Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Chapter 14: Unexpected Development

Kikyou and Sesshoumaru stared at the man in front of them, unable to understand what had just happened. The said man had long, braided, black hair. From Princess Ebi's face expression before she died, it seemed she knew this man. Was he a friend or a foe? Their question was answered when they saw a gem with spider mark on his armor. It looked similar to the gem on Princess Ebi's scepter. They immediately realized that the man in front of them was one of the Soul Stealer members. Now, they were very confused and worried. Confused with this man's action and worried about their safety.

Why would he want to kill his own comrade? More importantly, why did he save them? What he wanted to do with them? Kill or let them walked away just like that? Considering how ruthless he killed Princess Ebi, it was highly probable for him to kill them with his sword. Kikyou knew this man was a formidable opponent who cannot be taken lightly. With their bad wounds, it was impossible to fight and defeat him. It was a suicide. Obviously, Bankotsu saw confusion on their face.

"I did not do it to save you guys. I'm merely just following an order," Bankotsu said.

Kikyou who managed to find her voice, asked in a weak voice, "Who are you?"

Bankotsu just smirked and answered lazily, "Bankotsu. And as you have noticed, I'm a member of Soul Stealer."

Sesshoumaru clearly did not like Bankotsu's tone. He felt that Bankotsu was making fun at them. He tried to stand up but his legs did not have the strength to support him, causing him to only able to sit on the ground with Tenseiga in his hands. Sure, Tenseiga cannot cut anything. But, it was way better than unarmed. Bankotsu seemed to notice what Sesshoumaru intended to do.

"Don't try to do anything foolish. I can kill….." Bankotsu voice trailed off when something caught his attention. "Where did you get that sword?"

Bankotsu pointed at Tenseiga. With a single glance, he knew the sword in Sesshoumaru's hand was a rare and unique sword. Being a great swordsman, he could sense the sword had a special power. Bankotsu could not contain his agitation. He had finally found a sword that can be added into his collection. It was a pity that the sword was in the hand of a young boy. Bankotsu thought the reason why he joined Soul Stealer. It was because Naraku told him that he can find extremely rare swords by joining the organization.

Sesshoumaru was very surprised at Bankotsu's question. He eyed Bankotsu carefully and suspiciously. He did not know whether he should answer Bankotsu's question or not. It could be some traps set up by Bankotsu to lower his guard down. However, it was pretty obvious that Bankotsu had an interest on Tenseiga. The next thing that he said proved it.

"Hand me over that sword," Bankotsu demanded.

"Why should I?" Sesshoumaru retorted, unwilling to give in to Bankotsu's demand.

"Because I said so," Bankotsu said as a matter of fact.

"I don't want to."

Kikyou did not like where the conversation was heading to and tried to stop Sesshoumaru from provoking Bankotsu, "Sesshoumaru, don't be too hasty. He….."

However, Kikyou could not finish her words when she suddenly started coughing blood. That really caught Sesshoumaru's attention. From the blood that Kikyou coughed, it was reasonable to assume that she had internal injuries as well. Slowly and painfully, Sesshoumaru dragged himself to Kikyou, hoping that he could somehow do something about her cough. To Bankotsu, this was a perfect moment to finish off them.

"Well, then. I guess you need to die," Bankotsu said gleefully as he raised his sword.

But, Bankotsu did not have a chance to unleash his attack when out of nowhere an insect came to him, circling and buzzing at him. It was Naraku's insect and seemed to convey an order from Naraku to Bankotsu. Bankotsu had a frown look on his face when he heard the order. He did not want to retreat yet. Not when he had found something interesting. The insect seemed to notice Bankotsu's refusal and started to buzz even louder. It was driving Bankotsu into crazy. He wanted to slash the insect when he noticed that he was not surrounded by an insect but a swarm of insects, prepared to attack him at anytime.

"Okay….okay….. I got it," Bankotsu said grumpily as he shifted his attention to Sesshoumaru. "Hey, consider this is your lucky day. I'll come back to get that sword."

With that, Bankotsu raised his hand, creating a swirl of wind. When the wind was gone, Bankotsu and the insects were nowhere to be seen. Sesshoumaru stared dumbfounded for a moment. He was brought back to reality when he heard Kikyou coughed blood again. He leaned Kikyou against a wall to inspect her wounds. Her eyes were closed and her face was pale. She did not make any sound. However, Sesshoumaru knew from her shallow breath sound that she was in a great pain.

"Damn, she'll die if this keeps going on," Sesshoumaru muttered slowly.

"Then, why don't you help her?" said a voice.

Sesshoumaru turned around to see a smoke bomb exploded not far from him. His muscles tense up. He knew someone was there but the smoke had hid that person. What made it even worse was he did not know whether the person was an ally or an enemy. Sesshoumaru waited the smoke to clear away first. He cannot just attack and charged on randomly like that. However, waiting the smoke to clear away was like waiting for a thousand year. The smoke soon clear away revealing…. Toutosai.

Sesshoumaru's heart was almost stopped when he saw Toutosai. He clearly did not expect Toutosai to show up out of all many people. At first, he thought it would be some monks, exterminator, another miko or probably some other bad guys. Toutosai was sitting on top of three eyed buffalo. He had a hammer in his hand. Sesshoumaru glared Toutosai intensely. Toutosai had given him a lot of problem by giving him Tenseiga. He had to frantically search Toutosai to return the sword since his stepmother insisted that he should not keep the sword but found nothing. And now, Toutosai showed up of nowhere in front of him AFTER they were attacked. Such a great time to show up.

"Now….now… don't look at me like that. Do you want to help her or not?" Toutosai asked.

"How am I supposed to do that? She's badly wounded," Sesshoumaru barked.

"Now…now… don't be too angry. Calm down," Toutosai tried to calm down Sesshoumaru, "Use Tenseiga to heal her."

Sesshoumaru blinked before yelling in anger, "That sword is useless. It can't cut anything."

Toutosai didn't flinch at Sesshoumaru's yell. Instead, he just smiled and said, "That's true. But, I also said that Tenseiga is a sword of healing. You can use Tenseiga to heal the girl."

"And why should I believe in you?" Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes.

"Because I'm the one who forged it, remember?" Toutosai remarked.

"Then, what I need to do to save her?"

"But, there will be some side effects from using Tenseiga."

"Just tell me what should I do," Sesshoumaru roared.

"Simple. Just touch her with Tenseiga and sincerely ask Tenseiga to heal her. It won't work if you didn't mean it."

Sesshoumaru didn't like to be ordered around by anyone. He truly didn't believe that Tenseiga had such ability. But, it seemed it was the only way to save Kikyou. He needed to save Kikyou. It was not like he fell in love with her. It was just that he felt indebted to Kikyou for saving him and Inuyasha at the park from Tsubaki. Besides, it was his fault too for losing the children at this amusement park in the first place, causing them to get involved in this mess. Sesshoumaru touched Kikyou with Tenseiga and wished deeply in his heart.

"Please heal this girl, Tenseiga."

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, Tenseiga started to glow warmly. Kikyou's body too was starting to glow. Slowly but surely, her wounds started to heal and close. Sesshoumaru could not believe his eyes.

"So, this sword is useful after all," he thought.

When all the wounds were healed, Tenseiga stopped glowing. Kikyou was good as new one. There were no scratches and wounds on her body. She slowly opened her eyes.

"What had happened?" Kikyou asked hazily, placing her hand on her forehead.

She had a headache. She couldn't remember what had happened for a moment. Then, images started to pour into her mind. She immediately remembered what had happened. She looked at her wounds to found out that they had been healed. It surprised her greatly. How on earth she made a quick, perfect recovery from such bad wounds? She was a human and not a youkai. Even though she was a miko, it was still impossible for her to recover that fast. She looked at Sesshoumaru.

Perfectly convinced that Sesshoumaru had the answer, Kikyou asked, "How did I get heal so quickly?"

"I used Tenseiga on you," Sesshoumaru answered.

"Tenseiga?"

"It was a long story."

"Oh, that's right. Who is that old man? Where did he come from?" Kikyou asked with a puzzle tone, pointing her finger at Toutosai.

"That's Toutsai-san. As for your second question, I too want to find the answer from him right now," Sesshoumaru said annoyingly.

"Don't bother about it. I want to leave anyway," Toutosai waved his hand cheerfully.

"Oh, no. You don't," Sesshoumaru said, making his way to Toutosai. By now, his youkai blood had healed him enough to enable him to walk slowly.

Toutosai just smiled and said, "By the way, before I leave, I want to tell you something."

"What?" Sesshoumaru asked irritably. For some reason, his head felt dizzy.

"The side effects of using Tenseiga."

"What is it?" Sesshoumaru asked impatiently as his dizziness grew. He found it was hard for him to stand straight.

Kikyou noticed that Sesshoumaru was losing his balance and asked him in a concern tone, "Sesshoumaru, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Sesshoumaru said, struggling to keep himself from falling on the ground while ignoring his dizziness.

For some reason, his head was getting dizzier and dizzier. He felt like he would collapse at anytime. And, Toutosai's annoying speech did not help him to feel any better. His attention shifted back to Toutosai when Toutosai proceeded with his explanation.

"Every time you use Tenseiga to heal people, it will use up your energy, depending on the wound. The greater the wound, the more energy need to be used," Toutosai reminded Sesshoumaru. With that, Toutosai threw a smoke bomb to cover his leave.

"Hey, wait a …."

Sesshoumaru could not finish his word because the dizziness in his head had reached to unbearable level. His vision started to blur. Without he realized, he collapsed on the ground.