Fukai Mori Lullaby by Kohaku Sessho

One

Kagome looked at the stars, so beautiful. Anything could be out there. Anything. She ignored InuYasha, who called her into Kaede's hut, they wanted despirately to discuss further the Shikon no Tama's hidden power. The sky was practically black, with grey-blue clouds, and small white dots that formed many constellations.

"Kagome!!" InuYasha snarled, demanding her to come in as if he was her master.

"No! I want to stay out here." Kagome said sternly. She sighed and looked at the stars, to see a shooting star that left a long trail behind it.

~*~*~*~

"Lord Sesshomaru, were do we venture today? Er...Tonight?" Jaken asked, trying to pry Rin off of Sesshomaru's back.

Sesshomaru was silent and looked down at the ground behind him. The flying cloud was a good way to get around... besides the trail of smoke it left behind.

That girl? InuYasha's wench. Sitting on the ground in front of the preistess woman's hut. "Then InuYasha must not be far..." Sesshomaru muttered to himself. "And Tetsusaiga is no doubt near him...

The trio flew towards a clearing in the nearby woods after a tug at the reins.

"Jaken, Rin, when we land, I want you two to stay behind." Sesshomaru said lowly.

"Yes lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken said, ceasing his actions and bowing.

Sesshomaru leaped from the cloud at a low altitude and disappeared into the forest.

~*~*~*~

Kagome looked closer at the 'shooting star'. It seemed to drop out of it's path, and head towards the clearing in the woods. To add to the little worry Kagome had, it no longer looked like a shooting star, but a type of cloud. She turned and peeked inside the hut.

"Kaede, could you come out here please?" Kagome asked politely.

InuYasha arose and went to take a step towards Kagome to join them.

"Sit boy!" Kagome said quickly. InuYasha stay on the ground, not bothering, but lifting his head for the soul purpose of giving Kagome an iron glare.

"What is it, child?" Kaede made sure InuYasha was not listening by keeping her eye on him from outside.

"That. What do you think it it?" Kagome pointed towards the trail that the 'shooting star' had left behind.

"That be no star, Kagome. That be the trail of a flying..." Kaede trailed off.

"Maybe it's Sesshomaru." Kagome asked quietly, remembering seeing it before when Sesshomaru was near.

"Sesshomaru?! Where?!" InuYasha pounced from inside the hut with his hand on the handle of Tetsusaiga.

"The word, please." Kaede frowned.

"Sit boy!!" Kagome growled loudly.

InuYasha fell onto his face, leaving a mark in the ground. "Dammit!" He spat out dirt, " What did I do?!" He asked angrily.

"You were eavesdropping!" Kagome said, and kicked Tetsusaiga out of InuYasha's hand.

She walked to pick it up, but it seemed to disappear and a familiar youkai lord stood with the Tetsusaiga in a human arm he had used as a replacement, although it had a Shikon shard in it, much like Naraku's past idea.

"Let your wench remove the Tetsusaiga from you so easily?" Sesshomaru taunted. "Pathetic."

"Sesshomaru..." InuYasha growled. Kaede pulled a necklace, much like the one InuYasha had on, out from a pocket in her kimono. She started the same process she had used to cast the spell on InuYasha, however, this necklace looked different from InuYasha's.

The necklace 'flew' towards Sesshomaru, bead by bead, and attatched itself around his neck. Sesshomaru had jumped into the air, but fell to the ground, and the Tetsusaiga faded until it was old and rusted like when they had found it.

"What?" Sesshomaru glared at them all, his eyes would usually be red and filled with a burning hate, but they looked human and were white and gold. He tried to summon his poison claw and use it on InuYasha, but his claws had become but sharp nails, and his hand merely waved weakly.

Sesshomaru grabbed the necklace around his neck ith his strong demon hand and pulled at it, but it only flashed like InuYasha's and did not budge much. Not any higher then his chin. "What have you done to me, priestess?" Sesshomaru glared angrily.

"Lord Sesshomaru!!" Jaken jumped to his master's side, but no longer sensed anything more then a mere human where Sesshomaru stood. "You're...You're human!! Lord Sesshomaru!!"

Sesshomaru glared furiously and kicked the toad-demon into a tree. If he was, indeed, a human, then that little toad would not brag that even he, Jaken, was stronger then the lord of the western lands.

"So, who's the weakling now?" InuYasha snickered, grinning. It was about time he put Sesshomaru in his place. Dead.

"You hide behind a spell to save you?" Sesshomaru did not notice as much as InuYasha, Kagome, and Kaede had noticed, but his long fluffy tail was dissolving like feathers in a soft breeze. "I suppose I should expect nothing less from lowly humans and a hanyou."

"It may be a spell, Sesshomaru, but it seems to have stopped you." Kaede sighed.

"Does it not seem cowardly, though? That humans would rely on such a feeble spell to silence such a Demon Lord?" He said, controlling his emotionless voice to keep it normal and low.

"Eh, you mean, human Lord, me lord." Jaken replied, trying to be quiet.

Sesshomaru picked up a stone quickly and threw it at him, straight between Jaken's large eyes. Sesshomaru turned and walked away quickly. He quickened his pace, enraged by the fact that he had lost again. But even if he did escape, how would he regain his powers and protect his title of 'Lord of the Western lands?"

InuYasha, grinning, jumped in front of Sesshomaru, and held the Tetsusaiga in his possession now. "Got any last words?" InuYasha asked and approached Sesshomaru, who took two steps back in return and tried again to summon a poison claw.

Nothing.

The Tetsusaiga transformed in InuYasha's hands and he held it above his head to strike.

Sesshomaru closed his eyed and began to back up. He would accept death, but not by his younger... Not by InuYasha's hand.

InuYasha jumped forward at him and swung the mighty Tetsusaiga, hitting the unprepared Sesshomaru squarely across the chest, but the Tenseiga protected him and the wound disappeared after a moment.But blood stained the Tetsusaiga never-the-less

"Ah, so this means I can kill you all I want!" Inuyasha grinned and jumped forward, slicing at Sesshomaru again and again. Pain surging through Sesshomaru's body in small, furied swings of the Tetsusaiga, then disappearing because of the Tenseiga.

Sesshomaru tried to avoid him with a demon-speed he no longer controlled, but fell onto his back and the Tenseiga fell out of it's sheath into a nearby bush. Nothing would protect the now human, demon lord from death now.

InuYasha grinned evilly and held the Tetsusaiga above him in a stabbing position yet again. the Tetsusaiga dripped with Sesshomaru's blood. Now InuYasha would get revenge for everything and anything Sesshomaru had ever done to anybody.

As InuYasha gathered his strength to stab Sesshomaru, Rin ran from the bush, dragging Tenseiga in her hands and lay across Sesshomaru's chest, tears in her eyes and a sincere look of sadness glared at InuYasha through the lost eyes of a child. "Don't kill him! Not Sesshomaru!" She cried out.

"InuYasha! Don't!" Kagome yelled. Risking killing a small child just so he could kill Sesshomaru was wrong. Anyways, did Sesshomaru really deserve to die? For if he did for merely killing a few humans, they would have to kill all of the demons to avenge all of the dead humans.

"C'mon, I ain't gonna hit her!" He answered, and backed up a step, turning to look at Kagome. He pulled his arms further back until the Tetsusaiga aimed at the stars in InuYasha's hand, prepared to kill another demon.

"SIT! SIT!! SIT!!!" Kagome hollered, and InuYasha fell to the ground, the Tetsusaiga fell from his grasp and dissolved into it's rusty form yet again. His face left a mark in the grass, and he had grass in his half-breed nose and some hanging on the fur of his ear.

Kagome ran over to Rin and Sesshomaru, trying not to look at Sesshomaru, who glared at her with hatred in his eyes, and several wounds on his body. Hidden by the clothing and armor, but visible because of small blood stains scattered on the clothes. She stepped on InuYasha's head as she ran and smeared his face in the dirt.

"Hey!" He realized what she was doing and glared with gritted teeth "What do you think you're doing?! Are you actually helping...Sesshomaru?!" He demanded. "God Dammit..."

"You can't just kill him!" She did not turn to look at him, but tried to look for any heavy injuries on Sesshomaru's newly human body, though his kimono outfit mostly blocked her view.

"Go away! Leave me be!" Sesshomaru whacked her with the back of his arm, across the side of the face, sending her backwards with his arm and pulled himself into a sitting position.

"Sesshomaru!!" InuYasha jumped up and snatched the Tetsusaiga and prepared to strike once again.

"Sit!" Kagome yelled, and arose with a small bruise on her face.

"Child, what be ye doing?!" Kaede asked urgently.

Kagome rose from her position on the ground and walked towards Kaede. "I think that if Seshomaru has no powers we might be able to change him. Make him nice, and not so destructive... It's just an idea, though. It may not work. " Kagome whispered to Kaede.

"No!" InuYasha's dog ears twitched from listening to the conversation, and he hated the idea. "He deserves to die." Not in the lifetime of this half-breed would Sesshomaru stay in the villiage with them.

"Sit!" Kagome snarled at him. InuYasha lay where he landed, and did not bother to move. Stupid human.

"Kagome, I believe ye have been in one too many battles. Are ye serious?!" Kaede asked.

"Yes, we might be able to change him if we try." Kagome said.

Kaede thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "Child, I will let you try, but remember, though he may be powerless, he can still swing a sword. And remember, horses cannot change their hooves."

"Isn't it 'Leopards can't change their spots'?" Kagome asked, recalling a familiar saying.

Kaede looked at her in confusion. "Leopard?"

"Uhh. Never mind." Kagome shook her head, "But why won't you try to help?"

"I will, but I will only grant ye permission to, and the fact that I shall tell everyone to hide their every sword or weapon in the villiage for our safety. Ye should thank me." Kaede muttered and turned to walk back into her hut.

"InuYasha!" Kagome called him with fake joy in her voice. She added a small amount of a 'what a wonderful person you are' to her voice, probably too much. Giving him her idea before she told him of it.

InuYasha approached her with a look that told her he knew he was going to regret this. She's gonna tell him she wants to change Sesshomaru, he's gonna say no, and lose. And then he's going to be forced to see his brother most every day.

"InuYasha, would you mind if your brother was different?" She asked.

"Yes. And we're not going to do anything about it, just let him die out there!" He snarled.

"InuYasha! He might have been mean and tried to kill us both, but really?!" She glared. " Do you really want to let your blood-relative die?!"

InuYasha pretended to look away to think, but quickly turn back to her. "Yes. I do want him to die! It wouldn't hurt anybody except Jaken and that wierd little girl."

"Sit." Kagome stepped on InuYasha's back once he landed on the ground.