Healing of the Heart

By Sango-chan

Chapter One

Memories From the Mists

Sango jumped back quickly as her oversized weapon sliced through the snake demon's elongated body, avoiding the blood and flesh that spurted down from the cut. A quick glance at its still-moving head told her that the fight wasn't over yet. Circling the youkai from her perch on Kirara's back, Sango spotted a small something embedded in the snake's forehead. It might have been no more than a sliver of splintered wood, but the demon exterminator knew better. Throwing her boomerang again, the girl sliced through the creature's forehead perfectly, cutting out the Shikon shard. A last keening wail rose from the snake demon as its power was taken away with the shard, and its body stopped moving and thumped heavily down to the grass.

Peeling off her gas mask, Sango picked up the small shard and added it to the growing pile tied up in a sturdy silk ribbon. Over the past year, she'd tracked down and killed demons until her Shikon shards numbered six. Four were from those that she had exterminated, and two were from…

Sango shook her head to clear those thoughts away. She didn't want to think about where those first two had come from.

"Lady exterminator, may I offer you the hospitality of my humble home?" the local headman queried, breaking into her thoughts politely. "It is the least we can do to thank you for ridding our village of that demon."

Sango nodded, smiled, and thanked him, then followed the man to a fairly large wooden house. After she had been shown to her room, Sango declined dinner and prepared her bed, yawning as she changed from her exterminator outfit. It had been a hard day of traveling, and she was tired. As the young woman dropped off to sleep, someone who had been watching from the woods moved onto a tree.

*****

"Help! Someone! Help!" Sango wandered through the forest near Kaede's village, searching for the source of the cries. But the magical fog that Naraku had laid over the area prevented her from seeing a single thing. Relying on her hearing alone, the girl headed in the direction of the voice, her boomerang bone ready and balanced carefully on her shoulder. Kirara, in her transformed state, walked by the demon exterminator's side, her black furred ears swiveling in all directions.

All of a sudden the fog lifted and Sango could see a figure ahead, crumpled on the ground with its black and purple robes splayed in the dirt. "Miroku!" the girl cried out, running towards her friend. As she neared the monk, hoping beyond hope that he was still alive, something reached out from behind a tree. Sango was going too fast to stop herself, and a fiery pain across her left leg made her stumble and fall. The young woman pressed a hand to the slashed wound above her knee as she looked up to see a person wrapped in white monkey furs standing over her. Naraku's cold, mirthless laugh echoed hollowly as he took Sango's boomerang and threw it into the foliage behind him. Helpless, the teenager stared at her enemy.

"How sweet of you, to try to save Miroku," the evil demon spoke. "However, all of your efforts were in vain…"

Sango's heart pounded in her ribcage, and suddenly it was hard to breathe. No…no…he couldn't mean that…

Naraku chuckled again. "No, the monk isn't dead, as you will see." A smirk spread over the youkai's lips and he slowly said, "Get up, Miroku."

At the demon's command, Miroku got up and Sango gasped. The monk's body was unmarked, and he lifted himself up without even a shadow of pain. Her eyes followed him as he walked up to stand by Naraku, the pain and disbelief washing through her senses as she viewed his betrayal stinging much more than the wound on her leg. Sango fought desperately to believe that it wasn't like it looked, that Miroku would never…but icy-cold reality flooded those thoughts, and through her dark mist of pain, Sango could hear her own voice, as if from far away, saying something. "Miroku…"

Hazy and distant, the voice of her friend—more than friend—traveled to Sango's ears. "I'm sorry, Sango…but he said he would heal my hand…I'm sorry. I'm sorry…"

Naraku's cold laugh pierced her like a sword, bringing the pain back tenfold. Sango slumped to the ground as Miroku's violet eyes, pleading for her to forgive his acts, faded from her vision…

KAR-RUNCH! CRACK!

The crack of splintering wood jerked Sango awake as she was brought back from her dreams of the day the group had split. The pain of Miroku's betrayal washed over her again, as it always did when she relived that moment in her dreams. But this was no time to think about that! Grabbing her boomerang, Sango peered out through the hole in the side of her room. Looking at the pre-dawn landscape, the demon exterminator didn't see anything for a while. Then, a flash of motion at her side! Jerking her head around, Sango desperately tried to move away but she was too slow as a huge snake demon, much larger than the one she had killed, smashed her to one side with its sinuous scaled body. Crushed under the smooth coils, Sango reached for her boomerang bone, but it lay just beyond the reach of her fingertips. A mew to her left was Kirara, also trapped in the snake demon's suffocating grip, too cramped to change into her more powerful form. Still struggling, Sango watched as the demon's head swung around to look at her. Hissing, it opened its cavernous mouth and spoke with a strange hissing accent, twisting and elongating the words.

"Youuuuu…kiiiilled my ssssssssssisssssssteeeer…IIII wiiiill devooouuuur youu aliiiiiiiivvve…"

Sharp white fangs, standing out vividly against the backdrop of purplish-red tongue, filled Sango's vision as the snake demon opened its mouth even wider. Throwing her arms out, Sango tried once again to reach her weapon, but it was useless. She struggled and kicked valiantly, but inside she knew she had no hope. This was it…

"SOUL-SHATTERING CLAWS!"

Red cloth flapped before Sango's startled gaze as the huge snake's body fell to slashing claws. A figure draped in the same crimson fabric picked up the two small shards and examined them carefully. In a strangely familiar voice, the person scoffed as he placed the slivers into his pockets. "Feh. For a demon with two shards of the jewel, it wasn't much."

As her rescuer turned to leave, Sango finally recovered her voice. "I-Inuyasha?" she asked in a shocked croak as she climbed to her feet.

Inuyasha hesitated, then half-turned without meeting the demon exterminator's eyes. In a hardened, self-mocking tone he said, "What's the matter? Surprised that I'm still alive? As you can see, I didn't need that fool girl after all…" Taken aback by the bitterness in the half-demon's voice, Sango forgot the unhappy memories that his presence stirred up, and walked up to him slowly.

"Inuyasha, what's wrong?" she asked, trying to look him in the eyes. Visibly flinching, he lowered his head so that he wouldn't have to meet Sango's gaze. "Nothing". But his voice was barely a whisper.

"I said nothing! Can't you just leave me alone?!" Inuyasha said, angry now. "Get out of my life! I don't need anymore so-called 'friends'!!" So saying, the hanyou turned and walked off into the forest.

Sango stood there a moment longer, stunned and a little hurt. She and Inuyasha had never been the best of friends, but there had been no hard feelings between them back then. Back then…that was then, and this was now. Inuyasha's words held a ring of truth about him, and who was she to ignore that, she who knew perhaps best of all by experience how truly spoken they were…? But still, someplace in the demon exterminator urged her to help him, and yet another lonely place in her heart called out for company, a relief from the silent nights when the emptiness around her was suffocatingly close.

Picking her boomerang off the ground, Sango stood up and walked in the direction that Inuyasha had gone. She needed a human companion to talk to, and she also wanted answers, answers that could only be answered by he and one other person. Sango walked faster at that thought. No, answers that could only be answered by him.

A/N: *Holds up "SANGO AND INUYASHA FOREVER" sign and waves it around wildly*