"I wonder if Sesshoumaru is dead," Shippou mused. Miroku followed his gaze to the enormous gouges the wind scar had left in the ground, like the claw marks of a gigantic beast.

"Probably," he said. "After all, he took a direct hit from the true power of the Tessaiga."

At this, Toutousai burst out laughing and nearly fell off his ox. "True power? Don't make me laugh," he scolded.

"What did you just say, old man?" Inuyasha demanded. He stormed away from Kagome, who had been trying in vain to see to his injuries, heading straight for Toutousai. "Everyone saw what the sword did. Don't you dare tell me that wasn't the full power of the sword!"

"You have my praise for figuring out the wind scar," Toutousai conceded. "However, it wasn't because of skill, was it? You were able to understand it only because of the poison's pain and your temporary blindness."

Miroku could have sworn this statement earned a growl from Inuyasha. Yet even if Toutousai spoke the truth, it seemed to Miroku that Inuyasha was at least making progress toward understanding the power of his sword. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing. No doubt Toutousai meant it only as an observation of fact, and not as the insult Inuyasha took it for.

"And there is another matter: you didn't swing as hard as you could, did you?" Toutousai went on. "I think deep down you know that no matter how much you hate him, Sesshoumaru is still your older brother. You couldn't bring yourself to kill him, could you?"

Miroku waited for the blustery, outraged denial. It was longer in coming than he expected, but explosive when it did. "Don't even say that! I couldn't swing the sword at its full potential because I was poisoned, not because I wanted to spare him!"

"Still got a lot of fight in him, doesn't he?" Shippou asked.

"Seems so," Miroku agreed.

Toutousai, it seemed, had already moved on. "Now then, Inuyasha, why don't you hand over the Tessaiga?"

"After all that—"

"I'm not going to destroy it, you moron. I'm offering to sharpen the sword for you."

Inuyasha looked stunned for a long moment, as if he weren't sure if he could trust Toutousai or not, but eventually did as he was asked. While Toutousai busied himself with preparations for the sharpening, Kagome led Inuyasha a short distance away to a nearby stream, quietly insisting that he at least wash his injuries.

"Does this mean you now accept Inuyasha as the master of the sword?" Miroku asked Toutousai.

"Well… yes," the old man said, pausing to breathe fire over the Tessaiga's blade. "The Tessaiga is a dangerous blade, after all. It can slay one hundred youkai in a single swing. You don't give a sword like that to just anybody—who knows what might happen? But Inuyasha seems to have the soft temperament for it, so it seems he ought to keep it."

"Who ya calling soft?" Inuyasha demanded, but there was less fire in his voice than before.

"You all know what would happen if someone as ruthless as Sesshoumaru acquired a sword like the Tessaiga," Toutousai went on.

"There's one thing I still don't get," Miroku said. "Why could Sesshoumaru read the wind scar so much more easily than you, Inuyasha?"

"That's easy," Inuyasha told him, pausing to dry his face with the towel Kagome had provided, before turning back to the group. "He wasn't wrong when he said my abilities can't compare because I'm only half youkai—his sense of smell is better than mine."

"Does that mean Sesshoumaru is closer to being a dog than Inuyasha is?" Shippou asked.

"Hey!"

"Well, he is a full youkai, after all," Sango said.

"I guess you can't always go by appearances," Miroku agreed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Only that one might assume from your ears that you possess the greater dog-like abilities," Miroku told him, using his most perfectly innocent tone of voice.

Inuyasha grumbled at that, but didn't push the matter.

Kagome looked thoughtful. "By the way…" she began. "Sesshoumaru still has the Tenseiga." She paused, as if uncertain how to proceed. "You said it's a healing sword that saves people. If the Tenseiga really is a healing sword, wouldn't that mean Sesshoumaru would need a kind heart in order to use it?" she finally asked.

"So it is," Toutousai agreed, turning back to his work of sharpening the Tessaiga. "Even I don't have the slightest idea why it would accept one such as him as its master, but even just now it saved him from the full force of the Tessaiga's attack. That's definitely proof that the sword has accepted him."

"You saying my brother's somehow kind-hearted?" Inuyasha asked. This was a dangerous topic of conversation if Miroku had ever heard one.

Toutousai shrugged. "Only that it's a mystery."

Having now apparently put the finishing touches on the Tessaiga, the old man returned it to Inuyasha. "That's a very precious sword," he admonished, a convenient distraction from the preceding talk on Sesshoumaru's merits. "Use it well."

Moments later, the swordsmith was atop his ox again and riding away. It was time for the rest of them to be on their way, too.