As Hitomiko looked at those strange and eerie eyes, her heart suddenly constricted.
In the next second, the grip on her wrist abruptly loosened. Just as she was about to retreat from this unfathomably powerful man, a searing, sharp pain shot through her eyes, as if a fire were raging within them.
"Ah—!"
The intense pain forced her to drop her Kagura bell. Clutching her eyes tightly with both hands, she stumbled and fell to her knees, letting out a groan of agony.
"Don't worry, it's only a temporary pain; it will pass soon," Retsu's voice drifted into her ears, sounding somewhat nonchalant. "Consider it a meeting gift. I hope you never have to use it."
Hitomiko didn't have the strength to pay him any mind as she gritted her teeth against the agonizing pain in her eyes. By the time the heart-wrenching sensation gradually faded and she struggled to her feet, Retsu was nowhere to be found.
Only the Kagura bell lay on the ground, swaying gently in the breeze with a crisp chime. If not for the lingering faint pain in her eyes, she would have almost thought everything that had just happened was a nightmare.
"I hope you can survive."
Having already walked far away, Retsu murmured softly. He knew Hitomiko's fate: to be ambushed and killed by Naraku, only for her corpse to be resurrected and manipulated as a pawn against Kagome.
Thus, he had just used the Mangekyo Sharingan's Transcription Seal to seal two Ocular Techniques into her eyes. If Naraku still targeted her as he did in the original plot, then he should prepare for the surprise left behind.
Having resolved this little interlude, Retsu continued toward the direction where the shikon jewel had shattered.
At noon, the sound of human voices suddenly drifted from the forest path. He looked up and saw a crowd gathering on the outskirts of a distant Village. At first, he thought it was the local Lord's army conscripting villagers.
During this time, he had seen plenty of such things. Some short-sighted Lords had even tried to forcibly conscript him, only to be cut down by his sword.
In this era, which resembled ancient Japan, many armies were nothing more than a rabble of a few hundred men, pillaging and plundering like bandits.
But the scene this time was somewhat different.
He stopped to observe closely and found a group of armored samurai surrounding a dozen or so young girls. The girls' hands were tied together with rope, their faces filled with terror as the samurai escorted them out of the Village.
"Interesting." Seeing this, Retsu became intrigued. In an ordinary world, this might be some lecherous Lord collecting beauties, but in this world infested with demons, it was almost certainly related to something supernatural.
He performed a Transformation Jutsu. With a "poof," the smoke cleared, and a scruffy Wandering Samurai in tattered clothes appeared in his place.
Resting one hand on the hilt of his captured samurai sword, he swaggered to the Village entrance. A few villagers remained there, their faces etched with grief—likely the relatives of the girls who had been taken.
"Hey!" Retsu mimicked the arrogant tone of a Wandering Samurai, pointing his sword at a villager cowering in a corner. "What are those people taking those women for?"
The villager trembled at the sight of the gleaming blade and quickly knelt, his voice shaking. "My Lord, those are the Lord's samurai... For some reason, they've been capturing young girls from the territory lately."
Seeing this, the surrounding villagers also fell to their knees, not daring to breathe loudly. Samurai in this era belonged to a privileged class; pillaging and plundering were common, and some even tested their blades on commoners for sport. No one dared to provoke them.
"Capturing them for what?" Retsu pressed, inching the blade forward.
"I... I don't know..." The kneeling villager shook his head, his eyes reddening. "I've only heard that of the girls taken to the castle, not one has returned alive."
"I heard someone say the Lord might be possessed by a demon!" an old villager nearby added hesitantly, his voice kept extremely low for fear of being overheard by the departing samurai.
"Demon possession?" Retsu rubbed his chin, already reaching a conclusion. This was almost certainly the work of a demon.
"Those girls are being sent to the Lord's castle, right?" He sheathed his samurai sword and asked in a flat tone.
Upon receiving their confirmation, he paid no further heed to the shivering villagers and turned to follow the direction the samurai had taken the girls.
He followed the group silently and soon saw a castle built on a mountaintop.
The long stretches of walls stood tall between the cliffs, exuding an oppressive aura like a crouching giant beast.
Watching the girls being escorted through the castle gates, Retsu also quietly slipped in under the cover of the forest.
"There is indeed a demon hiding in the castle, though its strength is far too weak."
Retsu sensed the murky Demonic Power deep within the castle and frowned slightly. A significant number of soldiers, samurai, and servants were stationed throughout the castle.
This demon was almost certainly the Lord of the castle.
If he were to just charge in and cut the guy down, he would likely have to fight all these samurai and soldiers, which was too much trouble.
However, the demon Lord and the girls captured in the castle made him realize where he was.
If his guess was correct, this should be the territory of the unfortunate Lord possessed by the Toad Demon from the original story.
In that case, he might as well wait here for a bit; he might run into Inuyasha, Kagome, and the others.
"But, I should deal with the demon first. I can wait for the Protagonist Group later."
He quickly formed hand seals and shouted softly, "Genjutsu: Temple of Nirvana Technique!"
In an instant, a sky full of phantom white feathers descended, drifting gently into every corner of the castle.
Thud after thud sounded as people collapsed. Whether they were patrolling samurai, standing guards, or busy servants, all of them closed their eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
"Using large-scale Genjutsu against ordinary people is indeed efficient." Retsu clapped his hands and swaggered toward the room where the demon was located.
He had deliberately avoided the demon when casting the Genjutsu, targeting only the ordinary people, so the other party had likely already sensed something was wrong.
Sure enough, just as he reached the door to the Lord's room, a figure rushed out from inside.
The "person" wore magnificent lordly attire, with thick bandages wrapped around the exposed skin of his face and hands. However, the deformed, swollen head and unnaturally thick limbs clearly showed that this creature was not human.
Looking at the demon's self-deceiving appearance, Retsu was somewhat speechless. With such a bizarre look, who did it expect those bandages to fool?
"Who are you, trespassing into this castle?" the Toad Demon's raspy voice asked with fury, glaring at Retsu.
"You're about to die, why ask so many questions?" Retsu sneered, his tone full of mockery.
"You're dead!"
With a sharp "whoosh," a slimy, long tongue suddenly shot out from the Toad Demon's mouth, piercing toward Retsu's chest with a foul wind.