Prompts: "but you don't understand! why can't you understand?!" and "ah, it was all my fault. wasn't it?"
This was her last resort, but there were no other options. Sango and the priestess were the only ones left—not even the hardy Kirara survived the onslaught of the desperate Naraku. Naraku passed with all those who died in their final fight, with the jewel killing him from the inside. The jewel, it seemed, was far more dangerous than what many anticipated, when one tried to make a wish. In turn the hellish object takes the wisher's life as its' payment.
But, it couldn't be left in the ashes of their fallen friends and foes, free to be taken by any random breathing body—the cycle would only continue otherwise.
Its sole guardian, however, was already dying.
It was Naraku's wish, for Kagome to follow him wherever he goes and went. Since he was dead, Kagome was fated to follow him in the afterlife as well. Kagome was almost much too strong for the jewel to successfully to grant the bastard's wish, but it found its' triumph.
All it needed was patience.
A mere mortal's wills couldn't last forever, after all.
Sango saw this—it took Kagome almost a year before she finally faltered and an unnamed disease summoned by the damned bauble slowly took her from the inside. Desperately Sango traveled all over the country she could travel to, with a horned beast she could barely tame, to find another way. A way to save the one most important and dear to her heart—Kagome, and to defeat the evil Shikon no Tama at last.
The slayer found nothing.
Early in her journey, she encountered a sage, who knew Miroku in his life. He offered a possible path, heavy-hearted. Sango still listened to him just the same, and followed his secondary advice to find alternative paths,
but, it was the only possibility she could think of. The path the sage suggested for Sango to take.
The antlered beast nickered and grounded its hoof in dirt, still with a slight upset at being someone's pet. Its' noises pulled Sango out of her thoughts, and saw the lonely cabin deep down in the purified wood in the parting clearing. Hopping down from the creature's back she tugged hard at its rein, forcing it to follow, and she tied it to an anchored iron. It had a spell, a spell that many demon slayers knew, casted on it, so no beast would ever escape its owner's grasp.
And she had a feeling her priestess would need the beast as her company soon.
Sango quietly amused on how long would it take for the beast to warm to Kagome—she allured many creatures to her warmth, and made them loyal only to her. She doubt it would be any different to the beast she captured. A feeble cough aroused her attention, and Sango rushed in, pushing the strawed curtain aside, "Lady Kagome!"
From the cot Kagome wheezed, though she managed a smile at the sight of her dearest friend, "Sango. You…" a heavy breath, "came back."
She looked horrible, her shoulders protruding from her loose kimono with stretched skin. Emaciated. Kagome was so pale she was practically blue, with foods on tray still untouched. Ever since she failed the battle with the Shikon, Kagome hadn't be able to keep her appetite. Now, she was a little better than a twig.
Sango wilted at the sight, "Lady Kagome, of course I'd come back." She hurried to her side and dropped to her knees, her hands automatically went to a bucket of water nearby. Water splashed when Sango dragged the rag out of it and squeezed out the excess, she winced again at the girl's face. Her dark eyes went to the innocuous-looking object that rested over the priestess' jutting collarbones. Patting on the wet rag on Kagome's forehead Sango glared at the cursed thing.
There weren't much she could say to Kagome.
The silence was heart-wrenching, though the priestess simply smiled and closed her eyes. Accepting of her coming death, and leaving Sango alone.
No, Sango refused to accept that.
This world needed her still.
No one needed an empty-hearted slayer.
Kagome peeled open her eyes, when she realized the empty weight that was supposed to nestled against her taut neck. Her mind slowed by the crippling illness it took her a moment to realize what exactly the strange absence was. Blearily she looked up to Sango, who was smiling through her tears, "Sango?"
She couldn't understand. She still couldn't, until her tired eyes drifted to the slayer's fisted hand, where a pink glow slipped through the tiny gaps of her blemished fingers. "Sango? What…" Kagome struggled to sit up, her back groaning at her attempt, "what did you do!?"
Sango laughed, her voice shaking with her grief, "I made a wish."
Strangely Kagome breathed easier and the pain in her back eased—neither of which she noticed, when fear slammed into her heart, "Sango!" She squalled, gagging on her tongue, "Why!?"
Giggling weakly Sango made to rest her head against the priestess' shoulder, "To take your place."
"Wh—I don't understand!" Kagome cried out, wanting so badly to reject Sango's touches, "You don't deserv—"
The slayer pulled back and connected her eyes with Kagome's, her smile dimming at her outburst, "You don't understand…" Sango drawled out, almost mocking the girl. She shook her head, "That's fine if you don't—but this world still needed you."
She sputtered, "No, no!" Before her very eyes, Sango's appearance worsened and her wrinkled fingers loosened the jewel. It bounced and rolled across the floor, eerily silent but ever watching.
"I only regret that I never get to tell you." She murmured, sighing at Kagome's choked sobs. With what strength Sango could muster, she picked up a hand and traced across the priestess' lips, "But, maybe it is better that I didn't. You don't need to carry my words as another regret."
But Kagome saw these very words in Sango's eyes.
Before the priestess could take another breath, the slayer collapsed into ashes and emptying from her flurrying clothes. Sango was no more. Kagome couldn't think.
She couldn't even lift a finger, her wide eyes stuck on the clothes Sango so proudly wore.
When her brain finally functioned, Kagome murmured, "This is my fault, isn't it?"