Sango's heart pounded fiercely as Kirara hurtled forward through the trees. The two of them were of a single mind now, in the heat of the moment and the unexpected and unhoped-for discovery. Kirara's reaction told Sango everything she needed to know: she had not imagined the similarity. Her quarry could be none other than her brother Kohaku, as impossible as she knew that to be.
Despairing, Sango wondered if Kohaku had not died after all, and had somehow managed to escape Naraku's clutches as she had done. It was too much to hope for, she knew, but she could not help herself. That another Taijiya might have survived... she clung frantically to that last bit of hope.
She would have gladly given anything for just one more Taijiya to survive the slaughter of the village, and for that one to be Kohaku...
Kirara came to a sudden halt. The boy had stopped running. They had caught him. Or he had allowed himself to be caught. Sango hardly dared to breathe as he turned to face her. There was no denying it now. He wore the armor of a Taijiya warrior, and he carried a chain scythe just as her brother had done. His height and slight build were painfully familiar. But with the mask on, she couldn't be certain.
The boy stared at her, motionless. Sango carefully slid off Kirara's back, keeping one hand on Hiraikotsu's strap as she approached, just in case. She stopped just a few feet from him.
When the boy made no move to attack, she said, "Show me your face."
She braced herself for the attack, but it never came. The boy did exactly as she requested, moving slowly so that she would see he meant her no harm.
Sango watched him, terrified and overwhelmed with yearning at the same time. It couldn't really be Kohaku, could it? She only saw the resemblance because she was so terribly lonely and wished so desperately not to be the very last of the Taijiya...
And then the mask was off and she was looking into her brother's familiar face. Tears sprang to her eyes and she made no attempt to stop them. "Kohaku!"
She had a hundred questions, a thousand questions, and none of them mattered in that moment because her brother was alive. It was impossible. She knew it was impossible, it had to be an illusion, or some sort of snare. And Sango did not care. None of that mattered if she got to see Kohaku again.
She lurched toward him, clumsy as giddy emotion threatened to overwhelm her. And then she froze in her tracks.
"Are you happy to see your brother, Sango?"
The voice was soft and sickeningly sweet. It was the voice of Naraku, the accursed creature who had slain all of her people and tried to use Sango for his own ends. She bristled with fury. That Naraku had managed to sink his claws into Kohaku was unthinkable. Better that Kohaku should have died along with the rest than be turned into nothing more than bait in a trap...
She couldn't really believe that, not even for an instant.
"Naraku," she hissed, loath to even acknowledge the hated presence.
She did not have to see the face behind the baboon mask to hear the smirk in his voice. "I've been waiting for you, Sango."
She stayed rooted where she was, her face frozen lest she betray her rage, as Naraku loomed out of the shadows to stand behind Kohaku. "You should thank me, Sango," he said.
The insolence in that voice snapped her out of any pretense of calm. "What did you say?" she snarled. "Why in the world should I thank you for anything?"
"Because I have saved your dear brother's life." The voice was as slithery-sweet as she remembered.
She knew it couldn't be true, because she'd held Kohaku in her arms as he died, but she couldn't deny that Kohaku stood before her now. Phantom pain seared across her back, the memory of wounds that should have killed her, as well. Is it possible? she wondered, Kohaku, did you survive? She wanted more than anything to believe that it was possible.
If Kohaku had been revived the same way she had, then he might also be saved from Naraku's schemes, just as she had.
As if he knew her innermost thoughts, Naraku slipped a hand out from beneath the thickly piled furs that obscured his body. Gripped in that hand was a shining crystal shard, unmistakably part of the shattered Shikon no Tama, which he almost seemed to offer to her. Sango watched, transfixed. Naraku spoke, but the words slipped right past her. She could not seem to tear her eyes away from the jewel shard. Hope made her giddy, almost dizzy.
"You saved Kohaku?" she murmured.
And then Naraku's chuckle chilled her to the core. "Yes," he said, sounding like nothing so much as a snake's hiss. "By this power your brother was saved."
By that power, she had also been saved when she might have died... but she had also been coerced and controlled, tricked into fighting against InuYasha and his innocent companions. In the end, if they had not saved her, she might have been Naraku's slave. Recalling the destruction at the village, Sango had a sinking feeling that she knew what Naraku intended for her brother.
She wanted to howl her fury, but could not seem to move. Naraku hadn't given her enough information yet. She needed to know more about what he'd done to her brother before she could risk making a move. Struggling to calm herself, she recalled her Taijiya training and did her best to pretend that this was any other mission. That she would slay the monster, save her brother, and return home to...
"Your brother was not as lucky as you," Naraku explained. "You were able to survive your wounds without the shard. However... if you remove the shard I have given to your brother, he will die immediately." He paused long enough to let the full implication of his words sink in before continuing. "His life is in my hands, Sango."
It was all Sango could do not to let anger and despair get the better of her. But she knew what was coming next, and she wanted to hear it: the trap. "If you want to save your brother... then you will do as I say. You will steal InuYasha's sword for me."
She did not realize that she had waited, intending to seize Hiraikotsu and attack, until the weapon was in her hand and she was swinging it directly at Naraku's head. To demand her service for her brother's life was appalling, but to ask that she betray the one that had saved her was unthinkable. And she intended to make Naraku pay for even asking this of her.
Naraku uttered no command and made no visible attempt to control Kohaku, but the boy immediately moved to defend his captor. His chain scythe lashed lethally toward her and would have seriously injured her if she had not stopped her attack and used Hiraikotsu to block the scythe.
"Kohaku!" she cried. "Why are you defending him?"
Kohaku interposed himself between her and Naraku, ready to attack again, as if he did not hear her words at all. Suddenly, the boy's silence made sense. He was under Naraku's command.
"He remembers nothing from the time before I woke him," Naraku explained, sounding altogether too pleased with his own cleverness. "Right now, Kohaku is my loyal servant."
He paused long enough for her to realize that he was giving her a false hope and making her his pawn again. She hated this monster and wanted to destroy him for what he had done to her father and her village... but what if he was telling the truth? What if she didn't do as he demanded, and Kohaku died because of her when otherwise he might have lived?
In her heart of hearts she knew it was a trap and that there was no way Naraku would give Kohaku back to her, not when he could use Kohaku to manipulate her. And yet...
Having delivered his message, Naraku was content to leave Sango to her own devices. A poisonous miasma erupted from beneath the furs, obscuring the two figures and preventing her from following as they retreated into the forest.
Sango considered using her gas mask and giving chase, but in the end she remained where she was. Naraku would not allow himself to be caught so easily. For now, she saw little choice but to return to her companions. But what would she tell them?
She knew they would be curious about what had happened, but she didn't want them to know about Naraku's proposition because then they might fear betrayal. But if it means I could get my brother back, does betraying InuYasha and the others really matter so much? she wondered. In the end, she barely knew them...
Sensing her companion's inner conflict, Kirara butted her head against Sango's hip and rumbled comfortingly. Sango sighed and let her eyes close for a moment. She still wasn't sure what to do, but... "Come on, Kirara. It's time to go find the others."