Someone noisily shoved aside the mat covering the door and stormed into the hut. The hubbub of angry footsteps roused Sango out of her much-needed nap. She realized blearily that Inuyasha was gone, and Kagome was in anything but a good mood. Clearly something had happened while she was sleeping. The question was, what?

"Kagome," she began, shifting gingerly to sit upright.

"You're awake…"

"Where is everyone else?"

"They're coming," Kagome told her, grimacing.

"What happened?"

Kagome didn't answer her, but that didn't matter. A moment later Miroku pulled aside the mat covering the doorway—much more gently than Kagome had—and ushered Inuyasha back inside. "It seems our friend here decided to pay Kikyou a visit," he said in answer to Sango's question.

"She's nearby?" she asked. She knew her questions were not helping the situation, knew that if she kept probing Inuyasha or Kagome was likely to reach a boiling point and start another fight, but she was tired of being in the dark and only half understanding what was going on.

"Near enough." The monk sounded as frustrated as she felt. She couldn't fault him there. The situation was rapidly going from bad to worse, and she wasn't sure there was anything they could do about it. Knowing that Naraku and his offspring were lurking somewhere nearby was bad enough. Adding Kikyou to the mix was only asking for trouble.

Or perhaps it had moved beyond merely asking for trouble. "She's not the only one," Miroku went on. "Naraku's offpsring Kagura was there, too." His voice was strained, like there was more to it that he wanted to say, but had chosen not to.

Pointedly ignoring Inuyasha as he made his way back to the pile of straw where he'd been resting earlier, Kagome came over to check on Sango, leaving Miroku to tend to Inuyasha. It seemed petty, but Sango let her do it. Better that than starting another argument. The hut might as well have been filled with kindling, ready to catch fire from the slightest spark.

What had really happened? What wasn't the monk saying? She didn't have time to figure it out.

"Sango-chan, can you move?" Kagome asked.

"I'm fine," she insisted. "Besides, it doesn't matter whether I'm ready or not. It's not safe to stay here anymore, is it?"

Kagome lapsed into sullen quiet, unable to refute Sango's question and unwilling to confirm it.

"I'm fine, really," Sango assured her. Anything to break the tense silence that had fallen over the entire group. "So why don't you go check on Inuyasha?"

"I don't need to," Kagome said with a huff. "It seems he can get around just fine now."

Miroku admonished, "Apologize to Kagome, Inuyasha. This bickering is annoying." He gave an exaggerated sigh. "I wonder how much more enjoyable it would be to massage Sango's sore muscles instead of wrapping up your sorry hide…"

"I don't need a massage," Sango stated, feeling her face heat. The last thing she wanted was for the monk to use her as an excuse for his nonsense, especially at a time like this, and especially with all that a massage might imply. They needed to get out of here and find a new place to rest. Once they were safe, he could make all the awkward attempts to force Inuyasha and Kagome to reconcile that he wanted. Preferably without involving her.

Inuyasha stiffened suddenly, snapping to attention.

"What is it?" Miroku asked.

"The smell of a corpse," the hanyou told him.

Miroku was out the door almost before he had finished speaking. Moving somewhat more slowly than usual, Inuyasha was right behind him, with Kagome and Shippou hot on his heels. Refusing to be left behind again, Sango hauled herself to her feet.

She managed to follow the others, though she was distressed to find that she still couldn't stand fully upright without a great deal of pain. Fortunately, Kagome noticed that she was struggling and came over to provide support.

A wounded man was hobbling his painful way toward the hut. Could he be the source of the corpse smell Inuyasha had detected?

"An oni came," the man said. "All the villagers have been eaten." The way he wheezed, it sounded like he wouldn't make it much longer.

"An oni," Kagome repeated.

"With a spider on its back," the man added. He waited a moment for that to sink in, and then promptly collapsed into a bleeding pile of disparate limbs—he'd been dead the entire time, no doubt reanimated through Kagura's power. Just a moment ago had looked like a perfectly normal man, if somewhat heavily wounded. And now…

"So Kagura's telling us to come see the next youkai, is she?" Inuyasha asked, breaking the stunned silence at last.

"Inuyasha, don't you dare go!" Kagome insisted. The strain in her voice was painful to hear; Inuyasha's behavior lately was clearly pushing her to the breaking point. "Your wounds still haven't healed, have they?"

"Doesn't matter. The way I see it, we don't have a choice."

"He's right," Sango pointed out, though she hated taking Inuyasha's side just now. Kagome wasn't wrong when she said he was too injured to take Kagura's bait… but Sango had a feeling that was exactly what Naraku was counting on. He wanted to draw them out before they had a chance to recover, to force them to keep fighting until they couldn't anymore. And they had no way to escape. "Kagura sent that corpse to us to say she knows where we're hiding."

"Even if we try to run, it's unlikely to make a difference," Miroku added.

"He's right. Sooner or later, if we don't go to them, they'll come to us," Inuyasha declared. "Well, I'm not gonna wait for them. I'll take the fight to them!"

Sango suppressed a wince as she watched him go, not just because she knew his injuries could not possibly be healed enough for whatever he would face when he reached Kagura and this oni with the spider on its back, but because she knew the rest of them would have to follow. She would have liked nothing better than to go back to her nap, but she couldn't leave Inuyasha to do this by himself.

"Come on, Kirara," she called. It was beginning to feel like this was all she did lately. "Let's get going."