Chapter 21

The red light of the twilight hours of the day illuminated the figure of the great Lord of the Western lands as he made his way through the countryside. Unlike most occasions he traveled alone, for he knew that where he was going, his vassal or his human pup would nothing but a hindrance.

He followed Seishi's scent through the forest and arrived at a sight that made his eyes widen. An entire village slaughtered. Barely a soul reminded alive save of the odd young child that clung to the bodies of his or her parents. Sesshoumaru sorted Seishi's scent out of the heavy stench of blood and death that hung over the village as he walked forward through the village following the scent.

As Sesshoumaru passed through the village he couldn't help but look around at the destruction that had been wrought on this village. He knew what had happened here, how could he not? Her scent was everywhere. He couldn't help but feel some disgust at what Seishi had done. It was not like he Sesshoumaru, really cared what happened the humans, but there was no reason for this kind of slaughter without just cause, and he couldn't imagine any offence these people had inflicted upon Seishi.

A sad wail turned Sesshoumaru's attention over by one of the house were a young girl was crying over her dead mother. Sesshoumaru looked at the child for a moment. He could help but think she looked an awful lot like Rin. Then he felt Tenseiga pulse within his belt. Sesshoumaru looked down at the sword his father had left him. "Tenseiga, I tire of lending you my body to satisfy your dire to undo the misery of these humans." He said walking past the weeping child. As he passed the child looked up and saw Sesshoumaru, squealed and went quickly for cover. Sesshoumaru didn't think much of it. After what Seishi had done it was no surprise that the child feared him, as she should.

Seishi, the thought of her brought images into Sesshoumaru mind. Images of what the sane Seishi, the Seishi he had come to know and care for so much, would think of this slaughter. The real Seishi would never be able to live with herself after such a slaughter, even if she were under the influence of an outside source. Tenseiga pulsed again, Sesshoumaru growled at it, "Silence, a sword should mind it's own business and never say anything."

Tenseiga still insisted and pulsed again and even began shaking in Sesshoumaru's belt. Sesshoumaru placed his hand on the hilt to quiet his noisy sword. Then he saw it, the enormous black hole in the sky. It wasn't a hole that sucks everything inside it like the hole in the right hand of the houshi that traveled with his half blood brother, but rather an opening, to another dimension. He knew it because he could see the pallbearers of the underworld scrambling out of the hole to drag the souls of the slain villages to the underworld. Sesshoumaru watched at the greedy imps dragged one mortal after another toward the void. Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes. He remembered the pall bears that had attempted to drag Rin away back when he had only just recently meet the little girl. He couldn't say exactly why but he hated these dirty imps. The very imps that had once tired to take Seishi away from him as well…

Sesshoumaru grabbed Tenseiga's hilt and pulled the blade out. He faced the hole and concentrated. Suddenly he swung his blade at the hole. A bright white energy wave ripped out from Tenseiga and collided with the hole. From the light spread out in a sweeping motion and every pallbearer that was touched by the wave disintegrated into dust. Soon the wave cleared and the void in the sky closed. All around him the people of the village began to stand up and shake the confusion out of their heads. The little Rin look-alike couldn't hold back her tears as he mom opened her eyes and sat up.

Sesshoumaru sheathed his sword and turned to get back to the task at hand. As he walked away his keen ears picked up the sound of little footsteps behind him. He looked back over his shoulder and was the little girl there.

"Onii-sama, arigatou!" the girls said bowing to him, her big eyes brimming with awe at this mysterious man that had just banished the specter of death from her village. Sesshoumaru said nothing and walked away his heart somehow feeling a little lighter

Seishi smirked down at her brother, the blade of the Kitoiga pierced clean through his right shoulder… his Semperforte having been knocked from his grasp and now lying in the dirt yards away. "Do you really think you could beat me when you had no will to kill me? Your hesitation to seriously harm this body was your downfall, Alexander…" She twisted her blade some so it widened his wound… and it wasn't the only one he had received in the fight.

Alexander struggled to get back up, "Indeed, you ability to defeat an man in his sister's body is impressive…"

Seishi lofted a brow at him pushing himself up farther on her blade by moving… then she had to laugh at his words, "Silly boy… Do you think Craven in controlling me? Oh no, no, dear boy! Though he may have had a hand in it… what you see before you is your sister… only not burdened by the weaknesses of concern, compassion, love… hmph! All were her weaknesses… she never fought to her fullest because she always lacked the willingness to harm others seriously unless she had no other choice… I speak of her and I separately, because I'm that part of her she always kept locked away… That part of her demonic nature that thirsts for power and blood… No Alexander… what you see before is your sister… just a part of her you never knew was there…"

Alexander looked up at Seishi, "So you'll kill me, your own brother now?"

Seishi narrowed her red and violet eyes at him and smiled, "If you insist in getting in my way... yes..."

Alexander shook his head, "while you go and slaughter more humans? Seishi, you of all people should know that the ability to kill the weak is not a show of strength or power, it shows a weak and cowardly heart…"

Seishi chuckled, "Oh that wasn't for power… that was just for fun…" planted her foot against his chest and pushed, pulling her blade free of his shoulder.

Alexander winced as the blade was cruelly ripped out of his shoulder, "It still makes you nothing more then a murderess and bully…"

Seishi smiled, "I suppose so… oh well…" she turned and started to walk away, "Do yourself a favor… and stay down a while… and don't follow me…" She left her brother lying there in his own blood; she had wasted enough time with him…

Seishi lofted a brow as she came across yet another quaint little village… The little humans going about their daily lives… no clue that they could soon be dead if Seishi so fancied it… "Heh…."

Footsteps came up from behind Seishi, "You seem to be a doing a good job of making a complete and utter fool out of yourself…"

Seishi narrowed her eyes, but didn't turn just yet, "Oh? Decided to leave your castle and see the fun I've been having?" She turned around and smirked, face markings still wide and jagged, eyes still red with purple irises. "You going to stand in my way as well now? I've already had to deal with Alexander…"

Sesshoumaru's expression remained his emotionless mask; "I know I can smell you brother's blood on you in addition of the blood of many others. I do not particularly care about any humans you have killed but to strike down the brother you seemed so fond of..."

Seishi chuckled, "I warned him not to try and stop me…" looked at her claws, "He's still alive… well when I left him he was…"

Sesshoumaru took a few steps forward, "Oh and where are you off to now with that blood stained blade of yours?"

Seishi looked over at him, "Not sure yet… but I am thinking on it…" glanced over at the village below. "I would ask for suggestions… but you're rather soft… with that little human pup of yours… and that annoying toad you keep around…"

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow, "Soft? I remember not to long you spewing out a whole load of ideology that said that 'humans aren't bad' and can 'surprise you if you give them a chance.' Now you have decided to chance you mind because of the influence of one petty demon?"

Seishi smirked, "The Seishi you knew was soft as well… with her idealism and her lack of will to fight to kill… I'm the dark part of her demonic nature she never indulged in… I have no need for feeling concern or compassion for others, or petty emotions like love and regret… Now those hindering feelings are locked away and I'm all that's left…" tilted her head, "Is it so wrong I wanted to stretch my claws a little?"

Sesshoumaru smirked, "the thinking and reasoning of a low class demon. To think one how was so noble to have fallen that far. You've disgraced everything that you were. You're no different from Naraku."

Seishi lofted a brow at him, "Aren't you just flattering…" looked down at the village, "If you came here to tell me that, then you wasted your time…" looked back at him and smirked, "The part of Seishi you seem to prefer is locked away and I am not about to go back to being the part of herself she keeps restrained."

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes and flexed his claws, "then I will have to kill you rather then see you disgrace yourself even more…"

"Sounds fun…" Seishi smirked… that was what she wanted, a real fight with Sesshoumaru, no holding back on either side… kill or be killed… pure adrenaline and battle lust… Seishi turned so she was facing Sesshoumaru, drawing Kitoiga from her side; the blade pulsed with dark energy as she moved it to a ready position…

Sesshoumaru wasted no time and lunged at Seishi his hand glowing bright green with his poison.

Seishi ducked back and brought up her blade to block, "Do you really think you can take me with just your claw attacks? I would have much preferred this fight when you still had your sword... Doesn't really seem fair..." She let a bit of the power stored in Kitoiga go, slashing it at Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru quickly sidestepped the attack knowing he was at a disadvantage now he no longer had his Tokijin so he intended to fight this battle at very close range to limit the amount to which Seishi could use Kitoiga. He then suddenly vanished and appeared above Seishi slashing down at her with his claws.

Seishi smirked... he had another disadvantage as well... he only had one arm… and she was not above using it against him... As he came down, she lifted her blade with one hand, blocking his attack, letting Kitoiga absorb any energy he had behind it... At the same instant she lashed out with her other hand to try and catch him with her claws.

Sesshoumaru kicked out with his feet as Seishi tried to slash at him catching her in the face. He used the force of the blow to propel himself away from Seishi and he landed a few feet away.

Seishi stumbled back a little from the blow, her free hand to her face… she dropped her hand and spit a little blood off to the side from a split lip, "Heh… agile, aren't we?" Wasted no time… unleashed an energy wave attack with Kitoiga while there was some distance between them.

Sesshoumaru cursed as he realized his mistake and jumped to the side to avoid the attack. This simple would not do. He needed a weapon. He looked down at his Tenseiga, the only sword at his disposal right now. He could hardly even call it better then nothing but maybe it would be useful in staving off the Kitoiga. He drew Tenseiga from its sheath and faced Seishi.

Seishi lofted a brow… she had never seen Sesshoumaru use the Tenseiga… she had heard about it from Myoga, but had never seen it used… "You will fight me with a weapon that can not kill? Heh…" she darted forward… bring the fight to him.

Sesshoumaru rushed forward to meet Seishi and the Kitoiga clashed with Tenseiga. At the blade clashed Sesshoumaru noticed something interesting. The Kitoiga was not absorbing any energy from the Tenseiga, in fact it seemed to be losing power at the healing sword drove out the youki that was stored in Seishi's sword.

Seishi noticed this too, and it wasn't long after they swords made contact that she jumped back, growling… Black tentacles of energy wrapping around her became more visible… the energy was flowing from the dark pulsating Kitoiga in her hand; it was as if the sword was angry about the reaction it had with the Tenseiga.

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes as he finally came to realize what was happening. He gave Kitoiga a harsh blow that knocked it back. "That swords has absorbed far too much evil youki. You should let go of it."

Seishi growled as she jumped back again… the strikes from Tenseiga made Kitoiga shudder in her grip. "Not a chance…"

Sesshoumaru pointed his blade at Seishi, "Then I will shatter that worthless hunk of metal…"

Seishi narrowed her red and violet eyes at Sesshoumaru… "Why don't you just forget the sword and fight me!" she sprang forward and lashed out with a downward slash, she wanted to end this.

Sesshoumaru slammed his blade against the Kitoiga and then began repeatedly smashing Tenseiga against Kitoiga. The whine of the swords drowned out most of the other noises of battle and Sesshoumaru could feel Kitoiga's youki dropping.

Seishi cursed and sprang away again, the Kitoiga wasn't going to be able to take much more of this kind of beating… something about that Tenseiga was weakening it with every blow. She growled… she needed time to find a better strategy… "We'll finish this another time…" she turned to be off.

Sesshoumaru suddenly lunged forward at Seishi not giving her a chance for escape. Then he placed Tenseiga's hilt between his teeth and lash out with his energy whip. The whip wrapped around Seishi's wrist anchoring her to Sesshoumaru and burning the flesh around her wrist.

Seishi snarled with rage as she tried to spring away to keep some distance between them, but couldn't because of the searing whip around her wrist. Well you couldn't say Sesshoumaru didn't think outside the box when it came to a fight. She switched hands putting Kitoiga in her free hand; she would meet Sesshoumaru's attack instead of waiting for him to come to her.

At the last second Sesshoumaru yank forward with all his might jerking Seishi towards him and snatched Tenseiga out of his teeth and aimed the blade at the middle of Kitoiga's blade. His jerk pulled her forward so she wasn't able to get good footing, but their blades met, clashing loudly… there was a sound almost like a 'ping' as the pressure finally reached a breaking point, and Kitoiga was snapped in two under the Tenseiga.

Seishi's eyes widened in shock… the dark tentacles of energy moved around wildly but they were drawing away from Seishi now. Whatever was going on with the sword, his breaking it seemed to sever its hold on Seishi. Almost instantaneously, the red drained from her eyes and the violet returned to her silvery-blue, but then her face paled and her body bulked, going limp as her eyes closed and she fell toward the ground.

The swirls of energy solidified for moment then zipped away before Sesshoumaru could react. He sheathed Tenseiga and walked over to where Seishi lay. He crotched down next to her, Seishi didn't so much as twitch… She was pale and her demon youki was very low. The only physically sign she was even alive was her breathing and her heartbeat that only someone with as good as dog demon's hearing could pick up. The sword had been drawing energy from Seishi's victims, but it had also been feeding off Seishi's own youkai and even tapped into her life force, and now that it was gone, it left her body and spirit weak and her mind harmed by the stress of what happened.

"Next time you lose your senses and honor, this Sesshoumaru will kill you," he picked her up and put her in her usual spot, over his shoulder and headed for home.

(To Be Continued)