Chapter 301

Beyond the Gate is the 301st chapter of the InuYasha manga.

Synopsis

 * After the gateway opens, all of Naraku's demons turn into stone, so Kagura, (realizing she was tricked), tries to kill Hakudōshi, but Naraku squeezes her heart and Hakudōshi doesn't die.
 * Naraku asks Princess Abi to build him a pathway to the borderland between this world and the afterlife.

Summary

 * 301.jpg demons who were with Kagura become bathed in a strange light coming from the gateway, and when the light hits them they turn into stone. The strange rocks and boulders that Shippō saw earlier that looked like demons actually were demons who had been turned to stone. Inuyasha and friends seek cover so they don't get turned into stone as well, and Kagura escapes the light just before she becomes a permanent fixture in the cave. Kagome senses the sacred jewel shard inside the gateway, confirming that the final Shikon jewel shard is truly there.
 * Gozu and Mezu ask Kagura if she wishes to pass, and the sorceress replies "Do I look like an idiot!?" Gozu and Mezu say if that's the case, they'll close the gate, and then the two guardians turn back into regular statues. Kagura escapes, and the group wonders if Hakudōshi knew this would happen and used them and Kagura to test the gate.300.jpg
 * Kagura returns, furious that Hakudōshi would use her as a guinea-pig and play with her life so carelessly. The child nonchalantly calls her expendable, so Kagura angrily uses her dance of blades on Hakudōshi, saying he is just like Naraku; always using people as pawns. Hakudōshi gets cut in half by the attack, but then Kagura suddenly grabs her chest in agony. Hakudōshi's two halves come back together at the waist, and he reminds her that Naraku still has her heart and can squeeze it whenever he wants. Hakudōshi and Naraku are linked, so if she wants to live she had better think before she acts. He also belittles her by saying "Not that I could be killed by someone as pathetic as the likes of you, anyway."
 * Inuyasha and friends talk about the borderland. Kagome tells them how she sensed the sacred jewel shard within the gate. Inuyasha asks Myōga if he knew they'd be turned to stone if they went, but then the flea brings up the point that if he had known, he wouldn't have come along in the first place. Inuyasha vows to find another pathway, the one that the shard took to get there in the first place, and get it before Naraku or Hakudōshi can.
 * In a village that was attacked by thieves, demon-birds suddenly flock and attack all the bandits. The leader of these birds, who is called Princess Abi, tells them to gather every drop of blood from the humans. Then, Naraku appears and the princess asks who he is.
 * Naraku asks Princess Abi to make him a path to the borderland between this world and the next.