Act 10 The Phantom Showdown
"He...He transformed…"
"Good, he's revealed his true fucking form…"
Sesshomaru snarled and growled menacingly at the two, as Inuyasha readied the Tessaiga. Sesshomaru barks threateningly at the pair.
"Bringing out your true form, huh Sesshomaru? I guess it's all you can do when you're second-best." Inuyasha taunted his older half-brother.
Sesshomaru raised his hackles and bared his fangs at the taunt.
"Heh-heh, now that I'm using this I'll win for sure!" Inuyasha laughs smugly looking at the sword in his hand.
Sesshomaru takes a menacing step forward, Inuyasha and Seina backup as he advances on them.
"Yep. As long as I've got the Tessaiga I won't lose against anyone who stands in my way, especially you Sesshomaru."
Inuyasha swings Tessaiga at Sesshomaru who cringes and backs a bit away from the sword.
Inuyasha laughs smugly. "I'd say this battle is already over before it gets even started!"
Inuyasha takes a step toward Sesshomaru and calls over his shoulder. "Seina, you go hide until it's over."
"Hide where exactly?"
Inuyasha didn't respond as he leapt high in the air over his brother's head.
"I'll cover this sword with your blood!"
The half-demon deftly avoided the daiyoukai snapping jaws and brought the sword down on the back of Sesshomaru's head, but the sword rebounded surprising Inuyasha.
"Wha..!?"
Sesshomaru continued his path and Seina barely scrambles out of the way narrowly avoiding being crushed by Sesshomaru's massive paws. Inuyasha lands behind Sesshomaru several yards away and stares at his sword incredulously.
"It...It bounced off!?"
Inuyasha didn't have time to contemplate the uselessness of his sword when he's forced to duck away in order to avoid being crushed by Sesshomaru's paws. Inuyasha continuously dodges Sesshomaru's attacks. After one failed attempt that had the monstrous dog daiyoukai snapping his jaws at the floor, he whirled around his blood-red eyes expressing the deep contempt that he felt for his pathetic, sorry excuse of a half-brother. A thick purple drool dripped from Sesshomaru's jaws making him look even more rabid. The drool was also acidic as it began melting the skulls littering the floor and there was a fine green mist being created.
As Inuyasha landed a safe distance away from Sesshomaru, he then rounded on the elderly flea.
"Hey, Myoga! What's going on!? This sword can't even bruise him, let alone behead him!"
The flea demon was busy packing up his belongings, and nervously replies, "Erm...well, Inuyasha-sama...That sword is your father's heirloom. You must believe in it's power. And by no means must you release it! Well, now...if you'll excuse me…"
With that the flea leapt off Inuyasha's shoulder.
"Wh-why you!"
"Turn Sesshomaru-sama into fodder!"
With those final words, Myoga scurried away in a hurry, leaving Inuyasha on his own to deal with the rabid daiyoukai. As Sesshomaru continued to drool more purple acid on the bones a thick green mist began to form.
Inuyasha gasped quietly when the green mist reached his nose.
"Oh no. Seina! A misama! Don't breathe it in! Get up off the ground!"
Seina took heed of his urgent warning and began doing so before shouting back, "Okay! But what about you!?"
"Just escape! Climb, up, up!"
As Sesshomaru kept swiping at Inuyasha, who kept dodging his paws, Seina was climbing up the skeleton's spinal column using the vines growing on it to help her. Stopping briefly she called out, "Inuyasha!"
"Don't stop!" Myoga cried as he reaches Seina. "Just climb, even a demon will be killed in an instant by those toxic fumes!"
Sure enough even Jaken was scurrying up the wall as well.
"Sesshomaru-sama!" The imp cried before scurrying further up the wall as the miasma rose.
"Hey! What about Inuyasha? Will he be okay?" Seina questioned the flea.
"Uh, probably not-"
Myoga momentarily lost his grip and fell into the miasma before darting back up in a panic.
"Forget the heroics, we must concentrate on escaping! Come on!"
"Inuyasha!" Seina called out once more, before hurrying to catch up to Myoga.
Down below, the miasma was becoming more potent melting all the bones inside into a gooey mess. Inuyasha slides back into a partially melted wall where he coughs a bit from the miasma.
"Strong poison...I can't linger here much longer."
He turns around, and makes his escape by leaping into the air. Even so, it appeared as though he was in the miasma too long since his vision began blurring. He spins a bit to shake off the blurriness, even so when he reaches the edge of the exit he collapses on himself and struggles to stand up.
"Damn! My arms and legs are going numb!" He coughs out.
As he struggles to lift himself, Sesshomaru sneaks up from behind and snatches him in his jaws causing Inuyasha to cry out in pain. Sesshomaru jumps back down into the tomb full of miasma and locks his jaws tight trying to bite Inuyasha in half. With Inuyasha trapped in his jaws Sesshomaru's eyes gain a sadistic glint seeing how helpless his pathetic half-brother was and he shakes his maw to inflict more pain on Inuyasha.
As Inuyasha cries out in pain he looks at Tessaiga. "Even a mosquito's bite has to be more irritating than this useless piece of junk!"
With that he stabs the sword into Sesshomaru's eye. The stab to the eye causes Sesshomaru to thrash around in pain for a bit, before leaping into the air going through the roof.
Outside Seina feels the entire skeleton shake and then she hears a crash.
"Inuyasha!"
Said half-demon was hanging from the fur on Sesshomaru's lower jaw, he swings off and lands on the ground below. Sesshomaru shakes his head, blinking his eye a few times to get rid of the irritation before barking threateningly at Inuyasha. As Seina watches from the sidelines Myoga pops out from under a bush with a boisterous laugh.
"Now do you see the power of Tessaiga? Now for the finishing blow!"
Inuyasha turned and glared at the flea. "Fool! Where have you been!? This thing's about as useful as a walking stick!"
"Oh~, are you saying this isn't the treasured sword from your father?"
Myoga crosses his arms for a moment as if pondering this new information before darting away faster than the eye could follow.
"Coward! Get back here!" Seina growled.
"Why am I not surprised? In the meantime, how am I supposed to get this thing to cut?" Inuyasha responded.
Sesshomaru starts forward and Inuyasha's back to dodging massive paws. At one point he manages to land a hit that causes some damage enough to make Sesshomaru to whine a bit and lick his paw, but it's not enough to seriously wound the daiyoukai. Tired of just sitting on the sidelines as a spectator Seina decides to do something to try and help Inuyasha.
As Seina continues watching the fight trying to figure out exactly what she could do to help she notices something strange. Seina takes notices that Inuyasha is able to dodge Sesshomaru more easily than before and he's also able to get some hits in even if they aren't too damaging. A light bulb goes off in Seina's head as she comes to a realization.
'Of course! When he changed forms he sacrificed his speed and agility for brute force!'
With that Seina knew exactly how to help and gathered an armful of skulls. While Sesshomaru was distracted by Inuyasha slashing his head, she threw a skull that hit Sesshomaru right in the rear. The hit had the desired effect as Sesshomaru whirled around with a growl.
Inuyasha took the chance to slash Sesshomaru's back leg, before the transformed daiyoukai could fully turn on his half-brother Seina let another skull fly this one hits dog demon on the side of the face.
"Over here, you stupid drooling mutt!" Seina yells throwing another skull that hit Sesshomaru in the nose. "I know the real truth about your father's death! So not only are you a shitty brother you're an even shittier son!"
Sesshomaru raises his hackles, what did this insignificant insect know about how his father die. He prepares to lunge and swallow her whole, but he never gets the chance to.
Inuyasha diverts his attention by slashing Sesshomaru again. It goes back and forth until Sesshomaru got fed up and decided to focus on who he considered to be the biggest threat: Inuyasha. Seeing that Sesshomaru would no longer pay attention to her, Seina tries to come up with another plan and she does. The plan was risky and quite possibly insane, but it would be worth it, if she could pull it off.
Taking the chance she runs at Sesshomaru surprising Inuyasha but before he can yell at her, she had already grabbed onto the fur on his hind leg Sesshomaru notices her and tries to shake her off. Seina hangs on for dear life and focuses on the drawing the power she had used on Mistress Centipede, and she does. Blue sparks of spiritual power come from Seina's hand that burn Sesshomaru, causing him to let out a roar of agony.
With the amount of pain the daiyoukai feels surging up his hind leg, he tries again to shake Seina off with renewed vigor. Eventually he shakes her off, she would've gone flying over the edge of the skeleton had a familiar red clad body not reached her in time. After carrying Seina to a safe spot behind one of the pauldrons spikes Inuyasha proceeded to scold her.
"What the hell were you thinkin'!?"
"I was trying to help!" Seina yelled back.
Sesshomaru whined as he licked his wounded leg.
"More like you were trying to get yourself killed!" The irate half-demon yelled.
"So what, I'm supposed to sit back and twiddle my thumbs while you fight a death match!?"
"No, you're suppose to shut up and let me protect you!"
The air rushes out of Seina's lungs as she is taken aback by the brazen declaration.
After licking his wound Sesshomaru growls at the pair. Inuyasha swings Tessaiga over his shoulder and goes off to face Sesshomaru.
"You stay here and watch."
"Did I hear that right? Did he just say that he would protect me?" Seina says to herself as a small smile tugs at her lips.
'Inuyasha maybe crude and abrasive, but between the two of them Inuyasha's definitely the better of the two…'
Sesshomaru roars at Inuyasha and he positions himself to pounce as his body trembles with the anticipation tearing this disgrace of a half-demon apart as well as the human girl who had managed to injure him.
"Yeah, 'roar, roar, roar' to you too, buddy. Let's get this over with!"
As Inuyasha holds Tessaiga at the ready he feels a heartbeat coming from it.
'Tessaiga...has a pulse!?' Inuyasha stares at Tessaiga in wonder. 'I can hear it...Tessaiga's heartbeat..!'
"Get him, Sesshomaru-sama! A worthless half-breed like that...just devour him head first!"
Any further shouts from Jaken were cut off as Seina began pelting him with skulls.
"Shut up! He hasn't lost yet!"
After knocking Jaken out, Seina looked at Inuyasha: 'Go for it Inuyasha. You'll win, I just know it!'
Sesshomaru launches his entire body into the air, before coming back down paw first with the claws aimed right at Inuyasha.
"Your mine!" Inuyasha shouted launching himself into the air.
Inuyasha brings Tessaiga up and slashes Sesshomaru's arm cutting it off. Sesshomaru collapses on the ground with a torrent of blood gushing from where his front leg is supposed to be.
In Inuyasha's hands was a sword with a large curved blade instead of an old battered sword.
"This is...a fang!?"
Seina looks at the newly transformed sword in surprise. 'This is Tessaiga's true form!?'
Sesshomaru is back on his feet with blood still flowing from his wound and a murderous expression on his face as Inuyasha waves the newly transformed Tessaiga positioning himself at the ready.
"It is a fang. What an heirloom the old man left me!"
"Hey, Sesshomaru, listen up! Here we are, two brothers fighting over our father's treasure. But compared to his magnificence, you and me are nothin'! Don't you get it? We're just a couple of fleas battlin' it out on top of his body! We are nowhere near his equal! Huh, he could squash us both without any effort."
Sesshomaru just snarls menacingly at Inuyasha's words.
"So maybe I don't have too many memories of being loved by my father, but it was me father chose to hide his fang in afterall. I'd rather give up an eye, cuz I ain't giving up this sword to anyone! Not even to my 'fine' older brother!"
Sesshomaru lunges for Inuyasha, but the half-demon is ready and retaliates.
"This is the end Sesshomaru!"
He slashes the transformed daiyoukai across the chest forcing him over the edge.
"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken cried.
Before Sesshomaru could fall to his death his body transformed into a glowing orb, and flies away with Jaken rushing after him.
"Se...Sesshomaru-sama! Please wait for me!"
As Jaken ran off, Seina ran up to an exhausted Inuyasha.
"You did it!" Seina exclaimed.
As he drops to one knee planting Tessaiga in the ground Seina worriedly asks,
"Inuyasha...Are...Are you alright?"
Despite being exhausted Inuyasha begins to laugh "Heh-heh-heh, I take it back. The sword's not a piece of junk after all." Inuyasha then looks at his father's skeleton with a proud smile, "Thanks, old man… you really left me quite the handy heirloom."
"Inuyasha-sama, well done!" Myoga joyously piped up hopping onto Inuyasha's shoulder. "I, Myoga, had faith in you!"
Inuyasha rolls his eyes and prepares to squash the cowardly flea, but Myoga blocks the offending finger.
"Please wait! Look over there!" Myoga says pointing off to the side.
Inuyasha and Seina look to where Myoga is pointing and sure enough a pair of skeletal birds were perched nearby.
"I wasn't running away I was merely arranging us a ride home."
"How very convenient." Seina muttered sarcastically.
Inuyasha just smiled brightly at the flea demon, "It's alright, Myoga, after you only left to get us ride home, because you had the utmost faith that I would be able to defeat Sesshomaru even though you had no idea of whether or not this was my father's real treasured sword."
Seina raises an eyebrow at Inuyasha. Was he really buying that coward's lies so easily?
As Myoga stares at Inuyasha's beaming expression his face becomes the epitome of guilt and eventually he breaks down.
"Alright, I admit it! I ran away! Forgive me! If I had known you'd make a comeback I would never have left!"
"Myoga…"
Inuyasha's beaming expression shifts into a more menacing one as he flattens Myoga.
Seina didn't feel any sympathy for the flea, since he had abandoned them when they needed him most.
In the mortal realm Yume watched everything that transpired between Inuyasha and Sesshomaru through a mirror that allowed her see anyone she desired. She was angry when Sesshomaru allowed Jaken to play such a cruel trick on Inuyasha by having an Un-mother of all things to impersonate Izayoi, but she supposed Sesshomaru got what was coming to him in the end when he lost his arm to the very weapon he coveted.
'That girl…' Yume pondered tapping her chin thoughtfully with her fan.
The girl was an enigma to the female daiyoukai. She wondered why the girl had been brought along with her brash little half-brother in the first place. Then her interest was piqued further when the girl willingly went into the portal after Sesshomaru as well when she outright refused to hand the Tessaiga over to him. It was amusing for Yume to see Sesshomaru lose his cool and transform to his true demon form because a little human girl got under his skin. But there was something disconcerting about the girl and it wasn't her spiritual powers, it was her uncanny resemblance to the priestess who had sealed Inuyasha to a tree. Perhaps she should meet with her little brother face to face and ascertain his relationship to this new human girl.
The group floated down safely out of the portal back to the living realm and onto solid ground. The portal disappears in a flash of returning back to its previous black pearl form. The black pearl floats down gently back into Inuyasha's eye causing him to blink a bit before he rubbed at it with some mild discomfort.
"Are you alright, Inuyasha?"
"Yeah, I actually feel pretty okay. Everything's back to normal, there's no treasure here anymore. My old man can finally rest in peace."
After a bit, the two walk in silence toward the village before going their separate ways. As soon as Seina walked into Kagome's hut she was immediately tackled by two small bodies. Hanako had leapt into her arms while Kaori wrapped herself around Seina's waist. Kagome also came up looking Seina over with a keen eye for injuries, satisfied when she found none.
"Seina, I was worried when you didn't return last night. I had some of the men looking all over for you, but they didn't find anything except this." Kagome handed Seina her sketchbook.
"Where did you go?" Hanako questioned.
"It's a long story." Seina responded.
Once they got settled Seina began explaining everything that happened in the last couple of hours.
"I see, so Inuyasha's father hid his tomb and the sword Tessaiga inside a black pearl that was hidden in Inuyasha's eye?" Kagome asked.
"Yeah, and that bastard Sesshomaru couldn't accept that Tessaiga was never meant for him so he transformed into his true demon form to kill us both."
"But how is it that you were able to draw the Tessaiga? Could it be that you hold some strange power?"
Seina pondered Kagome's question, but it was Myoga who offered some insight.
"Its because Seina is a mortal."Myoga piped up. "Inuyasha-sama's father had the sword crafted in order to help him protect Izayoi-sama a mortal. It was his feelings towards mortals, that allowed him to wield the Tessaiga."
Seina thinks back to Inuyasha's declaration. 'No, you're suppose to shut up and let me protect you!'
"You're right. Tessaiga reacted when Inuyasha said that I should let him protect me."
Myoga nodded. "In order to wield Tessaiga the wielder must possess compassion and protective feelings for mortals, which is why Sesshomaru who could only feel nothing but disgust and hatred for mortals would never be able to wield it."
"Its my speculation, that Inuyasha-sama was able to hold the Tessaiga because he is half-human as for why he couldn't wield it Seina in some respect your judgement was correct. While Inuyasha-sama didn't bear the same hatred for mortals as Sesshomaru-sama, he certainly wasn't compassionate or protective towards them either."
"Such a strange story. To Inuyasha his half-human heritage has been a curse. He views being half-human as a weakness. That's why he didn't want to feel anything for his mother. His feelings for her had been tinged with shame. But it is necessary for Inuyasha to have feelings for humans. That is what his father wanted to teach him, therefore chose him as his resting place. Perhaps, the one who inherited the true traits of their father is not Sesshomaru, but Inuyasha."
Seina chewed her lip thoughtfully. "Somehow, I don't think he'll be jumping for joy over this new information. He's already made it very obvious that he hates me, but I guess he's just going to have to suck it up and learn to tolerate me." She waved to everyone before exiting the hut.
"I don't believe Inuyasha-sama hates Seina as much as she believes." Myoga quietly says.
"Really? What makes you say that?" Hanako asked.
"Well, because if Inuyasha-sama truly hated her, than he wouldn't have gotten so angry when he thought she died from Sesshomaru-sama's poison."
"Inuyasha and Seina share a bond that neither is very much aware of, but in time they will." Kagome said.
As Seina walked around the village, she thinks over Inuyasha's declaration to let him protect her.
'Did he really mean it when he said to let him protect me or did he just say it in the heat of the moment?'
Seina eventually found herself in the area where Inuyasha was. The half-demon was sitting up on a tree branch examining his new sword. He was swinging the blade trying without success to make it transform had to stifle a laugh when Inuyasha nearly fell off the branch he was sitting on when he swung the rusty blade at the tree and it rebounded causing him to wobble precariously before he righted himself with a sigh of relief.
"What's up with this thing?" Inuyasha irritably complained. "Now it's back to being a useless piece of junk."
'Might as well help him.' Seina thought as she called out to the half-demon. "Hey, Inuyasha!"
He turns and looks down and responds with a rude, "What?"
"Do you want know how to use Tessaiga?"
He leaps down and asks, "Since when are you an expert?"
"Well, do you promise to have my back with sword in hand, if I have yours?"
"Huh? What in the world are you babbling about? Are you sane?" Inuyasha asks rapping his knuckles lightly against Seina's forehead. "Something must've gotten knocked loose in there."
"But didn't you say I should let you protect me?"
"I didn't mean it like that!" Inuyasha yelled getting right into Seina's face. "Now shut up and listen up! One day I'm going to become a full-fledged demon, a magnificent one at that!" Inuyasha then looked at the Tessaiga. "A sword like like this should be used for stuff like collecting the shards of the jewel and helping make me more powerful!" Inuyasha staggers off toward a small log bridge and remarks. "I sure as hell ain't wasting it on looking after a weak and helpless little human girl like you!"
Seina becomes furious at Inuyasha's answer and clenches her fists before she proceeds to wordlessly push the half-demon toward the middle of the log bridge.
"Hey! What?" Inuyasha says confused as to what Seina was doing.
Once he's in the middle, Seina walks off leaving a confused Inuyasha behind, with her back to Inuyasha she sharply says, "Knoche."
Inuyasha crashes violently into the log bridge breaking it before falling into the river below.
"I can't believe that for a moment I thought you had an iota of kindness. I guess it's true what they say that you can't teach an old dog new tricks."
As she walk away, Inuyasha climbs out of the water and crawls onto dry land.
"Damn Seina! What'd you do that for!?" Inuyasha yells, but Seina ignores him continuing on her way. "Hey, wait! Where are you going? Come back here! Show me how to use the sword!" Inuyasha continues yelling while waving Tessaiga wildly around.
Nearby Hanako and Myoga watch the exchange.
"Well, I guess it's safe to say that it's gonna be a long time before they're aware of any bond between them." Hanako said.
'Inuyasha-sama...you really should do something about that personality of yours…" Myoga thought with a sigh.
Meanwhile Seina stomps her way back to Kagome's hut visibly furious and a bit hurt by what Inuyasha said.
"The nerve of that...I was a fool to believe that he had a good side."
Seina was still fuming and grumbling when she pushed aside the straw curtain with more force than necessary and entered Kagome's hut. The middle-aged priestess was crushing and sorting herbs when she sees Seina enter.
"Is something the matter?"
"It's nothing, just Inuyasha being an insensitive ass I don't even know why I thought he was capable of being kind."
"Do you wish talk about it?" Kagome asks gently.
Seina sighs and says, "I basically asked him if he would watch my back with Tessaiga if I watched his and he rebuffs me saying he wouldn't waste the sword by protecting me, so I pushed him out to the log bridge said the word Knoche and left."
"Hmm, Inuyasha does have a way with provoking anger, but don't you think perhaps you might have overreacted a bit?"
"...I guess so, I'll apologize later even though I do think he had it coming."
"It's understandable, but sometimes we have to be the bigger person even though someone else is at fault." Kagome wisely imparts. "I can with certainty say that there will be many times where Inuyasha will test your patience, but try not to let him get under your skin for the sake of your journey since it is imperative that you two be able to work together in order to restore the Shikon Jewel back to its proper form."
"It won't be easy, since Inuyasha hates me over what my past life did to him, but I'll try to work with him." Seina says.
"That's all you can do. No one can be expected to get along with someone they've only known for a few days."Kagome says placing her hand on Seina's shoulder reassuringly before resuming her task.
Seina quietly mulls over Kagome's words of wisdom as she helps the blue eyed priestess with crushing some herbs while the other sorts them, after a bit Seina decides to ask Kagome something very important.
"Kagome?"
"Yes, what is it?"
"Would you train me in how to be priestess?"
Whew, sorry this chapter took soo long to bust out, but I got hooked on watching My Hero Academia and I kept rereading this chapter over and over to see what else I could add.
Alright that's it for now, until the next chapter!