Chapter Summaries

Chiyo gave Sakura, Saku, and Inuyasha strict safety rules and teleportation talismans before their journey to Totosai. While the children prepared to leave, Toga confronted Moon Eater and forced it to stay away from them for ten years; Moon Eater fled north, vowing to return stronger.

• Chiyo ordered Sakura, Saku, and Inuyasha to stay together, avoid unnecessary danger, keep Saku's perception active, and use their talismans only in a life-threatening emergency.
• Chiyo sent the three children to prepare for their departure the next morning, and Saku promised they would return with new weapons.
• Chiyo reassured Abihime that someone was watching Moon Eater but would not reveal who.
• Moon Eater vowed to claim Chiyo's children until Toga appeared at its cave and demanded it leave the three children alone for ten years.
• Toga overwhelmed Moon Eater and threatened to kill it if it disobeyed, so Moon Eater agreed and fled north to seek prey and grow stronger.

Sakura, Inuyasha, and Saku traveled to Totosai’s volcanic smithy to ask him to forge weapons, while Sesshomaru secretly followed them. After Kaijinbo made the children wait outside as Totosai slept, Sesshomaru appeared at the cave entrance.

• Chiyo told Abihime that Sesshomaru was following the children as they left the castle.
• The children traveled east, camped in the forest, and continued toward the volcanic region while Sakura and Inuyasha discussed their father’s reasons for leaving a threat alive.
• Saku sensed weak demonic energy near the largest volcano, and the children found Totosai’s smithy at its foot.
• Kaijinbo emerged from the cave, learned that Chiyo had sent the children, and told them to wait until Totosai woke.
• Sakura insisted that they wait patiently, and Inuyasha reluctantly agreed.
• Sesshomaru arrived at the cave entrance, surprising the three children.

Sesshomaru confronted Totosai’s disciple Kaijinbo after he refused to wake his master, then forced Totosai to come out by threatening to destroy the cave. Totosai learned the children had come to have weapons forged, and recognized Inuyasha as a half-demon and the others as Lord Chiyo’s descendants.

• Sakura told Sesshomaru that she, Saku, and Inuyasha had waited for Totosai while he slept, and Jaken angrily challenged Kaijinbo’s refusal to let them in.
• Kaijinbo insisted that Totosai’s rules applied to everyone, so Sesshomaru released his demonic power and forced Kaijinbo to his knees.
• Sesshomaru threatened to tear down the cave unless Totosai came out, prompting the panicked smith to hurry outside.
• Totosai made excuses for sleeping and learned that the three children had come to have weapons forged.
• Totosai recognized Inuyasha as a half-demon and identified the children as members of Lord Chiyo’s household.

Totosai told Inuyasha, Sakura, and Saku that they needed to infuse Soul Stones with cores drawn from their own hearts before he could forge their weapons. As the three struggled with his challenge, Saku reminded Sakura that her sword already had meaning because she had always protected her.

• Totosai examined Inuyasha’s Dragon Scale Powder and explained that each child needed to find a personal core and infuse a Soul Stone before he could forge their weapons.
• Totosai told Inuyasha to overcome his fear and feelings of inferiority, Sakura to understand what her sword protected, and Saku to perceive her own heart; he gave them three days.
• Inuyasha reflected on feeling unworthy and unable to protect his sisters, then left to walk alone.
• Sakura recalled her past attempts to protect Saku and admitted that she feared she was not strong enough.
• Saku told Sakura that her sword already held meaning because she had always stood up for her sisters, and Sakura thanked her.

Sakura, Saku, and Inuyasha faced their fears and discovered the power within their Soul Stones, then brought them to Totosai so he could forge their weapons. Kaijinbo challenged them to a forging contest, but Sesshomaru dismissed him and struck him aside as Totosai began.

• Sakura practiced her sword with the intent to protect, while Saku searched her heart and found fear, longing, and an unnamed feeling.
• Sesshomaru confronted Inuyasha about denying his fear, and Inuyasha accepted his fears until his Soul Stone began to glow.
• The three children returned to Totosai with glowing Soul Stones, and Totosai said he would forge their weapons in three days.
• Kaijinbo challenged the children to help forge weapons in a contest, explaining that he wanted to prove himself to Totosai.
• Sesshomaru called Kaijinbo's challenge boring, whipped him into the wall, and ordered Totosai to start forging.

Inuyasha, Sakura, and Saku each awakened a different quality in the billets for their weapons as Totosai began forging them. Sesshomaru watched over them from afar, then returned to his usual cold demeanor as the weapons remained unfinished.

• Totosai told Inuyasha, Sakura, and Saku that their weapons would reflect the qualities they brought to the forging.
• Inuyasha faced his fears while gripping the billet, and its crimson light ignited as Totosai hammered it.
• Sakura chose to protect those she loved, and her billet glowed pale blue as Totosai struck it.
• Saku expressed that she wanted to be needed and stand beside her siblings, and her billet shone silver-white.
• Totosai sent the three children outside to finish forging their weapons, while Sesshomaru watched them from a nearby tree.
• Jaken thought Sesshomaru had smiled, and Sesshomaru dismissed him before reflecting that the children might be able to protect their loved ones with good weapons.

Three days after the battle, Totosai gave Inuyasha, Sakura, and Saku weapons that would grow stronger as they did, and the children headed back to the Western Country. Meanwhile, Moon Eater hid in the northern mountains to recover, vowing to attack them once Toga’s ten-year restriction ended.

• Totosai presented Inuyasha with a crimson blade, Sakura with a pale blue sword, and Saku with silver-white gauntlets meant to help her escape danger.
• Totosai explained that the weapons were only blanks and would develop through their wielders’ strength, battles, and state of mind.
• Inuyasha named his blade Red Fang, Sakura named her sword Qinglan, and Saku left her gauntlets unnamed.
• Sesshomaru departed for the Western Country, and Totosai sent the three children after him to return to Lord Chiyo.
• Moon Eater hid in a northern cave, plotted to kill the children after ten years, and began recovering his strength.

Inuyasha and Sakura defeated a pack of Wolf Demons attacking fleeing villagers, then learned that more than a hundred monsters had devastated a village to the south. They set off to clear out the remaining monsters.

• Saku sensed four humans fleeing from monsters, and Inuyasha and Sakura prepared to defend them.
• Inuyasha killed three Wolf Demons with the Red Fang Blade while Sakura killed four with the Qinglan Sword.
• The survivors told Sakura that Wolf Demons had appeared half a month earlier and killed most of their village, which lay a day's walk to the south.
• Sakura promised to help the villagers and bandaged the injured middle-aged man's arm.
• Inuyasha sensed a mass of Demonic Energy and evil aura to the south, then ran ahead to end the threat quickly.

Inuyasha, Sakura, and Saku fought through a valley of Wolf Demons, but a top-tier Great Demon nearly overwhelmed them. A mysterious shrine maiden destroyed it with a Purification Arrow and disappeared into the woods after identifying Inuyasha as a Half-demon.

• Saku sensed dozens of Wolf Demons ahead, and the siblings entered a valley strewn with human corpses.
• Inuyasha and Sakura killed the Wolf Demons while the Red Fang Blade absorbed their blood.
• Inuyasha defeated the giant Wolf Demon, only for an even stronger Great Demon to emerge and threaten all three siblings.
• The siblings stood together against the Great Demon's attack, but a silver-white Purification Arrow pierced it and reduced it to ash.
• Saku sensed someone in the woods, where a young shrine maiden appeared, said she had finally caught up, and left after calling Inuyasha a Half-demon.

Inuyasha, Sakura, and Saku returned after defeating the Wolf Demons and helped the survivors head toward their village. They discovered the demons had recently gone mad under the influence of a powerful evil aura, whose source Sakura intended to investigate after the survivors were safe.

• Inuyasha and Sakura discussed the unknown priestess who had killed the Great Wolf Demon with one arrow, then left the valley with Saku.
• The three reunited with the four survivors, told them the demons were dead, and set out to escort them toward their village.
• By a stream, the middle-aged man explained that the Wolf Demons had begun eating people half a month earlier after long living peacefully near the villages.
• Inuyasha and Sakura realized a dense evil aura had tainted the Wolf Demons and likely caused their sudden madness.
• Sakura sensed the aura lingering to the south and decided they would investigate the next day, after taking the survivors home.

Sakura, Inuyasha, and Saku reached a ruined village and sensed that the evil aura came from far to the south. The Miko who had helped them before treated the villagers’ injuries, then gave Sakura her name, Kikyo, and continued south.

• Sakura, Inuyasha, and Saku searched the ruined village but found no survivors or demons, while Saku sensed the evil aura coming from several hundred li to the south.
• Kikyo arrived at the village, passed the wary Sakura, Inuyasha, and Saku, and treated the villagers’ wounds.
• Kikyo gave the young woman herbs for her feverish child and tended to the two old people.
• Sakura asked the Miko who she was, and Kikyo answered that her name was Kikyo before walking south.

Sakura, Inuyasha, and Saku followed the spreading evil aura south and discovered that a Great Demon sealed four hundred years earlier was corrupting the land and its inhabitants. Kikyo set out alone to reinforce the seal, but Sakura and the others refused to turn back and joined her.

• Sakura decided to investigate the evil aura with Inuyasha and Saku after Kikyo headed south.
• The three took the rescued villagers to a nearby town, then followed the evil aura south through a wasteland to a burned town full of signs of a massacre.
• Saku sensed Kikyo ahead, and the group found her resting among scattered rocks.
• Kikyo explained that a Great Demon sealed by her ancestor was weakening the seal and corrupting the Wolf Demons and the surrounding land.
• Kikyo said she planned to reinforce the seal alone, but Sakura insisted they would continue because the spreading aura threatened hundreds of thousands of people.
• Kikyo warned them they would die, then allowed them to come along as long as they did not drag her down.

Saku sensed the source producing the Evil Spirits, and Kikyo led the group through the swarm toward it. They reached a pulsing evil-aura core in a ground crack, where new Evil Spirits were forming.

• Kikyo used purifying arrows to destroy many Evil Spirits, but more kept emerging from the Rotten Soil and sky.
• Saku sensed that the Evil Spirits were growing from a source about three hundred steps southeast, and Kikyo raised a barrier around the group.
• Kikyo explained that the source was an Evil Spirit core and led the others out of the barrier to destroy it.
• Sakura and Inuyasha helped Kikyo push through the swarm while Saku called out approaching threats to coordinate them.
• The four reached a crack in the ground and saw a pulsing, dark-green core producing more Evil Spirits.

Inuyasha, Sakura, Saku, and Kikyo discovered that the Evil Spirits were being spawned by a heart deep inside a crack. Sakura and Inuyasha entered the crack to draw the heart out, while Kikyo prepared a Demon-Breaking Arrow and Saku guided them from above.

• Inuyasha and Sakura realized that the heart's evil aura was continually creating new Evil Spirits, and Kikyo's barrier talisman was destroyed before it could reach the heart.
• Sakura threw a stone at the heart with Saku's help, but the attack only dented it and made it beat more violently.
• Kikyo explained that she needed the heart exposed within range of her Demon-Breaking Arrow and prepared to fire it at the cost of exhausting her Spiritual Power.
• Sakura and Inuyasha volunteered to enter the crack and provoke the heart, while Saku stayed above to sense its position and guide them.
• Sakura and Inuyasha jumped into the dense evil aura, followed Saku's directions toward the heart, and faced a surge of evil aura rushing at them.

Sakura and Inuyasha destroyed the first Core with Kikyo’s Demon-Breaking Arrow, ending the immediate threat but leaving the seal weakened and five more Cores farther south. Kikyo prepared to go strengthen the seal alone, while Sakura and Inuyasha challenged her to stop treating self-sacrifice as a miko’s fate.

• Sakura sensed the Core’s brief weakness after each beat, and Inuyasha opened a path so she could stab its damaged center with the Qinglan Sword.
• The wounded Core tore free and climbed the fissure wall toward Kikyo, who fired a Demon-Breaking Arrow through its top and destroyed it.
• Saku collapsed, Kikyo exhausted her Spiritual Power, and Inuyasha tended Sakura’s burns as the evil aura and Evil Spirits dispersed.
• Kikyo warned that five more Cores remained farther south and said the seal had to be strengthened to stop the evil aura.
• Kikyo insisted on going alone, but Sakura argued that her exhausted state made the journey dangerous, and Inuyasha rejected the idea that a miko had to follow fate.

Kikyo explained the evil aura, the demon sealed beneath the land, and the danger of the five Cores to Inuyasha, Sakura, and Saku. After agreeing to teach them, she set out with them to destroy the next Core before the first one grew back.

• Kikyo reflected on her inherited duty to protect the seal, and Sakura and Inuyasha offered to help her.
• Kikyo explained that evil aura corrupted minds irreversibly and that a King-level Great Demon had been sealed beneath the land four hundred years ago.
• Kikyo revealed that the seal could collapse in twenty years and that five Cores had to be destroyed within three days.
• Kikyo asked Inuyasha, Sakura, and Saku their names, then told them to follow her to the next Core despite the greater danger ahead.

Sakura, Inuyasha, and Saku jumped into a pit to sever the connections between five evolved Cores so Kikyo could destroy them with a Demon-Breaking Arrow. Inuyasha fought off the evil aura’s illusions and prepared to slash through the darkness while Kikyo waited above.

• Inuyasha’s Red Fang Blade resonated with the evil aura, and Kikyo explained that it heated in response to his fighting spirit.
• Kikyo revealed that the five hearts in the pit formed one evolved Core and explained that three Severing Charms had to be placed on its connecting blood vessels nearly simultaneously.
• Sakura, Inuyasha, and Saku agreed to descend together, while Kikyo prepared to fire a Demon-Breaking Arrow as soon as the connections were severed.
• The three jumped into the pit, and Saku linked their senses while Kikyo recalled advice about trusting others and gathered her Spiritual Power.
• Inuyasha broke through illusions of his family and people rejecting him as a half-demon, then raised Red Fang and shouted, “Slash!!”

Sakura attached the final Talisman beneath the five hearts, allowing Kikyo to destroy the sealing Core with her last Demon-Breaking Arrow. Sakura collapsed after the Core's evil aura overwhelmed her, but her father appeared in a warm white light as she struggled to stay conscious.

• Inuyasha attached a Talisman to one connecting blood vessel while Sakura and Saku worked to sever the others, and Kikyo warned them not to touch the main blood vessel.
• Sakura went beneath the five hearts and attached the Talisman to the hidden third connecting blood vessel despite the intense evil aura.
• After Saku confirmed all three connecting vessels were severed, Kikyo fired her final Demon-Breaking Arrow and destroyed the five hearts and the Evil Spirits.
• Saku realized she could no longer sense Sakura, while Inuyasha and the others called for her.
• Sakura lay unconscious at the bottom of the crater as her father appeared before her in a warm white light and told her not to sleep.

Chiyo’s manifestation purified the giant pit, saved Sakura, and restored Inuyasha and Saku’s strength before fading away. Kikyo recognized him as the teacher she had lost, and the group set out to reinforce the unstable seal as she began to tell Saku how she had met him.

• Chiyo purified the evil aura and corruption in the pit, then used his power to drive the evil from Sakura and restore Inuyasha and Saku’s strength.
• Kikyo recognized Chiyo, but his manifestation faded into white light as she rushed toward him and caught one last light spot in her hand.
• Saku clung to Sakura, while Inuyasha checked on his sister and told Kikyo that Chiyo had been their father, the emperor of the Dog Demon Tribe of the Western Country.
• Kikyo confirmed that Chiyo was the person she had known and warned that the seal was still loosening and needed to be strengthened.
• Kikyo held the light spot with her Charm and told the others she would trust them; when Saku asked how she had met Chiyo, Kikyo offered to begin the story from ten years earlier.

As Kikyo led the group, she recalled meeting a mysterious white-haired, red-eyed man ten years earlier, when she was seven and grieving her mother. After he revived the withered cherry tree, Kikyo asked whether he could bring the dead back to life, and he chose to stay at the Shrine another day.

• Kikyo walked at the front of the group with Saku as she began recounting her childhood.
• At seven, Kikyo had become a gifted Miko after her mother died from the backlash of a seal, and she silently mourned beneath a withered cherry tree.
• A mysterious white-haired, red-eyed man arrived at the Shrine to shelter from the rain and sat beside Kikyo beneath the veranda.
• After the rain stopped, the man touched the cherry tree and made fresh green buds sprout from its branches.
• Kikyo asked the man who he was and whether he could bring the dead back to life, but he asked if it would rain the next day and decided to stay.