Thanks to Ear-Tweak for the scans.

Chapter 446

Within Mouryoumaru, Naraku faces off with the baby that is his heart. Naraku’s Heart does an attack, but it doesn’t harm Naraku and prompts him to ask why the baby didn’t realize Mouryoumaru was being consumed from the inside.

As Kagome and Inuyasha pursue Mouryoumaru, Kouga is still trapped in the tendrils, unable to move due to Midoriko’s will.

Within Mouryoumaru, Naraku forms a hand but cannot penetrate the baby’s barrier. Naraku simply uses the power of tree Youmeiju to overcome the barrier. The baby, in response, sends more spears into Naraku’s face. Mouryoumaru’s armor opens and the baby can now be seen. Inuyasha takes the opportunity to launch a Kongousouha attack. Mouryoumaru defends against the attack.

Naraku and the baby again square off with words — Naraku asking if the baby would indeed leave the safety of Mouryoumaru and surely be killed to get away from him and Naraku’s Heart asking if Naraku is prepared to join him in death. As they do this, Kouga unleashes a Goraishi attack, which results in a release of shouki. Naraku decides to speed up devouring Kouga as Kagome fires an arrow to purify the shouki.

Naraku, controlling Mouryoumaru, launches attacks at Inuyasha and Kagome riding on Kirara. Inuyasha and Kagome are knocked off Kirara as the attacks continue. Then, Mouryoumaru’s face splits open to reveal Naraku’s face. As Naraku shows his triumphant face, Kouga and the baby are about to be consumed.

Chapter 447

Naraku shows off his new body, leading to the usual, “I knew he was alive” remarks. He then consumes the baby and then turns his attention to consuming Kouga. Kouga is unable to move due to Midoriko’s will, recalls his ancestors telling him that the Shikon shards were being controlled by another and that they’d protect him but only once. Kagome mounts Kirara and moves to get closer to Kouga-kun to keep a promise to Kikyou.

Meanwhile, Kikyou and Kohaku arrive at the scene of the battle where Kikyou senses that the spirits that were supposed to protect Kouga are being overcome by Naraku’s jyaki. She observes Kagome moving in to fire an arrow to purify the “arm” holding Kouga. The attack appears to do no damage and Kouga finds himself looking inside Naraku, where he sees the baby, still surrounded by a barrier, but with large vessels going through the barrier and connecting it to Naraku as a whole.

Kouga decides to launch an attack and despite the shouki being released by Naraku, Kouga finds he isn’t being overcome by the poison gas. The attack forces Naraku to move the baby away from Kouga to where it can be seen outside his body. At that time, the Yourouzoku spirits emerge from Naraku in the form of giant wolves with Kouga coming out with them. Kagome’s attack had fueled them to be able to overcome Naraku’s jyaki.

Kouga hits the ground and moves to attack. Inuyasha and Miroku also take up attack positions with Miroku doing his Kazaana attack.

Chapter 448

As Miroku does the Kazaana, sucking in things all around, Naraku releases massive amounts of Shouki for him to suck in. Despite Sango’s please, Miroku is determined to end this here and now. Despite the damage he’s taking, Miroku keeps the Kazaana open and Naraku realizes that he’s attempting to suck in his heart. The Fuyouheki from the baby appears to be pulled into Miroku’s hand before Inuyasha puts an end to it by closing the Kazaana. Naraku mocks Inuyasha for being sentimental and missing an opportunity to defeat him before fleeing the battle in a cloud of shouki.

Sango rushes to Miroku’s side, who’s injured very badly. Kagome realizes that he did this for Sango’s sake and to hopefully save Kohaku’s life. Kikyou arrives at Miroku’s side where she observes his wounds, the shouki wounds taking the form of spider legs in appearance. Sango asks if Kikyou can help, and she agrees to purify Miroku’s wounds. However, it will take three days to purify him.

At an abandoned house in the country, Kikyou does her work on Miroku. She takes the shouki from Miroku’s body into her own to purify it, causing herself some damage in the process. Sango wonders why Kikyou would do this to help Miroku and Kikyou finishes her thought by stating her own plan to sacrifice Kohaku to kill Naraku.

Outside, Kagome looks to Kouga’s wounds. He acknowledges her actions saved his life in his flirty way, but this doesn’t draw the normal jealous response from Inuyasha. Instead, he asks Kouga to give them the Shikon shards. Kouga responds that Kikyou had also asked for his shards, which seemed to surprise Inuyasha and Kagome.

Later, as Sango and Shippou-chan sleep, Miroku comes to and talks with Kikyou. She’s purified the shouki within him, but the wounds to his Kazaana could not be fixed and thus his Kazaana will soon consume him. He knows this and requests that Kikyou not tell the others, which she agrees to.

Thoughts

Well, things go pretty much as expected — Naraku appears, seems in danger, gets out of danger, and escapes. The only item of real interest to me was that Takahashi-sensei decided to re-introduce the danger of Miroku’s Kazaana and the fact that it will kill him. I don’t remember how long it has been since that danger was addressed, but its been a while.