Sesshomaru was awake and staring into the sliver of a moon, in his arms lay the sleeping Rin, the only other light was coming from the shop as Valson finished the Dark Tetsusaiga, the light finally went out there too as Valson headed in for the night. The Dark Tetsusaiga would be finished by morning, and the Tentsume wouldn't take but a day to carve.

Sesshomaru would be able to go after Inuyasha the evening after tomorrow, when the moon would be vacant from the sky...

Rin stirred in her sleep. Sesshomaru stroked her hair gently; Rin curled herself deeper into Sesshomaru's arms. The last candles were blown out and the only light for miles was the sliver of moonlight. Rin sighed in her sleep, whispering for Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru felt very awkward suddenly, emotions he wasn't sure how to deal with plagued him. He lowered his head slightly, and kissed Rin on the forehead, then held her a little tighter, letting Rin rest her head on his shoulder...

Anikai watched from a distance as Inuyasha sat by the well, he turned to Miroku nearby, "Does he always do that?"

Miroku nodded, "He cares for the girl, but he's yet to truly express his feelings. They fight like bitter rivals, but it's just how they show their feelings."

Anikai pursed his lips, "Strange people..."

Miroku stood up and bowed politely before walking back to the village.

"I wonder what he's up too," Shippo pondered aloud.

"You, you are a Kitsune Youkai, yes?"

"Kit-sune- I'm a fox demon."

Anikai smiled with a mild chuckle, "Kitsune is fox, young one."

"Well- are you making fun of me?"

"No little one, I am making light conversation. I know, why don't you tell me of your adventures with these friends of yours, and tell me of this- Nuraku, who it seems was killed."

"Well Nuraku was this big meanie, he was a human at first, but he let himself be devoured by a whole bunch of demons and they came together to become Nuraku."

"Mazeru Youkai, I've heard tales of such, but I've met very few, and none with much success in their form, Nuraku was lucky indeed that he lived this long, and to be as powerful as to create a curse such as the Kazaana."

"Kazaana?"

"The hole that would have been in your monk-friend's hand."

"Oh, Nuraku gave that to Miroku's grandfather, and it passed down to him."

"So what other powers did this Nuraku posses."

"He could shape shift, he set Inuyasha against the priestess Kikyo 50 years ago, and made Sango think Inuyasha destroyed her village, and he made these offspring demons that smell like him, the woman, Kagura, she was one of them."

Anikai brought his index and thumb to his chin, "And what of the woman from the modern era, this- Kagome?"

"Well, she's a nice enough person I guess, she's always bringin' us stuff back from the future era. She Kikyo reincarnated, and she can sense the jewel shards."

"So what can you do, little Kitsune."

"I can do my fox fire."

Anikai gave a slightly unreadable expression, "Your father didn't really get the chance to train you to fight much did he?"

"Well... no."

It was evening when Meiyakouto awoke from his jet-lagged sleep. He came out into the living room and sat across from his uncle.

"Where do I start?"

"Lets start with how."

"I fell down a rabbit hole of sorts, went back into the feudal era, found my roots, got some power, and a weapon, speaking of, that sort of why I'm here."

"You want the Mizukiba."

"Hai."

"I can't give it to you."

"I have as much right to it as YOU, and I found a way to awaken my Demon blood, I WANT what's mine." Meiyakouto pulled out the Umikokoro, it expanded to its full size. "Are you going to give me the Mizukiba, or am I going to have to FULLY demonstrate the vast difference in our powers."

The power emanating from the Umikokoro came off in waves as it paled his uncle Alfred's unawakened power. Alfred went into the closet muttering something before he opened it, turns, and proclaimed, "You picked the wrong night to fuck with me you little shit."

Alfred pulled out the Mizukiba and at first it stayed in it's sword from, after a moment, Alfred's hair went from a speckled black and gray, to a sheer blue to match Meiyakouto's, his teeth became sharp as well as his fingernails which became claws. Suddenly the sword in his hands glowed, and became massive, even larger than the Umikokoro. Alfred gave a grunt as he strained to hold the sword. Meiyakouto gave a chuckle.

"I see, the sword alone isn't enough to awaken your blood, but the sword on the night of the lunar cycle when your demon blood is at its most potent. Guess what though, it's not fully awakened, and all I have to do is disarm you, which I assure you I am quite able to do.

"Mizu- Tsume!" Meiyakouto had the Umikokoro touching the ground, holding it with only one hand, while he slashed the air with his other, the slash had a physical effect on the air around them and gashed into Alfred's arm, causing him to loosen his grip on the Mizukiba. Letting the end of the Mizukiba touch the ground, Alfred kept his grip on it.

"I guess you were wrong."

"Was I," Meiyakouto closed his fist and the gashes in Alfred's arm seared with further pain, as he moved one hand to clasp over the gashes, one hand wasn't strong enough for Alfred to hold the Mizukiba. It instantly fell back to its thinner Nodatchi form. Meiyakouto walked over and grabbed the Mizukiba in one hand and it transformed, he swung it through the air as easily as he had the Umikokoro, which he had sheathed while walking towards the sword. He picked up his uncle by the collar, "I'll be leaving tomorrow, pray you never get in my way again."

Meiyakouto threw Alfred back, after he picked himself off, he fumed, but appraised the situation and decided to retreat with what little dignity he had left to him. Meiyakouto took the sheath for the Mizukiba and slung the sheathed Mizukiba over his back. He realized Alfred's wife had simply sat watching the whole time. She was obviously younger than Alfred, perhaps in her early thirties. Meiyakouto himself was about 28, though he only looked about 21 or so. She had a metal bracelet on with a chain link dangling towards him.

"After all this searching I'm finally witness to fully awakened demon blood," she rises and comes towards Meiyakouto, "of course Alfred neglected to introduce me, Lilith. He knew why you were he from the start, why else would you show up here after ten years of, for all we knew, seclusion. He knew your demon blood would have been at least partially awoken, that's why he let you wait till tonight to explain."

Lilith had worked her arms around Meiyakouto and was already sliding off his jacket when he finally took notice. "Hands," he yelped, his voice shooting into a little shriek.

"Don't you get it, I've been waiting for you, I knew it would come from the only other blood line that could trace it's roots," Lilith had managed to back Meiyakouto into a corner, her aggressiveness was starting to scare him, and he feared where this was leading.

"But- my uncle-..."

"Was a fool," she firmly grasped his wrist and pinned it to a wall. Meiyakouto tried to move, despite all his power, he only seemed to be fueling her strength. Realizing at last, his own Youki, his demonic aura, was flowing into her...

Her hair had been just above her shoulders, it had slid down to just past them, and the brown locks turned a black cherry red. Her teeth became slightly sharper, but not as sharp as his. Her nails grew out half an inch and sharpened, but did not become claws. Her eyes also turned from brown to the same black cherry red as her hair.

It seemed the longer he stayed in her presence the more powerful she'd become, but to make it worse, she seemed to want more than his power. Her hands crept up his shirt and brushed against his nipples. She came back down and began to undo the buttons on his shirt, the white shirt parting to expose the pale skin. Between the mix of passionate and lustful emotions he was smelling off of her, and the sheer rage and indigence he was getting from his uncle in the other room, his mild fear was completely drowned out, the emotions he was smelling were overpowering. The last blow to his senses came when Lilith kissed him. It wasn't passionate, or even really deep, but it was enough that now she was the only thing he could smell, the only thing he could taste, beyond her was a blur- but he needed to get beyond her. But even thinking beyond her was becoming a haze. She broke from the kiss then moved her chin to his neck and began rubbing her cheek on his jaw, nuzzling his neck, she came down to his collarbone and gently sucked on the flesh between, she kissed his chest, and the moved over and lightly bit down on his left nipple.

Meiyakouto's mind screamed 'NO,' but replied to itself, 'no what.' Thinking was becoming difficult, something in the aura she was giving off and back to him was slowing his senses, paralyzing his mind, all but the most primitive instincts, it hadn't been there before- her powers were being awakened by his energy. The more he wanted to resist, the less he knew what he was resisting. Lilith's fingers traced down to his waist, he hardly felt the denim as it slid off. She stroked his thighs before grabbing his still covered erection.

He managed to yelp out as she squeezed a little too firmly. He winced as she grinded her own hips against his member. He didn't know what to think as he heard the sound of flesh and cloth tearing, he looked up at Lilith in time to see the black, bat-like wings sprout from her back, she closed them around the two of them, her shirt falling, torn, beneath them. Without meaning to, he was staring strait at her breasts, He bit he own lips, holding his mouth shut, he could taste his own blood as he broke the sensitive skin. Lilith seemed to rise on her toes, as her breast pressed into Meiyakouto's face, tears finally came down, from his eyes, and onto her breasts, curving down the flesh and over the stiffening nipples. His mind was at sea, his thoughts at the other end of the ocean, if he could only swim through this cloud of haze in his mind, maybe the world would become clearer around him, but all he could see was black, white, red, and pink. The black of her wings, the white of her flesh, the red of her hair and eyes, as well as the little light that came through the thin flesh wings, the pink of all her more sensitive areas. He involuntarily opened his mouth and moaned as she began stroking his cock, she pressed her chest harder into his face, her chin pressing onto his forehead. His knees buckled and the two of them came down, his lips pressing onto one of Lilith's nipples, one of her hands holding firmly onto his erection, the other finally releasing his wrist and sliding onto his back. He felt his back pressed against the wall as she brought her neck to his lips, the two close to equal in height, she took his member and guided it into her moist warmth. His mouth opened in an 'o', but no sound came, tears still slipping down his face, he kissed her neck, his body joining in her rhythm as they rocked against each other. He even lightly bit into her neck, blood slipping down her body. She gasped, but not a pained one, she kissed his jaw's edge once more, then stretched her neck, to both give him a better exposure to hers and to give her a path to his as she returned the favor and bit down on his flesh, he groaned as his body neared climax.

Before he finally came, she stopped and pulled him back flinging him around, now lying on his back, she sat atop him. She leaned forward and rubbed her neck into his erection as she moved past it and bit into his thigh. Meiyakouto looked up as her hips rose slightly while she moved between biting and kissing him, Meiyakouto rose his neck and head, burying his head between her legs, she gasped as he nibbled the flesh of her thighs, then moved deeper, and slid his tongue between the pink flesh and kissed her womanhood deeply. She slid her lips over his erection and he tensed, his member throbbed, just waiting for the final release. He sucked in hard as he finally came, and was rewarded with her climax soon after.

She went down again and kept his member aroused, but it was then that another sent finally entered his mind, clearing some of the haze. He looked up to see his uncle looking sternly down at his wife and Meiyakouto. Meiyakouto recognized that his hair was again blue, his teeth and claws sharp, and his muscles more tightly bound to his bones. The swords were both still in the corner less than a foot from where she landed him when they came onto the ground.

Lilith looked up at her transformed husband and seemed to immediately overlook the barely coherent form beneath her. She seemed filled with joy and expectation. She rose up from Meiyakouto and into her husband's arms, covering him with kisses. Meiyakouto was doing his best to get the three forms of her floating above him to merge back into the single real image. Her power's effects were waning on him now that she was in her husband's arms. When Meiyakouto squinted his eyes he could see strait for the moment, he managed to at least sit up and reach for his clothes in the corner. Before actually slipping into them he turned to his uncle, he and Lilith were on the couch in a far more passionate looking expression than what she'd down with him, his powers were returning and he could hear the whispers. He looked away before he could find himself entranced, he dressed, and rose to his feet.

Making a hasty retreat, he decided he didn't want to remember any of the experience and would just as soon pretend it never happened and that he happened upon the sword by accident. He checked out a hotel room only so he could shower, and slept there only because he had checked it out.

When he at last awoke in the morning, the hotel had a message for him, 'keep the sword, payment for 'services rendered''. He shuddered at the memories that crept over his body. He knew they had meant more than the things Uncle Alfred's wife had done, he meant the awakening of his uncle's demon blood, but the message had been suggestive to the other actions as well. He had shown Alfred a part-demon's power, and lead him to awakening it, but Lilith has used his body, not just for physical pleasure, but for the power, she obviously fed off the energy he gave off both in resisting and as he at last broke and gave into his body's primal desires. He didn't bother to rush for the toilet as he simply leaned away from the bed and retched onto the floor. His body collapsed again as his mind plagued itself with the memories of last night. He couldn't move for the moment, his head over one side of the bed, retching, his legs sprawled off the other side. His muscles tightened and ached.

Sesshomaru didn't recall sleeping, just awaking with Rin still in his arms and the sun now breaking the sky. As Sesshomaru stilled, so did Rin.

"Ohaiyo Gozaimasu, Sesshomaru-sama."

"Ossu, Rin."

Sesshomaru was looking into Rin's eyes, all the brilliant, sparkling energy just dazzled him. That something so small could hold such power over him, it made him feel suddenly smaller.

"Sesshomaru-sama," Jaken snapped Sesshomaru from his reverie in time to notice Valson returning to his shop. Sesshomaru guided Rin off of his lap and headed into the shop behind Valson.

"Valson-san."

"What."

"I think you also hide behind a façade."

"Pardon."

"I've watched you each morning, you enjoy your craft, why then did you give it up, simply creating a powerful sword is no reason to quit, even if you felt you could never create a better one, it doesn't matter if you do, so long as you create you bring value to yourself and to others."

"People would come in day after day asking me to better my best."

"And the more you tried, the more often you could improve your best."

"People rarely bring me the materials to make better swords."

"So, simply make it a requirement, post a sign of some sort stating that if you want a better sword, to bring in better materials."

"And if I never do best the Mizukiba and your Dark Tetsusaiga?"

"Would it really bother you, knowing that you accomplished your best, that you tried to do better, even though you couldn't? If you don't keep trying, you'll never know if you can top them."

"What happened to your hate of human and hanyou?"

"What happened to your hate of youkai?"

Valson smirked and sighed, "Tomorrow, I go to town and re-open my shop."

When Sesshomaru came out of the shop, he noticed the crowd he's drawn, each of Valson's charges smiled at him, "Do not take me wrong, good talents should never go to waste."

Later that afternoon Valson brought out the Dark Tetsusaiga, and while Sesshomaru got a feel for it, Valson quickly crafted the Tentsume, even faster than Sesshomaru expected, because Valson had rediscovered his passions. Sesshomaru took the bokken and turned to Rin, "Each night, I and Jaken will teach you to defend yourself with this, and when you have enough skill with it, you will carry it yourself."

Rin danced along, circling in front of, then around and behind Sesshomaru, as the group left Valson's cabin...