Hojo Akitoshi's question plunged the scene into an awkward silence.
Even Hojo Akitoshi himself had not expected that.
He had thought it would be perfectly natural for Sesshomaru to say something about the Great Dog General being a powerful demon.
At worst, Sesshomaru could have snapped that he had been an irresponsible father.
Whatever Sesshomaru said, Hojo Akitoshi had already prepared his response.
He was certain he could move Sesshomaru, bring Inuyasha to tears, and leave Kagome deeply touched.
But Sesshomaru said nothing, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the question.
That left Hojo Akitoshi at something of a loss. Surely he wasn't supposed to perform a one-man comedy routine over here?
Yet while Hojo Akitoshi silently grumbled about Sesshomaru's lack of cooperation,
Sesshomaru had his own unspoken grievances. How was he supposed to judge his father, the Great Dog General?
Call him a powerful demon? Didn't everyone already know that?
As for abandoning his longtime wife, along with his son, for a human mistress he had only just met,
he had even lost his life for that mistress in the end.
Was that anything to be proud of?
He might have been a demon, with morals entirely different from those of humans,
but when it came to this matter!
Sesshomaru's gaze shifted slightly, fixing on Hojo Akitoshi, someone he had only begun to acknowledge that day.
For some inexplicable reason, Sesshomaru felt that the man must have had a death wish-or perhaps he was just itching for a beating.
How dare he make sport of him over a question like this?
With that single thought, Sesshomaru felt a particularly unbearable itch in his claws.
And he desperately wanted to tear something apart with them. Hojo Akitoshi, for instance. Or Hojo Akitoshi.
Oh, crap!
Hojo Akitoshi had been watching Sesshomaru's every move intently, and when he noticed his hand beginning to stir,
a flash of insight told him where the problem lay.
I'd been careless.
He had only considered how normal it was for men of this era to have multiple wives and concubines. He had overlooked the fact that the Great Dog General had died for love.
A demon had thrown away his life for a human woman.
From the human perspective, such sincere love would surely move people to tears.
But from a demon's perspective, nine and a half out of ten would probably think he had lost his mind.
Besides, Sesshomaru had tried to preserve the territory his father had left behind and clean up the mess left by that father who had died for love.
And he had suffered terribly on the battlefield against the Panther Cat Tribe.
Hojo Akitoshi immediately changed tactics, feigning curiosity as he skipped over his earlier question.
He placed a hand on Tessaiga's hilt.
"Huh?"
Inuyasha had been curious about how Sesshomaru would describe the father he had never met.
He had been listening intently for gossip about his old man, but then he saw the sword that neither he nor Sesshomaru could touch.
Now it was letting Hojo Akitoshi hold it without the slightest resistance.
His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Inuyasha felt as though he had lost yet another precious thing.
Meanwhile, Sesshomaru had also witnessed the sight, and his entire face began to turn green.
Was falling in love with a human woman while he was alive not enough for Father? Did he have to favor outsiders even after death?
Was he going to give even his legacy to a human?
Dogs might be man's best friend, but we're demons! Demons!
Did he really think we were pet dogs?
"Um? Er?"
Kagome was not slow on the uptake. Besides, with the atmosphere as it was, even the slowest person
would have sensed the surging unease and displeasure.
At a loss for what to do, Kagome's mind raced.
One moment, she looked at the two wronged parties and their grim expressions.
The next, she looked toward Hojo Akitoshi and his feigned nervousness.
She was terrified that this situation, which had only just shown signs of ending peacefully, would turn into another battlefield where they beat one another's brains out.
Crack.
But what she feared most was exactly what happened. Before Kagome's despairing eyes,
Hojo Akitoshi seemed to give Tessaiga, which was embedded in the platform, a little shake out of fright.
Then the most hopeless thing happened. The demon sword that both of the Great Dog General's sons had tried and failed to draw
slid out effortlessly in Hojo Akitoshi's hand!
"This has to be fake, right? It's definitely fake, isn't it?"
Unable to accept such an absurd outcome, Kagome simply could not understand what the sword's former master,
the Great Dog General, had been thinking back then.
So he hadn't left this sword for his two sons, but for Hojo Akitoshi to stumble across by chance?
She grabbed Inuyasha, who stood beside her as stiff as a wooden chicken and equally unable to accept reality, and shook him violently.
Kagome was so astonished that her tongue nearly leaped out of her mouth.
"What's going on?"
Dizzy from being shaken, Inuyasha was also at a loss for words as he stared at the sword resting quietly in Hojo Akitoshi's hand.
"Are you my little brother?"
Inuyasha could think of no more reasonable explanation.
What else could it be?
Surely the Great Dog General hadn't favored outsiders so much that he had left his treasure to a complete stranger instead of his own sons?
"He is entirely human."
In truth, the same wild idea had briefly occurred to Sesshomaru.
Considering the possibility that Hojo Akitoshi was his younger brother, Sesshomaru compared him with Inuyasha and realized, to his surprise,
that if it were true, it would not be entirely unacceptable.
But Sesshomaru quickly examined Hojo Akitoshi over and over with his senses, then regretfully ruled out the possibility that he was his younger brother.
For as far as his senses could tell, Hojo Akitoshi, who held Tessaiga, did not possess even the slightest trace of demonic aura. He was unquestionably human through and through!
Then!
Sesshomaru's eyes instantly reddened. Once every impossibility had been eliminated, the most unlikely answer had to be the truth.
That foolish father of mine really did consider himself a pet dog kept by humans!
He'd rather leave his legacy to an outsider than his own family!
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, old grudges piling atop this new resentment.
Unable to endure it any longer, Sesshomaru immediately unleashed what little remained within his body
of his demonic power.
To ensure he could kill Hojo Akitoshi and the others without fail, Sesshomaru, weakened time and again, even revealed his true demon form.
An enormous white dog, two or three stories tall, appeared upon the ground, roaring furiously at the sky!
"Inuyasha!"
Hojo Akitoshi felt he had played with fire a little too much this time when he saw the extent of Sesshomaru's blazing fury.
He hurriedly threw Tessaiga toward Inuyasha, then swiftly drew his own Muramasa Blade Sirius.
"I can't use this sword!"
Seeing Sesshomaru's current form, then looking at Tessaiga where it had plunged into the ground before him,
Inuyasha still had reservations and did not dare reach out to draw it just yet.
If he got struck by lightning a few more times, he might as well risk his life fighting Sesshomaru with his claws!
"I'm not your little brother. Think about what your father ultimately died for."
With his blade in hand, Hojo Akitoshi dodged Sesshomaru's hate-filled strike, feeling the ground of bones tremble beneath his feet.
He spoke rapidly, addressing both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru.
"It was for love, for protection, and to fulfill his responsibility as a man."
"To protect your mother, and to protect you before you were even born."
"That was why the Great Dog General dragged his gravely wounded body out to rescue your mother, resolutely choosing to go despite knowing he would never return."
"And I think the reason neither of you can draw this sword is that you haven't understood love and protection."
"You haven't found the people and things you should truly act for and protect!"
"Simply wielding your power as you please isn't enough. That will never make you a true man. It was precisely this that the Great Dog General realized before his death."
"That was why he set such a harsh trial for you!"
"Love and protection?"
Murmuring to himself, Inuyasha felt Hojo Akitoshi's words illuminate his heart.
A single remark awakening a dreamer-that was exactly what happened to Inuyasha at that moment.
He thought of Kikyo, then gazed at Kagome beside him, Kikyo's reincarnation, before thinking of the culprit behind all the misunderstandings and tragedy fifty years ago.
And he looked at Hojo Akitoshi, who was still holding his own against Sesshomaru.
Before you continue