"Lord Sesshomaru!"
"Ohohoho! He's back! We're saved! We're actually saved!"
While Rin let out a soft cry of relief, Jaken broke into a loud, tearful wail. His eyes bulged as he practically danced in the dirt.
"The tide has turned..."
Miroku observed the scene with a grounded sense of calm. With Sesshomaru here to neutralize Kirinmaru, the Great Dog Demon's forced assault would naturally fall apart.
'Sesshomaru... I finally understand why Naraku was so desperate to avoid you.'
Kagura watched the white-clad figure in the sky, her eyes shimmering with a mix of awe and terror. The perfection of his demonic energy, the absolute, crushing pressure of his presence...
This was the essence of the Great Dog Demon's true heir.
"Hmph. Sesshomaru... do you truly believe you can strike me down?"
Despite his singed armor and the loss of an arm, Kirinmaru's pride had not shifted an inch. To him, these skirmishes were merely a tax on his energy--a temporary inconvenience for a King.
"Why do you ask such an obvious question?"
Sesshomaru's voice was as cold as a mountain spring, but the demonic energy that erupted from him in the next second was anything but calm.
WHOOSH--!!!
A violent gale whipped through the valley, the air itself screaming as it was displaced by the sheer volume of his aura.
"This energy..."
"Sesshomaru, you--!"
Kirinmaru's eyes widened in genuine disbelief. The Sesshomaru standing before him now was fundamentally different from the one he had encountered on the mountain summit just two days ago.
"Kirinmaru, I will say this only once."
"Drop the Dragon Ball and withdraw."
The absolute arrogance of the command sent a surge of boiling rage through Kirinmaru's veins.
"You've certainly grown a tongue, Sesshomaru!"
The positions had been reversed. This was the exact "insult" he had offered the young lord at the summit.
"Explosive Star Strike!!"
Kirinmaru didn't hold back. He drew his blade and unleashed his final, most powerful technique toward the sky. A rain of violet, stellar shards erupted from the ground, a barrage intended to shred anything in the atmosphere.
"Hmph."
Sesshomaru didn't even use the [Bakusaiga]'s unique chain-reaction property. He simply raised the blade and swung it with a clean, vertical stroke.
It was a strike of pure, unadulterated demon energy.
A tsunami of emerald light crashed downward.
BOOM--RUMBLE!!
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!!
"What?!"
The violet star-shards were obliterated instantly, crushed beneath the sheer weight of the emerald sword pressure.
"N-ngh... GAH!!"
Kirinmaru raised his sword in a desperate parry, his energy flaring to its limit as he tried to stall the green wave.
'I... I can't hold it back!'
'How can this be happening?!'
He felt his own aura being physically torn apart. It was a humiliating realization: Sesshomaru's demonic energy was objectively superior to his own.
It meant that Sesshomaru hadn't just surpassed his father.
He had surpassed Kirinmaru himself.
In two days, the impossible had become reality.
"How...!!"
Kirinmaru was swept away by the emerald tide, his body carving a deep, jagged trench into the earth as he was hammered backward for hundreds of yards.
"Did Sesshomaru... win?"
Kagome stared at the massive canyon Sesshomaru's strike had left behind. She could feel Kirinmaru's aura fading, the once-unshakeable king reduced to a flickering candle.
To think that a creature as legendary as Kirinmaru could be taken down with a single, casual strike.
"It seems the prior battles with Rikuo and the others took their toll..." Sango began.
"No. Even at full strength, the Kirinmaru of today could not have stood before Lord Sesshomaru," a tiny voice corrected.
"Grandpa Myoga!"
The little flea landed on Sango's shoulder and let out a sage-like sigh.
"You see, Lord Sesshomaru's [Bakusaiga] was being nurtured by his own demonic energy for decades before it finally broke through. No one--not even I--knew the depth of the power he was cultivating in secret."
"The moment it was born, the 'true' Sesshomaru was born with it."
This was the reason Toga had never bothered giving Sesshomaru the [Tessaiga] or the [So'unga]. What was there to worry about for a son who was destined to forge a legacy that would eclipse his father's without any help at all?
"There are very few youkai in this world who could survive a direct hit from Lord Sesshomaru's full power," Myoga stated with factual certainty.
It wasn't just hyperbolic praise. It was a law of nature. In the hierarchy of demons, Sesshomaru now occupied the absolute apex.
THUD.
Kirinmaru lay on his back in the center of a crater, his chest bare and covered in smoking lacerations. His armor was gone, reduced to scrap metal.
"How pathetic you look, Kirinmaru."
A high-pitched, mocking voice drifted down from above. Kirinmaru tilted his head, seeing a bat-eyed demon hovering over him. The creature reached down and snatched up the Dragon Ball that had fallen from his grasp.
"Shikon Jewel..."
"Hehe. A stroke of luck for me. I'll be taking this back now."
The Jewel spirit was speaking through the puppet, its voice dripping with oily amusement.
"Impressive as he is, Sesshomaru still lacks the variable to kill me. All that power... and yet he remains a prisoner of his own bloodline."
"Hmph. He might not be the one," Kirinmaru wheezed, a faint, bloody smile touching his lips. "But others... they are different."
"Oh? You mean the [Assassin] and the [Rider]?" the Jewel laughed. "I admit the [Assassin]'s venom is a concern--if she could ever reach me. But in her current state, she couldn't even scratch my [Dragon Bone Armor]."
"And the [Rider]? He lacks the raw power of a Great King. His 'Unknown' factors are limited by his capacity."
The Jewel was utterly confident. Once its evolution was complete, it would possess the ultimate body and the ultimate energy.
It didn't care if the group knew its "weakness." Knowing a weakness and being able to exploit it were two very different things.
It had two resurrections left. It had the [Demon King Half-God] form waiting at the end of its eighth death. It couldn't see a path to defeat.
"Is that what you think?" Kirinmaru whispered, his voice shaking with a cold, ironic delight.
"Hmm?"
"Then let me give you a prophecy, Jewel."
Kirinmaru stared past the puppet and into the sky, the faces of Toga, Sesshomaru, and the Otherworldly Servants flashing through his mind.
"Your delusion... your grand fantasy... it will be ended by one who is neither human nor youkai!"
"Hmph. Nonsense."
In the depths of the Netherworld, the Shikon Jewel's true consciousness let out a derisive snort. It viewed Kirinmaru's words as the bitter lashing-out of a defeated king.
"I have six of them now..."
The six Dragon Balls hovered around the Jewel's core, glowing with a corrupt, pulsing light.
It was almost time. The fate of a "Gem" was over. The birth of a Perfect Organism was at hand.
"What an absurd man."
"A single swing of his sword matches the scale of my [Noble Phantasm]."
Cu Chulainn rubbed his chin, ignoring the blood dripping from his brow as he watched Sesshomaru descend.
"If you want to be the lord of youkai in your world, Rikuo... you've got a long way to go."
"Heh... you're telling me," Rikuo replied. He gripped the hilt of his newly repaired [Nenekirimaru], feeling the balance and the resonance. The youkai of this era were every bit as terrifying as those in his own world.
Gurgle--
A faint, unmistakably human sound made both men turn.
Akame was standing there, staring at them with her usual neutral expression, her stomach having let out a very loud protest.
"..."
"Well... I guess the excitement's over for now," Cu laughed, clapping Rikuo on the shoulder. "Let's find the Masters."
"Lord Sesshomaru! That was magnificent! Truly, my admiration knows no bounds!" Jaken squealed, running up to the demon lord as he landed.
Sesshomaru didn't acknowledge the toad. He looked at Rin, and seeing that she was unharmed, the tension in his shoulders subtly vanished.
"Ignored again, huh?" Shippo joked, poking Jaken in the side.
"E-eek! Shut up, you brat!"
As the two small demons began their usual chase, Kagura looked around, a look of concern on her face.
"Is it really okay to just let Kirinmaru be?"
"Don't worry about it," Inuyasha said, walking over with Moroha. "My old man can handle him now that the Command Seal is broken. He said he'd make sure Kirinmaru gives up on this mess."
"Inuyasha!"
Kagome's urgent shout cut through the relief of the camp.
"What is it, Kagome? Why are you so--"
Inuyasha stopped dead. His nose twitched, and his expression collapsed.
"Kikyo... she's..."
He didn't finish the thought. He sprinted toward the gnarled tree at the edge of the camp, Moroha following close behind him, her face pale with dread.
The rest of the group stood still, the joy of victory vanishing like mist.
"Kikyo!"
"Don't... don't shout like that..."
The priestess's voice was a whisper, as thin and fragile as autumn leaves.
"Mom!"
Moroha threw her arms around Kikyo, her tears soaking the other woman's white robes.
"Moroha... I really... I really wanted to see you grow up..."
Kikyo stroked the girl's cheek, wiping away a stray tear with a trembling hand. She turned her gaze to Inuyasha, her eyes reflecting a lifetime of tragedy and a final, quiet peace.
"Meeting you..."
"I don't regret it."
The void in her heart, which had once been filled with a cold, poisonous "grudge," was now overflowing with something else. It was the warmth of family--the love of a daughter and the respect of a man who had once been her entire world.
"The end... being with all of you... it's more than I deserved."
She looked up at the sky, her vision fading. She had no more regrets. No more attachments. She was finally ready to sleep.
Her only regret was that she couldn't see the tomorrow they were going to build.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]