There was nothing left.

Sesshomaru sifted a claw through the ashes. He sniffed his talons. Not a trace of Father, or that woman.

He took a step forward and the rubble underfoot yelped.

Single-handedly tossing aside a fallen panel, Sesshomaru uncovered a groaning retainer.

"What happened here?"

"Please, noble one," the boy – he was hardly much more – begged, "get me out and I shall answer."

"Of course." Sesshomaru hooked claws into the front of the servant's haori and in one brusque movement yanked him out of the debris.

The retainer cried out.

"You're freed." Sesshomaru still dangled his catch in the air. "Now explain."

"Y-you're a d-demon!" He squirmed, eye whites enormous. "P-put me down!"

"So demanding." Sesshomaru flung the human back into the charred remains. He barely twitched and the daiyokai moved on.

He planned on simply tracking down Myoga – for what it was worth – when something clamped onto his boot. Sesshomaru tried shaking off the withered hand, but it held fast. Lifting the beam that pinned her, Sesshomaru looked down on the broken woman. He tried his question once more. "What went down here?"

She smiled, and his knee nearly buckled.

"Besides the mansion," she rasped, "there was this great demon, his countenance most like thine, and he fought Lord Takemaru of Setsuna; but not before the lord set the grounds ablaze." Her breath rattled. "Methinks the lord demon was trying to save his half-breed son...Lady Izaiyoi and the child escaped, but the demon and Takemaru…" The words died in her mouth.

Sesshomaru let the beam drop.

--

"Well, not even a kiss good-bye?" Sesshomaru's mother droned, leaning against the wall with her arms in her sleeves and not appearing the least approachable.

"I'm off to walk my own path." He finished the last tugs to his waist-tie.

"Mm-hm." She studied her nails disinterestedly. Teenagers! "You know, your father left a fang for you. It's probably with that Boku-whatever tree."

Sesshomaru shouldered his fur. Father's body wasn't even cold yet and Mother was already talking about heirlooms. "I'll get to it."

"Huh, you should hope that halfling brat didn't get anything better," she glowered. It was anyone's guess what she thought of her mate's affair. "Technically, you are Western Lord now."

Sesshomaru's stomach lurched at the title. "I'm off."

As he took to the air, the dog-demon heard a distant, "Don't forget to write." Well, he'd swing by in perhaps two hundred years. Perhaps.