OK, readers, we're getting down to the wire. I think this should be finishing up in another chapter or so. No sense in dragging it out. Anyway, even though I'm ususally very ciritcal of my own writing, this chapter got me excited, so I hope you all like it too!
The next morning, Toshihiko was missing again.
"Maybe he didn't come back at all last night," Kagome said. "I hope he didn't decide to go back already!"
"He came back," Inuyasha assured her, "I heard him come in really early in the morning. He must have just run off again."
"I'm right here!" said a voice from the temple gates. Toshihiko ran up to where Kagome, Inuyasha, Sango, and Shippo were standing just in front of the doors to the room he was supposed to have shared with Inuyasha.
"Where the hell have you been?" demanded Inuyasha, crossing his arms.
Toshihiko glared a bit at the half-demon and said, "I've been up all night…thinking. This is a hard decision you all have given me, but I've finally decided…"
"Decision?" Inuyasha interrupted, "I wasn't giving you any decis…"
"SIT!"
Inuyasha plummeted into the ground, and Toshihiko continued on as if that was something he saw everyday.
"…That I'm going to do it. I think that if I just went home, I'd still be missing something. My whole life I've felt different, and now I know why. This must be a pretty good soul, since it granted Miroku with friends like all of you, and blessed him with such a special girl." The last sentence was said as Toshihiko's gaze fixed directly on Sango, and held her eyes. She blushed profusely.
"This is great! Let's get to it, then!" Said Kagome, clapping her hands together.
Kaede came out of the temple (she'd obviously been eavesdropping) and said, "The alter is prepared. Kagome and I shall perform a ritual spell that we discovered late last night in the temple archives. With our spiritual powers combined, it should be enough energy to give Miroku's soul the life force it needs to enter the boy's body."
Under his breath, Toshihiko muttered, "I have a name, you know."
Sango walked over to Toshihiko's right side and took his hand. "Here," she said, "We'll need to put this on you properly."
She started wrapping a brace around his arm, with an attached glove that would just cover the palm and top of the hand, leaving the fingers free. It was purple, and soft to the touch, but it had clasps on the bottom. As she wrapped it, she placed papers inside, that Toshihiko recalled were Buddhist in nature and written with the spiritual words for exorcism. That concerned him quite a bit.
"What is all this for?" He asked, trying to ignore the red alert that was going off in his head.
"It's to contain the Kazaana, of course," Sango said, as if that explained everything. She slipped a gold ring engraved with similar Buddhist markings onto Toshihiko's middle finger as she spoke, and then wrapped the blue prayer beads around the glove and secured them.
"The what now?" He said, prompting the entire group to stare at him.
Kagome slapped her hand to her forehead and exclaimed, "I knew we forgot to tell him something!"
Toshihiko didn't like where this was going.
"…So it's really not so bad," Sango finished explaining to Toshihiko, and gave him a smile that was obviously forced.
His eyes had become still, as if he were looking into his own mind. He was staring straight out, but obviously seeing nothing. Dark purple orbs, the color of nightfall in the summertime, gleamed in the firelight of the temple.
Finally, he spoke. "So you're telling me that once I get this soul in me, not only will I probably remember everything Miroku ever did, in essence becoming him, but I will also be affected by some life-threatening CURSE that's attached to him?"
Kagome giggled, nervously. Inuyasha shot her a look that said, 'Should I just beat the crap out of him and put him on the alter?' She almost nodded at him, but then thought better of it. It would probably be best to approach this like adults.
"Toshihiko-kun, you HAVE to!" Kagome cried, throwing a bit of a tantrum. "It's like FATE! You have to be together with Sango-chan!"
Shippo rolled his eyes at Kagome's embarrassing display, and Inuyasha looked at her like she'd gone nuts. Sango was just speechless. Then again, she shouldn't have been surprised, since everyone knew what a romantic heart Kagome had, and how she had always been "secretly" watching from the wings, waiting for Sango and Miroku to get together.
Toshihiko looked at Kagome and curtly said, "I don't HAVE to do anything. This is my life, and I'll do what I want. Now if you'll excuse me…"
He got up and left the temple again.
Sango was following him, using her hunter's skills to move silently and gracefully. She stayed back several yards, and stopped when he reached a pond and sat down on a large stone.
With his back to her, he called out, "You can come out now, Sango."
Startled, she emerged from the tree she was hiding behind and stammered, "H-How did you know I was there?"
"I don't know," Toshihiko said, his back still to her, "For some reason, I just always know when you're around."
Sango approached him slowly, and sat down at the base of the stone, with her back against it.
They sat in companionable silence for a long time, just listening to the sound of insects around the pond, and the occasional lapping of water as a warm breeze blew in.
"Sango," Toshihiko said, "How long have you known Miroku?"
"Well, as long as I've been with the group. Maybe four years. I'm not sure. Why?"
"When did you realize you loved him?"
The question seemed to come out of left field, and yet Sango didn't even miss a beat before saying, "After about the first year. We had already been through so much by that point, and he always seemed to show special concern for me when I was injured, and would stay to tend my wounds. I knew, deep down inside, he was a good man. Sure, he played the part of womanizer well, but after a while I think he was just going through the motions. He was smart, too. He always knew helpful myths and legends, and he was a brave fighter." As she spoke, tears came to her eyes,
"He has saved me more times than I can count. And not just in a physical sense. He's the only man that has ever broken down my defenses, especially since my people were killed, and my brother was taken from me. Sure, I still slapped him when he groped me, but it was like our game. If he hadn't done it in a while, I actually started to wonder if he didn't like me anymore!"
Sango laughed then, and turned to Toshihiko. "I'm sure you're a fine man in your own right. And I'm sorry if it seems like we're forcing you into this, but Miroku is…was…a good man, too."
Toshihiko slid down off his stone perch and came to crouch down at Sango's side.
"Please stop crying," he said, taking her in his arms, "It kills me when you cry."
Sango stiffened a bit in his embrace, but then relaxed. It was so easy to pretend he was her Houshi-sama. Her tears quieted a bit.
The two were so intent on each other that they didn't notice the demon scuttling out of the woods towards them. Being astute at such things, however, Sango did sense it just before it stuck a sharp feeler into Toshihiko's back.
"Get down!" She screamed, pushing him backward.
It was a damn Butterfly Demon. The same variety that had critically injured Miroku. Like hell Sango would let it do the same thing to her again.
Sango took the feeler in her thigh, but crawled out of the way fast enough for it to miss anything important. She kept pushing Toshihiko until he was behind the large stone again, and then joined him.
"What the hell is that thing!" He said through gritted teeth.
"Don't worry about it," Sango said, her eyes blazing. "I'll take care of it."
With that, Sango leapt up and attacked the demon with a flying kick to its antenna, completely ignoring the pain in her thigh. The demon gave a high-pitched shriek and flailed about, knocking Sango down.
As it did so, Sango fell onto a sharp rock, directly at her abdomen. She gasped as all the air was knocked from her lungs, and a dark red stain began to spread down the lower front of her yukata.
"Sango!" Toshihiko screamed. The sound of her name coming from him was so primal, for a moment he didn't even realize he had said it.
And at that same moment, the beads on Toshihiko's arm began to glow and pulse like they had before. Except this time, the light spread throughout his whole body, until he was glowing. Then, it was over almost as soon as it had begun.
The boy with tousled back hair hanging in his eyes, wearing clothes covered in grime from 500 years in the future, raised his right arm and yelled one word.
"KAZAANA!"
