Chapter Four

Without a second thought, Sango took the initiative to come to InuYasha's aid. Already, her Hiraikotsu was lifted from her shoulder, her eyes drawn toward the large cat's unprotected, right side. She might have struck first, but her hand was stayed when she saw Miroku out of the corner of her eye, wielding his staff. He had miscalculated, and was coming into her line of attack. She held back, cursing silently to herself, and landed on her feet. To her horror, she saw the beast lash out at the monk, landing a brutal blow that seemed to cut him down like a sapling bonsai.

Sango's eyes widened as he crashed to the ground. "Miroku!"

Before she could do anything more, the beast came for her, massive arms and powerful hands tipped with three-inch long razor-sharp claws. Her worst fears were realized from the moment she saw the beast attack. It didn't flail about like a wild thing, content with merely tearing anything in its path to shreds. It moved with the calculated ferocity of a soldier in combat. Desperate to survive and to protect her friends, Sango went to a knee and took shelter behind her massive bone boomerang, bracing herself for the blow to come.

But it didn't come. Instead, she felt the weight of the weapon lifted and opened her eyes in surprise to see the beast snap it in half in its powerful jaws and toss the pieces aside. They stared at each other a moment, Sango in horror and the beast without clear emotion, only a calculating stare as if he were considered what to do with her.

A voice bellowed in the darkness, one born of fury. "Sango, get down!" A figure in clad red appeared in her line of sight. She dropped to her belly, covering her head. The crash just above her was deafening, like a giant fist snapping a tree trunk in half. Sango looked up, seeing that InuYasha had sufficiently driven the beast away from her, and the two were still going at it. Drawing a deep breath, she scampered to her feet.

"Sango!"

The demon-slayer looked over to see Kagome approaching with a very frightened fox demon perched on her shoulder. The Hiraikotsu lay nearby, in pieces, but at the moment, that didn't matter. Presently the battle was being fought full-force by InuYasha, who clung to his Tetsusaiga as though it were his only life line. She breathed a sigh of relief to see he was, at least in terms of the battle, unaffected by the great cat's mighty blow. In fact, Sango had expected to see him cut and bleeding, if at all, yet InuYasha seemed in prime condition even after the blow.

Kagome sunk to her knees beside Sango, staring out over the battlefield. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," she reported. "He never had a chance to strike."

The girl from the future nodded, taking the time to inspect InuYasha's progress in battle. "I noticed. But why not? You were an easy target."

"Don't remind me." Sango forced herself to her knees and hesitantly turned an eye away from the battle to a mass of blue that lay twenty feet away, expecting to find the body of the monk, ripped, bloodied, and lifeless. To her surprise, there was no blood. Miroku even twitched a little and she could hear a soft groan escape her lips. Sango closed her eyes and breathed out a silent sigh of relief. "I have to get to Miroku."

Kagome considered her friend for a moment as she steadied the bow in her grip. After a quick nod, she chose an arrow from her quiver. "Go," she said. "I'll cover you."

Miroku moaned at the pressure of a thousand stones rattling around inside his skull and fought to roll onto his back, hoping to relieve the shattered bone in his left arm of his body weight. He found he couldn't move. How could I have been so foolish, he wondered as he peered up into the shadows of the forest canopy, and the haze of the crimson sky beyond. He had leapt into Sango's way as if he were the professional demon-slayer, keeping her from going on the offensive and getting himself injured in the process. He was lucky he hadn't been torn completely in half.

If any time InuYasha and the others had the right to declare him an idiot, it was now. He could see his staff nearby, thankfully in once piece, as he recalled just what the thing had done to Sango's much sturdier Hiraikotsu, snapping it in half with its enormous jaws as if it were no more than a dry, old twig.

As he listened to the grunts, growls, snarls, and shouts of battle, not to mention the coinciding bangs, smacks, and crashes, Miroku found himself thanking his lucky stars InuYasha had been there to throw himself into the battle before Sango had suffered the consequences of his blunder. He wished he could do more now than lay here, alone, but his body refused to respond beyond anything much more than twitch or a groan.

"Miroku!" Sango slammed down to the earth next to him and moved to help him up. He gave a cry as intense pain surged through him. Instantly she jerked back, blinking in terror as she inspected his body. He could tell what she was thinking: What is it? Is he hurt worse than I thought? The terror in her eyes was even more real than his pain. "What's wrong! What did that thing do to you!"

The monk grimaced, wishing he could find the strength to rub the pain from his arm, but wishing didn't often fulfill desires. "I'm all right. My arm's broken, but I'll live." So long as that beast lets me, he thought warily. And then realization struck. He blinked up to the girl, considering her with shock. "Sango, hurry! You mustn't let InuYasha kill him!" His voice was rock solid, filled with rigid determination.

She blinked. "Miroku?"

"Go!" The monk gave her a shove on the shoulder with his good right hand, the one with the accursed wind tunnel.

"Right." Sango turned to find her half-demon friend, locked in a heated battle with a great, white beast with black stripes like a tiger's and a huge muzzle filled with razor-sharp fangs. She wished she still held her Hiraikotsu, grimacing at the knowledge that the same beast the monk wanted her to save had so easily snapped it into pieces in his jaws. She had to do what he asked—Miroku knew exactly what he was doing—and so she darted forward. She would trust Miroku with her life, even if she couldn't trust him to keep his grubby little hands to himself.

Her katana came free in a flash as she darted between the two warriors. She sensed the beast raise back, half-expecting it to come at her, but it didn't.

InuYasha fixed her with a stunned glare. "Sango, what the hell–"

"InuYasha, we can't kill it," she said suddenly, holding up a palm. She watched up at the large cat, waiting to see what the beast would do. It breathed deeply, amber eyes still holding the heated spark of battle. To her relief, the thing just stood there, staring down to her. She blinked, trembling beneath his gaze. It snarled at her, snapped viciously at her, flailed about like a wild thing on the verge of decimation…but it didn't strike. Sango caught a glimpse of Miroku; somehow the monk had forced himself to his knees. In his good right hand, Miroku held a pair of spell scrolls. Understanding, Sango lifted her sword. "Just back off right now," she hissed through gritted teeth to her half-demon comrade. "Miroku…"

InuYasha shot a look to the monk and then nodded. He wasn't exactly sure what his friends had in mind, but he saw the look in Miroku's eyes. In that moment, just as the beast started to swing down at them with his powerful arm, the half-demon took Sango in his arms and bolted clear.

Miroku released his scrolls, gasping in pain as he tumbled over. Lack of his left arm made for poor aim, and the scrolls fell harmlessly into the woods, away from the beast. The monk cursed his luck and sat there, waiting. As he anticipated, the demon turned and bolted his way. He looked about frantically, but realized there was nowhere to go. "Damn!"

The smell of the thing was putrid; its breath was like a thousand rotten carcasses. Miroku cringed at the stench, fought to keep from gagging as such a motion might force him to take his eyes of the beast. He couldn't even use his left hand to tear the prayer beads from his right wrist. If he didn't do something quick, he was done for.

And then a familiar voice cut through the forest.

"Stay low, Miroku!" Kagome shouted. "I'll bring him down!"

The girl took aim with her bow, peering down the shaft of her arrow. She drew a slow breath, arm locked to steady her shot, and released. A flame of energy, glowing with the spiritual powers Kagome had inherited from a long-dead priestess, lit the arrow as it raced toward its mark.

"Oh no," she mumbled as she lowered the bow. She knew she'd missed her target. But, that didn't mean it still wouldn't draw blood. Sure enough, the sacred arrow didn't hit the torso of the beast, as she'd anticipated, but instead sliced into his thickly muscled calf. A piercing cry echoed out over the Hollow Wood. Kagome lowered to a knee and started to reach for another arrow. But, instead of going on, the massive cat turned a hateful eye in her direction, hissed defiantly, and somehow, despite his injury, bolted off into the shadows.

It was then Kagome noticed the odd sensation that had become so familiar to her over the past twenty months. A soft gasp escaped her lips as she rose to her feet, realizing that she must have missed it in the heat of the battle.

It has a jewel shard…

InuYasha was supposed to be keeping watch over their latest campsite, but as was typical for the half-demon, the moment Kagome sat down to sift through her backpack for the latest necessities, hunger became his primary concern. Not even the massive demon—a tiger demon, Miroku had explained, from the Mainland in a world known as Siberia—from before suddenly vanishing into thin air could affect his appetite. Kagome couldn't understand how he could be so calm, given their ordeal with a demon that seemingly could have easily torn their party to shreds.

The girl sighed and glanced to Sango and Miroku, near the fire. The demon-slayer helped to adjust makeshift sling, a somber gaze on her face. Kagome felt badly for the young monk. She was no doctor but she knew by the grotesque angle his arm hung after the injury that the bone had snapped. The monk would have to take it easy for the time being; she knew he could fight even minus an arm, but it was no easy feat given the task at hand.

For one, the wind tunnel would be virtually useless now. For another, given the monumental height of their goals, it was sickeningly obvious how such an injury only held them all back, and Miroku had been the first to admit that his lack of foresight in the fight with the demon tiger had cost them all dearly. It was lucky enough that they were all in one piece—give or take a few cuts and bruises, not to mention Miroku's broken arm.

"How does it feel?" Sango asked.

"No worse than my wounded pride." The monk stared into the roaring flames of their campfire as they wrapped and crackled and hissed against the log Kagome placed into the burning pit. He sighed and shifted a little, turning a weary eye to the demon-slayer. "I owe you an apology."

Sango shook her head. "You've already paid the price."

"No. I made a mistake and that thing could have killed you because of it." Miroku sighed heavily, turning so that he was staring directly into her eyes. He looked so serious and discouraged that it caused an ache to build in Sango's chest. For a moment, her breath caught in her lungs and she could hear her heart pounding against her ribs like angry thunderclaps. Turning her eyes from his, she wished silently that he would stop looking at her like that. Hell, it was better when he touched her somewhere inappropriate than when he broke her heart in this manner. Her face broke out in a soft red blush as she stared into the burning embers, silently cursing him for doing this to her. "Sango?"

"You heard me, Miroku. You don't owe me anything. You were just trying to help, that's all." She slowly stoked the fire, watching the pot of Ramen Kagome was fixing for dinner. "Maybe I'm the one who should be apologizing to you."

The monk blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I hesitated." She glanced over to him, grateful for the opportunity to return his forlorn expression. At least now they could mourn their mistakes together. She wet her lips and blinked back the disappointment. "Had I thrown my Hiraikotsu, I could have distracted the beast. When I held back for your sake, it cost us my weapon and your arm. It could have cost us your life."

Miroku actually grinned. "Maybe that's true. Perhaps not." He took the stick from her, taking his own turn to feed the flames. "At least it allows us to level the playing field." He sighed, casting her a sidelong glance. "I'm glad."

"Hmmm?" She peered at him out of the corner of her eye.

Miroku smiled and allowed his voice to raise so their whole party could hear. "We've been traveling a full day now," he said, almost cheerfully. "There is no sign of a jewel shard…"

"That's not true," Kagome said suddenly, cringing. The group had been so battered after that their encounter with the tiger she'd forgotten to mention it. She knew she was glowing crimson when they all turned to look at her.

"What are you talking about?" InuYasha demanded. He leapt to his feet, eager to be on the move. "You sense a shard now?"

Kagome blinked. "Uh, yeah and no."

"Huh? Well, which is it?" the half-demon growled. "You better start makin' sense!"

"I meant say something after the fight…"

"What do you mean? Did that thing have a shard?" InuYasha was on his feet in a shot. "Why the hell didn't you say anything?"

"We weren't exactly in the right condition to go after him." Kagome replied. "Besides, he's here after you. I'm thinking we aren't going to hafta look very hard tomorrow."

The others shared looks of concern; Kagome was certainly right about that much. He had said he'd been looking for InuYasha. The half-demon was determined, and that was enough to convince them that his decision was final. He was going on whether they came along with him or not.

Certainly, they couldn't let him go alone.

"Aaa-choo! Ugh…"

Kagome handed the young fox demon a fresh handkerchief, cuddling him closer into her sleeping bag. He'd been sneezing nonstop for over an hour now. While the others hadn't said anything, she knew the poor guy was keeping them up. Kagome really didn't care; the sudden rain had broken the norm, and little Shippo had taken the brunt of it all. It was a cool rain, nothing strange for mid-fall in feudal Japan, and she expected that if the fox demon were to catch a cold, she would soon follow. But the kid needed her now, just as she had needed her mother when she little and sick in bed. Kagome would do anything for the boy, even if it meant getting sick herself.

They had been lucky, Kagome knew, to have found a cave before the full force of the storm had met them in the forest. InuYasha was to thank for that, for sensing the approaching rain nearly an hour before it fell. She eyed him as he sat in the mouth of the cave, staring out at the rain as he listened to it splattering against the treetops before splashing loudly against the forest floor. She wished they could get a fire going, but she respected Miroku's opinion, and starting a fire in a cave would do little more than smoke them out of a dry place to spend the night. They had their blankets and spare clothing, and that would have to do. Sango, of course, had Kirara. She was cuddled up in a ball next to them, using the large demon cat as a barrier against the cold, damp air.

The monk sat nearby, watching the girls with a placid look on his weary face. The poor guy really wasn't taking his injury well, as if believed he were somehow less of a person without use of his left arm. Without it, using the wind tunnel could have disastrous consequences. Kagome's heart ached for him. She wasn't used to seeing him so downtrodden. Usually, when things were at their bleakest, she could trust in the young monk to lift her spirits, even when InuYasha was being impossible. He might have a few dubious quirks, but he was full of good intentions. In truth, he was really no different from any of their party, Kagome realized. We all have our flaws. He just seems to have such a cunning knack for brushing girls the wrong way. Kagome smiled to herself, even as little Shippo gave off another thunderous sneeze. She scratched the little guy's head, hoping to soothe him. He mumbled something into her chest, probably along the lines of "Thank you, Kagome," though she couldn't be entirely sure.

Wrapping the fox demon tighter into her warm embrace, Kagome let her eyes slide shut and listened to her friends as they breathed in sequence with the steady splatter of the evening rain, as well as the occasional sneeze, sniffle, and moan from Shippo as he fought what had to be the beginnings of a cold. It was a long time before sleep swept her away, but she must have been very tired, because after what seemed like only moments after she fell asleep, she awoke to the sound someone stirring nearby.