Episode 177

Flowers Drenched in Sadness is the 10th episode of InuYasha: The Final Act.

Summary
The group comes across a village where everyone is disturbingly happy. The reason behind this unnatural happiness is the Flower Prince, who leaves them like this by feeding on their sorrow. Through everyone is likely to fall victim, Inuyasha is the one in the most danger thanks to the grief he feels for Kikyō's passing.

Elsewhere, there may be someone else besides the members of Inuyasha's group that is feeling sorrow. Kanna is thinking of Kagura, and the freedom that her sister desired. Could Naraku's emotionless puppet have developed a heart of her own?

Plot
Rain pours over the field of flowers Kagura died at. Kanna walks through it, reciting a poem as she finds all that remains of her sister incarnation - Kagura's fan. Picking it up, Kanna looks up at the sky with her emotionless eyes. She wonders aloud if Kagura has gotten her freedom and has become the wind. A drop of rain falls against Kanna's mirror like a tear as she says she has nothing. Kanna walks off with Kagura's fan, once more saying she has nothing, as she fades away into the distance.

As the rain continues to pour, Naraku floats inside his personal barrier at his hideout. Sore and recovering from the damage inflicted upon him by Kikyō's final attack, Naraku thinks about how there is a small speck of pure light deep inside the Shikon Jewel, which has been completely defiled otherwise. As something of great annoyance, Naraku finds that he cannot banish this speck of light from the jewel, meaning Kikyō continues to defy him even in death.

Later, on a sunny forest path, Inuyasha and friends are walking, as as usual, quarreling, as they enter a small village full of beautiful flowers. Kagome, Sango, and Miroku find the scent of the flowers soothing, while Inuyasha find it sickening; Shippō and Kirara feel the same. The villagers invited them to stay the night. Inuyasha is against the idea, but everyone is all for it; majority vote wins. The villagers give them a house they have for travelers, to sleep in for the night. Inuyasha finds it suspicious since the village doesn't look that well-off for something like this. Kagome quietly reflects on how Inuyasha got over Kikyō's death. After that, the villagers walk over to an ominous castle and report to their "Flower Prince" that they have brought new travelers. The Flower Prince smiles as he is happy to conclude that he has found a horribly injured soul in one of said travelers.

Back in the traveler's house, everyone but Inuyasha is asleep. He notices that the scent of the flowers is getting stronger and all the more sickening. Shippō and Kirara are getting much more ill as the night goes on. Inuyasha doesn't want to go to sleep because he knows if he does he will dream about Kikyō. Kagome wakes up along with Shippō, giving him a handkerchief to blow his nose with. When she mentions it's allergies, Inuyasha doesn't understand the word; most likely it hasn't been thought of yet.

Outside, the villagers are wandering around like zombies being controlled be someone. The flower's vines contract their bodies as they cry tears of blood, and say they are now, "at peace, finally." Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango and Miroku run out to rescue the villagers. Miroku uses a sutra at them and they reveal that all the beautiful flowers weren't real, as the humans turn into soil. The Flower Prince arrives and introduces himself. He claims that all he does for people is to give them "peace" of mind. Inuyasha yells out for everyone not to breath the toxins around them, but it is too late. Sango collapses into a dream about her lost brother, Kohaku. Miroku protects her, but the the Flower Prince tells Miroku about his fear of the Wind Tunnel injury. Inuyasha launches a Wind Scar, but the Flower Prince is gone; however, leftover blood suggests he's wounded. Kagome is given prayer beads by Miroku to protect her from the Flower Prince's spell. Inuyasha and Kagome take off after him.

Elsewhere, by a glistening pond, Kanna tosses Kagura fan into the water. As it sinks beneath the surface, Kanna bids farewell to her sister. She then hears Byakuya of the Dreams call her; Kanna turns to see him standing above her on a tree branch. Byakuya explains he has an order from Naraku; she's to lure in Inuyasha's group and unleash her mirror. Kanna then looks out to the pond.

Inuyasha and Kagome arrive at the Flower Prince's castle, where he says he's forgiven Inuyasha for his previous attack on him. The Flower Prince reads Inuyasha's heart and sees how much Kikyō's death has wounded him; Inuyasha and the Flower Prince vanish. Kagome realizes the reason she still feels pain and sorrow is because she is wearing the prayer beads of protection Miroku gave to her.

Meanwhile, inside the castle, Inuyasha is having artificial dreams about Kikyō as he too, cries tears of blood. Outside the castle, Kagome desperately tries to rescue Inuyasha, only to be repelled by a barrier. Kagome's pleas finally awaken Inuyasha, who awakens from his dream and fights the Flower Prince, who is confused by Inuyasha's refusal to be a peace. The Flower Prince takes on his real form, a mass of vines, to battle. Just then, Kagome shoots her arrow, with the payer beads attached to it, and manages to break through the barrier around the castle and gets Inuyasha out.

Now that Kagome is unprotected be the prayer beads, the Flower Prince finds that he likes the taste of her soul more than Inuyasha's, because he sees that Kagome is hurting much more than he is. Inuyasha is shocked. The Flower Prince tries telling Inuyasha what the source of Kagome's sorrow is, but she awakens and destroys all the flowers the Flower Prince is hiding in; she tells the Flower Prince that all the emotions she has are hers alone, he won't get to taste her sorrow. However, the Flower Prince isn't dead yet; there are still flowers around them. Detecting a scent, Inuyasha warns Kagome to run as the Flower Prince emerges from the flowers outside the castle. Inuyasha quickly slays the demon.

All the flowers disappear along with the Flower Prince, and Shippō and Kirara are no longer ill as they sit in the traveler's house with Sango and Miroku. Kagome and Inuyasha stand together in the open field. Inuyasha explains his dream about Kikyō. Kagome wonders if he really wanted to go with her, but Inuyasha only says she woke him before he could give an answer. Kagome sees through this, knowing that he's purposely avoiding giving her a direct answer. Inuyasha explains he never realized that he was so focused on his own suffering that he couldn't see hers. Kagome explains that Kikyō's death was hard on everyone. Inuyasha wonders how Kagome can be so strong, but she retorts in anger that she is only being kind. Inuyasha cowers in fear, as usual when he says something wrong, saying Kagome's right. Still mad, Kagome looks up to sky, happy things are back to normal.

Back at the pond Kanna was at, she floats in the center of it. Kanna slowly sinks beneath the surface of the water. Once she's completely submerged, her mirror floats back to surface by itself. Once the ripples from it emerged quell, the mirror lets out a blinding bright light, which goes on to affect the pond, making it glow along with it.

The next day, Inuyasha and the gang leave the village as Byakuya's eye demon sees them. Byakuya tells Naraku of them being on the move, making him laugh. The group hears from villagers about the bright light caused by Kanna last night, prompting them to head out to find out what caused it. Shippō finds this odd; Inuyasha is never one to automatically help others. However, Inuyasha defends himself, asking if he shouldn't help. Kagome explains Inuyasha gets annoyed when he isn't busy. Inuyasha goes on to explain that he can smell a faint trace of Naraku's scent from ahead of them.

They reach the pond, discovering it's been transformed into a mirror. They look towards the center, which still holds Kanna's mirror. A huge demon emerges from the mirror as Kanna appears next to it. Inuyasha draws his sword and the Mirror Demon creates a copy of Tessaiga. Inuyasha attempts using the Wind Scar, but finds it isn't working. Kanna tells the Mirror Demon to use Wind Scar, and it successfully does so. Inuyasha tries Adamant Barrage next, but finds it isn't working as well; all of Tessaiga's attacks have been stolen. The Mirror Demon launches the adamant spears, but Shippō sends out acorns that explode on contact with the spears, allowing a smokescreen to cover their escape.

As the sun sets, Kanna and her Mirror Demon walk through a forest to find Inuyasha's group. Her targets head towards a cave to hide from her for the time being, until they can come up with a plan. The Mirror Demon sees some flowers as they walk, and picks one as a present for her. Kanna looks at the flower before going deep in thought, thinking of the same poem she said when she found Kagura's fan. She then emotionlessly crushes the flower in her tiny fist.

Trivia

 * Kanna's scenes in this episode, just prior to Inuyasha's group running into her, are completely anime only.


 * In the manga, Kanna was sitting in a tree when she felt a gust of wind, and thought it was Kagura. In this episode, she performs some kind of ceremony for bidding her good-bye.


 * Kanna has shown sorrow at Kagura's death, meaning she's not as emotionless as Naraku thought she was.


 * In a way, the Flower Prince helps Inuyasha overcome his grief over Kikyō's second death.