Chapter 293

Haruto stood quietly to one side, watching the visibly flustered Myōga.

He already knew exactly what was going on.

This entire mess had been caused by Myōga’s fiancée, Shōga.

Shōga was also a flea yōkai, and the two had been betrothed to each other. Myōga, however, had no desire to let marriage tie him down, so he had simply run away.

Shōga had followed his trail all the way here.

Her ability was also rather unusual. She could attach herself to another living creature without being noticed and take control of its body.

The only reason she had controlled Sango and made her attack Miroku earlier was to catch Myōga.

Haruto silently shook his head.

This was ultimately a domestic dispute between an engaged couple. It hardly seemed appropriate for an outsider like him to interfere.

Besides, Haruto had another reason for keeping quiet.

The giant centipede yōkai they had encountered earlier had turned out to possess excellent meat. It was a rare, high-quality ingredient.

If Haruto exposed the truth right now, how was he supposed to take advantage of the situation and collect a few more premium centipede ingredients?

For that reason alone, even though he knew exactly what was happening, Haruto had no intention of saying anything.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was already preparing to squeeze an explanation out of Myōga, who was obviously hiding something.

Before he could, Sango suddenly spoke.

"Now that I think about it, I remember my father once telling me about a kind of yōkai whose true power only manifests after it dies."

"After it dies?"

Kagome looked surprised.

Miroku suddenly clapped his hands together as a thought occurred to him.

"Speaking of the yōkai we’ve fought recently..."

Everyone immediately remembered the giant centipede they had encountered outside the village the previous afternoon.

Its yōki had been extremely strong, and its enormous size made it look like a formidable opponent.

Yet when the fight actually began, it had gone down almost immediately.

At the time, they had simply assumed the creature was all show and no substance.

Now that they thought about it again, however, something about that encounter did seem strange.

Inuyasha turned toward Haruto.

"You still have that giant centipede’s corpse, right?"

"That’s right."

Haruto answered calmly.

"Though at this point, it’s mostly just the body."

He brought the giant centipede’s remains back out.

Inuyasha and the others carefully inspected the corpse but found nothing unusual.

That only left them more confused.

"There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the body itself, but that doesn’t mean the centipede had nothing to do with this."

Kagome looked around at everyone.

"Why don’t we go back to where we killed it and check the area?"

"If we don’t figure out what’s causing this, something even more dangerous might happen next."

By then, no one was sleepy anymore.

Her suggestion also made sense, so the group agreed and headed out of the village.

Less than half an incense stick later, they arrived at the spot where the giant centipede had been defeated.

Inuyasha and the others searched the area carefully.

They found nothing.

"What the hell? There’s nothing here!"

Inuyasha looked around irritably.

"Did we guess wrong?"

Just as everyone began wondering whether they had followed the wrong lead, Miroku’s body suddenly stiffened.

His eyes went blank.

The khakkhara in his hands swung around without warning and came crashing toward Sango.

Haruto, who had been expecting something like this, vanished from where he stood and reappeared in front of the attack.

One hand closed firmly around the head of the staff.

"Miroku! What the hell are you doing?!"

Inuyasha shouted.

The controlled Miroku did not respond.

His empty gaze remained fixed on Sango.

He tried to wrench the staff out of Haruto’s grip and continue attacking, but his strength was nowhere near Haruto’s.

When that failed, Miroku simply abandoned the staff and lunged toward Sango barehanded.

Seeing things go wrong, Myōga immediately jumped onto Shippō.

"Shippō, run!"

The instant Myōga landed on him, Miroku abandoned Sango and charged directly toward Shippō instead.

Shippō stared at him in complete confusion.

"Why are you chasing me?! Miroku, wake up!"

He leapt onto Kirara’s back.

Kirara immediately took to the air and flew away.

Miroku gave chase, but his physical stamina was hardly impressive. After only a short distance, he tripped and collapsed face-first onto the ground.

The fall, at least, snapped him out of the control.

Before anyone had time to relax, the ground beneath them suddenly began churning violently.

A moment later, another giant centipede yōkai—almost identical to the one from yesterday—burst from underground.

The enormous creature immediately surged toward Kirara in the air.

Haruto’s eyes lit up.

This was exactly what he had been waiting for.

He kicked off the ground and shot upward, landing squarely on the giant centipede’s head.

Sensing someone on top of it, the monster violently shook its head in an attempt to throw him off.

Haruto’s feet might as well have been rooted in place.

"Settle down."

He raised his right foot.

Then stomped.

The sheer force of the blow drove the giant centipede’s massive head deep into the ground.

Its entire body convulsed twice before going completely still.

Haruto jumped down and circled the corpse, studying it with obvious satisfaction.

This female centipede had flesh every bit as good as the previous one, and its yōki was even denser and more refined.

Definitely another premium ingredient.

More importantly, Haruto had sensed several weaker traces of yōki nearby just moments ago.

They were probably the offspring of this pair.

If he could capture the young centipedes and raise them inside the Gourmet Restaurant, he would have a renewable supply of centipede yōkai ingredients in the future.

That possibility immediately delighted him.

Haruto stored the newly killed giant centipede and began following the weaker yōki signatures beneath the ground, intending to locate their nest.

He had only taken a few steps when a bizarre, shrill laugh suddenly came from behind him.

The voice was coy and affected, nothing like Inuyasha’s usual tone.

Haruto stopped dead.

Goosebumps rose all over his arms.

He turned around.

His expression immediately became indescribable.

Inuyasha was down on all fours, his body hunched like a flea as he bounced after Kirara with frantic little hops.

"Kirara! Fly faster! Faster!"

Shippō had gone pale with terror.

Clinging desperately to Kirara’s neck, he screamed at her to keep moving.

Kirara was already flying as fast as she could.

Unfortunately, Inuyasha was simply too fast.

Within moments, he overtook her and blocked her path in midair.

Kirara startled and stopped so abruptly that her body lurched.

Shippō lost his balance and rolled straight off her back.

By an incredible stroke of bad luck, he landed directly at Inuyasha’s feet.

Inuyasha looked down at him.

Then his face took on an expression of extreme, almost painfully exaggerated shyness.

A blush even spread across his cheeks.

He wriggled bashfully, deliberately tugged open the collar of his Robe of the Fire-Rat, and exposed one shoulder along with his clearly defined collarbone.

Then, in a sickeningly sweet voice, he cooed at Shippō,

"Don’t think you can run away from me now... My body already belongs to you... You have to settle down and start a family with me..."

Every hair on Shippō’s body exploded outward.

His eyes went perfectly round.

He scrambled backward on all fours, his voice already trembling with tears.

"Stay away from me! Inuyasha, snap out of it!"

"I’m still a kid! I have dreams! I haven’t even gotten to fall in love yet—!"

Haruto stared at the scene, the corner of his mouth twitching uncontrollably.

He felt physically unwell.

A bashful, seductive Inuyasha was an assault on both the eyes and the ears.

Just as Inuyasha reached out to grab Shippō, Kagome finally caught up.

The instant she saw the absurd scene unfolding in front of her, she shouted without hesitation,

"Inuyasha! Sit!"

The Beads of Subjugation around Inuyasha’s neck erupted with brilliant violet light.

An irresistible force dragged him straight downward.

BOOM!

Inuyasha slammed face-first into the ground hard enough to carve out a deep crater.

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