犬夜叉 Volume 53

Chapter 519: Kagome dreams she took the high school entrance exam and failed. When she awakens, she’s at Kaede’s village along with Inuyasha and the others. Kohaku is still unconscious, so Kagome tries to purify it but fails as Magatsuhi has sealed her powers. Outside the cabin, Toutousai constructs a sheath for Sesshoumaru’s sword, Bakusaiga. Sesshoumaru goes to leave, but Rin stops him, asking to wait until Kohaku awakens. Sesshoumaru states that Kohaku will be staying behind as will Rin and Jaken, which to Rin means that Sesshoumaru will return as he always has. As Toutousai says, only Sesshoumaru can kill Magatsuhi. Meanwhile, Kagome deals with the sealing of her abilities as Inuyasha comforts her while Naraku figures on what Magatsuhi’s next move will be.

Chapter 520: Its been 10 days since Kagome discovered her powers were sealed and she returned to the modern times to study for her high school entrance exam. Inuyasha hadn’t bothered her, for which she was thankful but after she leaves to take the test, he shows up to take her back. Learning from her family that she’s gone, he tracks her to the train station, where he has to “osuwari” him so that she can get on the train. Others assume he’s a bad cosplayer and ignore him. She’s not happy and determined not to let him interfere and he’s determined to get her to the past. She loses her bag as she gets off the train so Inuyasha, who’d tailed her, tracks the train. He’s going to blast it apart but Kagome has to “osuwari” him again. He retrieves the bag for her, but no exam pass. Her mother shows up with the pass and Inuyasha promise to wait for her to finish the exam as Kagome’s mother makes him wear a scarf over his head to cover his youkai dog ears.

Chapter 521: Sesshoumaru is on the hunt for Magatsuhi and finds Byakuya, who’s confused by Sesshoumaru now having an arm. Magatsuhi appears, but when Sesshoumaru cuts it with Tenseiga, nothing happens. That’s because it is an illusion from Byakuya. Back at Kaede’s village, a cloud of low-level youkai attack, forcing Miroku to use his Kazaana until Sango can help with her Hiraikotsu. Miroku quickly discovers the youkai attack is a diversion and returning to Kaede’s cabin, Magatsuhi (having recovered from Sesshoumaru’s previous attack) has possessed Kohaku in order to make the Shikon no Tama complete.

Chapter 522: Magatsuhi-Kohaku summons a swarm of low-level youkai who destroy Kaede’s house to take him away. Miroku activates his Kazaana to suck in Magatsuhi (sans Kohaku) but ends up damaging his Kazaana hole more. The Shikon shard allows Magatsuhi to recover but Miroku is also poisoned now. Magatsuhi-Kohaku attacks Sango and when Rin comes to stop Kohaku, she’s knocked out by the aura from Magatsuhi and Magatsuhi-Kohaku escapes. Inuyasha and Kagome come upon the ruined cabin where Inuyasha discovers not only that the shouki wound is near Miroku’s heart, but his Kazaana hole is leaking. Meanwhile, Sesshoumaru finds he’s been tricked by Byakuya.

Chapter 523: Byakuya figures to restrain Sesshoumaru by summoning a few thousand youkai, but Sesshoumaru kills them all instantly with the Bakusaiga. At Kaede’s village, Miroku and Rin are unconscious. Sango gears up to follow Inuyasha and Kagome. She returns to the shed where Miroku and Rin are along with Jaken and Kaede. Kaede and Sango talk for a bit about things before Kaede takes Rin and Jaken out to let Sango be alone with Miroku, where she kisses him. Meanwhile, Inuyasha and Kagome arrive in time to prevent Naraku from taking the final shard. Kagome attempts to purify Kohaku’s shard with a Hama no Ya (purifying arrow) but fails, to which Magatsuhi reminds her that her powers are sealed. Naraku announces the Shikon no Tama will soon be complete, which Inuyasha rejects.

Chapter 524: Inuyasha and Kagome try to get Kohaku to “wake up” as they learn that he’s currently reliving the nightmare of when he slew his family and fellow youkai hunters while under Naraku’s control. Sango arrives to aid with this and Kohaku can hear her in the nightmare. They wonder about Kikyou’s purifying light while Kohaku manages to escape the nightmare to see where his sister is kneeling by the injured Miroku’s side before turning to Kohaku to ask for his help, not only for herself, but for Miroku’s sake as well. The image of Sango assures Kohaku he can do it, which causes him to wake up.

Chapter 525: Kagome discovers that the light from Kikyou has moved in Kohaku’s shard as Magatsuhi is astonished that Kohaku’s heart hasn’t shattered. Kohaku decides to let himself fall into the ravine below him to force Magatsuhi out, which works as Inuyasha leaps after Kohaku to save him. Naraku tries to grab the boy as well, forcing Inuyasha to use the Meidou Zangetsuha attack into the youkai cloud-mass that contains Naraku. Naraku isn’t dead and soon has the boy. Magatsuhi proclaims that Inuyasha and company have lost but Sesshoumaru arrives on the scene.

Chapter 526: Sesshoumaru uses Bakusaiga to destroy a large part of the mass of Naraku, then uses Tenseiga to attack Magatsuhi, who flees. Sango has a bad feeling about this and reports to Sesshoumaru that both Rin and Miroku are out because of Magatsuhi. Sesshoumaru understands what this means and immediately leaves as Miroku’s body is covered in an evil aura in Kaede’s village. Sango urges the others to return to the village as well, but Naraku appears and captures Kagome. She is able to sense where the Shikon no Tama is and reports it to the others before Naraku makes her unconscious. He erects a barrier as Kohaku senses something in his shard.

Chapter 527: With Kagome out and held by Naraku, Inuyasha can’t do anything that would risk her life. However, Sango feels that she can attack with the Hiraikotsu and its anti-Jyaki ability. Naraku drops his barrier to allow her attack to succeed, but the Shikon no Tama is in an impenetrable armor shell, thanks to the consumed youkai Meioujuu. After some posturing on Naraku’s part, Kohaku notices that one of Kagome’s arrows is glowing and makes as if he’s fleeing at Inuyasha’s request. As Kagome is being sucked into Naraku, Kohaku surrenders to Naraku for the promise that Kagome won’t be killed. Now captured, Kohaku takes the arrow he retrieved and stabs the shell holding the Shikon no Tama.

Chapter 528: Kohaku’s attack, strengthened by Kikyou’s pure light, forces Naraku to release him lest Naraku be destroyed. Inuyasha frees Kagome, with the remains of Naraku fleeing into a cloud. Sango comes to rescue Kohaku, telling him its OK to live. Just as Kohaku is coming to terms with things, a piece of Naraku’s broken body forces the Shikon no Tama shard out of Kohaku’s body to the cloud, leaving Kohaku to fall to the ground. Meanwhile back at Kaede’s village, Miroku is suddenly well as the evil aura has left him, making him think it was too good to be true. Rin has also recovered, but as Jaken soon discovers, it is she who is possessed and a low-level youkai takes her away.

Thoughts: Sesshoumaru leaving Rin, Kohaku, and Jaken in Inuyasha’s care said a lot to me. There’s some more progress on his part as I see it. He trusts Inuyasha to take care of his “children” if you will.

Chapter 520 made me giggle. Its been a while since an Inuyasha chapter made me laugh at all. There’s just something about Inuyasha about to attack a train that just made me laugh (to say nothing of Kagome’s reaction to it).

The rest of the story arc makes it seem as if Takahashi-sensei is trying to wrap things up and maybe she is. I admit, Sango kissing Miroku was a nice touch, but if kinda says to me, “we are nearing the end.” That said, I know there are nearly two more volumes of manga after this, so maybe Takahashi-sensei will wrap it up by year’s end.