Okay, I didn't like how this chapter turned out last time, so after getting some helpful advice, I decided to rewrite it. Thanks for your patience.
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Miroku moaned slightly, and attempted to sit up. A wave of pain rushed up from his leg, throughout his entire body. He seethed in a breath through his teeth, and reached down to his leg, sitting up very slowly. He gritted his teeth, and reached through the pain until he could feel his leg. He opened his eyes briefly, and inspected the throbbing appendage. It was twisted at an odd angle, and was obviously broken, but he could still feel it: a mixed blessing.
He cocked his aching head left and right, scanning the ruined ground for his staff. He found it lying only a few feet away, imbedded in the ground. Drawing his attention away from the staff, however, was a very angry-looking, bleeding, semi-conscious Sango.
She was sitting cross-legged, putting her feet up and her hands. Her jaw was set hard, and her teeth were clenched in a grimace as she held her feet very tenderly. "Are you okay?" The monk asked her very quietly.
Sango looked over at Miroku suddenly, then frowned. "I don't think I can stand." She said, her voice was chocked with pain and unsheds tears. "I have no Idea where Kagome or the rest are, but I haven't heard from them."
Miroku nodded. "My leg's broken." He said simply. "I think I can stand if you hand me my staff."
Sango nodded, and slowly took her right hand from the accompanying foot. It looked to be a delicate operation: Sango held her unprotected foot aloft as she reached as far as she could with her hand. Finally, the hand found the grasp of the staff, and she, with a great deal of effort, pried the staff out of the ground. Miroku reached towards the exterminator, and coughed the ring end of the staff. With much effort on his part as well, he stood up, leaning heavily on the staff. Slowly, he hop-skipped over to Sango, and looked down at her bleeding feet. He recoiled in revulsion as he saw that the had been mercilessly shredded, as if she had run down a path of daggers.
He lowered himself to the ground beside her, and began to inspect the wound. "Do you have any idea what happened?" He asked.
Sango shook her head, and winced slightly as Miroku gingerly touched a sensitive spot. "The last thing I remember was running along Atma's back. She did something weird, and all her scales stood up, like a pincushion." She shrugged, and trembled slightly. "After that, I remember falling, and a whole lot of pain."
Miroku nodded, and began tearing his tattered robe into little strips. "I pulled you out of the fall with the wind tunnel, but it didn't do much good." He said, tenderly wrapping her foot with the strip. "After that, Kagome shot her with an arrow, and she came after us." -another strip of robe- "I must have gotten lashed by her tail, or something," –a third strip- "because I passed out shortly after." He finished wrapping one foot with the cloth, and started on the other.
Sango rubbed her bandaged foot gently, wincing as Miroku treated her other foot. "I hope they're alright."
As the last strip wrapped it's way around Sango's injured foot, there erupted an unearthly, childlike cry of despair from behind a small rise of the scorched earth.
Miroku looked up at the source of the sound, and laboriously stood up. "I'll go see what's happening." He said. "You stay here."
Sango nodded as Miroku started off. The young monk limped over to the rise and slowly made his way up the slight incline. A scene from some sort of campfire horror story met his eyes. InuYasha was kneeling in a puddle of muddy blood, clutching an unconscious Kagome to his chest. Shippo stood next to the limp Miko's side, desperately shaking her arm in a last ditch attempt to awaken her. "Kagome!" He pleaded. "Please wake up! You gotta wake up!" tears were streaming down the little youkai's face.
"InuYasha." Miroku said softly. The hanyou's ears trained on him, but he looked up from Kagome's pale face to the limping monk. Miroku grimaced as he saw many deep scratches on the hanyou's face, and he clothes also were frayed. The cloak of fire-rat fur that he almost always wore was reduced to a tattered rag, burnt around the edges.
"She's alive." Was all he said. "Can you help her?" Miroku frowned as he saw the wounded miko, and nodded.
"I can try." He murmured, but was interrupted by a small "Oh" from his left.
He turned to see Sango, on her hands and knees, and looking at the scene with horror. "What happened." She asked.
"I told you to stay there." Miroku said, but the words carried no reprimand. "Bring her over here." He instructed InuYasha, gesturing at the burnt ground beneath him. He turned to Shippo. "Go see if you can find anything left of Kagome's bag. She normally has some sort of medical supplies in there."
Shippo rubbed tears from his eyes, nodded, and ran off to scout the clearing.
InuYasha gently lifted Kagome into his arms, and set her limp form down in front of Miroku. With that done, he sat down next to Kagome's head, one of her clammy hands caught tight in one of his.
Miroku looked down at the young miko lying still at his feet. He sat down painfully, and began to remove the shreds of Kagome's shirt that was left.
InuYasha's eyes widened, and a low growl started in his throat, but Sango put a gently hand on his arm. "He needs to do this." She said gently. InuYasha glared at her, then back at Miroku. He nodded slightly, not liking it, but understanding all the same.
Miroku looked at him seriously. "Listen, InuYasha." He said. "There is a time for all things. There is a time for play, and a time for work. There is a time for laughter, and a time for crying. Now is a time for seriousness, not a time for women." And he once again began to remove the bloody shreds of Kagome's shirt.
Sango looked at Miroku thoughtfully. Maybe there was something besides pervert behind those monks robes after all.
InuYasha closed his eyes slightly as the last of the clothing came off, but opened them again, forcing himself to see what he did not want. His stomach turned knots and loops as Miroku carefully inspected the poor miko's limp body. He suddenly felt the odd urge to rip something to shreds. His palms sweated and his mouth grew dry. It wasn't until Miroku reached up and pushed his head back that InuYasha realized he was leaning over Kagome.
He stood up, and began to pace back and forth as the inspection continued, flexing his claws, and swearing under his breath in agitation. All through it, one thought rang in his mind: a prayer. Please be alright.
Finally, Miroku wiped his fingers on his robe, and nodded. Instantly, InuYasha was down by Kagome's side. "Well?" He prompted before Miroku could even begin.
Miroku put a finger over his mouth, to hush the eager hanyou, and began. "First of all, there is the bleeding. This is not as much of a problem as one might think."
"But…" InuYasha stammered, "So much blood." He gestured to the puddle that he had been holding Kagome in.
Miroku looked at InuYasha seriously. "I suspect that's just as much yours as hers." He said, gesturing at the hanyou's own wounds. "However, you have possibly already stopped some of the bleeding."
InuYasha blinked, confused. "Wha?" he asked.
Miroku half grinned, despite the situation. "Well, you were holding her tight enough that you put a good deal of pressure on the wounds." He explained. "However, the wounds are superficial, at worst. As I said before, most of that blood is probably yours."
InuYasha looked down at himself for the first time since Atma had left. In shock, he saw that he had many nasty looking scratches and wounds that he hadn't even been noticing. "They don't hurt at all." He said.
"I'll look at you once I'm finished with Kagome" The monk said dismissively, and continued with his analysis. "The main thing that we should be worried about is internal damage."
"Internal damage?" InuYasha asked. "Like broken bones and such."
"No" Sango supplied. "Although I'm sure she has many of those, he means something else."
Miroku nodded assent. "Such as a head wound, or maybe bleeding from within."
InuYasha sucked in a breath. He knew people could die from bleeding on the inside. "Will she be okay?" He asked.
Miroku closed his eyes, and nursed his right hand unconsciously. "I don't know." He said finally. "Only time will tell."
InuYasha looked at Kagome intensely. His worried thoughts were interrupted by a cry from Shippo: "I found it!" the little kitsune cried from the southern end of the clearing. "And some other stuff. C'mon InuYasha. I found Tetsusaigia!"
InuYasha looked over to where Shippo was standing, then back at Kagome. Sango smiled, reading his thoughts. "Go ahead." She said warmly. "I'll look after her."
InuYasha opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it. The fiery young hanyou merely nodded gratefully, and dashed off.
He landed smoothly next to Shippo. The little kitsune was wandering around, picking up various components that used to be housed in Kagome's bag. "You okay?" InuYasha asked, uncharacteristically caring
Shippo laughed lightly, and picked up a random article. "Of coarse!" He said cheerfully, back to InuYasha. "Why would I not be?"
InuYasha went and picked up Tetsusaigia carefully, and turned back to the little Kitsune. Shippo stood for a moment, adamantly refusing to face InuYasha. Then suddenly, he turned and ran to the hanyou, crying, attaching himself to InuYasha's leg. InuYasha made no effort to stop him, but simply let the little fox youkai cry against his leg. Shippo looked up at InuYasha with big, tear filled eyes, and sniffed. "Will she be okay?" he asked, unconsciously mimicking InuYasha's earlier question.
InuYasha looked at Shippo fondly, scooped him up in one arm, and placed him on his shoulder. "Yeah." He said. "She'll be fine."
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Okay, there ya go! A newly revamped chapter 8. Hope you enjoyed it. Please review!
