Chapter 24

The demon's true form





Sesshomaru was getting more and more irritated, as Mai kept shrieking and clawing at him. She even managed somehow to tangle her legs around his. The girl was really scared of flying to the point of madness.

"Stop it, woman!" he ordered harshly, but she squeezed him even harder.

"Stop it!" he repeated.

"I can't!" panicked Mai shouted back at him. "I'll fall!"

"You will not!" he growled, but she didn't listen to him at all and kept whining and screaming. Sesshomaru decided to make a stop and they glided towards ground. When they landed, Mai let go of him immediately and sat on the ground. The demon narrowed his eyes, as he glared at her.

"I'm sorry, but I can't." mumbled Mai, struggling to catch breath and steady her racing heartbeat.

"Explain yourself." Sesshomaru demanded. The girl sighed.

"I have fear of heights." She said, her voice still trembling. "Every time I'm in the air, I panic. And that cloud…" she shivered at the thought.

"Come, we must be on our way." Sesshomaru said, grabbing her wrist and trying to get her beside him. The girl started to struggle with desperation, fear in her eyes.

"No, not the cloud!" she shrieked and kept fighting, not even noticing, when Sesshomaru strengthened his grip. After a while of struggling, the demon released her, seeing no point in arguing with her when she was in such state. The girl took her time to calm down.

"When you flew on Ah-Un, you did not seem to be that terrified." Sesshomaru said to her, remembering, that there was some trouble with the landing.

"I was scared of you more." She answered. The demon arched his brow. "And I felt more secure sitting on something solid."

Sesshomaru stayed silent for a while, as he was considering something. He sighed.

"There is no other choice, then." He said. "I will transform into my true form. Stand still, woman."

The girl nodded, unsure what he meant by that. His true form?

Then the air around Sesshomaru began to change. A strong wind swirled around him. The girl took a step back, not knowing what the hell was going on. She saw the magenta stripes on the demon's cheeks becoming jagged and gasped, as his eyes turned red. Suddenly, Mai got scared and felt the urge to escape.

"Stay where you are." The demon ordered, noticing her fear. "I will not harm you."

Then the clouds of his youki engulfed him and Mai had to squint her eyes. She saw his head changing its shape into animalistic one and the human form of the demon disappeared, as he transformed into a huge dog. His size was enormous. Mai couldn't gaze away from this creature. The dog had white fluffy fur and red eyes. On his head were Sesshomaru's demon markings. So this was his true form… She knew, that he was a dog demon, but she didn't really think, that he was indeed a dog.

To Mai's surprise, the dog laid on the ground and barked at her, pointing with his head at his back. She realized, that he wanted her to get on. She ran to him, not wanting to make him waiting. When she was at by his side, she reached to touch the fur. As she thought, it was fluffy and silky. Sesshomaru growled, obviously wanting her to get on already. Mai clumsily managed to climb up. When she was finally on his back, she grabbed the fur.

"I'm ready." She stated and as on her signal, the dog demon leapt into the sky.
Mai felt wind on her face. All around her was white soft fur. Strangely, she felt relaxed, even though they were gliding above the clouds. The girl snuggled into the warm fur and purred. She thought, that she liked Sesshomaru in his true form. He was fluffy and, as a dog, seemed to be less intimidating.



Sesshomaru was surprised, that the woman did not panic, when she saw his true form – she seemed rather amazed than afraid. The flight went smoothly as well. She was quiet and asleep – the demon could hear her regular breaths. He was pleased, that she stopped foolishly shrieking. As they were almost at the destination, Sesshomaru decided to wake her up. He growled. The woman stirred on his back, snuggling into his fur even more. He barked loudly.

"What is it?" Mai mumbled, pulling herself into the sitting position. Sesshomaru flew towards the ground. The woman grabbed his fur stronger and screamed. The demon realized, that was rather scream of excitement than fear. She reminded him of Rin now. As he landed on the ground and stopped, he laid on the ground to enable the woman getting off. Mai let out a disappointed sigh, when the ride was over. Carefully she slid of his back.

Sesshomaru transformed back into his usual form. He looked at his servant. The woman was smiling brightly, her eyes glistening with joy. The demon found it strange, that the idiot woman actually enjoyed herself, while most humans would be horrified.

"Let us go." Sesshomaru ordered. The girl trailed behind him eagerly.

"Okay." She said in abnormally happy voice. The demon looked at her with suspicion. She was unnaturally obedient for her. When Mai noticed, that he was studying her face she looked back at her and curved her lips in a smile.

"Something's wrong?" she questioned him.

"Why were you not afraid of my true form?" he asked her. The woman opened her eyes wider and parted her lips.

"Why should I?" she responded with a question.

"Most humans would fear it." Said Sesshomaru. Mai laughed, as though he said something hilarious.

"Well, I don't. In my opinion, your true form is amazing. And I would like to thank you for the ride. I really enjoyed it." Mai told him, not mentioning to him, that she preferred him as a big fluffy dog than his usual asshole self.

Sesshomaru averted his gaze from the woman, baffled with her answer. He felt pleased with the compliment, but was confused by her sudden change of altitude. He looked at her once again and saw, that she was observing the surroundings with curiosity. The dark fire land did nor scare her either.

"Totosai lives there?" she asked, pointing the large skull. The demon nodded.

"Okay." She spoke, determination on her face. "I'll do the talking and you try not to scare him away."

"Do as you wish." He said indifferently.
When they approached the Totosai's smithy, a voice cried:

"Go away! I won't forge a sword for you!"
Mai sighed, wondering, what the smith had against Sesshomaru.

"Totosai-sama!" she called. "We would like to talk to you, please!"

There was a silence for some time. Then, an old man, a demon, appeared, peeking nervously. He was dressed in some greenish rags and had abnormally big eyes, a little like Jaken.

"Hello." Said Mai, bowing politely and presenting her most charming smile, that Aiko taught her.

"Who are you, miss? Are you some kind of a princess?" he asked, gesturing at her clothes. Mai blushed.

"Well… you can say so. My name is Mai. Nice to meet you." She responded, remembering, what she learnt in the Asakura castle. She made a step towards the old man.

"You are a human." The man stated, narrowing his eyes with suspicion. Mai rolled her eyes inwardly. Again this human crap!

"I am." She said, taking another step forward.

"What do you want here, miss?" he asked her, keeping an eye on Sesshomaru, who was glaring maliciously at him from the place, where he was standing. Mai made a pleading face, which always helped her in convincing the teachers to give her higher marks.

"Totosai-sama, could you please fix…" damn, she forgot, what the sword name was, something beginning with T, but what? She turned to Sesshomaru. "Sesshomaru, what was again the sword's name?"

"Tenseiga." The demon answered her.

"Right, Tenseiga. Please!" Mai copied Rin's puppy eyes. The smith gasped.
"Tenseiga is broken?" he asked. Mai nodded.

"It's cracked, pretty badly. There was a fight with a huge dragon demon, really strong, and it attacked me. I thought, that I was going to die, but Sesshomaru came and shielded me with the sword. And it cracked." The girl finished her story and there was a long silence.

"You must be dreaming, miss." Totosai said at last. "Sesshomaru would do no such thing."
Mai felt, that she began to lose her composure. The old man didn't believe her! Old prick! She put her hand on the hips and narrowed her eyes.

"Don't you dare to accuse me of lying, old man!" Mai fumed, about to begin her tirade. "Sesshomaru may be a sadist with serious attitude issues, but he saved me a couple of times already! So cut your crap and fix the damn sword!"

The girl finished, huffing and eying Totosai angrily. The smith stared at her with his enormous eyes.
Sesshomaru turned around to hide an amused smirk.

"He did?" asked Totosai.

"Yes, he did." Mai answered, folding her arms. The smith sighed heavily.

"All right, miss, I will reforge Tenseiga." He looked at Sesshomaru. "Bring the sword in, boy."

Mai and Sesshomaru followed Totosai to the smithy. The dog demon passed the sword to the old man, who unsheathed it and winced, noticing, how damaged it was.

"Not good." He stated. "With such damage, the original material won't be enough." Stated Totosai, shaking with his head.

"Can't you just use some steel to patch it up?" asked Mai. Both Sesshomaru and the smith stared at her.

"What?" she asked, unsure, what she said wrong. Totosai cleared his throat.

"Tenseiga is not a sword made of steel, miss. It is forged from the fang, that belonged to the Dog General, Sesshomaru's father. When he was still alive, he ordered me to forge two swords from his fang – Tessaiga and Tenseiga."

"Oh." Mai was quite taken aback by the explanation. "What about the other sword?"
The girl noticed, that Sesshomaru tensed, as though she just pulled some string.

"The younger son of the Inu no Taisho inherited it." Answered Totosai, while preparing his tools. Right, Mai remembered, that the dragon demon mentioned something about a brother. Mai wondered if he was as ill-tempered as Sesshomaru.

"Sesshomaru" the smith addressed the dog demon and approached him with large pincers in his hands. "I will need a fang of yours."

Mai turned observed as Totosai tried to pull Sesshomaru's tooth out and the dog demon was growling in protest.

"It will grow back in a day." Totosai promised. The silver-haired youkai finally opened his mouth and let the smith do his work. Fascinated Mai observed, as the old man managed to blend somehow the fang with the sword, fixing it.

"That's an amazing job. It looks like new." She complimented Totosai.

Mai realized, that the dog demon was quite attached to Tenseiga – it was understandable, as he got it from his late father. She could understand it, as she treasured her heritage as well, having lost her own parents. However, she didn't really get to see him use the sword aside the time, when it cracked.
Usually he drew Tokijin. Mai thought, that she won't have a better opportunity to satisfy her curiosity.

"Sesshomaru, why don't you use Tenseiga more often?" she asked and almost immediately regretted it. The demon got angry and turned around, his back to Mai and Totosai.

"It's useless." He stated. Mai furrowed her brows.

"Tenseiga is a sword, that cannot cut anything from this world." Totosai said, sighing. "Actually, I am very proud of this one, but Sesshomaru doesn't seem to like it."

Mai wanted to question more about the mysterious sword, but the smith sheathed the sword and passed it to Sesshomaru.

"Done." He said. The dog demon grabbed Tenseiga and placed it beneath his obi. He turned around and set off. Mai followed him.

"Sesshomaru!" called the old smith. The silver-haired youkai turned around. Mai did too. "Your father would be proud of you."

The girl thought, that it was nice of the old man to say something like that. Totosai continued, as he pointed at Mai.

"She's a beautiful and smart woman, a fine match."

The girl needed a moment to realize, what the old man was talking about. The she blushed and opened her mouth to protest, but Sesshomaru was faster.

"I do not share my father's feelings towards humans. One more word and I will kill you." The demon said coldly and walked away. Mai waved to Totosai and ran after him.