"This is the Bone Eater's Well?"
Kagetsu stood at the edge of the square, ancient well hidden deep within the forest and looked down.
The walls were built from dark green-black stones, weathered by time. Emerald vines trailed along the rim and down into the depths. Through the curtain of leaves, the bottom appeared dim and hollow. There was no water,only compacted earth and a scatter of dried leaves.
"Let's take a look."
He stepped forward and dropped lightly into the well. It was shallower than he had expected; after only a few meters, his feet touched down without a sound.
Kagetsu stood still for a moment at the bottom, then tilted his head up.
Above him, the mouth of the well framed a patch of clear blue sky.
Nothing changed.
No distortion. No pull. No flicker of temporal displacement.
"So even carrying Shikon shards isn't enough to cross over…"
Though he had already prepared himself for this possibility, a trace of disappointment flickered through him.
He withdrew one shard of the Shikon Jewel from his sleeve and placed it on the soil at the bottom of the well, watching it silently.
The shard gave off a faint violet glow in the darkness,but nothing else happened.
No spatial ripple.
No shift in gravity.
No tug of time.
"…Forget it."
He picked the shard back up and returned it to the bamboo tube at his back.
The mechanism behind the Bone Eater's Well had always been vague, even in the original narrative.
From the name alone, it was said that demon bones thrown into the well would disappear after some time,implying that even without the Shikon Jewel, certain remains could pass through and vanish into another era.
Yet the contradictions were obvious.
When Inuyasha once took the complete Shikon Jewel from Kagome, she was able to return to the modern era,but couldn't come back again.
Meanwhile, Shippō had carried Shikon shards before, yet had never crossed over.
The rules were inconsistent.
Still, Kagome and Inuyasha shared two common factors.
First, both had deep ties to the Shikon Jewel.
Second, both were intimately connected to the Sacred Tree,the Goshinboku.
In the modern era, the Sacred Tree stood within Kagome's family shrine. She had grown up beneath its branches since childhood.
As for Inuyasha… he had been sealed to that very tree for fifty years.
More importantly, the Sacred Tree was established as a spiritual anchor,its trunk forming the structure of the Bone Eater's Well itself.
In other words, the well's ability to traverse time and space originated from the Sacred Tree.
With that thought, Kagetsu bent his knees and leapt cleanly out of the well.
He scanned the surrounding forest and quickly located the towering tree not far away.
It stood far taller and broader than the surrounding trees, its trunk thick and upright, its canopy spreading wide enough to blot out the sun.
The Sacred Tree.
Kagetsu approached it without hesitation. Circling the trunk, he soon found the indentation in the bark,the scar where Inuyasha had once been pinned and sealed.
He reached out and ran his fingers across the rough surface.
At first touch, it felt no different from any ancient tree.
"…Should I try sensing it directly?"
He closed his eyes and entered Sage Mode.
Natural energy flowed into his perception.
A few minutes later, his eyes snapped open,surprise flashing through the crimson depths.
"So it really is different…"
Within his Sage perception, the Sacred Tree contained vast, majestic natural energy.
But unlike ordinary ambient nature energy, this energy possessed a distinct attribute,
Space-time.
It felt eerily similar to the Dragon Vein he had encountered in the shinobi world.
Ancient. Vast. Dangerous.
There was even a faint resonance with the spatial principles behind the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Familiar… yet alien.
"…Too unstable."
Kagetsu withdrew his hand.
"Unless I were to remain here for decades like Inuyasha,gradually synchronizing with its aura,forcing this power would be reckless."
If the energy reacted unpredictably, he might not simply fail to cross eras.
He could be flung into some unknown dimension entirely.
That would be troublesome.
He gave the Sacred Tree one last look before turning away.
Kikyo was the priority now.
According to his recollection, after her resurrection and the revelation of Naraku's deception, she had gone to Kaede's Village that same night to question her sister.
That meant she must have been active somewhere nearby at the time.
"Time for a wide-area search."
Kagetsu landed lightly on a tree branch outside Kaede's Village, seated himself cross-legged, and entered Sage Mode once more.
His perception expanded outward like ripples across still water.
He quickly detected Inuyasha's aura. Miroku. Shippō.
But Kikyo's presence was nowhere to be found.
Kagome's aura was gone as well,she had likely returned to the modern era through the well.
"I'll check the next village."
He dispelled Sage Mode and vanished into the forest.
Using Kaede's Village as a central point, Kagetsu moved methodically between surrounding settlements.
Three villages.
Aside from casually eliminating a handful of minor demons along the way, he gained nothing.
Just as he was about to conclude that Kikyo had already left the region,
He sensed it.
At the fourth location, a peculiar aura entered his perception.
Dense death energy.
Stubborn resentment.
And interwoven within it,
Pure miko spiritual power.
Contradictory. Tainted yet sacred.
"…I'll confirm it."
Chakra surged through his legs, and he shot forward like a streak of lightning.
He had encountered similar abnormal presences before,each time merely some strange demon.
But this aura was different.
The spiritual power was unmistakable.
As the distance closed, a faint smile curved at his lips.
"This time… I'm right."
From afar, he saw a human settlement built against the foot of a mountain.
More telling,
The abnormal aura had sensed him as well.
It was moving.
Leaving the village.
Heading straight toward him.
Kagetsu did not slow down.
Just as he stepped into the forested outskirts of the settlement,
A sharp whistle tore through the air.
An arrow streaked through a gap in the leaves, wrapped in pure, blazing spiritual power, aimed directly at his head.
At that exact moment, he had just leapt from a tree trunk.
Midair.
No leverage.
No foothold.
The arrow was already upon him.
He could have caught it effortlessly.
But a sudden impulse struck him.
A playful smile tugged at his lips.
He deliberately slowed his reaction.
The arrow pierced straight through his skull.
Bang!
Spiritual power detonated violently.
His head shattered into fragments under the purifying force.
His body, carried by inertia, crashed to the ground. It rolled once, twice, then came to rest face-up among the grass,headless and motionless.
Moments later, a slender figure emerged from the forest.
She wore the white and red robes of a shrine maiden. Long black hair flowed down her back like dark water. Her face was calm,beautiful and cold.
Around her lingered faint deathly miasma intertwined with sacred spiritual light.
Opposing forces.
Yet perfectly balanced.
Kikyo.
The legendary miko who had once guarded the Shikon Jewel,
Now resurrected through dark sorcery, walking the boundary between life and death.