I had this idea a while back. There's an old folk rhyme about magpies that I've always wanted to do something with then this story just sort of walked into my head in the middle of science. The chapter headings are the lines of the rhyme.
One for Sorrow
The battle had been hard.
The red-clothed hanyou lay on his side in the dirt, unaided, and uncaring. The miko, the time travelling girl from the future sat nearby, seemingly leaning against a tree. The monk sprawled feet away from his staff seemed to be sleeping deeply. And the demon slayer who had lost her family was lying on her giant boomerang.
The air was quiet save for the shouts of one little kitsune, wearing blue and white, with red hair.
"Mamma, Mamma, wake up," he cried desperately, tugging on the miko's hand.
Nothing.
"Ma…mamma, please," he started to cry.
From somewhere near the boomerang, a small cat-youkai crawled miserably forward, bleeding in several places.
"Kiara, please, help!" The kitsune ran from first one human, then the others, and lastly the hanyou. None stirred at his touch.
Yes, the battle had been hard.
The carcass of the hanyou Naraku lay defeated in a pool of blood, as did that of his final incarnation, the nameless monster.
But the victors lay equally still, unmoving.
Maybe the battle had been too hard.
Shippou tugged on Inuyasha's hand. The hanyou always knew what to do. He could surely get help, get healers, get someone…
Inuyasha's silver white head just rolled to one side as the child pulled. He was breathing, but wouldn't last long, Shippou decided – not with the dreadful injuries that he had received.
Kiara was nudging Sango's hand. She appeared to be having more luck – the teenager moaned slightly.
"Sango!" Shippou was over there in a flash, just in time to see her open her eyes and sit up.
"What… what happened?" she asked faintly.
"Sango! Please! Help!" The red-head was bobbing frantically up and down, too fast for Sango's fuzzy gaze to follow. The last thing she remembered was being hit, and hit hard, by a strange attack from a new youkai, then… darkness. She looked around.
Shippou was babbling something – something her aching head could not piece together. Kagome was sitting against a tree, Miroku was sleeping, as was Inuyasha. Wait… sleeping?
"Miroku! Inuyasha! Kagome! Wake up!" She forced her aching muscles to comply with her mind's demands and stood up, favouring her right leg.
"Sh…Shippou, go get Kaede." She said hoarsely, limping towards her fallen comrades.
"But…"
"Go, now!"
Sango knelt and checked Kagome, then Miroku, and finally Inuyasha for signs of life. After some hesitation, she also checked Naraku – just to be sure. Then, she sat down, and closed her eyes. There was nothing she could do.
A lone magpie flew across the path, its harsh cry conveying eons of sorrow to Kaede and Shippou – the former riding the transformed kitsune- and the group of helpers moving swiftly behind them. Kaede, the elderly miko with one eye, looked uneasily at the still forms of the four teens with whose lives she had become entangled.
Kaede directed her team of willing helpers to pick up the four - for Sango had slipped into the soothing oblivion of unconsciousness once more – and take them to the village. No one touched the grisly mess that had once been feudal Japan's greatest menace and threat. Naraku could stay there and rot.
Sango grimaced and winced at the pain of her leg as she woke up, slowly taking stock of her surroundings.
She was in a small room, lying on a soft bed, her leg bandaged and her clothes changed to a simple kimono. The sky she could see was dark, so she must have been out for hours. She couldn't remember why she was there at that moment. For a split second she thought that she was back at her village, wounded, perhaps, by a some fight with a youkai. Then, it hit her.
The battle. The fires that had been Naraku's eyes, the claws that had slashed Inuyasha, the choking cry that had been Kagome's as she was slammed into the tree… Sango's breath caught in her throat and she closed her eyes, forcing herself to breath calmly. However, that brought on more memories, flickering underneath her closed lids… Naraku's laughter as Miroku fell to the floor, wounded, Inuyasha disappearing into the flash of light…
"No!" She wanted to scream, to shout, but all that came out was a choked whisper.
Naraku looking at her… Kagome gasping… the pain of the attack… Miroku sinking to his knees, covered in blood…
Sango lurched to her feet. She had to talk to Kagome. The miko was the only one who could calm her down when she was like this, hit by the shock of battle. She swayed with the pain of her leg, then forced herself to hold still. And the pictures, though less than they had been, remained.
Sango's body longed for the cooling relief of sleep… to relax and not to worry. But her imagination, spinning and confused, was playing tricks on her, and she couldn't sleep knowing that her friends, the ones who had saved her life countless times before, were somewhere nearby. They had to be. Sango's tortured mind couldn't comprehend anything else.
The dark haired teen limped out of the door, and into the outside world.
The stars twinkled brightly in a velvet sky, reminiscent of fireflies. Lights glowed warmly in the distance, from villages – villages who Sango had protected her whole life. She breathed easier. There was the God tree, standing tall and strong in the darkness.
Like a father. The words came unbidden to Sango's head as she stumbled along.
There… that was Kaede's hut. The lights were still burning, so the miko must be awake, Sango reasoned. All she had to do was see if Kagome was awake, check to see her friends were all right…
The door lurched nearer the injured teen. Finally, she reached it.
I'd better check at the window first, she thought, suddenly. Don't want to wake anyone up.
The room was quiet when Sango first looked in. She forced herself to stand straighter and look at the floor.
Yes, Kagome was there, and Miroku, the one she loved but would never admit this fact. Both were covered in blankets. Kagome's hand was bandaged. Of Inuyasha there was no trace.
"…know, it'll be hard for them both," Kaede was saying. Sango could faintly see Yuki, the healer from the next village.
Must've been bad…"But, what, how…"
"We must tell her."
Sango frowned.
"It'll be really hard for her to take this."
"Yes. But would you like to be left in the dark?"
Yuki seemed to hesitate. Then he bowed. "I've done all I can." He said, looking up suddenly. "You must finish the rites."
Sango felt the breath catch in her throat, for the second time that night. Rites…?
Kaede looked up too, and Sango was startled to see tears beading in her eyes. Then, Kaede gently moved their blankets up over her patients' heads.
No! They'll suffocate! What are you doing?
Kaede took a deep breath. Yuki stopped. "But how do you tell a girl that her friends are dead?"
Sango froze. It couldn't be true… just couldn't. The world seemed to spin with the shock, and she fell to her knees, gasping for breath.
The door-latch started clicking, and Sango suddenly thought of running. Yes. She must run and hide, until her friends came to find her, to tell her that everything was ok.
Sango never after knew how she got back to her hut, only that she came to her senses to find herself lying curled up on her bed, tears flowing from her raw, red eyes onto the saturated cloth she was lying on. She suddenly remembered her companions – though they were more than that, they were her family.
"Happy Birthday, Sango!" The demon slayer looked up to see Kagome standing there carrying a small, brightly wrapped box.
"What is it?" Sango asked confused.
"It's a present, silly! Go on, open it. It's a tradition was have in my time."
Sango took it, and, with some trepidation, opened it.
"Oh!" A small silver charm had fallen out. Then another joined it on the floor. Sango picked them up, puzzled. Each was in the shape of a half a heart. One read "Friends" and the other read "Forever." Sango blinked.
"What…?"
"I didn't know what to get you," Kagome explained. "But then I saw these… you give one to your best friend and wear the other."
"Here you go then!" Sango held the charm saying "Forever" on it to the surprised girl.
"Huh?" Kagome asked intelligently.
"Best Friends?" Sango asked, grinning,
"Forever." Kagome swung the charm around her neck.
Sango placed her hand over the charm that she wore. The action was painful. She just couldn't accept that Kagome was gone... that her best friend was gone, and that she never even got to say goodbye to her. Kagome had left her, and she was alone…
"Lady Sango! My darling Sango!" Miroku smiled cheerfully as she walked back into camp. Inuyasha was up his tree, and Kagome was cooking.
Sango bit her lip. She had just visited her family's graves.
"Ah, Sango, don't cry!" The dark robed monk stood up ands walked over to her. He took her hand.
"There is nothing wrong with losing a loved one," he told her. "But you should not cry over it. If I knew that I had made someone cry by dying, then I would come back to make them smile!"
Sango frowned, trying to digest his words.
"Now, let us get back to more important matters."
Sango blushed as he drew nearer.
"Will you bear my children?"
"HENTAI!"
Sango replayed the scene over and over in her head. I would come back and make them smile…Miroku, the monk that she had loved, and yet never said as much to, was not coming back to brighten her day. Was not coming back to stay her tears… the tears that kept flowing and flowing.
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry, and you cry alone"Kagome had said that once. Now Sango truly understood.
She lay down and tried to calm the sobs that shook her aching body. But Kaede's words kept running through her mind, branding her far more effectively than any iron could.
"How do you tell a girl her friends are dead?" They seemed to echo in the corners of the room, filling the darkness, burning her as she closed her eyes.
"They're dead" Inuyasha said bluntly, as a surprised Sango looked on, amazed at how unfeeling the hanyou could be sometimes.
"They won't come back, no matter how hard I think of them."
"But, don't you miss them?"
"Hell, I did at first. Especially my mother. But I couldn't just give in. She wouldn't have liked it."
"And besides," added Shippou, from the fire's edge. "Mamma always said that if you remember someone, then you don't have to miss them, because they're always there with you!"
Sango shot bolt upright. "They're gone…" she whispered.
That long, weary night was the hardest night of Sango's life. Lying there, consumed by grief and guilt, she couldn't sleep. The hours ticked away like years of torture as she waited for the rays of the pale sun to give her comfort. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't rest her mind. Kagome, Miroku and Inuyasha walked her dreams and her waking thoughts, memories that she didn't know she had.
And Kaede sat listlessly outside of her hut, away from the stench of death. Away from grief.
"How do you tell a girl that her friends are dead?" she asked the dawn sun.
The lone magpie wailed in response.
Whatcha think?
… R 'n' R?… I need help to improve. Sorry it was so… whatever the word is… It was meant to be sad…
Please, don't flame me. Flames don't help anyone.