InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Forgive and Forget II ❯ Ch. 1 ( Chapter 1 )

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Summer: Week 2


Konnichiwa Diary,


My name is Sango.


For a moment, Sango felt stupid for introducing herself to a book. But since Kagome said this was how a diary was started...


Kagome gave a diary, you, to me when I showed interest in hers a month previous. Since then, Naraku, our enemy in many ways personal, has kidnapped her. Inu Yasha, for betrayed love and loss of life. Miroku, for the curse of a short life upon his family. Little Shippo, orphaned by the loss of his parents. And I...

Sango put the end of the pen in her mouth, chewing it. A nervous habit she had picked up from Kagome. She gazed at her surroundings a bit. The trees were just beginning to look brownish towards the top, leaves wavering now and then under the slight breeze. The sunlight that streamed through them brightened the clean white pages of paper within the notebook she held within her lap. It shone too brightly, and she tipped it back to remove some of the glare from the sheets. Pressing the tip of the pen back to the blue lined page, she began to write again.

Looking for Sesshoumaru is a bit like looking for Tama shards. We have wandered about from village to village, appearing as if we have no purpose really. But we do have one... We began at the source of all our problems... Naraku.

Sango gritted her teeth upon writing that name, jabbing the pen into the paper in her sudden uncontrollable fury. She breathed, letting the feeling go, knowing it was foolish to hold onto it, let it surface at all.

We followed the path that Inu had started us upon, coming to that dark lair soon after we started. And when we got there the place was empty. We went to the building directly in front of us, noticing on our way that the place looked a bit run down, litter and what few leaves had fallen from the trees scattered about, and headed inside, taking advantage of the open door. >The rooms within looked destroyed, scorch marks upon the floor of one, though not made from any fire that I could see. Miroku placed his arm before me, blocking me from proceeding. When I looked at him in question, I could tell he sensed a danger I could not, one of the spiritual nature. >Further investigation with my senses caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up. SOMETHING had happened there, something that required extreme power. Even with my Tajiya training, I had to push myself forward into the room, cautiously moving to the side. But nothing happened, and the Houshi declared it a past occurrence, but to leave such a strong resonance...

"Sango-sama? It's time to leave this village."

A little span of silence.

"No one has seen the demon lord, Sesshoumaru."

Sango scribbled in how they found out it was Sesshoumaru they were looking for (they got their hands on a demon and grilled the info out of it) and closed her diary. She shoved it into the provision sack she had acquired at the last village.

Sango sighed, coming back to the situation at hand and another disappointment. Turning to Miroku, she put her feelings of failure away. It was time to start over.

***

Miroku looked into Sango's tired brown eyes. In her attempt to find her brother ASAP, they had been through 10 villages in 2 weeks. Inu Yasha, a stickler for time wasted, would have been, although secretly. Though Sango and himself were fit physically, the emotional toll on Sango was beginning to be a burden on her spirit.

And Miroku was almost painfully aware of the fact that he could do nothing to comfort her. His calm speaking Buddhist ways would do nothing but slide over the protective shell she had erected around her feelings concerning her younger brother. He was not her confidante on anything; therefore he could not pull personal experience to the fore on ways to reach out to her. When he really thought about it, all he was was a traveling companion, which pestered her with his roaming hand at every possible opportunity.

It ate at him now, nibbling at his calm. To be so near, and yet unable to do anything...

Sango's voice brought him abruptly out of his reverie.

"Where to now? To the eastern coast or West to the mountains?"

She faced both east and west judging the possibilities. She seemed to favor the West, facing it fully, and he could follow her logic quite well. >Why would a dog demon wish to be on the coast where little shelter from the seasonal elements (hurricanes, typhoons, flooding from tsunamis) was to be found? Also turning westward, his staff jingling as he shifted, he pondered the potential of the direction himself. His eyes roamed over the grassy hills, past the young rocks eroded by many short, steep and fast-flowing streams and rivers, to the great mountains themselves.


Although not particularly high, the mountains were steep, making passing through them dangerous. And the many broad leaf evergreens, deciduous, and needle leaf conifers covering them made it hard to navigate. Right now, it being early autumn, some trees were blooming with distinctive, clear, medium blue, helmet-shaped flowers, adding a clean scent to the already chilly day.


Such would surely surround Sesshoumaru, a beauty to equal the landscape himself. Miroku briefly wondered why such features were wasted on him. Fine features as he had belonged to the female half of the population... "Houshi-sama!!" Miroku blinked, the image of a very annoyed beauty before him finally reaching his mind.

"Hai, Sango Sama?"He asked carefully and lightly.

What had he done now?

***

Sango tapped her foot and shook her head before squinting her eyes up at the tall monk in frustration. Miroku was acting strangely. He hadn't felt her up for one thing. It's not like she WANTED it to happen; just that it was behavior differing from his usual perverted monk self.

'What are you doing, Sango? You're wasting time! Kohaku may be injured or captive or...'

Sango's eyes teared up and she turned sharply around and away from the monk on her heel.

"Lets just go."

On their way past the village, old acquaintances waved at them as they walked by, people from previous encounters on their search for the jewel shards. The pair felt their curious eyes on their retreating backs. Sango knew they were wondering why they were searching for this dog demon. Some even thought them slightly daft, for who would LOOK for a demon?

Sango sighed, running her roughened hands over the strap keeping the Hiraikotsu to her back. Her thoughts roamed to and fro and nowhere as they walked, the warm sun on them but the chill autumn keeping them cool. Her mind finally settled on an idea that had sprung up recently, and had decided to take up residency in her mind for a while. It at least kept her mind from the painful thoughts and memories of her brother. In Kagome's time, demons were a myth instead of the abundant reality it was now. How did it happen? None but the Tajiya had ever really succeeded time and again in the destruction of demons of any kind. The information had peaked interest and curiosity within her, keeping her mind otherwise occupied on long walks. But she and her brother were all that were left...

The voices of those 2 young ninja girls again echoed in her mind. "Train us, Big Sister!"

She had enjoyed instructing them on the basics; how they absorbed every word she spoke, learning the things that would keep them alive in an encounter with demons. They would use those skills to stay safe and protect others, bringing the reality in Kagome's time of demons being a myth that much closer. > A wonderful place, in her opinion, full of good things, where tales of demons were but ridiculous notions to scare small children instead of the horror filled recounting of local villagers and children in the reality of today. She didn't know where she might find students, but it was something to think about...

***

His eyelids felt heavy, resisting his weak urge to move them. He felt warm. Felt the mat underneath him and the cushion beneath his head. He shifted, the blanket spread over him sliding lower down his chest. Yawning, his eyelids lifted and the curtain of darkness they afforded left. He sat up, the blanket sliding down to bunch around his waist. Rubbing the Sand man's traces from his eyes, he blinked a couple of times before looking around the hut.

He was in the furthest right corner of a small room, the room being the entire hut. Sitting up, the thin blanket bunched around his waist. He could see where his feet and ankles were bear of the blanket. Another clue to his height, because this was a good sized blanket, meant to cover an average man with length to spare. His feet were still warm though, a window open to the light allowing a square of the sun's warmth to shine in upon them.

"Gomen ne, sir, for hitting you so hard."

Startled, he jumped back, slamming his head on the wall. With a grunt, he leaned back on one hand, grimacing, the other going up to the now swelling bump. Or rather, swelling more than before.

Man, This guy can really give ya one.'

One eye open as he gave one last rub on the back of his head, he dropped his hands in his lap and looked the man over. Short, neat clothes. Standard dragon knot pulling back thin black hair. He also took note of his hands. He could see from where he sat the calluses on those hands as they lifted the bowl up from the table. Dirt beneath the finger nails as the young man handed him the bowl.

He differed greatly from himself, as all of the people from this land did. Red hair down to his shoulders in wild waves. A full six feet when standing, he always had to duck his head into any establishment hereabouts. His clothes fit him well, but he wore breeches instead of the... He looked at the young man who wore one of those skirts for pants. By now he was use to the look of them, but he would not wear one himself, not for all the gold in the world.

"Aren't you missing a good days work being here and tending me?" He asked, taking the rice and leaning back against the wall.

The young man nodded. "Yes, but the harvest is nearly over, there is not so much for me to do." He ducked his head in shame. "Sorry again, sir. If I had guessed that you were really--"

"Her brother? I'm sure you would have spared me a lump on my head eh?"

The young man's face reddened in embarrassment and nodded again. >Spooning the rice into his mouth using his fingers, he quickly consumed the small meal. Swallowing, he looked up at the boy again, catching him staring.

"Yes? Wanted to say something?" Caught, the boy backed away.

Stiffly, he bowed. "My name is Kaiden. May I ask yours?"

Ahh... I go by Dedrick." The boy rose from his bow. "Err... you and she look remarkably alike."

Dedrick grinned. "Of course we do. We're twins." With that statement, he stood up and bowed back.

Greetings Kaiden." He raised one eyebrow in amused questioning. “I suppose you want to ask my sisters hand now?"

***

Looking ahead toward the mountains, Sango estimated the amount of time it would take to get there. Through the trees that were beginning to thicken as the pair moved rapidly up the slight slope of the land, she could see the tops of Mt. ShowaShinzan reaching upward into the low-lying clouds. >Sango frowned. She could have sworn that today would be a clear sunny day, but those clouds meant rain or at least fog if it cooled down enough this night.

Something dropped from the branches of a tree above her. Eyes automatically following the movement to the ground, it landed with a loud thump, rocking slightly back and forth on the hard packed dirt path. Sango stood staring at it, Miroku behind her doing the same, looking over her shoulder. A cylinder, round on all sides except for one flat end.


"HELLO!!!" A girl suddenly swung into view, startling Sango so badly she threw herself to the side. Rolling onto her back a few moments later, her eyes widened slightly.

Hanging upside down, her legs curled around a tree branch, the girl squealed, flinging her arms out happily. A cheeky childish grin covered her face while a sheet of bright red and orange hair almost reached the ground. A light green shirt covered her, the material hugging her slender waist, the collar hanging off her pale shoulders while the bottom stopped and brushed along mid-thigh. Or would if she were right side up.

Letting the branch go, she flipped forward, landing upon her slipper covered feet, before she placed her arms out, the baggy sleeves hanging over her arms to her fingers as she did a curtsy, bowing her head. Looking back up at them, her bright green eyes twinkled with amused enjoyment of life in general.

"TADA!" She shouted. She stayed that way for about 5 seconds with both Sango and the monk staring at her, eyes wide at her energetic, but odd, performance.

A frown marred the girls face and Sango blinked. Mildly wondering what this strange girl would do next. >The girl turned abruptly and pounced the black object from earlier.

"Is it broken?” The girl muttered to herself.

She held it up to the sun as if looking for flaws in a fragile gem. Then her arm came down, whacking the object against the ground a few times. Plopping it in her lap, she moved her fingers over it.

By now, Sango had made it back to the Hoshi’s side. >She leaned in closer. “Do you know this person?” She whispered.

Seeing the pained looked on his face in response to her question, she raised an eyebrow. Opening he mouth for another query she

"HEY!” Both jumped at the girls sudden loudness right beside them.

Sango blinked. >“How did she… with no sound?” She murmured wonderingly.

The girl stood before Miroku and held out the object. "Here, hold this Ku-Monkey." She said, shoving the ball into the monk's arms.

I knew the wick was too short!” She exclaimed, bouncing over to the side of the path and digging through a bit of the rock rubble there.

Apparently finding what she wanted, she headed back over to them. While she was doing this Sango turned again to the Houshi.

"KU-MONKEY??!! Miroku turned red which was even more shocking than the pet name.

Back, the girl hovered over the ball a moment, readied two rocks and struck them together. Suddenly, the girl grabbed Sango's arm and dragged her quickly away behind a tree about 20 ft away. The girl looked excitedly towards Miroku as if waiting for something.

***

Looking back at the pair peeking out from behind a tree and then at the ball, Miroku had a feeling that something extremely unpleasant was going to happen. And the whole feeling emanated from the object, light though it was. So what did he do?

Dropping the object, Miroku turned to run. Too late.

***

Whistles and bangs followed by billows of smoke ensued, startling a flock of roosting birds to escape the chaos into the sky.

***

Stepping out of the supply building of the village, Dedrick's attention was taken in by the nose and smoke coming from the forest to the west. He turned to Kaiden who was exiting the building behind him.

"You didn't?" Kaiden looked uncomfortable.

"She looked so interested... I..." He shrugged his shoulders helplessly. >Dedrick just shook his head before turning west towards the disturbance and heading quickly into the trees at the edge of the village.