Chapter 19

"Stop moving like that!" snapped Inuyasha, wishing he could reach around and cuff his passenger.

"I take it this is as uncomfortable for you as it is for me?" said Miroku blandly, trying to shift his legs so that he wasn't aggravating the hanyou's wounds.

"Yes, idiot!" Inuyasha hissed sharply as he tried to turn his head. "Tell me where they are—I can't see anything." He could hear the voice of the bird-youkai, though—the thing was bawling at them, probably about handing over the jewel. He thought he heard 'life' in there somewhere too…

Miroku brought his head up and looked quickly behind himself, checking on the position of their pursuers. Almost immediately he turned back and huddled closer to Inuyasha, as if hoping to make himself more aerodynamic. "Shit. They're close."

"Shit," echoed Inuyasha. "How close?"

"Another thirty seconds and we'll be caught," said Miroku grimly. The girl's firecat was fast, the bird-youkai equally so; and Inuyasha, while fast, was not built for the air.

"I'm going into the trees," said Inuyasha. "You ready, bouzu?"

"I should hope so."

Miroku had barely finished uttering the sentence before they were shooting through tree branches rather than sky. "Watch out!" he shouted as a particularly large bough nearly caught his head, though he ducked to avoid it. The air surrounding them suddenly filled with small brittle twigs, then emptied again a second later, leaving Miroku with arms covered in tiny scratches and a good deal of irritation.

The trees were still hurtling by, and so rather than saying something he instead hunched over again—this time for the definite purpose of making a smaller target to the trees.

Two loud crunching noises behind them heralded the arrival of the cat and the bird. Inuyasha swore again and landed, staggering a few steps forward before turning abruptly and allowing Miroku to slide off his back.

The trees were creaking all about them, as if in the midst of a gust of wind, and small branches were still falling to the ground. For a moment, Miroku was certain that he could hear the sound of a car in the distance. All of three seconds passed in this relative calm, and then the latticework of branches above them burst open again.

The bird-youkai hit the snow and then began flapping its wings, trying awkwardly to propel itself back into the air while shrieking something about the jewel. Inuyasha, however, seemed to have been prepared for that—he leapt forward, cutting off its words with a yell of "Sankon tessou!" and another burst of that peculiar energy.

That left the girl. Miroku sighed as the catlike youkai landed on the ground a few feet away, allowing her to slide off its back. If he didn't have the jewel, he could have been the one to take her on, but alas…

Inuyasha leaped forwards, his focus shifting smoothly to her. The eyes behind the mask scanned the area quickly, taking in the rapidly-disintegrating corpse of the bird-youkai, and then she jumped back a step and threw the giant boomerang again. "Hiraikotsu!"

Inuyasha, tired of dodging, tried to knock it away and yelped as he made contact. The boomerang clattered to the ground and he glared at the girl, rubbing at his arm. "Who the hell are you, anyway?"

"I don't need to tell you anything, youkai!" snarled the girl, looking over at Miroku. "He has the jewel, doesn't he."

"You're not getting anywhere near it, girl!" Inuyasha snarled back.

"We'll see about that—" Suddenly she had leaped towards Miroku. Inuyasha, drawing upon his demonic heritage, seemed to appear in front of her, readying another slash with his claws, and she twisted smoothly away.

Miroku jumped away and found himself facing the catlike youkai. He eyed it with a sort of grim resignation. Drat… I should have engaged the girl while I had the chance…He pulled out an ofuda, eyed the youkai some more, and then pulled out another two.

The creature snarled and began a lunge, only to be brought up short by the three ofuda, which sparked as they made contact with its forehead. Miroku blinked as, rather than freezing, the youkai instead began to shrink. The end result of this was a tiny creature with two tails, surrounded by the fading bluish sparks of Miroku's ofuda.

"Kirara!" shouted the girl, eyes wide above her mask before Inuyasha distracted her with another attack. Miroku, having ceased to feel endangered, was watching the shifting curve of her waist when he felt an ominous pulse of power somewhere near his hand.

He swallowed hard, tearing his eyes away from the attacker's lithe figure in time to see the jewel darken slightly once again, acquiring a deeper pink tone that, curiously enough, nearly matched the blush on his face.

"Dammit, bouzu, don't do that!" Inuyasha yelled over his shoulder, fangs flashing.

"It's not as if I'm able to prevent it," Miroku called back, unable to keep all of the irritation out of his voice as he struggled to clear his mind of any… impure thoughts. It was more difficult than usual—but then again, when was the last time he'd seen such a girl?

Well, there was Kagome, of course, but he had the feeling that Inuyasha would murder him if he dared indicate any sort of interest.

"Well then try," snarled Inuyasha. "It's fucking annoying!"

Sango ran for Hiraikotsu suddenly, managing to grab it before Inuyasha could make a move. She had watched the debate with rising frustration—now, however, she was verging on desperate. The silver-haired youkai was strong—probably too strong, and while she was dodging him fairly well now, she couldn't keep it up as long as he could.

Naraku had to have known this. Had he really put any stock in her being able to get the Shikon jewel?

The silver-haired youkai was moving towards her once again.

She was the last of the Taijiya, save for Kohaku, who was already in Naraku's clutches. Her chest felt hollow and cold as she realized…

It would be best for Naraku if I died, here and now. Does he even… was I ever supposed to succeed?

Bastard!

Putting the full force of her anger behind the strike, she yelled as she swung the Hiraikotsu in a smooth arc, her arms moving in a blur that even she couldn't follow. It caught Inuyasha near the waist and knocked him aside, and Miroku yelped as his attention was redirected forcefully to the battle.

Sango lunged for the dark-haired man, only to be brought up short by a hand around her wrist. She let out a cry of dismay, reaching for the man and the jewel, but something hit the back of her head hard enough to send her mind reeling into darkness.

Miroku blinked, watching as the girl slumped into Inuyasha's arms. "You sure you should have done that?" he said mildly.

"What? Oh, this?" Inuyasha looked down at his fist, and then after a few seconds, opened his hand, displaying five long and decidedly sharp claws.

Miroku sighed.

:00:00:

Kagome idly watched the forest going by. She wished that the awful sadness that had settled over her would go away, so that she could be properly angry. After all, Inuyasha and Miroku had run off on their own, without telling anyone anything. She and her mother had waited at the Akakistune's for what seemed like hours but which might as well have been seconds—neither Inuyasha nor Miroku showed up, and continued to not show up, until Mrs. Higurashi decided that enough was enough, and resolved to leave.

I should be fuming, Kagome thought drearily. Trees, illuminated by the headlights of Miroku's car, seemed to emerge from the darkness, looming into view before they whipped past. Mrs. Higurashi was driving very fast—she was angry.

Kagome felt like crying.

:00:00:

Byakuya wrinkled his nose in vague disgust as he made a wide circle around the house. I hate missions like this…

He could feel the youki of the remaining two members of the Akakitsune family; they were wary now, alerted to danger by the death of Mr. Akakitsune—wait, that was only partially right. Whatever had happened after that had definitely not been easy either; he discovered the dissolved remains on Hiten and Manten strewn through the snow, with their clothes lying about, and had detected faint traces of more youkai in the air as he flew towards them on his giant paper crane. Naraku's touch was evident everywhere.

He hadn't been sent to fight anyone, just to discern the truth, and this made him glad, for it meant he didn't have to follow the traces of Naraku's birdlike legionaries, who were probably sent to fetch the jewel or some such nonsense.

So, what was the truth of the matter here?

He brushed dust off Hiten's still-intact armour, inspecting it. The garment was torn and stained with blood, most—if not all—of which seemed to belong to the newly deceased youkai. Some of the tears looked like claw marks, meaning that the opponent had been a youkai.

But it hadn't been any member of the Akakitsune family. Byakuya stared at it for several more moments, trying to feel out the youki of whoever had done it, and received only puzzlement in return. At length he sighed, putting the thing back down, and moved on to Manten's remains.

This time the reaction was immediate. As soon as he went to touch them, the spot he'd been aiming to grab flashed with a bright white light, a bolt of it reaching out and stinging his outstretched hand. He frowned down at it, rubbing his hand where it had touched him, and then looked up suddenly as a light was turned on inside the house.

Okay, long enough! He conjured up his crane within seconds, and by the time Mrs. Akakitsune could make it to the window he was already gone.

:00:00:

It didn't take long for Sango to wake up again. It was still just as dark as it had been when Inuyasha hit her—the night was cloudless, allowing the thin sliver of moon and the surrounding stars to fill the barren woods with weak, thready silver light.

Miroku immediately put a hand over her mouth, the mask having been removed. They had discovered that they were indeed close to a road, which was good in that they had a route out of the woods—but it was also bad, in that if she screamed loud enough, someone might hear.

She didn't scream. She looked up at Miroku, her eyes blank and her expression dull. She had lost, after all. What recourse did she have now? He was holding down both of her wrists with his other hand. Kirara, unconscious and in her smaller form, was lying on top of the Hiraikotsu, out of the snow, for which Sango supposed she should be thankful.

"Hello," said Miroku, while Inuyasha leaned against a tree and tried to look disinterested rather than tired. "If I take my hands away, will you try to escape?"

She shook her head slightly to convey that no, she would not.

Miroku smiled and sat back on his heels, taking his hands away. "This is better," he said pleasantly. "It seemed such a shame to fight a beautiful woman like you."

Sango flushed, sitting up slowly. What the...

"Anyway, I have a few questions to ask you," Miroku asked her. He waited until she had met his eyes before continuing. "Beginning with… well, I suppose I already have the answer now, but I may as well make sure… you aren't planning to continue fighting, are you?"

"No," said Sango softly. It would be useless now, even if she had wanted to in the first place. Not to mention, it was obvious that she would just lose.

"Oh, good!" He seemed genuinely happy, more than simply pleased with this admission. "Now then… what's your name?" The smile became a bit more personal.

"Uh… Sango," she said cautiously, watching his face. What is with this guy…?

"Ah, such a lovely name…" he sighed. Inuyasha growled faintly from where he was leaning against the tree, causing Sango to jump.

"Get back to the point, pervert."

Miroku sighed again. "Yes, yes…" He looked back at Sango. "Anyway, I was hoping you could tell us why you came out here to fight us. I had some suspicions about your motives from the start… since you aren't resisting now, I suppose they're just being confirmed."

Sango blinked at him, startled. He's… perceptive. She didn't know whether this was good or bad for her current situation. Abruptly she remembered the question and flushed again, looking down at her hands in her lap. "N-no… I was told to take the jewel by a man named Naraku."

There was a long moment of silence. Sango chanced to look up again. Miroku had frozen in place, staring at her intently, and Inuyasha had stiffened against his tree.

"Did you say… Naraku?" said Miroku at last. Inuyasha twitched again, leaning away from the tree.

"You've heard of him too, bouzu?" he said incredulously.

"You don't mean to say that you have?" Miroku shot back.

Inuyasha grunted, leaning back against the tree. "Hiten—one of the demons that was attacking the Akakitsunes—said he was sent by someone named Naraku," he said. "Other than that, no, I've never heard the name in my life."

"This is peculiar," said Miroku, putting a hand to his chin as he thought. "The name is familiar to me as well…"

"He's a demon," said Sango, suddenly eager to tell them everything. "He's in charge of an underground movement, back in the city… he blew up the Taijiya Core, and he… he has my brother."

There was another brief silence, broken by Miroku whistling softly. "So that's why you were after us… He's going to kill your brother?"

"Y-yes…" said Sango, biting her lip and looking down at her hands again. It took everything she had not to allow herself to cry. He probably already has… Kohaku…I'll… never see him again…

"I'm sorry," said Miroku softly, and when Sango looked up again, he truly seemed to mean it. The easy grin had slipped off his face.

"You should leave," said Sango. She put her arms around herself, sitting up in the snow. "It's cold out."

"You're right," said Miroku. He stood up, brushing snow off his front, and then stretched a hand out to her. When Sango merely stared at it for a few moments, he waggled it slightly in front of her face. "Well, come on then," he said, smiling. Inuyasha watched silently from the tree.

Sango took his hand and allowed him to help her up, still confused. Miroku hadn't gotten more than a few feet away before he turned again to look back at her. "Well? Aren't you coming?"

Sango tried not to gape blankly. "But I… I was trying to kill you earlier."

Miroku raised an eyebrow. "Oh? So you want us to leave you behind?"

Inuyasha tapped a clawed finger against his elbow, having crossed his arms. "You know, Miroku, we ought to have started walking a few minutes ago."

Miroku waved a hand at him, keeping his attention on Sango. "Well?"

Sango dropped her gaze to the snow, blushing again. She wasn't sure whether to feel ashamed, upset, or… glad. "If you're sure you wouldn't mind me coming along," she said softly.

Miroku clapped his hands together. "Excellent!"

Inuyasha snorted, a dim realization coming to him. "So long as we even know where we're going, bouzu."

"Of course I know where we're going!" said Miroku, feigning affront. "There's a road nearby, I heard the traffic. The only issue I can see is how we'll get you to into anyone's car…"

:00:00:

Flecks of slush flew through the air behind the yellow car, coating the underside of the rear bumper with soft brown frost and obscuring the license plate. The engine made a whining noise as it slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road, much to the apparent delight of the three figures standing at the edge of the road.

Kiyoaki Taru, the driver, blinked as he took in the sight of his soon-to-be passengers, mentally making a note not to stop for hitchhikers in future, especially when he couldn't see them clearly in the dim light of his single working headlight until after he'd stopped. I'm too old for any sort of shenanigans…

Then again, chances were that on a night like this, he would continue to do it regardless, because no one deserved to be stranded in such cold.

There was a young man, who looked pleasant enough, smiling at him through the window with tired cheer; a pretty dark-haired girl who was clasping some sort of small furred… thing, and had a giant curved shape slung across her back; and some anonymous person standing beside her, hunched over in its jacket and with some sort of scarf-like thing covering its head and face.

The boy whose waving gestures had led Taru to pull over in the first place was already moving forward, and Taru had to twist himself over in his set to open the door. The young man got in, along with a brief gust of chilled air. The yellow, flickering overhead light cast strange shadows across his eyes.

"Sorry to inconvenience you," he said, his dark eyes earnest and pleading. "Our car broke down on some little road in the middle of nowhere, and we'd have had a hard time trying to find transportation there."

"Where are you heading?" asked Taru, eyeing the other two, who hadn't taken so much as a step towards the car.

"Anywhere that we can find help," said the boy.

"Well, I'm going into the city," said Taru. "If you're going in that general direction, it's fine, but I can't take you past."

"That would be perfect." And the boy smiled.

"What's your name?" asked Taru as his passenger turned around and gestured towards the other two.

"Miroku," said Miroku, getting up briefly to help stuff the large oblong that the girl had been carrying over behind the back seats. "And this is Sango, and this is… uh… Shari."

The anonymous figure who had been getting into the car twitched, and looked up briefly to glare at Miroku. Taru caught sight of delicate, effeminate features and hastily-lowered eyes beneath long lashes before 'Shari' took the seat directly behind him and was obscured by the angle and the shadows that already filled the car. Two girls? This Miroku must be quite the lady's man…

Sango followed her companion, handling her small, beige-furred bundle carefully, and Miroku settled in last, closing the door behind himself and buckling the seatbelt. Taru restarted the engine, waited until the single headlight had flared back to life, and then started off again.

Inuyasha made a faint noise of disgust—Shari?—and lowered his back gingerly until he was leaning against the back of his seat, remaining stiff. He didn't trust himself to get comfortable, on the one hand, in case he fell asleep and by default became vulnerable; on the other hand, he definitely didn't want to risk an experience similar to his first time in a car…

He stared out the window, willing himself to think about something and take his mind off this predicament, and flushed with horror to realize that his traitorous thoughts had swung back around to Kagome.

Damn it! He closed his eyes, almost as if it would make a difference, but still could see her grey eyes. She looked just as she had the last time he'd seen her—angry, and terrified. Worse yet, when he tried to turn his thoughts away he only remembered more—including a fuzzy recollection of lying with his head in her lap.

Shit.

Silence filled the car, as thick and potent as the darkness which surrounded it. Miroku stared ahead through the grimy windshield, watching the dull, soft slush-coloured road surface flash under the car and past, and rubbed idly at the palm of his right hand.

:0:

"A miko?"

Naraku frowned at Byakuya, appearing intent on the youkai while simultaneously turning this new development over in his mind. A miko… and claw marks on Hiten's armour…

"Get out," he told Byakuya suddenly. The youkai looked up at him quizzically, and Naraku stood up abruptly. "Did you mishear me?"

"No, no! I'm going," said Byakuya, putting up his hands defensively. Naraku sat back down as he left the room, and seethed. Perhaps it wasn't them… after all, plenty of youkai possess claws, and Kikyou couldn't possibly have been the only miko hanging about.

But how many youkai…or hanyou… would be caught hanging around with one?

Either way, this would be an impediment to his plans. He would have to take care of it after he dealt with Kagura's task, however…

:0:

The sky above the city lightened slowly. It was a grey day, neither sunny nor threatening rain, and the sun was lost behind layer upon layer of thick pale cloud. Most of the vehicles weren't out yet, so the streets were all but completely empty—it couldn't be much later than six oclock in the morning.

"So, anyplace in particular you want to be dropped off at?" asked Taru, looking sideways at Miroku.

"Oh… how about the corner at Davenhurst and Hawthorn?" asked Miroku, choosing the first intersection that came to mind so as to seem natural.

"Sure thing," said Taru, turning the wheel and heading down a side street while Miroku turned to look back at the two passengers.

Sango was cuddling Kirara in both arms, leaning against her window as she slept. Inuyasha, who had fought mightily (and in vain) to maintain at least a semblance of wakefulness, had his head craned back at quite an angle against the seat behind him and was snoring faintly.

"Hey," said Miroku quietly. "Wake up." Taru turned down another street, and Miroku could see the street corner he'd asked for approaching through the receding dimness.

Sango blinked and sat up, pulling the softly purring Kirara closer to her chest. "We're…" she looked out the window. "I guess we're here."

"Inu-uh, Sharia…" said Miroku, reaching through the gap between the front seats to tap Inuyasha's knee. "We're in the city."

Inuyasha frowned, swearing inwardly upon realizing that he had fallen asleep, and opened his eyes to find himself staring at the ceiling of the car. Immediately he straightened his neck and made sure to glare at Miroku's retreating arm, only to be overtaken by a sudden wash of pain from one of the wounds in his side. He hissed in a sharp breath, though his expression never changed.

The car pulled over to an oddly slush-free curb, and Miroku fished around in his pocket briefly. "Thank you," he told Taru. "I have money, if you want payment…"

"Money?" Taru paused, peering sideways at him. "Well… I certainly wouldn't be averse to it…"

Miroku counted out a few bills and handed them over. "Now we aren't such freeloaders," he said, smiling as he opened his door. He walked over to Inuyasha's door as the hanyou felt around the inside for a handle or button, and opened it as well as Sango stepped lightly out of her own side, pulling the Hiraikotsu over the seats and out with her.

"You'd better be more careful with that, Miss," said Taru, looking over his shoulder at her. "That thing could be dangerous if you swing it the wrong way."

"I wholeheartedly agree," Miroku told her blandly from over the roof of the car. She hefted the boomerang and glanced at him, sighing.

Once they were all out of the car, Miroku waved to Taru, and watched as the car pulled out.

Beside the long, slanting shadow of a lamppost, Sango held Kirara close to her chest, running her fingers through the short tan fur. It felt somehow at once relieving, exhausting and terrifying to know that she was back in the same city as her now-abandoned house, and as her brother and the sick freak who had kidnapped him. She fought down the urge to bury her face in her arms, and instead looked around at the small group she had found herself in.

"So," she asked, directing her question at Miroku. "What do we do now?"

Miroku smiled. "I have an idea."

:00:00:

I have no excuse. Really, this time I don't. I guess I was pretty much AWOL, at least as far as this story is concerned. How long has it been? Nine months or so?

I had this chapter completed a few months ago, actually, but I wasn't very happy with it and my beta seems to have vanished, so I put off uploading until… well, now. I'm very sorry to anyone who was waiting for it… it certainly took long enough and I know I'd be annoyed at an author who did the same to me.

I initially had plans to put in an author's note about wanting some feedback on this story (because I have the feeling something is wrong, but I'm not sure what)—but instead I think I'll replace it with a query about anyone willing to beta an extremely slow-updating story and leave it at that. XD

…Anyone want to beta an extremely slow-updating story? 8D