"BaBa, come with me I have something to show you," Plum Blossom urged towards the heart of the village. She ran quickly followed by Miroku. "This is a tree of ages," the little girl said. "My MaMa carved these a year after you left." She pointed at the carvings in the tree. Carved into the bark were the names Miroku, Autumn Chrysanthemum and Plum Blossom, the character for family and a drawing of a blossom, but Miroku's eyes laid not on the carvings in the tree but the woman pinned against it. There laid Sango motionless and breathless in a deep slumber almost hidden by the acorns and leaves that the squirrels piled on top of her. What have I done, thought Miroku. He ran as fast as he could back to the others leaving Plum Blossom behind. "Well aren't you going to say something about the carvings already," she called, but he didn't hear her. "InuYasha, InuYasha, InuYasha! Kagome, Kagome, Kagome! Shippo, Shippo, Shippo," he screamed, nearly out of breath. "Miroku, Miroku, Miroku! Do, do, do you, you ,you have, have, have to, to, to say, say, say everything, everything, everything three, three, three times, times, times," demanded InuYasha. InuYasha, Shippo and Kagome could tell by the look on their friend's face that this was not something stupid and petty.
"I-I saw Sango today," Miroku shyly confessed.
"Big deal," said InuYasha. "Up until now you see her every day."
"No you don't understand, InuYasha," Miroku said. "I think she's dead."
InuYasha laughed. "I think you're just seeing things," he said. "Just go to the teahouse and chill out. Relax. You seem to be the only one who's not doing that."
"InuYasha, sit!" shrieked Kagome. "Miroku, do you think you could show us where you saw Sango?"
At the tree of ages Sango was covered in even more leaves and acorns than before. It looked like a dead body resting in a pile of green spring leaves and young green acorns. Kagome brushed the leaves off with her hand. She put her ear up to Sango's chest but she heard no beat. "I think you're right, Miroku," Kagome said. "Should I go get Tai and Autumn?"
Miroku nodded but didn't say anything. He rested Sango's head on his lap. How could this have happened? The one woman he ever cared about dead? Kagome returned with Tai and Autumn Chrysanthemum. Tai sprinkled a circle of salt around where Sango lay. "MaMa, why are you sprinkling the salt?" Asked Autumn Chrysanthemum. "There is no need for purification; she's pinned to a tree of ages." The sound of a woman's giggling came from the other side of the tree. Kikyo walked out. "That's why," Tai explained. "It just wasn't meant to be. She just didn't want to hurt you. She gave you the signs. When you touched her she would slap you. You two never even had a first kiss," said Kikyo. "Oh yeah… well how's this?" Miroku put his lips to Sango's and after a long passionate kiss Kikyo said, "Do you know why she died? She died for you. So that you could be happy with your former lover and your daughter. Those were the things she wanted for you but couldn't give to you. You can't have her." "My whole life I've been told things that I couldn't do. I've been told that I can't live much longer unless I defeat Naraku and free me and my future generations of my curse. I've been told that I can't suck up anything poisonous into my hand. But now I'm going to tell you something that you can't do: keep me away from the woman that I love." A single tear rolled down Kikyo's cheek. She hid her face in the sleeves of her kimono. Sango's face flooded with tears too. "Look," said Kagome. "I-I think Sango's alive again."
"I think we should go back to the house, then," said InuYasha.
He picked up Sango and carried her because she didn't have the strength to walk. Then he laid her on the tatami floor of Tai's house. Everyone watched her lay there in her bloody pink kimono with bloody tears coming out of her eyes. "Miroku, I don't think your friend has much longer to live," stated witch doctor Tai.
After that Sango said her last words, "If only my tears of blood could dye red the blossoms of the plum tree. But I will never make it to spring. My heart is empty and my life has no value anymore. Each moment a thousand tears." The blood quickly rushed from her face leaving it pretty but pale. Her thick eyelashes against her skin looked like coal against snow.
"What more can I say. I tried my best." Said Miroku. "Love is of source unknown, yet it grows deeper. The living may die of it, by its power the dead live again. Love is not love at its fullest if the one who lives is unwilling to die for it or if it cannot restore life to one who has died."
"BaBa, come and see what MaMa and I worked on," said Plum Blossom. She led Miroku to the tree of ages once again and pointed to a three-character poem titled "Loss". Plum Blossom smiled. "Does it make you feel better, BaBa?" she asked.
"Yes," Miroku lied. But in his mind he knew that one could not describe loss. One had to feel it.
He plucked a plum blossom from off a tree and placed the delicate flower on Sango's grave underneath the tree of ages. The plum tree and the tree of ages canopied over the two creating an almost secret grove of the colours pink and green. The delicate flower wafted up to the heavens to Miroku's delicate flower, Sango.