Episode 28

Miroku Falls Into a Dangerous Trap is the twenty-eighth episode of the InuYasha anime.

Synopsis

 * 1) Miroku is deceived by a mantis demon, disguising itself as a beautiful woman, and his Kazaana is damaged in the ensuing battle.
 * 2) Miroku visits the monk Mushin, the man who raised him, in hopes that he can repair the Kazaana.
 * 3) Mushin is possessed by a demon and attempts to kill Miroku; it turns out that the demon responsible for the possession is working under Naraku's command.

Summary
As Sango and Kagome are slaying a demon (smoking him out of a building), Miroku gets distracted by a beautiful woman, and follows her. As the sun goes down, Kagome comforts the poor Inuyasha, still badly disturbed by the scent of the earlier demon-repelling smoke, while Sango asks Shippō where Miroku is. She gets angry upon learning he went chasing after a woman.

Meanwhile, said woman, after seducing Miroku, begins to transform into a giant mantis, to his unsurprised disappointment. He fight her successfully, but his wind tunnel gets injured in the process. When he joins the others for dinner, he hasn't even a chance to explain what happened to the hostile girls, Sango and Kagome, thinking him a womanizer. At night, Miroku worries about his injury spreading his wind tunnel, remembering the death of his father, sucked into his own wind tunnel, which he know will be his fate as well. The following dawn, when the others wake up, he's gone home on Hachi, to meet his uncle Mushin. He's told that Mushin can indeed repair his wind tunnel for a time, but that he must keep it carefully covered while it heals, or else it will spread from the nicks in his palm. Meanwhile, his friends start to worry about his absence, especially after being told by Myōga that the monk acted strangely last night, staring at his hand.

While Mushin is preparing his herbs for the healing session, he is attacked and possessed. He drugs Miroku and prepares to kill him. Miroku narrowly avoids the blade, and startled asks the demon who is he. The demon worm charmer explains that Naraku offered him to kill Miroku in exchange for a shard of the Shikon Jewel. Meanwhile, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Kirara and Shippō detect a Saimyōshō spying on them. Sango attacks and injures it, but Inuyasha convinces her to stop : if the poisonous insect is here, it must be to check on Miroku, and they should follow it.

Miroku manages barely to ward off the demon, and try to escape with Hachi, but they're followed by demons lured by the demon worm charmer. He sends Hachi alone to save him. While flying to try to get Inuyasha, Hachi is attacked by Saimyōshō. He falls where Inuyasha can save him from the bugs, and then leads them to Miroku, explaining the ambush and why Miroku can't protect himself with his wind tunnel just now. Meanwhile Miroku reflects on the irony of his fate, doomed by his womanizing. Inuyasha and Sango attack the demon at Mushin's temple. Miroku prepares himself to face death with honor, without fighting since the battle is desperate. While he contrast his stoicism with how Inuyasha would have "foolishly" battled to the death, he is saved from the attacking demons by the selfsame Inuyasha. His friends chide him for having left them to worry with no explanation.

Inuyasha is attacked by the possessed Mushin. Kagome, Sango and Myōga set up to find the worm charmer and force him out of Mushin's body. A first attack fails, and they go after him. Inuyasha is weakened by Mushin's sutra beads. He can still attack, but restrains himself upon learning that if Mushin dies, Miroku's wind tunnel will likely kills him before the morning. Mushin is the only one who can heal the wind tunnel. Despite the danger to himself and the nearby Hachi, Miroku opens his wind tunnel as he is attacked by a great number of demons, feeling that since it's death either way, this one is better than being torn apart limb by limb. Mushin is distracted by the idea that the wind tunnel will suck all in, including his promised Jewel shard. Inuyasha uses the opening and knocks Mushin unconscious, before coming after Miroku. He snarls at him that if he's opening the wind tunnel again, he will break his arm to close it. Inuyasha adds that he doesn't care whether Miroku is going to die or not, but that he won't do so while he is around to protect him. He (Inuyasha) won't be accused of abandoning him (Miroku). The protective stance activates the full power of the Tessaiga, and Inuyasha easily destroys the hundreds of coming demons.

Sango kills the demon worm charmer trying to escape, and they manage to lift Mushin's possession. The following morning, Mushin has a talk with Inuyasha after stitching Miroku's wind tunnel. He says that the tunnel has spread, shortening Miroku's expected lifetime. Miroku's only chance of survival lies in defeating Naraku to lift his curse. While resting, Miroku stares at his right hand frightened. This prompts Sango to check what is wrong, only to be groped by Miroku. She retaliates by hitting him with a bucket.