At Miroku's gravesite, the group hesitated.
"So what are we supposed to do?" Inuyasha asked, looking somewhat disturbed but trying to hide it. "I hope you don't want to dig him up."
Kagome looked equally as uncomfortable. "I'm not sure. We need to reunite his soul with his body…so we might have to."
Sango turned to her friends, looking a bit better than she had in weeks. "You say his soul is supposed to be in his beads, right?" Kagome nodded. "Well, here," Sango continued, pulling off the traveling bag she carried around her shoulders, "I have them here."
Kagome smirked. "You took them? I didn't even notice."
Sango nodded, "I wanted something of his. I didn't think he'd mind. And I guess it's a good thing because otherwise they'd be down there with him. We'll just have to put these on him right away so he can control the Kazaana when he wakes up."
The way she said that last sentence, so earnestly and without hesitation, worried Kagome a bit. Kagome was just following a hunch. A hunch that could be wrong. She didn't want Sango putting too much faith into it actually working.
But one look at her friend told her it was too late. Sango had an almost fanatical look in her eyes, and seemed convinced that Miroku would be back with them soon.
Kagome was beginning to wish she'd never opened her big mouth.
That night, Inuyasha and Shippo dug. Kagome sat with Sango, since neither of them could stomach it. Also, Sango kept rubbing her belly and humming to herself in a very un-Sango-like way. The little smile on her face was serene and Kagome was very concerned. She hated to think negatively about her friend, but it was possible Sango had completely lost it. Never mind what might happen if their plan failed.
After several hours, Inuyasha and Shippo came over to the two girls, covered from head-to-toe in dirt and looking grim. Inuyasha was carrying Miroku's staff, which they had buried with him.
"Is it done?" Kagome asked.
Inuyasha shook his head. "He's not there." He threw the staff to the ground by Kagome.
Sango's eyes narrowed and she glared at Inuyasha in a way she never had before. "What do you mean 'he's not there'?"
Inuyasha was starting to look uncomfortable. "Look, just what I said. He's not there. That staff was all we could find. We put it right next to him when we buried him, right? Well, Miroku isn't there anymore."
Sango jumped to her feet and ran to the fresh hole. She first peered over the side, and then actually jumped in.
"Sango-chan!" Kagome yelled, "What are you doing!"
"He has to be here!" Sango called from inside the grave. Her voice was frantic. "He has to be!" She sounded on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
"Inuyasha, you have to get her out of there! She could hurt herself, and she could hurt the baby!"
Inuyasha nodded and jumped in. There were some sounds of struggle, then a thud, then Inuyasha emerged with an unconscious Sango in his arms.
Shippo blinked at him. "You hit her?"
Inuyasha put her down on the ground, gently. "I had no choice! Look at this lump on my head! She hit me first!"
On the ground, Sango groaned. "Houshi-sama," she whispered. "Where are you?" Then she was quiet again.
"We have to find him," Kagome said, looking down at her friend with determination. "We have no choice."
TOKYO, PRESENT DAY…
Toshihiko Motosuwa sat up in bed with sweat streaming down his face. It was the third time in a week he'd had the same disturbing dream, and it all started after meeting that girl, Kagome.
Pushing back the covers, Toshihiko stood up and pulled on a t-shirt and some jeans. It was Saturday, so Kagome should be home. But where was her home? He didn't understand why, but he felt drawn to that girl and had to talk to her again. He had to know what was so interesting about the blue prayer beads he carried, and tell her about his dreams.
It always started out the same. He saw Kagome in a dark place. He knew it was enclosed, and yet not. He knew she could get out if she wanted to. Then he would see another girl, with long dark brown hair pulled up in a ponytail. He had never seen her before, and yet her presence made him feel…calm. She was wearing some kind of armor, and was smiling at him.
Then the scene would change and the girl in the armor would be heavy with child. She would take his hand and place it on her stomach and say, "We made this."
The last scene of the dream was always different. The first time, Toshihiko felt a pain in his right arm and felt wind blowing around him at incredible speeds. The second time, there was something about a giant spider, and the girl with the armor was crying. This last time, there was a boy with long silver hair and a very big sword yelling at him, but the crazy wind was blowing again and he couldn't hear anything the boy was saying.
The images were so confusing, and yet somehow familiar. The whole experience was upsetting Toshihiko's fragile existence, and he wanted to put a stop to it.
He pulled on his sneakers and headed out to find Kagome.
FEUDAL ERA…
Sango had been out for a few hours, but when she woke she didn't even hit Inuyasha with Hiraikotsu to punish him for what he'd done. That was the first sign something was very wrong.
The second sign was that she wouldn't eat dinner, even though she had been eating like a horse for the past several weeks. She just stirred her Ramen around and around in its Styrofoam container.
The third sign was that every now and then she'd look down at Miroku's beads (which she had twisted around her right arm, which had immediately disturbed everyone) and would just sit like that, looking at them for a long time without even blinking.
Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, and Kirara were very concerned. Kirara kept vying for her companion's attention, but was ignored. Kagome tried to make conversation, but for once Inuyasha had no idea how to act, or what to say. He was starting to think that at any second Sango would snap.
Very suddenly, Sango jumped to her feet, scaring the living crap out of everyone. "Look!" She said, holding out her right arm.
The beads were glowing. They were glowing a light blue color but were also pulsating like a light bulb that was about to expire. Everyone stared at Sango and finally Shippo said, "Maybe you should take them off?" while he attempted to hide behind Inuyasha. After all, those things could blow at any second!
Sango made no move to remove the beads, but the light got brighter and steadier.
So they waited.
TOKYO, PRESENT DAY
"Hello, ma'am, I'm Toshihiko Motosuwa. I met your daughter a few days ago and we had a nice conversation, so since it's a weekend I just thought I'd look her up again."
Kagome's mother gave the boy a warm smile and said, "That's so nice of you! Unfortunately, Kagome isn't here right now. She's…visiting friends. I'm not sure how long she'll be gone."
Toshihiko's face fell. His disappointment was tangible. "I'm sorry for bothering you, then. Have a good day."
With that, he began walking back out to the street, but saw a little boy coming into the shrine.
"Hi!" The boy greeted him first. "Are you one of Kagome's friends? She's not here."
Toshihiko smiled at the boy. "I know, I just spoke with her mother. Are you Kagome's brother?"
The little boy nodded. "I'm Souta. Kagome may be gone for a while, so I'll let her know you came by. What's your name?"
"Toshihiko. Your mother said something about her being gone for a while, too. Like she didn't know when Kagome would return. Where is she? Doesn't she have school?"
Suddenly, the once exuberant Souta became very tight-lipped. "I have to go now, bye!" Then he ran off into the house.
Toshihiko stood with his hands on his hips for a while, thinking. He brushed his hair out of his eyes, impatiently. In his excitement to see Kagome, he had forgotten to tie it back and it fell in layers into his face and around the nape of his neck.
"So much for that," he said to himself. He started to adjust his backpack and head home when he noticed something odd. His beads were glowing. It was very faint, but they were pulsating with some kind of inner light. Toshihiko's eyes widened.
'They've certainly never done that before."
He was so busy staring intently at his beads that he didn't even notice that he was pacing around the grounds of Kagome's home. He found himself near an old shed, and much to his surprise the beads started glowing even brighter, and the light became steadier. As he walked closer to the shed, the light glowed brighter still.
"O…K…" he said to himself. "Guess it's time to go in." He first looked around to make sure Kagome's family wouldn't see him, then entered the shed. The cold hit him first, then the smell of mold and dust. However, the shed was empty, save for a small wooden well in the center of the dirt floor.
"Weird," Toshihiko muttered. But, weirder still, his beads were almost blindingly bright in the dark shed, and were now glowing steadily.
He felt a desire to get a little closer to the well and check it out. He descended a wooden ladder and stood by the side.
Then he was swept inside.
