"Miss Midoriko, would you prefer to remain in the mortal world, travel this land, and protect its villages, or free your soul from the Shikon Jewel's bonds and find release?"
On the woodland path, Li Xia came straight to the point.
Beside him, the lovely miko holding little Kirara stirred at his words. But she did not rush to answer. Instead, she continued deeper into the woods. Only after they had passed through the trees and reached a hillside, where the mountain breeze lifted her long hair, did this extraordinary woman, who bore a strong resemblance to Kikyo and Kagome, speak softly.
"Mr. Xia, you want to keep the Shikon Jewel, don't you?"
The people around him had actually noticed this.
But since Li Xia had seized the vast majority of the Shikon Shards from Naraku, the others were hardly in a position to ask him to do anything.
Li Xia was also well aware of what those around him thought.
Kagome, for instance, hoped he would make the "correct wish" upon the Shikon Jewel: "Let the Jewel disappear from this world forever." In the young girl's view, only that could end the terrible dangers the Shikon Jewel brought.
But this was like proposing that a nuclear-armed country in his previous life destroy its own nuclear weapons.
Yet in his previous life, one country really had done just that.
Ukraine.
The facts showed that it had originally been the Soviet Union's breadbasket, and after breaking away and gaining independence, it had also been a major winner, holding considerable sway throughout Western Europe. Yet it had been talked into destroying all its nuclear weapons.
For the Ukrainian people, this had been an utterly disastrous move, squandering an unbeatable hand.
But for the world as a whole, the person who had successfully