InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bottled Genius ❯ Sensory Depravation ( Chapter 27 )

Author's Notes: Ok, I've decided to do a little extra epilogue (which will be long enough to be considered a chapter in itself), and that should be out sooner than this update (sorry about the wait!).

So close to the end T_T (But this is a nice long chapter to sink your teeth into)

Bottled Genius

Chapter 27

Sensory Depravation

Kagome didn't know how long she sat there staring at the scribbled note in her hand, turning it over in her hands, examining it from every angle possible. On the back there were a few doodled smiley faces with dog ears as well as a few fuzzy balls that could have been cats.

"Why would you…" She started absently as she slipped the bottle out of her pocket and peered at it with confusion. "I don't understand…"

If he'd loved her, why wait until after he'd gone to tell her? Why say goodbye in a note when you could say goodbye face to face? Running a light finger over the bottle she sighed deeply and clutched it close to her heart. "I love you too… but that doesn't mean I'll forgive you for this." Maybe in ten years she'd let him off…

She carefully folded the note and put it back into her pocket, wondering if she was sad enough to frame it and put it on the wall. Possibly…

Looking up the road behind her she pulled a face… it was all uphill from that point to get to the shops, and now that her bike had a wonky wheel, she'd have to walk it all the way.

"Not today…" she muttered as she plopped back down on the road, flat on her back, staring at the sky that seemed to stretch on endlessly above her. If a car came along now she would refuse to move and either get run-over or get a lift back to the old house… both were ok with her.

But no matter how long she stared into the deep, calming blue sky and listened to the lull of the bird song, she couldn't shake one horrible, daunting question from her mind.

Now what?

Was this really how it was supposed to end?

~*~

"Go on… ask a question…" Shippo said tightly as he clenched his fingers against the seat. "Any question at all… ask it."

Sango ran a hand over her eyes. "He's making less sense than ever…"

"You want me to ask you a specific question, don't you?" Miroku frowned at the boy. "So just tell me what you want me to ask."

"I can't tell you!" Shippo burst out. "Sure I can tell you to ask a question you're already thinking of, but I can't implant the idea into your head - you have to do that yourself! And you're so moronically slow! Are you retarded or something?!"

Miroku blew out another sigh and turned to look out the window, thinking hard. It was at the tip of his mind…

"Does it have something to do with Inuyasha?" Sango asked Shippo.

"Now that you already know the answer to." Shippo folded his arms. "Come on people, it isn't hard…"

Sango rolled her eyes at him. "You know, for some all-powerful being you don't seem that powerful, just very smarmy."

Shippo turned pleadingly hopeful eyes on her. "Go on!"

"All you do is answer questions and that seems to be the only thing you can do." She frowned. "Which begs the question, how the hell did you turn people into Wishbringers when all you can do is give them answers? You'd have to be able to grant them wishes or something like that… but you said that you can only answer questions-"

Shippo grabbed Miroku's sleeve. "You hear that - she's got it! She's got it!"

Miroku's eyes widened as he stared at the clueless Sango. "As in… ask and you shall receive?" He processed this for a moment before leaning forward quickly to the cab driver. "Hey, turn us around - we're going back."

"But I can see the airport from here-" the driver began.

"Yeah, but we're going back." Shippo chirped.

"Alright," the driver muttered as he did a U-turn in the middle of the busy main road, causing Shippo and Miroku to squash Sango to the door. "But you're gonna have to pay double for this…"

~*~

Being imprisoned in a bottle was like sitting in space. Not even that… it was like drifting in nothing at all. He had no ears to hear with, no eyes to see anything, no senses whatsoever to read his surroundings. All he was aware of were his thoughts… how empty it seemed around him, and at the same time how claustrophobic he felt. He had nothing to accompany him other than his consciousness.

Had it always been this way? Every time he went to sleep in his bottle was he drifting mindlessly in a sea of… of what? Of nothing? He'd never been aware of it before, never really cared, but now he was painfully alert to how isolated it felt.

Three hundred years…

The seconds were ticking by one… by one… he could almost hear the ticking of a clock in the back of his mind. He was already bored out of his skull… he had no idea how long he'd been trapped for, but it already seemed a short eternity. He needed a wrist watch… yeah… that would be useful round about now.

Most of all he needed another voice to talk to.

If he'd had his body he would probably have curled up into a ball and cried. But the mind didn't cry, it just despaired, and without the ability to cry with real eyes there was nothing to distract him from the painful loneliness that weighed down on him.

There was absolutely nothing here…

He was already seriously considering suicide. But how was he supposed to kill himself when he had no body?

Was this how Onigumo felt right then? Onigumo was left to live for eternity, deep inside some stinking mountain with no proper physical body to move… just his conscious trapped down in a dark hole for eternity.

It sounded like real hell. Inuyasha felt like he was getting a taste of his own medicine.

This is worse than death.

This as good as made up for all the bad things he'd ever done in his entire life. From that time when he strategically squashed the ants in that ant nest when he was seven years old to the time when he'd hit an old crippled man. From when he'd laughed at Kagome's muteness, to that other time when he'd 'accidentally' pushed one of his former mistresses off a cliff into the sea… but only because he was allowed to do so once masters decided to make a sex slave out of him.

God… he was such a jerk… maybe he deserved all this. All he knew was that if he had to endure this for another three hundred years, he wouldn't be coming out of this bottle alive. He'd be a brain-dead cabbage.

It was while he was thinking of the talking cabbage from that kid's show he'd been watching the other day with Souta, that the pain kicked in. Excruciating and agonising.

He thought he was dying.

~*~

Kagome had decided not to salvage the bike. It was old and rusty and with a bent wheel and handle-bars, she was not going to be able to ride it back to the house, let alone carry it back.

She did, however, piece together the CD player and slipped it into the opposite pocket to the bottle… she didn't want to risk the lumpy player crushing the precious little glass tube.

Home seemed to be a million miles away right then, but she walked on mechanically, keeping her eyes fixed towards the horizon, watching for the house to come back into view.

Vaguely she wondered how she was going to tell her family about what had happened to Inuyasha. She already knew she would probably lie and say that Inuyasha had finally moved away from Izu like he'd always been threatening to do, going to a different foster home or whatever. Perhaps she'd try and be even more convincing by telling them he promised to be back by his eighteenth birthday, or by the time he emancipated himself.

Even though she knew that he wouldn't.

She worked out the story, filled in the little details and the plot holes that might pop up. She found a convincing lie… but at the same time entertained the idea of telling them the truth.

"Inuyasha wasn't human," she would say to the family gathered around the kitchen table. Maybe even Hojo would be sitting there with them. "He was actually a Wishbringer - what you ignorant people would call a Genie. He granted me ten wishes and now that I've used them up, he's gone back into his bottle." At which point she'd hold up the perfume tube and let them wonder how on earth such a large person like Inuyasha could fit into an iddy-biddy bottle.

Of course that would be the sugar-coated, white lie version. If she really wanted to be honest with them she'd tell them everything. She's tell them about Kikyo, how Inuyasha killed both her and her father. How Inuyasha was responsible for getting her expelled from school. How Inuyasha was the one who had stolen her voice and her hearing. How it was Inuyasha's former master who had turned himself into Naraku who had then pushed their car over the cliff and nearly killed all of them together - and had succeeded in killing Kagome.

Then she'd tell them of all the rules Inuyasha broke, and how much trouble it got him into. She'd tell them about how Naraku had always been there, ready to kill that at any given moment and they'd never known or had a clue that they'd been in danger.

She'd tell them about the First, the little boy who was older than humanity itself, how he'd come and punished Inuyasha… and that was the reason he was now stuck in his bottle for three hundred years, not because she'd used up her wishes.

At which point her family would cart her off to therapy, wondering if she'd hit her head while they'd been away.

With a shake of her head, Kagome decided that perhaps a little white lie was better. Just tell them that Inuyasha wasn't going to be around anymore.

They would probably be just as upset as Kagome at his disappearance.

A heavy, burdened sigh escaped her chest and she turned her eyes to the ground as she continued walking. Someone up there really didn't like her and Inuyasha. Was it too much to ask for something to go right for once?

The echo of a car engine reached her ears and she slowed a little to twist a look over her shoulder. A car was speeding towards her down the road, moving at a dangerous speed and swerving in a dangerous way. Despite already walking on the roadside, Kagome backed further out of the way, halfway up the embankment of the road.

She had hoped that car would just shoot past… but she also just knew that life wasn't going to make it easy for her. So she wasn't completely surprised when it screeched to a halt next to where she stood.

The window wound down and Kagome found herself faced with seven youths… seven boys actually from the local school that she'd attended a short while ago.

"Want a lift, babe?"

Kagome did want a lift actually. But she'd rather hitchhike with a farmer and a trailer full of horse manure than get in that car with seven idiots that she knew were too young to even drive. She decided not to patronise them, not when she didn't have Inuyasha on hand to beat them up for her. "No thanks, I'm fine walking." She turned to start off again, but the boys only crept the car along after her, keeping up.

"Are you sure? Where about do you live, babe?" the guy hanging out the window asked with a leer.

As if Kagome was stupid enough to tell them. "I live in Itsukaichi." She told them. "I'm sure it's out of your way. And my name isn't 'babe' it's Kagome."

That had them all sucking in a breath. She glanced over at them and found she could practically see the cogs turning in their head as they wondered, 'Kagome… Kagome… where have we heard that name before?'

It was one of the guys in the back that realised first. "Holy crap - she's the WWF champion who beat up a hundred of the kids in the martial arts club at school!"

Her reputation seemed to have inflated with her absence.

Either way it saved her a lot of hassle when the boy who was at the wheel stamped down on the accelerator and the car shot off faster than it had arrived. Kagome breathed a sigh of relief and silently found herself thanking Inuyasha for getting her that reputation… perhaps it would have been more difficult to have shaken them off if he hadn't.

~*~

That evening, the night seemed oddly quiet. Kagome stared into the flickering tongues of the heart fire, watching the few lumps of coal and logs of wood burn and glow a deep red.

She remembered the day Inuyasha had chopped that wood…

It was all she seemed capable of today. She was stuck in her mind, remembering all the good and bad times she'd experienced with Inuyasha. The world around her might as well not have been there for the attention she paid to it.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts she decided she needed to stop thinking about him, if only for a little while. All these memories were going to make her depressed in no time. She switched on the Telly and picked up the book that she'd been reading on and off for the last week or so. Thanks to the shock of losing Inuyasha she'd forgotten what page she was on… she'd also forgotten the names of the characters as well as most of the plot… Kagome decided to start at the beginning again to get her bearings.

The fire crackled comfortably in the background, drowning out the noise of the Television on low volume. Kagome skipped ahead a couple of chapters as she began to recall how much she had read. She picked up where she had left off and relaxed in the warm, cosy living room.

A loud crash outside had her freezing on the floor. Her entire body stiffened and she lost track of everything around her as she strained to identify what the noise had been. It was very quiet now…

Perhaps it had been a fox? Or maybe it was those boys from the speeding car who had discovered where she'd lived after all.

Kagome put the book down and pushed herself to her feet as she tiptoed quietly to the window. She pushed the curtain back and peeked out discreetly, but it was too dark out there to see much. This wasn't the city and there were no street lights flooding the area with light that made night as visible as day. And with the new moon overhead, no natural light touched the world out there…

"Probably just a fox…" she whispered, repeating her earlier thoughts to herself, trying to convince herself. She let the curtain fall back into place but didn't go back to her book, instead she leant against the wall, listening for anymore sounds.

A thrill of alarm went made her eyes widen when she did hear more sounds. Unmistakable sounds of footsteps, uneven and human - definitely too heavy to be that of a little fox. Kagome tensed against the wall, listening as the footsteps came closer, crunching over the gravel of the driveway… stopping… then coming closer again.

Kagome started when the door banged loudly. Someone was pounding it with their fist, hitting it so hard that she bit her lip and wondered if it would splinter. Why hadn't they used the doorbell?

Reluctantly, and fearfully, Kagome went out into the dark hallway and made her way towards the pounding front door. She stopped when the noise paused for a minute, but it wasn't long before whoever was there started thumping it again. "Open up! I know you're home!"

A man's voice… she didn't recognise it.

He gave the door two more thumps. "I've seen your lights on - I can see smoke from your chimney, just please open the door?"

Unless there were rabid wolves after him, Kagome wasn't going to lift a finger for him. "Go away!" she called to whoever it was, keeping well away from the door.

He stopped banging. "Excuse me?"

"I said GO AWAY!" Kagome yelled, chewing her lip. Didn't he find himself coming across as scary to go banging on people's doors in the middle of nowhere at this hour.

He sounded tired and weary when he spoke again. "I'm not a weirdo - I'm a friend of your mother's… or something like that."

Like Kagome had never heard that one. "I'm not opening that door!" she called back fiercely.

"But I'm freezing my ass off out here!"

"Tough!"

"Let me in!"

"You don't go demanding people to let you into their homes you weirdo!" she shouted. "Who are you anyway?"

"I told you!" was the impatient response. "I'm a friend of someone who used to live here."

Kagome narrowed her eyes. Did he mean Kikyo perhaps? "Tell me your name first!"

"Uh…" he seemed to think a while before answering. "Inuyasha, I think."

Kagome hesitated only a moment before bolting straight to the door and scrambling to pull back the catch. She threw the door open in the next instant and expected to find the love of her life standing there in all his majestic white haired glory.

What she found was a dark haired teenager, wet, cold and shivering. With no hall light she couldn't see his face. It wasn't Inuyasha.

Fool! Kagome scolded herself viscously as she braced to slam the door shut again. How could you fall for such a-

The boy's hand flew out before she could completely close the door, stopping it in its tracks. Kagome tried shoving her weight against it, but the boy only pushed back, and despite his sorry state he managed to overpower her, pushing her and the door back and wide open.

Time for a weapon. Kagome turned and grabbed the first thing that came to hand - a long pointy umbrella that had been leant against the wall next to the coat stand. She swung it as she turned back to the boy, wielding it like a sword.

He grabbed it in one hand before it could strike him and with the other hand he groped along the wall for the light switch. It disturbed Kagome how he seemed to know where it was.

In a second the hall was flooded with light and Kagome landed her first full look of her intruder. Black hair and black eyes… but in a face that was very much that of Inuyasha.

She released the umbrella like it was coated in acid and withdrew a step from him, not understanding at all.

He looked equally surprised to see her as well. His eyes widened in shock and his already pale, drained face took on a whiter shade. His mouth dropped open a fraction and he sounded a greeting that seemed to be somewhere between a 'hey' and a 'hi'.

The umbrella clattered to the floor loudly and the two just gazed at each other in silent shock.

"Oh…" Kagome took a tentative step forward towards him, but when he opened his arms to her she ran into them without a thought and pressed herself tightly to him.

Inhaling deeply she breathed in the scent of a damp forest in the morning dew, wild flowers and distilled air with that touch of comforting masculinity that calmed her rattled nerves. This was Inuyasha… there was no question now, no one could imitate such a unique scent, not even Naraku on his clever days.

He sighed, stroking her hair and breathing in her own scent. Kagome wondered what she smelt like to him… probably of burning wood smoke from the living room fire. He surprised her when he spoke. "I thought you were dead."

"What?" she didn't dare draw back to see his face, she was too holding him so tightly.

"I lost track of time… I thought I'd outlived you."

Kagome couldn't help the relieved smile the curled against his shoulder. "Silly… you've only been gone a day." She pulled back then, a few questions of her own unable to be held back. "Where were you then? I thought you had been imprisoned… and what's all this about?" she gently ran her fingers through the midnight black tresses framing his face.

"I'm a Hanyou." He said quietly.

"No - you're human."

"No… I'm a Hanyou. I'm not a Hanyou Wishbringer… just a Hanyou." He twisted to look back out of the open front door. Kagome followed his gaze, wondering what he was looking at. "With a new moon… this is the first time in five hundred years."

Kagome was lost, but she remained quiet until he turned back to her with a wrinkled nose. "Now I remember why I hated new moons so much."

Still lost, Kagome blinked in confusion. "What does this mean then?"

"I'm free." He smiled.

And without a change in expression his eyes slid close and he slipped bonelessly to the ground. Kagome quickly crouched down next to him and braced a hand against his shoulder to get him to roll onto his back. He was alive… thank god… but deeply unconscious. His breathing was shallow and his heart was slow.

The headlights of a taxi peeled off the road and moved into the drive. Kagome lifted her head to peer out the door as she heard the rev of the engine and the strong light passed over her. Was it her family back from their trip to Grandma's already?

Three people got out the taxi, and as they moved into the light from the car lamps Kagome recognised them at once.

"What are you doing back here?" she called as Sango Miroku, and a very pleased looking Shippo approached the house. Shippo scrambled straight up the steps and entered the house to point at Inuyasha as he looked back at Sango and Miroku. "Look - I knew it would work!"

"We know," They both chorused in response, both looked equally tired but pleased.

"What's going on?" Kagome demanded as the three gathered around Inuyasha and herself. "I thought you were going to the airport."

"Well we came back didn't we?" Shippo pointed out.

"Plus he forgot that those tickets that the mugger stole were return tickets." Miroku cast Shippo an incredulous look. "I can't believe you're all powerful know it all and you forget something as important as that."

"Hey, with the amount of baggage this brain is carrying I can't help but forget some of it, you know." Shippo shot back.

Sango had knelt down next to Kagome and passed a hand over his mouth. She looked up at Kagome. "He's out cold," she spied the umbrella, "You didn't hit him with that thing did you?"

"I tried to… I didn't recognise him." Kagome ran a hand fondly through the obsidian locks, a little nostalgic for his white hair. "Will someone please tell me what is going on?"

"Ask and you shall receive." Miroku smiled broadly, but his smile slipped slightly when the taxi driver hollered loudly to them.

"Hey! I ain't got all night you know! Is someone gonna pay me or what?"

"Just wait!" Miroku called back slightly sharply, before heading out the door to go talk to the man.

"Ask and you shall receive?" Kagome echoed his statement. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means he asked me for Inuyasha's freedom and I gave it." Shippo filled in, looking genuinely chuffed.

Kagome turned a frown on the boy. "But you told me that there was no way to free him-"

"There was no way!" Shippo quickly defended himself. "You asked to tell you how to set him free, that wasn't what I wanted you to ask. I wanted you to ask me to set him free. Like say 'Will you set Inuyasha free for me, pretty please, Shippo?' and I would probably have said 'yes, ok, I'll do that'. But you didn't so I couldn't tell you!"

Kagome's frown turned into a glower. "What?" she said in a dangerously low voice. "You couldn't have just told me to ask that?!"

Shippo edged towards Sango. "He's bound by rules too," Sango offered the younger, previously distraught girl. "He's like a Wishbringer, only you have to say 'I ask' instead of 'I wish', plus he has the choice of denying your request, unlike Wishbringers."

"Stop comparing me to those little lapdogs." Shippo sighed moodily.

Outside the taxi turned its engine off, obviously going to sit and wait as Miroku arrived back into the house, shutting the door after him. He touched Sango's shoulder lightly. "Come on, let's get this bad boy to bed."

Kagome stepped back as he picked up Inuyasha by the shoulders and Sango got him around the ankles.

"Wow, this guy really needs to wear shoes." Sango commented as Miroku led them upstairs. "These feet are black!"

Kagome stayed behind to turn to Shippo, her expression softening a little. "I suppose I should thank you… despite giving us all the run-around."

"Well I wouldn't have run you guys around if you'd been a little faster taking the initiative." Shippo complained. "All you'd had to have done was make a request and I would have given whatever you wanted."

"You could have said no." she cocked her head.

"I could have… but I only say no when you want something stupid. Asking for someone's freedom isn't stupid, that's fairly unselfish and all, so I would have said yes no matter how much that guy pisses me off." Shippo grinned at her. "It was more for you than him."

Kagome felt a smile tug at her own lips. "Thanks then."

"Don't mention it."

Kagome turned to head up the stairs, but Shippo stopped her. "Wait, just to let you know that even though he's only been trapped for a day, he's gonna be a little disorientated."

"I can imagine." Kagome wondered what it must have been like.

Shippo seemed to read her mind. "It's like being in total sensory isolation. I know people can go insane from less than that."

Now there was a scary thought. Kagome was certain of Inuyasha though. "He'll be ok, I'm sure of it."

Shippo blew out his cheeks and shrugged. "He's you charge now." He said in the 'It's your funeral' tone of voice.

Sango appeared at the top of the stairs. "Kagome," she called down to them. "He's waking up."

Kagome and Shippo hurried up the stairs and followed Sango into Kagome's bedroom. Miroku sat on the end of the bed beside Inuyasha's feet. Inuyasha still looked drained and weak, but Kagome felt her heart warm when he brightened visibly to see her. What he'd said in the note came back and she found herself beaming at him. That wasn't just friendly affection he was looking at her with… now she knew the truth.

"How are you feeling?" she asked as she sat down next to him, taking hold of his hand compulsively, trying to let some of her warmth seep into his chilled fingers.

"Like my body has been torn apart molecule by molecule and then rearranged in the wrong order." He pulled a face. "Quite normal then, thank you." He glanced at Shippo and he stared a moment as if debating. Kagome wondered what he was thinking. "Shippo, can I ask you something?"

"Is that your official question?" Shippo said evasively.

"Just c'mere." Inuyasha beckoned him over and Kagome shuffled away to allow room for Shippo to lean his ear over to Inuyasha's mouth. The former Wishbringer whispered something in to him as Shippo listened attentively before sitting back.

"Sure," Shippo gave an easy shrug. "I'll allow that."

"Good, now get out of my face, pip-squeak."

"Why do I even bother with you people…" Shippo grumbled as he moved back and let Kagome shuffled up again. She was just opening her mouth to say something when the taxi honked its horn loudly outside.

"So impatient," Sango sighed in exasperation.

Miroku unfolded his arms in his 'conversation ending' manner. "I think we should be going."

Kagome glanced at them, startled. "But you only just got back."

"We only came to check he'd got back safe and sound. Shippo worried us by saying he might turn up in Africa." Sango told her.

"…Can't do anything right can I…?" Shippo continued to grumble sarcastically under his breath.

Sango moved over and hugged Kagome tightly around the shoulders with a warm smile. "I hope you two look after each other. Congratulations," she added to Inuyasha with a smile.

He shrugged weakly.

Miroku attempted to embrace Kagome as well but only ended up getting a slap from his own hand so he gave up. "Good luck," he offered instead to glaring Inuyasha.

Kagome took them downstairs and saw them out of the door to the awaiting taxi. "See you guys!"

"You won't see me again!" Shippo called back.

"Then I'll miss you dearly!" Kagome responded.

Shippo confided in Miroku. "She doesn't mean that."

Kagome waved them off again like she'd done earlier that day, smiling widely as they bid farewell, only this time she really did feel like smiling. She had a lot to thank them for…

The taxi disappeared off into the darkness, the lights fading into the distance until they were mere tiny dots of yellow among the trees. Kagome didn't hesitate to rush back inside and back up to her bedroom where Inuyasha still lay, dozing lightly on her bed. He woke again when she came in giving Kagome the impression that he was forcing himself to remain awake for her.

"I read your note." She told him.

"What note?" he was beginning to sound hoarse with exhaustion.

"The goodbye note." He stared blankly at her and Kagome waited expectantly for him to remember.

"Oh… I seem to recall," he shook his head slightly before closing his eyes. "It'll come to me…" he trailed off.

What a romantic guy… Kagome sighed with mingled annoyance and affection as she looked over his relaxed face and smiled. Without giving him warning to object she leant down and brushed her lips across his forehead in a gentle kiss. He stirred slightly, but didn't rouse. Kagome realised he'd fallen asleep, not that she minded, not now that they had a whole life time together instead of just borrowed hours…

Curling up next to him on the bed she laid her head on his chest and let herself smile contentedly. "I love him too much sometimes…" she warned herself aloud before letting all the exhaustion that had been building up on her during her long day of emotional distress. It wasn't long before she fell asleep as well, dreaming pleasant dreams about her future that suddenly didn't seem so bleak.

~*~

"Isn't it nice to see people end up happy?" Sango said cheerfully as they taxi sped down the dark Izu roads.

"Gives you a sense of satisfaction and good-will." Miroku agreed.

"Just what I was about to say." Shippo nodded.

The three of them basked silently in their sense of accomplishment.

"Plus it was me who came up with the idea." Sango told them.

Miroku glanced at her dubiously. "It was me who knew what to ask - and I was the one who asked."

"Hey!" Shippo broke in. "It was me who set him free!"

The three of them smouldered silently in their sense of unfairness, until Miroku turned to Sango. "So it looks like you're the only one with a question left to ask now."

Sango blinked. "Yes, I suppose that's right?"

Shippo quickly pounced on his duty. "Wanna know if there are aliens in outer space?"

"Not really…"

Shippo sighed. "Why does no one ask that one… I'm dying to tell someone the truth…"

"So what do you want to ask?" Miroku asked her as the taxi bounced along the potholes.

Sango chewed her lip as she turned her gaze out of the window and into the darkness beyond. She was taking her time answering and Shippo traded looks with Miroku. Eventually she looked back at Shippo. "Do you think it would be wise to ask if Miroku would stop being such a pervert all the time?"

Miroku made a disbelieving sound in his throat.

"Very wise." Shippo nodded.

"Well…" Sango glanced at her Wishbringer. "Do you want to be free like Inuyasha?"

He just smiled at her.

Sango mirrored that smile on Shippo. "I think you know my question."

AN: Still another chapter/epilogue to go so don't despair too much ^_^ I know this chapter was pretty much Kagome's perspective, so the last will be from Inuyasha's.