Chapter 294

Inuyasha climbed out of the crater, finally back to normal.

After everyone explained what had just happened, he looked down at Myōga, who was still trapped in his hand.

Just as the others began wondering why the possessed Inuyasha had been so determined to catch Myōga, another flea yōkai crawled out from his clothes.

Shōga leapt down beside Myōga, seized him by the front of his clothes, and snarled,

"Myōga! It’s time we settled this properly. I’m not letting you run away again!"

Inuyasha and the others stared blankly at the newcomer.

It did not take long, however, for Shōga to explain the entire situation.

Once the truth came out, Inuyasha suddenly remembered something even more important.

He pinched Myōga between his fingers, raised the flea in front of his face, and glared at him.

"You already knew that old lady was the one possessing us, didn’t you?!"

Sango and Miroku, both of whom had been possessed earlier, immediately realized the same thing.

Their expressions darkened.

In the end, the group unanimously decided that Myōga and Shōga would be married right there in the village.

Around that time, Haruto returned after locating the giant centipedes’ nest and collecting a whole group of young centipede yōkai.

He was more than happy to support the decision.

So everyone headed back toward the village to arrange the wedding.

Myōga, naturally, was anything but willing.

Unfortunately for him, Inuyasha had him firmly trapped, leaving him no opportunity to escape.

Not that Myōga intended to surrender so easily.

Haruto only had to look at the flea’s constantly darting eyes to know he was already plotting a way out.

And Haruto knew perfectly well that, originally, Myōga actually managed to escape.

Since Haruto had happened to be here this time, though, there was no way he was letting that happen.

He was going to make sure Shōga got this wedding, even if Myōga had to be dragged through the entire ceremony.

Fortunately, preventing his escape was simple.

Haruto walked over to Shōga and quietly reminded her,

"Shōga, keep a very close eye on Myōga from now on. Don’t give him even a single chance to be alone."

"Stay beside him every second. The moment you turn your back, he’ll disappear."

Shōga had still been looking somewhat bashful at the prospect of finally getting married, but Haruto’s warning immediately snapped her back to reality.

Now was not the time to be shy.

She had to keep Myōga under control.

Shōga clenched her fists and nodded firmly.

"Don’t worry! This time, I absolutely won’t give him the slightest chance to escape!"

And she meant it.

From that moment onward, Myōga was effectively under constant guard.

Shōga genuinely stayed beside him every second.

Myōga attempted countless little tricks along the way, but not one of them succeeded.

When they returned to the village and the villagers heard that Inuyasha’s group wanted to hold a wedding for two flea yōkai, they were understandably stunned.

Still, everyone eagerly came forward to help.

Soon, the wedding began.

Myōga wore a newly made miniature formal outfit, his face deathly pale.

As he looked at the smiling Shōga beside him, his mind was still frantically calculating whether there was any possible route of escape.

Then his eyes drifted sideways.

Haruto, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, and Miroku were all watching him.

Worse, Shōga had not released his wrist for even a second.

Under everyone’s supervision, the ceremony proceeded without a single problem.

Right up until the moment it ended, Myōga failed to find even the tiniest opportunity to escape.

All he could do was watch helplessly as his status changed from a "free man" into a married one.

However, once the wedding was officially complete and everyone began celebrating, Myōga finally spotted an opening.

He bolted.

By the time Shōga realized what had happened, fury immediately exploded across her face.

She charged after him without hesitation.

With that little incident finally settled, the others also prepared to leave the village.

Although Myōga and Shōga’s wedding had delayed their journey by half a day, the group pushed forward quickly and still managed to reach the area near Tōtōsai’s home before evening.

It lay within an active volcano that constantly belched thick smoke into the sky.

The moment they entered, a wave of heat rushed over them.

The air was heavy with the sharp smell of sulfur.

Blackened volcanic rock covered the ground, while crimson magma flowed through deep channels, bubbling constantly.

The heat made exposed skin feel tight, and even every breath carried a scorching temperature.

Kirara carried Kagome and Sango through the volcanic terrain, occasionally letting out a low, uneasy whine.

Clearly, she was not fond of being surrounded by rivers of lava.

Inuyasha barely seemed to notice the heat.

He led the way with obvious familiarity, muttering as he climbed toward the mountainside.

"That old bastard Tōtōsai just has to live in a place like this."

"Well, forging requires extremely high temperatures."

Haruto followed behind him without concern.

"For someone like him, a volcano is probably the ideal workshop."

The surrounding heat was certainly intense, but it meant little to Haruto.

After walking farther up the slope, an enormous yōkai skull appeared ahead of them.

It was larger than an ordinary house.

Its hollow eye sockets and open jaws formed natural windows and entrances, while the red glow of a forge flickered from inside and thick smoke drifted from the openings.

Beside the skull stood a three-eyed ox lazily swishing its tail as it ate grass from a trough.

It was Tōtōsai’s mount, Mō-Mō.

When Inuyasha and the others approached, Mō-Mō merely raised all three eyes, let out a lazy snort, and went back to eating.

It already knew Inuyasha.

"Tōtōsai! I came to see you!"

Inuyasha shouted without waiting for an answer and walked straight inside.

Haruto and the others followed.

The interior of the skull was far more spacious than it looked from outside.

At the center stood a forge blazing red-hot, while a large bellows roared continuously beside it. Sparks occasionally burst from the furnace and scattered across the floor.

All kinds of ores lay strewn around the workshop alongside unfinished blade blanks and hammers of every size.

A row of completed weapons hung along one wall, their polished edges reflecting the firelight with a cold gleam.

The entire space smelled strongly of charcoal, hot metal, quenching oil, and smoke.

It was even hotter inside than outside, and the moment they entered, another wave of scorching air rolled over them.

Tōtōsai stood beside an anvil.

He was holding a newly forged sword in one hand, squinting with one eye as he carefully examined the pattern along the blade.

Noticing the visitors, he set the sword aside and turned around.

"Oh, Inuyasha."

"What brings you here? Something happen?"

Then Tōtōsai’s gaze immediately dropped toward Tessaiga at Inuyasha’s waist.

"D-Don’t tell me something happened to Tessaiga again."

"You didn’t break it again, did you?"

Inuyasha had, after all, done exactly that before.

Whenever the boy suddenly appeared at his workshop, Tōtōsai’s first assumption was naturally that he had somehow ruined the sword again.

"Tessaiga’s fine. It’s not broken."

Inuyasha clicked his tongue and waved dismissively before pointing behind him at Haruto.

"I’m not the one who needs you this time."

"This guy wants you to forge a blade for him."

Tōtōsai immediately turned his attention toward Haruto.

He studied him from head to toe for a long moment.

The more he looked, the deeper his frown became.

At first glance, Haruto seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary human.

There was no yōki around him.

There was no spiritual power either.

And yet something simply felt wrong.

Tōtōsai stared at him for quite some time before finally asking hesitantly,

"You... really are human?"

"Of course."

Haruto smiled calmly.

"I’m simply not a human from this world."

"I come from another world entirely."

"And I made this trip specifically because I’d like to ask Master Tōtōsai to forge a kitchen knife made especially for me."

Inuyasha immediately nodded.

"He’s telling the truth, Tōtōsai. Haruto really came from another world. We can all vouch for him."

Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Shippō nodded as well.

Tōtōsai had lived for an extraordinarily long time and had seen far more of the strange corners of existence than ordinary people ever would.

He already knew of places such as the Netherworld and the other side of existence.

With Inuyasha’s entire group supporting Haruto’s story, Tōtōsai accepted it almost immediately.

And once he did, his first reaction was not suspicion.

It was overwhelming pride.

’My reputation has spread to other worlds?!’

Someone from an entirely different world had traveled all this way specifically to ask him to forge a blade.

How impressive would that sound when he told people about it?

Tōtōsai’s back visibly straightened.

Even his white mustache seemed to perk up.

He rubbed his hands together and shuffled closer to Haruto, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"A guest from another world! Now that really is rare."

Then he paused.

"But you brought the materials for the blade, right?"

Tōtōsai was genuinely curious now.

Someone from another world had traveled specifically to commission him.

What kind of materials would a person like that bring?

"Of course."

Haruto nodded.

"I prepared them a long time ago."

With that, he began laying out the materials he had collected.

There was the meteorite ore from beyond the heavens left over from forging the Legendary Kitchen Tools in the Cooking Master Boy world.

From the world of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End came a Spiegel, Magic-Sealing Ore, Holy Snow Crystals, and the fangs and claws of a Red Mirror Dragon.

From the Pokémon world came all kinds of Evolution Stones—Fire Stones, Water Stones, Thunder Stones, Leaf Stones, and more—alongside Z-Crystals and a Tera Orb.

From the world of Delicious in Dungeon came the fangs and scales of the Red Dragon.

And from the world of One Piece came the bones of Sea Kings.