annoyedbook 102: InuYasha, Volume 6 by Rumiko Takahashi
Kikyo, the priestess who "killed" InuYasha fifty years earlier, who died believing InuYasha killed her, and whose soul Kagome was reincarnated from, learns from InuYasha that he did not betray her; however, her hatred and desire for revenge are so strong that she cannot forgive him and be at peace. Kagome is able to recover the soul stolen from her by Kikyo via the Ogress, but Kikyo's new body and memories are sustained by the power of her hatred and she escapes to attempt to take InuYasha into true death with her another day. Everyone also starts to realize that InuYasha and Kikyo may not really have started enemies, but quite the opposite. Next, we meet Miroku a lecherous buddhist monk with a "hellhole" in his left palm which sucks in everything and everyone in its path unless it is covered with some special prayer beads. Miroku tells of the origin of his "hellhole", having been passed down as a family curse originally placed on his grandfather fifty years earlier by a shape-shifting demon named Naraku, and that the void will eventually grow beyond control and swallow him as well, as it had already done his grandfather and father. Naraku also coveted the Shikon jewel and was rumored to have killed the priestess guarding it. InuYasha realizes that it may have been Naraku in disguise that caused the tragedy that befell he and Kikyo, and an uneasy alliance forms between Miroku and InuYasha while they search for their common enemy. The party then battles and defeats a painter, Kotatsu, and his demon hoard created with jewel charged demon ink.
