"An undead spirit…?"
Kikyo approached the headless corpse lying in the grass, her steps silent. Her cold gaze swept over the body. The aura clinging to it was unmistakable,death. Not the fading warmth of a recently slain human, but something sustained by unnatural means.
"Was it revived by the Shikon Jewel's power…?"
Her eyes shifted to the strange pouch at the man's waist.
Even while she had still been inside the village, she had sensed the approach of something carrying the Shikon Jewel's aura. As the priestess who had once guarded it with her life, she could never mistake that presence.
When it drew closer, she detected something else,an existence without the breath of the living.
A corpse animated by evil intent.
Without hesitation, she had loosed a sacred arrow to purify it.
Now, kneeling beside the fallen body, Kikyo reached into the pouch. After a brief search, her fingers closed around a bamboo tube.
The aura emanating from within was unmistakable.
The Shikon Jewel.
"Hmm?"
Just as she was about to open it, her brows knit slightly.
"…Why do I still sense its presence?"
She reached into the pouch again.
A moment later, she withdrew a second bamboo tube,identical to the first.
Kikyo opened the first tube and poured its contents into her palm.
Several faintly glowing fragments spilled out.
"…Shikon shards?"
A flicker of surprise crossed her normally impassive face.
"Why…? The Jewel should have vanished with my death. Why has it reappeared… and in fragments?"
She set the empty tube aside and opened the second.
The instant the lid came off, a dense wave of miasma rolled out.
"A corrupted shard… sealed?"
She frowned more deeply at the heavily tainted fragment resting in her hand.
Without hesitation, she channeled her spiritual power. A soft white glow gathered at her fingertips. The miasma dissolved under her purification, and the shard gradually returned to clarity.
"…Why has the Shikon Jewel become like this…?"
Eight fragments lay in her palm.
Her memories of her former life tangled with the present reality, leaving her thoughts in disarray.
She returned the shards to the bamboo tube and secured the lid. Just as she moved to rise,
A cold hand clamped around her wrist.
"Taking someone else's belongings without permission isn't a good habit, Miss Priestess."
The voice came from the "corpse."
Kikyo's pupils contracted.
Spiritual power erupted instinctively from her palm, surging into the hand that held her. At the same time, she snapped her head toward the body on the ground.
The head that had been shattered by her sacred arrow was reforming.
Fragments of gray-white dust swirled together, reconstructing flesh and bone. Only part of one cheek remained incomplete, still knitting itself back together.
The man looked at her with amused gray-black eyes.
At the surge of her spiritual power, he released her wrist without resistance.
Kikyo seized the moment to retreat,but her hand suddenly felt lighter.
The bamboo tube was gone.
In a blur of movement, it had been snatched back.
She drew an arrow in one smooth motion, knocking it to her bow and aiming straight at the man,who had already risen calmly to his feet.
He casually placed the bamboo tube back into his pouch, as if the person who had just been decapitated was someone else entirely.
"Who are you?" Kikyo's voice was cold as frost. Her arrow never wavered.
"You attacked first, and now you're asking who I am?" Kagetsu replied lazily, though his gaze studied her with open interest.
This was his first time seeing the legendary priestess in person.
Her face was breathtaking,cold, distant, almost untouchable beneath the red and white robes. Sacred and solemn.
Aside from her hairstyle and the sharp edge in her temperament, she resembled Kagome remarkably.
No wonder Inuyasha and Kaede had mistaken Kagome for her at first glance.
"As a priestess, eliminating a demon like you is only natural," Kikyo replied coolly. "I sensed death and evil clinging to you from afar."
A low chuckle escaped him.
"If I'm a demon… then what are you?" His tone turned faintly mocking. "The resentment and death aura around you is far heavier than mine. Isn't that right, Miss Priestess… or should I say,Kikyo?"
The moment he spoke her name, her expression shifted almost imperceptibly.
"You know my name."
But her composure returned just as quickly.
"I do not know how you learned it. But as a priestess, it is my duty to send those who linger improperly in this world back where they belong."
Before her final word fell, she released the string.
The arrow streaked forward like a falling star, blazing with purifying power.
Kagetsu merely lifted one hand.
A pale blue skeletal arm of Susanoo materialized instantly before him.
With a casual flick,
Thunk!
The sacred arrow was knocked aside and embedded deep into a distant tree trunk, its fletching trembling.
"You speak as though you weren't resurrected yourself," he said calmly. "We're no different. Your attachment to this world is no weaker than mine."
Her grip on the bow tightened.
For a brief moment, her aura dimmed.
He was not wrong.
She, too, was a dead woman clinging to unfinished emotions.
"…I only wish to live quietly in this village," Kikyo said at last, lowering her bow. "Do not interfere."
She turned and began walking toward the settlement.
Kagetsu watched her back with a faint smile.
If his memory served him correctly, she would not remain here long. Soon she would gather wandering souls to sustain her body,and inevitably cross paths with Inuyasha and Kagome.
The confrontation between past and present…
Now that would be interesting.
He recalled how, in the original course of events, Kagome's single command had dragged Inuyasha back from Kikyo's side.
A smirk curved his lips.
He couldn't miss that scene.
"I really mean no harm," he called as he followed. "How about this? I'll stay by your side for a while. You can observe me. Consider it proof that I'm not your enemy."
"Absolutely not."
Kikyo stopped abruptly and raised her bow again, eyes sharp.
"You are an undead being. Your presence would frighten the villagers. And you carry multiple shards of the Shikon Jewel. I have no reason to trust you."
"Fair enough."
Without hesitation, Kagetsu pulled out the bamboo tube containing the purified shards and tossed it toward her.
"I'll let you hold onto these for now. Does that ease your mind?"
Kikyo caught the tube reflexively.
She stared at it in silence.
She had not expected him to relinquish the shards so easily.
The Shikon Jewel was a treasure coveted by demons and humans alike.
Yet he had handed it over without the slightest reluctance.
Her gaze slowly lifted to him.
"…What are you planning?"