Fear gripped Sango's heart as indecision tore its way through her. The monk had said they should wait here to see what Kikyou would do, but all she wanted to do was go racing back to the village to make sure Kagome was still all right. Every time Kikyou appeared, Kagome ended up getting seriously hurt. Maybe not physically, but at the very least emotionally.

It chafed, this idea that her friend was in mortal peril and there was nothing at all that she could do about it. This was a painful echo of so many of the situations in which she had recently found herself. "Damn it!"

Behind her, Miroku shifted to lean closer to her. "Sango."

"Kagome is in danger and we can't even see anything from up here," she muttered. "All we can do is hope that Kikyou causes the barrier to fall. And if she doesn't…" She trailed off, knowing too well that Kikyou didn't always, or even often, care about Kagome's well-being.

"Have faith in our friends," Miroku told her. She craned her head around to look at him over one shoulder and saw that he was smiling faintly. "With Inuyasha at her side, Kagome will be strong."

"But for how long? She was already in bad shape when we left," Sango pointed out. She knew the monk was right; they had to have hope, and they had to stay here, ready to act immediately in case the barrier should fall. If they left now, they might be too far away when the time to act finally arrived. But she still didn't like feeling so helpless.

"Inuyasha will do everything he can to keep her safe."

How could he sound so calm? Sango felt anything but calm, and nothing about the situation was helping her reach that point.

She had trained for patience, and could wait for hours for her enemy to show itself, at least when that enemy was a youkai. But patience seemed impossible when a friend's life was on the line, and when that friend might be lost forever at any moment.

The worst part was that this wasn't the first time she had found herself in this position lately. Against Sesshoumaru, against the bandits and their youkai leader. The list went on: against the youkai swarm that had been merely a ruse, and had nearly gotten the monk killed for the false chance of saving her brother. The fight that had all but torn out her heart, and made her want to die. How could this keep happening?

And she could never seem to find a way to prevent it from happening, even now.

She was aware, on some level, of panic and futile anger rising up inside her. She fought against them, but it was a losing battle. Sooner or later, her temper was going to erupt.

"Sango," the monk said quietly, interrupting the downward spiral.

Chagrined, she wondered if he knew just what she was thinking. Of course he did. He was too perceptive—and sitting too close behind her—to miss the signs of her agitation.

"If we can't find a way in here," Miroku went on, "we'll find another way."

"Right," Sango said, although she didn't believe it. It was better than admitting just how close she was to losing it right now. Better to focus instead on the question of what they could do, than what they couldn't.

She ran mentally through the list of materials in her arsenal all over again, and still came up short. With that barrier in the way, her options were truly limited. Everything she had that might be able to slip through a gap in the defenses, such as the special poison that flowed through soil, only worked over short distances and this barrier was massive.

The sheer size of it made Sango wonder who, or what, was really at the center of it. Could it really be just a dark priestess, as Kaede had suggested? Or was there something else going on here that they hadn't considered yet?

Movement down below caught her eye: it was Inuyasha and Kagome. Sango was astonished to see Kagome awake and, apparently, in full possession of her powers. Her arrow blasted a way through the barrier; Inuyasha didn't even slow down. He raced for the opening Kagome had made, and then kept on going as soon as they were clear of the barrier.

Kirara needed no prodding to follow, swooping low to keep pace with Inuyasha and Kagome.

At last, with the barrier removed, they could see what was concealed here: a temple tucked away among the trees. It was here that their target had been hiding all this time.

Unfortunately, they could also see the full extent of the toll this was taking on Kagome. Her expression was ragged, exhausted, but determined as she clung to Inuyasha. Whatever had happened, it wasn't getting better.

"There," she said. Even her voice didn't really sound like her. "The jewel is there, inside that building."

The door opened as if the building's occupant had been waiting on some sort of cue, and a woman stepped out. She was beautiful, unnaturally so. That much was obvious even at a distance. And so was the snake that was wrapped around her, which seemed almost to float at a distance from her body. A woman with a youkai?

"So you're the dark miko, huh?" Inuyasha demanded. He skidded to a stop at what might be a safe distance from this woman, and gently let Kagome down.

Sango dismounted before Kirara had even fully come to earth, and rushed over to support Kagome. This, at least, she could do.

Kagome was very weak; she was cold and clammy to the touch, and coming in contact with her left Sango with a vaguely uneasy feeling. It must be the tainted jewel shards that she was sensing.

The dark miko watched all this, and laughed. "My name it Tsubaki," she said at last. "You must be Inuyasha, the one Kikyou loves."

Kagome stiffened at the mention of Kikyou's name. She and Inuyasha must not have had any idea that Kikyou was involved.

Miroku seized the opportunity to try to keep Tsubaki talking. "What happened to Kikyou?" he asked. "She should have been inside here. We never saw her leave."

"Hmph," Tsubaki said, utterly dismissive. "It seems she came to plead for Inuyasha's life. Even though she's dead, she won't die while her affection for her beloved man lingers."

Whether her story was true or not, it was clearly calculated to ignite Inuyasha's temper. And it was working. "Take care of Kagome," he ordered, though it wasn't necessary.

Sango fully intended that nothing else was going to hurt Kagome today. It heartened her a little that Inuyasha trusted her to do this. He never once looked back as he strode toward Tsubaki.

"You've been talking an awful lot since we got here," he said. "And you seem to know an awful lot about me and Kikyou. Controlling Kagome and just happening to make her try to shoot me… The one pulling the strings here is actually Naraku, isn't it?"

Sango's heart caught in her throat as Inuyasha moved to attack Tsubaki. Was he right? Was this all really Naraku's doing? She looked down at Kagome, who was growing weaker by the second. Naraku had used Kohaku to target her, too. If not for Kohaku's resistance, Kagome would already be dead.

"Fool!" Tsubaki sneered. "My curse is still upon her. While the Shikon no Tama is in my hands, I control that girl's life. So draw your sword if you want her to die."

She held up a hand and revealed what looked like an enormous black pearl… but must have been the Shikon jewel. Only a small sliver remained unfilled; this piece of the jewel was otherwise nearly entirely whole. Inuyasha was right—the only place Tsubaki could have gotten a piece of the jewel this big was from Naraku. It seemed strange that he would relinquish this entire piece to someone like Tsubaki… he must really want Kagome dead.

Slowly, with an obnoxious and dramatic flair, Tsubaki curled her hand into a fist around the jewel and squeezed. Kagome responded immediately, gasping and crying out in pain.

"You see, I'll do anything to get my hands on the complete Shikon jewel," Tsubaki continued. "Inuyasha, you're first."

One side of Tsubaki's face darkened. Radiating from the eye, cracks shot through the skin on that side. The eye, too, changed and became solid black. Sango realized what was happening a moment before the huge canine youkai began to emerge from the eye. Tsubaki had discovered a way to store youkai inside her body.

The creature was huge, towering over Inuyasha, and it was fast. Quick as a lightning strike, it lunged for Inuyasha. He leaped back to safety, but it was a near thing.

Tsubaki laughed. "Become the youkai's dinner without a fight, Inuyasha, or the girl dies."

Kagome writhed again in agony, struggling in Sango's arms. Sango looked to the monk for help, but he was fixated on Tsubaki, so she turned her attention back to Kagome. Should she try to move her? They were out in the open right now, completely exposed if the youkai should decide to go after them instead of Inuyasha. And Sango wasn't entirely sure she could get into a position to defend quickly enough to make a difference.

Just when it had seemed that they might rescue Kagome after all, the situation now seemed poised to turn from bad to worse, with no way out. If Inuyasha couldn't fight the youkai without putting Kagome at risk… what were they going to do?

Then it hit her: they had to break the curse. If Tsubaki had no power over Kagome, she couldn't force Inuyasha not to fight back against her youkai.

But how could they break the curse? She hadn't the slightest idea, but she knew who would: Miroku.