"We've got grilled sea bream today,and the udon you said you wanted last time."
Kagetsu sat Natsume down in a chair at the dining table and began taking the prepared food out of the Kamui dimension.
He'd made a special trip to the nearby castle town that morning to buy it, even asking the shopkeeper to add extra sauce. By now, he understood this leopard cat yōkai far too well,she adored fish, and the richer the seasoning, the better.
The moment the steaming dishes hit the table, Natsume's eyes lit up.
She was long accustomed to him pulling food out of another space. He had even taken her into the Kamui dimension once to satisfy her curiosity.
Now that most of her demonic power had recovered, she grabbed her chopsticks. A faint cluster of red foxfire flickered in her palm as she reheated the slightly cooled udon and sea bream. Satisfied, she dug in without hesitation,making absolutely no effort to invite Kagetsu to join her.
She already knew he didn't need to eat.
Watching her devour the meal with single-minded focus, Kagetsu couldn't help but smile. Having a gluttonous cat yōkai as a summon wasn't so bad.
"By the way," Natsume said after swallowing a mouthful of noodles, setting the empty bowl aside and looking up at him, "I'm heading back soon."
"Back to the Leopard Cat Clan?" Kagetsu asked, momentarily surprised as he flicked the used dishes back into Kamui.
"Yeah. I've been gone a long time. If I don't return, Big Sister Leader will worry." A trace of concern flickered across her face.
"Alright. Be careful on the road." He didn't try to stop her. "If you run into danger, use the Summoning Technique. I'll come immediately."
"Hey! You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?!" Natsume slammed her hands on the table, red eyes blazing.
"Did you forget? You promised to tell me about the Shikon Jewel! Don't think I'd forget something like that!"
"Haha,of course not!" Kagetsu laughed a bit too quickly. He hadn't expected this "foolish cat" to remember. He'd honestly thought he could gloss over it.
"Natsume's so clever. How could I forget? It was just my mistake."
"Of course I'm clever!" She lifted her chin proudly, tail swishing happily behind her, clearly appeased by the praise. "Now hurry up and explain. Why won't you give me the shard?"
Kagetsu's teasing expression faded.
He reached into his ninja tool pouch and carefully placed a pale pink shard of the Shikon Jewel onto the table.
Under the sunlight, it gleamed with crystalline brilliance, radiating a faint yet pure aura.
"This," he said gravely, "is a shard of the Shikon Jewel. It contains tremendous power. A yōkai who possesses it will see their demonic power surge dramatically. And more than that… it can even resurrect the dead."
"It can really bring someone back to life?" Natsume's eyes widened. She leaned across the table and cautiously poked the shard with the tip of one claw.
The reason she'd been sent to investigate the Shikon Jewel in the first place was because Big Sister Leader had heard rumors among the yōkai that shards appearing in recent years could revive the dead.
She wanted to resurrect the fallen Leopard Cat Lord and reclaim the Western Lands from the dog-demon clan.
Natsume hadn't truly believed such an absurd miracle was possible,but she intended to fulfill her mission regardless.
Suddenly, she looked up at Kagetsu, eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
"Wait… you weren't revived by this thing, were you?"
As a yōkai, she had long sensed the faint aura of death clinging to him. She simply hadn't asked.
"I'm not among the living," Kagetsu admitted calmly, "but the Shikon Jewel didn't resurrect me. I exist like this because of a forbidden technique."
"Oh." She nodded and went back to absentmindedly poking the shard. "Go on."
Kagetsu ignored her fiddling.
"But beneath its seemingly perfect power lies a deadly trap."
His voice turned heavy.
"The Shikon Jewel amplifies its holder's obsessions and negative emotions without limit. Eventually, those emotions consume the bearer. And if someone tries to make a wish upon it, the Jewel twists that wish,leading them down a path that ends in ruin."
Natsume's claw froze mid-poke.
She snatched her hand back as if burned and scooted her chair away from the table, staring at the shard in alarm.
"You're saying… Is it alive? It has a mind of its own?"
"I don't know if it has true consciousness," he replied, shaking his head. "But it's undeniably ominous."
"Almost every human or yōkai who has possessed it has met a terrible end."
"Oh? There's a story?" Her fear was instantly overshadowed by curiosity. She rested her chin on her hand, eyes gleaming. "Tell me!"
"I don't know all the details," he said slowly. "I only know that the Jewel is easily tainted by hatred and malice. Once corrupted, its evil grows stronger,and it drags its holder into darkness."
He paused before continuing.
"To suppress its evil, a powerful priestess must constantly purify it with pure spiritual power. The last priestess entrusted with guarding it was Kikyo. She died fifty years ago,her heart filled with resentment,because of the Shikon Jewel."
"Kikyo?!" Natsume's eyes widened dramatically, and she instinctively scooted even farther from the shard.
"I've heard of her! The most powerful human priestess of her time… I didn't know the Jewel was what killed her…"
Even someone as formidable as Kikyo had fallen because of this thing.
If that was true, what chance did a small cat yōkai like her have?
Realizing she had just been poking such a terrifying object like it was a toy, Natsume's fur bristled instantly. Her tail puffed up to twice its size.
Kagetsu noticed her sudden fluffing but didn't think much of it. Cats were temperamental creatures.
Casually mimicking her earlier gesture, he reached out and tapped the shard on the table.
"The Shikon Jewel is easily corrupted. Once tainted, purification becomes extremely difficult. Only a truly powerful priestess can cleanse it."
As he spoke, he retrieved a sealed bamboo tube from his pouch. After removing the stopper, he carefully took out another shard.
This one looked entirely different.
Instead of pale pink, it was stained a murky purple-black, as though ink had seeped into its core. A dense, oppressive aura poured from it.
Simply looking at it made one's chest tighten, as if countless dark emotions were stirring in the mind.
Natsume reacted far more violently than before.
Her ears flattened. Sharp fangs bared instinctively. Her fur and tail fluffed up completely as she stared at the corrupted shard, every instinct screaming danger.
The evil aura radiating from it made her blood run cold.