“Drip.” The crisp sound of falling water pulled Romo out of the haze.
He opened his eyes in confusion and stared blankly at the uneven, shadowed rock above him.
At the very top, he could make out an irregular round opening.
A silver full moon hung in the night sky, and pale moonlight poured through the hole, barely illuminating the blurred interior of the cave.
“Drip.” The same sound came again, painfully clear in the dead-silent cavern.
Romo snapped back to himself.
The unfamiliar cave, the damp air, the scene before his eyes all made his chest tighten.
By instinct, he tried to sit up.
“Hiss!” The moment he moved, violent pain exploded through his limbs.
A wave of dizziness swept over him, and his body crashed heavily back onto the ground.
Gritting his teeth, Romo struggled to roll over.
His gaze swept across the dim cave.
The strange smell of damp rot mixed with thick blood lingered around his nose, and his eyes filled with bewilderment.
“Where is this?” he muttered hoarsely.
“Wasn’t I in my apartment, scrolling through short videos?
Don’t tell me…” An absurd thought flashed through his mind.
Enduring the weakness and stabbing pain in his body, he raised a trembling hand before his eyes.
By the cold moonlight spilling in from the cave mouth, he could not see everything clearly, but it was enough to tell that the pale, slender fingers in front of him, still carrying the softness of youth, were definitely not the rough hands of the overworked man in his thirties that he remembered.
Romo stared at those unfamiliar hands.
A bitter, helpless smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he murmured softly, “So I transmigrated?
I never thought that after growing from a kid into the age of some background uncle in an anime, I’d end up becoming a ‘chosen child’ instead…” He had only just forced himself to accept the fact that he had crossed into another world when a flood of unfamiliar memories surged into his mind.
Shrines, demons, half-demons… Fragments of information crashed around inside his head.
After he fully digested the past of this body, genuine pity appeared on Romo’s face.
He whispered, “This guy… really had a miserable life.” From those memories, he learned that the previous owner of this body was named Kamamara.
He was not a pure human, but a half-demon born from the union of a human and a demon.
This world was completely different from his previous life.
Apart from humans, it also had the demons that had only existed in legends back in his old world.
The era resembled Japan’s Sengoku period, chaotic and cruel.
And his own birth was a tragedy through and through.
The previous owner had never seen his father.
Only before his mother’s death did he learn from her that the man had been a demon of the Kamaitachi clan.
His mother, Nindō, had been a human priestess who inherited a proper shrine lineage.
She was nothing like the shrine maidens of his former world, most of whom were closer to part-time attendants at tourist shrines.
In this world, priestesses were true supernatural beings.
They possessed spiritual power and stood at the front line against demons, exorcising evil and protecting humanity.
They were the natural enemies of demons.
And yet such a pure priestess had given birth to a child with demon blood.
The previous owner’s birth had not been the fruit of love, but the result of an unfortunate accident.
His mother had never spoken of the details, but with only a little thought, Romo could guess the humiliation and pain hidden behind it.
The birth of a half-demon like him had been something the surrounding villagers could not accept.
Even his mother, Nindō, had struggled between hatred and maternal love for her entire life.
She hated the “cursed fruit” that symbolized her disgrace, yet she also understood clearly that the child himself was innocent.
In the end, the kindness of a priestess and the love of a mother that she could not cut away made her choose to raise the child.
Even the name “Kamamara” hid his mother’s complicated feelings.
“Kama” revealed the Kamaitachi demon blood flowing in his body, while “Mara” came from Papiyas, the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven in Buddhism.
The source of all suffering.
A symbol of disaster, inner demons, despair, and destruction.
A demon that ruined beauty, created pain, and brought misfortune.
This name carried Nindō’s hatred toward that accident.
“Half-demon… and that thing called the Shikon Jewel…” Romo, who should now be called Kamamara, sorted through the key information in his memories.
A look of realization flashed through his eyes.
“Have I transmigrated into the world of Inuyasha?” He could not help tugging at the corner of his mouth, his gaze complicated as he gave a faint smile.
“As expected of a priestess in the world of Inuyasha, a symbol of kindness and purity.
Even though she hated the child’s birth, in the end, motherly love still won, and she chose to raise him.” Scenes of the previous owner living with his mother at the shrine flashed through his mind.
Although his freedom had been restricted, those days had still been peaceful and warm.
His mother had treated him coldly on the surface.
Sometimes, when she caught sight of the demon traits he accidentally revealed, pain and hatred would appear in her eyes.
Even so, the previous owner had always managed to notice the maternal love hidden in the smallest details.
Those memories also allowed Kamamara to feel the previous owner’s deep attachment to his mother, as well as his guilt and self-loathing over his identity as a half-demon.
They had clearly loved each other deeply, yet because of the half-demon blood flowing through him, both mother and son had been tormented until they were covered in wounds.
Even before his mother died, neither of them had been able to escape that anguish of love and hate.
“Don’t worry.” Kamamara closed his eyes and whispered, as if making a promise to the soul of the previous owner.
“From now on, I’ll live properly as Kamamara.
You can go to the netherworld and see your mother in peace.” While sorting through the memories, his body had recovered a little strength.
Feeling the many severe injuries throughout his body, he clenched his teeth and endured the bone-deep pain.
Slowly, he crawled across the cold, damp ground until he was directly beneath the cave opening.
Only then did he turn over and lie flat, raising his head to look at the sky outside.
At that moment, the night had already begun to fade.
A wash of blue-violet dawn spread across the horizon.
Sunrise was close.
Kamamara looked at the brightening sky beyond the cave mouth, and a trace of anticipation flickered in his eyes.
Half-demons in this world possessed both human and demon blood.
Because they were not complete demons, they followed a strange rule.
At a specific time, their demon blood would be suppressed by their human blood.
Their demonic traits would fade, and their demonic power would fall completely silent, turning them into ordinary humans.
That time was different for every half-demon.
It was also their weakest moment, which was why almost every half-demon guarded the secret with their life.
Whenever that time came, a half-demon would hide themselves away until their demonic power returned.
And now, this was the moment when he had lost his demonic power and become human.
As long as he waited for the sun to rise, the demon blood inside him would awaken.
His demonic power would return, and with a demon’s powerful self-healing ability, these injuries would soon heal.
He glanced at the cave mouth again.
Then, remembering the reason he had been injured, he endured the pain in his body and slowly raised his hand.
He reached into the front of his robe and carefully felt around beneath the fabric before drawing something out.
A crystal-clear jewel bead, glowing with a faint violet light, lay quietly in his palm.
In the dim light spilling down from the cave opening, it shimmered with a mysterious radiance.