YASHAHIME THEORY TIME
So, I am rewatching Hanyo no Yashahime (I guess just to torture myself) and I’ve noticed something that I haven’t seen before and I saw no one talking about after the show finished...
During the first episode, we see the only appearance of the old cast together in this season and it happens 6 months after Kagome came back to the Feudal Japan to live with InuYasha. They were living normally without big issues, until Yotsume appears and watch Kagome and Sango hanging out. This episode was portrayed in the manga, being the last chapter updated years later after the story was over.
When I’ve watched it for the first time, I’ve thought it was nostalgic and did not pay attention to the details, but now I’ve realized that I missed something very important: WHO WAS THE PERSON THAT UNSEALED THE ROOT-HEAD?
More than 50 years ago, during the time Kikyou took care of Onigumo, she sealed the youkai Root-Head with one of her arrows in a nearby village. Exactly 6 months after Kagome came back, the arrow was removed, releasing Root-Head, that just like InuYasha in the OG series, did not know he was sealead for ages and mistook Kagome for Kikyou.
The curious part of it is that the arrow was not destroyed and left near by the resting place that the youkai was sealed. We know that the sacred arrow can only be removed by a HUMAN with high spiritual power, but we’ve met no one like this during this season.
Also, we can guess that Yotsume was the one that told this holy person about Kagome, because it happened just after Yotsume left the tree where he was watching Sango and Kagome talking.
However, Yotsume was working for the Four Perils and they were searching for half-demons and we’ve seen they fighting: no one had spiritual powers and neither of them would use minor a youkai to fight against InuYasha.
Another interesting point to observe during this episode, is the first time Sesshomaru appears. He stands next to Kohaku and says that Root-Head is an insignificant youkai, but Jaken points out that they sensed a strong demonic energy coming from the village. If Root-Head is a minor demon, then who is the owner of the powerful demonic energy? Oh, it appears that Sesshomaru already knows who is the person, because while leaving Kohaku, he says: “Nenokubi is an insignificant yokai... However... You are being annoying” (free translation of the portuguese version).
In my opinion. it would be too out of character for Sesshomaru to call someone he doesn’t know annoying, because it is like a compliment coming from him. That is why Jaken thinks he is the one Sesshomaru is talking about.
Also, if Sesshomaru really knows this person, then it would explain why he didn’t help the InuGroup to kill the Root-Head and just kept standing in the rooftop of the house the kids were hiding.
After watching this episode and noticing these things, I don’t think that Sesshomaru was going to the village to visit Rin that day, he was just following the powerful demonic energy he felt.
Perhaps I am totally wrong about it, yet I think that this person is the real villain of this anime and not Kirinmaru. I even think that this is the powerful youkai that Miroku fought against before entering the seclusion. However, I don’t think this person is a youkai, at least not a full one, due to the fact that he/she can undo a sacred seal.
