BOOM!!
A crescent of golden wind pressure screamed across the clearing.
The Great Dog Demon didn't reach for a blade. He didn't sidestep. He simply raised both hands and planted them against the oncoming surge.
SZZZT!!
The force shuddered through his palms, splitting the earth beneath his feet, lashing his sleeves to ribbons. And through it all, the Great Dog Demon felt something he hadn't felt in centuries.
Relief.
'This level of control over the Wind Scar. He's exceeded what I imagined.'
Of his two sons, Inuyasha was the one who carried the heavier weight of a father's guilt. A half-demon's existence was brutal from birth. Caught between two worlds, belonging to neither. No father standing guard. A mother enduring the scorn of those who condemned her choice to love a yokai.
Every hardship Inuyasha had ever suffered could be traced back to one man's failure. His own. He'd saved Izayoi and the newborn, then died of his wounds before dawn.
When Kirinmaru's summoning pulled him back into the world, there had been a selfish thread woven through his acceptance. The desire to see both his sons, just once more.
For Sesshomaru, his fear was that the boy would never learn compassion.
For Inuyasha, his fear was simpler. That the boy might not survive.
He'd left each of them a sword and a hope. But hope was fragile, and swords could only do so much.
Sesshomaru was finding his way. And now, standing before Energy that could shatter mountainsides, feeling the raw power flooding through his palms, the Great Dog Demon knew Inuyasha could protect himself.
That was enough.
"!"
The Wind Scar faded.
Inuyasha stared.
His father's hands were shredded. Blood ran freely down his forearms, and his robes hung in tatters. The Great Dog Demon stood exactly where he had been, gaze soft, expression open.
"Why didn't you dodge? Or draw a sword to block?"
Inuyasha's mouth opened and closed several times before the words came out, rough and strained.
The destructive power of [Wind Scar] was beyond question. A single release could annihilate a hundred yokai in one stroke. Even Sesshomaru would have died to it if Tenseiga hadn't triggered its emergency teleportation.
Taking it head-on, unguarded, with nothing but bare hands? Even the Great Dog Demon couldn't walk away from that unharmed.
And he'd known it. He hadn't tried to defend at all.
Not because he wanted to flaunt his power. Not because the blow didn't matter.
"You and Izayoi have suffered so much over the years."
"I'm sorry."
A thousand words crowded behind his teeth, but in the end, even the mightiest demon lord who had ever walked the Western Lands could only offer two helpless syllables.
The pain his child had endured. The resentment that had built over a lifetime without a father. These were debts he had never repaid.
However deep Inuyasha's hatred ran, it was justified. The Great Dog Demon refused to dodge any of it. The Wind Scar was what he deserved. What he owed.
"..."
Inuyasha's grip on Tessaiga trembled. His pupils wavered.
He'd wondered, once, long ago, what kind of great yokai his father had been.
He'd burned with anger at the whispers, the sneers, the cold faces his mother endured because of the man who'd loved her and left.
He'd told himself eventually that it didn't matter. That whether or not this father existed was irrelevant. The past was the past.
But now, looking at that face, eyes closed, jaw tight with a grief that ran deeper than words, all of it written in the scarred hands and the quiet, unshielded stance...
That warmth and responsibility.
That apology carrying the weight of a lifetime.
That unflinching willingness to bear it all.
His father really was a great yokai in every sense of the word.
"Inuyasha-sama!! Please stop!! The Master, the Master would never..."
"I know."
Myoga was bouncing frantically on his shoulder, shouting himself hoarse, trying to intervene. Inuyasha's raspy answer cut through the flea's panic like a blade.
"Hah..."
Under Myoga's bewildered gaze, Inuyasha slowly sheathed Tessaiga. He drew in a long, shaking breath.
"The bitterness I swallowed as a kid. The pain my mother carried. I've let all of it out now."
"I'm not some brat anymore. I'm done dwelling on how I grew up."
"So listen. Whatever reason you have for being part of this war, Old Man, I'm going to stop your Summoner. Count on it."
His tone steadied. Direct. Clear. The words of a man who had finished grieving and chosen to look forward.
"!"
The Great Dog Demon studied his son's unflinching expression and felt the sincerity behind every word.
From Inuyasha's declaration, he also gathered that the boy knew about the Ritual.
But Inuyasha himself hadn't become a Summoner. That alone loosened a knot in the Great Dog Demon's chest.
Combined with Sesshomaru, at least the three of them wouldn't stand on opposing sides.
"Heave-ho!"
Myoga launched himself off Inuyasha's shoulder and scurried up the Great Dog Demon's arm, settling near his ear.
"Master! Master!! Inuyasha-sama's, well... the human girl he's in love with, she's the one who became a Summoner in the Ritual! And she's a wonderful girl, so please..."
The Great Dog Demon went still.
If Myoga, cautious, cowardly Myoga, praised someone this openly, she had to be remarkable.
"Heh."
Understanding settled over him like warmth. His son had found someone. Just like his old man.
"Don't worry, Myoga."
"My own wish matters less to me than seeing Inuyasha and his people succeed."
"I just want to meet her. The girl who captured my son's heart."
There was a quiet longing in his voice. His boy had a sweetheart. What more could a father ask for?
Under no circumstances would the Great Dog Demon raise a blade against that girl. If anything, he'd shield her himself.
Kirinmaru might not appreciate the favoritism, and if Command Spells entered the equation things could get complicated, but when it came to a woman who might one day be family, the Great Dog Demon would always choose her side.
"HEY! Grandpa Myoga!! Stop putting words in my mouth!!!"
Inuyasha's face burned crimson. He'd heard every word of the exchange, and he was bouncing with mortification.
"Myoga, what is the girl's name?"
"Higurashi Kagome. She's a truly exceptional miko."
"Is that so?"
"What is going on?"
"Inuyasha isn't even here, and you still haven't dealt with them?"
"How disappointing, Kagura. Kanna."
Naraku descended lazily from above, his tone laced with amusement as he surveyed the standoff below.
"Naraku!!"
Miroku reacted before either incarnation could. Sacred talismans sailed through the air.
SZZZT!!
A deep violet barrier materialized. The talismans crumpled against the outside without leaving a mark.
"So that's Naraku."
Rikuo gazed up at the figure hovering just above the treeline. His voice was low, measured.
The feeling radiating from this man was suffocating. Wrong.
'Nothing like Hagoromo Gitsune. Nothing like Tsuchigumo.'
'That theatrical expression. That smug superiority.'
'He reminds me of Seimei.'
The realization crystallized. Now Rikuo understood exactly where the revulsion came from.
This creature was cut from the same cloth as Seimei, who had murdered his own mother and betrayed every soul who served him.
A twisted existence that had no right to walk the earth.
"Hm?"
Naraku sensed the shift. Strange yokai energy was gathering below, concentrated and surging.
He looked down just in time to watch the human transform.
The glasses vanished. The timid posture melted away. What replaced it was something entirely different: a figure draped in dangerous beauty, silver-white hair spilling past sharp, calculating eyes. The presence of a lord.
The boy raised a blade, stepped past the others, and pointed it directly at Naraku.
Cold, unwavering eyes locked onto his target.
"Naraku. That's you, isn't it?"
"In the name of the Third Head of the Nura Clan..."
"I will cut you down with this blade!"
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]
[TN: Rikuo's Servant stat card. This is post-Thousand-Year Demon Capital arc, pre-Hundred Tales Clan. Limited training.
Rider (Nura Rikuo).
Skills: [Fear: Kyouka Suigetsu] (A+), conceals his true self while leaving behind illusions to misdirect enemy attacks.
[Fear: Meikyou Shisui] (B), yokai fire attack capable of incinerating targets.
Noble Phantasms: [Matoi] (B to EX), fuses with yokai allies to amplify power. Upper limit depends on the fused partner.
[Nenekirimaru] (A / Damaged), an anti-yokai blade that gradually drains a yokai's power on contact. Currently broken and can only be used by reconstructing it with yokai energy.]