Sesshomaru pushes against Tetsusaiga with just his right arm, that now has been replaced with another creature's arm and hand. Where this hand meets the blade, electricity shoots out from the contact.
"Is that all the power you can muster?" Sesshomaru berates.
Sesshomaru pulls back his left hand, a green mist encircles his clenched fingers, and he thrusts his hand forward at Inuyasha clawing Inuyasha's left cheek. The impact throws Inuyasha back, stumbling away from his older brother. Inuyasha groans from the sizzling pain on his cheek that quickly evaporates.
"I see. You've found another ugly arm for me to chop off!" Inuyasha growls. Where Sesshomaru's poison claws had made contact with Inuyasha's cheek, left markings.
"Go on…try it. This replacement arm will act as a shield against the Tetsusaiga." Sesshomaru says.
"It's a dragon claw," Sango adds. "A dragon's claw will have a great deal more power than a typical demon's. I wonder how he's going to use it."
I knew the arm was powerful, but I didn't know how powerful or where it came from. My eyes squint, trying to get a better look at Sesshomaru's new replacement. The three-clawed green scaly arm does appear threatening.
"Dragon's claw, whatever! It doesn't look like it's going to be any better than the last arm! I've already taken a good chunk out with my sword!" Inuyasha gloats, but I can't see where this chunk is missing.
"The Tetsusaiga is amazing. Despite not being wielded by its true owner; its power is formidable. It still refuses to reveal the wind scar to the one it has received as its master. Tetsusaiga, slice the emptiness, and reveal your power." Sesshomaru says with a smirk.
"Ah! Sesshomaru must be able to see the wind scar!" Totosai scratches at the bald spot on his head.
The wind scar. Must be some ability the sword has that Inuyasha has yet to wield. But if Sesshomaru can see it, what will become of it if Sesshomaru gets his hands on it?
"In a nutshell, the wind scar is the secret to Tetsusaiga's ultimate power! Slaying 100 demons in one sweep would be virtually impossible unless you can see the wind scar. Sesshomaru must be able to see it!" Totosai explains.
"But if Sesshomaru can see the wind scar, yet is not able to hold the blade on his own, can't Inuyasha be taught to see it, too?" I ask.
"It is impossible to teach. Inuyasha must discover it within himself. If he does not do it in time, then he will surely die!" Totosai exclaims.
Sesshomaru is the first to charge, throwing his new arm at Inuyasha, who dodges with Tetsusaiga, but the impact is so powerful, it slides Inuyasha back. Tetsusaiga vibrates from the attack.
"Damn! All he's using is the claw's brute strength!" Inuyasha shouts, staring at Tetsusaiga in disbelief.
Sesshomaru charges yet again, swinging the dragon claw against the raised Tetsusaiga once again, forcing Inuyasha to roll backward and slide across the dirt ground. Tetsusaiga vibrates even more than before.
"I think the sword is crying," Sango says.
"Crying?" I ask. I never heard that term used for an inanimate object, but Tetsusaiga isn't your normal sword. It lives. I know, because I felt it when I pulled it out of the pedestal it was asleep in.
"From what I can see, Sesshomaru is actually attacking the sword itself!" Miroku says in shock.
"Appalling! He's sending those mighty waves of power ringing through the blade. If he keeps hacking away, even the great Tetsusaiga will break under the pressure!" Totosai cries.
Just as Inuyasha gets up, sword raised in the air, Sesshomaru attacks again with the same dragon claw, pushing Inuyasha back and down onto his knee.
Sango rushes towards Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, her Hiraikotsu raised behind her, ready to attack.
"Stay back! Don't interfere!" Inuyasha demands.
Sango pauses, eyes wide with both shock and, I think, uncertainty.
"I'll kill Sesshomaru with the Tetsusaiga," Inuyasha hisses through the pain.
Miroku walks up to Sango and places a gentle hand on her shoulder. "We have to remember that Inuyasha has tapped into the Tetsusaiga's full strength before. I know it was only once, but it proves that he's capable of doing it again."
"Why won't you roar, Tetsusaiga? Then you can die along with your weak master." Sesshomaru says, before rushing towards Inuyasha.
Inuyasha gets up and raises Tetsusaiga above his head and brings the sword down just in time for Sesshomaru to clutch it with his dragon claw. Sesshomaru throws a punch with his right hand directly at Tetsusaiga, but Inuyasha blocks the attack with his forehead. Blood trickles down where the impact hits.
"You are protecting your sword," Sesshomaru realizes.
"Why would I let you bust up the Tetsusaiga before I've learned how to control it?" Inuyasha smirks. Sesshomaru puts more force into his right hand, throwing Inuyasha onto the ground from the sheer power of his action.
Inuyasha gets up slowly this time, but just in time for Sesshomaru to come flying down at him. He steps back to block Sesshomaru's attack with Tetsusaiga. Electricity forms as Sesshomaru attacks again, but it merely forces Inuyasha to step back, lessening the power of the blow.
"I can smell the wind scraping. It's against the fissure where the power flows through! I'll slice through the fissure and release the power!" Inuyasha exclaims mostly to himself. "I see it!" He brings Tetsusaiga back with both hands and swings at something in the air that I can't see. A burst of light comes from Tetsusaiga colliding with Sesshomaru's chest and throwing him off into the distance, where he disappeared into the blast. The power of the light caused three individual slices to rip at the ground where the attack had gone, causing large canyons to form.
"Is it over?" Inuyasha huffs.
Inuyasha dips his hand into the clear blue stream, cupping his hands together and bringing them up to splash water on his face. I kneel next to him, examining his healing cheek and forehead.
"So, that's the wind scar…" Inuyasha mutters.
"And now you can practice it," I try to smile, but something heavy weighs on me that I can't explain. I wonder if this is what worry feels like.
The sound of hammering comes from behind us, where, on a flat rock, Totosai repairs Tetsusaiga.
"So, is Sesshomaru dead?" Sango asks.
None of us stayed behind long enough to find out. We left the second Inuyasha had the strength to move, just in case Sesshomaru came back with a vengeance. It took some convincing to get Inuyasha to leave.
"Most likely. He received a direct blow from the fully empowered Tetsusaiga," Miroku replies.
Totosai blows fire from his mouth onto Tetsusaiga, causing the blade to redden from the heat.
"I didn't see any direct blows. All Inuyasha did was wildly swing his sword around because his eyes were blinded with poison," Totosai says out loud.
Inuyasha scoffs and looks back at Totosai. "What are you tryin' to say?"
"Hmph! Listen, Inuyasha, you discovered the wind scar. I'll give you that much. But all it means is that you now know what your brother knows. You're still not his equal, and now he is even more formidable than he was before." Totosai explains.
He couldn't be more right, though. If Sesshomaru is alive, he's become even more powerful knowing what Inuyasha knows now.
"You speak as though he's still alive," Miroku says.
"Sesshomaru is still alive, and even though he despises the Tenseiga, it protected his life," Totosai relays.
"Protected his life…" Sango mutters.
"Sesshomaru is still around somewhere?" Shippo asks.
"Inuyasha, when you used the wind scar against Sesshomaru, you didn't feel it strike him, did you?" Totosai asks, lifting his hammer to continue with the repairs.
"His body felt like it disintegrated in the blast from the Tetsusaiga. I didn't pulverize him or nothin'. He just sort of disappeared."
"Tenseiga protected Sesshomaru against the power and light of Tetsusaiga. It acted of its own accord. And here Sesshomaru called the Tenseiga a 'useless sword,' and despised it as his birthright. Tenseiga is the sword of life and when Sesshomaru's life was endangered, despite his dark soul, the Tenseiga chose to save him, and that is what makes him invincible." Totosai says. "So, how do you defeat a foe like that? I have no idea. It's beyond me."
"I've sharpened the sword. Now you just have to train yourself to defeat Sesshomaru's Tenseiga like he was trying to defeat the Tetsusaiga." Totosai says from on top of his cow. He's leaving as he speaks, making his voice far away and quieter as it gets.
We wave goodbye as the sun slowly sets.
The sky is partly clouded, giving off a cool breeze through the mountains as we all walk along the dirt trail. For a small bit now, I've felt the presence of a shard. It's faint, but getting stronger the longer we've walked in the direction we are going. My eyes watch my feet as we walk, Sango at my side with Miroku, Inuyasha, and Shippo up ahead.
"Is something wrong, Keara?" Sango asks.
I frown and glance up at her. I was hoping no one would notice my concentration. I wanted to make sure that what I was feeling was truly a shard or a potential enemy. I haven't heard the voices screaming for help or calling out to me, so I couldn't be sure.
"Well, I think I sense a shard," I make sure to pronounce 'think' strongly because I don't want anyone to get their hopes up.
But Inuyasha and Miroku turn our way with curious and wide eyes.
"Really? What direction?" Inuyasha asks a little loudly.
After walking for an hour and following the feeling of the shard's aura, we come across a village. It's quiet, eerily quiet. And when we approach it even closer, we notice bodies on the ground throughout the village.
"A massacre," Miroku mutters.
All around the bodies are paw tracks that are a little too big for wild dogs and to canine to be related to a large cat. I pull on Inuyasha's sleeve and point at the tracks.
He looks down at the tracks. "Was this done by a pack of wolves? They left tracks everywhere. There must have been a lot of them."
"Do you think they were possessed by the shard Keara senses?" Miroku asks.
"Probably, this slaughter has 'demon' written all over it," Inuyasha looks over at Miroku with a frown.
Just as he says this, I hear the sound of growling coming our way from all over. I first look behind me to see a line of multiple colored brown wolves approaching us. When I glance back at my side and in front of me, I notice they are surrounding us.
Shippo leaps up into my arms and hugs my neck, burying his face into my skin. "Look out!" He cries as he shivers in fear against me.
We all step back to back to each other, but we are surrounded on all sides.
"Let's teach these wolves a lesson!" Inuyasha says. "They're strays; it looks like the leader isn't even here! They're useless unless they move in a pack."
The line of wolves in front of Inuyasha leap at him and he slashes down with his claws while yelling, "Iron reaver!" Bright yellow slashes rip through the line of wolves, scaring off the rest of them up a hill nearby. One stops and howls, and then another follows before all the rest of them raise their heads and let loose a howl.
"They're howling, calling their comrades!" Sango says.
The aura of a shard grows powerful quickly, but still, no voices come from the approaching jewel, making me wonder just how deadly the threat is that is coming.
"I sense the shard. It's coming at us fast," I announce, stepping closer to the group. With Shippo in my arms, there is not much I can do. I can't use my power or grab the sword from my back.
Out from the forest comes a small tornado that doesn't touch the sky, it's only about seven feet tall from the ground, and though it's small, it still blows powerful gusts of wind and dirt at us. I hover over Shippo to protect him from the debris, feeling pebbles peck at me from all angles.
The wind abruptly stops and out from the tornado appears a young man with long black hair that is up in a ponytail, wearing brown wolf skin and metal chest armor. His nearly navy blue eyes glare at us but he's unmoving to grab the sword at his side.
I spot three shards within him. One in his right forearm and one in each leg in the calf. The wolves crowd around the man, whose pointed ears remind me of Sesshomaru's.
"Just who are you? Explain yourselves. Why are you killing my wolves?" The man says in an almost raspy voice.
"Inuyasha, he has three shards. One in his arm and one in each leg," I say.
"You lead this bloodthirsty pack?" Inuyasha growls more than he asks.
Clearly, this man is a demon, and I can assume by the wolves and his clothing, and now the brown tail I see flicking behind him, that he may be a wolf demon. He scowls while glaring at Inuyasha, and Inuyasha glares back.