Author's Notes:
Wow! It's been a while since I've visited this story on my computer. Gomen, Gomen to all of you faithful readers and reviewers.
I first must thank Queen for correcting a few of my naming mistakes. She knows what they were, and I know what they were, but for those of you who didn't realize I made a mistake… I'm not going to tell you what they were J .
I also must thank Miss Usagi as always for reading what I write BEFORE I post it, and for allowing me to bounce ideas off of her.
Each of my complex stories contains a brilliant battle sequence. That would be within this chapter which has made it substantially longer than the others. I have to post this WARNING before I allow anyone to continue. If you have a heart condition, are pregnant, get sick at the faintest sight of blood, have headaches or seizures caused by strobe lights, or are just plain squeamish do not ride this ride! … Er… I mean… This chapter contains violence and swearing that may not be suited for younger readers. I tried not to make it too gory, I promise.
Rumiko Takahashi owns Inu-Yasha and all the wonderful characters that go with it. I own this story and the cave. Yeah, I'll claim ownership to "the void." That's about all I own so if you sue me I'll trap you in there and I won't let you read the part that tells how to get out. ;-p Now onto the fourth installment of my first Inu-Yasha fanfiction.
~ Third Interlude ~
Sango stirred in her sleep. Finally awaking fully to reality, she snapped herself awake and sat with a jolt. She heard a soft thud behind her as she did so. She turned over her left shoulder to see Miroku sound asleep by her side.
'Eeee… I was sleeping against that?' Her heart jumped in her chest.
Quickly she swiveled her body around so that her back was to his feet and she was facing him. Still sitting rather close to his body her knees bushed against his fallen arm. Sango sighed as she watched him sleep. 'Miroku-sama is so cute when he sleeps like that… he looks like a little boy,' she smiled thinking to herself. 'Iie, what am I thinking! Houshi-sama is nothing but a lecher there's no way my future could include someone like him. I mean just look at him even in his sleep his hands are…' she looked down at his left hand resting gently on his chest and his right just out of reach of her wounded knee. "…not touching me at all?" she said out loud in quieting amazement. "Sometimes you really amaze me, Houshi-sama," she whispered taking a chance and brushing his bangs out of his eyes.
Miroku inhaled sharply awaking abruptly to her touch. He looked up and saw a hand above his head. It slowly became clearer as the fuzziness of sleep drifted from his vision. Following the hand back to its owner, he sat up with a partially worried look on his face. "Sango-san, daijoubu ka?"
She smiled a contented smile and nodded lightly once, "Hai, daijoubu."
A wave of relief spread across his face and he nodded, getting to his feet. "Ahem. Well then we best find away out of this cave."
Sango nodded and clambered to get to her feet but stopped shortly as she winced in pain. Her hand gripped her right knee for support. She tried not to let on that she was in any pain at all and slowly forced her leg out straight. Looking through the tear in her kimono she noticed that her knee had been bandaged with deep blue cloth.
~ Chapter 4: The Cave ~
Sango climbed over the rocks and into an untraveled section of cave. She could hear that a man was still behind her. As she rounded a corner she was stunned by such a beautiful sight.
Masks. Varying in shape, size and color, nearly 200 masks clung to the cavern walls around her. Basking in a pale blue light, they all sparkled. In the moment she was paused, the man caught up to her. The sound of his arrival snapped her out of her trance.
"You've run out of places to go, bitch." The tall burly man snarled as he entered the cavern. He was only around six feet tall the entire time he was chasing her through the cave tunnels, but now it seemed as if he were growing.
Sango had quickly rushed to the wall. The masks lined the walls starting at about ten feet from the floor and up. Despite the fact that they shown in brilliant blue light, the area beneath them was still as dark as an unlit cave. Sango quietly crept around the edge of the cavern, trying to assess her situation and her surroundings. Then it happened.
Her hand brushed along something that wasn't rock. She turned to see what it was and found herself looking at a rack of various weapons. She carefully removed one from the wall. It was a long lightweight spear but when she held it she noticed that the tip was made from the scapula of a rather large youkai. 'A youkai weapon?' she thought. She turned to see that he was adjusting to the darkness and could see her rather well. Taking the offense she stepped away from the wall, glared at her opponent, and said, "Koi…" and then she felt it and her tone hardened, "…youkai."
Almost as soon as she said this he snarled and he transformed. Pig snout and giant, thin ears formed on his head. He instantly became covered in thick, black fur and then he did something. He disappeared before her eyes, only she knew he wasn't gone because she could still see his red eyes glaring at her. It would be hard to follow him in the dark, but Sango was a professional. She locked on to his glowing red eyes and listened to his footfalls. 'Now,' she thought and then took a running leap using the spear as a pole vault she propelled herself over a large rock and her feet crashed into his chest.
"Yosh!" she said to herself as she lifted the spear to take off his head.
"I don't think so, bitch." He said as he reached his arm out and dug his claws into her left leg. The youkai flung her up towards the high ceiling. Sango spun around just in time to see that she was about to be impaled on a stalactite. Placing the spear before her she smacked it into the side of the rock and flipped out of harm's way. When she landed, the youkai was waiting for her. Sango sliced at him with the point of her spear, tearing into his shoulder. He recoiled and instantly he knew that this weapon was dangerous. Swearing loudly, he grabbed her by the wrist and tore the spear from her arms with his other hand. He flung it upward and Sango watched as it imbedded itself in the high cave ceiling. He then lashed out and slashed her left shoulder with a sharp claw where his thumb had been.
"Oi! Shiribachi, Ma said, 'bring her back alive,'" came a voice from the entranceway.
The beast holding her flung her hard against the side of the cavern. "That whore ain't my mother and you'd do well to remember that!" he spat back.
Sango watched as the two apparently half-siblings bickered. She had learned not to get involved with Inu-Yasha's brotherly disputes but this time was quite different. She didn't really care if either of them survived. Standing quietly she looked at the rack of weapons conveniently next to her and chose a pair of large, black boomerang shaped weapons off the wall. Carved from what looked like tail spikes of a large dragon, she held the weapons in her hand, knowing exactly how to throw them. She let one fly and waited a brief but calculated moment before releasing the second.
The sharp, black object soared through the air towards Shiribachi, whose back was to her, and his brother, who was now just feet away from him. The brother suddenly stopped as something thick and warm spurted out from his brother's neck, hitting the shorter brother in the face. He blinked once then twice, "blood?" he said just before his brother's now silent form lost its head. The 'rang shot back towards him. Ducking he watched as it severed through Shiribachi's chest before he could drop to the ground. Standing back up looking at his brother's deceased form he noticed a moment too late another heading straight for his head. In a moment, both brothers were dead and Sango—not stupid enough to try and catch these deadly weapons—had moved to the side watching them crash into the cave wall.
**~**
Kagome sighed. No one seemed to have the answers they were looking for. She walked out of the last shop in the city only be greeted by Inu-Yasha landing directly in her path.
"Find anything?"
"No," she sighed. "What about you guys?" she asked as Shippou now joined them.
"Uh-uh," the chibi-kitsune shook his head. "And I lost Miroku somewhere."
Kagome looked to Inu-Yasha. He sighed and took a few quick sniffs of the air and led them in Miroku's direction.
Miroku was still sitting on a rock, legs crossed, some might think he was deep in thought or in a trance-like state, but Kirara knew better. The houshi was sleeping. She pawed at his robes for the twentieth time in the past few days, but this time when she didn't get a response from him she quietly sat back and looked up at him with a curious face. Kirara sighed and then transformed into her large youkai form. She pawed at him one more time before pouncing on him knocking him off the rock.
"Wha—Whoa!" he said as his head hit the ground and his eyes opened to find an irritated cat-demon baring down on him. Kirara didn't wait for anything she picked him up by the collar with her mouth flung him into the air and as soon as he had landed on her back took off again. "I guess you wanted me to follow you," Miroku said clinging to the sprinting youkai's back.
Kirara headed off, running right by Inu-Yasha, Kagome and Shippou. Shippou grabbed a hold of one of Kirara's tails when she flew past them. Instantly Inu-Yasha scooped Kagome up and headed after them.
Running all out, Kirara easily left Inu-Yasha, who didn't seem to be worried about falling from her sight, behind her. She headed straight for a mountainous area. Running through various crevices and jumping over huge chasms Kirara stopped just before a cave. Miroku slid off her back and Shippou dropped from her tail.
"You want me to go in there? Is Sango in there?" Miroku asked looking back at Kirara. She nudged him towards the entrance and he nodded heading towards the cave.
Shippou called out, "Go in where?"
Miroku stopped shortly, "Don't you see it?"
"See what?" Shippou looked bewildered.
"The cave."
"Inu-Yasha, we're loosing them!" Kagome called out.
"We are not. I can still smell exactly where they went," he replied stubbornly.
"Mou, I know you can run faster than this."
"Relax, will ya they're just around this rock." He turned to prove it to her and stopped shortly. No one was there and neither were their scents.
"What? Why did you stop?"
"They're gone."
"What?"
"They were here but they're not now."
"Can't you smell which way they went?"
"No, I mean this is where they stopped. They vanished."
They walked through the cave that Shippou had reluctantly followed Kirara and Miroku into after he watched them walk through what looked like solid stone to him. After a few minutes and about ten small curves of the cave they came to a widening. There were three tunnels to choose from.
"Should we split up?" Miroku asked.
"Wah! I'm not going down one of these alone!" Shippou whined.
"Okay you go with Kirara and I'll go alone."
Kirara nodded and shrunk back to her smaller self before scampering down the left-hand tunnel. Shippou followed. That left the center and the far right for Miroku to choose between. He stood evenly spaced between them and held his staff at arm's length.
'Buddha please lead me in the right direction.'
The staff fell pointing left (or to the center system). Miroku bent down to pick it up when a sensation shot through him. He looked long and hard in the direction the staff indicated and then remembered the old woman's words, 'Perhaps you do not know what you seek, or maybe you are just too stupid to listen to your heart.' "I am not too stupid," he said out loud clenching his fist before heading down the far right path instead.
**~**
Sango slowly crept over to the two limp bodies recognizing them as the tall man who had first approached her and the man she had flung into a wall. She sighed and was about to head back when something grabbed her from behind.
She looked down at the thin leathery arms. They looked almost as if there were three bone-thick arms connected by thin, flat sections of skin were folded up together.
"Happa!" he screamed at her. "You killed Happa! My baby brother, how dare you! I, Rasuma, shall have revenge for my brother!"
Sango gritted her teeth, his voice pounding in her ears was shrill and echoed off of the walls. When he stopped screaming, she kicked her feet back into him. As he doubled over, she flung him over her shoulders into a large boulder and ran to the opposite side of the cavern where another, identical rack of weapons was hanging. 'Is this some kind of tournament place?' she thought removing a pair of kama, wooden handles with blades made from the spine ridges of a small youkai protruding from a side.
He watched her as he got to his feet and then charged at her with his arms arced above his head. "SUKE!!!!!!"
Sango ran towards him and dropped quickly sliding beneath him hooking the kamas into his shoulders she dragged them down the length of his body as he flew over her. Rasuma didn't seem to notice that he was bleeding and the pain of the attack wasn't registering in his mind either. Sango threw one of the kamas and it was imbedded in his chest but he kept barreling down at her. 'What the--? What is this guy?'
Sango backed up a little as he bounded towards her gushing blood and still going on strong. Rasuma swung at her and she fell backward to avoid him and all his thin arms. Rasuma grabbed her by her ankle and lifted her into the air. Sango's kimono began to slide up beyond her knees. "HENTAI!!!!" She screamed and lashed out at him with her remaining kama. The pain of her shrieking hurt his rather large ears. He flattened them to his head as she sliced forward with the kama. It split right through his head while he was distracted and at first she thought that it had no effect. After a few seconds he started to waver and eventually crashed down on top of her. "Yuck," she said as she pushed him off of her. Before she could completely free herself, the remaining pair of youkai entered the cavern.
"Nisai, look at this," the shorter of the two said leaning down to look at his fallen brothers.
"Ch—Even Shiribachi," he snarled. "Where is that wench hiding?"
"I don't know Aniki-sama," the other said cringing in fear at his response.
"Well Kikai-chan, you better find her or I'll be rougher than usual."
Kikai nodded and began to peer into the darkness.
Sango was only about fifteen feet to their left and nearly twenty feet from the wall. She still had a pretty good grip on one of the kamas but the other was buried beneath Rasuma. She knew she would need more, if not better, weapons to take on two at once. Especially two who currently looked human, meaning they were more likely taiyoukai. The skinny tall one called Nisai had been holding the torch earlier, and the other was the one who pretended to be kind to get her to take his hand. She quietly touched the ground behind her and picked up a small rock. They were looking away and she threw it in the opposite direction of where she was.
When it hit, the "nice" one had turned in the direction of the noise. BUT Nisai had turned in her direction as soon as she had released the rock into the air. 'Uh-oh,' Sango thought scrambling to her feet kama in her hand.
Nisai smirked and charged for her. Sango didn't really want to deal with hand to hand combat at the moment so she threw the kama at him and ran full out towards the wall. Nisai leapt in the air avoiding the kama and let out a piercing cry as he transformed into his true youkai form. Landing on a large rock he crouched down in a ball. When he lifted his head to gaze upon his prey with his blood colored eyes, Sango noticed that his body was now shorter and completely furcovered. His legs were short but had massive claws attached to them. His arms were similar to Rasuma's only he had them extended drapping over the rock he was on.
'Wings? Bat wings!' Sango thought as she watched him lift his head from beneath them. His head was that of a giant vampire bat only his incisors extended beyond his mouth like sabers. Sango didn't even have a chance to reach the wall as he leapt forward smashing the rack—the weapons went flying into the air—and picking her up by digging his clawed feet into her shoulder. "WAH!" Sango screamed as her feet left the ground. She kicked out trying to catch one of the battered weapons as they fell to the ground. She successfully caught a bo with her bare feet and her hands moved from gripping his feet to meeting hers to take the stick in her hand.
Nisai's intent was to drop her from the top of the cavern. As they flew between stalactites Sango saw her chance. She stuck out the bo and as he flew between two parallel stalactites it shredded the ends. He looked down at her to see what had slowed his flight, and she stabbed him in the neck with the now pointed wood. He winced slightly as this caused him to smack into an oncoming stalactite. Sango grabbed hold of the stalactite as he dropped her quite fed up with her. Nisai dove and circled around to come get her with his teeth. Sango looked around her and then she saw it. Only five feet away, the spear Shiribachi had imbedded in the cavern ceiling hung. Sango timed his ascent perfectly and then flinging herself away from the stalactite, she grabbed the spear and he swerved to meet her. Pulling the spear from the rock, she backflipped, avoiding his bite but shoving the spear through his head and down into his chest. Nisai sputtered blood as he fell to the ground. Sango landed on top of him, thankfully. Pulling herself up, she held on to the spear and ripped it from his dying form. "One more to go," she breathed darkly turning to face him.
The remaining being stared in shock at the body lying on the ground. "You… You killed him," he said with an odd sort of tone to his voice. He dropped to his knees just feet before her and whispered, "Thank you."
Sango smirked. She wasn't going to fall for this kindness act again. She slowly walked forward with the spear raised before her. Kikai remained bowed down and just before Sango plunged the spear into the back of his neck she stopped, "ningen?" she whispered under her breath.
Kikai looked up, "even so I can't disappoint mother," and with these words he took two large rocks and smashed her right knee between them.
Sango screamed as pain shot through her entire body. He had just crushed her knee and the bones in it. Sango fell to the ground and Kikai approached her grinning seedily. She pushed herself back as best as she could but wasn't getting very far. He was above her now and then something shot out across his face.
'Blue light?' Sango thought as he stopped frozen in front of her. "Where…" she said looking around.
**~**
"Oi Kagome! Over here I think I foun… Feh. Nevermind it's just a wild fox."
Kagome slumped against a rock. "We're never going to find them are we?"
"Feh. They couldn't have gone too far…" he said sniffing the ground and heading for the side of the mountain. Right in front of him was the cave that only Miroku—and probably Kirara—could see. As he sniffed the ground he inched closer and closer to the rock.
"Inu-Yasha, look!" Kagome said pointing to a cave up the side of another rock formation, "what if Kirara flew them up there?"
"Heh," Inu-Yasha smirked, "Hidin' from me?" He stood and picked up Kagome before jumping up the side of the opposite mountain from where they had disappeared.
**~**
Miroku's search wasn't going much better than theirs was, or so he thought. Almost as soon as he entered the far right tunnel, he was plunged into utter darkness. He didn't have anything to follow and he didn't have a light. 'Where's Kagome and her metal torch now?' he thought as he slowly crept along using his staff like a blind person would a cane. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. THUD! Despite his efforts Miroku had run into something large and hard. He shook his head and reached out into the darkness directly in front of him. "A stalactite?" he said sweeping his staff under it, hence the reason he didn't "see" it coming. Holding his staff parallel to the cave floor at chest height he made his way through the maze hitting each one before going around it. When he got to the end of the maze, he could see a small flicker of light off to the right side of the tunnel.
It was a torch.
In the center of the open cavern he saw a beautiful woman sitting on a bed of straw. She had long black hair, wore a simple blue kimono and she sat with her feet under her, casually winding strips of white material into a roll. "Come in. Come in," she said without lifting her eyes from her work.
"How'd you…?"
"Know you were there?" she said while smiling darkly. "I am the original occupant of this mystical void, I know all and see all that happens with in it. My name is Mikomi."
"The original occupant. You must be very old."
"Quite. Not that it matters so long as I'm within this void. No time moves in here, and yet…" she trailed off.
"Time is running out for you," said a dark voice from behind Miroku.
He turned quickly and just in time to get his weapon between him and the tall man who wielded a sword down upon him. Miroku jumped back and Mikomi reached out and grabbed his legs. "You will not be permitted to go to her," she sneered, releasing the wrappings in her hands. They came to life and began twining their way up his legs binding them together. "Kin-sama, what shall we do with him?"
"You leave that to me." The man lunged forward to take Miroku's head off but Miroku parried, though nearly loosing his balance, and knocked the sword out of Kin's hands. Miroku dove for the sword and Kin began laughing. It started out low and soft and grew into a maniacal cackle. "Do you really think I need that piece of metal to defeat something as insignificant as a human?" He began walking towards Miroku.
Mikomi gritted her teeth at his words.
Miroku, meanwhile, had reached the sword and began to slice through his bindings. He stood to take on Kin as he approached. Just feet before the two men met, Kin was tackled to the ground from the side. "Insignificant my ass! I gave the best years of my life to you and this is all you think of me and my kind?"
Kin stood and threw her against a pillar of rock. "Keh. Those were the best years of your life? I've given you immortality and all you do is whine!"
"I've given you two sons!"
"Yes, two worthless hanyous, creatures that age recklessly even in my little parallel dimension. I let your whelp live didn't I?"
Miroku watched in amazement as the taiyoukai and the human woman argued as if their marriage had just crumbled before his eyes. 'Weird,' he thought relaxing his stance as he began to inch away towards the tunnel leading out of the cavern.
"Keh. You didn't think I'd let you get away so easily did you?" Kin growled as he lashed out and knocked the sword from Miroku's laxed grip. He reached forward with his hand and grabbed Miroku around the neck lifting him into the air. Miroku stared down into his golden eyes and then let his eyes dart towards the tunnel he was certain Sango had gone down. "Don't fret about your little whore. My boys will kill her and desecrate her body—or possibly the other way around—but either way you'll soon be joining her." On these words, Miroku's eyes narrowed and fighting as dirty as he knew how, he kicked with full force, placing his well-traveled feet into the groin of this overconfident youkai. Kin's golden eyes went wide and flickered red for a moment before he dropped Miroku and sank to the ground. Miroku took the top end of his staff and smacked Kin over the head a few times before taking off at full speed down the corridor.
**~**
The blue light faded from her eyes but still Kikai stood paralyzed before her. "You truly are a noble human, aren't you taiji-ya?"
"You! You're the one I followed here, aren't you?"
"That I am," the warm voice of a tall man drifted down to her. "I'm afraid my nephews are a bit overzealous and stupid when it comes to their mother's wishes," he said stepping between her and Kikai. Snapping his fingers Kikai awakened. "Go. Tell your mother you failed and that all of my brother's children have been slain by one small girl."
Kikai looked at the man before him and stared in horror. "Oji? I thought you were dead?"
"I am," the man said before turning away and helping Sango to her feet. Trembling, Kikai left the room in a hurry.
"Who? Who are you?" Sango asked, allowing him to help her up. She had to lean on him to keep herself from crashing back to the ground.
"My name is Gin and this is my home." He gestured to the cavern around him. "You are truly the first woman to follow me here."
"That's not what Mikomi said," Sango interjected, pushing herself upright.
"Ah…Mikomi. I'm not sure if that woman could tell the truth if she tried. Either way, I'm sure she was referring to my brother Kin and his exploits. Luring young maidens here and letting his sons terrorize them seems to give him great pleasure."
"So why am I here?"
"Well…" Gin said looking at the carnage behind him, "if for no other reason then to save the lives of hundreds of other innocent girls."
Sango sighed, that was not the answer she was hoping to hear.
Fortunately Gin continued. "You are here because of this…" he said waving his hand and a mask floated gently from the wall. "This mask belonged to Kameko, the woman I loved. Every week, I walk into the shop her family owns and buy the same mask. It is said that the one who can see me and the mask is the one who can break the curse."
"Curse?"
Gin didn't answer her question. Instead, he turned away allowing her to stand on her own. "Each of these masks holds a special gift. This series was Kameko's favorite," he gestured at the mask and seven more like it on the wall each varying only in color of six stones that made up the eyebrows of the mask. "They are future telling masks. When you look into all eight and see the same future then you know that that is your fate. Of course it's not always a good thing to know that your fate is sealed." He smiled. "When I look into these, seven of them show me the same lonely future of me and these masks, but one—this one in fact—shows me something different. A hopeful future with the woman I love."
"If each of these masks shows the future then why wouldn't they all be the same all the time?"
"They each show a possible future, and usually a different future based on the mask. The red one for example will show the user the future that they are most passionate about. The dark blue one shows the future that your heart is most willing to accept at that moment. The pale blue the future your brain is most willing to accept, the black the future that will bring you the most pain, the yellow the one that'll bring you the most joy, the green the most impossible future, the purple the most likely and then the pink. Kameko always said that the pink masked showed the most honest future."
"Does that mean that this future is the one that will come true?"
"No." He smiled, "None of these masks can truly predict what the course of your life will be. Because the path of your life changes everyday, but if you were to strictly stay to the path you are currently on, these would be your possible futures. It's when all the possible futures are the same that you realize your path is unchanging which in the past has meant one of two things."
"You're cursed for eternity or you're going to die," Sango said.
"Exactly." Gin smiled. "Would you like to see what the mask you followed here has to tell you?"
Sango paused for a moment considering. He didn't attempt to sway her one way or another; he just offered the mask up for her to decide. Trusting this kind-hearted youkai, she nodded.
"All you need to do is look into the eyes of the mask when the crystals begin to glow don't look away for they will project your future into your mind's eye."
Sango nodded in understanding and Gin held the mask out for her to look into. In a matter of seconds, pink light streamed out from the mask and into Sango's eyes. Any unsteadiness she'd been feeling vanished as the vision flooded her mind. Gin then released the mask and it remained floating in the air about four to five feet away from her. He then walked away, feeling that using the masks is a personal issue and very private.
**~**
Miroku rounded a corner, passing a family sitting around a barrel of fire. The girl stood up to call out to him and then she stopped and smiled, "See father it's not so bad. She's not truly alone." A short while later, another man passed the fire coming from the opposite direction and the girl stopped him convincing him to stay with her and her parents for a while.
Passing through a dark section of cave, Miroku came to a dead end. 'K'so!' he thought before turning to go back. Just then a draft of wind blew on him from the left side of the cave and he felt his way along the edge to find that the tunnel didn't end, it curved. As he walked along, he kicked something on the ground. He bent down to pick it up. In his hand he held a geta with a broken front spoke. Its mate was also at his feet. Picking them up he continued down the path.
**~**
Shippou and Kirara bounded along down their chosen path until they reached the end. Passing through a golden mist, they came upon a young woman sitting on the floor. Her dark hair was done up in two identical buns lined with golden cords. She wore a beautiful red bridal kimono and the remnants of her white face paint were smeared on the edges of her sleeves.
"I've been waiting for you to return, kitty." She smiled genuinely.
Shippou stepped forward, "Her name is Kirara."
"I'm Kameko, and you are?"
**~**
It was a beautiful sunny day. Sango sat on the top of a hill with a checkered blanket beneath her. There were three baskets of food in the center of the blanket and two young boys sat on either side of her. One appeared to be five or six and the other three. The youngest was curled up beside her with his head in her lap and Sango found herself telling a story to these two boys.
"Deep in the darkness, the young princess found a kind family. A girl and her parents, they welcomed the hime and told her the tale of their journey to that place."
"Is this the same girl that falls in love with the evil woman's son?" the older boy asked.
Sango stopped and looked at him, "You know this story too well Juro perhaps you should tell it."
"Nah. I like it better when you do, okaa-san."
"Alright well then stop interrupting me," Sango reached down and tickled her son, smiling at him.
"Okay, okay. I won't interrupt."
"Then what happened, mama?" the younger boy looked up at her.
"Well, the young princess thanked the nice family and went on her way exploring the cave. She came upon a wonderful cavern that had been hidden from view for many years. Inside the cavern was a kind old youkai and a myriad of masks."
"What's myriad?" the young boy asked.
"Urg, you ask that every time she tells the story. A lot, Tabito it means a whole lot."
"Oh," he said, looking at his brother. "Like the stars right?" he turned his attention back to him mom.
"Right like the stars," Sango said pressing a finger to his nose, "well then…"
"Ah! Inu-Yasha give that back!" Kagome screamed in the distance.
Sango sighed and smiled as she lost her sons' attention. "Why don't you go see what Inu-Yasha and Kagome are up to now?" she said giving them permission to get up and run after the sound. Sango stood watching them go.
Over the hill she could see Inu-Yasha running with a round plastic disk in his mouth. Kagome was chasing after him yelling at him to give it back. "You're supposed to throw the Frisbee back once you catch it!" she called out. "Heel! Stay! Inu-Yasha don't make me say it!"
Sango laughed and watched as her sons began to help Kagome in the chase. A pair of smooth hands covered her eyes and she smiled upon hearing a voice behind her say, "You shouldn't watch such foul scenes."
"Why, you think they might give me ideas?" she laughed, pulling the hands away from her face and leaning back into the person.
"Doesn't she know by now that she'll never completely remove the dog from him?"
"Miroku, don't say such things. After all, I got the lecher out of you," she smiled turning around to face him.
"Oh?" he said casually moving his hand to her rear while pulling her closer.
"Mmhm…" she smiled leaning into kiss him, "because that doesn't count when you're holding your wife in a loving embrace."
Moving his hand back up to the small of her back he returned her kiss.
"Sango. Sango," Miroku said rushing to her side.
"You'll never wake her that way," a voice called out from the shadows.
Miroku spun around, "YOU!"
"Have we met?" Gin stepped forward.
Miroku looked at him. His silver eyes twinkled in the blue light. "I…I guess not."
"Sometimes those visions last for hours and I'm not certain you have hours to waste here," the youkai told him before disappearing into the shadows again.
Miroku nodded turning back to Sango. "Sango," he called out shaking her, "Sango, wake up."
She didn't move. She didn't respond. Sango continued to stare into the mask a smile forming on her face.
"Sango!" Miroku said shaking her a little more harshly. He moved to stand in front of her and a thought rang through his head, 'the only way to wake the sleeping beauty was…' Miroku gulped and taking a deep breath he leaned in, "Just don't hit me, okay?" he whispered.
Sango's eyes fluttered open, "Miroku," she said smiling.
The sound of his name on her lips caused him to freeze and look at her oddly.
Sango on the other hand was leaning in ever so slightly to resume where her vision had left off. Miroku didn't know what to do so he didn't move but shut his eyes, preparing for her to kiss him. Sango leaned in her lips just inches, no centimeters, from his and…
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AN: I truly am evil, I know. Don't worry I won't make you wait too much longer to see how it all turns out, I promise.