Complete the Circle
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Monk Who Remembered
People started screaming and some were busy taking their cameras out when they saw a scorpion grow bigger and bigger. The black poisonous scorpion finally grew to be the height of two grown men, then stopped growing and instead its tough outer armor burst off at some areas, revealing the pale skin underneath. The hard shell of its exoskeleton covered the length of the sharp poisonous tail and covered most of the body, leaving only the arms, neck, and face exposed. If one ignored the horrendous features of the body, one could almost claim the scorpion youkai to be beautiful.
The youkai seemed to bathe in the attention that she was receiving from the people foolish enough not to run away, and waited patiently as the cameras clicked. Finally she turned to Kagome and Sango, anxiously licking her lips.
"So you're the miko who possesses the shards of the Shikon no Tama," she said haughtily, addressing Kagome. "You're not much to look at." Kagome grew irritated with the youkai's statement.
"Well you're no prize yourself," Kagome retorted, getting a lot of disagreement from the men that had still not run away.
"Well, it'll be fun torturing you to find out the whereabouts of the Shikon shards," the scorpion youkai said, sounding bored. Suddenly she struck with her tail.
"Kyaa!" screamed Kagome as she quickly rolled and dodged the sharp tail. She felt the hand of someone helping her up. It was Miroku.
"Use your miko powers or you'll never beat this youkai," he said, keeping an eye on the scorpion. "Quickly."
Kagome nodded her understanding, but she had no bow and arrows to shoot the youkai with. She had no time to search for them for the youkai struck again. This time, Kagome heard the sound of something melting and turned around only to see the debris on the ground being melted away by the poison. She offered a silent prayer to the God of this shrine, wishing that some sort of divine help would arrive.
"Catch!" Kagome heard someone shout and saw the fortuneteller from before throwing her a bow and quiver full of arrows. Kagome caught it quickly and strung an arrow, aiming for the creature's heart. The youkai was no fool, and quickly blocked the incoming arrow by knocking it away with the tip of its tail. Kagome heard the sizzling sound of the tip of the youkai's tail being purified, but other than that, the youkai remained unharmed. It was just angry now.
"Insolent human!" the youkai cried, shooting poison out of its tail, opting for a long range attack instead of getting closer to Kagome. Kagome tried to run, but found that her shirt was caught on a bit of debris left from the previous attacks. She shut her eyes, expecting to die, when nothing happened. She opened her eyes and saw that the poison had disappeared. Her eyes searched for the reason and found Miroku, holding some sort of paper in his hand. He was somehow able to shoot the papers at the youkai, making it scream in agony. Kagome realized that these were real wards, not the fake ones that her grandfather always made.
"You'll pay for this, Monk," the youkai screamed, trying to slash Miroku with one of its numerous legs.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not a monk," Miroku said calmly. "Just your average human."
At that moment, Sango burst out from the shrine, sporting a katana. She jumped onto the roof and from there, jumped to the scorpion's back, plunging the blade deep into the scorpion's armor.
"Fool!" the youkai shouted, swatting Sango away with its tail. Sango hit the wall of the shrine very hard, clutching her ribs. She was gritting her teeth in pain. The scorpion youkai took the blade out of her back, throwing it away as her back immediately healed itself.
"Give me the Shikon no Tama," the youkai commanded, heading towards Kagome again. Kagome finally managed to free herself and had an arrow ready to fire. She let the arrow fly, but her aim was off in her nervousness, ending up melting the youkai's right human arm off. The youkai let out a blood-curdling scream.
"Hurry up and finish it off!" Miroku shouted, trying to paralyze the youkai with the wards. Kagome prepared another arrow, only to feel something flow past her, snapping her bow. She vaguely heard Miroku cussing as the youkai dived towards her, its mouth open as if to swallow her and whatever Shikon shards the youkai thought she had.
"Kagome-sama!" she heard someone shout before she heard a strange ringing, as if something had been knocked against a steel blade, causing it to vibrate.
He didn't know what had possessed him to call her "Kagome-sama," but in that moment, it had felt right. He had picked up the sword that Sango had probably jacked from the shrine, noticing that the blade was dull, but deciding to use it anyway. He had run to the scorpion, putting the spells his grandfather taught him into the blade, willing it to destroy the youkai before him. He had intended to bring the blade down upon the youkai's neck, but was blocked by the sharp needle that was the tail, causing the blade to vibrate and ring in the dusk.
Although the blade flew uselessly out of his hands in the impact, he saw that it had at least chipped the youkai's poisonous tail, and the tail was not repairing itself. His grandfather's spell had worked. He had no time to rejoice, however, for the youkai immediately turned on him, anger flashing in her eyes for ruining her tail, forgetting about Kagome and the Shikon shards for the moment.
The youkai grabbed Miroku's right hand in the only hand she had left over, and pinned him against the wall, his feet unable to touch the ground. He couldn't get away from the scorpion lady, and he couldn't exactly attack her for he had run out of spell papers.
"A gift, 'Houshi-sama,'" the youkai hissed, "from my master." Then she stuck her tail into his right hand, digging a hole about one inch in radius in his hand. He didn't know if he screamed.
Sango tried to get up to help Kagome and Miroku, but found that her ribs were giving her too much pain. She figured she had either cracked or broken them, but still tried to get up. The pain was starting to cloud her mind, and she could feel the beginnings of unconsciousness creep up on her. Her current body wasn't used to this kind of treatment and was failing on her. Suddenly her mind cleared when she heard a too familiar voice scream.
She heard the sound of the youkai laughing as she hopped away from her handiwork quickly before the magic took effect. Sango got up painfully and saw Miroku leaning against the wall, clutching his hand in pain. She saw a trail of blood on the wall and immediately understood what had happened.
Suddenly Miroku held his hand facing away from him, almost as if he remembered what was going to happen. Sure enough, the sounds of debris and concrete being sucked into the void were heard.
Sango tried her best to keep her position, but found herself slowly getting sucked towards the void. She knew Miroku could point his hand no other direction without harming the buildings surrounding him and sucking up the people inside. She prepared herself to die by her friend's hand when all of a sudden, the vacuum from the air void stopped. She looked up painfully and saw that Kagome had run into the shrine and procured a set of prayer beads and was currently wrapping it around Miroku's hand. Disaster had been averted.
He could feel the dull pain from the hole in his hand as he began to remember. Sango, Kagome, Inuyasha, Shippou, Kirara, Sesshoumaru and so many others began to surface in his mind again. Kagome, protector of the Shikon no Tama; Inuyasha, seeker of the Shikon no Tama and protector of Kagome, as well as many others; Shippou, orphaned child as the result of a fight over a Shikon shard; and Sango, the girl he loved whom he was currently sucking into his air void.
He was never more thankful and resentful than when Kagome wrapped the prayer beads around his hand once more. He had lost. He was cursed again.
He looked at the familiar sight of the prayer beads over his hand. How he hated it.
He hated his past life. He had never been more glad than then, when he had died in the battlefield. Why was it that fate was bent on making him suffer? Hadn't he suffered enough in his past life? Now he had to suffer in this life, too?
He clenched his fist, feeling the dull pain shoot through his nerves, the blood starting to flow out again.
He was Miroku, the cursed monk once more.
Kagome watched Miroku quietly as she heard the sound of the ambulance arriving. Many people, Sango included, had been hurt when the youkai had appeared, but none more than Miroku. She saw him clench his fist in anger, uncaring if his hand started bleeding again. He was the one who suffered the greatest injury in this battle, and the one who could never be healed by modern science. He was the one cursed to die.
"Miroku…" Kagome whispered softly, wondering if he could hear her. She saw him close his eyes, trying to shut the world out. She didn't know what to do. She had met Miroku only after he received his air rip, and never really had to deal with him in this type of condition. Suddenly, he stood up and brushed himself off, getting blood on his clothes.
"Kagome-sama," he said calmly, the mask of the past in place again. "We should probably leave before they try to take me to the hospital and I end up sucking up the entire building." She nodded, and followed him as he walked away from the shrine. Kagome stood a little way back as she saw him converse quietly with Sango, then set off again. She followed him in silence.
Sango felt her heart twist in pain and tears well up at her eyes when she saw Miroku walking towards her. One look, and she knew he remembered. But now she wished he didn't need to remember. She wished he had never received his second air rip. The pain and dullness in his eyes were too much for her to bear. It hurt her more to see him like this than her ribs did. She saw him kneel down next to her and carefully wipe her tears away. For once, she knew for certain that Miroku wouldn't do anything inappropriate, but she wished that he would just so that the feeling of normality could return.
"Sango…" he said quietly. She couldn't stand to look at the sadness in his eyes, and closed her eyes, starting to cry.
"Sango," he said again, this time painfully. He lifted her chin so that she would look at him. She opened her eyes and regretted the calm despair she saw in his eyes. He may have had his memories back, but he wasn't using his knowledge to lock his emotions away like he used to. She started to cry harder.
"It'll be okay, Sango," he said, afraid to touch her for fear of hurting her. "It's okay. We're together again." With that, he stood up and left, leaving her to the care of the people in the ambulance. She felt her tears begin to stop with his last words.
"We're together again."
So Miroku did care for her.
She saw Kagome heading towards her but shook her head. She pointed to Miroku, and Kagome understood, following Miroku from a distance. She closed her eyes in fatigue.
When Sango opened her eyes later, she was already in the hospital.