Ice and Snow, Mind and Heart

Chapter 68: Tenseiga's Truth

Yuki kept her hands wrapped around Sesshomaru's waist as he flew them over the volcanic rocks, and they quickly spotted Totosai as he stood beside a fully packed Momo. The old demon was pinning up a sign before his home as he made to run away, and Yuki shook her head at his idiocy.

Sesshomaru lifted Tenseiga, releasing a Meido at Totosai's skull house as a warning.

The Meido ate away the top part of the skull before it disappeared as Sesshomaru landed with Yuki just outside Totosai's home while the demon cried: "Ah! What have you done to my home?"

"Did you really think you could escape, Totosai?" Sesshomaru demanded coldly as he glared at the older demon.

"No." Totosai muttered as he turned to face the younger demon, glancing briefly at Yuki before focusing his attention back on the incensed dog demon. "I figured you'd show up here sooner or later."

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed and he took a step forward as he accused scathingly: "Well, Totosai, you've known about this from the very beginning, haven't you?"

"Of course I did." Totosai scoffed. "After all, I was the one who separated Tenseiga from Tetsusaiga and forged it into a weapon all those years ago, Sesshomaru."

He eyed the dog demon as he asked boldly: "So, what are you going to do about it? Kill me?"

Sesshomaru's answer was to lift Tenseiga, as though he would cut Totosai down, and Totosai said hastily: "Hold on!"

He glanced between Yuki and Sesshomaru once more, judging the half-demoness's passive stance and Sesshomaru's anger.

"Now, let me guess." Totosai noted, almost with a sigh. "You met Shishinki, right?"

Sesshomaru's angry expression was all the answer Totosai needed, and the elderly demon said quickly: "Look here, I don't know what kind of nonsense that troublemaker Shishinki told you, but you were able to master Meido Zangetsuha in the end, were you not?"

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed even further – Totosai didn't know, and couldn't know what Sesshomaru had almost had to sacrifice for the technique. And now, to discover that he had let Yuki die only to discover this was to be his father's ultimate plan... it was adding insult to injury.

Totosai went on, oblivious to the thoughts running through Sesshomaru's mind: "Your father was correct when he judged that you would be able to do so. You have lived up to his every expectation."

Yuki glanced at Sesshomaru as the dog demon scoffed, lowering his sword as he asked scathingly: "Totosai, do you honestly believe I haven't realized what the next step in all of this is?"

"Next step, you say?" Totosai asked, feigning ignorance but his enormous eyes gave him away as they flickered over to Yuki again.

She was still standing very passively, almost worryingly, close to Sesshomaru and she kept watching the dog demon carefully as though expecting to need to force him to keep his temper from overtaking his reason.

'Ah... so even she's realized it.' Totosai sighed to himself, while he looked back at Sesshomaru in resignation as the dog demon said coldly: "Tetsusaiga has the ability to steal techniques from the weapons of its foes – Tenseiga, on the other hand, has no such power."

Sesshomaru closed his eyes as he stated with an eerily creepier calm: "We know that Father's true intention from the beginning was for me to perfect Meido Zangetsuha, but only so that Tenseiga could then be absorbed back into Tetsusaiga."

Totosai got distracted as he examined Sesshomaru, his attention caught by something else the dog demon had said.

''We'... so, you've started to include Yuki into your very life, Sesshomaru.' Totosai thought. 'That explains why you even brought her here; you trust her enough that you will include her in your decisions. I just hope your anger won't change that any time soon...'