Picking up where the last episode left off, the bandits have camped around the town, and are enjoying sake while waiting for Miroku and Inuyasha to die. Gatenmaru consumes a woman from the village, and taunts Inuyasha as he reaches for another village woman to devour.
An old man of the village grabs the Tessaiga and tries to run it to Inuyasha. As the bandits are about to slay the old man, Sango and Kagome arrive and save him. Kagome takes possession of Tessaiga while the bandits surround them. Within the poison cocoon, Miroku's barrier is failing.
The demon leader of the bandits orders his men to retrieve Kagome, and Sango, Kirara and Shippō try to defend her.
Inside the cocoon, Inuyasha's demon blood takes control of him. He rips through the poison cocoon, freeing himself and Miroku. Under the demonic influence of his blood, Inuyasha cuts down a bunch of bandits.
Gatenmaru attacks Inuyasha again, this time Inuyasha defeats the monster easily. The human bandits, horrified by their master's death at the hands of Inuyasha's full demon form, turn and run.
Inuyasha chases down and confronts the fleeing bandits. The bandits beg for mercy and insist they were only following orders, but Inuyasha ignores their pleas and slaughters many of them. Kagome, still gripping Tessaiga, runs after Inuyasha, begging him to stop, but her words have no effect; instead, to her horror, he is laughing. Kagome tries to return Tessaiga to Inuyasha, but he is distracted by the arrival of Sesshōmaru.
When Sesshōmaru draws his sword, Inuyasha knocks it aside, though he injures himself in the process. Enraged, Inuyasha repeatedly charges his brother, ignoring both his injuries. Although Inuyasha's demon blood has enhanced his strength and speed, his attacks are so predictable that Sesshomaru is still able to dodge them all. After a few moments of fighting, Sesshōmaru sees the truth of Bokusenō's words; in his full-demon form, Inuyasha is little more than a mindless monster. With his typical contempt, Sesshōmaru hurls Inuyasha to the ground with Tokijin, knocking him unconscious. Kagome throws herself between the half-brothers, but instead of attacking, Sesshōmaru tells her to use Tetsusaiga to return Inuyasha to his senses. Miroku remarks that Sesshōmaru could have killed Inuyasha at any point in the duel but simply chose to hold him off, sarcastically asking if he's developed feelings for the half-brother he's always hated. After a pause, Sesshōmaru declares that he will kill Inuyasha eventually, but that there is no point in doing so now when he doesn't even know who he is.
Sesshōmaru returns to Jaken and Rin.
In the village, Inuyasha looks at the destruction he wreaked and confesses that he doesn't remember causing it. He worries that it is the first time he does not remember what happened during his transformation. The amount of blood covering his hands and claws sickens him.
The villagers start to fear him and kept themselves away due to how frightening his demon form was to them, but the boy defended Inuyasha because he tried to save his grandfather and others' lives. Inuyasha thinks grimly that he wasn't trying to protect anyone; all he was doing was hunting the bandits for the sake of spilling their blood. He thinks of how he has wanted to become a full-blooded demon since before he met Kikyo, but what he had hoped to become "wasn't like this".
Later, Inuyasha washes his hands in a stream in order to get rid of the scent of human blood. The scent, however, is still overwhelming to his sensitive sense of smell. After giving up, he sits next to Kagome. He gets upset when Kagome gives him a concerned look and claims that he didn't care what happened, but she tells him to not kid himself. She then hugs him to comfort him, which he does not resist. Inuyasha worries that the next time he becomes a full demon he might attack Kagome.
This Episode Provides Examples Of:
- Asshole Victim: As horrifying as it was to see Inuyasha butcher Gatenmaru's henchmen as they were fleeing and/or begging for their lives, considering they loyally served Gatenmaru even after finding out he was a bloodsucking moth demon and personally fed innocent women to him while making Inuyasha and Miroku watch, they more than deserved what they got.
- Ax-Crazy: Inuyasha becomes this in full upon succumbing to his Superpowered Evil Side. Kagome is appropriately horrified to discover that not only is he ignoring her attempts to reason with him, but he's laughing as he prepares to kill some bandits who were begging for mercy.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Inuyasha always wanted to become a full-fledged demon. When he gets his wish briefly, courtesy of his Superpowered Evil Side, he's immediately horrified and changes his mind.Inuyasha: [Inner Monologue] The demon that I wanted to become, the power that I desired... it wasn't like this.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Gatenmaru assumes his true moth demon form to fight Demon!Inuyasha. The end result: Inuyasha No Sells all of his attacks and shreds him into Ludicrous Gibs.
- Forced to Watch: With Inuyasha and Miroku trapped in a poison cocoon and about to die, Gatenmaru wastes no time rubbing their helplessness in their faces by grabbing one of the village women and sucking her blood dry right in front of them.
- Forgot About His Powers: The entire time Demon!Inuyasha is going on his rampage and slaughtering the bandits, Kagome ineffectually runs after him while desperately shouting at him to stop. It never once occurs to her that she could simply give Inuyasha the "sit" command to get him to stop, especially since doing so successfully restrained his full demon form twice before.
- Just Following Orders: Some of the bandits, when cornered by the demonized Inuyasha, attempt to save themselves by insisting they were just following Gatenmaru's orders. Unfortunately for them, Inuyasha is too far gone to give a crap.
- Not Worth Killing: When Sesshomaru arrives and beats Inuyasha down, rather than kill him, he tells the others how to reverse his condition. Miroku demands to know why he's helping them, to which Sesshomaru responds that there's no point in killing Inuyasha when he's a feral monster who doesn't even know who he is.
- Oh, Crap!: Kagome has this reaction when her attempts to get through to Demon!Inuyasha fall on deaf ears, it dawning on her just how far gone he really is:Kagome: He's laughing... he's about to slaughter them, and he's laughing!
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As soon as they witness Demon!Inuyasha butcher several of their friends, as well as shred Gatenmaru to pieces, the surviving bandits wisely decide to flee. Inuyasha doesn't let them escape.
- Ungrateful Townsfolk: After Inuyasha comes out of it, the surviving villagers are rightfully terrified of him and pull the boy who led the group there away. The boy tells them off, pointing out that demon or not, Inuyasha still saved them from the bandits.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Inuyasha's Superpowered Evil Side may be faster and stronger, but Sesshomaru is able to easily defeat him because, in this state, Inuyasha is a mindless, feral beast who can't strategize and keeps attacking him in a predictable manner.
- Villains Want Mercy: Gatenmaru's henchmen gleefully helped him take over and slaughter the village, but when confronted by Inuyasha in his Superpowered Evil Side, they immediately flee and are soon reduced to begging for lives, claiming they were just following Gatenmaru's orders. Much to the horror of Kagome and the others, Inuyasha doesn't care.
- The Worf Effect: Demon!Inuyasha easily kills Gatenmaru in his full demon form, and had previously shredded Naraku's detachment Goshinki in much the same manner... and then Sesshomaru comes along and easily wards him off while holding back.
