Sango huddled down deeper into her blankets and sighed. It was a warm spring night, but not even a pile of extra blankets and a roaring fire could dispell the aching coldness in her bones. Today was been her brother Kohaku's twelfth birthday. She remembered vividly his upturned face smiling at her as she offered him words of encouragement and praise, and how they had both worked day and night so that their father could be proud of them. A tear slid down her face and dripped off the end of her nose as she thought of her slain family and village.
She could still see their faces as they died, the shocked expressions of pain and disbelief as Kohaku's thrown weapon bit deep into their flesh. And Kohaku--poor Haku-- who had been used like a puppet against his will to slaughter his own family. Sango bit her lip and sobbed silently, remorse and guilt shaking her entire body. She should have died with them. She had died with them. But Naraku had brought her back.
Bastard! Sango raged internally, fists clenching tight. He murdered my entire family and kept me alive to bear the pain of it.
A soft nose nuzzled Sango's hand, then pushed it's entire head under her palm to be petted. Kirara, in her small kittenish form, looked up into Sango's eyes and purred. Yawning hugely, little cat flopped down beside her and snuggled close.
A small smile broke through Sango's tears. "You're right, Kirara, I'm glad I didn't leave you behind," she whispered, "You and I are all that are left."
Kirara's tongue flitted out to lick away one of Sango's salty tears. Lowering her head back to her paws, Kirara's big red eyes closed and she fell instantly to sleep. Sango curled her body around the warm animal beside her and closed her eyes. Mentally she drew up Kohaku's image in as much detail as she could muster.
"Happy birthday, little brother," she whispered into the night," I love you. And I will get you back."
Sango's breathing deepened as she allowed herself to succumb to sleep, exhausted from weeping. She was utterly unaware of the worried gazes leveled at her from across the campfire.
"Do you think she's going to be ok?" Kagome said softly, an unhappy expression creasing her brow. She had been covertly watching Sango under the pretext of mending Inuyasha's torn shirt.
"Yeah, she'll be fine. She may be strong but she's still a girl. You females are always so emotional," Inuyasha's replied, voice thick with superiority and condescention.
"Oh yeah?" Kagome jumped to her feet, dropping her mending into the dirt. "If we're the ones that are so emotional then why do you still get all sentamental whenever someone mentions Kikyo?"
Inuyasha was also on his feet in seconds. "I am concerned about Kikyo, not sentamental, you little brat! I don't even wanna be with Kikyo anymore, I wanna be with--" Inuyasha broke off suddenly and looked at the flushed angry face inches from his own. Abruptly, he turned from Kagome and sat down, back toward her.
"You wanna be with who?" Kagome demanded, stamping her foot in frustration.
"Someone," Inuyasha said sullenly,"maybe no one. I just wanna be left alone and not bothered by annoying girls like you."
Kagome turned away and sat back down with her back toward him. Picking up the now dirty shirt she took great satistfaction in stabbing the needle savagely into it.
Miroku's gaze had never wavered from Sango' s sleeping form during Kagome and Inuyasha's squabble. In fact, he appeared to have not even heard it.
"I will protect you from demons, Sango," Kagome heard him whisper, "but I wish you would let me help you with the demons inside."
By around noon the next day, the sun had become a relentless foe. Walking across open ground with no trees to shade their path, the group had become sticky and saturated with sweat.
"Aww, I'm going to melt soon if I don't get some shade!" Shippo complained as they wearily climbed yet another rolling hill in Japan's fudal countryside. As they crested the hill, Kagome shaded her eyes and peered into the valley below them. At the base of the valley, she could just make out a dark green line of tall trees.
"Look!" She cried, pointing downward. "Shade! And I bet since there are so many trees down there that there is some water too." She clapped her hands together excitedly. "I would die for a swim right now!"
"I wish you would anyway," Inuyasha muttered, "So we wouldn't have to listen to you anymore."
Songo and Miroku exchanged a look and shook their heads. Swinging Shippo into her arms, Sango walked beside Miroku toward the shade, leaving Kagome and Inuyasha to their arguement.
"Lover's quarrel," commented Miroku under his breath. Sango and Shippo nodded their agreement.
"Hey!" Kagome cried from behind them, "Wait for me! Inuyasha, sit!"
They dragged themselves gratefully into the shade of the trees and immediately flopped to the cool ground. Inuyasha glared balefully at Kagome and rubbed his still sore behind. He truly hated having to obey her "sit" commands, not only was it degrading, it just plain hurt. Kagome dissapeared for a moment behind some low scrub bushes, then reappeared.
"I was right, there is water!" she announced, excitedly hopping from one foot to the other. "Sango, do you wanna go for a swim?"
Sango nodded enthusiastically and climbed to her feet. She was tired, hot and sticky, covered in dust from travel and her teeth felt like they were made of sandpaper against her tongue. Water definetly sounded appealing at the moment.
"You'd better not spy on us," Sango said to Miroku warily as she started to follow Kagome into the bushes, "and that goes for you too, Inuyasha. If you boys want to swim you can either wait till we are done or find your own spot further away."
Approximately five minutes later, Miroku seated himself comfortably in the crotch of two large tree branches. Honestly, with a warning like that, it was almost as if Sango were inviting him to spy on her. Besides which, Kagome had brought her back one of those strange skin tight suits for swimming anyway, so it wasn't like they were naked. Leaning farther out over the branch to get a better look, Miroku marveled at just how good Sango looked wearing practically nothing. The suit was midnight blue, which accentuated her long smooth legs and ephasized the lithe curve of her hip. Her waist was tapered nicely and fleshed out into the swell of her breasts. Which, Miroku thought privately, were definetly some of the best he had ever seen. Even from here they looked soft and white as milk against the plunging blue neckline of the bathingsuit. Of course, spying on her from above gave him the best possible view of them.
"So I guess you like getting slapped around by Sango?" Inuyasha's voice invaded Miroku's contemplation.
"Some things are worth taking the punishment for," replied the letcherous monk stoically. "You're up here risking Kagome's wrath to spy on her aren't you?"
"Of course not!" Inuyasha gripped the tree branch he was perched on so tightly that the bark began to peel off. "I was just up here to try and talk your sorry ass out of doing something stupid!" Inuyasha's ears twitched foreward as he heard girlish laughter from below.
"Ah look," Miroku said contentedly,"They're splashing eachother."
"Move your big head, I can't see!" Inuyasha said, moving closer for a better view.
Inuyasha was almost positive he heard Miroku snort with suppressed laughter, but he was too busy clambering out on the limb for a better view to reply.
Sango was combing out her hair rhythmically, a task that had sent her into a strange semi-trance. Pulling the comb through a section of her drying hair, seperating tangles with the fingers of her other hand, and laying the combed section over her shoulder over and over had given her time to think. She was daydreaming about her family again, remembering her mother combing out her long sleek tresses and singing a sweet wordless melody to herself. After her mother had died, she had sung the song for Kohaku when he had nightmares.
"Sango," Shippo had come to sit on the rock beside her, "What are you singing? Its pretty."
Sango smiled sadly and patted the fox-boy on his head. "It was a song my mother used to sing to me, and I used to sing for my brother."
"Do you think we'll get him back, Sango?" Shippo asked, casting his eyes downward, "Kohaku I mean."
Sango swallowed hard. "I think--" her voice broke slightly, "I think my brother is still alive, somewhere. I just hope that I don't have to kill him-- "
"Sango, what is that?" Shippo broke in, standing on his tiptoes and pointing frantically upward. From the trees above Sango's head a shining blue orb had floated downward, suspended on a string of nearly transparent spider silk. It glowed softly and swirls of colour danced over it's surface opalescently.
Sango lept to her feet, comb discarded beside her. "I don't know what that is," she said grimly, "But I know what that is!" She was looking past the orb at the huge lurking shape hiding in the branches of the tree. The size of a human, it had eight long fur covered legs which it was using to lower the orb down and secure it from falling by wrapping the silk around a tree branch. It's body was huge and black, and it had twin parallel gray stripes running down it's back. It's eyes gleamed red and were fixed on the little fox-boy.
As Sango reached beside her where she had laid Hiraikotsu, her boomerang, and quickly swept it back into throwing position, preparing to hurl it at the spider-demon. The spider had wasted no time and had flung several thick strands of spider silk around Shippo, who was struggling and screaming for Sango to help him.
Hiraikotsu whistled as it sailed through the air, snapping smaller tree limbs in it's flight toward the spider. It appeared to overshoot and miss it's target, but a graceful half-arc turn backward neatly sent the backward curve of the boomerang around to sever the monster's head. With a spurt of red-black demon blood, the entire massive body fell from the tree, landing on the ground with a thump.
Shippo also landed with a much smaller thump, falling bottom first in the dirt. "Ugh, it smells!" He complained, struggling against the spider silk that encased him. Sango knelt before him and unravelled the long thick strands of webbing. Once free, Shippo did a little dance in place, checking himself everywhere making sure there were no spider eggs or anything on him. Suddenly, he stopped and stood still, aware of how silly he must have looked to Sango.
Sango had brushed the last of the sticky fibre from her hands and was now examining the glowing blue orb. The ball was about the size of a goose egg, but perfectly spherical. The colours on the surface swirled like oil in water hypnotically. Almost without thinking, Sango reached up and plucked the orb from the tree like an apple.
"Sango, no! You don't know what it--" Shippo grabbed at her leg, but her hand had already pulled the orb free. Staring deep into the depths of the ball, Sango exhaled sharply, her breath escaping her body like a fog to swirl around the orb. Her frame swayed for a moment, then collapsed to the ground under the tree, only feet away from the corpse of the spider.
"Sango!" Shippo shook her frantically, trying to revive her, but her eyelids did't even flutter. In a blind panic, Shippo turned around and ran at top speed back to where the others were. Ignoring the arguement between Kagome and Inuyasha, Shippo instead flung himself at Miroku.
"Miroku, you have to help! Sango killed the spider and grabbed the blue ball and I can't wake her up and she might be dead!" Shippo wailed, clutching the Monk's tunic tightly, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Miroku set the wailing fox-boy down. "Where is Sango?" He demanded. The sobbing Shippo pointed. "Right. You get Inuyasha and Kagome, I'll go help Sango."
"Miroku wait! Don't touch the--" Shippo called after him, but Miroku didn't hear.
The first thing Miroku noticed was the dead spider demon. Rushing to Sango's side, he turned her face in his hands, checking her neck and arms for spider bites. He let out a sigh of relief at the smooth expanses of soft skin. Still, despite the heat of the day, her skin was cold. A line of fogged breath was trailing out of her mouth to wrap around something in her hand. For once not even considering molesting her sleeping body, Miroku pried her fingers open and beheld the beautiful blue orb. Eyes widening in wonder, the monk plucked it from her hand and held it before his eyes. Within a heartbeat, he collapsed across Sango's unconscious form, unmoving.
Less than a minute later, Inuyasha burst through the brush and came to a dead stop beside the inert forms of Miroku and Sango. Sniffing the air carefully but not detecting any poison, he dropped to a crouch beside them. Kagome and Shippo came running towards him, Shippo in Kagome's arms. Kagome's human legs had been unable to keep up with Inuyasha's half demon speed.
"Are they dead?" she whispered softly, eyes wide. Shippo moaned and buried his head against her shoulder.
"No," Inuyasha replied, carefully turning Miroku over to examine him. Inuyasha and Kagome both saw the orb at the same moment. Kagome reached toward it.
"Kagome, stop!" Inuyasha commanded. With a look of suprise, she halted in mid-reach and looked at him curiously.
"It's an Orb Of Lost Souls." He said, reaching over to pick it up in a scrap of cloth, careful not to let it touch his skin. "The Orbs are created to gather souls for their master, so she can eat them at her leisure. I've only seen one of them before. I wonder how the spider-demon got his mitts on it."
"How could he have touched it without it stealing his soul too?" Kagome wondered aloud, examining the blue ball in Inuyasha's hand.
"Don't be dumb, Kagome. Demons don't have souls." Inuyasha tucked the ball into Miroku's pocket. and stood up. "Get on my back."
"Where are we going?" Kagome asked, putting her hands on his shoulders and preparing to straddle him piggy-back style. Inuyasha's mouth tightened.
"We have to get their souls out of the Orb before it completely absorbs them. There are only two people I know who can get the orb to release the souls, and only one of them might be willing to help us."
"Who?" Kagome asked, clamboring astride Inuyasha's back and tucking her skirt around her legs so that her panties wouldn't show.
Inuyasha braced himself before replying. "Kikyo."
To his suprise, Kagome's only response was a deflated "Oh."
"Shippo, watch over them until we get back. Don't let anything happen to their bodies." Inuyasha lept over a fallen log and poised himself to launch into his demon-speed run. "Oh, and clear away that dead body. It's stinking up the place."
"Ugh!" Shippo cried, disgusted. Inuyasha sped away with Kagome clinging to his back. "Gross," the fox demon muttered, revolted. Then he sighed and began to drag the demon corpse away from Sango and Miroku.