"Hurry, Miroku!" Sango whispered through gritted teeth, quickening each stroke of the oar through the water. Despite her efforts, the boat continued to drift slowly through the murky lake. Though she ached to get to the other side, it seemed they were no closer now than they had been ten minutes before, when InuYasha's scream reached them as it echoed across the land.
Sango felt hopeless, a rare feeling for a demon-slayer with her confidence.
Whatever had happened, she knew it could not be good. No matter how tired she was, how much Miroku might ache, they had to continue on, as fast as they could row, to reach the other side. InuYasha's life depended on it. Though their friend had gotten himself out of terrible situations in the past, never before had she heard such an inhuman scream escape his lips. Whatever had attacked him no doubt intended to do to him only the worst possible things.
It was likely the tiger demon. The beast hadn't made a peep for some time…
"So these are the half-breed's pitiful companions," came a velvety voice from the shadows. Sango stopped rowing. Her eyes met Miroku's; the look of surprise on his face was enough to confirm that she hadn't sensed the presence of a demon either. "Please do not run; I would not like to have to stoop to chasing down mere mortals."
Overhead came a faint red light, taking the shape of a butterfly. Sango blinked up at the light, trying to understand its purpose.
Within the center of that light, she could see the dim silhouette of a person. Despite its shape, Sango knew instantly that it was no human being. Miroku caught her wrist then, pulling her back behind him. He knew what she did: this was a demon. A dangerous one too, considering she had snuck up on them without warning, without so much as revealing her demonic aura.
Rather than the silhouette solidifying, the light itself hardened, seeming to crystallize in midair. Sango gasped at the sight, both wondrous and dreadful at the same instant. She watched in a numbed stupor as the very air about the light took shape, confirming the demon-slayer's fears.
"Kagome, get behind me," Miroku ordered, his voice calm. The fingers of his left hand, the arm that had been broken, wrapped about the prayer beads on his right arm.
"What is that thing?" Kagome asked, bewildered.
The shape dropped to the earth, splashing into the swamp and sending waves rippling across the surface. A tsunami of black water soaked the three companions. Kagome choked on the liquid; her cough sounded painful. Sango moved to her side, despite Miroku's warning.
The monk took position over his friends.
"Stay down," he said grimly he waited for the beast reemerged. "I'll suck her into the Wind Tunnel and be done with it."
Before another word could be spoken, the very raft upon which they sat was lifted unexpectedly into the sky. Sango realized how high up they were when her gaze met the eastern horizon and the sun peeking over the mist-covered land.
When she came back down, Sango realized that her companions were no longer there… and the raft was no longer beneath her. She fell, headfirst, the land swirling madly beneath her as her own body twisted violently through the air.
The impact was enough to drive the wind from her lungs. A flash of white-hot pain shot through her. Disoriented, she groped for solid ground. When she gasped for breath, she was momentarily stunned to swallow, instead of air, a mouthful of ooze from the hideous swamp. She was blinded by the crushing pain as the foul concoction flooded her lungs.
Weighed down by her demon-slayer uniform, Sango felt the pull of gravity.
Fully submerged into the swamp as she was, and in the process of drowning, Sango knew she could in no way find her way above the surface. She knew was about to die.
A new pain coursed through her, a thousand tiny tin pricks to her scalp. Something was pulling her hair. She felt her body suddenly rise in a rush and explode through the surface of the swamp. Hands clutched at her waist and she felt herself being pulled from the swamp and onto solid ground. Thrown immediately onto her belly, she felt something slam heavily onto her back.
She coughed then. Coughed hard. The pain was almost unbearable.
Soon, she was vomiting. The thick ooze tasted even worse coming back up.
"Sango! Oh, thank goodness!" Kagome's voice never sounded sweeter to her ears. As she fought to catch her breath, she turned her eyes to another shape nearby. Miroku, his thick robes draped heavily over his form, stood between his companions and the great demon in the swamp.
The demon hunter blinked in surprise at realizing what it was she was looking at.
A spider. The shape they had seen in the sky, the lights depicting what she had thought to be a red butterfly, was in fact not a butterfly at all.
It had been an hourglass.
This was a Black Widow demon.
Her salvation had been a fleeting illusion. They were going to die.
The grim look of determination on Miroku's face, however, seemed to reject the very notion. His fingers again clasped the prayer beads that held his Wind Tunnel in check.
Before he could rip them off, a faint, flickering light appeared over the spider's gruesome head. Sango's eyes went wide as a burst of fire struck out at the spider, sending it skittering back a couple steps. "Miroku, wait!" she shouted, amazed that she could find her voice. But the monk seemed to have no intentions of unleashing his attack just yet.
"Kirara!" he said in surprise as the fire-cat descended upon their small island.
With the aid of his Tetsusaiga, InuYasha forced himself to take a few more step. His eyes locked on the mass of goo that had been Kirara's trap. Had she been set free? The half-demon rubbed his fingers against the back of his head, where the throbbing pain nearly numbed his very senses. His fingers came away, slick with blood.
Damn. How could I have been so careless?
At least Kirara had gotten away. His eyes shifted through the remaining demons entrapped in the spider demon's webs. He knew it would be foolish to free any of the others from their imprisonment. While some, like Kirara, might be friendly, or at the very least grateful (or indifferent) for their emancipation, there was a very real possibility that others would turn dangerously violent, whether due to the disorientation or mere hatred for half-demons or other life in general.
Even if Shippo was out here, InuYasha couldn't risk the time it would take to locate him or the battle that could ensue if he were to free some hateful, violent demon in the process.
With a soft sigh, the half-demon lifted Tetsusaiga from the ground and returned it to its sheath. He was still wobbly from the spider demon's deadly venom. He couldn't waist a moment finding Naraku; each ounce of energy lost was one less than would be necessary to take that bastard down. One of the reasons the others couldn't be with him now. If he had to put all of his effort into protecting his friends, Naraku would win for sure.
He had already come to terms that this would be his final battle. He couldn't risk any less than his best possible effort. It had to be, beyond a doubt, Naraku's final battle as well.
"Good luck, Kirara," he whispered. "May you be proud and free, wherever your endeavors take you." He closed his eyes and turned from the spot, back toward the mysterious mountain. He heard the tiny splashes as blood dribbled down his side and spilled to the ground. "And protect the others for me."
Kirara spun full circle about the nasty spider demon; Kagome couldn't see much of the battle, only the swirling vortex of fire and water and demonic energy as it spun about the massive form of the Black Widow demon. Beside her, Miroku waited, fist wrapped about the prayer beads of his right hand, ready in any instant to rip them free and unleash the horror of his cursed Wind Tunnel.
First, Kirara had to move…
Yet the battle waged on. Kagome felt sick to her stomach. InuYasha was out there somewhere, likely close to Naraku's lair even now, and they were nowhere near, fighting some fiend of Naraku's twisted creation, likely to die for nothing.
The girl squeezed the front of her blouse between her breasts in a tight fist, fighting back tears, as she watched Kirara struggle.
To her utter shock, a massive black appendage appeared out of the vortex before them, snagging the fire-cat out of the sky and slamming her violently into the swamp water. A cry of desperation and horror fell to her ears as Sango, who had been seated next to her, lunged forward. It took all of Kagome's strength to tackled the demon-slayer before she could lunge into the water.
"Kirara!"
Miroku stepped forward. "Stay back! She's mine!" He ripped the prayer beads free. For the first time in nearly two days, the explosion of pain of his broken arm seized him before he realized what had happened. Screaming in agony, he crumpled to a knee.
To his own surprise, he withstood the pain enough to keep the Wind Tunnel trained on the form of the Black Widow in the water. How it happened seemed completely impossible to him, though the pain had numbed his mind to the point it was difficult to concentrate.
He realized then that he was supported by more than his own strength. The weight of a dear friend, her body pressed firmly against his own, using every last ounce of her will to keep him upright. An arm had wrapped about his waist from behind, and he could see a hand clamped to his right elbow, offering the little support needed to keep it steady.
"I've got you, Miroku!" Sango growled. "Finish the bitch off!"
And he did. The massive spider seemed to be ripped to shreds as it was pulled from the swamp and sucked mercilessly into the Wind Tunnel. In that moment, the pair collapse in exhaustion. Miroku crushed his right hand into a tight fist to seal the atrocity in his palm, howling out in pain, and then quickly wrapped his beads about his wrist.
"Damn it!" he whimpered, his face contorted with pain.
For a long moment, the pair just lay there, Miroku's back to Sango as he stared off into nothingness. He realized that Sango arm still lay across his side, her hand limp at his waist. He dared not move, lest she move herself, and he realized that he liked being in this position. A feint smile briefly parted his lips, and then he released a sigh.
"That was pretty stupid, Miroku." Sango's voice seemed to think otherwise. Was that gratitude? He could swear she was hugging him from behind.
Miroku smiled. "I know."
"Hey, look!" Kagome said. Their eyes turned to the churning water nearby. A moment passed, and then, to Miroku's delight, a familiar fire-cat burst out of the water. "Oh thank goodness, Kirara! You're okay!" The girl wrapped her arms around the demon's neck. She smiled. "Kirara, I need your help."
Sango pushed herself away from Miroku.
Oh well, he thought. It was certainly nice while it lasted.
"You mean to go find InuYasha, don't you?"
Kagome nodded to the demon-slayer. "I owe him that much at least." She smiled. "Besides, you two have done enough. You got me this far."
Miroku's eyes narrowed. "We'll get you farther," he said. "You two go on ahead and we'll catch up. We promise."
Kagome grinned at Sango's nod of agreement. "I know you will, Miroku. You'd never let me down. Either of you."
"At least not intentionally," Sango said softly. She stepped over to Kirara and wrapped her arms around the fire-cat's massive neck after Kagome stepped aside. "Thank you so very much. You've saved our lives… again." Her eyes sparkled. Pride and tears filled those beautiful orbs. Miroku had never before seen her in such a light before. Strong and passionate… and vulnerable, all at once. "Now take care of Kagome."
Kagome slung her bow over her shoulder, and then her leg over the fire-cat. "And I'll take good care of Kirara," she said. "And I promise you both… I'll find InuYasha, too."
Miroku stepped to Sango's side as the pair sped off toward the mysterious mountain on the horizon, looming silently over the hazy swamp and the dark bog beyond.
"What next, Miroku?" Sango said quietly. She blinked when Miroku snagged her hand, turning her to face him. He let her see the longing gaze on his face as brought her suddenly closer. Her own cheeks were bright red as she stared into his eyes. "Miroku? What is it?"
He smiled for her. The best smile he could muster. "You saved us," he whispered.
She turned her face to the side, suddenly. What he said wasn't true. "I only did what I could to help you save us. It was your doing, your pain. Your sacrifice, Miroku."
"A foolish risk that I wasn't sure would work," he said. "And if it hadn't been for you, it wouldn't have."
Sango looked up. "Then we did it together."
He smiled. "That's a compromise I could live with." They looked upon one another for several long moments. Then he touched her face. Her eyes went wide, as wide as he'd ever seen them. The red tone of her cheeks deepened. "It was so much more a gift that you gave me though, than merely my life."
She blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Sango, in that moment when I felt your firm body pressed tight against my own, it made me realize just how lucky I really am to travel with you." She blinked again, but now she had that look of surprise in her eyes that was far too familiar and often spelled disaster. He wanted to finish telling her what he had to say before it all fell apart, so he quickened his words.
"That we all share a common goal, I mean. Can you believe how far we've actually come in this short span of time we've traveled together?" She frowned, one of confusion. That was a good sign. "Our journey together has been well worth it, I think. I could not have asked for a finer group of friends. It means so much that you would all wish to travel with me."
"Miroku, we all have so much to fight for. Why wouldn't we stand together against Naraku?"
He smiled. "And we do. Everyday. And each day brings me closer to you than I ever thought possible." She drew a little closer to him, gazing up to him. She seemed so proud of him that moment. It was a pity she wouldn't see the logic in what he was about to say. "Like today for instance. We were so close in a moment of desperation. You came to me when you knew that I could never stand alone in my present condition. Thank you, Sango."
She frowned. "Why wouldn't I…"
"In our moment of impending doom, you threw yourself upon me and shed light into a cavern consumed by eternal dark."
She lowered her eyes.
"And I am ever so grateful."
"Miroku, I…"
"Come to me, Sango, for I fear the darkness may yet encompass my very soul." He threw his arms around her then. Stunned, she merely stiffened in his embrace. "It is as I thought… your body is as naturally perfect and firm as it felt as we used my Wind Tunnel together."
"This is hardly… Miroku I don't… What are you…"
He brought the hand of his good arm down to cup about her bottom.
"Miroku!" Her hands came up so fast it was surprising, thrusting his arms away from her. She brought one about so violently it nearly knocked the lecherous monk's head clean off his shoulders. "I can't believe you would do that at a time like this! You're such a pervert!" She scowled at him as he touched the red mark where she had slapped his face with his left hand, grinning like an idiot. "I thought that arm was broken!"
"It must be your absolutely perfect body. Knowing that you are near me, close enough to touch, is all my brain needs to fend off the pain."
"Oh, would you give it a rest? We have a job to do!"