Chapter fourteen: Exposed - Part 1
Sango made it up the stairs one at a time with what little strength she had. She would not give up until she told Miroku what had happened with Naraku. She despised traitors for all she was worth. That's how she had lost her family, some pompous freak thinking if he turned against his village, that the enemy would spare him. He ended up being murdered, along with her brother, mother, and father, and other comrades. Sango had managed to stay alive, but was brutally taken as a hostage, and forced to word as a guard for Inuyasha.
There was a horrible hissing noise, accompanied by the sound of metal crackling and collapsing. Sango had about three more flights of stairs to go; she didn't know whether or not the structure would hold up!
Hundreds of lesser demons fled up the stairs, and Sango jumped on the nearest one for a ride. The beast reared its head, and hissed, trying desperately to get the extra weight off, but Sango held onto it with all she had. 'One more to go…' Sango thought with a spark of hope. There was another cracking sound, and the heavy metal let out a loud groaning sound, signaling it was about to give way. 'Come on, come on!' Sango pleaded.
Fresh air and warmth greeted her senses in a giant wave, accompanied by a shooting pain in her ankle. Sango fell off of the demon, setting it free, and leaving Sango to sit in the dirt. Now, which was to Miroku's office? She looked around, but found nothing to jog her memory. Seeing as though this was a new sector for her, she had no idea where she was in relation to everything else.
Sango pulled herself to her knees, and used both her arms for support. Her eyes had a bit of trouble adjusting to the bright light reflecting off of just about everything, but she could see a bus stop in the near distance. She praised her good fortune, but collapsed from pure exhaustion. Everything faded into silence, and darkness.
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Sango awoke, and rubbed her dry eyes, trying to bring them into focus. She lifted her form, to stand on her right foot, but shrieked in pain, and doubled over. Sango remover the cloth surrounding her ankles, and saw that her ankle was about twice to three times it's normal size, and it looked pretty banged up, it had a few red, blue and purple marks on it. Sango sighed, and ripped the bottom of her green skirt. She tied many strands around her ankle, so hopefully it would be supported better than it was without anything at all.
She aimlessly limped towards her goal, the bus stop. Judging by the location of the Sun, Sango guessed it was nearing six o clock. Good, then she should make the sixth bus in time. Sango tripped on a stone lodged into the dirt, and fell to her knees again. This may be a harder journey for her then she had thought. Pacing herself took a great deal of patience, Sango concentrated on one foot, then dealing with the next, and she was making some progress, she figured she'd be there in about twenty minutes or so.
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Kagome ran with all of her speed towards the bus stop, she didn't want to miss it, and then have to wait another hour for the next one. With much luck, Kaede was waiting for her, and there was no one on the bus, again. Kagome thought it was strange, but paid no mind to it.
"Hello, Kaede!" Kagome greeted cheerily.
"Ah, hello child, do you mind waiting for a bit? I feel like someone else needs a ride." She said.
Kagome sat down and smiled, still clutching the dresses as if they would slip away if she loosened her grip.
"So tell me dear, how was your day today?"
"Tiring, but I suppose I should get used to it, eh?"
"True, we all have hardships in our lives."
"Yes." Kagome agreed.
There was a slight silence, but Kaede decided to shatter it, she closed the bus doors, and drove into a barren field.
"Kaede, what are you--? Oh God, Sango!" Kagome shrieked.
Sango was lying on the ground panting heavily from overusing her limbs. Kagome rushed off the bus to help her friend get onto the bus. Kagome slung one of Sango's arms around her neck, and put her hand securely on her side, and pushed off the ground, and stumbled to the door. Kagome took Sango to the back of the bus, where the longest seat was, and placed her on that.
"Sango! Sango, wake up!" Kagome said, gently shaking her friend.
Sango slightly whimpered, and opened her hazy eyes.
"Where am I? Where did Naraku get to? Miroku!" She slurred.
"Okay, calm down, everything will be fine, just tell me one thing at a time, now, what about Naraku?"
Once Sango fully regained consciousness, she told Kaede and Kagome the story. However, they had to get Sango to the hospital before they could do anything about either Miroku or Naraku.
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They made their way to the hospital, and walked into the main lobby. The same perky nurse, Rin, guided them all to a room. She followed the normal routine, taking her temperature, weighing her, measuring height, and all of the other things that were completely irrelevant to the matter at hand.
"Thank you for waiting, the doctor will be with you in a moment." She said.
The three nodded, and awaited the doctor to help Sango with her ankle. After sitting in silence for about twenty minutes, a cheery man in a typical doctor's uniform walked in. He took the three women to an x-raying room so he could get a better look at Sango's ankle. Kagome and Kaede waited outside the door, while the nurse and doctor put Sango in about five different positions to look at her ankle.
As it turned out, Sango had broken her ankle in three different places a fair amount. The doctor put a cast around Sango's ankle, gave her crutches, painkillers, and then called it a day. The group left, and then headed to Miroku's office.
"So, Sango, what do you think of Rin?" Kagome asked, looking out the window of the bus.
"I don't know, she seems nice enough."
"Yeah, she seems a little too perky though."
"Sometimes people just act that way to hide how they're really feeling, oh, Kagome, nice dresses, how did you manage to get those? And what happened to my kimono?"
Kagome thought about what Sango had said, and immediately connected it to herself, that was exactly what she had done to Inuyasha! And then, Kagome sweat-dropped. This had to be the second one of Sango's dresses she had ruined!
"Uh, let's just say it ripped beyond repair."
"Oh, I see."
Kagome almost instantly felt horribly guilty. "Hey Sango, I'll let you have these two, if you want." Kagome handed over the deep red, and blue kimonos. She really did love those two dresses a lot, but she loved Sango more. (Not in the perverted way you losers! Haha, just kidding! About the loser part, I mean)
Sango's eyes brightened. "Really? I can?"
Kagome laughed. "Of course you can, it's the least I could do."
The bus pulled up to where Kagome would usually go to work, seeing as how Miroku worked in the same building, but just in a different part. Kagome could sense that Sango was terribly worried about what would happen. Sango usually could hide her emotions, but not this time, this time, it was different. There was a most serious matter at hand. Kagome gave Sango a look of pity, she knew how it felt to be so afraid of something, and not be able to do anything about it. She had been told her whole life by her parents, that, 'No matter what the situation, no matter how dire, you can still do something about it, and make a difference.' Kagome was beginning to doubt that entire phrase. She put a comforting hand on Sango's shoulder, letting her know that she would always be there for her.
They opened the door with Kagome's key card, and walked in. There were still a few people there, but you could tell that the amount of people had been decreasing for a while. They stumbled about the area of where Jaken office was located; figuring Miroku's must be somewhere near there. Luckily enough, they were right, Miroku's office was somewhat close to Jaken's.
Sango walked up to the door, and knocked lightly, and took a step back.
"Come in."
Sango and Kagome walked in, and Kaede decided to wait outside. What they saw in the office shocked them. However, it wasn't the ladies in the magazines, or calendars, or the…T-shirts? No, it wasn't any of that stuff that surprised them; it was Naraku sitting casually in front of Miroku's desk, with Miroku sitting behind the desk.
"Oh, Sango, I am glad you came, I understand from Naraku, here, that you attacked him for no reason at all." He said, his face much more serious than the two girls had ever seen it be.
"What? That is completely out of line! Do you not see me in crutches? I'm the one who's hurt!"
"Sango, that proves nothing. Naraku says that he hit you in order to defend himself. However, he said that you had passed away after the blow, I see now that isn't quite the truth."
"This is completely unreasonable! He breached the lab! I don't even know how he got all the way down there! Naraku broke into the lab, and stole whatever the hell that those damned scientists were working on, apparently, it was of value to Naraku."
"I am sitting right here you know." He said, a smug grin spread across his sickening face.
Miroku gave a sideways glance at Naraku. "Sango, it is not necessary to raise your voice, we are all in close enough range."
"Miroku, how could you not believe me?" Sango said, tears dripping form her eyes. "I would have thought you of all people would have believed me."
"Its not that I don't believe you Sango, it's just that Naraku's evidence seems more truthful."
"Then why did he say that I had died?"
"He probably just knocked you unconscious, and mistook you for being dead."
"He's part demon! He would have been able to tell if I had been alive or not!"
"Sango, please, you're only making it harder than it is."
"Is it really harder to tell the truth?" She asked, hysterical now.
Miroku was silent.
"Are you quite done now, Sango?" Naraku interrupted.
"You low-life bastard! You won't get away with this!" She said, lunging at him. She had a hold of Naraku's neck, and was using all of her force to strangle him. However, she wasn't really doing any damage. Miroku, however, didn't see that, he ran around his desk, pried Sango off of Naraku, and threw her to the floor.
"Sango! Do you really expect me to believe you, when you just blindly attacked him? I'm sorry Sango, but I don't think the defense sector has any more need for your services."
Sango stared at him in disbelief, from her position on the ground. She couldn't get up, so she stayed put.
"What, what do you mean?" She asked, silently.
Apparently, Naraku had heard her.
"It means, you'll be working as a maid from now on."
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A/N: Wow, Naraku, you need to get a life. Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter, somewhat anyways.