Demoness Urasue!

The old spider felt a terrible sense of foreboding at the sight.

He immediately ordered the Spiderhead cannon fodder under his command to swarm forward.

He intended to overwhelm Li Xia and the others with sheer numbers.

But Li Xia remained calm. After applying additional Strength Talismans, Agility Talismans, Lightness Talismans, and other talismans to himself, he charged straight at the old spider!

To catch the bandits, first capture their leader!

The other Spiderheads were merely puppets of their commander, the old spider. Killing any number of them was meaningless.

Only cutting this bastard down would end the crisis!

With several Premium Talismans enhancing him, his speed, reflexes, strength, and other attributes still fell far short of Inuyasha's, but they now rivaled those of most mid-level demons. And that, too, was thanks to the seven Shikon Shards.

"Die!"

He moved like a phantom, swift as rolling thunder.

One stroke to cleave in two, Ruyi Divine Sword...

Ah, no, wrong line.

Still, his blade flashed and waves of cutting energy flew, reducing every Spiderhead wretch blocking his path to dust.

In the end, even their commander, the old spider, failed to escape.

Since most of the fighting had taken place on the mountain path outside the temple, the temple halfway up the mountainside was spared the fate it had suffered in the original timeline: being destroyed outright by Inuyasha as he vented his anger after his demon blood and powers returned at dawn.

And so it went.

Though the young Ogi had lost her village, her parents, and her so-called master, she still had the familiar temple where she had lived for half a month as a place to stay.

In this Sengoku Era, where demons ran rampant and ordinary humans often became their food, having somewhere to shelter was already quite fortunate.

Dawn broke.

The small amount of poison in Inuyasha's body was also sucked out by the old flea Myōga, who had suddenly appeared during the latter half of the fight.

Thus, Inuyasha was spared the suffering he had endured in the original story.

On the other hand, Kagome and Two-Dog had not shared that life-and-death ordeal, either. Nor had the poisoned, unconscious Inuyasha rested his head on the girl's lap and "confessed." Naturally, Kagome had not experienced that first flutter of her heart.

The repercussions of that were enormous.

Come to think of it.

Hadn't his final reason for knowingly walking into danger been to experience wielding Tessaiga?

An ordinary Shikigami naturally could not enable him to wield Tessaiga.

But the Great Katsura Tree Mask was an exception.

Once applied to him, the mask not only boosted all his attributes, but also granted him a faint measure of Demon Power. That Demon Power happened to be one of the key factors that allowed him to wield Tessaiga.

"All right, this is far enough. Hurry back."

In a small boat on the river at the foot of the mountain, the group said goodbye to Ogi.

The girl had undergone a certain transformation after this experience.

As she looked at Inuyasha, a trace of some indefinable affection flickered through her eyes.

"Thank you all for helping me! I'm forever grateful! And please, take care..."

Ogi bowed.

"All right, head back. You take care, too..."

Finally, just as the white-haired, bright and handsome Two-Dog turned away, the girl lowered her head and stammered softly:

"Inuyasha, thank you! Thank you for showing me that there are good demons, too! I'll remember that!"

"Tch. You'd better not remember something like that..."

Inuyasha muttered with his arms folded across his chest.

The boat set off, drifting farther and farther away.

Only after a long while did the girl watching them leave from the riverbank turn and walk toward the temple on the mountain.

She had made up her mind to study the methods recorded in the notes left by the temple's predecessors.

She would protect this area.

She would no longer be a burden who did nothing but cause trouble for others.

While Li Xia, Inuyasha, and Kagome were out searching for Shikon Shards.

Kaede's Village received an uninvited guest.

She was an old woman with bulging eyes and a pointed nose, hideously ugly and rather frightening to look at.

She was none other than one of the important demons from the original timeline: Demon Woman Urasue!

The Demon Woman held a massive Death Scythe, casually slashing down the arrows the villagers fired at her. After wounding several people with the enormous scythe, she rose into the air and flew straight toward a shrine.

"After her!"

The villagers did not know what the demon attacking their village intended, but they could not simply let her do as she pleased.

Under Kaede's leadership, they pursued her relentlessly with weapons in hand.

Meanwhile, Demoness Urasue had already found what she had come for.

The old demon scooped up a handful of earth from beneath a stone altar bearing offerings of flowers, fruit, and vegetables. She sniffed it, squeezed it, and then her eyes lit up.

"This is the place! Just the right moisture, and excellent soil..."

Then, after effortlessly injuring Kaede and the villagers, she swung her scythe, its cutting energy blasting up a cloud of dust several meters high! She easily broke open the earth and retrieved a pottery jar that had been buried there for years.

Kaede was shocked at the sight.

"Those are some of my sister's ashes that I secretly kept back then!

How did she know my sister's ashes were buried there?"

"Well, I have what I came for. Time to leave! I don't want to spend another moment in a place like this!"

Urasue delightedly toyed with the urn, showing no interest in the villagers.

As a Demon Woman, she naturally preferred places rich with the aura of death.

A place so full of the presence of the living made her deeply uncomfortable.

"Wait! You cannot leave! With my sister's ashes in the hands of a demon like you, there's no telling what disaster you'll cause!"

Kaede spoke gravely, clutching the wound on her injured arm.

But her words carried no threat whatsoever.

Rather than provoking Urasue into fighting, they only earned her a contemptuous taunt.

"I am Demoness Urasue...

I'll gladly take Kikyo's Spirit Bones...

If you think you're capable, come and take them back!

You mere human priestess!"

In the moonlight, the old demon summoned a demonic wind and flew away.

If the human priestess before her possessed even a tenth of Kikyo's abilities in life, she would never have dared be so brazen. Unfortunately, this human priestess, who looked even older than she did, probably lacked even a twentieth of Kikyo's spiritual power. What right did she have to threaten her?

Urasue left, leaving the scene in utter shambles.

She also left a lingering shadow over the hearts of many villagers.

Those were Lady Kikyo's ashes!

Elsewhere.

At the place where Li Xia's group was staying.

Inuyasha, who was supposed to be keeping watch, had a nightmare and jolted awake from his drowsy stupor.

For some reason, he had just dreamed of the scene fifty years ago, when Kikyo ambushed him with a Sealing Arrow and sealed him to the Sacred Tree outside the village.

It had left him drenched in cold sweat.

"Kikyo, why did you betray me back then?"

Inuyasha touched the spot where the Sealing Arrow had pierced him and let out a muffled grunt, filled with an indescribable sense of hurt and resentment.

He turned toward Kagome, sleeping peacefully beside Shippo in a sleeping bag by the fire, and studied the face he had yearned for day and night.

"They really do look so alike!"

Kagome and the dead Kikyo could have been cast from the same mold!

But the next moment, the sleeping girl slowly stirred awake.

Then, spotting a blurry figure studying her right in front of her, she instinctively slapped him.

Caught completely off guard, Inuyasha took a solid slap with a sharp smack.

Kagome, meanwhile, was still bleary-eyed and let out a yawn.

After rubbing her eyes and opening them again, she realized it was Inuyasha and hurriedly waved her hands.

"Inuyasha?

Don't scare me in the middle of the night!

I thought you were some horrible demon!"

At her words, Inuyasha pointed aggrievedly at his left cheek.

A red handprint was stamped across it.

"Oh, did I hit you just now? Sorry..."

Kagome narrowed her eyes and forced a smile.

There was not a shred of sincerity in that apology.

Two-Dog angrily ground his teeth.

"Grrr... you're nothing alike!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Hmph! Whatever I'm talking about, you two are nothing alike!"

"That's why I'm asking what you're talking about!"