"!"
The Great Dog Demon turned his head sharply.
Kirinmaru's aura had vanished.
He'd sensed someone fighting Kirinmaru moments ago, but he never expected this outcome.
The contract bond was still there, faint but intact. From that alone, the Great Dog Demon could piece together what had happened.
'Sealed. Or banished into another dimension.'
'But an opponent capable of catching Kirinmaru off guard...'
'Who?'
With Kirinmaru's power, ordinary yokai couldn't last a single exchange, let alone actually put him in a losing position.
'There's still residual yokai aura. I need to go take a look.'
He cast a glance at Sesshomaru, who stood motionless in thought, and left without a word, heading toward where Kirinmaru's presence had disappeared.
"The sword I should truly hold..."
Sesshomaru watched his father's retreating figure and murmured his words back to himself.
He could feel the deeper meaning behind the lesson. But even with his intellect, the answer remained frustratingly out of reach.
The proof of surpassing Father.
What exactly was he missing?
Without hesitation, he cast the broken Tokijin aside. The shattered blade clattered against the ground just as Inuyasha came running into view.
CLANG!
"Sesshomaru!"
Inuyasha skidded to a halt and stared at the broken Tokijin lying in the dirt. His jaw went slack.
'Tokijin was cut in half?'
He looked up at Sesshomaru. The signs of a hard-fought battle were written all over his brother's composure, or rather, the cracks in it. As much as Inuyasha found his arrogant older brother insufferable, the man's strength was never in question.
He'd never seen anyone leave Sesshomaru looking like this.
"Sesshomaru-sama! Did you see the Master?!"
Myoga clung to Inuyasha's shoulder, voice trembling.
"Oh, right. Was it really the Old Man?!"
Snapping back to the reason he'd come, Inuyasha raised his voice.
"..."
No answer. Sesshomaru just stared at him.
"Hey! What's your problem?!"
The silent stare made Inuyasha's skin crawl. He wasn't used to being scrutinized by those cold golden eyes for this long.
"Don't flatter yourself."
"I was looking at Tessaiga."
Sesshomaru's flat, disinterested tone lit the fuse instantly.
"You bastard! You still haven't given up on Tessaiga?!"
"Wait! Inuyasha-sama! We came to find the Master, not to pick a fight with Sesshomaru-sama!"
Inuyasha's hand was already on his hilt when Myoga's frantic shouting pulled him back.
"The scent leads that way. Where the yokai energy erupted." He sniffed the air and calmed himself. "Who summoned the Old Man?"
He'd run off without telling Kagome or the others. That was rare for him. But the truth was, Inuyasha genuinely wanted to meet the father he'd never known.
The Great Dog Demon had already fallen by the time he was born. Not just his face. His voice, his personality, everything was a blank.
Now an opportunity existed to stand before that man. Of course Inuyasha wanted to take it.
"Hey, Sesshomaru! Where are you going?"
"If you want to see Father, then go."
Sesshomaru turned and walked away. His answer was calm, devoid of the usual contempt. He didn't mock Inuyasha's half-demon blood. Didn't throw a single barb.
His mind was elsewhere.
'The path you should walk isn't one spent staring at my shadow.'
'As long as you cling to that, you will never surpass me.'
'Sesshomaru. Go and find your own true sword.'
Find it.
If his father said it so plainly, then the potential existed within him. There was something he'd failed to notice. Not a weapon forged by Totosai or anyone else. A sword that belonged to Sesshomaru alone, waiting somewhere for him to claim it.
His father must have recognized that truth. That was why the lesson had been so blunt.
Never in his life had Sesshomaru treated anything with such urgency. He placed this above everything else.
"Perhaps... Mother would know something."
"The yokai aura dissipated here. There's a strange scent mixed in."
The Great Dog Demon surveyed the area, probing the air and earth, but found nothing of use.
All he could determine was that Kirinmaru had fought some yokai here and then disappeared without a trace.
"It seems there's a troublesome opponent at play."
No corpses. Not a single body in sight. He abandoned the notion of drawing So'unga.
If there had been remains, he could have used the Sword of Hell to summon the dead and extract information. But the battlefield was perfectly clean.
Whoever had done this clearly knew about his investigative methods and had deliberately scrubbed the area.
"No leads for now. Likely another participant..."
Kirinmaru's disappearance was beyond anything the Great Dog Demon had anticipated. There wasn't even a thread to follow.
BRMMM!
Tessaiga trembled on his back. He paused, then let out a long breath.
"Inuyasha, is it?"
"He's on his way."
He turned and waited, ready to see for himself what kind of man his younger son had become.
"Sesshomaru-sama sure is taking a long time."
"Oh, be quiet! Just go to sleep already!"
Jaken sat propped against a tree trunk, scolding Rin, who was still wide awake and muttering instead of resting.
"Akame-san, aren't you going to sleep?"
Rin ignored Jaken entirely and called out to Akame, who was perched in the branches of a nearby tree, scanning the darkness.
"No. He hasn't returned yet. I should stay on watch."
Akame studied her Master's innocent face for a moment before answering.
She'd grown up in a world that demanded constant vigilance. Letting her guard down wasn't in her nature.
"!"
Then she caught it. A scent she knew all too well.
"Blood."
Not far from here. She turned to look at the source and knew exactly where it was coming from.
The village they'd deliberately skirted during the day. A settlement with plenty of humans.
No flames. No smoke. It wasn't bandits.
'Yokai?'
"If anything dangerous happens, call for me immediately."
She couldn't ignore this. Akame turned to Rin and Jaken before departing.
"Wait!! Where do you think you're going?!"
Jaken panicked before Rin could even open her mouth. These people, running off in every direction instead of staying put and resting! What was he supposed to say when Sesshomaru-sama returned?
"It's fine, Jaken-sama."
"If I need to, I can bring Akame-san back in an instant."
"Sesshomaru-sama won't have to wait."
Rin smiled gently, raised her hand, and revealed the crimson Command Spell mark.
"Oh? Is that so? Well, good."
"Still, where's she off to at this hour? That direction... isn't there a village over there?"
Jaken relaxed for a moment, then frowned in puzzlement.
He might look down on Akame for being human, but he'd never deny her skill. That ghostly speed and the blade dripping with Cursed Poison? She could cut down powerful yokai without breaking a sweat.
Truth be told, traveling with her these past few days hadn't been bad. As a companion, Jaken couldn't help feeling a twinge of concern.
"Aah..."
"She'd better not get into trouble."
"If something happens to her, I'll be the one who has to answer to Sesshomaru-sama."
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]