Chapter Nineteen: Re-forged Fang
Life is eternal, and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
-Rossiter Worthington Raymond
"Where is Kagome?" The tone of voice showed the person wasn't going to allow for argument. "I should have expected this."
The silver haired creature before him was wearing samurai styled armor, with a spiked curled metal plate at its upper point, on his white kimono were patches of red with cherry blossom patterns. His eyes were gold and there were crimson marks on his face and wrists above clawed hands. Urahara had only seen this man in stolen reports from soul society, footage of him instantly killing the captain of squad twelve and laying down Kenpachi was difficult to make out but he'd watched it enough to know this was the same man.
"She's...in the bedroom..." Urahara had to move his shop if he was ever going to get to relax... "It's through there. She's not doing well."
"She's dead." Sesshomaru replied coolly as he breezed past the shop owner toward the room where he'd gestured. "Stay out if you are wise."
He entered the room where Byakuya was still leaning over Kagome, he hadn't even realized she'd passed yet, there was enough of her energy remaining that it was only clear to the sharp nose of Sesshomaru, who had smelled the difference in her when they'd reentered the world of the living but had needed time to track her down in the city once he'd noticed she was dying.
"Some grand protector." Sesshomaru commented harshly, moving to look at the pale form of the girl that had been in fine health last time he'd seen her. "Should I give you time to shed tears? Perhaps you'll understand you're failure that much more aptly."
Byakuya shook, half with sorrow, half with rage, lowering Kagome's hand lightly and standing as he put a hand on the hilt of his Senbonzakura. "If you want me to take out my displeasure on you, continue to speak."
"Eternally foolish, all of your kind." Sesshomaru replied, scoffing at him. "I didn't come here to fight you, besides, Kagome wouldn't forgive me if I wiped you away from the world like I did the other ones of your kind that challenged me."
"Then why are you here? This is hardly a proper way in which to mourn." Byakuya found holding onto rage made it easier to speak, to act, to do anything but want to cry at her side. Though it was difficult to make out the man she'd spoken so highly of thanks to the tears gathering to blur his gaze.
"I am not here to mourn." Sesshomaru stated pulling the shorter of the blades at his side and holding it next to him. "Masters of life and death, that is how your people act. Understand that you are not the greatest creatures to walk this earth. Some of us, truly do command the powers of the immortal. Or did Kagome never explain to you the abilities of the Tensaiga?"
Byakuya paused in the drawing of his blade as he recognized the name, Kagome had mentioned the sword once when they spoke of her past. A sword capable of reviving the dead, which meant the man intended to save her, he'd figured it was more a fanciful tale, nothing was capable of such a thing...
Sesshomaru meanwhile had begun to concentrate and could see the imps holding the chains around Kagome, the ones that would decay her body and bind her forever from the world of the living. They were more plentiful and the chains they held were larger chains than anytime he'd used the Tensaiga prior, but he'd had centuries to master the healing blade.
A single swipe, and he'd blow them all away, at least that was what should have occurred, after a single strike all that happened was a few of the links broke. Making his eyes widen in surprise...centuries he'd possessed his father's sword, he'd used it dozens of times, yet here it had been refused to him when he'd desired it's power.
"Why now?" He thought with a frown that settled on his face. "Did you have your servants fail to mention a limited number of uses father?"
He took a second strike, with more vigor this time, only to find that a few more links vanished but seemed replaced shortly after they did so, the imps that he cut away were replaced as well. To further complicate things the Tensaiga cracked and broke apart...falling harmlessly around the imps as they faded from his vision.
The way the spirit vermin was watching him only added to the frustration of the broken blade. His boasts were a bit early, now he'd have to visit the volcano and hope that the old blacksmith still had enough motion to do something about this...
"What happened?" Byakuya was frowning himself, still holding Kagome's less cold, but still too cool hand. Obviously something hadn't gone as the creature as planned, he picked the worst time to prove he was, in fact, capable of failure.
"Father wasn't as strong as I used to go on about." Sesshomaru muttered more to himself than in answer of the spirit vermin's question. "Keep her body safe...I will require it once I get the Tensaiga repaired."
The demon lord collected the four pieces as he spoke, turning away from the room.
"Will it be able to save her?" Byakuya had to ask the question, even if he feared a negative answer.
"I will succeed in saving her where you could not." Sesshomaru retorted coldly, having a time keeping himself from growling more deeply. "Perhaps you should take this time to reflect on how to better protect her in the future. The Tensaiga cannot save more than once."
Byakuya was silent at that, the monster had outright growled at him before moving away, but he had to admit, it was him that should be laying there instead of Kagome. If he'd of been faster he could have taken the arrow instead of her...he shouldn't have agreed to take her into the soul society so blindly. If they hadn't appeared as such he could have protected her... He grasped her lifeless hand, and even aware now that she was gone he didn't want to release it, pressing it to his forehead as the tears began to roll along his cheeks.
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Kagome was doing her best not to make noise, though her entire form ached. She knew she wasn't in the world of the living anymore, and given the endless barren landscape with only a rare mountain like out-cropping so far they seemed untouchable to break the monotony. She was thirsty and hungry but neither water nor food seemed ready to be had, so she was instead walking toward what seemed to be the largest of the out-cropping in hopes she'd find something on the way other than the sands she'd continued to see so far.
"I'm dead..." she thought to herself again, for she'd been numbly repeating it as she walked, uncertain of how long she'd been at it, but it didn't feel like long. "Mom...grandpa...souta...Byakuya...oh Byakuya...what now? Am I really going to be stuck here forever?"
She hadn't seen any hollows at all yet, which she was glad of as she didn't have a bow to defend herself even if she'd wanted to. She was left with little she could do if she was actually attacked, which made her overly paranoid, often glancing around her, and worried she'd find something wanting to chew her apart over the next hill of sand.
She wanted to cry, but was afraid to dehydrate herself, not sure if she could even dehydrate anymore but given her thirst already she was unwilling to try. But they'd talked about this as a place before, Byakuya would come for her then right? The soul reapers wouldn't just leave her to her fate? But why would any of them but Byakuya care to save her? She wasn't close friends with most of them...
Left with the troublesome thoughts she allowed her paranoia to drop a moment and crossed a mountain to find other people dressed like herself, in priestess robes. She turned to run but they caught up to her in moments, they were fast, as if possessing something like flash step themselves, faster than she remembered them being in the soul society.
"Finally..." The leader she didn't recognize, it was a young man with a deep voice that frightened her and made her angry at the same time. "I knew it'd take a while but they delayed the troops killing you for some time, many of them are heavily injured and out of the battle for a while during recovery. It's good the hollows are so thin at this time or we might not have found you first."
He was handsome in his own way, long dark hair pulled back from his face, the priest robes weren't as open as they were with women but he seemed to fit his well, they were a deeper red than the others. His eyes were a mismatched grey on the left and red on the right and made him look more monstrous than human. He had a bow and quiver on his back.
Kagome pulled against the few priests holding her but to no avail. "Let go of me. I want nothing to do with you and your war. It's wrong."
"No. What the soul society did to us...that is wrong." He replied, leaning close to Kagome's face to consider her before pulling back as she spat in it. She cried out as one of her captors twisted her arm so far she was certain they were going to dislocate it, but they were stopped by the man with his free hand, the other wiping his face.
"She doesn't understand yet." He stated to them with a shake of his head. "Do not blame her. You were ignorant of the truth once yourself Nendin."
"You want to treat her too kindly Keshizu, we should have let the hollows find her first, so she could truly understand the horrors most of us have faced." the man called Nendin that had twisted her arm but now was holding her less harshly retorted to the leader.
"Not at all...if we'd of left her the soul society could have come for her, thats why she's not fighting more, she thinks they'll come to rescue her." The leader, apparently called Keshizu, answered, smiling at Kagome again. "Besides, we need her kind heart in tact or we can't rebuild the jewel now can we?"
Kagome paled a little at the words; 'the jewel' for she had a sinking feeling she knew what he meant. "The jewel of four souls?"
"Something like that." Keshizu answered with a grin at her guess. "It's not exactly the same, but see, you are yet untouched by darkness, surprising given the things you've been through, but your soul is what we need to complete everything...then we can unmake the world again. It's not as good as the first option, but you are more readily available to us."
"I won't help you." Kagome refused, narrowing her eyes on the cocky leader. "I already told you that, I'd rather die thousands of times, millions, endlessly, than allow you to hurt so many innocents in the soul society. I'm not like you."
"Innocents!" Nendin had to be paused as he twisted her arm so much she felt it pop out of place and couldn't help but cry out in pain, her power flaring around her and driving back the less pure priests, it didn't hurt them beyond causing extreme discomfort but it did drive them back. A visible sign of how far they'd actually fallen.
"See, she'll do nicely." Keshizu commented, ignoring his injured fellows. "Now as long as Koridomi finishes her task of controlling the king then we'll have all the pieces in place."
"Bite me." Kagome stated, tossing a light spell at him and ducking away as she knew she'd cast it the incorrect way, leaving them all standing a moment in confusion before the blast. She wasn't able to duck away as far as she'd hoped in the confusion though. The leader caught her already twisted arm and that made her lose her balance and fall.
"Not quite what I had in mind." He answered. "You have spark, I like that. It'll make it easier to set off your powers without your desire...here I was worried that being with the Kuchiki family you'd have learned some discipline. Whatever made you think I needed your permission to get you to use your magic? Tie her up, lets get back and finish this quickly in case soul society does decide to get involved. A lesser choice but must faster than the original plan given the Prince's unexpected strength."
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The earth left in soul society after the small war the Prince waged by himself against not just the commander but the tiny army of priests and priestess'. The earth was broken and lowered or raised in ways that couldn't be considered natural. Parts of the area were covered in cooled magma and some were still hot and red with the buried commander's fury. The Prince had focused enough attention on the old captain that it would take him some time to get free. His temper was cooling now though and he had to frown at how devastated the land was now that the battle was finished.
The few opponents that remained were heavily injured and would fade quickly back into hueco mundo, the Prince meanwhile would have to return to confront his father even though his own plans could suffer a setback for the trip. It wasn't easy moving through the Heaven's Gate, and it would take him time to recover even before he could return to soul society. He had to stop his father from coming if that was actually the plan of the enemies, if he had one of his fits then he could lay the entirety of soul society to the ground much easier than the Prince had unearthed a few miles...
He sighed uncertain of where Byakuya took Kagome to hide while the battle was progressing he'd lost his senses of the pair, they were too far now to easily track, so getting a message to the captain would have to be left to his sister and lieutenant, he had a few others he'd need to speak with before he left to confront his father about the madness. It was earlier than he wanted and was dangerous, but the alternative of simply leaving him for the women to do as they like with him was much more risky.
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Sesshomaru eyed the entrance to Totosai's layer as he approached, it looked much the same as always, sometimes he wondered if the resilient old demon would ever pass on, he was certainly looking like he could go at any time, and the way he jumped up and held his chest when the demon lord entered the layer made him wonder if the time wasn't going to be just then.
"Se..se..sesshomaru." He stuttered nervously. "What...what brings you by here?"
"I need you to fix the Tensaiga old man." Sesshomaru returned, tossing the pieces of the broken blade to the floor. "Your craftsmanship is as shoddy as your memory it seems."
"Hey now!" Totosai protested the insult. "What'd you do with it, try to chop through stone, it's sure a clean break...I can't fix this without something else though."
"It failed to ressurect someone and then it busted like this." Sesshomaru commented in boredom. "What do you need to fix it?"
"Huh, shouldn't ever do that...less you were trying to bring them back more than once...it's got limits you know." Totosai frowned at the other demon as he looked at the pieces, then asked. "Can you open your mouth?"
Sesshomaru stared at him a long time, waiting patiently for an answer.
"I need one of your fangs if I'm going to repair it." Totosai explained after he didn't fall for it like Inuyasha had. "Though it'll be harder to control once I repair it with your fang."
"I'll manage." Sesshomaru stated before glancing around, picking up the plyers and plucking one of his fangs free of his mouth, ignoring the trail of blood that followed and tossing it to the sword-smith.
"Huh." Totosai looked at it curiously a moment before glancing back to Sesshomaru. "You really want to help someone that much?"
"Just do it old man." Sesshomaru returned. "I'm not here for idle chatter and time is an issue."
"Where they gonna go? They're dead." Totosai started to chuckle at his own joke but stopped, choking and coughing when Sesshomaru eyed him more dangrously. "Fine fine, it'll take me a little while but I'll get you a new sword...you won't know what hit you."
"Fine, I'll wait here." Sesshomaru replied, sitting down at the caves only exit and looking out over the volcanic ground, apparently unconcerned with the intense heat.
Over the years Totosai had grown to like the older of the great dog demons sons, but Sesshomaru still managed to frighten him greatly, he normally would have run away and refused to make him a sword but this was different, he was reforging the sword his father had given him. How long had it taken before he'd needed something more powerful? The Tensaiga had been a great piece! Shoddy craftsmanship, he'd show Sesshomaru, he wouldn't know how to wield his own strength once he was done with the reforge.
He put hours into the word, pounding away with his ancient hammer, sweating like mad, he wasn't as young as he used to be and it took him longer than it would have years ago. At least he didnt have to forge it from scratch, or he'd be stuck here for weeks. Sesshomaru was even more frightening for the old demon now that he got to see how much power he truely possessed with his fang in front of him for the crafting.
"There." He leaned back to look at it, it was glimmering in the lights of the forge and it was clean, there wasn't the slightest hint that there had ever been a break. It was rather simple and unassuming, but therein was a bit of it's own grace. "I have to say, one of my best pieces...be careful with it Sesshomaru...even I don't know what sort of power you'll be able to pull from it now...no let it cool.."
He frowned as the demon lord walked over and picked up the still burning hot weapon, though Sesshomaru didn't even flinch as it burned into the skin of his hand, he didn't have time to wait. "I'll make sure payment is sent to you old man."
"Young people..." Totosai scoffed as Sesshomaru left. "They're always here when they want you to help, then as soon as they get what they want they're off again and just vanish...so disrespectful to your elders...huh where'd he go?"
End Chapter
I had a lot of fun with this chapter, mostly Totosai, but revealing more of the evil plans! Enjoying getting some time to work on the writing again. I missed my Byakuya/Kagome goodness...poor poor Byakuya...getting chewed out by Sesshy :(
-Aura
To my reviewers:
fierynightangel - I try to be from time to time. Keeps things interesting.
Neo-Crystal - It was Sesshomaru! But things didn't quite go as planned ;) I figure no one saw the Tensaiga break coming though!
o0KittyBlue0o - Yes, Byakuya's not in a happy fun place atm. It's certainly working on him with some negativity.
Teldra - :)
Sugar0o - I do love your guesses, and the jewel thing was partly right! You give the best reviews, they make me all happy! ...and yes, Sesshy was most obviously pissed, he was growling at poor Byakuya.