InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Forgotten ❯ Tetsusaiga: The Incomplete Sword ( Chapter 29 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Sesshomaru, Inuyasha or anyone from the hit anime/manga series. Rumiko Takahashi does. I do own all OC's and plot in this story.

 

Chapter 24: Tetsusaiga

 

159 years before the search for the jewel shards.

 

Desiring answers when I should have just let things stand. Why did I have to seek my father's spirit? Not everyone is able to contact the dead so why did I try? If not for Tetsusaiga I wouldn't be here now. Was I wrong to leave Tetsusaiga behind?

-Inuyasha

 

Part 1: The Incomplete Sword

 

45 years earlier…

 

Kenhoshi gasped for air, his whole body rigid with agony. He clawed at the floor with one hand as another held his failing heart. Not now! It can't end now! Izayoi, where are you? he thought desperately. He growled as another wave of convulsions wracked his body. Then the pain came to an abrupt end. His heart's erratic beating steadied and his breathing eased. He opened his eyes. A young woman with deep black eyes and hair held her hands to his torso and a soft light glowed between the two.

 

“My lord, please, you must stop participating in these kinds of battles,” said Izayoi her expression grim. “If you truly desire to remain in this world until you can settle things then you have to refrain from these conflicts.”

 

Several winters ago, Izayoi had come across the dying Kenhoshi and saved him but now she bore a terrible secret. The Inu no Taisho had not been dying from wounds received in battle, he had been dying from a failing body. Twelve thousand years of life were finally coming to an end; his organs were rotting from within and his regenerative power seemed unable to repair them. Her power restored them to perfect health but as soon as the healing was finished the rot started anew. She had had to literally treat him every day the first two years before his body finally began to compensate. The period of time between treatments had slowly extended over the years. Izayoi found that the rot was agitated by Kenhoshi's heightened youki which occurred when he was fighting powerful opponents. If he engaged in battles the rot accelerated and he almost always needed her immediately following the fight.

 

This latest battle had been even more rigorous than most. The enemy demon had had a weapon that opened the pathway to the afterlife. Anyone caught in the sphere it produced were never seen again having been sent straight to the other side of existence. Kenhoshi had had to fight him without taking a single hit. Not something the tremendously strong Inuyokai was used to.

 

She glanced at the sword lying next to him. Out of his grip, the Tetsusaiga was in its harmless form, that of a rusty, beat up blade. The sword was supposed to take the strain off Kenhoshi. Designed to use a small amount of the user's power to transform, it largely fed off the enemy demons' youki, using their strength to destroy them. Properly deployed the sword would give the Inu no Taisho the same results but with minimum power usage. He had told his sword smith, Totosai, that he desired a sword to protect her, an excuse she herself had come up with when they had discussed his health years before. No one could know the real reason why the Inu no Taisho needed such a powerful blade.

 

I really shouldn't be keeping him alive like this. I have spells that allow for the peaceful passage of a soul, she thought for the umpteenth time. Her first healing had given her a full understanding of his condition. After he was restored that first time, she had informed him of his failing health and that the time had finally come to say good-bye to all things in this world. Kenhoshi had shaken his head then and said:

 

“Make no mistake, kitenko, I fully understood what you said. However, it is of great irony that after all the many centuries that I lived, had felt death was nothing to fear, now that I am finally standing at the threshold of the spirit world, I find my need to live to be the greatest. I cannot leave my son as he is. The situation in the clan is unstable at this time due to Noriko's sudden seizure of power. I fear Sesshomaru will not be able to restrain her ambitions. Time has advanced but he has not grown one bit since the day his mother died. In many ways he is still a child and I fear I'm the one responsible for that. I need to remain until I can figure out how to heal his wounded soul or else he will follow me in death.”

 

Izayoi understood the political ramifications if the transition of power was not handled correctly. Still she was forcing a dying man to remain alive and in pain and was helping to conceal it from everyone including those who could have taken the burden off him. This went against the morals of the kitenko who lived to heal or ease the people's passing. She had even hidden her involvement with Kenhoshi from her father and brother in order to prevent rumors from circulating.

 

If it was just talk of an intimate relationship, she could have endured it. In fact, among the demons that was exactly what she had it appear to be. However, the tenko were aware of the Inu no Taisho's great age. With a kitenko as powerful as her tending to him, while some might believe it was intimate, others would have wondered otherwise. Kenhoshi couldn't afford any speculation. She always wore ordinary clothing when she saw him in order to appear as a regular human woman. Those who saw her thought their lord had taken on a mistress. Sesshomaru had been outraged with this and Izayoi wished she could have told him the truth at least. The best she had given him was a cryptic statement:

 

“Do not spit upon your father, Lord Sesshomaru. He endures much for your sake.”

 

I hope I get the chance to tell him what is really going on someday, she thought but she had another issue to deal with at the moment. Tetsusaiga's aura was pulsing erratically. The sword acquired the powers of those it defeated, getting stronger with every battle, but its latest acquisition didn't seem to be agreeing with it. Izayoi was troubled by the development. The Tetsusaiga may not have been ready for such a power yet. If we lose the sword now Lord Kenhoshi will have nothing to fall back on when the next daiyokai threatens.

 

“Lord Kenhoshi, Tetsusaiga seems to be in some distress,” she said.

 

“I noticed,” said the Inu no Taisho, panting. “I'm going to take the sword to Totosai once I've recovered. If necessary I will have him remove the Meido Zangetsuha from the sword.” Izayoi breathed a sigh of relief. He would still have Tetsusaiga.

 

****

 

5 days later…

 

Izayoi eyed the third sword that had joined Tetsusaiga at Kenhoshi's hip with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation. The first of the Inu no Taisho's great swords was Sounga. Sounga, whose hilt poked from the top of the Inu no Taisho's fluff, was a sword that was no help to him due to fact that it required tremendous power to suppress its evil will. Using it would mean his death, but it remained with Kenhoshi because he was the only one who could keep the power crazed humans and the hell blade separated. Humans were the sword's favorite wielders as their greed exceeded all other living things including demons. Tetsusaiga, the second of the great swords, acted as a second seal to the vile blade further relieving the burden on Kenhoshi along with the sentient sheath that contained it. But this third blade…

 

“My lord, where did this sword come from?” asked Izayoi, pointing to it.

 

Kenhoshi drew it and replied, “This sword was created when the Meido Zangetsuha was cleaved from Tetsusaiga; its name is Tenseiga. The blade belongs to the other world and thus it is harmless to anything of this one. However, some of Tetsusaiga's abilities were taken with it. I need both swords to be present to keep the troublesome Sounga quiet.”

 

Izayoi stared at the blade in awe; her own power seemed to be drawn toward it. “Lord Kenhoshi, may I?” she asked holding out her hands. Kenhoshi blinked then handed the sword over to her. She stared at the blade for several minutes then said in a soft voice, “This can be taken even further.”

 

Her eyes glowed mother-of-pearl and the blade echoed it with its own pale blue light. She held Tenseiga aloft and runes began appearing along the sides of the blade. A single pure note rang out as the auras of woman and sword merged and became one. Wings of light seemed to appear on Izayoi. Then as suddenly as it began it ended. Darkness descended and the kitenko lowered the sword and gazed at it.

 

“I've unlocked its hidden potential. Totosai is truly skilled to make weapon that behaves the exact opposite from all others,” said Izayoi, breathing hard as if she had just been running a long ways.

 

“What did you do?” asked Kenhoshi as he took the blade back and sheathed it.

 

“Because of the Meido Zangetsuha the sword has a connection to the otherworld. It saves lives by slaying the beings of that world who take away the souls of the dying, thus returning the dead back to life. I also sense that it inherited a great deal of the Tetsusaiga's will to protect its wielder. It will shield the user from anything that would kill him.” Kenhoshi nodded politely but wondered why she was mentioning things he already knew. “I have enhanced it but what that will do for it, I'm not entirely certain. I only did it because the sword asked me to,” said Izayoi with a shake of her head. Kenhoshi glanced down at the sword but the kitenko wasn't finished. “I think the Tetsusaiga is the same.”

 

“How so?” asked Kenhoshi, glancing back up.

 

“Obviously a sword to defeat the powerful will never ask for the aid of a kitenko but I think it does wish to be refined by someone. This piece that was cut from Tetsusaiga called to me. I can't help but think the Tetsusaiga is the same,” she replied. Kenhoshi drew the Tetsusaiga and gazed at its untransformed self.

 

“It's strange to think the sword is calling to someone,” said Kenhoshi.

 

“You are a celestial demon, my lord,” said Izayoi. “However, you had a demon sword smith create this sword from your fang. I imagine the hidden potential is the celestial power within your fang that remains unrealized because Totosai is incapable of tapping into it. Until the sword is refined by tenko hands its power will remain incomplete. It will be a great demon sword but that is all it will be.”

 

“However, to go around to every tenko to see who responds to the unsheathed blade as you did would expose my failing strength,” said Kenhoshi. He held the sword close to him and closed his eyes. After a moment he said, “As long as my opponents are only demons then Tetsusaiga, as it is now, will be enough.” He looked up at Izayoi. “Please see to its completion once I am gone from this world.”

 

“As you wish, my lord.”

 

*****

 

3 years later…

 

“You have no regrets about this, Izayoi?” asked Kenhoshi as the couple stood atop the ridge staring down at the castle below.

 

“I will admit I am fond of Takemaru,” replied Izayoi with a sad smile. “If things had been different I would have been very happy with him.”

 

“You don't have to do this,” said Kenhoshi. He said that but wanted her to not back out, to stay with him. Selfish. He was at the very end of his life and yet he continued to create more reasons to live and taxed Izayoi in order to do so. Sesshomaru, though, was still not ready to take up the mantle of Inu no Taisho and now it seemed to Kenhoshi he never would be. The centuries of damage appeared to be irreversible.

 

“But I want to,” said Izayoi. Kenhoshi embraced her. She had become irreplaceable to him. He wasn't sure if she felt the same way about him. Kenhoshi knew what he was to the tenko. Izayoi's compliance may have been more out of sense of duty to the family friend and comrade than anything else but as she leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his waist he let himself believe their feelings were the same.

 

A shudder went through his body and he gasped at the burst of pain. He pulled away from Izayoi as she looked at him in concern. “I feel terrible,” whispered Kenhoshi a single tear sliding down his cheek. The kitenko raised a hand to use her power but he gripped it instead and said, “Not that way. I feel terrible because I won't be here for the little one. That I'll be forced to leave you and the child alone. I shouldn't be allowing myself to do this. It is bad enough that I'll be abandoning Sesshomaru but to leave a baby and its mother behind…”

 

Despite Izayoi's power, Kenhoshi's body had finally reached its limit. She could restore his body but she could not take away his pain. She was now certain that the Inu no Taisho would die before the cherry blossoms bloomed. Sometime during their ten-year relationship things had shifted from healer-patient to quiet lovers. The kitenko found the thought of losing him unbearable but she had to acknowledge her power's limitations. His inbred design was beginning to self-destruct. Memory alone allowed her to put things back in their proper place. However, she could not reconstruct the pieces that held his body's design. No one could. As a consequence of the rotting design plates within, his body's masonry could no longer replicate themselves. When his body reached the end he would literally turn to dust. Izayoi planned to kill him before he got that far but she wanted to give him hope before he died.

 

Believing he had failed his son, Kenhoshi was facing death in despair. Izayoi had been the one to propose he sire one final child. Something young and new that might even inspire Sesshomaru, dragging the young dog demon from his darkness and ice. Kenhoshi had believed that might work, saying then:

 

“I remember long ago, right before my wife was killed, that she had told me Sesshomaru was excited about becoming an elder brother. Perhaps a younger sibling will lighten his spirits. I have seen him regain some life when Naomi came around, though, her influence was always temporary.”

 

Izayoi gazed up at him and said, “My father is not a villain, Kenhoshi. He will understand. Don't fret! I'm certain this child will become great and save Sesshomaru as well.” She wiped the teardrop away. Kenhoshi had lived through eras of great suffering and bloodshed. To shed tears now… Izayoi leaned into him though it was painful for her to listen to his heart's erratic beat.

 

“I've told Totosai and Myoga that Sesshomaru is to receive the Tenseiga. Hopefully it will draw out the man he used to be,” said Kenhoshi switching subjects. “I know I said I wanted you to complete the Tetsusaiga…”

 

“Don't worry, it can wait until the child is older,” said Izayoi. “Sesshomaru will have to be patient until then.”

 

“Sesshomaru will not be receiving the Tetsusaiga,” stated Kenhoshi. “Boy or girl the sword will remain with you and child.”

 

Izayoi pulled away and met his golden gaze, a look of surprise on her face. “Why aren't you giving him the Tetsusaiga as well? He'll need the sword if he is to keep Sounga under control.”

 

“He's not getting Sounga either,” replied the Inu no Taisho.

 

“What are you going to do about that thing? You can't leave such a destructive sword with me!”

 

Kenhoshi chuckled and replied, “The pair will take care of it once the younger one is older. I'm certain they can do what I cannot and find the answer to sealing Sounga away.”

 

Izayoi blinked then smiled; Kenhoshi seemed to have regained some of his faith in his son. Just the idea of a second child had already boosted his moral. She then asked, “What am I to tell Sesshomaru when he comes for the sword?”

 

“I don't think I'm going to physically leave it in your possession. Sesshomaru is obsessed with power right now. Receiving a sword that heals will probably be perceived as a slight at first, especially in light of his newest sibling. He won't accept the Tetsusaiga going to the younger child. I'll make arrangements for the Tetsusaiga to be entombed with me until the time is right. When that time is will be up to you, Izayoi,” said Kenhoshi. I should probably make sure Sesshomaru can't use the blade ever, just in case nothing goes according to plan. I wish I didn't have to take such precautions. I gambling that this child will save his soul but Sesshomaru may not see it that way. I don't need to tell her that, though.

 

Izayoi nodded and said, “The child should inherit such a thing when it is old enough to wield it properly.”

 

Kenhoshi pulled her close again. How many millennia passed where I wished for death to take me to join my friends and family? Now that death has finally come for me, I'm wishing to live for the very same reasons.

 

After the death of his closest friend, Shugotenshi over eleven thousand years before, he had wandered the world, watching it grow. At first he had been grateful to his long life that allowed him to see the future he and the others had fought to claim. But as the centuries passed and the world forgot the sacrifices of the generations before, he watched it return to the sad state it had been in prior to the Celestial War, minus the enzeru. The alliance of humans and demons fell apart as the two forgot their origins and shared pain and became enemies once more just as they had been designed to be by their enzeru masters and creators. A few pockets stayed true but fell to ruin when the outside world refused to accept their choice.

 

Horai Island was once such place. To protect themselves they had created an instrument of power that put up a barrier around their island to protect it from attacks. However, the barrier weakened every fifty years. The island had been invaded not too long ago by a group of demons calling themselves the Four War Gods. The demons had nearly massacred everyone before the priestess of the island managed to seal their powers and hurl herself with their power spheres into the Cauldron of Time. The demons still lived, however, and were sacrificing the surviving hanyou children every fifty years when the barrier weakened in order to keep their lives and regain some of their power. Upon hearing this forty-two years ago, he had planned to invade the isle when it appeared again and destroy the Four War Gods. He would then bring the surviving children back to Tenji, one of the last places on Earth where the alliance of old still endured. It was ironic that next summer was the time when Horai Island would appear. Another regret.

 

One thousand years ago, after ages of wandering the world, he had returned to his old territory. Shugotenshi's children had changed over the many generations becoming unrecognizable to the dog demon. At first he thought Tenji was another of those rare places that held true to the old alliance. It was upon meeting the clan leader than he realized they were Shugotenshi's descendents. Tenji had been smaller and there wasn't a Mikado back then. In fact the tenko were the only ones who really had what would be recognized by today's people as a government. The rest were tribes spread out across the land in farming communities. Little organization or unity could be found outside Tenji. The tenko, to protect their people, humans and demons alike, had kept the territory to what they could safely control with the numbers they had. Back then they still had issues with civil wars occurring every generation with the appearance of the devil tenko. It was during those periods of unrest that Tenji was invaded the most by outside tribes.

 

Sanshaku no Hinansho was created by the more powerful ancestors as way to protect the clan from such invasions. At the time of the construction, the people feared there would be other celestial tribes that would threaten them and had created the tower to absorb the energy of all attacks rather than try to repel them or deflect. What energy was not used by the tower was whisked away to unknown place where it was stored for future use. Since the tower ended up absorbing all energy not just attack energy, sunlight helped to fuel its daily needs.

 

The ancestors had constructed the fortress over Shugotenshi's tomb which resided deep beneath the mountain. Above they had crafted a large cavern that held a summary of their history carved in stone using enzeru writing or pictures. The chamber above that was where the details were kept in the form of scrolls. Like the storage rooms filled with food and medicines pending sieges, the library rooms were spelled against the passage of time. Nothing aged or rotted while within those rooms keeping everything as new and viable as the day it was placed within.

 

It was this fortress that protected the people of Tenji is those forgone days when invasions were inevitable. The people of Tenji would flee there if attacks occurred. The stored food also eased the burden of famines and stored medicines were used when plague struck. These days, when the humans and demons could help watch the border in times of civil unrest and with the rest of the country under the influence of the Mikado and his court nobles reducing the number of invasions, the fortress lay almost abandoned. Only the maintenance of the food and medicine stores were done for times of famine and plague and the library perused by scholars. Its use as a sanctuary had long passed.

 

Kenhoshi had chosen to remain back then, tired of a world that refused to remember and learn. Tenji was a place he wanted to help protect. He had located the various dog demon clans scattered across the islands and a few on the mainland and united them. This created a core unit that he used to fight off invasions by humans and demons alike when the tenko were otherwise occupied.

 

He flinched as he remembered another detail. He had written down the entire event as a confession, knowing the tenko would never have approved of his cut-throat tactics, then hid the scroll among the others within Sanshaku no Hinansho's library. Among the clans he had gathered had been two other celestial clans; the Ginhane and Kurohane. For a time things were fine but after awhile the Kurohane had begun to have ambitions. Seeing the power of many clans united, they wished to use that power to push for even greater glory. To take more territory beyond Tenji and make it their own instead of sharing it with the humans as equals.

 

Kenhoshi had tried to reign in the black-haired dog demons but failed. With the Kurohane insurrection about to launch he did the only thing he could think of to save his people and Tenji and possibly the world from their ambitions. He killed them. Sending his non-celestial people from the castle he and the Ginhane clan launched a preemptive attack on the Kurohane. They were slaughtered to the last infant. He knew from bitter experience that children who had witnessed the death of their parents rarely grew up understanding or believing the reasons were just ones. They often grew up filled with hatred and desiring revenge. To stop all future threats he had them put to death as well.

 

The tenko did not approve the murder of children. To them it was the most heinous crime one could perform. That was why Kenhoshi had buried the knowledge of that event as deep as he could. He had ordered the Ginhane to never speak of the event, not with their families nor even with each other. The Kurohane would disappear from conscious thought to resurface at a much later date. For the sake of those children, he did not allow it to be forgotten completely. No one had found the scroll containing the damning truth. He knew this because no one had confronted him about it. He was prepared to take his punishment then but now it appeared his punishment would be handed to him in the next life. He was prepared for it.

 

I should tell someone before I die, he thought. I should at least tell her. However, he couldn't muster the effort, the courage, to do it. He feared her reaction, her resentment, her contempt. Shuddering again but for a different reason, he then leaned over and picked Izayoi up. “Let's be on our way,” he said in quiet voice. Izayoi, before all others, deserved to know the truth about the man whose child she was about to carry but Kenhoshi couldn't stand the thought of her leaving him and taking the last lights hope she carried for him with her to be extinguished forever. Selfish.

 

To be continued…

 

Flash forward to the current year. Inuyasha and Kirara seek safety at the mountain fortress. There Inuyasha is guided to truth about his origins and his father's secret crime raising questions about his future.