Thanks to Ear-Tweak for the scans.

Chapter 429

Inuyasha flees with Kagome on his back. Kagome notes that the villagers still appear as youkai and Inuyasha notes that the seals on Tessaiga are still there. Inuyasha catches the same scent as the snake youkai — the smell from the incense burner. The smell is coming from under the bridge where Yourei-Taisei’s home is.

They find Yourei-Taisei, who appears to be dead. Another youkai appears in the shadows, saying that the snake youkai simply bought him time to absorb Yourei-Taisei’s inwards. This bull youkai explains that because Inuyasha’s sword can absorb other youkai’s power, he couldn’t allow the sword to get any more powerful, nor allow Yourei-Taisei to train Inuyasha.

The bull-youkai taunts Inuyasha because he can’t draw Tessaiga due to the seals still on the hilt. Inuyasha counters that he’ll be able to draw the sword since it was his fault that Yourei-Taisei died and he’ll avenge him. With that, the seals shatter and Inuyasha is able to draw Tessaiga. He can see the whirlpools of youki, one of which contains a real youketsu.

Meanwhile, Miroku comes to and finds Sango and Shippou. As the trio try to rush back to the scene of the battle, Miroku is concerned that something more is going on since they attack they suffered didn’t kill them.

Back at the battle, Inuyasha picks a youki pool and decides to attack.

Chapter 430

Inuyasha attacks the youketsu pool, but discovers that Tessaiga won’t cut it. So, Inuyasha decides to use Tessaiga to absorb the youkai powers. Unfortunately, Inuyasha is damaged when Tessaiga regurgitates the youki, which puzzles him. Kagome reflects on how Inuyasha had been able to control the backflow of youki but not against this current youkai. Inuyasha decides to press on.

Meanwhile, Sango and Miroku and Shippou arrive back at the battle. Miroku is surprised to see Yourei-Taisei and his appearance while Inuyasha decides to slice the bull youkai directly. However, this causes a backflow of youki which damages Inuyasha. The bull youkai mocks Inuyasha who keeps pressing his attack until he sees it is cracking. As Inuyasha thinks, he recalls Yourei-Taisei’s advice to not recklessly attack, but look for the youketsu. Inuyasha keeps working though the problem in his mind and discovers that the strongest scent of youki is coming from behind him.

He orders Kagome to drop the Yourei-Taisei as he turns his attention her way. The bull youkai attacks Inuyasha from the rear as Miroku tells Kagome to do as Inuyasha asks. She complies and Inuyasha can see the true youketsu. Knowing he has only one chance, Inuyasha attacks the true youketsu and and the bull youkai takes damage.

Chapter 431

As Inuyasha attacks the swirl of youki that is the true youketsu, the bull youkai dissolves and vanishes. Immediately, the world around them is cleared of the youki and Inuyasha collapses in exhaustion. Looking outside, the village returns to normal with people looking human again. The form of Yourei-Taisei speaks, and reveals that he’s not only dead, but shows his true form. Everything done had been an illusion with Inuyasha being tested to see if he could see true youki and ending with Inuyasha being able to properly use the Dragon-Scaled Tessaiga when he defeated the bull youkai.

Yourei-Taisei continues by stating that Tessaiga seems to be a sword that absorbs the powers of the youkai it cuts, but its ability to absorb youki comes from the Dragon-Scale form, which resulted from Tessaiga absorbing the youkai blade Dakki. With that, Yourei-Taisei gives a messages to Inuyasha from Toutousai — Tessaiga is a sword that cuts, period.

The discussion continues with Inuyasha confessing that his final attack on the true youketsu wasn’t because he truly understood that Tessaiga was a cutting sword, but one of desperation. With that, Inuyasha’s training is done, and wielding the sword, he sees that it is not cracked and full of Yourei-Taisei’s youki. Inuyasha is grateful for the training and Yourei-Taisei quietly reflects that Inuyasha will have to discover the final form of Dragon-Scaled Tessaiga for himself.

Chapter 432

Inuyasha and company are on the road again, talking with people talking about some recent attacks. Inuyasha determines that the attacks came from Yourouzoku wolves (the same as Kouga and his tribe — a wolf youkai tribe).

The Yourouzoku tribe is on the move with their youkai wolves and humanoid youkai. A young cute child of the tribe, Shinta, calls for his “An-chan” — his older brother Kai, who appears about 10. As the tribe moves, filled only with elderly children, they reflect on the current dire situation. Kai listens and the talk shifts briefly to the powerful Yourouzoku leader of the east named Kouga. The tribe comes under attack by a giant youkai badger creature who slaughters all of them save for Kai and the precious little Shinta. Kai attempts to protect Shinta, but the giant youkai moves in for the kill.

Eventually, Inuyasha and company arrive at the scene of the attack too late to do anything. Inuyasha detects the faint scent of Naraku. Meanwhile Kouga and his small band of Yourouzoku are on the move at high speed. Despite their great speed, Kouga detects another force moving toward them at high speed and they come under attack. An injured Kai has launched the attack. He accuses Kouga of being the reason his tribe came under attack and states that he’ll be taking the Shikon fragments. He attacks again while we see an image of the giant youkai taking Shinta away.

Thoughts

The whole “train Inuyasha to use Tessaiga” story was pretty much nothing we hadn’t seen before (only in different form) and another of Takahashi-sensei’s “lather-rinse-repeat” pattern. If you didn’t know that everything in the story was for training Inuyasha, you must be at the younger age of the target audience.

The start of the new story brings back Kouga. Guess what? Naraku appears to have started another plan and Kouga will constantly have his shards in danger of being taken. He’ll flirt with Kagome, Inuyasha will get annoyed, they’ll team up and fight the villain, and maybe even see Naraku before Naraku gets away.