We eventually parted ways, and I was left with Sesshomaru again. After apologizing for my conduct before, everything was essentially back in order. Things were quieter for the first couple of days, but that was eventually broken. With the jewel shard back where it's supposed to be, I felt a little better.
"Kazumi-san, you should have seen it! Lord Sesshomaru was fighting and looked so cool!" Rin told me.
"Really? I'm glad then."
"It's too bad his sword broke, but that's okay because Lord Sesshomaru has more."
"His sword broke?" I questioned as I looked at Sesshomaru's belt.
She was telling the truth! Tokijin was gone! Was the story fixing itself while I wasn't looking? But there's still the whole sword thing. I don't even want to think about it. Things were getting complicated, and I was getting confused. I don't like being confused, so I stop thinking. That's the only way to not get confused. We continued to walk as the terrain slowly started to change. The land started to become mountainous. It looked very familiar actually. Why would it look familiar? This is my first time coming here, right?
We took a break near a cliff. Rin and Jaken played with some flowers as Sesshomaru sat down and looked at the view. I sat next to the rock, and laid against it. I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes. All that matters is that in the end, Naraku dies and the jewel is gotten rid of. My happiness comes third to those. I opened my eyes when I felt a hand on my head. I looked up and into Sesshomaru's eyes.
Before he could say anything, a small tornado appeared behind us. I looked at it in time to see Totosai being left by the wind. Sesshomaru and I quickly got up. I went over and gave the black smith a hug.
"How've you been, Totosai?" I asked him.
"I was wondering where you went. You disappeared long ago." He replied.
"That's because you all left me that day." I explained with a sigh. "But I'm not mad at you for doing that."
"What are you doing here?" Sesshomaru asked him.
"I see, so Tokijin is gone."
"I do not need the sword."
"That must be why Tenseiga summoned me. It is time to re-forge the sword into a weapon."
"You did not do so earlier, why?"
"You were not ready for the full power of the Medio Zangetsuha, but now that you have had a change in heart you may wield it."
There was a silence before he handed Tenseiga over to Totosai. Using the rock Sesshomaru was once sitting on, Totosai started the re-forging process. It didn't take long for the master blacksmith to finish. The new Tenseiga shone with a new light, after it's upgrade. Sesshomaru can master Medio Zangetsuha! Now all he needs to do is complete it.
I was glad to say the least. I was worried over nothing.
"Kazumi-chan, you're happy?"
"Yup. Everything's on track."
"I haven't seen you this happy in forever!"
"You don't need to exaggerate that much." I told her.
"I like it when you're happy, because then you pay more attention to Rin!"
" 'Pay more attention to me.' " I corrected.
Rin laughed before correcting herself. We talked, and talked, and talked until we played the quiet game. I let Rin win and gave her the prize of her choice. She decided that she just wanted to hold my hand as we walked. Thank goodness it wasn't something impossible like, make Sesshomaru smile, or, make Sesshomaru kiss you… those are things I want as a prize, now that I think about it. Is Fangirl leaking? I hope not. I don't want to go into otaku mode. The people here can't deal with that. I can't deal with that.
We continued up the mountainous terrain. I could hear the river down below, rushing to where ever it led off to. The place reminded me of where Koga kidnapped me and Kagome. That was so long ago. I wonder how Koga's doing now. He should have those claws by now, right? I don't know. I never really paid attention to Koga.
I drew my attention back to the path we were on when we entered a larger and flatter area. Was this it?! *Insert dramatic gasp here* It is! That's Shishinki up there. This is happening rather quickly. I could have sworn there were episodes in between this and Tenseiga's upgrade.
"Sesshomaru, son of InuTashio, it's about time I found you."
I stopped paying attention to their conversation and guided Rin and Ah-Un away from the impending battle field.
"Don't you dare move from this spot until Sesshomaru's done fighting. Do you understand me?" I asked her.
She nodded her head in response.
I turned around and got a face full of wind. The battle had begun. I distanced myself from Rin and Sesshomaru. Things were going to get a little hectic.
Oh, how right I was. The two were so involved in their fight that they seemed to forget that there were others. That's a good thing, at least that's what I thought. They were destroying a lot of land, and gave us a few scares, but that stopped when the Inu Crew appeared.
Things were settling down, and the battle was coming to an end. I started to relax ever so slightly, but that comfort left once I heard Sango.
"Kohaku?!"
Kohaku? He's not supposed to be here! I should have known that things would never be so easy. What the hell was he doing here? The poor boy seemed startled by something, and Sango's call to him made things worse. He jumped backwards from surprise. Since the land had been worn down by the two dueling men, the ground crumbled under Kohaku. He held his arm out and yelled as he started backward. It felt as though time was slowing down as I got on my feet.
"Save him!" Rin pleaded with anyone that could hear her.
Before anyone could stop me, including myself, I ran over to where he had fallen and jumped. Beast caught up to Kahaku and took him into my arms. We had fallen about half the way by then, and I'm guessing that Beast didn't want to wait for the other half. I'm guessing this because she released control of my body. Before I could start to fully panic, Kohaku's smell came to my nose. He was scared and panicking already, so I held onto him tighter and spoke to him.
"You'll be fine. Midoriko is protecting you." I told him.
I know he was confused and that he wanted me to explain, but I didn't have the time. I covered as much of him as I could before we slammed into the freezing cold water…. So you know how scientist say that if you fall from a large enough height and into water that the force can be the same as falling onto concrete? Not that it was false before, but I can now vouch for that. I've never fallen onto concrete from a height, but from what I just experienced, I never want to. In fact, I will not walk on concrete for a while. The risk of falling onto it and remembering this pain is much too great.
I held onto Kohaku with as much strength as I could, but frankly, my hold wasn't more than a pat on the back. Closing my eyes to sleep was not difficult, but waking up would be.
