"So that's the situation, Inuyasha. We need you to go find Sesshomaru."
Dawn had broken by the time Inuyasha returned. Miroku laid out the entire plan without wasting a breath.
"Absolutely not!!"
"Beg Sesshomaru?!"
"I would rather die!!"
Sango and Shippo exchanged knowing glances. They'd predicted the exact contortion of disgust on his face, the violent refusal, all of it.
"Sigh..."
"Inuyasha, please. Could you go ask Sesshomaru? This is the only way."
Kagome pressed her palms together and stepped to his side, voice gentle, eyes earnest.
"Ngh..."
When she looked at him like that, every wall Inuyasha built crumbled on contact.
"He really does heel like a dog! Hahaha!!"
"You're one to talk?"
"More importantly, Inuyasha-san, you were gone all night. What exactly happened?"
Koga was laughing purely out of spite. Cu Chulainn raised an eyebrow. Rikuo, meanwhile, was genuinely curious about what had delayed Inuyasha so long.
Koga was only helping at all because of Kagome. Anyone else, and he'd have already hauled Cu Chulainn off to pick a fight.
"Don't worry about his attitude. Once Kagome asks, Inuyasha can never say no."
Sango cast a steady, reassuring look toward Kagura.
"You people really are a bunch of hopeless idiots."
"But maybe that's exactly why..."
"I don't dislike you."
Despite the absurdity of the scene playing out before her, Kagura felt lighter than she had in what seemed like forever. The constant weight of dread, the gnawing awareness that any given day could be her last, all of it had lifted. Even if only for a moment.
"Relax. Even if this plan doesn't work, I'm grateful for what you've done."
"You've already given me a taste of freedom."
"That alone is enough."
They were supposed to be enemies. Yet here she stood, accepted, defended, fussed over. Kagura couldn't pinpoint when things had shifted.
Sesshomaru's face drifted through her thoughts, and a bitter smile tugged at her lips.
Perhaps she'd been born without the right to freedom. Perhaps that truth had been written into her from the moment Naraku pulled her from his flesh.
But she was fortunate in one thing. She'd met these people. Inuyasha, Kagome, Sesshomaru, all of them.
At the very least, when her end came, it wouldn't be the meaningless erasure that Goshinki and the other discarded incarnations had suffered.
"FINE!! I'll go find Sesshomaru!"
"But whether he actually agrees to save Kagura? Don't hold your damn breath!!"
Unable to withstand Kagome's quiet conviction a second longer, Inuyasha cracked, sweat beading at his temples.
'Damn it. Should've brought the Old Man back with me first.'
He hadn't anticipated anything like this. The regret was immediate.
Toga's parting words echoed in his mind.
'I need to find whoever made Kirinmaru vanish. This war may not be as simple as it appears.'
'Our separation is only temporary. We'll meet again, Inuyasha.'
'If it comes to it, you and Sesshomaru may need to join forces to stop me.'
Back then, those words had sounded manageable. Now, standing here saddled with a Sesshomaru diplomacy mission, the irony was suffocating.
"Kagura! And Koga's whatever-his-name-is! You're coming with me!"
"Lancer."
"Shut up! I don't understand that foreign garbage!"
Cu Chulainn glanced at Koga. The wolf demon gave him a nod, and Cu Chulainn slapped the dust off his rear and stood.
'This war is bizarre. Since when are Masters this friendly with each other?'
Sending your Servant away to help a rival's cause? In any proper Holy Grail War, no Master would be that trusting. Or that reckless.
Koga could handle himself, sure. But that girl Kagome and her Servant were no pushovers either. If something happened to the wolf while Cu Chulainn was off on a charity run, he'd look like the galaxy's biggest fool.
Complaints aside, though, he could read this group well enough.
Good people. Every one of them. Annoyingly, genuinely good.
"Let's go!"
"Right behind you."
"I'll follow on my feather."
Kagome watched the three figures shrink into the distance and clasped her hands together in silent prayer.
'Let this work. Please let Kagura get through this.'
"Moroha."
"HYAH!!"
The soft voice jolted Moroha out of a dead sleep. She sat up halfway, drool trailing from the corner of her mouth, blinking at the world in bewildered confusion.
"You can't keep doing that."
Kikyo reached over and gently wiped the girl's face clean, her voice carrying the warm patience of someone who'd done this many times before.
From a distance, Kohaku watched the domestic little scene unfold with quiet bewilderment.
'Kikyo-sama was never this gentle with Inuyasha-sama.'
He'd noticed it from the moment he'd joined them last night. Whatever bond existed between Kikyo and Moroha, it ran deeper than anything he'd seen from the priestess before.
Asking about it wasn't an option. He knew his place.
The three freshened up by a stream, gathered some wild fruit, and set off.
"Kikyo-sama, are we going after Naraku?"
Kohaku ventured the question as they walked.
"No. There's no need."
"Huh?"
"Even if we don't search for him, he'll come to us. I sensed those two corrupted Sacred Jewel shards yesterday. They must be Koga's."
"To complete the Shikon no Tama, only two fragments remain. The one Kagome possesses and the one embedded in your body."
Kikyo stroked Moroha's head with one hand while peeling a piece of fruit with the other, offering it to the girl with practiced ease.
Kohaku forced himself to set aside the strangeness of the scene and focused on the strategy.
'So Naraku will come soon. With only two shards left, he won't go for Kagome first. Inuyasha and the others are too strong a deterrent.'
'Kikyo-sama is deliberately choosing an isolated location. She's baiting him. Drawing him to where I can use the shard inside my body to destroy him.'
Kohaku's resolve had never wavered. If trading his life meant the end of Naraku, he would do it without a heartbeat's hesitation.
For his murdered clansmen. For the sister still breathing.
"Hey! If that bastard Naraku dares show his stupid face, I'll beat him into the ground!"
Moroha puffed her cheeks around a mouthful of fruit, radiating absolute confidence.
She knew exactly what Naraku had done to this mother of hers. If they met, she was landing punches first and asking questions never.
"Hehe. That's too bad."
"Naraku won't be coming."
The voice came from behind them. All three felt it simultaneously, a cold so deep it bypassed skin and latched directly onto bone.
'When did...?!'
Kohaku spun. A woman stood on the road behind them, motionless. Her complexion was a bloodless, unnatural white, as if every drop of warmth had been drained from her body. The sight alone sent chills racing through him.
"!"
Kikyo's expression transformed. She recognized the presence immediately.
"You're the Shikon no Tama."
"Hmph. As expected of the finest miko since Midoriko. You saw through me at a glance?"
Not the slightest surprise in her voice. The Shikon no Tama let out a laugh that crawled under the skin.
"You seized a Servant's body through this Ritual."
"What are you after?!"
Kikyo extended an arm to block Moroha, who was already coiling to spring. Her voice carried steel.
"After?"
"Hm. Right now? Naturally, I'm here to reclaim my fragments."
"And to take your Dragon Ball."
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]