Iris, Lady Killer, Imagine.

Durr, the draft-lines are bad in this chapter. *punches plot on the snout to establish dominance*


To Make Things Right

A Husband's Temper

They had to actually leave the Western Lands in order to find fresh water. He would have to focus on restoring at least a part of the water-shed soon, probably whichever spring or river was closest to the mountain he had reclaimed. It irritated him immensely to have to do this, to go back across his decimated territories and behave like the youth of over two-hundred years ago. He hated being sent across the countryside fulfilling the wishes and whims of whichever guardian or elemental spirit lingered in control of the land he wanted.

But at least he had learned a considerable amount about was going on over the passing days: a tribe of Phoenix demons led by their patriarch 'Ryokijin' had descended from the north and were the cause of all this destruction. Sesshoumaru knew simply from hunting down one youth that their bodies could reform from any available ash once they were killed, not just the dust shed naturally from their pores and flames. It rendered even Bakusaiga ineffective against them; the sword's corrosive touch could contaminate the original portions of ash, but there was no end to the silt available across the wastes.

However, the killing sword was still able to stun and hamper the birds' abilities to rebirth. If he could draw Tenseiga in time to attack the spirit while it was still floundering about then perhaps that would work: or it would simply revive the phoenix faster. For the moment, until he was sure of how best to proceed, it would be wise to avoid conflict rather than rely on Kagura's powers over the wind. It was a difficult situation, but not impossible.

"You don't know how much I have missed hot springs, Sesshoumaru..."

Their return had only been some eight or nine days ago, and the Demon Lord was tolerant of the progress made thus far. Until he located Jaken things would be slow, and his situation precarious. At the moment, all he was required to do was visit the places where the land's guardians frequented and speak with them to re-affirm his control over the area. Typically, those places were not difficult to locate: that glade in the middle of the forest, a spring in the hills, a particular dell or dip in the landscape. What complicated matters was the ash which had been interfering with his ability to track. It smothered scents, and the amount of energy necessary to burn so much of the land obscured auras.

Without the Staff of Two Heads, he would have to take the time to destroy the Phoenix tribe before he could focus solely on regaining his lands. But the phoenixes were not something he could wipe out without Tenseiga- at least that seemed like the most logical outcome. The delays did not please him, but he doubted it would take much longer to find Jaken- or Totosai for that matter.

"Are you brooding again?" Pulling his amber gaze away from the treeline surrounding the steaming pools, he couldn't see his mate from where he was standing, but her voice was clear to him. Kagura's clothing was spread neatly over the same boulder he was leaning against, each piece carrying her scent along with that of the forest and ashes they had left behind. It irritated him to know she had violated his conditions to stay away from the wastes, but it wasn't enough for Sesshoumaru to call her on the disobedience.

"No."

Until he reclaimed a sufficient portion of his lands he had decided to swear off food, sleep, and indulgences with the woman bathing just beyond his sight. The restrictions would cause his temper to sour and he would become more aggressive, and aggression would allow him to dispatch enemies with greater ease.

At the time of Naraku's death Sesshoumaru had forgone eating for almost the entire year. His focus had been crystalline and sharp, every hunting instinct attuned to his prey even though he had had no interest in contaminating himself with the half-breed's flesh. He would reach that level of perfection again, even with the broken Tenseiga babbling at his side like a foolish old man.

Sesshoumaru was explicitly aware of how long ago Kagura had slipped into the hot water, and he did not need the sword to remind him. Instead of obliging the weapon he used the heat in his blood to recover the losses he'd experienced breaking and reforming his pact with the forest spirit. Recycling energy in this way was not something a lesser demon would be capable of, but he had plenty of practice with sustaining himself without the luxury of food or sleep.

The spirit's earlier request still disturbed him though. He was angered to know that his seal had physically come under threat: it was his and thus not meant to be tampered with. The new problem now was that he didn't know what effect the new pact had on the Guardian, it had made no sense to him: all pacts were represented with one seal.

'And wherever that one seal is, it's being slowly corroded and eaten away by something.' Tch. Jaken would have to answer for it once he tracked down the pathetic creature. 'If he is still hiding in the remains of the estate, then I will have to fight Mother sooner than I- this scent...'

"Get dressed." He heard a small splash and a huff and took those as signs of ascent from Kagura, turning his face towards the breeze as it carried a familiar odour to his nose. Stepping away from the boulder and the rest of the bare stone surrounding the hot-spring, Sesshoumaru walked off a short ways, but not far enough for her to think he was already leaving: he knew how long it took her to get dressed.

A large cloud of grey smoke soon accompanied the scent of burned iron and metal slag, the sword-smith's cow slowly taking shape inside the mist billowing from its stationary hooves. Sesshoumaru had not yet gone to Totosai's volcano to have the Tenseiga mended, but that had been his next definite move. The fact that the smith had sought him out now spared him the time it would take to track him down.

As the three-eyed cow landed however, the old demon on its back didn't seem like he knew what he was looking at. Totosai's already ridiculously over-sized eyes were wider than normal, threatening to overcome the smith's forehead and perhaps pop out and dangle by the cords. He was holding his long hammer and one old hand was twisted around the straps of his large bag of materials. He stank of the Half-breed Inuyasha, and many different humans.

"Lord Sesshoumaru... so you've finally returned." Yes, finally.

"Have you come to repair the Tenseiga?" Watching the old demon nod slowly, when the smith spoke his voice had a dry, wheezing quality to it that Sesshoumaru found irritating, but tolerated.

"I have." Totosai climbed down off his servant's back and patted the thick animal on its wide neck: it was permission for the beast to begin grazing on the clover and grasses growing at their feet. The sword-smith's eyes left his just long enough to look down at the swords resting against Sesshoumaru's side, then boldly came back up. The old demon set his bag of materials on the ground behind him- the sack almost as large as Totosai himself, and lifted his hand up, fingers spread and palm open. "May I?"

Stepping forward and pulling the sheathed Tenseiga from his belt, the Demon Lord held the broken weapon out and allowed the sword-smith to gingerly remove it from his grasp. Totosai didn't say anything for a few moments, merely held the blade with its hilt up and hands wrapped around the sheathe carefully.

"Such a powerful enchantment, Lord Sesshoumaru. This certainly explains a few things." Such as-? .

"Will you be able to retain the blessing, Totosai?" Fujin's gift to the Tenseiga: the ability to slice through and cut the immortal power of deities. He had not forgotten about it, the sword had merely remained in such a sorry state for so long that it had not come up. In fact the enchantment had failed once already, it was only the potential of such a decisive cut that made it worth bringing up now. He had not forgotten about it.

"That depends on Tenseiga's constitution." The old demon mused, still looking the sheathed weapon up and down, his eyes aimed to penetrate the black covering. "It was broken suddenly, and then immediately after that you were violently-" A very meaningful look warned Totosai from finishing that sentence, and the smith looked up in time to choke on the words. He had lost, he had been sealed, but this Sesshoumaru would not tolerate anyone dwelling on the issue, least of all someone standing in front of him and so far below. "So it depends on how the Tenseiga has coped with- ehh... that." Very well. "Could you... show me the Bakusaiga?"

The weak deflection and bumbling subject change gave the Demon Lord a moment to collect his temper, using it like his earlier lust and forcing the energy into his physical self to alleviate the tinge of hunger in his gut. He drew his sword carefully to avoid having the blade get ahead of itself and attack the smith. Bakusaiga's white hilt hummed against his palm, its patterned blade shining in the sun as Totosai looked the weapon up and down- then focused on Sesshoumaru's wrist.

"I thought Tenseiga was twisting things, but your marks have actually changed colour." ...Yes. From fuchsia across his face and curled around his wrists and other places, to a deep shade of maroon. He had not expected any changes to manifest themselves on his skin when he marked Kagura, but he rarely noticed the alteration. It had done nothing to his powers. "So, is she pretty?"

THWACK.

That... smile, would not be tolerated.

"It was an innocent question- !" He did not care. It was satisfying to see the red welt left by the flat of Bakusaiga form across the sword-smith's scalp. "But it's good, very very good..."

"What is?"

"That you feel strong and confident enough now to take a mate." THWACK. "It was a compliment!"

"Do not insult me, old man." Sheathing Bakusaiga as Totosai nursed the criss-crossed marks smarting on his head, Sesshoumaru didn't care to listen to the demon's senile babbling any longer. He was worse than Tenseiga. "Repair the fang and return it to me when it is ready." He turned to head back towards the hot-spring, finished with this meeting.

"Hey wait! Sesshoumaru, you want the Nintoujou back, don't you?" The Staff of Two Heads? Hearing it mentioned, Sesshoumaru did stop walking, looking back over his left shoulder just enough to show that he was listening. "I'll bet you haven't been able to pick up Jaken's scent once yet since you got back, thanks to all that smoke and ash." Clearly the old man was going through another senile moment, he knew better than to use insults to get Sesshoumaru's attention and patience.

"So he's been staying with you, and the humans." He examined the old demon's scent again and realizing Inuyasha's stink was too deeply ingrained for brief, sporadic contact. Totosai must have been living in the human village, or at least close to it. And this meant that his volcano had either been over-run by some sort of demon, or even the oldest residents of the Western Lands had fled the fighting. still between the Half-breed, the humans, and the fumes of smithing... there was a hint of toad.

"Ever since your palace was destroyed some six months ago." Totosai was nodding dumbly "Inuyasha rescued him and Ah-Un out in the wastes fleeing the Western Lands. To be honest, no one would've known they were out there if your nephew hadn't gone and found them." Sesshoumaru had had nothing to say until Totosai made a revolting accusation to distract him. If he had no brother then why would anyone assume he had a nephew? He swallowed his revulsion and posed a different question.

"And Jaken has simply stayed in Inuyasha's village. Why?" He turned enough that he could see Totosai again and levelled the query at him. The staff was not something for Jaken to lose, so at least that was not the issue here. Jaken had also been within the Western Lands until the palace's destruction, so he had most likely also been hidden within the walls during the invasions and battles. This was all more or less good news, but Sesshoumaru was not about to feel relief until he found and interrogated the toad himself.

"That's the strange part." Totosai answered, his wheezing voice beginning to seriously grate on the Demon Lord's nerves as he turned his bulbous eyes skyward. "Y'see Ah died only a few days after their arrival, terrible wounds and poisons, but Un is still alive and Jaken refuses to leave him." ...What?

"Ah and Un share the same body." He watched the smith's reaction carefully, even though there was nothing to see.

"And the body's dead too: Un can't eat or do anything, just control its neck, one leg and part of its tail." While it was not unheard of for a piece of a demon to remain alive after the rest was dead, this story still surprised him. Ah-Un was one dragon, one being. If enough damage had been done to kill one of them then it should have translated to both. What was sustaining Un?

"My servant is not a grave guardian."

"That's what your brother keeps saying about Inumaru, except he says son instead of servant." Totosai made his comment and then seemed to realize what exactly he'd said. The smith started gripping the Tenseiga nervously like the blade would protect him if Sesshoumaru lashed out, and he nearly did before-

"Inu-what?" Kagura's voice. Sesshoumaru closed his eyes slowly.

He took a calming lung-full of her scent to help combat the frustration that welled up at the chipper, almost-laughing tone of her words. He knew how long it took her to dress, so it made sense that she would join him like she chose to now; standing at his side with him positioned properly between her and the smith. Kagura's hair was still damp but held up off her face and neck, her green fan spread wide and hiding her grinning face from Totosai's gaze.

"No wonder you refused to tell me his name, Sesshoumaru." Their relationship clicked with the smith when she wasn't struck down for toying with his name.

"Oh! Is this the blushing bride, Lord Sesshoumaru?" He recognized her, there was bewilderment and an ounce of concern in the smith's bulbous eyes, and if he had not sheathed Bakusaiga already Sesshoumaru would have snapped it over his head again. Tenseiga seemed to read his reaction however, and there was a pulse through blade and sheath in Totosai's hands. It was the groggy sword's way of telling him to shut up.

"Enough." He stated. Kagura knew better than to reach out and touch him when they were not alone, but he could feel her eyes needling the side of his face, the woman searching out any glimmer of a reaction to her taunting. "I will go and collect Jaken." The sword-smith needed a moment to catch up with the conversation, then nodded. Kagura pouted.

"What, alone again? You can't hide your brother's family from me forever, Sesshoumaru." No, but he could try. Of course, simply thinking the words made him feel juvenile; the Demon Lord fought down the urge to curl his lip at the woman before he turned away.

"I did not tell you to stay. We're leaving." His answer given, Sesshoumaru began to move away through the trees, putting distance between them and the hot-spring. Kagura was able to pitch her chuckle too low for Totosai and just high enough for the Demon Lord to hear, following his easy pace through the woods. He felt like walking, at least for now. It didn't take as much energy as flying, but it felt more active. Activity was good for him right now.

Ah had died but Un still lived, if this was true then there must have been something keeping the second head alive. And if it was true, and Sesshoumaru's suspicions were confirmed... He hadn't quite decided how he would react.

"...Why are you following us?" Kagura was the one to ask the question after a few minutes of silence and too many footsteps.

"Err... well..."

"Out with it, old man." Sesshoumaru stopped walking and just glanced back over his shoulder at the smith. He refused to do more than that as Totosai played with his hands and looked for support in the vacant gaze of his cow, who was also following. When he spoke up the smith looked at Kagura instead, which, given what he had to say, was a very wise decision.

"I need one of his fangs..." He what? "To bond Tenseiga's pieces."

His wife didn't stop giggling until the new tooth grew in.


*does a little dance thing*

Err, tiny problem though. It seems I've become distracted by the shinies of this pairing, so while I've had half a week and completed about twenty-thousand words of writing since this went live on Wednesday, TMTR hasn't moved more than a few paragraphs from where it was in Chapter 16. This does not bode well, but since Chapters 14 and 15 are more or less the conclusion of an event arc (and a big one too), I'm cool with my update schedule.

I do, however, regret that I found it too frustrating to continue my edits with chapters 8 and 9, so you'll be getting the previous draft of those. The apology will make sense when we get there.

For now, I've amassed over a hundred and fifty hits in this story in 3 days: I know you're out there, so you'd better review!