Splintered Coral – Part Ten

Author’s Note: ^_^; Procrastination is my new best friend. Could ya tell? That, and I kind of forgot the what the plot I had Naraku’s plot was, so now I’m sort of playing this by ear… Eh heh. XD

Anyway, a forewarning… There’s a bit more profanity than usual in this chapter. Hee… What can I say? Writing Kagura-scenes is FUN!

Disclaimer: Manga-ka’s have deadlines. I don’t do well with deadlines. Therefore, I am no manga-ka. As such, it can be logically deduced that I don’t own Inuyasha.

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Her lungs ached as she finally stumbled, having unexpectedly reached the smooth crest of a hill. Having grown dizzy from the lack of necessary air, Ansho managed to trip over her own feet, falling to the ground with a skidding thump. Her fingers dug into the soil as she let out a dry sob of utter frustration.

Why did he have to be so… So… So unbelievably…

Him…?

Clamping her eyes shut so that she could close out the world around her, Ansho focused on regaining her breath. She had been sprinting for a good fifteen minutes or so, fueled onward by her unforeseen anger. Finally, she felt herself calming, and she opened her senses as she did so. All was quiet, and it remained so for a while longer.

That is, until a faint jangling reached her ears. She listened intently until she identified the source of the noise.

Miroku had taken it upon himself to follow her.

Ansho’s jaw clenched as she struggled to keep her temper under control. However, for all of her effort, the results weren’t coming too well. Once again, she closed her eyes, letting her fists clench as she tried to regulate and slow the pattern of her breathing, a calming technique she had been taught ages ago.

‘No… A technique we had been taught. Curse it all! Why does this whole thing have to be so confusing? Stupid memories…’ Seriously agitated now, her eyes blinked open, only to light upon a patient figure standing a few yards away. Miroku made to speak, but she cut him off scathingly.

"What did you follow me here for?" He winced, almost unnoticeably, at the tone she had chosen.

"Ansho-"

"You know what? Don’t even bother. I’m sick of this!" she snapped, turning to stomp off.

"Wait! Ansho, I’m sorry!" This caused the taijiya to whirl around again, the ends of the sash that held her stomach guard in place twisting around her as she did so before swinging back to the side.

"For what?" she asked bitterly, her glare narrowed dangerously. He stuttered slightly, caught off his guard. "For groping me, again? Don’t you dare try to fool me, Houshi-sama," she said, the honorific dripping with sarcasm. "You don’t mean that. What is it that you say so often after getting slapped? ‘It was worth it’, right? Well, I’m starting to think that getting away from you would be ‘worth it’."

The expression Miroku wore while she spoke was unreadable. However, if Ansho were to be required to choose any adjective to describe it, she would have to choose…

Crushed.

…But then, he deserved it.

"You… You don’t mean that," Miroku said after a moment of struggling for words.

"Oh? And what makes you think that? Hmmm?" Ansho crossed her arms haughtily, her posture clearly stating for her that she severely doubted he had any semblance of a good reason. She really wasn’t expecting the sad smile that slowly softened his face.

"Well… You’re Sango." Her mouth shrunk into a thin line, the intensity of her glare worsening.

"Am I? I thought I was Ansho, remember? This funny thing happened where the person I used to be got split into two different people, and I just happen to be the one who had to change her name. In any case, there’s a big difference from me and the old Sango." With a finishing ‘humph’, Ansho raised a hand to push her ponytail behind her shoulder. Much to her surprise, Miroku suddenly stepped forward, catching her hand in his ungloved hand. With no small amount of chagrin, Ansho found herself stuttering when she said, "H-Houshi-s… sama?"

"That’s not true. You’re not that different."

"And how is that?" she said, quickly regaining her composure. She attempted to pull her hand free, but Miroku didn’t relent in his grip. Truth be told, he wasn’t planning to. For the past few days, Ansho had constantly dodged his attempts to understand her better. He wasn’t going to let her evade him any longer. Taking a breath, he began.

"You’re strong. You’re the Sango who usually puts her mind to something and keep fighting. You’re the Sango who puts me in my place, and makes sure I don’t dig myself into a hole with my own stupidity. You have a will most women don’t have. You take things in stride, and when things are thrown at you, you usually deal with them accordingly." He paused for a moment, pondering whether he should continue.

…It was now or never. Who knew when he’d next have her undivided attention?

"You’re also the Sango who keeps to yourself too much." Although she tensed at this, and tugged at her hand a bit, he pressed forward. "When something is bothering you, you do everything within your ability to act like nothing’s wrong; to make sure nobody notices. Instead of letting someone who wants to aid you aid you, you try to keep to yourself… And, eventually, everything crumbles.

Ansho stood unmoving for a long period, pensive. It was almost as though time had been put out, and it was waiting for something, anything, to happen so that it might be rekindled. Yet, of all the things that could have happened- a slap, a sarcastic comeback, and earthquake that would cause the ground beneath them to gape open and swallow them whole- Miroku wasn’t quite predicting what did occur.

With a heartfelt sigh, Ansho took a step, leaning forward to rest her head against the monk’s chest. He stared down at the back of her head, unsure of what to do, say, or think.

"If you see that so easily, why do you refuse to do anything about it before I do crumble?"

A sigh escaped him as he slowly raised his arms to hug her loosely, continuing to search for the appropriate words.

*

Sango ran a hand through Kirara's fur, trying her best not to think too much. If she started thinking, she'd think about what had happened a little less than an hour ago. If she started thinking about, she'd start wondering what she wasn't there to witness at the moment. That, in turn, would lead to her growing annoyed, or, heavens forbid…

Jealous.

Sure, Ansho had been angry with Miroku when they’d both disappeared. But the houshi did have quite the way with words. She herself knew that. Add that to the fact that she knew Ansho didn’t quite hate him as much as she pretended to…

It was a mixture leading to disaster.

"This whole situation is utterly rotten," Sango grumbled to herself. "You don’t believe what they say, do you Kirara? That whole, ridiculous thing about how opposites attract?" she asked, looking down at her small companion. The currently peaceful youkai merely blinked up at Sango, ears twitching slightly. Sango nodded crisply. "Neither do I!"

Kirara sighed as a shift in the wind ruffled her fur lightly. Why was it that humans were so stubbornly stupid at times?

And just who said that she agreed that the attraction of opposites was a falsehood?

Silly mistress…

*

The wind demon’s eyebrows were drawn as she focused. While manipulating the wind within her own aura was fairly simple, it required a bit more work to control the airflow without. Couple that with the fact she had to make her youki as inconspicuous as possible while keeping her feather stationary about a hundred feet above the ground, and it was no surprise Kagura wasn’t exactly pleased with her position.

‘Stupid bastard and his stupid, stupid, annoying plots…’ she thought moodily. ‘I hope he gets castrated one of these days…’ A smirk appeared on her face as she scanned the road below her.

‘In fact, I hope I’m the one that gets to do it.’ The smirk quickly vanished into one of disgust. ‘Wait- To hell with that idea. No fucking way I want to see accidentally see anything on that jackass. Maybe I can talk that creepy bitch Kikyou into helping me out. Nah, she hasn’t come around since Naraku shoved her off that cliff. Pity… Humph. I wouldn’t even have this problem if that bastard Sesshoumaru hadn’t been so high and mighty…’

Continuing to let her thoughts wander, Kagura waited.

*

Kagome rubbed her right temple, trying to lessen her almost-throbbing headache.

"Okay, again Inuyasha. Where is Shippou-chan?" The hanyou shrugged nonchalantly.

"I told you. The kid who had the orb thing wouldn’t give it up, so I told her that she could have Shippou if she gave it to me. She agreed, and now we have the damn ball."

"So you bartered him away?!" the schoolgirl hissed, eyes narrowing.

"Feh. What else was I supposed to do?" Inuyasha said. "At least we have what we came for." He gestured vaguely at sphere in Kagome’s hand.

"Inuyasha, osuwari! I can’t believe you! Shippou-chan is just a little kid! How dare you give him away? You could have found something else! Just, ugh! Osuwari! Now we have to go get him back!" Kagome snapped, glaring at the now ground-kissing Inuyasha.

"Go get who?"

"Excu- What?" Kagome’s jaw dropped as she swirled around to see a grinning Shippou a few feet away. "Shippou-chan! How did you get here?!" He grinned, bouncing over and jumping into the girl’s arms. She proceeded to hug him cheerfully.

"It was easy! I just played with her for a while. When her mama came to take her home, I hid while she wasn’t looking. And then I came and found you!" he boasted, enjoying the attention.

"Wow! I’m so proud of you! Though, I still can’t believe Inuyasha left you there like that. Well, now that we’re all here, lets eat and go! The others are probably wondering what’s happened to us!"

Inuyasha muttered a few choice words to himself as he pried himself from the dirt. Cursed, unnecessary rosary beads… On the upside, at least some ramen was on the way.

*

Miroku glanced down again when he felt the taijiya sigh. They had been standing in silence for a while, simply taking the time to think. And there was a lot to think about. However, there was one matter in particular that had been pressing at Miroku’s mind, and it had waited long enough to brought up. Gently, he raised his hands to Ansho’s shoulders, taking a small step backwards. She frowned, confused as she debated whether or not to take offence.

"Houshi-sama?"

"Ansho… We need to talk." He felt her slump slightly beneath his touch.

"Is it about what happened this morning?" she asked. Miroku nodded. "Fine. What more do you want to say about it?" Just by looking at her, the monk could tell she wasn’t very happy with the topic. Neither was he, for that matter, but something had to be said.

"First off, I wanted to apologize for yelling at you," Miroku said. "I never even considered the idea that everything wouldn’t go back to normal, and I suppose that unnerved me. But I did mean what I said… If Naraku manages to get his filthy hands on one of those orbs, who knows what could happen?"

"I know…" Ansho grudgingly admitted. "It’s just… It seems it would be so much simpler if we remained two people. We don’t even know if it is possible to go back to being who we were. What’s the use of getting anyone’s hopes up?"

"There will be a way," Miroku stated, staring down at her intensely. "I swear, I won’t stop looking until I find it or until I die." Ansho flinched slightly.

"Don’t say that. Defeating Naraku is more important than getting Sango and I back to normal, and you know it."

"Then what about Kohaku? What happens if- when- he comes back to being himself at the end of it all? When he starts to remember, how will he survive without his sister? The sister he knows…?" He knew it had hit home. Seeing that Ansho was shaking slightly with her realizations, Miroku drew her closer once more to briefly hug her comfortingly.

"Come on," he said softly. "Let’s head back, all right?" Mutely, she nodded and pulled away, and the two began the trek back the way they had come.

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Aamalie: Eh… I had the first 2 1/2 pages of this written out for about three weeks… The second half just didn’t want to get written though… So I decided to see what Inu, Kag, and Shippou were doing. ^_^; And then I wanted to write about Kagura, so I went back and had fun with that… *creeps quietly away from the Naraku-fans*

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Rome34- You make sense... And yeah, that pretty much cuts it. ^^;

Demon Exterminator Barbie- LMAO! I agree! ^__^ Boxers... LOL! As for whether or not he'll have to choose... You'll see. ^.~

Raven Demon- ^_^; Hee... Yeah. I read this fic recently on Yakusoku to Negai that sort of involved that... I believe it's called, "Reckoning" by... Uh... I forget who. ^_^;

Lily Thorne- v.v Yeah... Well, I was considering going with the "never-update" thing, but then I got a few death threats. So, here's the next chapter!

Ghoul King- Well, I already KNEW that... Though I doubt the English-accent part... o.O

Queenizzay- Wah! I finally updated... x.x *pokage* MP time. =P

Aprill May- Actually, some more ego-feeders WOULD be nice. ^^ Keep 'em comin'!

Chiisai-tori- Yesh, I gave Miroku a pretty rough job, eh? ^_^; Buuuut- Miroku-torture is fun.

Corisu Li- *shrugs* Well, I figured Ansho needs a bit more attention. xD She rawks.

Dew-Shan of Egypt- Sexual tension? Here...? o___O; In my writing? Dagnabbit... I'm writing things and don't even realize it... And the chapters I do plan for some fun to happen never get written the way I plan. Like this chapter, for example... v.v

IronRaven- ...Okay. Now you're overanalyzing. *sweatdrops* As for Kirara... *shrugs* I just dunno.

kaniaku mitsukai- Ansho got upset over the double-grope thing. And no, I don't think Sesshy will show up. ^^: Sorry!

S@n-Ch@n- You don't know what's gonna happen? Well... Neither do I! XD Aren't we in a bind?

Personification of Fluff- Well, I updated! XD Took forever, but I did it! *kicks the fic back under her bed* ^.^

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Aamalie: Review! ^^; Who knows... One of you might suggest something that sends me flying over the cliff of writer's block back into inspiration...

I'm pathetic, I know... But seriously. Review...

It makes me happy!