Chapter 38
Riku smiles at Towa. "You should know that your sword, the Kikujūmonji has the ability to absorb demonic energy."
Towa looks at the sword more carefully. It seems to be a simple katana. Nothing. "And how is it that I'm able to do that?" She asks Riku with her one thin eyebrow raised.
"It's simple. Are you have to do is aim it at a being that has demonic energy. Once absorbed, it will dimmish into nothingness." Riku explains the sword's purpose.
Following his instructions, Towa aims the sword towards the demon tree. Soon the sword begins to glow a light pale blue. "Now, focus on the sword's power." Riku encourages Towa.
Towa closes her magenta eyes and concentrates. So far the sword begins to absorb the demon tree's demonic energy.
The demon tree begins to groan. "What's happening?" It shouts painfully. Moroha and Setsuna witness the pedals begin to wilt and die slowly.
Towa remains her stance to keep going. "It's too much." She grunts as she feels weak all of a sudden. Dropping to one knee, Moroha and Setsuna come to her aid. They look at each other. Nodding, Setsuna places her right hand onto Towa's left shoulder while Moroha places her left hand onto Towa's right shoulder.
"You got this, Towa. Keep going." Setsuna cheers her twin sister. She closes her indigo eyes and focuses her energy and gives it to Towa.
"We never give up, Towa. Setsuna and I were able to complete our missions. You will too." Moroha adds in her cheer. She closes her brown eyes and gives her cousin her energy.
Towa takes deep breaths as she begins to receive the energies from the two individuals. It doesn't take long for her own power to recover, giving her strength to continue absorbing the demon tree's power.
The adults watch curiously, observing their offsprings' potential. "Do you think they can do this?" Kagome asks Riku.
Riku smiles at her. "I'm confident they have the skills to succeed."
Inuyasha smiles back. "No doubt about it. They got this."
"Nooo." The tree screams in agony as it begins to fade away while being absorbed into the Kikujūmonji. Once completely absorbed, the spot where it once was is gone without leaving any uprooted grounds. It's gone for good.
Towa, Setsuna and Moroha breathe in relief as they fall to their knees. They all looked exhausted. "Moroha!" Kagome runs up to her daughter.
"I'll be alright. Just tired." Moroha chuckles back. Kagome sighs in relief. "Good, because you're done. No more missions." Inuyasha comes up and helps get Moroha onto his back. "We're proud of you." He said to her. Moroha smiles to remind herself that she made her parents proud. They decided to go straight home.
"Towa, Setsuna." Riku reappears with Rin and Sesshomaru beside him. Rin runs to her daughters. "Hey, mother. I hope we managed to complete the mission." Towa pushes herself up. Rin smiles. "You did. Both of you." She then turns to Setsuna who pushes herself as well. "I think we did enough battling for awhile."
Sesshomaru just remains silent throughout the time being. "Do you have anything to them, Lord Sesshomaru?" Riku questions him bluntly.
"I'm not one who praises on his offspring." Sesshomaru honest replies. Sad but true, Riku acknowledges his answer rather he likes it or not. On the one hand, a father should be proud, rather he shows it or not. One the other hand, he's been raised to show any emotion due to his own experience growing up.
"Sesshomaru, it'd be nice to speak your mind." Riku suggested him before vanishing. Although he doesn't want to admit it, Sesshomaru decided to take the advice. As such he walks up to them. "Nicely done that neither of you were killed."
Towa and Setsuna don't really know how to take that comment. "Thank you." Towa spoke first. "Yes, thank you father." Setsuna smiles to him a little, not really sure it'd help.
"Ok let's go home." Rin smiles at the twins as they begin their journey home.
That evening, after dinner, Towa and Setsuna are getting ready to go to bed. As they begin to brush their teeth, neither of them heard their father coming to the bathroom and knocked on the door once to get their immediate attention.
"Is something wrong, father?" Towa asks him first. "I need to talk to you two." He said before going into the master bedroom. Towa and Setsuna look at each other. Spitting out the remaining toothpaste, they head into their parents' bedroom.
They know they are not allowed to sit on the California king sized bed. They have a couch at the foot of the bed for them to sit on while Sesshomaru sits in his custom-made leather recliner.
"Towa, Setsuna. You should both know that I'm not one who shows emotions. He starts off calmly, which is odd.
"As a father, I should know how to remain this way. It's something I was trained to do since I was a pup by my mother. She suggested that I should never lash out at other people, say nice things, disrespectful to others, anything rude, nor be mean to them."
The twins can see how much it must've been stressful on him, regardless to be a powerful daiyoukai. "All I'm trying to say here is that I'm proud of you two. I may not look it, but I'm sure that at the very beginning, I knew what you had for what it takes to be great agents. When the time is right, you're off duty for now. But I'll assign you to individual missions."
The most shocking thing happened, he opened his arms. The twins come up to him and hug, which was very unusual.
Once the hug was done, Rin comes in. "Nicely done, Sesshomaru. Girls, it's time for bed." They obey their mother's word and leave the master bedroom.
With the door closed, the sound barrier appears so no one can eavesdrop. "Rin, don't you ever make me go through that again." Sesshomaru said to her annoyance.
"Oh lighten up, Sesshomaru. You should be proud no matter what. Being a parent can be challenging, even for you, a powerful demon. Despite of what just happened, you should know that I'm proud of you for what you just did." Rin said to him before changing into her pajamas.
Sesshomaru can tell that even though the way Rin talks to him, she's actually threatening him to speak to their daughters through her own façade. And that alone scares him. He knows for sure that he needs to be more open from now on.
