Chapter 18-Miroku and Inuyasha attempts of comforting people

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It was a dark night; the whole household was quiet as a small, cold wind blew through the small trees in the garden.

In that garden, in a small corner, five mounds of earth were placed next to each other, with stones on top of them.

A small bit of earth fell from one of the mounds, then another. Unless one was looking closely, they wouldn't have seen it. Then a huge pile of earth went shooting up and crashing back down, leaving a bloodied hand in its place. The hand grabbed onto the mound on which it had shot out of and pulled itself up. An arm followed the hand, then a shoulder and a head.

Sango climbed her way out of her grave, her teeth gritted hard and her eyebrows knitted together in pure frustration and desperation. She heaved her body up and crawled out of the hole.

"Curse it." She spat, anger evident on her face. "I will NOT die here."

A handsome, dark, boy walked from behind a huge stone. His eyes widened when he saw the girl, covered in blood, sweat and mud, crawling out of her would-be grave.

"Madame exterminator!" He exclaimed quietly. "You're alive!"

Sango glared up at the boy, her eyes were dark, as she lay there on her stomach, speechless.

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Kagome was horrified. Sure she's seen this kind of stuff on T.V., but nothing prepared her for the real thing. Hundreds of dead bodies were strewn about the village, almost artistically. Some were human; some were demon and some you couldn't tell. The enormous spiked barriers had been destroyed and the fort was open to anyone. There was a horrible, eerie silence as the group slowly stepped into the ex-village.

Kagome put a shaky hand over her mouth. Miroku and Shippou looked thoroughly depressed at the scene and Inuyasha was scanning the place, checking for movement. After finding none, he turned around to face Kagome. She was shaking and her eyes were wide.

"They fought courageously." Miroku whispered. "Nearly everyone took a demon with them."

Suddenly, Kagome's legs decided to fail her as she fell to the ground in shock. Inuyasha leapt to her aid and caught her just as she hit the ground. He put a comforting arm around her as she began to cry loudly.

Shippou looked around and gasped. "Movement!" He cried pointing in front of him.

Kirara came into view, a demon's head clenched tightly in its jaws. Instead of being the cute little cat youkai that the group had met when they first came to the village, Kirara was now at least six foot tall with huge fang and dark angry eyes. Seeing Sango's companions, it spat the head out onto the carpet of bodies and proceeded to turn back into its cute, chibi form with a whirl of flames.

It looked sweetly at the group before quickly turning its eyes towards the entrance of the fort. A small figure was leaning against the wooden barriers.

"Sango!" Kagome cried, getting up and running towards the figure. The others followed.

Sango looked weary and completely tired. She looked up when she heard her name being called. Kagome stopped dead in her tracks, a few inches from Sango.

"Sango chan, what's wrong?" She asked, seeing the anger and homicidal intent in Sango's face and eyes. Sango looked around at the carnage and death before letting out an ear-piercing scream and falling onto her knees.

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They had camped outside the fort for the night. Sango had reluctantly and quietly relayed the events of the extermination of the spider demon. After many tears and a whole lot of 'it's all my fault!' Sango ended up running into the bushes, followed by Miroku and Shippou, telling Kagome and Inuyasha to stay where they were.

Inuyasha discreetly looked at Kagome. She was still sad from the death of all the villagers and Kohaku. "Kagome?" He asked nervously. "Daijoubu?"

She turned to face him, her eyes still wet from where fresh tears had been falling.

"Yeah." She said weakly. "I'm fine....fine."

Inuyasha slowly slid along the ground to sit next to Kagome. Then, ever so carefully, he put his hands on her head and gently led her head onto his lap. She sighed, closing her eyes and falling into a deep sleep.

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Miroku found Sango close to the fort. She was sitting by the broken entrance, her head in her hands. Shippou had gone in the other direction looking for Sango.

Taking a big breath, Miroku quietly walked up to Sango.

When Miroku's shadow loomed over her, Sango looked up. She still had the mud on her face and the blood on her hands. She basically looked a state. Sitting down next to her, Miroku fiddled with his prayer beads. After a huge awkward silence, Miroku finally gave a nervous cough.

"I know...you've been through a lot Sango chan." He began. "And I can't even begin to understand your pain. But I just want you to know that we're here for you." He paused, avoiding eye contact. "I'm here for you."

It wasn't exactly what he meant to say. It was supposed to have nice background music and they were supposed to share a kiss or something. But still, that's how it went. So, blushing, Miroku stood up, he didn't know how to make Sango feel better, so he decided that he probably shouldn't try incase it made her feel worse. He walked away, only to be stopped short by Sango holding onto his clothes. She was still sitting down and tears were still in her eyes but she smiled faintly.

"Arigatou." She said, before bowing her head and crying. Miroku took his original position next to her and hugged her as hard as he could.

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"So Kirara, is there a Mr. Kirara?" Shippou asked distracted. He was sitting in a tree with Kirara. He felt kind of left out. Inuyasha had Kagome, Miroku had Sango, but he didn't really have anyone. Sighing, he picked a leaf off of the tree and rolled it about in his small fingers. When he got bored of it, he let the leaf float gracefully to the ground.

"Well, THIS is boring."

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They left early in the morning. Kagome had woken up in Inuyasha's arms, then Inuyasha had woken up and quickly pushed her off with a 'feh', then denied all accusations of actually caring about Kagome the night before.

Sango had woken up with her head against Miroku's, which was snoring loudly. She gently woke him up and they made their way back to Inuyasha and Kagome.

Shippou had woken up upside-down in the tree. He saw Kirara watching him amusedly as he thrashed and tugged, and then fell out of the tree, landing on his head.

While Inuyasha and Miroku were getting ready, Kagome and Sango quickly made a wooden cross and put it by the entrance to the fort. After a minute of silence, Sango kissed the cross and, looking back once more, she made her way to the silent group and they continued on their journey.

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RIGHT! I'm soooo finished. Hey I actually updated quickly! HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Ok, it's late, but still. We only got two trick-or-treaters. We don't celebrate it as much as America and elderly people of people who didn't want kids knocking at their door, had signs saying 'no trick-or-treaters', because the elderly people were scared of the costumes the kids had! I didn't go out, I stayed at home eating the Haribo and watching 'The Halloween Tree'. I've only ever been trick or treating once. Oh well.

My new addiction is...Teen Titans! Yaaaay, my brother HATES the theme song, but it's catchy! I have one of Puffy's albums. ^.^

Yeah so that's my life!

Oh yeah, I'm also trying to find the pop version of Beauty and The Beast! I can't find it! Who was it done by? Anyone?!

Aaaaand HOW CAN YOU NOT OF HEARD OF BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE?! I wonder if it was released in the States. It's Michael Moore! Fat guy, exposes the American Government and Charlton Heston! FOR EXAMPLE-On the day of the Columbine Incident, America released the most amount of bombs on a country than ever before! Or something like that.

Ah well, perhaps it's better that you haven't seen it. It's scaaaaary!

See ya next time!

Sakura Clover