Sango did not expect to ever open her eyes again. But then, she had expected to die before, and she had been wrong before. She supposed it was only a matter of course that she would be wrong again.

She opened her eyes to unfamiliar surroundings. She was no longer in Naraku's castle, but she could be certain of nothing else. The dark, oppressive atmosphere of the castle was gone. Instead this building felt almost peaceful.

Seeing that she was awake, the woman who had been tending the hearth came over to see to Sango. The woman was very old, but her face was gentle and she had a voice to match. "Ah, I'm glad to see you awake. We had thought you might die," she said, without bothering to explain who 'we' was.

Sango tried to say something, but her throat would not work.

"Rest now," the old woman said. "There will be time to talk later, but first you must get well."

Faced with this unexpected kindness, Sango was not sure what to do or say. Somehow, she knew instinctively that this place was safe, and it seemed almost as if everything she had been through in the past season had merely been a bad dream. Or it would have, but for the ache deep in her body.

She tried again to speak, but managed only a groan.

The old woman knelt beside her. "Shh, rest now. You are safe here."

Sango believed her.

-x-

As the days crept by, Sango's strength slowly returned. At first she was able to do little more than lie in bed or sit beside the fire, but gradually she was able to walk about and help Kaede with some simple chores. The most disconcerting thing about it was that she was free to come and go as she pleased.

She was aware of the other village women and the way they seemed slightly wary of her. Kaede had made her feel so welcome that it had been easy to forget she was a stranger in this place. And it wasn't just that. She'd come to the village bleeding and beaten, by all accounts dying, and she'd arrived on the back of a fearsome youkai.

And yet… someone came to visit her nearly every day. It was nearly always someone different, so that she might get to know the rest of the villagers. They might be wary, but they were concerned, too.

And when they heard from Miroku that she was a youkai exterminator, they became almost welcoming toward her.

-x-

It was several days before she got the story of Naraku's demise out of Miroku. She spent most of that time sleeping and resting in Kaede's hut, but she was awake enough to miss the monk's presence.

She knew he was the one that had brought her out of the castle and to this place where she could heal, but she had been worried about him nonetheless. Kaede had mentioned that he had been injured in the battle, as well. His right hand was bandaged, and he seemed unable to move the fingers, but he was otherwise in good spirits. And when he finished telling her the tale of the battle, he told her, "Kaede thinks it may yet heal. It's better than the kazaana, at any rate."

Later, when she was strong enough to spend part of each day helping Kaede in the garden, Miroku showed up unexpectedly, watching in silence as she made her slow way through the garden pulling weeds. "You're getting stronger," he noted. He sounded pleased.

She nodded and gave up on her weeding for the moment to go stand beside him. Looking at him, she felt so uncertain. He fit in easily here in a way that she felt she did not. In their isolation, she had not realized just how well he got along with people. In a way, it made it less surprising that he'd managed to convince her not to die on several occasions. "Miroku," she began, "What should I do now?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, in a tone that clearly said she should do whatever she liked now that she was free.

"My village is destroyed," she explained. "My people are gone. I have nowhere to go."

"You are welcome to stay here for as long as you like," he told her, something ineffable in the tone of his voice. "They are used to strong women in these parts. The village elders have expressed interest in keeping a youkai exterminator around. I don't think they'd object if you decided to stay."

She sighed, wondering if it could really be so simple. If she could really live here in peace and quiet for the rest of her days. She wanted so badly to believe that she could. "And what about you? What will you do?"

"I don't know." She knew without looking at him that his gaze had shifted to his right hand, which was covered only by thick bandages, with no rosary in sight. "It's so strange... I suppose I'll be on my way soon, try to find a place to settle down." He shrugged, as if trying not to think too hard about any of it.

"Why not here?"

He smiled then, faintly. "Why not here?"