Omoide no Mori
Forest of Memories
chapter sixteen:
*Silver Feathers, Silent Tears*
Inuyasha grit his teeth and waited for the onineko to deal the deathblow.
He was absolutely furious! This wasn't how it was supposed to happen, he wasn't ready to die...not like this! If he hadn't been having such a hard time clinging to consciousness, Inuyasha surely would have given that neko what for.
Curse it all! Why did it have to be the First Night??
If it had been any other night, the hanyou would have been able to hold his own just fine! Had it been any other time, he was confident he definitely would have gotten his hands on that shard and sent the arrogant cat demon limping home.
If it had only been--
...?
Chotto...
He paused, and slowly opened one eye.
What was this...?
He was still alive?
He was...still alive!
He opened the other eye.
Inuyasha figured that the onineko would have taken him down several times by now, plunging her claws deep into the flesh of his throat or something equally as unpleasant.
He glanced up at her.
Her arm was still drawn back, the muscles beneath her skin taut, quivering, ready to strike, her claws glistening in the pale starlight. Inuyasha glared defiantly at her, still pinned to the cold ground.
"Doushita?" he asked smoothly, fiercely.
Her eyes flashed, and she cracked her knuckles. She gave him a cold smile, bared her teeth--
--and hesitated.
"Well, what are you waiting for, Temee?" he growled, enraged. "Kill me already!"
She frowned, and her fingers twitched.
"Don't just sit there, Bakaneko!" he roared, pulling his lips back in a snarl. "Kill me! Do it! Avenge your stupid father!" He let out a growl. "If you're so certain I'm to blame, what the hell are you hesitating for? Just do it!"
The fire in the cat demon's eyes seemed to fade, like candle flames extinguished by a blast of wind. She shook her head and dropped her arm back down to her side.
"Dekinai..."
Inuyasha was taken aback.
"Nani...?"
She met his gaze, her piercing blue eyes locked on the deep violet ones of the hanyou, and he was considerably startled by the sight of the thin film of tears glittering in her stare.
What the--??
"I can't," she said. "I can't do it, I just can't..." She gave him a sad look. "Do you really welcome death so openly? Are you really so eager to die, Hanbun?"
He lunged for her, but her left hand still held him pinned to the ground.
"Moreso than I am to be toyed with by a cat!" he snarled spitefully, his words dripping with rage.
She shook her head again, rather in hopelessness this time.
"Where did you get such an attitude?" she asked. "It's gonna get you into a lot of trouble someday."
"If I live that long," he grumbled facetiously, and she looked ruefully at him.
He narrowed his eyes in a cynical leer.
"Why the compassion act all of a sudden?" he demanded suspiciously. "I thought you wanted to kill me...I thought you wanted vengeance for your chichi-ue..." His eyes flashed menacingly. "What in all hell is holding you back??"
Her brows dropped dramatically into an expression of hot anger, and she bared her teeth again, clenching her fists--
A flash of purple streaked through her brain, a jangle of metal rings chimed in her ears.
I dunno why it is you want to kill Inuyasha...but I, for one, won't stand for it...
The cat demon gasped as the words of the houshi echoed through her mind, snapping her out of her anger. She felt that peculiar feeling of filth upon her spirit again, like dirt beneath her fingernails, and her insides churned.
What the hell was wrong with her?
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
Her eyes flattened as Inuyasha shouted at her again, and she gave him an icy glare.
"What are you waiting for, Temee?" he snarled, a cross between a wry smile and a pained grimace slapped carelessly upon his features. "Why do you hesitate?"
She lowered her eyes.
I, for one, won't stand for it...
The onineko sighed inaudibly, feeling as though the weight of the world had just been dumped upon her shoulders.
What was she to do? Was she to listen to what her head told her to do...was she to follow her orders? Was she to take her revenge?
Or was she to listen to her heart instead?
Or rather, was she to listen to the words of the one man who had, at one time, been the most important person in her life?
I...won't stand for it...
How could she kill Inuyasha with those words running through her mind??
"Why are you just sitting there?? Why don't you just kill me?? You could have done it five times by now!" He squirmed beneath her weight and bared his teeth. "Why are you hesitating, you idiot??"
Her eyes shifted.
"Because," she said sadly, and gave the hanyou a small smile with tearful eyes, "if you died...he would be sad."
He blinked.
"Nan--!?"
Before Inuyasha could even finish his startled question, the onineko snapped her arm out like lightning, and her fist connected with his jaw so hard that the hanyou saw a dozen dancing stars pirouette before his eyes before everything went dark.
The onineko sat in silence for a moment, then moved from where she had been straddling Inuyasha's chest to sit on the ground with her hands folded tightly in her lap.
What a remarkable person he has become, she mused to herself as a cold wind brushed past her.
She chuckled bitterly, then slowly rose to her feet, leaning over his lifeless form. She would have thought such wounds would have killed any normal human long ago.
She smiled.
But then, Hanbun was never very normal to begin with, she reasoned.
A stab of remorse suddenly stabbed at her heart, jabbing at her soul with a white-hot knife, and the onineko frowned at the black blood staining the forest floor. She paused a moment, startled and spellbound by the obsidian stains upon the dirt, breathless at the sight of the same blood upon her hands. The coppery smell of the koumori blood was still strong in the air, and the cat girl felt her stomach heave.
Had she truly been driven to this? Was her anger so great, her rage so intense as to turn her into this murderous monster?
She looked at her hands again, feeling sick.
My God...what have I...?
Her eyes moved back to the fallen Inuyasha.
So much blood, she thought. There's so much blood...
She gnawed on her lower lip as she looked him over, and then leapt to her feet before really thinking about what she was doing. She bent her legs at the knees and sprang up into the boughs of the Great Camphor, gathering a handful of the medicinal leaves from its branches, and tucking them into the sash at her hips. She dropped back down to the ground, and frowned as the wind swirled around her again, unctuous and cold, sinister in its silence.
I've got to get him somewhere sheltered, she thought, her eyes upon the hanyou again, pausing at the sight of the bloodsoaked gi.
Had she really caused all this to happen to him? Had she truly become this?
What could have possessed her to...?
She stared down at her hands, scowling at the blood beneath her nails.
Koumori blood...Inuyasha's blood... Possibly even some of her own, the onineko realized as she discovered a gash to her left arm, most likely from Tetsusaiga. She chuckled. She hadn't even felt the wound before... It hadn't stung until just now.
Or perhaps the stinging sensation was due to something else. She couldn't be sure...
Then she shook her head.
She would have to psychoanalyze herself later, right now she had more important things to do.
The wind slammed against her, cold and harsh, as though trying to tear her mind away from her thoughts. She sighed, and glanced at Inuyasha again.
She had to do something, and quickly at that.
There was a frost in the air, she could smell it, her senses never lied to her. The tingling bite that filled the nose on a crisp November morning rode upon the night wind like an aroma of foreboding. The nights were fast growing colder...winter would arrive before the next First Night...
The onineko frowned.
Cold had never bothered her much...nor had it ever really bothered Inuyasha, for that matter...but she was confident that, in the state he was in at the moment, he would never be able to survive a night in the elements.
If she didn't get him somewhere safe and out of the wind, he was likely to freeze to death.
She dropped to her knees beside him, and impulsively brushed his dark hair from his brow.
He didn't move.
She watched him for a moment. His eyes were closed, his chest rising and falling in slow, steady breaths. He looked so peaceful, she mused ironically as his hair slid back over his eyes again. He looked so angelic when he slept, she recalled, his face like that of an innocent child.
The cat girl shook her head again. Why was her mind wandering so tonight?
No time for picturesque thoughts right now, she chided herself. If something wasn't done soon, Inuyasha's life would be in danger.
Quickly scooping his body into her arms, she gasped at how light this human form of his was.
Humans...they were so fragile, she found herself thinking sadly, and then checked herself. Inuyasha would be mad if he found out she had been pitying him.
Then, praying she didn't do him any more damage, she leapt toward the forest.
She would not let him die. She refused to betray him that way. She had made him a promise years ago that she had almost broken tonight, and the idea that she might have gone back on something so sacred made her absolutely sick inside. Even though it seemed he had all but forgotten her, she would not allow herself to be manipulated into betraying her own memories.
"Stay alive, Inuyasha," she pleaded as she bounded through the underbrush. "I couldn't live with myself if I broke my promise..."
She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and grimaced, her heart wrenching beneath her flesh.
I, for one, won't stand for it...
Listen to me, Houshi-han, I promise you I will go and help your friend...
That was right...she had made a promise to him, too...
She growled fiercely in the back of her throat and put on some speed.
"Don't die, Inuyasha," she implored of the hanyou again. "If you die...I won't ever be able to face him again..."
~ * ~
With a startled cry, Miroku's dark eyes snapped open wide and he instinctively jerked his left hand up to his forehead when he felt something brush against his skin.
He heard a soft gasp as his fingers wrapped around something warm, and his eyes swung to his left.
Disoriented, he glanced up to see three sets of anxious eyes hovering near him, and the picture slowly came into focus, shades of color forming into the figures of two young women and a little fox demon. He suddenly realized that it had been Sango's wrist his fingers had wrapped themselves around in his panic, and he was suddenly glad that the room was shadowy as to obscure the blush that reddened his face. He quickly dropped his hand back down beside him.
"Sango...suman..." he mumbled, turning his head away from her.
Sango pulled her hand back as the houshi dropped his grip, and wrung the damp cloth she had intended to place over his brow.
Phew...he knew who she was...
As heavy as he had been asleep--or unconscious, as the case may have been--she had feared he might have sustained some manner of head injury. Now she could put to ease the fear of amnesia, at least...
He had been tossing in his sleep, and she had been concerned he might have developed a fever...but now she felt rather foolish about the whole thing. She paused a moment, then dropped the cloth back into the bowl of cool water on the floor beside her.
Awkward silence.
Miroku shut his eyes, his head turned to his right.
What in the world had happened? The last thing he recalled was falling through the air, lost in a sort of trancelike fog...
...and then there had been that awful dream...
He paused.
Well...memory was more like it. He hated the way his dreams often ended up doing nothing more than reminding of things he longed to forget.
But what had happened in between? he wondered. Between the time he had fallen and now? Before he had been snapped out of the dream as though a bucket of icy water had been splashed across his back...how had he gotten from the foot of the cliff to wherever he was now? And, more importantly, how exactly had he survived the plummet from the ledge?
Had Kagome and the others saved him? Had they followed him and brought him back to...
Eh to...
Where was he, anyway?
His vision was a little bleary yet, and his head still felt light. The room was really too dark to see the walls clearly, anyway. Everything seemed kind of hazy, like frosted glass. He blinked, and gazed a moment at his gloved right hand.
What, exactly, was going on?
He was on his back, on a futon, a pillow beneath his head...
...perhaps he had dreamed the whole thing?
That could have been it...he was feeling a trifle under the weather, to be honest...perchance he had somehow developed a high fever and the whole ordeal had been nothing but a nightmare.
He turned his head slowly and met Sango's gaze.
He frowned.
There was something in her eyes that made him want to cringe, a horrified sort of fear behind the soft brown orbs that made his heart contort and his stomach twist and churn beneath his flesh.
Something told him that it had happened indeed...
He cast his eyes to the ceiling, and then closed them briefly with a tired sigh. For some reason, he felt as though all the energy in his body had been drained of him, like he hadn't slept in days.
"Koko wa...?" he asked, and his eyes slid open, moving from the ceiling to Sango, then to Kagome, then to Shippou.
They were all crowded around him, on their knees, looking quite apprehensive. His eyes moved back to Kagome as she opened her mouth to respond.
"We're back at Kaede-baa-chan's house, Miroku-sama," she said softly, and his brow furrowed at the worry upon her countenance.
He looked at her for a moment as the words sank in like new rain on dry soil, and then his heavy eyelids snapped open wide and he jerked upright on the futon in a panic.
There was a blinding flash of color before his eyes, as though a box of crayons had exploded in his brain, a thousand brilliant hues pirouetting through his vision. With a cry, he lunged forward, slamming one palm onto the floor for balance and clutching his temple with the other. It was like the room was spinning around him, as if he was trapped within the walls of a sphere whirling out of control.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he felt himself pitch sideways, reeling toward the floor as the space around him seemed to twist and warp--
--and a hand grabbed him by the elbow.
He didn't have to open his eyes to know that it was Sango. There was a certain softness to her hands, a gentleness to her touch that Miroku, even in his dizzy, lightheaded state, could never mistake.
Besides, he didn't think he could have opened his eyes anyway...
"What about Inuyasha?" he gasped as Sango's fingers tightened around his arm, ignoring the whirling in his head. "Where is he?"
Sango was a mite taken aback, and a small smile formed on her lips. Even bad of shape as he was in, all the houshi had asked was in regard to someone else. She shook her head. He was so silly sometimes. The taijiya thought to herself that Inuyasha surely took Miroku's loyal heart for granted.
His indigo eyes opened slightly, and he squinted at Sango.
"Where...?" he rasped.
Sango frowned and cast a glance at Kagome.
"Inuyasha is..." Kagome began, and her voice trailed off.
"He's fine," Sango interrupted quickly. "Inuyasha is...resting in the other room."
No sense worrying the poor guy in the state he was in.
Miroku chuckled, and leaned back as Sango hesitantly released her grip on his elbow. He drew up one knee and encircled it with his arm as the dizziness seemed to subside for the time being. He chortled again, and gave Sango a sidelong glance.
"You're almost as bad a liar as he is."
She gasped softly.
How did he do that?
"Miroku-sama," Kagome spoke up, "we didn't find Inuyasha. We never made it to the camphor tree...we found you by the foot of the mountain and decided it best to take care of you first..." A deep frown crept across her face. "We...We thought you were..."
He smiled reassuringly at Kagome, then slowly leaned back again with a soft grunt, resting his head on the pillow.
"Forgive me if I scared all of you," he said sincerely, again draping the back of his arm over his eyes. "I'm all right now...go and find that idiot Inuyasha before he gets himself killed."
"Datte--!" Shippou cried. "Miroku! We can't just leave you here!"
"I'll be fine," he said without moving his hand from where it covered his face.
Sango frowned at the sound of his voice. It was tired and strained, as though it was taking all of his strength just to remain conscious. He chuckled lightly again, and lifted his arm to give Shippou a reproachful look.
"I'm just a little dizzy, that's all," he said, and dropped his arm back over his eyes again. "That never killed anybody..."
"But if something were to attack the village you'd never be able to escape in the condition you're in," Sango said quickly, and then blushed and turned away.
"She's right, Miroku-sama," Kagome agreed. "If anything happened while we were gone..."
Her voice trailed off.
She was still worried...even now that they'd found Miroku and brought him back safe, Inuyasha was still out there somewhere...
She wondered if he was hurt...she wondered if he was okay...
Kagome cursed under her breath.
Damn that Inuyasha, always worrying her. Why was he so reckless?
Inuyasha...she thought, you're okay, right? You're safe...aren't you?
She sighed.
Where are you...?
As for Miroku, the houshi didn't respond to their concerns.
He honestly didn't know what he would have said to them, anyway. Hell, he wasn't even sure he knew what was going on, much less how he would explain anything to the others. He was beginning to wish he could just go back into that comforting darkness that had swallowed him up as he plunged over the cliff.
At least in that darkness he didn't have to know that he had frightened anyone.
"Houshi-sama?"
He moved his arm.
Sango looked at him, her eyes confused.
"What...what happened, anyway?" she asked softly after a brief awkward pause. "What happened to you on the mountain?"
He hesitated, then laid his arm back down at his side, resting his other hand on his chest. He looked at the ceiling a moment, as though he might have been able to pluck from it the answers he couldn't quite find, and then ran his tongue over the backs of his teeth.
"I...I fell," he said, rather bluntly. "I was walking on the ledge, headed for the camphor...and I suddenly got very dizzy. I remember falling...and then I blacked out..."
He made certain to leave out the part about Satsuki. He wasn't even sure that had really happened. He wasn't sure what had happened, and there was no sense in working them up any further.
It seemed, however, that they really didn't need much prodding in that respect. Sango looked positively stricken by his words.
"Masaka," she breathed. "Houshi-sama, that's just not possible. That can't be right...if you had truly fallen from the ledge--!"
"Even if the fall didn't kill you," Kagome said as Sango hesitated, as though too horrified by what the next words out of her mouth would have been to continue, "you surely would have been badly injured."
"Miroku, is that really what happened?" Shippou coaxed, certain there was something else the monk was keeping from them. "Are you sure that's how it was?"
They all gazed at Miroku expectantly, and the priest's eyelids drooped.
"Shi...Shirimasen..." he admitted languidly, and his brow furrowed in something akin to concentration as he struggled to ward off the drowsiness that threatened to overtake him. He couldn't understand why he was so very tired all of a sudden. "I'm...not certain," he reiterated, and shook his head. "It's all kind of...gray..."
Unsatisfied with his answer, Sango met eyes with Kagome and the girl blinked rapidly at the piercing fire in Sango's gaze.
She nodded, smiled slightly, and then grabbed Shippou by the scruff of the neck.
"C'mon, Shippou-chan," she urged, "I think I've still got some yakitori left...are you hungry?"
And, without waiting for a reply, she whisked the little fox youkai out of the room and back into the main area of Kaede's hut.
Sango watched her leave, thankful that she and Kagome had gotten close enough to where they didn't always need to say anything to know exactly what the other was thinking. Then she glanced back down at Miroku, a crease of worry splitting her brow.
"Houshi-sama, gomen ne," she apologized, folding her hands in her lap again as the monk's dark eyes fluttered open and he gazed at her. "If only we'd gotten to you a little sooner..."
Her voice trailed off.
Miroku managed a grin.
"Don't let it trouble you, Sango," he assured her, and would have reached out to squeeze her hand between his fingers if he hadn't feared getting smacked for it. "I was the one who told you not to follow in the first place."
"Now you see why I never listen to you...?" she joked, and the houshi laughed lightly. Sango paused, her features sobering. "Nee, Houshi-sama?"
He regarded her a moment.
"Is that really how it happened?"
He blinked, then looked away, turning his head to the side.
"I really...don't remember a lot," he admitted. "I remember falling...but not really much else."
He paused, and held up his left hand, frowning at the back of the appendage as though it might have been what was keeping the answers from him.
"Dakedo..."
Sango glanced at him, and gave a start as he tried to sit up again.
"Ch-Chotto, Houshi-sama," she protested as he placed his right palm down on the futon for balance.
Though the dizziness seemed to have abated significantly, he still felt rather woozy. He didn't like it at all...he hated feeling helpless...feeling vulnerable...
It was peculiar, though...he couldn't quite make out what had happened. He couldn't understand the motive behind it. If someone had intended to kill him, they could easily have done so...but he had lived...he had survived the fall to be found by comrades...
Why...?
He looked at his left hand, his fingers clamped over his palm.
It was almost as if someone had done it to distract him...to immobilize him while something else was going on.
Sango frowned as Miroku wavered, but restrained herself from reaching out to take his arm again. Then she noticed he was staring at his hand, and inched a little closer.
"Are you hurt?" she asked, leaning in to look at his hand.
He looked at her, and shook his head.
"Iie," he said, and didn't elaborate.
He opened his hand slowly, and the taijiya blinked oddly at the item he held in his hand.
"Houshi-sama," she said, lifting one dark eyebrow, "a feather?"
He stared at it.
"There was...There was an angel," he told her, his voice almost inaudible, and he held the feather between two fingers.
It was slender and shiny, silver in color, with small downy wisps at the base, as though it had been plucked from the wings of a huge noble bird. He held it up in front of his face, as though willing it to speak the answers evading him.
Sango facefaulted.
"Angel?"
He nodded slowly, staring at the feather.
"Aa," he affirmed. "I...thought I was dreaming, when an angel caught me as I fell toward the ground... She had silver wings, but I could not see her face... She wrapped her wings around me and I was saved..." He shook his head quickly. "I thought it was a dream..."
He blinked as Sango placed her palm on his forehead.
"Are you hallucinating?" she asked, and he flattened his eyes.
"Iya, iya," he grumbled good-naturedly, and she pulled her hand away, eyeing him oddly.
He glanced at his hand again and waggled the feather before him, watching it gleam in the faint light from something called a "kerosene lantern" Kagome had once given to Kaede.
Miroku smiled.
Kagome always had the most amazing gadgets from her world. He thought how he would like to go there one day...if only to see all these wonderful things first-hand.
He closed his eyes again, let out a gusty sigh, and then flopped backward rather dramatically onto the futon.
"Kurushii no ka?" Sango asked anxiously as he clamped the feather back in his palm, resting his fist on his abdomen.
He paused a moment, as if he had to think his answer over, then without opening his eyes, he made a small sound of contradiction to her query, shaking his head slowly.
"No, that's the strangest part," he said with a frown, opening his dark eyes again, but only barely, "it doesn't hurt at all... Nothing is painful in the slightest..." He looked at the ceiling. "I'm not in any pain," he assured her, his voice sounding a little strained again, "I'm just...a little tired."
He sighed.
Well, okay, so maybe it was more than "just a little"...he felt as though he could sleep for a week. Whatever had happened to him, it seemed to have drained all the energy out of him. He was having a hard time just keeping a handle on wakefulness, and his eyelids felt like they weighed a ton each.
"Just...a little...tired..." he said again, quieter this time, and closed his eyes.
Sango watched him for a moment, as though waiting for something to happen. Her eyes moved over his face, and an involuntary smiled crept across her features. She scanned his countenance, from the unruly locks of hair that fell haphazardly over his brow, to his eyes closed in peaceful slumber, to his mouth, his lips parted ever so slightly.
He looked so like a child when he slept, she realized with a silent giggle.
She had never really done this before.
She remained absolutely still and silent; she didn't want to wake him if he was as tired as he seemed to be, but she found herself just watching him...the steady rise and fall of his chest, the way his chin rose just a little when he inhaled, how his hair was tousled carelessly across his eyes...
She almost chuckled aloud.
No, she'd never really done this before.
She had watched him plenty of times...but it was usually out of the corner of her eyes, in annoyed anger or concerned silence...
Sango couldn't ever recall a time when he'd just fallen asleep like this.
She frowned.
Perhaps it was because he rarely slept, she found herself thinking. He dozed...napped, even, sometimes...but he rarely slept.
He and Inuyasha...they were quite a pair. Both of them...they had always sort taken it upon themselves to be the guardians, the watchdogs (though that was more Inuyasha's personal department...), and often, in their efforts to play Cerberus, they wound up depriving themselves of sleep, food, medical attention, or whatever the case may have been...
...and Sango was never really quite sure whether she wanted to thank them for their efforts or slap the snot out both of them. Sometimes she just wanted to take Miroku by the shoulders and shake him for not taking care of himself.
She did know, however, that this was perhaps a rare opportunity, and smiled as she gazed upon him. She began to wonder if she didn't care for this face more than his usual one...? This sleeping countenance was innocent and boyish...as honest as it was mysterious. His face was usually drawn up into an empty smile, hiding his fears behind a mask of confidence that drove Sango absolutely buggy. She hated the way he did that...the way he never told anyone when something was wrong, and she utterly despised how he tried to shoulder everything himse--
Waitasecond...there she went again...
Sango shook her head.
Why was it that her brain seemed to go into hyper-speed whenever she was around him? The taijiya often found herself thinking in overdrive whenever the houshi was near her... She just didn't get it at all...why was it that--?
"What are you looking at?"
Sango blinked, and felt her face grow hot.
"Huh?" she gasped, and met Miroku's gaze as his eyes opened just a sliver.
He smiled unpretentiously.
"You were staring at me," he said, which only made her blush more.
How had he known that?? He hadn't even opened his eyes!
His smile faded.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
She shook her head quickly.
"I-Iie, I was just..." She wrung her hands, flustered. "I was only..."--she huffed, and folded her arms over her chest. "Well, I thought you were sleeping."
He chuckled.
"I was just resting my eyes for a moment," he hedged vaguely, and gazed up at the ceiling again. "It seemed I was having a little difficulty keeping them open..."
He made a noise uncannily similar to a squeak when Sango placed her hand over his eyes.
"Then rest, Houshi-sama," she said gently, running her fingertips lightly over his eyelids as she removed her hand from his face. "Get some sleep. If you're tired, you can sleep."
He opened his eyes and blinked at her.
"Sango?"
She rose slowly, and smiled at him as she headed for the other room.
"Call if you need anything," she said, "Kagome-chan and I will be in here."
And with that, she slid aside the bamboo curtain dividing the hut and headed to join Kagome and Shippou in the other room.
Miroku turned his head.
"Matte, Sango," he said quickly, and she turned over her shoulder to glance at him, dropping her hold on the bamboo curtain.
He gave her a small smile.
"Arigatou..."
And his eyes closed slowly as the drowsiness he had been fighting finally won its battle against him and he fell into a deep sleep.
In the doorway, Sango felt her heart flutter as his face slackened into the neutral expression of slumber, and his breathing grew deeper. She pulled the curtain aside again.
"You're welcome, Houshi-sama..."
"How is he?" Shippou asked through a mouthful of yakitori (which he had been pleased to discover was still quite tasty, even when flattened). Sango found it rather amusing how the kogitsune could still sound so very concerned with his mouth full.
She sighed.
"He's sleeping," she said softly, and folded her arms over her chest as though she'd gotten a chill. "He claims he's unhurt...but I dunno that I really believe him..."
"Un," Kagome said, "Miroku-sama isn't the type to say when anything is wrong."
Sango sat down on her knees across from the girl and the kitsune.
"I know," she said, but did not elaborate.
"Maybe," Shippou said, and swallowed his bite of food, "that is why he and Inuyasha are good friends. Neither of them know how to take care of themselves."
There was a beat of silence, and suddenly Kagome rose to her feet, so abruptly that Shippou nearly lost his bearings to drop his remaining yakitori into his lap.
"Kagome-chan?" Sango asked as the girl moved toward the door and brushed the curtain aside brusquely.
Kagome quickly walked outside the hut, the bamboo flapping closed with an unnerving clatter. The taijiya gave Shippou a look that he translated as something along the lines of 'move from that spot and I will personally plant my knuckles into your forehead', and she quickly got to her feet.
As Sango headed for the door after Kagome, Shippou looked down at his yakitori and frowned.
Oowha...he thought with a shudder, taking another bite of the food, girls can be really scary!!
"Kagome-chan?"
Kagome didn't look up as Sango brushed aside the curtain to step out into the night air. She glanced at the younger girl, seated on the steps out in front of Kaede's hut.
The wind whistled past, and Sango rubbed her forearms.
It had gotten colder.
She frowned at Kagome as the girl drew up her knees to her chest and rested her forehead on her kneecaps. She made no move to acknowledge when the taijiya called her name a second time.
With a concerned frown, Sango sat down beside her and also drew up her knees, encircling them and crossing her wrists, her chin on her arms.
She cast Kagome a sidelong glance.
"You're worried about him," the taijiya said, and Kagome honestly couldn't tell whether it had been an accusation or a question. She lifted her head from her knees and blinked at Sango, but made no effort to reply.
Sango sighed.
"Forgive me, Kagome-chan..."
Kagome gave a start.
"For what?" she asked, genuinely curious. "You didn't do anything..."
"But...now we can't go look for Inuyasha," Sango replied, scooting a little closer to Kagome, "because we can't..."
She didn't finish her sentence, as if too embarrassed to say anything further.
Kagome hesitated, then concluded, "We can't leave Miroku-sama here all alone, I know."
Sango frowned.
"And I don't want you to go looking by yourself," she said firmly.
Kagome smiled faintly.
"Daijoubu, Sango-chan," she assured her. "I understand...I'd feel the same way if it'd been Inuyasha we had found in the state Miroku-sama is in..."
She sighed.
"But...I am...I am a little worried..."
"A little...?" Sango said, narrowing one eye.
"Okay, a lot," Kagome admitted. "Things have been so...strange."
She met the taijiya's eye.
"I wish I could put my finger on it," she went on after a moment. "There's this peculiar feeling..." She shook her head, as though her own thoughts were confusing her. "I...I can't describe it. I feel like I'm standing on one side of a wall, and the answer to everything is just on the other side, but the wall is too high to climb over. I feel like the solution to everything that has happened today is close enough to touch, but too far away to grasp."
She let out a gusty sigh.
"Inuyasha...is hiding something from me," she said, "I'm sure of it...he never acts the way he's been acting today."
"Houshi-sama likewise," Sango admitted. "It's like they're both under a spell or something..."
Kagome looked at her, then looked at her hands.
"I...I am worried..." she said, and her voice cracked as it trailed off. Sango patted the younger girl's shoulder consolingly. "Why is he such an idiot?" she cried suddenly, holding her head in her hands, shaking it back and forth in frustration. "Dammit, Inuyasha...why couldn't you listen to us just this once!?"
Sango paused, and withdrew her hand from Kagome's shoulder, unsure of what to say next. She often wondered why boys acted the way they did...Inuyasha and Miroku in particular.
They seemed to delight in defying death, to relish in dancing with the devil...
The both of them, they were incorrigible: if it wasn't one getting thrown off a cliff, it was the other. If it wasn't Inuyasha getting into a mortal scuffle with his brother, it was Miroku getting poisoned by the Saimyoushou. She sighed inaudibly. They did it with good intentions, for the most part. They got themselves into trouble for the sake of insuring everyone's safety...
...but...
Well, Sango could honestly say that, before she had met Kagome and the others, she had never worried so much in her entire life.
She glanced over at Kagome when she heard the girl sniffle rather miserably, and reached over to put a sisterly arm around her.
"Nakanaide, Kagome-chan," she said softly. "Don't cry, I'm sure Inuyasha's fine. He might be reckless, but he's strong. Even without his demon power, he's a lot stronger than most."
Kagome rested her head against Sango's shoulder.
"I know," she said. "I know that...but I just can't shake this feeling in my heart that something..."--she sniffled again--"that something really awful has happened to him this time." She felt a tear slide down her cheek. "I'm scared, Sango-chan," she admitted tearfully. "I'm scared for him..."
"Shh," Sango whispered, and Kagome buried her face in the older girl's yukata. "You know he'd be upset to know you were this worried about him..." She chuckled. "He would think you were insulting him."
Kagome managed a weak laugh.
"Arigatou, Sango-chan," she whispered, and she wasn't sure that the taijiya heard her, but she decided she hadn't really needed to say it in the first place.
Before Sango had joined them, Kagome had been the only female in the group. She never had anyone to talk to...to really talk to.
Shippou was just a child...he never would have understood what she was talking about...
Miroku...well, while his intentions were nothing but good, the baffled look on his face whenever Kagome had asked for his advice told her that he really had no idea what to say.
And it had never done her good to ask Inuyasha about much of anything...
It was not until Sango had become a member of their team than Kagome had finally found some common ground.
The female brain, she had learned, was a complete mystery to anyone but another female. The intricate workings of a woman's thought processes lost their complicacy completely when analyzed by another woman. It didn't matter what the situation was, it didn't matter the instance, a woman's brain was run by her emotions, making it completely impossible for a man to understand.
Kagome sometimes wondered if Inuyasha even had emotions.
In any case, she knew Sango understood her better perhaps than any of them did, and vice versa. She looked to the taijiya as a dear friend and sister figure, and Sango knew it.
She didn't need to thank her, she already knew.
So she just closed her eyes and cried quietly into the fabric of Sango's yukata.
She hadn't cried this way in a while...the tears poured freely from her eyes, and her shoulders racked with sobs...but no sound would come out of her mouth. Her tears fell silently.
It hurt.
It hurt to cry that way.
Sango leaned her head against Kagome's, and frowned at the heavens as the girl sobbed softly into her shoulder. She watched the ebony skies for a moment, and felt her heart quicken just a little for half a second as a single shooting star streaked across the sky, a tiny, thin ray of bright white light against the black velvet.
Make a wish...
She closed her eyes, stroking Kagome's hair.
Inuyasha, she thought as she ran her fingers gently through the girl's wavy obsidian hair, please be okay. If you die, it will break Kagome-chan's heart... It'll tear everyone apart if you get yourself killed...
Please...please be alive...
...wherever you are...
...please be all right...
Sango opened her eyes again slowly, watching the afterimage of the falling star fade into the deep darkness of the sky.
She hoped her wish had been heard.
* * *
Hold on
Hold on to yourself
This is gonna hurt like hell
Hold on
Hold on to yourself
You know that only time will tell...
~Sarah Maclachlan
* * *
Author Notes:
::does a little dance and sings:: I don't wanna go to work anymore...Lalala...I hate my job... Doo dee doo... Wanna blow up the cash register... ::Sigh:: Can I please trade this life for the life behind door #2? @_@
Thanks to everyone who has reviewd my fic...here are some Review Responses:
Violet: You're getting ahead of yourself, dear. ^_^ If he told her right now that he had been sealed during teh time period in question, where would I go from there? ^_~ Besides, she probably wouldn't have believed him. Don't worry, she'll get it through her head eventually.
Lady Di: Waiwaiwai! I can't wait to see the drawing!! ^.^ ::hugs::
Kaylana: Are you not so confused now? I didn't want to give it away too soon. Don't be too concerned if you're still a little foggy on what's going on with Miroku, you're supposed to be.
Koushirochickie: Why thank you! ^_^ I do pride myself on my research, I hate reading fics that have no believable basis to them... Let me know if you find anything out of place, and thanks for reading!! ^_^
Angel-wing: Glad the glossaries are helping. I hope people are able to follow along with what I have... @_@
Blades of Ice: O_O Wow, no spork-tortue threats this time?? ::rivers:: have I won you over?? ^_~ Glad you're enjoying it. Now that we know Miroku-sama's gonna make it... ::rubs hands together:: i can concentrate on what's gonna happen to Inuyasha... >:] Muhuhahahahah
Belladonna: Wow, I'm approved? ::blush:: Wai! Thanks! And I'm really not worthy of wondermous...I don't think... ^_^ But I'm so happy you like my story!
Lauraia: ^_^ Houshi-sama's my favorite, too, so don't worry. Whatever mess I get him in, I'll get him back out. He's so fun to rescue, ne? ^_~
Zusan: Yes! You are my 40th reviewer! O_o Uh...you win...uh...a...uhm... ::thinks:: Ah, heck, if you send me your email address, I'll mail you an Inu fanart of your choosing. ^_^ Yah, sure, why not? Tell you what, minna, this can be like those webpage hit counter contest things. Yah! Next time, I'll send a gift fanart to my 90th reviewer! ^_^ Heh, good luck! If you want to see some of my fanarts, the site that most of them are posted at is currently down, but it should be back up shortly, and i will post a link shortly.
Spectrum: Thanks! I thought the kansai-ben would make the Japanese a little more interesting. Anybody can insert some random japanese somewhere in their fic (and, unfortunately, too many poeple that don't speak any... -_-), but I've yet to see any with teh western dialect in it. ^_^ Glad you like!
Thanks again to all who have reviewed, you guys are the best!!
*Glossary of Terms*
I am assuming we all know the Inuyasha basics, like youkai, hanyou, Shikon no Tama, etcetera, so those will not be translated here. Also, I'm only gonna put translations once, so as the story goes on, the glossary will dwindle. I'm hoping your memories will serve you, because otherwise the glossary will be absolutely enormous! Some chapters probably won't even need one, so I hope you guys can keep track of words already translated. Let me know if it gets too tough.
chotto : i think i have done this one already, but this is used in a slightly different context than before. Chotto literally means, "just a little" or a small amouunt, but in this case, it is taken more like "waitasecond"...
bakaneko: is pretty self-explanatory. "Baka"=dumb, "neko"=cat. Dumb Cat!
Dekinai : "I can't." @_@
"Koko wa?" : is actually an incomplete sentence. The full sentence would be "Koko wa doko desu ka?", meaning "Where is this place?", but frequently the latter half of the sentence is dropped, and left as inferred.
shirimasen: a very polite negated conjugation of the verb "Shiru", meaning "to know", so he's saying...everybody now... "I don't know." Very good, class! ^_~
dakedo: "but..."
nakanaide: negative command form of the verb "naku", meaning "to cry"...so Sango is trelling Kagome not to cry, but in a soft, consoling tone. Not like Inuyasha's brusque "Naku na!" command.
Till next time, minna, jaa! ^_^ Please review, it makes me happy!
~~hikari