Path of the Heart : 3 : The Dragon and the Blade Chapter 12: Getting Closer, an inuyasha fanfic

A/N:.We're getting closer, I promise! (Isn't that what they Always Say? XD)

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When they arrived, Sesshoumaru's Mother, having seen what had transpired with her own magic scrying, gave them the finished Primordial Egg which had been made with the help of Jinenji and the ancient Chinese sealing spells she'd researched, and bade them good luck; and they went to train for what they could tell would be their last round; for now the feeling of impending unease settled upon them, and they were sure the watchful nine eyes of demise drew near once again.

So as they approached the washout gully and drew the pulsing swords, a flash of Black Foxfire whirled around the Tetsusaiga as they readied themselves to learn this new technique, and when Shippou swung, at first it looked like just a complete Sphere Meidou, surrounded by the black foxfire but otherwise in what appeared to be it's original form.

Tenseiga pulsed, and Sesshoumaru felt a new power rise within him; and he gripped Ah-Un just a bit more tightly, and the dragon flew into the Black Meidou, and Sesshoumaru held up Tenseiga as they came close...

And the attack Thanh Long had lent him in the Nether all that time ago was unleashed, but now the healing light that washed over him also encapsulated Ah-Un, and rejuvenated all of their powers; and the bolts of devastation that flew outwards, otherwise unable to affect those in the mortal realm, were surrounded by black foxfire and grew in size to become miniature bolts of Nether energy, so they were like tiny shreds of Meidou, and they made tiny vortices and sucked up gravel and leaves and branches before vanishing-but there had been hundreds of them, and most of all, the healing power would keep Sesshoumaru and Ah-Un rejuvenated throughout a long battle so they would not grow weary...

And they all smiled, and the Black Meidou shook and merely dispersed, akin to evaporating rather than closing like a portal often did.

And the two swords pulsed again, and this time Tetsusaiga glowed with the WindScar first, then shifted subtly into the Kokoro no Kizu, and Tenseiga crackled with the Kokoro Ryuuha, and the two youkai smiled and swung as one.

"Kokoro Ryuuha no Kizu!" they said in unison, and the attack flew from both swords and easily entwined as one, and struck the target with such force that the rock blew to smithereens; and you see this word used for emphasis is a very scientific unit of measurement that precisely meant a whole damn lot of little tiny bits.

Ah, they finally have achieved unison.

They spoke as one, Un.

"We finally have achieved unison," Sesshoumaru smiled.

"We spoke as one," Shippou grinned.

Ah and Un bugled then, and lifting both heads and tossing both manes, he seemed to be eager to do something; and Tenseiga and Tetsusaiga both pulsed for another Kokoro Ryuuha no Kizu again, and as they raised both swords, Ah's mouth began to glow bright blue, and Un's mouth began to glow bright green. And Ah pointed his head where the target was, and Un lifted his head to the sky as dark clouds accumulated above them...

And when Sesshoumaru and Shippou let loose another blast, Ah and Un joined them, and the lightning from Ah made a crackling vortex about the combined attacks, and the storm from Un made a thundering vortex that pulled the attack upwards, and then it whirled into a massive funnel cloud, one that was surely about to touch down, wherein the powerful shrieks of a mighty dragon were heard; and a form like the body of a great sky serpent appeared in the clouds above, and the Kokoro Ryuuha no Kizu swallowed up the clouds within it's roiling thunderhead and became enormous in the sky...

And when it dove through the eye of the tornado towards the ground, Ah-Un drew his tail around Shippou abruptly as both of the swords and the dragon all made a swift barrier.

And the washout gully just didn't look the same after that. It looked more like a meteorite had just hit, having blown a hole over a hundred feet deep and a few hundred feet across, a crater big enough to have swallowed a castle.

"Whoa," they both breathed, and in unison, "that. Was. AWESOME!"

Ah-Un trumpeted and bobbed in the air and tossed both heads alternately, and they all cheered for the sheer exuberance of that kind of power.

"Okay, that was a definite confidence booster," Shippou chuckled as they settled, "that's just incredible, Ah-Un."

"Isn't it though?" Sesshoumaru agreed, smiling as he gave the dragons each a scratch behind the ears.

Ah and Un bobbed and hovered and shook both manes out wildly; Sesshoumaru and Shippou both laughed just a little more, and the swords had one more thing to say for the day.

=There is one more technique we can teach you now, and two more things you will yet learn in the Nether.=

}For if you are to win this fight, you must take it to Sou'unga. But not all three can be learned here.{

=Draw upon your resonance, and let your hearts guide your moves.=

}Learn this last maneuver, and master what you have thus learned with utmost haste. This battle will be upon us all swiftly.{

A feeling of calm swept over all of them now, like a cool breeze on a hot summer day; and they closed their eyes, Sesshoumaru and Shippou and Ah and Un, and they breathed in one deep breath, and they breathed out one deep breath, and they felt their hearts as one singluar pulse, and they all opened their eyes at the same time and they all grinned the same fiendish grin.

Tenseiga was glowing with a strongly magenta hue, speckled with little zips and sizzles of green. Tetsusaiga was glowing now with Green Foxfire that had little zaps and speckles of magenta and blue wrapped around the Meidou blade. Ah was collecting his blue energy in his mouth, and Un was collecting his green energy in his mouth and clouds formed overhead...

Tetsusaiga pulsed, and Shippou swung. The Meidou stretched out like an unrolling carpet along the path of the strike, a dark ribbon alight with green foxfire. Un lifted his head and shot his green energy high up but along the same path, and a row of vortices swiftly began to form in a row above the Green Meidou. Sesshoumaru and Shippou unleashed a Kokoro Ryuuha no Kizu down the middle of the Green Meidou, the shape of Thanh Long's form rushing through. This was followed up swiftly by Ah's blue bolt of energy coming up from beneath it, grazing the belly of the attack as it were, and drawing his brother dragon's power together, the vortices created by Un met swiftly with Ah's and drove down and around the Kokoro Ryuuha no Kizu.

And this drew up massive tendrils of power from the attack and whirled them into the sky above, and from this motion, Meidou energy coursed upwards through the tornadoes and mingled with the unnatural clouds, and all the colors of the auras mingled with the form and shape of the great Thanh Long's spirit, and the thunderhead screamed like a great and ominous death knell; it was almost as if he had been reborn, for now the great power that towered over them was so immense as to make the hude body of the old Ryuukotsusei look like a hatchling.

And laughing, Thanh Long himself actually stayed the attack just long enough to speak in the voice of the thunder.

"I should not unleash this power in the mortal realm, but you will need it in the Nether," the sky itself boomed as Thanh Long, his energy coalesced into the form of their conjoined attack, dove into the abyss of the Green Meidou beneath him, daring not to destroy the whole of the mountain they'd been practicing on.

Ah and Un trumpeted in salute. Sesshoumaru and Shippou whooped in primal delight. The awesomeness they felt echoed in all of them; the sheer might of these combined powers was almost beyond their comprehension right now.

After a few minutes, though, they all looked at each other and nodded. Now that they knew these techniques, it was time, as the swords had said, to really put a few days into practicing enough to make their motions fluid. Obviously they would not be practicing those most powerful techniques that much, but they had to make sure they were ready for this. And it all felt so fast, so sudden...

For the next three days they did some intense training with the Blue, Magenta, and even the Black Meidou, experimenting with looping and with Ah-Un's timing of hitting the Thunder Walls, which Sesshoumaru and Shippou had decided to call Thunder Blasts, because of course they didn't know Ah-Un had already named it; but that was okay, because they got the first half right anyways. And they had also decided to name the one attack that used all four of their powers, but without the Meidou, the Thunder Dragon; and as for the technique with the Green Meidou and all four of them together, they deigned the name that one, Meidou Thunder Dragon, of course. Because Green Meidou Thunder Dragon just didn't roll off the tongue quite as easily, and for an ultimate technique, calling it Green Meidou also felt lackluster. And they practiced with the use of other kitsune magic in combination with these techniques, though admittedly not all of it was especially useful; the fox's Tops and tricks were hardly at the power level of their sword attacks. However, it was actually quite interesting to see that his Multiply illusion technique was, in fact, multiplied even further by the Magenta Meidou, so that a dozen copies turned into almost a hundred fifty in an instant.

Sesshoumaru had raised an eyebrow at Shippou when all the copies had turned to look at him; yes, yes, it was COOL. :D

Finally, they felt like they could be ready. They decided to try having one last night of rest after all the training, intending to set off straightwith after they awoke and see how they would swiftly find Sou'unga in the Nether without spending too much time lost in the voyage.
Unfortunately for them, Sou'unga found them first.

Sou'unga breathed in the scent of the two souls he'd left to prepare for so long ago; so long, in his time, for he had burrowed into a deep place in the Nether and refined his own strategies, tailored his approach.

Something was Different now, something had changed already; he could smell it faintly on them, as if they had altered slightly. But not at all perturbed by any kind of fear, believing himself as invincible as any Nether Dragon ought to think he was, Sou'unga was not afraid, but rather amused, and alight with anticipation.

He drew himself close to the Veil, where he could cast his nightmare spells again, and he laughed darkly as he saw them asleep. His plan, he felt, had worked; he'd lulled them into a false sense of security, and now sprung forth with his spells in an ambush into their minds...

Sesshoumaru and Shippou and Ah-Un were all in the same dream now, in true forms, albeit that Sesshoumaru was in his smaller sized version. They were all rolling around in the sand, hearing whales off in the distance, tasting salt in the air, smelling the seaweed and the urchins.

And for a little while, all was well...

But then suddenly, sharply, a cold wind blew from the south, and Ah-Un paused and lifted both heads.

At first Sesshoumaru and Shippou weren't paying attention. But after a moment, the dragon flicked his tail anxiously, and the other two youkai felt a sharp twinge in their chests, and they both stopped and looked at Ah-Un, then lifted their noses to the wind.

The scent was like the smell of death and fear. It stung like the smell of hot peppers and sulphur, and reeked of decay and malice.

Sou'unga!

None of them spoke, but all of them thought this, and in one fell moment, all of them were hit with fear.

Ah-Un, having two hearts already, had almost always had discernment when it came to knowing Ah's heart from Un's, therefore knew that this fear was not his own, that it was Sesshoumaru's fear from his trauma caused by the demon. Ah-Un felt this feeling and was driven to protect his friend, so drew himself up and put himself on Sesshoumaru's flank, between the dog and Sou'unga.

Shippou, unaccustomed to the shared heart feelings still, at first struggled to differentiate. So he felt as if his fear was his own for a little while, and couldn't stop himself from shaking, and cursed himself for hiding behind Ah-Un, and sought his friend for comfort-

And saw Sesshoumaru, cowering, quivering, trying to make himself small behind Ah-Un.

And suddenly, Shippou realized, that this fear he felt, was not His Fear, but that of Sesshoumaru. This was what he felt at the merest sign of Sou'unga drawing near, and after all, this was the very selfsame dragon that had tortured him for what had felt like-roughly, they calculated one night-about six or seven years.

The wind gusted again and blew harshly along their fur, and Sesshoumaru shuddered, and Shippou was overcome by a strong fear and an even more intense memory.

Shippou himself had been unable to bear watching all of what had happened to Sesshoumaru after Sou'unga had assumed a humanlike form, and so he had not known about the way he'd split himself into three men or even the true extent of the feelings of-

Shippou felt his heart thrashing, clawing at his chest, and he realized that it wasn't his physical heart, but rather his houshi-no-tama, and it writhed in such great agony that it wanted out, out, to escape this vile wretched feeling. But it could not get away from what was wrapped around it's very essence; and Shippou felt three things all at once.

He felt Sesshoumaru's anguish, and there were no words to describe the depths of it as the memories flashed into Shippou's mind.

He felt Sesshoumaru's fear, and there were no words to describe the breadth of it as the recollections etched into Shippou's heart.

He felt Shame, and the faint memory of his own first glimpse of the Kokoro no Kizu glimmered in the distance, a beacon of his true self, and he felt regret, because he had not been brave before; and the houshi-no-tama grew hot in his chest, and he felt a new feeling; this one was Strong, it was Pure, it welled up in the tips of his claws and fangs like electricity as it echoed through his mind.

Kokoro no Kizu?

No, not exactly, for this was not only drawing upon His Heart, but all of their hearts. His, Ah-Un's, Sesshoumaru's.

And it felt like what he Should have done before; it felt like the lesson he had to learn to stop himself from ever being cowardly again; it reminded him of the pain of his heart, and the anguish, and the fear, and the awful things he never wanted to feel again. And it unleashed fury in righteous indignation against those who chose to keep doing evil things; it scorched evil nightmares with their combined power, it sliced through dream beings and revealed the weakness in their might.

There was no name for this attack, but Shippou sprung into the air and met the stormclouds and delivered it, with his claws, with his fangs, grasping the edge of the dream in his imagination and taking firm hold of all the power of all their shared hearts.

And his being was engulfed in multicolor foxfire; blue, and magenta, and green, and black, and white; and he grew in size until his dream form was larger than Sesshoumaru's true form, larger than Touga's true form, larger and larger he grew until he could open his maw to swallow half the sky; and that half was Sou'unga, and Shippou ran into the void behind the sky he had swallowed, and carried Sou'unga into a deeper void still beyond it, and spat him out, and breathed green foxfire on him, and leaped into the air, and split the void into black void and white void, and cast a barrier between them, and sealed Sou'unga out of the dream without having realized he had been able to dispel the enchantment the dragon had cast with merely his wit and willpower.

And Shippou returned to his friends and drew his tails across the void, and a new sky was made, and a new horizon was crafted, and Shippou returned swiftly down to the size he had been before; and he trembled as he approached his dog friend, and he lowered his ears and his two tails and his head, and nuzzled under Sesshoumaru's neck.

And Sesshoumaru, shaken, but amazed, closed his eyes and let out a huff through his dog nose, and began to relax, and Ah-Un and Shippou both nuzzled at him until he felt better; for they had now felt but a mere few moments of what he had endured, and neither could have thought to bear it as he had all this time.

And Sou'unga, stunned, retreated to his own realm, unsure of just how this mere youkai kitsune had been able to manipulate his dream spell so effortlessly as to render him harmless and unable to re-enter the dream in a matter of mere minutes. So stunned had he been, he'd not even thought to launch a counter-attack the entire time, too astounded that the fox could do anything but falter in fear under his spells.

Sesshoumaru woke up mere moments before the others, panting, eyes narrow, face flush. Shippou and Ah-Un were right there to comfort him, and maybe he should have just let them, but somehow, now that he was awake, he was just very irritated, and pushed off to be by himself for just a little while.

Shippou and Ah-Un looked at each other, sad but knowing. Sesshoumaru tried so hard to adapt quickly, but some things would never be easy for one such as he. And getting very close to people was one of those things. Oh, he could Do It. But sometimes it was hard on him.

And right now, he was beginning to be aware of the fact that they'd caught a few hints of a few of his memories of what had happened to him, which made him feel...
Inexplicably, probably irrationally, it made him feel violated all over again. Why should his friends have to share those memories with him? It was bad enough that he had to relive them, but for them to suffer what he'd felt was not only a total absence of his own privacy, but a torture to those closest to him on top of that.

And he hated himself for his fear. He hadn't been able to control it, even with his closest friends nearby, he had been surprised when he should have been looking for danger, for they knew their enemy could come into dreams-

Tenseiga pulsed at his side, and though the words weren't formed in his mind as such yet, the thought-feelings vibrated in his heart.

"No, of course I don't want to abandon this fight. I am afraid, but I will not be a coward. It's only that...if we lose, it will be the weakness in my own heart that will make us falter. It was always My Heart that was lacking. Shippou's heart is pure. Ah-Un's hearts are pure. I was the one who needed to learn, I am the one who succumbed to my fear. I am the weak link. I'm not used to that, Tenseiga. Thanh Long. I don't even know what to call you anymore," he huffed, mumbling, "not that you seem to mind, for which I am grateful. And, I am grateful. For so many things. For these great friends I have, for my brother and my family and all the others along the way, for those who are loyal to me for no good reason, all the times I...I don't know, what any of them saw in me," now mostly talking to himself, Tenseiga listened patiently. "I was cruel, I was unfeeling, I was unforgiving of even my allies, nevermind my enemies. I was haughty, and I was arrogant, and I scorned those who loved and adored me. I fought with impunity, and sometimes even indignity, when I resorted to the most devious of schemes against my own flesh and blood brother. Yet still, there were those who loved me, and those who forgave me, and those who encouraged me, and those who taught me...I don't deserve friends like these, Thanh Long."

=That you feel you do not deserve them, is a sign of your growth. You have matured, Lord Sesshoumaru.=

"Have I, though? I mean, have I really? I still feel awful childish sometimes..."

=A mature person knows when it is appropriate to act like a child. There is no dishonor indulging in play.=

"Thanh Long...how do I get over this fear?" Sesshoumaru whispered, and there was a long pause as Thanh Long pondered his answer.

=If you Know you can defeat him, you should not fear him.=

"That's what I thought. I wanted to know what You thought."

=It was a profound thought.=

"But I still can't shake the fear."

=So you do not Know you can defeat him?=

"I know we have been training to..."

=But you do not Know you will succeed.=

"Is there a way to know?"

=To have a battle is to know the outcome.=

"How helpful," Sesshoumaru sighed, growing a bit more miserable with himself, "so I am to have this fear the whole time then."

=And wouldn't that just bother you so much, to fight in the face of constant fear like some weakling?=

Sesshoumaru crossed his arms and let slip a slight scowl as he glanced at the sword at his hip; but before he could comment, his heart gave a swift unnatural pulse, and Tenseiga pulsed at the same time, and Thanh Long revealed to Sesshoumaru more flashes of Shippou's memories.

Although Sesshoumaru himself had been a powerful taiyoukai for so long that he had just about forgotten what it was like to be young and small and inexperienced, he was feeling it now through the flow of energy in his heart; Thanh Long plucked dozens of flashes of different memories of Shippou's bravery in the face of fear, when he sought revenge upon the Thunder Brothers, when he defended Inuyasha the first night he'd seen the hanyou transform into a human, when he fought the lizard that shattered Satsuki's stone flower, when he fought Tesso the rat who tried to rid himself of the cat that looked like Kirara, Tesso who almost killed the girl Koume in the process...all the battles against Naraku, even old battles against Sesshoumaru himself, over and over again he went to battle with his much stronger friends, facing intimidating enemies, and always feeling insecure...Shippou had almost always felt like the weakest link.

=But he faced his fears anyway, and for the sake of his friends, for the sake of doing what was right, and because he trusted, he battled.=

Sesshoumaru, humbled by that, reflected for a little longer on these new feelings, and turned them about in his mind, and let them settle in his heart, and finally he made to walk back to his friends, no longer too upset to be near anyone else.

But before he could say any words to explain his earlier irritation, before he could compose the right things to say, Shippou and Ah-Un already had ideas of their own.
And as he drew near, Shippou walked forward to meet him, and they stopped, three inches away from each other, and Sesshoumaru felt a wave of the kitsune's emotion as the fox stretched his arms wide and squeezed as hard as he could in a warm embrace.

"You know, Shippou, I don't usually..." but Sesshoumaru sighed, relenting, and closed his eyes, and moved his own arms to squeeze back, and Ah-Un came to stand beside them both, and wrapped both heads around their two backs in his own way of hugging them both.

They stood that way for a very long two minutes, and Sesshoumaru finally loosened his grip just a bit, and Shippou loosened his, and Ah-Un withdrew both necks, and they drew back and all looked at each other.

"Hush, the others will tease me later. I'm sure they're watching by now. Inuyasha would not let his sword go without seeking a means to see what became of this battle," Sesshoumaru blushed and Shippou just chuckled.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll be sure to embarrass him in front of you to return the favor."

"How noble and kind of you, Taiyoukai Kitsune."

"Well, I can be rather magnanimous when I want to be," Shippou said in a regal voice, and Sesshoumaru snorted at him, amused.

"Do you even know what that word means?"

And there it was-Shippou smiled back, seeing just a hint of Sesshoumaru's natural dog playfulness peeking through again.

"Oh, I know what that word means alright. It's the way a taiyoukai dog treats a little kitsune in a hot spring."

Sesshoumaru laughed and reached over to ruffle Shippou's hair teasingly.

"You're right, I was being magnanimous with you. But perhaps I won't always be so," he winked devilishly, and Shippou grinned at him and flicked both tails, happy to see the dog smile.

"The way a taiyoukai dog treats a kitsune in a hot spring?" Inuyasha flicked his ears, frowning. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means they eloped, Inuyasha," Kagura rolled her eyes, "by the Gods, you really can be so dense sometimes."

"WHAT?!" Inuyasha yipped, jumping to his feet, "No way!"

"Uh, actually, I think she might be right," Miroku raised one finger to point to the air as he emphasized his evidence, "if you noticed how your brother winked at him just now-"

"You're a pervert and would believe anything like that about anybody. Your opinion doesn't count," Inuyasha huffed.

"Are you not bothered, Kagura?" Miroku glanced at her casually, eying her emotional response.

Kagura shrugged indifferently, looking over at the monk.

"Should I be? Shippou is physically mature enough, and male, and Sesshoumaru came to save me from the Nether out of his love for me. How can I think he does not love me just because he elopes with males for fun? If he needs some fun on the side, well, I shall let my dog have his toys," she chuckled, devious then, as a strange gleam flashed across her eyes, "I hear dogs grow excited when they have fresh toys to play with."

Miroku laughed uproariously. Inuyasha screamed unintelligibly, grabbed his ears, and stomped away, flustered.

"What's wrong with him?" Toutousai blinked, asking nobody in particular.

"He can't cope with the thought of Sesshoumaru getting some tail from Shippou," Sango shrugged, nudging Miroku, "you're supposed to go home and relieve the babysitter, Dad."

"Aaaawwww," Miroku whined, "it was just getting Good!"

"Rin is already too kind to us, don't take advantage so much," Sango huffed, crossing her arms.

Miroku sighed and dragged himself home for His Turn.

"But do you really think they've done that, Sango?" Kagome asked, herself slightly appalled after having watched Inuyasha's tantrum whilst processing her own thoughts. Shippou had been almost like a child to her, or at least a little brother, even after his growth spurt. Her own reaction to the thought of her adopted little brother and her husband's big brother...Doing It...was very awkward and kind of nauseating.

"Uh, we-well, what I think doesn't matter, really," Sango said hastily, her hands up in an appeasing gesture.

"You think they really did it," Kagome murmured, looking back and forth between Kagura and Sango, "both of you think that."

"I don't think it, I know it," Kagura said with absolute certainty, placing her hand on her chest right over her heart, "I feel it here, in my very own heart which now beats in my very own chest-" this was a phrase she was particularly fond of using any chance she could, and none of them begrudged her for it, for they understood- "and as a matter of fact, it was right after the cow went to sleep, and I felt like I knew something was happening, because I..."

Suddenly, she stopped and blushed dark red, not sure what she should say to describe it.

"Well, I felt...feelings," she said vaguely, but it was enough, and Kagome moaned and went to find her husband and pity their poor ruined innocence together. They would probably go to Miroku's house and drink all of the sake he would offer them, for he brewed it these days, to cope with his fatherly woes. (Not that badly! :) )

"I don't always understand these reactions," Myouga mused, "although I am rather surprised at your lack of jealousy, Kagura. Most women in general are just very...jealous," he sweatdropped, hoping he'd not said too much.

Kagura shrugged again, her expression casual.

"Shippou is not another woman, he's a young male, and a close friend, and right now their Hearts are resonating. Should I have expected that Sesshoumaru would Not have felt that urge? After all, his own Mother said he used to prefer men. What kind of cruel woman would I be to deny him that pleasure, if I know where his heart is? I know he still thinks of me often, I feel him seeking me out when he closes his eyes and turns his face to the wind. I send the breeze to kiss his lips, I send a whisper to caress his cheek, I send a gust to tease his hair. I am still with him, and he knows that. We feel it in our hearts. I can even feel Shippou now, ever since they have begun. And I am not jealous, but happy. Furthermore, for what would I begrudge the kitsune who would've given his soul to give me a chance to be with Sesshoumaru, if they want to share their love in other ways? Sesshoumaru still finds it so difficult to be the happy dog that lies beneath his stoic shell. Shippou brings that out in him. He needs friends like that," she said softly, a smile on her face. "After all, isn't it in the nature of dogs to just want to be happy?"

"Well, I suppose that's the nature of all things, if you really put it into simple terms. But I understand what you mean," Sango agreed, "all around the countryside, I've met a lot of very happy stray dogs, or dogs that were village mutts, and they always seem so happy just to run around and play. I think most animals that are like dogs are like that, all the wolves and foxes and tanuki and panda-cats, just Happy."

"So for Sesshoumaru, who struggles so much to be as Happy as a Dog Taiyoukai should be," Kagura spoke, "should I, as his wife, not be Happy with anything and anyone that makes him Happy? Especially when it bears no consequence on him being my husband and my being his wife?"

"Hmm, indeed. If only all women were so wise," Myouga nodded and Toutousai nodded, and Sango and Kagura narrowed their eyes but said nothing; and Kohaku, for his part, observing the two women, deigned to become invisible again by not reacting to the old man's unintentional sleight.

Neither choosing to actually press the issue, though, they who were present resumed watching Moumou's projected visions on the hilltop...

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