A short while later, Inuyasha was gone.
It had taken Shinji roughly the time it takes for a single cup of tea to cool to persuade the former half-demon, now fully human, to leave. The process hadn't been complicated. Inuyasha was straightforward by nature.
His temper might have been explosive, but at his core, he wasn't a complicated person. If anything, he was simple. So simple it could almost be called thickheaded. A
ll you had to do was stroke his fur the right way, acknowledge his anger, and give him a direction he already wanted to go.
Shinji didn't lie to him. He simply laid a few facts in front of him.
First: Sesshōmaru had always wanted Tessaiga. Now that he'd taken the black pearl and gone into the underworld, whether he succeeded or not, the first thing Inuyasha would face upon his return was him.
Second: Inuyasha was human now. He had no yōki. Against Sesshōmaru, he wouldn't stand a chance. Though, in truth, even with his yōki, Inuyasha had never stood a chance against Sesshōmaru.
But staying here and waiting for Sesshōmaru to emerge meant either being utterly ignored or being dealt with. The former, Inuyasha's pride couldn't stomach. The latter, his body couldn't survive.
Third: He was human now. Truly. Completely. A pure human who wouldn't turn back after the new moon. He could go live in a human town. No more being shunned by both sides.
No more being treated like a monster. And even though he'd become human, his physical body, inherited from Tōga, was still remarkably strong. Without yōki, he could still handle ordinary lesser yōkai with ease. A stable life wouldn't be hard to find.
Yes. Shinji hadn't hidden the existence of Tessaiga from him. In fact, he'd even told Inuyasha that he himself wanted to claim it. He had never considered himself a good person. He wasn't even a person at all.
He had always been selfish, whether it was handing the Shikon no Tama over to Kikyō in the beginning or everything he'd done since, his own self-interest had always been woven through it.
But he was also always candid. Good was good. Bad was bad. Selfish was selfish.
He never defended himself. He was just a yōkai. Greedy, and fully aware of his own greed. At most, he had a baseline of principles he wouldn't cross.
Inuyasha had listened to all of this in silence, hesitating for a long time. In the end, all he asked was what Shinji intended to do with Tessaiga once he had it. Shinji's answer was simple: he would use that blade's power to grow stronger, so that he could protect the life he had now.
Looking at the peaceful village behind him, Inuyasha had finally let it go. Tessaiga was Tōga's legacy, yes, a memento left for him. But for someone who had never truly met his father, it wasn't something he absolutely had to have.
And besides, he couldn't use it now. He didn't need it anymore. In this world where armies could muster spiritual momentum, all he needed was to find a prosperous city and stay there. He could avoid most dangers.
He wasn't stupid. Brash, yes. Slow on the uptake, sometimes. But he could figure things out when he needed to, he just usually couldn't be bothered. A lot of things only came to him much later.
In the end, he stood up. His white clothes were caked in dust and old blood. His black hair fell loose over his shoulders. His deep brown eyes looked at Shinji.
"What's your name?"
"Nakai Shinji."
"Got it."
Inuyasha turned and headed toward the mountain path to the south, away from Kaede's Village. His steps were unsteady. His body was still weak. But he walked with a steadiness he had never known before. Like this. Feet firmly on the ground. Heading in a single, certain direction.
After a few paces, he looked back.
"Oi, Shinji."
"Mn?"
"Next time we meet, I'm treating you to a bowl of noodles. The kind that's popular in the human world." The kind he'd always wanted to try.
"…Fine."
Inuyasha grinned. With his black hair and brown eyes, on that human face of his, that smile looked especially boyish. Then he walked off without looking back. Heading toward some distant human town, far from Kaede's Village. Toward the ordinary life he'd never truly had, but had always desperately longed for.
That was enough.
Shinji stood where he was and watched that distant figure disappear. In a certain sense… this was his way of compensating Inuyasha for what he'd taken. What Inuyasha had wanted, what he'd gone in circles for in the original story, endured so much hardship for, and only found at the very end, an accepted, stable life, Shinji had helped him achieve it ahead of time.
Though the method was a little different. Though he'd smuggled in plenty of his own agenda along the way. But at least, for Inuyasha himself, this outcome wasn't bad.
He had come back from the dead. And this person in front of him had truly saved his life. No matter how much self-interest was mixed in, faced with such forthright honesty, Inuyasha had nothing more to say.
That was what mutual gain… had always looked like.
Shinji withdrew his gaze and leaned back against the boulder. He still had to wait here. Wait for Sesshōmaru to come out.
Not far away, Jaken crouched. The Staff of Two Heads lay across his knees. He didn't dare make a sound, much less try to stop anything. The little green yōkai's face was riddled with anxiety.
Every so often, his gaze darted toward the spot where the rift had vanished, then back to Shinji. As if terrified that Shinji might decide to do something to him right then and there.
One hour passed. Two hours.
The eastern sky began to pale. Morning light had yet to reach this hillside, but the air had already turned cold.
And then
Space tore open once more. A deep azure rift split the air at the exact same spot as before.
Sesshōmaru stepped out from within.
"Lord Sesshōmaru! You've returned!" Jaken let out a yelp and scrambled to his feet, dashing over to greet him. "Did you get Tessaiga—?!"
Sesshōmaru walked straight past him. Didn't so much as glance at him. Jaken was utterly ignored but he didn't mind one bit, his expression one of long-ingrained habit.
Shinji did not move. He merely lifted his head from the boulder and glanced at Sesshōmaru. At his hands. Empty. Both hands were empty. On the palm and fingertips of his right hand, there were scorched, blackened traces, as though burned by something and then rapidly healed in an exceedingly short time. But the marks hadn't fully faded yet.
Shinji knew Sesshōmaru hadn't obtained Tessaiga. It was no surprise. In the original story's lore, Tōga had placed an immensely powerful sealing barrier upon Tessaiga. Only a human or a yōkai with a heart that sought to protect humans, could draw the blade.
A pure yōkai who touched Tessaiga would be scorched and repelled by the barrier's power. Sesshōmaru was a pure-blooded daiyōkai. A natural-born powerhouse. And as of now, he couldn't even be bothered to regard his own blood-relation half-brother, let alone harbor any notion of protecting humans.
The moment his hand touched Tessaiga, the barrier had shoved him straight back out. That was the safeguard Tōga had established in leaving Tessaiga to the half-demon Inuyasha instead of his eldest son, Sesshōmaru. Inuyasha, with his half-human blood, could break through that seal.
And this—this was one of the reasons Shinji had been so cooperative with Sesshōmaru's request from the very start. He had known Sesshōmaru wouldn't be able to claim Tessaiga. This trip was fated to end with empty hands.
Sesshōmaru halted at the edge of the hillside. His silver-white hair swayed gently in the morning breeze. His golden, slit-pupiled eyes gazed out at the distant horizon as it slowly brightened.
His face was composed. But what lay suppressed beneath that composure, even Jaken could feel it. A displeasure so cold it sank into the bone. When Jaken recounted Inuyasha's departure, Sesshōmaru's face remained icy throughout, without the slightest expression.
"Sesshōmaru."
Shinji spoke. The young daiyōkai of the Inu clan shifted his golden eyes toward him.
"If you have no more use for that black pearl, then as the terms of this transaction, give it to me."
Shinji laid his true aim bare. He had never expected to directly obtain Tessaiga. What he wanted, from beginning to end, was this, the key that led to where Tessaiga lay. Of the three paths that led to the great Inu no Taishō's tomb in the original story, this was the only one Shinji could reach.
Using Sesshōmaru's own request to claim it was only logical. After all, he had little hope of obtaining Tenseiga, he would have a hard time being accepted by its spirit, and if he couldn't even touch it, what "Affection" could he possibly build?
Sesshōmaru looked at him. That gaze was indifferent, yet his eyelids lowered just slightly.
"What do you want it for?"
"Collection," Shinji replied. "And besides, the peerless demon blade of the greatest daiyōkai of the Western Lands… I'd like to see if I can enter that place."
"…"
Sesshōmaru pressed no further. It was clear he had already lost all interest in this black pearl. It was nothing more than a single-use key. It had already been used. The rift to the underworld had opened, then shut. To use it again would require the power of its creator to reactivate it.
It would be simpler just to find Hōsenki and have a new one made. And even if one did enter, it was meaningless, that sealing barrier was something he couldn't overcome, and this demon warrior before him certainly couldn't either.
To Sesshōmaru, this object was worthless. He truly didn't believe Shinji could do anything with it. At most, he was faintly surprised by this "lesser yōkai's" frankness, that he didn't bother to conceal his intentions in the slightest. That was all.
He took the pitch-black bead from his sleeve and tossed it casually. The black pearl traced an arc through the moonlight. Shinji reached out and caught it. A smooth, round sensation settled into his palm. Its surface still carried a faint, lingering cold, the aura of the underworld.
"This doesn't count," Sesshōmaru said.
His tone was flat. No courtesy. Nor was it gratitude. He had stated that in return for summoning Inuyasha, he would do one thing for Shinji. Inuyasha had indeed been summoned back, even if only half of him. But Sesshōmaru had no intention of splitting hairs over that.
Because the resurrection had, in fact, been completed. As for Inuyasha becoming a pure human afterward, that was outside the scope of their agreement. And in Sesshōmaru's eyes, a worthless black pearl clearly could not balance the scales of such a transaction.
"Consider this debt owed. When you have need of it, come find me in the Western Lands."
With that, Sesshōmaru strode away. His white fur pelt swayed gently in the morning breeze. His silver-white hair brushed past his shoulders and back, and his tall, slender figure traveled westward along the ridgeline of the mountain. His pace was unhurried. Neither fast nor slow.
Jaken scrambled frantically after him, clutching the Staff of Two Heads, his stubby legs pumping furiously as he wailed, "Lord Sesshōmaru! Wait for me! Don't leave me behiiiiind—!"
Their figures grew distant. Fading into the western dawn.
Shinji stood where he was and raised the black pearl before his eyes. Its pitch-dark surface reflected the twin crimson gleam of his demon gaze.