#sango inuyasha

TWs: Slowburn, heavy depictions of violence, descriptions of gore, swearing, segregation/racism, brief mentions of suicidal ideation, survivor's guilt, pov: the author had major nostalgia while writing this, some fluff to balance out the angst, kinda crackfic if you squint, remixing chronological events so just trust the process, feudal era culture/traditions, aka misogyny, tending to bodily injuries.

Firefly dividers by @strangergraphics

Cherry blossom dividers by NasikaSakura on Deviantart.

Chapter 1: Midoriko's Message

The Shikon Jewel was a powerful object that could grant any wish to its beholder.

However, most who would come to possess it would abuse its power for their own wicked, selfish purposes, tainting the spiritual artifact in the process.

The jewel itself was born by a wish; the wish of a priestess of a demon-slayer village who wanted the unending battle between demons and humans to come to an end, so that peace could be restored to her world.

Midoriko, the high priestess of Yokai Taijiya, drew her last breath standing against the calamity of the demons who wanted nothing but to destroy her from the inside-out. But from within her drew a burst of blinding light. The light of her soul and the purity of her final wish took on a physical form; it was the Shikon Jewel.

The final battle of Midoriko is petrified in stone deep in a cavern guarded by the demon-slayer’s village, standing as a lasting reminder of that fateful day.

An outsider would think that the villagers replicated the story into the form of statues, when in fact, every demon surrounding the tall, armor-clad woman with her chakras tattooed on her forehead are the actual demons battling the actual Priestess Midoriko.

One could even see the cavity in the side of her chest, where the Shikon jewel bore from in her final moment.

Sango, in her youth, always wondered why other villages belittled their women, while hers seemed to be the only one that saw them as equals or greater, because of their village’s savior from all those years ago.

The sun bore down onto her back as she waxed Hiraikotsu. The large boomerang was skillfully carved from the many purified and fused bones of formidable demons, and it was handed down to her from her late mother, who was once the leader of her village.

Suddenly, the sound of snapping branches and crunching leaves drew closer to her.

Sango immediately stood up into a defensive stance.

“Who’s there? Show yourself!”

A large saber-toothed tiger demon slowly approached, dragging a large stag in its jaws.

“Grrr!”

“Don’t startle me like that, Kirara! It’s no wonder I couldn’t tell it was you; you’re carrying that huge thing in your mouth!”

Kirara dropped the dead animal with a graceless sound, and sat down. She then emitted a burst of flames as she shrank down into the size of a domestic cat.

“Mrew!”

“I know girl, I better get started on skinning the poor guy, or we won’t get to eat by sundown.”

Kirara, in all her triumph of securing supper and medicinal supplies, lazily groomed her kitten-like form from her hunt.

Sango was always busy; if she wasn't utilizing her weapons, she was mending them, building smaller ones from scratch, restocking tranquilizers, poison powders, and anti-venoms for not only herself and her feline companion, but also for any unfortunate victim she may need to aid in future battles.

And every successful battle meant that she would become an even greater target for more formidable demons to avenge their fallen comrades. But this was what it meant to keep her village- her people- her family, alive; to continue the fight against demons that seemed older than time itself.

After she ate her hearty stew with what little pouch of rice cakes she had left from the village she rescued three days prior, she fell asleep from the long day's work.

She closed her eyes, and wandered into distant memories.

“Mother? Why is your stomach growing so suddenly? Is it because you've been eating too much lately?”

“Ahahaha! No, my dear. I actually need to eat more *because* my belly has been growing.”

“Huh!? That doesn't make any sense!”

“My little tigress, I'm growing your baby brother or sister.”

She stopped and stared at her mother's rounded belly.

“I'm going to be a big sister?” she asked, placing her small hand against the babybump.

The tall woman slowly leaned down and placed her strong, calloused hand gently over her daughter's smaller one.

“Yes, Sango. You'll need to learn as much as you can so that you will help teach your little brother or sister, someday, if your father and I aren't in the village.”

Sango looked up into her mother's eyes. The light of them shone with fierce love, protection, and something else.

Something that Sango would later understand when Kohaku was last battling alongside her many years after their mother's death: dread.

“I'm sorry, Mother. I failed you. I failed Father. I wasn't able to save Kohaku. It's my fault our village is destroyed. I don't deserve to have Kirara. How can she remain loyal to me when I've betrayed you all? I don't deserve to wield your Hiraikotsu. I should have died with Kohaku that day. I am a terrible daughter and a horrible sister to even be living.”

Where she wept at her mother's grave, she looked up. But instead of seeing the grave's marker with her mother's name, she was inside of the cavern of Midoriko's last battle.

The woman in the gaping maw of the serpentine demon that wound its body into the entanglement of countless other demons had a light that protruded from the cavity in her side.

The pearlescent light spread throughout the petrified silhouette of the woman until it outlined her form and rose out of the stone-like vessel.

Sango blinked twice and realized: a whisper of Midoriko's spirit was beckoning to her.

She drew closer- still in the smaller body of her younger self- in alarm and wonder.

“My child,” she spoke in a deep voice that sounded the way winds would sway an old tree's hollowed branches, “why doest thou weep whilst lying to thyself?”

Sango trembled at the priestess’ voice, and bowed her head to the ground; the woman was as scary as she was beautiful!

“I-I-I’m sorry for my ignorance, Priestess!"

“Do not apologize on my behalf; it is thee that is sorry for thyself.”

The woman knelt down to the little Sango, and though she couldn’t feel it, she placed her hand on her shoulder.

“Rise and look at me, child. Thou must do well to remember the words I am to say.”

Sango stood up and turned her head toward her village’s saviour.

“My soul is what trapped the essence of the will of demons, and that it still battles within the Shikon Jewel. Find it, return it to my resting place, and enter it with thy soul. Only then can thou finish the battle, and my soul, along with that of the will of demons, will finally be at rest.”

“Lady Midoriko…how will doing this restore my honor as a demon slayer? There’s no more people in the village to lead. They have all been wiped out, and I am alone, aside from Kirara.”

The shining, pearlescent woman reached out and touched Sango’s forehead. Suddenly, the markings on her forehead vanished.

“The village is still alive in thee. Thy loved ones are still alive in thee. So long as thou breathe and wage battle, I am with thee.”

Sango woke up to something wet and a bit rough on her forehead.

“Prrrrrrrrh!”

Kirara was licking her forehead nonstop.

“Kirara, what’s gotten into you?” she let out a soft chuckle, petting behind her ears absentmindedly.

She sat up and rubbed at the wetness she also felt on her cheeks.

‘Was I crying in my sleep?’ she thought to herself.

She couldn’t remember her dream too much, but she could recall flashes of her pregnant mother placing her hand over hers as she felt her babybump, then her mother’s grave, and then a hand touching her forehead.

She didn’t dwell too long on the matter as she went over by the creek to collect water to boil.

But when she looked down in her reflection in the water, she saw it- the chakra markings she’d see on Priestess Midoriko- only they were on her!

She dropped her pot unceremoniously as she rushed to cup her hands in the creek and splashed herself to one, be more awake, and two, to make sure the marking wasn’t something stuck to her face while she was sleeping.

She looked back down at her reflection and sure enough- the mark was still there.

She felt a large nudge on her side, and she glanced to her right to notice it was Kirara- now in her larger form- the water pot she dropped earlier in her mouth between her two long fangs.

“Grrrr.”

“Ah- how clumsy of me! Thank you, Kirara.”

She took the pot from the tiger’s mouth.

“You are welcome, my master.”

Sango dropped the pot mid-filling it.

“Who’s there!?”

Sango immediately took on a defensive stance and scanned her surroundings. It was some woman’s voice; not too older than she was, but definitely leaned more in the alto range, by the sound of it.

Birds chirped in the distance among the lush greenery. There was no woman, and there was nothing amiss.

She faced Kirara.

“Master? Are you alright?”

“AHHHHH-!”

Sango stumbled backwards. Startled, one foot slipped on a rock, sending her tumbling backwards.

Splash!

She fell hard on her bottom in the middle of the freezing-cold creek.

“Ughh,” she winced in pain.

“My master! You are hurt!”

There’s that voice again! Sango thought, immediately.

Kirara stepped into the creek with Sango, lowering her neck, offering a form of support from the nasty fall.

Sango hesitantly gripped onto her familiar’s strong yet soft neck. She felt bad for getting some of Kirara’s meticulously-groomed fur sopping wet as she did, though.

“You’ve been awfully clumsy, today, Master. Was there something foul in that stew you ate? Because if there was, I couldn’t smell it.”

There was no mistaking it.

“Ki-? Kirara?” she squeaked.

Kirara halted, and gave a short huff.

“What is it, now, Master?”

“Kirara! I can hear you!”

“Of course you can hear me, my silly master! You are not deaf, and I am talking to you just fine…. wait.”

Sango still gripped Kirara’s fur when the tiger demon turned her head slowly to the side.

The large feline moved her mouth, as though to growl, but rather than the designated sound to come out, Sango heard words coming out of her traveling companion.

“Y-you understood me, M-master?”

Sango slowly shook her head, before feeling faint. She nearly fell backwards again, but Kirara was quicker this time, and caught her with both of her tails.

It was later in the afternoon when Sango regained her consciousness.

She blinked, then felt the familiar sensation of slowly rising, then sinking, on top of something incredibly soft and warm.

She was sleeping on top of Kirara’s tiger form.

Two of her long, fluffy tails were draped over her; one of them positioned in a way that provided her shade from the afternoon sun overhead.

As she stirred upon waking, the side of Kirara rumbled in a low, deep purr.

“Prrghrrrrrghh! Finally awake, my master?”

“Y-y-yes. I’m awake.”

Sango made for sitting up, but one of Kirara’s tails moved to stop her at her torso.

“Grrrrgh! Not so fast, young master. You must listen and remember what I am about to say.”

Sango slowly laid back down. This conversation hadn’t even started, but it had already sounded….strangely familiar.

“Relax, my master, and listen to my tale.”

Sango soaked in the never-before-heard story of her family-feline familiar. In all the generations that have known Kirara before her, there was only one other person who knew her best- her first owner; Priestess Midoriko.

“I was the runt of my mother’s first and final litter,” she started, “I do not know the fate that befell my mother and siblings, but I do know that I was running away from an unordinary fire; my senses, and I’m sure that of the other demons in the vicinity, became dulled and drove us into a frenzy so that we would misjudge our way out of the flames. Apparently it was started by humans who were under the impression that we hunted them, although my mother only killed game for food, and demons for protection.”

What would have been a low growl came out as a long-winded sigh from the cat demon.

“My fur was scorched merely from the smoke, and I was too exhausted from running aimlessly through my home’s ruins, for I was too young to fly at that age. I breathed in too many fumes and collapsed from the burning in my lungs. When I woke up, I was in the arms of a young girl. I learned that it was her fellow villagers who doused the flames from that day, and performed peace rituals to the lives taken that day; man or not.

“I assure you, I bear no grudge to the humans who started the fire. Any mindless demon would jump to that conclusion and start a futile battle with any human it happened across.”

“But the young priestess in-training who saved me- Master Midoriko- was unlike any priestess in the centuries I’ve been alive; she had compassion and conviction for both humans and demons, alike. It was her unyielding love that healed my wounds and restored my faith in humankind, and I have vowed to serve Master Midoriko and her people for saving my life, with my own.”

Sango listened with a shaking breath. Just yesterday, everything seemed bleak and monotonous. She focused every waking moment she had into her voluntary-mercenary demon-slayer work as means to tune out her guilt, but then again that could only go on for so long. Everything she did for a living reminded her that everyone who taught her what she knew, the people who taught her her purpose, were long dead. So why now? Why is her already broken world breaking for her yet again? If she had woken up to obtaining strange markings and abilities, would they have helped her back then when she lost Kohaku? Her father? The villagers?

“My young master, you now bear Master Midoriko’s markings. As a priestess, she had to earn each one through ordained training and rituals, but somehow, you have been given them simply in a fortnight; how is this so, Master? Please tell me.”

A sudden jolt struck Sango, and she grabbed her throbbing forehead in pain.

“Master! What’s going on?” Kirara said, making an alarmed noise.

“Kirara!”

Sango jumped to her feet at once, grabbing her armor near her Hiraikotsu to change.

“We are needed to the west, now. I promise, I will answer you after.”

“...very well, my master.”

She didn’t know how this was possible, but it was as though the markings in her forehead beckoned her in that direction, and it was impossible for her to ignore the sudden sensation, albeit an uncomfortable one.

And sure enough- flocks of birds were flying south-bound from the west of the forest as a trail of smoke wound up against the blue sky, like a hungry serpent emerging from its hiding place.

Sango secured her combat attire, lugged Hiraikotsu over her shoulder, and jumped onto Kirara’s back, and the pair took to the skies.

………

Once Sango and Kirara arrived near the source of the smoke, they realized it was a small shrine village.

“Young Master, I smell one powerful demon near the village’s well. I also smell a human- probably a hostage- in its clutches.”

“Thank you, Kirara- that’s good to know ahead of time.”

Wow, Sango thought, who knew understanding demons would have been so useful for fighting them?

She looked down and heard the volume of the villagers’ cries in terror increase.

“That demon withstood our arrows! There’s no way we can engage close-range without losing another ten of our men!” one man cried out to- who Sango assumed to be- the village elder.

“That demon must go down!” The older woman said. “Else the girl- and more- will surely perish!”

Sango didn’t have to look hard to see the giant centipede-like demon emerge from the treeline. It had the head and torso of a human woman, but upon closer inspection, this demon was carrying a human girl who wore foreign attire Sango had never seen before- but that wasn’t important at the moment.

The poor thing appeared to be unconscious in the hold of multiple humanoid limbs that protruded from the demon’s upper torso, whilst the rest of its centipedic body was knocking over trees and thrashed chaotically about. She estimated the demon’s length in total spanned over thirty meters!

Kirara flew higher as Sango positioned her weapon, but the demon looked up and noticed them.

“You will not take my precious treasure from me! No one will!”

“Hiraikotsu!” Sango grunted as she heaved the heavy boomerang forward and released it down. It spun at a sharp angle before hitting the back of the horrid monster in multiple bursts of its arms’ powerful momentum.

“Gyarrghhh!”

The demon curled forward from the hit; a few of its limbs got dismembered in the process, which resulted in the girl being freed from its grasp. She fell, but not before Kirara dove down while Sango caught her limp figure.

“Not so fast, wretched thieves!”

The demon’s lower centipede-like body wrapped around Kirara’s tails and yanked her down.

“GROWL!”

“AH-AHH!”

Sango braced herself and tucked the girl’s head against her shoulder; it’s better that she would be taking the brunt of the fall damage, since the last thing she wanted was yet another death on her conscience.

But before she could hit the ground, a flash of red appeared in her peripheral.

Suddenly, she was intercepted mid-air. A pair of abnormally strong arms embraced her figure, and even though she’d initially panic by the sensation alone, she was focusing on trying not to drop the unconscious girl still in her arms. She chanced a glance up and in a split-second, and made eye contact with her surprise savior: it was a man with a scarlet robe, unnaturally long and silvery- starlight hair, and his yellowish-amber eyes gleamed down at her with something akin to reluctance and annoyance.

Once reaching the ground, she and the girl were dropped gracelessly into a bush.

“You pesky women always have a knack for gettin’ in my way!”, he barked out, before turning tail to confront the centipede demon, who was in the throes of a fight with an enraged Kirara.

Sango blinked once. Twice. Were those actual DOG EARS on top of that man’s head??? And normal men do not jump at such heights or move with such speed!

But then, the girl next to her stirred awake. Sango shifted her focus to her.

“Miss? Are you alright?”

The girl had wavy black hair, and her attire- as strange as its fashion was- was worse for wear. As she scanned her for injuries, she did, in fact, see one that stood out from the rest of the bruises and scrapes.

“I think I’m fi- .”

“Do not move,” Sango instructed, “the side of your torso is bleeding.”

She went into her back pouch and retrieved a balm.

“Might I use the scarf you have around your neck?”

The girl nodded, untying the red scarf of her school uniform, and gingerly handed it to the stranger in unusual armor.

Is she a kunoichi?, she thought curiously, looking at Sango’s attire and the way she carried herself as she dabbed the cloth in the balm and expertly wrapped it as a tourniquet around her wound.

Well, at least it's already red, the girl thought.

“It’ll have to do, for now,” Sango said, looking at the hastily- done patchup. “Please stay put, and out of view; I’ll come back for you,” and Sango took off to join the fray.

I hope I didn’t keep Kirara waiting for too long, Sango thought worriedly. However, she couldn’t exactly do much to help her feline comrade without finding the Hiraikotsu, first.

She scanned the surrounding terrain ahead for the stray boomerang. One couldn’t miss it, even at the distance from where she first engaged with the demonic centipede, considering how massive and heavy it was.

But upon spotting one of its arms jutting out from a tree trunk (for the force upon its landing struck down the entire tree), a pained cry carried through the clearing.

“GRRYARRRAUGHH!! UNHAND ME YOU WORM!”

Sango whipped her head in the direction of Kirara’s voice. She had no time to spare.

She leapt to the arm of her Hiraikotsu, and used the momentum in her landing to strike the splintered trunk beneath it. She immediately hooked a hand on the arm as it moved further outward, and in a swift movement, she freed the other arm from the stubborn hold.

The rest of the tree fell at a diagonal angle that Sango then sprinted across. The distance from the ground, though it only reached up to half of the forest's treeline, aided her vantage point, and she no sooner spotted the demon- which somehow grew thrice in size and horrendousness- had Kirara constricted in its centipedic body that skittered and clicked about as the tiger demon was unable to break from the hold.

“HIRAIKOTSU! UGHN- !”

The boomerang spun forward and hit the demon’s torso, tearing it clean through. However, Kirara collapsed to the ground motionless, despite being freed.

No. Not again. Not Kirara, Sango thought, as she ran to the now kitten-sized version of her companion.

The now-massive centipede demon looked down at the sudden display before it and laughed.

“How futile! Now that I have the jewel to myself, I will become the most pOwerFUL,” its voice became more distorted, “the mOSt BeAUTiFUL,” the severed torso began to regenerate, “ALL shAll bOw bEfoRe mE,” its already-disfigured face grew multiple red eyes and its mouth grew unnaturally wide with multi-rowed teeth and reached down to face Sango, who gripped her katana with shaking hands, “oR DIE- !”

“IRON REAVER-!”

And before she could blink, Sango saw that same flash of red in her peripheral.

“- SOUL STEALER!”

And then, she saw red everywhere.

The man-beast who saved her and the girl from before saved her yet again, though in a far more… visceral nature, as he sliced through the demon’s entire lengthy body perfectly in half.

And using no weapons to do it, at that.

Sango cradled Kirara’s unconscious body as she looked up from the spray of bloodied remains of the centipede demon to face its slayer: someone who definitely was not a human.

Sango drew her sword in a defensive stance at the man in red, and took a slow step back.

“Tch! Typical humans. You could at least say: ‘thank you for saving my useless life, mister dog demon’, or something!”

Sango was taken aback as the self-proclaimed dog demon who saved her life- twice- began to eagerly rummage about the slain demon’s exposed entrails.

Wh- what. What just happened?

Aaaand that's the first chapter to my first Inuyasha fic, folks! (Please trust the process of the chronological inconsistancies because they will be ironed-out in the future chapters!)

I really needed to write something for Sango and Kirara, especially. One day, I was petting my cat, and thought: "what if I can understand what she's meowing about?" And so, the concept of Sango communicating with Kirara+ other demons was born.

I also like to imagine Kirara's voice to be like Moro's Eng dub from 'Princess Mononoke', while her smaller domestic version's voice like Sagwa the Chinese Saimese Cat, maybe (shoutout to the peeps who remeber that show!). Thanks for reading!