Swing the hoe well enough, and any wall can fall

"My lord! My lord!"

Hojo Akitoshi led the way out of the vortex, returning to the world of the living from the gap between life and death.

The first things he saw were the eager faces of Akechi Mitsuhide and the other samurai. These loyal warriors had seen their lord return safely.

Naturally, the air was filled with jubilant celebration.

"Mitsuhide, we won this battle."

For an army and its samurai, nothing mattered more than being led to victory after victory.

That was the best way to unite the troops and secure their loyalty.

Hojo Akitoshi understood this well, so he immediately responded to his retainers.

"Yeah!"

The good news sent a thrill through them. Even a great demon as seemingly invincible as Sesshomaru...

Had now fallen before the Hojo Army, driven back by their lord, Hojo Akitoshi.

The excitement surged several notches higher!

"Tch. I was the one who drove him off."

Watching Hojo Akitoshi stand before the crowd and announce the good news, Inuyasha curled his lip and muttered jealously.

"Inuyasha!"

Kagome refused to let that pass. As far as she was concerned, without Hojo Akitoshi fighting so hard...

Could Inuyasha alone have driven Sesshomaru back?

The sun would sooner rise in the west.

"This ugly woman!"

Inuyasha was annoyed, thoroughly annoyed, but he did not actually mean to do anything.

Yet Kagome was now openly taking Hojo Akitoshi's side.

It really made him...

For a moment, the girl and the dog glared at each other, sparks practically crackling where their gazes met.

Leaving that little disturbance behind him, Hojo Akitoshi smiled and greeted the samurai gathered around him.

Before long, Akechi Mitsuhide dispersed the crowd, then came to Hojo Akitoshi's side and spoke quietly.

"My lord, before you returned, a dog demon missing an arm escaped from the vortex. He headed southeast."

"But his servant, the little demon called Jaken, was left behind, along with Nameless, the demon disguised as Izayoi."

"What should we do?"

"Kill Nameless. Keep the demon called Jaken alive for now."

Hojo Akitoshi thought briefly before giving his answer.

Nameless was merely an incidental catch. Whether she lived or died hardly mattered.

But Jaken, who had followed Sesshomaru for so long, required more careful handling.

After all, to navigate this chaotic age of warring states, before he had enough strength to overturn every game being played...

Knowing how to handle people was what really mattered.

Hadn't his predecessors already made that clear?

Before the renowned Great Sage Sun settled the accounts, every deity called him the Protector of the Horses.

But after he had settled those accounts and spent five hundred years behind bars, just look at the difference.

Once he had mastered the ways of the world and gritted his teeth through a mountain of rotten obligations, what deity didn't respectfully address him as the Great Sage wherever he went?

Not to mention that, while building up his credentials, the Great Sage sensibly killed every demon without powerful backing.

Those with connections were all respectfully escorted home.

And so, Hojo Akitoshi's indifferent gaze swept over Nameless, who still wore Princess Izayoi's face.

You might look pitiful and harmless, but I still have to send you on your way.

If you must blame anything, blame your lack of connections.

However, as Hojo Akitoshi arranged for Nameless to be killed, Kagome apparently overheard his conversation with Akechi Mitsuhide.

Looking at Nameless, who still lay on the ground, Kagome, a girl from the future, felt a stirring of compassion.

She stepped forward and hurried to Hojo Akitoshi's side.

"Lord Akitoshi, couldn't we let Nameless go?"

"After all, she hasn't done anything wrong, and..."

Her gaze settled on Nameless's undeniably lovely face. Kagome simply could not bear it.

"Oh?"

His eyes swept over Kagome, then moved past her to Inuyasha, whose expression had turned somewhat awkward.

Thoughts flashed through Hojo Akitoshi's mind, and a nasty little scheme took shape. He looked at Kagome solemnly and spoke.

"Nameless is a demon formed from the accumulated resentment of dead mothers who lost their children in this age of war and could not protect them."

Those words deepened Kagome's pity, but before she could plead for mercy again...

"A demon like her instinctively seeks out children, kidnapping them and treating them as her own."

"But as a vengeful spirit, Nameless has no ability to raise children."

"And the dark energy a vengeful spirit naturally carries acts like poison, quickly killing the children she abducts."

"At the same time, Nameless will not hesitate to kill the children's birth parents when they come to reclaim them."

The words he spoke were cruel but true, mercilessly tearing apart the pity in Kagome's heart.

As Hojo Akitoshi had hoped, the girl's expression changed. But did that mean he was finished?

No. Hojo Akitoshi added one more remark, leaving Kagome even more conflicted.

"Most demons are like that. They might look harmless, but they're still demons."

"Well..."

Kagome had no answer. Nameless's frail appearance stood in stark contrast to the things she did.

Even if the girl wanted to plead for mercy, to say that Nameless's very existence was a tragedy...

Nameless might be pitiful, but what about the parents who lost their children, or even their lives trying to get those children back? Hadn't they suffered unjustly too?

As the girl fell silent, Akechi Mitsuhide walked over to Nameless and brought his blade down.

Under Kagome's conflicted gaze, Nameless dissolved into drifting ash, her face still full of tender love.

If Nameless was that sort of demon, what about Inuyasha?

Looking at Nameless, Kagome thought of the half-demon Inuyasha beside her.

She remembered what Kaede had once told her: Inuyasha had attacked Kaede's Village to steal the Shikon Jewel.

Had any villagers died at Inuyasha's hands back then?

Kagome did not voice that question, but it would likely remain lodged in her heart like a needle for a very, very long time.

Unseen, it carved a gulf between her and Inuyasha.

"Hey, I can't just let that pass."

Nameless was Nameless, but Inuyasha felt that Hojo Akitoshi's remarks had lumped him in with her.

"Hahaha, we have to judge good demons and bad demons by the facts and treat them differently."

Faced with Inuyasha's indignant protest, Hojo Akitoshi laughed and brushed it off.

"Especially you, Inuyasha. I certainly don't think you'd do anything bad."

"After all, half the blood in your veins is human, just like ours. Right, how does that saying go again?"

"Your body may be in the enemy camp, but your heart remains with your own people. You're on our human side, aren't you?"

"Of course."

Sure enough, the rather dim-witted Inuyasha forgot his earlier irritation after just a few words.

He waved his newly acquired Tessaiga around, showing off the door-sized blade and successfully drawing plenty of admiring remarks.

Little did he know that those few words he had dismissed were giving Kagome more food for thought.

Wasn't Inuyasha's reason for wanting the Shikon Jewel to become a full-fledged demon?

She watched him grin happily, just like the boys at her school in the future who never seemed to grow up.

Kagome considered how she should get along with Inuyasha during their journey to find the Shikon Jewel.

I can't let him become a demon like the others!

She silently made up her mind. From that moment on, the bond between Kagome and Inuyasha drifted further and further from the bond they had shared in the original timeline...

Meanwhile, on the Musashino Great Plain, far from Kaede's Village...

As time passed, the two sides fighting the Battle of Kawagoe also experienced a dramatic shift.

Because Sesshomaru had passed through, the Imagawa Army, one component of the alliance between Takeda, Imagawa, and the Kanto Uesugi Allied Army, had been annihilated.

On the battlefield, Hojo, fighting a defensive counterattack, gained a great deal of breathing room.

Moreover, thanks to Hojo Akitoshi's unexpected offensive, the Hojo Army was now far, far stronger than it had been in actual history.

But that was how things looked on paper. What about reality?

The flutter of a single butterfly's wings might bring a hurricane to another continent.

It was also Hojo Akitoshi's presence that had prompted Takeda Shingen to mobilize his entire army.

The Tiger of Kai had learned that Qilin, whose fame rivaled his own, had actually left the battlefield.

And so, to suppress Hojo's rising momentum...

He intended to seize the opportunity and use his military prowess to swallow up...

The main force of the Hojo Army on the Kawagoe battlefield, led by Hojo Ujiyasu.