Episode 174

Mausoleum of Mount Azusa is the 7th episode of InuYasha: The Final Act.

Summury
Fate is what binds us to each other.

Now that he's taken Onigumo's heart back in, Naraku intends to exploit the connection between himself, Inuyasha and Kikyo; with his new spider webs, Naraku will defile anyone who tries opposing him with his evil will.

Plot
Kikyo heals Miroku, but warns he must not use the Wind Tunnel for a while or his life will immediately be put back in danger. When Miroku sucked in Naraku's miasma, it caused a scar to climb up his arm and nearly to his heart; if it ever reaches Miroku's heart, he'll die. Kikyo then departs with Kohaku.

Elsewhere, Naraku has returned to the remains of Mount Hakurei, where Onigumo's voice greets him; Naraku explains Kikyo was there when he toke back the Infant, but didn't try anything against him. It was then he realised she was waiting for him to take the shards of Koga and Kohaku, so that she could purify his soul. Onigumo laughs that Naraku now has need of the human heart he despised so much, he abandoned and buried under ground. As the clumps of flesh take the form of Naraku's head, they float into Naraku's hand. Onigumo says that a human heart must not be so bad after all as all its base desires and negative emotions will help keep Naraku from being purified. Naraku's heart takes the sharp of a spider and burrows into his body.

Later, while Kikyo and Kohaku are traveling, she notices spiderwebs, which Kikyo immediately recognises as something created by Naraku. She keeps the webs from touching herself and Kohaku thanks to a barrier, but once a child is caught in them, Kikyo is force to save her. No sooner does save the child, Kikyo becomes entangeled in the webs, warning Kohaku away; she send her Shikigami to protect Kohaku with a barrier.

Kagome notices the webbing while in mid-travel, something only she and Kikyo can see, due to their immense spiritual powers. They follow it to a hut, where Inuyasha tries entering, and finds a weakened Kikyo. She warns him away, but Naraku snares Inuyasha in his webs as well; now that they are touching him, Inuyasha can see the webs as well. Kagome tries rescuing them, but is also pulled into the hut by Naraku's webs. Using their conntection to each other, Naraku shows Kagome the day Kikyo pinned Inuyasha to the Sacred Tree; seeing this, Kagome feels Kikyō's love for Inuyasha.

When Kagome regains consciousness, Kikyō explains what Naraku is up to and offers her bow to Kagome to purify the contamination inside of her. When Kagome touches the bow though, the string breaks and Kikyō confirms that Kagome has been contaminated as well. The only way to save Kikyō now is for Kagome to retrieve a bowstring kept in the nearby mausoleum of Mount Asuza, though Kikyō warns Kagome that she must truly want to save her. Kagome thus sets off with everyone except for Inuyasha and Kikyō, who end up going after Kohaku. Kohaku had been attacked by Byakuya of the Dreams, but he was saved by Sesshōmaru. By the time Inuyasha and Kikyo arrive, Kohaku has already left with Sesshomaru.

Kagome's group meanwhile reaches Mount Asuza, but Kagome soon finds herself separated from everyone else. She then encounters a faceless spirit who takes on Kikyō's appearance and leads her to a shrine, where it gives her the bow. Kagome is able to leave with the bow, but on her way down the mountain, she get sidetracked by the sight of Inuyasha and Kikyō together. This Kikyō implies that Kagome doesn't truly want to save her, and Kagome finds herself hanging off the side of the cliff. Looking down at her is Kikyō, who says she'll save her if Kagome hands the bow to her first.

The spirit of the mountain also appears and suggests that Kikyō will take the bow, abandon Kagome to die, and go off with Inuyasha. Kikyō then suggests that Kagome is the one filled with jealousy and hatred and is only pretending to pity her.

This angers Kagome, who has been giving Kikyo a lot of slack because of what happened to her. In return, Kagome tells Kikyō she think she is afraid of her, recognizing that Kikyō and Inuyasha have a past together she can't trespass on, but she points out that she's also spent a lot of time with Inuyasha and that she knows sides of him that Kikyō doesn't. All of this causes Kagome to realize that she's in the same position as Kikyō, and she refuses to abandon her. The spirit then tells Kagome that she can now climb up with her own strength, and Kikyō subsequently turns into an illusion of spiderwebs. Kagome becomes freed from these spiderwebs, but she finds herself in a free fall.

Regrets of Kagome
Kagome understands that she looks at Kikyō as if she was cruel and unpassionate therefore she sticks to this side believing that this is the true nature of Kikyō because Kikyō had attempted to kill Inuyasha therefore she ignored the other sides of Kikyō for consideration. After the test she finally realizes this and begins to also regret that throughout Kikyō's brink of death. Kagome knows that she is hideous of thinking that way therefore she confides these feelings to Inuyasha, but Inuyasha ignores her complaints over herself and said that it meant that her heart was strong. Her final reply mentally was, "Is th...Is that true?" she asked.