"Dad! Carry me!!"
"Will you settle down? I've still got a million questions to ask."
That boundless, boisterous energy. Inherited straight from both parents. With a resigned sigh, Inuyasha hoisted her onto his shoulders and let her sit there. He didn't have the heart to refuse.
More than anything, he needed to accept what was standing right in front of him.
No matter how he looked at it, there was no mistake. Clothing and weapons could be imitated. But the pull of shared blood, that deep, instinctive recognition? That was impossible to fake.
Moroha was his daughter. Without question.
"Haha! Thanks a lot! Hey, that Master over there..."
"Hey! Watch what you call her!"
Moroha was practically glowing with happiness. She turned toward Kikyo, ready to express her gratitude, but Inuyasha cut her off instantly.
"Huh?"
She stared at her old man's awkward grimace, no idea what she'd said wrong.
"You do know who Kikyo is, right?"
Inuyasha leaned in close and dropped his voice. He'd assumed Moroha already knew, but based on the way she'd been addressing Kikyo, the girl was clearly missing a few critical pieces of information.
"Um?"
"She's your mom's past life. She's walking around because of... special circumstances."
"WHAT?! No wonder she looks so much like Mom!!"
The whispered conversation between father and daughter grew increasingly frantic.
Watching them, Kikyo felt something twist deep in her chest.
If not for Naraku's schemes. If not for the blindness they'd both shared back then. She and Inuyasha might have been living this exact life.
"I'M SO SORRY, MOM!! I didn't know it was you this whole time!!"
A blur of motion. Moroha vaulted off Inuyasha's shoulders and sprinted toward Kikyo, yelling at the top of her lungs.
"I'm not Kagome, I..."
"No, maybe the two Moms are a little different, but you're both my mothers."
Kikyo hadn't even finished her sentence before Moroha's beaming face filled her vision.
"I get it now! I understand why you were the one who summoned me."
"Without both of my Moms, I wouldn't exist. Not ever."
"That you and Dad got to meet each other..."
"I'm so glad."
Facing that earnest, unguarded sincerity, Kikyo couldn't find words.
Ever since what happened between her and Inuyasha, there had been no future left for her.
She was a dead woman in a body of clay. She couldn't walk alongside Inuyasha as a living person.
And Kagome was by his side now. Kagome could give him a better future than she ever could.
All she needed to do was focus on defeating Naraku. Then disappear. That quiet, dormant heart of hers had long since given up on wanting anything more.
But now, looking at this half-demon girl standing before her, Kikyo felt a stirring she hadn't expected. A gentle, aching desire to watch her grow up.
At the very least, her existence hadn't been for nothing.
"..."
Inuyasha stood a short distance away, arms folded, watching Kikyo lift her hand to stroke Moroha's cheek. The sight carved into him.
If Naraku hadn't done what he did, this could have been them fifty years ago.
Finding Kagome had been a gift. He would never deny that. But there was a hollowness that would never quite fill.
Moonlight filtered through the canopy, dappling the clearing in silver. They built a small fire. The three of them talked for a while.
"Inuyasha, you need to go back."
"But..."
After a long silence, Kikyo spoke firmly.
But Inuyasha hesitated. If Naraku was also a chosen participant, he couldn't just leave the two of them on their own.
"Moroha isn't as weak as you think."
"That's right! I'll protect this Mom no matter what! So you go protect the other Mom!"
Seeing their resolve, Inuyasha knew he couldn't abandon Kagome's side either.
Miroku and the others were capable enough, but they weren't a guarantee. He was still the group's strongest fighter. And Rikuo's true capabilities remained a mystery.
"Fine!"
"But if you run into any danger, send the Soul Collectors to find me!!"
"No matter where you are, I will get there!"
He rose to his feet, fist clenched, voice steady.
In that moment, he had shouldered a responsibility he'd never carried before.
The weight called "father."
He wasn't particularly mature himself. But there was no one else to do it.
"Urgh! Damn! That armor is ridiculously tough."
Koga stared at Moryomaru and felt his frustration boiling over. Neither he nor Cu Chulainn could put a real dent in that armor.
Even when they managed to smash the exposed head, the thing just regenerated. They were burning stamina for nothing.
"Heheh! I've already absorbed the yokai power from your Goraishi. Go on, show me whatever else you've got."
BZZZT!!
Lightning that should have been Koga's own crackled back at him, forcing him to leap backward.
"Hey! You got any other ideas?"
"There's one trick I could try. No guarantees it'll work on this guy, though."
Koga spun toward Cu Chulainn, shouting over the chaos. The Lancer answered with quiet seriousness.
"Can't afford to be picky. Just do it."
"Leave it to me, Master."
"The shell might be tough, but what's inside probably isn't."
Cu Chulainn gripped his spear, and a fierce grin spread across his face.
He'd already tried reinforcing the lance with runes. Barely made a scratch. And this opponent could absorb energy and use it as his own weapon.
Against a yokai like this, conventional tactics were useless.
Magical energy exploded along the shaft of the spear. Moryomaru didn't flinch.
This human's strange powers were irritating, sure, but they posed no real threat. Ignore him, grab Koga, and be done with it.
"Tch. Not even going to look at me?"
"Big guy. I'm about to make you regret that."
Crimson flames engulfed the spear's body. Cu Chulainn leveled the tip at his target.
"Your heart!"
"I'll be taking it!!"
"GAE BOLG!!"
"What?!"
A streak of red light exploded from the spear's tip, tearing through the air and striking Moryomaru in an instant.
Dodge?
No.
'It's already hit!!'
"What is this?!"
Moryomaru's massive body lurched backward. He stared at the wound in his chest, unable to comprehend the sheer force behind the blow.
CRACK!!
"Impossible?!"
A small hole had been bored clean through the Meioju armor. The lance had pierced the vital point.
"Oh, not bad! The opening's small, but you actually got through."
Koga whistled. His opinion of this spearman had just gone up considerably.
"This guy..."
"He has no heart?!"
But Cu Chulainn's expression wasn't celebratory. Something was wrong. He hadn't felt the impact of striking a heart.
His Noble Phantasm, Gae Bolg, was a demonic lance that reversed causality.
Its activation was predicated on one certainty: the enemy's heart would be pierced.
The moment the spear was thrust, the result, a pierced heart, had already been decided. The cause, the spear's trajectory, simply followed after. Effect first. Cause second.
Against this technique, evasion was meaningless. By the time you tried to dodge, your heart was already destroyed.
It was Cu Chulainn's ace in the hole. The one technique he trusted above all others.
And it had failed.
Because Moryomaru didn't have a heart.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]