True to my habit of "always forgetting one thing" I forgot the disclaimer when I originally posted this. To anyone who saw it in that space of time and felt as if I was claiming the characters as my very own, I am sorry!
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or related characters. I make no money whatsoever from this story or the characters portrayed therein.
I hope you enjoy this story. This is set out to be a long one. This is the place I put ideas I've had that I really like, but don't quite fit into my books. This is actually a MirSan story in disguise, don't be put off by the fact that she's dead in this chapter. This chapter is quite a doozy, if you can get through this long one, I promise the coming chapters will be substantially shorter.
As always, I welcome and encourage criticism. As long as it's constructive. But with that comes two caveats: 1. I didn't do any research for this, this was written as a hobby okay? So don't expect the settings and events to be researched to professional standards. And 2. No, I don't use Japanese honorifics or terms. I know some people like that, but I don't. Trying to go back and forth between languages in the same sentence, for me, is like shifting my car repeatedly between gears for no reason while driving. I either will write the whole thing in Japanese, or the whole thing in English. And this one, my friends, is in English.
And now, on to my story!
"Smell that fresh air!" said the raven haired young woman to the equally raven haired young man beside her. She pulled the collar of her cinch waisted black overcoat closer to protect against the wind. Her hair, pulled into a ponytail, whipped wildly around her face. The young man's waist length hair floated like a flag in the breeze. The woman let out a sigh of contentment. "If anyone had told me five years ago, that I'd actually be coming to the Feudal Era for relaxation, I would have laughed in their faces."
"Kagome?" came a familiar voice across the grassy field, faintly at first but growing closer at quite an amazing speed.
"Shippo!" exclaimed Kagome, gathering the fox-child into her arms. "How's my favourite little fox? Being brave as usual?"
Shippo puffed up his chest. "Of course. Now that I'm the only demon left around here, I'm so busy protecting the whole village!"
The dark haired man with Kagome grunted. "You just wait until tonight."
"Ssh, Inuyasha. Shippo is a great demon, and you are a great human."
"Yeah, what's with that?" said Shippo. "I thought you always wait until he becomes a half demon again to visit. You're early this month."
Since the defeat of Naraku, after much discussion of what to do with the Sacred Jewel, it was decided that Inuyasha would use it to become human. However, unwilling to leave their friends behind on the other side of the well, Kagome and Inuyasha had retained a small piece of the jewel to enable them to travel back and forth. This had an interesting, though unintended effect on Inuyasha's transformation. Whereas when he had been a half demon, the night of the new moon caused a change into human form-now it triggered a week long transformation back into his half demon form. Meaning that three weeks out of every month, he lived as a human and the fourth week he lived as the familiar dog eared half breed. They usually chose this time to visit their friends through the well, rather than staying in the modern era and risking being noticed.
"Um…"said Kagome tentatively, beginning a question she wasn't sure she wanted to ask. "Where's Miroku?"
Shippo's expression darkened. "Same place he was the last time you visited."
"Oh, dear," Kagome said quietly. Shippo nodded.
Even Inuyasha mustered up a bit of concern. "Sango's grave."
"I better go see him. This isn't right," said Kagome.
"But we just got here," protested Inuyasha. "I wanna eat!"
Near a quiet path, under a tree, stood an unassuming stone. And a few feet from the stone sat a figure clad in purple and black. Staring. Not moving a muscle. Just staring at the stone.
"Hey Miroku," Kagome said as if speaking to a timid child. "What'cha doing?"
The only response he gave was to take a deep breath, hold it for a few seconds, and then let it out, slowly but loudly.
"Come on, Miroku," shouted Inuyasha. "What are you, some kind of weak girl now?"
"Inuyasha!" admonished Kagome.
"What? I was just trying to help! That would get me up."
Kagome knelt down beside Miroku. "It's cold out here. Why don't you come indoors with us and have a nice hot lunch?"
Miroku ignored her.
"Look," said Kagome softly. "We all miss her. How she went…it was really unfair. I know I sure wish I had someone to remember the good times about her with. I bet you have some great stories."
Miroku hesitated, then turned his head towards Kagome. "I couldn't save her," he said hoarsely. He turned the palm of his formerly wind-tunnel afflicted hand upwards and shoved it towards Kagome. "Because I didn't have that anymore. Because my curse was lifted, my life was spared and hers was lost."
"Oh, Miroku," Kagome whispered, a tear trickling down her cheek. Sango's death was one of those events that seemed like they never should happen. Shortly after Naraku's defeat, she had fallen into a deep depression over the death of her brother. Wanting to kill herself to join her brother in death, Miroku had talked her out of it by promising to make her a bride. After their marriage, joy and happiness returned to Sango's heart. They were trying for children, and had agreed that the first boy would be named after Kohaku.
8
In the glow that followed their marriage, Miroku and Sango agreed that they would settle down and practise leading quiet lives that would befit young parents. Sango hung up her Hiraikotsu and put away her slayer's uniform for good. Miroku, although he couldn't give up wearing his monk's clothing, let his intense religious training slide in favour of more domestic pursuits-like cooking.
Then one day, as he cooked a stew outside in the glow of a fiery summer sunset, Sango bounded out with a smile and announced she was going to the next village to slay a spider demon for one last thrill, for old time's sake-just to get it out of her system.
"It's just a minor demon. I'll be home for dinner. And when I get back we can work very hard on trying to have that son we want."
Those were her last words. By the time Miroku heard something had gone wrong, he raced to the village to save her. But he was only in time to witness the spider demon crack her bones and fling her crumpled body to the ground as he stood by, helplessly.
Miroku got up stiffly. Heaven only knew how long it had been since he last stood up. He only moved from that spot for one thing-he couldn't bring himself to relieve himself in "Sango's" presence.
"It'll be nice to go inside," Kagome soothed. "There's a fire going and a lovely stew on for lunch."
Miroku didn't say anything. Nobody had bothered with him this much since he had started his graveside vigil. To be honest, nobody knew what to do. For the past few months he had been living firmly outside the real world. Now facing reality again, he was becoming acutely aware that his robes were filthy from sitting in the mud all that time. He felt miserably embarrassed, and wished he could turn back time to when he only felt plain miserable.
"Hey, Shippo," called Kagome as they approached the hut. "Guess who's joining us!"
"Whoa," was all Shippo could muster when he caught sight of Miroku.
"Quit staring at him," growled Inuyasha. "Show some respect, or I'll pound you."
"I'm sorry," said Shippo. "I really missed you, you know," he said, wrapping his little arms around Miroku's legs.
"Hmm," said Inuyasha. "I think I'll pound you anyway."
"I'd like to see you try! I'm a great demon, and you're just a puny human."
Kagome smiled to herself. "Old times…" she mused.
Miroku moved closer to the fire. One of the aspects of reality that was now hitting home particularly hard was that it was now winter and very, very cold. It hadn't bothered him before, because he had been too wrapped up in his thoughts to notice. But now that he did notice, he found he'd started shivering and couldn't stop.
Blasted do-gooder Kagome! Stupid, stupid woman! Always sticking her nose in where it wasn't welcome!
Before he'd simply been depressed.
Now he was depressed, ashamed of his appearance, and freezing. Exactly what was the advantage in that?
A ridiculously grinning Kagome pushed a bowl into his hands and cheerily ordered him to "eat up!". Fine, he thought. If it'll make you leave me alone, I'll do anything you want. I only have to put up with it until you leave, anyway.
"When are you going to turn into a half demon," whined Shippo. "I wanna watch."
"You're not gonna watch! Go away and quit bothering me!"
"Oh, Inuyasha, he's just happy to see you. Give the kid a break"
"Yeah, give me a break!"
"Aaaargh! Go away, both of you!"
Miroku listened to the din of voices from the comfort of his futon. Although the sun had not completely set, and everyone else was catching up on things, Miroku was far more tired than he had previously thought. Plus, it had been a while since he slept indoors, lying down-and the futon looked so irresistibly comfortable. He pulled his blanked tighter around his shoulders and assessed his situation.
Oh, he was still depressed. But he was no longer cold, and since he had changed into nightclothes, had no further reason to be ashamed of his dirty robes. At this moment in time, he was actually rather comfortable. He closed his eyes and dozed off…
When Miroku opened his eyes again, the bright light of the moon shone through the window. Finding Shippo had curled up next to him, he tried not to move too much as he looked at what was going on around him. He could make out the shape of Inuyasha's head leaning against the window frame, clearly sporting his "dog" ears, the moonlight glinting off the edges of his hair, giving a silvery glow.
"Well what do you think we should do," Kagome's voice came out of the darkness.
The Inuyasha figure turned his head to look out of the window. "I'm just saying we can't just leave him here on his own. After all he did for us in our fight against Naraku, I'm not going to abandon him. He deserves more respect than that."
"Are you saying we should bring him back with us? Do we have room? I mean we are trying for a baby, don't forget."
"I'm saying we either bring him back with us, or we stay here with him."
Miroku closed his eyes, convinced that what he'd heard was a dream. After all, Inuyasha never spoke about respecting anyone. Then again, maybe five years and being married to Kagome had changed him.