"Still nothing," Inuyasha drawled, walking through Sango's door.
Sango scowled. Just because she'd asked him every single day for the last month if he sniffed Onigumo at her doorstep did not mean she would ask him yet again.
(Except that it did.)
"Maybe he's given up?" Kagome sounded far too hopeful as she walked into the house, hand-in-hand with Inuyasha.
"No," Inuyasha sighed, flicking the charm that disguised him as human the moment the door had closed. Sango was used to the dog-eared demon man by this point, and to his credit, he'd earned her trust.
His explanation of what happened and why had been sound, and he'd gone through even her most advanced interrogation techniques to sniff out a lie. None were there. Inuyasha had been desperate, and stupid (so stupid), and Sango had understood why he did it. It would be like waking up and finding oneself on Mars. Of course she would have tried to find a way home.
Maybe just not at the hands of a psychopath who apparently was trying to bring about the second coming or open the gates of hell.
"I… I don't know any reiki users out there, save for me and Kikyō," Kagome said. "And you're the only demon anywhere near New York."
"Which is why I am bunking with Kagura and you're… well…" Kikyō gesticulated toward Kagome and Inuyasha, who over the past month never seemed to be in the same space without some body part touching some other body part.
In the short time that Sango had known Kagome, her fucking the demon who had tried to blow up the world by accident then falling in love with him was about the most Kagome thing she'd ever seen. And Inuyasha? Well… try-hard was an understatement. The man had decided to repent for every sin of his life in the span of a month.
And Kagura had taken full advantage. Inuyasha had been poked and prodded; his yōki had been twisted and spun and drained until Kagome had intervened. (Hell, even Sango and Kikyō had stepped in on occasion; Kagura was terrifying when she was in experiment mode, and Inuyasha did not seem to have any sort of sense of self-preservation…)
The good news, though, was that even as there was no progress on Onigumo (something that kept Sango awake and pacing at night), they had made a lot of progress on devices: weapons, cages, shields, and even portals.
That day, Kagura wanted to test out her latest invention: webbing that was strapped on as part of the aura blasters (they could handle yōki and reiki now) 'to protect the precious lady bits.'
"What about the man bits?" Inuyasha had asked.
"Your body is not the one tasked with birthing a child," Kagura shot back playfully, "but… I suppose it works for man bits too." Then the smirk, "you playing guinea pig again, Inuyasha?"
"No, he's not," Kagome growled, "he's always the guinea pig!"
"And it's been really useful!" Kagura scoffed, "we now know that yōki can hurt yōki, that reiki can purify your boy to human and it just has the side effect of excruciating pain!"
"You say 'excruciating pain' like it's something to aspire to," Sango deadpanned.
Honestly, Sango really enjoyed having Kikyō and Kagura as houseguests. Kikyō cleaned up Kagura's messes and split the expenses. And when they were done for the night (and Kagome and Inuyasha headed back into Manhattan), the three of them would all just sit and drink wine or beer and talk. Her, sitting and joking with her new roommates about the supernatural and demons and living as the only people who knew the world was on the cusp of ending and teasing about the ways Kagura almost blew up her house that day. They had created a routine of ebullient normalcy and camaraderie around supernatural absurdities.
Sango really really loved it.
It was what also drove home how lonely Sango was. Because she was a cop. A female cop.
Sango had extended her leave of absence at work, because even as the NYPD now seemed completely bought into the whole demons exist thing, her precinct was guaranteed to make her life miserable. There was nothing Captain Kaijinbō hated more than being proven wrong, and the incident on 2nd Ave certainly had proven him wrong and her right. And well, she kept hosting the very person who had let the demon into the city (who also happened to be a demon). And she was waiting for the crazier one to come out of hiding and unleash hell… apparently.
Maybe Sango should take a permanent leave of absence from the force. She was… well she was thinking about it a lot. About what it would feel like to let go of the rules and let herself live.
(Which had absolutely nothing at all even a little bit to do with the indigo-eyed, smooth-talking 'locksmith' who had finagled her phone number out of Kagome and Sango didn't even want to talk to him, okay?)
Except that she found herself grabbing her phone the very instant it pinged… and was disappointed every time it was Kagome or Kikyō or Kagura…
Except that every time it was Miroku who had texted her, she texted him back.
She didn't have time for feelings. Especially for a criminal. But…
Please have dinner with me.
The message had been sitting on Sango's phone all day.
She really really didn't want people to know how many times she'd looked down at it and thought about replying. Kagura was already insufferable about Sango and Miroku. Just because she and Kikyō had found something and Kagome and Inuyasha had found something did not automatically mean that Sango was going to find someone, too. This was not a goddamned Shakespearean comedy where fairies sprinkled dust in lovers' eyes and magically everyone got married.
Maybe that was why she waited until Kagome and Inuyasha arrived. Because while the others continued working on the next round of devices and weapons and plans and discussions, she would be free to actually think about the earnest message on her phone. Because she could look at it and have her face betray a smile (that totally did not exist) while she daydreamed about going on a date with the man.
A man who was a criminal.
A man who would prove once and for all that Sango was just as bad as every deadbeat she arrested because she was going to be selfish and overlook the law-breaking… and still her face fucking smiled.
And Sango was busy too. She did not have time for romance.
Because she was failing at doing the thing that it was her job to do.
Sango's search for Onigumo was turning up empty. Over and over and over.
And the location of the ley line "X" had seen no new or unusual activity.
She was the one who was supposed to be good at detective crap, at finding the perp, at following the least that actually got somewhere.
That even as she bent (broke) rules, she was still not getting anywhere.
She was failing.
"Sango?" Kagome's soft voice broke Sango from her thoughts; Inuyasha and Kagura and Kikyō had headed down into the basement. "You okay?"
"I'm fine." Sango turned away, trying to shove her feelings of frustration about Onigumo and unnamed 'locksmith' who asked her to dinner and distracted her down and far away.
"You sure?" Kagome put her hand on Sango's tricep. "I know that this—the waiting—is hard and…"
"Do you?" Sango needed someone to yell at, and there Kagome was, poking her like that. "That I've given my house over to experiments for demon hunters? Or that I can't even find one fucking needle in a haystack that might be able to end the world? Or that… that everything I've been taught and worked for is disintegrating?"
"Sango…" Kagome had not moved her hand.
"No, Kagome… I'm not like you or Kikyō or Kagura or—or…" Sango nearly said 'Miroku', "Inuyasha. I'm supposed to follow the rules and be the reliable one who can sniff out the lead and stop whatever-the-hell is coming and instead…"
"You're stuck waiting," Kagome repeated her point, but this time there was so much sympathy in her voice that Sango didn't cut her off. "And nothing feels worse than just waiting and not being able to do anything."
"Y—yeah," Sango sighed, "you'd think I'd at least be able to get a driver's license and address…"
Sango didn't tell Kagome that she had been spending an inordinate amount of time in databases she wasn't allowed to be in trying to match Onigumo's sketch (he really, really looked like Wormtongue) to an actual person, and had come up with nothing.
"Well, if it helps?" Kagome patted Sango's arm. "You're protecting Kikyō and Kagura. And if Inuyasha has taught me anything, it's that protecting those you care about is the highest calling you can have."
"Demon logic," Sango drawled, "he's rubbing off on you."
Kagome did not need to smile that inward secret smile for Sango to know that the two were in love. And she didn't need to let out a breathy chuckle either. It tugged at Sango's heart. It made her think of dark hair and indigo eyes and…
And things she had no desire to think about. She really really didn't.
"Sango, Kagome!" Kagura's voice called from the basement. "Want to see something cool?"
A knowing look passed between the two of them; when Kagura said 'cool,' she usually meant 'I have upgraded one of my machines in such a way that the neighbors would think they might need to call the police'. Luckily all of Sango's neighbors knew her now, and all of them liked her, and all of them kept their mouths shut.
"Fire extinguisher time?" Sango asked, which caused Kagome to giggle and go grab two. Sango had definitely stocked up on them, and for good reason.
"What exactly do you have for us today?" Kagome asked as they were met at the stairs from the basement with a wide grin on Kagura's face, and a frown on Inuyasha's.
"A… bomb," Kagura answered.
Kagura liked coming up with cutesy nicknames for her devices. Reiki blasters, zappy zappers, et cetera. So, that she was calling whatever 'cool' thing she'd created a 'bomb', well, Sango had not felt fear of Kagura's inventions like this since Kagura first started inventing things.
"Please, please tell me that we are not about to blow up half of Queens, Kagura." Sango could not believe she was having to say this. "I thought we—"
"Even I'm not that mad a scientist." Kagura rolled her eyes. "No. This is… a prototype reiki bomb. It takes a little spark of yōki and goes boom." Kagura held up an egg-shaped mass in her hand. "This one is a 1/100 prototype though. So, it should be more poof, less boom."
"So don't—" Kagome started.
"I swear to god, Kagome, if you say don't cross the streams, I am gonna zap you with your own reiki," Kagura grumbled.
"What?" Kagome giggled, sidling up to Inuyasha, who nearly immediately threw his arm around her.
"You've made that joke no less than 10 times in the past month." Kikyō crossed her arms as she joined them.
"And it's still funny," Kagome declared.
"It's not," Sango and Kikyō answered in unison.
"Fine…" Kagome huffed, "Inuyasha thinks it's funny."
"Don't drag me into this," Inuyasha grumbled as he sparked his disguise back to life, silver hair and golden eyes changing to their mundane human counterparts. "Though honestly? Reiki and yōki do react volatilely to one another in most circumstances so… it's not a bad suggestion."
"Look at him trying to make Kagome's bad joke reasonable (and that isn't a bad suggestion)." Kagura nudged Kikyō. "But now… it's time to show off."
Sango grasped the fire extinguisher as they all lined up in the alleyway that had seen so many clanks, bangs, flashes, flames and (mini-)explosions that it had been nearly stripped of clutter. Sango looked at the metallic egg in Kagura's hand, as well as the pin on top.
"Wait wait wait…" Sango did not miss the way Kagura's fingers slipped into the ring of that pin. "Kagura, please tell me you are not currently holding a grenade."
"Okay," Kagura shrugged, "I won't say that I am currently holding a grenade."
"No—" Sango didn't know what to say, didn't want to admit to the panic that was coursing through her veins. Kagura was holding a grenade that was designed to destroy the demons waiting on the other side of the portal planning on bringing about the end of the world.
"What?" Kagura her finger out of the grenade's ring.
"I—I…" Sango couldn't find words. True, okay, she had seen not one, but three, demons coming out of portals. She had heard the freaky translation of the last demon about 'the way is clear' and had watched Inuyasha spark and sizzle and transform and explain how everything that was unbelievable was to be believed. "A grenade?"
A hand gently laid itself on Sango's shoulder, and when she looked over, she saw Kagome's warm brown eyes looking back at her. "A grenade."
The things that were crawling out of the portals might need grenades to destroy. They were four women and a fucking demon against the second coming? What the hell was she even doing there? Why had she thought that her precinct was so fucking hopeless that she preferred the four women and a demon against the apocalypse option?!
"It's okay to be scared," Kagome whispered, letting her hand gently massage Sango's shoulders. "It's okay not to believe it's coming and it's okay to not know what's coming next."
Kagome's gentle touch, and the reassuring looks of each and every person in that alley, was helping. It was evening out her breathing. It was pushing away that existential dread of not being able to control what was lurking, hidden and waiting. Not being able to know the future. Not being able to feel helpful in the presence of two witches, three physicists, and a demon (some more than one of those things). Who the hell did she think she was, save for someone who could operate a firearm and flash a badge?
"What am I even supposed to do?" Sango asked, swallowing down the panic and the anger and the fear. "You're over here inventing grenades to destroy whatever the hell is coming out of the portal, and I just have a house and a gun!"
"And training," Kikyō said simply. "Unlike us, you actually know how to keep your head in a crisis."
"Yeah," Kagome added, "you were the one who chased Inuyasha and managed to grab his device before he could come back and get it."
"And you are the one who watches," Kikyō added, walking up. "If something goes down at the 'X', you are going to know immediately. If Onigumo comes within a mile of us, you are going to know immediately."
"But… is that even enough? I—I'm a cop, and I am not even sure if I am that anymore." Sango did not like the word salad that was coming out of her mouth, but she couldn't help it.
"You're a protector." Inuyasha's gruff voice joined the rest of them. "You think I'd leave the witch and the mad scientist with you if I didn't think you'd wipe the floor with Onigumo?"
"You're terrifying," Kagura added, "seriously. I don't doubt that you would be able to waste most anyone with your bare hands." She then tossed the reiki grenade into the air. "But we're not going to have bare hands. We're going to have weapons."
"You give me way more credit than I deserve," Sango mumbled, but it was working.
"We're all scared," Kagome whispered, "but… I for one am so so happy that you're here with us, Sango. I… I don't know if we'd be here if you weren't."
"I seriously freak out nearly every night when I try to sleep," Kikyō admitted, "I am not good… at uncertainty."
"She literally paces and writes equations on the whiteboard in the middle of the night," Kagura added. "We're all dealing with this differently. And fuck, have I ever told you how safe I feel in your house, Sango? Seriously, I sort of want Onigumo to show up just to see you go Bruce Lee on his ass."
Sango sniffled. She didn't want to, but she couldn't help it. It wasn't the first time she'd felt tears gather in her eyes since the beginning of this misadventure. But they weren't from anger or sadness or even panic; they were… they were from relief.
"So, we're all fucked and gonna die maybe?" Sango deadpanned, wiping the tear that almost escaped her eye.
"Not before blowing some serious shit up," Kagura laughed. "Um… Inuyasha, you may want to put on one of the shields I made. Just in case. Man bits and all that."
"Fucking hell." Inuyasha rushed into the house, but not before adding, "coulda told me that beforehand, Dr. Frankenstein."
"More fun to see you freak out," Kagura called back, then she turned back to Sango. "I'm making sure that we've got nearly as much juice as the witches, Sango. So, you may not be able to zap shit with your fingers, but you will be able to zap shit with my packs."
Sango smiled. She couldn't control what was coming, but that was okay. Because she had friends who couldn't control it either, and they were doing a whole hell of a lot of preparing: to control every minutum of what they could.
As the 1/100 reiki bomb lit up the sky (they could just call it illegal fireworks if the neighbors asked), Sango pulled out her phone and looked down at Miroku's text message.
She was not purely a cop anymore. And she wasn't a witch, or a mad scientist, or a demon.
She was a demon hunter, and thanks to her amazing friends, she was armed to the teeth.
Name a time and place.
Sango pressed Send on her reply to the criminal (and criminally hot) locksmith.
If the world was going to end, she might as well enjoy the time she had left.