The hiraikotsu smashed into the ground directly in Kohaku's path. He pulled up short and allowed Sango to approach. She caught the hiraikotsu on its return and walked with firm steps toward her brother.

"Kohaku," she said, her heart breaking as she admitted the one thing she had wanted to keep inside. If she didn't speak it aloud, it couldn't be real. But now she had to say it. "It's as I feared, isn't it? You're under Naraku's control, even now." When he didn't run, she kept going. "You were ordered to kill Kagome and take the shards of the Shikon jewel, weren't you?"

He did not run, but he didn't answer, either.

She knew, then, that she had no choice. If Naraku was only going to keep using him like this, then there was only one thing she could do to free him: end this false second life the jewel shard and Naraku's power had granted him. She had lost everyone else, and now she must kill her own brother.

Gripping the hiraikotsu in her left hand so she could use it as a shield, she drew her sword and made a vow: Kohaku… I will set you free.

She raced toward him and this time he did not flee. He fought back with all the skill imparted by his training: using the weighted chain to snare her sword arm, slowing her down and restricting her movement before jumping in with the scythe at the ready.

But Sango knew how her brother fought; she had helped train him, and had taught him much of what he knew. She expected all of his tricks and countered them even though each clash of their weapons wounded her to the core. And then, when he had exhausted all he knew, she turned the tables and went on the attack. She had trained for longer than he had, and it showed.

The chain from his scythe was still tangled around her sword arm, but not enough to impede her. He was still only an apprentice slayer, so it was all too easy to knock his weapon away with the hiraikotsu and easier still to throw him to the ground and pin him.

"Kohaku!" she called desperately as she held him down. She had strength enough to hold him down with her left hand, while her right pulled back, aiming her sword for the killing stroke.

I'll kill you, she thought, tormented, and die myself. It was the only way she could see to save him.

But his eyes were clear and innocent as he gazed up at her. Now, at the crucial moment, all pretense of Naraku's control vanished. The boy before her was no monstrous puppet, he was her younger brother again, the only family she had left. And she had no choice but to kill him. Surely suicide was the only way to escape the all-consuming pain of what she was about to do.

I'm sorry, Kohaku!

She thrust her blade down, aiming for the heart—

"Sango, stop!"

—and Inuyasha's claws knocked the blade out of her grasp as he hurtled past. Kohaku took full advantage of the situation to wriggle out from beneath her and leap to a safer distance.

Sango's heart pounded with rage and grief in equal measure. Utterly overwhelmed, she cried, "Don't stop me, Inuyasha!"

"You idiot," he chided. Rather than rough and angry, his voice was soft, gentle. Kind. "Killing Kohaku is just what Naraku wants you to do!" He turned to her brother. "And you, Kohaku!" With one powerful leap he nearly landed on top of Kohaku; raking claws forced the boy to stumble, dropping the vial of jewel shards he'd taken from Kagome.

Inuyasha planted a foot on his hand before Kohaku could retrieve the shards. "Wake up," Inuyasha ordered. "Remember who you are!" He leaned close, shouting, "If you want to live, you'll remember everything!"

At that point Kirara drifted into the clearing with Kagome, Shippou, and Miroku in tow. Kagome dismounted in a rush and ran toward where Inuyasha was confronting Kohaku. "Inuyasha…"

She never reached them. A rain of blades fell from the sky as Kagura descended on an enormous feather and spirited Kohaku away. "You've got it all wrong, Inuyasha," she sneered. "If this kid remembered everything that happened, he'd be devastated."

Sango watched in despair as the two of them rose higher and higher, beyond her reach.

Before they disappeared completely, Kagura called, "Don't you think letting him die without those memories would be a kindness?"

Sango fell to her knees, cursing. "Not again!"

Kagome approached her, speaking gently. "Sango-chan…"

Her words did nothing to dispel the despair threatening to overwhelm Sango. Already she could guess how it would go next time, at the worst possible time. "We'll have to do this all again…"

"Sango, so you don't act so hastily next time, I'll tell you this now," Inuyasha began. He sounded very much his normal self again, gentleness banished in favor of brutal honesty. "Naraku ordered Kohaku to kill Kagome and take the jewel shards. But Kohaku didn't kill Kagome. His human heart is still in there. That's why you can't kill him. We have to take him alive. Got it?"

Stunned into silence, Sango wiped away her tears and nodded. Inuyasha's blunt words brought only the tiniest sliver of hope, but she'd had no hope at all only a few moments ago.

That would have to be enough, because there was no time to delay now. Their enemies might have fled for now, but Kagura and Kohaku knew where they were. They could not linger here to see to Kagome's wounds or…

Sango's heart did an uncomfortable flip-flop when she finally risked a look toward Miroku. The monk was pale, his expression pained; even at a glance it was obvious that he was struggling. Looking at him now, knowing that he was in this state because he had risked his life to help her, she knew she could no longer deny the truth. Miroku might be primarily motivated by his selfish desire to survive at any cost, and by the lust that made him so unreliable around women, but he was also someone that genuinely cared about her. He had done this solely so that she might be reunited with her brother.

She had doubted him so many times, had spent so much time wondering just how far she could trust him, and then he went and did something like this. Already overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the last few moments, Sango felt tears well in her eyes all over again. She banished them with a reminder that Kohaku was beyond her reach and beyond help, but Miroku was not.

She wasn't the only one that had arrived at this conclusion. Inuyasha had already swept Kagome up onto his back and was making his way toward the trail that led back to the main road and the little temple where they had sheltered earlier. As he went, he called, "Sango, you and Shippou ride with the monk and make sure he doesn't fall. Let's get the hell outta here before Kagura decides to come back."

Relieved at having orders to follow, Sango set her fear and worries aside in favor of more practical action. In moments they were airborne. It didn't take long for Kirara to catch up to Inuyasha, and then all that remained was the daunting task of finding a safe place to take shelter and see to their wounded friends.