After parting ways with the villagers,who had enthusiastically urged them to stay and rest,Kagetsu and Kikyo rode through the forest atop Kuro-Maru.
Just as Kikyo was about to direct the shikigami back toward the shrine, Kagetsu spoke from behind her.
"Kikyo, have you ever heard of 'Peach Blossom Spring'?"
"No." She thought for a moment before gently shaking her head. Turning slightly, she looked at him with quiet curiosity. "Why? Is it something important?"
"It's said to be connected to legendary sages," he replied honestly.
"Sages?" Kikyo's brows knit faintly. "Do such beings truly exist in this world?"
"They probably do," Kagetsu said. "Though they might not be what people imagine."
Truthfully, even he wasn't entirely certain what a "sage" meant in this world.
There were several references scattered throughout history and legend. The hidden Peach Blossom Spring they were searching for supposedly housed a sage master,one who had been transformed into a potted plant by his own disciple, the Peach Fruit Person.
Then there was Nisekosen, a sage who had fallen into demonic corruption.
Even the Resonating Cauldron from Inuyasha the Movie: Fire on the Mystic Island carried whispers of connections to sages.
"Let's not return to the shrine just yet," Kagetsu said after a moment. "Peach Blossom Spring should be somewhere nearby. I want to find it."
He smiled slightly.
"I'm curious how their so-called 'sage' compares to Sage Mode."
Kikyo regarded him quietly, then nodded.
"Very well. I'll follow your lead."
Truthfully, she too felt a flicker of curiosity.
,
Although he didn't know the precise location, Kagetsu remembered two crucial details.
First, the cliff concealing Peach Blossom Spring was home to a demonic tree that bore human-faced fruit.
Second, the Peach Fruit Person possessed a shard of the Shikon Jewel.
In the original events, Inuyasha's group had discovered countless human-faced fruits floating downstream from a river beneath a cliff,leading them to track it upstream.
With that in mind, Kagetsu paid close attention to the terrain, especially towering cliffs with rivers flowing at their base.
Whoosh,
A figure burst from the forest canopy and landed lightly near the riverbank.
It was Kagetsu.
Spotting the winding river ahead, he accelerated without hesitation.
As he reached the water's edge, something red caught his eye.
Floating fruit.
His eyes sharpened.
He bent down and plucked one from the current.
The fruit was plump, peach-like in shape, but it carried no sweet fragrance,only a faint, unpleasant odor of decay.
More disturbing was the surface.
A clear human face was etched into its skin.
Expression frozen.
Features eerily lifelike.
Human-face fruit.
He'd found it.
Looking upstream, he could see a mist-veiled cliff in the distance, dense vegetation clinging to its face.
"That should be Peach Blossom Spring," he murmured.
Casually, he tossed the fruit aside.
Poof!
The figure dissolved into a puff of white smoke.
Shadow Clone.
,
At the same time, the real Kagetsu, seated behind Kikyo on Kuro-Maru's back, felt the feedback from his dispelled clone.
A faint smile curved at his lips.
"Found it."
"Already?" Kikyo asked.
"Yes."
Without hesitation, she patted Kuro-Maru's neck. The shikigami surged forward, racing through the forest like a streak of black lightning.
"Your Shadow Clone Technique is remarkably useful," Kikyo said over the rushing wind. "It located the place so quickly."
"It was originally developed for reconnaissance," Kagetsu explained.
As he spoke, a thought surfaced.
In the past, Kikyo had created shikigami,her Child Attendants, Butterfly and Flying Bird, and even the puppet Holy Lady. They could act independently while carrying a portion of her spiritual power.
In some ways, it resembled how Nagato controlled the Six Paths of Pain from afar.
An interesting parallel.
"Kikyo," he asked suddenly, "can your shikigami carry your own power?"
"Yes." She nodded. "If I use my hair, I can create shikigami capable of wielding a portion of my spiritual strength."
"What if you used my hair?" His eyes lit up. "Could it replicate my abilities?"
Kikyo blinked in surprise.
"I… don't know," she admitted after a pause. "Your power is different from spiritual techniques. But we could attempt it."
He grinned.
"Let's try it when we return to the shrine."
By then, Kuro-Maru had already reached the stretch of river the Shadow Clone had scouted.
Kikyo dismounted gracefully.
She bent down and retrieved one of the floating fruits, her expression turning solemn.
"Human-faced fruit… born from a demonic tree that uses humans as nourishment."
The river was scattered with them,dozens drifting downstream.
She lifted her gaze upstream.
"To bear so many fruits… the tree must be enormous."
Her tone grew heavier.
"And many lives have already fed it."
She looked back at him.
"These fruits are connected to Peach Blossom Spring, aren't they? A demonic peach tree growing within it."
"That's right," Kagetsu confirmed. "Let's head upstream and find where they're falling from."
They mounted Kuro-Maru once more and followed the river against the current.
The air gradually grew thicker.
A thin veil of mist crept over the forest.
Then Kikyo stiffened slightly.
"There's a Shikon Jewel aura."
Kagetsu's expression sharpened.
"So it really does have a shard."
In the original events, the Peach Fruit Person carried one embedded in his abdomen.
They were close.
Soon, the river led them to the base of a towering cliff.
The ground and water below were littered with human-faced fruit.
Some were fresh, their eerie features still intact.
Others had rotted black, collapsed into foul-smelling pulp.
But every single one bore a human face.
Dozens.
Perhaps hundreds.
All staring upward.
The cliff above loomed through the mist, silent and ominous.
Peach Blossom Spring was somewhere beyond it.
And something was waiting.