Chapter 9: People

Sango stared at Sesshomaru as he sat across from her and Miroku. Her eyes turned to her only son who was asleep in Sesshomaru’s arms. Her sweet little boy looked so peaceful in the arms of a demon, he was so unaware of the danger.

It sickened her that he sat in her home as if he had the right to be there. But Miroku had invited him in when they had seen their son asleep in Sesshomaru’s arms.

Sango could almost hate Miroku for doing that.

But instead, everything inside of her screamed at her to take her son back from Him. But the strong grip that Miroku kept on her arm forced her to stay at his side. Her mind replayed the images of Inuyasha before her eyes, tormenting her with what he could do.

“So you wish us to fight with you to save Kagome then?” Miroku questioned.

Sango glanced at her husband, feeling sick at the thought of their friend.

So many years had passed since Sango had seen Kagome. Thought of Kagome killing herself was almost too much for her; she had been the heart of their group. So many of the battles that they had been would had ended in disaster if not for Kagome. Her old friend had the strength to fight through any hardship.

“Yes…I need to end the danger to her and our children before I can save her.”

“You ask for a lot of us,” Sango snapped at him. Miroku tightened his grip on her arm as if that would quiet her. It wouldn’t though. “We have our children to consider, Lord Sesshomaru.”

There was nothing there in Sesshomaru’s golden eyes as she glared into them. They looked so dead that Sango almost wanted to check that his heart was still beating.

“Of course,” He muttered before looking down at her son. Sango’s heart stopped at the reminder of her child’s life in his arms. “Kagome would never forgive me if anything happened to your children. If you would join me that I would do everything in my power to see to their safety as if they were my own.”

The words struck a chord inside her.

He was right that Kagome would never forgive him but then neither would she. Both she and Kagome were mothers that were doing everything in their power to protect their children. Sango knew that he did not know that both she as well as Kagome saw them as a threat.

It wouldn’t matter if he was the father of Kagome’s children; he could still be a threat in her eyes.

It was no different for Sango. Until the moment that Miroku asked Sesshomaru into their home, he had just been her husband. Yet Sango now knew that her beloved husband was as much a threat to her children as Sesshomaru was.

“Then you would be willing to give me back my son, right this moment?”

Sesshomaru stared at her sweet little boy’s sleeping face, making her long to take him and run. Sesshomaru moved too fast for her to even take a step though; for there he was. Sesshomaru was there beside her, holding her child out for her to take.

The weight of her son back in her arms was so sweet. She went about checking her son over for anything cuts that might have happened from Sesshomaru’s claws.

“He reminds me of my oldest,” Sesshomaru muttered.

Sango looked into his eyes and saw the longing in them as he stared down at her son again. “I long to hold all my children again as soon as possible.”

“How do you know they’re alive?” She questioned him.

“My allies have told me that my children are being cared for by their mother in hell.” There was an edge of anger in his voice that made Sango move back from him.

“You said that Kagome was alive but you never told us how she got to hell?” Miroku said calmly. Yet the unspoken question hung in the air above them all.

How did she get to hell alive?

Everyone knew that only the dead and the dying could go to hell beyond a few special demons. Naraku had killed one of those demons five years ago; Kagome wouldn’t do the same as he had.

Kagome would have looked for another answer if she needed to escape to hell for the safety of her children. She would have only killed as a last resort. It only whispered to them how desperate that Kagome may have been.

Sesshomaru answered without any hesitation but the regret was there in his eyes. “She killed herself before my eyes with my sword.”

Silence fell on them all, a weight that threatened to crush them as they processed the words Sesshomaru spoke. The weight of the silence was so great that it woke Sango’s sweet little boy with fitful cries. Still, Sango was too stunned by Sesshomaru’s words to give her child comfort.

It was only when Miroku moved to take their son from her arms that she realized her son was crying. She jerked him away from her husband and stood up as she glared down at Sesshomaru. The words that flew from her mouth were deadly arrows to the demon. “You are to blame.”

“Sango! Now is-”

“HE IS TO BLAME!” She screeched at her husband as she turned her glare on him. Anger towards both bubbled inside of her like a hot spring spilling over with water. She hissed at Miroku. “He is to blame and so are we.”

Miroku stared at her as if confused by her words. But then he probably did not remember his words to her when they had been alone. “You told me that Kagome belonged to Sesshomaru. You told me that it would be wrong to force them apart. You told me that they would find happiness together in time.”

Tears swam in her view, blinding her to what his expression could be. But she didn’t care…she didn’t know what else could be said between them.

So she turned to glare down at Sesshomaru once more. “We will fight with you to save Kagome but after she will be coming home with us along with all your children.”

Sesshomaru met her glare with one of his own at her words. “You seek to take my mate and our children from me?”

“She. Killed. Herself. Because. Of. You.” She said so slowly but each word was a strike at the demon. “My husband is too much of a coward to fight you for her but I’m not. I will protect Kagome from you, Sesshomaru until she can do it herself.”

OoOo

Kagome stood before the target with the bow in her hands. The feel of the wood was a comfort that she had never thought of before. It filled her with a strength that reminded her that she was once a warrior.

She filled her lungs with air before letting go of the arrow. “…hit the mark.”

The target exploded with a burst of her holy power when the arrow touched it. Silence filled the training area as everyone stared at what she had done.

It unnerved Kagome how quiet everyone was when Saburo suddenly appeared beside her and gave her back a good slap. His voice boomed in the silence,“you did great, Kagome!”

The silence broke away to people clapping and applauding her for her power and skill. It was enough to cause a smile to appear on Kagome’s face for it all. She never expected them all to be happy about her skill with the bow…not after what had happened only a week ago.

“Its been so long since I last held a bow…it really feels good to hold one again.”

“I bet. Now, why don’t you take a few more shots?” Saburo said with a wicked smile that promised her trouble.

Little did he know that she would welcome it. She wanted to be strong again; she wanted to be the warrior that she had once been. Kagome refused to let herself be weak again or to let herself think on Sesshomaru’s arm.

Seeing it had confused her and filled her with a bad feeling.

She would stand strong and think of what she was working towards. The old Kagome was gone, broken into a thousand shards but she would work to put those shards back together. Kagome knew that it would never make her the person that she had been and that she would bleed from it. But still, she would do it to heal, and show her children that she was something more than broken.

Saburo snapped his fingers and more disk targets flew into the air around her. They moved as if they were alive, they outnumbered her in the hundreds. It reminded Kagome of when she had killed demons that attacked her group from in the air.

Without thought, her body moved on its own. Arrow and bow in hand, the hundreds of the targets fell broken at her feet.

Strength gripped her as she let arrow after arrow flew with the joy of her skill. Two years had been too long a wait to hold a bow again, too long to let an arrow fly. The strength filled every cell in her body, reminding her of what she had once been.

Tears came to her ocean blue eyes.

This had been one of the things that he had taken from her. It was something that she took back the moment she touched the bow. It was another thing that was just the beginning for her. She would take it all back in time.

She would be a new person, someone broken but healed, someone that was both her past but also her future. She would not let him have the power anymore.

It was then that she felt it and reacted. Twisting around, Kagome fired five arrows where each one shattered another arrow that was meant for her. Demonic power burst from each arrow that she had destroyed; it moved to attack her like a living being about to attack prey.

She would never be prey again though.

Forcing her power out of her body, Kagome used her power to grab that of the enemy was shocked by it. The power was familiar and yet at the same time, she knew that she had never faced it before. It was almost frightening to think that someone as strong as herself was making a clear threat to her. It was a challenge that they expected her to back down from.

They clearly didn’t know that she would never do that again.

OoOo

Enma smiled wickedly as Kagome held her own against his power. In truth, it was clear to him that he had found an equal in strength at last.

Fragile and broken as Kagome was, she had a spirit and inner strength that he had only seen in one other. It filled him with admiration that she was in his realm. He knew that she would never be the broken woman that he had seen in his throne room. She was dead and gone.

In her place was a wounded warrior that would kill her enemies.

“She’s just like you, my sweet,” he whispered to Emma as they watched Kagome fight against his power.

He felt Emma’s eyes on him before he felt her gentle hand on his arm. It was comforting to feel her touch and to feel the love in that touch. “No, you can clearly see that she’s much better than before. It was only a little over a half hour ago that she was still surrounded by Akito and Aiko’s mates after all.”

“She’s healing, my sweet…just like you did.”

“Her healing is going much faster than mine did,” Emma whispered with a hint of envy in her voice.

“People heal at different rates. It does not take away from what the healing stands for though.”

Chapter 8   Sesshomaru’s Mate Chatpers  Chapter 10