Miroku Falls Into a Dangerous Trap

It was very easy for Inuyasha to lose track of the days when he was in the past. There was always so much going on, and it wasn't like when he was at school and knowing the day was really important. Saturday, Monday, it didn't really make a difference. That meant it was always just a little bit tricky for him to go back and count the number of days that he'd been there so he could know what day of the week it was.

Let's see, I came here Thursday afternoon, so that makes today…Monday.

It was amazing to think that so much had happened in such a short amount of time. I hope Mom, Gramps, and Souta aren't too worried about me. Hopefully, by tomorrow we'll make it back to the well so I can get home.

Though relieving his family of possible stress was hardly Inuyasha's only reason for wanting to get home. He had missed school last Friday and today, and he wasn't likely to make it back in time to go to school tomorrow. Ms. Sato is going to freak.

Inuyasha didn't know how he was supposed to explain this absence to her. He just hoped she didn't storm in on Sensei to see where he was.

Don't know why she blames him for my absences.

Or maybe it did make sense, given the way Inuyasha had reacted when she'd woken him up from that dream. It would probably be clear to anyone who wasn't stupid that something violent was going on in his life, and since Inuyasha trained in martial arts, he could see how suspicions could come to rest on Sensei's doorstep.

The sooner I get back, the sooner I can make sure Ms. Sato doesn't try to confront Sensei.

Although sooner might not be all that soon at all, if they kept stopping at every village they came across. First they'd had to stop at a village to sell off most of the goods Taromaru had paid them to rescue his friend, which had taken them far longer than Inuyasha had expected. Then at the next village they traveled near, some villagers had recognized Miroku as a priest and Sango as a slayer, and they'd begged for help to get rid of a rat demon that was plaguing the village. Of course, professional pride wouldn't allow Sango to refuse them. Miroku didn't seem all that interested, but it was a poor village, and there was little chance for a profit to be made.

So now here Inuyasha was, fanning a repugnant smelling smoke underneath a house to make the rat demon run towards Sango who stood ready to kill it. Inuyasha had been stuck with the job because the smell was too overwhelming for Kagome or Shippo to do it, and Miroku had insisted that it was necessary for him to stand watch over them and make sure they were alright.

The liar just didn't want to have to deal with this. I wish Sango had more than one of her gas masks to filter out this smell.

Finally, from the other side of the house, Inuyasha heard a thump, and then the crowd of curious villagers that had gathered to watched cheered. Sango's voice soon followed, saying, "Inuyasha, the rat demon is dead now."

Finally! Now I can finally stop this!

Inuyasha stamped out what was left of the tiny fire and then walked around to meet up with the others. The villagers were crowded around Sango thanking her, so Inuyasha avoided them to go to Kagome and Shippo, who were sitting a short distance away. Kagome held one of her red sleeves up to her face and winced as Inuyasha approached. "Don't be offended, but you and Sango need to take baths really soon."

"No offence taken," Inuyasha sighed. The smell was pretty strong, and really foul. If it smelled that bad to him, he couldn't imagine how bad it smelled to Kagome or Shippo. Glancing around, Inuyasha realized one member of their party was missing. "Hey, where's Miroku?"

Kagome shrugged. "He said he had some kind of business to take care of."

"What kind of business?" Inuyasha asked.

"Probably something to do with that pretty lady he was following," Shippo said.

Inuyasha's eyebrow twitched. Pretty lady…He did not go off with some woman while we were in the middle of a job! Then again, he did proposition a six inch goddess for sex, so I doubt there's any woman he wouldn't do.

It was still irritating that he'd gone off while they were supposed to be working. Granted it wasn't a very dangerous job, but even so it was the principle of the matter.

Unreliable, perverted-

"Hey," Sango said, finally having managed to extract herself from the admiring crowd of villagers. "They've offered to let us use their baths and put us up for the night." She blinked and glanced around. "Where's Miroku?"

"He went off with some woman, apparently," Inuyasha said.

Sango's expression mirrored the irritation that Inuyasha felt. "I see. Well, I suppose he'll find us when he returns."

Inuyasha did appreciate the chance to use a real bath, but he had hoped that they would do some more traveling. It was still early afternoon, and if they pushed they could get closer to the village and the Bone Eater's Well before night fell.

I guess I wouldn't make it to school tomorrow anyway, so it doesn't really matter if we travel farther tonight.

Still, Inuyasha was impatient to make it back home and do what damage control he could with his school.

Miroku returned from his jaunt just in time for dinner. As usual he was all smiles, but Inuyasha was somewhat gratified to see that both Kagome and Sango were giving him the cold shoulder and miffed looks.

After only a few minutes of this treatment, Miroku leaned over to Inuyasha and asked, "Did I do something to upset them?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Well, it could be that you wandering off in the middle of a job to hang out with some pretty lady instead of doing what you were supposed to could have annoyed them."

"But Sango had the job well in hand," Miroku protested, turning his gaze towards the two girls. "Sango, you didn't need my help!"

"True," Sango said, though nothing in her tone or expression said it made a difference to her. "But I thought you were supposed to be watching over Kagome and Shippo, since the smell of the smoke bothered them so much. What made you think it was okay to just leave them for some woman?"

"Really, it wasn't like that!" Miroku protested.

Inuyasha scoffed. "What was she a demon in disguise or something?"

"Yes!" Miroku said triumphantly. "She was actually, and I had to slay her."

"Oh please," Shippo said, shaking his head. "You'll have to come up with a better lie than that."

Miroku glanced around at the others, and when it was clear that no one believed his story he sighed. "Oh, very well. Think what you want."

I can't believe that's the story he went with, Inuyasha thought. As if that would actually happen.

Not long after dinner they all retired for the night. It had been a long day for them, and the next day promised to be filled with travel as well. As Inuyasha was settling in the futon he'd been provided with, Shippo curling up next to him, he noticed Miroku staring at his right hand, the one that had been cursed by Naraku.

How did that curse go again? The wind tunnel in his hand will keep expanding until it consumes him?

That seemed like an awful way to die, and thoughts of his possibly eventual fate were probably all that was making Miroku look so pensive as he stared at his hand. They were certainly heavy enough thoughts to make anyone pensive. But something about Miroku's intense expression made Inuyasha think there might be more bothering the monk than just his hand and the possible future it contained.

Since they were only separated from the girls by a folding screen, Inuyasha lowered his voice so he wouldn't attract their attention. "Is something bothering you?" he asked.

Miroku glanced over at him, his expression of surprise quickly replaced by a bland smile. "Would you even believe me if I said yes?" he asked, his tone light and mocking.

Inuyasha glared, insulted by his tone. I try to be nice, and this is what I get! "Fine, brood to yourself," Inuyasha snapped, rolling over so his back was to Miroku, ignoring Shippo's indignant yelp at being pushed out of his comfortable spot. "See if I care."

Shippo climbed over him, grumbling something about inconsiderate pack mates whatever that was supposed to mean, and then squirmed his way under Inuyasha's arm, so that Inuyasha was holding him much like a child might hold a teddy bear to sleep with. Inuyasha allowed it only because he felt a little bad about jostling Shippo so much; it wasn't the fox demon's fault that Miroku was an idiot.

As for the monk, Inuyasha heard him sigh and then lay down, but Miroku made no attempts to speak again.

Inuyasha woke up because Shippo was shaking his shoulder. "What?" he grumbled, wishing Shippo would have let him sleep just a little longer.

"Miroku is gone!" Shippo said.

Inuyasha yawned and sat up. "So what? He probably needed to use the bathroom or something."

"No, Inuyasha, he's gone gone!" Shippo said. "His stuff is gone, and he's not anywhere in the village!"

Now Inuyasha was fully awake. He looked around, and saw that Shippo was right about Miroku's things missing. His futon had also been neatly folded and put away.

"But where would he go?" Kagome asked.

Inuyasha looked back and saw Kagome and Sango peeking around the screen that separated them, clearly having heard everything that Shippo had said.

"Maybe he had another lady friend to visit," Inuyasha said trying to make light of the situation. But in truth, he actually was a little worried. It didn't seem likely that Miroku would want to separate from their little group altogether given that he was on a quest to kill Naraku, and their group was sure to run into him again. But if he wasn't leaving their group, why go off without saying anything, and why take his stuff with him?

"You don't think," Sango said slowly, "that he was telling the truth last night, do you?"

"I guess it's possible," Kagome allowed, and now she looked worried. "Do you think we hurt his feelings when we didn't believe him?"

Inuyasha snorted at that thought. He had a feeling it would take much more than accusations of untruthfulness to hurt Miroku's feelings. But if his feelings weren't hurt, then what was wrong?

"Being accused of lies when I was telling the truth would certainly hurt my feelings," said a voice that no one had been expecting to hear. "I'm not sure I'd want to travel with people who didn't trust me."

Everyone's glares focused on Kagome's shoulder, and the flea demon situated on it. "Myoga! Don't do that!" Kagome said.

"My apologies, Kagome," Myoga said. "By the way, who are we talking about?"

"Miroku," Inuyasha said. "He's a monk that joined up with us after you left because he wants to hunt down Naraku."

"I see," Myoga said. "And who is Naraku?"

Shippo slapped a hand to his forehead, and Inuyasha felt like mimicking the gesture. Myoga had missed a lot since he'd left.

"We'll explain later," Kagome said. "For now, we need to concentrate on figuring out where Miroku went, and finding out why he left."

"Should we really bother?" Sango asked. "There's no reason that Miroku has to be involved in our mission. If he really wants to go his own way we should let him."

"If he just wanted to go his own way, why not tell us?" Kagome shook her head. "Something's off about this whole situation, and I want to find out what. Besides, if we did accuse Miroku of lying unfairly, we ought to apologize. If Miroku still wants to go his own way after we've found him, then fine."

Submitting to Kagome's decision, everyone hastily dressed and packed their things before locating the village elder who had housed them that night. "Excuse me," Inuyasha said. "Did you happen to see the monk that was with us leaving earlier this morning?"

"As a matter of fact, I did," the elder said. "He left about an hour before sunrise, heading out of the village toward the northwest."

Inuyasha scowled. The northwest was not the direction they'd been traveling in; wherever Miroku was going, it was taking him way out of their way.

I might not be getting home tomorrow after all.

"We'd better be on our way then," Sango said.

"Will you stay for breakfast?" the elder asked.

"Thank you for the offer, but we really can't afford to wait any longer before going after him," Sango said. "He's bound to get himself into some kind of trouble if we don't."

They left in the direction indicated by the elder. "Kagome," Sango said. "Do you think you can follow Miroku's scent?"

Tipping her head back, she sniffed the air, and then she crouched down and sniffed in the direction of the ground. It was weird watching her do so, and it was moments like this more than anything else that served to remind Inuyasha that being half demon meant more differences than dog ears and strange coloring.

"Got it," she said. "I can follow his scent. We'll travel faster if you three ride on Kirara while I run."

Sango nodded and looked down at Kirara. In response, Kirara transformed into her larger size, and Sango, Inuyasha, and Shippo climbed onto her back. They traveled at a decent pace like this for almost an hour, and then Kagome waved up at them, signaling for them to come back down to the path.

"What is it?" Sango asked as Kirara touched down to the ground.

"I've lost his scent," Kagome said.

"How could that happen?" Inuyasha asked.

Kagome frowned. "I'm not sure what happened. It smells like he met up with a raccoon demon here, and then his scent just vanishes."

"That's odd," Sango said. "Raccoon demons are mostly harmless, and they tend to avoid people. I can't think of a way for them to make someone vanish."

"And I can't think of any that are actually strong enough to pose a threat to Miroku," Shippo said. "Even without his wind tunnel a raccoon demon shouldn't be a danger to him."

"If it isn't a threat, then maybe it's a friend," Inuyasha volunteered. "Maybe it's helping him get wherever he's going quicker."

"It is possible," Myoga said, "but it seems somewhat unlikely. Demons and monks don't become friends."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "I'm a priest in training, and in this time period I have more demon friends than human."

"Point," agreed Myoga.

"So let's assume they're friends then," Sango said. "Raccoon demons have similar abilities to fox demons. Could it have transformed and flown Miroku somewhere?"

"It would explain why his scent just disappears like this," Kagome said.

"But if he's flying, how are we supposed to know where he's going?" Shippo asked. "He could have gone in any direction now!"

"I guess we could fly in ever widening circles until we find him," Inuyasha offered.

Kagome shook her head. "That will take way too long. If he really is in some kind of trouble, we need to find him as quickly as possible."

"Besides," Sango added, "that would have us looking over areas we've already traveled through, and we know he isn't there."

Inuyasha glared at them. "Do any of you have a better suggestion?"

"Perhaps we should just keep going straight," Myoga suggested. "His course has not wavered up to this point; there is no reason it necessarily has to change now that he's flying."

Kagome sighed. "It isn't a great plan, but I guess it's the best we have. Hopefully if he changed course there will be some kind of sign."

Their plan of action decided, Kirara took to the air again while Kagome ran on below. There has to be a better way of finding the stupid monk, Inuyasha thought. Wait, Kaede taught me how to sense demons and people with spiritual abilities. Maybe I could reach out and find him?

Granted he hadn't really practiced with this ability since Kaede had first taught it to him, though he'd started to get used to the low grade buzz of awareness of the others while they were around him. It had been a little annoying at first, though by now he was starting to be able to tune it out. But having spent as much time as he had around Miroku, Inuyasha thought his presence should be easy enough to notice, as long as he was in Inuyasha's range.

Not that I have any idea what my range is.

Still, it was worth a try. Closing his eyes, Inuyasha centered himself. Meditating while flying on the back of Kirara wasn't easy but after some minutes of trying he managed it. As soon as he slipped into his meditative state, the presence of the others flared much more brightly in his him. Inuyasha quickly noted Myoga's presence with Kagome on the ground. The flea demon's presence was small and quiet, but also somehow ancient, like a weathered outcropping of rock on a mountain that refused to crumble no matter what the elements threw at it.

Ignoring the presence of his friends, Inuyasha tried to take a mental step back from his power, allowing it to flow farther away from him. He was surprised to notice the presence of a few demons in the forest, but they felt weak, and Inuyasha couldn't feel any intentions of harm coming from them. He took another mental step back, and his power flowed even farther out, but now the task left Inuyasha feeling strained, like he'd been at one of Sensei's lessons for far too long. But he still couldn't feel Miroku's shimmering presence, so with great effort, Inuyasha took another mental step away, but then something seemed to pop and he snapped out of his meditative state with a gasp.

Exhaustion and dizziness flooded over him, and Inuyasha had to tighten his one armed grip on Sango in order not to fall off of Kirara.

"Are you alright?" Sango asked, twisting around slightly to look at him.

Thankfully the wave of dizziness passed quickly, but the exhaustion remained, though it wasn't as bad as what he'd felt after exorcising Mayu. "Fine, I'm fine. I just overdid it a bit."

"Doing what?" Shippo asked.

"Kaede taught me how to use my powers to sense demons and spiritually aware humans," Inuyasha said. "I thought I might be able to use that to find Miroku, but I guess my range isn't very far right now, and I overreached a bit."

"But you're alright?" Sango asked again.

"Yeah," Inuyasha said. "I'm fine. Just tired." How tired he didn't want to tell her; he really hoped that Miroku wasn't in any kind of trouble, because at the moment Inuyasha didn't think the others could count on any help from him.

After about another hour, they came across a large, open area that had a temple situated in it. Some distance away from the temple was a deep crater, but it couldn't have been a new crater because grass had grown inside of it.

"What in the world could have done that?" Sango wondered out loud.

Normally Inuyasha would have guess a meteorite, or something like that, but with the number of strange demons running around in this time, it seemed pointless to try and guess. Kagome waved up at them, gesturing for them to land again. Kirara settled on the ground lightly and Kagome said, "Miroku's here! I can smell him again!"

"Finally!" Shippo said, hopping off of Kirara to Kagome. "Now we can find out what's going on with him."

Sango and Inuyasha slid off of Kirara's back and the cat changed into her smaller form. As a group they approached the temple, and just as they started up the stairs that led to the porch, a door slid open and Miroku started outside, followed closely by a chubby raccoon demon. Both froze when they caught sight of everyone.

"What are you doing here?" Miroku asked.

"We came looking for you," Kagome said. "You can't just run off like that without saying anything to us! We were worried about you!"

Inuyasha had never seen Miroku look so genuinely surprised as he did in that moment. "You were?"

"Of course we were, we're your friends!" Kagome said, and then she stopped, as though just realizing that just because she thought they were friends, didn't necessarily mean that Miroku thought of them the same way.

Inuyasha glared at the monk. If he dares to tell Kagome they aren't friends, I'm going to punch him.

But Miroku didn't reject Kagome's claim of friendship. Instead, he smiled and said, "Of course, you're right. I'm sorry I worried everyone; that wasn't my intention."

He probably didn't think we'd care that he left, Inuyasha thought. Then he noticed the brilliant way Kagome smiled at him. I still hate him.

"What's going on here?" asked a new voice. And old man approached from behind Miroku and the raccoon demon. He was rather short and widely built, and the only hair on his head was a thick gray mustache.

"Master Mushin," Miroku said, "these are my friends, Kagome, Sango, Inuyasha, Shippo, and Kirara. Everyone, this is Master Mushin. He's the one who trained me. And this is Hachi."

"You missed one," Mushin said.

Miroku blinked. "Ah, who?"

"It is not his fault," Myoga spoke up from Kagome's shoulder. "We have not officially met yet. I am Myoga."

"It is a pleasure to meet you all," Mushin said genially. Then he turned to Miroku. "Didn't I tell you to go purify yourself for the surgery?"

"Surgery?" Inuyasha said. "Why do you need surgery?"

"Didn't he tell you?" Mushin asked. "He fought a praying mantis demon, and when he sucked it into his wind tunnel it nicked the edge, causing the wind tunnel to expand. I can fix the cut, reducing the wind tunnel back to its earlier size."

But when had he fought a praying mantis…Oh. And if it had caused the wind tunnel to expand, then the injury may have shaved years off of Miroku's life.

And when he tried to tell us, we called him a liar.

Oops. No wonder Miroku hadn't bothered to tell them that he was going to Mushin for help, not after how they'd acted before.

Mushin turned back to Miroku. "Now go and purify yourself, or we'll never be able to get started. I'll take care of your friends."

Miroku nodded and then left, the raccoon demon Hachi following close behind him. Mushin ushered them inside the temple. It was a decently large temple, the sort the seemed like it ought to be housing a number of monks, but it seemed strangely empty and sadly neglected, as though Mushin hadn't bothered with any of the cleaning in weeks.

"I'll prepare some tea for you, but then I'm afraid I have things I need to prepare for the surgery," Mushin said.

"We understand," Sango said. "We don't want you to go through any trouble on our behalf."

"It's no trouble at all," Mushin said. "Miroku has never brought home friends before, so this is a pleasant surprise."

He'd never brought home friends? Come to think of it, what with the way Miroku traveled all the time, never staying in one place for more than a few days, did he even really have friends? Aside from themselves and Hachi, there was probably a good chance he didn't. And I'm kind of curious as to how he met up with Hachi in the first place. Miroku had never made mention of him before. Actually, Miroku never mentioned any part of his personal life, except for telling them about the curse that Naraku had laid down on his family.

Speaking of Miroku's family, where were his parents? Miroku wasn't that much older than Inuyasha, two or three years, tops. If this was his home, shouldn't his parents be around somewhere?

Unless they're not anymore.

Miroku's curse was supposed to kill him eventually, and since his father had had the same curse it was certainly possible that Miroku's father had already been consumed by his wind tunnel. That possibility led Inuyasha to uncomfortable ideas of what that crater might be after all. As for Miroku's mother, there was any number of possibilities as to what might have happened to her, illness, accident, or demon attack. Inuyasha was curious, but figured it was probably better to not ask.

How do we end up collecting so many orphans? Kagome's parents were dead, as were Sango's, Shippo's, and Miroku's. Inuyasha still had his mother, but had lost his father years ago. You'd think with a group of this many people at least one of us would still have both parents.

Mushin set out the tea for them. "I must go prepare for the surgery now; please do not worry about Miroku. I have performed this sort of operation before."

With those parting words, the old monk left.

Once they were alone, Kagome sighed into her tea. "I feel bad that we didn't believe him when he said he'd been in a fight," she said.

"Don't," Sango said. "We know he's a notorious flirt, and we knew he had gone off with a woman. Our conclusions were only logical."

"Maybe," Kagome said, "but it doesn't show much trust in him if he says we're wrong and we don't listen to him at all."

"People can say anything," Sango replied. "I trust what I see them do."

"But Miroku did what he said," Shippo pointed out.

"Of course the whole situation could have been avoided if he hadn't left us in the first place," Inuyasha said.

Everyone nodded in agreement with that.

By the time they finished their tea Miroku had returned, still followed by Hachi. Instead of his usual purple and black robes, Miroku was wearing white and his damp hair attested that at least part of the purification ritual probably involved bathing.

He nodded to them. "Do you need anything?" he asked.

"Directions to the kitchen if you don't mind," Sango said standing. "It's getting to lunch time, and I don't know about you, but we skipped breakfast this morning."

"Certainly," Miroku said. He quickly showed her the way to the kitchen. "Feel free to use any supplies already here." Then he retreated into the same back rooms that Mushin had earlier.

Hachi sat just outside of their little circle, but Shippo quickly crossed over to him. "So how did you and Miroku meet?" he asked.

"Master Miroku once saved my life from a terrible demon that was going to eat me," Hachi said. "Since then, I swore that I would serve him for the rest of his life."

"So you're Miroku's servant," Shippo clarified.

"I am," Hachi said.

"If you're his servant, how come you aren't with him all the time?" Shippo asked. "Leaving him on his own doesn't seem like a very good thing to do if you're supposed to be a loyal servant."

Tuning out Hachi's indignant reply, Inuyasha closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. He was still tired from his efforts at locating Miroku earlier, and this seemed like the best chance he might get for a break, while Sango and Kagome were fixing lunch and Shippo had a new person to bother. He didn't have a clue what Myoga was up to and didn't care.

At least my sense of everyone is starting to get back to normal. Their presences don't feel quite so dull now.

Now that he was paying attention, he noticed Myoga was in fact in the kitchen with Sango and Kagome. He could also sense Miroku about two rooms over with Mushin. Inuyasha frowned when he noticed Mushin's presence. Something felt wrong with it; a brilliant silvery sort of presence, it was as though there was another, darker presence inside of Mushin's.

It doesn't feel human.

Inuyasha jumped to his feet, startling Shippo and Hachi. "Inuyasha, what's wrong?" Shippo asked.

"Something's wrong with Mushin!" Inuyasha said before taking off outside. He wasn't sure what the feeling meant exactly, but sensing a demon within Mushin couldn't possibly mean anything good.

Just as he made it to the door to the room where Miroku's surgery was to be performed, Miroku fell out of the room, slamming into Inuyasha. Because Inuyasha hadn't been expecting it and because he was already tired, the force knocked Inuyasha to the ground and Miroku landed heavily on top of him. Following close behind was Mushin, holding a butcher's knife in one raised hand. Inuyasha's eyes widened and time seemed to slow. Miroku was heavy and he was tired; there was no way he could shove Miroku off and raise his staff in time to block the blow. Either he or Miroku were about to die.

As Mushin brought the butcher's knife down, suddenly Kagome's hand shot out and caught the blade. With a twist she wrenched the knife away from him and tossed it to the side. Inuyasha shoved Miroku off; the monk was strangely still and limp for someone who'd almost been killed.

"Can't move," Miroku gasped. "He paralyzed me."

Well, crap.

Dropping his staff, Inuyasha grabbed Miroku and dragged him away from the doorway as the others ran up.

"Mushin, what are you doing?" Kagome demanded, seemingly unfazed by the blood that dripped from her injured hand.

Mushin laughed. "Isn't it obvious? I'm going to kill Miroku. Naraku promised me a jewel shard if I did so."

Naraku! That bastard!

"It isn't Mushin!" he called out to Kagome, sure now of what he had sensed. "I think there's a demon controlling him, or possessing him or something!"

Which made this fight a lot harder than it would be otherwise; they couldn't hurt Mushin, but they had to stop whatever was controlling him.

Mushin, or whatever was controlling him, laughed. "Well, well, you figured that out surprisingly fast. But what are you going to do about it? You can't hurt Mushin; without his skills, that rip in Miroku's wind tunnel will cause it to swallow him up by tomorrow afternoon.

Inuyasha's jaw dropped, and he heard Shippo gasp. Tomorrow afternoon? If Miroku didn't get help he was going to die by tomorrow afternoon? Inuyasha might not like Miroku much, but he didn't want the monk to die.

"Then we're going to free Mushin!" Kagome said.

"Good and how will you do that while trying to survive?" Mushin asked.

What is he talking about?

Then he felt it, the sudden arrival of scores of demons, so many that they darkened the sky. They were weak demons, individually, but with this many grouped together…without the use of Miroku's wind tunnel, there was no way they could possibly survive.

"Demon worm charmer," Miroku said.

"What?" Inuyasha asked.

"He told me he's a demon worm charmer," Miroku said, glancing towards Mushin's gloating form.

"In that case," Myoga said from Sango's shoulder, "he must be nearby to stay in control. If we can find him, we can save Mushin."

Great. But that still left the tiny problem of the scores of demons that wanted to rip them apart and eat them.

Drawing the Tetsusaiga, Kagome jumped off of the porch to place herself between the mob of demons and everyone else. "Kagome, what are you doing?" Inuyasha shouted. "Get out of there!"

"Shut up, Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted back, never taking her eyes off of the demons as they swooped down on her. "Just shut up and let me protect you!"

As she spoke she swung the Tetsusaiga with all her strength and it suddenly pulsed with enough energy to make Inuyasha's knees wobble, even though it wasn't directed at him. Streams of power shot from the blade and cut through the horde relentlessly, shredding the demons into chunks of flesh.

"That's impossible," Sango said, her voice shaky.

"No," Myoga replied. "That is the true power of the Tetsusaiga."

They're all dead, Inuyasha thought numbly. She killed all of them! With just one swing of her sword!

"On the roof!" Hachi suddenly cried, pointing.

Sango reacted quickest, looking up and throwing her hiraikotsu in almost the same motion. Inuyasha only just caught sight of the demon worm charmer before the weapon slammed into him, ripping him in half. His body disintegrated before it touched the ground, but a jar landed.

"Quickly!" Myoga said. "Get the jar to Mushin and it will call the demon worms out of him!"

Shippo bounded over to the jar and back, holding it up to Mushin. What flowed from his mouth didn't look all that much like worms to Inuyasha, more like a mist. When it was gone, Mushin fell over, unconscious.

"He's alright!" Shippo called. "I think."

Inuyasha sighed, and then glared down at Miroku, who he was still supporting. "You see why it's a stupid idea to run off without us? What do you think would have happened if we hadn't been here to save your tail?"

Miroku chuckled. "I am sorry. You have my word it won't happen again."

"It'd better not, after all this trouble," Inuyasha grumbled. "Hey, Hachi, help me get Miroku back to a futon or I'm dropping him. Stupid monk is heavy. Have you thought about skipping a few meals?"

"Hey!" Miroku protested.

"The truth hurts, monk. The truth hurts."