Hitomiko's heart tightened as she stared into Uchiha Kagase's eyes.
A moment later, the grip on her wrist suddenly loosened. Just as she was about to distance herself from that man of immeasurable strength, a searing, burning pain pierced her eyes, as if flames were igniting within her pupils.
"Ah—!"
The sharp pain caused her to involuntarily drop the kagura bell. She clutched her eyes tightly with both hands, staggered, and fell to her knees, letting out groans of pain.
"Don't worry, for now it only hurts a little. It will be fine soon," Kagase's voice echoed near her ear, with a hint of nonchalance. "Consider it a welcome gift. I hope you'll never have to use it."
Hitomiko no longer had the strength to pay attention to him. Gritting her teeth, she endured the intense pain in her eyes. When the excruciating agony gradually subsided, she struggled to stand, only to discover that Uchiha Kagase had already disappeared long ago.
Only the kagura bell, lying on the ground, swayed gently in the light breeze, producing a clear and crisp sound. If it weren't for the lingering pain in her eyes, she might have believed that everything that had just happened was a nightmare.
"I hope you can survive," Kagase murmured in a low voice as he walked away. He knew Hitomiko's fate well: to be ambushed and killed by Naraku, and then to have her corpse resurrected and manipulated to become a pawn against Kagome.
Therefore, he had just used the Mangekyō Sharingan Transfer Seal to seal two dōjutsu within her eyes. If Naraku continued to treat her as the plot dictated, he would have to prepare to welcome the surprise Kagase had left behind.
After resolving this brief interlude, Uchiha Kagase continued forward in the direction where the Shikon Jewel had shattered.
Around noon, voices suddenly came from the small forest path. He looked up and saw a group of people gathered outside a village in the distance. At first, he thought they were people recruiting villagers.
During this period, he had often seen such things. There were even lords foolish enough to try to recruit him by force, but they all ended up killed by his blade.
In this era resembling ancient Japan, many military groups were simply undisciplined bands of a few hundred men, engaging in arson, murder, plunder, and looting like bandits.
But this time, the scene was somewhat different.
He stopped and observed carefully, noticing a group of armored samurai surrounding more than a dozen girls. The girls' hands were tied with ropes, their faces filled with terror, as they were escorted out of the village by the samurai.
"Interesting." Seeing this situation, Uchiha Kagase became intrigued. If this were an ordinary world, it might have been a lustful lord gathering beauties, but in this world inhabited by Yokai, it was very likely connected to some Yokai.
He performed the Transformation Technique. With a "puff," the smoke dissipated, and in his place appeared a wandering samurai with an unkempt beard and ragged clothes.
Resting one hand on the captured katana at his waist, he walked boldly toward the village entrance. Some villagers still lingered there, their faces filled with sorrow—probably relatives of the girls who had been taken.
"Hey!" Uchiha Kagase imitated the arrogant tone of a wandering samurai, pointing his katana at a villager crouching in a corner. "Why are those people taking these women?"
The villager trembled at the sight of the blade and immediately knelt, his voice shaking: "My lord, those are the samurai of the lord of this land... I don't know why, but recently they've been kidnapping all the girls in the territory."
Seeing this, the surrounding villagers also knelt, not daring to make a loud sound. In that era, samurai were a privileged class; arson, murder, and plunder were commonplace, and some samurai even enjoyed using commoners as sparring partners. No one dared provoke them.
"Why are they taking them?" Uchiha Kagase pressed further, slightly pushing the blade forward.
"I don't know..." The kneeling farmer shook his head, his eyes red. "I've only heard that none of the girls taken have ever returned alive."
"I heard someone say that the lord seems to be possessed by a Yokai!" An elderly villager nearby spoke hesitantly, in a very low voice, as if afraid of being overheard by the departing samurai.
"Possessed by a Yokai?" Uchiha Kagase stroked his unkempt beard, already drawing a conclusion in his mind: this matter was almost certainly the work of a demon.
"Those girls will be sent to the lord's castle, right?" He sheathed the katana at his waist and asked in a flat tone.
After receiving their affirmative response, he paid no more attention to the trembling villagers and turned to pursue the samurai in the direction they had taken the girls.
He silently followed the group and soon spotted a castle built atop a mountain.
The continuous city walls stood imposingly among the cliffs, exuding a suffocating atmosphere, like a gigantic sleeping beast.
Watching the girls being escorted through the castle gate, Uchiha Kagase also slipped in silently, hiding among the trees.
"There really is a Yokai hidden in the castle, but unfortunately its power is too weak." Uchiha Kagase sensed the dark energy deep within the castle and frowned slightly. The entire castle was guarded by a considerable number of soldiers, samurai, and servants.
This Yokai was most likely the lord of the castle.
If he rushed in recklessly and killed the person, he would most likely have to fight these samurai and others, which would be too troublesome.
However, this lord and the captured young girls made him realize exactly where he was.
If he wasn't mistaken, he remembered that this should be the territory of the unfortunate lord possessed by the Toad Yokai in the plot.
Since that was the case, he might as well wait there for a while; he might encounter Inuyasha and Kagome's group.
"But first, I need to deal with the Yokai. The main characters can wait."
He quickly formed hand seals and said in a low voice: "Genjutsu: Temple of Nirvana Technique!"
In an instant, countless phantom white feathers descended from the sky, gently floating into every corner of the castle.
Thud, thud... The sounds of bodies falling echoed one after another. Whether it was patrolling samurai, standing guards, or busy servants, all closed their eyes and sank into a deep sleep.
"This large-scale Genjutsu is really effective against ordinary people." Uchiha Kagase clapped his hands and walked confidently toward the room where the Yokai was located.
He had deliberately avoided the Yokai when casting the Genjutsu, targeting only ordinary people. He assumed the Yokai had already noticed that something was wrong.
As expected, just as he reached the lord's chamber door, a figure rushed out from inside.
The "person" wore luxurious lordly garments, and the exposed skin of the face and hands was wrapped in thick bandages. However, the deformed and swollen head and unusually thick limbs clearly showed that the individual was not human.
Observing that Yokai trying to hide something, Uchiha Kagase was almost speechless. With such a strange appearance, who could possibly be fooled by those bandages?
"Intruder in the castle, who are you?" The hoarse voice of the Toad Yokai was filled with anger as it stared intensely at Uchiha Kagase.
"You're about to die, why ask so many questions?" Uchiha Kagase sneered, his tone full of mockery.
"Seek death!"
With a hissing sound tearing through the air, a long, sticky tongue suddenly shot out from the mouth of the possessed person, piercing toward Uchiha Kagase's chest with a foul wind.