Chapter 155: Resurrecting Inuyasha as a Human
The moment Sesshomaru's cold words faded into the night air, Jaken was already dragging a heavy bundle out from the shadows behind him.
It was a corpse.
Wrapped tightly in pristine white silk, the body was fully intact, roughly the size of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy. The fabric itself was no ordinary burial shroud; it was high-quality Shu brocade imported from the Ming Dynasty of the Celestial Empire. Pristine and flawless, the material shimmered with a soft, expensive luster under the pale moonlight. It was the kind of extravagant luxury that circulated exclusively among the highest-ranking nobles in Kyoto, yet here it was, casually used to bundle a dead half-demon.
Jaken huffed and puffed, his sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked little face contorted with exertion and deep reluctance as he dragged the heavy shroud over the dirt toward Kobe Hikaru. Despite his obvious distaste for the task, the little imp dared not disobey Sesshomaru's silent command.
"Here. This is that half-baked nuisance," Jaken muttered, poking the edge of the expensive silk shroud with the base of his two-headed staff. His high-pitched tone dripped with absolute disdain.
Hikaru crouched down, his armor clinking softly, and reached out to pull back the white cloth.
A youthful face was revealed beneath the moonlight.
Silver-white hair spilled across the cold ground, though the shade was noticeably darker and grayer than the pristine silver of Sesshomaru's hair. On either side of the boy's head rested a pair of triangular dog ears, currently drooping flat and entirely lifeless. His facial features were sharp and defined, carrying the innate arrogance and fierce spirit of a stubborn youth. Even in the cold grip of death, his brows remained tightly furrowed, locked in an expression of deep, unconvinced defiance.
He was dressed in plain white undergarments... not his signature red.
Hikaru swept his gaze over the lifeless form, his mind working rapidly. He clearly remembered that the clothing on Inuyasha's body was supposed to be a brilliant red outer robe. It was a relic that Toga had gifted to Inuyasha's human mother—the legendary Fire Rat Robe, a garment completely impervious to both water and fire. It shared its name with one of the five mythical treasures demanded by Princess Kaguya in ancient folklore, and it was undeniably a powerful artifact in its own right.
Yet, it was nowhere to be seen.
Was it lost during the chaos of the battlefield?
Physical destruction was impossible. The Fire Rat Robe was a priceless treasure that even Great Yokai sought to collect. Its woven fibers were vastly tougher than any mortal fabric, making it naturally immune to conventional damage.
Though he felt a brief pang of regret at the loss of such a valuable artifact, Hikaru quickly collected his thoughts, his demeanor remaining perfectly calm and deadpan. He knew with absolute certainty that Sesshomaru could not have retrieved the wrong body. The corpse lying in the dirt before him was undeniably Inuyasha.
Toga's second son. Half-human, half-demon.
Hikaru inspected the physical condition of the corpse. It was surprisingly intact.
...Far better than he had initially anticipated.
He had assumed that a half-demon who had perished in the middle of a chaotic, blood-soaked battlefield over two months ago would have long since rotted down to the bone. However, Inuyasha was still a direct descendant of the Great Yokai Toga. Even though the demonic energy within his hybrid body had gradually bled out and dissipated after his death, the latent power buried deep within his ancient bloodline had stubbornly preserved his physical vessel.
Coupled with the fact that Sesshomaru had immediately wrapped the boy in enchanted silk upon finding him, using his own overwhelming demonic aura to forcibly halt the natural decay process, the state of the corpse was actually quite excellent.
At the very least, his facial features were perfectly preserved, and all four limbs were securely attached.
Hikaru stood up slowly. He didn't initiate the ritual right away.
Instead, he turned his head. The scarlet demonic eyes glowing beneath his Crimson Oni Mask locked onto Sesshomaru, who stood silently three steps away, his white robes fluttering in the night breeze.
"One last question."
Sesshomaru's golden slit pupils shifted slightly, his gaze remaining as cold and indifferent as a frozen lake. He waited in silence, allowing Hikaru to continue.
"In exactly what state do you want Inuyasha to be resurrected?"
The question caught Jaken entirely off guard. The little imp reacted instantly. "What do you mean by that?! Of course, it should be the original—"
Before Jaken could finish his squawking, Sesshomaru's peripheral vision swept over him. The sheer weight of that icy glare caused Jaken to instantly shrink his neck into his collar, snapping his mouth shut.
Hikaru completely ignored the trembling imp and continued his pragmatic explanation. "The fundamental structure of human and demon souls are vastly different. I don't think I need to lecture you on the specifics of that. Inuyasha is a half-demon. That means there are two distinct, warring souls housed within his body—a demon soul and a human soul."
He looked directly at the Great Yokai, speaking bluntly and hiding nothing.
", based on what you've told me, these two souls are clearly not fused together. If they were, Inuyasha wouldn't suffer from that pathetic condition where his demonic power completely vanishes during the new moon, allowing his human side to entirely suppress his yokai blood."
Hikaru gestured to the corpse. "Under these specific circumstances... I cannot guarantee that I can summon a perfectly complete Inuyasha. It is highly likely... that I will accidentally summon back two separate entities."
This was the strict 'limitation' of his current abilities.
His Soul Summoning could indeed drag the souls of the dead back from the brink, but one remained one, and two remained two. He lacked the divine authority to forcibly fuse two separate souls together.
In practical terms, if both the human and demon souls were recalled and violently shoved back into the exact same physical vessel, the resulting Inuyasha would almost certainly be a schizophrenic mess—a genuine, raving madman tearing himself apart from the inside out.
Because of this severe risk, Hikaru was heavily inclined to only recall one of the souls.
This was also the underlying reason why he couldn't help but want to purify Inuyasha's state. However, he was currently operating as a hired contractor. Even if he had his own personal goals regarding the system and artifact favorability, the terms of the transaction had to be made crystal clear to his client.
"A human soul, a demon soul, or an Inuyasha who remains half-human and half-demon but is entirely mentally fractured... which one do you choose?"
The words hung in the air.
A heavy, suffocating silence descended upon the moonlit hillside.
Jaken's mouth opened and closed like a dying fish, clearly desperate to answer on his master's behalf, but the sheer terror of overstepping kept his vocal cords paralyzed. After holding it in until his green face nearly turned purple, he finally couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "As expected of a filthy half-breed... even his soul is a complete disaster!"
Sesshomaru merely cast a sideways, expressionless glance at his retainer. Jaken instantly clamped both hands over his mouth.
The young Great Yokai of the dog tribe then let his golden slit pupils fall onto the silver-haired corpse lying in the dirt. His gaze lingered for a brief, silent moment.
On that flawless, aristocratic face—which had never displayed a single ripple of excess emotion from the very beginning—there was absolutely no trace of hesitation.
Because, to Sesshomaru, there was no need to hesitate.
"It doesn't matter," Sesshomaru stated, his voice as smooth and cold as polished ice. "You decide."
Two simple words. Clean, neat, and entirely unhelpful.
Saying that was practically no different from saying nothing at all. Hikaru clicked his tongue behind his mask, but he didn't particularly care. After all, this dismissive apathy perfectly encapsulated Sesshomaru's entire attitude toward his half-brother. It wasn't surprising in the least.
However, the warning had been delivered. Since the client had officially handed over the reins, Hikaru would take full control.
"Alright."
Then he would make the optimal choice.
As the word left his lips, Hikaru immediately raised his right hand, slowly spreading his five armored fingers wide.
Soul-Chasing Archer Transformation.
Undead Affinity: Soul Summoning.
A thick, dark green phosphorescence began to seep from his fingertips. Instead of spreading wildly into the air, the eerie light hung downward like glowing silk threads, gently coming to rest upon Inuyasha's pale forehead.
Hikaru's Yao Qi poured directly into the cold corpse, extending inward like creeping vines, following the withered, residual demonic veins left inside the body. He was searching.
Searching the dark void for the fragile soul fragments belonging to Inuyasha that had almost entirely dissipated into nothingness.
It had been over two months.
Under normal, mortal circumstances, two entire months after an ordinary human's death, their soul fragments would have completely evaporated. Not even a microscopic residue would remain in the mortal realm, as any lingering spirituality would have long since been dragged into the underworld to enter the cycle of reincarnation.
Only a very, very small fraction of exceptionally willful souls could preserve themselves to the absolute limit of three months.
But, just as Hikaru had bluntly explained to Sesshomaru, Inuyasha was no ordinary mortal.
He was a half-demon. Half-human, half-yokai.
He possessed two entirely distinct powers within his physical vessel, two separate souls that mirrored the three souls and seven spirits of mortal men. When he was alive, these two souls circulated endlessly within his veins. Normally, the violent demon soul originating from Toga's ancient bloodline held absolute dominance. But when the new moon arrived—the specific time when the world's Turbid Qi was at its absolute weakest—the heavy demon soul would sink into dormancy, allowing the suppressed human soul to finally rise to the surface.
After his violent death on the battlefield, those two distinct souls continued to intertwine and tangle in the dark, yet they remained fiercely separated, entirely unable to achieve true unity. Because of this, their respective speeds of dissipation were vastly different.
The demonic half, despite being aggressively stronger, dissipated much faster. This was because Yao Qi is inherently heavy; it naturally 'sinks' and is quickly reabsorbed into the earth's natural circulation of Turbid Qi.
Conversely, the human half dissipated at a painfully slow crawl. Human emotions are infinitely richer, their obsessions deeper, and their lingering regrets far more persistent. The human soul is viscous, sticky, and incredibly stubborn when it comes to letting go of the mortal coil.
This fundamental difference was the exact reason why the mortal world was plagued by a massive number of human ghosts, while the vengeful spirits of ordinary animals were exceedingly rare. Even in the deepest, darkest wilderness, the lingering spirits of dead demons were incredibly difficult to track down.
Weighing the two options, Hikaru was heavily inclined to... let Inuyasha be resurrected purely in his human form.
There was a very pragmatic reason for this.
There was simply too little of the demon soul remaining in the ether. Forcibly dragging up those violent, shredded fragments would only result in a resurrected entity that was either a drooling idiot or a rabid, feral beast entirely consumed by base instinct. Not to mention, if Hikaru's memory of the original lore served him right, the chaotic demonization Inuyasha entered during near-death crises was exactly the latter.
Hikaru was standing right next to the body; he had absolutely zero interest in inviting a feral half-demon to rip his throat out the second it woke up.
In stark contrast, while the human soul was incredibly weak and fragile, it still contained a complete, functional Inuyasha with clear, rational self-awareness.
A being capable of actual communication and interaction.
Therefore, the choice was obvious.
The dark green phosphorescence flickering at Hikaru's fingertips pulsed twice. With surgical precision, he deliberately bypassed the violent, blurry fragments of the demon soul that were so degraded they were almost unrecognizable.
Instead, he firmly grabbed hold of the human half.
Concentrating his mental fortitude to the absolute limit, Hikaru carefully picked up the scattered, sticky soul fragments belonging to Inuyasha's human side. One by one, he dragged them from the surrounding ether, piecing them together like a shattered porcelain mask, compacting the spiritual energy, and forcefully stuffing the complete human soul back into the lifeless shell lying in the dirt.
"...It's done."
Hikaru abruptly withdrew his Yao Qi, the green glow snapping out of existence. He stood up and looked back at Sesshomaru.
Sesshomaru didn't ask for any further clarification.
He truly did not care whether the younger brother he despised was complete or not.
His golden slit pupils fell upon the faint, lingering outline of dark green light fading from Inuyasha's forehead. He paused for a fraction of a second.
Then, his hand moved to his waist. He drew his sword.
The antique scabbard was entirely devoid of flashy decorations. The blade itself was elegantly narrow, the edge line soft and unassuming, yet the entire weapon emitted a stunning, faint blue-white luster that seemed to hum with ethereal power.
Tenseiga.
The second of Toga's two legendary heirloom swords. The blade of healing. It cannot harm the living; it only slashes death itself.
The wielder of this blade can see the grotesque messengers of the underworld entwined around the souls of the deceased. With a single, precise strike, it can sever the heavy chains of death, violently yanking a lost soul back to the world of the living.
Yet, prior to this very moment, Sesshomaru had never actually drawn this sword with intent. In his proud, arrogant eyes, absolutely no one in this filthy world was worthy of his effort to resurrect them.
, the sword strictly required a heart capable of compassion to be fully wielded.
Now, for the very first time, the blade was drawn.
In other words, while Sesshomaru undoubtedly looked down upon Inuyasha with absolute disgust, viewing the half-demon as a stain on their bloodline and entirely unqualified to be called his brother, the idea that he possessed absolutely no concern or lingering thought for the boy might not be entirely accurate.
Hikaru internally noted that this arrogant Great Yokai had traveled all the way out here, specifically seeking him out to perform a soul-binding ritual. While obtaining the Tessaiga was undoubtedly the primary goal, the secondary objective of actually resurrecting Inuyasha was undeniably present.
The dog was just far too tsundere to ever admit it out loud.
The young Great Yokai stood tall, holding the ethereal blade with practiced grace. His golden beast pupils locked onto Inuyasha's corpse.
Within his unique field of vision—a plane of reality completely invisible to mortal eyes—several thick, grotesque gray chains extended from various points on Inuyasha's cold body, plunging downward into an invisible, terrifying depth.
That was the heavy traction of the underworld. The absolute proof of death.
The messengers of the abyss.
Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. The blade fell in a smooth, flawless arc, leaving a blinding pale light in its wake.
Silently, the heavy chains that only the wielder of Tenseiga could perceive were cleanly severed.
Every single gray link shattered in the exact same instant, dissolving into tiny, glowing spots of light before completely dissipating into the night air.
Down in the dirt, Inuyasha's cold, stiff corpse—which should have remained dead and motionless for all eternity—suddenly jerked violently.
He moved.
His chest, previously sunken and still, suddenly rose and fell. The motion appeared from nothingness, accelerating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Breathing.
Heavy, desperate, gasping breaths burst from the lungs of a body that had been entirely stopped for over two months.
As the air rushed in, a physical transformation took hold. The signature silver-white hair rapidly lost its ethereal luster, bleeding out into a deep, jet-black hue. The triangular dog ears atop his head twitched and squirmed, rapidly shrinking back into his skull until they disappeared beneath the black hair, instantly replaced by perfectly ordinary, rounded human ears.
The sharp, demonic claws on his fingers dulled into flat, rounded nails. The predatory canines in his mouth retracted into blunt human teeth.
His eyelids snapped open.
But the eyes staring up at the night sky were not the brilliant, glowing gold that represented the noble Great Yokai bloodline of the dog tribe.
Instead, they were a warm, deep dark brown.
Human eyes.
With only his human soul forcibly returned to the mortal plane, Inuyasha naturally resurrected in a state of absolute, pure humanity.
It was the exact same vulnerable state he was forced into during every new moon.
His very first action upon violently sitting up was to cough. He hacked so violently that his entire fragile body convulsed in the dirt, sounding as though he were desperately trying to vomit up all the stagnant death aura that had pooled in his lungs for the past two months.
Tears pricked the corners of his brown eyes as he gasped for air. Then, his blurry gaze finally focused, locking directly onto Hikaru, who was still calmly squatting right in front of him.
A terrifying Crimson Oni Mask. Pale, ghostly hair. Piercing, scarlet demonic eyes staring right into his soul.
"—A Demon Ghost?!"
Inuyasha's reaction was explosive.
He violently threw his weight backward, his palms slapping against the cold dirt as he prepared to spring to his feet and fight or flee. But his newly resurrected human body was incredibly weak and uncoordinated. His legs tangled, and he stumbled hard, crashing right back down onto his rear.
"Who the hell are you?! Where is this place?! How did this young master—"
He roared at the top of his lungs, his voice raspy and hoarse but practically vibrating with aggressive energy. A person who had been dead in the dirt for two months had absolutely no business possessing such explosive lung capacity, but Inuyasha was still Inuyasha, human or not.
But before his furious shouting could echo across the hillside, a shadow fell over him.
A sword plunged downward from above.
The glowing blade of Tenseiga slammed into the earth, burying itself half an inch deep right next to Inuyasha's lapel, firmly pinning the pale hem of his burial clothes to the solid ground.
Inuyasha froze, entirely unable to move away.
He slowly tilted his head up, following the length of the blade.
Sesshomaru stood directly over him.
Pristine silver-white hair hung down like a waterfall. Cold, golden slit pupils stared down at him from an impossible height. That suffocating aura of absolute indifference and innate, bloodline-driven condescension hit Inuyasha like a physical blow, allowing him to instantly recognize the terrifying figure looming above him.
"Ses... Sesshomaru!?"
"Where is Tessaiga?"
Sesshomaru's voice cut through the air. Simple, razor-sharp, and utterly devoid of pleasantries. It was the most straightforward interrogation possible.
"In a place that can be seen and yet unseen. A place that the true tomb guardian absolutely cannot see..." Sesshomaru recited the ancient riddle, his golden eyes narrowing. "Where, exactly, is it?"
These cryptic words referred specifically to the hidden location of Tessaiga, the legendary blade concealed somewhere upon Inuyasha's person. It was the absolute key, the locked passage leading directly to Toga's ancient tomb.
"What the hell are you talking about?! How the fuck should I know! I just woke up! You bastard—"
Inuyasha thrashed wildly on the ground, his human hands desperately grabbing at the hilt of Tenseiga in an attempt to pull the blade out of his clothes. His fingers clamped around the hilt—
Only to be violently repelled by a searing, burning pain that shot up his arm. He yanked his hand back with a hiss.
Tenseiga does not harm the living, but it absolutely does not allow just anyone to lay their filthy hands upon its hilt.
Watching this brief exchange from the sidelines, Hikaru felt a distinct tinge of regret wash over him. This violent rejection further confirmed his earlier hypothesis: it would be incredibly difficult for him to ever obtain Tenseiga for his system. Even if Sesshomaru miraculously agreed to hand it over, the sword's own arrogant spirit would violently reject his touch.
"Your eye."
Sesshomaru's voice suddenly dropped an octave, growing dangerously deep.
He had seen it.
Deep within the center of Inuyasha's dark brown, entirely human irises, something unnatural was glowing.
It was faint, deeply hidden, radiating a pitch-black luster that seemed to devour the surrounding light.
Under normal circumstances, when the two souls were warring for dominance, Sesshomaru would never have been able to detect anything unusual hidden within his half-brother's gaze. The object was a relic left behind by their father, Toga, perfectly concealed within Inuyasha's eye socket and deeply integrated into his physical vessel, masked entirely by the demonic power of Toga's bloodline.
However, right now, with only the human soul present and the loud, masking demon soul entirely stripped away—a state far more thorough and absolute than the brief silence of a new moon night—the hidden artifact could no longer remain concealed.
Sesshomaru slowly extended his hand downward.
Without a single ounce of hesitation, his pale, slender fingers pressed brutally against the delicate edge of Inuyasha's right eye socket.
Overwhelming demonic power poured directly into the fragile human flesh.
"Wait—what the hell are you doing?! Owww! Ow, ow, ow—!"
Inuyasha screamed, thrashing wildly as the burning pressure built behind his eye.
Following the violent motion, Sesshomaru ruthlessly 'plucked' something directly out from the inner corner of Inuyasha's right eye.
The small object popped free, rolling smoothly into the center of Sesshomaru's pale palm.
It was a pitch-black, perfectly smooth, round object, appearing only slightly larger than a human fingernail. Its flawless surface shimmered with a deep, terrifying luster that seemed to swallow the moonlight whole.
It was a black pearl.
A single Black Pearl Agate.
Inuyasha lay panting in the dirt, glaring upward with his left eye while his right hand clamped tightly over his throbbing, empty right socket. His remaining eye was fixed intently on the dark bead resting in his brother's palm.
"What... what the hell is that thing?!"
His voice cracked with genuine confusion. It was painfully obvious that Inuyasha himself had been entirely unaware that such a terrifying artifact had been buried inside his own skull for his entire life.
Sesshomaru completely ignored the boy's shouting.
He slowly raised the black pearl to eye level, his golden vertical pupils locking onto the dark sphere, staring into its depths for two silent seconds.
Then, on that flawless, aristocratic face—which had shown absolutely zero emotional fluctuation from start to finish—the corner of his mouth twitched upward.
A cold, chilling smile.
It was extremely faint, almost entirely imperceptible, but it was there.
"I see... So this is the true answer to the riddle? The tomb guardian's own eye..."
"Hosenki."
Sesshomaru uttered the ancient name aloud, his sharp mind having instantly deduced the true origin of the black pearl.
Hosenki. A legendary Great Yokai who had loyally served under Toga during his lifetime. He was the nominal guardian of the tomb after Toga's passing, and he was the only 'person' capable of forging this specific black pearl.
This Black Pearl Agate gemstone was not a mere jewel; it was a spatial key. A bridge connecting the present mortal world directly to the chaotic gap between the realms of the living and the dead.
And hidden deep within that violent gap between the worlds—lay Toga's true tomb.
In this singular moment, the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place, and Sesshomaru suddenly understood everything.
So Tessaiga was there.
It was waiting right there, buried deep within the tomb of his father, Toga.
And the only entrance to his father's hidden tomb... had been secretly buried inside Inuyasha's right eye this entire time.
Inuyasha was Toga's true, living tomb guardian.
Sesshomaru slowly closed his fingers, clenching the black pearl tightly within his fist.
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