I’m working through some shit rn (story-related, not IRL) so here’s a small teaser of the upcoming chapter to keep me accountable to all you sweetie pies and thank you for all your patience and kindness the past several months!

Sango was still several feet back, still rooted to the spot where she’d been flung backward in a display of demonic strength, and even from there she could see those eyes, those arrestingly green eyes that seemed to glow with their own inner light, those eyes that defied the darkness and kept the eyes of the cave’s human occupants shrouded in shadow. 

The green eyes swept downward, rolled upwards, snapped back to the dirt floor and then in the next beat of Sango’s heart they were locked with her own, held there as if attached with those pink vines of restraint. Sango felt a jolt of alarm and wanted to look away but something was wrong with her because she couldn’t. It wasn’t until Midoriko spoke again that those harrowing eyes showed mercy and released Sango from their attention. 

“We have been sitting vigil over you for quite a while,” Midoriko went on. “You faced a brutal attacker, and when it would have been easier to surrender, you fought to the bitter end. You have an admirable heart, young one.”

The green eyes blinked once in momentary confusion, then widened. The dark pupils, a strange elongated shape even when dilated, absorbed more of the limited cave lighting and constricted into slits. 

The eyes of an animal at night. Mountain cat, deer, monkey, tanuki, wolf. 

Wolf. 

Wolf.

Sango’s fascination - or perhaps it was what Miroku might have termed academic curiosity - was at war with her instincts - instincts of fear, of hatred and revulsion and Father Father they killed you and you killed them and we killed each other and somehow some way they deserved it didn’t they because you wouldn’t have NEVER would have done anything to instigate or provoke you were honorable and you just wanted to keep us safe and they were a threat weren’t they Father they were the threat to us first - 

The youkai girl there on the floor, the girl constrained by terror of the unknown and held prisoner by her own atrophied limbs, seemed to take in the full meaning of Midoriko’s words; her already-pale face drained of its remaining color, and her lips whitened and puckered into a silent grimace. 

“He killed us,” she whispered, and for some strange reason she again chose Sango to trap with that glowing gaze, Sango over anyone else in that dark cave room. Sango again wanted to look away, to hide, to refuse this burden that those green eyes were entreating her to shoulder. No, she-wolf, I will not - cannot - I refuse to bear witness to your pain, look to someone else for solidarity for reassurance because lost or not, alone or not, I am still a woman of Taijiya and you are a monster a monster - 

“I was dead.” The girl’s whisper was paper-thin. The eyes didn’t blink, the furrowed eyebrows didn’t twitch. She’s not telling, she’s asking. Asking me.

You died yes you were dead when I walked in this room there was no doubt in my mind - 

“No,” Sango said, “You’re alive.”

Let me know in comments/reblogs if you’re interested in seeing more teasers as I get this chapter all shiny and pretty, and let me know if there’s a character POV you’d like to see a few paragraphs from! 

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