Kagome, so it was you!

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Water Cedar Junior High was an ordinary junior high school in Tokyo.

Li Xia was in his third year.

That was equivalent to the final year of junior high in Huaxia.

He had been here for three days already.

Over those three days, he had gotten to know many of his classmates.

Oddly enough, though, a girl in his class named Kagome Higurashi was always taking leave and missing school, so he had never managed to meet her. From his classmates, he also learned that this girl, whom they called Kagome, came from a family that had lived at Sunset Shrine for generations.

Her circumstances were somewhat similar to his own:

The descendant of cultivators? There aren't many people like that left on Moon Island these days. I could pay them a visit sometime.

He had spent more than ten years in this world, and many memories of his previous life had grown hazy.

He had not given much thought to certain people and things that might have rung a bell, either.

And so another two uneventful days passed.

The first monthly exam of his final year was fast approaching, and he was already prepared to finish dead last in his class. Just then, the girl named Kagome Higurashi returned, travel-worn, to the quiet routine of school life.

At the gates of Water Cedar Junior High.

Three girls from his class smiled in surprise and delight at a girl who looked both unfamiliar and somewhat familiar.

Li Xia, who arrived just in time for class, felt a persistent sense of déjà vu at the sight of Kagome Higurashi.

"Kagome, you can come to school now?"

One of the three classmates, a girl with short black hair, greeted her first.

Her name was Yuka, and she was opinionated and rather assertive.

Beside her, a girl with long black hair falling to her shoulders and a pale yellow headband added, "Kagome, you've been taking so much time off lately that we were really worried. We called your house and asked your grandfather, and he said you'd thrown your back out again... Um, is your back really all right now?"

This girl was Eri, the most sensitive and perceptive of the friends.

But that was not the end of it.

Ayumi, a somewhat airheaded girl with long, fluffy black curls, dealt Kagome another crushing blow. "Kagome, I remember you last took time off because you needed to be hospitalized for diabetes tests. Are you okay?"

All the girls were graceful and full of youthful energy.

Their words, however, left Kagome utterly exasperated.

Of course she had reasons for taking leave, but they certainly were not diabetes, a thrown-out back, or any of the other excuses her grandfather had given. Those ailments would have been far more plausible if he had claimed them himself.

Just then, a sunny, handsome boy rode his bicycle up to the school gates.

He began calling out while he was still some distance away:

"Higurashi, are you feeling all right now?"

All four girls turned toward his voice.

"Oh, it's Hojo from Class B."

"He seems really concerned about Kagome..."

The girls' appetite for gossip flared up, burning brighter by the second.

"Hojo?"

Kagome paused, then gave her old elementary school classmate a polite smile. "I'm almost completely better now. Thank you!"

The boy breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good. You're still so young. You shouldn't have to suffer like that. Oh, your grandfather said it was gout this time?"

The smile froze on her face.

The corners of her mouth kept twitching.

She had an urge to charge straight home and demand an explanation from her grandfather.

Her grandfather was wonderful in every other way, but he simply could not come up with a decent-sounding excuse for her forced absences.

A thrown-out back? Diabetes? Gout?

What kind of ridiculous excuses were those?

Could he possibly be any less reliable?

"Oh, I almost forgot. Higurashi, please take this..."

The boy named Hojo took a carefully prepared little red gift bag from his bicycle and handed it to Kagome. "It's just a little something from me. I know it won't help much, but I hope you'll stay healthy and happy."

Only heaven knew how long the boy had treasured those feelings.

Her three friends stared in disbelief. Then they instantly retreated several meters, leaving the pair plenty of room to speak privately.

Not far away.

Having witnessed it all, Li Xia clicked his tongue. Ah, those innocent adolescent feelings.

With the experience of ten or twenty years immersed in the internet of the twenty-first century in his previous life, he had no trouble recognizing that the boy's heart was stirring.

As soon as Hojo went off to park his bicycle, Kagome Higurashi's three friends crowded around her again.

"Wow, Kagome, are you already going out with Hojo?"

Eri stepped forward to question her, burning with curiosity.

Kagome hastily shook her head.

"How could I be?

I'm already exhausted from collecting Shikon Shards. Where would I find the time?"

Over there, she had accidentally fired a Sacred Arrow that shattered the Shikon Jewel into dozens, perhaps a hundred pieces. Demons flocked to those jewel fragments, since they offered a shortcut to rapidly increasing their Demon Power.

If she left them unchecked, the humans over there would suffer terribly.

The bloodshed stirred up by the Shikon Shards would engulf countless innocent people.

Out of responsibility and guilt, she had to gather all the fragments as quickly as possible. After all, she had brought the Shikon Jewel back into the world, and she was also the reason it had shattered into a hundred or so pieces, making the whole affair even worse.

"Shikon Shards? What are those?"

Ayumi asked in confusion.

Realizing she had let something slip, Kagome shook her head.

"Nothing..."

She said no more after that.

Nearby, Li Xia had just walked past the four girls. Upon hearing the name "Shikon Jewel," his pupils involuntarily contracted! His previously steady breathing grew heavier at that moment.

What had he just heard?

The Shikon Jewel? Shikon Shards?

Why does that sound so familiar?

Wait, Kagome Higurashi... isn't that Higurashi Kagome? If I remember correctly, she's the heroine of Inuyasha, right?

The name Kagome Higurashi alone would not have made him think much of it.

But Kagome Higurashi, plus the Shikon Jewel, plus signs of Demon Wraiths appearing in this world, plus a supernatural system...

He could hardly avoid thinking further!

Thump-thump... thump-thump...

Li Xia felt his heart pounding fiercely, his poor little heart racing despite himself.

He needed some peace and quiet.

He wanted some peace and quiet.

At that moment, he felt as though he had instantly been restored to full health.

He felt an inexhaustible strength coursing through his body.

All his previous dejection vanished.

His resignation to fate turned into defiance once more.

Only after the four girls entered the school building did he, having struggled to hold his breath, let out a long, heavy exhale. Could the world I was reborn into be the world of Inuyasha?

If it really was, then...

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became.

In the world of Inuyasha, pursuing eternal life might be difficult, but gaining a thousand-year lifespan and rising above worldly affairs was not as difficult as he had imagined. With the right approach, he might even live as long as heaven and earth, transcend the rules, and do as he pleased.

To someone with a long lifespan, kingdoms and beauties were hardly worth mentioning.

Once someone possessed power, wealth, status, and strength, their next pursuit would always be longevity!

None of them would ever complain about living too long!

Stay calm. Steady yourself. Keep your composure...

His immediate priority was to confirm whether this was truly the world of the Inuyasha anime he remembered from his previous life.

The method of confirming it was simple, too.

He only needed to visit Sunset Shrine, where the girl lived.

The story of Inuyasha was set in two eras: the modern-day Island Nation in 1996 and the Sengoku Era four or five hundred years earlier! It mainly followed Kagome, a girl in her final year of junior high, also known as "Kagome Higurashi." By chance, she passed through the Bone-Eater's Well at her family's shrine, traveling through a passage linking two worlds and across time into the Sengoku Era of the Demon World. There, she joined Inuyasha, a half-demon of mixed human and demon blood, on an adventure to find the Shikon Shards scattered throughout the Island Nation.

As long as he confirmed that the well existed!

As long as he confirmed the details of Kagome's family!

He would naturally have little trouble determining whether this was the world of Inuyasha.

The Shikon Jewel had been formed from the fused souls of Midoriko, the strongest miko in history, and most of the Island Nation's elite monsters of that time. It was a mystical jewel possessing immensely powerful spiritual power. Even a single shard could greatly enhance Demon Power, bring the dead back to life, preserve a soul forever, and more.

As for the Protagonist Group?

It included the male lead Inuyasha, the second male lead, the monk Miroku, the female lead Kagome, the second female lead Sango, and the little pets Kirara and Shippo.

While collecting the Shikon Shards, they fought the ultimate boss, Naraku. In the end, they defeated Naraku and made the correct wish on the Shikon Jewel, successfully causing the mystical jewel to disappear from the world. That brought an end to the many conflicts surrounding it.

"Huh? Mr. Xia, class is about to start. Where are you going?"

At the school gates, a classmate called out to Li Xia.

Li Xia smiled and replied:

"There's something at home I need to take care of."

As he spoke, he hailed a taxi.

"Driver, take me to Sunset Shrine, please. Thank you..."