"Hmph~"
Sesshōmaru withdrew his hand, but as for Ruri's question, he couldn't even be bothered to respond. However, after spending enough time with him, Ruri had long since learned to interpret his silences, finding her answers within them.
"Hmm, seems like you're not familiar with it, then there's no need to care. Let's head back."
Ruri's indifferent tone seemed gentle on the surface, but the quiet pride and arrogance in her bearing rivaled even Sesshōmaru's. This alone was enough to darken Bankotsu's expression.
He clenched his fists but said nothing, merely watching as Ruri and Sesshōmaru walked away without a care.
Only after the two disappeared into the distance did Jakotsu finally exhale in relief. "That was dangerous... at that speed, were those two really human?"
Renkotsu, too, looked shaken. "Even though Kyōkotsu's strength is the weakest among us, that silver-haired guy clearly didn't use much power. Even so, he sent Kyōkotsu flying with one strike. His strength probably isn't much less than yours, captain."
"..."
Bankotsu remained silent. Among the Seven-Man Squad, he was both the youngest and the strongest—a human talent beyond dispute.
Having once been a mercenary, his accumulated battlefield experience gave him sharp instincts and an uncanny intuition, as if born of a beast.
Just now, in that single instant, he had felt an overwhelming sense of danger radiating from Sesshōmaru. Though the demon's attack had not been directed at him, even the lingering pressure alone made his heart race in dread.
That feeling—it was exactly the same as the one he'd felt in the Near Region when he'd briefly encountered that group from afar. Anyone capable of instilling that same fear was someone he could never hope to defeat.
After all, the Seven-Man Squad were ultimately just ordinary humans.
Claws, venom, flight, miasma...
Compared to yōkai born with supernatural abilities and yōki, humans were inherently disadvantaged. No matter how much effort they put in, they could never surpass a yōkai through natural means—unless they abandoned faith or freedom to obtain spiritual or demonic power.
Otherwise, relying solely on human strength, one could never become truly strong.
—A bitter, infuriating truth.
It was precisely because of this unwillingness to accept that truth that Bankotsu had once charged into a battlefield between two great demons alone, despite knowing the danger.
As he thought about it now, his fingers subconsciously brushed against his chest, where a black magatama lay hidden—the one he had picked up during that mission in the Near Region, fallen from the sky.
"Jakotsu, take Kyōkotsu to Suikotsu for treatment first. We'll deal with the rest later."
Bankotsu quickly buried his thoughts and put on his usual carefree grin, patting Renkotsu on the shoulder.
"Ah, forget it. Since that guy clearly doesn't want to join us, we'll find someone else. Worst case, we'll just change our name. A 'Six-Man Squad' doesn't sound so bad~ hahaha!"
Renkotsu, still brooding over revenge against Sesshōmaru, could only sigh helplessly at his leader's words.
"How could the Seven-Man Squad be the same as a Six-Man Squad? You're too careless, captain."
"No need to rush. Let's get a drink first, then see what those people who called us here actually want from us."
"This...?"
"Come on, Renkotsu. If we hang around here long enough, we'll find more strong people to cut down. Isn't that good enough?"
Faced with Bankotsu's reckless simplicity, Renkotsu could only stare speechlessly.
"Gah!" (So pretty!)
Behind them, the cyborg Ginkotsu seemed oblivious to the conversation. His mechanical gaze followed a fluttering butterfly with fascination.
Though he was a merciless killing machine, he had a strange fondness for small creatures.
However, that fondness was more akin to how a child viewed a toy—something that could be broken at any moment without remorse.
...
At the Fushimi Inari Shrine.
Inside Satsuki's residence, Ruri and Sesshōmaru emerged from a swirl of yōki.
For Ruri, with the Akasha Records in her possession, the barriers set up around the Fushimi Inari Shrine were meaningless—she could move through them as if they didn't exist.
Sesshōmaru, however, grew instantly alert the moment they returned. From within Satsuki's residence, he caught the scent of another presence.
"This unfamiliar scent... who is it?"
"Oh~ your nose is still as sharp as ever."
Ruri lifted the curtain with her folding fan, and beyond it, a pair of pale, white eyes looked directly back at him.
Under that gaze, Sesshōmaru instinctively stepped back half a pace. His yōki surged uncontrollably, reacting in primal alarm.
Just one glance—and every instinct in Sesshōmaru's body screamed the same thing: either flee immediately, or transform and then... flee.
"I was just wondering who Ruri went out to meet. So it's you—Satsuki's disciple, is it? That power of yours is indeed impressive. So this is what this world calls a 'great yōkai'?"
Kaguya's gaze upon Sesshōmaru wasn't as indifferent as Satsuki's, but neither was it the naive curiosity she'd once held when she first descended to Earth. At the very least, she was no longer in the age of judging others purely by appearance. She had learned to see from multiple angles.
"There's a scent on you—one similar to my master's," Sesshōmaru said, frowning. "Who are you?"
Seeing this, Ruri interjected, "This is Lady Kaguya, Lord Satsuki's elder. She was only recently brought here by the master and will likely be staying with us for some time."
—Satsuki's elder?
Sesshōmaru looked carefully at Kaguya. Even though she had concealed the twin horns on her head and the Rinne Sharingan upon her forehead, her skin was pale as snow, her hair pure white, and her eyes—the Byakugan—an unbroken field of white. Everything about her radiated an ethereal, almost sterile stillness.
Satsuki, by contrast, had black hair and golden eyes. Her skin, though fair, held a warmer tone, and she favored dark-colored kimonos—the complete opposite of Kaguya's pure white.
Other than their equally exquisite features and breathtaking beauty, they were the embodiment of opposites—one black, one white.
Yet Sesshōmaru did not doubt Ruri's words. Quite the opposite—he immediately accepted them as truth.
For the aura that emanated from this woman was as fathomless as Satsuki's own.
In this world, the influence of bloodline was unmistakable. What it determined often far surpassed anything one could achieve through a lifetime of effort.
The same held true in the world of yōkai. The offspring of a powerful demon—if allowed to grow to their full potential—would inevitably become powerful as well.
Sesshōmaru was living proof of this. While his discipline and temperament played a role in his rapid rise, all of it was founded upon the strength of his bloodline—the union of two great yōkai.
Had either of his parents lacked such might, no amount of effort would have brought him to the level he stood at now.
And that truth would soon be proven once more by the Dog General's second son—the half-demon Inuyasha.
Without Tessaiga, the Fang of Destruction, that son of a great demon would, at best, only have reached the level of an upper-class yōkai.
The sheer pressure emanating from the woman before him was all the proof Sesshōmaru needed.
Her existence alone was enough to remind him of one undeniable truth—bloodline mattered above all.
...
"Ritual complete~"
With Elder Kamo Tadayuki's long, solemn call from the main stage, the Purification Ritual officially came to an end.
However, the major figures of the Shinto world gathered here had no intention of dispersing so easily.
Though the earlier council had achieved a basic consensus for cooperation, that agreement was merely a framework set by the leaders of each faction. The follow-up negotiations over specific details and divisions of interest would require much longer—and far more intricate—discussions.
Of course, such matters would now fall to the deputies and subordinates of those leaders.
Satsuki, however, was unaffiliated with any faction and held no subordinate ties to anyone. As such, there was no need for her to attend these later meetings.
Still, shortly after the conclusion of the ceremony, she received several invitation letters.
Although none of the envelopes bore explicit signatures, the residual traces of spiritual power and the unique emblems of various shrines made their origins unmistakable. One, in particular, carried the clear imprint of a nine-tailed fox—undoubtedly from Hagorome Gitsune herself.
This made Satsuki realize something important: even though she had done her utmost to remain low-profile, within the current Shinto hierarchy, she had become a significant figure of discussion—second only to the Lunar Palace.
She collected the letters calmly. There was no need to open them to guess their contents: all were attempts at recruitment or alliance offers. The choice lay entirely in her hands.
However, Satsuki felt no urgency to respond.
Maintaining an ambiguous, unattached stance was far more advantageous for her at this stage. Over time, she had already cultivated connections with the Katori Shrine, earned the favor of the Yasaka Shrine, positioned Suika within the Ise Shrine, and established both influence and fear among Kyoto's Onmyōji.
To align herself openly with any one faction now would inevitably alienate the others—a loss with no equal gain.
Remaining independent among the four was, in truth, the optimal strategy. When those factions eventually found themselves cornered and forced to make a critical compromise, they would have no choice but to consider her as the neutral option.
...
When Satsuki returned to her residence, she immediately sensed Sesshōmaru's slightly disturbed aura from afar.
This did not surprise her. The Tenseiga of Samsara Reincarnation that she had given him carried a portion of her power. Through that sword, Satsuki could easily monitor Sesshōmaru's condition.
And coincidentally, just a few days earlier, upon retrieving the Yasakani no Magatama embedded in that sword, Satsuki had—by chance—discovered the artifact's true power: the ability of Fusion.
The Three Sacred Treasures of Shinto—Kusanagi no Tsurugi, Yata no Kagami, and Yasakani no Magatama—had long been revered as the highest divine relics.
The functions of the first two were well understood: the sword represented absolute offense, and the mirror absolute defense.
But the magatama's function had always remained shrouded in ambiguity. Even its original wielder, Susanoo-no-Mikoto, failed to uncover its true use. This was, in fact, one of the reasons the Yasaka Shrine had been willing to offer such a priceless relic as a reward to Satsuki.
Though Susanoo was hailed as one of the Three Noble Children, his divine nature was singular—pure destruction.
Such an unyielding and one-dimensional nature, while immensely powerful, was precisely why he could not awaken the magatama's Fusion aspect, leaving the supreme artifact dormant and misunderstood for a thousand years.
Satsuki, however, was different. Her discovery of the magatama's true ability was due entirely to the diversity of her own Authorities and the dual-natured balance of her Demon Buddha existence.
She was beginning to realize that the true strength of Perpetuity did not lie in the power itself—but in its ability to combine with other laws and Authorities.
For example, she was currently experimenting with merging her Instant Death Authority and Perpetuity, recreating the devastating power once unleashed by En'ō—the Super Instant Death Authority, capable of nearly destroying her Demon Buddha form in a single strike.
If she were to fuse Perpetuity with her ultimate trump card—Black Domain Buddhakṣetra—and once she fully assimilated this world into her domain, the resulting power could ascend to an even higher realm of existence.
...
But that was a matter for another time.
When Satsuki arrived home, she saw Sesshōmaru standing together with Kaguya.
She wasn't particularly concerned about conflict between them. After all, Sesshōmaru had no idea that the woman before him was the very cause of his father's death.
Satsuki had long since explained the affairs of the Lunar Palace to Kaguya. The latter already knew that Satsuki was its hidden mastermind.
"Oh? You've returned?"
Satsuki's calm voice drifted through the room, interrupting the conversation between the two.
Sesshōmaru turned his head and gave a slight nod. "Yes, Master."
Satsuki narrowed her eyes slightly. "It seems that, even though you've awakened your latent power, your recent mission didn't go as smoothly as expected."
"..."
Sesshōmaru remained silent. Defeat was defeat—he had no excuse to offer.
"But since your opponent was from the Lunar Palace, failure isn't much of a surprise. After all, they're the enemies giving the entire Shinto circle headaches right now."
At the mention of the Lunar Palace, a subtle expression crossed Kaguya's face.
Satsuki, having deliberately brought up the topic, smoothly shifted the conversation to something even heavier.
"Since you've returned, I assume the situation in the Western Lands has reached its conclusion?"
"Yes. My father... has fallen."
Sesshōmaru's tone was calm, almost indifferent, but Satsuki could clearly sense how deeply the event had shaken him.
"So, do you wish to avenge him?" Satsuki asked in an even voice.
Sesshōmaru shook his head. "At present, I lack the power to do so."
After all he had experienced, Sesshōmaru was no longer the arrogant youth who believed, "I alone am enough." He had come to understand the limits of his strength—and that to face the Lunar Palace alone was futile.
Satsuki said nothing further, her gaze instead drifting toward the sword at his waist—Tenseiga.
"Tenseiga, is it? So that's the keepsake your father left you? An interesting weapon."
"..."
Sesshōmaru regarded the blade indifferently. Since Tenseiga could not be used for combat, his attitude toward it was neither affectionate nor disdainful. He kept it merely because it was his father's relic.
Yet Satsuki could sense something intriguing emanating from the sword—a distinct Authority woven into its essence.
A sword of the heavens—capable only of cutting what belongs to the other world.
"It seems you're not very fond of your father's gift," Satsuki said meaningfully. "But compared to your own abilities, I believe this sword complements your shortcomings perfectly."