The day started out like any other; the sun was well high in the sky, burning its blazing rays upon a few mercenaries standing outside an open field of many assorted flowers. Their weapons were sheathed, though their blades were well coated from their previous adventures of terrorizing the innocent.

None spoke a word, their silence stilled as their eyes merely gazed blinking at a small infant girl sitting upon the grass before them. There were tears in the child's eyes, her screams loud enough to startle even the most curious villagers that might have wandered through the train to the next village over.

Bankotsu, the leader of this band of mercenaries, merely held his large halberd over his right shoulder, his cerulean eyes watching the crying baby with an air of nonchalance. "Renkotsu…" He called out to his comrade beside him.

The youngest of the band suddenly gulped at the sound of his leader's voice. "Yes, big brother?"

Closing his eyes, he lifted the halberd a few inches from his shoulder before settling it down, and he repeated this process a few more times before arching a brow at the younger man with small eyes. "I thought our plan was to make this girl fight on our behalf using her powers to gather the sacred jewel fragments…"

Renkotsu gulped. "Uh … well … it seems my concoctions were off a bit … but I'm sure it's reversible…"

"Aw! Look at her!" Jakotsu, one of the closest and feminine brothers to Bankotsu, squealed at the child. His eyes sparkled as he knelt before the baby girl, a once thought nemesis before and a cutie now. "I like her this way better!" She cooed, lifting the crying baby off the ground. "Suikotsu! Here look!"

As Jakotsu held the baby up to the mercenary with wild hair and eyes, he flashed his bladed hands at the child, whose eyes grew wide with fright. "Keep her away from me! You know how I despise children!" He spat, and at his tone, Kagome cried louder to which Jakotsu frowned.

"Geeze! You and your children preferences!" Jakotsu replied cooing at the child once more to calm her down, though from Suikotsu's glare as well as the other members beside Jakotsu, Kagome felt an onslaught of renewed tears.

Bankotsu sighed. "Well this is troublesome. How do you plan to fix this Renkotsu?"

Renkotsu crossed his arms and turned his gaze to look at the child and back to his older brother. Strange. He was sure he had done the potion correctly, so perhaps there was a way to reverse the spell. "There is a way to reverse it. Allow me to look back at my notes at the cave. After I figure out what went wrong, then we should be good."

Satisfied with this, Bankotsu nodded. "Well that sounds good." Looking back over at Jakotsu, the leader felt a sudden twitch develop under his eye as he walked over to Jakotsu before swinging his arm around his shoulder. "You know … it might not be a bad idea to get her some clothes..."

At this, Jakotsu's eyes sparkled. "Oh, big brother! Does this mean we can keep her like this for a while? I've always wanted a little sister!" So many thoughts flew around the mercenary's head. He wanted to dress the baby girl in so many cute outfits, especially in his favorite color, pink. With a little bit of accessories and some makeup, he was sure she would be the cutest baby in the Feudal Era. With that thought in mind, Jakotsu suddenly walked off, holding the baby in the air as he spun around in small circles, much to a certain brother's annoyance.

"Don't tell me we have to babysit!" Suikotsu bit out before raising his bladed gloves in front of him. "If I have to hear her cry one more time, I—"

Bankotsu glared at him. "And you'll do what? Why are you making such a big deal out of Renkotsu's fixable mistake? We have Inuyasha's wench. Soon enough we'll have her work for us." He could already see it etched into his mind. The very thought of having Kagome become a killing warrior just as he and his brothers brought a grin to his face. It was very likely Kagome would kill her lover, Inuyasha and bring great pain to all her friends that stood in their way. It was also very likely that they would succeed in this; after all, Kagome was a great weakness to her friends and it was doubtful they would try to harm her.

Fortunately, they were well downwind from Inuyasha and his friends, so following Kagome's scent would prove futile. After all, Kagome was thought to have been going home after all, at least, that's what Bankotsu remembered after overhearing the priestess tell her friends. They had easily snatched her up in the forest near an old well and from there; they had brought her miles away from the village her friends stayed at.

The only issue at hand was to simply wait for Renkotsu to correct his mistake so that their plan could easily go underway. For now, he and four brothers would have to put up with a crying toddler with an ability to sense the Sacred Jewel.

They were men that journeyed but never stayed in one place for too long. They were used to camping outdoors and slaying innocents as they passed through different villages. There had been times where they had agreed to assassinate an army of soldiers in return for much money and a few castles here and there.

But since they now had a baby on their hands, at least for a short time, they hoped, everyone except Jakotsu, they decided they would rest within a cave carved into a giant mountain overlooking multiple forests below. Fortunately, the small path they dwelled upon was livable enough with a small stream down a way to wash up in. Unfortunately, Naraku was unaware of their intension to use the priestess to their own evil purposes, though they were sure the man hidden behind a bamboo pelt was well aware by now; Naraku had eyes in many places it seemed.

Entering into the cave with Suikotsu following along behind him, the two brothers caught sight of Jakotsu directly ahead, sorting through his chest full of treasure from their last attack upon a castle. Multiple jewels and necklaces were scattered upon the stone at their feet and Kagome sat there touching the gems with curious interest, her tears dried up. After a second glance at the child, they saw she was adorned in a bright pink kimono with a large red bow tied behind her back, the sleeves too long as they dragged upon the ground.

"Jakotsu, what are you doing?" Suikotsu asked, leaning himself against the cave wall with his arms crossed as Bankotsu simply sat down to pour himself a small cup of sake from a large jar situated across from them.

A fist full of coins flew behind Jakotsu and onto the floor, and Kagome squealed happily as she crawled around to clumsily grab the golden coins. After a few moments of emptying the entire box, with it held above his head, Jakotsu threw it to the side and grasped a small jeweled butterfly hairclip. "This is it!"

Suikotsu blinked and to his annoyance, he watched the mercenary pushed aside Kagome's hair before placing the butterfly hairpin into her hair. Oh no. He knew where this was going.

"Aw I knew it was perfect! You wear it better than I do!" Jakotsu cooed, holding Kagome once more in his arms as he sat there with his legs crossed. "See? Our Kimono's almost match!"

"Jakotsu, I think you're getting a little carried away. She isn't going to be like that forever," Suikotsu replied with a shake of his head.

The said mercenary stuck his tongue out at the doctor. "So, what? It's not every day we get to take care of a child…" As he looked at the baby's face, he couldn't help but hold her closely to him. "Kind of makes me feel bad for all the kids we've killed, you know?"

"Not really," Was Suikotsu's reply.

Pulling his cup of sake away from his lips, Bankotsu looked at the child before looking back at Jakotsu. "Well she certainly can't wear those weird priestess clothes anymore, so a change in clothing would be better. If Jakotsu wants to dress her up, let him. Jakotsu, you have full responsibility of the kid."

Jakotsu's eyes brightened at this. "Oh, big brother! Do you really mean it? I can keep her?"

He smirked but nodded anyway. "Sure. You watch her and we can fight those who stand in our way."

Hearing this, Jakotsu pouted. "What? That's not fair! What about all the good looking guys out there? Can't I at least play with some of them before killing them?"

Suikotsu laughed. "Face it Jakotsu. You're a mother now. You have a big responsibility, at least until Renkotsu turns her back to her original age."

That was even worst! "But she was terrible when she was older! She even stole Inuyasha away from me! Those fuzzy ears could have been mine several times…" His eyes watered as he stared at the smiling child in his lap, tugging onto his open kimono innocently.

The sound of footsteps from deep within the cave caught their attention suddenly and at the sight of their companion, Renkotsu, they looked up.

Renkotsu cleared his voice. "It won't be a problem turning her back and recreating the potion."

Bankotsu and Suikotsu smiled at this.

"However, there's just the matter of gathering these ingredients from off the mountain," Renkotsu concluded.

Bankotsu blinked. "You mean you've run out already? How long will it take to find them?"

"Well we are miles away from the spot in which I normally gather the herbs and sorts," He replied sweat dropping. "At most, it could take at least four days traveling on foot and at least a few hours to concoct two potions."

There were a couple deep sighs that followed after this, but Bankotsu nodded in understanding. Suikotsu on the other hand wasn't too happy about this and sent the child a glare, but she only waved at him much to his agitation. Oh, how he hated children, though the doctor inside him could only sweetly smile at the girl.

Renkotsu once again cleared his throat and brought all eyes back to him in full attention. "Though it may seem like the situation bringing much delay to our plan, I do not think this plan is entirely too bad."

"What are you saying, Renkotsu?" The leader asked with perked interest. "The priestess was turned into a baby; does that not defeat the purpose of what we had originally wanted?"

"Well yes and no. After careful consideration while I was looking through my notes, I realized something. She is already a child once more; surely her memories of her friends are gone, correct?"

Jakotsu scratched his head thoughtfully. "Yeah, that does make sense."

Renkotsu smiled at this. "Our solution is solved. Since she has become a baby once more, she is capable of retaining new memories. Since she already has the ability to sense the fragments of the jewel, we can easily raise her into something more than just a priestess."

Jakotsu gasped! "We could raise her…to be a princess!" She cooed, hugging Kagome close to him.

"No, you idiot!" Suikotsu spat. "He's saying we can easily train her to become one of us. We don't need another princess, thank you very much!"

Bankotsu wasn't buying it, however. "And how many years would that take, Renkotsu? If we wait that long, then our opportunity to strike back would be in vain."

"Quite the contrary, big brother," Renkotsu smirked. "In fact, it may only take a couple weeks if not a month. I need only to gather the ingredients off this mountain and little by little we can make her drink it. In time, she will slowly grow with age and with new memories."

Now that was definitely better news. Bankotsu smirked at this. "We could train her as well and put her powers to better use. I can only imagine how Inuyasha would react."

Though Jakotsu had been somewhat doubtful to Renkotsu's idea of aging Kagome back to her original form, mainly due to the priestess's clingy nature with his beautiful Inuyasha, he felt more confident about raising Kagome differently. "Soon Inuyasha will be all mine!" He squealed delightfully before touching his nose to Kagome's. "You won't try to steal those fuzzy ears from me, will you? You won't?"

The three brothers sat there, watching Jakotsu fan girl over the baby girl who had once been a nemesis of theirs. It seemed Jakotsu had gotten himself a little too carried away with the girl, but then again, it didn't matter too much. After all, they would soon bring down Naraku and Inuyasha.