"There. It's finished."
Totosai handed the freshly forged scabbard for [Bakusaiga] to Sesshomaru, a look of tired satisfaction on his wrinkled face.
'I never thought the Great Dog Demon's final fail-safe would be so utterly redundant,' he thought with a mental sigh.
'At this point, there's no reason to even bother having Sesshomaru master the [Meido Zangetsuha] with the [Tenseiga]. Not when he has this.'
The original plan in Toga's "will" was for Sesshomaru to use the [Tenseiga] to refine the spatial-severing technique before eventually bequeathing it to Inuyasha's [Tessaiga]. But Sesshomaru was a different creature now.
With the [Bakusaiga] at his side, Sesshomaru possessed a confidence that transcended the legacy of his father. He had the power to annihilate anything in his path. Why would he spend a single heartbeat helping Inuyasha master a legacy technique?
He had reached a height where he could afford to be "selfish."
Since the spatial energy was going to waste, Totosai had decided to funnel it elsewhere.
"?"
Sesshomaru turned to leave, but Totosai quickly cleared his throat.
"Hold on, Sesshomaru!"
The demon lord stopped, his golden eyes flicking back toward the old smith.
"Take this with you. I managed to bang out a scabbard for it as well."
Totosai tossed over a second blade, one housed in a dark, understated scabbard.
THWACK.
Sesshomaru caught it effortlessly, his gaze cool and analytical.
"The owner of this is that half-demon Servant of Kagome's group, isn't it?" Totosai asked, more of a statement than a question.
"The craftsman who originally forged this blade... they were something special. It's a bizarre piece of work. The metallurgy is different, but the 'soul' of the blade feels eerily similar to the [Tessaiga]."
Totosai thought back to the repair process. He had spent two sleepless days working on the weapon, using up a fair amount of rare materials in the process.
It was a demon sword that couldn't cut humans--a concept that would usually be a failure. But against youkai, its lethality was staggering. It felt as though it had been specifically manufactured to hunt a very particular type of creature.
Hardly the work of a normal human.
But Totosai had felt a kinship with the craftsmanship. It was a good blade, and he had enjoyed the challenge.
"Oh, and tell that boy something for me," Totosai added, his eyes twinkling. "I've added a little 'extra' to the blade. Since you and Inuyasha don't have a use for the spatial residue I was holding, I funneled a bit of it into this sword."
"It's not a full-scale [Meido Zangetsuha], but as a tactical advantage in the coming fight? It'll do more than enough."
"Hmph."
Sesshomaru didn't offer a word of thanks. He simply vanished in a blur of speed, taking the weapons with him.
"Hyaa... gone in a blink," Totosai muttered, looking toward the horizon.
He had been uneasy for the past two days, ever since the massive auras of Kirinmaru and Toga had vanished from the world's map. He didn't believe the Kings could lose, but the silence was unnatural.
"I think I'll close my eyes for a bit. I'm exhausted."
"I just hope this isn't my final nap..."
Hehe...
"How many more times will you try?"
"How many more times will you strike me down?"
"How many more times will you struggle against the inevitable?"
The mocking voices echoed from all directions, vibrating through the infinite darkness of the Netherworld dimension.
"Tch!"
Kirinmaru's face was a mask of cold fury as he stared at his target. He felt a rare, gnawing sense of impotence.
"It seems... that neither Kirinmaru nor I can truly kill you anymore."
Toga lowered his blade, his voice calm and clinical as he stated the obvious.
"You've always been the observant one, Saber. That's why you've stopped wasting your demonic energy while Kirinmaru continues to flail, isn't it?"
"You're a great deal more sensible than the King of the East."
The Shikon Jewel's humanoid form, which had been reduced to red mist moments ago, was already reforming. Its voice was filled with a lazy, satisfied decadence.
Two days ago, the two Demon Kings had cornered the Jewel while its body was still in its "transitional" state. Kirinmaru had believed that if they struck before the transformation was complete, they could shatter it forever.
He was wrong.
The Jewel hadn't run. It hadn't even defended itself.
It had simply stood there and absorbed every legendary strike they possessed.
The result was an endless, maddening cycle: Annihilation -> High-Speed Regeneration -> Annihilation -> Adaptation.
No matter how many times Kirinmaru unleashed his full power, the Jewel simply grew more accustomed to the flavor of his energy.
'Dragon scales... armored carapaces... it's adapting a thousand youkai traits and spreading them across its entire structure.'
Toga had stopped attacking because he had begun to realize the trap. The Jewel wasn't just healing; its regeneration speed was increasing exponentially. It was already far beyond anything they had encountered on the summit.
'But this isn't just natural transformation...'
Toga recalled the "pathetic" struggle the Jewel had put up earlier in the war. This was something different.
"Are you finished yet?" the Jewel spirit mocked, its eyes fixed on a panting Kirinmaru.
"Don't you dare look down on me!!"
A massive sphere of violet demonic energy slammed into the Jewel, reducing its torso to atoms.
CRACK-ZZZT.
The wound didn't even have time to "exist" before it was gone. The flesh knitted itself back together so fast it looked as though the energy had simply passed through a liquid. There was no sign of injury, only the faint, mocking smile on the Jewel's face.
"You cannot kill me."
"Your efforts are a waste of time. A meaningful gesture toward a meaningless end."
"If you truly want to see me die... perhaps you should let those children from the outside have a turn. They are far more likely to find a way than you Kings are."
The Jewel spirit was in no rush. It was still processing the "Otherworldly" mimicry it had harvested from the Servant [Berserker].
Nurarihyon's essence was the perfect foundation. It was the power to slip between perception and reality. The Jewel had already "died" six times under the Kings' blades, and with each death, it had utilized [Berserker]'s unique properties to ensure it could never be killed the same way twice.
It knew every strike Kirinmaru and Toga possessed. It had memorized the frequency of their aura. There were no more surprises left in their arsenal.
Kirinmaru and Toga were strong enough to destroy the world, but because of the [Berserker] trait, they weren't "precise" enough to kill the Jewel.
Ironically, the group outside--though weaker in pure power--possessed the "unknown" variables that the Jewel actually feared.
But once the evolution was complete, even that fear would be erased.
"Tch!!"
Kirinmaru didn't say another word. He turned and tore a rift in the spatial wall, vanishing back into the physical world.
He was done wasting time. If his current power wasn't enough, he would find another way. He would scour the world for a weapon or a technique that could bypass this immortality.
As Toga turned to follow, the cold, icy voice of the Jewel drifted after them.
"Kirinmaru... no matter where you run, you cannot escape the prophecy."
"You will be slain by one who is neither human nor youkai."
"Perhaps I will be the one to fulfill that destiny myself."
"Until then... do your best to survive!"
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]