by Ironraven
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and company aren't mine. They are the property of Rumiko Takahashi-sama.
This is the afternoon/evening immediately after HH6: Truth. A quick look at the status board shows our heros in the following condition:
Inuyasha, concussion.
Kagome, possible broken ankle.
Sango, dislocated shoulder.
Kirara, stabbed.
Shippou, badly shell shocked.
Miroku, hiding like a craven coward.
Don't look too good, does it folks?
---
"Kaede, how long will that stuff make Sango sleep?" Kagome winced as her mentor pulled the wrappings tighter around the swelling ankle. She's hadn't been able to put weight on it, but it didn't have any further range of motion than it should, and there was no grinding feeling. The older miko had declared it badly sprained and twisted, but fortunately not broken.
"Hopefully she shall sleep the night through." Putting the metal clip that came with the bandage against the fabric, Kaede released it, letting it stretch back and capture the teeth of the impossibly light silvery stuff. "She needs her rest. Yea should not be trying to move on that yet. Is the pain bearable?"
Using one of Kaede's canes, Kagome levered herself to her feet, grunting softly as she put the weight on her foot. "Yeeaah. I took some aspirin, that should help with the swelling." Hobbling painfully, she made her way to her friend's side.
Asp... Oh, yes, the willow pills. "Yea should not be on that foot yet, Kagome." Shaking her head, the old woman was amazed by the stubbornness and strength of youth. Inuyasha had carried the girl here, or almost. He had finally collapsed from the pain or a cracked skull just outside the hut, spilling the young miko like a spilled sheaf of grass. "Sango will heal if she rests. Yea are both young, and strong; these are both minor injuries. Kirara's injuries, while serious, were healing before I saw them, and she too will be fine. Even Inuyasha is healing, but it will take him a little longer."
Looking down at the sleeping hunter, and the fire cat curled at her side, Kagome felt her lip start to tremble. "Kaede-sama, how can we do this?"
"Do what, child?"
"Defeat Naraku, find all the shards of the Shikon no Tama. Kiyoshi could have killed us all. I can't walk, Sango can't fight, and Inuyasha can't do either. Kiyoshi was just human. Naraku has more of the Jewel, and he is stronger than any of us."
---
Miroku stood along the side of the river, staring at it has hard as he could. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see Sango holding the dying form of Kiyoshi. His fingers angrily turned a small stone, trying to find a crack he could use to tear it apart. Sango mourns him, even after he became an enemy.
She never loved me, did she? Looking down at the stone in cloth covered hand, the young man curled his fingers around the innocent lump of rock, strangling it. I need to face it, she never really loved me. All I was was a shadow of Kiyoshi. We looked the same, we acted the same, we even sounded the same. I got played with, and she probably never even knew she was doing it. Angrily, he hurled the stone into the gently flowing water.
"Maybe it is time for us to go. What do you think, Hachi?"
Miroku waited a long moment, waiting for his companion's voice. "Hachi?"
Looking over each shoulder, Miroku sought any sign of his friend. Shoulders slumping, his voice was quiet as he called out again, "Hachi?"
Reaching for his staff, Miroku started walking. He could feel the small water flask he had made at his side, along with the bundle Inuyasha had given him; there was nothing else to pack. He didn't know where he was going, just so long as it was away from the village. How did Kagome describe it? Oh, yes, 'thataway'.
---
"Shippou?!" Kagome looked around, her face lined with concern. "Kaede? Have you seen Shippou?"
"Not since he returned with you and Inuyasha." Gently probing the skull of the hanyou, Kaede nodded in satisfaction. The bone was healing well, and the skin over it had long since closed. Just a matter of time until he woke. "Perhaps he needs some time to think about what happened to him today."
Straightening the blanket she had laid over Inuyasha, Kagome looked around again, as if expecting to see the boy if she just looked again. On it's own volition, her hand gave Inuyasha's ear a comforting rub. "I just want to be sure he's alright. He was upset."
Painfully pushing herself to her feet, Kagome glanced about, trying to think like a scared little boy. "Shippou, where are you?"
"Kagome, I am sure he is well and unhurt. And I have told yea to stay...," watching her student hobbling off toward the center of the village, Kaede's voice ran down. "... off the ankle."
---
The sun was yellow and bright in a cloudless sky, warm, not hot, even with a total lack of wind. Not a single sound could be heard in the forest, not a bird, nor a bug, nor twig cracking underfoot. The plants were alive, but missing their vibrancy, their vitality, like a faded painting. A sole figure stirred in the emptiness.
I don't remember getting here. Sango tried to remember how she had gotten into the forest, while also trying to figure out what was wrong in the forest itself. Where are my weapons? Looking down at her hands, the Huntress' eyes confirmed what her skin told her- she was not only unarmed, but her armour was missing. So long accustomed to the hug of the thin second skin, she felt naked despite her peasant's garb.
Walking down the side of the hill she was on, Sango looked for any signs of water. Follow a stream, and it becomes a river. Follow a river, it becomes the ocean, but it will have a village on it first. As she moved, there were no sounds other than the brush of fabric on fabric. Even more than the lack of her equipment, the lack of sound unnerved her.
Her feet didn't hurt her as she walked, as they had since being frozen late that winter. As she thought about it, neither did her back, for the first time in nearly two years. Looking down at her hands and forearms, they were smooth and unscarred. Her fingers told her that her face was likewise free of any raised remnants of old wounds. The scars that had become a part of her self identity were gone, not faded, but as if they had never been.
"Hello!" No echo answered her, nor did any voices, but she had heard her own voice. "At least I can still speak." She realized her mouth was dry, almost painfully so, while her belly was empty. Her parched mouth strengthen her desire to find water.
Almost as if she wished it into being, she found water as her leg sank nearly to the knee into a small brook. Only when she had pulled her foot out did she notice its noise, as if it had flown in silence until it realized there was someone to hear its babbling, but even its voice was muted into a gossipy whisper.
Kneeling beside it, Sango pondered the ill looking foliage around her, but the urge to drink was too powerful. She dipped both hands into the water, leaning over it. From within the flat-looking water, she saw her reflection.
The reflection's hair was bound back, as if for combat, the bone wedge of the Hairikitsu showing over it's shoulder. The clothes of a commoner were gone, replaced with mask and armour of a Youkai Taijya. Her reflection's face bled from the cuts and scrapes of years of youkai hunting, every single one of them at once. With eyes hard and angry, Reflection stared back at Sango with unconcealed hatred and disgust. Gasping in fright, Sango tried to pull her hands back.
"No you don't!" Reflection's hands broke the surface of the water, closing around Sango's forearms, pulling the girl closer to the water. Both Sango and Reflection were wrist deep in each other's realms.
Without having to look down, Sango could feel her Reflection's blood oozing from the wounds that should have been scars on her unmarked hands. "No, this can't be. This is impossible!"
Eyes narrowing to slits, Reflection shook her head. "You should have seen enough by now to know anything is possible, Sango."
Sango struggled, trying to break free, but she couldn't pull her hands free from the water. "Let go of me! Who are you?"
"I am you, Sango."
"What? You can't be, you are a reflection."
"I am the you who wouldn't quit. The one who wouldn't run away." The already cool voice dropped a notch, becoming wintry. "I'm not the you who could let him die."
Eyes widening in shock, Sango listened to her own voice, frozen by anger and muffled by a mask, coming to her from the water's surface. "But I had no choice, he would have killed Kagome!"
"No, he couldn't. He never could have hurt any of you. But you killed him, any way."
"But Kiyoshi was-"
Face twisting as if the words carried a stench so vial it bored through her mask, Reflection cut Sango off sharply, "KIYOSHI! This has nothing to do with that psychopath. He betrayed us twice. I killed him, because I had to. But you killed HIM!"
"Who?"
"Is your heart so fickle you have forgotten already?" Angrily, Reflection grabbed for Sango's shoulders, pulling them both elbow deep, until their faces were nearly touching. "Are you telling me you already forgot about Houshi-sama?"
Her Reflection's accusation stabbed into Sango's chest as she felt a tear slide down her cheek. "No. I will never forget him."
"Then why did you kill him?" A fiery tear of anger and betrayal fell from Reflection's cheek, colliding with Sango's chilled tear of loss at the water's boundary. The two tears cancelled each other, leaving no ripple or sign of their existences.
"I didn't! I loved him, I could never hurt him!"
In a voice chilled so low it should have instantly frozen the stream, Reflection spoke. "You lying tramp. You snuggled into Kiyoshi's arms so fast you couldn't even tell my Houshi who the other guy was. You tore out Houshi-sama's heart, and you didn't even care when you stepped on it."
"No, it wasn't like that. I loved him, but he never cared back, always chasing other women. You have no idea."
"Yes I do! He was protecting us from his curse. Or have you forgotten that night so soon? Or the beads around my leg, 'special girl'?"
"But he asked all those girls to bare his child. How could he do that if he loved me?"
"So you wouldn't die like his mother did. Don't you remember what he promised, what you promised? If you really loved him, you would have seen that he was protecting you. If you really loved him, you would have followed him the night he died. But you didn't, did you?" Waiting, Reflection glared furiously at Sango for a long moment, before giving her a shake, shouting the question again. "Did you?!"
Subdued and battered, Sango shook her head. "I'm sorry." She slumped in her Reflection's grip, sobbing, repeating those two words as a mantra.
"I am not the one who need to hear those words." Reflection shifted her grip, tightening her hold. "But you will be able to tell him soon enough."
Sango felt one hand move to the space between her shoulder blades, the other on the back of her head. Her eyes widened as she felt the pull of her Reflection, forcing her face through the surface of the water. Struggling, she pushed against Reflection, but that only seemed to pull Sango deeper into the water and tighter into the lethal embrace. A rouge part of her paniced mind observed that it was darker, colder underwater, but she could hear the insects and birds on this side of the river.
The bloodied, armoured version of the Huntress gasped and choked. As Reflection drank down what was to her water, she noticed as her eyes closed that while this side of the river was warmer, it was silent and lifeless.
---
Kagome hobbled back to Kaede's hut, frustrated and afraid, not having been able to find Shippou, and her ankle throbbing. Collapsing next to Inuyasha, she sighed in disgust.
"I see yea did not find him."
Kagome looked up at Kaede as she stepped from the hut. "No. It's getting dark out, where could he be? I'm worried about him."
Kaede settled herself into her doorway, watching the young woman as she checked her hanyou companion. "He is of an age where he is no longer a fully a child, but not yet a young man. Yea know as well as I do, Shippou can take care of himself."
"Yes, Kaede-obabaa, I can." Stepping from around the corner, Shippou moved slowly, carefully, making no noise except for soft squishing sounds. His clothes and fur were plastered to him, soaked with water, as if he'd been bathing for hours. In the darkening twilight, he seemed somehow taller than he had been earlier. His voice sounded hollow, just like it had earlier, sending chills down Kagome's back. "I can take care of myself very well now."
"Shippou! Where have you been?" Nearly ignoring the stabbing pain in her leg as she got to her feet, Kagome limped her way to him as quickly as her ankle would allow. "Where have you been? I was worried."
"I know." Shippou turned his head to face Kaede, his face blank. "Sango and Kirara, they are not seriously injured?"
"Nay, they will be well soon enough." Rising to her feet slowly, the miko slowly looked over the young youkai before her. "Kirara's injuries are nearly healed, and Sango's shoulder will be well enough with some time to mend."
Kagome likewise allowed herself to examine her ward, looking past him, to his ki. "Shippou, are you ok?" Showing her concern, she reached out, resting her hand gently on his shoulder. The kitsune shrugged her hand away, and started to walk past her. With every beat of her heart, Kagome grew more concerned, and put her hand on his shoulder again. "Shippou?"
This time, Shippou pulled himself away from her touch violently, twisting to face her. Teeth bared in a snarl, a sheath of blue flame enshrouded him like a second fur. "DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Kagome yanked her hand back, raising them both to her face in shock and fear. "Shippou?"
"No one touch me! I'm a monster, and it's all his fault." Despite the anger of the words, the last sentence was delivered in a flat, cold voice. Turning away, he moved closer to Inuyasha, until he was standing at the hanyou's side, looking down at him.
In a voice trained by years of dealing with people in various states of mental disarray, Kaede spoke quietly, but firmly. "Who's fault, Shippou?"
Continuing in the soft, chilled voice, Shippou spoke. "Inuyasha's. He taught me to fight. To win, he said. All he did was make into a monster, a killer. Just like HIM!" The last word broke through whatever emotions were struggling in the boy, rising into a shout, with a physical punctuation mark provided by kicking Inuyasha in the ribs.
Horrified and angered by the attack, Kagome's voice was a shriek, "Shippou! NO!"
As if the blow stirred something, a low but steady voice rose from Inuyasha's lips. "Stay out of this, Kagome." Pushing himself into a kneeling position, Inuyasha sat before his attacker and friend. "You are saying this is my fault? Who was it who took the Jewel? Who was it who got it back?"
"I did, I got the Jewel back! You screwed up, you failed!"
"Yeah, I did." Kneeling there, his hands on his knees, head down, Inuyasha closed his eyes. "You didn't."
Shaking in his rage, Shippou's voice became a high pitched scream. "I killed him, just like you taught me to! I burned him and left him to die!" As viciously as his small body could, the youkai struck at the hanyou with his fists. "You made me into a monster, a murderer! Just one more who killed over the Shikon no Tama!"
For several minutes, Inuyasha allowed the attack to continue. As Shippou's blows start to slow, the hanyou snapped his hand up, grabbing the boy's wrist, halting the blow close enough for Shippou to feel Inuyasha's breath on his knuckles. Inuyasha's eyes were still closed when he reasied his head. "Shut up! You and Sango, you didn't fail. You saved yourselves, the Shikon no Tama, and Kagome. You did what you needed to do." Slowly, the half-demon opened his eyes, their yellows burning like miniature suns. "You did what I needed to do."
Squirming in his friend's grasp and gaze, Shippou tried to pull his hand from Inuyasha's. Hissing in rage, teeth bared, the boy's voice was nearly silent. "I hate you."
Such anger, such hatred, Kagome had never heard before from the kit. The display of rage had shocked both miko into silence, but the pure loathing of Shippou's words broke through. "Shippou, you can't meant that!"
Ignoring the girl behind him, Inuyasha's voice was low and calm, reasonable sounding. "Fine, you can get in line. Lots of people hate me, one more doesn't really matter. And you can leave; you, the monk, Sango, nothing is keeping any of you here."
Feeling like she was watching her world being shredded before her, Kagome couldn't allow herself to just watch. "Inuya-"
"No, I mean it. Shippou, if you hate me, go. Me and Kagome were finding shards just fine by ourselves, before any of you showed up. We don't need you." But it would be boring without you here, runt.
Kagome started to step forward, to separate the demons if she had to, when she felt a hand holding her back. "Nay, child, he is right. No one should be here if it is not their wish."
Looking at the faces of his friends, his family, Shippou slumped as much as he could with his wrist in Inuyasha's unyielding grip. With tears streaming down his cheeks, his voice was broken by sobs. "I want to stay."
Gently, Inuyasha released his hold, allowing the boy to sink to the ground. His voice was soft, and as kind as any had ever heard it. "You did what I taught you to do. And why I taught you to."
"Inuyasha, I'm sorry." Moving like lightening, Shippou wrapped his arms around the older demon's chest, sobbing into Inuyasha's chest. "I'm sorry."
Confused, Inuyasha clumsily ran his fingers along the back of his young friend's head. Blushing, he looked to Kagome for help.
Smiling in the dim light, Kaede saw the dog boy in a new light, in a way maybe no one had in a half century, other than Kagome. So, this is what they see in him.
Sinking to her knees beside the demons, Kagome's hand replaced Inuyasha's on the back of the child's head, stroking as the white haired youth cradled the boy in unsure arms. Kagome's voice was soft and soothing as she spoke, "It's ok, Shippou. We know, we know..." The older demon shook his head, surprising them all, as she tried to take his burden.
His face buried in the fabric on Inuyasha's shirt, the boy sobbed. "I can hear him. The screaming won't go away."
---
Coughing, sputtering, Sango woke to find herself in a river. Or at least what she could assume was a river. Looking about, she should see only the murky greyness of dense fog, evil smelling black water, and a nearby rock nearly lost in the fog. Either the rock was floating, or there was a current taking her towards it. Rocks don't float. I must have been hit harder than I thought.
Kicking towards the rock, she found it to be a mushroom-like pillar, with little purchase for her hands as she pulled herself onto it. Laying on the smooth, greyish stone she wrung the filthy fluid from her hair, then tried to wipe it off her skin as best she could. I have a dream about killing myself, and then I wake up naked in a river. What else can go wrong?
"Hello?"
Muted and distorted by the fog, something that may have been her own voice rumbled back clearly. "Hello."
"Where is this place? Am I dead?"
"Dead"
Oh. Shivering in the cool air, Sango curled against herself for warmth and comfort.
---
"Feh, he's finally asleep." Untangling himself from the exhausted grasp of the boy, Inuyasha passed Shippou to Kagome.
"What happened? He's been in fights before." Laying the kit at her side, Kagome covered him in the blankets that had been covering Inuyasha. "I haven't seen him this upset since we met him."
Standing and stretching, Inuyasha rolled his head about on his shoulders, his neck popping. "He hasn't had to kill anyone before. We've been the ones to save him; this time, he had to do it himself."
Running her fingers through the still river-damp hair of her young companion, Kagome traced her eyes along the new lines and strains in the boy's face. "You really think he killed Kaban?"
Sniffing gently, the hanyou's nose wrinkled and his ears swung back at the stench of burned fur, meat and grease that still clung to the boy. "Yeah, he did. Maybe not right away, but I doubt Kaban is still alive."
"How?" Stroking the boy as he slept, Kagome couldn't imagine him fighting the fully grown demon, or what it had done to him. "Kaban is so much bigger, Shippou couldn't have beat him, even if you had taught him everything you know."
So you know. Cringing slightly now that his secret was out, Inuyasha crossed his arms. "Kitsune-bi. Burned him to death." Shaking his head, Dog Boy changed the subject. "Is Sango sleeping?"
Returning from checking on the huntress, Kaede nodded. "Hai, it is better that Sango not wake too soon. She should wake in the morning. Kirara is nearly healed, she was stretching when I checked them."
"She didn't hear us? She slept through all of this?" Kagome looked through the door, at her friend.
Crouching down, Inuyasha picked up Shippou's sleeping form, and carried him inside without a word to either miko. As he passed, Kaede nodded. "Hai. The hunter can only hear us in her dreams." Smiling gently, the old woman passed her student the cane that had been dropped in Shippou's outburst. "Yea dropped this. If yea do not rest, at least use this, or do not come complaining to me if yea are left lame. And yea to need rest, Inuyasha."
Not stopping on his way past the women, Inuyasha walked in the direction of the battle, pausing to grab a pair of spades from the side of a nearby hut. "I've got something to bury."
Making his way to the spring where he last knew the monk to be camping at, Inuyasha expected to find the bouzu sleeping or meditating by a fire. Instead, he found a collapsed lean to, and a cold fire ring. Sniffing, Inuyasha turned to find himself face to face with Hachi. In his frustration, the hanyou bared his teeth unconsciously at the tanuki. "Where's the monk?"
Quivering slightly, Hachi took a step back. "Master Miroku left, shortly before sunset."
"Left where?" Inuyasha sniffed deeply, his ears twitching as he sorted through the scents.
"I don't think he knows."
"Feh," Shaking his head, muttered angrily as he started to walk off. "Fine, he can run. Who needs him around, anyways."
"Inuyasha, are you going to follow him? It might not be safe. He saw Lady Sango mourning Kiyoshi. He thinks he was a fool."
The words brought dog boy to a stop. "Maybe he is, but she cares for that pervert." Sighing, Inuyasha shook his throbbing head for probably the millionth time tonight. "Now what?"
Tilting his head, the tunuki had only one answer to the question. "Why did you come for him?"
"I was going to bury the bodies. I figured he could help with that much."
Shivering at the memories, Hachi felt a chill breeze wrap around his belly. "Body; Master Miroku took care of Kaban."
---
I'm dead, and I'm sitting naked on a rock. This isn't what I expected. Shivering, Sango watched the oppressive fog swirl around her, unsure if it was dawn, dusk, or even noon on a cloudy day. Is this hell? Or heaven? Or maybe the kami and hotoke are like merchants, and do no business before thier morning meal.
The fog swirled back on itself, a tendril of it reaching towards her. It seemed to throb and pulse for a moment, before a familiar voice come from it, but as if she was hearing from a distance. "You screwed up, you failed."
Eyes wide at the accusation, Sango shook her head angrily. "No, Shippou, you have it all wrong!"
The lower voice of Inuyasha came from behind her in the fog. "Sango... you saved yourself..."
Whirling, Sango felt her body take the accusing tone of the words like a blow, as a tear started to well in her eye. "You don't understand." "
Through the hissing anger, Sango could barely make out the kit's words. "I hate you..."
Ever syllable battered her, physically, mentally, forcing the huntress to her knees. "Kagome, tell them, tell them I had to save you. Please, I had to, Kiyoshi would have killed you if I went after the Jewel! If I had any other choice, I would have saved the Jewel!"
"You can't mean that."
"Ka-go-me?" Her voice cracking, Sango put her hands over her ears, trying to block the voices of her friends. "Please, tell them, I had no choice."
"You can leave... the monk, Sango, nothing is keeping any of you here."
"I didn't kill him, Inuyasha. Kagome, please, you must believe me." Feeling the tears flowing down her cheeks, Sango did nothing to stop them.
"No, I mean it... Me and Kagome were finding shards just fine by ourselves, before any of you showed up. We don't need you." Though his voice sounded nearly calm , Inuyasha's words tore into Sango's mind.
"It is better that Sango not wake." The kind, soft, motherly voice of Kaede slithered it's way through the mists. "Hunter? Only in her dreams."
Any further words from the elderly miko were shattered by Sango's shriek. "NO!! I'M NOT DEAD, I CAN'T BE! YOU ARE MY FRIENDS, MY FAMILY, HOW CAN YOU SAY THESE THINGS!"
"Because it is true, Sango-love." With the solidity and confidence of life, Kiyoshi strode from the fog, his footsteps leaving not even a ripple as he calmly crossed the surface of the water. "Every thing you are is because someone was able to support you."
Tears of fear and anguish running down her face, Sango recoiled from his touch on her cheek, of his finger lifting a tear.
Shaking his head slightly, Kiyoshi crouched before her, sliding his hands into the sleeves of his black hakima. "You were a hunter because your father spoiled you. You always needed someone to back you up on the hard ones. Sure, a centipede or a rat you could do, but not anything really challenging. You could have been a Hunter's woman, but you couldn't settle for that. No, you are too good for that, Sango, you had to be a Hunter and turn your back on tradition."
Shaking her head jerkily, Sango's voice was choked by sobs. "No, leave me alone. I killed you."
Kiyoshi settled back on his heels for a moment, his head tilted in thought. "I am not the only one. I would have used the Jewel to bring back our people, even your father. But you couldn't let that happen, could you? They all would have seen how much of a failure you are."
"No, you wouldn't bring them back, you are evil."
Slowly rising from his crouch, Kiyoshi's lips curled in a sad smirk. "You think you know my heart, Sango-love? You don't even know your own. If you knew mine, I never would have chased other women. You are cold and unfeeling, like bedding a lizard. Our village, your father, your brother, if you'd been a better hunter, Sango, they would still be alive."
"You used me, you betrayed us!"
"I loved you, Sango. If you had loved me back, it wouldn't have happened like that."
Face twisting in rage, Sango's mind flooded with the memories of finding Kiyoshi with that other woman. "LIAR!"
Smiling in painful satisfaction, Kiyoshi crossed his arms across his chest. Shaking his head, his torso started to slide aside along the line left by Sango's blade, smoothly and silently, like two blocks of metal separated by oil. With a soft splash, his upper half landed in the foul water. Sango could only stare in shock as his two halves were swallowed by the inky river. As his head went under, he uttered his last words. "You broke my heart."
For a long time, Sango sat there, staring at the place her former betrothed has stood. At first, she thought it was her making the noises, but they grew louder behind her. A whimper of pain, from within the fog, male, and familiar. Fresh tears, these happy, sprung to her eyes. "Houshi-sama! Over here!"
The river carried Miroku, curled in pain atop a rock like her own, floating down the river. Sango blushed at his nakedness, then at her own. "Houshi-sama!"
As he came closer, Sango could see him more clearly. He was holding his hands before him, palms pressed together. His rock bobbed a little when he raised his head. "No, Sango, stay back."
Kneeling on her steady rock, Sango reached for him and his platform, straining. "I can help, I can save you."
Shaking head bitterly, Miroku curled himself tighter around his hands. "No body can, I'm dead."
"I can try, please, reach for my hand, Houshi-sama!" Sango's fingers brushed the rock, pushing it away. "No! Give me your hand, Houshi-sama."
"Why? You didn't even give me a marker."
"I'm sorry. Take my hand! Come back to me, and I can save you."
"Save me for what? It is too late now"
"No, it isn't. Just give me your hand. I lo..," as she spoke he started to pull his hands apart, his eyes on her outstretched fingers. But as his palms separated, the Kazanna opened, pulling him into it with a whistling pop. In less than a second, he was gone. "..ve you. No. No. NO!!"
The pure whiteness of the fog rushed in to swallow her, blocking the sight of the slowly sinking beads that were all that was left of Miroku. Cold, cruel laughter rippled out of the white fog that surrounded her. An evil sound that had burned into her mind years ago. "Ku-ku-ku-ku"
---
In the morning sunlight, Inuyasha crouched protectively on a roof top, his hands on the wood to help remind him the world wasn't moving. Inside, Kaede was checking on the sick and young, Kagome and Shippou helping and observing. The boy had been quiet when he woke, but it seemed his rage was spent. At some point in the night, Myouga had returned.
"And you held him, Master Inuyasha? Why, it is so unlike you to be parental."
"I don't' know. Maybe because you left when I was about that age, flea, leaving me totally alone. I ain't gonna do that to Shippou. No one is abandoning him."
"Master, you know that I had taught you what I could. There were things that needed attending to, and I returned as soon as I could." Kneeling on the hanyou's shoulder, the jiji bowed humbly. "You knew everything you needed to; you seem to have been unaffected by it. If anything, it made you stronger."
"Yeah, you did teach me. How to read, how to write, how to behave around nobles. What to eat, how to hunt, how to light a fire, I had to teach myself those things, so don't tell me it made me stronger." In his anger, Inuyasha brought his hand down, squishing the flea, before flicking him to the ground. Seeing the others leaving the hut, Inuyasha jumped to the next roof line, following, not taking his eyes from them. At one point, Shippou looked up at him and smiled, just a little, then Kagome turned, and she smiled a lot. Even though he wasn't really aware of it, Inuyasha grinned in return.
The scent of fear from his comrades pulled Inuyasha from his haze. They were gathered around the entry to Kaede's hut, gasping. Half-drawing his sword, Inuyasha leapt down. "What is it?"
"Sango. She's gone."
Inside, the normally tidy hut was slightly out of order, as if someone had packed in a hurry and just as quickly tried to cover it up. There was no hunter asleep on the floor, nor was there a firecat. A quick sniff told Inuyasha's hanyou senses they had been gone for a while now. In their place, lay a piece of Kagome's paper, and one of her funny ink-sticks.
Kaede picked it up, and started to read. "Aye, this eye of mine is getting old. Kagome, if yea would."
With trembling hands and voice, Kagome read the carefully drawn letter. 'Dear everyone.
'I am leaving. I see now that I have done more to harm than to help over the years. You are right, I am a failure, and I beg your forgiveness. If I had been a true Youkai Taijya, I would have been stronger. Houshi-sama would be alive, and Kiyoshi never would have endangered you. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have woken up, but I did. Your mercy shall forever be a mystery, but I thank you for it. I love you all- you gave me a family, as much as my own did. Please do not follow.
'-Sango'
---
Author's notes:
Was I rough on the kid? Maybe. Contrary to popular fiction, inflicting serious or fatal bodily harm on another rarely causes you to have an immediate, live altering realization, as you are more concerned with staying alive. The "holy shit, I just killed someone" happens after the adrenalin wears off, your heart slows down, and you can think about it.
And for those of you who don't know the kuku, that is the white cloak that was mentioned in the Prolouge's AN. I just realised Naraku doesn't sound like that in the dubs on CN.