Author's Note: Hello dear readers, I'm so sorry for the delay. With the holidays and work being crazy because of the holidays, I haven't had much time to write! But oh look! Another character's POV! I love this chapter, I've never written from this character's POV before. I hope you guys like it!

I realize I haven't replied to your reviews over the last few chapters. So sorry, I fell behind! Rest assured I will continue to reply from now on! Your reviews are my addiction.

This chapter was written to The World We Knew As Children by Hammock

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to Purpletutugirl for being my 150th review! Thank you so much for all your reviews, Purpletutugirl, and not just for YITM, either, but for all my fanfics you sent in reviews for over the years!

Again, a special shout-out to everyone who has been reviewing so far. You guys are awesome.

Disclaimer: I wrote my first Inuyasha fanfiction thirteen years ago. And still, I own none of the Inuyasha series or its characters. So sad.

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Chapter 17: Family Secrets

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Sango

Sango was a realist by nature.

It was expected growing up in a martial artist's family. She hadn't spent her childhood with her mother reading fairytales at bedtime, unless they were of the Grimm kind and always followed up with some lesson on real-world monsters. She hadn't passed her elementary days watching Disney princess movies with her friends, or learning ghost stories to tell at slumber parties in middle school. She hadn't spent her three-and-a-half years of high school trying to snag a boyfriend. Instead, assault statistics had been drilled into her tiny little head. Her nightmares as a child hadn't been of monsters under the bed, they'd been of scary men in masks dragging her away from mommy and daddy. And every time a boy dared try and grope her, she knew a hundred different ways to break any one of the twenty-seven bones in the offending hand.

People were unpredictable, you couldn't judge a person by their face alone. And it was that danger, that very real danger, that was pounded into her during self-defense classes six days a week. She taught children's classes on the weekends, where she'd pound the same mantra into them.

It wasn't just hand-to-hand combat her parents made her train in either. Shooting lessons, boot camps and wildness survival, her parents insisted she and her brother have it all down. Sango supposed to someone looking in from the outside it might seem excessive, but it was just what everyone in her family did. She lived and breathed the lifestyle, just like her parents, just like her brother. She hadn't been given much of a choice. She didn't know any different.

Realism was rapists and murderers and pedophiles and kidnappers. Realism was not ghosts and zombies and vampires and youkai.

Which is why, when Kagome had dragged her into the museum that night, and that man had stepped out to show himself from inside the mirror, Sango thought she'd fucking lost it.

She was dreaming.

It was a trick.

She'd been attacked on their way to the museum and somehow overpowered and knocked unconscious, and now she was hallucinating.

The many different reasons her mind conjured up for a man to be inside a mirror flooded through her head. She flipped through them in seconds, like a mental roll-a-dex. But even though Sango knew for a fact that magical men did not come out of magical mirrors, she knew that she wasn't dreaming. She knew that it wasn't a trick. And she couldn't for the life of her figure out why or how she knew.

She just knew.

The knowledge was a pulsing pain in the back of her skull as she watched Kagome, her best friend in the whole world, lean in and kiss the mirror. Watched as the man, no, the youkai, as he claimed himself to be, kissed the other side and stepped out. From solid glass.

Sango swallowed her panic. She buried her terror. Panic and terror were her enemy. She'd learned to roll with the punches, to stay calm and collected. Because when you panicked you became a victim, and when you became a victim, sometimes you became dead.

So she'd forced herself to relax, after her initial disbelief. Her immediate plan was to play it cool around this… creature. To make sure she didn't tip him off that she didn't like him. That he gave her the creeps. She didn't believe in auras, but there didn't seem to be another word that explained the way her hair stood on end and her body seemed to vibrate when she was near him.

Taking him to her house that first night had been hell on her. Everything inside of her screamed to keep him away, to not let him inside. But damn if she hadn't let her pride get the better of her judgment. She could hold her own in a fight after all, she had enough gold medals in sparring and grappling to prove it. So if he tried anything, she could keep him under control, she was sure of it.

When Kagome had come to her for help, she'd laid out a plan. She'd been relieved that Kagome was having doubts also. Which is why she didn't step out of the whole fucked up situation. It was why she'd promised to help her friend get out of it.

Thinking back, running to Sango's house when she'd known he was following them was not the smartest move. Maybe they should have gone to the police. But really, what were they supposed to say? Help us officer! There's a youkai that came out of a mirror that can freaking spell people into doing what he wants and now he's after us! Yeah, that would have gone swimmingly.

Besides, Sango knew her house well. She knew her brother was just as good as she was at protecting himself. She had every belief, just like she had that first night, that she could stay in control the situation.

And she knew where her father kept his gun.

So many mistakes she'd made up until this point. So many wrong choices. She knew it when the bullet only made him flinch. Bastard hardly blinked.

She should have shot him in the head.

She knew she was going to die when he had her up against the wall, air strangled from her lungs, sharp claws piercing the soft flesh of her neck. She couldn't break his wrist, she couldn't kick him. He was made of titanium, not bone. Such strength she had never come across before.

She was going to die.

But then she didn't. Kagome was there, pleading for Sango's life. Making deals and promises with the asshole. And he let Sango go. He let her go and she crumpled to the floor and sweet, painful relief flooded back into her lungs. Her throat was on fire. The sound of her veins pumping blood back into her head was a thumping, a throbbing. Her vision came back into focus, but she couldn't do much more than breathe.

"Kagome… Don't." She pleaded when she caught the youkai's demand of her friend. The words were like sandpaper in her esophagus. Like razors. But Kagome held her ground, bartering with the youkai, even going so far as to threaten him. A small spark of pride had flickered in Sango's chest at her best friend's bravery. She knew the girl had it in her.

But then it all went to hell, as if it hadn't been there already.

The barest whisper of wind. The sudden materialization of a man. Sango's jaw dropped for the second time that night. He towered over Kagome, deep purple robes wrapped securely around his body, a long, golden staff gripped in one wrapped, beaded hand. His deep black hair was pulled back into a short ponytail at the base of his neck, save for the thick bangs covering his forehead. His eyes were an unnatural, brilliant violet. Sango's mind reeled that she had just witnessed more impossibility. This was not real. This was not real.

But that same tingle at the back of her neck insisted that it was.

He was fucking gorgeous, and, she realized a second later, probably another damn youkai, although he didn't look the same. Still, there was something off about him, despite his immense beauty, and Sango forced herself to stay as grounded as possible. If he was youkai, and for some reason could spell her, she did not want to get caught up the way Kagome had been caught up. No way would she lose herself in anything as evil as youkai.

She was dumbfounded, speechless. She watched as the two unrealistic males glowered at each other, noting the one Inuyasha called 'Miroku' had a distinct lack of fangs, and no weird animal appendages that she could see. Still, Inuyasha was the only youkai she'd ever come across, and as far as she knew, they varied in looks as much as the people from the melting pot that was America.

Finally shaking herself from her thoughts on the sudden appearance of this Miroku, she caught the tail end of his deep, distinctly male voice.

"-planning on killing any humans. Otherwise, Kikyou will be upset."

The witch who spelled Inuyasha, Sango's sharp mind popped up the information from her mental flashcards, but she only had a second to wonder about it before Inuyasha growled dangerously.

"Kikyou can fucking shove it." His teeth ground together.

Miroku's lips quirked up in a smile, and his eyes glanced quickly – too quickly – in her direction, before his eyebrow shot up in response. "Excuse us," was all he said, and then Inuyasha was flying towards him, eyes wide, a raging shout ripping from his throat.

"No!" He cried, and Sango inhaled sharply as Miroku disappeared, taking Kagome with him.

It was enough to get Sango back on her feet, no matter how rubbery and unbalanced her legs felt. She used the wall for support to push herself up. "Wh-what the hell!" She cried. "Kagome! What the hell, where did they go?" She glared at Inuyasha, pouring all her hate into her heated gaze. "What did he do to Kagome?"

He turned to her and nodded once. Sharp. "I'll bring her back." He said.

Then he disappeared too.

Somehow, his promise hadn't left her satisfied.

The panic threatened to overtake her. Kagome was gone – had dematerialized right in front of her – and was now God-knew-where with two very dangerous men – no – youkai. What the hell could Sango do? How could she fix this?

Her eyes darted to her younger brother, still unmoving on her bed. Feeling sickened that she had somehow, in all this mess, forgotten about him, she moved towards him, swallowing the sob that tried to force its way up her throat.

His body was diagonal to the shape of the bed, his left leg dangling off the side, his head in the corner below the pillow. His arms were flung out beside him, but he was breathing which meant he was alive. Relief rushing through her, she collapsed next to him and focused on slowing her quickening breath, forcing down the tears that pricked at the corners of her eyes. She blinked rapidly, willing herself to slip into the familiar routine of light meditation. She could not panic, she could not break down. To be calm meant that she was in control of herself, and if she was in control of herself she could do something to fix the situation she was now in.

Closing her eyes she breathed in deeply, then out. In, then out. It took three or four times before her breathing stopped being shaky. Then slowly she started her mantra.

"Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."

She breathed deeply. Then repeated. "Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."

The third time started the calming effect. By the fifth repeat she felt the words sink in, felt her body cease it's shaking, felt her mind clear.

There had to be something she could do. Some weapon that was at her disposal. Some way to kill the youkai she hadn't thought of. Automatically she glanced over at her hiraikotsu, the small martial-arts weapon carved from animal bone and only double the size of her hand. She wished with all her might that it was powerful in some way, because she concentrated her weapons studies on the hiraikotsu the most. But other than flinging it around like a boomerang to do tricks for tournaments or hitting someone on the head and leaving a nasty bump, it wasn't much use for anything. She needed something else. Something more powerful than a gun.

It came to her then, as she repeated the mantra one more time, and she kicked herself mentally for not thinking of it before. Her father had pulled her and her brother aside after one morning of intense training. Both he and their mother had just gotten back the previous night from another martial arts weekend-long seminar, and for some reason she couldn't understand, they'd been angry. Sango and her brother had felt their father's anger in their training that day. He was pushing them harder, screaming at them louder. He even got into Kohaku's face about some elementary mistake he had made, despite the mistake being due to exhaustion.

At the end of the training, more cuts and scrapes adorning their skin than usual, he finally brought them aside, his anger gone and his eyes deadly serious.

"I want you two to remember something. Even if you forget every single thing your mother and I have ever taught you – which you'd better not – you must remember this one thing. If there is an emergency, you need to go down into the basement and set the washing machine past full power. Do you understand?"

They didn't understand. Sango and Kohaku both did their own laundry, and there was no setting that went past full power. When Kohaku brought this up, their father merely chuckled.

"You're right, there isn't."

Still confused, and slightly worried at how somber her father was, Sango sighed. "What kind of emergency do you mean, dad? Like if a robber breaks into the house?"

His smile was tired and he shook his head. "No. If a robber breaks into the house, you grab my gun. If someone tries to kidnap you, you break his back. No, the emergency I'm talking about is different."

She waited for him to elaborate. He didn't. "So then what kind of emergency?" She finally asked.

"I can't tell you." He raised a hand up to cut off his children's protest. "Do not argue with me. I can't tell you. All I can say is that when this particular emergency happens, you'll know. And if it happens, and that's a big if, what are you going to do?"

"Go down into the basement and set the washing machine past full power," Sango and Kohaku chanted at the same time.

Satisfied, her father nodded. "Good. Now go clean up and get ready for dinner. We'll go out for ice cream later. You two worked hard today."

Cheering, Sango followed Kohaku towards the house, sparing a glance back at her father. She was shocked to see his face fall so devastatingly. A second later his features were schooled, leaving the then twelve-year-old Sango wondering if she'd imagined it.

Over the years, she'd almost forgotten. There had been no emergencies, other then the basement flooding one year during rainy season, and Kohaku nearly burning the house down after falling asleep with the stove on. But other than that, things had been peaceful. She and her brother attended school and trained, her parents worked and continued to frequent weekend or week-long martial arts seminars, and Sango had let the intense warning her father had given her fall to the wayside. It had been five years ago. She idly wondered if Kohaku remembered at all, he'd only been seven at the time.

Now she quickly stood up and rushed out into the hallway. If this wasn't an emergency, she didn't know what was. Youkai were real. Youkai were freaking real and they'd invaded her home and knocked her brother unconscious and kidnapped her friend. Was this what her father had been talking about? Was this the emergency he hadn't been able to explain?

It made sense. Had her father told her back then that youkai existed and they might one day find themselves fighting for their lives she would have laughed and thought him crazy.

Sango stumbled down the stairs, her head pounding with the previous lack of oxygen. She fled through the kitchen and into the family room, yanking open the basement door and flipping the light switch. Quickly she moved down the wooden steps and smacked into the washing machine, reaching out with a shaking hand and gripping the large knob to the right. The clicking noise as the knob flipped over each setting was loud in her ears, louder than her heavy breathing. For some reason she was terrified as the knob moved to full power. Breathing in deep she pressed it past the last setting.

For one impossibly long moment, nothing happened.

Then the ground shuddered beneath her feet, and a rectangular trapdoor in the floor opened to her left, in the center of the basement. Unnatural blue light glowed from inside. Eyes wide, breathing shallow, Sango made her way towards the opening. The walls and stairs that lead down into a room she'd never known existed before was made of steel and embedded with those blue lights, illuminating the way. Slowly, slowly she made her way down the steps.

The room was large and like something she'd seen out of a futuristic Bond movie. But it was only a glowing, blue, steel room. Nothing lined the walls or the floor, nothing stood in the center. Looking down, there were two shoe imprints about a foot from where she stood. She stepped onto them, unsure of what else to do.

A flicker in the center of the room drew her gaze and a hologram, a freaking hologram, flared up from the center of the room.

Her father stood there. She could see through the blue lines that made him up, through the shading that made him 3-D. He was younger in this image by years, but that same stern face was his, the same heartfelt smile was the one she'd known for all these years.

"Emergency message activated. Sango. Kohaku." He spoke, his voice confirming that this was a recording of him when he was younger. "If you're down here, and you've activated this message, it means only one thing. Youkai."

Sango felt like she'd been punched in the gut. Her parents knew about youkai. And even though she'd known that everything that was happening to her was real, it was still somewhat devastating having it confirmed.

"First off, don't panic. Remember that when you panic, you're not in control," the hologram continued. "Youkai are dangerous, and they have been around for as long as humans have. They are stronger and faster, and usually have some sort of animal characteristic. However, lots of youkai look more human than animal, and you must be especially careful of those kind.

"You two are born into a legacy. While it's true that we are from a long line of martial artists, there is more to it than that. We come from a long line of youkai exterminators. Sango, Kohaku, you two have been training since you were born to fight off these monsters. If an emergency has happened, and you have activated this message because you have encountered dangerous youkai, everything you need to fight off and kill these monsters you will find here."

Sango jumped as a loud noise resonated through the room, and panels covering every inch of the wall opened and flipped over, revealing rows and rows of frightening, strange-looking weaponry and armor. Her mouth dropped open.

"These weapons are for you to use as needed. Simply touch an item in this room, and this message will explain what it is and what it does."

Slowly, somewhat unsure of herself, Sango moved from the footprints on the floor and reached out to the first item. It was silvery gold with tiny openings speckled across the surface, and it seemed to mold over the bottom half of a person's face. Two small, padded hooks adorned each end, meant to hook over the ears. Her fingertips grazed over the smooth material.

"Mask." The hologram recited. "It protects the wearer from poisons and miasma dealt by youkai, but is also useful against human poisons as well. It works as a high-grade filter device. It is always preferred that you wear one when going up against youkai."

Sango picked it up and pushed it lightly against her chin, breathing in. The air flowed easily through the holes, allowing her to breathe normally. Placing it back down, she moved to the next item, a coil of large, heavy looking chain.

"Hunter Chain. The chain is light, easily portable, yet devastatingly heavy against youkai. Used to restrict movement and hold youkai in place. It will not have the same effect on humans."

"…What about half youkai?" Sango asked, remembering the stern correction about Inuyasha being hanyou instead of full youkai. Her father didn't answer her though, he was just a recording. She picked up a coil of the chain. It was feather light.

The next few items were a dozen or so oblong bottles filled with liquid that glowed oranges and reds and purples and blues. She reached out to pick one up, the liquid partially turning to gas as she swirled it around, before turning back into liquid.

"Numbing Poisons. Used in replace of killing methods for the sake of interrogation. The poisons numb youkai, and can be masked by baking it into food or soaking an item in it. Each one affects a youkai in different ways. Some numb only the skin, some numb sight and taste and smell. These poisons work on humans as well, so extreme caution is needed at all times when using."

Placing the bottle back, Sango moved on to the next item, her gaze lingering on the poisons for only a few moments more before it landed on the sword. It was shorter than the katana she used in her tournament training, the edge sharper than any she'd seen before.

"Wakizashi," the message continued. "A short one-handed sword, used for close-range fighting, can slice through bone."

The next weapon was a smaller sword barely six inches long and no more than an inch thin at its base. It met at the point no wider than a needle.

"Dagger Gauntlet. Can be hidden and retracted within the sleeve, usually used as a last resort."

Sango shuttered at the idea of there being a last resort at all and moved towards the next weapon. They were giant kamas, more like sickles in their size, attached to chains instead of rope. Kohaku specialized in kamas, he would be delighted in seeing these. She reached out to touch the attached chains, wondering if they were as light at the hunter chains.

"Kusarigama. Large kamas. Made of demon bone. Can be thrown long distances, as well as quickly retracted."

There was a darkened gap between the kusarigama and the hanging armor, but as Sango passed by, the gap lit up.

Her hiraikotsu hung there, bathed in blue light, but it was large. It was bigger than large, it was huge. Gigantic. It towered over her and, entranced by its size and beauty, Sango reached out to touch it. She sensed it pulse beneath her fingertips, and suddenly felt like all the air had been sucked from her lungs. This hiraikotsu called to her soul.

"Hiraikotsu. Massive boomerang bone. Hiraikotsu is crafted from the bones of youkai that have been slain by us hunters. This hiraikotsu has been passed on through our family from generation to generation. It harbors the slain youkai spirits, and becomes more powerful as more spirits fill it. It has the ability to destroy demonic energy."

Ripping her hand away, weary of the intense pull she felt towards it, she slowly moved towards the last item on the wall. It was two full suits of body armor, one smaller to fit Kohaku's frame. She ran her fingertips across the black material.

"Hunter Armor. Armor used with bones of slain youkai. Always wear your armor when fighting youkai."

Sango had so many questions. She damned her parents for being gone at the seminar. She felt cheated, like they hadn't trusted her with telling her all this information themselves. She shook her head. Now wasn't the time to start blaming anybody. She now had what she needed to finally kill Inuyasha and that Miroku guy, whoever the hell he was.

She froze as an alarm went off. The hologram of her father blurred, then turned red.

"Youkai alert. Front door, five hundred feet. Youkai alert. Front door, five hundred feet. Youkai alert. Front door, three hundred feet."

Quickly, Sango grabbed up the dagger gauntlet, slipping it inside her sleeves, and the numbing poisons and headed towards the stairs. Whichever youkai it turned out to be, they'd have a surprise waiting for them. She was halfway up the stairs when she remembered the mask, and she jumped over the bottom two steps, ripping it from its display case and hauling ass back up the stairs.

The trapdoor closed behind her, and she willed her beating heart to slow as someone knocked on the front door.

Hiding the poisons in her jacket pockets, and slipping the mask behind her back, she crept slowly to the door, listening carefully. There was another round of knocks before Sango heard two heated voices bickering on her front steps. One sounded distinctively like Kagome.

Evening out her breaths, Sango reached for the doorknob and yanked the door open.

"Sango!" Kagome cried, throwing herself into her friends' arms. Sango brought her free hand around to hug Kagome back, relief washing over her that her friend was alive and well.

"You okay?" She asked, blinking back more tears.

Kagome nodded. "I'm okay now."

"Keh. Thanks to me." The youkai said, and Sango's eyes locked onto his golden ones.

He was in for a big fucking surprise.

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Whooo~! Another chapter down! What did you guys think?

I had to do some research for this one, thank goodness for Inuyasha Wiki!

Thank you for continuing it read! I'm not going to lie, a big part of why I write fanfiction is to get your reactions to my story and writing style. So please leave me a review! Constructive crits are welcome as well, so bring it on.

Oh, and happy Thanksgiving everyone!

~SugarRos