A/N : I have no idea how soon this will come out, because I don't know when we are going to get internet at our new house. The only internet access I have right now is at the local library, and I can't take my fic there to type it. I've been kinda lazy. I should really be writing so that I can post like four chapters when I get internet again. Then maybe you'll forgive me. It really wasn't my idea to move. OH! maybe I'll get to post anyhow. My brother says I can take a disk to the library. Now I just have to be able to wait almost an hour for an hour's worth of time on the computer. There is ALWAYS a line. Cross your fingers! Well I guess you won't know if I get it up until I get it up. ^-^; Kagome's POV!
Disclaimer : I got Inu Yasha for Christmas, but he got hit by a truck... or, should I say, the truck got hit by him. So he left.
Regrets

Chapter 7
I sat there, panting. My heart was racing, and I felt a drop of sweat roll down my back. I hadn't done much, but I felt as if I had been running for the past hour. Kikyo, however, looked ready to duke it out for a long while. What was her secret? I thought back4444 on her ttacks. That's it! All of her attacks had been nonliving. If creating two animals had worn me out this much, I couldn't keep going much longer. I wondered if plants counted as nonliving. However, my thoughts are cut short as I see Kikyo readying yet another arrow. Well, I think, fight fire with fire. I pull up a bow of my own and nock an arrow. We stand there, bows drawn, glaring at one another. I feel so odd, as if I'm looking at a mirror. Then Kikyo's face registers momentary shock. She blinks, and I take the moment of advantage to fire my arrow and run to one side. Kikyo dodges and fires at me. I stop dead in my tracks. The arrow goes through the air straight in front of me. Had I kept running, I would've been hit. Kikyo nocks another arrow, and I start running again. As an arrow grazes my leg, I notice that I'm wearing the same outfit as Kikyo. I know that we must look exactly alike. The pain from my injury registers, and I stumble a bit. I hear Kikyo gasp, and I turn to see that she has the same injury as I do. She looks up at me in bewilderment.

"How did you do that?" I look at her leg in shock as a small dark, stain spreads across her clothing. I grin in satisfaction. So, she doesn't know everything! I quickly realize that because we look exactly alike, we must mirror each other exactly. I change my appearance slightly. She is glancing in between me and her wound, astonished. I take the opportunity to attack. Thick vines, covered in thorns, twine around her hands and feet, pull her to the ground. I grin in triumph. As my concentration wavers, one of the vines begins to dissappear. Concentrating on them again, the vine solidifies. I see that her ankles and wrists are covered in scratches, which are oozing blood onto the colorless ground. I tremble, looking at her.

"What's wrong?!" She cries out, desparate. "Just kill me! You know I would." Yes, I think, I know you would. But can I? I look at her face, so alike and yet so different. Her eyes are filled with hate and pain. What terrible things have happened to her that she hates everyone around her? I know that she hates Inu Yasha because she died believing that he betrayed her, but what makes her hate everyone else so much? She remembered when she had been guarding the jewel for such a short time. The looks the villiagers gave her, fear and respect all mixed together. The heavy feeling of responsibility that knowing she was the only one who could do this. If she failed, the results would be her fault. To have that weight on her shoulders all the time. She probably hated the people for making her into what she had to be to do her job. A thing to kill or be killed. not a person, but a holy object. I could imagine her; a little older than me, getting the responsibilities that she would bear her whole life long.

At first, I didn't notice, but then I saw how our surroundings had changed. It was a hot summer's day, and there were people milling around a large shrine. They were very agitated, and the tension was thick in the dry air. From the shrine came a young girl, maybe seventeen. Her face beamed with pride at the honor she had been given. A small child kept to her skirts, probably around the young age of four. The young woman looked so much like myself that I gave a start. Kikyo?

"This is where it all started."

Beside me, the real Kikyo looked around, falling to her knees as tears sprang to her previously hate-filled eyes. Now there was only one thing that filled those eyes, and it wasn't hate, or anger, but it was oh-so very familiar to our broken soul. It was regret.

* * * *

Sango's POV
It had been five days since I beacme lucid again. Still weak, I had Kaede-baba and Houshi-sama keeping me in bed all day long. Kirara stayed by my side to keep me company, but I could tell she was bored. I stroked her soft fur, thinking of Kohaku and father. I knew that Kohaku was dead, but I could only suppose with father, and, somehow, it was more painful. If he had been alive, he would've sent a search party for me, and I'm not that hard to find. My father had been the most accomplished demon hunter in the province. It was always our tribe that got called on, because of our excellent reputation. Now, I supposed, that I am the only one left to reestablish the tribe. I had made my desicion yesterday. I would find and kill Naraku, and in time, teach my children the life of a demon hunter.

As the anger at Naraku bubbled up within me, I began to feel the tears running down my cheeks. I clenched my fists in determination, then jumped when I heard Kirara yelp in pain. I had unintentionally pulled her fur as my fists had balled up.

"Oh! Kirara! I'm so sorry girl! I-I.." Trailing off, I begin to really cry. I always seem to hurt the ones I love the most. "I don't deserve to be a warrior! I'm such a coward." Violent sobs begin, and I shake with them. My wounds start to send sharp pains all through my upper torso, and I curl up in the corner I'm sitting in, just wanting the pain of living to go away. Kirara, concerned, tries to climb onto my lap. I rudely push her off, not wanting to be comforted by her. Instead I want.. Miroku. Miroku? What about father, or Kohaku? Why did I think of Miroku instead of them? Now I feel guilty. How can I think of myself at a time like this? Kirara walks slowly too the door, looks back at me, then dashes out. How can I blame her? I wouldn't want to stay around myself all day either. 'Crybaby!' I hear my own voice, an echo from the past. I'm yelling at Kohaku because he is crying, though I don't know what for. 'You don't want people to think you're a weakling!' As I think of all the other times I yelled at him or the times we fought, I plead for someone to let me know that I had been a good sister, to give me a sign. The gravel just outside the door crunches, and I look up as the door flap opens, the wind cooling my tears as they run down my face. Miroku steps in, his face concerned.

"Sango. Are you alright?" He slips off his shoes and walks across the room. "The way Kirara came running, I thought that you must be in mortal peril?" He gives me a reassuring smile and I can't help but feel comforted, which is immediately followed by more guilt. Is my grief so shallow that a single smile will erase it? I shut my eyes tight, to escape that smile. My more resonable side argues that it's only his smiles that bring this level of comfort, confusing me more. Why should his comforting be any different than Kaede's. After all, I had met them on the same day, and I spent more time with her than with him. I flinch as a gentle hand touches the bandages on my arm, and my eyes fly open. Miroku is at my side with an expression of worry on his face. "Sango, you're going to hurt yourself even more if you don't try and rest." He begins to gently remove the bandage, which was wet with blood. I watch as he pours some water over the wound, and rebandages it with a clean cloth bandage. "Besides, we're going to run out of bandages at the rate you use them up." I smile sheepishly.

He pushes gently on my shoulders, trying to lay me back in my bed. Suddenly angry, I try to resist. Who does he think I am? I won't follow his commands if I don't want to! He stops pushing on my shoulders, glaring a bit. He can't force me to do anything! I can beat three armed men in combat, and I-! His hands back on my shoulders, he pushes me back with ease. I try to sit back up, and a sharp pain shoots through me. My mucles give out, and I let out a small cry, both in pain and shock. I'm so weak. I have to do this! I try again, gasping, and as I try to sit up I feel a horrible tearing pain in my abdomen and I cry out again, my cry echoed by the person sitting next to me. I must have gotten a third of the way up. I seem to be falling back into my bed in slow motion, my vision filled with spots. As I hit the floor, the pain that goes through my skull pushes me over the edge and I black out.

* * * *

Miroku's POV
I watch as Sango tries to sit up unassisted. I want to help her, but right now, she would only take that as an insult. This is the second time she has tried. I watch her closely, and when I hear her cry out, my own cry echoes hers as I see with dismay the pallid color of her face. She falls to the floor, unconcious. I quickly check her pulse, which is racing. I then go to check on the wounds in her abdomen, but I see without unbandaging it that she has reopened one of the large wounds in her stomach. The blood is seeping through her clothing at an alarming rate. For the first time in my life, I'm nervous as I decide what to do to treat a person medically. I can feel my own heartbeat speeding up as I decide to stitch the wound closed. It was unconventional, yes, but Kagome had mentioned it to me once. I stir up the embers in the fire and throw a log on, remembering.

"You have to make sure everything is clean when you're treating people with open wounds. Boil the water and the bandages and heat the tools you're using, either in boiling water or fire. Otherwise, it can get dirt in there, and the wound will become infected." She had looked so stern and motherly. I had been about to treat a young child, and she had objected to my methods, confusing me. She always said that she knew next to nothing about medical things, but compared to the ways of our time, she could practically be a physician herself. Once I applied her knowledge of cleansing everything, the incidents of infection had dropped greatly. As I had been thinking my work had been accomplished, and now everything was ready.

I pulled the needles out of the fire, and placed them on a clean cloth to cool. The water that was constantly hanging over the fire came out of it, and I began to clean the wound.
I worked quickly, wanting her to be out of pain. Before I knew it, I was putting the last stitch into the wound, and Kaede walked through the door. As I turned to look, she gave me a questioning glance, as if asking 'What happened?'.

"She overworked herself, and re-opened one of her larger wounds." I tied off the last knot, and sat back with a relieved sigh. Wiping the sweat from my face I asked, "Would you poultice and bandage it? My hands seem to be weak now that I've stopped." She smiled knowingly, and I wondered what she thought she knew.

"Aye, I'll do it. Best that you get some food for yourself. I ate elsewhere." I nod absently, relieved that the color is finally returning to Sango's face. Smoothing the hair back off her face, I silently tell her to rest as I look at her tired features. She pushes herself too hard. I stand and walk out into the cool evening air, a small smile on my face.

* * * *

Inu Yasha's POV

Something is loud, disturbing. I curl up closer to the warm, soft body next to me, not wanting to wake from this pleasant dream. I see myself as a small boy, lying next to my mother as she sings me to sleep. Her gentle features calm me as I begin to fall asleep again. Then the noise comes again, accompanied by a gentle shake. The noise turns into a voice, that is soft, soothing.

"Hey." I try to place the voice, but I can't. It's a woman though. I open my eyes slowly, and as awareness returns, pain comes with it. My vision is fuzzy, and I see an unfamiliar face just above me. "Awake?" I tense, not knowing the face above me, and the woman retreats, hands held up in a submissive posture. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you, or your- friend. Just relax." Friend? I glance next to me, and see Kagome there, pale, but breathing. She's alive? I sit up, and I become dizzy with pain. The woman rushes in to support me. As I regain my senses, I push her away. She falls akwardly on her rear end, and we glare at each other. "Fine. Fine attitude you have there young man." She pushes herself up slowly, and I realize that she's older than she looks. She looks to be in her mid-thirties, but she moves like someone nearly twice thirty. I look around quickly, realizing that we're still in Kagome's time. "You may be ungrateful, but whether or not you trust me, there's a bathroom through that door," She points behind her. "And some food right there." She points to a small table in a corner. She turns, her black hair flipping over her shoulder. "If you need anything, I will be out there." She points to a door on my left, and immediately exits through it, slamming the door behind her.

Ungrateful? What should I be grateful for? I'd never seen the woman before in my life, much less have anything to thank her for. Right? I thought back. Last I remembered, I had had been lying in that warehouse with Kagome. How did I get here? Then it hits me. She brought us here. I put my hand to the large wound in my stomach, and find a gauze bandage there. I growl. I hate owing people things. My stomach growls, and I find that I'm hungry, among other bodily needs.

As I step out of the bathroom a few minutes later, my sense of smell begins to really kick in, and I inhale deeply. The history of the past few days is relayed to me through smell. I can smell medicines, obviously used to treat me. The woman, who smells lightly of snow and heavily of medicine. Kagome and myself. And the food. My mouth begins to water. Throwing caution to the wind, I rush over to the table, and begin devouring the small meal that is there. There is a thick vegetable beef stew and warm bread. Right now, it's more air than food though. I cannot have eaten for the time I was unconcious, so I was starving. At first I'm suprised at the small portions, but as I become full, the food is only halfway gone. I turn and look at Kagome. Why isn't she awake? She's not hurt. Maybe.. I should ask that lady. Frustrated at my lack of options, I stand and go through the door. As I step in the room, she looks up over a thick book. I sit there, unsure what to say.

"Call me Suzuka." I look up, a bit startled. For a woman, Suzuka is very intimidating. We stand there for a minute, the silence deafening. She speaks up, impatient. "Well, did you need something?"

"Uh... I.."I stammer, feeling like a child. She reminds me of my mother. She raises an eyebrow. I try to remember what it was I came out here for. Oh yeah! "What's wrong with Kagome?" I ask, now impatient myself. "Why isn't she awake?" She closes her book and looks at me sadly.

"Kagome? That's her name, huh?" As she looks me in the eyes, she seems to age a bit. "I'm afraid that it's likely your Kagome will never wake up again."
End Regrets chapter seven.
A/n: Now that I've gotten settled in at the new house, The next chapter won't take nearly as long. Sorry about the wait. I'll try to get the next chapter out before the twentieth. Also, read my new work, Lost Soul. It will make me so happy if you read and review both of the stories.