Kagura

"Hmph. Who are you?" Kagura put away her fan, pulled the Baboon Skin tighter around herself, and sized up the calm-faced woman before her.

Seeing her cover herself, Xu Zhiqiu felt a little more reassured and answered, "Xu Zhiqiu."

"Heh, Kagura, is that how you treat the master who created you?" Naraku opened his eyes and looked toward Xu Zhiqiu.

Hearing Naraku's voice, Kagura turned toward him. Disgust crossed her face when she saw that he was nothing but a head, and she snorted. "Naraku, I won't let you control me! I am the wind, the free wind, an individual in my own right!"

Here we go. The second daughter's barely appeared, and she's already rebelling. Holding Kanna, who had been beside her, Xu Zhiqiu watched the father and daughter argue.

Then Naraku slowly began to laugh, his voice chilling. "Is that so?"

Kagura wasted no more words on him. She raised her fan toward him, immediately sending several sharp blades of wind hurtling at Naraku.

Xu Zhiqiu was about to intervene when she realized she was holding someone and had to abandon the idea. Naraku had strength of his own, after all.

As the wind blades reached Naraku, a Barrier rose around his head. Kagura's attacks had no effect on it whatsoever.

"Damn it!" Kagura attacked several more times, but Naraku's Barrier did not budge.

"My turn." A chill entered Naraku's eyes. A heart appeared amid the white spider silk, which tightened around it.

Still bristling with defiance, Kagura felt her heart being squeezed viciously. Her face instantly went pale. Clutching her chest, her legs went weak, and she dropped to one knee.

Seeing this, Xu Zhiqiu called out, "Naraku, that's enough."

Naraku put Kagura's heart away and looked at her kneeling on the floor, his voice utterly emotionless. "The consequences of disobeying my orders won't be as mild as this."

"Heh." Kagura sneered without answering.

Even with agony written all over her face, she refused to yield. Her loathing was loathing, and she made no effort to hide it.

Worried they would fight again if they stayed together, Xu Zhiqiu hurried the two girls out of the dungeon and toward her room.

She also had someone prepare bathwater.

Kanna sat quietly to one side, holding her mirror.

Kagura reclined in the bathtub full of hot water, her back against its side, and cast a sidelong glance at the woman crouching by the wardrobe nearby, rummaging through it. "What's your relationship with Naraku?"

Xu Zhiqiu stopped searching through her clothes and turned toward her. "My relationship with him is hard to explain. You wouldn't understand even if I told you."

"Really? That Naraku seems to treat you differently." Kagura's red eyes flickered with curiosity.

"Hmm, I think lots of these clothes would suit you. Which do you like? Pick one yourself." Xu Zhiqiu looked at the several outfits in her hands, unable to decide.

Hearing her gentle voice and troubled tone, Kagura paused. If she had not seen the power of the sword in Xu Zhiqiu's hand, she would have thought she was just an ordinary woman.

She sank into the warm water and washed the grime from her body, then took the bath towel hanging nearby, covered herself, and stepped out of the tub.

Water trickled down the fabric onto the wooden floor.

"Let me see."

Kagura was quite particular about clothes. As an incarnation, she had inherited at least a little of Naraku's excellent taste.

Seeing Kagura put on the clothes she had chosen herself, Xu Zhiqiu breathed a sigh of relief. Having her choose for herself really did look better.

Kagura wore three light layers: green innermost, a red inner kimono, and an outer robe alternating between deep and pale purple, with a yellow sash tied at her waist-a little red-eyed beauty.

Once Kagura was dressed, Xu Zhiqiu tossed her a dry towel so she could rub her wet hair dry herself.

Kagura found that troublesome and used her demonic power instead. Her wet hair dried immediately.

Her sleek black hair fell loose over her shoulders, and impatience showed in her red eyes. Apart from looking a little rebellious, everything else was fine.

"Want to tie your hair up?" Xu Zhiqiu offered her the hair tie in her palm.

"What a bother." Kagura snorted, took the hair tie from Xu Zhiqiu, and sat straight down on the stool before the dressing mirror.

Looking into the mirror, Kagura picked up a comb, tied up her hair, and tucked a feather into it. Studying her face, she felt something was missing.

Under Xu Zhiqiu's gaze, Kagura conjured a pair of turquoise bead earrings out of thin air. After putting them on, she looked at herself in the mirror and was much more satisfied.

Then she noticed Xu Zhiqiu beside her.

Xu Zhiqiu came back to her senses and moved her unused cosmetics in front of Kagura. "Want to try them?"

Seeing those pigments, Kagura instinctively reached out, but just as she was about to touch them, her hand froze in midair.

"What's wrong? Don't you like them?" Xu Zhiqiu asked.

"No, I rather like them," Kagura answered frankly. It was just that she still could not fathom Xu Zhiqiu... It should be fine, right?

Those slender hands touched the rouge after all, and she began applying it in front of the mirror.

How could a girl resist such a temptation?

After applying eyeshadow, eyeliner, and lipstick, Kagura was thoroughly pleased with her alluring reflection. She stood, fanning herself with the fan in her hand, and glanced at Xu Zhiqiu, who was crouching in front of Kanna:

"Though I don't know what your relationship with Naraku is, let me offer you a word of advice. Naraku isn't as good as you think. He's nothing but a sinister, cunning demon whose very body was pieced together."

Xu Zhiqiu had spent ages studying Kanna's mirror without figuring anything out. Hearing Kagura's words, she looked up at the alluring little beauty. "Mm, I knew that from the beginning."

"You knew, and you still stay with him?" Kagura was stunned.

"He even wanted to kill me back then," Xu Zhiqiu said.

At that, Kagura's whole demeanor changed. She had caught the scent of gossip. Walking over, she sat beside Xu Zhiqiu. "Tell me?"

"Forget it. That's ancient history. Let the past stay in the past, and keep looking ahead." Xu Zhiqiu returned the mirror in her hands to Kanna and stood up on her own.

Unable to hear about Naraku's past, Kagura looked disappointed.

Xu Zhiqiu spent the day having fun with the two sisters.

That evening, Naraku summoned them. Kagura left with Kanna, looking thoroughly displeased.

Xu Zhiqiu was left alone in the room. She lay on the mattress spread over the floor, one hand resting on her stomach and the other raised. As she looked at her flawless white wrist, bewilderment filled her eyes.

The next day.

When Xu Zhiqiu woke, Kagura was already sitting beside her, her red eyes fixed on her beneath the covers.

"No matter how many times I called you, you wouldn't wake up."

"Really? Maybe it's because I couldn't sleep last night, so I was slow to wake up today. Did you need something?" Xu Zhiqiu sat up, rubbing her puffed-up hair as she answered.

"I want to find a few outfits in your wardrobe." Kagura's gaze shifted evasively as she said this. After all, asking another person-and Naraku's lover, at that-for clothes was a little beneath her dignity. Yet Xu Zhiqiu happened to have plenty of clothes that suited her taste.