A/N: Posted early! What can I say? I've been working on this fic for a couple weeks, and am just now doing the final editing of the chapters I've finished, and now I'm finally posting it online... I'm all excitable - I couldn't wait to put up the second chapter (forsaking the pile of homework that I should be doing instead..)!

Chapter Two - Just the Usual Security Measures...

With Ah-Uhn stabled and Jaken looking after Rin - a convenient way to busy him, Maina thought - Maina met Sesshoumaru outside, and they set out on their 'usual tour around the forest.' Walking along the concealed path, side by side, it would easily take them about twenty or thirty minutes to reach their destination, so the two of them took the time to catch up.

"It's been such a long time since you last came to visit me, Sesshoumaru.," Maina began, looking forward rather than at him.

"Yes, nearly a year, I believe. Much has happened since last I saw you, Maina," he replied, dropping the formalities. He kept his eyes ahead as well.

"Did the staff of heads lead you to the Tetsusaiga, as you were told it would?"

"Yes, and a good thing. It was quite well hidden from me."

"Where was it?"

"In my father's tomb. And the tomb itself? It turns out they hid it in the hanyou's pupil, of all places..," he said, turning his head to her with a smirk. She smiled.

"As Totosai said, the sword wasn't made for you."

"Yes, he made that quite clear.. But no matter, I could not even touch it."

"Ah, so a spell was put on it?"

"Of sorts. Only those with human blood can touch it."

"A lost cause, after all that searching…"

"Well, almost. I managed to attach to myself a human arm once, with a shard of the Shikon jewel inside, and almost took it from the whelp.."

"The Shikon jewel? Oh, that's right, I heard that it had reappeared recently… Wait a second! Did you say you attached the arm to yourself?"

"Oh, of course, I didn't tell you that part.."

"What part?" she asked suspiciously. Sesshoumaru slid up his left sleeve, revealing a lesser youkai's arm, a bit shorter than his right arm was, which had been completely hidden by the long sleeve until then. Maina put a hand to her mouth, shocked. Once she regained her composure enough to speak, she said only one word.

"…How?"

"Hmmph. That was the whelp's doing as well - and he did it with the Tetsusaiga, no less. They call that karma, don't they?"

"You mean to say that Inuyasha was released from that spell he was under?"

"Yes, shortly after I began my search with the staff."

'So he's awake at last..,' she mused. "And he.. Cut off your arm?" she choked out, still in disbelief over it. He gave her a mischievous little grin.

"How do you like the new one? Killed its owner just yesterday."

"I… I hate it! It's beneath you! It.. it sullies your perfect body!" she cried, not realizing what she'd said until a second or two after it had escaped her lips. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks, but she remained strong. She crossed her arms haughtily. "Get rid of it. I don't want some dead creature's hand touching me."

"As you wish," he said, smirking as he ripped the arm off, leaving just a stump behind. He did it without care, as if he'd done the same countless times over, and did not even stop walking as he tore it away from his own flesh. Maina flinched a little, seeing what was left of his arm, but said nothing. "Are you sure you prefer the absence of an arm to the arm of a lesser creature?"

"Yes, definitely..," she trailed. The two of them looked ahead again. "Now then, please continue with your story. Did Inuyasha wield the sword the way Totosai described?"

"No, he just swung it around like a barbarian.. It took him a while simply to learn how to make it change into its true form."

"But he kept it?"

"Yes, and he has since learned the Kaze no Kizu technique - the attack which can slay 100 youkai at once - which has made him more successful in battle of course, but his fighting style is no better for it."

"So it's true then - it's as powerful as the old man said. But what about.."

"The Tenseiga?"

"Yes."

"It lived up to Totosai's praise as well."

"But you said before that it didn't work.."

"I didn't know then what exactly it was meant to do. But I assure you, it does work."

"What does it do then?" Sesshoumaru turned, looking her in the eye now.

"You said you wished me to tell you how I ended up with Rin?" Maina simply nodded, intrigued by the unfolding mysteries of the two swords, but also curious to know where he was going with this. He turned forward once again, pausing momentarily. "That was the Tenseiga's doing."

"What do you mean? It healed her?"

"It resurrected her," he said simply, focusing on some object in the distance as he spoke. Maina, now staring wide-eyed at him, replied only with silence, so he elaborated. "I was injured in battle - a battle against Inuyasha, incidentally - and Rin happened to find me in the woods." Another pause. "She.. Brought me food and water, though I tried to tell her that I did not eat human food.. Anyway, a pack of wolves attacked the village where she lived, and she was killed. I found her body on the forest path that led to the village, and.."

"You used the Tenseiga to bring her back to life?"

"Yes. When I wield it, I can see the creatures from the underworld - the ones that come to take a person's soul when they die. The Tenseiga has the power to slay them, thus the soul remains and the person comes back to life." He glanced over at her, his face expressionless. He had only told her the facts of the matter, so why was she smiling at him like that?

"You saved her life. A little human girl - you saved her.," Maina said, unable to keep the joy from her voice.

"I did no such thing. I was merely testing the abilities of my sword," he said coldly, matter-of-factly. But she knew better.

"So why do you keep her around, if she is merely an experiment?"

"I don't keep her around. She followed me once she was resurrected - I simply allowed it. She could walk off at any time if she wished to do so, it would make no difference to me." He replied, avoiding Maina's face as he spoke. Fighting the huge grin that threatened to stretch across her face, she quieted, deciding to drop the subject for now. She studied him once again, only noticing then that there was a second sword at his side. That seemed a good enough topic to switch to.

"I see you've gotten yourself a new sword since your last visit. I take it that one does not have a benign purpose?"

Sesshoumaru ran his fingers over the hilt. "This is the Toukijin. I had it made from the fangs of a youkai who bit the Tetsusaiga in half."

Maina's eyes grew as large as saucers. "Bit it?"

"It was repaired, in case you're curious, but the incident did give me the power to oppose it."

"I see. But what kind of youkai was it that had the power to break the Tetsusaiga?"

"It was one of many incarnations of a powerful hanyou called Naraku."

"Naraku.. I believe I've heard that name spoken by travelers before. It carries a sinister connotation," she pondered aloud. "But you say he's a hanyou?"

"He's actually composed of countless lesser youkai and a single human, so perhaps hanyou is not the appropriate term. However, he holds many Shikon jewel shards. I believe that's why he's able to create separate youkai incarnations from himself to do his bidding for him. He's Inuyasha's enemy - though he has crossed my path on occasion. He gives the whelp a difficult time, but he's quite a nuisance to me as well, actually. And he has such arrogance for a worthless creature like himself."

Maina chuckled lightly. 'Arrogance, you say?'

About that time, they came upon an unremarkable section of woodland, quite a ways off the beaten path. Maina waved her hand across in the air near a certain tree, one that hadn't changed in the many decades it had been there, and her hand passed right through it. The tree and the air around it shimmered and rippled where she'd touched the edge of the barrier.

"We're here."

"You don't have to tell me - I can't count how many times you've led me here," he said with a sly smile - the type of smile she was accustomed to seeing him make, especially when they came here. The two of them walked through the barrier and the landmark tree. Once they had passed, the tree became realistic again, an unremarkable old tree in the woods.

Within the camouflage barrier, the landscape was much different. There was, in reality, a natural clearing here with a small stream running through it, in which Maina had had a small hut built, hidden away from the world. They walked inside, stepping into the main room - a large bedroom containing a wide, luxurious bed with silken sheets of white and scarlet red. Off to the side the second room could be seen, a smaller one almost entirely taken up by a large wooden tub - large enough for several people to bathe in at once.

'I haven't come to her forest in nearly a year, and yet this place has managed to stay in pristine condition - not a speck of dust anywhere,' Sesshoumaru pondered. 'She's been waiting, actively waiting.. How many times has she visited this hut within the last year, cleaning it up again and again on the off-chance that I might arrive?'

Maina crossed in front of him, tugging him along by his empty left sleeve, and sat on the edge of the bed. Sesshoumaru stood in front of her. She gave him a slight grin.

"Come now, I've waited months while you've gone out and done all sorts of exciting things. How can you be so cruel as to just stand there?"

"A few more minutes won't kill you..," he said coldly. But his eyes gave him away.

"You'll be sorry when you come to visit me one day only to find I've died of loneliness," she said, trying to appear as deadly serious as possible while stifling a girlish giggle.

"I'll find you dead, you say? Nice try, my goddess, but you're immortal," he said, slipping his hand under her hair and around the back of her neck. She closed her eyes as she felt the tips of his claws graze her skin.

"I must have forgotten..," she whispered, opening her eyes just halfway. He leaned in as if to kiss her, and she leaned forward to meet his lips, but he changed direction ever so slightly and missed her. Instead, he captured her bottom lip between his teeth and drew tiny beads of blood with his fangs. Her control wearing thin, she decided to take the offensive. Placing her hand at his jawbone and guiding his lips to hers, she claimed them. After a few moments, she licked at his lips, but he refused to open his mouth even a little for her to enter. She broke the kiss and glared at him.

"Why must you only tease me so after one of your lengthier absences?" she asked, more playfully than irritably.

"Simple - the more you long for me, the better reaction the teasing elicits from you."

"You're cruel," she said with a smile.

"Would you have me any other way?" He kissed her before she could answer, this time granting her full access to his mouth, which she immediately took advantage of. Sesshoumaru pushed her farther back onto the bed and crawled on himself, still kissing her, and they remained this way for some time. Maina, her tongue dancing with his, going back and forth from his mouth to hers, was in a deep sea of ecstasy. It had been so long since she'd tasted him like this. She knew his taste as thoroughly as he knew her scent, and it was just as she remembered it. But this… this was so much more than what memories could recreate in her fantasies.

As he began to pull at the fastenings on her clothes, she remembered just where she was, and her mind momentarily surfaced. She began to undress him as well, and it was not long before she was drowning in a much more intense ecstasy - one she would spend two straight days in.

"Lord Jaken…"

"What is it now, Rin?" asked the imp, nearly screaming. He was sitting in the room that Lady Maina usually let him stay in, preparing for the next day, as it was getting late already. And now Rin, who he thought had gone to bed hours ago, had once again interrupted his thoughts - what an irritating child! He didn't know how Lord Sesshoumaru could stand to have her tagging along.. But then, it might not be too bad for him - he was always using Jaken as a babysitter, so he barely had to deal with her at all! He sighed in self-pity.

"Lord Jaken, just where did Lady Maina take Lord Sesshoumaru? It's been two days.."

"They've gone to tour the forest to ensure the security of the borders of the Western Lands. Lord Sesshoumaru always does so when we pass through this area," Jaken replied, turning to face the girl.

"But why is it taking so long?"

"It always takes a couple of days. The forest is much more expansive than you think."

"But Lord Sesshoumaru can travel really fast. Is Lady Maina slower than he is?"

'Stupid child, always asking stupid questions..,' Jaken mused. "The Lord has to be very thorough in securing Lady Maina's forest. It sits right on the border between the Western and Southern lands - a troublesome border indeed! Lady Maina's forest barrier provides a very good defense, but he must stop by periodically to make sure things are running smoothly here."

"So when do you think the Lord will be done checking the border?"

"I told you, it takes two days. If everything's going according to schedule, we should be leaving tomorrow morning," Jaken said angrily. 'How many times must I repeat myself?' he thought."Now get to bed, Rin, we have to be ready to begin traveling again."

"Okay Lord Jaken!" she said, spinning around and heading out of his room.

A/N: Sooo.. ready to yell at me for screwing up Sesshie's character? "You bet your ass!" -"I'm hip." haha, random Blazing Saddles reference.. I promise you, it's all worked out - I've weaseled my way through the storyboarding phase to make this work. Trust me, Sesshie is still his not-so-lovable cold, arrogant, questionable-bad-guy self.

Oh really? I'd say you've been making me wimpier with each chapter.. No, I'm just trying to expose your less jerk-y self, muse. Muse! Would you prefer slave (fwack) You're just a hopeless daydreamer. Ow.. that hurt.. AUTHOR ABUSE! Oh, just be quiet.. I'm only a personified voice in your head, after all.. ...meanie.

Oh yes, and much thanks and special brownies go out to Chibi Usa, Lady Lestat, and Chibi Rin for ze reviewness. Yay!