"Well well. It looks like you've finally found the secret to the Tessaiga."

Everyone whirled around to look a the speaker, who was stepping out of the forest.

"Dad?"

"Your mother's looking for you," Inu no taisho said simply.

"What are you doing out here? How did you find this place, you've never been here."

"You're not the only two with good noses."

"Oh, great, you're superman, too?" Jaken whined from inside the shack. "This really bites."

"Jaken, will you get out of there?" Rin asked, trying to open the door, which Jaken had latched shut.

"Like hell!"

"How did you know about, you know, this?"

Sesshoumaru ignored his friends and focused on talking to his Dad.

"Your scent's changed for one. And when your mother told me-"

"She's not my mother."

"Quiet. When she told me about Inuyasha's ears I just put two and two together."

"Two and four hundred sixty five more like. Were you expecting this or something?"

"Well, sort of. You see-"

"Couldn't you have warned me! Look at this stuff! It's stuck on my face! If I had known I'd be stuck with it forever I would have painted something less…"

"Gay?" Jaken volunteered from inside the shack.

"… yeah."

"Well, if you'll let me talk for a minute without being interrupted, I'll explain a bit of this to you."

"A bit? How bout more than a bit."

"How bout you be quiet? Yes? Thank you. Okay, the reason this is happenign to you two is-"

"We're youkai!" Inuyasha said, swinging the sword around blindly.

"Look, do you want me to tell you or-" their father stopped. "Wait. How do you know that?"

"Mommy told me!"

"Izayoi…" he shook his head, smiling slightly. "Well, she wasn't supposed to, but I'm glad at least you can keep a secret."

"You mean he's not making it up?" Rin gasped. "That's so weird!"

"Uh… who're you?"

"I'm Rin. Nice to meet you, Mr. Sesshy's Dad." She extended her hand. He shook it a bit warily.

"Right. You're human, how'd you get wrapped up in this? I know I've never seen you before."

"I went to the concert with Sesshy and Jaken and Inuyasha yesterday." Rin ignored the slice-across-the-throat gesture Sesshoumaru was making. "I've never met them before that, so I wouldn't have met you, now would I?"

"Quit calling me Sesshy!" Sesshoumaru said, too loudly. "It's bad enough when-"

"Wait, a minute, you took your brother to a concert? Without telling me?"

"Uh… that is… I kinda…."

"Well, that was a waste."

"Huh? Why?"

"Do you know how hard I had to work to make sure you two were both stuck at home?"

"… huh?" Sesshoumaru, Rin, and Jaken asked in unison. Inuyasha had gotten bored with his sword and was chasing a grasshopper.

"Okay, back to the beginning. Last night, if you noticed, was a full moon. Nothing different there, except that this is the hundred thousandth full moon. Which wouldn't be a big deal for anyone who wasn't a youkai. See, every hundredth full moon, whatever youkai have been born since the last lose their human bodies and become youkai, or, in the case of your brother, hanyou. Got me so far?"

"I think so. So what about the stripes and the ears? Why won't they come off?"

"Every youkai has some defining mark on their body, normally on their faces, which identify them as youkai. These are genetic, there's nothing you can do about them. I'm not sure exactly why you and your brother picked according marks, but I'm sure there's a reason."

"How do you know it's genetic?"

"Because my mother had red stripes of that exact color, and I think her father had a moon like that. That was back in the sengoku jidai, so I don't remember him well."

"Really? The feudal era? Sweet!" Rin looked at Inu no taisho, her eyes sparkling. "You guys are pretty much immortal, then, right?"

"Heh. No. Once we hit our first hundredth moon, we age a lot slower, but we do age. And we can, of course, be killed. Though Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha and I have little to worry for about that. There are very few dai youkai left. A few lesser demons, but they're mostly in hiding."

"There's other demons? Like who? Do you know any?" Rin looked like she was about to bubble over with questions.

"There's only half a handful. I could rattle them off for you, but… let's see… you're probably too young to remember George Bush Sr. so no, you wouldn't know any of them."

"And you didn't see fit to tell us about this Great Change… why?"

"Great Change? Heh, son, you'll see the Great Change soon enough."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Well, for one, I wasn't sure it would happen. The ancient majicks are going a bit haywire lately, but mostly because you wouldn't believe me and I didn't feel like proving it when I could just wait."

"I guess that makes sense…"

"So what's your mark, Mr. Sesshy's Dad?"

"I don't show mine most of the time."

"You don't have to show it? How do you do that?"

"Lots of practice. You'll learn, kiddo. Right now you're too used to being human. Wait on it."

"Great. Waiting. Exactly his strong point," Jaken said from inside the shack. "Any idea as to where I got MY marks from?"

"I dunno Jaken, your mom's pretty ugly," Sesshoumaru joked.

"SHUT UP!"

"Come out here and make me!"

"Like hell!"

"You don't have to come out," Sesshoumaru said. "I think I hear someone coming."

Right now I've missed not only Inuyasha but Fullmetal Alchemist, and there's a new chapter of HanyouEXE waiting and I've got 20 out of 60 more avatars to upload onto my website. I have pushed all these things aside in order to write for you.

Review, please? (puppy eyes)