I'm glad I finally got my butt working on a chapter this time! Whee! As I was reading, I realized something kinda funny….Inuyasha has like two lines throughout the whole story….kinda ironic…because it is an Inuyasha story. Heh. Anyways. Have fun!

Kagome glanced into the dim, firelit room. After her eyes adjusted, she saw exactly the same scene she had witnessed hours before.

Miroku, still sitting hunched over Sango's sleeping form. As the image sharpened further, she noticed the expression on his face- the pure, raw agony she'd seen there earlier had been pushed away by sheer and utter exhaustion.

His devotion touched her, though. She knew that he was in a lot of pain and it had drained his strength, but he still kept a constant vigil over Sango.

Quietly stepping into the room, she whispered, "Miroku, you should rest. You look tired."

His eyes shifted from Sango's face to hers, and she noticed the bags under his eyes.

"I am fine, Kagome. I will be fine."

"But it's been nearly a day, Miroku! You need to keep your health up too, you know."

"I do not care about myself."

Kagome, looking at him then, believed it. His whole right arm was nearly faded away, and she could see the blazing fire through him.

"Okay, then. All right."

She heard him mumble something as she turned around to leave.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I made a promise to myself. After she left, I told myself that I would never let her slip away again. I have to do everything to prevent it. You must understand."

She picture herself in a similar situation with Inuyasha. "Wakateru." She turned around and left the room.

Inuyasha was waiting outside. "Well?" He asked.

She shook her head. "Miroku's been keeping a constant watch on her. I'm worried about him…about both of them. He's so devoted to her…I think it's sweet."

Inuyasha made a disgruntled noise. "Who would have thought anyone would ever use that word to describe Miroku, the delinquent houshi?"

She smiled a little, a tentative act in the cloud of grimness. "He really does love her. If only she could have seen him now."

When she went back into the room early the next morning, the fire had gone out, and the room was chilled. On the floor were two figures- Sango, lying placidly and almost ghostlike in the same position, and Miroku, fast asleep next to her. He'd curled up next to her and one of his arms was draped protectively around her

shoulders.

So it finally caught up to him, she thought, smiling.

Grabbing a blanket, she covered it over them and re-lit the fire. Then she left the room so they could sleep.

When Miroku awoke the next day, he felt better-physically at least. Suddenly the past few days' events washed over him, and he once again buried his head under the blankets. It wasn't a nightmare, then. It had all been real….

But at least she was alive. Yesterday-or had it been two days ago?- when he'd laid his ear to her heart, hoping to hear something, anything, he'd been met with silence.

He didn't know what had happened. After that, the world became fuzzy, and the hellish nightmare images he saw with his eyes and inside his head had blurred together to become one melted torrent of blackness.

When Miroku awoke hours later,  he was lying down on a straw floor, and slowly the room came into focus- he was at Kaede bachan's house.

"Where's Sango?" He'd asked, but hands pushed him down, explaining slowly, as if he were a child, the situation. She's resting peacefully, they told him. You needn't worry yourself at all.

But their indifference made him angry, and he pushed past them all to Sango, who was lying spread out on the ground like a flower. And that was where he stayed, until…

He must have fallen asleep, then. Someone, maybe Kagome, had covered them with a blanket. Drawing in a long, shuddery breath, he faced Sango once again.

Looking at her made him hurt inside. Knowing that this beautiful warrior was now reduced to a mere patient, relying on others, made him queasy.

He yawned, stretched, and sat up, his eyes flying to her face the second they opened.

Her eyes were shut, but suddenly he heard a small sound, something in the back of her throat. Moaning.

Instant terror filled him-was she in pain? Was she about to wake up? He didn't want to admit it, but the thought of her awakening induced as much fear in him as her dying.

When she woke up, things would continue to commence at the ugly pace they'd been going at before.

Just thinking about it made him writhe inside with discomfort, but strangely, the sight of Sango's eyes regarding him brought a strange calmness that quelled him inside.

Wait…..

Sango's eyes?

"Sango!" He cried, his voice sounding too loud in the tiny room. He reached foreword and touched her butt just to make sure she was really awake.

The effect was immediate, but it wasn't the one he'd been hoping for. Instead of slapping his hand away or whacking him over the head, she leapt up and shot away from him as if he'd pressed a chunk of hot coal to her face.

"Get away from me…don't touch me," she whispered. But it wasn't a whisper of fury. Her voice was taut with fear, something he'd never heard in Sango's voice before.

"Sango….doushite?"

She didn't respond; her eyes were searching frantically for an exit

He stood up and began to advance towards her. "Come on, you can tell me. But maybe you'd better lie down first. And with me, if possible."

Miroku had never considered himself to be menacing but….as he stepped towards her she screamed. Loudly.

"Stay away from me, you creep!!!"

Miroku was too busy marveling at the loss of his eardrums to notice Kagome and Inuyasha rushing into the room.

"What are you doing to Sango?" Demanded Kagome. He looked at her.

"I merely….touched her...but I would think she would be used to it by now."

They all turned to face Sango, who was looking more and more like a trapped kitten by the second.

Kagome, smiling, approached her. "I'm sure that you don't feel quite like yourself, Sango chan, but with a little more rest you're sure to be- "

But Sango cut her off with three little words that silenced the entire room. "Who are you?"


The six of them sat in a small circle around Kaede bachan's fire pit. Inuyasha, his face looking as gruff as ever, looked angry that Sango was inconveniencing them in their journey. Kagome, her eyebrows drawn tightly together in worry, was nibbling on her pinkie finger nail. Shippou, sniffling slightly. Kaede bachan herself, who had a grim expression on her face.

And then there was Sango, whose eyes darted worriedly from face to face, searching for signs of recognition.

Miroku's eyes were downcast. He couldn't look up. If he looked up, he would see Sango's perplexed expression, and that would make it real. So instead he looked at the dirt.

"She's lost her memory, then." Kagome repeated Kaede bachan's last statement in a dull tone.

"Hai, and it was because she was being controlled by a Shikon no Kakera, as her brother was. But when he was free from Naraku's control, he couldn't remember her…or anything about his old life."

Old life….

Sango-for that was her name, right? At least, that was what they had been calling her. This girl had an old life with all these people who obviously cared about this girl Sango.

But she had no idea who she was supposed to be.

It was all so utterly terrifying to have no idea who she was. There were many things she could run away from, but this wasn't one of them. People can't run from their own minds, she thought. I'm stuck.

"So when will she regain her memory?" Butted in Shippou.

They all looked first at him, then focused their gazes on Kaede bachan. She looked from face to face, finally resting on the blank stare that the taiji-ya emitted.

For a moment she sat in silence, just looking at all the young faces around her, waiting tensely for an answer, hopeful but at the same time dreading it. Telling the truth would be just as terrible as keeping it hidden.

"…She may not."

For a moment her voice wavered in the silence. Protests rose inside Miroku, but he struggled to force them down. There was no use arguing when it wouldn't get him anywhere. Instead, he stood up and exited the room.

"Come get me if you need me. I'll be out in the woods."

The footsteps were soft, forced silence, but he heard them anyways. Instead of turning around, he let the person approach. They sounded unfamiliar, but at the same time he knew the bearer of them was friendly.

"Ano…"

"Yes?" Miroku asked tersely.

She-for he'd determined from their careful placement on the soil that it was a she-walked past him and sat down.

"Kagome sama?"

Her eyes were only sad.

"I was just checking…to see if you were okay." He looked up and saw her eyes resting on him, holding pity.

"Let's go back now, okay, Miroku?" She held out a hand, and he took it. As they started walking back together, he realized her fingers were lingering in his loosely. His first instinct was to drop her hand, but something inside him wouldn't let him.

Then he realized-he needed someone, a friend.

"Just hang in there," she was saying, and he was met with a smile. Then she gave his hand one final squeeze and dropped it.

Sango sat alone in the room that she'd awoken to. It had been two days since she'd awoken, and Inside, she felt dead. The deeper she tried to dig, the more solid rocks she hit. She struggled to match her capture fragments of each event thus far to something in her past, but every time she came up with a total blank.

It was as if there was a solid wall protecting her from her memories that she knew were there.

At least….she hoped they were there.

But dammit! She knew it wasn't a lie because this proof was all around her, almost as if tantalizing her. It seemed that if she could only reach out and grasp it, she might be able to remember something, anything.

The room was too silent. It was like having a one-sided conversation with someone- it was only her and her mind, and her mind wasn't telling her a single thing.

She stood up to leave, her intention to seek out one of the people-maybe the girl with the kind face would tell her who she was supposed to be, where she was, and what in the world was going on.

She was staring at the floor when she exited the room, and as she took a step outside she ran directly into a man.

Quickly she looked up and saw that it was that lecher, the one that looked like a houshi. But he couldn't be a houshi, could he? Houshis didn't grope girls.

"Gomennasai," she mumbled, wanting to escape him as quickly as possible. He wasn't dangerous, she knew that now. But she didn't want to have to deal with his antics anymore.

"Sango, matte," he said, and after a second of thought she turned around. Yes, Sango. Her.

"Hai?" What did he want now?

"Do you need anything? Food? Water, maybe? I could get it for you if you want."

"It's all right." She said, turning away again.

Sango didn't know what made her turn back, but she did.  Though the expression on his face was fleeting, she caught a glimpse of it.

It was mostly in his eyes, because his mouth was still in the same straight, set line. But his eyes were so incredibly sad, vibrating with a strange sort of agony.

However, the moment he caught her gaze, the look was gone.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Hai," he said, eyes resting on her patiently.

"Can you tell me who I am?"

And as those words passed over her lips, she saw a tremor pass through his face. He struggled to keep the calm, peaceful expression on his face that was almost always present, but a heartbroken expression fought for control.

As she watched him, she thought, this man must have cared a lot about this…Sango. About me. But she could barely make an assumption, so she banished the thought.

"You're Sango. You're a warrior, you're passionate. You're kind and sweet and you fight with honor," He replied, his voice dwindling near the end of the statement. You are.

She is, he thought, she is. Not was. Never was. He would get Sango back, no matter what it took.

Kaede bachan had told him that certain things might trigger memories, and so he would do everything he possibly could to get Sango back.

In the meantime….it just hurt.

"Who are you?" She continued, tilting her head in a way Miroku found appealingly cute.

"I'm Miroku."

"Miroku…"she repeated.

 And though his name was the word he'd longed to hear uttered out of her mouth, it made him feel worse.

Her eyes flew open, and she watched the last gory image from her dream fading away into the straw blackness of the ceiling.

For a moment Sango struggled to control her racing heart, and though the image was fast-fading,  her body still trembled with fear.

But one word stuck out in her mind. "Ko…Kohaku…."

"Sango?"

The whisper slid through the darkness, making her jump, despite its smoothness. Instantly she recognized it-it was the houshi-look-alike. After their short talk this afternoon, she hadn't said any more to him.

"Are you always around?" She asked, still staring at the wall.

He laughed, a soft sound in the darkness. For some reason, it made goose bumps erupt on her skin.

"I am a houshi, after all. I have amazing powers of perception."

She turned around to face him and saw his form faintly illuminated in the room.

"You're not a houshi."

"I am a houshi."

"But…but houshis don't grope girls!"

"I do."

That silenced her, because there was no arguing with that.

"Well…well…why are you such a pervert?"

He got up and sat down next to her, uncomfortably close.

"Because I love girls." Suddenly she felt something on her chest and she saw his hand resting on it decidedly.

Sango blushed and jerked away. "Don't touch me," she said, standing up. "I don't know who you are, but I don't know how this Sango tolerated you for so long."

Sango didn't know what to think at this point. Here was this man who had obviously been a friend of hers sometime, but she knew nothing more of him other than he was a fairly good-looking hentai houshi.

"But I still don't believe you're a houshi," she countered under her breath.

Miroku stood up, too, and she realized she had been standing but not planning on going anywhere, but simply glowering in the indignance of his impertinent  manner.

His flirtatious expression had been replaced with a serious one.

"Sango, may I ask of you something?"

What's with this guy? She thought, his moods are so erratic…

"I might have made a….distinctly undesirable first impression on you, Sango. But that also happened a long time ago, when we first met. You learned to see past it

after a while. So please…could you just…trust me? I only wish to protect you."

Her sharp gaze softened a little, but her walls still stayed up. "Why should I trust you?" She asked suspiciously, "What if I trust you, and then the next thing I know you wanna get me in bed?"

He stared at her incredulously for a moment before a smile pulled the corners of his mouth up a bit, as much as he tried to resist it. "Have you ever heard of a houshi's promise?"

She shook her head.

"When you become a houshi, you must always keep your promises. It's something we're known for."

"And?"

"I promise not to try any of that, Sango." And then he was smiling again.

Sango blinked. Suddenly, deep down, that smile echoed, in a place that was blackness filled with shades of grey. And along with the familiarity of the situation came a rushing emotion- for a second, her heart thrummed happily before settling down as the flash passed.

"Sango? Doushite?" Miroku was alarmed by the sudden pallor her face had taken on.

"Nani mo…" She sat back down on the futon, and the houshi-what was his name again? oh yes, Miroku- joined her.

"Can I ask you something now?"

"Hai," He replied, sitting back expectantly. Before she opened her mouth, she marveled at the way the shadow chiseled one side of his face, making it look all the more attractive. Stop it! She yelled at herself, you know nothing of this man!

But yet, at the same time, she felt only good vibes emitting from him. Something inside told her he was honestly a good person underneath all his lecherous habits. Taking a deep breath, she asked, "Did you like….well…what I'm trying to say is….were you in….did you care for this girl Sango?" It felt strange to refer to herself as "this girl, Sango," but it seemed too strange to attach her old name to herself now…when she was definitely nothing like Sango had been.

"Sango…" He eyes changed suddenly into that sad, despairing expression again that hurt something deep inside her. "Yes…I cared about her more than I ever had about anyone before," he replied frankly, "That is why I just want you to trust me, because I'll always be here."

"Arigatou," she said softly, "I'm getting a little bit sleepy now. Let's go back to sleep."

"Together?" He asked brightly, and she only smiled.

 "Maybe later," she replied flirtatiously, but he had already returned to his own bed.

His head was unadulterated by any smarting lumps after that comment, and even though he didn't want to admit it….he missed it. Sango would never have said something like that…but it seemed like the Sango he once knew was hiding, or worst of all…gone.

Awwww ;_; writing this chapter made me sad! I'm really getting into writing this now, so I think I'll go start the next chapter right now ^-^  I love reviews! *hint hint*

x~Aurora chan