Cough! Cough!
Miroku spat out a mouthful of blackened blood, but as he did, his shallow, labored breathing finally began to steady.
"Look! The black marks on his hand are fading!" Shippo cried out, his voice cracking with a mixture of relief and disbelief.
"Thank goodness..."
Coral clutched Miroku's other hand, her knuckles white. She had been on the verge of losing hope, but now, the necrotic grey was retreating. Having Kagome and Moroha there was truly the miracle they needed.
Exhale...
Kagome pulled her hands back and wiped the sweat from her brow. She looked at the spot where the spectral figure of Midoriko had vanished and offered a silent prayer of gratitude. Without the ancient miko's intervention, their combined spiritual power wouldn't have been enough to save him.
"Mom, who was that woman just now?" Moroha asked, slumping to the ground as the adrenaline began to fade.
"That was Midoriko-sama," Kagome replied softly. "The priestess who fought ten thousand demons until her soul was trapped within the Jewel. She's still in there, fighting."
"What are you two talking about?"
The others were looking at them in confusion, having only seen the surge of light without understanding the source.
"I'll explain later. Right now, we have to prepare. Midoriko-sama gave us everything she had left."
Kagome stood up, her expression hardening. Midoriko's presence had been a final gift--a bridge to the Jewel's true core.
'This is the Shikon no Tama's final life.'
'Make the correct wish.'
Midoriko's directive echoed in Kagome's mind. If she could offer the one wish that the Jewel couldn't twist, its internal mechanisms would finally turn against its current ego.
Right now, the entity calling itself the Shikon no Tama was suppressing both the physical Jewel and Midoriko's soul with its sheer malice. If they could break that suppression, even for a moment... its power would plummet.
'Its final life... that means one more destruction, and this is over!'
BOOM--!!
A massive explosion erupted at the front line. Cu Chulainn, Akame, and Sesshomaru were forced backward, their feet carving deep trenches into the earth as they slid toward Kagome's position.
The Shikon no Tama stood before them, its skeletal frame entirely unscathed. Its aura hadn't diminished in the slightest. While the defenders were becoming a collection of wounds and ragged breath, the Jewel looked like it was only just getting started.
"Hm?"
The Jewel paused, its hollow sockets fixating on Miroku.
'Impossible.'
Kagome and the Archer girl shouldn't have had the capacity to save that monk. The miasma should have been absolute. How was its corruption purified so completely? What had happened during the few seconds it had been distracted by the triple-team assault?
'I can't let this drag on.'
The Jewel's irritation was growing. Every time it thought it had the upper hand, some "minor" convenience saved the pests from their deserved deaths.
Its satellite eyes were still pursuing Kirinmaru and Toga, but it knew that as long as it kept them at a distance, the only real threat was Sesshomaru. And while the eldest son of the Dog Demon was powerful, he couldn't kill it.
Clack.
The sound of a soft landing echoed from behind Kagome.
The group turned as one. A figure shrouded in a swirling vortex of black and crimson youki had appeared.
"Rikuo?" Shippo gasped.
The boy's appearance had undergone a radical shift. His standard black-and-white kimono was now a deep, blood-red and obsidian black. Faint, elegant demon markings traced his features, and a massive, fluffy white tail--identical to Inuyasha's father's--was draped across his shoulders like a regal stole. His white hair was even longer than before, nearly reaching the ground in a shimmering cascade.
He looked wild, lethal, and undeniably premium.
But it was the sword in his hand that commanded the most attention. It wasn't the slender [Nenekirimaru], nor the massive [Tessaiga]. It was a long, balanced tachi, its hilt wrapped in fine fur.
[Matoi: Dog Demon Lord].
'I can't feel any youki or presence at all...'
Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. If he weren't looking directly at Rikuo, he wouldn't have known the half-demon was there. The silence of his presence was more chilling than any roar.
"Did you succeed?" Moroha asked, noticing that Inuyasha was nowhere to be seen.
"Yeah. It took a bit of convincing, but we've reached an understanding," Rikuo said, his voice carrying a calm, predatory resonance as he stepped toward the Jewel.
"I'm going to need an opening. Just one."
"Make it look away. Force a mistake."
Rikuo's confidence was absolute. It wasn't a request; it was an tactical assessment.
"Hoh? Talking big, aren't we? I assume that means you've actually found a way to kill that monster," Cu Chulainn said, a grin splitting his face as he felt the shift in the air.
"Understood," Akame said, her fingers tightening on [Murasame]. She didn't need the details. She only needed to trust.
"..."
Sesshomaru remained silent, but he stepped forward, his youki flaring in a silent acknowledgment of the plan.
"Moroha, you heard Midoriko-sama, right?" Kagome asked.
"I did. But what's the 'correct' wish?"
Kagome looked at her daughter.
'The Shikon no Tama cannot fulfill a true heart's desire.'
'And the only correct wish is...'
Kagome didn't have 100% certainty, but she knew the history of the Jewel. All it had ever brought was despair and blood. It didn't belong in this world. It never had.
'What is this?'
The Shikon no Tama stared at Rikuo, its instincts screaming. It was looking at him, yet it couldn't "perceive" him. No youki flow, no killing intent... nothing.
[Kyouka Suigetsu].
It knew the name of the technique, but this was different. Usually, Rikuo's illusions were just a veil over his power. This was a total erasure of the self.
Before it could analyze further, Rikuo's silhouette vanished from its sight as if he had never existed.
"I don't know what you've done, boy... but it won't matter!"
"I'll just force you to reveal yourself!"
The Jewel decided to ignore the invisible threat for a moment, surging toward Kagome and Moroha. It knew they were the weakest link physically, yet the most dangerous conceptually.
"Here it comes!"
The defenders braced themselves.
"Then, as the Lancer of this war..."
"I'll give you everything I've got!"
Cu Chulainn leaped high into the air, his magical energy erupting from his spear in a violent, pulsating red light.
"Hah!"
"Hmph!"
Sesshomaru and Akame charged from the flanks, while Koga stood like a wall in front of Kagome and Moroha.
SLICE--!!
Akame's [Murasame] carved a line down the Jewel's spine, the blade moving with such speed it left a faint trail of after-images. The Jewel ignored it, its regeneration handling the damage before it could even register.
Its eyes were locked on Kagome.
C-CRACK--!!
Suddenly, a massive strike of blue energy slammed into its side from a distance, followed immediately by a vortex of purple wind.
"[Bursting Lance Blast]!!"
"[Hell Dragon Wave]!!"
Kirinmaru and Toga had managed to find a gap in the pursuit of the satellite eyes, lending their long-range power to the defensive line. The combined shockwaves forced the Jewel to skid sideways, its momentum interrupted.
"You persistent gnats!" the Jewel snarled.
It attempted to correct its course, but Sesshomaru and Akame were back on it, pivoting their blades and using the flats of their swords to physically wedge themselves into its joints and shove it away from the girls.
"You!!"
The Jewel swung a massive, bone-heavy fist at Sesshomaru's head, but the Great Demon ducked and retreated with a fluid grace.
As the Jewel landed, it saw two points of light in the distance.
Kagome and Moroha had their bows drawn, their arrows notched and glowing with a shimmering, pearl-like radiance.
'Sacred Arrows?'
The Jewel wasn't worried. With its current reserves of malice, those two couldn't possibly purify it.
"[Gae Bolg: Soaring Spear that Strikes with Death]!!"
The world turned red.
A crimson meteor descended from the heavens, the concentrated magical energy of the Lancer screaming through the air as it aimed for the Jewel's core.
BOOM--!!!
An earth-shattering explosion engulfed the battlefield. The Jewel's skeletal frame was scorched and cracked, but it remained whole. Its regeneration flickered, its power struggling for a fraction of a second to counteract the [Reverse Causality] of the spear.
WHISH--!!
WHISH--!!
The debris hadn't even settled when two streaks of light carved through the smoke.
CLINK--!
"What?!"
The Jewel looked down at its chest. Two [Sacred Arrows] had pierced its skeletal ribcage, crossing over the black, pulsing core of the Jewel.
'This spiritual power... how is this possible?!'
A brilliant pink light erupted from the impact point. The Jewel looked over the clearing and saw a fading after-image standing behind Kagome and Moroha.
Midoriko.
The ancient priestess hadn't just given them power; she had unsealed the latent spiritual reserves that the Jewel had spent years suppressing within Kagome.
And these arrows weren't designed to kill the monster. They were designed to "invite" the Jewel back to its true state.
VHM--!!!
The blackened, corrupt surface of the Shikon no Tama began to flake away, replaced by the original, shimmering radiance of the Jewel.
"Now!!" Kagome shouted.
The status of the Jewel shifted. For the briefest of moments, it was no longer an ego--it was a Tool.
"Shikon no Tama!"
"I wish for you to disappear!!"
"Forever!!"
Kagome and Moroha's voices rang out in unison, their hearts perfectly aligned.
CRACK--.
The Shikon no Tama let out a sound like breaking glass. A thin, jagged fracture appeared on its surface.
"NO! STOP IT!!!"
The Jewel's ego roared in agony, its satellite eyes speeding back to its sockets in a desperate attempt to protect its core. It didn't matter if it could regenerate its body; if the Wish was completed, its very concept would be erased.
It prepared to unleash its beams one last time to vaporize the girls, but then... Rikuo appeared right beside it.
The Jewel turned to fire, but its beam passed through Rikuo's body as if he were made of mist.
[Kyouka Suigetsu].
It had been tricked again.
"SHIKON NO TAMA... ERASE YOURSELF!!!"
CRA-A-ACK--!!!
The Jewel in its chest shattered down the middle.
"NOOOOOO--!!!"
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]