Seventeen years ago...
"Ah, Lord Pheasant," a firm, feminine voice called.
The Green Pheasant was watching Meioshi play in the fields to observe butterflies while Teruya, her father, opened a book to show the young girl the many pictures of different butterflies on the pages so she could properly identify them. It looked like the particular butterfly she found wasn't in the book, so she went to work drawing it and marking the colors on the wing pattern to paint them in later. She had showed the Green Pheasant her painting of him... and impressed him quite well. She was an excellent painter for her age! With time, she'd be phenomenal. That was largely why he was here as a secondary babysitter. The little girl had won his heart in a way with her cheerfulness and invitations to play or discover something new in her eyes. Teruya seemed to be correcting the little girl on the insect's body colors, so she questioned him and marked her incorrect color choices. Butterflies were quite busy so she had to be quick! Umehana, the matron of the rebuilt hell traveler's estate, had walked up to him. Her beauty was a spectacle to behold, but the Green Pheasant understood quite well why Arimasa had chosen her to be his wife beyond her physical appearance. She was foundational and always on the bridge of bravery and fearlessness when it came to her strength as a woman. The slight graying of her hair did nothing to hide or blemish her appearance or character.
"Lady Umehana," the Green Pheasant replied, nodding in acknowledgement.
Umehana bowed low to him and said as she rose, "I have some concern with Teruya's vision."
"Forgive me for saying so, but I can only relay your concerns at best. I am not in charge of the hell traveler's spousal duties. That duty belongs to Kyūjo-sha. You know this," the Green Pheasant replied, raising a brow out of some concern and some interest. "Every role within your family is specific."
"That is what concerns me," Umehana admitted with a sigh. The Green Pheasant gave her his full attention, not seeing the matron in such a mental state often. It had to be something serious for her to let her emotions come to forefront like that.
"What is wrong?" the Green Pheasant asked.
"My little peach girl received a small star from Kyūjo-sha," Umehana started, nodding towards Meioshi with a smile. "From it came a quill pen with brown and cream feathers. Beautiful feathers. I believe your wish for a family is being granted, my friend."
This made the family guardian gasp and raise his head high with shock. He's...? That little girl convinced...? How? He didn't understand.
"But... I'm afraid there will be a cost," Umehana said, looking at the Green Pheasant with worry in her features. "My granddaughter is sweet, and I'm happy that the gods are gifting you with a wife of your own. The star that Kyūjo-sha gifted her doesn't seem to be for her. I believe there is something she is supposed to do with it. We just don't know what yet. I didn't think the hell travelers had the power to aid their guardians. In all of the stories revolving around them, it's been the guardians and the messengers who aid or lead us to different things. The specifics as you've called them. My little peach girl seems to be your guardian this time. How long have you wanted to start a family of your own, my friend?"
"... For as long as I've been assigned to aid you. I used to hate your family," the Green Pheasant admitted, surprising Umehana and making her eyes widen. "You did not kill the monster that destroyed my world. His redemptive path is no substitute for the loss of my home and family. Neither is servitude. I had no reason to aid you or trust you, and, for these few centuries, I have been neutral at best. I give you what you need, but that is all I offer. I was told that my best work and my most fulfilling life would come from you all. That the tragedy that had befallen me would be no more if I trusted you. My hopes were for vengeance, so I agreed to serve you with that in mind. I cared not for the time it would take for a holy warrior of your stature to be mighty enough to kill Shanwang. I am patient, so I remained in waiting. But... the gods... assigned me to you for a reason. I claim no full understanding of what is happening or why your family in particular are the ones I need to come out of grieving, but... I do trust that little girl who is currently drawing butterflies and fussing with her father about the right colors to paint them with. She is intelligent, not just smart or observant. She doesn't like to see others suffering. Something within her demands my respect. I have found that I don't like my nest or my imprisonment in the worlds between. I prefer to remain a bit close to her. She sometimes sneaks off into the gardens to speak to me, and... for some reason, I've developed an impatience when one of you forbids her from playing in the night. You doing that... takes that small reprieve from my nesting grounds... away from me. I don't particularly like those who speak too much, but... I like hearing her babble on about nothing. It is... calming. I regrettably must kill bugs she doesn't like now."
Umehana scoffed before that quick release of breath turned into giggling. She simply smiled at the Green Pheasant before taking a seat next to him to watch Meioshi and Teruya chase after another butterfly. The matron then said, "You have helped us for so long and so much. I did not realize that you were lonely. Perhaps that is what the gods were waiting for. For one of us to see that our helpers, guardians, servants, or simply our neighbors are in need. I wonder if I should tell you that Shanwang has taken a liking to my little peach girl, too. Would you be upset?"
"... I don't think you realize how significant such a thing is," the Green Pheasant said, locking eyes with Umehana. "Shanwang was the king oni for a reason. The oni devour humans, and he even devoured your children to ensure another hell traveler would not be born for the first half of your generations. If he is showing no animosity towards you anymore, a great change is coming."
"I believe so, too," Umehana said with a small nod to acknowledge the seriousness of the matter. "That is why I am coming to you about this vision. I think it involves you. That star is a solid item. It has weight, can be carried or worn on a necklace, and it dims like it is resting. It is a living thing, but... the part that concerns me most about this star is that it can breathe and responds to speech. Arimasa spoke to it as a joke, but it replied to my husband like it had a conscious. This... star doesn't emote, but it speaks with its brightness or temperature. By it being a star, it is obviously drawn to the moon, but it seems to want to play the most with crescent moons. My peach girl was drawing a home for it the other day and wants to build it soon. Oddly enough, the star sort of hopped. When Teruya went to follow it, he received his vision. We were worried because he just fainted out of nowhere. His screams were violent and angry. He kept muttering something about the balance shifting. Then, he spoke in his native tongue. Brother Viswamitra grew very concerned. The pilgrimage that the spouses typically do has been halted by our brother. They will be making their journey to Viswamitra's homelands in Jambu Dwipa. When Teruya spoke in his native tongue, something caught Viswamitra's immediate attention."
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The Green Pheasant watched from afar at the battle raging on below. A part of him felt extremely guilty for what happened to the hell travelers. At the time, he wasn't present during the war between hell traveler and deities. He was searching for Meioshi after she had been wrongfully cast into the depths of hell with no way out. Watching that little girl now engaged in battle, trying to regain control of her powers to some degree, he understood what Umehana was talking about those years ago. Something was being shifted drastically. The balance of power was being shaken from the foundations to the ceiling. Was his simple request for a family and a home the reason for Meioshi's suffering? Why was her being in constant battle her punishment for making an innocent request?
Turning his attention from Meioshi to Sojuro and Sesshomaru in heated combat, the Green Pheasant looked at Meioshi again and watched her writhing in pain. The powers she was trying to control was starting to consume her. She wouldn't survive. Hearing her small voice in his memories, the Green Pheasant snapped his head to Sojuro and Sesshomaru and summoned his bow and arrows. He fired three of them and saw something that made his eyes widen. Meioshi was engulfed in a light that was being orbited by the Yin and Yang symbol. The light was in conflict like Meioshi's powers! Sojuro let out a painful roar, but he was surrounded by a bright white cloud illuminated with light with a blackened light at his core battling the white light. What really shocked the Green Pheasant the most was Sesshomaru. Maboroshi no kohime's armor cracked and broke into three pieces. Two of the purified pieces went to Kinzo and Kishi, but the other piece went elsewhere. Sesshomaru was freed the goddess's hold, but he was surrounded by a blackened light... with a small white light at his core! In response, Sesshomaru struck at Sojuro with full force to make him crash into the lake before catching Meioshi's scent. The small white light within Sesshomaru... hopped in the doctor's direction.
Without warning, Sesshomaru dashed over to the doctor and was suddenly engulfed by flames.
"The... evil talking dog... was part of the balance?" the Green Pheasant questioned.
"Why is my Nintojo responding like this?" Jaken questioned, trying to pull the staff away to silence the flames.
"Burn the pretty pretty, my master! Now's your chance!" Umebayashi said, cackling evilly and sticking her long tongue out.
"Silence, fool!" Seisuiki reprimanded, floating next to Jaken. "This is the master's time to protect Lord Sesshomaru. Do not interfere with his task."
"I have to protect him? From what? Why?" Jaken asked.
Tadamasa looked up and narrowed his eyes at the Green Pheasant from his grand distance before laughing and clapping his hands slowly. He was quite entertained by the escalation of the situation. That doctor always seemed to intrigue him! Walking through Nintojo's flames, he got a closer look at the Green Pheasant's mighty arrows. They weren't meant to purify those hit by them, it seems. His lordship of the worlds between was doing two things: protecting Meioshi from Sojuro and revealing the truth about the soul she has to save. Pity, the young lord didn't have the eyes to see it. Only King Biancheng, the overseer of Meioshi's powers, and Tadamasa by association knew the truth. While Tadamasa was curious about Sesshomaru's involvement in this, it truly did not matter.
WHIP! CRACKLE! SLAM!
"Kishi!" Kinzo called.
The little girl clashed against Maboroshi no kohime's Akai Tsuno with Meioshi's boat oar and bravely faced her greatest fear. With little to no fighting experience, Kishi called on Meioshi's combat affinity as a main support but at the cost of her energy. The onmyoji were unfamiliar with Kishi's combat skills, but Kinzo reasoned that Meioshi's fighting prowess had to be lethal. His sister was the fastest he had ever seen her, and the way she handled the boat oar was like she had done it since she was little. An impossible set of training she never learned. From one twirl to the perfect balance of her tiptoe, Kishi was holding her own against the goddess. When the patron merely cut the boat oar to disarm Kishi and stop her, Kishi used both severed parts to quickly hit the goddess in the face and neck repeatedly and crouch low to ready another attack. The grand monks of the onmyoji lent their strength to protect the little oracle and provide a shield against Maboroshi no kohime. Enraged, the goddess accepted Kishi's challenge and stopped holding back against her clansmen. She had hoped to spare her oracle, but the little girl was set on protecting Kinzo. Maboroshi no kohime struck Kishi back before looking over at Sojuro. Fine. She was an outcast now.
Going for Sesshomaru and Meioshi, Sojuro summoned his kami-reiki strength into his katana and delivered a piercing blow that snapped Meioshi out of her hold and struck the earth viciously. She grabbed at Sojuro's shoulder armor and dragged him semicircle before kicking him in his upper chest. He managed to recover and slapped Meioshi's spin kick away from him to grab her leg and swing her over his shoulder. Maboroshi no kohime unlocked her berserk mode and grew another pair of arms to quickly handle her Akai Tsuno and go for Sesshomaru. She made her trance far stronger than before, but Sesshomaru was resisting the mental attack this time. With him distracted, the goddess was able to catch his ankle with the hooked part of her weapon and pull him forward into a half split. She hit him with the end of Akai Tsuno and jabbed the blade into his armor to crack it. When he clawed it away from him, goddess and youkai clashed in power in a flurry of punches and blades striking. Fire and lightning burst from impact often to make the air around them ripple into sound waves.
"Why are you here, Hidorobo?" Meioshi demanded.
Sojuro merely smirked toothily and replied, "To offer the goddess over there a proposal, but... I'll admit I am quite interested in your might. You have grown since our last encounter. It's a pity you've sided with more demons as of late. You would have been a beautiful kami knight."
"What does that foolish ram over there want with Kinzo? Why is she protecting someone like you?" Meioshi demanded, clenching the back of her teeth.
"She has accepted my love's proposal, demon queen," Sojuro purred seductively. He effortlessly pushed against Meioshi's arctic sword in order to whisper in her ear, "To make Kinzo into her knight... the way I was made into one."
Meioshi was quiet for a moment, shock sinking into her bones, but, when she heard Sesshomaru grunting from a harsh blow above her, she looked at him and let herself be shot back by Sojuro's attack. Her symbol of strength was fighting with everything he had plus more, and he was barely breaking into a sweat. He seemed angrier that his armor was scuffed more than anything else. She needed his confidence in this fight. She wasn't a weak, little girl anymore. She had been training to defeat her enemy... and, by extension, Hidorobo. She had to remember who she was... and remind Sojuro of what he lost.
When Sojuro charged at her again, she blocked the attack, got alarmingly close to Sojuro's lips, and whispered seductively with lowered eyelids and glowing eyes, "What a perfectly boring proposal then, kami knight. Neither you nor she will ever know how good it feels to be enticed by the forbidden. You don't even know what a true, sensual sin is. You, dear kami knight, only know of one sin: the lie that a man has to always take matters into his own hands. Oh, but dear Hidorobo, look at you! You're more of a dog than the inu prince there. You move when your so-called wife tells you to move. You bark when she tells you to speak. You were freer when you were a mortal. The embodiment of a woman's desire as a young samurai. That's quite the pity. If you think I would have made a beautiful knight now, how enticing and electric would our touches have been? A holy warrior forbidden from touching another man outside of what was arranged and a decorated samurai forbidden from experiencing the fullness of life. Oh, but you prefer things the new way. A demon queen, was it? One forbidden from touching a mortal man now... and a kami knight acting as the messenger and husband to a war goddess. That's quite scandalous! A painful and painless sin... But if you don't sin, are you truly having fun?"
"You are speaking the obvious, demon wench," Sojuro replied with his darkened purr. "Of course, a demon would know of sin."
"Then it's obvious you know who's truly the demon here," Meioshi said with a smirk.
Understanding the implications she was making, Sojuro grew angry at the doctor's simple trick and punched at her harshly to gain some distance. How dare she call him and his wife demons!
"Lord Sesshomaru! This isn't my doing me lord!" Jaken tried, pulling Nintojo back.
It was no use. Nintojo kept engulfing Sesshomaru in flames.