"Koga-kun, is this really going to be okay?"
"Should be. Probably."
Kagome's question drained whatever false confidence Koga had been projecting. He knew Cu Chulainn's Noble Phantasm was unusual, but he hadn't expected this particular mode of activation.
That uncontrollable flight. That total lack of steering. Whatever happened when Lancer landed was anyone's guess.
"Totosai, can you track his image?"
"Hm? Should be possible."
Miroku rushed to Totosai's side.
"Right! If the spear follows the path to Kagura's heart, we'll see exactly where Naraku is hiding!"
"Just show us the terrain and we might be able to follow."
"But Naraku will definitely run if he realizes what's happening."
"True, but at the very least we'll have identified one of his hideouts. There's no way Naraku predicted something like this."
The group talked over each other as Totosai recalibrated the projection. The image flickered, shifted, and locked onto a new feed.
They saw Cu Chulainn. Gripping Gae Bolg with both hands. Rocketing through the sky like a blue comet.
"OHHHHH!!!"
Wind tore at his face. His hair whipped behind him in a wild streamer.
"Is it really wise to just stay here?"
"Naraku was badly hurt by Kagome's Servant. If you follow Cu Chulainn now, you might be able to kill Naraku while he's still recovering."
Kagura looked between Sesshomaru and Inuyasha, both standing motionless, and pressed the point.
Naraku couldn't possibly have predicted what they'd done. Chasing the spear's trail would lead them straight to him. With Sesshomaru's speed, keeping pace with Gae Bolg wasn't difficult. And with Naraku weakened to this degree, there was a genuine chance of ending him permanently.
"No need."
Sesshomaru's reply was cold and brief. The golden opportunity didn't seem to interest him in the slightest.
"He's right. Even if we followed, that bastard would panic and drop your heart like a hot rock before fleeing."
Inuyasha could track Cu Chulainn's scent easily enough, but he agreed with his brother's judgment.
There would always be another chance to destroy Naraku. But the chance to save Kagura existed only once.
"What about you? You don't even know if you'll come back. You're not even a little scared?"
"Heh. It's just death."
"Even without your help, Naraku was never going to let me live. Everything I've done since betraying him has been a dead woman walking."
"Not dying at Naraku's hands is already more than I ever expected."
"And besides, there's still that small chance I survive."
Kagura had stared at her own fate long enough to see it clearly.
From the instant she'd shouted that warning about Kanna's mirror, every path backward had closed. If Naraku hadn't been so badly wounded, the purge would have already begun. He was only delaying because he needed to heal first.
Death was inevitable. The only question had ever been how.
As Naraku's tool? Or as a free woman?
Now a narrow road forward had opened. Of course she'd walk it. Even if it ended the same way, she'd walk it with her eyes open.
"How courageous, Kagura-san."
Rin clapped her small hands together, admiration shining in her face.
"Fool. Don't forget she was Naraku's ally until recently."
"Jaken-sama really can't let things go."
"..."
Akame's gaze hadn't moved. Her red eyes were fixed on the Tenseiga in Sesshomaru's hand.
If that sword could truly do what they claimed...
Could it also bring back her fallen companions?
"Ugh!"
Then Kagura clutched her chest. Her face contorted. A violent spasm ripped through her body.
Everyone's attention snapped to her.
'Even from that distance, it can accurately pierce the heart?'
Sesshomaru felt Kagura's breathing stop. The cessation was absolute.
The spearman had exceeded his expectations. Whether it was the Assassin that Rin had summoned or this Lancer with his causality-defying weapon, each Heroic Spirit wielded a unique art that could threaten even him if he grew careless.
And if beings as powerful as his father could be manifested by this Ritual, the system was formidable indeed.
"Kagura!"
Inuyasha shouted as she collapsed.
In that single instant, her presence vanished entirely. No heartbeat. No breath. Nothing.
Gae Bolg had found its target.
"Sesshomaru!!"
Inuyasha turned to his brother, the question burning in his eyes.
"Shut up."
Sesshomaru didn't spare him a glance. He looked down at Kagura's body and saw them immediately. The pallbearers from the Underworld. Tiny demons clustering around the corpse, reaching for her soul.
He raised Tenseiga. The blade hummed in recognition.
One stroke. Clean and precise. The Underworld's messengers dissolved under the edge.
Sesshomaru sheathed the sword without a word.
"Did it work?"
Every eye locked onto Kagura.
"Ngh..."
Her eyelids trembled. The color that had drained from her face began seeping back. Life stirred where there had been nothing.
Kagura opened her eyes. She pushed herself halfway up from the ground.
THUMP. THUMP.
The sound from inside her chest stopped her cold. Her expression shattered.
Her heart.
It was beating. Inside her. Where it belonged.
"I'm FREE!!"
"Naraku can NEVER control me again!!!"
The joy hit her all at once, a tidal wave that swept away years of fear and resignation. Her breathing came easier than she could ever remember. This freedom she'd ached for every waking moment, this impossible dream.
It was real.
The wind that was born to be free had finally broken its cage.
DRIP.
Under Inuyasha's stunned gaze, tears rolled down her cheeks.
The shadow that had held her life in its fist was gone. Completely. Permanently.
"Even with the heart destroyed, she can be brought back?"
Akame's whisper was barely audible. But her composure had fractured. The quiet, unshakable Assassin was trembling.
That sword could save them. It could save her friends. All of them.
Rin heard the whisper and turned toward her.
'Akame-san... is the wish she wants to fulfill...?'
She'd never seen Akame lose her composure before. Not once. The wish hidden behind those red eyes must be to save someone she'd lost.
From the day Rin had summoned her, this Assassin had been nothing like what Rin feared. She'd worried about a killer who dispensed death without thought. Instead, she'd gotten someone who saved villagers from yokai and bandits, who refused to use overwhelming strength to bully the weak, who ate enormous amounts of food and fell asleep in sunbeams.
An older sister Rin had grown to genuinely love.
"?"
Rin walked over and took Akame's hand. Akame blinked, snapping out of her trance.
"I'll help Akame-san fulfill her wish."
"So please, be patient just a little longer."
That small figure. That earnest voice. The simple, absolute sincerity of a child's promise.
It settled something inside Akame that she hadn't known was unsettled.
COUGH. COUGH.
"Should've refused after all."
Cu Chulainn hauled himself off the ground, caked in dust, and looked around in bewilderment.
"Where in the hell is this?"
"What a filthy place. Whoever lives here has revolting taste."
Squirming masses of flesh covered the walls and ceiling. He'd apparently crash-landed inside some kind of organic cave.
"I see. So Kagura went to you people for help?"
A cold voice from the darkness ahead.
Cu Chulainn looked up. A head emerged from the shadows, half-formed, coated in pulsing tissue.
Naraku stared at the intruder with undisguised hostility.
"It has been a very long time since I've been this angry."
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]