Luckily, they'd only come upon a few lower class demons that were easily taken care of, so their trip was going faster than expected. Of course, that meant that something had to give, and it came in the form of Lord Sesshomaru, who was looking extra menacing with both hands poised to rip them apart.

'Wait a minute, both hands? When did that happen?'

Of course, before I could ask anything, I had to wait for Inuyasha to stop being an idiot and trying to start a fight, which also meant waiting for Miroku to keep the peace.

'If he could just stop being a pup for two seconds, it would make my life much easier.'

"Sit boy!"

'That wasn't a smirk I just saw from the Lord, was it?'

It was so fast, I couldn't be sure, but after losing so many emotions, I had become strangely good at sensing them from others, and I was getting a definite amused vibe from Mr. Stoic.

'And a sadness as well. Almost as if...'

"Is Kagura dead?"

And there it was, the dimming of that small light in those strong eyes.

'So he really did love her after all. Maybe that's what made his arm grow back. Didn't Myoga say something about him not being able to access all his powers until he truly felt love?'

"The wind witch did not succeed in her subterfuge. What are you doing so close to my land?"

'The old bait and switch, of course.'

While the others answered his questions and the pup started acting up again, I took the time to really look at Sesshomaru. I'd never actually bothered to try and figure him out, mostly just listening to Inuyasha's stories and taking them for fact. Now that I was really looking, I could see the isolation in his eyes, the hint of sadness, but also the strength and power.

'He could protect or kill anyone he chose. Inuyasha always said his brother was trying to kill him, but if so, why isn't he dead? What did he say before? Something like he wouldn't allow anyone to kill the pup besides him I think. Which is basically saying he was going to protect Inuyasha from everyone who was strong enough to kill him, isn't it?'

It started occurring to me just how many times we had won a fight we shouldn't have, when something random happened that lead directly to our victory.

'And Sesshomaru has always known exactly where we are, always showed up when Inuyasha was crazy out of control. And we've never gotten caught when he was human.'

It was starting to seem more and more like we'd always been protected instead of hunted, which would mean that he'd been training his younger brother all this time, not trying to kill him.

'And if he's always known everything about us, that would mean there's a very real possibility that he knows exactly what the true purpose is of us traveling.'

Sure enough, my fears were validated when he asked his next question, looking directly in my eyes.

"Are you sure you aren't chasing the legend of the Jinsei no eri?"

'Son of a bitch.'