Author's note: To anyone in India reading this, I hope you are having a good day.

I plan from now on to update on Saturdays and Wednesdays. One chapter will be posted on each of those days as opposed to the 2 chapters Wednesday like I have been doing.

Chapter 25 Enter Kouga

A sudden gust of wind brought forth the coppery scent of human blood to fill Kouga's senses. Unlike normal human blood though, this had unmistakable power flowing through it. A power that made Kouga's nerve endings feel, as though he had been caught in a lightning storm. A power that made him worry.

Not that he would ever admit that to anyone.

"What are you thinking young prince?"

Kouga turned his cobalt blue eyes to the dull brown of eyes of an old man sitting on a three-eyed ox. Totosai, the master sword smith, actually had a fairly good guess what was on the young wolf prince's mind. Although he was old and his senses far from acute, Totosai had not failed to register what had just passed by them.

"I'm thinking that there may be something going on in my lands." Kouga answered while signaling to Ginta and Hakkaku to bring forward the next installment on what was owed. "Something that could be trouble."

Totosai's nearly bald head and improbably long neck swiveled in the direction of the west, the general path of whatever had passed them on the foul wind. "If you are thinking of confronting what passed us by, try not to get killed."

"Worried about not getting paid for your work, Totosai?" Kouga asked uncharitably. The old sword smith had high enough prices for his work that Kouga had to pay in installments rather than all at once. But I am getting what I paid for. No doubt about that.

"Kouga, how could you think so little of me?" Totosai asked in his crotchety voice, while directing his gaze to take in Kouga's wrists and ankles. On each one of them rested a thick metal band that enhanced Kouga's power near to that of what he had possessed when he still had the jewel fragments stuck in his limbs. "I am only concerned for your welfare of course."

"And how that welfare relates to your getting paid." Ginta commented from behind Kouga, while placing the chest down on the three-eyed ox's back and securing it with ropes. Ginta then looked at Kouga and asked, "Are we really going to mess with it? Our pack is isn't-"

"Its coming to the eastern lands, our territory!" Kouga cut him off sharply. "If our pack isn't assembled we will just have to check it out on our own."

"Kouga, have you actually been into battle with my work?" Totosai asked while crossing his legs beneath him. "I told you from the beginning what you wanted was something outside the range of my usual smithing."

Totosai had confidence in his work, but Kouga's request had not been in keeping with the general line of work he performed. He was a sword smith first and foremost and not an all around metal smith in general. Kouga should've asked for something in my range of specialization. Would've saved him a bundle.

"I've always been more of a hand-to-hand kind of guy, Totosai," Kouga said while smiling to himself over the unintentional rhyme. He wished silently that he could be clever like that on purpose sometimes. "So a sword really wouldn't be my thing. Got to stick to your strengths, you know?"

Kouga flashed a feral grin at Totosai as he turned to leave with his lieutenants. "Oh, and if they do break in battle, then you and I will have a lot to talk about."

Only if you continue to draw breath Kouga, Totosai thought to himself as the alpha wolf and his betas disappeared in clouds of dust.


Wei paused a moment to take in the heavily fortified town ahead of him. Judging from the defenses it possessed, a fair amount of wealth must have been present. No doubt the lord he killed had invested heavily in what would in time be his unassailable stronghold.

I suppose that really makes it more of a castle town than just a town, Wei thought while taking in the fortifications.

It was encircled by walls thirty feet high and twelve feet thick surmounted by battlements, dotted with sixteen forts at regular intervals, and wide enough to ride a horse quite easily along the top. At each of the four points of the compass, a gate provided access to the city with outer protective gates and a wooden palisade with sharpened timbers sticking out in all directions.

This looks like just the place to kick off my private war, Wei thought to himself. A place that will be a monument to pain and suffering.

Wei summoned the Shining Hate, but paused for a moment in admiration for the way the sunlight caught on his blade, making it gleam like freshly poured silver. A moment's more consideration called to mind Lord Sesshoumaru and his own flowing mane of silver.

A shame that I couldn't be witness to his anguish before I left, Wei thought to himself, before giving his full attention to the town in front of him once more. All four of its gates were open right now, undoubtedly because its inhabitants did not perceive any threat to their town.

Time to go announce myself then, Wei thought while smiling to himself.


In the area that composed the rough middle of the Eastern Lands, Kouga knew he had found what he had been looking for. Under the loving dome of a gentle blue sky lay a burning town with flames reaching up to caress the heavens. The surrounding earth with its dark richness and knee high grasses tickled the legs and danced like playful children around him as a gentle breeze rolled over the land and carried to him the vibrant fragrance of burning flesh.

"Kouga...?" Ginta spoke beside him, wondering what actions they should take in regards to the town, which right now looked and smelled like a giant charnel house.

The sun, when glimpsed at all, was a blanched disk behind roiling smoke belched from the fires consuming the town. With his keen hearing, Kouga could hear the sounds of battle reverberating like thunder in his ears and could smell blood bathing the ground.

"Come on," Kouga said curtly before racing toward the town without further thought. Hakkaku and Ginta stared into the dark wells of each other's eyes before complying, silently communicating their unease to each other.

A hot wind scoured the faces of the trio of wolf youkai, filling their nostrils once again with the scent of crackling human flesh. Before he had met Kagome, Kouga would have found that smell comforting, appealing in fact. But somehow, without meaning to, she had changed him.

When he had stolen her from her from Inuyasha, he had been planning to just use her as a means of getting more jewel shards. Then, afterwards, perhaps have some fun with her before disposing of her.

But without even trying, Kagome had changed him, and his entire pack. Looking at her, he could do nothing less than admire her generosity, her insight, her fire, and her loyalty. Most impressive to him was her courage. He could still remember with absolute clarity her resolute defiance in the face of danger. Whether it be denying him with a slap, protecting Shippou from wolves, or piercing the hides of those damn Birds of Paradise with her arrows, she reminded him of a lioness in her vivacious spirit and unflinching determination.

After Kagome, he just couldn't look at humans the same way. And neither could his brethren. None of them could look at humans as prey any longer, not when one of them had fought side by side with them against so much.

Entering the gate, which looked as though it had been to hell and back, Kouga spied a lone human male sitting with his back to the wolf youkai by the edge of a large reflecting pool.

A pool whose waters were a dark shade of pink.

Even though his back was turned, Kouga and his betas could see that the man was eating something, judging from the regular movements of a set of chopsticks in his right hands. For one of the very few moments in his life, Kouga hesitated as a feeling of unreality set in on him. The one in front of him looked perfectly human and was seemingly just eating a simple meal.

A simple meal in the midst of a ruined town whose dwellings still sputtered flame and whose paved interior had dark stains covering it. A simple meal in a town that was permeated with the smells of fear and death. A simple meal in the midst of a scene of carnage.