InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Double Vision ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

It was time to do the washing, again. Sango rubbed her round belly. It was stretched tight and felt like a ripe melon. She was so tired, and when she bent over to pick up her laundry she could hear the blood rushing in her ears. Lately, she had been losing blood when she moved her bowels. But she had no one to blame but herself. She knew that. She had wanted too much. She should have been satisfied with having her beloved Kohaku back, should have never wanted more, wanted love, wanted children of her own. Because she knew the kami had only meted out one tiny bit of happiness to her and that was used up when Kohaku was returned to her alive.

Sango always knew Miroku was not one to settle down, regardless of his dreams and promises. Would he be there for her when this baby came? He was out performing an exorcism with Inuyasha when his son was born. Miroku had been there for the birth of her twins, his first children. Barely in time, but there nonetheless. Her little girls. So sweet and innocent, yet already so fierce. So full of love too. They loved Sango and they loved their papa, no matter what. But no matter how seldom they saw their father, her girls always ran to him, always forgave him for not being there. And they loved Inuyasha, even when he growled at them and played too rough. More like Kagome than the bitter Sango, really. Maybe someday she would cease to be awed by Kagome’s ability to forgive Inuyasha for any transgression. It had been going on for so long now, first with Kikyo and now with Rin, but last night was the worst, by far.

Sango did her laundry alone. Usually Kagome helped, but today she had not appeared. She was probably off hiding in the forest, under the pretext of gathering medicinal herbs or practicing her archery. Monday was washday for all the other women of Edo, so Sango waited until Thursday. She did not know which of the village women her husband had gifted with his affections, so she kept her distance from all of them. Kagome was her best and only friend. As Sango scrubbed her family’s clothing with coarse lye soap, she thought of ways she could eliminate the little changeling Rin without drawing the wrath of her demon father or the half-demon that now appeared to be her lover. If she sold the girl into slavery, she was sure to be rescued. A tragic slip at the edge of a waterfall might work, or her body could be found in the pen with the village oxen, crushed. Sango liked poison, but poison was risky, given Inuyasha’s keen sense of smell and Sesshomaru’s knowledge of poisons. Even the slightest trace of a foreign chemical on the dead girl’s corpse would be sure to bring down the wrath of both dog demons. Sango was short of breath and dizzy by the time she was done violently pounding the fabric on the rocks of the river. The water was bitterly cold and her knuckles were raw.

When Sesshomaru brought his child to live with Kaede, Sango worried. When the well returned Kagome to Inuyasha’s arms, Sango worried. Given Inuyasha’s frequent absence, Sango was the chief warrior and guardian of Edo. She had responsibilities to protect her children, Kagome, and every peasant and tradesman of the village. As a demon slayer, Sango had been taught that humans were not meant to live with demons, no matter what Kagome said. Sango worried for Kagome, worried for all of the humans in Edo.

Miroku was making a pretense of meditating, assuming the lotus position on the worn patch of grass in front of his hut. He was supposed to be watching his offspring, but the precious jewels had taken off to join in the rough play of the village brats. So instead, he watched Mayuki, Edo’s only widow. Mayuki was pretty indeed, very plump and jolly, and very different from his beloved Sango in every way. Sango ran her home like a military encampment, and, while he knew she loved her children, she treated them like little soldiers-in-training. She was tough and serious, and rarely allowed herself to smile, let alone laugh. So seeing the cheerful, haphazard Mayuki sweeping off her front step, Miroku allowed his mind to wander into a daydream, where he was married to Mayuki and every night was spent in her warm, harum-scarum home, rather than in scattered villages with random women. His daydream had just reached a very critical moment, with Mayuki bent over the low table in her hut, when Sango arrived returned from the river. Once he would have jumped up, and hovered over her attentively, showering her with little attentions, but she had been so cross lately, it made him nervous to be too close to her. As a younger man he had relished the slaps and shoves his lovely fiancé meted out, but of late he had found it more prudent to keep his distance from his increasingly troubled wife. Where the hell was Inuyasha? It felt long past time to leave Edo and go exorcise some demons.