"May I help with anything?" Sango asked. She had awoken to find both Shippou and Miroku gone and, unexpectedly alone with Kaede, felt suddenly shy. Although Kaede had generously allowed them to stay in her home for two days now, Sango still hardly knew her.
Kaede paused in her bustling about, turning to look at Sango with an unreadable expression on her face. "You wish to help with the chores?" she asked.
"Well… yes?"
"That is not necessary, Sango."
She knew that. It just felt strange not to be busy with anything, and at Kaede's age she had thought help might be welcome. "In my village we always worked together on the chores," she explained.
Kaede considered for a moment, before handing over her broom. "You are traveling in strange company," she observed as Sango finished up sweeping the hut out for the day. "None of your present companions ever offers to help around here."
That was not entirely surprising to hear, and she said so.
"They have good hearts, however deeply buried… but even so they are all three of them very irresponsible," Kaede told her.
"I can see that," she agreed. Their absence made it obvious. Experience had shown her that Inuyasha and Miroku could be counted on when the stakes were life and death, but when the situation was more mundane, they were nowhere to be seen. Better that, she supposed, than stirring up trouble.
By the time she was done sweeping, Kaede had finished preparing breakfast, and the two of them sat down for a quiet meal. It was nothing elaborate, but Sango was touched nonetheless. She had been uncertain what to make of Kaede at first, but she already found that she liked the older woman. It was nice to have this place of welcome and respite from the road.
When they had finished eating, there were the dishes to clean up and put away. And after that there was weeding to be done in the garden, and Kikyou's shrine to be tended. It was strange, to look at the shrine and know that interred there were the ashes of a woman she had encountered quite recently. Kikyou's original body and the burned remains of the Shikon jewel had been buried here, in this place.
It put her in mind of circles, and cycles. The jewel had been born not far from where Sango herself had come into the world. Her grandfather had found it, and brought it here for Kikyou to care for. The jewel had been lost once again with Kikyou's death, but had returned fifty years later. And now here she was, seeking that same jewel.
Was it fate that had brought her here, or mere chance?
Kikyou's story had ended in tragedy, if it had indeed ended at all. Would Sango's story end the same way? It wasn't hers to know such things, but on this quiet morning nothing could stop her from wondering.