Dinner tasted like ash in Sango's mouth, but she ate it anyway. She listened in numb silence as Kagome chatted idly. Despite Kagome's best efforts at creating a sense of normality, everyone in the group was on edge.

Well, not quite everyone.

Shippou was watching Sango curiously, InuYasha furiously. Kagome's nervous babble only partially masked her fear at what might transpire if another conflict arose between the hanyou and the taijiya. Alone among the group, the monk seemed unperturbed in spite of his firmly stated belief that Naraku would soon return. Like many of his actions, this both baffled and frustrated Sango.

After dinner he retired quietly to the far end of the small hut they would all share for the night, and settled into what might have been meditation but seemed more like sleep. Being irritated with the monk helped distract her from InuYasha's intense stare, but it wasn't much better. Sango felt that if Naraku were going to return, they ought to remain a bit more alert, but at the same time, she envied him that easy rest.

She did not like to admit it, but her exertions over the last several days were catching up with her. Her injuries pained her less each day, but the healing had slowed of late and she knew the cause was likely her lack of rest. Glancing over at InuYasha and meeting him glower for glower, she suspected that if Naraku did not show himself tonight they would be on the road again tomorrow. InuYasha had surprisingly little regard for the limitations of his human companions.

Maybe, she thought, the monk was getting some rest while he had the chance. And maybe she would be wise to do the same.

It took effort, but she turned away from the hanyou and curled up on her mat to sleep with her back to the rest of the group. With a mew and a gentle headbutt against her thigh, Kirara joined her, curling into the crook of her hip. They'd slept like this occasionally before, but only when Sango was exceptionally upset about something.

Kirara was smarter than most people gave her credit for; she was definitely more than a brute animal, she was Sango's partner. And Sango had no doubt that Kirara had recognized Kohaku every bit as much as she had. She'd probably even sensed that something was terribly wrong.

Sango let her breath out in a sigh and ran her fingers through Kirara's soft fur. As Sango stroked her, Kirara curled into a more comfortable ball and nestled more deeply against Sango's legs.

Behind her, she could hear the remaining members of the group settling down for the night. Even in the quiet, listening to the steady sounds of her companions' breaths, Sango could not fully relax. She could practically feel InuYasha's eyes boring into her back, as if he could stare hard enough that he would eventually see the truth of what was in her heart. It was too bad she couldn't make him understand that she herself wasn't quite sure what was in her heart.

Naraku had said that Kohaku remembered nothing of his previous life. Indeed, she had not even seen the slightest flicker of recognition in the boy's eyes. He had even moved to defend Naraku against her. How could she want to defend such a person when it meant betraying the ones that had saved her life?

She knew she shouldn't.

That boy might have been Kohaku once, but Naraku had perverted and warped him almost beyond recognition.

She still wanted to save him. She wanted to cling to the minute hope that one day he might be her brother again, that she might somehow find a way to return him to normal if she could just get him away from Naraku.

What might the monk have said if he knew her thoughts, or Kagome? She did not want to think about it. They would be sympathetic, of that she had no doubt, but would they think there was any hope for Kohaku? She doubted that. They knew what Naraku was capable of just as well as she did, perhaps better.

Sango sighed again and fidgeted where she lay. It felt like she had been trying to sleep forever, even though she knew that could not be the case. She knew she ought to at least stay where she was and take what rest she could, but something felt wrong. She rose cautiously, twisting to look over her shoulder, and saw that the fire had burned low. Even InuYasha seemed to be sleeping. Was she the only one still awake?

Kagome and Shippou were sleeping peacefully, snuggled together on the big pile of hay in the corner that they had turned into their bed for the night. The monk remained exactly as he had been when Sango first tried to sleep. InuYasha's eyes were closed, his head drooping as if deep in sleep. She could scarcely believe it. They had always been so vigilant…

Her eyes fell on the sword nestled against InuYasha: Tessaiga. What Naraku could possibly intend to do with the blade, she had no idea. She knew only that giving it to Naraku must be a colossally bad idea. And yet in that moment, she was sorely tempted to grab the blade and run. With his instincts dulled by sleep, she might even be able to get it away from InuYasha and flee before he fully realized what was happening. She might be able to do it…

And then what? Naraku would hand over her brother like an honorable opponent and let the two taijiya be on their way? Even she knew how foolish that sounded.

At that moment, InuYasha's eyes snapped open. Those golden eyes seemed to catch at hers and hold her gaze there, locked with his own. "Feel like talking yet?" he asked.

There was a thinly veiled threat there, and Sango didn't like it one bit. "InuYasha," she cautioned.

He blundered on anyway, oblivious to the consequences. Or perhaps he just didn't care what damage his words wrought. "Come on," he went on. "You expect us to believe you went after your brother and didn't catch him?" Sango's fury grew with every word he spoke, yet he kept going anyway. "I don't think you'd make a mistake like that."

The truly infuriating part was that he was right, but Sango wouldn't give him the satisfaction of admitting that.

"What are you hiding?" he demanded. He seemed to think that if he just kept asking questions and making accusations, eventually she would give him an answer. "What really happened earlier?"

Sango half hoped that he would wake up their companions, but she was not so lucky. For a moment she hesitated, torn between wanting to continue her lie and the sudden, utterly foolish, desire to tell him the truth. If he knew that Naraku was blackmailing her, if he knew what the stakes were, maybe he would loan her the sword…

"Nothing happened," she bit out, careful to keep her voice quiet. Remembering what had happened – the carnage her brother had inflicted upon this village, the bargain Naraku had offered her – threatened to make her sick. "Besides, I already told you. There's no way Kohaku could have done this. He would never kill people like this. Even if that used to be Kohaku… it's not my brother anymore."

"You think it's that easy?" he asked. "No matter what happens, he's still your brother, isn't he?"

Something in the tone of his voice made Sango less irritated with him. Some incident in his past had made him more sympathetic, or at least more understanding, than Sango had thought he would be. He was still rough around the edges, but in some way he really did seem to understand what she was going through.

"He shouldn't be able to forget you or hate you so easily," he went on.

And that brought all her anger crashing back down around her. Whatever it was that had made InuYasha think he understood what she was going through, it couldn't be anything like this. "What would you know about it?" she snapped angrily, more loudly than she had intended. To her left, Kagome's eyes cracked open. Sango wondered with chagrin just how much she had overheard.

To her right, without stirring from his place, Miroku said, "Don't be careless, InuYasha. We're surrounded."

She hadn't noticed it until the moment he spoke, but now she couldn't help but feel the oppressive presence of many youkai in every direction. The monk was not wrong, they were surrounded. And Sango had been so wrapped up in her personal pain that she hadn't even noticed until it was too late. She wasn't sure what was worse: that the monk had been the one to notice, or that her chance to obtain the sword was probably gone forever. At least she was spared the necessity of making the choice.

Sango followed while InuYasha and Miroku carefully pulled aside the mat that hung over the doorway so they could peer outside. She almost did not want to see what awaited them beyond the walls of their tiny refuge, but couldn't stop herself from joining them. Youkai swarmed around the hut, but the situation was worse than that. The youkai had not come of their own accord. Someone had led them there. Kohaku had led them there.

Sango froze in the doorway, horrified at being confronted by her brother again so soon, while InuYasha leaped into action. He drew Tessaiga and lunged as the youkai swept down from the sky and up from the ground, heading directly toward their human targets.

He slashed through several of the youkai before Kohaku attacked. As the chain from his weapon tangled around Tessaiga, hampering InuYasha's attacks, Sango rushed back into the hut for Hiraikotsu. Kagome and Shippou stared at her with bleary, confused eyes.

"Get ready," she told them, slipping easily into her more accustomed role of taijiya warrior. "We're under attack." And then, Kirara at her side, she strode out of the hut. She would have preferred to put on her armor, but there simply wasn't time. She couldn't take the chance that InuYasha might do any serious damage to her brother during her absence.

The two were still locked in combat when she returned to the field of battle. She stood beside Miroku, as helpless to intervene as the monk. A moment or two later, Kagome came up beside them, watching the fight with just as much horror as Sango felt.

Suddenly, InuYasha turned and seized the chain. Kohaku failed to anticipate this tactic, reminding Sango painfully of just how much taijiya training the boy still needed to undergo before he could be considered a properly experienced warrior, and InuYasha fairly tossed him away by the chain.

Seeing the difference in strength between her brother and InuYasha so clearly, Sango could barely breathe.

"InuYasha," Kagome cried, "don't kill him!"

"I know," the hanyou snapped.

Sango could scarcely believe what she had just heard. Were they intending to save Kohaku?

Kohaku landed safely on his feet, skidding backward through thick grass but not losing his balance. In another fight, Sango would have been proud of him for pulling that off. Now she could only watch in horror as InuYasha gave him no time to recover before charging at him again.

The boy leaped backward, but not in an effort to get out of the way. Instead, he landed softly and plunged the blade of his chain scythe into his own back.

Sango couldn't help it. "Kohaku!"

She was vaguely aware of Shippou and Kagome's shock beside her, but all Sango could hear was the sound of her own unsteady breathing and pounding heart. All she could do was watch as Kohaku began to dig at the wound with his fingers. Trying, she realized with a sense of mounting horror, to dig the jewel shard out of his back.

Without that shard, he would die…

Despairing, Sango knew what she had to do.