Moryomaru ran.
The moment he witnessed Cu Chulainn's strike, he didn't hesitate. He turned and fled.
The sheer decisiveness of it caught both Koga and Cu Chulainn off guard.
"Strange. I punched through his armor and hit something vital, but that shouldn't have been a fatal wound. So why..."
Cu Chulainn couldn't make sense of it. His Noble Phantasm was designed to pierce the heart. Against a yokai without one, it shouldn't have been decisive enough to warrant retreat.
"No clue what got into that bastard, but at least we drove him off. That move of yours? Seriously impressive."
Koga didn't bother overthinking the retreat. He looked at Cu Chulainn with newfound respect.
A technique that could shatter armor and strike the heart dead-center. The lethality of it made his skin crawl. Among yokai, very few could survive without a heart.
"Well, looks like I ended up in one hell of a world this time. If things like that are running around everywhere, this could get tricky."
Cu Chulainn shouldered his spear and watched the fading silhouette on the horizon.
If the heart-piercing Noble Phantasm couldn't finish the job, he'd have to rely on his other technique. But given Moryomaru's regeneration, anything short of total annihilation would be a wasted effort.
"Forget him. I didn't sense any Dragon Ball resonance from his body. He's not a participant. Just an outsider."
'Dammit! Why does Koga have something that dangerous by his side?!'
Hidden deep within Moryomaru's body, the Infant replayed that last strike in his mind. Cold sweat would have been pouring off him, had he possessed sweat glands.
Thank every god in existence that the spearman had aimed at Moryomaru.
If that attack had targeted him? Instant death.
And if the Infant died, so did Naraku. After all, the Infant was Naraku's separated heart.
He couldn't risk fighting any longer. If that battle had continued and the spearman somehow detected his presence within Moryomaru... that causality-defying strike would lock onto him.
A body this small, this fragile? There would be no surviving it.
'If we can't take Koga's Sacred Jewel shards...'
'Moryomaru. Go after Kohaku. He still has one shard on him!'
"Understood."
"Well, that didn't go well."
Byakuya floated on his paper crane, watching Moryomaru's frantic retreat with a clear picture of what had just happened.
"Time to report this to Naraku. An opponent who can precisely target the heart? I don't know the full extent of it, but it's clearly not something to underestimate."
He hadn't gotten a full read on the blue-clad spearman, but his instincts told him one thing: that man would be a serious problem for Naraku.
With those thoughts, he rode the paper crane back to base.
"Naraku. I have something to..."
He landed at the doorway of the mountainside hideout and stepped inside. The words died on his tongue.
Hakudoshi was lying on the floor.
"!"
A suffocating, savage aura filled the room. The boy's eyes had changed. Black sclera. And etched into his irises, the characters for "Upper Moon" and "One."
'So it's done already? The Demon conversion...'
Byakuya stared at the result without a trace of pity.
"Faster than I expected."
Naraku sat at the head of the room, observing Muzan's barely contained excitement.
"It seems the Caster class enhancement is responsible. Ordinarily, converting an existence this powerful would require an enormous amount of time."
"But here? It takes a fraction of that."
Even Muzan was stunned by his own efficiency.
Back in his world, converting Michikatsu Tsugikuni, an elite human warrior, had taken nearly three days. The stronger the being, the longer the Demon conversion took.
But under the Caster class bonus? Everything was different.
If he ever encountered the human Michikatsu again, he was confident he could turn him in an instant.
"With this, you should be able to hold your own out there for a while."
"But stay away from those two women. Hakudoshi may be stronger now, but I can feel it. He's become even more vulnerable to Sacred Arrows."
Naraku glanced at the subdued form of the Demonified Hakudoshi, then turned a "helpful" look toward Muzan.
"Sacred Arrows?"
"The first is Kikyo, the one you encountered in the forest."
"The second is Kagome, the girl in the oddly dressed clothing at the village."
The corners of Naraku's lips curled. He'd spelled it out plainly enough.
"!"
The faces surfaced in Muzan's memory. Two women. Two threats.
They were the beings this world called "miko." And miko were far more dangerous than any Demon Slayer.
If he was going to build an empire here, every last miko needed to die. He refused to tolerate a world where any ordinary human could possess the power to destroy him.
One Yoriichi Tsugikuni was an aberration. A fluke of nature. He could accept that.
An entire class of people who could kill him? Unacceptable.
After a long silence, Muzan departed with the Demonified Hakudoshi at his side.
"Now then, Byakuya. What did you want to tell me?"
Naraku had sent Muzan away deliberately. Certain information needed to stay out of the Demon King's ears.
"It's about this."
Byakuya stepped forward and recounted the clash between Moryomaru and Koga's group in full.
"Naraku?"
When he finished, Byakuya noticed something unusual in Naraku's expression.
"Koga, that fool, summoned one hell of a Servant."
Naraku ground his teeth. He hadn't expected to brush that close to death.
A Servant that could target the heart.
"But he missed his only chance to kill me! Should I call it good luck or bad?"
"Heh."
He stood, a cold smirk settling onto his face.
After this? He couldn't afford to leave the Infant exposed any longer. In this kind of chaos, any number of Servants might possess the ability to destroy his hidden heart.
He'd originally planned to let Moryomaru and the Infant play their little rebellion game, with the intention of swooping in to reclaim everything at the right moment.
But with the Dragon Balls in play, the stakes had changed. If some Servant stumbled onto the Infant and destroyed it before he could act, Naraku would die the most pathetic death imaginable.
"We've located four Master-Servant pairs so far. But the other two groups remain completely off the radar."
Byakuya raised the next issue with a grimace.
Unlike his sister Kagura, who only obeyed orders when convenient, Byakuya took his assignments seriously. But even with his best efforts, the final two pairs were nowhere to be found.
"It doesn't matter. One of the remaining pairs is Saber, likely somewhere in the eastern lands. They'll enter the game sooner or later."
"As for Berserker? Even less reason to worry about that combination."
Byakuya frowned. Saber he could understand. But Naraku's tone suggested he already knew who the Berserker was. And that relaxed, unbothered attitude...
It was deeply unsettling.
"No matter how the other Masters and Servants struggle..."
"It will all be for nothing."
"That man has already obtained the most suitable Servant."
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]
[TN: The author clarifies that dying in the Dragon Ball War carries real consequences. While participants have the "right to spectate" after defeat, that only applies if their soul is intact when they enter the spectator zone. In the InuYasha world, souls can be captured or destroyed before reaching safety. This risk applies equally to all participants.]