Pure Breed: Chapter 16

"Miroku? Miroku!" Sango frowned as there was no response to her call. She had been looking for Miroku for almost an hour now, but to no avail. The village was so small, she was sure it wouldn't be too hard to find. She was wrong. Miroku would usually be attracting a large (and mostly female) crowd with his palm readings, as it was his favorite thing to do when the group stopped in a village, but Sango saw no crowd. "How typical! The one time I wouldn't mind his flirting, and he's not flirting." Sango sat down on a stump, dejected. "Now what am I supposed to do?" she asked herself out loud.

"Oh I've got a few ideas of who, uh…I mean what you could do." a familiar voice whispered in her ear. Sango jumped up from her sitting position in shock.

"Great Buddha, Miroku! Don't startle me like that." Sango said. "Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you."

"You were looking for me? Why?" Miroku asked nervously, fearing she might want to chew him out some more. She walked over to Miroku and hugged him.

"I'm sorry for how angry I got before. I had no right to accuse you of cheating on me without any evidence." Sango apologized. Miroku hugged back.

"It's okay Sango. Women have the tendency to get jealous over me easily." Miroku responded with one of his grins. Sango rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. Anyways, where were you all this time?" Sango inquired.

"Uh…Koharu's?" Miroku responded with a tremble in his voice.

"WHAT!" Sango yelled. "And what, pray tell, where you doing there?"

"Nothing!" Miroku cried. "Nothing too important anyway." Sango slapped Miroku, flooring him.

"Just when I was beginning to think you had become a decent person! Go to hell, you lying, cheating lecher! You and I are through!" Sango screamed at him. She gave him a kick for good measure, and left.

Back at Kaede's hut Kagome was trying to do her math homework, but her concentration was broken by Inuyasha's foot tapping.

"What the hell is taking that damned witch so long? I bet she isn't even planning to tell us where Naraku is." Inuyasha complained.

"It's only been a day. Be patient." Kagome advised the irritated Inuyasha.

"I've been plenty patient already! Naraku should be dead by now!" Inuyasha growled in response.

"Can't you gripe somewhere else? I'm trying to do my homework here." Kagome said.

"I'll gripe wherever the hell I want wench!" Inuyasha shot back.

"SIT!" Kagome screamed, leaving Inuyasha to catch up with his old friend, dirt. "I should apologize to Miroku and Sango. Now I know what they have to put up with every time I go home." Kagome thought.

"One day, I will get revenge." Inuyasha threatened Kagome, already recovering from his sit.

"You never learn! Sit boy." Inuyasha's rosary glowed, and he shot back into the soil. "Besides, you know you'd never hurt me, not for the world."

"Don't be so sure wench. Why wouldn't I?" Inuyasha smirked, even though he was still attempting to scrape his splattered remains off the floor of the hut.

"Because you looooove her!" Shippo interrupted with his taunting, once again.

"Shut up runt! When did I say I loved her?" Inuyasha asked.

"The day before you turned human. And the night by the fire. And yesterday night. And- Wahhhhhhh!" Shippo began to cry. Inuyasha had hit Shippo over the head.

"Who asked you?" Inuyasha roared at Shippo.

"You did!"

"I did not!"

"Prove you didn't!

"Feh."

"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP?" Kagome yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Sorry Kagome." Shippo mumbled ashamedly.

"Feh, whatever."

"Thank you." said Kagome as she continued her geometry. Sango angrily stomped into the hut, hot tears of rage trickling down her cheeks. This broke Kagome's two seconds of silence, but she forgot all about her geometry homework upon seeing Sango's tear-stained face. "Sango, have you been crying?" Kagome questioned. Sango silently nodded.

"What happened? Did you find Miroku?" Shippo interrogated, bouncing over to Sango.

"Don't. Ever. Mention. That. Worthless. Cheating. Lying. Bastard. To. Me. Again." Sango ground out, putting emphasis on every word.

"Oh great. What did he do this time?" Inuyasha asked in a tired tone. Sango's words came out in sobs when she spoke.

"He…he went to…t-to go s-see K-k-k-Koharu a-and t-they, they…" Sango sputtered out.

"Oh, sweet Gotama." Kagome whispered, her face expressing nothing less than total shock.

"That's it." Inuyasha said, putting his foot down. "He's gone too far this time." He made a move to leave the hut.

"Where are you going?" Kagome asked, while Sango wept uncontrollably into Kagome's shirt.

"I'm going to find that bastard, and he's gonna learn he's crossed the line. The hard way." Inuyasha responded. Kohaku got up as well, hefting his chain sickle.

"I'm coming too. No one does this to my sister." Kohaku boldly said. He followed Inuyasha out of the hut.

"Don't worry Sango." Kagome chided. "Miroku won't get away with this unscathed."

Miroku was desperately searching for Sango, just as she had been looking for him less than fifteen minutes earlier. "Damn it. She's not here either." The hapless monk thought as he looked around, three-hundred sixty degrees. "I need to find her and set this whole misunderstanding straight, FAST!" he thought desperately. He turned again and walked smack into Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha, Kohaku, I'm glad I found you. Have you seen Sango? I really need to talk with her." Miroku began.

"Yeah we've seen her. And I'd say you've done enough damage already." Inuyasha said in a low, dangerous tone.

"My sister doesn't want to talk to you. And you don't deserve the opportunity either." Kohaku growled, sounding every bit as dangerous as Inuyasha.

"Oh, god. She must've told them." Look, guys, this is all a big misunderstanding, you see-" Miroku got cut off before he could explain himself.

"You will speak only when you're spoken to!" Inuyasha said, sharp as a serpents tooth. "Sango has put up with you and you're perverted actions for almost a year now, and she still loved you despite all the things you did to hurt her. You groped her, flirted and asked other women to bear your freakin' child, and she forgave you for all of it. But you've crossed the line this time." Inuyasha emphasized his words by shoving Miroku roughly. "What you've done doesn't deserve to be forgiven. You are the most despicable piece of scum to ever walk the earth." He shoved Miroku again. "Are you happy now? Glad you finally found some poor, innocent, gullible little girl to bear your child? I feel sorry for the boy, cause he'll turn out just as worthless as his father!" Another shove, harder this time." Words don't even begin to describe how low you've gone Miroku. You aren't even worthy to lick her shoes. How would you feel if Sango went off and slept with another man, huh? How would that make you feel? I don't see how anyone could be fool enough to fall in love with such a disgusting hell spawn like you!" Inuyasha slugged Miroku across the face, knocking loose a tooth. Kohaku whipped the weighted end of his chain around Miroku's feet, causing the monk to stumble. Inuyasha and Kohaku bound Miroku's hands to his side with Kohaku's chain. There was enough slack to bind his legs together as well, so he could barely move. By the time Inuyasha and Kohaku were finished with him, he had been beaten so savagely he was barely able to maintain consciousness.

"Maybe now you have a small taste of how bad my sister feels. If you're smart you'll stay the hell away from her from now on, unless you want to receive ten times the magnitude of the pain you feel now." Kohaku said, to the battered, broken and bleeding monk.

"Next time, we won't be so forgiving about it. Let's go Kohaku." Inuyasha added. The last thing Miroku saw before he passed out was Inuyasha and Kohaku walking back towards Kaede's hut.

When Miroku awoke, it was night, and a steady rain was falling. Kohaku had unbound him before he returned to the hut, so Miroku could move himself again. Blood had caked across his forehead, and there were large bruises in several spots on his torso. With the support of his staff he was able to stand, despite the fact that his right tibia and left fibula had both been broken. He hobbled his way to the hut where he and Sango had stayed the night before. When he reached the door, he saw through the screen that Sango was still awake, staring at the small cabin fire with sad eyes.

"S-Sango…" Miroku managed to wheeze out as he entered the hut. Sango turned and looked at what at first site appeared to be a demon from the deepest depths of the seventh hell.

"Oh my god! Miroku!" Sango screamed as she rushed over to him. "What on earth happened to you?" Miroku passed out again from exhaustion, before he could respond.

Miroku woke a second time, from the deepest sleep he had ever experienced. It was dawn of the next day, and he was on a futon on the floor of Sango's hut. Kagome was leaning over him, trying to force some aspirin down his throat. "Hopefully, this will dull the pain a little. I still can't believe you two did this to him! Are you insane? You nearly killed him!" he heard Kagome's voice say.

"He deserved it." was the response. Miroku couldn't tell if it was Kohaku of Inuyasha who had said that. He could also hear Sango's strangled sobs from the corner.

"This is all my fault. I should've stopped you. I could've but no, I just had to let Miroku get his just dessert." Miroku's eyes snapped open, startling Kagome. She jumped back, but calmed quickly.

"He's awake." she said. Before she was even finished with the two words, Sango had already rushed over and threw her arms around Miroku, unknowingly applying pressure to several of his injuries. Every feeling of anger or spite Sango felt towards the unjustly punished monk had been replaced by worry and concern the second he appeared at her door, beaten, half-dead and barely able to walk.

"I'm so glad you're alright! If I had known they were going to do this to you I would've stopped them. I'm so sorry! Please forgive me Miroku!" Sango cried, her face buried in his robe. Miroku was too weak to speak, but he let out a slow moan in response.

"Let go Sango. I think you're hurting him." Kagome said calmly. Sango let go. "Can you talk Miroku?" Kagome asked. He shook his head. Miroku looked like a mummy. He had splints on both his legs, bandages wrapped around the upper half of his head and his abdomen. He also had over a dozen grafts on his upper torso, one in every spot he had been bruised. Sango stood up and left the hut. As much has she hated it, she knew Koharu's presence would comfort Miroku. She was in deep thought as she made her way towards the young girls hut.

"Why do I find it so hard to go and get Koharu? Why does it feel like I don't want her to be near Miroku?" she thought.

"Because you still love him, stupid girl." her conscience told her.

"No I don't. He cheated on me. He lied to me. He betrayed my trust." the huntress retaliated in her mind.

"So what? You can't control who you love, no matter how illogical it is to love them"

"Shut up. You're wrong. I don't love him anymore."

"Sure. You just keep telling yourself that." Sango snapped out of la la land as she entered Koharu's hut.