Sango had, thankfully, finished her bath and was sitting fully clothed on the riverbank by the time the monk found her. His unannounced arrival did not particularly surprise her—she knew all about his bad habits by now, after all—but the fact that he wasn't alone did. If it had just been Shippou, she might have thought nothing of it. But his tanuki friend?

"Hello, Houshi-sama," she greeted. "And Shippou, and Hachi. What are you three doing here?"

"Hachi has come bearing important news," Miroku told her. "I thought you'd want to hear it right away. Hachi, tell her what you told us on the way here."

She was not sure what to expect, based only on this introduction, but she had a bad feeling right from the start. The tanuki's words only proved her right.

"I know it sounds unbelievable, but I saw it with my own eyes!" he insisted. "A castle that disappeared overnight! Monsters dug it up and an enormous swarm of insects carried it away into the night."

It did sound unbelievable. Ridiculous, even. She would have dismissed it as the stuff of children's stories, only she knew a certain disappearing castle entirely too well.

His voice uncharacteristically bitter, as it always was when he spoke of his enemy, Miroku asked, "Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

She nodded. She had not been fully conscious last time, but she knew what had happened: the castle had faded into dust and blown away on the wind. So why not be carried off on the wings of hellish insects? "It sounds a lot like Naraku's castle."

Indeed, if it was Naraku's castle, that went a long way toward explaining why they had thus far had no luck in tracking it down. Hard enough to find their enemy's lair if it remained in one place. But one that could move about at his whim? That would only be that much harder to find.

The thought that her enemy's stronghold might soon be in her grasp sparked conflicting emotions. She very much wanted to hunt Naraku down and put an end to his evil schemes, and to avenge all the other slayers he had killed. But she still had nightmares about that castle and the events that had transpired there. And not just about the real castle, but also the illusory one where he had tricked her and ordered her brother to kill her. Deep down, she did not relish the thought of returning, but she knew there was no other way. She could not leave this to others.

She had taken too long to respond, caught up as she was in her own churning thoughts. Miroku broke the silence. "Sango, if what Hachi saw was Naraku's castle—"

"Then we have to go there. We must strike while we know where our enemy is." She realized she was shaking and forced herself to stillness.

"Yes," he agreed. "But what about Inuyasha and Kagome?"

She hadn't thought about that. But if Inuyasha still refused to fetch Kagome from her strange world beyond the well, it might be just the three of them trying to take on Naraku. Or just the two of them, if Inuyasha also refused to leave Kagome behind.

She wasn't sure that they would have any chance of victory without their friends, but she was sure they would not get another opportunity as good as this one. They could not risk passing it up just because Inuyasha and Kagome were in the middle of a lovers' quarrel.

"If we have to go without them, we'll go without them," she decided.

The monk almost looked relieved to hear her say that. She wondered: would he have gone off on his own if she hadn't agreed to go with him? Though he no longer had to wear his arm in a splint, his injury had not had time to heal fully. And he would already be at a disadvantage against Naraku's vast power, even without an injury.

Even the two of them together would be at a serious disadvantage… yet how could they not at least try? For her father and the others who had been killed, and for her brother who had been forced to do Naraku's bidding, she had to try. She could not afford to think of the consequences, only what needed to be done.

"Come on," she said. "Let's go find Inuyasha."