A Royal Pain

Inuyasha finished his second helping of food since he knew tomorrow morning they would be leaving. He also had one of the mince meat pies and a small slice of apple pie. Everything he ate was absolutely delicious.

Sesshoumaru had finished off his first plate and was ready for some dessert as he eyed the cherry pie having the servant serve him a rather large piece.

Koga was on his third plate of meat and settled it all down with some rice milk since he had enough of the blood sake from the night before.

Inuyasha was drinking down some of that berry juice that they kept bringing him instead of the blood sake that Sesshoumaru was sipping. Sesshoumaru insisted that Inuyasha refrain from the blood sake since it would hinder his ability to think rationally.

“I think if we find the soul stealing black orb that we will find the spell to make one a demon.”

Inuyasha stated totally forgetting to tell Sesshoumaru and Koga this important information.

“What soul stealing orb?”

Sesshoumaru asked as his brow furrowed in concern. Something like this could easily end up in the wrong hands so it was imperative that Inuyasha explain himself.

Inuyasha explained that the dragon demons had been living in fear because the black orb that Kaneko had control of sucked the souls out of the living. It was fairly similar to Kanna’s mirror except once the soul was lost in the orb it did not come out.

“Kaneko was using the orb to keep his people from betraying him. I also know that it was used to control the weaker demons that he sent out into the world to do his bidding.”

Koga huffed.

“Sounds like something Naraku would have done.”

Sesshoumaru nodded in agreement.

“Ya, except Kaneko didn’t use the orb to suck in more demons like that leech Naraku.”

Koga stretched and stood up.

“So are we going or what?”

Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru were done as they got up from the table and headed towards the castle.

“So do you know what this orb looks like Inuyasha?”

Koga asked as Inuyasha walked with his arms across his chest contemplating on how they would destroy the thing.

“No. I heard about it from a servant. Akahana might even know where this thing was kept. She is the tailor here and she seems to know more about what is going on than the rest of them.”

Sesshoumaru followed Inuyasha since the pup seemed to know where he was going.

Once again they entered the bathing chambers as Inuyasha asked around to find out if Akahana was around.

One of the serving boys was sent to go get her.

While waiting, Inuyasha grabbed another piece of marzipan and some more of the cheeses.

Sesshoumaru had to smirk a bit. Inuyasha was definitely a glutton and he would have to find a way to help his mate burn off all that food he stuffed himself with. He had a plan of seduction as soon as this little adventure was done. Sex would definitely be a good way to work out when they got back to the tent.

Koga also grabbed a few goodies for himself as he waited making Sesshoumaru shake his head at the two young men.

“You both are going to get ill from eating so much.”

Koga and Inuyasha shrugged. They were enjoying themselves.

The boy returned at that moment with Akahana.

“My Lords, what can I do for you?”

Akahana stated bowing.

Koga had to step back for a moment. He had never encountered such a large female before.

“We are looking for that orb thing you talked about Akahana. I was hoping that you might have an idea of where it might be kept?”

Akahana stood back up and smiled.

“Yes I think I know where it is. I am afraid most of us cannot go near it because of its powerful evil aura. I only believe a demon with immeasurable power would be the only one to counteract the power within to stabilize it.’
“We believed at one time that Lord Kaneko was possessed by it, but problem with that was our Lord was already evil to begin with.”

Both young men looked at Sesshoumaru knowing he would probably be the only one who could control the orb.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes at the two men and motioned for Akahana to guide them to where this thing was located.

When they got to the chambers of Kaneko the three demons could feel the aura of the orb pulling them in.

“Inuyasha, you and Koga remain here. I will see what is going on inside.”

The two young men were about to argue that point, but knew better since it was best to let Sesshoumaru take care of this problem.

When Sesshoumaru entered the room, there were bodies of wolf and heron demons littering the floor including Koga’s two followers Ginta and Hakkaku.

Kane, Koga’s brother was staring into the orb and seemed to be possessed by it as it was slowly draining the life from him.

Sesshoumaru heard the cries of tensaiga and decided to try and use the sword to gain the souls back from this thing. However first he picked it up and dissipated the evil aura.

Kane fell to the floor as the orb stopped sucking out his soul.

“Wolf, did you think you could subdue this?”

Kane tried to find his voice once again as he shook his head to clear his mind.

“No, for some reason it pulls you to it as it sucks the life out of you. I admit I had no will power to stop it just as these men who were guarding this door were pulled into its evil will.”

Sesshoumaru looked at Kane.

“It is because you are weak that it has power over you. You did not have the strength to subdue it. I will remove it from this earth.”

Inuyasha opened the door as the evil had been dissipated. Koga came in with him looking horrified that his two best friends were on the floor not breathing and some of his best men were in the same state.

“What happened in here?”

Koga demanded of his brother.

“The orb sucked the lives of the people who entered this room. It was a deliberate trap probably set off by Kaneko himself to insure that his room was not disturbed while he was tending to other things.”

Sesshoumaru stated calmly.

“So how do we get the souls back into these bodies?”

Kane looked at the glowing orb.

“Perhaps we need to break it open.”

Inuyasha smirked at that.

“Sesshoumaru and I will see if we can break this thing. I had to do something similar when I broke the bat demon’s orb so I could break barriers. I am certain tessaiga will just suck up its powers once we get back to your castle Sesshoumaru.”

Koga didn’t want to wait though.

“So my men will have to suffer until we get back? I think we need a solution now before it is too late for my brother wolves to be revived.”

Sesshoumaru looked down at tensaiga as it cried to him.

“Inuyasha my sword wishes to be drawn, but I don’t see the emissaries of the afterlife. Perhaps I can open this orb with its power.”

Inuyasha watched as Sesshoumaru set down the orb and placed the tip of tensaiga against the orb. Slowly pushing down onto the orb souls started to escape.

As Sesshoumaru slid his sword into the orb, Inuyasha could hear a cracking sound as if the orb was breaking apart.

Suddenly there was a brilliant white light and the orb shattered into several tiny pieces. Funny part was Sesshoumaru’s sword took on a black appearance after words.

“It seems tensaiga wants this power. It must be a power that is not of this world for tensaiga to accept it.”

Sesshoumaru stated as he and the others watched the souls disperse and some of them returned to the men on the floor.

“I was wondering Sesshoumaru. Does tensaiga still have the power of the Meidou Zangetsuha or is that ability completely lost to tessaiga?”

Sesshoumaru sighed.

“The Meidou is now your technique Inuyasha. I no longer have that ability although the Meidou Zangetsuha was also an ability that was not of this world. I will most likely give over this soul stealing ability to tessaiga.”

Koga huffed.

“Why would you do that? I mean doesn’t tessaiga have enough abilities?”

Sesshoumaru sighed.

“It is what our Father would have wanted.”

Inuyasha and Koga watched as Ginta, Hakkaku, and the others got to their feet.

Underneath the shattered orb was a small scroll. Sesshoumaru put tensaiga back in its sheath and grasped the scroll opening it up to read the spell that was written in blood.

“It seems that this spell requires the total of a hundred souls to make one a demon. I do not see the point in keeping it.”

With a flick of his wrist, Sesshoumaru burned the scroll up with his acid only to find that did not work. It seemed impervious to his acid and so he tore it up only to find it mending itself back together.

“Inuyasha I am going to have to give this spell to Hiro for safe keeping. I will expect you to be in our tent within the hour. Do not make me wait.”

With that Sesshoumaru left the men to themselves.