Author’s Note: Well, here’s the official first chapter. Be warned, it’s really really LONG (17 pages!). I had to put all this in the first chapter so I could make it cut off in the right place, but as a result it came out much longer than I had intended. Sorry to anyone with sensitive eyes.

Considering this is the actual beginning of this story, this is the place for the dedication!

This story is dedicated to my best friend, Tsuyoi. (You can find her in the Favorite Authors section of my userpage.) She inspired me to start this story back up again a couple months back, and I’ve been working on it on and off ever since.

Thank you, Tsu-chan!

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Chapter One: Tainted Light

“Anou, sonou, Sesshoumaru-sama! Doko wa, koko wa, anata desu ka? Anou, sonou, Jaken-sama, Sesshoumaru-sama doko wa?”

With a sigh, the tiny green-skinned figure laying by the nearest tree sat up. “Rin, stop singing!” he commanded in an exasperated tone. “Just go to sleep.” He was getting very tired of the girl’s mishmash songs, just random words shoved together in a manner that made very little sense at all. When she sang like this, it was no wonder she had been scared into muteness earlier in her life--someone had probably threatened to cut out her tongue if she didn’t start singing so her words made sense.

“But I can’t sleep, Lord Jaken!” the dark-haired girl protested, brow furrowing. She came up beside her current guardian and leaned over him. “Lord Jaken, when did Lord Sesshoumaru say he would be back?”

“Later,” the toadlike retainer replied.

Rin sighed and flopped down beside him bracing her hands behind on the grassy earth to stay comfortably upright. “Why doesn’t Lord Sesshoumaru ever tell us when he’s going to come back? Or even where he’s going?” Jaken jerked, turning to face her with wide eyes. She had always been fairly intelligent, but to notice this was an entirely new development. Perhaps she was finally maturing a little; it had been almost three years since Sesshoumaru brought her back from the dead, after all. She was almost thirteen now, it was about time she started noticing things.

“Do you think he has a secret?” she continued. “Maybe a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend? Or maybe--”

“Rin!” Jaken snapped, coughing over her words. He was apparently wrong about her maturing. At all. “Please, just go to sleep. Lord Sesshoumaru will return in his own due time.” He closed his massive yellow eyes and leaned back against the tree. “Just stop your silly questions and get some rest.”

The girl let out a sigh as she lay back in the grass, placing her hands behind her head for a pillow and casting her brown eyes to the dark sky. Silence reigned for several seconds, then, quietly, in a tone far gentler than Jaken was used to, Rin began to sing once more. “The starry sky is shining bright, glimmers watching through the night. I’m sleeping soundly, here with you, under the white, white moon...” As she sang her mouth curved into a smile and she closed her eyes.

Jaken opened his eyes and turned to look at the girl. “That’s a nice song,” he said after a long moment. “Did you make that one, too?”

She nodded, smile broadening slightly. “Uh-huh. It’s not done yet.”

“Not done?”

“It’s gonna be a big song,” she elaborated sleepily. “But I can’t do my part, or Ah-Un’s part either.” She sighed. “I’m trying really hard, though, and I want Lord Sesshoumaru to hear it.” She opened her eyes, eyebrows arching, and turned to meet the retainer’s gaze. “D’you wanna hear your part? It has good words in it--words you taught me.”

He nodded, a little wary to hear what words she had chosen from his vocabulary--he had used some rather harsh ones in their time together, after all.

Rin closed her eyes again, taking a deep breath and spreading out her arms. “A loping gait on his small feet, a magic staff that can’t be beat; I know he cares, though he says no, but he still keeps me safe when our master has to go.” She let out a sigh, smiling, and her breathing evened as she fell asleep.

Jaken stared. This girl was annoying, but he supposed that there was really much more to her than that. Such loyalty and devotion, both to him and to the taiyoukai Sesshoumaru; she was really quite sweet, in a manner of speaking. She certainly had her saving graces.

“How...sentimental,” a deep voice breathed.

The toad started and turned to see that tall demon lord to whom he sworn his allegiance. “L-Lord Sesshoumaru!” He scrambled to rise, but the snowy-haired man held out his hand and gave a single shake of his head.

“Rest,” he commanded, “or you will be of no use to me. You are an idiot when you are tired.” The retainer nodded shakily, watching his master golden eyes slide from him to the sleeping human. “I have never heard her sing a pleasant song about you. Perhaps she has found some long-lost endearing quality about your person.” He thought in silence for a moment. “Of course, she tends to find such things in everyone.”

Jaken nodded again. Was it his imagination, or did Sesshoumaru’s eyes soften when he looked at Rin? Perhaps it was a trick of the moonlight; the demon lord certainly had no reason to be pleasant to the girl. She was just a tagalong--an annoying, loud, hyper tagalong. But Even Jaken found it impossible not to like her, foolish and immature as she was. Perhaps Sesshoumaru felt something akin to that.

“If I may, Lord Sesshoumaru,” he ventured quietly, “where did you go?”

The taiyoukai caught him in a piercing stare, silent for several seconds as his eyes burned into the little demon’s soul. “I caught a scent,” he said at last, sitting down on Rin’s other side. “I felt it needed investigation.”

Jaken nodded once more. A scent... There were few scents that would spark Sesshoumaru’s interest; it had either been Naraku--unlikely, considering the man had come back unscathed--or Inuyasha. Perhaps Kagura, but Sesshoumaru would have said so if it were her, had Jaken stand guard to protect Rin from the wind mistress.

“Was it Inuyasha?” he inquired further.

Once again Sesshoumaru went silent for a long moment, eyes slightly narrowed, gold turning to amber as he took a breath through clenched teeth. “Yes,” was his reply.

The conversation, such as it was, died instantly.

--

The woman regarded her opponent thoughtfully, deep blue eyes scrutinizing each detail before she bothered to speak. “You are Inuyasha?” she queried, lifting her gaze to meet his.

With a scoff the silvery-haired young man--young indeed, he looked no older than nineteen or twenty at the most--narrowed his amber eyes. “Who wants to know?” His canine ears pressed back in wariness as he spoke, his demon blood sensing something his human half could not. He bared his teeth and placed a hand on his sword, waiting for the woman to respond.

“Tsukiyami,” she replied silkily, giving a short bow. “I am a priestess in the service of an acquaintance of yours.” She gave a half-smile, one fine eyebrow arched. “You do know a young Lord by the name of Naraku, do you not?”

The hanyou, in the space of a heartbeat, drew his sword; the blade was laced with light as his will quelled the sealing spell that kept it in a tarnished state when no in use. “Another of Naraku’s rats, huh?” he spat, hoping he didn’t sound as worried as he felt.

Naraku had found another one? Kagura alone was difficult, add the dead-eyed Kanna and the terribly confused Kohaku--not to mention Hakudoushi and the other fragments of the demon that had once been a man--and Naraku was practically untouchable. And now he had a priestess? How the hell did he manage that? the half-breed wondered.

“I hate t’break it to you, Lady,” he growled, “but no self-respecting priestess would come within a state of serving a bastard like Naraku.”

He gave Kagome a sideways glance, to which the black-haired replied with a short, nigh-imperceptible nod. The girl lowered her bow ever so slightly and narrowed her sapphire eyes. One, she thought, seeing a faint glow from the dark-eyes woman’ brow. Her eyes were drawn by a brighter glow Tsukiyami’s chest; the young Higurashi narrowed her eyes more, aura probing the glow, then let out a gasp.

Inuyasha glanced at her again. “Two,” she answered. “One’s in her forehead, but the other’s going to be hard to reach.” She shifted her jaw nervously. “I think it’s in her heart.”

Tsukiyami’s smile broadened. “Perceptive, aren’t you? No wonder Lord Naraku wants you so badly.” She gave a sympathetic sigh, shaking her head. “Too bad you aren’t the prettiest of his prospective lovers...”

“Like I’d want to get anywhere near that freak!” The young, seiku-clad priestess blurted out, eyes narrowed in anger. That uniform was different from her previous green-and-white garb, however: In her time traveling between the present era and the Sengoku Jidai she had come to realize that a skirt was rather useless in traveling, so she had--rather reluctantly--taken to wearing the boy’s uniform in her new school. She was lucky to have made it into school at all, and it had taken two weeks of argument before the committee allowed her to wear the blue-black slacks and jacket. Her shirt was a girl’s, though, and her shoes were part of the female uniform, so there was a little compromise involved.

To be fair, she did have a girl’s uniform at home, but she only tended to wear it during the beginning of the week--past Tuesday she was likely to have Inuyasha show up and cart her off down the Well at any moment, and she didn’t want to be stuck in that skirt again. It had been three years, almost four, since all this started--she didn’t have time to use her energy worrying about her modesty any longer.

She returned her mind to the present, her breath shaky and grip on her bow no longer quite as steady as she had intended. Naraku...it always had to be Naraku! He had so many shards of the Jewel of Four Souls that he could hand them out like candy! How were they supposed to ever beat an opponent that handled the objects that could decide the fate of the whole world so indiscriminately?

The self-proclaimed priestess took a step back, brow furrowing. “Freak?” she breathed incredulously, midnight-colored eyes narrowed. “You did not just say that--if you had said that about my Lord I would have to kill you, and I have express orders not to.” The wind picked up, blowing about the considerable trailing length of her blue and white kimono, and the clouds parted. The pale light of the half-moon high above shafted down on the woman, giving her porcelain-pale skin an eerie glow.

Miroku caught it first; quiet chanting, so low he couldn’t understand a single word, but positively screaming with power. He felt the air grow tense as she continued, as though lightning were about to strike. “Inuyasha!” he cried, a beat before Kagome. He spun around to face the young man, the long tail of his dark hair trailing after him in the too-thick air--it had grown considerably in the years since their journey began, and now rivaled his unproclaimed fiancee’s in length. “Don’t let her finish!”

The amber-eyed young man turned. “Finish what!”

Sango had thrown her demon-bone weapon before the half-breed finished speaking; it spun swiftly toward the priestess, but the demon hunter’s heart froze as it rotated to a stop a considerable distance from her opponent. It hung, shivering, in the air as Tsukiyami’s voice rose to a level loud enough for everyone to hear.

Inuyasha reached up with his free hand and scratched at one ear as some unknown reverberation buzzed trough his head, placing all his nerves on-edge. He could see the woman’s mouth moving, but heard no sound from her; as though he was deaf to her voice. Shippou sidled to the young man’s side, leaning against his leg slightly, just enough for the half-breed to realize the younger demon was shaking.

“Do you hear her?” The fox inquired, turning his deep turquoise eyes on the closest member of his would-be family. Glancing down, Inuyasha realized for the first time how much the little kitsune had grown in the last year. His aging process was slower than a human’s, but that didn’t change the fact that he had apparently hit a growth spurt in the last year. His shoulders were now level with Inuyasha’s sash, and his face no longer bore the same youthful roundness it had in the previous year. He was still a child though, for all accounts and purposes, and it was obvious that he was afraid.

Inuyasha hesitantly shook his head.

Shippou swallowed heavily and turned his gemstone gaze back on the woman, grinding his sharp teeth. “Me neither.”

Tsukiyami opened her eyes, lowering her voice to a whisper once more, then stopping altogether. She turned her icy gaze on the taijiya, glaring daggers that could most likely truly cut the young woman to pieces. “You do want to die, don’t you?” she hissed. “I am not one to deny someone their greatest wish...” Her eyes flashed scarlet and the hiraikostu was laced with rosy light; it rotated about slowly, almost reluctantly, and then hurled itself back at the hunter. She dodged and it turned about to follow--all Kirara’s and Sango’s attempts to evade were foiled as the weapon trailed after them, gaining in speed.

Finally Sango swore aloud and jumped from the feline mononoke’s back, landing behind Miroku. The two of them exchanged and understanding glance and the demon hunter nodded once. He tore the beads from his right hand; the black hold that palm was cursed with drew in the demon bone boomerang easily, but the monk gritted his teeth as he curled his fingers over the hold again. “Dark power,” he gasped, falling back against the young woman, who supported him easily. “She’s a priestess, but tainted. Her magic is twisted, infected somehow. The shikon no kakera she carries must be powerful than the last...”

Kagome understood what that meant--she was the only one who could defeat this enemy. Priestess to priestess, taint against purity, darkness against light. Kagome was the only one who could. Understanding this, she raced to take her customary place just behind Inuyasha, placing both hands on her shoulders and hoisting herself onto his back. She curled her legs about his waist to allow him to use his hands, holding tightly as he lifting the Tetsusaiga and struck, screaming out the name of this spell-attack as gold light shot from the blade.

“Bakuryuuha!”

The golden swirling tornado of an attack surged forward, obscuring the dark priestess’ vision, and Inuyasha took the opportunity to leap into the air. Calling on all the demon power he possessed the half-breed slowed his descent--his brother could full-out fly, but this was the most he could manage with his heavy human blood.

Kagome tightened her grip with her legs as she lifted her bow and nocked an arrow, closing her eyes and letting her power aim her shot. Taking a deep breath she ground her teeth, searching through the swirling mess of power in her spiritual vision in an attempt to find Tsukiyami’s glow. There were the Jewel shards, that was as good as anything else. She took aim on the lower of the two and, heartbeat racing, fired. In the same instant Inuyasha lifted his sword and swung downward, screaming out his attack once more. A second mass of swirling light shot from his blade as the first cleared just long enough to show the look of absolute shock on Tsukiyami’s face.

The two attacks hit their mark, and the entire world seemed to explode. Inuyasha’s slowed descent was halted altogether and both he and his beloved charge were sent careening backward through the air--Kagome cried out, something she hadn’t done in quite a while, warrior that she had become. Inuyasha pulled her around to his front and wrapped both arms around her, holding her tightly and curling his entire body around her. No matter how they hit the ground, he would be the one to take the brunt of the blow.

On the ground, Shippou was thrown back by the blast of blue light that followed Kagome’s arrow. He rammed backward into Sango, who--already burdened with the monk’s weight--toppled backward onto the ground. This blast was too much for any of them to bear; coupling the Bakuryuuha with Kagome’s purifying shot was powerful enough, but judging by the continued onslaught of wind they had both struck a shard, amplifying their hits a thousand fold.

“If I may suggest,” Miroku shouted, voice ragged, “we should probably get out of here!”

“Agreed!” Sango replied. She turned over, facing the sky as the wind tore over her. “Kirara!” The feline demon inched her way forward, her entire body protesting her stand against the energy swirling all around them. She reached her master and Sango was able to push Miroku onto the feline’s back, then Shippou took holding of her waist and lifted her up, clambering on himself a moment later. Sango wondered when the little fox had grown up so much as to help someone else--besides Kagome, of course--before himself.

Kirara’s feet turned to flame and she surged into the air, shooting away over the wood to one side of the road at Sango’ command. The trees would cause friction in the air and slow the wind. Having given her directions, the demon hunter buried her face in her ride’s thick fur, protecting the skin their from the biting wind and the needle-sharp particles it carried. Hopefully when they landed they would be able to find their bearings and figure out where Kagome and Inuyasha had gotten to.

All of them hoped the two young fighters had made it out of that maelstrom safely, but neither were sure if it were possible. They had gotten out of worse, certainly--this was nothing compared to the too-long battle they had taken to calling the War for Sou’unga--but every time their companions feared it would be this time, this ordeal, that did them in. They could hope, only pray, that they were both all right.

--

Tsukiyami fell.

There was no other way to describe what had just happened to the tainted priestess--she simply fell. Like a great general in a losing battle, like a defiant god in an old legend, she fell.

Purification was a grisly process, particularly when the technique was one already known by the target. Tsukiyami, being a priestess, knew of all manner of purifying attacks, arrows included. thus, when Kagome’s arrow struck her chest and the head brushed against the Jewel shard in her heart, the woman fought with all her newfound power against the soothing sensation spreading out from the wound.

She had no reason to be purified, a part of her screamed; she was still clean! She was a priestess, not a demon! How dare that little bitch do such a thing as try to purgeevil from the most pure of the world’s spiritual acolytes!

She curled both hands around the blue shaft, wind tearing at her long hair, her hakama, her haori, lightning dancing over her skin. She growled through clenched teeth and the shard set into her forehead glowed with intensity rivaling the demon-lover’s purifying light. She pulled the arrow free at last, but it was at that same instant that another wave of golden light struck her, sending her flying backward, arrow still clutched in her hands. Tsukiyami cried out as she struck the ground and the energy swirling all around her tore her flesh and clothing.

Her skin was covered in blood, her eyes damaged beyond recognition, her lungs burned beyond repair. And yet still she screamed, her voice an unholy howl not unlike the sound of breaking glass--or the shattering of the Jewel. The rosy light that had saved her when her god first came to heal her of those horrible Oni-inflicted wounds surrounded her, growing in intensity until it was full to bursting. At that moment it lashed out, joining with the purifying blue and the murderous gold of the two attacks thrown at her, turning the world to a mass of screaming tri-colored light.

--

Naraku jerked as wail reached his hearing, and his smoldering eyes narrowed angrily in reply. “She is better than this,” he hissed.

The dead-eyed, moon-pale girl standing just behind him cocked her head to one side, but he deemed her unfit for an explanation. Understanding this, Kanna returned to her usual position, cradling the tiny form of an infant child in her own childish arms. The baby was upset, he shifted nervously in her hold, letting out a quiet whimper.

“She will be better than this,” the dark demon amended, clenching his hands into fists. He closed his eyes and concentrated, siphoning a fair amount of extra energy to the fallen priestess. If she could fall at just that she really wasn’t worth his time, but there was something about her that he found extremely enticing. Something familiar, but darker than he recalled.

She tasted just like Kikyou.

Just outside, Hakudoushi started, violet eyes widening, and spun around to rush into his master’s room. “Father, what--”

“I will make her better than this, and she will not fall again,” the man hissed, eyes glowing even through his closed lids. “I will be fulfilled with her. She will not fall again.”

--

Vaguely, Inuyasha registered someone coming up beside him, a warm hand on his cheek, but in an instant it was gone. Forcing his eyes open, the young half-breed looked up at the person standing over him. The silhouette was familiar, painfully so, but his head spun and his entire body hurt to the point of dying; he realized that he was having trouble breathing, and looking down he realized that he was pinned under a dark-haired, dark-clad young woman. He couldn’t recall why it was that he was clutching this girl so tightly to his chest that his claws dug into her shoulderblades, but he knew that he couldn’t let go. If he let go something bad would happen.

“What have you gotten yourself into this time?” the figure asked. The voice was familiar too, all velvet and depth, tilted and accented like some sort of noble lord...

The amber-eyed young man attempted to reply, but all that he could force out was a slight grunt from the back of his parched throat. The shadowed figure sighed and leaned down. “There’s no point finishing you off now. Sleep.”

He knew he shouldn’t be sleeping, though he couldn’t recall why. In his memory he heard screaming wind and tasted the burn of some great power, but could neither hear nor taste either at the present moment. He shook his head in reply to the tall person now kneeling over him. “...c-ca-can-n’t...” he choked out.

The figure sighed once again. Inuyasha now had the clarity of mind to realize that it was a man’s voice, but still couldn’t place it. He had heard that voice many times before, he was sure of it, and it sent the lingering traces of adrenaline remaining in his system into overdrive. This voice meant danger, was linked forever with the sensation of pain and the taste of blood, but for some reason the young half-breed was not afraid.

“You need to rest,” he commanded.

Inuyasha tightened his grip on--Kagome? Yes, Kagome. The woman who had woken him up so long ago, who had been little more than a girl when she tore that sealing arrow from his chest. The woman he loved. He had to protect her, to keep her safe from...this person. Whoever this was.

Another sigh. “I have no desire to hurt your woman,” the tall man said. Long fingers brushed over Inuyasha’s cheek and the hanyou flinched, clenching his amber eyes shut. “I am not going to hurt you. There would be no point to do such a thing when you are already in such a pitiful state.” Sharp fingernails trailed to the silvery-haired young man’s neck, and the familiarity was almost too overwhelming to bear. “Go to sleep.”

“I-I--” He broke off when those claws--not fingernails, Inuyasha was sure--pricked the skin on the back of the young man’s neck, the scent of half-human blood suddenly rank in the air. Instantly a burning sensation leeched up his neck, green stars flickered in the corners of his vision, and then everything went dark. This was familiar as well--forced rest, the feeling of claws on the back of his neck, a smooth voice commanding him time and again to go to sleep...

The half-breed’s musings were lost as his thoughts faded and he was lost to blessed dreamless sleep.

The next thing he knew he was being shaken awake, a high voice assaulting his canine hearing. “Inuyasha! Inuyasha! Inuyasha!”

He wearily opened his eyes and found himself looking up at the bruised and scraped face of the woman he loved. Kagome’s sapphire eyes were bright with tears and her mouth slightly open, white teeth visible beyond her swollen bottom lip. Inuyasha pushed himself up, wincing when his right arm protested the movement with a rush of white-hot pain. He bit back a cry not unlike a bark and fell backward again, flat on the ground.

Laying there, he recalled the odd vision he had seen--that oh-so-familiar voice and silhouette... Taking a deep breath he barely caught a well-known scent, but it wasn’t enough to denote a recent presence. It must have been a dream, triggered by the last vestiges of a familiar scent lingering in this place. It had to have been a dream, there was no way that he would ever be that borderline-pleasant to Inuyasha. It was simply impossible.

“Are you all right?” Kagome inquired, moving off his middle. The half-breed nodded weakly, bringing his left arm over to cradle his right as the young woman took hold of his shoulders and pulled him to a sitting position.

His hissed in pain, grinding his teeth and surveying his wounded arm. With Kagome’s assistance he pulled up his sleeve and scrutinized the wound. “It’s broken,” he said with a sigh. “Probably from that last Bakuryuuha, or maybe our landing.”

“If you could call it that,” Kagome added, sitting down beside him, running gentle fingers over the kinked limb. “How long do you think it’ll take to heal?”

He shrugged. “That depends on what there is to help it along. No more than a week, though, if even that long.” He grinned up at the half-risen young woman. “Thank Dad for my demon blood.” She nodded, clearly relieved, but Inuyasha’s smile faded as he pulled his sleeve back down. “What about you?”

She held out both arms as she rose stiffly to her feet, spinning around in place for him to survey her. There were claw wounds on her back from his grip, both those appeared to be the worst of her wounds. “Fit as a fiddle!” she replied with a smile. “I just wonder how long we were out...”

Good question, he thought in reply, looking around. Sunlight shafted through the trees towering all around them, pale and new as the first light of morning. The air was clean as well, meaning they had been out all night at the very least. It might have been two nights or even more--the force of that fall had been enough to drive the hanyou into feverish dreams involving his brother being almost nice, there was no telling what it had put them through on a physical level.

He struggled to his feet, supported by the young priestess, and together they surveyed the woods. There was no sign of any other members of their party, and the only identifying characteristic of this place was the lingering trace of Sesshoumaru’s scent. Surely he had known where he was going, though, so if they followed that they could get out of the woods and find their way back to the village. It would have to be at a leisurely pace or they would likely run headlong into the taiyoukai’s travels, and Inuyasha was certainly no match for him with a broken arm.

And speaking of that...

“Kagome,” he said, turning to face her once more. He painfully shifted his right arm to hold it out toward her ever so slightly. “I need you to set the bone.”

She winced. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t set bones before, but it was most certainly not one of her favorite things. The sound and sensation of the two ends scraping against each other, muscles contorting as they, too, were forced back into place was almost too much for the once-squeamish young woman to bear.

But she was a part of this era now, a member of the Sengoku Jidai just as much as her present time. She had learned and trained and she knew what to do and when it was necessary. It she didn’t set the bone now, with Inuyasha’s accelerated healing rate the bone would mend wrong and he might not be able to lift a sword again. Unconsciously her blue eyes slid down to his scabbard, and her blood froze when she realized it was empty.

“Inuyasha, the Tetsusaiga--!” she squeaked. “It’s--It’s--”

He brushed one hand over the scabbard and his expression turned grim. “Gone,” he whispered, casting his near-golden eyes around their little clearing. It had to be around here somewhere, unless someone took it. The memory of his certainly-dream came back and he shook his head. Sesshoumaru couldn’t touch the Tetsusaiga without being burned, so he was fairly certain that he couldn’t have taken it, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Reluctantly he turned back to Kagome and commanded her to set his arm. He would need it to heal quickly if they were to track down his missing blade.

--

Sesshoumaru surveyed his brother’s sword, plunged into the earth just before him, with no little disdain. Here it was, practically begging him to take it up and claim it as his own, and he was still unable to even touch the thing without being struck by the seal placed upon it.

Being who and what he was, Sesshoumaru did not believe in destiny. Nevertheless, he felt that there was some greater power at work in leading him to the sword and the sword to him. Tenseiga shivered in her sheath, practically begging to join once more with her brother blade. The taiyoukai placed his single hand on the anxious blade’s pommel and it quieted. “No,” he said simply. “It is not meant to be.”

He could practically feel the resurrecting sword’s disappointment, and quashed it with his own. His father had given him this sword for a reason, albeit one he didn’t quite understand, and he was going to keep it. He knew it wasn’t because he cared for him less than his half-brother--that much had been proven during the War for Sou’unga.

“You are both my wonderful sons, and I love you very much.”

The silvery-haired youkai shivered at the memory of his father’s voice, then turned his gaze once more to the half-breed’s sword. He would not be able to move it, nor even leave a mark that he had been the one to find it. He had to find some way to show his idiot sibling that he hadn’t taken the blade while he was still alive. He glanced over his shoulder--the one not concealed by the massive moko-moko he was never seen without--and surveyed his young human charge for a long moment before deciding to speak.

“Rin,” he said softly. The girl immediately perked up, rushing to his side with a smile and a swift query of what he wished her to do. She would do anything to please him, he knew that. He tried not to take advantage of it too often, but at this point he had no choice. “Rin, I need you to move that sword; prop it up against that tree over there.”

“Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama!” she replied with jubilation. She took hold of the sword and, using all the strength her slender arms could muster, pulled it free of the earth. Then, as commanded, she leaned it against the nearest tree.

Sesshoumaru followed her, and when she had stepped aside he ran his hand up and down the length of the tree, letting the slightest bit of his lightest poison leak from his claws. The bark was singed, but no further damage was done. With that he turned and they continued on their way.

“What did you do that for, Lord Sesshoumaru?” Rin inquired, racing to come even with him. Times had certainly changed--in the past she would never walk even with him, even when in the middle of a conversation. Looking down at her, the demon lord wondered when she had gotten so tall.

“To let him know,” was all he said in reply. Nevertheless the young human girl understood. What Sesshoumaru meant, as far as she could tell, was “To let Inuyasha know I was here, and to tell him that I could have taken his sword at any time.”

Rin smiled--Lord Sesshoumaru hadn’t taken the Tetsusaiga, even though he could have had her carry it away with them. Apparently his relationship with his brother was getting considerably better as time wore on.

Sesshoumaru wondered why his young charge seemed so satisfied, but didn’t bother to ask. He was not privy to the workings of the human mind, and he was quite content to remain that way. The last thing he wanted was to start sounding like his father, always blathering about protecting things and understanding things that made no sense. He was not a human, and would never be; therefore there was no point for him to even guess what Rin was thinking.

--

It had been nearly a full day since Sesshoumaru found his brother’s sword when he came across his first hint of trouble in several weeks. A scrap of cloth, deep blue in color and stained with blood lay in his path. He didn’t need to touch it to recognize the electric scent of Inuyasha’s Bakuryuuha; the cold, thick catharsis of that human girl’s purifying arrow; the scent of tainted, once-human blood. This fabric reeked a great battle, of purity gone wrong.

It reeked of Naraku.

“Rin, Jaken,” he hissed, suddenly tense. Immediately the two of them--and the two-headed dragon they rode on occasion--froze in place. “Stay here.”

“But Lord Sesshoumaru--” Jaken peeped.

“I said stay here,” he growled, glaring over his shoulder with eyes laced with scarlet. That was more than enough to force his retainer into submission, and Jaken fell silent.

Rin was a different story. “Lord Sesshoumaru,” she said softly, lowering her eyes. “Be careful, okay?”

The demon lord wondered what it was that made him keep that fool of a mortal in his presence. He had no need to be careful, he was the demon lord of the western lands! He ruled half of Japan, for God’s sake! But she insisted on telling him to be careful, on warning him, on...being worried for him. The demon let out a sigh, closing his monster’s eyes. “...I will.”

With that he headed down the road, over the nearest hill. He paused on the crest, staring down with narrowed eyes. Sure enough, as he had expected, at the lowest point in the road there lay a battered figure--probably female, but not certainly--clad in white and deep blue. Around her there was spread a cloak of scarlet, shimmering in the midday sun like a clean-cut slab of garnet. The wind was at the taiyoukai’s back, so her scent was almost entirely carried away from him, but he knew that the scrap he had found earlier up the road was a part of her clothing.

This woman was a piece of Naraku. Like Kanna, Kohaku...Kagura. Thought of the wind demon made him wince, but it was nothing compared to the seizing of his chest when he thought of her master. Naraku was a monster in the deepest sense, more tyrannical and demonic than Sesshoumaru ever wanted to think of being. Part of this was why he could never be forgiven, but beyond that there were other reasons: The near-murder of Inuyasha, the kidnapping of Rin, the maltreatment of Kagura. Inuyasha was his to kill, Rin was not to be harmed--ever--and not even the fool Kagura deserved the treatment her master gave her. Thus, Naraku was unforgivable.

The woman was wounded, she would be easy to kill. Sesshoumaru started down the hill.

--

Tsukiyami coughed, her breath a hoarse gurgle, and her heartbeat strengthened as she sensed something drawing near. She pushed herself up, bloodstained black hair cascading all around her, and turned to look at the approaching figure.

His hair was the palest silver, almost white, and a perfect contradiction to the burning gold of his eyes. his dress denoted one of high social status, and the twin swords in his sash and the odd armor he wore only compounded that assumption. He was perhaps a shogun, or even a daimyo; one who certinaly expected her respect. The wind picked up, tugging at the threads of metallic snow that were his hair, revealing his pointed ears and the distinctly demonic marks on either side of his face.

The priestess narrowed his deep blue eyes, the Jewel shard in her forehead sending a short sting through her skull as her anger flared. “Demon!” she growled. The man stopped, regarding her evenly, and she rolled onto her side, lifting both hands to send out a sample of her purifying power. “Abomination! Defamation of God’s plan! Taste the power of a priestess with a world to protect!”

Her palms glowed bright pink, and a bolt of light shot out toward the stilled demon lord.

--

Sesshoumaru strafed to one side, dodging the blow entirely, and regarded the woman with no little curiosity. She served Naraku, that much was obvious, but she claimed he was the one defiling the world? She was clearly quite delusional.

Delusional, yes; powerless, no. Another shot of rosy light rushed toward him and his ducked backward to dodge. It struck the earth just behind him and sent up a cloud of pale dust. He turned narrowed eyes on the woman as she struggled to her feet, and almost showed his distaste at her condition.

Half of her haori was missing, leaving her chest exposed, but there was not much there to bear--the flesh was burned and hung loose on her ribs like well-cooked meat. Her left arm was in roughly the same condition, as was the left side of her head. Her hair had been singed off on that side, leaving the skull bare and ear horrifically disfigured. The burn leeched up the side of her face, just barely missing the pale shard set into her forehead--judging by the tang of tainted power in the air it was most certainly a shard of the Jewel of Four Souls. That would explain the energy she suddenly possessed to stagger to her feet and face him.

It would also explain why her wounds were healing. Even as he watched her ear reshaped itself and her hair grew out, silky and black once again, and new flesh grew in the place of that which was lost.

Apparently this was not going to be easy after all, he thought as he drew Toukijin.

She fixed him with a dark glare, her lips curving in a smile. “Demons are not meant to be, they are a perversion of all that is good in this world. You are disgusting, an abomination!”

“I disgust you?” he spat, unable to help himself. This woman was in no place to admonish in regards to things of great disgust. She was incredibly bold for a woman that had been missing half her chest only a moment before.

The woman stepped to one side and Sesshoumaru countered it with a step of his own. He couldn’t let her get over the hill; if she did, she would be able to see Rin and Jaken down below, and that was something he could not allow. As such, they continued this delayed mimicry for several seconds before the woman at last froze in place. She let out a short spurt of deep laughter, too deep for her slender lungs to produce. “Shall we see what drives this demon, My Lord? Shall we see what it is that he is so anxious to protect?”

Sesshoumaru tightened his grip on the monster-tooth blade and tensed for her imminent rush forward. Only there was no headlong rush--instead she clapped her hands together and, apparently, began to chant. The demon lord found himself unable to hear her words, and wondered what spell she was attempting to use.

In an instant he no longer wondered--the woman disappeared in a flash of white light, and her faint scent shifted around in the air until it stood behind him. He spun around and leapt over the crest of the hill, finding the woman facing his young human charge. Rin stood tall, but Sesshoumaru could see her shaking as the woman reached out with one deathly-pale hand and brushed back her messy hair.

“A child?” she murmured, disbelieving. Sesshoumaru leapt once more, landing in the space between woman and child, slashing across the woman’s chest. She did an amazing backflip into the air, landing a distance away, safe from the strike. “You are protecting a human child?”

“I protect nothing!” he replied, voice an angry growl.

The woman didn’t seem to hear. “But if you are protecting a human, then you must be different. You are not a demon at heart.” Her eyes narrowed and she gave a sudden smile. “If that is the truth, then I, Tsukiyami, will make you outer shell match your inner heart!”

Sesshoumaru didn’t like the sound of that. He lifted his sword and charged his energy for a major attack. The woman--Tsukiyami’s mouth was moving again, and still he was deaf to her chant. She threw out both hands at the same instant he swung, the demon lord whispering, “Souryuuha.”

The world went white as his attack struck the woman, but at the same moment he felt something seize in his chest and he fell to one knee, clutching at the front of his kimono as he struggled to breathe. What was happening? What had she done?

“On the next darkened moon, you will be rewarded for your righteousness!” the woman’s voice cackled. The reverberations of the blue Souryuuha still shook the ground, the bizarre white light that did not come from that attack obscuring the demon lord’s vision. “Until then, My Lord, I wish you well!”

Sesshoumaru took another labored breath, his entire body aflame, and his vision went dark. Tsukiyami’s voice was gone, Rin’s cries lost in the void; there was nothing but sleep. Impelled, impossible sleep

--

--

Author’s Note: I hope you are all relatively anxious to read the next chapter. It is clicking along nicely, but I’m not going to jinx myself by giving a projected date for the next posting.

For clarification, the War For Sou’unga that everyone keeps referring to is in the third movie. Watching it for the seventh or eighth time yesterday I realized that the big battle toward the end--when everyone’s fighting, before the opening of Hell--isn’t just a battle, it’s a war. People are exhausted, Shippou looks about ready to die, and Kirara has to shrink herself down because she can’t keep up the transformation. Even Jaken and Toutousai are too worn out to keep going.

Also, I hope everyone approved of the different character designs. It’s placed about three years post-series, so people can’t look the same as they did before.

As for Rin’s song, it really does make very little sense, but what it comes down to is this:

Um, ah, Lord Sesshoumaru! Here are, where are you? Um, ah, Lord Jaken! Where is Lord Sesshoumaru?

The words are mostly misplaced, though, and she uses some that shouldn’t even be there. It’s very Rin-esque, though, and I have my sister to thank for helping me come up with it a couple months ago.