InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Heart Within ❯ Chapter Twenty ( Chapter 21 )

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

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, etc., of Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. This story is for entertainment purposes only, and not for profit.THE HEART WITHINSummary: She has carried vengeance in her shadowed heart for 500 years, sacrificing her self for that dream. Now, Sango just might get her chance… (IY/YYH crossover) A/N: Again, I must thank everyone for their reviews and inspiration. It keeps me editing in the wee hours so I can hurry and post. ^.^ (Fate)
WARNING! SPOILERS FOR YYH CHAPTER BLACK, THE THREE KINGS SAGA, AND INUYASHA THE MOVIE 3: SWORDS OF AN HONORABLE RULER! LONG SENTENCES, BAD WORDS, AND SQUEEZES OF LIME

Chapter Twenty

Eyes flying open, Sango braced herself by gripping the curving half-wall beside her for support as the earth shuddered. Caught off-guard by Hiei’s abrupt intrusion into her mind, she had managed to push him out just before the ground started shaking. Eying the long, V-like opening of the cave she hid in, Sango thought better of staying where more of the moss-covered walls could tumble right down on top of her. The roof had probably caved in during another earthquake, if the odd, hill-shaped island was prone to them.

Pulling the air to her with a sharp motion, Sango added buoyancy to her step as she lurched free of the cave, whose walls were even now starting to tremble, dust hissing down their root-ridden face. The strange moss-like grass was tearing away, flinging clods of mud and earth around as the stone shifted beneath it. Dirt slid under her feet, making her skid and flail like a drunk as the shaking increased, and Sango dove for the barren hilltop, using the wind to propel her forward.

The pincer-shaped cave lay on the left edge of the round island, and her eyes widened at the fretful water that splashed along the shore. The island---or hill, or whatever it was---stood surrounded by a thin ribbon of water, like the moat surrounding a medieval castle in Europe. Normally placid and untroubled, the water now frothed and foamed as the ground beneath it continued to move. Sango did an odd lurch-and-jump for the relative safety of the hill’s summit, though it was really only a dozen or so feet higher than the island’s lower circumference.

The earth seemed to pitch and yaw like the deck of a ship and Sango ungracefully sprawled on her knees as she lost her balance. But just as suddenly as it had started, the earth seemed to still, and Sango stared around her in surprise. A strange feeling crept up her spine, and she turned her head sharply to the right.

There, just under the shadow of the trees that dotted the far bank, stood a familiar figure with eyes more verdant and fey than the wild growth surrounding him.

“Kurama…” she breathed, eyes widening in surprise that he had managed to find her so quickly. An errant breeze whispered through his long hair, sending the ruddy flames dancing around his shoulders as it playfully circled before flowing towards her, drawing a few small petals along in its breathy wake. Sango’s eyes flicked to the petals and then back to the silent kitsune.

He smiled. It was a gentle smile, but there was that strangeness in his dark eyes that had caught her up so completely before, making her breath catch and her heart speed up now as it had then, in the woods, as if there was a part of her that recognized and welcomed that snap of desire that was suddenly sizzling in the air between them. A strange longing filled her, and Sango felt her lower muscles clench in response and even in, alarmingly, anticipation.

The heat and hunger that swirled through her body was achingly similar to when Kurama had kissed her in the forest, and the feeling was just as sudden and overwhelming as a few minutes ago, when Hiei had snatched her mind up in his fierce embrace. Slipping so deeply inside her thoughts, her body had responded to his presence with a startling flood of hot desire, one that burned across her senses just as fiercely as the dark flame of his mental presence had burned across her thoughts.

The similarity of her earthy response to both demons froze Sango as her mind spun, wondering why it was so even as she burned with shame that it was. She was not a wanton, and this loss of control over a body she had had centuries to understand the physical reactions of was deeply disturbing. The peculiar response she had to both was of an intensity that alarmed her just by how sudden and fierce it was called forth, and the icy fear that this loss of control might be something akin to the madness that had swept her up for long periods of time as her rejected jyaki took revenge on her mental denial of its existence, actually restored her right to her senses, cutting through the overwhelming desire and sweeping it aside as her fingers curled into the mossy turf like it was a lifeline.

Shaking her head, she denied the reactions of her body, squelching them beneath the iron-will that had seen her through many a battle. She welcomed the denial that was so familiar to her for the things outside her control and her refusal to admit or confront them. Cowardly, yes, but the barriers she had raised around herself were easy, familiar, and made formidable by long years of a lonely existence of simple survival. Now was hardly the time for her to confront her own personal demons---though part of her ached at the crimson flash of anger that spun through Kurama’s eyes, knowing that he realized her inner turmoil and denial for exactly what it was, so alive were they to each other’s least nuance.

But the bloody glow of demonic anger abruptly disappeared as his green eyes widened just a moment before Sango felt the earth shudder beneath her once more. She was flipped off her knees as the ground buckled and heaved, the sound of tearing grass and groaning rock surrounding her like a roar that shook her so hard with the resonance of it that it rattled her teeth. Every time she tried to get a grip on the bucking earth, she lost her balance as it pitched beneath her. An ominous sound, like the sharp crack of a gunshot, made her stiffen and cry out as she saw a fissure racing toward her from the other side of the hill’s crest.

“Anei!”

His shout sounded so far away; too far away to be of any help to her. She barely heeded it, for everything was happening so fast, she had no time to react.

Desperately summoning her jyaki, she tried to thrust her body away from the widening crack that was heading straight for her, but the ground rippled and shuddered, the very moss and dirt beneath her gripping hands tearing away her concentration even as the ground tore away underneath her body. She felt herself sliding, sinking back into the dark earth that haunted her in the deepest shadows of her bitterest memories and the most terrifying of her nightmares. Trapped inside the earth, the smell of blood and death and damp soil all around her, the stale air rank in her nose and lungs as she tried to breathe through clods of dirt that muffled her anguished screams beneath their immovable weight.

Buried alive…

*No!* Not again, never again!

Mindlessly, she flung all of her energy out around her in a wide, furious blast that seared across her eyeballs with the white-hot glow of lightning. She felt her body jerk like a fish caught on the end of a line, flopped uncaringly about as a muffled boom beneath her shook out a scream that blasted right through her ear drums. It was as if the very earth was screeching in agony and rage, on and on, without end, until she clenched her teeth and shook like a leaf, clinging with all her might to the edge of the earth that was separating underneath her even as the hideous sound continued.

She screamed then, too, for what she had taken for the splitting of the earth by a quake’s wrenching force had suddenly grown teeth---jagged, doubled rows of teeth like the gaping mouth of a shark. Each sharp fang was as long as her body and wider at the gum-line than her out-flung arms could go, for she was sliding down the smooth, saliva-coated surface even as her desperately reaching fingers tried to find something, anything, to hold on to.

The smell of old rot and musty death wafted over her in a damp warmth that carried the iron tang of fresh blood and burnt flesh in its breath. Gagging on the nauseating stench, Sango felt her feet and legs slipping free to dangle in the empty air of the gaping maw even as she slid down the single giant fang that was her salvation, for as it narrowed to its deadly point, she was finally able to get a grip on either side and hang on for dear life.

This was not the kiss she’d been expecting, damn it!


One minute he’d been staring at her kneeling on top of a low hill surrounded by a moat of agitated water, the next he had felt the ground lurch and suddenly knew that that was no island she knelt upon. His warning was lost in the deafening roar that issued from the very earth as the demon buried beneath it rebelled, sounding its frustration at the dirt and virulent tangle-moss that had grown over it as it slept on undisturbed for countless years in the middle of a lake.

Koenma had once taken him aside and asked him if what Sakyo had told the young-faced prince of Spirit World was true, that he had seen creatures roaming across Demon World the size of a whole shopping mall. The young demigod had been alarmed and deeply troubled when Kurama had gravely assured him that yes, it was true, that there were demons in Makai whose size rivaled the largest structures of brick and stone in human world. Rare and solitary, with the raging hunger and brute strength of a mindless D class demon, their intelligence was willingly sacrificed for their sheer bulk and the immense power that came with it. Youko had only seen one, and that from a distance. It had resembled a floating island in the middle of the sea, a viscous turtle-demon who even youkai pirates avoided as too dangerous to try and fight.

This demon was some variation on a crab-demon, for even as Kurama flung himself at the heaving mound of earth Anei was trapped so helplessly on---releasing several tentacles of his Rose Whip with both out-flung hands---the half-formed cave on the far side fell apart, exposing a giant pincer that snapped angrily at him like it would a bothersome insect. Kurama twisted out of the way just in the nick of time as the large claw clapped shut on the empty air just beneath him.

Quickly extending the length of his thorny vines, he swept the ends across the pincer’s sensitive inner skin. Automatically snapping shut around the annoying disturbance, as he knew it would, it hung on to them, providing an anchor for him to twist around as he jumped from the heaving earth of its trapped body and back up and over. Water splashed up his legs, soaking his pants to the knee, as he landed in the lake’s surf before launching himself back up and around again and again. Kurama poured his demonic energy into the sinewy length of his thorny vines, wrapping them tight around the struggling talons and rendering them ineffective by the thorny binding.

Landing in a braced kneel on the far bank of the forest’s edge, Kurama finally released his thorny plants, their job done as they trapped the pincers in their tight embrace. He panted---leaping in circles around the demon’s claw had not been easy, and doing so while concentrating his jyaki into the thorn-peppered vines had not helped.

But the giant demon was hardly overcome by having just one of its claws trapped, for Kurama was just in time to see an ominous crack separating the very hill Anei was still sprawled against. He shouted, not knowing if she could even hear him, as he realized that this odd, crab-like demon must have a second mouth located along its back, like some of the scarab demons Youko had fought before in the distant desert lands of the east.

Gathering his strength, Kurama flung himself at the lurching mound even as he watched in horror as Anei started sliding down the jagged fissure opening up along the sundered earth. He felt the wind whip past him, nearly knocking him off-balance as he leapt, and shuddered as the taiji-ya mindlessly flung all of her power in a searing blast that sunk down inside the gaping earth with a muffled boom of exploding energy. The implosion blew him back even as he struggled against it, far enough that the crab-demon’s bound pincer smacked right into him. By mere chance, the angrily waving claw struck him right out of the air, sending him flying back into the giant trees swaying in agitation from the backlash of Anei’s unleashed energy. He was flung bodily against a tree, and he hissed at the impact as his body thudded against the unforgiving wood. He saw stars for a moment as the back of his head smacked the sturdy bark behind it as a screech of intense pain and agony shook the very earth around him.

A thin scream threaded through the bone-jarring screech of the crab-demon’s agony. Kurama’s eyes snapped open in horror. *Anei!*

He was leaping back toward the heaving mound with a snarl of raw fury as he gathered every ounce of his considerable energy and sent it flying out in a wide sweep of poison-tipped, green thorns. His eyes glowed as red as his hair as he flung himself toward that widening gap, watching in wrenching denial as the giant mouth opened along the buried crab-demon’s back, revealing a double-row of sharp teeth as the earth was flung everywhere by its struggles to break free. He saw the tiny slayer dangling from the end of a single fang half-again her size, desperately holding on for dear life as the demon’s maw gaped the wider, blood oozing from the side of its injured mouth. Dirt cascaded down the sides as the creature hefted itself from the prison of its watery resting place, a second pincer pulling free from the earth even as Kurama’s poison darts thudded along its back and sides.

It howled, a sound that reverberated throughout the forest, and Kurama pulled a rose forth to send out a whip that he might use to rescue Anei with, but he was a minute too late. Even as he landed against the creature’s sullen red shell, clinging with one hand as his whip spiraled out from the other, he saw a shadow arc past him.

“Hiei!”


Cursing under his breath at his tardiness, Hiei scooped the girl up in one arm even as he slid his sword free with the other. Her weight, even slight as it was, threw him off-balance enough that his strike only grazed the demon’s fleshy gums. It was enough, however, for the demon’s mouth to snap shut on a howl of indignation as it lurched beneath him.

Seeing threatening movement out of the corner of his eye, Hiei shifted the slayer up and over his shoulder like a sack of grain as he twisted on one foot, skidding slightly on the uneven surface before he could gain enough purchase to leap. The slayer’s surprised yelp was lost in the breeze of their passage as he drew his sword’s sharp point down the creature’s back, though it only sparked against the hard shell, not even penetrating through the thick hide. With a curse, Hiei leapt again so that he could dump the girl, who would only get in his way.

He dropped her by a convenient tree, growling, “Stay out of the way, where it’s safe,” before turning back around to face the massive creature who extended six legs so that it could get up out of the lake that had sheltered it. Water poured in a veritable flood as it hefted its bulky body up, one giant pincer snapping angrily in the air as Kurama taunted it with his Rose Whip. The other, wrapped firmly in the fox’s thorny plants, kept slamming against the earth, as if the creature could not understand why its claw couldn’t open and was beating its frustration out on the ground around it.

A sudden thought occurred to Hiei, and he glanced back at the girl, who was already picking herself up from the untidy sprawl he had dropped her in. She looked ready to kill him.

That decided him.

Smirking, he was back by her side in a flash. Taking a hold of her chin in his free hand, naked sword kept carefully out of the way by the other, he stared into her startled brown eyes for a long, hard moment before his head dipped and his mouth caught hers.

She let out a startled gasp, muffled by the hard press of his lips against hers. It was quick, hard, more of a claiming of his prize than the slow exploration of texture and sensation that he would have preferred. Her lips were soft, warm, and strangely malleable, but he deliberately didn’t give her any time to react to the fierce kiss, for as abruptly as he had claimed her mouth with his, he was just as abruptly gone, leaping away so suddenly that it probably appeared to her as if he was there one moment and gone the next.

Leaving her quickly behind, he was almost out from under the trees when he heard the wind demon’s gratingly cheerful voice from somewhere above.

“Oooh---now that there be a biggy baddy worthy of a good fight, no?”

Irritated, Hiei glanced up at the swooping idiot, who couldn’t quite keep the delighted grin from off his face as he started spinning one of his arms in that unimaginative Tornado Fist of his. Took the damn demon long enough---and if Jin was finally here, it probably meant Yusuke was not far behind.

“Shotgun!”

The sky brightened in a trailing blue-white blaze as it blanketed the angry monster in an eerie glow, the muffled boom of impact shuddering the ground as the giant demon fell from the shock of it along his side.

But the detective’s blast had not wounded it seriously, for even as the spiritual energy dissipated, the crab-like demon was scrambling back up on its clawed legs with a roar of furious challenge.

This was not going to be easy, but nothing ever worthwhile was. Hiei shrugged, a grim smile twisting his lips up on one side as he saw his chance. Darting in, he struck the creature along the soft underside of its nearest leg, barely leaping away just in time to avoid being squashed as its considerable bulk crashed back down to the ground hard enough to rattle the trees for miles around.


“Damn you, you arrogant jerk!” Sango knew her angry shout was futile, as the fire demon had already disappeared, having dropped his useless baggage and already dismissed her from his mind.

Well, this baggage was hardly useless, and she wasn’t about to stay here, out of the way.

*Out of the way, my ass!*

She hardly ever cursed, but that three-eyed jerk could always be counted on to make her angry enough that she didn’t give a good damn. And what the hell was that---that---kiss, anyway? A consolation prize for telling her he wanted her to stay safely back out of the way while he and Kurama went and took care of that crazy hill-demon? And just who did he think he was, coming back just long enough to plant one on her and then disappear like that, leaving her to stare stupidly after him, not knowing what the hell had just happened? Damn all demons---they always thought they could just take whatever they damn well pleased and never gave thought to the other person’s feelings---or dignity---or---or---whatever! Oh, the arrogance of that short little bastard---like she owed him a stupid kiss just because he had caught her. Oh, she was going to kill him!

Though that ginormous demon might beat her to it. How typical for a demon to go off half-cocked without thinking through the obvious consequences of his rash actions first. What is up will always come down---especially if you cut its leg out from underneath it. If Hiei didn’t want to become a pancake, he’d better move his ass out of the way, and right quick, as that mountain-sized monster was about to topple right down on top of him.

Hiei managed to move, of course, just in the nick of time. Bracing herself against the impact of the huge demon’s fumble, Sango pulled her energy up just as Jin had taught her, using her flattened hands as the focus as her palms tingled with the power contained within them. When the tingle burned, she let it go, spinning sharply to add force to her throw, just as she had once done with her Haraikotsu.

The crescent-shaped blast of wind spun much like the giant boomerang, though it resembled one of Kagura’s Dance of Blades more than her lost weapon. Feeding on the air stirred up by its very passage, the wind-blade sharpened and elongated until it struck the demon’s exposed underside, slicing through the pulpy flesh like a knife through butter.

The demon screamed, a sound of raw fury as its free pincer snapped at the air as Jin let loose a Tornado Bomb that knocked it back off its other legs. Sango could see each of them throwing themselves at the giant monstrosity, like tiny ants fighting a giant cockroach, each using his own particular talent to strike out at the enraged demon. Yusuke was yelling obscenities as he continually blasted the demon with spiritual energy, distracting it as Kurama dove and circled, seeking to trap the crab’s second talon as he had its first. Hiei was methodically working his way around the demon’s length, appearing here and there to slash and stab as he used his incredible speed to circumvent the demon’s considerable size.

She hadn’t stood idly by watching, though, for her hands were twisting in the complicated side-over-side gesture she used to create her wind-balls, as Yusuke had so boorishly called them. Wishing she had her sword and knives---which seemed so much easier to use than the wind that was still so new to her---Sango sent the ball spinning at the demon, carefully aiming for its head, which was a weird parody of a bug’s acorn-shaped face, with clicking mandibles and bulging eyes the color of blood as its fury bled the milky orbs with the reddish glow of demonic rage.

The wind-ball was a direct hit---taking an eye with it as it exploded. Sango bared her teeth and followed up with a second blade of wind, darting forward to get around the thick armor along its back. She avoided a wicked grab for her by its strangely prehensile toes. She had never seen anything like this demon---it was absolutely huge, with a strange mix of many others that seemed familiar. Like how it resembled a crab, with its giant pincers and hardened shell, but had the face of a grasshopper or beetle and the six legs of a bee, but with prehensile claws that it could use for hands or feet.

Ow---those damn legs could also give a pretty good whack when she wasn’t paying enough attention. The wind she summoned died as she was tossed aside like a rag doll. She felt water close over her head, and spluttered back up to the surface to take a gasp of breath as the churning waves threatened to swamp her. She was a good swimmer, though, and managed to keep her head up just in time to see Hiei batted out of the air and drop like a stone. She didn’t see his spiky head emerge and her eyes narrowed as she heard Yusuke’s faint shout.

“Shit---Kurama, Hiei just went under! He can’t swim---damn it, you fucking lobster---Spirit Gun!”

She was diving under the water before the flare of Yusuke’s spiritual blast spread over the demon’s armor-plated back, snapping the split mouth back shut as it screamed. The water was murky; silt was churned up by the restless stamping of the creature, which stood half-in, half-out of the lake it had hidden in. She sent out her chi, seeking the fire apparition’s distinctive aura, and used the glowing beacon of it to grab hold of him. He fought her for a moment before realizing who it was. Wrapping her arm around him, Sango scissored her legs, frantically pumping for the surface. Finally breaking free with a gasp for the air her burning lungs were demanding, she hauled Hiei up beside her, keeping her arm locked just under his left shoulder. He spat and snarled, his hair a wet tangle around his face as his red eyes burned, his attention completely on the monster who had scuttled away from them.

“Hiei---” Sango panted, struggling to swim closer to the shore with his dead weight dragging beside her. She finally got close enough to the edge that they could stand, barely avoiding one of the demon’s legs, which slammed into the water not two feet from them. Waves swamped over her and Sango’s grip around Hiei’s shoulder loosened as she coughed the water from her lungs. She barely registered the others’ voices as they continued to fight somewhere above them.

“Damn it, why won’t this thing die?” Yusuke snarled. “Stupid, fucking roach---”

“Tornado Fist! Take that ye bugger---Yusuke, aim that higher, get under him there---Kurama, lad, watch out! He’s about to---” Jin’s warning was too late, for Sango heard the fox cry out, and Hiei stiffened beside her. Sango hissed, for the cool, wet skin under her fingers was suddenly burning hot, and she felt the apparition’s jyaki blazing around him like a smoldering black flame as he gathered it in.

“Hiei, what are you---” she gasped, trying to keep a hold of him even as he turned glowing red eyes on her that showed no pupil. The Jagan in the middle of his tangled black hair was shining like a neon beacon, and his expression was terrifying, for his lips were curled back over his teeth, exposing his fangs. His aura was a fierce black blaze that swam around his body as her astral sense overlapped the actual.

“Back,” he snarled, slipping from her loosened grip and pushing his sword into her hand. Fingers reflexively curving around the wrapped hilt, Sango fell back on her ass in the low water as he pushed her bodily out of the way. Her eyes widened and she stared transfixed as the fingers of his left hand jerked at the bandages that covered his right arm from palm to bicep. He had lost his coat somewhere in the murky water and he stood bare, muscles tightening along his back and shoulders as he turned away from her to face the retreating monster, who was now screaming in triumph as its second pincer finally broke through Kurama’s vines, almost snapping Jin right out of the sky.

Ice crept down Sango’s spine, setting the small hairs on her arms to standing. She didn’t know what the fire demon kept bound behind those thick bandages along his right arm, but it was something that frankly scared the shit out of her. She had felt that chill of dread once before, when Inuyasha’s father’s sword, Sounga, had split the dimension between worlds, opening up a gate between the living world and the darkest depths of hell. Whatever Hiei had behind those sacred wrappings, it was something that came from that chillingly empty and desolate place, and it pulled at her, the Abyss calling out to her just as it had before.

She had nearly fallen into that Abyss, her mind frozen as it called on her despair and self-recrimination. It was only Miroku’s grab for her that had saved her from falling right into the dark embrace of hell.

She wouldn’t be dragged under again, she refused, no matter how it called to her. Gripping the hilt of Hiei’s sword in both hands, she slammed it point-first into the silty bottom of the lake, wrapping herself tight around it as a cold wind rose behind her, sending the now icy waves to slap around her as her wet hair flew everywhere. That hungering menace was building as Hiei deliberately unwrapped his arm, revealing a snake-like pattern tattooed across his skin. As the last of the bandages fell away from the youkai’s braced form, Sango instinctively pressed her forehead against the T-bar of katana’s hard hilt and closed her eyes as she braced herself for what was to come.

“Dragon of the Darkness Flame!”

His cold, angry words etched themselves across her mind in lines of dark fire, and Sango felt the winds howl around her as the beast Hiei had summoned from the blackest pits of hell launched itself up with a scream of rage and defiance that had her shivering in reaction, for its chilling screech reached right into her soul and told her in no uncertain terms that this was darkness and anger in its rawest form---one that would eat its way into the very heart of its enemy and held no compassion for anything that might stand in its way. It was vengeance and hate and fury in its purest sense---both that hot, burning anger that could boil up inside a man and the cold, deadly, burning rage that could carry a woman through centuries biding her time to exact her revenge against her tormentors.

The beast screamed, and Sango’s soul resonated in answer, for she had known that raw fury, in both forms, and knew that this dark dragon was the very embodiment of the strength of her hatred---the force of which had seen her through the terrible agony of her heart transplant at Shigure’s callous hands and the resulting centuries of a hard and bitter existence, with only the fire of her hatred to keep her resolute on her lonely path.

Tears crept down her cheeks as she kept her eyes tightly shut and recognized it for what it was---and that the darkness that lurked inside the shadows of her soul was just as much a part of her as Kagura’s demon heart. Kurama had shown her how to accept and embrace that youkai part of herself, and suddenly, the darkness was not something she had to fear and deny. For Hiei held that darkness so close and tightly contained within him that he never gave an inkling to anyone that he did. For him to hold it always so near---it humbled her, who had always denied the darker part of herself, even as it was there, such a part of her that she couldn’t be who she was without it.

Swept up by that earth-shattering realization, Sango was only half-aware as the snarling dragon swirled over the giant crab-demon, whose roar turned terrified and defiant as the flying shadow wrapped around it. She could hear the others shouting, though she couldn’t understand what they were saying, and the noise and shrieks rose to a crescendo of agony that had her grinding her teeth together, fighting to keep her sanity as the darkness thickened and built until it could only crash. And when it did, it did so with a rush as Hiei sucked the dragon back inside himself, standing like the center of a whirlpool that hauled the winds up after it.

Forcing her eyes open, Sango watched as that dragon---as dark and shadowy as it had appeared to her mind---curled over itself and shrank, flying at Hiei like it would devour the short demon as it had the monstrous crab. But Hiei only held up his arm, bracing himself against its return. As it closed in, it shrank, finally wrapping around his arm with a last shriek of dying wind that sent the lake’s water swamping out in a cresting wave that all but knocked her over.

Choking, Sango forced herself up, yanking the sword free from the mud as she blindly lurched toward Hiei, for he had fallen to his knees with the dragon’s return. He looked up at her, his eyes black-rimmed with fatigue, as she dropped to her knees in the churning water in front of him. He sneered, but the red, pupil-less iris of his eyes were mere pinpricks, his eyes closing as he abruptly slumped forward into her waiting arms.