Nikita stumbled to her house. She felt weak, just as the forrest was. Without blood, we are nothing. Blood is everything. It is our will, our emotions, our life. Without this blood, we would be empty shells. Vegetables. Plant life, barely capable of feeling. We would not have love.

"Inuyasha... Why do you love her so? What makes her different?"

Nikita crawled to her door, and rested against it.

"You loved Kikyo, I remember that, but you never trusted her. You had emotions swelling within you that you had never felt before. What happened in those fifty years? Why have you grown gentler?" Nikita sighed, and stood. She would need to say her farewells soon. The forrest was dying, and her life, along with it.

The last of the Mediae.

Kaede sat, staring at the wall, as she mixed some herbs together for Kagome's fever.

"THis child is dying" She thought. "Kagome, no matter what Inuyasha or Miroku say, you have made this world a little easier for each of them to bare. Sango as well. You have saved everyone of your friends souls, and happiness. Countless people that would have been stricken by death are saved because of you." Kaede kept pounding the herbs, until they were long beyound the fine paste they should be.



Sango was sitting outside Kaede's hut, crotched in a ball, when Miroku came from out from the hut. He looked at Sango and gasped quietly. She was crying. Miroku walked to her, and sat down by her side.

"Sango..." he began, her face turned to his, and his heart almost broke at what he saw. Tears streaming from her beautiful eyes, her nose was running, and her face was chapped from the salty tear drops.

"What? What do you want? Are you happy to see me like this? All weepy and girlish? I have lost All my family. My brother is a dead pawn to my sworn enemy, and now, I'm losing the one other friend I have in this world? WHY?" Sango stared at Miroku, and for once, Miroku had no words of monky(?) wisdom, no joking sentence. Sango threw her head back in her arms and continued to cry. Tentavily, Miroku put his arm around her shoulders. Sango was startled by the motion, but she allowed it.

"Sango, you are not alone. You never were. There will always be people who care about you. Who... Love you. Even if Kagome does die, you will still have us. Inuyasha, Shippo and I. It might not be a lot, but, is that enough?"

"I don't ... know. Hoshi-sama, Why is life so hard to contend with?"

"Truly Sango, I don't think that it was made that way. I think that humans and demons manipulated the world to be hard. Not on purpose, but because of how they act, and the choices they make." There was a silence, and then Sango's eyes reached the size of Dinner plates

"Get your hand off my waist NOW" Sango yelled and slapped Miroku across the face.

"WHAT? That wasn't me! My hand's been on your shoulder for the past six minutes!"

"Then what...Oh..." Kirara was curled against her side in sleep.

"Gome ne hoshi sama"

"dijabotu"(if anyone wants to correct my romajji japanesse HELP!). Miroku and Sango looked at each other, and they saw nothing but kindness in each others eyes.

(OH KAMI, HOW THE FREAK CAN I WRITE THIS STUFF?? SCREW HISTORICAL FICTION AND BE COMING A SOCIOLOGIST. I'M GONNNA BE A SOAP OPERA WRITER)

" I am not interuppting anything, am I children?" a slightly familar voice came from the road. Miroku and Sango jumped apart, waking up Kirara in the process.

"Oh, no. Of... Course...not..." Sango said shakily.

"What brings you here Nikita?" Miroku asked tentavily.

"I was looking for Inuyasha, Hoshi-sama. And wondering... Why is it that every woman you meet, you ask if they would bare your child?"

"To pass on this curse. It is my duty to avenge-" Nikita cut him off.

"That is precisely what I mean. Why do you need to pass on that curse? If you die from it, will it not be ended?"

"I..."

"Exactly. Why not let the curse end with you, instead of making your child miserable for the rest of his or hers short life?"

"IT makes sense Miroku."

"yes, it does." They sat in silence for a few minutes, contemplating on the subject that had been brought up.

"Regardless,"Miroku said, lifting his eyes from the ground "Inuyasha is not-" He gasped audibly. Sango looked at what he was staring at, and gasped in turn. Nikita was losing form in places. She was transparent.

"Lady Nikita! Look!" Miroku gasped. Nikita stared at her hand, which was completely see through, yet still retained the shape of her hand.

"Oh." she looked up, and her eyes took in Miroku's palm, where the hell hole lay. She took his hand in hers, and carefully unwrapped the beads and cloth covering the hole.

"No, you'll be sucked in!" Miroku pleaded, but, as soon as the hole was uncovered, Nikita clapped her palm to his.

Nothing happened. No winds, no disipearing act. Miroku's eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement. Then, Nikita took Sango's hand in her other hand, and quickly moved her hand that was on Miroku's palm and placed Sango's palm on Miroku's palm (did everybody get that? I think I just confused myself.)

Miroku and Sango's palms clasped together. Their hands intwined slowly, but surely.

Nikita took their hands in her's and whispered "Always"

She then floated away. Sango and Miroku watched her go, question marks floating above their heads. But those question marks soon turned to sweat drops as Nikita tripped on her robes, fell to the crowd, then scurried away like a scared rabbit.

Miroku and Sango then turned to their hands.

"Why isn't it sucking you in?"

"I don't know"

"On three , we break apart okay, and run if you feel any gusts. Promise me?"

"I promise." Sango looked at him, and for a moment, she felt like even if she was sucked in, she could die happy because she knew that he cared about her.

"alright. One. Two. Three!" They broke apart, and Sango was prepared to run, but...

There was no wind...

There was not a hole in Miroku's hand.

"What?" Miroku stared at his palm. Sango walked over to him, and looked at his palm as well.

"Well, that's strange." Sango said. They turned their heads, and their lips brushed slightly.

"Sango"

"Miroku" Miroku gently touched Sango's cheek. The two of them leaned into each other.

"KAEDE!!!!!!!" Shippo cried.

and the two broke apart.