Sango felt abraded. Chafed, rubbed raw by the revelation of her vulnerabilities and her deepest secrets. There was little about her that her companions did not now know. All that remained now was to see how they would use that knowledge.

She felt—hoped—that they would not use it against her. Even though she knew that was one reason she had shared the details of her arsenal with them in the first place, so they would have a chance of defeating her if she were to betray them again. She tried not to think about how inevitable that betrayal felt. If it came down to her brother or her companions… there was no question.

This unpleasant series of thoughts had kept her quiet and occupied for most of the morning, barely registering the conversation going on around her. But now a sizeable town had come into sight, and she knew she would need to keep an eye on her companions. She'd been with them long enough now to know that they were all of them skilled at getting into trouble.

So it was much to her dismay that she watched them scatter in separate directions as soon as they reached the edge of town. The monk went one way, Kagome went another, and Inuyasha warily trailed along after Kagome, trying to make it look like he wasn't doing exactly that. She could only effectively keep an eye on one of them. Sango came to a halt, and said, "Well, now what do we do?"

Kirara chirped cheerily from her place on Sango's shoulder. She'd been riding there most of the day, now that her strength had returned enough to allow it.

Sango couldn't help but be glad Kirara was recovering. So much had been lost forever, and might still be lost (her heart squeezed painfully at the thought of the boy who could no longer be her brother), but Kirara at least was still here.

She chased those thoughts away. Letting fear and grief and regret consume her would accomplish nothing. There were other things she could do that might prove fruitful: she was running low on supplies for making scent-beads and other supplies, and this town was large enough that she should be able to find and restock on most of what she needed. She had little to offer in trade, unless this town had a youkai problem she could help them resolve, but people tended to be generous once they realized what she did for a living.

Indeed, the locals turned out to be more than willing to give her whatever she asked for. In fact, they seemed listless and disaffected, as if they really didn't care what she wanted. Their behavior cast a pall over the town, as if there might be a youkai here after all.

Sango frowned. She'd heard of such things being possible, but never at this scale.

"You've been busy," the monk commented.

"Yes," Sango agreed, wondering how long he'd been watching her before he decided to approach her. She wondered, too, if he would ask more probing questions, but he didn't get the chance.

One of the townsmen came running toward them. He was older, probably well-respected in town. Perhaps he even served on its council. Sango braced herself for whatever might compel him to race toward them like that.

"Ah," the man huffed, breathless, as he came to a halt in front of them. "It's true! A monk and a youkai killer. Our prayers were answered!"

Sango glanced toward the monk, to see what he made of this. His expression was one of calm acceptance.

"A monk and a slayer," she murmured. "He makes it sound like they have a youkai problem."

"We do. Or rather, we might." He looked so desperate Sango thought he might throw himself at their feet and beg for assistance.

"Be easy," Miroku soothed. "Let us retrieve the rest of our companions, and find somewhere we can discuss the matter."

A little while later, having successfully rounding up Inuyasha and Kagome, they reconvened outside one of the larger buildings in town. They were joined by two more townsmen who were eager to share their story even in the face of InuYasha's unhappy muttering.

"The last month or so, the crops have started to fail."

"And then, just a few days ago… blood and gore rained down from the sky."

"Not just gore – parts of youkai! Strange, misshapen…"

"And it only got worse from there. The young, the old and infirm… they've been falling gravely ill." And here, all three men looked longingly to Miroku, as if his holy powers as a monk might somehow save their ailing loved ones. As if she, the youkai exterminator, might have some idea how such a horrible rainfall might come to happen.

Which, as it turned out, she did.

She could think of only one source of evil potent enough to have caused such misfortune to fall upuon this village: Naraku.

He and his castle had vanished onto the wind after Kagome landed her decisive blow. They'd seen no sign of him since. It seemed entirely possible that he might have passed this way on his way to wherever he planned to go to ground. The evil aura, even the slaughtered youkai, could easily be his doing.

The monk's voice cut her out of her dark thoughts. "It's not surprising that the people should start to suffer if the land around them is suffering," he mused. "I can only guess that some great evil is the source of what you've experienced."

InuYasha let out his breath in a huff. He obviously had some idea where the monk was going, yet other than the clear display of impatience, he did nothing to stop it.

"We will investigate the source of this evil," Miroku declared, and that was that.

The townsmen proclaimed their gratitude; although they made no mention of a reward, Sango had a feeling the monk would manage to obtain one anyway. But, reward or no, they were committed now.

For her part, Sango was happy they would be helping these people. Not only would it be good for the town, its people, and the lands surrounding it, this would be a welcome distraction from the thoughts that had consumed her lately. She had never loved the healing process, and the patient waiting that was required, but it was even worse when she had nothing to do but fret over Kirara and Kohaku.

Well, except when the monk had taken it upon himself to distract her. As they headed out of town, she let herself wonder if she ought to thank him for that, to let him know how much she'd appreciated the effort. He had been an enormous comfort to her lately, even if he was ordinarily a bit of a sleaze and a womanizer. But she supposed, a little ruefully, that if she told him that he would just take it wrong. The last thing she wanted to do was accidentally encourage his bad behavior.

So she trailed along in silence after the rest of her companions. They hadn't made it far from town before InuYasha started to complain.

"So we're gonna be saving people again?" he asked. "If it's not Naraku, why bother?"

Kagome sighed. "Is there anything else you need to be doing?"

"Yeah. Looking for Naraku!"

"After what Kagome's arrow did to him," Miroku interjected, "I don't think he'll be doing much for a while."

Sango wasn't sure she agreed with him. Naraku was immensely powerful, and he possessed many shards of the Shikon Jewel. She wasn't sure there was anything he couldn't do, even when he was grievously injured.

After all, Kagome's arrow had nearly destroyed him and he'd still managed to spirit an entire castle away and nearly kill them. If his evil power had limits, it was far beyond what she and her companions could counter.

The conversation gradually fell silent around her. Sango realized she was staring fixedly toward the mountains, the source of the unholy rain described by the townsmen. Staring, and wondering just what they might find there.

"Sango-chan, what is it?" Kagome asked.

She wasn't sure if she should tell them or not. They might not be slayers from her village, but they were her companions now. They'd taken her in, healed her, comforted her, stayed with her, even when they'd had every reason not to.

And so she told them what had been nagging at her since they first heard the townsmen's story: "I was wondering… other than Naraku, what could emit such strong evil?"