cradling her his in arms. It would be quite romantic, if not for Sango's alarmed expression, his suggestion that she give him something in exchange, and her panicked thought that she can't MOVE. Context is everything friends. 

Those are some gnarly fangs, dude!

Elsewhere, Kagome wonders if Sango is okay. Excuse me while I scream at the screen for a moment... Okay, the void is as indifferent as always. Anyway, she and Miroku are sitting outside a little hut, where he tells Kagome that he gave her the protection charm, so she shouldn't be manipulated. Kagome says she hopes that's true, casting some SAVAGE doubt on Miroku's abilities here. Ouch. 

A man approaches, and I say that rather loosely, because at first I thought he was a giant duck. He has beady little eyes, and his balloon-like lips take up about half his face. The woman they'd brought back is in the background pulling a bucket from a well as this man thanks Kagome and Miroku for saving his wife. Miroku says it's no problem, and casually chats about this new information that their charge is a married woman. The man with the lips says that they get along well and have had good health, but a big fat tear drips from one of his eyes when he relays that she's been sighing whenever she looks at him since she came back. She demonstrates just that behind him, looking SEVERELY disappointed. Oh buddy, that's super rough. Kagome sweatdrops as Miroku acknowledges the sad reality for this guy. 

Miroku leans over and suggests the wife's behavior might be due to the youkai's illusion, but Shippou says they can't really be sure, since the husband's face is so EXTREME. Little of column A and a little of column B? 

Back to Sango being essentially assaulted, unfortunately. Her attacker is even mumbling about how she can't get away and she's his captive. I didn't think highly of this guy before, and now I'm practically INCANDESCENT with rage at him. Sango isn't completely taken in, though, and she looks like she's doing her best to lean away from the incoming razor bite to her neck, in silent disbelief. She squeezes her eyes shut at the realization that she REALLY can't move and trails in a thought of what's going to happen at this rate. Nothing GOOD, that's for sure. 

A spatter of blood suddenly features in the next panel. 

If I had a nickel for every time an apparently high inu brother rescued one of the main girls from assault...

Inuyasha is left confused and alarmed midair when the medicine seller disappears in a cloud of sparkles. Sango gapes, in disbelief that he vanished. She suddenly glances at her shoulder, wondering if she had been bitten by something just now, rubbing at her neck. Then her attention is drawn back in front of her, where the medicine seller has reappeared to her at a distance, waving and calling for her to come over. At last, a blush spreads over her nose and she stumbles toward him, totally enchanted. Inuyasha sees this and after a bewildered look at her, he tugs on her sleeve with her teeth, clearly having forgotten that he can SPEAK.

Damn, those are some STRONG sparkles.

A narrow sky transition panel takes us back to where the recently reunited couple are bowing to Miroku and Kagome, thanking them once again for the help. When Miroku turns to repeat it's no problem at all, he sees the woman scratching at her neck where the bite mark was. He steps back up to her with a hesitant hum, asking if she's really alright. She affirms that she's fine, but her bite is just a tad itchy. Miroku's still awfully close, casting an intimate stare down at the woman as he acknowledges this reality for her and her husband stands looking between them. I can't tell if he's got a suspicion about Miroku, but Kagome sure does, and reminds Miroku that this woman is MARRIED. Seriously, the dude just CAN'T seem to help himself. 

Shippou draws Kagome's attention to the sky nearby from her shoulder, pointing at a transformed Kirara hovering there. Miroku looks around in alarm at her, a serious expression overtaking him, and the next panel shows Kirara descending with Kagome, Miroku, and Shippou at the former's cry of Inuyasha's name. She kneels at his side and asks him what happened as he comes to, raising an alert face from the dirt. He doesn't answer, looking around in bewilderment, asking where Sango is. Shippou dryly says that this is exactly what their question is for HIM. 

By the next panel, Kagome is on his back, Miroku and Shippou are back on Kirara, and they're on another of their brisk sprints, presumably toward Sango. Kagome is asking for confirmation that Sango went off with the medicine seller, and Inuyasha says that's indeed the case, but he tried to stop her. Miroku's silent glare says he suspects that short statement wasn't ALL there was to it. Inuyasha at LEAST admits not being able to remember much, but he does assert that Sango was acting strange. 

Miroku says that she was probably affected by the illusions, and this is exactly why he told her to leave it to him. Shippou suggests from his position by Miroku's ear that this whole thing might be because the medicine seller is really good looking, and Sango might have fallen for him. Way to be tactless, kid. However, Miroku seems completely convinced that this possibility would never happen, because even if something happened so that Sango hated his guts, there's zero chance that she'd fall for a man other than him. 

Oh, to have the confidence of a mediocre man. 

That's not what you SAID, though. 

Narrow sky transition panel to where someone chuckles darkly that nobody will interfere now. To no one's surprise, it's the medicine seller, who has Sango sitting in front of him on a giant lily pad in the middle of a body of water. He suggests that they restart that "ceremony" that was interrupted before. Sango has her eyes closed and head lolled to one side, the button on her suit's high neck undone so it can be turned down and her neck exposed. She doesn't quite look unconscious, but she's not exactly awake either. 

The medicine seller's fangs are bared once more as he asks if Sango is prepared, as if he's much concerned at all with how she feels about all this. Otherwise, why drug her with youkai magic in the first place? Sango of course doesn't answer, but a barely conscious thought occurs to her, and she raises her hand to scratch her neck because it's maddeningly itchy at the moment. Her eyes spring open as the medicine seller leans in to dig his fangs into her flesh. 

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. 

He glares up at her, cursing Sango for breaking his spell. Like he has ANY room to be angry with her, after the shit he's pulled. She ignores his unwarranted indignation and asks if he did anything WEIRD to her while she was under the spell. He smirks, scoffing that he doesn't know while giving the very distinct impression that he knows EXACTLY what she's suggesting he might have done. The next panel shows that she's put MULTIPLE lumps on his head with her Hiraikotsu, and she threatens to exterminate him. Please do. It would be cathartic to see at least one man who does this kind of shit get annihilated for it. 

Sadly, when he asks for forgiveness, claiming it was a joke, Sango doesn't immediately drown him in the water below. A joke. Sure. That's what they ALL say. When he looks up again, he's put on an innocent, desperate expression, asking her to at LEAST listen to his reason for doing all this. Sango questions the word "reason", as do I, because I'm curious what context could POSSIBLY justify this madness. He looks downcast while he begins to explain that this gorgeous form of his is not reality. You don't SAY. 

Meanwhile, Inuyasha seems to have led the rest of the group to the edge of this lake, saying the medicine seller and Sango are close. I guess this body of water must be HUGE, because they clearly can't be seen. Inuyasha warns Miroku to be careful, testifying to the power of the medicine seller's illusions. But before he can finish, Miroku is already flying away on Kirara's back, despite Inuyasha's protests. Kagome takes this as confirmation that Miroku is worried, just like she thought. 

On the lily pad Sango is reacting with what looks like empathy to the medicine seller's story, saying that he is NOT, in fact, a youkai. He's rubbing his arm nervously, saying that if he can suck the blood of his ideal woman, he'll return to his original form. At LAST, he seems to be ASKING for her permission to do so. Sango is willing to allow it, but she wants something in exchange. 

In sort order, Miroku is calling out to Sango, flying at breakneck speed over the lake, Shippou barely holding onto the hem of the priest's robes as he's dragged out in the wind behind Miroku and Kirara. 

I'm SURE it's not what it looks like. 

Sango's eyes grow wide as she stares over the medicine seller's shoulder, recognizing Miroku's voice. The next panel shows that he has landed, come physically between the embracing "couple", and raised a whole NEW number of lumps on the top of the medicine seller's head, who lays face-down on the lily pad while Miroku holds him down with a knee on his back. Miroku asks if Sango is okay, and Shippou comments from Kirara's back that Miroku hit the medicine seller a HUNDRED times. But he's TOTALLY not insecure, guys. 

Rather than answering Miroku, Sango leans down and asks if the MEDICINE SELLER is alright. If the tears streaming down his face and long-suffering expression is any indication... No. Miroku gets right in Sango's face, urging her to snap out of the throes of the illusion, but she snaps back at him that he's straight up WRONG. The medicine seller manages to sit up, still dripping pathetic tears and sporting his lumps, insisting Sango said it was okay for him to do it. Miroku accuses him of lying, and Sango once again contradicts him, saying it's NOT a lie. 

At last, Miroku seems to be listening. shoulders slumped and a sweatdrop dangling from the back of his head. 

Yeah, there's no any shortage of trouble here, unfortunately. 

Once the situation has been explained, and Kagome repeats the essential bit for reiteration's sake, Sango states that a youkai cursed the medicine seller for some reason. I'm sure there is NO behavior that he engaged in before that might have led to a youkai getting fed up with his shit and cursing him. He's been SO upstanding thus far. Sango says she was going to let him suck her blood if he gives her the antitoxin he's peddling in return. 

Inuyasha seems almost disappointed to learn that all this was for Miroku's sake after all in the end, and Kagome sighs about Sango NOT actually just cheating with the pretty guy. Aren't you two supposed to be Miroku and Sango's FRIENDS?? Sango suggests that this is quite the boring turn for them, then turns to Miroku and asks if he understands where she was coming from. He's still facing the other direction, but in a blink, he's turned around again and holding her hands, claiming understanding and that he believed in her this whole time. Shippou stares innocently, knowing how much of a lie this is, but smartly not voicing this fact for once. 

Grinning, the medicine seller once again asks if she'll let him suck her blood. Kagome asks if it HAS to be from her neck, suggesting Sango's arm instead. The medicine seller looks harried and a little disappointed when Miroku prods him with his staff, implying that this "option" is really the only acceptable compromise with his aggressive repetition of the question. With all due respect in his agreement, the medicine seller leans down over Sango's hand and with a burst of sparkles that momentarily mesmerize Kagome and Inuyasha as spectators, it looks for a moment as though the medicine seller has disappeared altogether. 

Inuyasha murmurs that he vanished, but a little whining insect flutters into the sky above Sango's hand, Miroku identifying it as a MOSQUITO. A male mosquito. Who wants to tell RT that the males aren't the ones that drink blood? The tiny creature thanks Sango, telling her that he left the antitoxin on her hand, because he can apparently still talk. Somehow. Inuyasha hums with some incredulity, and it starts to dawn on Kagome just exactly what the medicine seller meant by "antitoxin".

That is just BLEAK, Sango. 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? There's actually quite a bit that's squeezed in here, all kind of revolving around insecurity. Inuyasha's careful refusal to admit exactly WHY he lost Sango, and the strange way in which he seemed to have lost control of his faculties was the more amusing of these. Clearly he wasn't all that interested in detailing his own enchantment under the medicine seller. It's not as though he sees it as irrelevant, given the vague warning he gives Miroku about the power of the medicine seller's illusions, but he doesn't want to tell anyone about precisely how they made him behave for how goofy and embarrassing it was. And oddly primitive? Why the medicine seller's illusions made Inuyasha behave more like a dog while they made the women they were targeting surrender to his whims is pretty opaque, since we don't have another male being affected by them to compare. 

Miroku's insecurity plotline was a bit LESS funny than Inuyasha's, given how uncharitable to Sango he was in expressing them. I appreciated how that wife's overt resentment for her husband after she returned from her encounter with the medicine seller showed Miroku what it could look like if Sango met up with him, and his denial that at least PART of that resentment could stem from a reason other than illusion; it WAS pretty funny to think that this woman had NEVER been in contact with a man more attractive than her husband before. But when Miroku declared (presumably to soothe his own worries) that Sango could never fall in love with anyone but him, he stepped into some nasty territory. As I said in the previous chapter's analysis, Sango is a highly competent and autonomous character, and it would be difficult to get her to do something she didn't want to do, NOT do something she did, or override her stubborn streak in any meaningful way. But here Miroku is, denying that she has any sort of autonomy at all when it comes to her affection for him, so if he should find the worst has happened, he can pretend that it's a temporary override of her programming due to those pesky illusions. All he would have to do is slay the youkai and she would go back to being in love with him again, because she can't do otherwise. He has just THAT strong of a hold over her. 

As if it wouldn't take a significant amount of will and stubbornness to be in love with him in the first place, to put up with all his nonsense. She basically confirmed in the final line of the chapter that she's used to being taken for a ride by dudes of his type, who seem to seem to see her as a dispenser for what THEY want, rather than a full autonomous person. Exhausting.

While we're on the topic of autonomy, I want to talk about the medicine seller's "strategy" for returning to his original form. It's demonstrated in the finale that he had the option to just ASK for permission the entire time, rather than be coercive and manipulative in the manner of a date rapist. Since he's an insect, even a more scummy interpretation couldn't argue that this sort of underhanded behavior would come naturally to him, so that leaves a lot of questions as to why he wouldn't be more straightforward in his approach. Did he try that in the beginning and end up scandalizing a lot of people before he realized it wasn't really viable? Is that why he started offering an "antitoxin" for the privilege to suck women's blood, because he found he had to try and make it worth the risk of being involved with him? If those other women weren't his "ideal" woman, why was he targeting them? Just to feed? What was with the villainous dialog about how Sango is unable to escape? Another parallel between his and Miroku's desperate entitlement to Sango manifesting into the delusion that she has no other choice? If that's the case, it's a dangerous comparison to make, because Miroku ALREADY looked pretty bad for his poor treatment of the women he's involved with, so it's just piling dung on the fire to forge a link between his attitude and that of a would-be rapist. 

And just WHAT did the medicine seller do to piss off a youkai so bad that he got turned into a pretty boy? I mean, I've been annoyed by a mosquito buzzing in my ear before, but not THAT annoyed!

Inuyasha Manga: 357 Medicine Seller

Should there be quotation marks around the word "medicine" in this title? Because when I think of a legitimate dispenser of medications, I think of an apothecary or a pharmacist. We have a term for anyone outside of those kinds of professions peddling cures for whatever ails you, and it's not the most flattering. There's a couple of big ones skulking around in the highest offices of my homeland right now, and one thing is for sure, "medicine" isn't even close to what they deal in. You can tell by the lack of credentials, and the promotion of poison as ancient remedies to everything from a toothache to cancer. It's what they do when they can't manage to pick up more complicated grifts. 

Like whatever the fuck THIS is. Can't make heads or tails of it. 

Indeed, as she's looking in at the slumbering Goryoumaru, Kagura asks Naraku what the meaning of this is and just WHO this guy even happens to be. Naraku tells her all she has to do is shut up and watch over him. He's just MOCKING her curiosity at this point, isn't he? 

Goryoumaru opens an eye to glance with ire at the grate, then rolls over on his side to face it. His youkai arm blooms open, predictably. 

This is what you get for digging up a guy just to put him in jail, douchebag. 

But, ALSO predictably, Naraku floats there in pieces with a smug smirk on his intact head. He informs Goryoumaru with an evil chuckle that he doesn't die, who just kind of glares silently back at him. Kagura wonders if this means Goryoumaru is Naraku's enemy, more confused than ever, and she's not the only one. The relationship seems STRAINED at the very least. 

Naraku tells Kagura to be careful not to let the guy in the prison get away, leaving the declaration that this shall be her final job unspoken. Not that she could really do much about it if he HAD said the ominous line aloud. 

Ah, our heroes are back on their feet and in default formation once again. 

Kagome calls to Miroku that it would have been better for him to rest in Kaede's village, but he insists that the Saimyoushou's poison is mostly gone by this point. "Mostly" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this statement. Inuyasha says that the rumor they're following up on really stinks though, which he would know a lot about, I suppose. He's having a hard time believing that there's a universal antitoxin as the rumor claims. 

Wow, Inuyasha is smarter and more incredulous than like 40% of US Americans. Go figure. 

Sadly, Kaede doesn't seem so discerning, because SHE'S the one who told them about the rumor in the first place. Come on, Kaede, you work with herbal remedies, you should know better than this! Regardless, she spreads to them the too-good-to-be-true word that there's an antitoxin that works almost as soon as you drink it, but it's not all that easy to get ahold of, given that it's being sold by a strange wandering medicine seller. No one knows when or where he'll appear next, and he disappears immediately after the transaction. 

You have GOT to be fucking kidding me. 

Kagome asks for confirmation on the info they heard that the "medicine seller" was in the neighboring village two days ago, but Inuyasha just says he's probably not around anymore. Sango turns to assert that it's worth it to try and find the guy, because Miroku won't have to suffer from the Saimyoushou again if they can get ahold of this medicine. Ah, hope springs eternal. As well as gullibility. Miroku seems impressed she's willing to go to all this trouble for his sake. 

You should have tied him to a post and left him behind. 

Narrow sky transition panel, and a shot of the fields of the aforementioned neighboring village. A woman confirms that the "medicine seller" was definitely there two days before, but when Sango asks if she has any idea where the guy went, she admits not knowing. Inuyasha asks what sort of guy he was, probably looking for a more concrete description than he gets, which is a vague claim that he was certainly the most handsome man the woman had ever met. She cradles her cheek in her palm, her eyes closed and a little blissful smile on her face. Inuyasha makes a noise of interest, genuinely seeming somewhat intrigued, contrary to how I THOUGHT he would take this statement. 

Kagome reiterates to Sango that the woman said this was a fine-looking man, as if she didn't JUST hear it. Sango asks if that's really a clue, and Miroku looks to the side as he mutters that this whole story stinks. He rushes to grab their interviewee's hands, asking her if the "medicine seller" did anything indecent to her under the guise of giving her the medicine, but the woman just laughs at the forward question. 

Sango ends up dragging him away from the woman, having put a lump on the top of his head, and grumbling that the "medicine seller" isn't HIM. You know you've made a shitty reputation for yourself when even your FRIENDS trust that a shady disappearing peddler is far less likely to take advantage of young women than you. Although, Shippou seems to consider that the two might be surprisingly similar from his perch on Kagome's shoulder. 

Crouched on the ground a short distance away, Inuyasha calls to the rest of his group and urges them to follow him that way. 

Honestly, I would be surprised if the guy WEREN'T a youkai at this point. 

Miroku looks wary about the news, but Sango suggests with a smile that a youkai's medicine might be more effective, and that they should continue rooting out the medicine seller. Kagome thinks it's sweet how much effort Sango is putting into getting this medicine. This almost CERTAINLY not real medicine. 

Elsewhere, a scream rings out through the forest, startling a flock of birds into flight from the trees. A snake slithers away from a woman who sits on the ground, voicing her pain over the fang wounds in her ankle. She looks up when a voice nearby tells her not to move, because the snake may have been venomous. The voice offers to give her his all-purpose antitoxin, and begins to suggest a payment as his ethereal form materializes through the trees. The woman gapes wordlessly. 

Inuyasha hums, nose twitching as he informs the others that he's closing in on that scent of herbs. The woman from the previous page is lying by the side of the path, her basket standing next to her, also recovered from the forest. Kagome immediately hops from Inuyasha's back when they reach her, kneeling next to her and asking what happened and if she's okay. Miroku and Sango watch her carefully while she recounts what happened when she encountered trouble in the form of a snake bite in the woods. 

He must be super dreamy. Even Sesshoumaru fangirls don't swoon like this. 

Once again, Miroku is so suspicious that he also rushes to her side, asking if the medicine seller made her do anything indecent in exchange for his medicine. And again, he gets hit over the head by Sango, who tells him to stop repeating himself. Miroku insists she's mistaken in reprimanding him, urging her to look at the back of the woman's neck. Indeed, there's a crescent of a bite mark there just visible beneath the woman's ponytail. Miroku must have some STELLAR eyesight, or else read the script. 

Kagome cries out about the fang wounds in the woman's neck, as opposed to the ones in her ankle, and Inuyasha asks her if she got bitten. Apparently, she's good at attracting bites. The woman herself makes a noise of confusion, raising a hand to feel the spot indicated by the strangers. She admits that she can't really remember, and her head feels rather fuzzy. Miroku declares that, leaving aside this supposed antitoxin, it's become important to ascertain the medicine seller's real identity, and Inuyasha agrees that the guy seems to be up to no good. 

Miroku tells Kagome and Sango to help the poor woman home, and when Sango asks why he's asking HER to run this errand too, he says he and Inuyasha will be going after the medicine seller, because he seems to be doing something to GIRLS in particular. An entirely fair assessment, but Sango argues that if that's the case and she goes along, she might be able to draw the youkai out. Miroku fires back that she shouldn't take youkai spells so lightly, asking what if her mind is controlled. She counters that HE'S still recovering from some serious poisoning, still not well enough to do any youkai extermination himself.  

Kagome leans over to excitedly whisper to Inuyasha that this is a good mood. He and I BOTH are quite confused, so she explains that Miroku appears not to want Sango to meet the good-looking medicine seller. 

Yeah, it's not as if there's any risk of actual injury, like a nasty bite, or anything.

Miroku and Sango are looking more and more irritated with each other, the former asking if she's not going to listen to him at all, and the latter saying it's useless to try and stop her. Sighing that there's no helping it, Miroku pulls out a familiar looking beaded bracelet. Sango puts it on pretty much immediately, but has to ask if it's for protection. Or perhaps for concealment, like the last time? Miroku says it breaks illusion spells, and she probably won't be affected by whatever the medicine seller is doing while she wears it. Probably. 

So, when is Miroku going to open up his Etsy witch shop with his cute bracelet charms? I might be interested in buying a few. 

After this little negotiation, Kagome is waving goodbye, Shippou on her shoulder. Miroku has turned to request seriously that Inuyasha take care of Sango. The woman stands silently in the background, and I wonder if anyone ASKED her if she really needed help getting home. It's a nice gesture, but hopefully splitting up is worth it... Inuyasha carelessly calls over his shoulder that he'll sure do what Miroku asks, and Sango in turn asks that Kagome watch Miroku to make sure he doesn't do anything to that woman. You know, this reveals a lot about why Sango wouldn't feel threatened by the behavior from other men, when she's already always looking out for Miroku's bullshit. Kagome happily assures Sango she's on it, and Miroku grumbles that he's actually REALLY worried about her. 

As they wander further into the forest, Sango asks where the medicine seller's scent is, and he tells her which way. 

Maybe Miroku SHOULD be feeling a little threatened romantically by this guy.

While Sango looks around, Inuyasha continues forward on all fours, sniffing right up to the edge of a rocky overhang. After a confused silence, Sango asks Inuyasha if this is really the way to their target. He lifts his head at last, revealing a dazed, flushed expression, which Sango likens to a drunken stupor with even more puzzlement. A couple of butterflies flutter over Inuyasha's head, and he flings himself mindlessly off the edge of the high overhang after them, leaving Sango to watch him fall and thump on the ground below from over the side. Hands-down the funniest shit I have ever seen in this comic. 

Sango goes over the side after him, sliding down the steep slope and calling his name. The bracelet Miroku gave her snags on a bramble as she passes and snaps, which she seemingly doesn't notice. She lands in a heap of snarled brambles at the bottom of the slope, yanking her arm up out of the twisted foliage with a groan, face scraped. 

Bad news, he's got the shoujo sparkles around him and everything.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's a cute little diversion from the current arc, and considering how confusing said arc has been, refreshing in how straightforward it is. Sango and Miroku's relationship may not be my personal cup of tea, but I do feel like it deserves some more attention, especially since Inuyasha and Kagome have finally broken out of their shitty argument loop that severely overstayed its welcome. As the secondary couple in the group, Sango and Miroku haven't had a ton to do but comment on the ups and downs of the main couple, so whenever they get a few chapters dedicated to their own relationship's maintenance, it's at least a nice change of pace. 

I believe Miroku when he says he genuinely cares about Sango's safety, but I also believe that he is potentially a little threatened by the glowing description given of the youkai they're seeking out. Two things can be true at once. Still, knowing Sango, it's ridiculous that Miroku tried to convince her to sit this one out to begin with. Confrontation of youkai is her profession, and they only went on this quest to find the "medicine seller" to begin with on HER insistence for his sake. He really should understand by now that he's involved with a competent and determined girl, much more so whenever the well-being of a loved one is involved. She's not one of the flings he's engineered through sweet nothings, so she's automatically going to be on the more stubborn side. Obviously, if she still likes him after all the garbage he's pulled, she'd have to be.

More power to her, because it couldn't be me. I wouldn't have even a fraction of the patience necessary. 

And more power to Kagura, because her position is looking more precarious every second. Sure, she's been appointed warden of the prison, but she's still IN the prison, and it doesn't take a genius to see that keeping her cooped up in there watching Goryoumaru serves the primary purpose of restricting her opportunities for more snooping. As for this being her final job, that could mean any number of things, from the innocuous statement that this is the only position she's suited for if she can't be trusted with anything even remotely in the wider world, to the more threatening one that he's planning on killing her when this assignment is over. What counts as "over" isn't quite clear either, but then again, what HAS been clear in this entire arc? 

I find it funny in a depressing sort of way that Kagura identifies so heavily with the free wind, but she is further and further restricted from expressing that identity. Such a shame. 

Inuyasha Manga: 356 Evil Presence

Do you ever get that feeling in your gut, when you first meet someone or they're pointed out to you, that you REALLY don't want to be around that person? Just something about them immediately sets you on edge and there's no reasoning yourself out of the immediate dislike? I've never really believed in "evil" per se, but I have had a couple of those experiences where I seemed to know immediately that I didn't want to be around someone, being that something about them was just OFF. I won't go into detail, due to the semi-traumatic nature of both these instances, but suffice it to say, I was correct 100% of the time, and I had to suffer the consequences of ignoring the little voice inside my head that told me this person was bad news. 

If Kikyou had listened to her own gut, or at least her sister's, none of this shit would have been a problem. 

As Kanna stares blankly over the infant she's holding, Kikyou thinks about how he was tracking a completely DIFFERENT presence all the way here. She clearly isn't going to let this opportunity go to waste, aiming an arrow at Kanna and the baby. But she shoots a glance into her periphery just as a strike comes down from the sky and explodes the earth at her feet, forcing her to leap away. 

Gee, I wonder where YOU'VE been all this time. 

Kikyou identifies Moryoumaru as the one she'd been tracking to begin with, the evil presence that guided her here, and points her arrow at HIM instead. Moryoumaru sees this and his body breaks up into curls of disconnected flesh so the arrow sails straight through it. Kikyou notices that there are spheres that the flesh is rotating around, and recognizes them as haku after a moment's squint. 

A coordinated swarm of the flesh slams into the ground, and again, Kikyou has to jump backward. While she draws another arrow, she sees Kanna's form fleeing the scene through a cloud of dust. She yells at Kanna that she won't get away, firing the arrow. 

Oops! Infants can survive a fall from a cliff, right? 

Kikyou curses and runs to the edge of the cliff, as Kanna is caught by one of the pieces of flesh from Moryoumaru's cloud. By the time she kneels to peer down into the chasm below, Kanna and the infant have disappeared. She notes that not only has she lost sight of those two, but the evil presence as well. Observant as she is, Kikyou recalls the jewel that the infant was carrying when she saw him, and what Inuyasha related to her about Naraku getting ahold of a stone that erases youki. She puts two and two together, identifying that stone as the Fuuyouheki, but she does wonder if she just came across the heart that was supposed to be protected by the stone's youki-erasing powers by accident. It DOES seem awfully coincidental, doesn't it? 

Cut to Kaede's village, long time, no see. Kaede enters her home announcing that she's boiled some herbs.

I'd say it'll leave some nasty scars, but I don't know if RT could remember them at all beyond this point, let alone draw them with any consistency when relevant. 

Kaede asks Sango in the background how Miroku is doing, and Sango tears her eyes away from him to confirm that he doesn't seem to have shaken off the Saimyoushou poison quite yet. Inuyasha being missing, Kagome asks where he is, and Kaede looks over toward the mat hanging over her door, saying that he seems to be brooding sullenly about something out there. It's not clear if they can see him sitting hunched on the fence from where they are, but we're shown the image anyway.

Shippou suggests that Inuyasha might be worried about how he lost to the corruption of the Shikon shard, which looks like it's news to KAEDE, because she's shocked by this information. Wow, you guys told her damn near NOTHING, huh? Kagome admits this is the case, but adds that they were all saved because of it. Shippou corrects the oversimplification, crediting Kagome with jumping in to purify the fragment so Inuyasha didn't turn full youkai and lose himself. She hangs her head in melancholy as she acknowledges this is true. 

What would you know about it? What are you, like six? 

Inuyasha doesn't even bother with the sarcastic response that I would go for, opting instead for his usual whack to Shippou's head as he requests Kagome come out and hang with him a bit. She makes a confused noise, but it's not long before they're outside and Kagome is asking him what's up.

Oh, that won't matter a lick to the foot fetishists now drooling over this chapter.

Kagome doesn't answer his question, just says his name. He sighs and hangs his head, admitting the very thing that he hit Shippou for saying earlier: he has a long way to go. Toward what goal, I'm not certain, but there seems to be some agreement here that the journey is long. Inuyasha apologizes to Kagome for causing her to have a painful memory, if not the literal pain in her feet. It's a straightforward sorry, which is more than a lot of internet personalities are capable of, anyway. 

But Kagome assures him that this isn't true at all, and that it was because he was there that any of them survived at all. Of course, they wouldn't have been IN the oni stomach to begin with if he weren't there either, but we'll gloss over that. Kagome adds that she was actually really happy in the moment that he asked for her support for just a little longer, because she was glad to be by his side. It's Inuyasha's turn to say her name in a trailing statement. 

Awwwww! So sweet! 

Isn't this SO MUCH BETTER than watching them have the same fight over and over again???

Cut to yet another remote building perched precariously on the side of a mountain. This one looks a bit bigger than the one Hakudoushi was hanging out in, and stands out against the bare rock, not a tree or bush in sight. Inside, Kagura is descending a set of L-shaped stairs, a healthy distance between her and Naraku. He seems to be leading her somewhere, and on some sparse information, because after a moody pause she asks him what this "important job" he's mentioned to her is. 

Naraku looks up over his shoulder at her, accusing her in no uncertain terms of poking around too much, and asking her what it is she's even looking for. OH SHIT, no more coy bullshit, he's just flat out telling her he's noticed her sticking her nose where he doesn't want it. Though the exclamation point in her speech bubble implies that she's shocked, her expression remains on the more irritated and defiant side. Inside, she's freaking out in disbelief that he might have noticed she's searching for his heart. NO, YOU THINK??? 

She's not saying anything out loud, though, so he continues without her answer, suggesting that she just wants to find things out because she doesn't know anything. Typical harmless curiosity, no biggie. He says this is why he'll put some IMPORTANT work in front of her. He's led her into a dark dungeon built into the side of the mountain, where metal grate is set into an opening leading into another roughly carved chamber off to the side. Sweatdropping, Kagura recognizes the same Rakan statues that were on Goryoumaru's temple grounds sitting outside the grate. 

So he's not in a grave anymore, and not out there flying around as Moryoumaru. What's the DEAL with this dude?

Kagura is SURE that Goryoumaru's head was cut off, but here he is, head still attached and laying there in a cell. 

My dude, did you think this would make her LESS curious?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Well here we are! Right at the point where the first anime ended, having caught up to the manga yet again and not being prepared to produce even more filler content while canon material built back up. This was quite the place to do that, because this arc has been difficult to parse, and I think a lot of viewers of the show might have been left scratching their heads rather than anticipating a possible sequel series. It's a cliffhanger, but in more a confusing, frustrating way. Not only has the series itself become more repetitive and homogenized, but there's this sense that no explanation for the latest events will be truly satisfying because the pieces just don't make a lot of sense altogether. 

For example, the supposedly human and totally innocent of knowing shit about Naraku Goryoumaru showing up in a prison with his head attached firmly to his body, no new scar to speak of, just increases my bafflement. Trying to reconcile that with the state he was in before and the information we had at that time is futile in my case. That's not to say that a good explanation CAN'T exist, but if it does, it's extremely opaque. That alone might persuade a lot of viewers against coming back if things are going to be so oddly murky. 

It also brings up some questions that seem to be glossed over within the chapter. For instance, how long has Kikyou been following around Moryoumaru? Has she been at it for this whole arc? Is that why she and Moryoumaru have been sort of MIA this whole time? Otherwise I would have expected Kikyou to be drawn instead to that creepy temple and Goryoumaru. And yet, there is no indication from Naraku or Hakudoushi that Moryoumaru (and thus Kanna and the infant) was being pursued by Kikyou. In fact, the only concern that they discuss is how Kagura is being a nosy Parker and how to deal with that. 

How appointing her Goryoumaru's warden is supposed to solve this problem, I have no idea. I feel like Naraku is losing his touch a bit. 

I will say that it was nice to see Inuyasha and Kagome at last able to have a conversation that isn't dripping with resentment and jealousy. No doubt that's because Kikyou wasn't involved in this incident, so it was a little easier for Inuyasha and Kagome to talk about what happened without slinging blame around. On the contrary, Inuyasha puts all the blame on himself for the incident, which isn't exactly WRONG, given he led them into the situation in the first place. Of course, since none of the rest of the group challenged his reckless leadership and asked for a slow-down so they could think for a second whether it was really the best idea to fly into a giant mouth is an important factor in this as well...

Inuyasha taking responsibility for this incident isn't necessarily bad, but I do worry about his and Shippou's statements that "he has a long way to go". In the context, the implication is that the goal is for Inuyasha to be stong and capable enough to single-handedly get them out of any emergency situation. That's an awful lot of pressure to put on a SINGLE member of their team, and kind of goes against what he's been learning about the benefits of having friends this whole time. 

Which is why I hope he's listening closely to Kagome when she says she was happy to be able to offer him support. She's not just saying that it was a pleasure to help. It was a pleasure to be there so that he could draw on her strength where his was lacking. That's the point of having relationships, because NO ONE can do everything themselves and they are going to need help when the gaps in their abilities show up. 

Inuyasha has spent a long time believing that he had to do everything for himself and refuse reliance on others, so his habit is to assume that if he wasn't able to solve a problem alone, he's still not good enough. There's probably also an element in there of the guilt over Kikyou's death, seeing it as his failure to save her from Naraku. It's helpful to have Kagome around, demonstrating support, reliability, trust, and respect, so that he can slowly start to understand personal strength can always be supplemented by great connections and teamwork. 

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.