"Alright, let's head back."
Kagetsu watched as the demon remains burned completely to ash. With a final glance, he used his ocular power to extinguish the lingering black flames of Amaterasu. Then he turned, took Kikyo's hand, and began walking toward the shrine.
"About the villager who was bitten by the Rat Demon yesterday…" Kikyo said as they walked. "Although you eliminated the one hiding in the village, I'm concerned there may be more lurking in the nearby mountains. I plan to check again. Will you come with me?"
At the mention of the Rat Demon, Kagetsu felt a flicker of annoyance.
Although Kikyo had eventually performed the dance for him that night, if it hadn't been for that nuisance, he might have seen her Kagura Dance both during the day and again at night,double the reward.
"I'll go with,"
He stopped mid-sentence.
His expression suddenly froze, and in the next instant, he turned to Kikyo with urgency.
"I can't. Someone's summoning me."
Before his words had even fully left his mouth,before Kikyo could respond,his body burst into a cloud of white smoke and vanished from where he stood.
Kikyo stared at the empty space beside her, momentarily stunned. Then she shook her head with a faint, helpless smile.
She had seen this method of disappearance once before, shortly after her resurrection. At the time, he had been summoned away by that cat yōkai, Natsuarashi, using a summoning technique.
She was familiar with Natsuarashi,not only because Kagetsu had summoned her in front of her, but also because he had taught Kikyo the summoning technique herself.
Back when she had first learned it, she had even used Natsuarashi for practice, so the two of them were somewhat acquainted.
Although Kikyo could not activate the technique using her own spiritual power, she could perform it with Sage Power,spiritual energy fused with natural energy.
Though she was curious about why Natsuarashi had called him, she could only wait until his return to ask.
Kikyo summoned Kuro-Maru, mounted him in one fluid motion, and quickly made her way down the mountain path.
Since Kagetsu had been summoned away, she would have to go alone.
On the other side,
Kagetsu answered the summoning.
As space twisted and shifted around him, the white smoke had barely begun to clear when a sharp, piercing sound cut through the air.
Without hesitation, he bent down, scooped up the small figure collapsed on the ground, and, with a burst of chakra beneath his feet, leapt high into the air.
Boom!
A massive skeletal hand slammed into the ground where he had just been standing, smashing it into a deep crater.
Still airborne, Kagetsu glanced down.
The cat demon girl in his arms was breathing heavily, her demonic aura nearly depleted.
It was Shunran,Natsuarashi's second sister.
Looking ahead, he saw their opponent clearly.
A towering skeleton demon stood before them, clad in tattered armor. Beneath it was nothing but bone,no flesh whatsoever. Crimson flames burned within its hollow eye sockets as it fixed its gaze upon him.
Kagetsu had no idea what kind of corpse this creature had originated from.
But whatever it had once been,
It was about to become a pile of broken bones.
"ROAR,!"
The skeleton demon let out a thunderous bellow, raising its enormous claws and swinging them down with a howl of wind.
Kagetsu couldn't help but mutter, "You're already just bones,how are you still this loud?"
Even as he complained, his movements didn't slow in the slightest.
"Susanoo."
The Mangekyō Sharingan flared to life in his eyes.
A pale blue Susanoo materialized instantly, enveloping his body. In moments, muscle-like chakra formed over its skeletal frame, and a long sword condensed in its right hand.
Against a creature of this size, using Susanoo from the start was the fastest way to end things.
Before he had even landed, the sword flashed coldly,
Crack!
The skeleton demon's attacking arm was cleanly severed, the massive bone limb snapping apart and crashing to the ground.
The instant his feet touched the earth, Susanoo followed through with a sweeping horizontal slash.
The blade cut cleanly through the demon's waist.
Boom!
The two halves of its body collapsed, sending dust billowing into the air.
But Kagetsu didn't relax.
A creature that could move without flesh,who knew if it could still function after being split in two?
Without hesitation, he drove Susanoo's blade downward.
The sword pierced straight through the demon's skull.
Only after the crimson flames in its eye sockets flickered out completely, and its body crumbled into lifeless, brittle bones, did he finally dismiss Susanoo.
He set Shunran gently on the ground and smiled.
"If I remember correctly… your name is Shunran, right?"
Clearly, Kikyo had guessed wrong.
The one who summoned him wasn't Natsuarashi,
It was her younger sister.
"That's right!" Shunran looked up at him, her eyes shining with excitement. Though her voice was weak from exhaustion, her joy was unmistakable.
"I didn't expect it to actually work! This was just a trial run,and it succeeded on my first try! And in a place like this, too… my luck is incredible!"
As she spoke, she reached out and patted his arm.
"Even though I completely drained my demonic power… thank you for saving me! I almost got killed by that skeleton just now!"
"It's nothing," Kagetsu replied with a faint smile. "We signed a contract. Unless something unusual happens, I'll respond to your summons."
From her words, it was clear she had entered into a contract through Natsuarashi's help.
He lifted his gaze and surveyed the surroundings.
A thin mist hung in the air. The ground was strewn with broken rocks and scattered demon remains. The entire area carried a grim, oppressive atmosphere.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"This is the Graveyard of Demons," Shunran answered. "The boundary between the underworld and the world of the living."
"The Graveyard of Demons…"
Kagetsu was briefly taken aback,then realization struck.
This place had appeared more than once in the original story.
Most notably,It was where the remains of Inuyasha's father, the Great Dog General, were buried.
At the thought, he immediately scanned the area, searching for the iconic massive dog skull.
But the dense mist obscured his view, leaving only vague silhouettes in the distance.
He found nothing.
With a slight frown, he withdrew his gaze and looked back at Shunran, nudging the scattered bones nearby with his foot.
"What are you doing in a place like this? And getting chased by something like that."
He paused before adding,
"Where's your eldest sister? Why isn't she with you?"
At the mention of the skeleton demon, Shunran's expression darkened instantly.
She strode over to the shattered skull and kicked it with all her might.
Despite her small frame, the force behind the kick was immense. The skull,larger than she was,was sent flying through the air before smashing against a distant rock and breaking into even smaller fragments.
Only after seeing it completely reduced to pieces did Shunran let out a satisfied huff.
Then her expression softened, turning somewhat downcast.
"I came here to find a burial place for our Lord," she said quietly.
"In the past, Big Sister always wanted to revive him, so his body was kept within our territory. But now that we've given up on that plan… we want to lay him to rest here."