Chapter 356

The Evil Presence is the 356th chapter of the InuYasha manga.

Summary

 * Kikyō confronts Kanna and The Infant, but is interuppted by Mōryōmaru. The incarnations escape.
 * Back at Kaede's village, Inuyasha and Kagome have a heartfelt moment, and Kagome tells him that she's glad to be by his side.
 * Naraku orders Kagura to guard a prison cell. Goryōmaru, who was thought to be dead, is the prisoner inside the cell.

Synopsis

 * Kikyō finds it strange that she's been tracking an entirely different aura from Naraku's, but now she's run into his heart completely by coincidence. She raises her bow, aimed at Kanna and Akago, when a tentacle suddenly strikes near her feet: The tentacles belong to Mōryōmaru. Mōryōmaru was the presence she had been tracking. Upon seeing Mōryōmaru, Kikyō redirects her aim toward him and fires. When it hits, the demon turns into a lump of flesh. Kikyō sees the flesh being controlled by something; it's the Haku spirits that Hakudōshi used to create Mōryōmaru. The priestess then sees Kanna is walking away from her, so she dashes back to try and kill Naraku's heart. Kanna listlessly walks off of a cliff, with the infant still in her hands, and she is rescued by a piece of Mōryōmaru's flesh. Kikyō can only watch as they fly across the chasm. She reflects to herself that she sensed no demonic aura coming from the albino girl nor the infant. She also saw a stone in the infants hands. She wonders if that is the nulling stone that Inuyasha spoke of.
 * Inuyasha and group are back at Kaede's village. The old priestess has steeped some herbs to help Kagome heal the burns caused by the ogre's acid. Sango is tending to an unconscious Miroku, who is still recovering from absorbing Saimyōshō's venom into his Kazaana. Kagome asks Kaede why Inuyasha isn't with them, and Kaede tells her that he's off sitting by himself. Shippō adds that it must be hard for him knowing that the evil within the shard took over his body and made him transform into his demonic state. The fox sighs and says "I guess Inuyasha's still got a long way to go." Inuyasha appears behind Shippō and punches the foxchild, asking Kagome if he can talk with her.
 * ☨ Inuyasha and Kagome sit up in a tree branch. She asks if he has something to say he doesn't want the others to hear. He looks at her burns and says that maybe he does have a long way to go. He apologizes if he scared her when he transformed. She tells him not to be sorry, because if he hadn't been there they wouldn't have made it out alive. He tells her the same, and she adds that the moment they had, when she held him, was really something special. Kagome smiles, saying "I'm glad to be at your side." She leans on him and he thinks to himself "Kagome.. I was glad to have you at my side, too."
 * At a cliffside temple, Naraku leads Kagura down some stairs into a dungeon. She asks "Well, Naraku? What's this important job you have for me?" Naraku ignores the question, responding by asking her why she goes off on her own so often lately. Kagura gets nervous and thinks to herself that she knew he'd have been aware of her malfeasons, but does he know why? Kagura makes up the response that she just wants to learn more things about the world because she knows very little besides what Naraku has told her. Naraku says "Of course, of course... that's why. I'll give you an important task, now and again." At the bottom of the stairs, Kagura is surprised when she sees the Rakanzo statues that were outside of Goryōmaru's temple. She then gets even more shocked when she sees Goryōmaru himself, sitting inside the prison cell. She denies it to herself, because she witnessed Hakudōshi cut off his head. So how is he alive? Naraku tells Kagura that her task is to guard the prison cell and make sure Goryōmaru does not escape.

Trivia

 * In the anime, Mōryōmaru does not get ripped into pieces, and when he saves Kanna, he is in one piece and flying, not a rag of flesh controlled by Haku.
 * ☨ The Inuyasha Anime ends with this scene. All scenes from the Manga from this point on were either adapted into Inuyasha: The Final Act, or were ommitted from the anime entirely, and thus do not occur in the final act.