A/N: I do not own Inuyasha or Goblin: the Lonely and Great God

Chapter Three

Shippou took a good look at the youkai lord now that he had a chance to regain his senses from the mind numbing pain that came from holding Tessaiga too long. His eyes blinked more than once as he tried to double take what he was seeing. Surely Sesshomaru had noticed. But as Rin doted over her caretaker with an almost grandmotherly affection, the kitsune was sure that the taiyoukai had not noticed the significant changes on his body.

Swallowing, Shippou's voice came out in a shaky, throaty croak. "Lord Sesshomaru."

The Inu looked at him with a graceful arch of his, thin eyebrows. He was listening.

"I...your...I mean," the poor kitsune could not find the words to describe what he was trying to say—at least not without his tails being lopped off in the Western Lord's rage. That would be extremely bad.

"Speak up kit, you are aware of this one's dislike for idle babble," Sesshomaru tilted his head back just a bit, showing his disdain.

Tilting her head to the side, Rin observed her lord with interest, wondering what had her old friend in such a state. And then she noticed it too. Her uninjured hand flew to her mouth and her tired brown eyes widened. That surely could not have been possible. Not for her Sesshomaru.

The Inuyoukai caught his ward's mortified look and shot them both a withering gaze. "You both will tell this Sesshomaru what is wrong with his person. Right now."

Suddenly, they both felt like children again. Being on the down side of the youkai's glare. It had been so long since anyone had looked at either of them in such a manner, and it certainly did not feel in the slightest bit good. Still, Shippou stepped up beside Rin, and plucked stalks of the buckwheat from the earth. Crisp little stalks of the plants snapped as he harvested a handful. When he had the amount he wished for, he whispered soft words against the flowers. Blue fox fire sparked to life and danced around the plant before it transformed slowly with his magic. Not before long, he held a small piece of glass that reflected the image of the kitsune's face back at it. A mirror. Rin looked on in silence, unsure of how her lord would react.

"Sesshomaru," Shippou stood tall, and tried to bear a semblance of youkai courage that was implied with his three tails. "Your markings are missing."

The Inu stayed quiet but took the mirror offered to him by the younger demon. His lips pulled taut as he glared into the surface of the mirror, his gold eyes slowly filling with confusion and anger. Once on his brow, but no longer, the crescent moon—the symbol of his mother's house, was gone. The stripes that touched his cheeks, too, had disappeared. With a slowed breath, he handed the item back to the kitsune and checked both of his wrists, especially the his relatively new arm's wrist. The markings there too were no longer adorning his skin.

"This Sesshomaru demands an explanation now," he nearly snarled, his voice low enough to vibrate through his chest.

"Rin doesn't know, my lord," she worried, never taking her eyes from him.

The kitsune crossed his arms over his chest, gripping the mirror so hard that it crumbled back to the earth as bits of burned buckwheat. "Do you feel any different, Sesshomaru?"

Closing his eyes, the youkai's lip quirked down as he searched himself. It was bizarre, all of his youki was still there, but it was stronger. Laced among the streams of his might, something shifted dangerously, something extremely powerful that felt too much like himself.

"This one feels the same."

Humming, Shippou narrowed his gaze. "Try using one of your skills. Like the beam of light you sometimes use to travel. Don't go very far, maybe a hundred feet or so, but try and see what works still."

Nodding, Sesshomaru closed his eyes and summoned his youki to transport him. However, the smell of smoke filled his delicate Inu nostrils and he cringed. Opening his eyes he realized that the burnt smell came from himself. He showed no sign of his horror, however, when he saw that lilac smoke trailed from his shoulders and hands as well as the tips of his hair. Before he could try and stop the usage of his ability—he traveled. One moment he had stood before the kitsune and his ward, now he stood a hundred feet from them, on the opposite side of the flowered field.

What in the world?

Shippou growled and he lowered his arms, tails waving in agitation. "Sesshomaru, it is as I thought. I know what is wrong now."

"Speak now kit, this one does not like what is happening."

The kitsune's youki flared for a moment before it lowered and a sigh escaped his lips. "I thought your youki had a different quality to it. Now after seeing how your powers were affected, I truly know what is wrong."

"Quit stalling, you try my patience," Sesshomaru growled, teleporting back to them in a blunder of blue and lilac smoke. His eyes were narrowed dangerously in a way that almost seemed like panic.

Shippou's red hair blustered as he flashed his youki again, so that it buffered and sparked against the Inuyoukai's. Then and only then did the taiyoukai feel it.

In a rush of fury, Sesshomaru clenched his hand and summoned his beast. The power of youki bubbled at his surface and he prepared to be transformed in the form of the great white Inu. But as the might's flow ebbed, pain shot through his chest and laced through every vein under his skin. Burning filled his senses while the touch of hot smoldering ice seared through his muscles; with a grunt he fell to one knee, tremors racking through him. It felt as though a blade had been snared in the flesh and sinew between his lungs and below his sternum. With a sigh, Shippou crouched down in front of the kneeling youkai lord. His grin eyes widened for a moment while he placed his pointer and middle finger in the air above the Inu's chest. Again, fox magic lit the air with its wonderful glow—

And revealed Bakusaiga painfully wedged within the taiyoukai.

"You've been cursed, Sesshomaru," the young demon murmured, his green eyes bright. "You've been cursed by the deities."

a/n: Hello friends! A bit of a shorter chapter today! I'm sorry, but at least the plot thickens:O

As always, leave a review if you're feeling like it! Takk fyrir and Arigato gozaimasu!:)