A/N: This is the revised version of Chapter 16. Please read and review. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
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SEVEN WEEKS
16. The Mind Maze
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"Hey kid, wake up. Are you ok?" Inuyasha tried to softly shake the kid awake. The child was unconscious as a rock and he was actually worried. This kid... a future palace guard. Surely he also had some powers despite his young age?
He turned to his side to regard Kagome, only to stop short when he realized that she was no longer there. "Kagome! Where the fuck did you run off to?" Inuyasha yelled.
"I'm right here, Inuyasha! I found another child!" he heard Kagome shout back, and he heard a faint ripping noise. He pulled a piece of cloth from within the folds of his robe and tied it around the child's abdomen, mentally wincing when the child gave out a low groan of discomfort. The child turned to his side, clutching his gaping wound, and opened his glazed brown eyes.
"Aniki..." the child called softly, turning his head up to look at Inuyasha.
"Iie. I'm Inuyasha. You ok?" he asked. He pressed down on the kid's chest as he tried to sit up. "Don't get up. Your wound looks pretty bad, kid."
"Aniki... I have to find my elder brother!" he replied weakly. "We've been lost for days, and this youkai... he tried to kill me and my oniisan..."
"Hush... cool it kid, we'll take care of it. Now I need to get you to a healer or something and..." he trailed off as the strong scent of blood invaded his nostrils. He looked down at the child and noted that his bleeding had almost stopped. Now why did he smell blood all over the place?
He sniffed around a bit and realized that the scent did not belong to just one person - the scent of blood hung heavily, as if someone had gathered blood samples from different people. Then another scent came up. It was the unmistakable scent of youkai.
The scent was coming from directly behind him and it was closing in on him rapidly. 'God damn youkai thinks he can sneak up on me, keh,' he thought as a smirk formed on his lips. He discreetly poised for a jump, ready to spring up suddenly once the youkai got to him. He heard Kagome shout his name about a moment before he felt the youkai upon him.
"INUYASHA! LOOK OUT!" Kagome screamed in panic a split second before he leaped off the ground and smartly avoided the youkai's claw attack.
Kagome let out the longest, loudest sigh of relief, letting out the huge gulp of breath she had been holding along with it. Inuyasha must have somehow known that the youkai was coming, and had jumped up at the last moment.
Inuyasha landed next to her kneeling form, where she still cradled the wounded boy on her lap. He set the small child he was holding down beside her, silently instructing her to keep an eye on the kid. Kagome nodded, and as Inuyasha leaped off for the youkai, she shouted, "Kiotskete kudasai, Inuyasha!"
Inuyasha gave her a small wink that had her heart hammering in her chest, tingeing her cheeks pink. She was vaguely aware of the boy that she held, who was now trying to sit up and crawl over to his brother.
She kept her eyes trained on Inuyasha as she softly told both boys to lie down and rest. She bit her lip, almost drawing blood as she watched the hanyou intently.
Inuyasha leaped up into the air, pulling out Tetsusaiga as he slowly neared the ground. He aimed for the youkai's head, but the youkai was not exactly slow. The canine youkai dodged his attack, making Inuyasha shatter the ground that he landed in, taking a few dead trees down with him.
Inuyasha turned to the youkai, golden eyes blazing as he raised Tetsusaiga. He was furious, but confused. The youkai that now stood before him reeked of blood... but the blood of the two children he had found were not among the mingling scents of various slain individuals that tainted the youkai he was now fighting.
He strode up to the youkai again, wondering if it would be proper to 'practice' the Kaze no Kizu on it. He swiftly decided against it, concluding that there were other youkai in the area that could possibly be stronger than the one he had here. The last time he had used the Kaze no Kizu, he had gotten exhausted. Thinking that he would lose his stamina before some powerful youkai easily irked him.
This was a relatively weak one. He raised his sword higher as the youkai rushed at him, and brought it down on the youkai's head with an angry battle cry.
No big... he sliced the youkai in half easily. Man, he loved his sword!
He sheathed Tetsusaiga as he walked towards where Kagome sat nursing the wounded kids. Kagome was looking at him with wide, relieved eyes, a hand on each of the two children.
"Mou," she said once he was near her. "You scared me, baka!"
"Keh," he retorted. "You should have known that that youkai was no match for me."
"You still scared me, dammit!"
"Ok! Sorry," he said, kneeling down beside her. "Are they ok?"
"I don't know Inuyasha," she replied. The elder of the two boys had now crawled over to his younger brother, weakly putting an arm around his ototo's torso. Both now lay unconscious, and Inuyasha felt a pang in his chest as he looked at the brothers.
"Do you think those two will... make it?" he asked reluctantly. Kagome smiled sadly.
"Wakaranai, Inuyasha," she said softly. "I wish there was some way I could help them, though..."
Inuyasha stared for a while, before remembering something. "Oi, Kagome? Don't you have those weird powers that come out of your arrows? The same thing that makes weird barriers? Couldn't you use that on these kids?" he asked hopefully.
Kagome gave him a strange look. Did he mean her holy powers? But... her present powers were weak. Without the Shikon's power within her, she was much weaker. The powers she had now were the powers present in her since birth, the ones enhanced by the shikon. Could she save these children with it?
"Inuyasha... I can try but... I don't know if it will work," she said, uncertainty in her voice. Inuyasha just grinned at her.
"Come on, Kagome! You're a strong onna! Your powers could save these kids! What did you call them once? Holy powers? Purifying powers? Surely, you could do something. Purify their wounds, at least. The wounds WERE made by evil beings, so you could probably purify it," Inuyasha said, eying her.
"Well... yeah. Demo... I don't know if my powers are strong enough."
"Listen," Inuyasha interrupted. "I have complete confidence in you," he said, and Kagome thought she saw his cheeks turn slightly pink. "I'll even help you out. I don't know how, but I will! I mean... I have powers too, right? I can probably share them or something, I dunno! But I'll try. It wouldn't hurt to try, ne?"
Kagome smiled at him. "Hai, you're right. There's no chance of them getting hurt in this, after all! If it doesn't work, we'll just have to find a doctor REAL soon. If it does, then it would be wonderful!"
Both tried to decide on how to do it. One kid at a time or do their experiment on both at once? They silently decided to try to heal both kids at once.
Kagome held a hand over the brothers hesitantly, trying to decide what to do. Back when she still had the shikon, she would just hold on to the gem and whisper her prayers to the gods, but without it, how would she manage?
A hand on her outstretched one startled her out of her confused thoughts. She looked up and smiled at Inuyasha's hopeful gaze, lowering her hand, and his, onto the two fallen bodies.
Inuyasha was actually very nervous, about what, he didn't know. But he was. He just followed Kagome's unsure movements and tried to encourage her, though he actually needed some encouragement himself.
Kagome closed her eyes and began murmuring some words, too low for even his keen hearing to pick up. Not knowing what to do, Inuyasha just crunched his eyes up and let Kagome do the work, trying to will his power into Kagome. Mind you, he had no idea how to do it. He just kinda... prayed.
They sat there for what seemed like hours, Kagome silently chanting and Inuyasha risking some short glances at his partner. He did notice though, that with each passing minute, he felt as if some of his powers were draining from him, merging with another force.
After what seemed like an eternity, a bright light engulfed the four people and died down, revealing an exhausted miko and a confused hanyou. They both took a moment to regain their breaths, before glancing down at the children they helped.
The kids were now starting to stir, their wounds not completely healed but assured of survival and recovery. The elder child looked up and rubbed his eyes, looking completely astonished.
"I'm alive?" he asked disbelievingly, before exclaiming. "Michi-chan!"
His younger brother had also begun stirring, and he looked up at his elder brother in delight. "Aniki?"
Kagome and Inuyasha just smiled at each other.
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'Shikon no Tama...'
Kagura sat before the dome, pondering the mysteries of the jewel. As usual, Naraku had sent her there to feed Azalea.
'The idiot... everybody else has figured out that Azalea is gone. He is the only one who believes that the princess is still under his control,' she thought in disdain, glaring angrily at the barrier that now only held nothing more than the shikon no tama.
Even she did not understand it, though. How could a single measly jewel fool all of them into thinking that IT was the princess? It had almost acted as if it had a mind of its own. Or maybe...
Kagura stood straight and chewed thoughtfully on the sprig of food that was supposed to be for Azalea. 'Maybe the jewel can't think on its own... it can feel!' she thought triumphantly.
Yes, that had to be it! She vaguely recalled that the strong, pulsing power within the orb grew gradually more violent the longer they stayed near it. The more evil it sensed, the more violently it reacted, so that when they threatened her, even verbally, the shikon no tama would sense the malice and evil, making it react.
"Maybe it senses evil and repels it once it sticks around for too long!" she whispered in excited glee. "Man, I'm smart!" she said with a grin as she noticed that the dome was once again starting to glow more brightly.
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The portal's glitch was not budging. Sango had been trying to fix the glitch since the day she learned of it, but so far...
"Kuso," she muttered. She was greatly upset by now. At the rate the glitch was going, Inuyasha's time in Crystallia might even be shortened! Oh, he's is NOT going to like this!
"KUSO!" she screamed, nearly making her pet, Kirara, jump out of her fur. "Oh, gomen, Kirara. I didn't mean to surprise you."
The small fuzzy neko youkai shook her head and went over to sit on Sango's lap. Her mistress was upset... she could see it clearly. Sango had begun to stroke her fur absently, looking for all the world like a lost child.
Kirara purred up at Sango, making the latter smile. "Mmm... daijobu, Kirara. I was just thinking," she paused. "This glitch in the portal... Inuyasha-sama will be very upset. The glitch is growing and..."
Sango sighed in defeat. "I don't understand... the glitch... will now only allow him to stay in Crystallia for six weeks! Meaning, he now has less than three weeks to rescue the princess and get home."
Kirara stared up at Sango in interest. Her mistress was clearly in trouble for this. She scratched at her side, where a tiny bandage still stayed. She climbed up on Sango's shoulder and begun to nuzzle her cheek.
Sango giggled. "Kirara," she said with a small smile. "I am so glad you're back. You were so badly injured in that last fight that at first, I didn't think you would survive..."
"But now I don't think I could let myself live it down if an entire realm is destroyed. Inuyasha-sama's world... now he has less time. And Miroku's assumption that he has met someone - he would be furious! We just managed to escape his wrath, and now," Sango sighed again. "He will probably hate me now..."
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"I don't know if I can ever thank you two enough for saving me and Michi! Arigatou!"
The boys had been constantly thanking the pair since they realized that it was Kagome and Inuyasha who had helped them recover. Kagome was smiling softly, and Inuyasha had offered to carry the younger kid on his shoulders.
"We told you Shiro-kun, it's ok. Now we just have to find our way out of this maze!" Kagome said brightly, Inuyasha nodding vigorously.
"I just have one question though," Inuyasha said thoughtfully. "How did you two runts get all the way here? The nearest civilization is kilometers away!"
"Well..." Shiro, the elder kid began. "I don't really know. We were just walking around the garden, then the next thing we realized, we were here! We didn't even know that we had gone off too far!"
"NO!" Michi interjected in his small voice from his perch on Inuyasha's shoulder. "We saw that weird spider... then we got here."
"Oh yeah... a spider. But it's not like the spider can harm us! We saw it, went on walking, then suddenly, we got here." Shiro argued.
"And we've been lost for days!" Michi said, looking at Kagome. "I wanna get back home. Our mother is going to have another baby real soon, and I want to be there when my baby sister is born!"
"I told you, mom said she doesn't know if the baby's a girl or a boy!" Shiro argued.
"I want a baby sister! Then maybe she could have a star mark like us, and we could all go live at the palace with the princess when we grow up!"
"When they find the princess, you mean..."
Kagome, however, had a far-off look in her eyes. 'A spider...'
"Michi-kun, Shiro-kun, could any of you tell me how the spider looked like?" she asked. Both boys stopped bickering to look at her in puzzlement.
"Well," Shiro began. "I didn't really look at it too well. It was just a dumb spider. It was Michi who really took the time to watch it."
"It was nice, with three red stripes on its back. It also had weird eyes. They were kind of... well, I can see through them! They look just like Inuyasha-niichan's hair!" Michi said excitedly.
Kagome gasped, and Inuyasha looked at her in complete bewilderment. "Oi, Kagome. Do you know something about these spiders?"
"Actually," Kagome said. "That was not a spider. It was a kumoga-youkai."
"A spider youkai?" Inuyasha queried. "So, is that thing responsible for us being trapped here?"
"I think so... I've heard of a spell that spider youkai perform for their masters. It's called a mind maze, I think."
The three clueless members of the male species just stared at her. "I meant, yes, they were responsible for this."
"Oh..." the three said in realization.
"But I do not know exactly how that happened. Neither do I know how we can get out of here," Kagome added sheepishly.
"Well then," Inuyasha said slowly. "Maybe Miroku knows?"
"I'll bet he does, but I don't think the amulet would work here."
"I can try," Inuyasha replied. He put Michi down and took the amulet out of his robes. "Miroku!" he hollered, expecting to see the monk's face appear at his request.
"What the fuck!" he cursed. "Oi, Miroku!" Nothing. 'Kami, what now?'
"I told you. I believe that the youkai that brought us here have actually brought us into a different reality. We can't have access to a world other than this one. THAT was probably why we've been lost for days." Kagome said uncertainly.
"Shit. So, we have to go kill whoever has brought us over here for us to get back to our quest?" Inuyasha asked in a rage, scaring Michi in the process.
"Inuyasha, please do try to control your temper. You are scaring the heck out of the boys," Kagome said calmly.
"What the fuck are you talking about, wench? These kids are future palace guards! They'll be facing stuff much worse than me," he replied heatedly.
"That's exactly why! These two will be facing so much, and while it is not their time to go to the palace yet... they should keep their innocence, ne?" Kagome smiled.
Inuyasha gave her a strange look. 'So she doesn't want them distressed until their time for the palace comes. She must be talking like that from experience. Her brother is a guard, after all.'
"Keh."
They continued walking, but now, unlike the aimless walks they had a few minutes before, all four were rather tense. Inuyasha kept sniffing the surroundings for threats; Kagome was looking around and now had a tight grip on the bow that was slung on her back; Shiro and Michi were walking slowly, both looking alert despite their remaining injuries.
Inuyasha risked a glance at the two kids. Michi's gash still looked painful, and Shiro's was still swollen, but both fought to keep any trace of pain out of their faces. 'Brave kids,' he thought. 'I guess they really were made to be palace warriors.'
Inuyasha abruptly stopped at the scent of blood. Kagome noticed this and stiffened.
"You smell something, don't you?" she asked apprehensively.
Inuyasha nodded. "Don't YOU sense anything, Kagome?"
Kagome looked pensive for a while, before slowly nodding. "Demo... I can't tell exactly where it is coming from... Shiro-kun, can you tell? You have powers, ne?"
Shiro shook his head. "Gomen... but since the day of the princess' kidnap, our powers have practically been non-existent."
Kagome looked confused for a second, before remembering. "Naraku's spell... nobody with a star mark can use their powers outside the palace."
A sharp gasp brought all attention to Michi. He was staring at something in a distance, apparently at something minute. His eyes were nearly bugging out and it took Inuyasha a half moment to realize what had caught the kid's attention.
"Oi... do you see the spider?" he asked. The child nodded almost dumbly.
"It's... on that rock," he stated, and Inuyasha slowly drew Tetsusaiga out of its scabbard, approaching the rock. The children gasped at the sight of the sword. Kagome too, notched an arrow onto her bow, ready to fire.
The spider was tiny, but Inuyasha noticed that it tried desperately to remain inconspicuous. It wasn't succeeding. A faint glow was coming off the spider, totally giving away the fact that it IS a youkai.
As Inuyasha raised his sword, it seems the youkai could no longer hold his disguise. It started to grow in size, until a bright red light enveloped him. When the light cleared, all four people gasped.
The youkai had the body of a spider and the head of a scraggly old woman. The red lines on its back were fiery and aglow. The foremost leg on either side of it had sharp pincer-like claws, and Kagome noticed that the youkai was repeatedly snapping them. Inuyasha noticed that hound youkai were emerging from the shadows, one by one with each snap of the kumogashira's pincers.
"Inuyasha..." Kagome began in slight panic. The two boys were now hiding desperately behind Kagome, holding onto each other in fright.
"Kagome," Inuyasha began, not taking his eyes off the large spider youkai and the hounds around them. "Take the kids to safety. I'll..."
Kagome cut him off. "No, Inuyasha. I will NOT let you handle this alone!"
"But the kids!"
"They'll be safer here! At least they'll have the two of us to protect them!" Kagome objected. "Besides, where did you plan for me to take them, hmm?"
Inuyasha blinked at that. 'She makes a lot of sense actually.'
"Alright wench, you win. Keep 'em here!" he shouted back, still not daring to turn his head from the spider and the hounds. He slowly inched back towards them, sword raised, and whispered to Kagome, "You take care of as many hounds as you can. I'll still help, don't worry," he interjected when Kagome began to interrupt. "But leave the asshole spider to me."
Kagome nodded and made the boys huddle more closely around her. Inuyasha, however, decided to start off the classic way - slicing the youkai to bits. He ran at the youkai and let out a loud angry shout as he leapt into the air, intending to come down on the youkai.
Of course, the youkai wouldn't make that too easy for him. It dodged his attack, and he was met by about twenty hounds. Inuyasha tried to spin around and jump at the kumogashira once again, only to be stopped when the hounds jumped on him.
"God dammit!" he shouted as one of them bit painfully on his left arm. He shook them off in anger, but some stubbornly remained there. In frustration, he struck out a "Sankontessou! Take that, you mangy, bloodthirsty hounds!", killing at least two beasts with each strike.
When he finally managed to free himself of the attacking youkai, he searched his line of sight again for the spider youkai. It was wordlessly cackling a few meters from him, and he decided to try to hit her again.
He tried to slice it up, but was again met by the same problem. More hounds came, almost out of nowhere, and decided that ripping him to shreds was a good pastime.
He was now bloody and torn, and decided to use that to his advantage. "Hijinkessou!" he attacked, taking down another lot of them. This time, before he even finished off the lot that were on him, he jumped at the spider and managed to slice a long bloody gash across its disgusting back.
The youkai let out a scream, calling on more hounds to surround it. Inuyasha, however, began to thin that it was a tad old by now, and decided to end it by practicing a certain new wind attack. He turned to face the wounded spider youkai, who had more than a dozen hounds surrounding her.
He tried to remember the time when he had first used the attack - the time he fought those two youkai. He concentrated in gathering up as much youki as he possibly could. He closed his eyes as he felt the hardly familiar waves of youki begin to surround his sword.
Kagome was standing a few meters behind Inuyasha, facing in the opposite direction. She was doing fine, taking down one hound with each arrow, but she knew that she was bound to run out of arrows. She was running low, as it was. There were a lot of them, and Michi was hanging on to her like a lifeline. Shiro didn't seem to be behind her though.
"Shiro-kun, where are you?" she asked in frantic fright. She looked over her shoulder and saw him standing right behind Inuyasha, who was preparing what she now knew was the Kaze no Kizu. The boy was transfixed on the large sword, jaw hanging agape as he looked on. She noticed that he was holding one of her arrows, a bloody one at that. He must have just pulled it out of one of the many youkai that she had slain.
'Inuyasha is going to use the Kaze no Kizu on the spider youkai... gods I hope it works!' she thought as she notched another arrow and hit another youkai. "Shiro-kun, get back over here!" she shouted. The boy didn't even move.
Inuyasha knew he had to hurry with the youkai. He had already lost three precious days in there... he had to get out of the spider's lair NOW!
He opened his eyes slowly, and grinned in animal malice at seeing the large waves of youki surrounding his sword and body. He raised his sword, just the way he had three nights ago, and let out a shout as he swung it down violently, right between the gap in the wind.
"KAZE NO KIZU!"
The youkai's eyes widened at this, and let out an ear-splitting shriek as the waves of powerful youki came upon it. Inuyasha shielded his eyes as his attack left a blinding fiery light as it consumed the youkai, and the hounds that surrounded it. When the light died down, it had all but disintegrated.
The lot of youkai that had surrounded Kagome were also gone by now, having fallen one by one by her merciless arrows. Kagome was panting lightly, and like after every battle, her quiver was once again empty. Inuyasha turned to her with a grin.
Just as he turned though, one remaining hound youkai decided to jump out and mangle the man who had killed a lot of his kind. He jumped out, fangs and claws bared, ready to rip Inuyasha.
"Inuyasha, look out!" Kagome screamed, her heart in her throat.
But too late... The hound was now practically on top of him.
Inuyasha was just about to turn when he heard the youkai let out a pained howl. He started when he saw Shiro standing behind him, one hand outstretched, as if he had just thrown a javelin. Inuyasha looked down, and right before his feet lay the now dead hound who had been about to attack him. He had one of Kagome's arrows through him, but the arrow was not shining with Kagome's holy power.
Shiro had thrown that arrow like a javelin at the offending monster.
"Whoa..." he breathed. "Nice throw kid! I owe you one!"
Shiro looked rather bashful. "It was nothing, honest."
"Whatever kid," Inuyasha replied. He bent down to pick up the child, when he caught a scent on the youkai that Shiro had just killed.
"Oi, Shiro," he said as he placed the kid on his back for a minor piggyback ride. "This hound that you just killed smells strongly of your blood, and your brother's. If I'm not mistaken, this is the same one that attacked you a while ago."
"Honto?" Shiro asked. He brightened when Inuyasha nodded. "Wow... so I kinda avenged the two of us, ne?"
Inuyasha grinned, and noticed that the forest around them seemed to be melting into a different scenario.
"Inuyasha, the youkai's spell is disappearing!" Kagome said brightly when he reached her. The dark forest was slowly melting into the outskirts of a human settlement.
"Our village! We're home!" Michi said from his place in Kagome's arms.
Shiro looked delighted as Inuyasha let him off his shoulders. He looked up at Inuyasha with unmasked adoration. "How could we ever thank the two of you?"
"It was nothing, pup. Now get back to town. Your parents are probably going bananas with worry." Inuyasha replied. "Besides, you saved me, remember?"
"Hai... arigatou, Inuyasha-niichan. Arigatou, Kagome-neechan," Shiro bowed to each of them in turn.
"It was nothing. Now go home. You've been through a lot of stuff today," Kagome said with a smile.
Both boys nodded, then ran off hand in hand. "Bye! We'll never forget you!"
"Same here!" Kagome waved back. Inuyasha was also waving.
She sighed as both boys left and ran into the village. 'There go the sons that I will never have,' she thought sadly.
"Oi, what's with the long face? Don't worry about them, they'll be safe now," Inuyasha said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Hai. I know they will," she replied, putting a hand on Inuyasha's.
"But you'll miss them, right?"
She nodded. Inuyasha just grinned. "Tell you what," he said. "When we finish the quest, we'll drop over that town and see them, ne?"
"Ok," she said with a tiny smile.
"Good. Now... time for a talk with Miroku..."
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"They call it the "mind maze" phenomenon. Typically it is caused by a spider youkai's web. It normally only affects non-magically inclined humans' and animals' senses, though there's rumors of a rare variety of spider youkai that could affect the senses of even a star mark bearer. Basically the reason they go in a circle is because it's a huge web that confounds the sensing ability of star mark bearers, making them easy prey or so it normally goes," Miroku explained to the ever-annoyed Inuyasha.
Miroku then grinned. "I am so proud of you both Inuyasha! You managed to escape the spider's lair!" he said sneakily. 'This oughta catch him!' he thought.
Miroku was the one who got caught though.
"Yeah. It was hard, but we managed," Inuyasha replied carelessly. He didn't even notice that he had just let something slip.
Miroku gaped at him, and as usual, Inuyasha didn't seem to notice. "Well," the inu hanyou went on, "I have a long way to go. See you kouzo," he said, before closing up the amulet.
Miroku just continued gawking. 'I was right!' he thought as he rushed off, looking for Sango.
"Sango-sama!" he called as he reached the hallway that led to her room. "Sango-sama!" he called once again as he reached her door. He began to pound on the heavy wooden door that led to her room.
"Houshi-sama? Chotto matte yo! Just wait a bit, I'm coming!" she answered, her voice rather muffled.
He practically stumbled in the moment Sango opened the door. He barely noticed that Sango was upset.
"Sango," he went on. "He IS traveling with someone! I actually confirmed it this time! He let it slip! Now I don't know who that person is, but just WHY doesn't he want to tell us about his companion? I can't help but think that... Sango-sama, daijobu?" he asked when he noticed that slow tears were dripping down her face.
"Hai. Daijobu..."
"No you're not fine. Tell me about it, Sango-sama. I might be able to help."
Sango sucked in a breath before starting. She told him about the growing glitch and how it would reduce Inuyasha's time in Crystallia, and her fears about Inuyasha not ever being able to forgive her.
Miroku sighed as she finished her talk. Tears of frustration were now flooding her eyes and flowing steadily down her cheeks.
"That is a problem Sango. But we will figure something out. I promise," he said with finality.
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A/N: This is the revised version of Chapter 16. Please read and review.
ScarletRaven1001
