Warnings: Rated R little kiddies! Language and other stuff… no sexual situations in this chapter… but definite references.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inu-Yasha… (grin)

Only They Know: A Missing Soul

By Gabreilla Moushigo (aka) Aeki Muffinhands

Their quest dragged on for months… they were getting tired of waiting and Miroku was growing nervous. He knew he still had time… but truth be told… Naraku could probably affect this outcome. He could take it all away.

Sango and Inu-Yasha were just a hair closer than before… ok… much closer than before. They denied it to themselves, tried to act inconspicuous by sitting on opposite ends of the fire. Both blushed when their eyes met… looking away. Taking long walks together… separately of course… but it was like clockwork… Inu-Yasha would leave… and maybe half an hour later Sango would need to bathe without Kagome… or some other excuse. But from their flushed expressions upon their return he could tell what they had been up to. They seemed to fit… just like he and Kagome. They were both warriors, but while Inu-Yasha was mean, loud and brash, Sango was kind, wise and soft-spoken. It was as if they were made for each other. Miroku was sure that Inu-Yasha appreciated her strength, could one even imagine a human coming close to matching the halfling's power? They were a good match, and maybe they would have… 'pups' as Inu-Yasha put it.

Thinking about them grew tiring after a while, and he began thinking of Kagome and himself. They fit… very well. He was perverted and funny (she told him so!) and she was innocent and tolerant of his behaviors not to mention endlessly forgiving! She even went so far as to laugh when he asked women to bare his child on the odd occasion.

Now when he did it, she would bop him on the head and tell him how terrible he was being… or tell the woman he was asking that he was either mentally deranged or something similar to what she had said at the tavern. It was always a different story… and even though she told those stories often, they were still funny. They would always laugh at each other. They would always touch… but always chastely. There was a little slap on his shoulder, an arm around her waist, flicking something off of her clothes. God he hated that… he wanted nothing more than to throw her onto the ground and have his way with her.

He felt a pang of jealousy and he wanted the same thing that Inu-Yasha and Sango had… their privacy. Kagome and him… they never got it… ever. Kago-chan and Miro-sama… hell… they just were beyond caring. They did whatever whenever they wanted. They would always get up and walk out of camp, Kago-chan blushing prettily and Miro-sama with a huge lecherous grin on his face. They were always gone at opposite times though… never leaving Kagome or him alone… ever. He wanted to strangle them.

Kagome and him… they married in private, and actually paid a priest rather than just marry them himself… it made Kagome happy… so he was happy. But he needed something more. They were married after all and waiting three months after marriage was an unseemly amount of time to consummate one's marriage.

Miroku contemplated how he was going to escape that night… he would take her to a secluded spot and take out all of his passion out on her. Their friends and secrets be damned! He shivered at the thought. No… he wouldn't wait another night. He couldn't… just wanting to show her all the things that he wanted to do for her… could do to her…

Somewhere along the line Miroku began to feel sick, he wasn't quite sure why at first. He really didn't even know when he started having these feelings… Once the hairs on the back of his head started standing on end he figured it out pretty fast. Naraku. He hadn't decided to show himself yet… nor was he very close. It was like the half demon was stalking them. "Be on your guard." He warned the others, they only gave a nod… they must have felt it too.

He wondered silently what this was all about… what was Naraku doing? As soon as that thought entered his head he felt a pinch from the wind tunnel. He griped his hand into a fist to ward of the pain, silently glad that Kagome decided to stand on the other side of him this day… if she noticed his strange behavior she did not let on.

"Is he coming for you?" Kagome wondered out loud, reaching up to clutch his other hand.

"Why would he?"

"I just have this feeling." Kagome worried. "Does he want you to die?"

Miro-sama and Kago-chan looked at each other again in that infuriatingly obscure way of theirs. They never let on anything… silently… it always made Miroku mad… they told them about how things were… the not so bad things… but they never told any stories about their lives… their real lives that they had no idea about. The stories only they knew about… only they could tell.

"Is there anything you would like to tell us?" Miroku asked.

"You will see." Kago-chan said quietly, she almost looked ill.

"Are you alright Kagome?" Miro-sama asked her, putting out a hand to steady her.

"Yes… I'm fine." She assured him.

"Will you just tell us already?!" Inu-Yasha blurted.

"What?" Kago-chan looked confused.

"You damn well know what!" He growled. "You know what's going on but your not going to tell us-"

"Your right… they aren't going to tell you." Naraku grinned affectionately at Inu-Yasha and the boy cringed. "But don't worry… I will."

"It's time that you all knew." Kikyo was there, standing by his side.

"K-Kikyo?!" Inu-Yasha sputtered.

"Do you know why there is a hole there in your hand, monk?" Naraku sneered at Miroku, ignoring Inu-Yasha.

"Because you're a sick fuck?" Miroku's grip tightened closely around his staff, ready for him to jump him any second.

"Now, now…" Naraku admonished. "There is no need for such colorful language monk." A tiny grin touched his lips. "Now… do you know?" He pointed his index finger out insultingly at Miroku.

"No." Miroku said simply, but never letting down his guard. His friends close at hand, but not interrupting. Even Inu-Yasha was curiously listening now.

"The reason you have a hole in your hand… why your grandfather and father alike had that curse placed upon them… was because I gave them something for you… but I was unable to give it to them completely." Naraku explained, though, not well… so it only upset Miroku more.

"What are you talking about?" Miroku burst out. "What do you mean you gave something to me - but not completely?!"

Naraku smiled patiently. "There is something missing." His voice was quiet, so quiet, but everyone else became quiet then too… and the silence… was deafening. "Do you ever wonder… did you ever feel what was missing inside of you?" He purred. "Isn't it funny how missing something like that… would take a concrete form? I certainly never thought of that, the curse I mean. It is… unfortunate" his eyes seemed to say 'for you' but instead he said. "That you've had to suffer… but it is all rather amusing." His sickly dark beauty seemed to fill Miroku's heart with gloom. "I enjoyed leaving you to suffer this way long enough… even though it has pained me to do so." Again, his eyes mocked him 'but it was worth it.' He smiled.

Miroku was boiling over. 'What in the hell is he talking about?!' He kept silent, and listened carefully lest he miss something important.

Naraku stopped pointing at him, and raised his palm. "But… why am I standing here gloating while I suffer?"

'While he suffers? What the hell is he talking about?!' Miroku wanted to scream at the man… to beat him for his insolence… but he wanted to be cured… and he might do anything for that… even listen to Naraku.

A ball of mist raised from Naraku's hand, it seemed to pain him for a moment, but he squelched that feeling. "I realized." He said. "That this is the perfect time to give this back to you… when it would hurt you the most."

Miroku didn't know if he wanted this gift now. "What is that?"

"Why…" Naraku chuckled cruelly. "This will seal your hand… it is part of your soul."

"Miroku…" Kagome cautioned.

But Miroku was already reaching out to Naraku. He didn't want to die. He wanted to live. He wanted to have a life with Kagome… to have babies… to watch them as they grew up. He wanted it all… and this was it. The thing he had been missing. He reached out with his cursed hand his fingers merely inches away from the orb when Naraku grabbed his arm painfully and pulled Miroku close.

"Are you ready monk?" Naraku asked excitedly. "Are you ready?" His voice drowned out everything around him. "Now you will understand." He slapped the orb into Miroku's hand and it was absorbed.

Miroku backed away quickly when he was released, grabbing his arm excruciatingly. The others thought the worst… maybe he had been poisoned. When they moved toward him he heard and moved his arm in a motion to stop them. His eyes were frightened as he tried to figure out what had just happened.

"Do you understand now monk?" Naraku asked, his usual calm voice had been replaced with something else… something… less human than he was before.

"Yes…" Miroku stared at him, with horror struck eyes. "I am…" He shook his head. 'No! I am not that man!' His voice trembled. "I was… Onigumo."

Everyone was very quiet, and then Inu-Yasha finally spoke. "What do you mean?!" He screamed.

Naraku smiled, he was all too eager to explain. "When I met the monk's grandfather… I had hoped to rid myself of Onigumo forever… and so I thought it worked… until Kikyo returned from the grave." He had a devilish grin on his face. "I placed in that old man the seed of the man who spawned me. By doing so - I ridded myself of most of his love and caring… and most of his lechery." Naraku decided to add with a wicked laugh. "But his soul was not completely taken from my body." And as all smiles must die, so did his. "And his seed was not complete… a part of his selfishness, obsession a maybe a small portion of love lay dormant in my heart… and therefore it manifested itself as a dark hole in the family of my enemy."

The others thought on this. Kikyo had to live off the souls of dead women… other wise she herself could not be sustained. Was this something similar? Did the air rip need souls of the living to sustain itself for even such a short while?

"The rift in this soul has consumed thousands of souls to keep it stabilized… but it really wasn't all that stable is it?" Naraku jeered. "I can't believe how interesting this has been… who would have known that such a little thing like a fractured soul… could cause a curse so terrible." An awful look on his face appeared. "If only I could repeat the process… but alas… I had only one human soul within me."

Miroku realized that he was the only one who could have been saved… his grandfather… his father… would have been doomed anyway. Part of his soul had been missing… he had not carried the seed as his fathers had… but the soul of Onigumo. He wished silently that the hole in his hand had taken him before he learned this. How was this possible? How could a soul be fractured so badly and then reborn? How could it cause the air rip? Everything was strange… then again… Naraku was strange too.

"And now you know." Naraku smiled brilliantly. "And so I leave you Monk… to do as you wish." And with that… he flew away.

"Miroku…" Kagome tried to go to him, but stopped when she felt something.

Kikyo replaced Naraku, as she walked forward with her little soul stealers swirling behind her. "And now it is time for me to return your soul little one…" She had a gentle smile on her face. "Now we can truly be together." She looked at Miroku… and then… began.

Kagome and Miroku stared at each other for a moment, possessed with something that their friends did not know.

"Sango?" Inu-Yasha was the first to speak. "What is wrong with them? Why are they standing there like that?"

"I don't know." Sango said quietly. "Maybe they are in shock?"

"Should we do something?"

"Maybe we should let them come out of it." She frowned and watched.

Miroku was the first to speak, but it was not him that spoke. "Kikyo."

"Onigumo." Kagome's mouth opened, but it wasn't her voice.

Miroku rushed over to her and embraced her fully. "I don't want this to end." He couldn't hold back the tide of emotions that careened through him and he sobbed into her shoulder. How long had it been before he truly felt whole? Was this what he was missing? The frost over his heart finally melted… and he felt… regret.

"Hush now… this is the way it was meant to be." Kagome soothed. "We don't have much more time."

"It isn't fair…" He cried. "Why can't we stay like this?"

"Because it wouldn't be fair to them." Kagome said simply. "Let us go to sleep now Onigumo… I am so tired."

"I am tired too." He admitted, his eyes drooping. This could not wait though, and he took her hands in his and placed his lips upon hers. "I love you Kikyo… with all my heart."

She pulled him down to rest his head on her shoulder before she kissed his forehead. "I love you too Onigumo… now rest."

He nodded a little, and fell asleep against her. Kagome stared up at Inu-Yasha with a smile. "I'm sorry Inu-Yasha," Her voice was sad, but full of emotion that she hadn't felt in half a century. "For all the trouble I caused you." Her lips bent up a little. "It's time for you and your friends to hunt down Naraku… to purify the jewel before he gets his wish." Inu-Yasha nodded at her.

"K-Kikyo?" Inu-Yasha stammered.

"Yes?"

"I'll miss you." He said softly.

"I'll miss you too my dear." Her smile reached her eyes finally. "Be happy, you deserve it." He blushed at her words.

"Good-bye Kikyo."

"Good-bye Inu-Yasha."

This is not the end folks! I still have plenty of stuff to write before this thing is finished. I still can't believe that this chapter came up so quickly… I thought about adding more things in between… but… meh… didn't want to. I also thought about having a fight scene… but… meh! This is a romance and not an action.

I just wanted to thank my reviewers:

Miroku's-World

Addanc-TSC

TS-InTheMorning

Punkgoddess

Chris

Sarah Gibson

Emily

Mike

Pepsi-pepsi

Jay

Canada Dry

I hope I got you all! Thanks for the reviews! It really means a lot to me for someone to take a moment to say a word or two about how much they like my fiction. Or even put a little smile if they liked it.

There is still more to come… and it might take a while since the end of my finals are on Tuesday night. I have to write a five page paper… and I have no idea how I'm going to start the damn thing. I'll try to write some more text so I can get the rest of my chapters up… and I reaaaally need to write a M/K lemon… it just wouldn't be fair otherwise.

Oh yes! And if you had problems with finding the lemon on the 16th chapter it is now my homepage under my name until I can figure something else out. Thank you again! Nighty night!