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In your arms of love
Chapter 5

The next two months between Sango and Miroku flew by faster than they would have liked. Although they went by quickly, they were spent with more love between them than either of them had ever felt for anyone before. They stayed up late at night, talking, and woke up early to watch the sun come up. They never mentioned Miroku’s impending death, or discussed the wind tunnel while they were together, for fear it would ruin their time together. Mushin allowed the couple to keep to themselves for the majority of the time, letting them be together as much as possibly before Miroku’s wind tunnel would eventually envelop him.

Sango awoke with a start and looked around the room. Miroku was still sleeping soundly beside her and she didn’t want to wake him. She sat up in bed, trying to figure out what had woken her up. Then out of nowhere she knew what it was, she felt his presence, Naraku’s presence. She felt all of her hatred for him well up inside her, hatred of him for causing the deaths of all her friends and family, and hatred of him for causing the suffering of the one person she truly loved. She could sense him nearby, approaching the temple at a fast rate.

She tried to settle her thoughts, but they ran wild within her mind; what is he doing here? Why did he come? Why isn’t he following Kagome and Inuyasha, they’re the ones with the jewel shards…not us. We have nothing that he could possibly want. She calmed her thoughts and then the only thought that mattered passed through her head, if I can kill him then Miroku will be saved, the wind tunnel will disappear.

She got out of bed silently and took her hiraikotsu from the corner. Using her slayer skills that had laid dormant for the past two months, she stealthily ran from the small room where Miroku still lay sleeping. She walked out of the temple and ran down the well-trodden path from the temple leading to the meadow where they had laid beneath the stars and confessed their love for each other. She stopped as the meadow came into view and she saw Naraku standing in front of her.

"Well, well Sango. We meet again."

"Naraku!" she spit, feeling the hatred overwhelming every other part of her.

She quickly undid the strap that held the hiraikotsu to her back and thrust it at him. It managed to hit him, but it was an insignificant wound to Naraku.

"It will take more than that to defeat me Sango." He said condescendingly, finding joy in her failed attempt to kill him.

"I'll do whatever I can to save his life!" she yelled at him, “There’s nothing you can do to stop me!”

"You are talking about the monk, are you not? Nothing can save his life now. It’s useless. Just go back to the fools collecting jewel shards and leave him to die."

Sango was even more disgusted by his words, “I’d never leave him! And I can save his life! By killing you!"

Naraku chuckled as Sango threw the hiraikotsu at his again, her anger taking control of her and causing her to miss Naraku completely.

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Miroku stirred form his sleep and woke up to find that he was alone in the bed. He looked around the room to find that Sango was no where to be seen. He sat up in bed and noticed that the hiraikotsu was not in its usual spot in the corner.

"Where could she have gone off to? And why would she take the hiraikotsu with her?" he asked himself.

He got out of bed and walked out into the hall to find the door to the temple was left ajar. Knowing that something wasn’t right, he walked out of the temple, sliding the door closed behind him so he wouldn’t wake Mushin up. He saw her fresh footprints in the dirt and followed her trail. He came to the opening of the meadow and he was shocked to see Sango battling Naraku. He could see that she was terribly wounded, blood was dripping from both her arms and legs, and yet she still battled on.

What could she possibly be thinking? She can't take on Naraku alone!

Sango turned and saw Miroku standing at the entrance to the meadow, their meadow. She smiled at him and in that one moment of hesitation, Sango’s guard was down and Naraku took full advantage of it. He ran at Sango with tremendous speed and brought his sword down upon Sango, slicing her across the chest and she fell to the ground, loosing blood at an alarming rate.

"Sango!" Miroku cried out, beginning to run towards her, knowing that she needed her wounds bound if she was going to live.

Naraku turned from Sango and began to move out of the meadow. As he reached the meadow’s exit he motioned to his insects, giving them permission to finish off Sango for him, not wanting to dirty his hands any further. The bugs flew in a swarm towards Sango’s body and Miroku didn’t know what to do.

"No!" Miroku he shouted and began to run towards Sango again, not knowing how he would be able to protect her from the insects. Sango was too far away from him to move her in time and she was too badly wounded and couldn't move herself. His left hand touched the rosary beads on his right hand and he did the only thing he could think to do; he removed the rosary from his right hand.

"Wind tunnel!" He shouted, and as soon as he took of the rosary, he had sucked up all of the poisonous insects. He fell to the ground, the poison quickly taking its hold on him, and crawled to where Sango had fallen. He lifted her onto his lap and she looked up into his eyes and smiled. "I tried Miroku I really tried." She said weakly.

Miroku placed a finger over her mouth, "Shhh. I know you tried. It's okay, I'm here with you now, and everything’s going to be fine. We’re together and everything is going to be all right."

"Miroku." she said again and he looked down into her pain filled eyes. He knew that she wasn’t going to make it, and that thought alone hurt him more than all the poison that was now coursing through his veins.

"Yes?" he asked painfully.

She looked up at him one last time and to his surprise she had worked up enough strength left and began to sing,

"My heart is glad, that you called me your own.
And there's no place I'd rather be.
Than in your arms or love.
Than in your arms of love.
Holding me still, holding me near.
In your arms of love."

Miroku pulled her closer to him, so her back was against his chest; he held his arms tight around her, trying to staunch the rapid flow of blood from his chest. He rested his head on her shoulder and Sango could feel tears rolling down her arm. As the poison began to take over at a faster rate, his grip around her began to loosen. The poison from the bugs had spread throughout his entire body and him slowly feeling more and weak. He kissed the top of her head one last time before resting his head on her shoulder again. His lips moved to her ear and with the last of his strength he was able to tell her one last thing.

"I love you Sango." He murmured softly.

He knew that she didn’t have much time or strength left but he still heard her reply slowly and painfully "I love you too Miroku."

They uttered those last words to each other, and Miroku felt and heard two fluttered breaths and before he know longer felt Sango's chest moving up and down. As soon as he knew she had died, he felt as if his heart was breaking. The poison ravaged his body and he felt his heartbeat slowing. He fought to keep breathing, although a small voice inside of him told him it was pointless. After minutes of fighting he knew that there was nothing left to do, his heartbeat slowed more and more until his body fell limp, still holding onto Sango's body.

The End