Episode 174

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

Synopsis

 * 1) Now that he's reabsorbed Onigumo's heart, Naraku intends to exploit the connection between himself, Inuyasha and Kikyō; with his new spider webs, Naraku will defile anyone who tries opposing him with his evil will.
 * 2) Kagome has always been kind and caring, but there resides a small speck of darkness in her heart because of the jealousy she feels towards Kikyō; Kagome must overcome these feelings in order to save Kikyō's life.

Summary
Kōga decides to stay with Inuyasha's group, thanking Kagome for treating his injuries. Inuyasha tells Kōga to give up his shards, making Kōga retort that he sounds just like Kikyō; he guesses it's because they used to date. Inuyasha draws Tessaiga and Kōga blocks it with his hands. Shippō notes how things are different with Kōga around; he doesn't like it. Kikyō works on healing Miroku, explaining to Sango that she is taking the miasma he sucked into the Wind Tunnel into herself to be purified. However, Kohaku knows that Kikyō is lying; she is already being consumed from within by Naraku's miasma, and taking in the miasma killing Miroku will only make Kikyo's ondition worse.

Elsewhere, Naraku has returned to the remains of Mount Hakurei, where Onigumo's voice greets him; Naraku explains Kikyō was there when he toke back the Infant, and Kohaku's shard was emitting a frightfuly pure light. He then realized Kikyo was waiting for him to take the shards of Kōga and Kohaku, so she could purify his soul. Onigumo laughs Naraku now has need of the human heart he despised so much, that he abandoned and buried under ground. Some of the clumps of flehs bubble to the surface of the water, taking the form of Naraku's head. It floats into Naraku's hand, saying  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. Naraku thinks to himself that Onigumo is right: there is no better weapon than the negative emotions that bind him to Kikyō and Inuyasha.

Miroku awakens after Kikyō has taken in all the miasma from him; she warns that if he uses the Wind Tunnel to suck in miasma, the wounds will spread once again and if the scars reach his heart, he'll die. Miroku decides to keep this a secret from Sango; she has enough to worry about with Kohaku, his own problems are something he doesn't want to bother her. Kikyō departs with Kohaku after Inuyasha make her promise to look after him. Kagome wakes up and notices Inuyasha deep in thought and... a spider web!

Later, while Kikyō and Kohaku are traveling, she notices spiderwebs, which Kikyō immediately recognizes as something created by Naraku; they don't affect ordinary people walking through them, meaning they are meant for her. She keeps the webs from touching herself and Kohaku thanks to a barrier. Since he cannot get Kikyo through direct means, Naraku does something utterly despicable; he entangles a little girl in his webs, rendering her unconscious. Kikyō is sickened by this, realizing he will stop at nothing to make her touch the webs. She uses butterfly familiars to break the webs, but no sooner does this happen, a web springs out in front of her; Kikyō is caught.

Kagome notices the webbing falling the sky (how can that be if Naraku is usually on the ground somewhere?) while in mid-travel, something only she and Kikyō can see, due to their immense spiritual powers. Everyone else is left confused by this since they cannot see the webs. They come across the child Kikyō saved and her mother, who explain that Kikyō suddenly looked ill afterwards and took off. Inuyasha runs off, making Kōga comment about how he abandons Kagome to after his old love. Miroku and Shippō advise Kōga not to mention it around Inuyasha, hoping to change the subject.

Elsewhere, Kohaku is being protected by a barrier created by Kikyō's shikigami, Kocho and Asuka, in a cave; she sent him away because the miasma in her would end up defiling his shard. At the same time, Kikyō is hiding in a hut; she sees that Naraku is preventing her from purifying the webs and showing her the parting between herself and Inuyasha 50 years ago; this only serves to make fuel her hatred to him, wondering why he would dare do so. Inuyasha arrives, making Kikyō yell for him to leave. However, when she warns him away, the wound she received at Mount Hakurei reopens. Inuyasha grabs her, becoming entangled in the webs. Now that they are touching him, Inuyasha can see the webs as well. He attempts chopping the webs with Tessaiga, but new threads simply wrap around Tessaiga to keep Inuyasha still.

Kagome and the others arrive at the hut, where she fires arrows at the webs to purify them. Everyone is confused by this, given they cannot see the webs; however, Shippō guesses Kagome is trying to destroy the webs. Inside, Kikyō wonders what's going on; Inuyasha explains Kagome can see the webs as well. Kikyō wonders why Kagome can see the webs as well, but then immediately realizes the answer. Kagome walks over to the hut, hoping to purify the webs inside; however, the moment Kikyō yells for her not to touch the webs, the webs grab Kagome and pull her inside. Kōga attempts to follow, but Naraku erects a barrier to keep everyone else out.

Kagome finds herself waking up at night, with fires burning all around her. She looks up to see Inuyasha run away with the Shikon Jewel, saying that he can become a full demon at last with it's magic. Kikyō fires an arrow at him, pinning Inuyasha to the Sacred Tree. Kagome then realizes that this is vision of what happened fifty years ago on the day Kikyō died and Inuyasha was placed under the seal she broke. She watches as Kikyō holds onto Inuyasha, realizing that she feels something - it's Kikyō's sorrow. However, this sin't the only thing that Kagome feels, there's something else; it's Kikyō's love for Inuyasha, and it's just as deep as her sorrow.

Kagome then wakes up, seeing that the spider webs are no longer in the hut. Kikyō explains that since all three of them have been gathered, the webs no longer serve a purpose. Kagome then notices that Kikyō's wound has reopened. Kikyō explains that her wound got worse the moment Naraku's webs touched her; the webs defile anything they touch. Kagome offers to purify the miasma from within Kikyō again. Kikyō explains that to do so, Kagome needs borrow her bow; however, when Kagome touches the bow, the string breaks. Kikyō confirms that Kagome has been contaminated as well; the reason Naraku showed Kagome that vision of the parting between herself and Inuyasha was to plant negative emotions in her heart and make her unable to purify the miasma.

Kikyō explains that the only way to restore her bow is to retrieve a bowstring kept in the nearby mausoleum of Mount Azusa, which is ten leagues east of their current location; however Kikyō warns Kagome that she must truly want to save her in order to get the bowstring. The barrier breaks outside and Kagome and Inuyasha exit the hut. Shippo's guess is Inuyasha got chewed out like usual. Everyone wonders what happened, and after the explanation, Kōga offers to take Kagome to Mount Azusa. However, this only earns Inuyasha's anger until Kagome tells him it's better than he stays with Kikyō. When he protests, Kagome flatly says she doesn't want to see his face at the moment. Catching herself saying this, Kagome then wonders if the webs have truly contaminated her. However, Inuyasha thinks to himself that she's always like this.

Elsewhere, Byakuya finds Kohaku and Kikyō's shikigami explode into multiple familiars, giving Kohaku a chance to escape. Annoyed Byakuya easily disperses the familiars with flames generated from a flower. Byakuya chases after Kohaku, taunting him at first because he can easily get ahead of him. However, Byakuya eventually tires of the chase and binds Kohaku with poisonous snakes; the miasma they inject into Kohaku will defile his shard. However, before Byakuya can attempt taking the shard, a Meidō scares him away. Sesshōmaru arrives, saying that since Mōryōmaru's scent has vanished, Naraku has likely absorbed him. Byakuya is offended by Sesshōmaru's rudeness, taking off. Rin attempts to touch Kohaku, but is warned not to as the snakes are poisonous. However, Jaken has already been bitten; he pleads for Sesshōmaru to save him. Inuyasha and Kikyō arrive later to find Kohaku gone; he went with Sesshōmaru.

Kagome's group arrives at Mount Azusa, where they attempt climbing up, only to find that they are not getting any further; Kagome suspects it may be because she harbors doubts, also thinking about how it always seems like Kikyo is testing her. A fog covers everyone, leaving Kagome the only one of the stairs. Finding himself back at the bottom with everyone else, Koga begins losing his cool out of concern for Kagome; however, Miroku explains a sacred mountain would pose to threat to a human, and Kagome must have been judged worthy to ascend to the top of it. At the same time, Kagome comes face to face with a faceless spirit. Elsewhere, Kikyō tells Inuyasha the spirit guardian of the mountain takes on a form that is a reflection of the heart of the one who sees it. The faceless spirit takes the form of Kikyō. Lead to a shrine, Kagome is given a bow, which has the string needed to purify the miasma in Kikyō. Kagome is able to leave with the bow, but on her way down, she finds that its the same as when she tried getting up the mountain; it's an endless road.

Kagome hears Inuyasha calling her and rushes into the trees looking for him. She eventualy comes accross what appears to be him carrying Kikyō; however, neither of them seems able to see Kagome. Kikyō says that Mount Azusa has likely swallowed Kagome because she truly doesn't want to save her. Inuyasha asks what they should do then. A shocked Kagome yells at Kikyō, asking if she really sees her like that, prompting Kikyō to look in her direction; she had been able to see her the whole time and was purposely saying those things to anger Kagome. At that moment, the ground beneath Kagome shatters and she falls into darkness. Elsewhere, as she is being carried to Mount Azusa by Inuyasha, the real Kikyō senses something has happened to Kagome; her bow exploded to symbolize this. Kikyō knows that the spirit guardian will use illusions to test the hearts of those that visit Mount Azusa,

Back at Mount Azusa, Kagome finds herself dangling from the edge of a cliff and that the bow has become ridiculously heavy. She looks up to see Kikyō looking down at her; Kagome says to go get Inuyasha, but Kikyō says that he cannot step on Mount Azusa because he's a half-demon. Kikyō says she'll save her if Kagome hands the bow over 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 says Inuyasha needn't know what happens there if Kagome is worried about her stealing him away from her.

Elsewhere, Inuyasha and Kikyō arrive at the foot of Mount Azusa, where Kōga explains that Kagome hasn't come down yet. Inuyasha rushes off to save Kagome, entrusting Kikyō to everyone.

Back on Mount Azusa, the false Kikyō suggests Kagome is only pretending to be kind and self-righteous. This angers Kagome, who has been giving her a lot of slack because of what happened to her. In return, Kagome tells Kikyō about how she thinks Kikyo is afraid of her; Kikyō and Inuyasha have a past together she can't trespass on, but Kagome  points out that she's also spent a lot of time with Inuyasha and 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 as the bow was only wieghed down by her doubts. The illusion of Kikyō turns into spiderwebs. Kagome becomes freed from these webs, but she finds herself in a free fall. The spirit becomes faceless once more, telling Kagome to save Kikyo.

Elsewhere, Naraku feels Kagome come free from his spiderwebs; however, he's not too surprised by this turn of events, Byakuya appears, asking Naraku what he plans to do now that Kagome has overcome being defiled by the webs. Amused by the question, Naraku says he'll go with what he originally planned and kill Kikyō. Since Kikyō has survived every attempt on her life that he's made in the past, Naraku isn't leaving things to chance this time.