InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Identity Crisis ❯ Chapter Eleven ( Chapter 11 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: ladygriddlebone 
Sango gets into a bind, while Inuyasha and Kagome search for their missing friends.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 02.22.2009 | Updated On: 03.20.2010 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 579 | Status: Completed
Sango gets into a bind, while Inuyasha and Kagome search for their missing friends.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 02.22.2009 | Updated On: 03.20.2010 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 579 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.
Chapter Eleven
"Are you sure?" Kagome asked, her voice wavering uncertainly.
"How many times do I have to tell you? If they'd been here any time recently, I'd smell it."
Poking her head into another one of the ruined huts, Kagome had to sigh. "There's no sign of them here, either. I think you're right… but if they didn't come here, where did they go?"
"Hell if I know," Inuyasha responded, scowling and folding his arms over his chest. "And I told you I didn't smell anything, so whaddaya gotta keep looking around for?"
"Just double-checking. I wouldn't want to miss a clue…"
"Feh."
Kagome paced, conscious of the tension in the fox kit riding on her shoulder. She poked at a nearby rock with her foot and frowned. "It's unlike Sango to lie like that," she said, finally, just to break the silence.
"Unless she was tryin' to hide something," Inuyasha agreed. Sango was a terrible liar, and they had only ever seen her do so before when the stakes were high. In the past, it had been Naraku using her brother's life against her, to force her to betray her friends, but they had not seen so much as a sign of Naraku in quite some time. So what could it be?
"I didn't notice that she was acting strangely, though," Kagome commented after a few moments. "She was upset, but..."
Inuyasha scowled. "Maybe she wasn't, but the monk sure was."
"Do you think he convinced her to cover for him?"
"Sango would never let him get away with something like that," Shippo protested. "I wish they hadn't gone when I was sleeping… I shoulda known to keep an eye on them like Inuyasha does."
Kagome smiled gently. "It's not your fault, Shippo. If you'd gone with them, then we wouldn't know where you were, either."
"We'll find 'em," Inuyasha grumbled. "Don't give up so easy. I'll track them all the way across Japan if I have to."
"We don't have any leads, Inuyasha," Kagome said, her voice sounding unusually forlorn even to her own ears. She felt strangely lonely with Sango gone. It was one thing to know that the slayer had returned to her village for a short time, or gone off on her own for a small trip, but for her to vanish with no sign of returning? It was small comfort to know that, wherever she was, Miroku was with her.
And what if she'd simply missed some sign that something was wrong? She realized with a pang of guilt that she had been very wrapped up in her own difficulties with Inuyasha lately, and might not have noticed if something was bothering Sango.
"So what's it gonna be?"
Kagome perked up at the sound of Inuyasha's voice. She had obviously missed something. "Huh?"
"We've still got a while before dark, if you wanna keep going," he explained, his voice strangely gentle for someone that was normally so impatient. It sounded like he was just as worried as she was.
"Where do you think we should start looking?" She paused. "Do you think they want us to go after them?"
"We'll find 'em, whether they like it or not." Under his breath, he added, "Those two idiots."
Shippo scuttled down off her shoulder and into her arms; she squeezed him against her chest. "You moron," he spat, fierce with the knowledge that he was safe from harm so long as he stuck with Kagome. "We don't even know where they went."
"Maybe not, but I've got a funny feeling that we'll find 'em if we go back to where all the trouble started," Inuyasha grumbled, surprisingly failing to take Shippo's bait.
Kagome blinked. "Back to that last village? Where the demon kidnapped Sango?"
Inuyasha nodded. "It was right about then that the monk started acting weird." He paused for a beat. "Weirder than normal."
It's still bothering him that he wasn't able to find anything after Sango and Miroku killed the demon… But what if he's right? What if there was more to it than they told us?
"I suppose we could look there… It's a start, at least," Kagome tentatively agreed.
"Then let's go. We can get a head start tonight. No point in wasting time here."
Kagome nodded and climbed onto his back. As they headed off into the forest, trusting Inuyasha's nose and sense of direction to lead them, she couldn't help but notice that he held her a little tighter, a little closer than normal. She snuggled against him and tried not to let her lingering sense of guilt consume her.
But when they stopped to make camp for the night, she found herself just as preoccupied as she had felt when they set out. She found herself sitting apart from the others for a long time, almost since Shippo fell asleep, hoping for a little space so she could think.
"Kagome."
"Yes, Inuyasha?"
"Stop blaming yourself."
She blinked in surprise. She hadn't really expected Inuyasha to notice, much less to know what she was thinking about.
"I'm not blaming myself," she insisted.
"Keh, you think I can't tell?" He settled himself beside her, though his expression was still a bit standoffish. "Anytime anything goes wrong, you get all gloomy and blame yourself until it gets fixed." He frowned. "Even though I'm the one that has to do the fixing."
Kagome smiled slightly, and sighed. "Thanks, Inuyasha." She leaned gently against him, letting her head rest against his shoulder, and ignoring his insistence that he had done nothing.
He might be grumpy and rude and a million other things, but he could make her smile when no one else could, and just by being himself. Because when he said he'd make things right… She believed him.
-----
It was difficult for Sango to navigate the unfamiliar forest in the dark, even with Kirara to guide her. She had barely taken the time to change into her armor along the way, and had been walking ever since, and always in the same direction. The area might have been unfamiliar, but she knew she had not become turned around or lost. It was almost as if the path, or at least the sense of way, had been burned into her brain.
She wasn't sure how many stray roots she'd tripped over, or how much farther she had to go to find that tree, but she knew she needed to do it soon. It had to be close by now; it felt like she had been walking for hours. Maybe she had. She could not see the sky through the trees to get a sense of what time it might be.
I'm just checking it out. I'll be back at camp before morning, and Miroku will never know I left. She kept repeating the thoughts to herself, even long after she had realized they were lies; Miroku slept lightly, and might even have discovered her absence already. She looked back over her shoulder for a moment, but in spite of her trepidation she could not seem to stop walking.
Suddenly, the forest opened up into an enormous clearing, and an equally large tree loomed before her. They'd made it.
Kirara growled softly.
Sango slowed, and then stopped walking altogether. It felt almost as if she had suddenly regained control of her body. Frowning, she adjusted her grip on Hiraikotsu.
Something had brought her here, she was sure of it. What she did not know was why or how, but she intended to find out.
"Come on, Kirara," she urged, taking a step forward. "Let's check this thing out and get back to camp." Before Miroku notices that we're gone, she thought guiltily. He'd be furious if he discovered that she had gone without him. Kirara made a skeptical sound, but stuck close to Sango regardless.
The place gave off a definite dark aura; it was enough to make her shudder. She had to wonder how she had managed to miss it during her aerial exploration with Miroku earlier in the day, because now the darkness seemed oppressive, almost painful. Everything else seemed to pale in comparison. And yet there was no apparent cause for her feelings of dread.
A quick search of the perimeter of the clearing revealed nothing out of the ordinary, though Sango found herself startling at the slightest rustle of grass, or the sound of the wind whispering through the trees. She knew it was the dark aura, and her lack of familiarity with the area, that was getting to her, but she couldn't help feeling jumpy.
She slowly worked her way closer to the tree. It was huge, towering over the rest of the forest, and dwarfing everything in the clearing. Sango felt a pang of sadness to see that it was dying, if it was not dead already. It was obviously very old, and had been growing in this place for many years. Only a few leaves, which might have been alive or dead for all she could tell in the poor light, clung to the lower branches, but most were bare.
An enormous vine wound its way around the trunk of the tree and disappeared amidst the upper branches, almost as if it were choking the life out of the larger plant.
I felt so drawn to this place, but there's nothing here…
Sango frowned. She was close enough to reach out and run a hand along the tree trunk if she wanted, and she still could not find anything that seemed out of the ordinary - except, of course, that sense of overwhelming darkness that permeated the area.
"Another demon?" she asked aloud. Even though Kirara could not answer her, it felt better to speak. Nothing stirred but the wind.
"It's nothing," she grumbled. "Let's go, Kirara."
She only made it a few steps before the ground opened up nearby - a covered entrance to some hole in the ground, frustratingly familiar though she could not place why - and tentacle-like vines burst out, twisting and writhing through the air. For a brief moment they waved almost comically in the air, and then, as one, they shot toward her.
Turning, she leapt onto Kirara's back, and in an instant they were airborne. Kirara was quick, but not quick enough.
The tendrils came after them faster than they could fly, grasping at Sango's arms and legs, pulling with terrible force until she lost her grip on Kirara. She cried out at the feel of the things sliding along her arms, up her thighs, squeezing ever harder. But as she fell through the air, she noticed, almost in daze, that the things weren't going after Kirara… She clung to that moment of clarity, shouting to her companion.
"Kirara! Get Miroku!"
The cat demon obeyed her command, despite a worried backward glance, and fled into the night. Sango did not have a chance to track her progress, making sure that she made it into the trees, before she hit the ground, hard. For a moment flashes of light not unlike stars danced before her eyes, and then everything went dark.
-----
Miroku didn't realize he had been sleeping until Kirara burst into camp, flaming and snarling in fury, and startled him awake. It was still dark and… He frowned.
Sango was gone.
Kirara returning alone, full force, could only mean one thing.
He stood, struggling for calm against fear and rage. Rage - at Sango for being so damnably foolhardy and honorable, and at whatever it was she'd found that had managed to catch her in its trap.
Kirara watched with impassive, surprisingly gentle eyes.
Swearing, Miroku lashed out. He might have been reaching for his staff, propped nearby as always when he meditated or slept, but instead he slammed his fist against the tree - and immediately regretted letting his anger get the better of him. Pain reverberated up his arm, stung where the beads dug against his flesh. He sighed. Self-injury would do him - and Sango - no good at all.
With a forced sense of resignation - find her now, make sure she was safe, and there would be time to be angry with her later - he turned to the cat demon. "Kirara, take me to her."
He was on her back the moment she turned in invitation, and then they were running, running through the forest so quickly that they might have been flying. He closed his eyes and clung to the thick fur along her shoulders, and pretended that he did not know where they were going.
-----
It felt like the world was spinning dizzily, out of control.
Sango groaned. She tried to clutch her head in her hands, but her arms wouldn't move. Bound… she was bound.
She'd lost Hiraikotsu somewhere…
She shook her head, hoping to gain a little clarity. She was in some sort of cave or tunnel, and bound with something stiff and wooden, almost like vines. And hanging almost upright, suspended from the ceiling a short distance above her head. She groaned again. Just her luck.
"Awake at last, I see." It was a strange voice, soft and androgynous, that had spoken, and yet it sounded vaguely familiar. Sango couldn't quite turn her head far enough to see who it was that had spoken. "This wouldn't be any fun if you'd slept through it all. Not after the pain you've caused me, slayer bitch."
That voice…
There was the sound of footsteps, and then a beautiful woman sauntered into view.
"You!" Sango twitched, plagued by memories. Struggling for consciousness, memory… lying on something soft, writhing with pain, pleasure… Everything, flowing through her veins… Pain, behind her eyes… Why can't I remember? Feeling, being, in the moment, no past, no future… Sleep… And that voice had spoken to her, then. The same person, the same demon. "It was you! But how? That can't be! I killed you…"
"Wrong," the demon said, smiling and stepping closer to run a finger along Sango's jawline. Sango frowned, trying to pull her head away from the unwanted caress.
The demon's face twisted into a gnarled smile. "It was not I that you killed. Even a fool such as you can see that I live and stand before you. And as to how… You inhaled the smoke from torches made from my branches, and infused with sap from my veins," it creaked. "I can direct your dreams and your actions for as long as the poison remains within your body."
"That's where the nightmares came from," Sango managed, shaking with rage. "You wanted us to come back."
"You killed my daughter," it said, by way of confirmation. "I intend to take your life as compensation."
Daughter? Of course. Her initial guess about radial roots had been correct - the thing just put up offspring wherever it found a suitable location, spreading ever outward from the central hub: this place. What she had killed before was not the true demon, merely its offshoot. There could be dozens or even hundreds of other "daughter" demons... and they probably all fed back into this main demon, providing it with energy stolen from hapless travelers. Just as it probably intended to feed on her, and then Miroku and the others.
Sango mustered up courage - and demon slayer's pride - from somewhere deep inside. "Just try. I'll kill you first. I won't let you take advantage of any more innocent people."
It laughed at her then. "You cannot even move, slayer… How can one as weak as you hope to defeat me?"
She did not answer, preferring to let the thing underestimate her. Instead, she focused on figuring out what she could move, for the binding vines did not hold her completely immobile. She could still move her head and her fingers. Sango smiled, and tripped the triggers that released the blades that were hidden beneath her armor.
The blades sang as they came free, slicing easily through the vines that bound her. And with her arms free, she made short work of the vines around her legs and ankles. The demon looked impassive.
"Do you seek to impress me with the strength of your human weapons, slayer?"
"I'll do better than that," Sango said, glowering. "I'll kill you with them."
She drew her sword, knowing that the blade was most likely useless against this creature, and moved into a defensive stance. She glanced around quickly, trying to determine the best course of action. Her best chance was to find Hiraikotsu and get out of this hole, but there was no sign of her weapon, and no easy way out. She realized that she had panicked, and sent Kirara away when the cat demon might have been her next best chance at getting out of this alive. A thought struck her, chilling her to the bone. She had sent Kirara for Miroku. To bring him back to this place.
Did I play right into its hands… again?
Sending Kirara to fetch Miroku, rather than to get him out of harm's way, might have been sentencing them both to death. It was just one more mistake on an ever-growing list. Sango fought off despair and struggled to focus on the task at hand. Miroku could take care of himself. She needed to do the same.
"It will be a pleasure to slay you," the demon said, its voice shifting between sweetly androgynous and creakily growling. It was moving nearby, but in the darkness she could not make out what it was doing.
Suddenly its arms extended into long vines, shooting straight toward her. Sango dodged out of the way, barely, and kept running, using her sword to help keep the vines at bay.
She skidded to a halt - there was a solid wall in front of her. Gazing upward, she saw sky and realized that this was an entrance, if not the same one she had been pulled down earlier. But the walls were sheer. There was no way she could climb out.
She half-turned, but the demon's arms, vines, whatever they really were, were nearly on top of her. She didn't have time to fight back before they were on her. She struggled, twisting and writhing, but one got a grip on her wrist and it was only a matter of time before the rest found a hold.
The first one tightened painfully around her wrist. Something popped from the pressure, and she instinctively released her grip on her weapon. The sword fell to the ground, clanging dully.
And then there were more, and more, and more, wrapping around her, stifling her. Tightening, tightening, until she groaned and toppled over.
She was caught again, and this time the vines were reinforced with the demon's power, roused by its anger… She'd need leverage and space to summon the strength to cut through them with mere metal, and that was not an option. If she had Hiraikotsu, or some way to imbue her blades with holy power like Miroku or Kagome could, she might have had a chance.
She barely had time to take stock of the situation before she was overwhelmed by pain. It was strong enough to set her blood ablaze, to arch her back and tighten all of her muscles at once.
Sango cried out in agony, but knew, even as the vines drew tighter and tighter around her, that it would not stop until the very life had been squeezed from her body.
Her breath left her in a sob; shameful tears pricked her eyes. She was a fool to have come here, and to have done so alone, when she knew deep in her heart that she was not strong enough to succeed. She had failed before and knew she would fail again. Had she come here for that purpose alone?
She'd been struggling for so long against overwhelming odds… First avenging the death of her family and her village, saving her brother and making sure her new friends weren't killed, fighting her feelings for Miroku, feelings that shook her beliefs to the very core… and now she had failed utterly in her attempt to regain her lost sense of honor, and was going to die for it. She felt as if she were being torn in half, with one part saying, "I can't do this anymore," and the other insisting that she fight, as her birthright demanded.
But, right now, she couldn't fight even if she wanted to. She was bound so tightly that she could not move, in spite of the fact that the pain had begun to recede. She realized with no little horror that she couldn't even breathe.
Sango went limp. She had gotten so caught up in her feelings of disappointment, dishonor, and failure, that she'd lost all sense of reason and become that which she feared most. She had lost her confidence in herself, in her training as a demon slayer, and had become so desperate to restore her honor – on her own terms – that she had refused help she might otherwise have gladly accepted. And this time she'd dragged Miroku with her and put him in danger as well.
Every attempt she had made to fix things had only made the situation worse, every step of the way.
She was plagued by so many doubts, so many fears and regrets, that she simply wanted everything to stop. Stop, and take away the shame, the foolishness, and all of the dishonor that had plagued her for so long. Just go away, and let me die.
She knew that she would lose consciousness soon, and that death would follow soon after, and braced herself for the end.
A few seconds later, the vines wrapped around her loosened, then released her completely.
She hit the floor with a dull thud, and stayed where she had fallen, gasping for air.
Why didn't it just kill me? Why back off now?
She bit back a sound that threatened to be half groan, half sob. But when the vines did not return to strangle her again, she began to wonder if she might be able to move. If she could move, she could fight. And, she realized with some surprise, she did not want to die, after all. She wanted to fight, wanted to live to see the end of her quest, wanted to find out what it was like to spend the rest of her days beside the man she loved… if her body would just cooperate.
With some effort, she was able to push herself upright enough to sit, and weakly cradle her aching head in her hands.
Suddenly, she heard an urgent whisper out of the darkness: "Demon slayer!"
Chapter Eleven
"Are you sure?" Kagome asked, her voice wavering uncertainly.
"How many times do I have to tell you? If they'd been here any time recently, I'd smell it."
Poking her head into another one of the ruined huts, Kagome had to sigh. "There's no sign of them here, either. I think you're right… but if they didn't come here, where did they go?"
"Hell if I know," Inuyasha responded, scowling and folding his arms over his chest. "And I told you I didn't smell anything, so whaddaya gotta keep looking around for?"
"Just double-checking. I wouldn't want to miss a clue…"
"Feh."
Kagome paced, conscious of the tension in the fox kit riding on her shoulder. She poked at a nearby rock with her foot and frowned. "It's unlike Sango to lie like that," she said, finally, just to break the silence.
"Unless she was tryin' to hide something," Inuyasha agreed. Sango was a terrible liar, and they had only ever seen her do so before when the stakes were high. In the past, it had been Naraku using her brother's life against her, to force her to betray her friends, but they had not seen so much as a sign of Naraku in quite some time. So what could it be?
"I didn't notice that she was acting strangely, though," Kagome commented after a few moments. "She was upset, but..."
Inuyasha scowled. "Maybe she wasn't, but the monk sure was."
"Do you think he convinced her to cover for him?"
"Sango would never let him get away with something like that," Shippo protested. "I wish they hadn't gone when I was sleeping… I shoulda known to keep an eye on them like Inuyasha does."
Kagome smiled gently. "It's not your fault, Shippo. If you'd gone with them, then we wouldn't know where you were, either."
"We'll find 'em," Inuyasha grumbled. "Don't give up so easy. I'll track them all the way across Japan if I have to."
"We don't have any leads, Inuyasha," Kagome said, her voice sounding unusually forlorn even to her own ears. She felt strangely lonely with Sango gone. It was one thing to know that the slayer had returned to her village for a short time, or gone off on her own for a small trip, but for her to vanish with no sign of returning? It was small comfort to know that, wherever she was, Miroku was with her.
And what if she'd simply missed some sign that something was wrong? She realized with a pang of guilt that she had been very wrapped up in her own difficulties with Inuyasha lately, and might not have noticed if something was bothering Sango.
"So what's it gonna be?"
Kagome perked up at the sound of Inuyasha's voice. She had obviously missed something. "Huh?"
"We've still got a while before dark, if you wanna keep going," he explained, his voice strangely gentle for someone that was normally so impatient. It sounded like he was just as worried as she was.
"Where do you think we should start looking?" She paused. "Do you think they want us to go after them?"
"We'll find 'em, whether they like it or not." Under his breath, he added, "Those two idiots."
Shippo scuttled down off her shoulder and into her arms; she squeezed him against her chest. "You moron," he spat, fierce with the knowledge that he was safe from harm so long as he stuck with Kagome. "We don't even know where they went."
"Maybe not, but I've got a funny feeling that we'll find 'em if we go back to where all the trouble started," Inuyasha grumbled, surprisingly failing to take Shippo's bait.
Kagome blinked. "Back to that last village? Where the demon kidnapped Sango?"
Inuyasha nodded. "It was right about then that the monk started acting weird." He paused for a beat. "Weirder than normal."
It's still bothering him that he wasn't able to find anything after Sango and Miroku killed the demon… But what if he's right? What if there was more to it than they told us?
"I suppose we could look there… It's a start, at least," Kagome tentatively agreed.
"Then let's go. We can get a head start tonight. No point in wasting time here."
Kagome nodded and climbed onto his back. As they headed off into the forest, trusting Inuyasha's nose and sense of direction to lead them, she couldn't help but notice that he held her a little tighter, a little closer than normal. She snuggled against him and tried not to let her lingering sense of guilt consume her.
But when they stopped to make camp for the night, she found herself just as preoccupied as she had felt when they set out. She found herself sitting apart from the others for a long time, almost since Shippo fell asleep, hoping for a little space so she could think.
"Kagome."
"Yes, Inuyasha?"
"Stop blaming yourself."
She blinked in surprise. She hadn't really expected Inuyasha to notice, much less to know what she was thinking about.
"I'm not blaming myself," she insisted.
"Keh, you think I can't tell?" He settled himself beside her, though his expression was still a bit standoffish. "Anytime anything goes wrong, you get all gloomy and blame yourself until it gets fixed." He frowned. "Even though I'm the one that has to do the fixing."
Kagome smiled slightly, and sighed. "Thanks, Inuyasha." She leaned gently against him, letting her head rest against his shoulder, and ignoring his insistence that he had done nothing.
He might be grumpy and rude and a million other things, but he could make her smile when no one else could, and just by being himself. Because when he said he'd make things right… She believed him.
-----
It was difficult for Sango to navigate the unfamiliar forest in the dark, even with Kirara to guide her. She had barely taken the time to change into her armor along the way, and had been walking ever since, and always in the same direction. The area might have been unfamiliar, but she knew she had not become turned around or lost. It was almost as if the path, or at least the sense of way, had been burned into her brain.
She wasn't sure how many stray roots she'd tripped over, or how much farther she had to go to find that tree, but she knew she needed to do it soon. It had to be close by now; it felt like she had been walking for hours. Maybe she had. She could not see the sky through the trees to get a sense of what time it might be.
I'm just checking it out. I'll be back at camp before morning, and Miroku will never know I left. She kept repeating the thoughts to herself, even long after she had realized they were lies; Miroku slept lightly, and might even have discovered her absence already. She looked back over her shoulder for a moment, but in spite of her trepidation she could not seem to stop walking.
Suddenly, the forest opened up into an enormous clearing, and an equally large tree loomed before her. They'd made it.
Kirara growled softly.
Sango slowed, and then stopped walking altogether. It felt almost as if she had suddenly regained control of her body. Frowning, she adjusted her grip on Hiraikotsu.
Something had brought her here, she was sure of it. What she did not know was why or how, but she intended to find out.
"Come on, Kirara," she urged, taking a step forward. "Let's check this thing out and get back to camp." Before Miroku notices that we're gone, she thought guiltily. He'd be furious if he discovered that she had gone without him. Kirara made a skeptical sound, but stuck close to Sango regardless.
The place gave off a definite dark aura; it was enough to make her shudder. She had to wonder how she had managed to miss it during her aerial exploration with Miroku earlier in the day, because now the darkness seemed oppressive, almost painful. Everything else seemed to pale in comparison. And yet there was no apparent cause for her feelings of dread.
A quick search of the perimeter of the clearing revealed nothing out of the ordinary, though Sango found herself startling at the slightest rustle of grass, or the sound of the wind whispering through the trees. She knew it was the dark aura, and her lack of familiarity with the area, that was getting to her, but she couldn't help feeling jumpy.
She slowly worked her way closer to the tree. It was huge, towering over the rest of the forest, and dwarfing everything in the clearing. Sango felt a pang of sadness to see that it was dying, if it was not dead already. It was obviously very old, and had been growing in this place for many years. Only a few leaves, which might have been alive or dead for all she could tell in the poor light, clung to the lower branches, but most were bare.
An enormous vine wound its way around the trunk of the tree and disappeared amidst the upper branches, almost as if it were choking the life out of the larger plant.
I felt so drawn to this place, but there's nothing here…
Sango frowned. She was close enough to reach out and run a hand along the tree trunk if she wanted, and she still could not find anything that seemed out of the ordinary - except, of course, that sense of overwhelming darkness that permeated the area.
"Another demon?" she asked aloud. Even though Kirara could not answer her, it felt better to speak. Nothing stirred but the wind.
"It's nothing," she grumbled. "Let's go, Kirara."
She only made it a few steps before the ground opened up nearby - a covered entrance to some hole in the ground, frustratingly familiar though she could not place why - and tentacle-like vines burst out, twisting and writhing through the air. For a brief moment they waved almost comically in the air, and then, as one, they shot toward her.
Turning, she leapt onto Kirara's back, and in an instant they were airborne. Kirara was quick, but not quick enough.
The tendrils came after them faster than they could fly, grasping at Sango's arms and legs, pulling with terrible force until she lost her grip on Kirara. She cried out at the feel of the things sliding along her arms, up her thighs, squeezing ever harder. But as she fell through the air, she noticed, almost in daze, that the things weren't going after Kirara… She clung to that moment of clarity, shouting to her companion.
"Kirara! Get Miroku!"
The cat demon obeyed her command, despite a worried backward glance, and fled into the night. Sango did not have a chance to track her progress, making sure that she made it into the trees, before she hit the ground, hard. For a moment flashes of light not unlike stars danced before her eyes, and then everything went dark.
-----
Miroku didn't realize he had been sleeping until Kirara burst into camp, flaming and snarling in fury, and startled him awake. It was still dark and… He frowned.
Sango was gone.
Kirara returning alone, full force, could only mean one thing.
He stood, struggling for calm against fear and rage. Rage - at Sango for being so damnably foolhardy and honorable, and at whatever it was she'd found that had managed to catch her in its trap.
Kirara watched with impassive, surprisingly gentle eyes.
Swearing, Miroku lashed out. He might have been reaching for his staff, propped nearby as always when he meditated or slept, but instead he slammed his fist against the tree - and immediately regretted letting his anger get the better of him. Pain reverberated up his arm, stung where the beads dug against his flesh. He sighed. Self-injury would do him - and Sango - no good at all.
With a forced sense of resignation - find her now, make sure she was safe, and there would be time to be angry with her later - he turned to the cat demon. "Kirara, take me to her."
He was on her back the moment she turned in invitation, and then they were running, running through the forest so quickly that they might have been flying. He closed his eyes and clung to the thick fur along her shoulders, and pretended that he did not know where they were going.
-----
It felt like the world was spinning dizzily, out of control.
Sango groaned. She tried to clutch her head in her hands, but her arms wouldn't move. Bound… she was bound.
She'd lost Hiraikotsu somewhere…
She shook her head, hoping to gain a little clarity. She was in some sort of cave or tunnel, and bound with something stiff and wooden, almost like vines. And hanging almost upright, suspended from the ceiling a short distance above her head. She groaned again. Just her luck.
"Awake at last, I see." It was a strange voice, soft and androgynous, that had spoken, and yet it sounded vaguely familiar. Sango couldn't quite turn her head far enough to see who it was that had spoken. "This wouldn't be any fun if you'd slept through it all. Not after the pain you've caused me, slayer bitch."
That voice…
There was the sound of footsteps, and then a beautiful woman sauntered into view.
"You!" Sango twitched, plagued by memories. Struggling for consciousness, memory… lying on something soft, writhing with pain, pleasure… Everything, flowing through her veins… Pain, behind her eyes… Why can't I remember? Feeling, being, in the moment, no past, no future… Sleep… And that voice had spoken to her, then. The same person, the same demon. "It was you! But how? That can't be! I killed you…"
"Wrong," the demon said, smiling and stepping closer to run a finger along Sango's jawline. Sango frowned, trying to pull her head away from the unwanted caress.
The demon's face twisted into a gnarled smile. "It was not I that you killed. Even a fool such as you can see that I live and stand before you. And as to how… You inhaled the smoke from torches made from my branches, and infused with sap from my veins," it creaked. "I can direct your dreams and your actions for as long as the poison remains within your body."
"That's where the nightmares came from," Sango managed, shaking with rage. "You wanted us to come back."
"You killed my daughter," it said, by way of confirmation. "I intend to take your life as compensation."
Daughter? Of course. Her initial guess about radial roots had been correct - the thing just put up offspring wherever it found a suitable location, spreading ever outward from the central hub: this place. What she had killed before was not the true demon, merely its offshoot. There could be dozens or even hundreds of other "daughter" demons... and they probably all fed back into this main demon, providing it with energy stolen from hapless travelers. Just as it probably intended to feed on her, and then Miroku and the others.
Sango mustered up courage - and demon slayer's pride - from somewhere deep inside. "Just try. I'll kill you first. I won't let you take advantage of any more innocent people."
It laughed at her then. "You cannot even move, slayer… How can one as weak as you hope to defeat me?"
She did not answer, preferring to let the thing underestimate her. Instead, she focused on figuring out what she could move, for the binding vines did not hold her completely immobile. She could still move her head and her fingers. Sango smiled, and tripped the triggers that released the blades that were hidden beneath her armor.
The blades sang as they came free, slicing easily through the vines that bound her. And with her arms free, she made short work of the vines around her legs and ankles. The demon looked impassive.
"Do you seek to impress me with the strength of your human weapons, slayer?"
"I'll do better than that," Sango said, glowering. "I'll kill you with them."
She drew her sword, knowing that the blade was most likely useless against this creature, and moved into a defensive stance. She glanced around quickly, trying to determine the best course of action. Her best chance was to find Hiraikotsu and get out of this hole, but there was no sign of her weapon, and no easy way out. She realized that she had panicked, and sent Kirara away when the cat demon might have been her next best chance at getting out of this alive. A thought struck her, chilling her to the bone. She had sent Kirara for Miroku. To bring him back to this place.
Did I play right into its hands… again?
Sending Kirara to fetch Miroku, rather than to get him out of harm's way, might have been sentencing them both to death. It was just one more mistake on an ever-growing list. Sango fought off despair and struggled to focus on the task at hand. Miroku could take care of himself. She needed to do the same.
"It will be a pleasure to slay you," the demon said, its voice shifting between sweetly androgynous and creakily growling. It was moving nearby, but in the darkness she could not make out what it was doing.
Suddenly its arms extended into long vines, shooting straight toward her. Sango dodged out of the way, barely, and kept running, using her sword to help keep the vines at bay.
She skidded to a halt - there was a solid wall in front of her. Gazing upward, she saw sky and realized that this was an entrance, if not the same one she had been pulled down earlier. But the walls were sheer. There was no way she could climb out.
She half-turned, but the demon's arms, vines, whatever they really were, were nearly on top of her. She didn't have time to fight back before they were on her. She struggled, twisting and writhing, but one got a grip on her wrist and it was only a matter of time before the rest found a hold.
The first one tightened painfully around her wrist. Something popped from the pressure, and she instinctively released her grip on her weapon. The sword fell to the ground, clanging dully.
And then there were more, and more, and more, wrapping around her, stifling her. Tightening, tightening, until she groaned and toppled over.
She was caught again, and this time the vines were reinforced with the demon's power, roused by its anger… She'd need leverage and space to summon the strength to cut through them with mere metal, and that was not an option. If she had Hiraikotsu, or some way to imbue her blades with holy power like Miroku or Kagome could, she might have had a chance.
She barely had time to take stock of the situation before she was overwhelmed by pain. It was strong enough to set her blood ablaze, to arch her back and tighten all of her muscles at once.
Sango cried out in agony, but knew, even as the vines drew tighter and tighter around her, that it would not stop until the very life had been squeezed from her body.
Her breath left her in a sob; shameful tears pricked her eyes. She was a fool to have come here, and to have done so alone, when she knew deep in her heart that she was not strong enough to succeed. She had failed before and knew she would fail again. Had she come here for that purpose alone?
She'd been struggling for so long against overwhelming odds… First avenging the death of her family and her village, saving her brother and making sure her new friends weren't killed, fighting her feelings for Miroku, feelings that shook her beliefs to the very core… and now she had failed utterly in her attempt to regain her lost sense of honor, and was going to die for it. She felt as if she were being torn in half, with one part saying, "I can't do this anymore," and the other insisting that she fight, as her birthright demanded.
But, right now, she couldn't fight even if she wanted to. She was bound so tightly that she could not move, in spite of the fact that the pain had begun to recede. She realized with no little horror that she couldn't even breathe.
Sango went limp. She had gotten so caught up in her feelings of disappointment, dishonor, and failure, that she'd lost all sense of reason and become that which she feared most. She had lost her confidence in herself, in her training as a demon slayer, and had become so desperate to restore her honor – on her own terms – that she had refused help she might otherwise have gladly accepted. And this time she'd dragged Miroku with her and put him in danger as well.
Every attempt she had made to fix things had only made the situation worse, every step of the way.
She was plagued by so many doubts, so many fears and regrets, that she simply wanted everything to stop. Stop, and take away the shame, the foolishness, and all of the dishonor that had plagued her for so long. Just go away, and let me die.
She knew that she would lose consciousness soon, and that death would follow soon after, and braced herself for the end.
A few seconds later, the vines wrapped around her loosened, then released her completely.
She hit the floor with a dull thud, and stayed where she had fallen, gasping for air.
Why didn't it just kill me? Why back off now?
She bit back a sound that threatened to be half groan, half sob. But when the vines did not return to strangle her again, she began to wonder if she might be able to move. If she could move, she could fight. And, she realized with some surprise, she did not want to die, after all. She wanted to fight, wanted to live to see the end of her quest, wanted to find out what it was like to spend the rest of her days beside the man she loved… if her body would just cooperate.
With some effort, she was able to push herself upright enough to sit, and weakly cradle her aching head in her hands.
Suddenly, she heard an urgent whisper out of the darkness: "Demon slayer!"