Complete the Circle
Chapter Fifteen: Youkai Exterminators
Kagome couldn't wait for school to be over. Shippou had explained what had happened to Inuyasha and the others to Kagome, and specifically what had happened to Miroku after Sango had died to Sango. It had been a sad, not to say strange, experience. Sango had seemed so depressed last night that Kagome had suggested that they look for a weapon suitable for a youkai exterminator tomorrow, so they were both going weapon hunting this afternoon. Kagome had decided to put off her studying in order to try and cheer Sango up, but she needn't have bothered. This morning, right before the tardy bell rang, Miroku had "tripped" again and somehow landed his hand on Sango's butt, earning him a slap from Sango. Her friend had definitely seemed to feel better after that. It was nice to know that a friend was still alive, even if they didn't remember you.
Although Kagome tried to understand what on earth the math teacher was trying to say, neither she, nor Sango really understood what the teacher was talking about. The word problems in the math book seemed to blur into one giant difficult problem, and by the end of math class, Kagome's head was spinning. She finally gave up and asked Miroku if he understood the problems in the textbook, for he had had a smug expression throughout the entire lesson, but he hadn't understood what the teacher was saying, either. When asked why he looked so calm, he had simply remarked that he had a very good friend that just happened to excel in math, and he was going to ask him to tutor him this weekend. Kagome was going to ask Miroku if his friend would tutor her and Sango also, but Sango pulled her away.
"Don't ask him for help," Sango whispered, "His 'good' friend is probably just like him: perverted. If you ask his friend for tutoring, who knows what else he might give you."
"Sango-chan!" Kagome said in shock. "I'm sure Miroku-sam—I mean, Miroku's friend isn't like that." She paused for a moment, thinking. "Then again, he might," she mumbled.
Finally, school was over. Kagome followed Sango to her house for Sango had said that she had to bring her money, just in case they found something worth buying. Kagome doubted that Sango had enough money to even buy a sword, but kept silent. She didn't want to dash her friend's hopes away.
"Konnichiwa, Yamata-san," Kagome said to Sango's mother.
"Oh! Kagome. Sango has told me many nice things about you. Please come on inside," Sango's mother said, inviting Kagome in. She looked around the house. The house was covered with pictures of the entire family, along with weird little gizmos lying about.
"Sango, what are you looking for?" Sango's mother asked, trying to clear the sofa of boxes to let Kagome sit in.
"Mama, do you know where I put my money bag?" Sango shouted, causing lots of boxes to crash in her room.
"Why do you want your money all of a sudden?" her mother asked. "Are you trying to waste your allowance on something stupid again?"
"Mama!" Sango huffed, irritated that her mother had such little confidence in her dealings with money.
"Well, then why do you need your money?"
"It's my money," Sango grumbled. Kagome finally spoke up.
"Gomen nasai, Yamata-san," Kagome apologized to Sango's mother, "It's my fault. It's just that I told her that she should buy some sort of weapon for fun because my mom bought me bow and arrows for archery club and I thought that Sango-chan should buy a katana for, umm, kendo club." Kagome smiled, hoping that Mrs. Yamata believed her.
"Well if you wanted a weapon, why didn't you just say so?" Mrs. Yamata questioned her daughter. "Your father has a whole bunch of old weapons just bursting to be used." Kagome looked at Sango with surprise, but Sango just shrugged, equally surprised that her family had any weapons at all.
"I know you girls won't believe this, but these weapons I'm about to show you used to be used to slay youkai," Mrs. Yamata said, carrying a very large box and putting it on the living room table. She used a small knife and cut the tape on the top open. "Your father claims that his ancestors used to live in this village that exterminated youkai until the village was destroyed," Mrs. Yamata said, moving some things around in the box. Kagome saw Sango catching every single one of her mother's words. "Nobody knows what happened at the village, but graves for each member of the village were made. Ah, here's a good sword." She took out a blade that was similar to the one Sango used to have by her side, back when she was still in the Sengoku Jidai. "I think it might be a bit short though."
"Mama, what other weapons do you have?" Sango asked anxiously, trying to look into the box, but her mother wouldn't allow her.
"That's a secret between your father and I," she said jokingly. She finally relented to her daughter's pouting face. "Here's a weapon you won't find anywhere today. I believe it was called… Now, what was it called again?" her mother mumbled some more things as she reached deep into the box, trying to pull something out. Kagome thought that the box was big enough to fit Mrs. Yamata and hoped that she wouldn't fall in and hurt herself. Finally she got the thing loose and took out a humongous boomerang.
"This thing's name is 'Hiraikotsu,'" Mrs. Yamata said, pleased to surprise the two girls. "Isn't it impressive?"
Kagome saw Sango open her mouth in shock. She couldn't believe her eyes either.
"Mama, where did you get this?" Sango whispered, running her hand down the familiar weapon.
"According to your father, his ancestors found this in a beautiful green field, next to a monk's staff. Since they came from the youkai exterminating village, they knew that the boomerang was named 'Hiraikotsu' and that it had belonged to one of the best exterminators in the village. Her name was 'Sango.' That's one of the reasons why we named you Sango. She was a very brave and strong warrior, not to mention pretty and kind."
"What happened to the staff?" Kagome asked, wondering if the staff was also Miroku's staff.
"Oh, they picked that up with this boomerang, too. I think they believed that Sango was destroyed by a powerful youkai, along with the monk. That makes sense, considering both of them can exterminate youkai. They must have been working together when a youkai destroyed them. Oh, how romantic," Mrs. Yamata giggled, taking the jingling staff out. Sango mumbled something about weird mothers.
"Mama, is it okay if I take the boomerang and whatever other weapons you have in there?" Sango asked, excitement showing through her eyes. Her mother's giggling attitude suddenly disappeared.
"Why?" her mother asked rather sharply. Sango and Kagome were both surprised my Mrs. Yamata's sudden change in tone. Sango's father suddenly burst through the door, waving around a very pungent dish.
"I've got it! I've got the formula to chase ants out of the house forever!" Mr. Yamata said, laughing.
"That thing will chase everything out of the house," Sango remarked, holding her nose shut.
"Anata," Mrs. Yamata said, her firm voice stopping her husband's jubilant laughter.
"What's wrong?" he asked seriously, closing the stinking dish with another dish. Mrs. Yamata pointed to the boomerang, then the box. Mr. Yamata looked surprised, then started to smile.
"Well, it seems that Sango is ready to live up to the old Sango," Sango's father said proudly. Sango only looked at her parents in confusion.
"I thought the reason we moved out here was so that your crazy father wouldn't influence the kids into the youkai exterminating business," Mrs. Yamata said sourly. "I don't want my babies hurt because of a stupid tradition you have in your family."
"Don't be so negative!" Mr. Yamata said, laughing. "Sango, if you want, I can start training you in the hundred year old tradition."
"What tradition?" Sango asked, but Kagome felt that Sango already knew.
"The youkai exterminating tradition, of course!" her father said. "Not that you'll actually exterminate any youkai. It's just this little tradition we have back home. Everyone in the family learns how to exterminate youkai because our ancestors back then thought it was necessary to keep the old arts alive just in case a youkai decides to attack humans again. But a youkai attacking a human is kind of rare, nowadays. Besides, I know quite a few good friends who happen to be youkai."
"What?" was all Sango was able to say to her father's fast speech.
"I think I'll get my friend Hayashi-san to practice with you. Hey, this might be fun," Sango's father said, getting excited. "How 'bout this Sunday? I think he is free on Sunday. All right then, it's decided. Sunday morning, we're going to go visit Hayashi-san!"
"Don't I get a word in?" Sango asked as she watched her father waltz away, singing something. Kagome saw Mrs. Yamata shake her head sadly.
"He always gets this way when he talks about the Tradition. Honestly, doesn't he even think?" Mrs. Yamata asked herself. "His friend is a youkai, and he's always barging in there asking to have a little match with him. Doesn't he know it's embarrassing as his wife to watch him lose his match every time?"
"Mama, how come you never told me that we came from a family of youkai exterminators?" Sango asked, slightly annoyed that she didn't know how similar her heritage was to her past life.
"I didn't know if you were interested in being one. Besides, no one in the family has slain a youkai in centuries. What makes you think we can even be called youkai exterminators?" her mother questioned. "I say we stick to household pests. At least we can handle those."
An explosion came from the kitchen and the entire house was filled with a very mind-numbing smoke that nearly burned the nose off anyone that smelled it. Kagome decided that it was a good time to leave. Her mother would be getting worried.
"I told you to work in your den! Now how am I supposed to cook dinner?" Kagome heard Mrs. Yamata shout before she left the smoking house, hurrying to her own home, which seemed normal and boring compared to Sango's.