Shippo falls in love with a girl, Hachiko, who believes her deceased older brother will someday return home from war. Wait, is that really her name?
Original Air Date: 17 Dec 2001, Streamed on: Hulu
Woah, they are actually looking for a jewel shard when this episode starts.
Shippo is chilling by a river when he sees three boys beating a girl, Satsuki, for stealing food. She says they’ll be sorry when her brother comes home, but the boys say he died a long time ago. Shippo transforms into a balloon monster and scares them off. Satsuki reveals that her parents are dead, too.
Satsuki shows Shippo her treasure, a sacred jewel shard her brother gave her, but Kagome reveals that it’s fake, a “stone flower” or quartz crystal.
The village headman has tried to adopt her, but she has refused, choosing to wait for her brother’s return. The Hachiko parallels are getting a bit heavy.
The following morning, her brother returns!? Later, Shippo arrives and discovers that Satsuki’s returned brother is actually a demon.
The demon smashes Satsuki’s charm with his fist. Shippo gets Satsuki out of there, but his battle against the demon doesn’t go well.
Soon, Inuyasha saunters in through some tall grass, whips out Tetsusaiga, and threatens the demon with the backlash wave. The demon’s aura is too weak for the backlash wave, so Inuyasha defeats it with a single punch.
Satsuki is impressed with Shippo’s efforts, and he returns the shattered pieces of her quartz crystal. At that point, she reveals that she always knew her brother was dead and tells the gang that she’s going to live with the village headman.
Maybe Hachiko was just screwing with everyone, too. Epic.
Episode Score Card:
- Iron Reaver Soul Stealers: 0
- Wind Scars: 0
- Backlash Waves: 0/1; enemy aura too weak.
- Swarms of Naraku’s Bees: 0
- Jewel Shards Recovered: 0
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Shippo has extremely tiny hands. How does he hold onto anything???