No sooner had Toutousai disappeared out of sight down the road than he came streaking back as fast as his ox-youkai would carry him. In a thundering of hooves and trailing billows of dust, the old man crashed back into their midst.

"He came back?" Kagome asked.

Even as she spoke the words, Sesshoumaru appeared out of the dust cloud and struck the old man to the ground. Toutousai lay where he had fallen, twitching forlornly, while Sesshoumaru moved on to his next target for insult. "As I suspected, you ran right back to Inuyasha." It seemed he could cram an unbelievable amount of disdain into just a few words.

Toutousai peeled himself up off the ground just in time to avoid being stepped on as Sesshoumaru slowly approached his brother. He fled from Sesshoumaru, ducking behind Inuyasha in much the same way as he'd done during their first meeting not all that long ago.

"Come out from there old man," Sesshoumaru ordered. His tone was calm, even reasonable, if filled with disdain. But the way he raised his hand, flexing his fingers in preparation, belied that tone. "I'll rip you apart along with Inuyasha and these worthless others."

"What are you gonna do about that, Inuyasha?" Toutousai goaded. Sango sighed in exasperation. After everything that had happened, he still seemed to want the brothers to fight. And Inuyasha was only too happy to oblige.

"Old man, you really don't want to make a new sword for Sesshoumaru, do you?"

"Nope."

Inuyasha snorted. "See?"

Sesshoumaru showed no sign of being moved by Toutousai's denial. Then again, Sango supposed if it hadn't stopped him before, it was unlikely to stop him now.

Inuyasha must have reached the same conclusion. "I'm sick of him chasing after the Tessaiga, too," he announced. "Let's settle this here and now."

"Don't worry," Sesshoumaru agreed. "It'll all end today."

He moved smoothly into action, striking again with his claws before Inuyasha could attack with Tessaiga. The hanyou didn't even have time to block. He could only throw himself out of the way. The Tessaiga was in motion as soon as his feet touched the ground again, but as before he had little hope of surpassing his brother's speed.

Unlike before, however, Sesshoumaru made no attempt to avoid the attack. He revealed his left arm—green, scaled, and ending in three enormous claws—and stopped the Tessaiga cold by grabbing the blade. There was a flash of light as the two collided, followed by a strange smoldering smell.

"What's that arm?" Shippou asked.

"Inuyasha cut off Sesshoumaru's left arm that time," Kagome said. "He must've got another replacement!"

If he had gone in search of an arm, that certainly went a long way toward explaining his delay in giving chase.

"Yes," Miroku was saying, "but a youkai arm won't be able to touch the Tessaiga. Humanity is required…"

"That's no youkai arm," Sango cautioned. "It's a dragon's arm. It'll be a lot more durable than the arm of an ordinary youkai."

While they wondered what Sesshoumaru was thinking, or perhaps more accurately, scheming, the two brothers continued their fight. The dragon's arm could contain the Tessaiga's power for now, but it was now openly smoking. Even this wouldn't be able to withstand the onslaught for very much longer.

"Did you forget about the barrier?" Inuyasha sneered. He tried to pull the Tessaiga free from Sesshoumaru's grip again, to no avail. The dragon arm might not have afforded Sesshoumaru the decisive advantage he was clearly after, but it wasn't making things any easier for Inuyasha, either.

"Don't worry about that." Sesshoumaru suddenly struck with his own hand. Inuyasha didn't pull back in time, unable to retreat effectively with his sword stuck in Sesshoumaru's grip. Wicked claws left a deep, bloody gash in Inuyasha's face, though it wasn't the killing blow Sesshoumaru had intended.

Looking smug, he released his brother's sword and let him fall back. "You see, this arm acts as a shield, protecting against the Tessaiga's barrier."

"Hah! It's already been damaged."

"It will be enough." His lips quirked into what might have been a self-satisfied smirk, and then he was in motion again, rushing toward his brother for the next onslaught. "Besides, you don't even know the secret of the wind scar," he said, one last taunt before they traded blows again.

Distracted, Inuyasha only barely managed to block Sesshoumaru's swipe. Sango couldn't help but think that these two were truly brothers—they knew how to needle each other just right to pick a fight, every time. She'd seen such antics often enough among the village boys, though never with such violence or destruction as a result.

Inuyasha gave it his best, trying a few attacks of his own, but each foray was met by a furious onslaught from Sesshoumaru's claws. He still used only the one hand, without bothering to use his sword or his dragon's hand.

Finally it seemed that Inuyasha might get a hit in, but at the last instant Sesshoumaru slapped the Tessaiga's enormous blade aside.

"He fended off the Tessaiga with just one hand?" Sango asked aloud, horrified that a youkai should be that powerful.

"He's really powerful!" Shippou agreed, ducking down against Miroku's shoulder. "How's Inuyasha going to beat him?"

Sango didn't dare say it, but it looked like Inuyasha wasn't going to beat his brother. At least, not today.

With the Tessaiga deflected and out of the way from his slap, Sesshoumaru moved in for the kill. Fast as he was, even Inuyasha couldn't bring a sword the size of the Tessaiga around in time to block. Sesshoumaru was too close and far, far too quick.

Sesshoumaru formed a claw-tipped blade with his fingers and thrust neatly past any hope of defense Inuyasha might have had… and sunk his hand deep into the flesh of Inuyasha's chest. It all happened so quickly that Sango could hardly follow. One moment Sesshoumaru was lunging, stabbing with his hand, and the next Inuyasha was lying on the ground, in a deep indentation formed from the force of his landing.

The front of Inuyasha's jacket was little more than a ruin of blood and torn fabric; the hanyou struggled valiantly to rise to his feet, and failed.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome's anguished cry echoed among the trees.

Even Sango was horrified by what she was seeing. No human could have survived such a strike. Could Inuyasha?