Inuyasha Volume 49 SPOILERS

Thanks to Freelance for the scans.

Chapter 479:

Inuyasha (in youkai form) continues battling the mirror creature of Kanna even though he and his group knows his attacks are harming her. They plead with Kanna to stop but she does not, pressing on with her attacks. Byakuya and Naraku find this absurd because to them, Kanna is an emotionless thing. Inuyasha’s attacks cause Kanna to lose limbs but she doesn’t stop. Ultimately, Tessaiga meets the mirror creature’s sword and power flows into Inuyasha, causing him to return to hanyou form. This leave Kagome and Inuyasha facing the severely wounded Kanna and mirror creature.

Chapter 480:

With the battle over, Tessaiga looks normal. Inuyasha sheaths the sword and he and Kagome plead with Kanna to leave. Naraku will have none of that and orders Kanna take out Inuyasha’s group in a suicide attack. Kagome tells Kanna she’s free which seems to touch her. However, she obeys Naraku and has the mirror creature explode and send shards everywhere. A shard gets in Kagome’s eye and Kanna is able to pass a message to Kagome — the light in the Shikon no Tama will destroy Naraku. Kanna is apparently destroyed and Naraku didn’t get his wish. All that’s left is her mirror and Kagome vows to hold what was in Kanna’s heart since she knows Kanna didn’t want to die.

Chapter 481:

A lone bandit in the middle of the night is beset upon by a woman who takes his skeleton. Inuyasha and company come upon the body later. At a nearby village, they learn there have been other such attacks. As it is a full moon, Inuyasha is in human form and so can do nothing and is kept company with Kagome. Inuyasha remarks on Miroku’s condition.

Elsewhere, Miroku and Sango are hunting the bone stealer and Sango is also concerned for Miroko’s health (relating the the Kazaana). He lies to re-assure her. The two see a woman with a bone ox drawing a cart full of skeletons. Some wild dogs attack the woman and she extracts one of their skeletons. Sango attacks the youkai woman with her Hiraikotsu, and the youkai flees, happy about the discovery of Hiraikotsu and its wonderful bone.

Chapter 482:

Sango and Miroku follow a bone trail and come to a Japanese mansion. An attractive human woman states that a youkai has taken her form and she’s the only one left as the youkai killed her family for their bones. Miroku notices the youkai presence in the next room and a giant bone youkai knocks down the paper divider walls to reveal itself. The bone youkai catches Hiraikotsu in the fight that ensues and Miroku is forced to use his Kazaana to rescue it. The bone youkai has damaged the Hiraikotsu and the girl attempts to comfort Miroku. Sango’s warns Miroku and the girl is repulsed by him and revealed to in fact be a youkai. The large bone youkai wants the consume the Kazaana to heal itself. As such, they’ve sealed Sango and Miroku in the mansion leaving Kirara to go to Inuyasha (still in human form) and Kagome.

Chapter 483:

Sango and Miroku attempt to escape the mansion as the bone youkai poisons the air. The female youkai causes human skeletons to attack. She tries to goad Sango into using the boomerang aspect of Hiraikotsu. The two are in desperate straights when Inuyasha, Kagome, and Shippou-chan arrive. Kagome breaks the barrier forcing the female youkai to encase Miroku and Kagome in a giant sphere of bone. She adapts her human female form and since Inuyasha is in human form, he can’t smell her as youkai. Kirara attacks and reveals the girl is the one stealing skeletons. Inuyasha and Kagome are caught and Miroku and Sango can’t escape their prison. The giant bone youkai causes the bone sphere with Miroku and Sango to come to him, planning on consuming the lot of them.

Chapter 484:

Miroku uses the Kazaana to allow them to escape out of the bone youkai. Miroku is hurt in doing this, but he damages the bone youkai in the process. The female youkai repairs her father and they demand the Hiraikotsu. Elsewhere, Shippou-chan rescues Inuyasha (still human) and Kagome while Sango attempts to bargain for Miroku’s life. The youkai won’t bargain since they’ll just kill them and take what they want. So Sango uses youkai-slaying poison on the Hiraikotsu and launches it at the bone youkai. It kills him but before his daughter can dispatch Miroku and Kango, Inuyasha bursts in, now a hanyou again, and kills her. However, Hiraikotsu is terribly damaged.

Chapter 485:

Inuyasha summons Toutousai out since humans can’t enter his mountain. Inuyasha wants him to fix Sango’s Hiraikotsu, but he can’t, nor can he make her a new weapon that would compare to what she had. The youkai flea Myouga arrives and states that there’s a youkai named Yakurou Dokusen who could fix it since he is a master of poisons and medicines. He leads them to where Yakurou Dokusen lives where they discover many, many barrels of sake. One barrel contains Yakurou Dokusen, whom Inuyasha extracts. He examines the remains of Hiraikotsu and refuses to repair it because it was purposefully damaged. Sango doesn’t deny it and suddenly Yakurou Dokusen changes his mind and decides to repair it.

Hiraikotsu is placed into one barrel where it melts as the poisons are extracted, but will be repaired when the poison turns to medicine. Sango must enter the 2nd barrel to battle youkai within and must do so before Hiraikotsu is completely dissolved in the other barrel. She agrees and enters the barrel, which amazingly is larger inside than out. She can breathe within the liquid and finds herself facing a large number of youkai.

Chapter 486:

Sango wields her sword to fight off the youkai so she can save Hiraikotsu, but discovers the sword won’t be enough. Outside, Inuyasha and company are worried and Yakurou Dokusen ends up tossing Inuyasha into one of the sake barrels. Myouga is in a bowl of sake and states he’s watching over Sango. Shippou-chan drinks some, gets drunk, and says he can see Sango. Inuyasha seems to confirm it as well, which Kagome doubts until Miroku explains it is magic sake. As Sango ponders her youkai opponents strange actions, Yakurou Dokusen notes Miroku’s condition in that he’s being eaten by poison. He offers to heal Miroku, if for no other reason than to keep Sango from damaging Hiraikotsu again to save him, should she succeed in her current task. Meanwhile Sango comes to realize her youkai opponents are all pieces of Hiraikotsu.

Chapter 487:

Sango and the youkai have a conversation where they demand to know why she poisoned them. Sango remembers her past when as a child in the youkai hunter village, she was given the Hiraikotsu. Hiraikotsu has been with her ever since and they want answers. Outside, Miroku is offered the drink but the potion won’t cure him, only allow him to use Kazaana without pain. Inuyasha comes up as he knows Miroku has been getting worse and demands to know what will happen to Sango if Miroku dies. For her part, Sango is being attacked by the youkai and when she asks to fight with Hiraikotsu again, they demand she never sacrifice them to protect a human. She cannot give this promise and the youkai vow to end their relationship with her. Miroku decides to take the potion despite what Inuyasha says because he wants to fight and protect Sango.

Chapter 488:

The Hiraikotsu youkai demand Sango give up Miroku and promise not to never do what she did again. She cannot and as she struggles, Miroku has drunk the potion and is fighting his own battle with life. Hiraikotsu’s youkai tell Sango that Miroku’s body is being eaty by shouki and because he will be a burden, she should give up on him. To do otherwise would be throwing her life away. She disagrees and wants them to lend the pair of them their power. The liquid in her jar begins to clear (also observed outside by Inuyasha and Kagome) and the youkai begin to dissolve. They do not understand love, but they have learned of Miroku’s resolution and his own struggle. Therefore, they will once again serve her and thus they reform as the boomerang Hiraikotsu. Miroku has also survived and the two go off together. Yakurou Dokusen reminds Inuyasha that Miroku has not been healed and the wound still exists.

Elsewhere, Sesshoumaru-sama gets a strange visitor.

Thoughts:

I decided to try to get “caught up” with current Inuyasha manga, and so did an entire volume. I’ll be doing that again.

Well, the end of Kanna seems to indicate that maybe Takahashi-sensei really is going to eventually end the series. It was tragic for Kanna, but she obeyed to the end. The bone-youkai story didn’t do much for me, but it was the perfect vehicle to allow Hiraikotsu to get a “version up” (as the Japanese would say). Maybe Sango can be a better fighter but we’ll see.