Note: This chapter is dedicated to Paris Hilton, whose maturity and responsibility will be an example for generations to come...
By the next morning, it had become very evident that a power struggle was looming. Kagome had dreamt about it once she had gotten back to sleep last night. Bankotsu was in danger. And Naraku was pulling the strings. As long as things stood with Bankotsu in charge, Kagome knew she'd be unharmed. But she knew if Renkotsu got his way...she was a goner. Now, she had to figure out how to survive in case something like that happened.
"Well, you look deep in thought. Not thinking of escaping, are you?" Bankotsu asked her before she set out with Ginkotsu and Jakotsu to gather herbs for Suikotsu's supply.
Kagome answered, "I'm thinking it'll be nice to pick herbs today. I'm thinking you should keep a very close eye on...everybody. Jewel shards don't turn black for no reason." She hoped her warning was enough. She hoped that Bankotsu got the message. But from the look in his eyes, she couldn't tell.
Ginkotsu rolled along behind Kagome and Jakotsu through a forest path. He was not really able to do much to help, just to stand guard mostly. But somehow, Kagome didn't think that was the point. It was obvious that Bankotsu had some sort of agenda, but what could it be? She glanced at Jakotsu's jewel shard lodged in his neck. It was glowing a fine pink color. In spite of that, his pretty face was stuck in a frown. "Sure, he makes me babysit you. And then, tonight, I get to watch you and make sure you don't escape. Bankotsu had better watch out; I'm getting bored. Bored Jakotsu is not a good Jakotsu."
"Gessh! You think you're bored? I was outside all by myself last night until you came out there. It's just like it used to be with Kyukotsu!" Ginkotsu complained.
"What do you mean?" Kagome asked.
"Well, Kyukotsu never could come inside most places either; he was too big! Then Renkotsu started doing this stuff to Ginkotsu... Suikotsu might be right, what Renkotsu did this time. It's pretty extreme!" Jakotsu commented.
"We know who's at fault!" Kagome frowned.
"Yes! Inuyasha!" Ginkotsu declared.
"No, Renkotsu! He's the one who built you up like this!" Kagome countered.
"No! Renkotsu only tries to help me! If Inuyasha hadn't used his sword on me like he did, I wouldn't have fallen apart like that!" Ginkotsu argued. Well, Kagome thought quickly, that's one for Renkotsu's side!
Jakotsu glared at her. "He and Renkotsu have always been close. There's no use trying to drive any kind of wedge between them, Kags. It was the same with Suikotsu and Kyukotsu."
"He used to keep Kyukotsu company outside lots of times. But so would Bankotsu. I hope he spends some time with me now that I have to stay outside all the time. Big Brother, I mean."
"Hey, why's he the Big Brother when it seems like he's the youngest one of all of you?" Kagome asked.
"He may be the youngest of us agewise, but he far surpasses all of us in virtually every other way. He's got...powers..." Jakotsu explained.
"Yes, he said he made that crystal for Suikotsu. How did he do that?" Kagome interrupted.
"I remember we passed though a village where there was some old gink selling rocks on his cart. Bankotsu believed that if Suikotsu were given something that would make him think that he had control over his spells, that he really would have control, you know what I mean? So, he took the crystal he bought from this old man, then went to a Buddhist temple and prayed over it, I think."
"That sounds nutty to me. I can't picture Bankotsu praying over anything!" Kagome sniffed.
"He said some sort of prayer over his Banryu once too. And it's got some sort of powers too. I think Banryu's actually gaining strength, even now, after sitting as a decoration in that daimyo's fortress for so long. I don't exactly know what it is, but I know it's there. So did others. Hey, Ginkotsu, remember that time we were hired to capture and get information from that village headsman about their shrine?" Jakotsu asked.
"Heh! How can I forget that! Suikotsu beat him until nearly every bone in his body was broken! Then Renkotsu raped and burned his wife alive in front of him! I'd shot every one of his children in the head! And Kyukotsu tore apart his siblings and parents limb from limb. Still , he said nothing!" Ginkotsu recalled with a touch of awe in his metallic voice.
Kagome was horrified. Jakotsu merely laughed. "Oh, you haven't even heard the rest of it yet! That's when they called me in! I remember reaming him quite thoroughly..." Jakotsu grinned evilly and showed Kagome one clenched fist.
Kagome gasped. "No...you didn't!"
"Oh, yes, he did! Renkotsu and I had to look away. I bet even Suikotsu did! But we didn't even hear a peep from the man," Ginkotsu told her.
"Yeah, you know, I bet it was all Mukotsu's fault. He probably over did it with the paralyzing poison he'd given him in the first place!" Jakotsu pouted.
Kagome shook her head. "No, I know first hand; you can still feel everything, even when you're paralyzed..."
"Hmmm...then that's quite demoralizing! After all that, we still had nothing. So, we had to turn to Big Brother..." Jakotsu recalled glumly. "All the headsman had to do was look at Bankotsu, and he was singing like a bird."
Kagome was mystified by that, in spite of her revulsion. "Why?"
"Because, Kags, he's our leader. Our Big Brother! Don't you see? Of course not; you see us as we are now. Walking zombies! But back then, his word was law among us all. For someone to be able to control all of us like that, that person would have to have tremendous personal power. The headsman knew this. Back then, if Renkotsu had so much as kept a fish hook from Bankotsu, he'd have been sent crawling behind him, dusting the floor beneath Big Brother's feet!"
"Gessh, with his tongue!" Ginkotsu added.
"Yep, those were the good old days..." Jakotsu sighed. "Hey, that's one of the herbs we need, right?" Kagome plucked the plants that Jakotsu pointed at, her mind spinning like the wheels of her bicycle...
Kagome had sat through dinner thinking that the last thing she really wanted to do was spend the entire night with Jakotsu! Maybe she'd do homework; imagine, Bankotsu had even thought to have Suikotsu grab her backpack before they had made their getaway! Naturally, when they'd gone though the bag the first time, they took all the first aid stuff she'd kept for her friends when they got hurt. The second time, they took any food she might have had left. The rest had been spared, at least for the moment. Surely, Jakotsu wouldn't bother her while she kept quiet, right?
So, that was the plan. Once everyone else retired, and Kagome was set in the same room again with a new guard this time, she immediately opened up the backpack and pulled out the Trigonometry book and a wirebound notebook. Ha, just think, last week, all I could think about is that monster test I know I'm going to bomb at the end of this semester.
About halfway through the first homework problem, Kagome looked up and saw Jakotsu gingerly sniffing some of her face lotion. Her first impulse was to yell at him, but then it occurred to Kagome that it would be like yelling at a bear who had just opened up your camper to start pigging out. "Say, this bottle isn't glass. But it sort of looks like glass..."
"It's plastic, and be careful with it!" Kagome snapped.
"And what's this?" Jakotsu asked, plucking out of the bag her cell phone.
Kagome gasped. "Ohmigosh, I thought I'd lost that! Yay!" she said, taking it from Jakotsu. "I'll just shut this off, since I can't use it in these times anyway." She flipped the phone open and shut it off. It made a little jingle noise which simply mystified Jakotsu. But then, relentlessly, Jakotsu persued some more modern treasures. He found one of her teen magazines.
"OH! Look at all those beautiful young men! And the pictures are so...exact! How did you get such paintings!" Jakotsu gasped.
"You can read it if you want to," Kagome ventured.
Hungrily, Jakotsu sat in the corner and stared at it. "Who said anything about reading? I just want to look at these pictures. Reading is for people like Renkotsu! Are any of these men as adorable as Inuyasha?"
"Not one of them resembles Inuyasha in any way," Kagome answered. Inuyasha! She missed him so badly all of a sudden.
"You have to understand, Kags. I just have to have those ears! Those ears! I just want to feel those fuzzy ears between my lips. Just nibble them a little bit," Jakotsu squealed.
Kagome shook her head. There goes the homework! "Hey, those are my ears!" she spat.
"Like hell they are!" Jakotsu sneered. "I'll just cut you up into little peices..."
"And Bankotsu will have your head back off your shoulders so fast..." Kagome interrupted.
Jakotsu settled back into his corner. "Yes, yes, I know... Fine, I'll just look at your men in here. Hmmm...who's this...Hayy..den? Oh, who gives a shit what his name is! He looks like a Caucasian! Mmm... And who's this? His skin is so dark! I've never seen anything like that!" Jakotsu gasped.
"In feudal Japan, you don't get to see too many people of African descent," Kagome explained.
"Ohhh..." For a few moments, he was quiet. Then, he declared, "Yes, there are some beauties in here. However, few of them rival Bankotsu, do they?"
Kagome spoke up. "I've been meaning to ask you about...you and Bankotsu..."
Jakotsu put the magazine down with a slight smile on his face. "Kagome, it's a common mistake. People see that we are close. We are close! We're brothers, Kagome! Comrades-in-arms! If he saw I was in danger, he'd move heaven and earth to get me out of it. If I saw he was in trouble, if I had to die to make sure he was safe, I'd do it! He's got a cute ass, but it's not worth the price I'd surely pay if I were to even go there! Besides, he needs to cut his hair. I've told him a hundred times he'd look great if he'd just get rid of the braid. Although, if he got rid of the braid, I wouldn't be able to pull it anymore. Oh, the dilemmas of life! Do you like his braid?" Jakotsu asked.
"Why are you asking me that? Are you trying to match me up with Bankotsu?" Kagome asked. "Because if you are, you'd better just forget it. There's no way I'm letting Inuyasha go!"
"Bitch!" Jakotsu pouted.
"Oh, please! He's not really your type anyway!" Kagome told him.
"Oh, yeah, I guess you're right. He's beautiful, masculine, but yeah, he's also too dominant. I like to hurt the dominant ones. I like to break them, make them suffer. If I wanted a true lover, he'd have to be submissive, but not girly like me. I'm too damned pushy to back down most of the time; I know my own faults, trust me, I know. I wonder if Hayy-den is submissive..." Jakotsu wondered aloud.
Kagome sighed. "I don't think you'll ever find anyone like that."
Jakotsu surprised her with his response. "I believe that there is someone for everyone in this world, Kags. Look at you! Traveling five hundred years into the past to find your soul mate! Maybe I'll have to travel five hundred years into the future to find him! You know anybody like that?"
Kagome shook her head. Jakotsu was impossible. Even if she did know someone like that, how could she possibly trust someone like Jakotsu? He looked at some of the make up ads in the magazine for a few minutes. Then, he made a connection.
"Hey, this is the same bottle you had in your bag! Did you see this bottle in here, and then go get it?" he demanded.
"Yes. That's advertising. You see the ad in the magazine, and then go to the store to buy it. Or you can order it online too. Oh, you dont' get 'online' at all, never mind, don't worry about it!" Kagome explained.
"Can you online me this bottle?" Jakotsu thumbed his way back to the page with the ad for Paris Hilton's perfume, Heiress.
Kagome's eyes widened. "Jakotsu, do you realize what you're asking me to do? I have to go back to my era to get that! Bankotsu would never let me..."
"Not unless he decided not to turn you over to Naraku! Then, we could just 'convince' him that you'd be safer in your own time. And then, you can online this for me..." Jakotsu grinned, pleased with his plan.
Sure, it all sounded so simple! "He'll never go for it!" Kagome frowned.
"Well, not if it's just me that wants you to go back to your era. You'll need to get some other brothers convinced that you could get them things that they want too. How do you even travel through time anyway?"
Kagome dared to take a breath. Jakotsu was dead serious about this plan! "There's a village to the south of here. There's a well, a dried out well, that used to be a place where demon remains were tossed in. I was pulled here originally by a demon that was trapped in the well during my era, and during this one. I've been able to go back and forth ever since."
"To the south? Perfect; we can pick up some money on the way down..." Jakotsu declared.
"Money?" Kagome asked, as if he'd heard her mental question of How am I going to pay for all this?
"Oh, yes! We're very, very wealthy men, Kags. We did our work, and we did it well, and we were well paid for our services. Do you think we've always slummed it lke this? Hell, no! We could buy a castle like this, if one were actually up for sale!" Jakotsu informed her.
Did she dare hope that this idea would gain any kind of traction? "Who else would go for this idea, though?" she asked.
Jakotsu smirked. "Well, I think Suikotsu would do just about anything you ask him now that you got that crystal back for him. Ginkotsu...hmmm... he'd probably have no objection, as long as..."
"Renkotsu." He's the main obstacle. How do I get around him?
Jakotsu's smirk deepend. "Well, there's a couple of ways around him. You could fuck him. That would probably do it."
"Not an option. Anything else?" Kagome asked shortly.
"Kags, just to warn you, it may be inevitable. He's most likely going to watch you tomorrow night. If he starts something, don't expect Bankotsu to stop him. So, if you act more willing, he might just be more inclined to support you..."
"You said there were a couple of ways. What's another one?" Kagome insisted, with a blush starting to form on her cheeks.
"Well, you'll have to distract him with something. Maybe there's something in your bag that might work," Jakotsu shrugged. Kagome frowned. How do you distract a creep like Renkotsu from raping you? She could tell she wasn't going to get a bit of sleep tonight again.
