Episode 52

The Demon's True Nature is the fifty-second episode of the InuYasha anime.

Synopsis

 * 1) Inuyasha and Miroku are still trapped in Gatenmaru's poison cocoon; being separated from Tessaiga combined with Gatenmaru and his men's cruelty cause Inuyasha's yōkai blood to take him over once again, and he bursts out of the poison cocoon, freeing himself and Miroku.
 * 2) Inuyasha, in his full demon form, easily destroys Gatenmaru with his claws; Inuyasha then chases down the surviving bandits and brutally slaughters every one that he can.
 * 3) Sesshōmaru arrives on the scene and challenges the full demon Inuyasha; Sesshōmaru decides for himself that Inuyasha is not a full-fledged demon, he is a mere hanyō who has become nothing more than a mindless beast.
 * 4) Sesshōmaru leaves after Inuyasha reverts to his normal self; Inuyasha later frantically tries to wash the blood out of his claws, feeling utter disgust for his actions as a full demon.

Summary
The bandits have camped around the town, and are enjoying saki while waiting for Miroku and Inuyasha to die. Gatenmaru consumes a woman from the village, and taunts Inuyasha as he reaches for another village woman to devour. Inuyasha's rage causes him to try to move, which only expands his wound further; along with his increasing weakness, an ominous red gleam appears in his eyes as his demon blood begins to dominate.

An old man of the village grabs the Tessaiga and tries to run it to Inuyasha. As the bandits are about to slay the old man, Sango and Kagome arrive and save him. Kagome takes possession of Tessaiga while the bandits surround them. Within the poison cocoon, Miroku's barrier is failing.

The demon leader of the bandits orders his men to retrieve Kagome, and Sango, Kirara and Shippō try to defend her.

Inside the cocoon, Inuyasha's demon blood takes control of him. He rips through the poison cocoon, freeing himself and Miroku. Under the demonic influence of his blood, Inuyasha cuts down a bunch of bandits.

Gatenmaru transforms and attacks Inuyasha again, but is swiftly disabled and torn to shreds. The human bandits, horrified by their master's death at the hands of Inuyasha's full demon form, turn and run.

Inuyasha chases down and confronts the fleeing bandits. The bandits beg for mercy and insist they were only following orders, but Inuyasha ignores their pleas and slaughters many of them. Kagome, still gripping Tessaiga, runs after Inuyasha, begging him to stop, but her words have no effect; instead, to her horror, he is laughing. Kagome tries to return Tessaiga to Inuyasha, but he is distracted by the arrival of Sesshōmaru.

When Sesshōmaru draws Tokijin and fires a blast, Inuyasha knocks it aside, though he injures himself in the process. Enraged, Inuyasha repeatedly charges his brother, ignoring both his injuries. Although Inuyasha's demon blood has enhanced his strength and speed, his attacks are so predictable that Sesshomaru is still able to dodge them all, though barely. After a few moments of fighting, Sesshōmaru sees the truth of Bokusenō's words; in his full-demon form, Inuyasha is little more than a mindless monster. With his typical contempt, Sesshōmaru hurls Inuyasha to the ground with Tokijin, knocking him unconscious. Kagome throws herself between the half-brothers, but instead of attacking, Sesshōmaru tells her to use Tetsusaiga to return Inuyasha to his senses. Miroku remarks that Sesshōmaru could have killed Inuyasha at any point in the duel but simply chose to hold him off, sarcastically asking if he's developed feelings for the half-brother he's always hated. After a pause, Sesshōmaru declares that he will kill Inuyasha eventually, but that there is no point in doing so now when he doesn't even know who he is.

Sesshōmaru returns to Jaken and Rin.

In the village, Inuyasha looks at the destruction he wreaked and confesses that he doesn't remember causing it. He worries that it is the first time he does not remember what happened during his transformation. The amount of blood covering his hands and claws sickens him.

The villagers start to fear him and kept themselves away due to how frightening his demon form was to them, but the boy defended Inuyasha because he tried to save his grandfather and others' lives. Inuyasha thinks grimly that he wasn't trying to protect anyone; all he was doing was hunting the bandits for the sake of spilling their blood. He thinks of how he has wanted to become a full-blooded demon since before he met Kikyo, but what he had hoped to become "wasn't like this".

Later, Inuyasha washes his hands in a stream in order to get rid of the scent of human blood. The scent, however, is still overwhelming to his sensitive sense of smell. After giving up, he sits next to Kagome. He gets upset when Kagome gives him a concerned look and claims that he didn't care what happened, but she tells him to not kid himself. She then hugs him to comfort him, which he does not resist. Inuyasha worries that the next time he becomes a full demon he might attack Kagome.