Ascension of the Spirit

By Banana Rum: Kalliel

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Kikyo-the-walnut: sung to Pokemon Theme "Each girl scout cookie, to understand—the calories insiiide!"

Moggy: You make me feel so special, Moggy. ! Love ya!

Horse-crazy-gurl: I'm not putting myself down. Merely stating the obvious. Perhaps this chapter will prove more fruitful.

SpikeSmeagleSparklies: I think so too! But I can never tell chapters 8-10 apart, really. To me, they're part of the same story arc, so I don't know where one starts and the other ends.

SexySango: Maaaaybeee…

Mysteries Abound: Feel free to drop by whenever you feel like it!

Purplepeopleeater and Elinor: Thank you for hanging around here! People like you, the non-members of fanfiction dot net, make me really happy when you review multiple chapters, because you have no way of seeing if I have updated or not, or even remembering my name, which fanfiction you were reading, or what it was about! If I had to do that, I would fail miserably…And purplepeopleeater, I think I like you. For some reason, I had what you said in your review stuck in my head…Oo From now on, Kagome-hime is the Creepy Licky Lady! I like that.

ElshA: Thankie?

And last but not least, to the reviewer, This is shitty: Lol.

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Disclaimer: There is a reason this is called fanfiction…Liem Shi Hua is mine, but I don't really want him…and so is Niwatori Village…I DO want to keep that…not the food district though.

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Beta read by Kikyo-the-walnut/Zora

You should read her fic, "Cries of the Fire"! After we're done here, obviously. ;D And I know it seems like I posted the wrong story here, but Liem Shi Hua, Chinese astronomer, DOES belong in Ascension. No need to worry!

Also, you should try out Ascension's sister story, Blood of the Innocent by Melon-chan.

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Chapter 10: Inochi no Namae—The Name of Life

The Moon Garden

Sengoku Jidai

There was a strange scent in the air. As Shi Hua had been taught, a strange scent often led to difficulties.

For instance,

He remembered the exact words of his mother's stories, and her fragrant incense as she told all her children her tales was an even stronger recollection.

Death. It is a strange smell. Do not tarry in lands such as those.

But it intrigued him so! He and his sister had traveled across the seas and along the thickest guarded outposts all the way from the Middle Kingdom to get to this strange land. Now that his beloved sibling was gone, he had nothing to lose by satisfying his curiosity—his family would grieve, of course, but they had other sons. It would be all well and good. And so Liem Shi Hua, dragon-astronomer extraordinaire, son of Liem Zhang, the Great Emperor Himself's moon advisor, set out into thicker layers of whatever ailed the winds in this region.

Treading carefully, whisperingly lightly on broken tree limbs, he gracefully swerved among the closely weeded boughs, clawing away the foreboding scent from his nostrils. He banked left, setting himself down in a small clearing. A pitiful fire burned in the center, releasing the area from darkness. On one side there appeared to be a dormant merchant woman, fast asleep, cradled with dreams and nightmares. Shi Hua turned his attention to the other side. She was not important to the mystery of the weird smell.

Crawling down into a gulley, he purred in delight at his victory. For once in his life, things were going his way. With this newfound luck, he might actually find that which he sought. The scent instantly sprang up around him and he crawled along the downward slope somewhat happily. There was no true light to speak of, but the area below seemed to radiate with a glow all its own. Not from the moon, for it slept away that night, but something else. Shi Hua slithered to level ground, eyeing a beautiful maiden in the clearing. She resonated in his vision with the power of the celestial skies pulsating as one. Such a fine maiden shouldn't be wandering in a forest such as this alone…He licked his lips with fervor. She would be suitable for midnight rendezvous with certain male inclinations—and someone his father would approve of. In her lap was the source of the smell, though now he realized that he too was covered in the choking aroma. Looking down with his iridescent sapphire eyes, there was a long smear of red along his perfect pearly scales. His claws too, were covered in it.

What was the meaning of this? There was no crimson printing ink to be found, so what was this red liquid? He glanced behind him; the trail of supposed ink was there as well.

The maiden looked up, eyes glittering with overjoyed madness. "And who do we have the honor of making an acquaintance with, ryuu-san?" Her voice was the chime of bells of the finest metal to his ears. Shi Hua gaped in awe, flexing his muscular shoulder blades and advertising his golden mane.

"Do you honestly wish to court with the moon goddess? You, Liem Shi Hua, the son of a bastard dragon lord's scientist of my universe?"

Shi Hua, oblivious to the malicious glint in her voice, swelled with pride. She knew his name! If dragons could blush, he would have.

"You came to my garden investigating a tainted smell, correct? Nothing escapes me in my realm, dear Liem Shi Hua." Kagome-hime slanted her eyes. "Growing up spoilt, you know not what blood is, do you." She asked rhetorically, but he shook his head anyway. "You don't know death, nor pain, nor blood."

He shook his head again. He had indeed never heard of the latter two, but he knew death. Death was when his sister Li Shen vanished; that was death. And he didn't ever want to see it again. He could still hear Li Shen screaming at him, writhing with pain as she regurgitated her first meal in the halls of Japan's most powerful shogun. And he could still remember the terrible gurgle as she collapsed, and what he saw in the remains of her food that she had thrown up. Crawling, flipping youngling snakes, hungry for nutrients and snapping with poisonous jaws. He backed away, keeping his senses locked on her.

Kagome-hime lovingly set the hanyou in her lap down, reassuring him with a gentle coo. She floated down to the dragon, the frills of her elaborate kimono billowing. "Indecency, Shi Hua. Indecency. No matter what the cause, you do NOT disrupt the tsukihime whilst she is amusing herself. You DO NOT."

The last thing Shi Hua remembered was the causer of the strange substance the maiden had called 'blood' crawling toward them determinedly. That 'thing' was croaking something to him in a foreign tongue. Did he want Shi Hua to leave? The sad mess of red and black concentrated more earnestly on Shi Hua, still whispering in a language that he knew for sure was not that of his people. Shi Hua still stared, perplexed by the meaning of this caution. Then the dragon exploded from inside out, splashing Kagome with warm dragon's blood and littering the dense undergrowth with various apparatus intended for the digesting and breaking down of foods. A few glittering fangs swam among the entrails innocently. The hanyou bit his lip in frustration, hot red flush of guilty fury burning on his face.

Kagome shuddered, turning to the hanyou. "You're wondering why I didn't just send him away; why I resorted to such vulgar methods. You think I am a monster. Hanyou…it is only because you have made me such!" Her voice cracked, and she fell to the ground sobbing uncontrollably. For the strangest reason, he wanted to crawl over to her and hug her then, and let her cry and cry while he consoled her. But by the time the hanyou reached her side though, her tears had already subsided and the strange urges that had possessed him had passed.

She looked at him, wiping her eyes with the back of her fine-boned hand, thinking about her entangled prisoner. All her pent-up anger and sadness was spent, and she realized that all that remained in her heart was undying devotion. She could remember a time when she was happy, so long ago. And it was because of him. She couldn't use him like this…not until the point to where she sucked him away. Not him.

"I want you to live. But…I need your ki. I need your strength." Kagome whispered. "Without it, I will fade away. So to save both our lives, I need you to do one thing." She looked up into his still-grey eyes, hugging him close once more and wiping his face with her cool hands. The hanyou shivered reflexively at her touch. She frowned. Was he that scared of her? She couldn't bear to think what would happen if he would never grow to trust her. No more games, then. She had better just tell him before he came to the point where he didn't believe her even if she did tell him later.

"I need you to find Sango's strongest feature."

The hanyou jerked, inadvertently swaying in the moon princess' arms.

"The strongest emotion…loyalty, perhaps? Or strength, like you. Find it for me and I will free you. I am near powerless outside my domain, so you are going to be my messenger."

The hanyou nodded, twisting around to face the princess.

"A simple fact. One bit of information. And you can be free." Kagome-hime looked up. Opalescent hues of sunrise peeked into the eastern sky. The moonless night was coming to an end.

The hanyou could feel the gradual ebb of youki flowing back into his veins, permeating his body with a warm feeling. He grinned inwardly, flexing his fingers with anticipation. Upon trying to sit up, however, lacerated aches shot up his ragged frame, and he was forced to return to the sanctuary of her lap.

She stroked his chest lightly. His muscles froze beneath her fingers, as if he didn't dare move while she lingered on his skin. "Before we part, I have one last question for you."

Nodding less-than-enthusiastically, he whispered, "Depends…what the question is…"

"Do you remember your past life?"

"My…?"

Kagome restated her inquiry. "The life you lived before this time…do you remember what you did? Who you met…" Kagome trailed off, lost in apparent memories. She faintly remembered that someone kissed her, and they were happy. "Because I do."

It was a genuine question, too. It was weird, perhaps even highly disturbing, hearing a moon goddess talk as if she knows you. All of the sudden, this merciless killer who robbed others of their vitality to live was transformed into a curious young girl before his eyes.

Kagome-hime continued. "I remember you. I remember loving you. But I don't remember the feeling being returned to me."

Usually, you don't recall what life you led before your current one…was that allowed? Perhaps, if you were reincarnated as the keeper of time herself…The hanyou sincerely tried to listen to the rest of her spiteful reminiscence, but in truth he would rather go through that night all over again, with all the pain and hurt and terror magnified tenfold than learn about things better left unsaid.

"You like that Sango girl, don't you."

"What?" He tried to shout, forgetting about his physical state, and ended up coughing the word out in a less-than-languid tone.

"You protect her. You talk to her. You're always with her." Kagome pouted. The strange got stranger. Now she was acting like a tangible being; and a jealous one, at that.

"You…can't NOT protect…the only one you have left…you just can't…"

Kagome-hime was close to tears again. "Then how come when it was only me and you, alone, all those lives ago… How come…you didn't protect me?"

-

In the Moon Garden

Morning, Sengoku Jidai

Sango stepped out into the ocean. The sea bream tickled her ankles as it flowed around her, and she unconsciously curled her toes to keep the heat in, sand sneaking in between the crevices dividing them. She swirled around a rope of kelp with her feet, and skipped further into the sea. Edging along the rocky coast, she clung to the precipice, salted air whipping her loose hair back.

There was no surf on the other side of the cliff, with small pools of water calmly residing. A long time ago, chichi-ue showed me a place like this, thought Sango. Stepping off the edge, she crawled along the slippery boulders, cutting her hands and knees. She gasped a little as a frigid wave lapped over her, soaking her clothes with freezing water, her cuts stung with salt. She closed her eyes against the tear-bringing gales of harsh crystals, bowing her head low to avoid the full brunt of the wind. Looking down, the small pools below her teamed with colorful bursts of life. Anemones, small worms, and bite-size crabs settled along the bottoms. Frills of coral framed the painting. Sango smiled at its beauty. She could kneel there forever staring at the sea creatures, but she heard someone calling what she thought was her name.

She looked back to the beach, almost hidden from view, and saw a youkai calling out to her, arms crossed in exasperation, loose clothing and lengthy tresses tossed around in the ocean breeze. He obviously wanted her to come to him, though she did not know how she could know. And how would she get there? The way she had taken to get to the tide pools was war more treacherous on the way back…

Feeling daring, with a touch of defiant attitude for which she thought nothing could go wrong, she jumped into the waves on the side of the stone barrier she had come from, strong arms pumping her body through the water. Luckily the tide was coming in, she realized, or she would have had trouble.

The hanyou trudged out almost tetchily to meet her, grabbing her arms and lifting her up roughly from the water in mid stroke. Sango didn't dare look up and meet his eyes. She had just had the damnedest feeling that her clothes stuck to her body revealingly, and that she was shivering uncontrollably with cold. She tried to pull away, but he held tight, pulling her into his arms and hugging her. She stopped shivering, nestled between his clothes. He was so warm… I…can't… This isn't…

They stood like that for a long while, Sango's breathing catching in her throat as she tried to swallow, volleying between wanting to stay like that longer and wanting to tear away. It was strangely pleasant…but wrong! Wrong in so many ways…

The wind whipped up again, and his outline blurred, smeared away by the gale. The colors of his garments flew away from her grasp, replaced by blue silk. Oh gods… Sango screamed, pushing away with noticeably more force than she had tried to escape the hanyou's hug with, twisting away violently and falling backward, submerging her face unexpectedly for a moment, causing her to breathe in water.

The moon goddess came nearer, and gently lifted Sango up into fresh air. Sango's only reaction was to scream louder, scared that she might anger a god, and even more scared that the Kagome-hime that stood before her was, in fact, not a god at all, and would kill her after rescuing her.

A few words flitted into her head meaninglessly, and she tried to remember exactly who was it that said them. They had been said prior to her thoughts, by someone she thought she knew well, but not to her.

At that moment, Sango jerked awake, almost falling over as she became fully aware of her surroundings, and that fact that she had slept sitting, as she tried to stand and felt her legs and neck seize up in cramps and aches.

It took her a while to recall exactly why it was she was camped in a forest alone. With the abrupt unpleasantness of waking up in the morning and remembering something increasingly important—which was, in a way, exactly what she did—she realized that the hanyou she had been with was gone.

"H-hanyou?" She stuttered, calling out to the trees with a false glimmer of hope. "Please…" Don't leave me alone. Please… She scrambled along the perimeter of the campsite, paying special attention to his side of the campfire. When she caught sight of the now strangely well-trodden slope, slicked with long grass and matted with the unmistakable sight of blood, her heart skipped a beat and she cried out, "Answer me! Where? Where are you?" Panic soaked in again, so soon after her disheartening dream.

Please no please no please no…not alone…all alone… She stopped her anguished thoughts long enough to reason out all the possibilities. Well, he could have miraculously healed, leaving me to fend of myself while he easily made his escape…unlikely. He could have been eaten by a larger youkai…very unlikely. She tried to imagine a youkai even CLOSE to being of a size large enough to do so lingering in a forest like this and being able to survive and failed.

All the other possibilities were much worse, so she continued her panic-stricken review of the forest. She skidded at the edge of the slope, crouching low enough to wipe the blood from a few of the leaves on the ground. Tears prickled her eyes as she wiped her fingers on the fibers of her sandals. Was she really alone now? Where are you, haha, chichi, Kohaku, Mujina… Where are you?

"You won't find anything down there."

Sango blinked, wiping the tears away with the sleeve of her kosode as she turned around, still slumped on the ground. She tried to hide her relief rather unsuccessfully when she saw the hanyou standing there on the other side of the campground. Alive and whole, albeit much more strained and tired-looking than she imagined she would ever see. He was still with her.

"Why are you crawling on the ground like that? Get up. We need to get out of here." He stated evenly, walking toward her. He knelt down so close to her she could feel his body heat. Again.

"U-um…about last night…" Sango muttered. She felt so stupid. And what was that dream all about, now that her mind was free from apprehension. She couldn't help but remember and draw certain connections between then and now.

He wrenched her up savagely, and Sango fixed her gaze momentarily on dried blood, grotesquely encrusted on the sleeve of his kariginu. She glanced back down the rise, catching the distinct whiff of coppery blood on him and wondered if it was indeed his of the aforementioned spread on the dew-wet grass.

"Nothing happened."

Sango didn't say anyting, merely nodded, wiping a stray thread of sinuous plant veins from her apron. "Yes. We should go now."

For a while, there was nothing. Not joy, not sadness, nor fatigue. Nothing. The twosome walked a fair distance between each other, completely silent. Sango thought maybe she should ask him exactly where they were going, but eventually decided against it. For some reason, she didn't think he would be all that thrilled to bother being interrogated by her. He seemed fine, more or less, but not OVERLY energetic, for sure. She was sure that he would have been bounding along the tree boughs, far ahead of her, sniffing out the exit with alacrity. But instead he walked in front of her, slowly yet purposefully, barely disturbing the peace in the heart of the forest. He appeared to be a lot surer of himself now, though. What exactly happened while she slept that night, anyway? Definitely not 'nothing'.

Just short of fifteen minutes later, a firm hand gripped her shoulder, pulling her backwards by the back of her kosode. "Keep going and you'll slip," the hanyou cautioned, stopping her just before she walked right off a low ledge. It wouldn't have hurt to fall and slide the distance, but it certainly would have been embarrassing, Sango thought, then looked ahead to see the trees beginning to thin out, revealing vaguely familiar landmarks.

"I didn't realize the end of the forest was so soon," She replied, taking a few more quick steps backwards. "How come it took so long before? This is the field between the Taiji Village and…Niwatori Village." Home again? But—augh! Now she was confused. The moon garden, and then…so they were just in the forest of pheasants the whole time? "Why couldn't I tell we were so close? I-I've lived here all my life and-"

Shrugging, the hanyou leapt down the knoll fluidly. The landing was a little off though—his knees buckled beneath the pressure of his jump and his weight, and he fell to the ground sideways.

Sango ended up sliding down the hill anyway. "Hanyou!" She shouted, scrambling towards him. She knelt over him, reaching out a hand to help him up.

The hanyou swatted her away, smacking her cleanly on the cheek. Sango recoiled, bringing a hand up to her stinging face. "How…dare you…after all I went through for you!"

"While you may have developed certain FEELINGS, I for one don't ever want to see you again after we're through with this!" The hanyou barked, grimacing as he pulled himself up. Fresh blood soaked his clothes, and he clutched the sleeve, pulling it tight.

"Push, push, push, that's all you ever do! You're pushing yourself too hard, pushing me away, pushing everything back! Why in all the heavens and hells do you do that?" Sango argued in exasperation.

"Go away. Go back to that slayer's village of yours. I got you through the forest, and I'm done now." He turned his back on her and started walking in the direction of Niwatori.

"If anyone got anyone through that, I don't know who it was, bur for sure it wasn't you! I don't seem to recall any immediate help from you at all, so stop putting me down!"

The hanyou pretended to ignore her, picking up his pace a little and crossing his arms in an annoyed gesture as he always did.

"Listen to me!" Sango called after him, running up to match his stride.

"No."

This continued until they reached the gigantic crystallized youkai horde, with Midoriko's captured body in its jaws. Sango broke off in mid-sentence when she saw, putting a hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp. "What…is that?" She breathed in amazement. Peering closer at the pillar of encased memories, only one word came to mind. "Midoriko-sama."

The hanyou slit his golden eyes against the glare of early morning sunlight of the same hue, reflecting off the statue. "That Kagome bitch's Midoriko doll wanted the sword," he said, almost to himself. "I think the real one will need it too. She might…be able to cross into the next world more easily now." Drawing the blade with such force that Sango actually stepped backwards, afraid he might turn around and start hacking at her with it, he held it up in front of him for a moment, gazing at his reflection in the lustrous metal for the last time before sinking the blade deep into the eroding hillside, so deep only a hand's-width of the actual blade showed above the dirt. Afterwards, he just stood there for a long time, staring out in front of him at nothing in particular, unless he found the grass to be unusually thought provoking.

Sango stayed silent for the first bit, out of respect for the late miko, but once the hanyou made to move on once more, Sango blurted out, "We came all this way just to give a sword to a dead woman?"

The hanyou gave her a glare that dripped with the same killing toxicity as Kagome-hime's earlier threats to Liem Shi Hua. With equally deadly softness, he added, "No one said you had to come."

Sango's mouth dropped open at his boldness, sputtering, but managed to get out, "Ah, it doesn't matter anymore. Can we go back now?"

"What makes you think I'm going 'back'? There's not reason to be staying over there. You've caused enough trouble for me as it is. I don't need to stay around anymore to help you get out of your little predicament."

"I think it's YOUR 'predicament'. It's around you whom all of this revolves, if you would take the time to use that brain of yours and think about it." Sango admonished coldly—he was really pushing her tolerance to the limit.

That got him. It was so true. So a short argument and hike later, they ended up sharing the most extravagant meal that Sango's paltry bartering could buy in Niwatori Village. In short, not much. The hanyou ended up giving his ration of dried fish and millet gruel sprinkled with nori to the ravenous Sango anyway, since he claimed he wasn't hungry and could get MUCH better later. It was the last part that provoked Sango into taking the food willingly.

"So…" They were together on the veranda of a dusty merchant home, in the food district of Niwatori's market. The hanyou lazily dangled his feet from the small ledge, just to spite Sango, who was seated with her feet tucked beneath her politely as she sipped her soup gratefully. "Do you think I'll be missed?"

"What?" He stirred, half-asleep on his sunny perch.

"Do you think anyone noticed I was missing?" Sango repeated, blowing an even stream of steam from her bowl and fanning the broth to cool it.

"Keh! Of course. You taijiya are all pretty close, up there in that damn village, aren't you? And you have that annoying friend."

"The others would only assume I had been asked to slay a demon for a nearby village. And Mujina, well…she's not exactly thinking that I'm the most gracious person in the world at the moment."

"What's this? Our 'wonderful' Sango has fallen into a vale of self-pity?" The hanyou scoffed, giving her a cocky glance. "One night out in the wilds and you're tired and want to stop?"

That's you, that's you THAT'S YOU! She wanted to scream, but she calmly opted for a more docile reply. "You know, I really don't need you. I can leave anytime I want so start treating me better or I'll see to it that the remainder of your days—which are numbered already, mind you—are absolutely miserable." The words came too easily to put her at ease. She said ones to a similar effect to Mujina all the time.

"You're the one who followed me all the way out here." The hanyou pointed out. "No one's asking you to stay."

Very true. "Look, we're not getting anywhere. Let's start over."

"Let's not."

Sango scowled at him. Uncooperative bastard… "All right. We won't talk at all after this. You can pretend you don't even know me." She glanced meaningfully at the passerby, who turned their heads suspiciously at the sight of a taijiya and a youkai conversing more or less non-savagely.

"But let me make one point—I don't need anyone to protect me. I could have done much better alone than with you. I don't need looking after, and I don't need to be told what to do by the likes of you! I already know!" Sango raised her voice, causing the tender of the stall they had bought their food from to turn his head curiously.

Dead silence. She could hear her own words echoing. They seemed to affect him much less than Sango thought they would, since he had a youkai's foolish pride, but maybe that was just her being presumptuous. Maybe he wasn't even listening. So much for a dramatic effect. Thinking back quickly, maybe she was being more forceful than necessary. She could feel a hot, fevered blush creeping into her features for a reason she could not fathom, so she turned away quickly, clenching her fingers around two large wads of fabric from her apron. "But it felt nice to know that there was someone that would do that for me."

That got his attention. "W-what—what makes you think…" The hanyou stammered, scooting away in embarrassment.

"You're the one who kept complaining that you had to look out for me. Just saying thanks for the thought, is all," Sango said tentatively, brushing hair back from hiding part of her face as she looked back up at him.

The hanyou paused, comtenplating what she just said. His only response was another haughty, "Keh!"

"That's one your redeeming features, you know." Sango said blandly. "Always so impersonal."

Meanwhile, he couldn't believe his good fortune. Kagome-hime's words still resounded at the back of his mind.

Find her strength.

And she had brought the topic up herself, albeit in the form of sarcasm. "What's you best feature?" Shit. That sounded…strangely lecherous…

Sango didn't seem to think so, and if she did, she hid it. All he got was a quick, "I have none!" and she smiled the conversation away.

If that didn't prove disheartening, the next thing she said did. '"Let's talk about you!"' was to be the second most depressing thing he had head all day—and it was only noon, damn it.

"No, let's not."

Sango treated his statement as if it had not been said at all, so well that he wondered if maybe he imagined saying the words out loud. "So, where were you born?" When all she got was a non-submissive stare, she added, "I'll answer every question I ask you for myself too."

"I dunno."

"Me? The Taiji Village, of course." Great, he was lapsing on her again. Just when she thought they were getting somewhere, back to square one and the terrors of short, useless answers. She asked another question. "Where did you live then, before I met you?"

In Niwatori, I guess… Instead, he said, "Nowhere."

Gah, not just any short answers. Evasive ones, at that. Maybe if she directed her questions to a more warrior-like topic. "What is your most hated enemy?"

"Life."

"Oh." That's…interesting. "Then how come you put up with it so much? Wouldn't it be easier just to –"

"I'll NEVER get down on my knees and beg for mercy. Only damned cowards to that. Besides, I like doin' things the hard way." If there was a darker side to this halfling, it had just shown its colors once more. He leered at her. "Gets people really fucked up."

Sango sat in resolve for a moment, and the hanyou took advantage of her quiet and said, "I'm going to ask YOU a question now."

"Er…okay."

"Why are you asking me these stupid questions?"

Sango blushed. "'Cause I want to know the answers. Only one more—I promise." she pleaded.

The hanyou grunted. "Whatever."

"You told me you had a name earlier, but you wouldn't tell me what it was. So what I want to know is, do you really have a name?"

Before he had time to even think about lying, he blurted out, "No."

Sango seemed a little surprised. "Really."

"Whatever you want to think—don't matter to me."

"Haha-I mean, my mother, always said that Riie, our midwife, instructed that her children be named immediately after birth, lest their spirits leak back into hell, unchained by identity." Sango repeated almost word for word, closing her eyes with authority.

"Well, uh…" The hanyou shifted uncomfortably, well aware that Sango could feel his uneasiness, and looked away, pretending to be preoccupied by an enticing speckle of mud wiped on the wall.

"How about I give you a name, Inuyasha."

Not giving me much choice, are you now, was his first reaction.

He stared at her for a moment, and she smiled brightly. Her stomach was full, she knew where she was, and she thought that maybe—just maybe—she had a new friend.

'Inuyasha'. He liked that.

-

Niwatori Village

Sengoku Jidai

Mujina licked her lips distastefully as she walked along the many mercantile stalls spread out along the streets of Niwatori. Jewelry? Junk. Tools? Crap. Weapons? Useless. Herbs? Too many already. Isn't there anything to EAT here? She grumbled, passing over the stall with 'buckets of live eel for roasting at home—a fresher taste!', or so the merchant claimed.

Then she saw something that made her think that maybe she wasn't so famished after all.

Sango was in the village, which would have been wonderful if that was all that it was, but she was with that—that—YOUKAI. She gritted her teeth huffily as she watched them. They weren't even DOING anything, really, just talking; she didn't know why she was so mad all of the sudden, but gods almighty, she was. She ducked into one of the stalls, much to the annoyance of the owner of the market space, and watched silently, sputtering with spontaneous rage.

They were too close to each other, she thought. No, HE's too close to HER. Why doesn't Sango just pull a fast one and kill him now? He's too intrusive. She's too good for you, bastard youkai. Get away frorm her.

The hanyou had 'abash' written all over his face, and Mujina sneered. Sango had obviously bested him in something. Mujina's grin dissolved, however, when Sango began to laugh. SHE couldn't make Sango laugh—why could he?

Finally, the hanyou slowly stood to make his leave. Mujina snorted a sigh of relief. It's about bloody time. Oh for the love of sanity, Sango was getting up too—surely she wasn't planning to leave with him? No! She was getting closer to him…they were touching ki, for the sake of the gods. What the fuck-

Sango was whispering, pulling the fuzzy white dog-ear down to her words. They were both smiling. Cynically, but they were doing the same thing—together! That simply was NOT allowed! At least in Mujina's world.

Eew, Sango was STROKING his arm! Sango, why? Mujina cringed is despair. This was just too much idiocy. Phew, he pulled it back. He's in pain? Why? Because she stroked his arm?

With no effort for haste, he walked away, without so much as a backward glance. Mujina breathed a sigh of relief, as did the shopkeeper whose space she had invaded as she tried to nonchalantly greet Sango. "Yo."

Sango jumped, glancing guiltily at Mujina. "Did you—"

Mujina rolled her eyes, pointing an accusing finger at her friend. "How stupid do you think I am? You can't disappear on the same day every month, at the same time, and be gone for the same amount of time and not have anyone notice!" She stomped right up to Sango, until she could literally feel Sango's upset breathing blowing into her face.

"But I…does my father know too?" Sango asked, stomach knotting in apprehension.

"Peh, of course not. Unless I tell him." Mujina shrugged, indicating that she just might do so.

"Mujina," Sango pleaded. "What do you have against him?"

"'Him'? Who?" Mujina pouted. "If you mean that damned filthy, sneaking, dangerous, pathetic hanyou, gee, I don't know!" Mujina shouted, causing many people to turn around and walk in the other direction just to avoid being in the middle of what Sango was in.

"Mujina, you're being unreasonable. When you deserted me at the Tama Shrine yesterday…" she paused. Was it really only yesterday? "Yes. When you left me to be with Koichi, he helped me get back home."

"Sango…" Mujina reasoned. "You don't need a guide to get back to Taiji Village from the fucking Tama Shrine."

The taijiya stuck her lower lip out in exasperation. "You don't know what happened, so why do you care?"

"Fine! I don't care, then. I'll just take my Koichi baby and leave you two alone." Mujina snorted sarcastically. "I guess since you're in LOVE now I don't matter anymore. It figures."

Sango didn't say anything, shaking with anger and hurt. Hot tears threatened to spill over and roll down her cheeks, but she held it in, incapable of speech because of it. Love? Last month she would have denied it without a second thought, but a lot had happened. "You're…the one who forgot about me." She managed to get out, biting her lip to keep from crying. It was never fair, was it?

Mujina tore relentlessly at Sango. I want you to be miserable. I want you to realize I'M right. I want you to feel what I did when I found out you would rather be with someone ELSE. "I'll bet that you two are planning on eloping and getting married in the far north. I'll bet that you were planning to ditch me all along! I'll bet that you were faking it all those years just to make yourself look better! I'll bet YOU killed your own mother! She was my haha too—it was nicer when she was around!" Mujina snarled, hitting anything she thought Sango would react negatively to.

Sango stood her ground, snapping upright and strolling calmly down the street back out of Niwatori Village.

Mujina gaped in awe, looking up at the sky forlornly for a moment, knowing that this time, she had gone too far. Sango-chan…

Alone in the Niwatori woods, Sango fell to the ground, hiding herself in the soft grass and sobbing mirthlessly. No one can see me. No one can make fun of me. No one can convict me. No one can comfort me.

Her mantra was true, no one would tell her though, that someone WAS watching. And that same someone was realizing just what went on in her mind.

Find her strongest emotion.

Only then will you be free.

-end chapter ten

-

NOTES: The last part was narrated strangely because it was a third-person narrative for Mujina, in case anyone was wondering…and Inuyasha and Sango's interaction with each other was given through Mujina's sadly…warped perspective. Also a little bit of my sad attempts at humor… I think it's classified as 'author humour'…

On Kagome-hime/Inuyasha blah blah: "Find Sango's best feature". That came out sounding like it was shoddily translated from Japanese or something. Oh well. It can't be helped. It can only be described as her 'strongest emotion', or 'most noteworthy quality'. It will be explained in more detail in chapter 13 or so.

INUYASHA! WHOOO! I CAN CALL HIM THAT NOW! IT WAS ANNOYING! (I'm sure you thought so too.)

Welp, I tried. I really did. Romantic? Not really. I tried to put some more in before Ch. 16 (originally chapter 7 in my oldest outline, but somehow this story…exploded in size.)

Thank you everyone!

Kalliel

カリエル