Light touched eyelids, making daybreak impossible to ignore.  A pillow banished the brightness and offered the sleeper promise of more dreams.

A scream pierced the air and Kagome sat up.  “Wha?”

“What the fuck happened to ME?” a woman screamed.

Kagome blinked a few times.  “Who?”

Inuyasha pounced on Kagome’s sleeping bag.  “Kagome, something…” the woman cried.  “Oh gods, you too?”

Kagome frowned in confusion.  “Inuyasha, what?” a male voice spoke.

Inuyasha made a face and opened his haori and kimono.  “Look!”

Kagome blinked and blinked again, staring at Inuyasha’s chest.  “Inuyasha… you have…” the male spoke again.

“Boobs, yes I know.  That’s not all I got!” Inuyasha said with a woman’s voice.  “And it doesn’t look like I’m the only one… check yourself…”

Kagome made a face.  The nightgown she had worn to bed lacked form over a flat chest.  Casually a hands reached down and found… “I’m a MAN?!”

“Sh!” Inuyasha covered Kagome’s mouth with a slender hand.  “You’ll wake…”

“What’s going on?” a female voice yawned as Miroku sat up. 

“Is it morning?” a male voice added and Sango rubbed at swollen eyes.

“Them…” Inuyasha growled quietly.  “I see it happened to all of us.”

Miroku stared, dumbfounded at her breasts.  Her hands weighed one and then the other.  “I’m… female…”  She turned to stare at Sango.

“Don’t look at me, you pervert!” Sango snarled, trying to cover his lack of chest. 

Something laughed at them from the trees. 

Inuyasha glared at the invading demon.  “What the hell did you do to us?  Change us back!”

“I can’t,” the demon giggled.  “Not until you find two in one… acceptance is the key.”

“What is THAT supposed to mean?” Inuyasha screamed.

The demon laughed and departed.

“Get back here!” the female dog demon yelled.

“Inuyasha… it’s gone,” Kagome said, catching her arm.

Inuyasha swung around to look at him.  “I don’t want to be a girl.”

Kagome made a sympathetic face.

^.~

Inuyasha grumbled as she washed.  Her breasts kept swinging whenever she bent over.  “I don’t see how you can stand this…” she seethed at the former monk.

Miroku stood in the water, touching her own breasts.  “I think we should make the most of the situation.  We can learn from it.”

“Learn what?  How annoying it is to have breasts?”

Miroku shook her head, lightly playing with her nipples.

“Could you at least NOT fondle yourself?” Inuyasha asked in agitation.

“You should try it…” Miroku answered.  Her left hand crept down her body.

“Don’t you dare!” the hanyou growled.  “I DON’T want to watch you do that.”

Miroku blushed and sat in the water.  Her hand was obviously moving and she closed her eyes in concentration.

“It’s bad enough when you do that as a male around me… Now you gotta be female?”

“Inuyasha… part of finding inner peace is… knowing yourself.”

“I ain’t touching myself when I’m a girl!” Inuyasha growled and stormed away.

^.~

Kagome stood in the water, staring down at himself.  Was he long?  He glanced at Sango.  They seemed about the same size.

Sango was oblivious, trying to be modest with his body.

“KAGOME!” a female voice called out as Inuyasha came upon them.

Sango gave an unmanly scream and crouched in the water.

Kagome stared at the dog demon, wide eyed.

Inuyasha gave Kagome an appraising look, resting her eyes on his pelvic region.  “Miroku is being a pervert!” she seethed.

“And what about you, walking in on us?!” Sango called from the water.

“Kagome, it’s disgusting…” Inuyasha said, finally pulling her eyes back up to his face.

Kagome sighed and pulled on the clothes he had traded Inuyasha for.  He handed Inuyasha the haori to cover herself.  “I’m going back to the village with Inuyasha,” he called over his shoulder to the demon slayer.

^.~

They had taken up residence in a nearby village, trying to figure out how to switch back.

Kagome noticed a flock of girls following him around.  Young men were hard to come by in small villages.  It made Kagome nervous to be regarded as a piece of meat.  He kept close to Inuyasha.

Inuyasha had her own flock chasing her.  Men followed and made catcalls, offering to show her a good time.  She began to worry about Kagome’s skimpy skirt.  Were men always like this when they saw her in a short skirt?  Why wasn’t it noticed before?  She and Kagome stayed close together whenever they had to go anywhere to protect each other.  She followed Kagome into the hut they shared with the other two.

^.~

Miroku ran into Sango on the way back from her bath.  “Sango…” she breathed as she looked to the ground and blushed.  She played with the beads that sealed her right hand. 

Sango stopped and looked at the nervous woman before him.  “What do you want?”

“Will you… father my child?” 

Sango stared at the woman in shock.  “You would… you… would consider bearing your own child?”

“I won’t ask you for anything, I promise,” Miroku responded quickly.  “No responsibility… Nothing!”  She stopped and stared at Sango.  “I want this… from you.”

“Miroku… I…” the demon slayer whispered.

“I know how men are… believe me.  You know all I would have to do is open my bed to any man who came along… but I don’t want that.”  She blushed softly and massaged her cursed arm.  “I want it to be with someone I care about.”

Sango stared long and hard.  “Miroku, I don’t think I’m… with this body, I mean.”

Miroku looked up and hastily blinked back tears.  “I… understand.”  She gave a small bow and turned to leave.  “Thank you anyway.”

He reached out and caught her hand, pulling her into an embrace.  “I’m sorry, it’s just… I don’t know if I can… perform for you.  I’m not used to this body and how it works.”

“I understand…” Miroku whispered with a sniffle.  “Really I do.”  She held the other’s body close to her own.  “If you must know, I’m a little scared myself.”

“Why?”

“It’s a big step, but it has to be done.  If not this way… then…”

“You really would choose me?  Above all other men?”

She blinked up at him.  “Of course.”

“And when I was a woman?”

Miroku stared at him.  “Sango… I know you wanted me.  And I know… I’m going to die.”  She rubbed her arm.  “I couldn’t ask you to make that sacrifice for me.  Throw you life away because of my needs…”

“That didn’t stop you from copping a feel every time you could…”

“No…” she agreed with a small laugh.  “No,” she breathed, “it didn’t.”  She frowned a moment.  “After I met you… I knew I couldn’t seriously ask another woman… and I also knew I couldn’t ask you.  You doomed me.”

“Miroku, don’t be like that…”

She wiped away a tear and stared up at him.  “Would you have allowed me into your bed, had I asked?  Would you have given up your revenge on Naraku to bear my child and raise it to take my place after I died?  Would you have, Sango?”

“Miroku,” Sango growled, touching his boomerang. 

“I don’t want to be with anyone else.   Even though I have this opportunity to get it done with… I won’t take it.  Because I…”

Sango stared at her in confusion.  These words…

“I love you.”  Miroku turned and silently walked away. 

^.~

“I hate waiting!” Inuyasha growled, nervously pacing the room.

“We can’t really help that,” Kagome sighed as he poured some tea.

“How can you be so calm?” Inuyasha snarled, turning on Kagome.  “You’re stuck too!”

“It’s no use getting upset about it.  Why don’t you go outside?  You always get like this when you’re stuck indoors.”

“I can’t!” Inuyasha snarled as she made a rather ungraceful collapse on the floor beside Kagome. 

“Why not?” he asked, handing her a cup of tea.

Inuyasha blew on it.  “There are guys out there.”

“So?”

“They keep looking at me.  It makes me uncomfortable.”

Kagome stared at the dog demon.  “You who have defeated countless enemies… are bothered by a bunch of men looking at you?”

Inuyasha stared dully at her teacup.  “Yeah…”

“Why?”

“I know what they’re thinking…”

“How can you know…?”

Inuyasha slammed down her cup.  “I used to be a guy, remember?  I know that… look…”

Kagome rested his chin on his hand.  “Inuyasha… I’m a guy now…”

Inuyasha’s eyes flashed up at Kagome’s.  “I know… But it doesn’t bother me that you…”

Kagome stared at her.

“It just doesn’t bother me, OK?  I know you.  I don’t mind if you… look at me… like THAT…”

Kagome reached out and wrapped an arm around Inuyasha’s slender shoulders.  Inuyasha leaned into him.  Even in male form, Kagome brought comfort.

“I can beat them up for you,” he offered quietly.

Inuyasha laughed, finding it hard to imagine her masculinized companion fighting for her.  “I can take care of myself.  I AM demon.”

Kagome chuckled.  “Then what good am I?”

Inuyasha offered him a smile, something rare and fleeting.  “You are good,” she whispered.  Strong arms enfolded her and she laid her head back.  “I’m sorry Kagome…”

“What for?” he breathed delicately into her ear.

“I’m sorry you got stuck in this.  You would still be female if…”

“Stop that,” Kagome whispered.

She closed her eyes.  The antidote… what was it again?  The demon had said something about two becoming one and acceptance.  What did that mean?  She felt fingertips on her cheek.  She turned her head ever so slightly and warm, soft lips touched hers.  She shivered in excitement.  With Kikyou it had been tender and sad, but this was life.  She turned and embraced Kagome as lips sought warmth.  She opened her eyes to find a young woman blinking back at her.  She tingled all over.

Kagome smiled.  “You are male again.”

He looked down and touched his chest.  The breasts were gone.  “We have to tell the others,” he breathed and stood.

^.~

Miroku sat, staring out at the rice fields.  The sun was at her back, warming her.  She wondered about all the things Sango had said when she admitted her feelings.  How could she make him see that he was the only one she wanted?  It bothered her.

Suddenly the sunlight was gone, sending a shiver down her spine.

“Hey girlie…” a male voice called out.  “How’s about I SHOW you the field.”

Miroku turned around to see three men staring at her.  “No, thank you.”

“Maybe you don’t understand,” one of the men said.  “We WANT you to see the field.”

“I understand.  I said, ‘no, thank you’,” Miroku answered.  She looked back at the field.  That was a mistake.

Rough hands caught her from behind.

“What are you doing?” she cried out indignantly as she was carried out to the bank of a rice paddy.  She was pushed to her back on the ground and a pair of hands held her wrists above her head.  Another man opened her kimono and the third got down between her legs.

“We’re just going to have a little fun,” the one between her legs smiled.  His hand touched her thigh, moving up to savagely push his fingers someplace only Miroku had touched.

Miroku screamed and the one at her chest covered her mouth.

“If yer silent… we won’t kill you when we’re done with you,” the one holding her hands chuckled.

Miroku stared at them in wide-eyed terror, watching the one between her legs open his kimono, ready to lay down on top of her.

Something whizzed through the air and slammed into the one between her legs.  He gave a groan and fell back into the water with a splash.  The other two looked up in surprise as the one covering her mouth was pounced on by a cat demon.  The third man grabbed by a man.

“Get your stinking hands off of her,” the man said, punching out the guy.

“Sango!” Miroku called.  The demon slayer immediately embraced her.

“Did they hurt you?” he asked, checking for injuries.

Miroku shook her head.  “They touched me, but you stopped them before they…” she let off with a shudder and pressed her face against Sango’s strong chest.  The demon slayer helped his companion stand and dress, giving her back her modesty.  “Thank you, Sango,” she whispered.

Sango have a smile.  “No problem.”  He held the trembling girl close.  If he had been any later, Miroku would have been… He didn’t want to think about it.

“My hero,” Miroku teased, standing on tiptoes to kiss him.

He blushed and turned his head, catching the kiss on his lips.  “I’ll keep you safe,” he said with a female voice.  Eyes blinked.  Miroku was now male.  Sango looked down at her chest.  Her breasts were too big and pulling the kimono open.  “We’re… back to normal!”

Miroku grinned and kissed her again.

^.~

“All that time, we could have switched back with a measly kiss,” Inuyasha seethed.

“I think it could only happen when we accepted each other regardless of gender,” Kagome stated.

Inuyasha made a not so polite colorful metaphor.

Miroku continued his leisurely pace beside Sango.  They passed a knowing smile and watched the girl “sit” the dog demon.

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