"Sesshomaru," Kagome said faintly as he gave her room to breathe, more because she was surprised at what Sesshomaru had accomplished than because of any real guilt.
She still believed that what she'd done was what was best for all involved and though it had meant keeping a secret from the others—Sesshomaru included—she didn't regret it, either. Not only did she believe that it was better to draw Itsetsuhiko out than go in search of him but she also knew she was the key to doing so.
Itsetsuhiko might be on a quest for revenge against those who wronged him but she'd sensed his interest in her before and it had eclipsed everything else he'd felt. His lust for power was simply out of control.
And Kagome wouldn't ask any more of her friends and companions, either. So many had already died and, with the blood feuds all were claiming, she worried that they would be too blinded by the need for revenge that they could become lost to it.
But Sesshomaru, it seemed, was simply not willing to allow her free rein. He kissed her until her every thought left her head and even then, he didn't stop kissing her until she finally pushed him away, needing more than the few scant breaths of air he occasionally allowed for.
He was breathing as heavily as she was as she pulled away. "You will never be allowed out of my sight again," he growled at her and then, before she could protest at his macho act, he proceeded to kiss her senseless once more.
.
Sesshomaru found that he could not stop kissing her and it was only their audience as the camp readied itself to leave that kept him from acting further.
He had been terrified when he found her unresponsive beside him, curled up and feigning sleep. Fearing the worst, he had reached for her through their fledgling connection as he tried not to let anxiety and terror overwhelm him. He'd suspected that she had been involved in something with Itsetsuhiko and finding out that she had challenged Itsetsuhiko herself had done nothing to soothe his horrified ire—both at Kagome herself for being so foolish and at Itsetsuhiko for attempting to possess her.
He'd flung every iota of his power into the bond, blasting it with power that it hadn't been prepared to accept. Most yokai, outside of a mating, could not handle channeling such power, but Kagome had not only withstood it, she'd been able to channel it subconsciously and use the power he'd lent her to force Itsetsuhiko out.
If he'd had any suspicions left about her power and its capabilities, they all would have been destroyed then.
Sesshomaru needed proof that she was safe and that she was his. Her kiss wasn't enough. Her passion wasn't enough. Her desire wasn't enough.
He needed everything.
It was the wrong time and the wrong place. Intellectually, he knew that, but the gut-wrenching fear wouldn't leave him be. After a moment, he finally broke off the kisses and gave into the urge to voice his desires. "I want you, Kagome," he rasped with a desperation he couldn't quite hide as he pulled her up to settle across his lap. He ignored their companions even as a few of them gasped in surprise. "You are everything I have ever desired in a partner."
He paid little attention to her look of surprise, his gaze drawn to the flush on her cheeks and the slight swelling to the lips he'd been kissing so fervently just moments before. "Sesshomaru—" she began, her voice trembling.
He took pride at how easily he could elicit a response from her body. After all, she could easily do the same with his own.
"I am aware that this is not the appropriate time to make such a request of you," he rumbled, enjoying how she shivered against him as his hands soothingly ran up and down her back with the lightest of caresses. "This is not the opportunity to fully make you mine, no matter how I might wish otherwise. Even now, I am confident that Itsetsuhiko is making his way to our location. But," he added, his voice dropping lower with the depth of his lust and affection for the tiny woman he held in his arms, "I can still bind your powers to mine and mine to yours before he reaches us. It will give us a much-needed advantage."
She inhaled sharply but didn't get the chance to reply because InuYasha bellowed, "What do you mean, the bastard is coming here?"
Shin studied Kagome with a shrewd eye. "Lady Kagome entered another trace to locate him and I imagine Itsetsuhiko is using the lingering traces of Kagome's reiki to track her here just as she used his yoki to locate him."
"Are you some kind of idiot?" InuYasha turned to glower at Kagome, his anger strong enough that the faintest twinge of red entered his eyes.
"Hey!" Kagome immediately protested, bristling at the insinuation. "I did it for a reason, thank you!"
Sesshomaru, on the other hand, privately agreed with his half-brother, though he wouldn't risk inflating InuYasha's ego by admitting as much.
Still, he felt uncomfortable that she'd so neatly side-stepped his question.
"Kagome," he rumbled, hoping to redirect her attention to his request. As he'd hoped, her gaze shifted back to meet his own and her lips parted with what he hoped would be a favorable response.
And yet, again he was interrupted, this time by the arrival of Totosai and Shiyuri, and he sighed in resignation. He would table the conversation with Kagome, at least until after they'd heard what wisdom the smith had of value to offer. He suspected that they could expect Itsetsuhiko's arrival by the following morning and so there was little point in wasting time locating another place to camp and defend when they could make better use of their time strategizing and defending the place they had now.
Totosai looked more than a little cross at being summoned by Sesshomaru. "Hmph. Back in my youth, the young had more respect for their elders," he groused as he stepped off of his bull yokai mount, though Sesshomaru noted with mild amusement that Totosai was careful to avoid direct eye contact with Sesshomaru himself.
Kagome scrambled off of Sesshomaru's lap and in the process, grazed a part of him that sent pleasure skittering up and down his spine. He forced himself to push the sensation back and focus on the plan.
There would be time enough later for everything he desired to do to and with his priestess but for now, he had to ensure her safety first. Yet he wouldn't allow her to fully pull away, either. Instead, he kept a clawed hand on her hip, securing her place beside him.
"Hi, Totosai!" she chirped, waving at the smith.
Totosai grunted a greeting.
Without preamble, Sesshomaru said, "You will tell us everything you know about the bisento Itsetsuhiko carries."
"Please," Kagome added, giving Sesshomaru a look of mild rebuke that he chose to ignore. The smith was, after all, his father's old vassal, not Sesshomaru's. "We've heard that it could be a weapon of the kami, though I think it's more likely that it's yokai in origin. And," she hesitated for a moment to bite down on her lower lip, "I suspect it's capable of draining yokai and holy powers and passing that strength onto its bearer."
Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes at the last bit of information he suspected Kagome had deliberately chosen to withhold until that moment. What other secrets has she been keeping from me? he mused, promising himself that, once they had a moment, he would ensure he uncovered each and every one.
It was, he suspected, the only way to keep her from harm.
"Hmm." Totosai stroked his beard for several moments. "There's a few weapons rumored to do that," he said after a moment.
Myoga coughed into his hand and then exchanged a look with Totosai. "You don't think...?"
Totosai gave a short shrug. "It's possible," he admitted carelessly, as though the conversational topic itself meant little to him.
Sesshomaru growled lowly and Totosai immediately stiffened at the sound of Sesshomaru's own displeasure.
"You said it was a bisento, correct?" Totosai blurted quickly and Sesshomaru quietly rumbled his own approval at how quickly Totosai had changed his attitude. At Kagome's nod, Totosai added. "I see. Your father knew of such a weapon, Lord Sesshomaru and Lord InuYasha. Tamashi no Ha—the blade of souls. It was wielded by the first Lord Tensan, a great moth yokai, and was said to be made from part of his own body as a manifestation of his own power." He scratched his chest absently in thought.
And moth yokai have been known to steal souls. Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed at Totosai, knowing there was more that the smith knew but had withheld.
Totosai swallowed and the hand holding his hammer tightened around its handle. "I have not seen it myself," he was quick to disclaim, "but your father did. He claimed that it absorbed the hoshi no tama of holy people and could even absorb the power of a yokai it slayed to boost its own power."
Yet another secret, Chichi-ue. Sesshomaru's lips quirked in a mirthless smile. Will I ever find an end to the secrets you have kept hidden?
Myoga folded his arms across his chest. "The Inu no Taisho entrusted the bisento to a temple of monks upon Lord Tensan's death." He shook his head in disappointment. "If Itsetsuhiko got his hands on such a weapon, it would be most dangerous, especially if he was able to obtain hoshi no tamas and the souls of yokai to power his blade."
"Keh. Why didn't the old man destroy it?" InuYasha shoved his hands into his sleeves.
Myoga stroked his chin. "The monks were supposed to do so." He sighed heavily. "Alas they must have found some other purpose for it."
"Such as repurposing it as a holy relic." Kagome frowned at the realization. "And in doing so, they set up a perfect situation for Itsetsuhiko to come in and take advantage of."
"It explains why the humans believe him to be a god." Miroku gave a sage nod of agreement. "The monks probably put the weapon on display as a weapon of the kami and when Itsetsuhiko was able to subdue its malevolent aura, they readily accepted him as one of the kami."
"I don't care about how humans see him." Toran folded her arms across her chest. "All I care about is how we defeat him," she hissed. "And a pointy stick will not stop me from rescuing my sister or from enacting my vengeance for his sins."
"You won't get the chance if I sink my claws into him first," Ayame growled from the log where she was nursing her son.
Miroku held his hands up in a calming gesture that did little to quell the mood. "Calm yourselves, friends. If we rush in, we risk allowing Itsetsuhiko to absorb more power through our deaths."
"How did the Inu no Taisho defeat Lord Tensan and the Tamashi no Ha?" Kagome spoke up before the situation dissolved further, though Sesshomaru made sure to rumble a warning to the others, one that Kagome herself would not pick up on.
"Don't know." Totosai flipped his hammer upside down and leaned on it. "Didn't think to ask."
Kagome pursed her lips in thought. "Well, does the Tamashi no Ha have a limitation to the amount of power it can possess?"
Totosai rocked back and forth on his hammer. "Can't say. Haven't seen it myself." He coughed into his free hand. "If that's all, I'll head back to—"
Useless. Sesshomaru's gaze narrowed and the smith swallowed heavily. "You will stay and ensure the weapons and armor of this army is ready for battle," Sesshomaru told the smith, letting Totosai see the faint green glow of his claws to ensure the smith would do as he was bade to do.
Totosai's eyes widened and then he sighed heavily, muttering under his breath as he stormed off to set up a makeshift forge.
"And you, flea," Sesshomaru said, turning his attention to Myoga, who swallowed heavily and choked out a 'yes' in response, "will tell us everything you know about Lord Tensan and the Tamashi no Ha."
The flea's mouth bobbed for a moment but he didn't dare argue. Instead, he settled down as everyone in the clearing moved closer to ensure they heard his every word. "Lord Tensan was a powerful moth yokai from the south. Unlike your honorable father, Lord Tensan carried little for human life and even less for yokai he saw as being too weak to survive. I'm sure the Tamashi no Ha was a manifestation of that feeling. He destroyed countless villages and hundreds of yokai and so your honorable father decided that he must be stopped."
"And so the old man slew him." InuYasha snorted.
Sesshomaru glared at his brother for a moment for the lack of respect in InuYasha's tone and address of their father.
Myoga bobbed his head in agreement. "And slew his two sons with him." He tucked both sets of hands into his sleeves. "After that, we didn't keep track of the bisento. The Inu no Taisho was still young and was in the middle of courting Sesshomaru's mother and never made it back to ensure the weapon was truly destroyed."
Though it had been foolish of his father, Sesshomaru could not find it in himself to blame his father for the distraction. In courting his own spouse, he'd learned the distractions it could drive a being to. Sesshomaru himself had thought of little else recently that did not in some way revolve around the priestess he so desired.
"Then we're back to square one." Kagome sighed loudly. "Without knowing much about the bisento, I'm not sure we can think of a way to destroy it on such short notice."
"Keh," InuYasha snorted as he flexed his claws. "Then we focus on the bastard himself. The asshole will never know what hit him."