Overcoming Adversity

Chapter 16

---

By Youko Starr

A/N: As promised. And no, I shalle noe no more spoilers, and while I
am tempted to agree to ‘warm’ or ‘cold’ responses to questions, it
feels like it’ll ruin it. So you’ll find out when it happens in the
story, my friends. Oh, sorry about that FF.net. I meant you can go to
my website or the other place. Website -has- been updated now with
several things, so best to check the Information page for the updates.
The address can be found in my profile which is updated now. Sorry for
withholding this chapter, it was all I worked on story-wise I swear!
But I wanted to make sure I didn’t contradict something I posted
earlier in the story. I’ll apologize now. Things will get bad. Real bad
for a bit for all involved. I’m trying to take an angle I haven’t seen
anyone else take yet on these relationships, and the people that are
connected to the four main characters. Although it may seem familiar at
first, the next chapter wilMEDIMEDIATELY differ. (Told you there was a
reason I did a chapter of fluff…)

Glossary

Kouban: Police Box

Both came to the mutual decision that there was no need to return to
the school right away, so wasted the rest of the day at a nearby
shopping mall, carefully evading any officers who might notice their
truancy. Kagome had already missed her test, and there was no way the
coach would allow him to play in that evening’s game when he had missed
school. He would have only been forced to sit on the bench during
practice and watch everyone else prepare…or run laps and do
calisthenics until game time…then sit on the bench and watch everyone
else play.

No way in hell he intended to do that. He’d rather convince Mariko
to lie and say he took off sick…

And those three gossiping, busybodies would say that they saw him
during lunch. Smooth way to get busted in a lie.

Inuyasha sighed and leapt from the building top to the alley nearby,
lowering enough from his upright position so that Kagome’s feet gently
touched the ground when he released her thighs. “Look, if I go on the
school grounds, coach will force me into practice. I’ll meet you on
Kaitou Street when you finish talking to Tokashi-sensei.

“Okay, Inuyasha.” Leaving a kiss on his cheek, she continued towards
the school and crossed the parking lot. Inside, she found the halls
mostly deserted as students rushed away towards after school activities
of various kinds, departed for home, or walked towards after school
tutoring programs.

If I want to catch Tokashi-sensei before she leaves for the day,
I better hurry. She doesn’t stay behind on Fridays, Kagome thought,
increasing her speed into an easy sprint down the school corridor.
Despite the strict rules concerning running in the halls, there were
few teachers available to wss hss her breech of hallway conduct.

Kagome dashed past several classrooms that were already vacated by
the teacher that occupied them during school hours. Out of the corner
of her eye, she was able to see her three friends waving to her toward
them, the trio all wearing concerned and worried expressions. “Can‘t
stop! Gotta find, Tokashi-sensei!” And try to come up with a valid
excuse for not being there. Her mind returned to the task at hand:
finding the correct teacher and setting up a make up date for the test,
one that apparently was very important considering the instructor had
requested everyone try their hardest to arrive for it.

I don’t regret spending today with Inuyasha, but couldn’t he have
done this yesterday! If I get 0 marks for this test, my English grade
is done for! Of course, the chance of her English instructor still
being in class were low, which meant her grade would suffer horribly if
she wasn’t given the chance of a make up test because her absence was
unexcused.

She could get the absence excused…but that would require her mother
knowing she missed her afternoon classes. Mrs. Higurashi would want to
know why…and demand to know where her daughter had gone. That would
result in her mother speaking to Inuyasha’s mother, who would call the
school and ask if her son had attended.

And that would lead to a lot of nasty business for both of them. No
matter how cool Mariko was, and how patient and kind her own mother
was, she still didn’t desire to upset either of them.

The young miko sped around the corner, only to find the target of
her search less than a split second from being bowled over. Oh no!
she panicked, trying to come to a stop. Momentum carried her forward,
regardless of the halt of her feet. -Thud- the two of them made
painful contact, and Kagome found herself falling forward with the
young brown-haired woman she had run into. Rin’s fingers scratched and
grabbed madly at the wall, struggling to gain purchase to prevent her
fall to the hard tile of the school’s corridor.

And neither of them fell.

A strong hand held Kagome by the shoulder, its wrist connected to an
impressively muscled arm leading up to a strong, lean torso clad in a
classy white shirt. Long silver hair spilled over the shoulder, and
didn’t end until it reached his waist.

Kagome’s jaw failed to work, and seemed to refuse to utter the
thanks she urged it to speak. Sesshoumaru glared at her, hostile,
silent, an egoistical and haughty aura surrounding him. Everything
about his expression seemed to say, “I’m a bad ass, and I despise you,
miserable human.”

Sesshoumaru lowered his arm from behind Rin’s back, which had
stopped the schoolteacher’s fall, and released Kagome’s shoulder from
the grip of his other hand. Rin, looking a bit shook up, straightened
her blouse and looked at the student that accidentally assaulted her.

“You shouldn’t run in the halls, Miss Higurashi. Is there a reason
why you were speeding down the corridors so quickly?” Rin asked.

Sesshoumaru said nothing, and merely stared past Kagome as if she
didn’t exist, waiting for his fellow teacher to finish her talk with
the student.

“I was looking for you, Tokashi-sensei. I would, I mean, would you
please allow me a remake. I didn’t mean to miss the test today,” she
tried to explain.

“Calm down, Miss Higurashi. Let me see your excuse slip,” Rin told
her gently.

Great. Kagome’s shoulders slumped, and she muttered out. “I
don’t have one. I’m sorry, Tokashi-sensei, I know your policy, and I
don’t have any real reason for missing your class.”

Rin glanced out of the corners of her eyes at Sesshoumaru, who gazed
down the hall, rather than at her or the student. Inuyasha was
missing as well. If she was with him, I wonder what Sesshoumaru would
think about it. “You’ll need to make it up at lunch Monday,” Rin
decided, just when Kagome thought the teacher would deny her request on
account of her having skipped class.

Kagome’s face lit up, and she could have hugged both of them. Her
English grade was saved (unless she completely bombed and failed the
test.) “Thank you, Tokashi-sensei. You don’t know how much I appreciate
this! I’m sorry for delaying you, bye!” And she turned to leave, walking
very quickly the direction she came before Rin could rescind the offer.

“Don’t tell anyone Miss Higurashi! Or else everyone will want
makeup’s!” the teacher called behind her, chuckling softly.

When Kagome had gone completely, Sesshoumaru finally turned to
glance at Rin, one slender black eyebrow raised. “You allowed her a
make up test?”

“She’s a good student,” Rin replied, watching Kagome go. “And a nice
girl,” she added.

Sesshoumaru scoffed lightly, although there was no indication if it
was in response to her first or second statement. “You were going to
deny her request. Why did you change your mind?”

She would not tell him she had merely ranted the girl’s request for
the simple fact that she was his younger brother’s girlfriend, and that
maybe, if Inuyasha could befriend a human to such an extent, there was
hope for his older brother. Instead, Rin simply smiled and continued to
walk. “Because she would fail if I didn’t.” At least her statement
wasn’t false.

***

Miroku and Sango would have beleasleased if they could camp out in
the woods for a few more days, unfortunately, there were other things
requiring their full attention that were more important than sex.

On the ride home, as his car cruised slowly through the congested
roads leading to Tokyo, Sango spoke up about the discovery she had
made, and what her grandmother revealed to her afterward.

“It’s a little hard to explain, unless you see it yourself,” she
commented, while he mulled over what she told him about the book’s
passages. The book’s authoress is who I was named for, and it appears
that she knew your ancestor.”

“Strange. Father has not mentioned anything to me concerning a demon
slayer and our ancestor. I was only told that the one that for which
both of us were named was a powerful monk in his time, and feared by so
many demons that many fled to northern Japan.” He thoughtfully gazed
out the window as he drove on ahead, a bit troubled by the outcome of
the relationship between their ancestors.

“Don’t you think its sad that he left her alone…” Sango began,
carefully avoiding her boyfriend’s face as she spoke.

“I would never leave you, Sango.” The tone of her voice and evident
sadness creeping into her heart, souring her jovial mood brought the
harshly replied statement from him, turning from the window and
removing a hand from the steering wheel. He cupped her chin in his hand
to force her to look at him while he continued. “My ancestor was
foolish.”

His reassurance of devotion to her would have been appreciated, and
received similar reply, however, Sango reached up with her own hand and
turned his face to the road, where he was slowly beginning to veer into
the opposing lane, “Miroku, the road!”

“Right.” A shift of his attention, and gentle turn of the wheel
placed them safely center of the correct lane again. “But I meant what
I said. Don’t forget it.”

At ease once more, she nodded and smiled, then dug into the glove
compartment to remove the cell phone Miroku hid within it during school
to prevent its confiscation, since only teachers could were allowed to
possess them on campus during the school hours.

“Auntie? It’s me, Sango. Is Kagome there…oh great! Could you tell
her and Inuyasha to meet me and Miroku at my house? Thanks, Auntie.”
She clicked the phone off, then glanced at her lover. “There’s
something I haven’t said yet, Miroku….”

“And what would that be, Sango?” he asked, swinging the car onto
another street by turning the wheel, practically cutting another
automobile off.

He drives nearly as aggressively as he flirts with women, she
mused, before more important thoughts were pushed to the surface of
consciousness. “There was another person mentioned. Kaede never
mentioned him but…apparently a dog demon named…” She trailed off,
staring ahead as she tried to call the name exactly. “Toga.”

“Toga, huh? I don’t know…The only demons of memorable history
mentioned by Father were the Unnamed one, Sesshoumaru, and another that
he specifically told me had been lost from history. Apparently, he had
been nearly as bad as the Unnamed, until he fell in love with a miko a
few centuries ago. She changed him so that he stopped his rampaging and
killing, and he later disappeared. His name was rubbed from many books,
lost. I checked myself, and where the kanji belonged, I found a smudged
dark spot.

“Do you think it could be the same demon?”

“There’s a possibility.” He turned into the next street, and made
another sharp left into Sango’s driveway, stopping and parking the car.
“Inuyasha might know, there is a chance that his own father has told
him stories of dog demons in the past.”

“Why do you need to know about my old man’s stories for!?” a voice
called from one of the tall trees on Sango’s lawn. Both Miroku and
Sango peered up at the thickfed fed tree, finding two figures perched
side by side, one held rather securely within the arms of another.

“How long have you two been waiting?” Sango asked curiously. “I
called just a few minutes ago.”

“Actually, we just got here,” Kagome replied as Inuyasha
hopped down and set her to her feet on the grass. Her smile, which
appeared even more radiant, caused Sango to raise a brow, wondering at
what had given her cousin such a good mood…

Inuyasha must have finally come clean about his feelings, she
decided, although she would definitely ask later.

“Yeah, and we didn’t have to drive through evening traffic,”
Inuyasha boasted, folding his arms. “Now what’s that mess about dog
demons and my dad?”

“Perhaps this is a subject best talked about inside.” Miroku gave an
uncertain glance around the neighborhood. As long as he had known
Sango, he had also known that it was difficult to gauge who had their
window open…and their attention on their neighbor’s guests as well.
There could be serious consequences to someone listening in on their
conversation, especially when it concerned demons and other things of
mythological nature.

“Alright,” Inuyasha agreed.

They were lead up the steps, removing their shoes on the mat before
entering. The small house was actually rather quaint, resembling
Kagome’s in some respects, with minor differences in detail. Both
families were modest, without the wealth that Inuyasha possessed, or
the comfortable upper middle class standings that Miroku’ssehosehold
enjoyed. Kagome, who visited Sango often, especially during the last
few years as a teenager, felt right at home.

Sango found her home deserted. A note signed by her mother awaited
her on the kitchen table, warning that the family would be returning
soon if Sango returned before them, and had gone to purchase groceries.

“You guys want any drinks?” Sango called from the kitchen area as
her friends settled into the living room, making themselves
comfortable. Each called out their request, and the girl returned a few
minutes later balancing a tray with four tall glasses.

“Inuyasha, has your father ever told you about a monstrous dog demon
that terrorized Japan a few hundred years ago?”

Tilveilver-haired hanyou only shook his head in response to his
friend’s inquiry. “Only dog demons I know about that made any kind of
trouble for humans is Sesshoumaru, and he only struck out down one
human village…or so he says…because of insult to our family.”

“No one else though? Nothing about a dog demon that fell in love
with a miko?” Miroku persisted as Sango sat between he and her cousin.

KagoKagome shifted uneasily in her seat, suddenly without thirst for her
juice. “What happened, Miroku? You two wouldn’t want to know this stuff
unless there was a reason.”

“You’re right, Kagome…” the older girl admitted. “My grandmother
passed a book on to me last night…an old one much like the one
Kaede-baachan showed us. It was written by one of my ancestors, a demon
slayer by the name of…Sango.” Without looking up from her hands to see
their surprised faces, which she imagined must have looked very similar
to how her own facial expression transformed while she read, Sango
continued, blurting everything out before her courage could fade. “A
demon named Toga disappeared afterward, and this ancestor of mine wrote
that he had been crushed because of Kikyou‘s death…apparently they were
going to get married… in the demon way.”

Inuyasha stared at them in such a way that Sango was startled into
silence.

“Is the name familiar, Inuyasha?” Kagome asked curiously.

“Yeah, it’s familiar alright. That’s not just any dog demon you were
talkin’ about, Miroku…Toga is the true name of my father. The name he
was born with and used before ruling the western lands.”

***

“Oh, be careful with the eggs, Kohaku!” the boy’s mother cried as
the carton containing the delicate white shells landed a little roughly
into the trunk of the car.

Kohaku mumbled something that resembled a ‘Sorry, Mom’ and gently
placed the carton to a safer location before piling more groceries
inside the trunk while his father assisted his grandmother into the
car.

A few minutes later the small family was traveling to their home,
the young in tin the rear seat gazing sullenly out the window and
wishing he could be anywhere else.

***

Kagome had lost control of her voice, too shocked by the discovery
of the identity of the fourth member of the small group of heroes.
There was simply too much linked together for it to all be coincidence,
forcing her to not only question herself and her existence, but her
friends and their own lives as well.

Had everything about her life and her friends been purposefully
constructed up until this one moment.

“Then…all of us are descendents of the four saviorxcepxcept for
Kagome,” Miroku stated calmly, once he had gotten over the shock and
realized what a fool he had been to not see the pattern.

“Because Kagome is Kikyou’s reincarnation,” Sango completed
for him. “There has to be a reason for us all meeting each other, for
being linked this way.”

Inuyasha remained sitting on the floor, shaking his head. All of
this time, his father had never mentioned having a miko lover , nor had
he mentioned anything about destroying some great and evil force. To be
honest, Inutaisho had been rather reserved, and quiet about his past
accomplishments, telling his son only what was necessary. Sesshoumaru
had talked to him so little, that he had been useless for getting
information from.

“If it was all fate, Dad wouldn’t be dead. He would be here
instead.”

Miroku shook his head. “The future is n set set in stone, Inuyasha.
Perhaps you are here in your father’s place because he died and
was unable to fulfill the rest of his destiny. Instead, it came to you
for you to complete.“ Miroku stroked his chin, gazing thoughtfully at
Kagome, then at the girl beside him. “Get the book, Sango. There has to
be a reason for why this has hapd. Id. If we read through it, we may
discover something you missed.21; 21;

“Alright.”

A knock at the door diverted her attention from her task before she
even fully left the room. “I’ll be right back, guys, I think my
family’s home.”

The thought never occurred to her that her parents had no reason to
knock. When she opened the door, a pair of uniformed police officers
stood on the porch patiently waiting for her. “Afternoon. Are you
Higurashi Sango?”

Sango immediately scowled. “Yes, that’s me. If you came to get my
brother cause he’s in trouble again, he won’t be home for a little
while,” she told them. Hardly home for even a few months, and already
he was in enough trouble to send the cops to their door again.

Both cops exchanged glances, then the one who addressed her spoke up
again. “I’m afraid that isn’t the reason for our visit, Sango-chan.
Would you take a seat and--”

“I don’t want to take a seat. Just tell me what’s wrong,” she
insisted, a ball of worry gnawing at her midsection, tightening her
gut. The cops hadn’t come for Kohaku. That could only mean they had
come because of him.

Her brother could have gotten into some fight, or been injured
seriously by another gang member. Kohaku was prone to fighting, and
often returned bearing bruises and scars, sometimes serious enough to
send her mother into tears of worry that he would be killed one day if
he kept up his reckless behavior. Recently…they had even considered
sending him away to military school.

“It’s…about your family.” The officer, who Sango recognized as one
who often inhabited the nearby Kouban a few blocks down the street,
seemed to have difficulty continuing. “They won’t be returning
Sango-chan. There was a car accident.”

Sango’s legs weakened, nearly sending her to the floor when her
knees buckled. A strong pair of arms supported her from behind, keeping
her upright and preventing her fall to the ground. The whole room was
spinning, her entire world seeming to whirl out of control all at one
moment, pitched upside down by this incredible lie. “No….that’s wrong.
They only went to the supermarket.” The note itself was still on the
kitchen table. If only her legs would move for her to go fetch it for
the cops to see.

The cops looked uncomfortable, hating that they had to break bad
news of such a serious level to a girl as kind and good as her. “We
wouldn’t lie about this, Sango-chan. You’ll need to come to morgue
later to claim the bodies.”

“No!” she screamed out. Her body trembled, and she fought and
struggled against Miroku’s hold, putting up so much of a fight that the
young man nearly had to release her to avoid being damaged by her
flailing s. &s. “They can’t all be dead!”

“Sango,” Miroku breathed against her ear, tightening his grip around
her. “Calm down. It will do you no good to scream. You must calm down.”

Kagome and Inuyasha were at her sides, trying to help their friend
subdue Sango as she wailed in grief.

It took several moments, but Inuyasha’s hanyou strength was more
than enough to force Sango’s arms to her sides, and she was carried by
both men to a chair and sat down until fury passed, replaced by
anguished sobs.

The cops long gone, after explaining to Miroku that Sango would need
to meet them at the morgue once the clean up of the accident scene was
finished. Their discovery of the link between past and current events
was forgotten.

Inuyasha sat silently by the window, feeling relatively useless in
the situation, while Miroku and Kagome remained close to their friends
side. Both girls hugged each other, slick tear tracks covering their
cheeks, crying over the lost of their family members. Miroku sat at
Sango’s side, his arms around her, as he murmured the only words of
consolation that he could give, and prayed for her loss.

***

The morgue was a solemn and dreary place located near the hospital.
Kagome and Miroku insisted on accompanying Sango, refusing to allow her
to go alone to claim the bodies of her family members. Where Kagome
went, Inuyasha could be found as well, although he refused to go inside
the building where the scent of the dead was sure to overwhelm his
demon senses.

“Hold my hand, Sango. We’ll stay by you, no matter what,” Kagome
assured her, although her own eyes were still reddened as well. She had
already called her mother to relay the good news, that her father’s
family had perished in a car accident that afternoon, and that they
would be going with Sango to the morgue. While her mother had insisted
on coming, Kagome begged her to simply remain home with Souta.

“I’ll…I’ll be alright,” Sango told them when they reached the doors.
“You don’t have to come in.” Her cousin and boyfriend were left in the
hall as she ventured into the room containing the dead bodies.

Only three tables were newly occupied, their corpses draped with
sheets. The mortician on duty turned towards her. “Higurashi Sango,
yes? I’ve been expecting you.”

The man seemed a little too cheerful about his job, but Sango
supposed if it were necessary for her to be around corpses all the
time, she would have had to find something enjoyable about it as well.
He probably felt this way whenever he saw a living person
enter.

“Yes, I’m Sango,” she told him.

The first corpse he showed her happened to be her father. The sheet
was tugged down enough to show his face, which had been mangled
slightly on one side in the accident, his cheek and brow penetrated by
glass and metal.

Her mother had been thrown from the car. Sango couldn’t discern the
actual cause of her death, although when she asked, the mortician said
it was the impact. The back of her head hit the concrete, rather than
her face.

Her grandmother died in the actual collision, and had been crushed
to suffocation, many of her internal organs failing after the brutal
smash. From the shoulders up, her grandmother appeared to simply be
sleeping.

Fresh tears stung Sango’s eyes, burning until she was forced to
blink them away. “My brother. He was with them. What about him?” she
asked when the clipboard was gently pushed towards her. She signed her
name on the line, then gave him an expectant, teary-eyed look.

“Excuse me, Higurashi-san, but there was no fourth person found. The
police only brought three bodies to us.”

***

Sango came rushing out of the room, nearly barreling into Miroku. If
anything, he had thought that the sight of what was in that room had
sickened her, and that she was going to empty her stomach. What he
didn’t expect, was her hysterically screaming that they had to call the
hospital and find her brother.

“But Sango--in there--isn’t he--?”

She interrupted him quickly, shaking her head and practically
breaking his fingers when she snatched the cell phone. “He’s not in
there with them. He didn’t die! My brother’s okay!”

A few moments later the three of them burst outside, Sango rapidly
firing questions into a cell phone about a young man with dark hair and
brown eyes.

***

The game ended some time ago, Naraku walked briskly away from the
school towards an abandoned building at the edge of the ward. There was
business to be handled, business that far outweighed the recently won
game. As far as he was concerned, school was inconsequential and
unimportant. It was the shikon, and his progress that matt in in
attaining the remaining piece of it.

“I have done as you asked and returned with the boy.”

The sound of her clear voice was music, especially since she told of
the mission’s success that evening. Kagura stood before him, hair drawn
into a bun and carefully held in place with two sticks, a loose kimono
of expensive design covering her sleek form.

A kimono he had brought the ungrateful wench. She was lucky he had
even given her will of her own, at least…partial will of her own. There
was the matter of him holding her life, and that of the albino bitch in
his hands.

Standing beside her, was a young man, no older than fourteen. He
wore a bloodstained shirt and appeared to be mildly injured himself,
though so sso seriously that he might bleed to death and die right
there.

“Come.”

The boy reacted to Naraku’s voice. Blank eyes staring forward,
devoid of life, face lacking expression, he walked forward to his
master. Naraku turned the boy around, brushing the hair from the nape
of Kohaku’s neck until a small protrusion of shining pink was revealed,
positioned just beneath the hairline.

He deftly removed the single jewel shard and shoved the boy forward.
Gasping for breath, consciousness suddenly returned to him, Kohaku
scrambled to his feet, eyes wild and scared.

“Where am I?! How’d I get here?”

A sly smirk lifted the corner of Naraku’s lips. It was often as
close to a smile as he was able to give, and was able to provoke fear
in his many underlings who understood just what it meant. “You do not
remember what happened? You came to me, asking to be part of my gang,
remember?”

“I know that! But how did I get here? I was just in my Dad’s
car, we were driving home…”

“Then I shall have to remind you of your deeds.”

A rush of returning memories assaulted the young man. Excruciating
pain throbbed at the back of his neck where the shikon had been
removed, seeming to spread to every inch of his body, down his arms and
to the tips of his fingersp>
p>

His thoughts were given clarity. The fog lifted from his memories,
leaving behind a vague feeling of apprehension that told him he didn’t want
to remember.

***

No less than three hours later, a car of disappointed teenagers
pulled in front of Sango‘s home. Not only had they called, but had had
also visited several nearby hoals als surrounding the area, only to
find none of them had admitted a young man that resembled Kohaku‘s
description. At Kagome‘s suggestion, Sango had even phoned home, only
to receive no answer, an obvious indication that her brother was not
there either.

Her friends could tell she was trying to be strong, and that it only
a matter of time before she would break down. None of them wanted to
add to the weight that undoubtedly rested on her shoulders now.

“Hey look…Miroku. I‘m going to take Kagome home, alright? It‘s
pretty late now, and you should stay here with Sango.”

“Good idea.” Miroku sighed, unable to put the appreciation he felt
to his team mate and friend into words. Gently, he slid his arm around
Sango‘s shoulders, and led her up the short steps of her home to the
front door.

Saddened that she was unable to offer any more help, and that her
weak condolences and words were unable to console her best friend and
cousin, Kagome climbed onto Inuyasha‘s back, and together, she and her
hanyou traveled to the direction of the shrine.

Once inside, Sango began to weep in frustration. She punched the
wall and tore herself away from Miroku‘s grip, loathing the sense of
helplessness that had embedded itself in her. The hopeless situation,
the loss of her family, and unknown whereabouts of her little brother
were enough to wrench a scream from her throat.

“Why!? Why my family!?” she cried, raggedly sobbing while glistening
tears left slick, wet tracks on her cheeks.

“Sango.”

A table was overturned. In her fit of rage, the grieving girl had
slammed her fist into a small end table near the couch, knocking every
item atop it over to the floor. “If…if I had come home directly on
time, I would have been with them at the store!”

“And you would have died too, Sango,“ Miroku reminded as he stepped
towards her, trying to talk sense into the woman he loved.

“Maybe I should have! I should have been with my family, Miroku!
Maybe I could have helped my dad avoid the truck that killed them all!
I’m a better driver! I could have taken the wheel! I could--”

Miroku embraced her from behind, dragging her back to his chest to
hold her firmly in place. He found her to be slightly stronger than he
anticipated, and her struggles were nearly enough to force him to let
go. “No! I won’t let you go, Sa You You shouldn’t have been in that
car. You would have died with them. If your father was unable to turn
the wheel to avoid the truck, then it is doubtful that you from
the back seat would have been able to help him!” She shook for her
freedom, wriggling her shoulders and fighting until she had loosened
one arm enough to wrench it free. Her arm bent, and she planted her
elbow stolidly in Miroku’s abdomen.

That made him let go. Stumbling back, Miroku held his gut,
and stared at the defiant girl in front of him. Eyes still watering to
the brim with tears, her shoulders shook with anguish and grief. “You
don’t know. You don’t know how I feel right now. My whole family is
gone, Miroku! I don‘t even know where my little brother is. What if
he’s lying dead, or hurt somewhere unable to get to a hospital!?”

“Kohaku will be found,” he assured her, although his statement came
out in a wheeze. “And you’re right. I don’t know how you feel right
now. But I know how I would feel if my family died today. I too would
be overcome with grief, Sango, but you cannot blame yourself for not
being there to die with them. They wouldn’t have wanted that.” He
straightened completely, feeling the pain slowly dull to nothing more
than an ache.

Sango’s features softened, the set grimace on her features melting
when she saw that she had struck har harder than she intended. What
came over me…I shouldn’t have hit him..he only wanted to help me.
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I have to be strong. I have to be strong so
I c I can find Kohaku and help him.” A bit tentatively she moved
forward, then was drawn by Miroku against him once more, hugged gently
against him while he reassuringly stroked her back.

“No need to apologize. I will stay here as long as you need me,” he
told her, gently turning her the opposite direction and then leading
her towards the hall. “Bathe, try to rest and get some sleep. Nobody
expects you in school tomorrow.”

“You’re right,” Sango responded, voice dull, yet an improvement over
her sobbing hysterics and enraged cries.

Miroku stopped, not nearly as much of a pervert that he would follow
her into the bathroom, at least he wouldn’t if she didn’t ask him to.
Until needed, he would entertain himself with the family television.

The young priest was not yet to the end of the hall when the sound
of Sango‘s piercing scream cut through the silence of the quiet home.

Alright. I am quite mean, I know. But be patient, I promise
with the next three chapters -all- of your questions shall be
answered.  I will only warn when I say the next few chapters will
be a little angsty.

Concerning the bitching teachers: Like real life, there are
people that bitch for the sake of bitching. Nobody -really- cares how
long Inu or Sess‘s hair is, but it -is- longer than school policy,
which gave them just one more thing to gripe about. Especially since
Sess considers himself above the rules of human society and is skirting
a thin line when it comes to following theuireuirement the the will.

I had also spent about twenty minutes editing parts of this
chapter, but my comp froze when I tried to save and I lost it… not
doing that again. So apologizing again if anything is confusing.

Hope that answered your question