On the back of Kirara, the girls made their way back to where Inuyasha was born, and where their grandfather died, in the hopes that both Kirinmaru and Zero were still hiding out somewhere around there. They crossed over the cut down forest and approached the sea. The crater Sesshomaru and Kirinmaru created during their fight before was still there, but now there was a different player in the field. A demon with dark brown fur and a large head stood before them, almost as if he knew they were coming.
"Who is that?" Moroha asked.
Before they could ask anything else, Totetsu opened his large mouth and revealed his sharp teeth alsongside the wind tunnel inside his throat, pulling the girls out of the sky. It took everything Kirara had to make sure she didn't get sucked in.
The girls fell hard. They were forced to hold onto the ground with all their mights. Setsuna twisted around and released the demon slayer poison she owned hidden away in her shoulder pad. Totetsu quickly closed his mouth, not letting it in. The wind died instantly.
"Who are you!?" Towa demanded, leaping to her feet and revealing the kuyokone root flute.
No, Towa! Setsuna thought, Don't use it! After only just retaining her memories of her long lost sister, she didn't want to watch her die.
"I am Totestu," he explained, "one of the four perils originally from the continent, now serving under Lord Kirinmaru's reign of the east. I can promise you that none of you little girls aren't getting anywhere near his boat."
"Four perils?" Towa asked, looking around, half expecting an ambush, "Where are the other three of you then? Hiding?"
"Lord Sesshomaru killed them off many centuries ago," he confessed, then added proudly, "I'm the only one who remains because he wasn't strong enough to take me out."
He was strong enough to kill off three of your collogues, stupid, Towa thought angrily, pulling out the flute.
"Put that thing away," Setsuna said, walking up beside her, "I don't want to lose you." She attempted to make her put the flute down. Instead Towa transformed it into the sanseiken right in front of her.
"I'll be okay," she replied calmly, "I promise. I have to at least try to figure out how this thing works."
Totetsu asked, "Are you two deciding to run away?"
"Fat chance!" Moroha said, "Sacred arrow!" She launched one at him, only for him to open his mouth to reveal the wind tunnel once again. It sucked it in like no big deal.
Setsuna threw herself in front of Towa and shouted, "Cyclone burst!" Her energy matched Totestu at first. Their wind was perfectly even, but his eventually overpowered hers and slowly pulled her in.
"Leave her alone!" Towa shouted.
She jumped forward and cut through the aura leading off of Totestu's wind, using the sword to absorb his energy. It glowed and turned warm. Meanwhile the enthusiasim Towa had moments earlier were quickly sucked away. What's happening? She thought, It's getting hard to stand.
Totestu finally shut his mouth as Towa struggled to remain upright.
She's already struggling with that thing, Moroha thought anxiously. She readied her bow again for another attack.
Towa looked down and saw the sword appeared to have absorbed Totestu's demonic aura.
Moroha launched an arrow directly at his mouth as he opened it. This time, instead of another wind tunnel attack, he spewed out a terrible poisonous purple breath. Moroha jumped back and watched her arrow go flying into the sea behind them all. So much for that.
"Scourge of Swallows!" Setsuna shouted, attempting to hit him.
He leapt up and out of the way easily, still spewing his poison. Caught off balance, Setsuna fell backwards and hit the ground hard.
"Setsuna!" Towa shouted. With the sanseiken she managed to absorb some of Totetsu's demonic aura, still feeling it's effects on her body. "That's it!" she added, holding her sword horizontal.
She didn't know what she was doing. It was pure instinct. The sanseiken began to glow a bright blue color. Demonic aura oozed out of it.
"Towa what are you doing?!" Moroha asked, fearful.
Towa was suddenly engulfed in blue energy. It rose up out of her body and the sword all at once. The ground and the air around her exploded into blue demonic aura and it tranformed into a two headed dragon.
Totetsu screamed and attempted to jump out of the way. The energy followed him. He quickly created a black cloud, jumped on top of it, and flew away toward the sea and headed north along the water.
The energy Towa created crashed into some rocks along the shoreline. Just after she was feeling stronger than ever, all her energy suddenly vanished. She fell face first into the sand.
"What was all that?!" Moroha shouted.
"It looked like a massive twin headed dragon," Setsuna said, running over to Towa's side, "Are you okay? What's the matter? Towa, talk to me!" She kneeled by her side and grabbed her, attempting to pull her upright.
Towa turned over and said, "I'm okay..." out of breath. That attack took so much out of me, she thought, I wonder why. Then she remembered what her father told her about the sword and it's curse. Perhaps it was slowly killing her, even after using it just one time. Maybe having it was a bad idea but she couldn't think about that right now. "Where's Totestu?"
"He's flying away," Moroha said, "if we hop on Kirara right now, we should be able to catch up to him."
"Let's go!" Towa said, struggling to sit up.
Together they flew after Totetsu who was flying directly to Kirinmaru standing on the shoreline. He wasn't alone. Rion and Riku stood across from him in the fields leading up to the water. Meanwhile Towa struggled to keep hold of Kirara.
"Are you sure you're okay, Towa?" Setsuna asked anxiously.
"I'll be fine," she said, "what are they doing down there? You think they're just having a stand off?"
Kirinmaru watched as Totestu flew to his side. "Totestu, I told you to deal with the three of them by yourself," he said hastily.
"Forgive me, my lord!" he said pathetically crawling to Kirinmaru's feet, "The pigtailed white haired one has the same dragon strike as Lord Sesshomaru! If I get tangled with that for real this time I'll be sure to die!"
"A dragon strike?" Moroha asked, "Is that what Towa just did?"
Towa asked, "What's a dragon strike?"
"It's one of Sesshomaru's attacks," she explained, "I think we saw it when he fought Kirinmaru right in front of us but I wasn't completely sure back then. I've only heard about it."
Rion shouted, "Don't get distracted Father, you're here for me!"
Kirinmaru turned his attention back to her and asked, "And what is it you intend to do with me, my daughter?" He said it softly, knowing he spoke to a child.
She stepped forward, entering the area where the grass turned to sand. I remember, she thought, I'm a demon just like Sesshomaru. I remember all those years ago when our fathers fought and I once admitted to Sesshomaru that I wish I had abilities like him. He asked me if I was a full blooded kirin like my father, and reminded me I should have all the same abilities of him. I'll show him!
She stopped walking, and remembered how Sesshomaru had learned to fly. Her father could also fly, so she should be able to as well.
Although in a clay body, she used the aura she had and engulfed herself in it, giving her the ability to fly.
"You can fly," Kirinmaru said, smiling at her.
"Fight me, Father!" she demanded.
He stepped forward and said, "I'm only doing this because you insist." He created a small fireball in his right hand. A pathetically small one but for him it was enough to make a point as he threw it at her.
She bodied it well, completely catching him by surprise.
"I'm not just your little girl," she said, "I'm my own person! Can't you see that?!"
The aura around her changed and shifted. I have to make him see, she thought. Her clay body shifted and grew, her clothing changing alongside her.
"What's she doing?" Setsuna asked.
Rion's body changed from a little girl into a full grown woman-but that wasn't all. Her face changed to have similar markings to Sesshomaru. She even gave herself his crescent moon and pink markings, disguising her own. Her hair turned long and twisted up into a high ponytail like the great dog demon's. Even her clothing shifted over to wearing thick armor on her torso and down her arms, like a mixture of Sesshomaru and his father.
Kirinmaru gasped and said in absolute disgust, "You changed yourself to look like those dogs?!"
"Only because Sesshomaru's the only one who's ever listened to me!" she shouted.
She remembered long ago to a time where both her and Sesshomaru were watching their fathers fight once again. This time Sesshomaru showed off his light whip to her.
"Wow," she marveled, "that's amazing!"
"Mother tells me I need to be careful or I'll rip my own face off," he replied nonchalantly, "then she added that if that happens then it's to be fate...and something about me never listening to her anyway, but I stopped paying attention after that."
Rion said, "I wish I could have awesome abilities like you do."
"Is your mother a kirin demon too?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied, "she's still over on the continent. Why?"
"Then you should probably have all the same abilities your father has like setting yourself ablaze," he said. Just as he turned to watch the fight, Kirinmaru set himself on fire. Sesshomaru had to look away. "Like that."
Rion stared at her father in amazement. I should have that power, she thought to herself.
Meanwhile, in the present, standing across from her father, she set herself on fire like she watched him do oh so many centuries earlier.
"Rion, no!" Riku warned, "Your body is made of clay! You may be a kirin, but your body can't withstand fire!"
Still, she marched forward and created a fire blast directly at her father. Just as she attacked, she felt her clay body falling apart and melting under the flames. Then, it stopped moving.
"Rion!" Towa shouted.
"Oh no," Moroha said anxiously, "this doesn't look good!"
Setsuna asked, "Is there anything we can do?"
They watched as Rion attacked her father and then fell forward, slowly returning back to her natural state of being a little girl. Her body refused to move. Kirinmaru on the overhand bodied the attack like it was nothing.
Her flames are stronger than I expected but still childish, he thought to himself. He then released the number of souls he had collected for her in order to keep her alive. Once she absorbed them, she was back to her old self. Her injuries no longer existed.
"A clay body such as yours Rion needs the souls of the dead to keep itself sustained," he said, walking away before taking flight.
"Hey!" Towa shouted, "Where are you going?! Kirinmaru!" He didn't answer.
The girls ran over to Rion's side the same time Riku did. "Rion!" Moroha said, "Are you okay?"
"What was he saying about the souls of the dead?" she asked, standing up.
Riku said, "Something about having a clay body means you have to injest souls of the day to sustain yourself."
Towa helped her up to her feet and asked anxiously, "Rion, what were you thinking?"
"I stood my ground against my father," she answered, then added sadly, "and he still didn't care."
Setsuna said, "I'm sorry to interrupt your sad moment, Rion, but we were wondering if you could help us find your aunt. We desperately need her to remove the curse on our mother." Towa looked her over and thought to herself, wow, she really is like her old self again. If the dream butterfly curse were still on her she would be a lot hastier even in a sensitive moment like this.
Rion gasped and asked, "She cursed your mother?"
"She put a silver scale curse on her," Towa said, "and we need it broken sooner rather than later."
"I don't know if I can help," she said nervously.
"Sesshomaru!" Totosai shouted, coming down on his flying cow from the skies and chasing the dog demon. "Sesshomaru, I need your help!" He landed right behind him.
"Why would I help you, Totosai?" he asked, barely bothering to turn around and face him. He still remembered how he pretended to forget where the kuyokone root was, sending him to Bokuseno needlessly.
He exclaimed, "A man is after my life! He's tall, has tan skin, and long dark red hair. Do you know a fellow matching that description?"
At first Sesshomaru wasn't going to bother playing the old mans' games, but the sky behind Totosai changed colors and Kirinmaru quickly appeared. Now, why would Kirinmaru want anything to do with Totosai?
Sesshomaru looked at Totosai and asked, "Do you have the sword?"
Totosai took it out and handed it over as Kirinmaru landed beside them. "You have something I need, Sesshomaru," he said bluntly, "the tenseiga."
"Why is it you seek this fang?" Sesshomaru demanded, putting it on his belt.
Kirinmaru said, "I need it for my next mission."
"If you intend to bring Rion back to life with it you're mistaken, Kirinmaru," he explained, "there are no minions of the underworld to cut down in order to bring her back to life. It can't help you."
Totosai said, "He's right, Kirinmaru. Besides, Rion doesn't have a proper body to return too after all these years."
"You're both mistaken," he said, "I intend to use it to kill Inuyasha."
"The sword cannot kill," Sesshomaru said, playing dumb. He knew exactly why Kirinmaru would need it to kill Inuyasha but he wasn't going to let him know that.
He replied, "I'm well aware of that, Sesshomaru. But I know his hiding place is in the border between this world and the next, and I know the only way to get there without a black pearl is through the gate but the guardians aren't exactly friendly. One can only go through the gate if you carry a sword not of this world and that's exactly what the tenseiga is."
He figured all that out, Sesshomaru said, the girls must have been talking about it and Riku overheard so Kirinmaru could put it altogether. Just as he was thinking of his daughters, he paused in reflection.
"Kirinmaru, why are you alone?" he asked.
He smiled down at him, "That's right. You should be afraid that I stand before you all by myself. Zero is still pissed off at you for scarring her chest so badly but she refused to tell me where she was going the last time I talked to her. She did mention something about getting back at your in a roundabout way." He lunged forward to attack.
Totosai bolted for his life as Sesshomaru stood his ground. I'll cut him down quickly and find the girls before Zero gets ahold of them, he thought.
Meanwhile, still at the shoreline, the girls and Riku still didn't know what to do.
"I don't know where Aunt Zero is," Rion confessed, "and I'm not sure if I can convince her to take off the curse she put on your mother, but I can try."
Moroha said, "We have to find her quickly. Rin doesn't have time for us to mess around."
"If we split up, we can cover more ground quicker," Towa said, "it's how search and rescue parties find people in the other world."
"I'll still go with Rion," Riku said, "but you three can go whatever you want."
"Where should we meet up once we find her?" Moroha asked.
Unbeknownst to them, Zero was watching them through her looking lense spell and was listening in on their plans. "Go ahead and separate from one another," she said to no one, "I'll take the most naive of you and watch you fall apart before your fathers can do anything to rescue you. The thing about you half demons is you're also half human. Sesshomaru wanted to curse me with their happy memories, but this works more in my favor than he realizes."
She held all her rainbow pearls in her hand carefully as stood on a mountain far away, now bearing the scars Sesshomaru left on his chest. I'll make him pay for what he did to me, she thought angrily.
