Trivial Matters

When Miroku falls prey to his Kazaana, Sango leaves her friends in hopes of finding a way to revive him. But can she survive on her own?

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Well… in the dream I had last night I did, but not in reality. -

Chapter 1

It's Not Fair

Why? Why did one so young have to die so soon?

Sango had never liked waiting. And now she was waiting for one of her best friends to die. She flicked the rings of the shakujou in her hands, imitating the sound that so often followed her. The sound that would follow her no more.

Miroku was dying. His hand had been sliced, and now he sat in the small hut waiting for the kazaana to expand beyond control. And it was expanding rapidly now, more than a centimeter an hour. The shakujou had been his last token to Sango.

She bowed her head, choking up the tears that were sure to fall. Kohaku was dead. She had killed him. It had been a hard choice, Kohaku or Miroku. She had acted too slowly, and now she had neither. For a girl of her age, she had experienced far more pain than she should have. But when she had been around Miroku, she could forget about those things. Where was her sanctuary now? Where could she go when the pain was too great? Kagome was predictable. She would try to comfort her, but Kagome did not know her pain. Inuyasha knew pain, but he was not a comforting type. His word would not calm her. Miroku could. He knew pain, and his words flowed around her, carrying her to peace.

Silence. That was all she heard. She shifted her eyes to the hut. In there was a lonely man. How she wanted to run in there, to hold his hand! To tell him someone was there for him. But Miroku would die alone. The same way his father and his grandfather had.

How much there was she wished she had told him. She stopped trying to repress her tears, and as if feeling her sadness she heard the hut begin to creak. She looked up to see the thatched roof pulled inward. Then a sickening crack as the roof beams broke. She could hear his scream now. His anguished cries of pain, and his sadness. She couldn't take it anymore.

"HOUSHI-SAMA!" she yelled, shooting to her feet. "MIROKU!"

She dashed forward, only to be stopped by the thin barrier that separated the winds of the kazaana from the rest of the world. She banged her hands against it, still yelling his name. All of a sudden she was falling forward, through the barrier. When she landed on the ground she felt a few gusts of wind whip her hair but nothing more. When she looked up all she could see was a crater in the ground.

"SANGO!" It was Kagome's voice calling to her. The younger girl's light footsteps became louder and stopped beside her. "Sango, are you okay? I saw you fall through the barrier and I thought…"

"You thought it took me to!" sobbed Sango, still on the ground. "I wish it had!"

"Sango… you don't really mean that do you?"

"What if I do Kagome! I- I loved him!"

Kagome let out a small gasped. Tears came to her eyes as she looked back up at the crater, realizing that her friend was really dead, and just how much the girl crying on the ground in front of her cared for him. She dropped to her knees and pulled Sango into a comforting embrace.

"It's not fair Kagome," Sango sobbed into her shoulder, "He didn't deserve to die…"

Kagome didn't know what to say. Sango had lost everything, and what did she have to show for it? Nothing. Naraku was still at large, her brother was dead, her body weary. All Kagome could do was help Sango up and help her back to the village.

The Next Day

"Are you really going Sango?" asked Shippo, questioning the taijiya from Kagome's shoulder.

"Yes, Shippo. I'm afraid I no longer have the will to carry on with this quest." She gave the kitsune a sad smile.

"But I (sob) already lost (sob) Miroku! I don't wanna (sob) lose you too!"

She walked up to the fox cub and patted his head. "I'm sorry, Shippo, but I have to go."

"Where are you going to?" asked Kagome.

"I don't know… I was thinking last night, and there's got to be some way to bring Housh- Miroku back to life. Or what if the Kazaana doesn't kill him? What if it brings him to another place? Like the well does for you… then there's got to be a way to bring him back. I guess that's what I'll do. Either way, I suppose I should pay Mushin a visit first."

"Well… good luck," Kagome said, offering the only advice she could think to give.

Sango nodded. "Thanks." She looked to Inuyasha, but his eyes were closed as he leaned against a tree, apparently uninterested in the conversation. She stared at him for a moment before turning around to leave. What was she thinking, it was not like Inuyasha to care if she left or stayed. As she walked away with Kirara at her heels she heard Shippo's loud sobs and Kagome's quiet ones and then…

"Oi! Sango!" It was Inuyasha. She turned around. He opened his eyes to look into hers. "Don't get killed."

Sango smiled as she nodded. It was Inuyasha's little way of showing that he cared. She cried as she left. It was not as though she wanted to leave her friends. But she really felt that she couldn't carry on. She had been fighting for a long time, and with the way she was now, she knew she couldn't fight. When she had thought Kirara was lost she had sunk into a deep depression, and now Miroku's death lagged at her mind. The shakujou's rings clanged as she walked from where it was strapped on her back. She had been wrong earlier. Its sound still followed her, but it was a hollow empty sound, for she knew that it was not her secret love that held it. But, somehow, it was almost as if he were there. Almost as if his hand were waiting to grope at any minute. And she took solace in that idea.

So? That was just the first chapter, but I assure you it picks up later.