Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi owns Inu-Yasha, not me.

I won't delay any longer:

~ Chapter 5: The Legend ~

"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 as she took a step closer to meet him her knees gave out beneath her and her head crashed into his chest.

Miroku reached out and caught her before she fell to the ground. Cradling her in his arms he brought her down to the floor. "Sango? Daijoubu ka?"

Sango opened her eyes now fully aware of her surroundings. "Hai, daijoubu," she whispered letting out a sigh of relief upon realizing that he was real and she wasn't alone anymore. "Daijoubu…" she said as she buried her face in his chest and hugged him tightly.

Miroku paused not knowing quite how to react or what all had happened to her. Eventually he let his arms embrace her as well, and he nodded thinking, 'Daijobu. You found her. She's alive. Everything's going to be all right. She's safe now.' After a minute or two had passed he pulled her away from him and tilted her head to meet his gaze. "You ready to get out of here?"

"You know a way out?" she whispered not quite believing it.

"Hai," Miroku nodded helping her to her feet. She teetered and he grabbed her arms to steady her.

"I'm okay. I can walk," she said steadying herself.

"Okay," he replied not wanting to argue letting go of her arms, but as soon as she took one step she teetered again almost falling, he reached out to catch her once again. Lifting her into his arms he carried her to the entrance where he'd left his staff against the wall.

"I'm fine, Houshi-sama… I said…I can…wa…lk," she said as she leaned into him and on the last word her head hit his shoulder and she was asleep.

Thinking to himself, 'Houshi-sama. So we're back to that?' Not that he minded, it was, after all, the respectful thing to call him.

**~**

"Kameko-sama, if you love him so much why don't you just go to him?" Shippou asked the woman.

She smiled, "Because we are cursed," she said looking down at the fire-cat in her lap. Kirara mewed as Kameko scratched her head. "These caves are not normal caves. In fact, they are not really caves at all, but a growing void in the brothers' hearts. These caves are home to two brother youkai, Kin and Gin. Bat youkai can create a cave system parallel to the human world, and that is what these caves are." She let out a deep sigh.

"Why do they get to retreat to another dimension, when the rest of us have to put up with this one?" Shippou asked a bit peeved that bat youkai could do something like that.

Kameko smiled, "It's not that easy. This isn't another dimension; it's actually inside the youkai."

"Inside of them!!! How did we get inside of them?"

"Yes, like I said this is a void in their hearts, and it's all my fault," Kameko said nearly breaking down into tears.

"Huh? Wait, what?" Shippou said more confused than ever.

**~**

            "THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!" a voice reverberated throughout the small mountain cove. "They couldn't have just disappeared!"

            "We were right behind them, ne?" Kagome confirmed going over the day's events in her mind. "Kirara rounded the corner and then… poof… they were gone. Which means…"

            "They just disappeared?" Inu-Yasha offered exasperated beginning to pace along the entrance of yet another empty cave. "Kagome, it's not possible."

            "Why not? Didn't Shippou say that Sango vanished into thin air?"

            "Thin air?" Inu-Yasha stopped pacing at her comment.

            "It's an expression, Inu-Yasha. A common phrase from my time…" before Kagome could finish her explanation Inu-Yasha had swept her off her feet and was bounding back down the side of the mountain.

            "If the air were thin enough for them to pass right through then maybe this mountain is an illusion and that's why we couldn't see where they went."

            "But… but… how would Kirara know where to take them? I mean why can't we see where they went too?" Kagome interjected as she was bounced around during their decent.

            "Feh." Inu-Yasha commented, though he was actually giving Kagome's question some thought. Why couldn't they see it? Especially if Kirara could?

**~**

            "So you see I betrayed him by agreeing to marry the mortal man my father had chosen for me, thus causing the void. As time passed this void grew larger and Kin moved in."

            "Did you marry the human man?" Shippou asked.

            "No. My family dressed me for my ceremony. It had been a week since I'd last seen Gin but I couldn't get the image of his wounded expression out of my mind. On the way to the shrine in my new husband's village—where the ceremony was to take place—I realized just how much I loved Gin and how much I could not comply to my family's wishes."

            "Then what happened?" Shippou asked as Kirara purred.

            "I leapt from the processional carriage and ran all the way back to this mountain. I was supposed to meet him here one last time but failed to do so a few days prior. I entered the cave still dressed in my wedding kimono and searched for him. After about a week of hopeless searching, I collapsed in this cavern. When I awoke, there was a barrier keeping me here."

            "Why? Who put up the barrier?"

            Kameko didn't answer for a few minutes. "The barrier is here to keep me from finding Gin and to keep Gin from realizing that I'm looking for him. It's Kin's barrier, though partially Gin and I also had a hand in making it so strong." She paused trying to collect her thoughts. Shippou sat and waited with baited breath. "You see, this barrier is part of a simple curse. A curse that prevents soulmates from ever meeting."

            "Soulmates?" Shippou asked unfamiliar with the term.

            "When a pair of people are meant to be together because their souls are so closely bound to one another, they are called soulmates. It's as if their souls call out to one another, searching the world over until they meet."

            "Wow," was about all Shippou could think of to say in response.

            "That's actually how Kirara came upon this cave."

            "Huh? Kirara has a soulmate here?"

            "Not exactly. Your friend Sango is inside this cave, correct?"

            "Hai."

            "Kirara and Sango must be very close if she can see the cave entrance. Souls can be intertwined for more than one reason. For true love, for lasting friendship, and for fate."

            "Wait! Wait! So in order to see the cave you have to be a soulmate of someone inside?!" Shippou shrieked half out of eureka-just-dawning-on-him-thought and half out of pure excitement.

            "Yes…" Kameko trailed off unsure of the child's glee.

            Shippou turned to Kirara, "But Miroku could see the cave!"

**~**

            Miroku quietly crept through the cave tunnels, an exhausted Sango clinging to his back—a much easier and less draining way to carry her. He wasn't completely sure if he'd have to face Kin and Mikomi again on his way back out.

            He came to the mouth of the cavern he fought them in and strained to listen for sounds, movement, distant arguments, anything. The cave was quiet. Too quiet as if a trap lay in wait.

            "Mmnhm…" Sango groaned in his ear. That caused Miroku to jump and almost drop her.

            'Sheesh. Even unconscious you can make my heart skip a beat,' Miroku thought readjusting her on his back. "Are you trying to kill me?" Miroku whispered ever so lightly. He paused to listen again. Hearing nothing he peered out from around the corner.

            The cavern was exceptionally well lit, and in it he saw no trace of Mikomi or Kin. He almost expected to find her sitting on her mat rolling bandages, but not even the mat was left behind. Something wasn't right. The entire cave gave off a bad aura; Miroku couldn't pinpoint anything at this moment. He didn't know if he'd be walking into a trap or not, and worse getting an unconscious Sango involved.

            He looked beyond the cavern and saw the small, dark opening he needed to shoot for. The one with all the pointy formations. Miroku took a deep breath and headed out slowly. Once he was about halfway through the cavern he started to pick up his pace. The metal rings on his shakujyou jingled softy as it tapped the ground in his haste. Those soft jingles were amplified a hundred-fold throughout the large cavern and as if they were a dinner bell ringing a dozen pairs of red, beady eyes opened from the dark ceiling above.

            The bats swarmed down on them. Miroku attempted to swat them away with his staff but it was no use. He couldn't function as well with Sango on his back.

            As a bat swooped down to attack it got caught in Sango's hair. Her eyes shot open and she instinctively backhanded the bat into the wall. Disoriented she lashed out at anything and everything that moved—including Miroku.

            "Ow…ow…Sango stop," Miroku said dropping his shakujyou to the ground. The bats scattered off into the darkness and Sango sheepishly met the gaze of her victim. "You are trying to kill me," Miroku smiled seeing that she was awake.

            Sango let out a soft sigh, unsure how to respond to his comment. If she were trying to kill him he'd be dead, but somehow she didn't think that's what he meant. "Gomen ne. Daijobu ka?"

            "I'll be fine," Miroku assured her, "it's not like you haven't hit me before."

            Sango blushed. Here he was innocently trying to save her and she goes beating on him as if he just said that Kagome agreed to bear his child. Because, of course, the issue there wouldn't be that the person most unlikely to agree agreed but that he had the nerve to ask again.

            Miroku looked puzzled by Sango's expression. Just what was she thinking about anyway. "Sango?" he asked tentatively.

            "Nani?"

            "Do you think you can stop digging your fingers into my shoulders?"

            They had managed to make it across the cavern when Miroku noticed that Mikomi was standing in the entrance to the dark tunnel that they needed. "I told you, you're not leaving here alive," she said coldly not looking up from the ground.

            Sango peered over Miroku's shoulder. "Mikomi?" she asked.

            Miroku's eyes darted to Sango for a brief second, 'You know her?' he thought. Mikomi began to move and he turned his full attention back on her.

            "You," Mikomi began slowly looking up. Her eyes were stained red with tears. She looked as if she had been crying for days straight—though obviously she hadn't. "You killed my sons." She glowered right through Miroku piercing Sango's heart with an icy death glare.

            "No..n..not all of them," Sango stammered.

            "You bitch! You think that makes up for anything!" Mikomi lunged at Sango.

 Miroku threw his arms out to grab the crazed woman before she could hurt anyone. By doing so he'd lost his grip on Sango and she began to slide off of his back. Landing harshly on her leg, Sango collapsed to the ground. She didn't take her eyes off of Mikomi's but her hand hit something cold—something metal. She picked up Miroku's discarded staff to use as support.

            Mikomi saw Sango get to her feet and was getting more aggravated by the minute with her obstacle. Imitating one of Miroku's earlier moves, Mikomi placed her knee into him and as he collapsed in pain she dove for Sango.

**~**

            "Wait! Are you suggesting that your friends could be soulmates?" Kameko asked getting to her feet in the excitement.

            "Well…he's been searching for her real badly, and he could see the cave, and…" Shippou didn't really know how to respond.

            "Yes… I know that he's been searching for her. I've actually been the one trying to lead him to her. But I didn't actually think that my luck could be so much as to actually find a pair of soulmates in the city at the same time within the first hundred years of my imprisonment."

            "Huh? What? Why is it so important if they're soulmates?" Shippou asked.

            "Well I'm assuming that they haven't gone as far as to profess their love for one another yet. If that's true then…his heart would be unclouded with visions of romance…and…and he could focus his feelings on finding her. And being a houshi he knows how to follow his instincts so… so…"

            "SO… WHAT?" Shippou asked about to leap out of his fur.

            "So they might the legendary couple who will be able to break the spell."

**~**

            Recovering slightly from his dizzy spell Miroku managed to make his way to the girls. He arrived just in time to catch Sango and keep her from full out smacking her head on the ground. Mikomi hovered above them with the shakujyou in her hand. She lifted it above her head to bring it down on the insolent pair.

            "Okaa-san! Stop!" a voice thundered across the cavern.

            Mikomi turned to see Kikai and a girl standing in the middle of the cavern. "Okaa-san, stop. Don't kill her, she's a good person. She spared my life even after I crushed her knee."

            "Crushed her knee?" Miroku asked feeling anger well up within him.

            Sango put a hand on his shoulder knowing where his mind was going. "Daijoubu," she whispered to him. It was more of a warning to back off than a reassurance.

            "Kikai?" Mikomi said dropping the staff and running over to her oldest child.

            Sango nodded at him in appreciation and gestured for Miroku to grab his weapon and for them to get out of there as fast as they could.

**~**

            "So what exactly are we looking for?" Kagome asked watching Inu-Yasha sniff at all the rocks and feel his way along the base of the mountain.

            "A rip. Some place that looks like rock but isn't really there."

            "Uh-huh? And we're just magically going to happen upon it? And what then? Do we go charging in not knowing if we can ever get out or if that's even the right rip? I mean there could be more than one, right?"

            Inu-Yasha paused, his nose sniffing the air. He turned to look at her. "Why are you gettin' so worked up about this?"

            "I—I'm not getting worked up. It's…It's just that you're talking about going into another dimension."

            "And?"

            "And…I'm not …I'm not sure I can handle that."

            Inu-Yasha stood and walked over to her. "You can travel back in time through your well but you can't travel to another dimension through the mountain?"

            Kagome knew she was being unreasonable, but something about jumping into an unknown world on purpose didn't sit right with her. She had been tentative about going back into the well when she thought it would take her home, and then he had to come to bring her back. Okay true she'd willingly jumped into his right pupil to chase after Sesshoumaru and get the Tetsusaiga but… that was different. Somehow knowing that it was a. Inu-Yasha's eye and b. created by his father made it safe enough to risk entering. Like she said she knew she was being unreasonable, but that's just the way it was going to be.

            Inu-Yasha couldn't read her thoughts but he could read that expression clearly. Kagome didn't want to enter the mysterious cave and he wasn't going to force her. After all, it was just Miroku and the others; they had been fine without them in the beginning. She was all he really cared about anyway. Well Kagome and the Shikon no Tama. Okay…Kagome, the Shikon no Tama, and beating Naraku with it…for Kikyo. Right? Inu-Yasha sat down on a rock under a tree and gestured for her to join him.

            "Then we'll sit out here and wait for them to return."

            Kagome nodded and took a seat beside him.

**~**

            Miroku had placed Sango on his back once again and safely navigated the stalactite maze with the use of a torch. He paused briefly at the fork where he'd left Shippou and Kirara. Deciding not to go after them he turned the way to head out. Sango had fallen asleep yet again, only this time, he thought, she seemed lighter.

            Making his way to the cave entrance he could see that night had fallen outside. He didn't want to go so far that Shippou and Kirara wouldn't be able to find them. He gently laid Sango down at the back of the cave and went to make a fire.

            The fire blazed a few feet away, and for the first time he could see just exactly how battered she was. Her lovely silk kimono had been ripped, and her right knee protruded from the tear at an odd angle. Her leg was caked in dried blood, and she had many cuts and bruises on the parts of her body that could be seen. He didn't even want to think about the parts that couldn't. Tearing the hem of his robes he went into the cave a ways and found a decent sized puddle. Having soaked the material he returned and bandaged her knee and cleaned as many of the cuts and scrapes as he could. He was wiping blood from her cheek when her eyes fluttered open partway. She wrapped her hand around his and said, "Arigatou Houshi-sama."

            Miroku smiled, 'You don't have to thank me. I'm sorry I couldn't have found you sooner.'

            "Thank you for coming to find me…Houshi-sama…" she said trailing off again.

            'Okay that's it!' "Why do you call me Houshi-sama? I mean every single time you address me? At first I thought it was because you didn't know my name, and then because you didn't care to use it. But…"

            "So I don't forget…" she mumbled out.

            "Forget?"

            "…that you're not a normal person."

            "Sango, I'm a person the same as anyone else."

            She shook her head, "No you're not… you're… you're…" a pervert, a lecher, someone I have to smack for being… a…pervert. You're not someone I can allow myself to fall for you're… you're… "Houshi-sama."

            Miroku sighed. He wasn't going to get anywhere when she was delirious like this. He got up and walked over to the cave entrance. Was that Kagome and Inu-Yasha sitting out there? Couldn't they see the cave either? Miroku reached out towards them. He was going to say something when his hand hit a hard surface. Uh-oh. The wall was solid on this side, meaning that Shippou and Kirara had better be finding a way to get through the barrier.

            Miroku went to sit beside the fire and stare at it thinking about what Sango—who was sound asleep around the other side of the fire—had said and what she had almost done earlier. He hadn't gotten very far in his thoughts when he dozed off against the rock behind him.

**~**

            Morning rays hit Kagome's face and she began to stir. Moving away from the warmth of Inu-Yasha's shoulder Kagome sat up on the rock. Where were they again? Oh yeah outside of some creepy cave entrance. "Inu-Yasha?" Kagome began.

            "No one came out all night long."

            "That's not what I was going to ask. Are you hungry?"

**~**

            Inside the cave, Sango watched as Miroku crossed to sit on a large rock, looking out of the cave. She felt her pulse quicken as she remembered her first dream. Of course, that made her think of her hair. She touched it and to her surprise it was very smooth and straw-free. That's when she realized the soft thudding noise she had heard moments earlier was his hand falling from her hair. Forcing herself to stand up she made her way over to the rock. "Houshi-sama, how did you find me?" she asked from behind him.

            There was no response. Sango took a deep breath and edged her way around the rock to see that he was staring out into the sunlight with a very blank expression on his face.

            "Houshi-sama?" she tried again.

            …Silence….

            Sango sighed. "Miroku-sama?" she said taking a different approach, vaguely remembering his question.

            "…"

            "So you bandaged my knee and brushed my hair, what else did you do?"

            Nothing.

            She blinked a few times, "Miroku?" she said leaning against the rock so that she was looking directly at his face. "I'll bear your child," she said casually.

            There was a pause.

            "Hn?" Miroku blinked and turned to meet her gaze.

            "Daijoubu ka, Houshi-sama?" Sango smiled.

            "What did you say?" Miroku looked at her uncertain of what he had heard.

            " 'Daijoubu ka?' ?"

            "No before that."

            "How did you find me?"

            "Oh," he paused and looked out of the cave again. "Is that all you said?"

            Sango sighed, "Are you alright?"

            Miroku looked at her and slapped on a fake smile, "Hai, daijoubu."

            Sango stared into his blue eyes for a moment trying to read what she sensed behind them. "How did you find me?"

            Miroku let out a happy sigh at the change of subject, "Kirara showed me the cave."

            Sango nodded and stared waiting for more after all it was a huge cave.

            "And from there?" he paused and looked at his shakujyou, "was pure dumb luck."

            Sango sighed and smiled, 'You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that.'

            Miroku returned her smile and thought to himself, 'What was I supposed to say? I followed my heart, but I can't tell you that.'

            Sango stood at the base of the rock before Miroku. She reached her hand up to touch his wary face, "Thank you."

            "For what?"

            "For tracking me down, for bandaging my knee, for… right now," she said slowly removing her hand from his face. "Shall we get out of here?" Slowly she turned and headed for the opening a few feet away.

            "Uh…Sango," Miroku said reaching out to her.

            Before Sango could reach the exit, her knee buckled on her and she fell forward. Bracing herself expecting to crash to the ground, she was surprised when she was supported by something a foot in front of her.

            Miroku was off the rock and at her side before she sank to the ground.

            "We're in some kind of mystical cave. We can't just walk out."

            "No wonder why those people couldn't find their way back through the waterfall," she sighed.

            "Don't worry. I'm sure Shippou will have the answer when he and Kirara return," Miroku assured her holding out a hand to help her to her feet. Now that she was awake he wasn't going to force her to accept his help.

            Sango smiled inwardly and placed her hand in his. 'Is he being nice because I'm hurt?' she wondered.

            Miroku set her on the rock and positioned her leg so that it lay across the rock too. With Sango facing one side of the cave, Miroku climbed back up the rock and faced the opposite cave wall. Sango sighed, "It's almost midday. Where are they?"

            Kagome walked back over to her shaded rock. "Now wasn't that worth going back to get my bag?" she asked watching Inu-Yasha consume the last of her instant ramen.

            "Kagome-chan!" Sango said about to leap off the rock.

            "They can't hear us." Miroku said adjusting for her weight shift.

            Sango looked puzzled, "What do you mean they can't hear us?"

            "Or see us for that matter. To them this is a solid mountain."

            "Sou ka."

            They sat in silence for a while.

            "Hey, Inu-Yasha. Do you think Miroku found Sango yet?"

            "Feh. How should I know? That bouzu probably got sidetracked with a group of women and is still asking them all to bear his children."

            "Or I could be chucking small rocks at your head," Miroku said as he idly tossed loose stones at the cave entrance.

            "Houshi-sama, don't be so hard on him. Generally that is what you'd be doing."

            Miroku sat up sharply and leapt off the stone. Sango crashed into the rock behind her. "Ow."

            "Sorry. I had to get more rocks," Miroku said picking up stones.

            Sango sighed, "Gomen ne, I shouldn't have said that."

            After a moment and hearing a loud thud followed by swearing from outside, Miroku returned to his position behind Sango.

            "Bitch," Inu-Yasha said picking himself up.

            "Well don't be such an idiot." Kagome sighed, 'That was a little drastic, Kagome. It's not like he lied; Miroku does do those things. But… but not when Sango's life is on the line.'

            "I still owe him a beating for groping you the other day," Inu-Yasha pouted to himself.

            "Do you want me to say it again?" Kagome asked. 'You don't own me. Well…not really…'

            "You groped Kagome?"

            "By pure accident, I assure you."

            "How can you grope someone by accident?"

            "Mistaken identity."

            "Houshi-sama…" Sango glowered.

            Miroku took a deep breath and braced himself to be smacked, "I… I thought she was you."

            The smack did not come, and Sango didn't say anything. Truth be told she was blushing. Am I supposed to hit him for that or be flattered?

            "Well if you hadn't walked away right then… then none of this would have happened because no one would have grabbed you out of the alley while you were smacking me across the square."

            "No one grabbed me. I followed Gin…" Sango stopped when she felt Miroku tense behind her.

            "You followed him? Why would you just follow some strange guy you don't know?"

            "Well… actually…I followed the mask he was carrying."

            "Wait. Wait. Wait. Let me get this straight. You saw a guy in town and you followed him only for it to turn out that you followed a youkai into a trap and couldn't escape on your own. So I had to come and rescue you. Does this seem oddly familiar and yet backwards to you?"

            Sango sweatdropped. "You're never going to let me live this down, are you?"

            Miroku just laughed. "What a pair we make."

            "How's that?"

            "You're a taiji-ya who couldn't tell that you were following a youkai into a dark, mystical cave without your weapon. And I spend most of my time hitting on various women and yet when it comes down to it I can't tell the two I spend every waking hour with apart."

            Sango laughed and for it Miroku was glad. It had been a long time since he'd heard her laugh and he was worried that after this it would be a long time until he did again.

            When the laughter died down Miroku felt it was safe enough to ask. "Sango?"

            "Hm?"

            "Earlier… Did you say that you would bear my child?"

            Sango's expression changed and she thought of something else. Her future. Their future. She turned so that she was facing the entrance. Upon doing so Miroku lost his balance and fell into her lap. She grabbed his right hand and stared at it intently.

            "Nani?"

            "Do you know what those masks do?"

            Miroku stared at her. 'Uh…' "…no."

            "They let you see the future. Well a future, and in it…" she trailed off.

            "What?" he gently prompted.

            "You no longer were cursed with the kazaana."

            Miroku looked up at her. "You saw that?"

            She nodded. "Knowing that it's possible," she paused and moved her gaze from his hand to his face, "I'm certain that we'll win. We'll defeat him and you'll be free from this curse and…"

            "You'll be free from your pain," he interrupted her taking her face in his hands.

            Sango smiled, "And if all of that were to happen… then… I would…"

            Miroku knew what she was trying to say. She'd consider it. If he were actually a normal person who didn't have a void in his hand and wasn't constantly chasing everyone else she'd consider…

At that moment in time he wanted to kiss her. Just knowing that she cared enough to try and make him feel better when all he wanted to do was make her feel safe meant so much that…

            Holding her in his arms he moved upward towards her face. Sango didn't back away, somewhere deep down the course of the past week had told her she wanted this too. She closed her eyes and allowed him to pull her closer.

            "Taiji-ya-sama! Houshi-sama," an elderly voice echoed from behind them. Startled Sango pushed Miroku off the rock. He landed hard on the ground with a thud.

            "Ow. Now I know what Inu-Yasha feels like," he said getting to his feet.

            "You must hurry," the old woman continued having gotten their attention.

            "Hurry?" Sango and Miroku said in unison.

            "You must exit the cave before one day's time has passed since Houshi-sama has entered the caves."

            "You found me that quickly?" she said looking at him.

            "Why?" Miroku asked ignoring Sango's question. "How?"

            The old woman smiled, "In order to break the curse, the legend says that a couple must leave together within a days time."

            "Legend?" Sango asked.

            "Couple?" Miroku inquired over her question.

            "Legend… big long story. Couple… you two… a pair of humans. Now quickly would you pick her up and walk out of here?" Shippou said coming into the cave mouth, having run down the path as fast as his little legs would carry him. 

            "It can't be that easy," Miroku said.

            Sango sighed, "Well, we won't find out unless we try."

            Miroku looked at her, nodded, and lifted her off the rock. Not really having a lot of room and not trusting this theory completely, Miroku leaned up against the cave entrance behind him instead of turning to walk out. Feeling the solid wall behind his back he raised an eyebrow at Shippou and the old woman.

            "Uh-oh Kameko, what if they're not sou…" Shippou began.

            "Whoa…" Miroku said as he fell backwards Sango in his arms.

            Sango looked up from her place on the ground. "We're outside." She looked down at Miroku and repeated, "we're outside."

            Miroku looked up at her. "I can see that. Do you think you can get off my chest?"

            Sango smiled forcedly, "Do you think you can get your hand off my rear?"

            Miroku looked down and sure enough… He smiled. "You know for a minute or so there I thought I had lost my 'touch.'"

            "Houshi-sama…" Sango glowered putting her fist into the ground next to his head.

            He smiled removing his hand, "Hey I couldn't let Kagome be the last person I groped."

            Sango sighed. You are so hopeless there is no way that future could ever be true. Looking up she saw Kagome and Inu-Yasha staring at them. "Kagome-chan! Kagome-chan!" Sango called out attempting to lift herself from the ground. Falling up the hill, she turned back to look behind her. "Kirara," she said seeing the small fire-cat sitting on a rock inside the cave. Kirara bounded out into the light after her, transformed and picked her up. Sango looked over her shoulder as Kirara ascended the hill to take her to Kagome.  Inside the cave stood a pretty, young bride, she waved graciously at them and Sango not knowing what to do or who she was simply smiled back.  

            Miroku sat up staring at the fact that his feet disappeared into the side of a mountain. He blinked again. "Uh… Shippou," he said knowing that he could hear him, "make sure that the fire is out, and could you grab my shakujyou?"

            Before Miroku could finish his sentence, Shippou hit him in the head with his staff. "Didn't you hear me?" Shippou asked coming out after it.

            "Ow. No, I can't see into the cave anymore. Can you help me get my feet out?"

            "Just stand up, bouzu."

            Miroku turned to see Inu-Yasha standing beside him poking at the mountain.

            "Sango-chan, what happened to you?"

            "I followed a bat youkai into his cave because I thought the mask he had was covered in shikon shards. Miroku found me just after I'd exterminated four bat youkai and been taken down by one measly human boy. Then we came out that cave right there," Sango said pointing behind her.

            "Cave?" Kagome asked. Sango followed her gaze.

            "Weird. It should be right behind where Houshi-sama and Inu-Yasha are standing. I saw it just a minute ago."

            "Where'd the old woman go?" Miroku asked Shippou as they headed up the hill to Sango and Kagome.

            "Kameko? Oh… it was really cool when you two fell through the wall you broke the spell and she turned back into her young self even though she wasn't inside her sealed cavern. I think she went to find her soulmate, Gin."

            Sango smiled, "So she's Kameko?" See Gin you have to believe in the happiest possible future. She looked at Miroku… I know I will.

-------------------------------------The End----------------------------------------

Author's Notes: Wow… most of this had been sitting on my computer just waiting for me to post it, but I was so downhearted that Chapter 4 didn't get reviews that I lost all motivation to finish it. Well… last night I checked my page for the first time in a while and the two little reviews for Chapter 4 inspired me to stay up all night long writing, despite the fact that tomorrow I take my Medical College Admission Test. Wish me luck!

  I hope everyone enjoyed. That was the end unless I include a short prologue about Kameko and Gin's reunion. I might have gotten a little out of character there in the last chapter but just think of it this way: I've been under a lot of stress, the characters have just gone through a very odd ordeal… and so my real-life stress became their post-traumatic delusions. Oh yeah… that… and… uh the void… yeah, yeah the void!…it messes with your head… yeah right… that's the reason. 

Wow… I guess I should thank people: Usa-chan who's going to read this in a few hours and show me all my grammatical mistakes. Queen-chan who's going to take me to an anime convention the day after tomorrow (relief after big test)… oh yeah and for sparking some of these ideas whether she knows it or not. The two people whose brief reviews inspired my muses to return for one night.  Please, as you can tell I write better and faster when people review and tell me what they think.