Toutousai removed the blade from the forge and plunged it into a nearby vat of water before inspecting his work. The old youkai smiled. The blade was almost ready. Using his hammer he pounded the last few imperfections before he returned the blade to the fire.
"Hey! Toutousai-jii!" an all too familiar voice called out.
The weapon smith froze. He recognized the voice. It was Inuyasha. What did that hanyou want with him this time? He sighed and turned towards the entrance of his cave. Sure enough, he saw Inuyasha walking to his home. But who was that young girl with him? She looked vaguely familiar, yet he couldn't remember from where.
"There you are! I thought that we'd find you here," Inuyasha said in a way of greeting. He entered without being asked, followed by the strange girl. It was obvious that she was a hanyou; in fact, she was similar to Inuyasha in form.
"Well, out with it. What do you want this time, Inuyasha?"
The hanyou smiled and gently pushed the girl forward. "This is Hikaru, my imooto-san. You remember her right?"
The old youkai sat back on his stool with arms crossed and head shaking. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha. But there is no way that this girl could be your sister. She disappeared a long time ago. For all we know, the girl is dead by now."
"Can nothing convince you, Toutousai-san?" the girl asked. Again, the smith shook his head.
"Nothing."
"Not even this?" Hikaru unsheathed Tennega and held the sword in her hands.
Inuyasha hadn't thought that it was possible for Toutousai's eyes to get any larger than they already were. He was mistaken though. The smith's eyes widened as he carefully looked over the sword. He caressed the metal with the tips of his fingers and held it as if it were an infant.
"Where…where did you get this?"
"From a shrine where our father had hidden it," Inuyasha replied.
After a few minutes, the smith placed the sword on the table and held one of her hands in his. "If I hadn't forged that sword myself than I wouldn't have believed it. But that is indeed the third sword that I made for Inutaisho. Welcome home, child. I always believed that you would make it back here somehow."
"You mean you didn't believe that she had died?" Myouga piped up from Inuyasha's shoulder. The flea youkai jumped up and down in anxiety and surprise.
Toutousai shook his head. "Nope. Never did. If that was true, then their father would have returned the sword to me rather then let one of his remaining children possess it. Instead he hid the sword. That was enough to convince me that Hikaru would one day return to claim her inheritance."
The flea glumly sat down with a sweat drop. "How is it that I'm the only one that thought that Hikaru-sama was dead?" he murmured.
Toutousai and the hanyou tactfully ignored him. Inuyasha and Hikaru plopped down by the table while he checked the wear on Tennega.
"Hmm…. Not much use on here. Haven't used it that often have you, Hikaru?"
"No, not really. I have not had many occasions to use its powers."
"Unlike him who would use any excuse to invoke Tetsusaiga's power."
"Hey! I had to face off against some powerful youkai!"
"Still, that's no excuse for abusing a blade like Tetsusaiga."
The smith turned to the forge with Tennega in hand. Deftly he substituted the swords and set forth on honing the blade. The hanyou sat in silence for a moment each lost in their thoughts.
Then Inuyasha's ears began to twitch. An idea had come to him. But if he didn't do this right, then it won't work. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head.
"Hey, Hikaru, wasn't there a smith from those stories that you keep telling Shippou? You know the one, the one that helped that king?"
"Oh, that was Dian Cecht. And he wasn't a smith, ani-chan, he was a healer and brother to Nuada, his king."
"Yeah, I think that I remember now. Didn't Nuada have a hand that was made of silver?"
She nodded. "Until another hand of flesh was crafted for him."
Inuyasha whistled. "That must have been something. Creating a whole new hand for someone. Did it actually work?"
"I imagine so. The stories never really said if it did or not. But Nuada was still able to fight with using that hand I think."
"Heh. What business did that guy have with messing with metals when he was supposed to be fooling around with plants? And using silver? That kind of metal is too soft for that kind of work," Toutousai mumbled.
Hikaru moved to speak but was interrupted by Inuyasha. "Like you could do the same. All you know how to make are swords."
The youkai turned around and faced the hanyou. "What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what I said! I bet that you couldn't."
"I can so! And better than that Cecht guy!"
Inuyasha smirked. "Then let's see you do it. You say that you can do it better, so instead of just a hand make something else then."
"Like what?"
Inuyasha stood and placed his right hand below the shoulder on his left arm. "An entire arm. From here down. And it has to work like a normal arm."
Toutousai thought for a moment then nodded. "Very well then. But I'm going to need some material before I can get to work."
He approached the hanyou with a pair of pliers in his hand. "This shouldn't take long."
A few minutes later, the siblings were making their way back to the others down the mountain. Inuyasha was nursing a head that was sore in two places: one where his fangs had been removed and the other where Hikaru had hit him after Toutousai removed hers. She hadn't realized that when she had been told that the smith had used their father's fangs in the swords, they had been literal.
"They'll grow back, Hikaru!"
"Not soon enough for me. This is night of the last moon, remember?"
He winced. Inuyasha hadn't intended for this to happen, but the timing to talk to Toutousai about this had to happen right then. He couldn't have waited.
"What's happening tonight, Inuyasha-sama?"
"This is the night that Hikaru turns into a human," the hanyou replied.
"Oh."
"Yeah. We better get back to the others quickly and find a place to spend the night. I don't think that it's a good idea for us to be about."
Hikaru sighed, "There is wisdom in that. My houriki may be stronger tonight than it is for the rest of the month, but I won't be able to use Tennega. Tonight would be better used making any healing potions that we might need."
"Especially antidotes to poisons."
It was that evening and Hikaru completed her transformation. Miroku eyed Hikaru with an appraising eye, but said nothing. He was well aware what would happen if he did say something.
Hikaru finished her meal, fetched a basket, and went to the entrance of the cave. "I'm going to gather some herbs. I should be back soon."
"You're not going anywhere alone, Hikaru. I insist that one of us goes with you," Inuyasha demanded.
Hikaru wanted to argue but her desire to gather healing herbs was stronger. She simply nodded. "Who'll go with me?"
"I will!" cried Shippou. The young kitsune bounded over to her and settled on her shoulder. "I'll be happy to go with you."
Juanyu stood up as well. "I've done this before with you, Hikaru-sama. You'll finish quicker with more than one person looking for the herbs."
She smiled. "Very well." She looked at the group. "We'll be back before the moon reaches the zenith."
Her ani-chan nodded, satisfied. She would be safe enough with Shippou along. He couldn't leave the group incase of trouble, the same with Sango. And he didn't trust Miroku enough to leave him alone with his imooto-san. And Kagome didn't have many fighting skills in case of trouble.
The trio left the cave and vanished into the woods.
Well above them, a figure smiled in a nasty way that could only mean trouble. In the shadows behind him, others stood awaiting his command.
"Well, well. Looks like I've found you, Inuyasha."