Chapter 41: With a Good Enough Hoe, No Wall Is Impregnable

"My Lord! My Lord!"

As Hojo Akitoki led the way out of the vortex, returning from the boundary between life and death to the mortal world, the very first sight that greeted him was the eager faces of Akechi Mitsuhide and numerous other samurai. Seeing their master return safely, these loyal retainers naturally filled the scene with an atmosphere of joyful celebration.

"Mitsuhide, this battle is our victory."

For an army and its samurai, leading them through victory after victory is the only way to truly forge military morale and unshakeable loyalty. Well aware of this truth, Hojo Akitoki immediately responded to his subordinates.

"Oorah!"

Hearing such wonderful news—that even an almost invincible, formidable greater demon like Sesshomaru had fallen before the Hojo army and been driven back by none other than their master, Lord Hojo Akitoki—the atmosphere at the scene instantly surged with excitement several notches higher!

"Tch, it was clearly me who drove him back," Inuyasha muttered under his breath, curling his lip with jealousy as he watched Hojo Akitoki standing before the crowd and announcing the triumph.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome naturally objected. From the young girl's perspective, without Hojo Akitoki's valiant fighting, could Inuyasha alone have ever repelled Sesshomaru? The sun would probably rise from the west first.

"That meddlesome woman!"

Filled with nothing but annoyance, Inuyasha didn't actually mean to start anything serious. However, seeing Kagome completely take Hojo Akitoki's side so blatantly left him feeling...

For a moment, the man and the half-demon glared at each other, the intersecting lines of their gazes seeming to spark with invisible fire.

Leaving the small episode behind, Hojo Akitoki smiled and greeted the samurai who supported him. Before long, Akechi Mitsuhide dispersed the crowd, walked over to Hojo Akitoki's side, and spoke in a low voice.

"My Lord, before you returned, a dog demon who had lost one of his arms fled from the vortex first, heading southeast. However, his servant, a minor demon named Jaken, was left behind, along with an illusionary demon called a Muonna who was disguised as Izayoi."

"What shall we do with them?"

"Execute the Muonna, but keep the demon named Jaken alive for now."

Hearing this, Hojo Akitoki pondered for a brief moment before giving his verdict. A mere Muonna was nothing more than an afterthought; whether she lived or died was entirely inconsequential. But Jaken, a demon who had served Sesshomaru for a long time, deserved a more cautious approach. After all, if one wished to walk through this chaotic era of the Warring States without possessing the absolute strength to overturn every established rule, worldly wisdom and human relations were still the mainstream. Had the predecessors not made this abundantly clear?

The renowned Great Sage Equal to Heaven—before clearing his accounts, which deity hadn't addressed him as the Keeper of the Heavenly Horses? But after settling the accounts and serving a bitter five-hundred-year sentence in a mountain prison, look at him again. Having mastered the ways of the world while gritting his teeth to shoulder a mountain of lingering debts, wherever this Great Sage went, which deity wouldn't respectfully kowtow and hail him as the Great Sage? Not to mention that when padding his resume, the Great Sage had been very sensible: demons without backing were beaten to death without exception, while demons with influential backgrounds were all politely escorted back to their estates.

With that in mind, Hojo Akitoki's indifferent gaze swept over the Muonna, who still wore the face of Lady Izayoi. Even if you appeared pitiful and utterly harmless, you still had to be sent on your way. If you want to blame anyone, blame yourself for having no backing.

However, just as Hojo Akitoki was arranging for someone to dispose of the Muonna, Kagome must have overheard the conversation between him and Akechi Mitsuhide. Looking at the Muonna lying on the ground, Kagome, hailing from the future world, felt a stirring of compassion. She stepped forward and hurried to Hojo Akitoki's side.

"Lord Akitoki, I think we should spare that Muonna, shouldn't we?"

"After all, she hasn't done anything truly evil, and besides..."

Her gaze falling upon the truly moving face of the Muonna, Kagome simply couldn't bear it in her heart.

"Oh?"

Hojo Akitoki's eyes swept over Kagome, then drifted past the young girl to land on Inuyasha, who wore a rather subtle expression in the background. A thought instantly flashed through his mind, and a mischievous scheme welled up within him. Maintaining a solemn expression, he looked down at Kagome and began.

"The Muonna is a demon formed from the gathered grievances and resentment of mothers who lost their children in the chaotic Warring States and were unable to protect them."

As soon as these words were spoken, Kagome's sense of pity flared up greatly, but before she could plead again, he continued.

"Such demons instinctively search for young children, treating the ones they abduct as their own. However, as vengeful spirits, Muonna themselves lack the capacity to raise children. Furthermore, the malignant yin energy inherent to vengeful spirits acts like poison, quickly killing the abducted children. At the same time, the Muonna will unhesitatingly kill any biological parents who attempt to reclaim their children."

Uttering these cold yet realistic words, he ruthlessly shattered the pity within Kagome's heart. Hojo Akitoki watched with satisfaction as the young girl's expression changed dramatically. But did you think it ended there? Not at all. Hojo Akitoki added one more sentence, which made Kagome's heart tangle even further.

"Most demons are like this. Though they may appear entirely harmless on the surface, they are, after all, monsters."

"This..."

Kagome was left speechless. The frailty of the Muonna and the horrific deeds she committed formed a stark and glaring contrast. Even if the young girl wanted to plead for her, murmuring that the birth of a Muonna was a tragedy in itself—if the Muonna was to be pitied, were those parents who lost their children, and even lost their lives trying to retrieve them, not wronged?

Amidst the girl's silence, Akechi Mitsuhide, who had walked up to the Muonna, raised his blade and brought it down. Before Kagome's complicated gaze, the affectionate-looking Muonna dissolved into ashes.

If the Muonna was such a creature, what about Inuyasha?

Looking at the vanishing Muonna, Kagome thought of the half-demon standing beside her. Recalling what Kaede had once said—that Inuyasha had once attacked Village Kaede in order to steal the Shikon Jewel—had any of the villagers lost their lives to Inuyasha back then?

Kagome did not voice the question aloud, but surely, for a very, very long time, this doubt would remain like a needle stuck in her heart, invisibly driving a wedge between her and Inuyasha.

"Hey, I can't let you say things like that."

A Muonna was a Muonna, but Inuyasha felt as though Hojo Akitoki's words just now had dragged him down into the same category.

"Hahaha, good demons and bad demons—we must judge them realistically on a case-by-case basis, right?" Hojo Akitoki laughed dismissively in response to Inuyasha's dissatisfied protest.

"Especially in your case, Inuyasha, I certainly don't think you'd do anything truly evil. After all, half of human blood flows through your veins, right? Ah, how does that saying go again? Serving in Cao Cao's camp while your heart remains with Han—you're on our human side, aren't you?"

"That goes without saying."

Sure enough, the simple-minded Inuyasha cast his previous grievance to the winds within a few sentences. Brandishing the newly acquired Tessaiga, he proudly brandished the door-sized blade, successfully drawing a chorus of admiring gasps.

Little did he know that Inuyasha's careless remarks had plunged Kagome into deep contemplation once again. It seemed that Inuyasha's ultimate goal in seeking the Shikon Jewel was to become a full-fledged demon, wasn't it?

Staring at the cheerful male classmate who acted just like the immature boys back at her future-world school, Kagome weighed how she should get along with Inuyasha on the journey to find the Shikon Jewel.

He must not be allowed to become a conventional monster!

Forming a silent resolution in her heart, Kagome's bond with Inuyasha began to gradually diverge from the original path of fate...

Meanwhile, far away from Village Kaede on the vast Musashino Plain, the confrontation between the opposing sides of the Battle of Kawagoe underwent a dramatic shift as time passed.

Due to Sesshomaru's detour, the Imagawa army—one of the corners of the alliance formed by Takeda, Imagawa, and the Kanto Uesugi—was completely wiped out. In terms of the strategic situation, the Hojo clan, acting on the defensive and counter-attacking, was able to draw a massive breath of relief. Moreover, thanks to Hojo Akitoki's sudden assault, the Hojo army at this moment was vastly stronger than it should have been in normal history.

Yet, while things looked that way on paper, reality was quite another matter. A butterfly flapping its wings could easily summon a hurricane on another continent. Because of Hojo Akitoki's existence, Takeda Shingen had been provoked into a full-scale mobilization of his entire army. The Tiger of Kai had discovered that the Qilin, whose fame matched his own, had abruptly departed from the front lines. Therefore, eager to suppress the rising momentum of the Hojo clan and seize the present opportunity, he intended to use his military genius to devour the main force of the Hojo army led by Hojo Ujiyasu on the battlefield of Kawagoe.