Hojo Akitoshi had learned about the Shikon Jewel.
To gloss over the matter, Kaede had desperately dragged up an unsolved mystery from fifty years ago.
Soon, as Inuyasha and Kaede took turns talking,
Hojo Akitoshi, Kagome, and the others sitting there were treated to a truly juicy revelation.
Put simply, it was the story of a powerful priestess who had guarded the Shikon Jewel for a long time.
Perhaps the burden of protecting the jewel had grown too heavy, and she had yearned for a change, leading her to spare someone she happened to find reasonably pleasing to the eye.
That someone was Inuyasha, a half-demon who had come to steal the jewel.
Then, without meaning to, the half-demon had activated the skill of wearing down even the most resolute woman through relentless pursuit.
Before they knew it, the priestess and the half-demon had become entangled in a poignant romance between human and demon.
The earth-shaking devotion and all the forbidden love involved could be set aside for now.
The ending had undoubtedly been a tragedy.
"Inuyasha, are you saying that, so you could spend your life with Kikyo,"
"you not only gave up your dream of stealing the Shikon Jewel and becoming a full-fledged Great Demon, but also promised Kikyo you would use the jewel's power to become truly human?"
"And spend the rest of your life with that priestess, correct?"
Watching Kaede and Inuyasha bicker endlessly below the dais, Hojo Akitoshi clapped his hands together with a loud smack.
After interrupting them, he posed his question.
"Yes! But that damned priestess tricked me!"
"On my way to our meeting place, Kikyo attacked me!"
"After I woke up, I was so angry that I went to Kaede's Village. In the end, that woman sealed me away for fifty years!"
Hearing Hojo Akitoshi's question from the dais, Inuyasha answered bitterly.
He also shot a vicious glare at Kaede, who had begun to notice something.
"And you, Priestess Kaede-according to your account, Inuyasha attacked Kikyo while she was on her way to their meeting."
"Then, after taking the Shikon Jewel, Inuyasha did not immediately flee with it."
"Instead, he turned back to attack Kaede's Village, and finally stole the jewel a second time from the shrine where it was enshrined."
"In the end, Kikyo returned gravely wounded and sealed him to the sacred tree, after which your sister Kikyo died full of bitterness?"
Without anyone noticing, Hojo Akitoshi had taken control of the conversation and naturally placed himself in the lofty position of arbiter.
Yet everyone present, including Inuyasha, who had disliked Hojo Akitoshi all along,
saw nothing wrong with this, and all their eyes settled on Hojo Akitoshi.
They quietly awaited his verdict.
"What do you think, Mitsuhide?"
Turning his head, Hojo Akitoshi held Roasted Soybeans between his fingers as though considering something, seeking another opinion for reference.
"My Lord."
Akechi Mitsuhide bowed and chose his words carefully.
"Assuming that neither the human nor the demon before us has concealed the truth,"
"Inuyasha and Kikyo could not have been in two places at once, attacking each other."
"Unless Inuyasha can create duplicates of himself, and Kikyo can control Shikigami that take on her appearance."
"Hey, I can't make duplicates!"
Inuyasha immediately shouted.
"My elder sister excelled at offensive techniques, particularly the Purifying Arrow. She rarely used Shikigami."
Kaede also supplied a clarification.
"In that case..."
Looking at Inuyasha and Kaede below the dais as they added to their testimony, Akechi Mitsuhide nodded and continued.
"Kikyo's account clearly states that Inuyasha took the Shikon Jewel after attacking her."
"Inuyasha's account, however, is that he was attacked and knocked unconscious, then turned back to attack the village and seize the jewel by force because he felt deceived."
"Does that not strike you as strange?"
Tapping the tabletop, Akechi Mitsuhide turned to Hojo Akitoshi and bowed deeply.
"Please render your judgment, my Lord!"
"Why did neither of them kill the other at the outset?"
Picking up where Akechi Mitsuhide had left off, Hojo Akitoshi spoke with a solemn expression.
"This entire incident is riddled with inconsistencies."
"Kikyo and Inuyasha were both attacked, and both lost consciousness."
"Why were they not killed while unconscious?"
"Despite having already been stolen, the Shikon Jewel somehow returned to the shrine."
"By an extraordinary coincidence, it waited there for Inuyasha to steal it, and the gravely wounded Kikyo returned at precisely that moment."
"This practically reeks of a conspiracy."
At this point, Hojo Akitoshi suddenly laughed, leaving everyone staring in confusion.
"Kikyo certainly had her charms."
"Huh?"
Everyone, who had been waiting for his final judgment, froze. They had understood everything Hojo Akitoshi had said before.
But what was this remark about Kikyo's charms supposed to mean?
"What happened between Kikyo and Inuyasha was orchestrated."
"A third party, either a demon or a human, was hidden behind the entire incident."
"And this mastermind must have harbored special feelings for Kikyo-feelings that outweighed even their desire for the Shikon Jewel."
Rolling Roasted Soybeans between his fingers, Hojo Akitoshi found it much easier to work backward through the events, since he already knew the answer.
"My sister never had any contact with other men besides Inuyasha!"
Kaede loudly objected from below the dais. This concerned her sister's reputation after death!
As a priestess, being romantically entangled with a man-and a half-demon at that-had already given people enough to gossip about!
The involvement of a mastermind in the events that had ended in tragedy for them both could, in a sense, help salvage her reputation.
But if that mastermind had also been emotionally entangled with her sister!
...Then...
Looking around, Kaede did not even have to imagine what others would think.
The intrigued looks on the faces of those present were already more than she could bear.
Especially Inuyasha's resentful look, as though he had been cheated on!
"If the goal was the Shikon Jewel, how could you possibly have had the chance to cremate it along with your sister?"
"Given your age and abilities back then, with Kikyo dead and Inuyasha sealed away,"
"the mastermind had every opportunity to simply seize the unprotected jewel."
"Of course, you could say that before she died, Kikyo placed protections on the jewel and waited for the possible mastermind to appear."
"But setting aside whether Kikyo, at that point,"
"had even realized that a mastermind existed, if all they wanted was the jewel,"
"they had effectively already obtained it while Kikyo was on her way to the meeting place."
"Why go to all that trouble to return the jewel, then sit back and watch Kikyo and Inuyasha fight to the death?"
Shaking his head, Hojo Akitoshi chewed Roasted Soybeans and considered it.
"One possibility is that they deeply hated Kikyo and Inuyasha. But given Inuyasha's abilities, he was unlikely to have made such a formidable enemy."
"Kikyo might have, but her enemies were probably the sort who died on the spot."
"Once we rule out the impossible, Kikyo being too charming actually fits better."
Spreading his hands, Hojo Akitoshi reluctantly delivered his conclusion under Kaede's horrified gaze.
"It was either unrequited love or bone-deep hatred."
"Those are the only two possibilities. Considering that they did not attempt to take the Shikon Jewel afterward,"
"I lean toward unrequited love, because the target was not the Shikon Jewel, but Kikyo herself."
"The carefully planned outcome was supposed to be Kikyo killing Inuyasha, but instead it became a tragedy in which both lovers died."
"The mastermind probably could not accept that outcome either. Having lost the chance to obtain Kikyo, even possessing the jewel would have brought them no joy."
"Ha."
As he finished speaking, Hojo Akitoshi looked at Kagome, who had become caught up in Kikyo's bewildering romantic entanglements, yet somehow seemed to find a poignant beauty in those feelings.
Then he raised an eyebrow and looked elsewhere, toward something Akechi Mitsuhide had prepared.
It had originally been intended as a prop for the issue of romance between humans and demons.
"Guards! What is this filthy spectacle? Who allowed such a thing near our Lord's command tent?!"
Akechi Mitsuhide immediately sprang to his feet, drew his sword in a rage, and charged outside.
As Akechi Mitsuhide moved, everyone turned to look in the direction he was charging.
There, in plain sight, two dogs were mating.
And even when Akechi Mitsuhide approached with his men, the two dogs refused to separate.
Whoosh!
At the sight, Kagome could no longer spare a thought for the poignant romance between Kikyo and Inuyasha.
Her face immediately turned a dark, liver-red shade.
Before you continue