He had accounted for every possibility, yet never imagined that the three Clan Elders would take an interest in the soul of Mayu, a human little girl, and apparently had no intention of letting her go!
As he watched Mayu dragged into a Spirit-Sealing Talisman by the Magic Chains, the talisman quickly transformed into a stiff card bearing the little girl's likeness. Li Xia's feelings grew deeply conflicted.
His original intention had been to trade information about the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit to the family's higher-ups for the chance to learn how to contract shikigami.
After all, there was no such thing as a free lunch!
The Shikigami Contracting Method was one of the core techniques reserved for members of the main branch. As someone from a side branch, he needed to render a great service before he could gain access to it.
"Clan Elders, this little girl..."
Unable to shake his guilt, Li Xia finally asked.
The three elders seemed to have expected this. One of them patted Li Xia's shoulder.
"It seems you're a kindhearted young fellow after all!
"But you must understand that in this End of Dharma Age, a ghost capable of lingering for several months without dissipating has considerable potential! If we contract and tame her as one of the family's shikigami, we'll gain another trump card! At our level, everything we do must naturally be considered from the perspective of the entire family!
"How could we pass up an opportunity to strengthen the family's foundations?"
"Besides, don't assume that turning this little girl into a shikigami is such an injustice to her!
"First, you need to understand that a child's ghost like her can endure for so long mainly because she has the protection of the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit! Now that we've captured the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit, she has naturally lost what sustained her! Even if we don't capture her, she'll soon fade into nothingness-and disappear completely!
"Capturing her and contracting both her and the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit as shikigami is effectively giving her a new life!"
This was precisely the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit's hidden ability.
It was also what made the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit so precious.
He could soothe dead children, helping them resolve their resentment and pass on, while also protecting them from attacks by other demons and subtly sustaining their souls.
"Second, her resentment is extremely intense. Even after the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit spent months playing his Requiem to soothe her and help her pass on, her resentment never faded, and she remained here! In other words, she became an evil spirit long ago, and passing on is already extremely difficult for her! If we leave her unchecked, she'll inevitably wreak havoc!"
"You probably have no idea how destructive an evil spirit can be, do you?"
"If we leave an evil spirit like her loose, even with very little time left before she dissipates, she could swiftly destroy a town of tens of thousands! We only captured her so easily because the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit's chains had sealed her power! Young fellow from the side branch, do you really want to watch this evil spirit destroy vast swathes of Tokyo in the Island Nation to vent her rage before she disappears?"
The three elders' explanations left Li Xia without a response.
Could he tell them that Mayu could resolve her anguish with Kagome's help and pass on, just as she had in the original story?
He couldn't!
Nor could he guarantee that Mayu, now freed from the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit's restraints and already far removed from her original storyline, would obediently wait to disappear after gaining a brief taste of freedom! Who knew whether this little girl would drag a crowd of innocent people down with her before she vanished?
He wasn't some demon without scruples, so he had no desire to bear that karmic burden.
While the three elders and the young man talked, the room that had been engulfed in flames swiftly reverted to its previous ruined state.
Every supernatural manifestation disappeared.
Having finished their hunt, the four immediately got into the car and retraced their route.
Elsewhere.
With Kagome on Inuyasha's back, the two raced across the rooftops.
They headed straight for Mayu's former home, where the fire had occurred.
But just as they came within a certain distance of Li Xia's group, Kagome's expression suddenly changed.
"What's wrong, Kagome?"
Noticing the girl's reaction, Inuyasha asked.
Kagome's face was full of surprise and uncertainty as she answered.
"Inuyasha, I sensed Shikon Shards!"
"Shikon Shards? There are Shikon Shards in your world too? Or are they the ones you lost?"
Inuyasha stopped on a rooftop.
After thinking for a moment, Kagome replied.
"I shattered the Shikon Shard with a Sacred Arrow in the Sengoku Era, on the other side of the Bone-Eater's Well. The shards couldn't have appeared in the modern world on their own! Right now, you and I are the only ones who can travel through that well! Even Shippo, Kaede, and the other villagers can't use it to travel through time! So the shards I sensed probably aren't the ones we lost!"
The main reason for her judgment was that she had lost six shards.
Li Xia, however, was carrying seven.
She also wanted to keep Inuyasha focused and have him take her to Mayu's house first, so they could find a way to help Mayu pass on before she fell into Hell.
As for the Shikon Shards, they weren't going to disappear anytime soon. They would run into them eventually.
That was why she had offered this explanation with a well-intentioned lie.
Once Inuyasha heard they weren't the Shikon Shards they had lost, his attention indeed returned to Mayu. He even picked up his pace.
Had Inuyasha pursued them at full speed, the two groups would certainly have crossed paths. But one was in the north, heading southeast, while the other was in the south, heading southwest. With Li Xia's group of four speeding along in a private car, the distance between them naturally grew wider and wider.
By the time Inuyasha and Kagome arrived at Mayu's home,
they found that both the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit and Mayu had vanished. Trying to find Li Xia now would undoubtedly be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
"By the way, Kagome, how did you know the Shikon Shards you suddenly sensed weren't among the ones we lost?"
Inuyasha asked belatedly.
Kagome blinked and explained sheepishly.
"Because we lost six shards, and that person was carrying seven..."
Hearing this, Inuyasha nearly exploded with anger on the spot.
"What's wrong with you, you stupid woman? You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
If he had known the other person carried seven Shikon Shards, rather than the single shard he had initially assumed, he would never have come to Mayu's house. He would have charged straight toward whoever held them!
"Inuyasha, do you think Mayu passed on, or did the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit take her to Hell?"
"How should I know?"
Two-Dog huffed.
He wanted nothing more to do with this foolish woman.
At the hospital.
Mayu's mother had long since awakened and remained at her son Little Gō's bedside.
At the very moment Mayu was sealed inside the Intermediate Spirit-Sealing Talisman, Little Gō slowly woke.
Freed from the influence of his evil-spirit sister, he finally regained consciousness, months after he should have awakened.
His memories, however, still stopped at the fire, when he had lost consciousness.
And the first thing he said upon waking was,
"Mom, hurry and save my sister! When the house caught fire, she was still in the wardrobe in my room!"
Hearing this, his mother felt tears sting her eyes and pulled him into her arms. The nurse who had hurried over was deeply moved, unsure what to say.
Little Gō.
He had been frail since childhood, frequently falling ill and running fevers. His mother had no choice but to give him extra care, which had made his older sister jealous.
After his mother and sister argued, Little Gō had kindly warned his sister not to dry her scarf on the heater, only to be scolded by her. The resulting fire had caused this tragedy.
Afterward, his sister had repeatedly sabotaged his treatment, such as by pulling out his IV line, leaving him unconscious for months.
Yet when he woke, he bore no resentment toward his sister. Instead, he frantically told them she was still in the wardrobe, hoping they would hurry and rescue her.
"Little Gō, it's all right. It's all over now!"
The woman's shoulders trembled slightly.
"Mom?"
Little Gō blinked in confusion.
Back at the residence.
Li Xia led the three Clan Elders into a quiet room.
The three old men worked there for a long time, eventually setting up a ritual altar and preparing two spirit shrines.
Following a series of complicated procedures, the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit and the little evil spirit Mayu underwent purification at the altar one after the other and were ushered into the spirit shrines. Finally, both shrines were confined once more within the delicate paper of Spirit-Sealing Talismans.
Things were different from before.
Previously, the faces of the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit and Mayu depicted on the Spirit-Sealing Talisman cards had been filled with hatred and resentment, with the open-eyed Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit looking especially ferocious. Now, both their expressions were utterly serene, and the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit had closed his eyes again.
In addition, the outline of a spirit shrine had appeared around the edge of each Spirit-Sealing Talisman.
It lent the stiff talisman cards an extra air of mystery.
By the time they finished, daylight had filled the world outside. The night had quietly passed.
"Young fellow from the side branch, given your considerable contribution this time, these five Intermediate Spirit-Sealing Talismans will serve as an additional reward!"
Earlier, the leading Clan Elder had happened to notice the unusual look Li Xia gave the thick stack of Spirit-Sealing Talismans in his hand.
Since that was the case, casually rewarding him with three to five Intermediate Spirit-Sealing Talismans was hardly treating him poorly.
"Oh, and I'll also give you the Spirit-Sealing Talisman Refining Method, along with the methods for crafting the shikigami-contracting altar in this room and the Shikigami Spirit Shrines! However, this inheritance is a core family secret. You must never teach it to anyone else! Not even your father or your siblings...
"Unless they render a great service, just as you have!
"Do you understand?"
"Thank you, Clan Elder!"
After working through the entire night, the three elders were tired and went to their respective temporary rooms to rest.
Li Xia, however, was far too excited to sleep.
Before you continue