I descended to this world like morning dew; with the gentle breeze, cherry blossoms faded with spring.
-Epigraph
In 1582, Oda Nobunaga launched an offensive against China. When Hideyoshi met resistance while preparing to attack the Mori at Takamatsu Castle (near present-day Okayama), Oda Nobunaga personally led an army to his aid. Along the way, he stayed at Honnō-ji in Kyoto, where his retainer Akechi Mitsuhide rose in rebellion, forcing Oda Nobunaga to commit seppuku. To repay Oda Nobunaga for recognizing and fostering his talents, Hideyoshi held a grand funeral for him at Daitokuji. This poem was written in mourning for Oda Nobunaga, lamenting that his forty-nine years in this world had been as fleeting as morning dew and cherry blossoms, his glory and power as transient as a dream, as easily dispelled as the intoxication of a cup of wine. (Baidu)
Whether glorious or dispirited, human lives were, in the end, far too brief compared with those of monsters...
Was this a dream, or reality?
Only a moment ago, it seemed, they had still been in the era humans called the New Century. All monsters lived in hiding, and Naraku, controlled by the Shikon Jewel, had defeated the original body of the lord of Hell with an incarnation of himself, becoming the true sovereign who wielded the Hell Lord's divine power. He had even used the Shikon Jewel to restart the world, seeking to reset its timeline to five hundred years earlier. And in the end, he seemed to have succeeded.
The Silver-Haired Girl stood frozen, staring at the towering ancient fortress before her-Hitomi Castle-yet she could not immediately pull her thoughts free of those distant memories. Or rather, they were not her memories, but the Shikon Jewel's. The pure spirit within the jewel and its creator, Midoriko,