Chapter Text
Things were a blur after Kirinmaru left.
Moroha's long fall after her transformation ended had resulted in a pretty severe head injury, so her memories were fuzzy. She remembered Towa trying to use the broken Tenseiga and the burst of light as it reforged. Then Totosai, the swordsmith, arrived.
"This Yukari no Tachikiri--" Totosai had said solemnly. "Still possesses the power of Tenseiga to revive the dead. However, you are not ready to use it."
"But then how am I supposed to save Setsuna?!?!" Towa cried. "If she stays like this, won’t her body decay?!”
"I will take her to the sacred tree," Jaken said calmingly. "It can preserve her in this moment, just as it has Rin."
The rest of the conversation had been lost to Moroha, because she'd blacked out.
Moroha woke up at night, in Kaede's house. The old woman wasn't inside, but Towa was sitting hunched against the wall with her knees to her chest and her face hidden in her arms.
"Towa? Shit, I passed out…" Moroha started to sit up, fighting how her head was spinning at the movement, then gave up and let herself lie there. Her wounds had been cleaned and bandaged at some point while she was unconscious.
"Moroha… good, you're awake. I was so worried…" Towa lifted her head and wiped her eyes on her sleeve before scooting closer. "How do you feel?"
"I'll be fine…" Moroha hesitated. "Is Setsuna…"
Towa tensed, "Jaken-san took her. Her body should be safe until she can be revived. I don't know if you were awake for any of it, so… The Tenseiga turned itself into a new sword, but I can't use it to bring her back yet. There's something I need to do, to master the sword."
"So she can still be saved," Moroha breathed, relieved.
"I hope so…" Towa's voice sounded hoarse. Moroha had a feeling she'd done a lot of crying while Moroha was out. "I have to save her. I-- I failed to protect her, so I have to make up for it."
"We failed to protect her," Moroha corrected, voice breaking. "It wasn't just on you. This isn't gonna be either."
"But older sisters are supposed to protect their little sisters…" Towa protested weakly. "You didn't do anything wrong. We're the ones who dragged you into fighting Zero. You could have died too! Mastering the sword will be dangerous. You don't need to risk yourself too--"
"Friends are supposed to protect friends too! You two are my family! You're all I have!" Moroha didn't realise that she'd started crying again. Her head hurt, her heart hurt, everything hurt. She forced herself to sit up, despite how sick it made her feel and how much her vision swayed, and gripped Towa's sleeves desperately. "I don't-- I can't go back to being all alone, Towa. I can't live through that again! I can't!"
"Moroha…" Towa stared, stunned by the emotional outburst and the tears. Then Towa pulled her into a firm hug. "You won't be," she whispered, pressing her face gently into Moroha's hair. "I promise. I won't leave you alone…"
"We'll save her together, I swear," Moroha said fiercely, though her breath still hitched. "O--okay? Together."
Quietly, Towa said, "Yeah... Together."
Despite Moroha's desire to get to work figuring out how to save Setsuna, her concussion and drained youki had other plans. She spent the next two days resting in Kaede's house at Towa's insistence. Unfortunately, no sooner had she mostly recovered than Takechiyo showed up to hound her about the rest of Totetsu's bounty. So, reluctantly, she trudged up to the Corpse Dealer shop with Towa behind her.
The moment Moroha and Towa stepped into his shop, he crossed his arms. "You got the money?"
Moroha tossed him the bag with a scowl, biting back the urge to swear at him. Who cared about money when Setsuna was dead?
"How much is left on her debt?" Towa asked, frowning at the bag of gold.
"With this? Eh, about half."
"Half? After three years?" Towa's brow furrowed into a scowl that would have looked much more at home on Setsuna.
"There's the cut she gets for food, plus interest, and there haven't been a lot of heads coming in lately," Jyuubei listed off the reasons casually.
Moroha had heard it hundreds of times. She just sighed, irritated, "Listen, Jyuubei-san, I need to help Towa with something. So, I'm not going to be taking any bounties for a while."
"The interest's gonna keep going up, you know," Jyuubei warned her.
"Yeah, I know, but--"
"Moroha, stop," Towa interrupted. She grabbed Moroha lightly by the arm and pulled her back several steps.
"Towa? What're you doing?" Moroha blinked, as Towa let go and moved into the spot she'd been standing at in front of Jyuubei, putting herself between them.
"The debt's over, Jyuubei," Towa said firmly.
"What?" Jyuubei raised an eyebrow, while Moroha stared at her.
"You heard me. The debt's over. You've cheated Moroha out of multiple bounties, including two bounties on the perils. And Yawaragi is dead, so the original debt is meaningless." Towa said flatly. "I should have done something before this point."
"You think I'm just going to agree with this?" Jyuubei scoffed. But he fell silent when the blade of the Yukari no Tachikiri pressed to his neck.
"Unless you want me to test this new sword on you," Towa said coldly.
Jyuubei's eye went wide. Moroha was just as shocked-- Towa was threatening him? Of all people, she'd never pictured Towa threatening someone like this.
"You… you wouldn't," Jyuubei said, sweat beginning to bead on his forehead.
"My little sister is dead. Do you think there's anything I wouldn't do right now?" Towa's voice was like ice. It gave Moroha chills. "Why shouldn't I use this on you? You forced my cousin into servitude when she was a child. That seems like a good reason to me."
For a long moment, Jyuubei was speechless. Then he grunted, "Fine. The debt is cancelled."
"And you'll never bother her again," Towa added with a growl.
"I swear."
Finally, Towa pulled her sword away and sheathed it, turning on her heel.
"Let's go, Moroha. We're done here."
The sound of her name snapped Moroha out of her stunned silence.
"Uh, yeah," Moroha hurried out without sparing a second glance at Jyuubei. She followed Towa until they were out of earshot, and then Towa's shoulders slumped.
"Jeeze, I've never tried to act like that before…" Towa sighed. "I'm definitely not cut out for theatre."
"Wow, you really were bluffing? You're usually so bad at it, I thought you'd just gone nuts," Moroha looked at her in a mixture of awe and gratitude. It was only now hitting her exactly what Towa had just done for her. It was a little surreal, actually. Three years, and suddenly it was over.
"I was really angry," Towa admitted. "I don't think I could've brought myself to actually kill him though. Maybe beat him up pretty bad… But I did mean what I said, that I should have done that a while ago. You were forced to work for him against your will and I just didn't think..."
"You're not used to this era," Moroha shook her head.
"I know, but I've been so ignorant. You and Setsuna warned me over and over that I couldn't take this era lightly, and I just didn't understand. You and Setsuna have been suffering so much living as hanyou, and I didn't understand at all," Towa said. She gave Moroha such a miserably apologetic look that it hurt. "I'm so sorry, Moroha."
"You don't need to be sorry… Besides, you got me out of debt so it's all fine! And I didn't hate doing bounty hunting," Moroha added. The bounty hunting itself was normally fine, even enjoyable-- she took pride in her work.
The struggling to get by and feed herself when bounties didn't work out though-- that was less fine. The feeling of having no control over her life was also not fine. But Towa already felt guilty enough about too many things that weren't her fault, so Moroha sure as hell wasn't going to tell her any of that. Moroha quickly changed the topic to a more productive-- though not less upsetting-- topic.
"So, my memory's pretty hazy about what you and Totosai talked about," Moroha started. "Did he tell you how to master the Yukari no Tachikiri?"
"Yes," her expression hardened. "We have to kill Zero."
Myouga finally showed up a little later that day. He'd heard from Totosai about Setsuna's death and was solemn enough he hadn't even tried to get at Moroha's blood yet.
"So you need to kill Zero-sama in order to master the Yukari no Tachikiri?" Myouga hummed thoughtfully. "In that case, I suggest going after the Rainbow Pearls first. They are composed of her tears, her youki, and power from the Shikon no Tama. If you destroy the pearls, she cannot gain that power back. And she was planning on seeking them out, so you may be able to find her that way."
"How is finding the pearls going to be any easier than finding her?" Moroha questioned.
Myouga paused, looking puzzled. "But aren't you able to sense them?"
"Able to what?" Moroha stared at him.
"That was how you found the red pearl, don't you remember?" Myouga said. "You said you felt a strange power and went to investigate it."
"Mmm, did I?" Moroha tried to recall when she'd found the red pearl, tapping her lip thoughtfully.
"Yes!" Myouga insisted.
"I guess I forgot. I don't remember most of that day," Moroha shrugged. "I only remember waking up next to Tokotsu's body and taking the pearl."
Towa's brow furrowed, "Is it okay that you don't remember? When you described it the first time, I thought you'd taken a nap or something and then something killed him while you were asleep. But that sounds a lot more drastic… You didn't get a head injury then or something, did you?"
"Don't think so. My head felt fine at the time. I dunno, I'm not worried about it," Moroha shook her head. The thought of maybe I should be… was dismissed immediately. "But even if I did find Tokotsu while looking for something I sensed, I haven't sensed any rainbow pearls since then."
"Perhaps it is to do with what Kirinmaru-sama said about the rainbow pearl getting in the way of spiritual powers," Myouga mused. "If they have been suppressing them, it would of course reduce your spiritual awareness."
Moroha was about to tell him that was ridiculous, but she faltered. Maybe it wasn't ridiculous. She hadn't noticed the absence of the things she could sometimes see and feel, but it had been a while, hadn't it?
If there was one thing Moroha could've previously pointed to as her greatest strength, it was her supernatural perception. Her ability to sense and smell youkai was unnaturally precise. And not just that, she could see these things. She'd been able to see sources of youki from far away, even through buildings. A youkai's weak point became a glowing light to her eyes in the right circumstances.
As a bounty hunter, she'd had a reputation for tracking and identification that no one could match. It had slipped away gradually the longer she carried the pearl, just slow enough that she hadn't even noticed.
"You're right…" Moroha said slowly, scowling. "I hadn't seen anything in a while. I can't believe I didn't realise it. That damn pearl was way more trouble than it was worth."
"So, you think you might be able to sense the pearls now?" Towa asked.
"I can't say for sure, cause I don't remember, but… Maybe?" Moroha said. "I guess it's worth a try if Myouga-jiichan thinks I can. If not, we'll just have to listen out for rumours."
Kohaku had been more than willing to continue to lend them Kirara when they explained the situation. He all but insisted on it, in fact, and they could tell that Setsuna's loss was hitting him hard.
Though not as hard as they worried Hisui would take it. He was currently back at his mother's home for a while and had not yet heard what happened. Hisui had usually been the one to fight alongside Setsuna during taijiya missions, and was one of the few people who could earn a smile from Setsuna. And he almost always had a smile when he looked at her.
Moroha was a little bit glad they were leaving before Hisui got back. She didn't want to be the one to give him the news, that was for sure.
"Alright, I'm ready," Towa said, joining Moroha by Kirara.
"Me too," Moroha nodded, slinging the new bow Kaede had given her over her back-- a replacement for the one that had been lost in the fight with Kirinmaru.
"Did Myouga-jiichan come back yet?" Towa looked around.
"Nah, I guess he's still looking for leads. Or hiding. One of those," Moroha shrugged. "He'll catch up eventually. He travels quickly for such a tiny guy."
Towa climbed up first, and Moroha behind her. It was early morning, the sun having only just begun to lighten the sky. Winter had begun, so the days were short, and they'd decided to start their search with as much use of the daylight as possible.
They were quiet, at first, before Towa finally spoke up, "Myouga-jiichan talked about something called the Shikon no Tama. What is that? I think I've heard the name…"
"It was a jewel created by the souls of countless youkai and one extremely powerful human priestess," Moroha explained. Myouga had told her a great deal about it, so even though it had been gone for years by the time she was born, she knew more details than most. "It had the power to grant wishes, but it just brought pain in the end. It manipulated people in order to maintain its own existence."
"That's terrible…"
Moroha gave a small, humourless laugh. "Yeah, well, it was destroyed in the end by our parents. But I guess it went and made those rainbow pearls first. Couldn't disappear without leaving some complications, huh?"
"I guess so," Towa sounded like she still didn't fully understand the significance, but Moroha wasn't surprised. "Um, I've been wondering. I'm sorry if this is a painful topic. Back home you talked like your parents were alive, but here…"
"What was I supposed to say?" Moroha sighed heavily. "They were so happy to think she was living happily. How could I tell them my parents are gone?"
"I see what you mean, even if I think they should know…" Towa muttered. "What happened?"
"All anyone knows is that a powerful youkai was after me when I was a baby. They sent me away before fighting that youkai, and were never seen again," Moroha kept her voice as light as possible.
"Do… you know who was responsible?"
"The wolf tribe wouldn't tell me. I think they were worried I'd try to get revenge."
"Would you have?" Towa questioned.
"Probably," Moroha admitted.
"If we can kill Zero and Kirinmaru, then we'll be strong enough for whoever killed your parents," Towa said after a moment.
"To be honest, I don't have any memories of them," Moroha started hesitantly. "So I shouldn't care… but, if they hadn't disappeared, I wouldn't have been alone."
"I think that's plenty of reason to care."
They fell silent for a while after that. They travelled until the sun had risen high in the sky, and they would soon need to let Kirara stop and rest and transition to travel on foot.
But just as they were passing over a lake, Moroha felt a strange jolt. It felt familiar. "Wait! Down there!" She leaned over and pointed. "I don't know for sure it's what a rainbow pearl feels like, but there's something down there!"
"Kirara, let's go down!" Towa directed Kirara lower over the lake. As they got closer, they saw that things were floating in the water, and an even closer look showed them to be bloated corpses. "How horrible…"
"There's definitely something nasty in there," Moroha craned over to scan the water. The water was oddly dark underneath the sunlight glinting on the surface but Moroha thought she caught a glimmer of light somewhere below.
"Something's shining down at the bottom," Moroha told her. "But I sense a strong youki and bloodlust too. Be careful."
"Got it," Towa nodded, drawing the Yukari no Tachikiri to be ready, while Moroha took out her bow. They made another pass, a little bit lower, and the water started to ripple. "Something's moving."
A geyser of water shot from the lake at an incredible speed. Kirara dodged the worst of it, but it still knocked into her with enough force to nearly send them flying off. Towa had to throw her sword-free arm around Kirara's neck, and Moroha grabbed her waist.
As soon as they were steadied, Moroha started scanning the water again, looking for that light she'd seen. The sunlight wasn't making it easy at all, and it seemed to have dived deep enough to avoid making ripples for now.
"Ugh, c'mon, c'mon, where'd you go…" that jolt hit her again, drawing her gaze to the faint red shimmer, and the ripples around it. "Kirara!" Moroha yelped in warning.
Kirara had not been the companion of generations of taijiya for nothing. She moved immediately at the warning, and kept moving in a twisting pattern to throw off the youkai's aim as more and more geysers kept trying to knock them out of the sky. Sooner or later it might get lucky if they didn't make it stop firing.
Moroha notched an arrow and aimed, doing her best to compensate for Kirara's erratic movement. She needed to draw it out of the water, bring it to where they could actually fight it.
She wasn't expecting to be surprised by her own arrow. Her spiritual power rushed into the tip at a rate it never had before. It was like her power responded now to her slightest whim. The arrow was so much more powerful than she'd expected, and it startled her into releasing the string too early.
The blast of light was bigger than her Kouryuuha. It hit the water with a splash tall enough that Kirara had to leap upward to avoid being hit as the force briefly exposed the lake floor. The lake had gone from murky to crystal clear in a moment, and it brought a stop to the geysers.
"Amazing…" Towa gasped.
Moroha was still stunned, but Kirara's sudden growl brought her out of it. "No time for that, look! It's been knocked out of the water!"
The youkai tumbled to the shore as the water crashed back inward. It was barely larger than a human, scaly and green with a vaguely feline face. As soon as it landed it tried to scramble up and back into the water.
Kirara landed directly in its path. Moroha and Towa jumped off a second earlier, landing slightly to the sides of Kirara to block off the way around.
"Eh, just a suiko? Big, though. They're usually the size of a little kid." Up close, Moroha could recognise it easily as one of the kappa-like youkai. And now that it was out of the water, she could quite clearly see the red glimmer shining under its skin.
"I can't tell if there's a pearl," Towa glanced at her questioningly.
So, this was something she could detect and Towa couldn't. "There is. The rainbow pearl is in its forehead."
The youkai bared its sharp teeth at them, "I was expecting other youkai to come after the pearl. But you're just a hanyou and a strangely dressed priestess?"
"Not quite!" Moroha put her bow away and unsheathed her sword instead. The etching on the blade began to glow with her youki, and she smirked at the sight of the suiko's shock, "Kouryuuha!"
The crimson dragon rushed from the blade-- not nearly as powerful as it had been in that state where her youkai blood was awake but her mind was calm, but stronger than it had been previously. The suiko leapt to the side, then flickered out of sight.
"Where did it go?!" Towa yelped.
"They can become invisible!" Moroha tried to spot the rainbow pearl again. Kirara growled a warning, drawing their attention to the water again. From the river that fed into the lake, there were multiple much smaller scaly green youkai coming. The first few were already emerging onshore, and they too blinked out of sight.
"There's more?" Towa grimaced. She swung her blade in an arc, She whirled around, trying to sense their youki instead of seeing them. Kirara seemed to have an easier time of it, the cat youkai's keen hearing and developed senses helping her focus.
Moroha threw another Kouryuuha in the direction of the water, to keep them off her back for a moment, but before she could turn and resume the hunt for the one with the pearl, she felt a set of razor-sharp teeth sink deep into her shoulder, startling a pained cry from her lips.
Forgot these bastards drink human blood...
Towa started rushing towards her, no longer even trying to detect the youkai and instead swinging wildly in her path to force them out of her way. "Moroha!" She swung her sword at the youkai who had bit Moroha, the one with the rainbow pearl, but it let go and jumped back before the blade could pierce it, then vanished again.
"Ow, fuck," Moroha gripped her bleeding shoulder.
"Are you okay?!"
"I'll be fine. Look out--" before Moroha could even finish her sentence, Kirara tore through the youkai that had been about to hit Towa from behind. "Thanks, Kirara."
"Kirara and I will cover you while you find the one with the pearl," Towa said quickly, moving to stand with her back to Moroha.
"Okay!" Moroha turned her attention back, searching. Even invisible, it couldn't hide the red glow. She pulled her hand away from her shoulder, making use of the blood now coating her claws. "Hijin Kessou!"
Arcs of blood flew at the youkai, catching it by surprise. She managed to slice a massive gash into its side and leg, and the blood that dripped to the ground from its wound was visible and gave her an easier target. She couldn't get quite the force she wanted in her sword swing with her shoulder injured, but hopefully it would be enough for a small fry like this.
"Kouryuuha!"
With its leg damaged, it couldn't dodge in time. It let out a cry as the crimson dragon swallowed it whole and reduced it to ash. The red rainbow pearl fell to the ground with a quiet clink.
At their leader's death, the few remaining suiko scattered, swimming back up the river. Just in case, though, Moroha took a moment to check that their youki was gone.
"We did it," Towa said breathlessly. She'd managed to get several bites and grazes on her arms from all the smaller ones, but nothing too bad, thankfully. She wiped her bangs out of her eyes and stepped over to the red pearl, frowning down at it. "The red pearl… That one was yours."
"It never really was mine," Moroha sighed.
"I guess not," Towa said. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Hold on, Myouga-jiichan didn't tell us how to break it."
Both their gazes dropped to the pearl, sitting innocently on the ground.
Moroha facepalmed, "We're idiots."
"It's been a bad week," Towa sighed. She scooped up the pearl and put it in her pocket. "Come on, let's go take a break somewhere besides this creepy lake, and clean up these bites. I don't trust those teeth not to give us some sort of horrible disease. We can figure it out while we do that."
"Yeah, not gonna argue there…" Moroha glanced at the lake. The water was clear now, but it had done nothing for the corpses. She felt a little bad about just leaving them there, but it would take a long, long time for just the two of them to take care of the bodies. Hopefully, now that it was safe, someone would come for them.
They climbed back on Kirara and took off, though they didn't go far. Just to a stream that didn't have any corpses or youkai-- at least no nearby youkai. Kirara let them off, then shrank down and curled up next to them in a warm patch of sunny grass.
Towa got her medical supplies out from their bag, "I'll get your shoulder first, since the big one got you."
Moroha nodded, undoing the tie to her suikan and pushing the fabric aside enough for Towa to clean the wound. She winced slightly when Towa started dabbing the deep teeth marks with disinfectant. "Well. That could've gone better. But it could've gone a whole lot worse, too."
"What you did with your arrow was amazing, though," Towa said, trying to be optimistic. "I had no idea the pearl was suppressing your powers that much."
"I… don't think it was," Moroha hesitated. "It was definitely suppressing them, I can tell that much now. But something else is different now."
"What's different, Moroha-sama?" Myouga's voice came from a tiny pinprick on her cheek. Moroha swatted the flea youkai automatically.
"Ah, good timing, Myouga-jiichan!" Towa said. "Do you know any reason why Moroha's spiritual powers would be more powerful besides no longer using the pearl?"
"Hmm? Why do you ask?" Myouga inquired, once he'd recovered from being squished.
"My arrow was way, way stronger than it's ever been. It was like there was nothing keeping me from using as much energy as I wanted," Moroha explained.
"I see," Myouga stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Holy power is, in general, more particular than youki or other energies. It is influenced by mental state to a very significant degree. Youki may strengthen with emotions, but rarely weakens. But spiritual energy goes both ways… For example, Kagome-sama's powers were weakest when she doubted herself, and strongest when she was self-assured. It may be simply that your resolve has changed."
As long as Setsuna would open her eyes again and be alive with Towa once more, nothing else mattered to Moroha. She would help Towa save Setsuna, no matter what. Was that goal really enough to give her so much power?
Or was it just that there had never been a time where she'd had a true direction in her life until now? This was the only time in memory where she knew what she wanted to do.
Was that why Zero had called her spiritual powers scattered?
"I didn't realise it could change things that much," Moroha said slowly. "No wonder my spiritual powers were so weak before…"
"Weak?" Myouga repeated as if scandalised, waving his four small arms. "Moroha-sama, even with your powers at their faintest, you were much more powerful than an average priestess! Why, with even a little bit of proper training in sacred arts…"
"What about Kaede-baachan?" Towa suggested. "If we're going to kill Zero and Kirinmaru, having some more uses for your spiritual abilities would be handy. We could ask when we see her next."
It had never occurred to her to ask Kaede. She'd always thought of getting real instruction in her spiritual powers was an impossibility for someone like her. She'd never even considered it.
"Yeah… it'd be worth it to ask," Moroha nodded. By now, Towa had finished cleaning out the bite marks. She quickly applied some ointment and bandaged Moroha's wound. "Thanks."
"Mm!" Towa just smiled at her, then started rolling up her sleeves to treat her own bite marks. Hers were already starting to heal, due to her greater amount of youkai blood, but Moroha helped her clean them up anyway. They were at least easier to deal with for being shallow. "Oh, right. Myouga-jiichan, we got the first rainbow pearl, but you didn't tell us how to destroy them."
"Did I not? My apologies, Towa-sama," Myouga said. He crossed his upper arms, looking contemplative, "Of course no one has tried to destroy a rainbow pearl before... but I believe a combination of your youki-absorption to weaken it, followed by Moroha-sama's purification powers should be able to do it."
"Then we'll try that in just a minute," Towa nodded. She let Moroha finish treating her wounds and then rolled her sleeves back down and took the pearl from her pocket. She set it down on the ground between them and drew her sword. "Ready, Moroha?"
Moroha took an arrow from her quiver and held it in her hands. "Ready."
Towa took a deep breath, then pressed her sword to the pearl with a look of intense focus. The youki began to separate from the pearl in a thin mist that swirled into the blade. Her brows furrowed. "I didn't realise just how much youki the pearls have…"
"They do come from a formidable daiyoukai," Myouga reminded her.
The pearl seemed to be fading in colour now, until it turned a muted grey-pink rather than red. Towa pulled the sword away, sweating a little.
"That's all I could take."
"Then, Moroha-sama, go ahead!" Myouga urged.
Moroha gripped the arrow tightly, pouring her purification energy into the arrow-- more slowly this time, to avoid overdoing it and risking purifying Myouga, Kirara, or Towa-- until she felt it was powerful enough. Then, she slammed the arrowhead down on the pearl.
There was a noise like cracking glass, and the red pearl dissolved into dust.