Author's Notes: Hey everyone, I'm so happy that I am able to get this next chapter out in a timely manner - and even better - I've got the next two chapters already written - which means you'll have more timely updates in the future as well!
My awesome beta thought a recap was in order, so here it is: When we were last with Sango, after she and Hojou had failed to trick Kagome into giving up Inuyasha's mirror, Kikyou nearly kills Sango and Hojou by using her younger brother, who is now under Kikyou's control. You can refresh these events yourself if you'd like by reading chapter 23 and 24.
Beta: Penthesileia
Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to Kokoronagomu, who has stuck with this story for such a long time and always leaves such nice reviews. Thank you so much for sticking around, and for all your kind words! I really appreciate it!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
.
.
Chapter 31: Grounded Mortality
.
.
Sango
Sound came roaring back first. It was a rushing in her ears, along with the splitting in her head. She was covered in sweat. She was drowning in it.
She breathed in deep and the air burned down her throat, like swallowing fire. The rushing noise slowly faded, replaced by a… ringing? Maybe? More like a bell. It chimed periodically, disorderly, like someone was simply holding onto it as they moved around, cleaning or organizing a room.
Slowly, Sango opened her eyes. Her lashes were all but glued together. She struggled to see through them.
She was on her back. She could feel the futon underneath her.
...She wasn't alone.
There was someone sitting beside her. She could feel whoever it was moving around, humming a tune she didn't recognize.
The humming… she thought, her mind already beginning to drift, It's nice.
She drifted back into unconsciousness.
.
.
More rushing in her ears, her head splitting open. Sweat poured from Sango's hairline, soaking her. She tried to move her head, a muffled groan falling between her lips as pain shot up her temples. The ring of the bell returned, small and light. Tinkering. She could hear the humming again, and now, a hand on her forehead.
The touch was light and soft, although the hands were calloused She tried to speak to whoever it was, but her mouth was strange, she couldn't get her tongue and lips to work properly. A voice shushed her.
She tried to open her eyes again. She could make out a shape through the haze that clouded her vision. Someone was leaning over her. The humming continued.
She tried desperately to focus her eyes, to see who was with her, but the pain was increasingly intolerable. She muffled a scream.
"There, there." A man's voice.
"H...Hojou?" She croaked, her tongue like ash in her throat.
"Sleep," he said, "you are not healed yet."
She didn't want to sleep, she had too many questions.
How am I still alive?
But her eyelids were heavy, and the humming lulled her slowly back into unconsciousness.
.
.
She felt it gurgle up inside her - the vomit - well before the splitting pain retched her awake. She was pushed onto her side, her head rolling onto the hardwood floor before the putrid liquid coughed itself out of her stomach and onto the floor. The hands on her back held her steady until the vomit stopped, then slowly lowered her back onto the futon.
"Ugh," she muttered, the acidic aftertaste seeping into her tongue and dripping down the back of her throat.
"That's a good sign."
Sango opened her eyes. This time the haze had cleared enough for her to focus. She stared at the oak wood beams that ran across the ceiling, the soft light from the windows exposing the particles of dust dancing in the air. She blinked. Again. Her head throbbed. The light hurt her eyes. She took a deep breath, and raised her hand up to press against her temple, to try and get rid of the pain.
But her hand didn't move. It stayed limp and useless at her side. Furrowing her brows, Sango tried again.
Nothing.
She tried to wiggle her finger. Tried her toes. Nothing moved. Her heart started to race. No way. There was no way she could be-
"You're awake."
It was that same voice. The one she'd been hearing through the haze. Slowly she turned her head - Yes! It turned! - and her eyes fell on him.
Deep purple robes to match deep purple eyes. Jet black hair pulled into a low ponytail. He sat cross-legged next to her, his golden staff resting comfortably against his chest and shoulder. The bell at the end tinkled softly in the light breeze.
Sango couldn't breathe.
No way. No fucking way.
"You bastard." She was going to reach out and strangle him. " I'm going to-" she started, before realizing her arms still would not obey her.
The monk quirked his eyebrow. One corner of his lips turned up. "I do not think you are in a place to be making threats," he said, his voice even and calm.
"Why… why can't I move?" She gasped between coughs. Her throat was on fire. The taste of vomit still lingered on her tongue.
"You seem to be paralyzed," he said, as he twisted around and reached out behind him. He turned back to her with a cup in his hand, filled halfway with water. "It makes sense. To have lived through something so heinous - recovery will not be simple for you."
Panic rose up inside her. The monk had gripped her to him, held her in place while her brother tried to murder her. He reached out to grab her now, and she struggled in vain to move away. If she could just roll her body, even a little.
Tears sprang up in her eyes as his hand slid under her neck. They rolled, big and fat and wet down her cheeks.
His head cocked to the side. "You're crying. Are you in that much pain?"
"Get away from me." She croaked as fiercely as she could.
"Ah," he said kindly, as if he understood her then. "I will not harm you here, Slayer." True to his word, he lifted her head up and placed it gently into his lap, his legs folded underneath him. He placed the edge up the cup to her lips.
No. No, she couldn't drink. She wouldn't. It was poisoned, it had to be. She pressed her lips stubbornly together, felt the cold liquid spill down the side of her face. She kept her eyes locked on him. Do not think I will ever let my guard down, she thought bitterly. Despite the fact that her throat screamed for water, she would not drink.
He stared back at her, his lids lowered into sleepy slits. "Don't be a fool," he chided gently. She felt the tip of his finger run down her jaw, trying to coax it open. "Drink."
No.
But her lips parted. Against her will, they parted. She fought to keep them closed, but it was no use. Her eyes now wide with fear and disbelief, she felt the water drip onto her tongue, felt it pour down her throat, cooling the burn that had ravaged her since she first woke.
Again, she struggled to move. But now her head would not obey her. Despite every attempt to do otherwise, her lips still opened and her throat greedily drank from the cup until it was all gone.
The monk leaned over to refill the cup before returning it to her lips. "Again," he said, and she obeyed. At least, her body did.
One the cup was drained again, he set it down to the side and raced her jawline with his finger. "Good girl," he said, "you are yours to govern again."
She immediately jerked her chin away from his finger. "Get off of me!" She said as forcefully as possible. She wished more than anything that she had her hiraikotsu with her. She wanted to drive it right between his eyes. To bash it into his skull. She wanted her fingers to move - just her fingers - so that she could grip onto anything and throw it at him.
"Do not be like that. You are still healing."
"Fuck you," she spat. "What did you do to me? Let me go." She caught the flash of his smile before it was gone.
"I am doing nothing. You cannot move because if you do, all the work to heal you will have been for naught."
Sango grit her teeth. "Why would you heal me? You tried to kill me."
This time his smile stayed on his face. "So I did." He placed his fingers on either sides of her temples, and started to hum.
"What are you doing?" she bit out. She recognized the tune.
"You must sleep now," he spoke low, almost a whisper. His humming continued.
"But…" she said, her vision started to blur at the edges. "Wait…"
"Sleep," he whispered.
She slept.
.
.
She woke to burning pain. Again, the monk was there, by her side. He forced her to drink the water, despite her struggling to resist. Time was meaningless to Sango, she could not count the days or weeks that passed. The monk was there every time she opened her eyes, humming the same tune, forcing on her the same water.
One evening she awoke to find him tearing apart bits of bread and piling them on a plate.
"What are you doing?" she croaked, her throat dry and swollen as it always was when she came-to from her slumber.
"It's time you start to eat. You can only sustain on Kaede's half-magic for so long." He picked up the water cup, as he had done every time before, and lifted her head up to place on his lap. She watched his face, and turned her jaw when he tried to place the cup at her lips. She didn't know who Kaede was, but it didn't matter. What mattered was trying to figure out what was in store for her.
"What is Kikyou planning to do with me?" She asked, eyes peering into his violet ones, hoping to dissect his truth from his lies.
His head cocked to one side, his eyes quizzical. "Kikyou?" He asked.
"Yes. What does the bitch want from me? She already took my brother. Why didn't she leave me to die?"
Sango's last memory, after all, the last thing she saw before succumbing to her death was…
A stabbing in her back.
Looking over her shoulder in horror as her brother stood behind her, his murder weapon sticking out of her spine.
Hojou lying beside her, his head gashed open, stark white bone peeking out from split flesh.
Blood splattering from her mouth.
Kikyou's hands around Kagome's throat. Squeezing. Her mouth wide open in a silent scream.
Nothing had come from their plan but death. Sango's brother had tried to kill her. Hojou was most certainly dead. She remembered how he was in class, a sweet, caring boy. Genuine and kind. He had been nothing but nice to her and Kagome. He had been a friend. A bond she felt had strengthened the moment he had picked up the other line, when she realized he too was a slayer.
He was dead.
And Kagome… The years of friendship, the years of trust - to lose it all because Sango loved her, because she couldn't not help her friend… For Kagome to throw it all away, for her to ruin their chance of escape, her chance to free her family…
The anger boiled inside her, threatened to consume Sango whole. Kagome was certainly dead, because there was no way out of that room. There was no way for her to escape. With Inuyasha trapped in the mirror and Kikyou's hands around her frail neck…
Would Sango ever be able to forgive her friend, even in death?
No. The answer was a resounding no.
"There's much you do not know." The monk's calm voice did anything but calm her.
"Just kill me already," she spat. "I will do nothing for Kikyou. I will attempt to kill her every chance I get, and believe me monk, I will find my chance."
His expression didn't change, but she felt the light trace of his fingertip against her jaw, locking her head into place. Felt the edge of the cup pressed against her lips. Her eyes did not waver as she was forced to drink. She refused to show him the relief the cold water brought to her throat. She wouldn't give his pretty face the satisfaction.
"It is no wonder you come from a family of slayers," he said as she finished the water. He placed the cup down and picked up the plate of bread. "There is a fire inside of you that is required for the job." He pressed a piece of bread to her lips. Against her will she ate it. "I will answer your questions," he continued as he fed her. "I am not here on Kikyou's whim. In fact, she would end my life herself if she knew I was here."
Sango finished chewing the bread and swallowed. "What are you saying?"
He paused for a moment. She could practically see the gears turning in his head, plotting his next move.
"I have been in servitude for a long time. Longer than I ever thought possible before Kikyou and I crossed paths," he said. "Once I entered servitude, for many years I looked for a way out. But where Kikyou wields her magic, I have none."
Liar. Her eyes darted to his hand, the same cloth covering his palm that she remembered back in the abandoned house. The same prayer beads wrapped around it, entwined between his fingers. She could almost still feel the force of the winds his hand had created, pulling her slowly towards it.
"Ah, this," he said, catching her thought. "Unfortunately, this magic is not mine. Believe it or not, I was once an ordinary monk. I cannot break the curse Kikyou has woven for me. My own hand sees to that. It's much the same as Inuyasha's mirror. His prison is one of entrapment. My prison is one of ever-approaching death."
"You're lying," she seethed.
"I'm not," he said with a shrug. "It matters not if you believe me right now, Slayer. I am only telling you this so you understand why I'm here, despite the danger for me." He pressed more bread to her lips, and she opened her mouth to eat it. "As I said before, I spent many years looking for a way out of the curse. But all these years, a chance never presented itself. I had all but given up hope until the doppelganger appeared. Until you three escaped from her clutches. And now that you are alive and recovering, I have seen my way out."
Sango felt the tears building in the corners of her eyes. Her body trembled on the inside. She felt sick to her stomach.
"Are you telling me," she whispered, enraged to even have to speak the words, "that Hojou and Kagome are still alive?"
He stared at her a long while. "Aye," he said, his gaze solid, "Your friends are still alive."
"How dare you," she breathed, like a punch to the gut. "How dare you." The tears overflowed, running down her face and soaking into her hair.
"Hush now," he whispered.
"No, you do not get to keep me captive and tell me my friends are alive." She said, hating every inch of him. She yearned to be able to rip his heart out, just like he was ripping hers apart now. "I saw them die. Hojou's head was split open. Kikyou strangled Kagome to death. I don't care what you do, or what tricks you are trying to pull to get me to do your bidding, but it will not work on me. My friends are dead." She felt him trace her jaw to release his hold on her head before moving gently out from under her.
"I know the trauma you have faced. Many have wilted under less pressure than you have found yourself in. In time, you will know that I tell the truth of your friends, so take the time to heal. We are lucky that Kikyou has been so badly injured. In many ways worse than you have been. She still has not made the progress you have."
"If she's so weak, and you're enslaved by her, why don't you kill her now, while she's wounded?"
"I cannot. Despite her body in disarray her spell has held strong. If I move to physically harm her I will cease to exist."
No. He was lying. It was all lies. Kagome was not alive. Hojou was not alive. Sango was barely alive herself, captive here, paralyzed, a pawn in the monk's sick game. She would not listen to what he said. She refused.
"I will not listen anymore," she said. "I will find a way to free myself from here. I will find a way, and I will kill you. I will kill Kikyou. I will take Inuyasha's mirror and smash it into impossibly small pieces, trapping him forever. Mark my words, monk," she seethed, "I am coming for you, and I will make you suffer for it."
He was quiet for a moment, his expression unreadable.
"I would expect nothing less, Slayer," he finally said," but now it's time to sleep."
He started to hum.
Her vision blurred. She felt herself drifting, her eyelids closing, and she succumbed once more to nothingness.
.
.
As always, I would love to hear what you think, any comments or crits are welcome. And for those of you unaware, I keep a tumblr blog for my readers. Just about how the writing is going, updates and extras, as well as daily life stuff that keeps me from writing. Check it out if you'd like, just search for SugarRos Fanfiction. You can also follow the tags Youkai in the Mirror or YITM for updates related to this fic! :)
SugarRos
