NOTE: I'd like to take this moment to thank everyone of you who has left a review, or has put this story on your Alerts list, or even better, your Favorites list. I've gotten the best response from readers for this story than any of my others. It's hard to beleive that I've only gotten into Inuyasha around the beginning of this year! The time travel theme got me hooked, but I wasn't a hopeless case until I was introduced to the Band of Seven. Now, much to the agitation of my Star Wars and Harry Potter story fans, I've pretty much abandoned those stories until I get my Inuyasha story done. Believe it or not, this story wasn't originally concieved as a Bankotsu/Kagome romance! But my feedback from readers was overwhelming: she's got to somehow end up with the mercenary! But what about Inuyasha, Koga, or Hojo? Don't worry, my dears. At least one of them is getting a life, very soon... Which one, and with who? Heh, heh, just keep reading...
Bankotsu still didn't trust that Inuyasha would be easily convinced of the Band's more noble intentions, so he instructed his other four brothers to travel to the village separated from him. Miroku and Sango and Shippo were to remain with them. Especially Miroku seeing as how he was their exclusive monk. Of course, he didn't recall exactly agreeing to this arrangement...
"I told you I wasn't kidding! Lord Monk, you are to stay with the Band!" Bankotsu pronounced.
"Psst, Miroku, there's something you need to see," Kagome said in a loud, meant-to-be-overheard whisper. She giggled and led him to the cave's entrance. "If you look really carefully, you might be able to see it..."
Miroku took a deep breath. "Oh, my, is that money?" he asked weakly.
Sango joined Miroku, and Jakotsu crept closer as well. The mercenary answered from behind them, "Yes, it's...what do you people say in modern times, Kags? Kah-king?" Jakotsu asked.
"Cha-ching!" Kagome reminded him merrily.
"Oh, yes, cha-ching! I like cha-ching," Miroku said a bit dreamily.
Jakotsu took Sango's hand with one, and winked as he held a finger to his lips with the other, telling her to be quiet. Reaching behind Miroku, Jakotsu took Sango's hand and planted it on Miroku's behind. The monk's lips formed a sly grin, and he glanced at Sango. She grinned as Jakotsu let her hand go, and his took her place...
"Hmmm, feels like you like cha-ching as much as I do..." Miroku purred, taking Sango's hands into his. Both hands... He glanced down, not comprehending at first how Sango might have grown a third hand that was still grabbing his butt while he was holding her other two. Then, he figured it out. He turned slowly to his right, where Jakotsu gazed at him with dreamy black eyes. "What are you doing?" he asked Jakotsu slowly as though if he spoke fast, Jakotsu might use as an excuse that he never heard him.
Jakotsu removed his hand, then clasped them both in mock despair. "Oh, Lord Monk, I'm so unholy! Won't you guide me?"
Miroku pursed his lips, and Sango giggled. "Gee, Miroku, maybe you should treat him to your usual pick-up line. Just so he doesn't feel left out," Sango suggested.
Miroku suddenly grinned, then took Jakotsu's hands in his and asked the pretty man, "Would you like to bear my child?"
Laughter erupted from different directions, but the loudest was from Renkotsu. "Yes, I think I'm going to like this man very much," he managed to say between hysterics. Jakotsu pouted, and removed his hands from Miroku's grip.
"As if you could afford to be a parent! You're a monk; you don't have a pot to piss in!" Jakotsu sniffed.
Miroku eyed the cave again, and corrected Jakotsu, "That will soon change."
Jakotsu turned to Bankotsu, who embraced him in his sorrow. "Oh, Big Brother, when will I ever find him?"
"It's going to be soon, Jakotsu, I just know it!" Bankotsu assured him. "Now, Kagome and I need to leave. You'll need to say your farewells now, Little Sister," he told her.
Kagome hugged Sango and said, "I know Kohaku will come back to you someday, Sango. But until then, we've got to keep strong, right?"
"Right, Kagome! We'll take care of your brothers for you while you're gone, okay?" Sango responded lightly.
"Yep, we'll keep them in line! My Crying Mushrooms will take care of that Jakotsu, just like last time!" Shippo promised her as he dashed into her arms one last time for a big hug.
"Don't worry Kagome, I won't let them do anything I wouldn't do myself," Miroku assured her.
The other four brothers smiled widely at that comment, and Kagome shook her head. "I'll be back in a few days, okay? You all do what Miroku tells you!" she called to them as she heaved her very heavy backpack onto her shoulders.
"We will!" they all answered, and then, Bankotsu led Kagome away.
On the road, Kagome found herself lagging behind. At first, Bankotsu tried to moderate his own speed so she didn't get left behind, but after a while, she just wasn't keeping up, no matter how slow he walked. "Hey, are you gonna just keep dragging your feet? I thought you said that Renkotsu's notes for your math test were going to help you!"
"It's not that I don't want to go back to take the test. I have to make it for this test, it's a matter of life or death, or at least, making it out of ninth grade. I don't think I could stand wearing this uniform one more year!" Kagome puffed. "No, I just am carrying my heavy bag, and all you're carrying is that...thing!"
"Banryu is a very heavy burden, Little Sister. When I reclaimed my baby from those who held her captive all those years I laid in a grave, I'd heard that three strong men had to carry her, because she's so heavy!" Bankotsu bragged.
"Oh, yeah? I bet it's not as heavy as this bag!" Kagome snorted.
Bankotsu stopped walking, and put Banryu on the dirt road. "Fine, I want you to try and lift this thing! I'm sure you'll agree your bag is managable compared to my baby!"
Kagome dropped the bag down, and it clinked with gold pieces filling every space between the books. She went to Banryu and picked her up with one hand. Kagome plunked Banryu on her shoulder, just like Bankotsu always does, and ordered him, "Now, take my bag and let's get moving! I've got the rest of today to make it to Kaede's village!"
"H...H...How?" was all Bankotsu could manage to get out of his mouth. He dropped to his knees and bowed his head to the ground.
"Ohmygosh, you're on the floor and you haven't even picked up my bag yet!" Kagome sighed. Just after she said that, she thought she heard laughter. Feminine laughter, which seemed almost metallic, in a similar manner that Ginkotsu's voice made. To Kagome, it seemed to be coming from the right, which was the shoulder she had Banryu on. She shifted the halberd so she could see past the great weapon, but she couldn't see anything.
"You must be a far greater priestess than I've ever heard of! I'd always thought no one could carry Banryu except me," Bankotsu stammered. Again, the tinkling laughter, but this time, it almost seemed as though Bankotsu could hear her too.
Kagome saw that Bankotsu was still bowing before her, so she took Banryu and made like she was knighting him. "I now call you Sir Bankotsu, my Knight in Shining Armor, and you must now carry my bookbag filled with my modern and Fuedal treasures!" she told him.
"As you wish, my lady Kagome," he responded, playing along with the joke. The laughter was infectious, and now, there was no doubt that both could hear it, but as each noticed the other looking around, each could see that she was not visible. "We'd better get going. I think we might have disturbed some forest spirit or something..." Bankotsu guessed.
But as Bankotsu heaved her backpack onto his strong shoulders, Kagome thought that a forest spirit wasn't the explanation for the laughter. Well, only time would tell, and really she ought to be getting use to the random weirdness by now. Besides, there were a million and one things that she wanted to talk to Bankotsu about before she got to the well. The first burning question was, "Hey, Big Brother, you keep talking about these powers that you and the other brothers lost. What powers were they, and how come you don't have them anymore?"
Bankotsu looked a bit grim. "We all had some powers bestown upon us as a payment for helping a demon empress who was being held captive in her palace."
"A demon empress? Hmm...like Sesshomaru is supposed to be the Prince of the Western Lands, right?" Kagome asked.
"Oh, great! Sesshomaru is a demon prince? Naraku doesn't ask much, does he?" Bankotsu growled irritably. "Hey, he's not your ally too is he?"
"Uh, I don't know, really. He hates Naraku, really hates Naraku. But he doesn't like Inuyasha at all either," Kagome admitted.
"Well, of course he doesn't. I take it Inuyasha's the bastard of the family, like I was... Sesshomaru is like Yoshinki, my...sub-species, creature that sprung from a crone witch's twat...Uh, sorry, shouldn't've said that word I guess," Bankotsu trailed off.
"You know, that reminds me, you guys are going to have to start watching your mouths around Shippo! That whole episode with accusing Jakotsu of molesting Kohaku hopefully was still just a little over Shippo's head. He's only eight, you know!" Kagome reprimanded Bankotsu.
"Hey, I didn't do it, that was Renkotsu! Besides, that was tame! You ought to hear Jakotsu when he really gets going! He can make me blush," Bankotsu joked.
"Oh, that's really reassuring, Big Brother! Or should I start calling you Big Bother!" Kagome growled.
"Hey, Little Sister, that's mean! I'm trying to do good, really!" Again, that feminine laughter rang out in the air. "Why do you think I left Miroku with my brothers anyway? Kagome, this is probably the most important decision I've every had to make as their leader. All these years, we've served to destroy. Now, we have to attempt to create new lives for ourselves. It wouldn't be easy even if we didn't have the jewel shards to worry about! But with them keeping us alive, it makes it even more difficult. You know, Renkotsu told me, while we were burying those people who got trapped in the cave (yeah, I know you knew about it) that Ginkotsu asked him to take his jewel shard out?"
Kagome gasped. "Oh no! But Ginkotsu would die without it! What was he thinking?" She suddenly grew very sad.
"That it would be preferable to the existence he has now. If I could only find a way to live without the jewel shards, but what about Ginkotsu? Maybe that's why Renkotsu's also very hesitant to give them up. Ginkotsu would have no means to exist at all."
Kagome suddenly wanted very much to try and comfort Bankotsu. She had a glimpse, at that moment, of the enormous burden he carried, not on his shoulder, but in his heart. Because, he did have a heart, amazing but true. But Big Brother simply kept walking, not saying anything else, which signalled that the converastion was at an end.
Familiar terrain finally came into view. The late afternoon sun was only about an hour from setting. Kagome could see the fields and in the distance, the gate to Kikyo's Shrine. Bankotsu finally spoke. "What a nice place this is! But you know, there's something familiar about this place too. I think we might have been here once before."
"Really? Kaede has never told me that there were any battles fought here!" Kagome said.
"No, we hadn't fought a battle here. I think we might have been passing through, although, there's a shrine over there. Yeah, maybe we stopped here because I wanted Suikotsu's crystal purified. Let me tell you something. Suikotsu's a damned good fighter, but he is high maintenance!"
"He's lucky he's got a good big brother like you!" Kagome smiled.
Bankotsu looked a bit sad as he said, "We'd better swap now." He took Kagome's backpack off his shoulders. She put Banryu down. For one moment, neither of them were burdened. Kagome apporached Bankotsu, then drew him into a hug. "Thank you," she said to him as he drew her far closer into his arms.
Bankotsu only answered with a shuddering sigh. Kagome clung to him; those jolts were coming far more frequently and more fiercely than before. Once his lips melted into hers, it seemed like that was the only thing that was appropriate to do, the only thing he possibly could do. And then, when he slipped his tongue into her mouth and pressed her even closer to him, Kagome thought she'd get electrocuted.
His hands were starting to travel around her back, then slipping up under her blouse to her bra, which, of course, he wasn't all that familiar with, so it made him take a brief second to think. "Kagome, help me," he said very thickly.
Should she help him unhook the bra? She really, really wanted to! "What do you want me to do?" she finally asked breathlessly.
"Stop me, please! I can't stop, help me..." Bankotsu whispered as if he was in a trance. He was now trying to tear the front of her sailor-suit uniform instead of pulling it over her head. Kagome managed to draw back just enough to see his face. He was flushed, and his eyes had lost focus. She looked down to his neck.
"Your jewel shards! Bankotsu, they're black!" Kagome cried.
"Help me! Please stop me," he groaned. Her blouse ripped into two clean halves, and his lips found her cleavage. Kagome wanted to cry. How could she still want to be with him if his jewel shards were black, and he was begging for help to stop himself? He pulled her down to the earth and pressed on top of her.
What to do, what to do? Kagome felt those hands of his, very fast hands, pulling her panties off her hips from under her skirt. Okay, she had to stop him now; this was much too fast for her! Concentrating as best as she could, she focused her purifying power into her hand, and set it on Bankotsu's neck.
A soundless boom went through the air. Bankotsu was thrown back several feet from Kagome's prone form. She shrieked as he landed with a thud flat on his back. Crying, Kagome sat up and rushed to his side.
He woke up, and shook his head. At first, as he sat up, he appeared glazed over, like before. But Kagome knew there was a difference immediately, because his jewel shards were clear and pure again. He noticed her wiping her tears from her face. "Kagome? Are you hurt? What happened to you? Who did this to you? Telll me Little Sister, who dared to violate you, and I'll kill him myself!"
"No, it's alright, Bankotsu, it's not as bad as it looks," Kagome began. But then, she could see as it hit him. His eyes flew open, and he grasped Kagome by the shoulders.
"Kagome, please tell me it wasn't me! It was me, wasn't it?" Bankotsu gasped.
"Oh, yeah, it was you alright! I can smell your dead stink all over my Kagome, you filthy corpse!"
Kagome heard the words, and screamed as she looked up at Koga's furious face. "I'll kill you for good this time!" the wolf demon declared as he dove for Bankotsu's neck.
NOTE #2: Inuyasha will make his reappearance next chapter!