Kazana's Kiss
by: animebookworm211
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Sadly.
Miroku was in the middle of what had been a battlefield. He was bent over his right hand, clutching his wrist. The wind tunnel sucked at everything. It had already absorbed the rosary that had once held the powers of the wind tunnel in check. Now, the air void was absorbing Miroku.
A second ago, Sango had felt victorious at the defeat of yet another demon. She had been smiling into another sunset, and anticipating another evening campfire with her friends. Everything had been normal.
Now, at the edge of the field, forbidden by Miroku to come any closer to him and his deadly air void, she felt nothing. Thoughts, however, struck her in a brutal barrage. She could have killed the demon herself. She shouldn't have made Miroku open the Kazana. If only she'd been quicker with her Hiraikotsu…
"Miroku!" cried Kagome. Sango turned at the sound of her voice. Inuyasha was holding her around the waist to keep her from running to the monk and trying to help. His anguished eyes were on his best friend, but his face was determined and unusually wise. Preserving Kagome was more important to him than a reckless attempted rescue of Miroku.
A huge, electric-blue force field blossomed around Miroku.
"No," Sango whispered. Then, as her stunned shock slowly faded, she shouted the word. "NO!"
Miroku was dying.
She suddenly realized what she had refused to think of before: life without Miroku would not be worth living. Without Miroku, there was nothing left. Her parents were gone. Her village was gone. Her baby brother barely belonged among the living anymore…
She would be alone.
And, watching the blue field swirl, she suddenly realized what she had to do. A feeling of first fear, then sadness, filled her at the thought. It faded to a kind of glowing contentment stemming from absolute sureness that this was right. She made up her mind quickly, but without a shadow of doubt.
She would not let Miroku leave without her.
She stepped forward to the blueness. Her Hiraikotsu was still strapped to her back, her armor was still on, but she didn't care; her fighting nature had always been a part of her, and it seemed fitting somehow this way.
"Sango," said Inuyasha sharply, realizing what she was doing. "Sango! NO!"
Sango turned. Kagome had stopped struggling against Inuyasha and stood still in his arms. They stared at Sango, horrified but powerless. Kagome had tears streaming down her face. Shippo sat on Kagome's shoulder, also crying. Only Kirara seemed resigned: she watched Sango with deep sadness in her eyes, but complete understanding. Sango knew that, if not for Kohaku's sake, Kirara would have followed her.
Sango met their eyes, fixing their faces into her memory forever. No matter how often she was reincarnated before she met them again, she would never forget her friends. But they weren't enough to make her stay.
"Goodbye," she said softly. "I love you all."
She turned and stepped into the force field. The sheer power of the wind tunnel within it whisked her out of her friends' sight.
Miroku sat in the center of the swirling vortex, his wind tunnel sucking at everything—the earth below him, the oxygen around him, and, slowly, the hand that held it. He ignored the pain. It would only grow greater.
"Kill Naraku for me," he whispered, pretending that somehow his friends could hear him. "That's all I ask."
The thought led him to focus on memories of his friends. He'd last seen them looking terrified for his sake, but in his memory they were smiling. He wanted to remember them happy. Inuyasha…Kagome…Shippo… Kirara…Sango.
Sango. A whole new kind of pain assaulted him at the thought of her face. He'd never met anyone like her. He'd had his share of lovers, but never anyone he truly loved the way he loved her. He'd never expected to, either—but Sango had never bothered with anyone's expectations.
Something slammed into Miroku, jerking him out of his thoughts. It was a person, drawn in by the power of the wind tunnel. Instantly he held the person away with his left hand and shoved his right hand into the ground. Maybe he could protect this person long enough for him or her to escape…
The person looked up, and Miroku saw her face. Shock overwhelmed him.
"Sango?" he croaked.
Then he knew he was hallucinating.
But why would a hallucination Sango be so dirty and battered?
She looked into his eyes, and smiled, a little wanly, but with a kind of decidedness behind her eyes that his imagination couldn't manufacture.
She was real.
His face drained of color.
"No," he whispered. "No! Sango, get out—I won't be the one to kill you!"
"You're not killing me," said Sango. "It's my choice, and I know I won't be able to live without you."
"I won't let you," said Miroku, almost angrily. He held his right hand down more firmly, even as it tore at the ground beneath it. "Get away, now!"
"No," said Sango simply.
Sweat poured down his forehead with the effort of keeping his hand down. "I—won't—let—you," he hissed.
"You don't have to," said Sango softly. "You have no way of making me leave. Please accept that. I don't want you to be mad at me when you—"
She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't have to. Miroku knew all too well what she meant.
Suddenly, his hand wasn't resting on solid ground any more. It had sucked out the earth beneath it too quickly for Miroku to press it down. Once again, it absorbed everything around it. It really was too late for Sango to leave.
He looked at her. "Why?" he asked in anguish. "Why do you want to die?"
"Because without you here, there's no point in living!" Sango grabbed him by the shoulders. "Hoshi-sama—Miroku—I love you!"
And Miroku found that, even though in many ways he'd already known this, hearing it out loud made all the difference.
"I love you, too," he said quietly, and kissed her.
Sango wrapped her arms around him, and the kiss went on. He embraced her, and the wind tunnel pulled at her, but couldn't absorb her yet. She and Miroku were one now, and they would go into the wind tunnel—go out of this life and into the next—as one.
Those last moments of their lives were the happiest either had ever felt.
The blue force field swelled suddenly, forcing Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo and Kirara to step backwards. It reached upwards to the darkening sky—then, almost as suddenly as it had grown, it vanished. A huge crater was left in the middle of the field.
Kagome broke out of Inuyasha's grasp and ran forward. "Sango?" she cried, voice breaking. "Miroku?"
Inuyasha followed her. He knew what they would find, and had to fight the urge for tears rising in him. He had to be strong. For Kagome. For everyone.
The crater was empty, except for Kagome, kneeling in the center and sobbing. Inuyasha ran forward and put his arms around her—not to restrain her, this time, but to comfort her. She buried her face in his shoulder.
Kirara and Shippo stood at the edge of the crater, watching. Shippo was bawling. Kirara stared into the empty plain, then threw back her head and roared at the sunset sky.
It was night. The small group built a fire on a ridge overlooking the crater. They worked in silence, their tears having faded with the sunlight. The campfire seemed empty without Sango's comfortable presence or Miroku's humorous philosophy. Everyone felt the absence, but no one mentioned it.
Kirara and Shippo quickly fell asleep in the warmth of the fire. Inuyasha and Kagome stared silently into the flames, each lost in their own grief.
Suddenly, Inuyasha stood and walked to the crest of the ridge. Kagome followed him with her eyes as he sat in the grass and looked out into the starry sky. Eventually, she joined him.
"What is it?" she said softly.
There was silence. Then Inuyasha sighed. "It's just…I think I understand."
"Understand what?" Kagome spoke gently. It wasn't often that Inuyasha spoke this sincerely. She was afraid that a harsh-sounding word could break the spell.
"Why Sango followed him." He was still looking outward, not at Kagome. "Why she didn't want to keep living without him. And why he…didn't push her away."
There was another pause.
"Because if you died," said Inuyasha finally, "I would die, too."
"So would I," said Kagome softly. "I would die, if you did. It wouldn't be worth it to stay."
They sat without speaking for a few more seconds, reveling in this discovery.
"I shouldn't be sad," said Kagome finally. "They're happy. It's what they wanted."
"Yeah," said Inuyasha. "I guess. But…I'm never gonna forget them."
"They're not really gone," said Kagome, recalling something she'd heard once. "As long as we remember them, they're still here with us."
She leaned her head on Inuyasha's shoulder, and he wrapped his arm around her.
The night sky above them was as black as an air void, and, for a moment, the sickle moon looked like a glowing Hiraikotsu.