manga

Note: This book recounts what happened so far in the story as well as gives a brief description of the main characters.

The wolves from the previous vol are after Shippo! He uses some kitsune magic on them & manages to get in the well to hide. He falls on the floor & drops the jewel shard. Kagome senses it. She runs back to the well thinking Inu's in trouble but sees nothing & leaves. Meanwhile he is! He tries to battle on but is just not as powerful as he normally is. Kaede wishes Kagome were here. Inu's like too bad she's not here & not coming back! Meanwhile Kagome spends her date thinking about Inu. Hojo(gosh he's clueless!) thinks she's in pain & trying to be brave! Anyways Kagome leaves & hightails it back home to the well. She digs around trying to figure out what's wrong & why she can feel the jewel! Meanwhile Shippo's in big trouble as the wolves find him! Anyways Kagome still trying to get back to the feudal era. She digs a little more & finds the shard & is back! Shippo is happy & Inu pauses in battle long enough to say he smells Kagome!

Now Inu is sure Kagome's here. He can't figure out how she did it either. Anyways suddenly he can battle like he has never had before. He almost finishes off Royakan, but leaves to go find Kagome first. Meanwhile Kagome & Shippo are still down at the bottom of the well. A wolf demon tries to get in but Inu pulls out the tree & the wolf with it scaring Kagome. Anyways he stuffs the tree down Royakan's throat & Kagome is very happy to see him. She launches herself into his arms! There's some sweet reunion moments that wind up turning into a fight as usual! Anyways Kaede & Miroku find it odd that the wasps have disappeared. It turns out Naraku is watching from behind some trees & he's very intrigued by Kagome. He thinks she's Kikyo too & he wonders why he never saw her before when he knows everything that's going on. Then Kagome senses him, or rather his jewel shards. Inu finds him & that's how they come face to face with ol' baboon-boy. Anyways Inu asks him what he has against him & he starts to tell him.

It starts off with inu asking Naraku why he hates him so much & Naraku starting to tell him. Then Naraku notices Kaede & She realizes he's Onigumo. Naraku tells them that's true & it was thanks to Kikyo he, Naraku was born. Naraku claims Kikyo's powers grew weaker back then by the day & he taunts Inu by asking him if he wants to know why. He tells him it was because Kikyo fell in love with a worthless half-demon & sunk to the level of an ordinary woman. He goes to say that Onigumo held base desires for Kikyo. Because he was paralyzed he lay & his thoughts simmered and grew until they call forth some demons & Onigumo gave up that body to become the demon Naraku! This is because he wanted the jewel as well as Kikyo! He goes to tell Inu that he went after them so that their hatred for each other would taint the jewel. All that was left to really taint the jewel was for Kikyo to choose her life over death & she chose instead to take the jewel with her in death. Inu wonders why she dies & Kagome realizes it was because she wanted to follow him in death. So Naraku hurls a few insults about Inu & Kikyo & ticks off Inu. Inu goes after Naraku & he rips off his baboon pelt. We see a figure hiding under the remains of the fur as it leaps up into the air. Even Miroku tries to get in a few hits as the figure comes down. Then we see his face slowly revealed in shadow. Naraku then insults before Inu buts in & goes after him. That unleashes a poisonous gas that starts melting everything it touches. Kagome worries about Inu who vows Naraku won't get away!

Inu's still in the middle of the gas & everyone stands around watching as he goes after Naraku. Naraku thinks he's killed Inu & is very surprised to find out he hasn't! They battle & As Naraku gets away Inu rips his jacket & we see a bit of a spider-shaped burn mark on his back. Then Naraku is gone. Everyone's happy Inu is alive & he stands they thinking out the burn mark he saw. After Miroku & Kaede discuss it, they feel it's the last remaining part of Onigumo. Then Royakan makes a noise & everyone looks as he starts screaming about his head. Kagome reaches out to touch it & Inu stops her as he's worried she's get killed. But she's not worried & offers to help him. Which she does & Royakan leaves. Inu's not happy about it. Anyways later on Inu's up a tree vowing to hunt Naraku down & destroy him so he can avenge Kikyo's death. Poor Kagome is a bit sad that Inu's thinking about Kikyo. She starts to leave & he asks her if she's coming back again. She's like what's with him & he's like well it's better if you were far away from here. Then he tells her he felt inspired when she came back, & he really wants her to stay. Meanwhile in another part of Feudal Japan....Two monks are out looking for eerie presences & they find out that there's a priestess who's been keeping they area free of all that. Then we see a shot of Kikyo with some children and they are gathering herbs. We then see a close up of Kikyo & a smaller inset of the monk realizing she's not human.

So Kikyo is living in this village & she'd's been passing on her knowledge of herb lore to some children. The Monks come up to them & they talk. the head monk has a way to expose the fact Kikyo isn't human & he drops a sacred sutra scroll 7 asks Kikyo to pick it up for him. He's surprised when she can and as he takes it from her he's shot with light. No one else saw anything unusual. He's amazed to find the scroll has all it's writing removed. Then Kikyo leaves with the children. He calls out to her to go back to the realm of the dead. The kids think he's crazy. Kikyo thinks about what he said & is distracted by it. She then talks to a cute little girl & tells her she's like a sister to her. Poor Kikyo has now realized she has to leave this place. Meanwhile the gang is at a castle where they are watching over the body of a dead princess. Miroku as usual is out to "save" the sister so Inu & Kagome are stuck with the body. They talk & as she's creeped out Kagome moves closer & closer until she's practically sitting on Inu's lap. He's like what do want? & She's like I'm creeped out, ok! This starts another one of their fights. Then a quick shot of Miroku trying to get away from the sister as she's not as pretty as the dead one. Then it's back to Inu & Kagome & suddenly the dead princess' body gets up & Kagome's totally lost it! A strange demon has stolen her soul. Inu kills it & the princess goes back to being dead again. Then Kagome senses there are more of those demons outside. Everyone rushes to look. Meanwhile the little girl wakes up to find Kikyo gone. So she follows her & she's there with the souls of all the dead girls.

Sayo, the little girl Kikyo befriended witnesses the battle between Kikyo & The monk. She sees the monk die and then when Kikyo finds her, she gets all frightened of her too. So Kikyo just up & leaves. The next day Kagome is all fired up & ready to go save some lost souls. Inu is like well there's no jewel shard involved so why bother? So they argue a bit before Kagome spots the apprentice monk in the stream that they're all sitting by. They fish him out & he freaks when he sees Kagome. He thinks she's Kikyo! Inu gets mad but Kagome tells him they have to go find out for sure. Inu then gets mad & tells everyone he has to find out by himself.

Flashback of Inu's last meeting with Kikyo, where she fell off the cliff. Meanwhile Kagome & Miroku are talking about Inu going off by himself. Shippo is also there & he & Miroku talk about Inu going off & they wind up with an icy stare from Kagome. Then she gets annoyed at Inu the more she thinks about it. As they are all walking along they see the soul stealers & they go after them. Miroku & Shippo are stopped by a shield, but Kagome gets through & she goes on thinking the guys are with her. She looks around finds them gone & then falls down the hill. When she comes to a stop she looks up to see Kikyo sleeping in a tree. Kagome goes over to her & she thinks Kikyo looks prettier than her. Then Kikyo wakes up & startles Kagome. They talk & Kikyo wonders where Inu is. Kagome tells her that Inu is looking for her. Kikyo asks what Kagome is to Inu. Kikyo then touches Kagome's forehead & Kagome can't move. It seems she's planning something as she tells Kagome Inu is there.

There's a pic of Kikyo telling Inu she can't rest until he's dead. & he can't rest until she's free. Meanwhile Kagome is bound to a tree by the soul stealers. She can't move or do anything. Still Kagome wants to know what Kikyo's intentions are even if it means she'll wind up loosing Inu. Inu comes closer & he can't see Kagome at all, so he talks to Kikyo. Poor Kagome hears Inu tell Kikyo that he never stopped thinking about her, even if she hates him. Kagome is sad and somewhat confused about what's going on with Inu. She freaks when she hears INu tell Kikyo he doesn't find her disgusting at all. Tender scenes of Kikyo touching Inu's cheek. Poor Kagome is like get out of here now Inu! Then Kikyo kisses him & Kagome is like all undone. She thought Kikyo wanted to kill Inu & now it seems like she wants to pick up their relationship where it left off. Poor Kagome feels like an idiot. But Kikyo really was planning something & the ground beneath them opens up & they slowy sink in. Kagome tries to cry out & save him.

Meanwhile Kikyo is dragging Inu down to hell . Then Kagome calls out to him to run away. He's like under a spell & can't move So she yells at Kikyo. She tells Kikyo that Inu is not her enemy, Naraku is. So Kikyo tells her to be quiet. Kikyo tells her that vengeance alone won't bring her back. She goes back to kissing Inu. Kagome has had enough by now & Tells her to get her hands off him! That breaks the spell. Meanwhile Miroku & Shippo notice the souls are escaping. Then Kikyo tries again to take Inu to hell, but is stopped by Kagome telling Inu to wake up! Finally he hears her & wakes up. He runs to help Kagome. Kikyo can't believe it. Then Inu notices she's there too. Kikyo asks him if Kagome is more precious to him than her. He's like a bit confused & she floats away telling him there was no lie in her kiss which makes Kagome very angry. She yells at him. Then gets a "sit" & she leaves. Then the guys find him & asks what happened. Meanwhile Kikyo has gone to see her sister Kaede.

Kikyo & Kaede talk about Kagome & Naraku. Meanwhile Kagome thinks about what just happened. Menawhile the guys follow & ask Inu what happened. So Inu tells Miroku he did what he does all the time with women. Miroku is like disgusted that he would do that in front of Kagome.(They're talking about two different things) Then Kagome yells at Inu that she hates him. The guys talk. Meanwhile Kaede & Kikyo are still talking. Kikyo noticed that Inu has changed. She's annoyed that it was Kagome who changed him & she leaves. Then we see Inu trying to explain things to Kagome & it starts a fight. She's amazed that he's two timing her. Then he tells her he feels responsible for what happened to Kikyo. So she asks him a final question. She wants to know if she's just a replacement for Kikyo. He tries to answer her. He's amazed she's willing to stay with him after that. So when he goes to answer her he gets mad to find she fell asleep!