Disclaimer: Still don't own, though I wish. I own the OCs, though. And the plot. But not Inuyasha. Definitely not mine.
*~*
Sango knelt at the perimeter of the village, holding Kirara close. "Can you find Kagome and Inuyasha?" she queried.
"Mow!" came the affirmative.
"Will you drag them to this village? I think houshi-sama and I shall need some back up," Sango said softly.
The fire-cat-creature youkai leapt out of Sango's arms, transforming and began to fly off. "Good luck, Kirara…" she whispered. She turned back to the center of the village. She didn't like the feeling of containment she had after finding they were enclosed in the village. It gave her goose bumps.
She looked toward the room where houshi-sama was still sleeping. She had had too much to do to sleep past dawn.
She walked down the street, greeting the different villagers she passed. None met her eye or returned her greeting.
"Tired of trying that approach yet, taiji-ya-san?" a voice asked from the shadows. Sango spun. "Greetings. My name is Naniko. I am the daughter of Kannagi. She's the miko you met yesterday. Have you eaten so far this morning?"
Sango blinked.
"Am I speaking too much?" Naniko asked, looking perturbed.
Sango shook her head. "No, no not at all." She laughed nervously. "I am Sango. Please, just Sango. And to answer your question, no I haven't eaten." Her stomach let out an embarrassingly loud growl.
Naniko laughed. "Come along, my sister has a tendency to cook more than we could eat. I'm sure she has some for you. Has your companion risen? If not I can have 'Nee-chan save some for him."
"Do you always speak with the people under the curse while everyone else…" Sango trailed off, trying to figure out a way to tactfully finish her sentence.
"Ignores them? Yes, I found that for the most part, the curse victims are fascinating people."
Sango was beginning to wonder if Naniko ever shut up.
*~*
[Miroku walked through a village; looking at it, it was almost identical to the one he and Sango were staying in, only livelier.
He saw three people, one obviously a miko, another a houshi, sitting in front of the shrine, the two teaching the third how to play go as a group of children played in front of the shrine with a white ball.
The houshi laughed silently, amused by what the miko had said, obviously ignoring the scowl as she moved a white piece. The third person looked up from the board, straight into Miroku's eyes, and smiled, a little half smirk, half grin. She turned back to the board, and Miroku shivered.
In the eerie silence, the only noise was the rustling of the peach tree's leaves next to the shrine.]
*~*
Still asleep, Miroku rolled over on his side, pulling his right hand up to cradle loosely next to his chest.
*~*
[The miko turned to look to where the third was looking. Turning back, Miroku saw her lips move, but heard no sound. The houshi glanced up as well, but only between the two women. Miroku tried to walk towards them, but found himself immobile.]
*~*
Outside, the sun beat down on the packed dirt of the path, and the peach tree swayed in the still air.
*~*
The old miko sat in front of the shrine, teaching a few of the villagers to play go. She was oblivious to the warm sun shining in her eyes. Her white pieces outnumbered the black.
*~*
Inside a house, Sango was helping Naniko and her sister to prepare a meal. She had been delegated the task of chopping based on her profession. If she was going to cut her fingers off, she'd have done it with her sword by this point. She and Miroku had agreed that she shouldn't broadcast her amnesia to the villagers.
So Sango was chopping vegetables, and listening to the sisters ramble.
"Do you think over dinner Mother will tell that story again?"
"No… She seems different, this time."
"But shouldn't they be allowed to know about it?"
"Naniko! Hush. Mother will tell them all they need to know. You stay quiet about things that don't concern you. You know very well that the curse won't be broken, so why bother discussing it?" her sister snapped.
Naniko meekly shushed.
Sango pretended to be more deeply involved in chopping vegetables than she actually was. "When did the curse arrive?" she asked finally.
"Years ago. No one remembers."
"They say it's been a part of this village since before the elder was born," Naniko piped up.
Sango made a noncommittal noise. "How many has it claimed?"
"Many," she replied. "Though… you two make only the third couple we've been alive to see. Mother has a list of all of their names in the shrine."
Naniko's sister sniffed disapprovingly at the two younger girls gossiping, turning back to stirring the soup.
Naniko shot her sister a worried glance. She knew she was treading on thin ice.
Sango decided to change the subject. Quickly. "Why are there no children?" she asked.
"Bad luck," Naniko's sister injected quickly. "Bad harvests, miscarriages and a lack of good fortune." She squarely met Sango's gaze, refusing to be the first to look away.
Sango held her gaze for a few long moments before ducking her head. "I apologize for being too inquisitive."
She couldn't shake the feeling that the siblings were hiding something.
*~*
Later that afternoon, Sango was carrying a dish of food back to the inn's room she and Miroku were sharing when she saw the houshi flirting with the innkeeper's oldest daughter, a homely woman of twenty six. She growled, and pushed the food in his arms as she passed, ignoring his calling after her. She was fighting back a strong wave of memories she wasn't sure she wanted to see, and she collapsed onto a futon, staring up at the peach tree's branches.
Silently berating herself over her naïveté, she succumbed to the memories, closing her eyes, partly dreading and partly eagerly anticipating, and pillowing her head on her arms.
"HENTAI!" *smack*
"Would you please bear my child?"
Sango smiled wryly. His behavior was almost amusing in retrospect.
"After all this business with Naraku is over, would you stay with me?"
"Because you're a special girl to me."
His eyes, shut as he shared a kiss with the person putting them up for the night.
His eyes, panicking as she left.
Her, stomping away in anger, refusing to put up with it any longer.
Her, running away from the danger her own heart posed.
Him, groping her for the millionth time.
Sango turned these events over in her head, not wanting to accept he wasn't everything he had appeared that night she had met him in the clearing.
Sniffling softly, she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand.
*~*
Miroku stopped outside the doorway, looking in. He was, if he was going to be truthful, a little scared of apologizing to her. She couldn't push him further away if he avoided her. But he looked in, and saw her lying on her back dejectedly.
"Sango, I-" he started.
"Leave it, houshi-sama," she stated flatly. "I don't want to hear it. Again." She got to her feet and glared at him. "I just remembered why I left in the first place."
She pushed by the stunned houshi, and went outside.
*~*
As the sun was falling beneath the horizon, Sango's anger had cooled enough (as had her skin) that she felt she could at least face the houshi.
"Why am I traveling with you?" she asked after a long period of silence. "I remember my village… and… Kohaku…" she said slowly.
Miroku sat back and began to recount the bare bones of the tale of how the four of them had begun to travel together to seek vengeance against Naraku. "I am sorry, Sango. Flirting has been my method of gathering information for so long, it's more like my first nature than second by this point."
Sango nodded, glancing out the window. She stopped dead in her tracks, before jumping to her feet and running to the window.
"It's him!" she exclaimed.
AN- Couldn't resist leaving it on that note… So, yes, there will be a little more of Day II next chapter. Then it's onto Day III. Where Sango proves she can be domestic. But anyhoo. Thank you to everyone who has put up with me thus far. I have this entire story plotted out until the end. And btw, Shippou apparently does not exist. He's annoying.
Review responses:
Aamalie: You have to be the fastest e-mailer on the face of the planet… ^^ I'm amazed. Did I update soon enough for you? And I do hope my characterization's at least more consistent than JKR's is.
Kyosnekozukigirl: HARU!! *squeals*
rain angst: Is that a good great or a bad great or a I'm responding to see what you say great? ^^