Chapter 312

Haruto walked over to a water-serpent yōkai and examined it carefully before nodding in satisfaction.

"This one’s pretty good. The skin is tough enough to make a chilled snake-skin salad—nice and crisp."

"And the meat is tender. Steaming it would be best if I want to preserve the natural flavor."

He moved on to the remains of a skeletal yōkai, picked up part of its body, and gave it a quick inspection.

"The bone density is excellent, so there should be plenty of marrow inside. I could simmer this for ten or twelve hours and make a rich, milky-white bone broth. Perfect as a hotpot base."

"And these Saimyōshō look promising too. Remove the venom glands, coat them in flour, then deep-fry them until they’re nice and crunchy..."

Haruto continued muttering to himself as he efficiently stored one yōkai corpse after another inside the Gourmet Restaurant.

Everyone else fell silent.

Watching Haruto crouched among piles of dead yōkai, enthusiastically sorting them into ingredients while discussing cooking methods under his breath, Kagura began to seriously wonder whether the main reason he had helped free her from Naraku was so she could locate more yōkai for him to eat.

Kagome’s mouth twitched.

"Haruto-kun really does love yōkai ingredients..."

Sango sighed helplessly.

"They do taste surprisingly good once he cooks them, but eating too much yōkai meat should cause problems for a normal person."

Of course, she already knew that warning would never convince Haruto to stop.

After watching him leisurely store away a creature with an ox’s head and a serpent’s body, Inuyasha finally lost his patience.

"Hey! Haruto! Can you hurry it up?!"

"We’re supposed to be going after Naraku! If you keep wasting time, that bastard will be long gone!"

Haruto did not even look up.

He calmly continued sorting his ingredients.

"Relax. Rushing won’t change anything."

"The moment we killed all these yōkai, we completely exposed ourselves."

"Do you really think Naraku is still sitting in his castle waiting for us to come kill him?"

"Even if we rushed there right now, we’d probably find nothing but an empty fortress."

Haruto paused, then added,

"Unless he plans to put on some dramatic performance before running away."

"If that’s the case, he’ll wait for us anyway, so arriving a little later won’t matter."

Inuyasha opened his mouth to argue.

Then he thought about Naraku’s usual behavior.

Every time they finally managed to locate one of his hideouts, Naraku somehow slipped away before they could finish him.

Inuyasha gave an irritated grunt and turned his head aside.

"Sorry."

Kagura looked at the group with a trace of guilt.

"It was because of me that Naraku realized something was wrong."

"It’s fine, Kagura."

Kagome smiled gently.

"We’ve been chasing Naraku for this long and still haven’t managed to catch him, right?"

"Exactly."

Miroku nodded solemnly.

"And Kagura-san managed to rescue Kanna-san from Naraku in the process. That alone is a major victory."

"At the very least, Naraku has lost another valuable subordinate."

Once Haruto finally finished collecting every usable yōkai corpse, the group set off again.

Inuyasha immediately shot ahead as a red blur, and Kagome and the others hurried after him.

Kagura traveled near the rear.

Her fan turned lightly between her fingers, stirring a gentle current of air.

Every so often, she glanced back at Kanna, whose limbs were still securely bound by threads of wind.

Kanna remained completely expressionless.

She held her mirror against her chest like an exquisitely crafted doll, allowing Kagura’s wind to carry her along without resistance.

Haruto glanced at Kagura.

He could sense the anxiety she was trying and failing to conceal, and he understood exactly what she was worried about.

"Don’t panic."

"If nothing has happened to Kanna yet, then Naraku probably still considers her useful."

Kagura visibly relaxed a little.

The worry did not disappear completely, but this was hardly the place to solve Kanna’s problem, so she forced herself to remain patient.

The group moved quickly.

Within half an hour, they reached the castle Naraku had been occupying.

Its gates stood wide open.

Inside, there was only silence.

Not a single living presence could be sensed.

Inuyasha stopped outside, his expression darkening.

Naraku’s scent still lingered here, but it was rapidly fading.

After searching the entire fortress, they confirmed what Haruto had predicted.

Naraku was gone.

"He got away again."

Inuyasha slammed a fist into a nearby stone pillar.

A huge crack spread across the surface, and fragments of stone rained onto the ground.

Miroku’s expression was equally grim.

After finally locating Naraku’s hiding place, they had still arrived one step too late.

Sango tightened her grip on Hiraikotsu, frustration plain on her face.

Kagome stepped forward and tried to reassure them.

"It’s okay. We’ll just keep looking."

Although Naraku had escaped again, no one blamed Kagura.

Without the information she had given them, they would not even have found this abandoned castle.

Kagura stood quietly in one corner of the hall, watching them.

A faint warmth stirred in her chest.

Still, she knew she had something far more important to deal with.

Her eyes moved toward Kanna.

The white-clad girl stood silently in place, still bound by the threads of wind, her expression as empty as ever—as though everything happening around her had nothing to do with her.

Kagura’s heart tightened.

Naraku was exceptionally skilled at exploiting the weaknesses of others.

Now that he could no longer control Kagura herself, he might very well use Kanna against her instead.

She could not allow anything to happen to Kanna.

Taking a deep breath, Kagura hurried over to Haruto.

Her usual confidence was gone, replaced by a rare pleading expression.

"Haruto... could you take a look at Kanna?"

"Do you think there’s any way for her to escape Naraku’s control too?"

Haruto turned toward Kanna, his expression becoming serious.

Truthfully, he had always felt some sympathy for her.

Unlike most of Naraku’s other incarnations, Kanna seemed less like an independent subordinate and more like a tool that had been created without any sense of self.

If possible, Haruto had no objection to helping her escape Naraku and gain a freedom of her own, just as Kagura had.

The problem was that freeing Kanna would be much harder.

Haruto sighed inwardly.

According to the story he remembered, Kanna initially possessed nothing close to Kagura’s desperate longing for freedom.

She was like a blank sheet of paper, indifferent to everything around her.

Only after Kagura’s death did that blank page finally become stained with something resembling grief.

And only after that did Kanna begin to develop a genuine desire for freedom herself.

But Haruto’s presence had already changed the course of events completely.

Kagura had survived.

With his help, she had remade herself through the wind and broken free from Naraku’s control.

Under these circumstances, whatever desire for freedom existed inside Kanna was unlikely to be particularly strong.

Even if Haruto awakened her Nen now, without a powerful enough obsession driving her, it would be difficult for Kanna to develop an ability capable of severing Naraku’s hold.

If he wanted to free her, he would have to find another approach.

Haruto frowned and began pacing back and forth through the hall.

His thoughts raced as he reviewed every ability and piece of knowledge available to him.

Nen did not seem reliable.

The resurrection magic from the world of Delicious in Dungeon came with extremely demanding conditions and was difficult to perform outside the dungeon.

So what else could work?

While Haruto was still thinking, Inuyasha and the others approached.

"Naraku’s gone, so we’re going to keep searching for him."

Haruto stopped pacing and looked up at them.

"Be careful on the road."

"And be especially careful of Naraku."

"Don’t worry!"

Inuyasha grinned confidently.

"If Naraku shows his face, I’ll give him a proper beating with Tessaiga!"

Kagome stepped forward as well.

"Haruto-kun, please take care of Kagura and Kanna for us."

Haruto nodded without hesitation.

After exchanging a few final words, Inuyasha and the others turned and left the castle.