Kaede's Village, beneath the Sacred Tree.
Everyone had gathered there.
Li Xia took thirteen Shikon Shards from Kagome.
One had come from the Great Katsura Tree Mask, one had been contributed by Miroku, and another had been obtained from the Painter. Together with the four supplied by the Demon Slayer Village and the six Li Xia still had, they made thirteen in total.
(Considering that Naraku had already collected twenty or thirty shards over half a month ago, he could only have more of them now.
That was also the main reason why, in the original timeline, the Shikon Jewel Naraku assembled had immediately exceeded half its original size after Kikyo seized the large chunk of Shikon Shards from the Protagonist Group and gave it to him. That enormous, incomplete Shikon Jewel was the result of combining at least forty or fifty shards.
And afterward, without damaging that larger half of the Shikon Jewel, Naraku would collect at least eight more shards associated with the former bandit chief and members of the Band of Seven, including Bankotsu and Jakotsu.
Adding the dozen or so other scattered shards...
One could roughly deduce that the Shikon Jewel Kagome shattered had broken into sixty or seventy shards, at a conservative estimate.
And the actual number could only be higher.
After all, the figure of sixty or seventy came from the Protagonist Group's perspective. It subjectively slowed Naraku's shard-collecting pace during his active period, putting him on the same operational level as the group. But that clearly underestimated the intelligence-gathering capabilities and regional control of Naraku, who had countless Saimyosho acting as sentries.)
Back to the matter at hand.
Beside the Bone-Eater's Well outside the village stood the Sacred Tree, where Inuyasha had hung for fifty years. On a smooth section of its trunk,