Episode 68

Shippo Receives an Angry Challenge is the 68th episode of the InuYasha anime.

Plot
One day while walking through a meadow, an arrow is shot at Shippo from a passing cloud. Attached to the arrow is a duel invitation telling Shippo to fight Soten, the last remaining Thunder Brother (see episodes 9 and 10). Inuyasha and the others see the invitation and they leave for the location specified in the invitation, much to Shippo's dismay.

Meanwhile, Soten laughs menacingly as he received word from the cloud that the invitation has been sent. Back with Inuyasha, a petrified Shippo's slow movements aggravate Inuyasha, who then pushes Shippo towards the location with Tessaiga's sheath.

Elsewhere, Soten, who is revealed to be a small child, tells the cloud, which turns out to be his little pet dragon Koryu, his plans. His plans are very well researched and drawn out on paper with crude charcoal drawings. Koryu acts out the first part of the plan by pushing a huge boulder at the group, thus separating Shippo from the others. Koryu manages to capture Shippo in a net and whisks him off to Soten's castle.

Miroku and Sango take off after Shippo. However, with help from some smoke, Koryu manages to get Kirara "drunk" causing her to lose control and plummet to the ground. On the ground, Miroku and Sango see the source of the smoke and realize that it was a trap. Koryu successfully traps the pair in a hole, with some help from a life-doll of a damsel in distress (Miroku's biggest weakness) over a pit.

At the castle, Shippo is surprised (and relieved) to see that Soten is just a child. When Shippo calls Soten a kid, Soten just gets mad. Shippo proves his point by distracting him with a toy of his. This soon degrades to a war of drawings, as Soten and Shippo both flash their drawings at each other.

Back with Koryu, his trap for Kagome and Inuyasha fails because his crudely made Kagome doll fails to "sit" Inuyasha. Inuyasha grabs hold of Koryu and demands that he take them to Soten. He refuses and tries to act all tough, which just aggravates Inuyasha. As a result, Inuyasha bops him on the head three times. That soon proves to be a bad move and Koryu transforms into a storm cloud and shoots lightning at Inuyasha and Kagome.

Shippo and Soten are both exhausted from their doodle duel. Soten asks Shippo why his drawings have such vibrant colors. He explains that its because of the crayons Kagome gave him. Soten then tells Shippo that if he loses their duel, he has to hand over the crayons. Shippo agrees, and the duel is moved outside. Meanwhile, Cloud-Koryu sends a lightning arrow straight at Kagome. Inuyasha throws himself into the path of the arrow and gets impaled by it.

Back with the duel, Shippo and Soten throw their respective attacks at each other (Fox Fire and Lightning). Back with Inuyasha, much to Kagome's relief, Inuyasha gets up unscathed as the arrow is actually harmless. To get Koryu to revert back to his true form, Inuyasha just whacks him three times again. Now defenseless, Koryu has no choice but to lead the two to Soten's castle.

When the three arrive at the scene of the duel, Shippo and Soten lie exhausted surrounded in seeds (Soten had chucked heaps of acorn-like seeds at Shippo) and mushrooms (Shippo threw gobs of mushrooms at Soten). Inuyasha seems a little irritated to find out that Soten is a child. Kagome finds it cute and runs up to Soten and starts hugging the child. When Kagome calls him a boy, she gets scolded by Soten, who is actually a girl.

Kagome finds it all the more cute, while Shippo just finds it annoying. Shippo walks off and gives Soten his crayons.

Later, Inuyasha and the others join up with Miroku and Sango, who managed to get out of their ditch. At the end, Soten draws a romanticized view of Shippo with her new crayons.

Trivia

 * Koryu was able to gather correct intel about Inuyasha's group.


 * With the exception of how to incapacitate Inuyasha, Soten's plans proved to be very successful.


 * Shippo appears to be smarter than Soten; he successfuly tricked her into letting him out of his cage.


 * If Koryu hadn't explained how he turns into a cloud, Inuyasha might not have figured out how to turn him back.


 * Shippo is shown to image himself as the leader of the group, and as a brave warrior.