After a fight with Inuyasha, he is seen recovering in a forest after almost being slain by his brothers successful use of the Wind Scar (Kaze no Kizu). This is where the young human girl Rin enters the series. She sees him bleeding and unconscious and attempts to revive him. Over the period of many days, she keeps visiting him in his resting spot, bringing him food and water, which is refuses telling her, “I don’t eat human food”. After one of her visits in particular, he notices she has been beaten and asks her about her bruises. She doesn’t answer and he comes to realize she is mute.

Rin is thrilled at his inquery and interest in her and just flashes him a huge smile. To which he scoffs at and ends his one sided conversation.

After Sesshomaru has healed and leaves the forest, he comes to find the young girl dead, torn apart by wolves. Instead of turning and leaving her, he uses his sword Tenseiga for the first time to revive her and bring her back to life.

Sesshomaru is one of the sons of the powerful youkai leader Inu no Taisho. A youkai is a full demon. Since Inu no Taisho is considered to be a daiyoukai, Sesshomaru is, technically speaking, a daiyoukai himself. He is mostly a calm and collected person who hardly shows any emotions and never laughs. He rarely smiles, but when he does, it’s usually not a good thing, as once Jaken begged Sesshomaru to beat him rather than to smile because it was Sesshomaru’s smile that he feared most. Sesshomaru believes that struggle is the only way for survival and mostly throughout the series shows his contempt for InuYasha, his half brother.

With the ambition to walk the path of conquest, he desires to become stronger, even at the expense of others. He will not, however, use the shards of the Shikon no Tama to gain strength, which separates him from other youkai questing for power. Though some think it’s for his lust for pure power, others think it is created to accompany his original grace. The Shikon no Tama increases the user’s power while swords like the Tessaiga, the Tenseiga, and the Tokijin attack the opponent using the youki of the person wielding them. Sesshomaru wants to become strong by using his own strength and would never borrow power from another source.

Sesshomaru originally coveted InuYasha’s sword, the powerful Tetsusaiga. Tetsusaiga was a destructive sword made from one of his father’s fangs. A barrier was cast around the sword so that most youkai (demons) or one without compassion for humans (which would include Sesshomaru) cannot hold or wield it as it burns their flesh.

Even knowing that he cannot touch the sword, Sesshomaru still desired to take it from InuYasha. While his initial motivation appears to be pride and greed, Sesshomaru later claims the sword should rightfully be held by one able to fully wield its power. For this reason, he fought with InuYasha in their father Inu no Taisho’s grave and by chance, InuYasha transformed the blade for the first time and hacked off Sesshomaru’s left arm. After that, Sesshomaru began using the arms of other youkai, but they rotted and became useless after a while since the organs of lesser demons can’t bear the power of a daiyoukai that is contained within Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru inherited the Tenseiga, the companion blade of the Tessaiga, another sword made from his father’s fang. However, the Tenseiga, which can bring 100 people back to life with a single swing, was originally incapable of harming an opponent, thus it was useless in a battle. This is why he desired the Tetsusaiga instead. He eventually uses the power of Tenseiga to resurrect the head of Goshinki so that Kaijinbo could forge the Tokijin from his fangs. Although the Tokijin was a formidable weapon, it is later destroyed during a fight with Moryomaru. However, the swordsmith Totosai reforged Tenseiga with the ability to send opponents into the afterlife with a single swing, making it a weapon to replace Tokijin.

Recently it has been revealed that Sesshomaru has a mother. Sesshomaru is said to be looking for something, and it turns out to be his mother. Sesshomaru looks for his mother to find out more about the Tensaiga. Meaning she knows more about the creations of Inu No Taisho’s swords. Her name is not currently revealed. This event proposes that Sesshomaru might become more powerfull by finding out more about his fathers memento the tenseiga. She also holds the Meidou-Senki a jewel necklace around her neck given to her by Inu no Taisho. Inu no Taisho told her that if Sesshomaru were to come by to use it and “If you use Meidou-Seki Sesshomaru will be faced with great danger…However you must not feel fear or sadness.” This apparently is another of Inu no Taisho’s tests for his sons.