InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cloud Watching ❯ The jade hairpin part 2 ( Chapter 19 )

The jade hairpin

Part 2

Kagome looked around the room. Sango's kimono lay neatly waiting for her, her makeup, perfume, jewelry and hair brush were lined up just waiting to by used. The only thing missing was……..

"Rin is Sango coming yet?" Rin, kneeling at the window, shook her head no. Kagome began pacing the room. This was odd, Sango should have been no more than five, ten minutes behind them. What could be taking her so long?

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Out in the forest the world had grown eerily quiet. No bugs chirped, no birds sang, the wind did not rustle one leaf on the forest floor. All of nature seemed to hold its breath, waiting to see what the siblings would do. Sango stared down at her brother. His brown hair was mussed from their struggle and dirt smudged his cheeks here and there. His eyes stared up into hers, so filled with different emotions she couldn't read them. It took a moment for the shock to ware away but when it did she felt joy wash over her.

He was alive. She had been so sure Naraku had killed him by removing the life giving shinkon shard from his back. Now here he was, alive and right in front of her. Tears fell down her cheeks and dropped into his. The boy began to shake underneath her and he closed his eyes. "Sister….."

Sango released her hold on his wrists and wrapped her arms around him as best she could. She hugged him tightly as she continued to cry softly into his chest. "Kohaku, you're alive. You've come back to me." She felt his trembling hands rest on her waist then slid up to the middle of her back in what she thought would be a hug. Instead, in one quick movement she was pushed off him and onto the ground.

Kohaku quickly got on his feet and backed away from her. Sango lifted herself off the ground and onto her knees. Before she could make it to her feet he spoke. "I haven't come back to you sister, I can never come back. You weren't supposed see me. It would have been better for the both of us if you had just let me go."

Sango looked up at her brother. "Kohaku, Naraku's dead. He will never hurt you or control you ever again. You have nothing be afraid of. You can come with me, we can be a family again."

Kohaku shook his head and laughed half heatedly. Then he glared at her with anger in his eyes. "You think it's that simple? After everything I did, you think I can just go on with my life like nothing ever happened? Do you know why we can never be a family? Because I killed our family, or have you forgotten?"

Sango was on her feet now. "No I haven't forgotten but I have forgiven. I've forgiven myself for not being able to help you, for failing you and our entire clan. I know that I can't let myself wallow in self-pity over something I could not control. What's done is done Kohaku, we must try to put that behind us and look on to the future. It's what father would have wanted."

Kohaku balled his hands into tight fists. He looked like he was about to cry but the tears never came. "What father wanted was to be alive! He would want to be here for you when you marry that man today." Kohaku stepped forward and took Sango's hand. He reached into his shirt and pulled out their mother's hairpin. He placed it in the palm of her and closed her fingers around it. "He should have been the one to give you this. Instead I had to dig through the ruins of our old home and uncover it from the rubble. That's what I came here for today: to leave this for you to find. You weren't supposed to see me."

Kohaku turned around and started to walk away. "I'll only bring you pain." Sango reached out and grabbed his arm. "You can't leave me. I need you." Kohaku tried to break free of her hold. "You have a new life now, new family. You don't need me around as a reminder of everything that went wrong in your life." With a strong yank his arm was free and he was running again.

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Back at the village. Kagome was worried about Sango. It was almost time for the ceremony to start and she still had not come back yet. Kagome crept inside the temple where everyone had gathered for the wedding. People were gathered in small groups here and there, waiting for the ceremony to begin. She needed to find Inuyasha without letting everyone know something was wrong. She finally spotted him standing against a wall, arms crossed, eyes closed. The bad part was Miroku was right next to him. The last thing she wanted to do was worry the groom. She needed to come up with an excuse that wouldn't make Miroku suspicious.

Kagome walked up the two of them with the best fake smile she could muster. Miroku smiled back hopping that everything was almost ready. "Are we ready to begin Kagome?" Kagome added a fake laugh to her fake smile. "Were almost ready Miroku, ha, ha. But we've run into a little problem." Inuyasha opened his eyes and sighed. "What now, did she run out on him?"

Inuyasha hardly thought anything of his little joke but Kagome didn't find it funny, especially when there was a chance it might be true. She raised her elbow and jabbed him in the stomach. He bent over and coughed. "What the hell was that for?" Kagome's face had turned a deep shade of red as she glared at the poor hanyou. "For even suggesting Sango would do such a thing! How dare you think she would run out on Miroku! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Kagome didn't realize how loud she was yelling until everyone was staring at her. When she noticed this she turned around and faced the now silent crowd. Time for the fake `everything's ok folks' smile. "The wedding will be starting in just a few more minutes everyone. Please continue to talk and I'll tell you when it's time to take your seats."

Everyone went back to there own conversations. Miroku now really wanted to know what was going on. "So what is this little problem Kagome?" Kagome quickly glared at Inuyasha. "It's nothing really. We just…um….seem to be missing….um….a….Sango's shoes. Yeah, Sango's shoes, we left them at the house and I was wondering if Inuyasha would be kind enough to run home and get them."

Inuyasha was still a little ticked at her and not ready to do any favors. "Why me, and why can't she wear the shoes she walked over here in?" Kagome reached up and grabbed one of his ears and started pulling him towards the door. "Because these shoes are very im-por-tant, we can't have a wedding with out these shoes." He reluctantly let her pull him out of the room. "Why Kagome? Are these lucky shoes? Is something bad going to happen if she's not wearing this pair of shoes? Or is this some other stupid tradition of yours."

Kagome pulled him away from the shrine so no one would overhear them. "This is not about shoes or luck or anything like that." Inuyasha reached up and rubbed his now sore ear. "Then what the hell is this about?" Kagome looked around to make sure they were alone. "Sango's not here." Inuyasha triumphantly pointed a clawed finger at her. "Ha, I knew it, she really did run out on the monk and that's why you got so mad in there, because I guessed right. Boy I wonder what he did to make her that mad?"

"Shut up." Kagome whispered still glancing around nervously. "She did not run out on him. She forgot her hairpin and went back to the house to get it. She should have been back fifteen minutes ago but there's no sign of her. I think something's wrong and I want you to run home and check." Inuyasha laughed. "And you bought that? That's the dumbest excuse I've heard since those fake illnesses your grandfather used to use to get you out of school. I mean come on, who ever heard of malaria?"

Kagome rubbed her eyes and sighed. "Inuyasha what if something happened to her? What if she's been kidnapped, or she fell and broke her leg, or she wass attacked by demons, or…." Inuyasha moved past her and started running towards the house. "Find I'll find her, but if she doesn't want to come back I'm not going to force her."

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Sango ran after Kohaku. She couldn't let him get away, she just couldn't. She understood how he felt. She had felt the same way, blaming herself for everything that happened. As time passed, she had been able to forgive herself. She realized no one could change the past no matter how hard they tried. Kohaku just needed help and time to come to terms with what had happened. But he would never get that if she let him get away now.

Kohaku had run out of the forest and right to the edge of a large canyon. He started climbing down the steep incline hoping his sister wouldn't follow. Sango wasn't about to give up no matter where he went, and began following him down. The cliff however was very rocky and unstable. Footholds would crumble right underneath your hand if you weren't careful, which neither of them were being at the moment.

Kohaku was shorter and lighter then Sango, he made fewer disturbances in the rock as he climbed down. Sango on the other hand was struggling to keep her hold. Each place she moved to seemed to crumble underneath her feet and fingers. She had climbed onto what she thought was a stable ledge when the whole thing gave way underneath her. Her body fell with the rock and she began sliding down the cliff side.

She tried to grab on to anything she could to slow down her fall. Her left arm hit a sharp rock on the way down and she swore she heard bone break. Pushing the pain aside, she continued to grab for a hold of some kind. Finally she grabbed a ledge of rock and stopped her fall. The ledge she grabbed jutted out far from the cliff side and she found herself dangling in midair with nothing to help her pull herself up. With her arm possibly broken, there was no way she could pull herself up let alone hold on.

Her fingers gave in and she got ready to fall again. A hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. She looked up to find Kohaku above her struggling to pull her up onto the narrow ledge. As he tried to pull her up he started to loose his grip. He just wasn't strong enough, there was no way he would be able to pull her up.

Sango realized that if he didn't let go he would be pulled down with her and they would both die. "Kohaku you have to let go! If you don't you'll fall to." Kohaku had one hand on the ledge holding himself up and the other holding on to Sango. "I can't let you go! I wont!"

He let go of the ledge and grabbed her arm with both hands. As soon as he did, he felt his body begin to slid over the edge. They were both going to fall and there was no way to stop it.