"Kagome... are these so-called Heroic Spirits actually strong?"
"No idea. The explanation just says they're heroes from history."
"Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Berserker, Caster, Assassin. Seven different classes."
"Tch. If they're just humans, they can't be that tough. It's not like we're dealing with someone on Bankotsu's level."
They sat on the broad, open hillside, trading bits of the knowledge Kagome had received through the ritual.
"Well, an extra fighter on our side is never a bad thing."
"When the time comes, whether we're collecting these Dragon Balls or going after Naraku, having a Servant could make a real difference."
Miroku didn't share Inuyasha's dismissive attitude.
If there were seven Dragon Balls, that meant six other people out there also had Servants of their own. The specifics were still unclear, but at the very least, they needed to try summoning one and see for themselves.
"Miroku-sama has a point."
"Let's give it a shot, Kagome-chan."
"Right!"
Curiosity won out. Kagome rose to her feet, extended her right hand toward the sky, and called upon the words inscribed deep in her memory.
"I announce..."
The incantation left her lips. Immediately, gusts of wind swirled around her, pressure building like a rising storm.
The energy flooding the area was intense. Even the others felt it in their bones.
"Just watching this, I can tell the ritual is far from simple."
Miroku frowned. As a monk, he had studied his fair share of the arcane, but this was completely different from any onmyodo, ninjutsu, or spellcraft he had ever encountered.
"Guardian of the Balance!!"
BOOM!
The final verse fell. A violent explosion tore through the air in front of them, sending up a cloud of thick, blinding smoke.
Moonlight filtered through the haze as it slowly cleared, and the figure hidden within came into view.
A strikingly handsome man with long hair split between black and white. He wore a black kimono beneath a crimson-red haori, and his eyes, a deep, sinister red, surveyed the group before him. His presence was equal parts alluring and dangerous.
"Hm?"
Inuyasha's nose twitched. He smelled something familiar. A member of his own kind.
"Rider, answering the summons!"
"My name is..."
"Nura Rikuo! The one destined to become the Lord of Pandemonium!"
He announced his class and name with an air of effortless confidence, his red gaze sweeping across the group.
'Half-demon.'
'Half-demon.'
Inuyasha and Rikuo locked eyes at the same instant, recognizing each other's nature immediately.
"Eep! I think we summoned someone really dangerous!"
Shippo trembled behind Miroku's back, eyeing the newcomer with undisguised fear.
The Lord of Pandemonium?
Didn't that basically mean he wanted to rule over all yokai?
Definitely not a good guy!
"Hey! You're a half-demon, aren't you?"
Inuyasha jabbed a finger in Rikuo's direction and demanded an answer.
"And you're one too, aren't you?"
Rikuo tilted his head, clearly picking up on the hostility.
"Wait, he's a half-demon?"
Kagome, Sango, and the others blinked in surprise.
Half-demons weren't unheard of, but one who aspired to become the supreme ruler of all demons? That was a first.
"I can smell it. The yokai scent on you is faint."
"Naturally. Only a quarter of my blood is yokai."
"You could call me a half-demon among half-demons."
Watching the two of them slide into casual conversation, Miroku and the others didn't quite know how to jump in.
"A half-demon among half-demons... Miroku, doesn't that make him even more diluted than Inuyasha?"
"It would appear so. Logically, both his grandparents' generation and his parents' generation must have been human-yokai pairings, which is why it turned out that way."
A breed even rarer than Inuyasha. That alone was enough to stir up quite the commotion.
"Hmph. So this is the best you can do?"
Naraku looked down at the arm buried in his chest with mild amusement, a smirk playing on his lips.
'This man...'
'What's going on?'
'I injected him with my blood. Why hasn't he turned into a Demon?'
Muzan glared at the figure he had just impaled. His mood was thoroughly sour.
He'd been summoned by this interesting "ritual" and immediately set about doing what came naturally: converting his so-called "Master" into a Demon he could control.
But things weren't going according to plan.
"Infecting others through your blood, turning them into puppets. A type of yokai I've never encountered before."
"And your blood can even strengthen humans? Anyone caught by you would undergo quite the transformation."
Even with a gaping hole in his chest, Naraku didn't so much as flinch. His tone remained utterly indifferent.
"You...!"
Muzan yanked his arm free, and only then did he realize the truth.
This man wasn't human at all.
That body was hollow. Devoid of organs. No brain, no heart. Nothing but a mass of flesh woven together into a vaguely human shape.
A Demon?
No. Something far more alien than any Demon.
"Hmm. You might be worth observing."
The wound in Naraku's chest sealed itself instantly. He spoke as though nothing had happened.
"..."
Run.
It sounded absurd, even in his own head. But the first instinct that surfaced in Muzan Kibutsuji's mind was exactly that.
He could feel something deeply wrong emanating from this man.
It wasn't the same as Yoriichi Tsugikuni's threat, that suffocating certainty that the swordsman could end his life.
Naraku was different. What he exuded was a creeping, inescapable sense of danger that went beyond mere killing intent.
CRASH!!
"Hmph."
Watching Muzan blast through the wall and flee into the night, Naraku didn't seem concerned in the slightest.
Even without the Command Spells, he was confident the man would come crawling back on his own.
"Go on. Test the waters against some of the others."
"Don't disappoint me."
"Kibutsuji Muzan."
"I never imagined the two of us would meet again like this."
Seated in his stone throne, Kirinmaru stared at the figure before him and spoke in a voice like grinding ice.
Tall, powerfully built, radiating an air of effortless nobility. Silver-gray hair cascading down his back, three swords strapped behind him. A face Kirinmaru knew far too well.
The one being he had spent centuries longing to defeat had just appeared before his eyes.
What a cosmic joke.
Toga.
No. By the name the demons of this world used...
"Inu no Taisho!"
The Servant who had descended fully as a Saber-class Heroic Spirit.
Kirinmaru had been awakened from his slumber when the Dragon Ball War chose him as a participant. He'd performed the summoning immediately.
But pulling his greatest rival, a man long dead, out of the afterlife? He hadn't counted on that.
"You still cling to this world?"
"Heh. Perhaps."
If he had answered the summons, then he carried a wish of his own. That much was certain.
"HAHAHAHA!!!"
"Wonderful! Wonderful!!"
"I don't care what happens in this war. I'm going to win. I won't let you stay dead!"
"You're coming back to life, and you're going to fight me again!!"
Kirinmaru surged to his feet, his voice trembling with excitement and barely contained madness.
Watching those wild, unstable emotions play out, the Great Dog Demon said nothing.
His mind was elsewhere.
Judging by how long Kirinmaru had been asleep, a great deal of time must have passed since his own death.
This time, perhaps, he would encounter someone unexpected.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]
[TN: The author notes that this war's Berserker will barely appear in the early chapters due to their Master's circumstances.]