XCV

Combinatio Nova

It's quiet, in the dark. Too quiet. The rain has died to the occasional drip. The Wolves in their unmoving semicircle at Sango's back are breathing too quietly now for her to hear them, though she knows they must still be there. After some time, she can't decide if that's better or worse than when she could hear them, and just tries to stop thinking about it.

The embers of Miroku's fire are dim, yet still bright enough to show his face, relaxed in sleep. Sango doesn't dare suppose anything just based on that. He's sneakier than he looks; much too devious to be the humble Buddhist he claims. Maybe he's asleep, but maybe he's waiting to catch her again, to see if she has something else hidden in her sleeping roll.

If she was the one with him captive, and needed to keep him alive, she would at least search for weapons more thoroughly than he's done. But he seems more trusting than she is, even if he's had some kind of training.

Or, she reminds herself, he's just more sneaky in general.

The trouble is that she can't decide what he'd need to be sneaking around for. She has nothing he wants; he's not on her side for certain, and he knows she knows it. He isn't going to convince her otherwise just by being nice. While she isn't quite sure he's on the Wolves' side, she definitely doesn't believe him when he says he's a neutral party.

Still. It's been nearly three days, and he's done nothing to harm her. The miko left, but he stays, while the Wolves come and go. She's seen the bloody bandages he pulls away from her back; without him caring for her, she knows she would already be dead. When she makes the slightest movement, the ache and the agony both pulse at her unceasingly. Daily, fever wracks her body, then retreats. Whatever other truths might be, the wounds are real, and her suffering is real.

So is her confusion, and that…

She wishes she could blame it on the fever, but instead it feels like she's been bludgeoned and is suffering from a stunned brain. It doesn't help, either, that Miroku is always talking at her. Maybe I should be grateful that he's not awake.

Sango closes her eyes, trying to find the soothing darkness of sleep or unconsciousness, whichever is closer. But now that she's awake, the pain is a rough goad to her awareness. The burning of her back is more than just the wounds, it's the pressure of knowing where they came from, the pressure of fearing her own questions and their answers. Kagewaki-dono said they were as healed as could be. But he lied. Why would he lie? Why, why would he lie to me?

She thinks that maybe she should pray, but the god of her life was her father, and now he's dead. Her father, her brother, all her kin, all of them have left her behind. So how is she still alive? Since the first time Miroku changed the bandages, she's known the shape of the wounds made by the bloodstains, the burning cross between her shoulder blades. Kohaku, Kohaku, how am I the one who lived?

Sango wants to forget the miko's calm speculation, the thing she had, on instinct, at first denied."Sorry, but it's more likely that Kagewaki-dono is the demon you were trying to kill… he was strong enough to fake his own death. And then he used the shard to keep you alive." She wants to forget it, but if it's the truth, then there's at least one more battle she has to live long enough to fight. If it's the truth, Kagewaki-dono must be slain before she can allow herself to die.

Sango narrows her eyes at the dark, thinking about it. If it's true, then maybe things make sense. Except for Kohaku, the loss of whom still haunts her worse than anything else. How had he been changed? How had he ended up broken, or possessed? Or had he, too, been a lie? Had he been dead from the beginning? A mask, like Kagewaki-dono, to hide a yōkai face?

If only the miko was something like a miko should be. She'd be helpful, that's for sure. But why would a woman like her, willing to live with Wolves, willing to be like them, a woman willing to choose their Alpha as her man… why would she go hunting other yōkai? They're probably all the same to her.

Sorry, the miko had said. Sorry. As if she would really feel sorry when she'd made clear right away how little liking she has for her own kind -

She has good reason not to like you. Can you say the same? A whisper in the prickly voice of her own conscience punctures Sango's delusion of righteousness. She sighs, and rests her forehead against the backs of her hands. Like me or not, she still sent Miroku to watch over me. It was the Alpha who sent the Wolves.

She's sure the man is mostly there to keep her alive, but more than that he feels almost like a guard for her guards. The Wolves, she thinks, as much as they're meant to keep her here, are here to keep an eye on him - and he's here to make sure she doesn't do anything to them, either. Everyone watching the other watchers. What a mess. But it's in his face when he looks at them, like he's always thinking twice. And he's always so very careful with how he chooses to say everything he says. I don't get it, what's his relationship with them? What ties him to them?

He had mentioned a name, a female's name. Saya. He says my Saya; what does that even mean? Can a man make a claim on a yōkai like that? He, too, must be defiling himself like the miko. Sango has suspected as much since the beginning. But when she says anything about it, tries to challenge him with how terrible it is, the anger on his face is certainly real. Maybe the most real of the expressions he's shown her.

And isn't he also the miko's friend? There's something between them, certainly, but even if there's humor in his face when he says it, he still calls her Kagome-sama. Or is that also for the Wolves to hear? Scowling, she looks at him from her peripheral vision, then squeezes her eyes shut. Whatever. His damnation is his own concern. The Wolves can have him.

She doesn't even want to like him, never mind befriend him, or owe him, but he's there beside her, the only constant besides the rain. While the patrols of Wolves come and go, Miroku stays. Feeding her and giving her water, cleaning her body and her wounds, bandaging her, talking to her. His hands are gentle, even if his words are not.

Even his manner of address is cold; will he ever stop calling her taijiya-san? Several times now, she's wanted to say my name is Sango, but she's stopped herself because she doesn't think hearing him say it is something she should want. Mostly, she wishes the Wolves behind her would leave for a while, so she could talk freely, and perhaps see who this man really is.

For now, she thinks, she doesn't want to like him, but it doesn't seem to matter what she wants. He's so very likable. She doesn't have any other company but pain. Has he done that on purpose? Maybe it's a Wolf ploy, to leave her alone with a too-charming man, but she's so badly wounded the idea is laughable. What is he going to charm her for? What in the world would any of them gain?

Miroku turns his head against the wall behind him, and she looks up at him reflexively. His fingers clench on the ever present beads wrapped around his hand, and she breathes more quietly, looking away in case he wakes.

Miroku, a Buddhist. Miroku, a friend of Wolves and their stray miko. Miroku, who doesn't shut up except when he's sleeping. Miroku who doesn't listen when people tell him they don't want to hear.

Yesterday, in between feeding her bites of porridge, he had insisted on telling her about his grandfather, Miyatsu. About the man's hunt for the reason behind the death of the shikon no miko, and his discovery of the truth: a yōkai, who had conspired a cunning plan to corrupt the jewel. The yōkai, Naraku, had fought back; don't they always? And eventually, he discovered Miyatsu's weakness for beautiful women, and took advantage of it to lay his terrible curse.

"First, it began to tear apart the spiritual powers in our bloodline, and then the bloodline itself. I haven't got half the ability my father did, never mind my grandfather. Both of them died, consumed by the curse. Someday, if I can't kill the one who caused it, it will kill me too. But I'm closer now than he was then. I'm almost certain they're the same – Kouga-sama's enemy, your Kagewaki-dono, and Naraku. It would be just like him, the kind of game he likes to play."

Of this Naraku, of whom she has not heard before and has no desire to know more, Miroku had many things to tell her. Some of them meant nothing, and even the worst of the atrocities he'd described hadn't shocked her; she knows too much of yōkai, and could only think smugly that the man was proving her point.

But now she's alone with his questions, while the dawn brightens from dark and dripping to just overcast.

"You are not the only one I've told my story to. Inevitably, I always come to the same problem at the end. Was my grandfather cursed because of his lust, which distracted and weakened him, allowing his enemy to find a way past his defenses? Or was it because his feud with Naraku, his decision to pursue and destroy a being who had nothing to do with him, invoked a karmic burden heavy enough to crush three generations?"

He hadn't told her his answer; she doesn't have one of her own. But isn't Miroku himself a terrible Buddhist? Why bother chastising his grandfather for the same failing, then? He's as much as said he's taken one of these Wolves as his lover, even if Sango has yet to see any of this pack take on human form except the Alpha. Perhaps they're hiding their power. Perhaps the man is more perverse than she thinks.

She almost laughs, but knows better. The pain is already bad enough. Gradually, she realizes that she can faintly see her shadow, growing away from her onto the dirt floor. The light is thin through the clouds, but there's no denying the morning is getting brighter. Miroku is still in the same spot, unmoving, and as time keeps passing she wonders if he's sleeping too long, or if taking care of her has been so much of a burden.

The shadows move with the clouds. She's lulled by bird song, Miroku's rhythmic breathing, and the sound of a new stream, the result of all the rain, running down the hill. Without warning, a howl sounds in the distance that's so loud it startles her up onto all fours, a move she vastly regrets the moment she makes it. A second howl a minute or so later sets the Wolves behind her panting, pacing back and forth, making the occasional sharp burst of noise.

Her awareness is consumed with agony, and then with the voice that is speaking into her ear. "You shouldn't have done that, Taijiya-san. Kouga-sama isn't summoning you."

There's no drowsiness in Miroku's voice, she can hear that even through her own gasping. She allows him to ease her back down to the furs, doesn't have the strength to do anything else, but she looks up at him when he sits back against the wall. "Knew you weren't asleep."

"As you apparently know so many things. Have you decided what kind of monster I am, as well?"

Is it a joke, or not? Either way her answer is the same. "Not yet." She focuses on his face, trying not to feel the wetness warming her back, the new, rougher edge to the already agonizing strain. But he's paying no attention to her now, and talks over her body to the pacing Wolves.

"You could go, I'm sure. He called for everyone, didn't he? If your Alpha wants you to come back here, he'll send you. It's not like either she or I could get very far." A series of growls come one after another, as if responding, and she stares at Miroku blankly. Can he understand them?

"Fair. She isn't going to get very far, then. And I couldn't get away from your Alpha even if I tried, so you'll notice I haven't bothered. Although if I recall, I was supposed to be free to go, come springtime. The snow's been melted for quite a while, now." He settles against the wall again, one arm curled around his staff, as if he's very pleased to stay there indeterminately. "But never mind. I already agreed to keep an eye on her, so don't miss out on my account."

For a moment, they pace forward and back, two dozen paws in frantic sync. Then they howl together, and leap away from the hole in the hillside and toward the northeast, racing the rising sun. "Some kind of celebration is happening, Taijiya-san. Kouga-sama has summoned all his Wolves to stand beside him. Do you want to bet with me on if it's because Kagome-sama said yes?"

Frowning, Sango tries to settle herself more comfortably on her stomach, but she's been laying like this so long it's an exercise in futility. "Yes to what?"

"To Kouga, of course. He's been courting her for ages, or so I've heard. I hadn't yet come among them when he started pursuing her, but the pack females love to tell the story." There's something appraising in the glance he throws her way. "It's very romantic, you know."

An unconcealable shudder moves through her, and she shakes her head once, violently. "No, I don't. And no bet. She's already his woman, anyway."

"You think so? But he would disagree. Ah, well. You don't know what you're talking about, anyway. It wouldn't be a fair bet."

I don't know what I'm talking about? He can't be serious. She glares up at him, but accepts the cup of water he passes to her. "You think I don't know about Wolves?"

He gives half a nod in her direction, and kneels by the embers to blow the fire back to life. "Correct. Except how to kill them, maybe, but we're not counting that."

"Of course not. Why count something useful?" Her tone is mocking despite her own best interests, but something about him just riles her up. She can't help it.

Miroku only looks at her calmly, and then smiles a smile that shouldn't be allowed. It simultaneously makes her flush, and want to slap him, and the worst part is she doesn't even know why. "While we don't have any company, I think it's time for another story, Taijiya-san."

"Not again."

"It's not often I have a captive audience, what can I say?"

"Nothing would be nice."

"At first, I thought to myself, Miroku, at least she's polite. But I'm changing my mind the more time I spend with you. Was that just because you cared about your other guards more than me?" There's something about his smile that bothers her, something about the way he looks at her, which seems friendly enough, except that his eyes are cold. "I spent some time this morning, thinking about what I learned when I first came to this region. There was so little news, especially that interested me, so I hadn't really thought about it, being as I was a captive of Wolves-"

"A captive? But you're-"

"Now I'm helping them, yes."

She gapes at him, shaking her head in absolute bewilderment. "You make no sense."

"No? But fortunately, I don't need to make sense to you, Taijiya-san. Considering your current state of mind, actually, I think I'd be concerned if I did." She frowns ferociously for lack of anything else to do. He absolutely and completely ignores it. "But I wasn't telling you a story about me. I had heard, in the collection of news I gathered, about several yōkai who had been killed in the last few years, all by the same family. Large and powerful beasts, they say, were slain by a father and daughter, aided by some others of their clan."

Sango becomes suddenly very still, staring at the surface of the bedroll a few inches away from her face.

"Someone is always killing yōkai, of course. Not just you taijiya, but samurai, the occasional priest or miko, warriors of all stripes… It didn't really stick in my mind, at first, because of that. But I have been thinking since, and the thing that stood out most about those rumors was that it was the woman who was most powerful, proving a more skilled fighter than her kin. She was also a terrible hypocrite. You see, despite going to great effort to kill yōkai, she had one for a mount herself, a nekomata of some power."

"Stop –"

"I know, it's terrible, isn't it? Of course, you taijiya always abuse yōkai powers for their own ends. If there were no yōkai to kill, I wonder what kind of people you'd be? But really, riding one into combat? You'd think she would be afraid that it would turn on her in the middle of battle. Whan an idiot, don't you think? Relying on such a dangerous beast."

"Stop it! Kirara isn't – wasn't - "

"Kirara? You knew this woman?" His eyes are absolutely sparkling with – something. She hates it . "How interesting, you'll have to tell me more about her. But I was only concerned about how stupid it was that she claimed all yōkai were deserving of death, while keeping one alive just because it was useful to her."

"Kirara wasn't the woman, Kirara was the nekomata, and she wasn't a terrible beast. She was good, and useful, and she kept us alive for a long time. The woman you're talking about is me!"

He says nothing about her use of past tense, only blinks mildly. "Oh, is that so?"

"Don't act like you didn't know –"

"Taijiya-san, if you want to make a fool of yourself that has nothing to do with me." He shrugs, and his smile is guileless and pleasant, and she hates it, too. "I didn't think you'd actually admit it. So? Let's hear it. Do you have an excuse, or are you really just a hypocrite like I think you are?"

"I think you don't know what you're talking about! Kirara stayed with my family for five hundred years, she wasn't just some yōkai!"

"Like you think Kouga-sama is, and my Saya?"

"That isn't the same! She -"

"Am I yours now, Miroku? When did that happen?" The interrupting voice is sultry, lower than a woman's voice usually is, but definitely female. Sango whips her head around, but she only catches a pair of legs, barefoot, and the shins wrapped in furs and leather. A swishing tail moves in and out of her field of view; that confirms this must be the Wolf Miroku keeps mentioning. "I don't remember saying I would let you court me."

"Saya!" Miroku jumps to his feet and hurries forward, and Sango can see from where his feet stop that he's far too close to this Wolf, maybe even embracing her. "Is it finally your turn, or did you sneak out to find me?"

"That doesn't answer my question, Miroku."

"Oh. Well. Well, I –" Sango can hear Miroku's blush in his stuttering. It doesn't bother her as much as she thought it would – not like seeing the miko and the Alpha – but it gives her a pang, and that disturbs her instead. No, that's ridiculous. I don't like him at all. "I should be able to say that, shouldn't I? Be fair, Saya. You said I was yours first." There's a long pause, full of rustling. "And courting you… I think I know what that means, now, but would you let me if I asked?"

Sango doesn't like him, or the husky insinuations in his voice, or how close he's standing to the Wolf.

"No. Probably not. Maybe, but probably not."

"Saya."

"I won't answer a question you don't ask." Sango lifts her head a little higher, and immediately regrets it. Long hair flows inky and auburn down the Wolf's back, covering half her face and even more of her body than that. Her visible eye is green as leaves; she wears only the same hip-wrap as the Alpha had, and a halter to bind her breasts.

One step at a time, she circles Miroku, always touching him as she moves. Not just her hands, but her tail, the wisping curls of her hair, the steaming exhalation of her breath. She's stalking him, but from the expression on his face, he likes it. She trails her fingers over his chest, then up to his face, leaning very close to him.

Oh, kami above she's kissing him. Sango finally turns her face away, cups her hands over her eyes, but she can hear them, the sound of them kissing, the rustling of his clothes, the Wolf female laughing and Miroku breathing hard.

"So? Will you dare, darling human? Will you say it?"

"Oh no, I learned my lesson. I won't ask, your answer will just be telling me it was a mistake. Or you'll say no, won't you, just to see how awkward things get? But I like what we have, I'm not going to ruin it on purpose." More sounds. "And even if I did ask, it wouldn't be while we had company."

Sango flushes bright red and chokes back an angry exclamation. This was easier when you were ignoring me. Can't you shut up? Can't you go away? But she can't cover her eyes and her ears at the same time, and no matter what, she really does want to hear what they're saying. Anything might be a hint, a clue, might help her when she can escape this place.

"So shy, Miroku? But soon you'll be leaving… Yes, very soon now. I can taste it in your kiss. And once you go, I'll be bored and all alone again. Why would I say yes to your courtship, hmm? When you won't stay?"

"You could come with me, or I could go and return." He hesitates, then takes another step forward. How can he even do that, they're so close already! But Sango doesn't lift her head to see. "I'm pretty sure Kouga wouldn't kill me, if I do."

"No, he wouldn't. But you won't come back once you escape us, will you? Are you so mad about me it made you really crazy? What kind of human would jump into a den of Wolves a second time? And before long, you'll be old, and then dead."

There's a moment of silence, and then Miroku laughs, but not very much. "Old? That's a high expectation, Saya. I don't know if I'll live that long."

"True. But I won't bear cursed children, Miroku. We talked about that."

There's a sigh, and then the soft padding of his footsteps moving away, until he's out of the cave and far enough down the hillside that Sango can't hear him moving on the grass. "I know. I know, you're right. My father should never have been born, not to mention me. But here I am, so what can I say?"

Sango turns her head a little, wary but watchful, as Saya follows him outside. She covers Miroku's dozen steps in one swift leap, and stops behind him, sliding her arms around his waist in a way that makes Sango sure her hands are inside his robes. "You can say that you'll come hunting with me. That tonight you'll be mine again?"

She can only see their backs, but Sango averts her eyes again anyway. She wants to listen to their words, but even if she didn't, she can't help hearing, and the contents of her eavesdropping is becoming more and more uncomfortable. Saya's laughter is one thing, even now that it's husky. Miroku's groan is too much, but he laughs after the sound escapes his mouth, and looks back over his shoulder.

Sango ducks her head, watching only from the corner of her eye, but he's not looking her way at all. His eyes are on the Wolf, on Saya, with no attention to spare for anything else. "You're so eager. Kouga-sama ran off with Kagome-sama, didn't he?"

"What?" The Wolf sounds too startled to deny it, and Miroku takes his chance and her hand, wraps his fingers around hers and uses them to reel her in and embrace her.

"That's why you're here, isn't it? That's why you're wanton. Kagome-sama said yes, and so he's run off with her to mate her."

"Ahaha… no. Well, you're half right, but he says he's waiting for the packs to meet this summer."

Sango comes suddenly alert. The packs meet? They gather with each other, these Wolves? How have I never heard about such a thing? If we'd known we could have wiped them out altogether, but no one ever reported movements of Wolves on such a scale.

"The Obon gathering you told me about?" Miroku's voice is conversational, when he could pitch the words more quietly, make sure Sango doesn't hear.

Surely he knows what she's thinking now, so why would he say it? Is he helping her, or is he so unconcerned because he thinks she'll never make it out of here? Sango stares at the wall, memorizing the information and questioning it at the same time. Maybe he thinks that I'm a fool like he is. That I'll befriend these monsters, make my bed with them and lie in it happily. Does he think, because Kirara was a solitary exception, I'm open to that kind of idiocy?

"Yes, there's only one." Saya doesn't sound concerned either, but then, she hasn't acknowledged Sango's existence at all. "It'd be too much trouble to meet more than once a year. But Kameko is already taking bets against our Alpha, and I don't think anyone believes he'll wait so long. I don't think even Kagome-sama believes him."

"No? But you still haven't talked to her, have you?"

"No." There is a long silence after that short word; too long. Sango strains to listen despite herself, wondering at the meaning of all these things, so many little hints that don't quite add up.

"Saya…"

"Miroku?" But even Sango can hear how her teasing tone falls flat.

"She'll be your Alpha, Saya. Are you really going to avoid her forever?"

"Maybe. Or maybe I'll go back to Shigeo's pack, and stay with my mother's kin again. Kouga-sama knows; he talked to me at the beginning, before he even decided to court her. I had warning. Not that I really needed it, of course, after what happened when she first arrived. And then he fell so hard for her… He loves her so much, Miroku. I couldn't ask him to send her away because of my issue, could I? I would just be causing problems."

"Not like you live to do that –"

"Miroku. Not for my Alpha, I don't."

His chuckle is warm and low and very unlike the mocking way he laughs when he's just with Sango. "Would he agree with you?"

"Who knows?" Her tone is very careless. "It's not a little thing, dissension in a pack. She hasn't caused any, so I won't be the one who does."

"And will he tell her what you haven't? You've seen how she is." Another silence. Did Saya nod, or shake her head? Sango can't lift herself high enough to see the female's face anymore, and she isn't sure she wants to see whatever else is going on. "She might be able to help, you know."

"You think that didn't occur to me, especially after Sho? After watching her run with Kouga-sama, when at first she was barely stumbling alongside him? But it hurts to get near her, Miroku, and I've seen how it happens, when she uses that power. It's half her, and half us, and the part that's her burns like I'm back in that cage again."

A cage? Someone had caged this Wolf and burned her? What did she do to deserve that? How did she escape? Sango thinks very carefully, because it sounds like the kind of thing she would or should have heard about, considering her occupation, but nothing comes immediately to mind. And they're talking about that woman, Kagome, like she's something special, has some kind of extraordinary power. But she looked like a normal miko to me, she just doesn't have any sense.

A/N Hello, Saya! She finally made it on the page, took long enough, huh? I think she's been wandering around in the background for 30 chapters now. Surprise surprise, Sango does not like her. Sango doesn't even like Miroku *SNORT* yeah right. Sango, no one believes your nonsense. I am also highly amused by Miroku paired with someone who is likely to grab HIS ass while he's still thinking about the best angle of approach to grab hers. Hehe. Anyway! Just a reminder that this chapter STARTS just before dawn of the very long night, and then we catch up with the previous chapter partway through. This week's title, "Combinatio Nova", means "a new combination".

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