InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Secret Key to the Meidou-Seki ❯ An Old Family Friend ( Chapter 2 )

Jaken was awoken by the familiar and comforting feel of Sesshomaru's boot grinding the back of his skull into the earth.

 

“Ah, Lord Sesshomaru!” Jaken said after spitting the dirt and weeds from his mouth. “You've finally returned! It's been two days. I was beginning to get worried—”

 

“Shut up, Jaken,” Sesshomaru said.

 

“Yes, Lord Sesshomaru!” Jaken said happily, then gasped when he saw the trinket slung around his master's neck. “Can it be? The stone that opens the portal to Hell? Is that really your Most Honorable Mother's Meidou-seki?”

 

“No, Jaken,” Sesshomaru said, holding the medallion in his hand and staring into the fathomless black surface at its center. “It is my Meidou-seki.”

 

“Then it was your Most Honorable Mother who summoned you?”

 

“Yes, you fool. She gave the Meidou-seki to me, although for what purpose she was not entirely clear. However, I believe I have determined what I should do.”

 

Jaken stared up at the gold medallion in awe. “Yes, Lord Sesshomaru?”

 

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes dangerously. “You better pick up the Nintoujou, Jaken. For now is your chance to prove your worth to me.” Sesshomaru turned and aimed the medallion directly at Jaken. “I shall use the Meidou-seki to release a hell-hound into this world and watch you fight it to the death.”

 

Jaken squawked and clutched his staff to him, quivering from head to foot. “R-r-really?”

 

The moonlight flickered off of Sesshomaru's golden eyes for one deadly moment.

 

“No, you gullible fool,” he said, and released his grip on the Meidou-seki. It dropped from his hand and fell to rest against his chest.

 

Jaken sighed and felt his knees might collapse from relief. His master sure was scary sometimes.

 

Sesshomaru was unfazed. “I haven't the faintest idea what Mother is up to.” He stared up into the distance at the white moon, its unknowable surface reminding him of the Meidou-seki itself. “But I intend to find out.” He broke off the giant pearls that were bound to the medallion and dropped them onto Jaken. “Here, hold onto these.” The string of pearls was twice as long as Jaken's body and he stood there helplessly entangled, unsure of what to do with them.

 

“Your Most Honorable Mother won't like what you've done to her necklace, milord.”

 

“You can fix it before I give it back to her,” Sesshomaru said, tucking the Meidou-seki into his robes next to his heart.

 

 

 

Over the months that followed, Sesshomaru tried every possible way he could think of to open the portal to Hell, not that he knew what he was supposed to do once he unlocked the Meidou-seki's powers.

 

First, he tried commanding it with his thoughts.

 

When that failed, he ordered it aloud to open.

 

When that failed, he asked Jaken if he had any ideas.

 

When Jaken failed to utter anything useful, he bashed him over the head with it. It left a nice impression on the imp's skull, but still the Meidou-seki refused to yield its secrets.

 

Pushed to the limit of his patience, Sesshomaru sought out a Dark Sorcerer, renowned among youkai, hoping the fiend could use his magic to decipher the whereabouts of the key that his mother had mentioned.

 

The problem with Dark Sorcerers, though, is that they can't be trusted. No sooner had Sesshomaru revealed the Meidou-seki's existence than the brute tried to claim it for his own.

 

Jaken was waiting outside the sorcerer's hut when Sesshomaru returned not a minute after he had gone in, sheathing Bakusaiga with a foul expression on his face. Jaken thought he smelled a charred carcass from within, but knew better than to ask questions when his master was in a mood.

 

“Come, Jaken,” Sesshomaru said. “It appears outside sources cannot be trusted with this matter. That leaves only one option.”

 

Jaken scampered after him, barely latching onto the mokomoko-sama in time as Sesshomaru flew into the air.

 

“Where are we going, Lord Sesshomaru?”

 

“To visit an old family friend, of course.”

 

 

 

Sesshomaru bashed Totosai's forehead against the bone wall of his cavern home three times.

 

“Hi,” he said, releasing the old fool's skull.

 

Momo the three-eyed ox mooed uneasily in the background.

 

Totosai waited for his vision to clear and the ground to stop spinning. When he was quite sure there was only one Sesshomaru instead of two, he coughed and said pleasantly, “Sesshomaru! What brings you my way?” though he was thinking Great, what does this idiot want?

 

Sesshomaru pulled out the Meidou-seki and held it in front of Totosai's face. “Do you know what this is?”

 

Totosai's large, watery eyes went wide. “The Meidou-seki!” he gasped. “I haven't seen it since your father was alive!”

 

“Then you know what it's capable of.”

 

Totosai gulped and nodded. “He who holds the Meidou-seki holds tremendous power. The Power of Life and Death.”

 

Sesshomaru's heart began to quicken. The old fool actually knew what he was talking about. Sesshomaru could feel his answers were at hand.

 

“Tell me, old man, and I'll leave you unscathed…”

 

Unscathed? Totosai thought, rubbing his forehead gingerly where three lumps had already formed.

 

“Tell me the key to wielding the Meidou-seki's power.”

 

Totosai stared at Sesshomaru and licked his lips slowly, hesitant, as though he were about to reveal some terrible, dangerous secret, one that would have grave repercussions. He opened his mouth to speak.

 

“I have no idea.”

 

In a flash, two outstretched claws were at Totosai's throat. The points barely touched the skin, but already a thin trickle of blood issued out from under his chin.

 

“You said you've seen the Meidou-seki before. Surely you know how it works.”

 

“Hey, hey, watch it! Sure, I've seen it—once, right after your father had won it in battle! But I never saw him use it, I swear!”

 

Sesshomaru tilted his index finger harder into Totosai's skin. His voice was dangerously silky.

 

“Make an educated guess.”

 

“I—I—I don't have the faintest idea! But I can help you! Let me go! I know exactly who can tell you what you need to know!”

 

Sesshomaru relaxed his hand slightly. “Go on.”

 

Totosai wiped his brow. “Before your father died, he gave the Meidou-seki to your mother. If anyone knows how to use it, it's her!”

 

Sesshomaru shoved two claws back into Totosai's skin while the old codger yelped.

 

“You idiot. Where do you think I got the Meidou-seki in the first place? Mother was not particularly forthcoming.”

 

“In th-th-that case,” Totosai spluttered, “I can tell you the name of a good Dark Sorcerer… but I can't guarantee he won't try to betray you and take the Meidou-seki for himself.”

 

Sesshomaru growled and released Totosai from his grip. “You're useless, old man. Luckily for you, I'm late for a prior engagement.” He turned and walked away, calling to Jaken outside the cave that they were leaving.

 

Totosai slumped down against the wall, hung his head, exhausted, and breathed a sigh of relief.

 

Then, with no warning, Sesshomaru reappeared next to Totosai. “I forgot something,” he said calmly, and bashed Totosai's head three times into the wall for good measure.

 

“Bye.”

 

When Sesshomaru was gone for good, Totosai turned an accusatory eye towards Momo. “Thanks a lot! You were a big help!”

 

Momo just shrugged and mooed.

 

 

 

“I should have known that good-for-nothing old fool would be useless, Lord Sesshomaru!” Jaken said haughtily as soon as they were up in the air, flying quickly out of Totosai's noxious lands. Jaken could sense a fresh urgency in his master's countenance. “Where are we heading now, milord? Do you know of someone else we can question about the Meidou-seki?”

 

“The Meidou-seki can wait, Jaken. Yesterday was the night of the new moon. It's been three months.”

 

“Oh, of course, milord! In all the excitement of our pursuit, I had forgotten…”

 

“I hadn't,” Sesshomaru said, breezing through the wind at top speed. “It's time we paid Rin a visit.”