Chapter 04 – Sango's disappearing
"So, will you tell me already what's going on? I was at home hardly one day when you came to pick me up. That's a little too fast even for you." Inuyasha was carrying me on his back, but we didn't head to the village and he didn't talk at all, so I was getting really curious about what's going on. After this question he stopped.
"Sango disappeared." He said simply, but with clenched fists and his head tilted down.
"What?" I screamed in shock "What happened?" I stepped in front of him. I saw that his face was filled with worry and anger.
"That's it, we don't know what happened. Some travelers were talking about nearby forest where the people are disappearing, so we went to check it out. When we got there, we found nothing suspicious, so Miroku suggested, that we should return and wait for you, but at that time Sango wasn't with us anymore. I tried to follow her scent, but on certain spot it suddenly vanished."
"Vanished? How could it be? No one can just vanish, not like that." I shouted in surprise.
"Do you think I don't know that?" He yelled at me angrily. "But it's exactly what happened, don't you trust me or what?"
"No, no, I trust you." I assured him. "It's just, that it seems to be impossible for someone to disappear this way."
"I thought so too until then. But, anyway, Miroku and Shippo are waiting for us near the forest, so we should go." I nodded and we continued in our way. I thought about Sango. There's just no way, how could she disappear without leaving any trace. If she ran away for some reason, Inuyasha would be able to follow her, and if some demon took her away, there would be at least some sing of him.
"We're here." Inuyasha disturbed my thoughts and slowed down. I looked in front of us. Miroku, Shippo and Kirara were sitting around the campfire, not far from the forest, with sad faces.
"Inuyasha, Kagome, you returned really fast, I didn't expect you to come so soon." Miroku tried to greet us with a smile, but it didn't turn out well.
"What are you talking about? This is about Sango, I couldn't just stay behind." I yelled at him and wanted to add something more, but then remembered Sesshoumaru's words. I definitely didn't want to have to explain my little problem while Sango is missing.
"So, did you figured something out?" I asked, when I calmed myself down.
"No, nothing." Miroku said shamefully.
"But... she isn't... dead, is she?" Shippo asked with tears in his eyes. I bent down to him and looked into his eyes.
"Don't worry Shippo, she is a strong girl, she wouldn't die that easily and we will find her, no matter where she is." At that moment I wasn't sure, whom I was encouraging more, but it definitely worked and that was the point. And I noticed that not only Shippo's mood improved, but the other's as well.
"So, where exactly did she disappear? We could find some clue around there." I asked and looked from one to another.
"We already searched that place and found nothing, but maybe we should give it a try. You proved before, that you have pretty good observation skills, so there is a chance, that you'll notice something." Miroku spoke first.
"But isn't it dangerous? What if Kagome will disappear just like Sango?" Shippo almost cried again.
"There's no way, we will let her disappear." Inuyasha interrupted him. "So, Kagome, stay close to us and don't do anything stupid."
"Stupid? What do you mean by that? The only one here, who's doing stupid things is you!" I put my hands on my hips while yelling at him. "So don't ever call me stupid again, understood?"
"Kagome?" Miroku asked carefully.
"What!" I shot him a glare. He was staring at me with puzzled look and pointed at me.
"Your necklace is shining..." I paused in surprise. Necklace? Sure, that rosary I've got from Sesshoumaru. It must have been warning, that it's loosing it's power over my appearance. I laughed nervously while scratching my hair.
"It's nothing. I guess you didn't sleep much, so your eyes are probably just tired. Let's go." I ordered and entered the forest quickly to avoid any further questions.
"Hey, why are you so rash all of a sudden?" Inuyasha grabbed my arm and made me stop.
"We are searching for Sango, don't we? We already wasted enough time." He grumbled something under his breath, but my attention was already focused on something else.
"Inuyasha, do you hear that?" I asked thoughtfully.
"Hear what?" He turned to me still quite angry.
"That voice. I can hear someone's voice, but I don't know what is it saying." He paused and I could see his ears twitching.
"There's no voice saying anything, you're just hearing things." He said with folded arms.
"No, I don't! I really hear that. It's coming from this way." I pointed to the direction, where I heard it from and started to run that way. The others followed me and after a while I stopped.
"It's right here. Here it is strongest. How come you can't hear it?" I was confused. Why am I the only one who can hear that?
"No idea, but you stopped at the very place, where Sango's scent vanished." He said in amazement.
Suddenly something grabbed me around my ankle and before I could even scream I was being dragged under the ground. I only heard the fading voices of the others as they screamed my name, but couldn't do anything to help me.
After a few seconds I landed on the ground. I stood up quickly and looked around me. I was in a huge cave but I couldn't be so deep, because the roots of the trees were sticking out of the ceiling.
"It seems that my snack finally arrived." Someone said mockingly with a hoarse voice. I looked that way and saw a beast which looked like overgrown mole.
"What? Who are you? What do you want?" I yelled at him. Snack? What does he mean by that, I am no one's snack.
"I am Bouhatei, the great demon of the underground and I am going to eat you now." He said with evil laugh.
"That voice, it was a trap set up by you, wasn't it?" I asked.
"Sure, what kindhearted girl like you could resist to try to help it? These taste best, so it's understandable that it's pointed at this kind." He grinned and attacked me immediately. I jumped back to dodge it and his claws missed me just by an inch.
"You're pretty fast for a human, but you can't keep running forever." His grin widened and it seemed that he enjoyed it.
I took a step back, when I tripped over something. I looked what it was and realized, that it was Sango's Hiraikotsu. I searched the place around and found a mound of moles not far from me and from under them was poking someone's hand.
"SANGO!" I screamed in shock. "Leave her alone you bastards!" I've got rid of the moles with one swing of my claws and knelt to Sango.
"Sango! Are you alright? Sango! Please, wake up!" She was covered with blood and there was a lot of wounds on her. I tried to shake her to wake her up, but she didn't react at all. She was breathing though, so I confirmed to myself that she is only unconscious.
I felt the tears in my eyes, but it wasn't tears of sadness or fear. It was tears of anger and I knew that the illusion around me already faded away. I turned at the demon and saw the surprise in his eyes.
"What... what's this? What are you?" He said fearfully and already took a few steps back.
"You hurt my friend and wanted to eat me." I stated with dark voice. "And I can see, that you have Shikon fragment in your body, so I am going to take it as a requital." My claws was already filled with poison and I attacked him aiming straight on his forehead, where the Shikon fragment was placed.
He managed to dodge it, but some of the poison reached him and he started to dissipating. I didn't waste any time and attacked him once again while he was focused on his injuries. This time I didn't miss and got the Shikon fragment from his head. I held it in my arm and he looked at it in disbelief while he was returning into his original form of a common mole.
I sighed in relief before the sudden earthquake knocked me down. I looked around me and realized that the whole cave is starting to collapse. Sango was still unconscious so I rushed to her to protect her from the falling rocks and put her Hiraikotsu above both of us.
The earthquake was getting worse every second and in the end something hard hit me and everything went black.
In case, you were interested in it, the name of the demon Bouhatei means literally mole. Not very original, but I was never good in inventing names.