"A wandering spirit?"
Kikyo stepped slowly toward the headless corpse of Uchiha Retsu. Her cold gaze swept over the body as she sensed the aura of the dead clinging to him.
"Was he revived by the power of the Shikon Jewel?"
Her eyes shifted to the ninja pouch at his waist.
Back in the village, she had already sensed someone carrying the aura of the Shikon Jewel approaching her.
As the priestess who once guarded it, she could recognize that presence unmistakably.
When he drew closer, she also detected the stench of death that did not belong to the living. To her, that meant only one thing—another being corrupted by greed for the Jewel's power.
So she had loosed a sacred arrow without hesitation, intending to purify him completely.
Kikyo crouched down. Her slender fingers slipped into the pouch and searched briefly before withdrawing a bamboo tube.
The aura inside was unmistakable.
The Shikon Jewel.
Just as she was about to open it, her brows knit together.
"Why… is there more than one presence?"
Frowning, she reached back into the pouch and retrieved a second, identical bamboo tube.
She opened the first one and poured its contents into her palm.
Several faintly glowing shards fell into view.
"These are… fragments of the Shikon Jewel?"
A trace of shock flickered across her calm face.
"Why? Why would the Jewel, which should have vanished with my death, reappear… and shattered like this?"
She set the empty tube aside and opened the second.
The moment the lid came off, a surge of thick, suffocating malice spilled out.
"A corrupted shard… sealed away?"
The fragment resting in her palm was stained with dark purple-black energy, heavily tainted.
Without hesitation, Kikyo channeled her pure spiritual power.
Soft white light gathered at her fingertips.
Within moments, the corruption was cleansed. The shard returned to its clear, crystalline state.
"Why has the Shikon Jewel become like this…"
She stared at the eight fragments resting in her palm, confusion clouding her eyes.
Memories of her life tangled with the present reality, impossible to sort through.
She placed the shards back into the bamboo tube and sealed it.
Just as she moved to tuck it into her robes—
A cold hand suddenly seized her wrist.
"Taking someone else's belongings without permission isn't a good habit, Priestess."
The teasing voice came from the "corpse" on the ground.
Kikyo's eyes widened.
Spiritual power erupted from her palm in an instant as she tried to blast him away, while snapping her gaze upward.
The head that had been shattered by her sacred arrow had already reformed.
Only a faint crack remained along his cheek, gray ash-like dust swirling as it rapidly restored itself.
He looked at her with gray-black eyes filled with amusement.
As her spiritual force burst outward, he released her wrist willingly.
She seized the chance to leap back—
But her hand suddenly felt light.
The bamboo tube had vanished.
In the blink of an eye, he had taken it back.
Kikyo did not hesitate.
She drew an arrow from her quiver, nocked it, and aimed at the man who was calmly rising to his feet.
Retsu was unhurriedly placing the tube back into his pouch, as though he had not just been decapitated moments ago.
"Who are you?" Kikyo's bow remained steady, her voice icy.
"You're the one who attacked me first," Retsu replied irritably, eyes roaming over her with undisguised admiration. "And now you're asking who I am?"
This was the first time he had seen the legendary priestess in person.
Her beauty was cold and flawless. The red-and-white robes made her appear both sacred and distant.
Aside from her hairstyle and temperament, her face resembled Kagome's strikingly.
No wonder Kaede and Inuyasha had mistaken Kagome for her at first glance.
"As a priestess, destroying a demon like you is only natural."
Kikyo let out a faint, humorless laugh, her arrow unwavering.
"The deathly aura and malice around you were clear from afar."
"Heh."
Retsu chuckled, his tone turning wicked.
"If I'm a demon, then what are you? The resentment and miasma around you are far heavier than mine, aren't they… Priestess?"
He paused deliberately.
"Or should I say… Kikyo?"
At the sound of her name, a flicker of surprise passed through her eyes, though her composure quickly returned.
"I don't know how you learned my name. But as a priestess, my duty is to send a soul clinging to this world back where it belongs."
The bowstring snapped.
The arrow shot forth like a meteor, brimming with immense purifying power, aimed directly at his face.
Retsu merely raised a hand.
A pale blue skeletal arm of Susanoo materialized instantly.
With a casual flick of his wrist, the sacred arrow was struck aside and embedded into a distant tree trunk with a sharp thunk, its shaft trembling.
"You speak as though you aren't a resurrected dead yourself."
His voice carried open mockery.
"We're the same. Your attachment to this world isn't any weaker than mine."
Kikyo's grip tightened slightly.
For a brief moment, her aura dimmed.
He was right.
She too was a dead woman lingering among the living.
"I only wish to live quietly in this village," she said at last, lowering her bow. "Do not disturb me."
She turned to leave.
But Retsu had no intention of letting her go.
If he remembered correctly, Kikyo wouldn't remain here for long.
Soon, while gathering souls, she would encounter Inuyasha and Kagome.
The clash between past and present—
That would be far more entertaining than any spectacle.
He clearly remembered how it ended in the original story: Kikyo defeated in spirit, and Kagome's commanding shout pulling the half-demon back to her side.
A mischievous grin tugged at his lips.
He stepped after her.
"I really don't have any bad intentions. How about this? I'll follow you for now and prove I'm a good person."
"No."
Kikyo stopped abruptly and raised her bow again, wary.
"You are a dead man. Your presence would frighten the villagers. And you carry so many Shikon Jewel shards—I will never believe you are innocent."
Without hesitation, Retsu pulled out the bamboo tube containing the shards and tossed it toward her.
"Then you can hold onto them for now. That should earn your trust, shouldn't it?"
Kikyo instinctively caught the tube.
For the first time, genuine astonishment appeared on her face.
She had never imagined that he would hand over the Shikon Jewel shards so easily.
After all, this was a treasure that countless humans and demons would kill for without hesitation.
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