The Gatekeepers is the 299th chapter of the InuYashamanga.
Synopsis[]
Inuyasha and friends go to the gateway in the realm of fire, and Inuyasha is attacked by the two gatekeepers, Gozu and Mezu.
Summary[]
Inuyasha and friends are riding Hachiemon, heading toward the realm of fire where the gate to the borderland is supposed to be. The Saimyōshō are in front of them, leading them straight toward a cave, making it seem even more like a trap. Kagome wonders why, if Hakudōshi knows where this gate to the borderland is, he hasn't already gone through himself? As Inuyasha and friends go into the cave, Kagome says she has a bad feeling about this place. As they delve deeper into the cavern, Miroku comments that it's really like they're descending into the underworld.
Meanwhile, Kagura asks Hakudōshi if he's going to let Inuyasha get the shard before they do, but the kid doesn't seem worried. He orders Kagura to go to the gate and get the shard before Inuyasha's group.
Shippō sees stones and rocks littered all over the ground... and they look like the faces of demons. Finally, the group arrives at the end of the cave, where there is a huge gate with two giant statues on either side. A voice speaks out "Do you wish to pass?" Myōga warns Inuyasha not to a
Inuyasha VS. Gozu and Mezu.
nswer, but he doesn't listen and responds "Of course I want to pass!"
Suddenly, the two statues come to life. They are Gozu and Mezu, the guardians of the gate and the ones who were speaking. They say that "Only the dead may pass through this gate; those who wish to pass, must first die by our hands." The group realizes this was why Hakudōshi didn't go through the gate himself.
Inuyasha decides to just attack them and it'll be done. He uses the wind scar on the pair of guardian statues, but it has no effect. Gozu and Mezu say they cannot be cut by a blade of this world. Myōga says the only way to stop Gozu and Mezu is for the gate to open and shut, in other words, for Inuyasha to die and thus pass through the gate. So how can he defeat them?
Hakudōshi sends Kagura on her way, grinning to himself that the gate will soon open, which means that Inuyasha will have died.
