Episode 145 - Bizarre Sentries to the Gate to the Next World
Kagura’s information about a portal to the boundary world leads Inuyasha and the team, including Myoga, on a perilous journey to the desolate Country of Fire. On the way, they notice they have an escort - Naraku’s Saimyoushou. Although they know they are being watched, and suspect a set-up by Naraku and Hakudoshi, they continue their quest for the final shard. The team’s sixth sense is accurate. Hakudoshi is plotting something rotten and he dispatches Kagura to the Country of Fire with an assignment! The Saimyoushou lead the group to a cave inside the caldera of a volcano. Once inside, the passage opens up into a mamoth chamber. The team follows a grotesque path littered with the bones of dead demons. The path terminates at a huge chained door, guarded by two enormous, ancient statues. Inuyasha moves towards the door but is frozen in his tracks when a booming, disembodied voice asks” Do you want to pass?” Inuyasha’s ill-advised answer is obvious … yes, he does. The ‘”statues” posing the question are Gozu and Mezu, gatekeepers of the underworld. The only way to “pass through the gate” is to become one of the dead and the behemouths are ready to help Inuyasha fulfill his request. However, Inuyasha has other ideas. He battles the giants but discovers that Tetsuaiga is powerless against the two supernatural giants. (Tetsuaiga is a weapon of the living world and poses no threat to the gatekeepers of the dead!) Finally, with the help of Miroku’s ‘wind tunnel” as a distraction, Inuyasha slows the pair down long enough to break the thick chain, unlocking the door to the nether world. As the heavy doors creak open, Kagura appears, charging the doorway flanked by low-level demons. The evil gaggle is suddenly bathed in a dazzling bright light. Sensing the worst, Inuyasha gathers the team and heads for cover! They watch from the protection of sheltering rocks as the creatures are turned to stone by the light and Kagura plummets to the cave floor in a hail of petrified demons. Gozu and Mezu turn their attention to her and ask, “Do you want to pass?” Since no one wants to enter the portal, Gozu and Mezu shut the door. But, before the heavy doors swing shut, Kagome senses the presence of a jewel shard just beyond the portal on the other side. Later, a furious Kagura confronts Hakudoshi. Angry over being set up by the vile youngster, she attacks Hakudoshi, discovering the hard way Naraku is protecting the brat and still keeping a very close watch on her. Inuyasha and the others unwind at camp where Kagome reveals her vision of the Shikon shard in the netherworld. The fragment really does exist in that remote and dangerous place. All they have to do now is find another way into the boundary world between this world and the next!
