Book 14
Page 8
Panel 1
Close-up of Inuyasha as a child.
Houjou (offscreen): This is my life. I was born in the court of the great leader of the dog youkai, Inutaisho, near the end of the fifteenth century of the common era. Much of my early story you have seen. I was orphaned. I was cast out. I was hurt and reviled. I was used and manipulated.
Panel 2
Close-up of a scowling teenaged Inuyasha, similar pose.
By the time I had reached my teens, I hated humans almost as much as I hated myself. When I heard of the Shikon no Tama, the great jewel of power, I claimed it as mine.
Panel 3
Inuyasha, on a tree branch, looking down at Kikyou, who wears a quiver of arrows.
Kikyou: Sigh. And what do you want?
Panel 4:
Inuyasha announces to a dubious Kikyou.
Inuyasha: I am Inuyasha, son of the Inutaisho, most powerful of the high youkai. I have come to claim the Shikon no Tama.
Panel 5
Closeup of Kikyou. She's not impressed.
Kikyou: Indeed. Well, sit still a moment, Lord Inuyasha, while I get ready to shoot you.
Panel 6
Close-up of Kikyou. She is failing to suppress a smile.
Houjou (offscreen): She was hardly older than I was. She was pretty. I amused her. She seemed to me to be the coolest, most sophisticated woman I had ever seen. When I see her now, in my dreams, I am struck by how very young she was…
Panel 7
Inuyasha turns, startled, as Kikyou, armed with her bow, taps his shoulder.
Houjou (offscreen): For almost two years we matched wits. It became a game. It did not occur to me at the time that for a young girl of intelligence and spirit, a life like hers might seem as tedious and pointless as my own.
Panel 8
Close-up of a younger Kikyou—Kasumi's age, maybe.
She was 13 or 14 when she dedicated her life to the care of the Shikon no Tama. At the time, it must have seemed a great privilege.
Panel 9
Close-up of Kikyou, late teens, looking at a young man and woman in the background.
Houjou: (offscreen): When had she realized she was beautiful? When had she begun to understand the terrible implications of the burden she had accepted? No man, no human, would speak to her, except as a supplicant.
Page 9
Panel 1
View of Kikyou walking with the child Kaede.
Houjou (offscreen): Revered by all…a living saint in her village…worshipped even by her own sister.
Panel 2
Inuyasha, in background, looks over his shoulder at Kikyou, in the foreground.
Houjou (offscreen): She knew I was half human…knew I was weary of being…neither this nor that.
Panel 3
Close-up of Kikyou.
Houjou (offscreen): We were kindred spirits…both untouchable…both longing…to be touched…
Panel 4
Kikyou speaks to Inuyasha, by her side.
Houjou (offscreen): The idea was hers, but I jumped on it. Use the jewel to become a human, human and husband, and we would be together for the rest of our lives.
Panel 5
Close-up of Inuyasha.
Houjou (offscreen): She had never seen my human form. Never did see it, until the last moments of my life. That was one of my secrets she never knew…
Panel 6
View of Kikyou with Onigumo.
Houjou (offscreen): One of hers was that in a cave beyond the village she was caring for a wounded man. Another of her hopeless cases: the bandit Onigumo, who lay, hideously burned, dying, and lusting hopelessly after his benefactress.
Panel 7
Close-up of Onigumo.
Houjou (offscreen): These are the words of Miroku, courtesy of Mrs. Allison: "And the wild thief Onigumo so coveted the Lady Kikyou that he offered his body to any who would give him his way with her."
Panel 8
In the background, the youkai consume Onigumo. In the foreground is a smiling Naraku.
Houjou (offscreen): "But when he so opened himself, the hoard of daemons consumed him and joined together to form from his body the most evil and powerful shape-shifter Naraku…"
Panel 9
View of Kikyou, in shock, as she is torn apart by Naraku in Inuyasha's form.
Houjou (offscreen): We arranged to meet secretly outside the village, just as we had met secretly in the past, just as she had secretly tended Onigumo. On her way to the rendezvous, Kikyou was attacked and mortally wounded…
Page 10
Panel 1
View of Naraku in Inuyasha's form standing over the fallen Kikyou and holding the Shikon no Tama.
Houjou (offscreen): …by one she thought she knew…
Panel 2
Close-up of Inuyasha, with arrows heading toward him.
Houjou (offscreen): And I reached our appointed rendezvous…
Panel 3
Close-up of Inuyasha, an arrow embedded in the tree next to his head.
Houjou (offscreen): …to find that I had been…betrayed.
Panel 4
Wide view of Kikyou watching as Inuyasha is impaled by her arrow, and the Shikon no Tama on its chain (unbroken—this is flashback, not a dream sequence) flies from his hand.
Houjou (offscreen): I raged. I stole. I destroyed. And as my heart shattered, I saw everything I had longed for…everything I had dreamed of…fly from my grasp…
Panel 5
Close-up of Inuyasha, eyes closed, pinned to the tree.
Houjou (offscreen): …before my eyes…closed…
Page 11
Panel 1
Extreme Close-up of Inuyasha, smirking evilly.
Houjou (offscreen): …and then opened again. A moment later?
Panel 2
View of an angry, daemonic looking Inuyasha pinned to the tree, trying to raise his claws.
Houjou (offscreen): No. It was dark. Night had fallen. The bitch's arrow had pierced me in the morning light. But…I was alive! Somehow I had thwarted her evil plan. Except…her scent was returning. She was coming to finish me off, and I was half-sealed, helpless.
Panel 3
Close-up of Kagome, age 15, looking panicky as she runs from the centipede woman.
Houjou (offscreen): Suddenly she appeared, her face a beautiful sight…the picture of terror.
Panel 4
Close-up of Kagome, who has tripped and is beginning to pitch forward.
Houjou (offscreen): It seemed the bitch had overplayed her hand. I was to be avenged by a monster, by one of my own kind.
Panel 5
View from behind of Kagome falling forward, legs straight, skirt flying up, while Inuyasha, on the tree, looks on in the background.
Houjou (offscreen): I saw her tumble to the ground, and I had to ask myself…
Panel 6
Close-up of Inuyasha, looking surprised and interested.
Houjou (offscreen): When the hell had she grown those long legs??
Panel 7
Close-up of Inuyasha facing off with Kagome, both open-mouthed, yelling.
Houjou (offscreen): I taunted her. Insulted her. She shrieked into my face, insisting she was not Kikyou but something called "Kagome." And then…
Panel 8
Same view, but Inuyasha's mouth is closed, his expression dumbfounded.
Houjou (offscreen): I caught her scent. And the entire solar system realigned itself…to revolve around one name…Ka. Go. Me.
Page 12
Panel 1
View of Inuyasha (pinned to the tree) and Kagome, threatened by the Centipede Woman.
Houjou (offscreen): To understand my life—to understand my death…you must understand…that helpless as I was, I wanted desperately to save the girl…until the name of the Shikon no Tama drove all other lusts from my mind.
Panel 2
The centipede woman bites into Kagome’s side, as the pinned Inuyasha watches in the background.
Houjou (offscreen): When I dream of my great sins…and my sins are many, and I do dream of them, all the time…one of the things I dream of is my failure…
Panel 3
The same view, with the Centipede Woman pulling away from Kagome—except Inuyasha is now the bespectacled adult Houjou, Kagome is adult and nude, and the Centipede Woman pulls from her side her unborn baby, with trailing umbilical cord.
Houjou (offscreen): …to protect Kagome that day.
Panel 4
View of the adult Houjou, eyes wide but bleary, seated before his home computer, with the cats curled around the monitor.
Page 13
Panel 1
Houjou, in background, peers through their bedroom door at the sleeping Kagome. There is a Band-Aid on his left cheek where Sesshoumaru sliced him in Book 13.
Panel 2
Houjou, sitting on the bed beside the sleeping Kagome, pulls down the sheet to uncover her hip, where the Centipede Woman bit her.
Panel 3
Close-up: Houjou kisses Kagome’s hip, where she was bitten.
Panel 4
View of the two; Kagome has awakened and is sitting up.
Kagome: Hey.
Houjou: Hey.
Kagome: How’s the proposal going?
Houjou: Um…kind of slowly.
Kagome: You dozed off, didn’t you?
Houjou: Not really.
Kagome: Liar. I know you’ve been dreaming when you suddenly kiss my scar.
Panel 5
View of the two; Kagome hugs him.
Kagome: Come to bed.
Houjou: Can’t. I’ve got to finish this proposal. We need a new generator for the dig.
Kagome: You need to sleep. You’re still healing.
Panel 6
Houjou has stretched out the bed, with Kagome hugging him around the waist.
Houjou: I’m not really tired. Might just rest my eyes for a minute.
Panel 7
Houjou dozes off as Kagome reaches up to stroke his hair.
Houjou: Zzzzz…
Panel 8
Similar view, but now it is the sleeping—dead—Inuyasha on the tree, with the teenaged Kagome touching his (dog’s) ear.
Houjou (offscreen): That day…Kagome would tell you it was a dozen years ago. In the scheme of the universe, more than four centuries. I would say nearly a quarter of a century.
Panel 9
View of Inuyasha, awake and alert but still pinned to the tree, and Kagome, held to his side by the coils of the centipede.
Houjou (offscreen): I swear it wasn’t just a trick.
Inuyasha: This arrow. Can you pull it out?
Houjou (offscreen): I swear I wanted to save her. I swear I understood what it meant to the world…that power in the hands of a monster…although I did not yet see myself as a monster…
Page 14
Panel 1
View of Inuyasha, now free and striking out with his claws.
Houjou (offscreen): That day I awakened. I went to be transformed and married. I was betrayed. I raged. I was murdered. I revived. I killed a monster. And my anger and hurt unappeased, I attacked the first thing at hand…
Panel 2
View from Inuyasha’s POV of an angry Kagome, kneeling on the ground.
Houjou (offscreen): …a young girl, brave and kind, who reacted with outrage.
Panel 3
Another view of the kneeling Kagome. She is dodging him, and her skirt lifts up to reveal her underpants.
Houjou (offscreen): The face was so much like Kikyou. The temper was like a volcano.
Panel 4
A grinning Inuyasha pounces on a wary Kagome, whose short skirt still reveals her underthings.
Houjou (offscreen): And those long, long legs. That scandalously short skirt. And those blue underpants. Romeo longed to be a glove on Juliet’s hand. I would have given my right arm to be those blue underpants…She was worried and angry, but her scent was not fear. It was almost like a game…
Panel 5
The flabbergasted Inuyasha crouches on the ground, trying to pull off the necklace of prayer beads.
Houjou (offscreen): And then she had me. Prayer beads with a subduing spell. And the word of power—osuwari— "Sit!"…
Panel 6
Close-up of a scowling Inuyasha, fingering the prayer beads.
Houjou (offscreen): A command for a dog, so I wouldn’t forget…I was little more than an animal.
Page 15
Panel 1
Kagome, Kaede and the villagers walk away, leaving a baffled Inuyasha in the background.
Houjou (offscreen): She did not intend to make me her pet, or her slave. Having collared me, she walked away, leaving me alone to live my life.
Panel 2
Close-up of Inuyasha, looking lost.
Houjou (offscreen): But I didn’t have a life. I had lived in those woods for two years, by my reckoning. But I barely recognized the place. I knew I should have been on the outskirts of the village, but the village was gone. Everything was different. The world had changed and I couldn’t guess why.
Panel 3
Long shot of the group walking away from the solitary Inuyasha. Kagome is turning to look at him.
Houjou (offscreen): I was angry. I was confused. I was hungry. I was lost. I was frightened. As they walked away, the strange girl turned just one time…
Panel 4
Closer view of Kagome looking back.
Houjou (offscreen): …and…looked at me…
Panel 5
Close-up of Kagome looking back.
Houjou (offscreen): Not…inviting, not rejecting, perhaps just curious…
Panel 6
Same view of Kagome, overlaid with close-up of Inuyasha.
Houjou (offscreen): I had nowhere to go. Everything was wrong. Everything was strange. And for lack of any other options, I followed her. Ka. Go. Me.
Page 16
Text over pics: a young adult Houjou and Kagome passionately kissing, the Corpse-Dancing Crow, young Kagome with her bow, the arrow with the crow’s foot, Inuyasha watching admiringly as Kagome fires the arrow with the crow’s foot, the shattering of the SNT.
Houjou (offscreen): I am Inuyasha of the Shikon no Tama. I live as a man of the twenty-first century. I have a job. I enjoy baseball. I check my email. I went to elementary school and middle school and high school and university. I like American movies and Swiss chocolate and British comedy and French wine and romantic little Italian restaurants and German classical music and Japanese girls who won’t kiss you unless they mean it, but when they mean it they kiss you like you’re in Paris.
If you have read the stories, or heard them told, you know this:
That after my awakening I would not call her name.
That in those first few days a puny and insignificant daemon stole the jewel, and then stole a living child, and that the Lady Kagome required of the hanyou Inuyasha that he choose the child over the jewel…and so the jewel was lost…
But that Inuyasha had pressed a bow and arrow into Kagome’s hand, and so she became an archer, as was Kikyou before her…
"When you tell your children the stories of Inuyasha Who Seeks The Shikon no Tama, you must say this: that when the daemon did fly, and all was thought to be lost, the Lady Kagome did take her arrow and affix to it the creature’s own severed limb, and called by the Shikon no Tama, the limb did seek the daemon and therefore did the arrow fly true …"
You should have seen it.
Damn, you should have seen it.
She was fifteen years old, dressed as a schoolgirl.
But damn, what a woman.
I nearly cried out, "Kagome!"
But…
I would not call her name.
(And as punishment, in my next life, until the day that in her despair she called me back from the dead, I could not call her name.)
(And as a consequence of my stubbornness…
and this I truly believe…
for such is the way of quests and legends…
because Inuyasha guarded his heart as a thing as cold and hard as a ball of glass,
even as that heart had once been pierced by Kikyou’s arrow,
the arrow of Kagome pierced the jewel,
shattering it into hundreds of shards
disseminating the curse of the Jewel of Four Souls
throughout the Land of the Rising Sun…
Such is the law of cause and effect
in the world of quest and legend.)
To my credit, I screamed and whined,
bemoaning ill fortune and the capriciousness of fate,
but I never, never, not on that day and not in that year
nor in any of the days and years since that time
spoke to her a word, not a word of blame
for the destruction of the jewel.
The failure, I was and am convinced, was mine.