Little Sister

Chapter 25: The True Nature of Banryu

Kagome packed her bag with lots of medicines and bandages. Hojo Toshiro accompanied her to the well, and was even able to help with her many bundles. "You know, I'm so glad I have someone else who knows about what I do now. I just don't know how to explain it to my other friends..." she sighed.

"Kagome, don't worry about them right now, just make sure you take care of yourself. We can't afford to have anything happening to you!" Toshiro told her. "Oh, one last thing. When you see Jakotsu again, could you give this to him?" He handed her a small brass button.

She made a small gasp. So many girls in school would have loved to get one of these from him, that was for sure! A button from his school uniform, a token of devotion. She'd have to explain it to Jakotsu when she got the chance. "I'm sure he'll have something for you in return, and don't worry, I'll make sure they're all alright."

"Kagome, thank you, for everything."

"No problem, Toshiro! I'll call you as soon as I get back!" And just with that, Kagome leaped down into the well and the blue light enveloped her. Toshiro took a deep breath. How can she be so fearless? Her village was abou to be attacked by an army. Even if they didn't hve all the most modern weapons, did that mean people didn't die anyway? She said Jakotsu was really good at what he did. He'd have to have faith in them all.

"So, that's our plan. If Renkotsu gets back here by some miracle, I'll send him out to meet up with Ginkotsu if it's possible. Otherwise, it'll be just you three. I will stay behind in the village itself," Bankotsu told his brothers. Everyone in the village knew that attack was imminent. A message was sent to the local daimyo, but Bankotsu had little hope that it would do much good. It might prove prudent to the daimyo to not bother defending this land. In Bankotsu's estimation, that would be exceedingly stupid, the equivalent to saying to the invaders, here, I'll lie down while you walk all over me.

"Don't worry, Big Brother. Renkotsu fitted me with lots of great weapons. He's seen their new matchlock rifles, thanks to Jakotsu, and what he's made for me is far more advanced. They won't be expecting it." Ginkotsu was unable to smile, thanks to the metal peice fitted over his mouth, but Bankotsu could hear a smile in his voice.

"For that matter, they won't be expecting any real resistance at all! This daimyo ought to thank us for caring enough to bother," Jakotsu sniffed.

"Hey, I don't care if this is a freebie. I get to kill some people!" Suikotsu grinned as he finished fitting his claws on. "It's too bad you have to stay in the village, Big Brother!"

"You should appreciate my sacrifice, mopping up after you guys. Hmm...maybe I'll use one of Mukotsu's leftover concoctions, in his memory. I need the practice. I need to be able to do everything any of you could do..." Bankotsu smirked. He took a deep breath. He felt his chest expand under his armor, but the wound stung a little. When would that damned medicine heal the wound? After Kagome left, he took another 5 capsules and dissolved them, hoping more medicine would get him better faster. Well, since he wasn't already dead, he had to assume that they worked.

Kagome peeked her head out of the well, and at once, she could hear popping sounds in the distance. Almost like firecrackers going off in the distance, but she knew better. The battle had started! She saw no one.

Taking her oversized backpack, she trudged as fast as she could down the path. No firelights emerged from inside the houses, like they always did. Instead, she saw hundreds of torches outside, lighting the way for every man in the village, and even a few of the women. Most of them were armed with little but clubs and garden hoes, a couple had swords, a few more had bows and arrows. Certainly none of them had guns.

But Bankotsu was out there, at the head of the crowd of would-be soliders. All of them had their attention towards the sound of battle outside the village. Banryu glinted against the firelight. Bankotsu himself looked more than ready to kill mass amounts of people, but Kagome knew looks could be decieving. There was a reason he was in the village, and not one of the others. She knew it was because his wound was not healed yet. She just hoped he wasn't weak and feverish like he was before.

Ginkotsu hated being by himself in this tank-like body that Renkotsu had made for him. Soldiers surrounded him, and he had no way of totally keeping them away. Sure, he'd shot most of them, but it always seemed as if one or two of them were brave enough to climb onto his platform. "Gessh!" he growled as one soldier tried to look into his eye.

"What is this thing?" the soldier asked. "This can't be a human!"

"Take its guns, you fool!" his officer barked.

"Oh, no you don't!" Ginkotsu heard it from above him. He looked up, and then shouted, "Renkotsu!"

"Shippo, be very careful! Now, drop me down!" he ordered. Renkotsu landed three feet from Ginkotsu and the soldier. Immeidately, Renkotsu dashed forward and swiped the fool away. The soldier tumbled to the ground, but then got up to chase Renkotsu off with his sword. Renkotsu coolly shot him dead with one of the matchlock rifles he had modified.

"Ahhh! What do I do now?" Shippo cried.

"Ginkotsu, is Big Brother still alive? Where is he?"

"Yess! He's in the village!"

"Shippo, go back to the village and tell Bankotsu that I'm back. Tell him that Master Mushin will send Inuyasha and the others back here as soon as they get back from that mountain! Now, go!" Renkotsu ordered. The little demon child nodded breathlessly, and Renkotsu had a feeling that he was glad he had a mission.

"You mean you didn't bring Inuyasha back? It's a good thing Jakotsu got Little Sister back here to give Bankotsu his antidote!" Ginkotsu reported.

Not good! How can Bankotsu still be alive? Renkotsu was irritable; his arms felt like they might never get set back in their sockets. Even so, the fox demon managed to get him there while the battle was raging. This at least cheered him up a bit. After all, they hadn't faced a real army since they died!

"That little kitsune got you back here?" Ginkotsu asked in disbelief.

"It's a long story. Let's just say he insisted once he heard that the village was being attacked. Now, let me fight!" And so at that moment, Renkotsu went from being dead weight to being a killing machine. Even with bare hands, he was deadly, as he took down two soldiers. He promptly "borrowed" their guns and swords. He gave a glance back up, only to see Shippo using his fox demon magic against another fighter, setting fire to his helmet.

"No, no, no, that's no way to do it! Let me show you how it's done," Renkotsu said with an evil smile. Soon, he set several soldiers aflame with his Fire Potion from his gourd. "Now is not the time to practice, and I can't watch over you. Kagome will kill me if anything happens to you, so you'd better get out of here!"

"There's so many of them! What are we going to do?" Shippo cried.

"I told you what to do! Now move it!"

Suikotsu and Jakotsu were quite far away from eachother. Each brother had a makeshift unit of men from the village, most of whom had at least held a sword once or twice. Still, Jakotsu had to do the work of at least fifty of them in order to keep one of them alive. What had been a fun prospect of mass killing had very quickly become a hopeless battle. When Ginkotsu had said this advance party was huge, he wasn't kidding! Jakotsu was finding that even as he swept his sword across the field, taking tens of men down at a time, another twenty took their places.

How would Big Brother be able to fare against them in his condition? There was no way he'd be able to keep those soldiers out of the village completely, no matter how bravely his unit fought or how much he exhausted himself cutting the masses down like grass blades.

"I see some of them coming, Sir!" Bankotsu's sentry, a village boy of twelve, yelled down from his rooftop vantage point.

"Men, get into your positions!" Bankotsu called. He watched the horizon, and saw hundreds of specks growing larger as they approached. Horseback riders among the foot soldiers... How had his brothers fared? "Kaede, Kikyo, I'm counting on you two to defend the women and children." He said this grimly. There was no sign of any of his brothers or of their makeshift units.

Now, he'd have to rely solely on Banryu...

Everyone was in place as the first soldiers began to step into the limits of the village itself. Arrows rained down upon them from house windows, and the soldiers began to spread out between them. Unseen in the shadows of night, voices began to cry out in pain and death. Suddenly, an invisible force rippled through the road, and a dozen soldiers simply went flying like bricks would after a wall got blasted. Soon, any of the soldiers who had escaped the phantom attack could see a young man with a long braid and ronin armor swinging a ridiculously huge halberd. A few seconds later, those men were scattered too.

Bankotsu never knew why, but Banryu always worked best in situations like this, in defense of a village in peril. Not every assignment they ever had involved attacking villages (though, to be sure, those were the most fun), but plenty of times they were hired to keep the invaders from succeeding in taking over strategic locations like this village. Those were the times when Bankotsu felt most as one with the halberd, as though they were both joined. He leaped forward, sweeping Banryu grandly over the soldiers, and like a deadly spirit blade, the halberd sliced them down.

For a while, this seemed to be making some progress. But, sadly, the invading army was too numerous. Guns began to crack around Bankotsu. He landed upon several soldiers, cutting them away, but more surrounded him. Warily, they surrounded him. He swirled Banryu over his head, then brought her down again, and again...

Kagome was racing to Bankotsu when she heard, "We've got him!" She saw the soldiers descending upon him, and she screamed. What could she do to save him?

Some of the soldiers turned their attention from Bankotsu, since they couldn't seem to get to him through the gang that was already on him, and they focused on Kagome. She noticed that some other soldiers threw Banryu to the side, so Bankotsu presumably couldn't get to it again. Without thinking, Kagome dashed over to Banryu.

"Crazy wench! What do you think you're about?" some of the soldiers complained when Kagome reached for the halberd. Someone managed to grab Kagome around the waist, even as she reached in the air. The warrior who grabbed her tried to throw her to the ground, but something happened before he could do that.

Banryu came to Kagome!

As soon as her fingers touched the halberd, a voice filled her head, which couldn't be described as anything but silvery. "I am the Defender of the Helpless. Protect this village from these invaders!" And Kagome simply started swinging. Blood began to cover her, armor began to shatter, heat began to rise from the earth, and screams of death deafened her. But Kagome was completely taken over by Banryu's incredible power, and she was soon sending those fortunate enough to be alive scrambling for cover.

Very soon, all the soldiers that had made it to the village were either dead or running away in sheer terror. "Flee, before the Miko's Wrath destroys us all!" could be heard over the screams. As for Kagome, her muscles were stronger than they ever had been, and her mind was sharp and clear. And even though she had driven out the soldiers from the village itself, there were the thousands still left with the other Shichinintai and the fighters of the village. She knew what she must do...

Kikyo and Kaede had seen what Kagome was doing. Instead of questioning it right that moment, they gave eachother a glance, and the sisters decided to follow Kagome out onto the road. Many of the others left behind to defend the village followed as well. A couple of the villagers picked up Bankotsu, who was nearly unconscious. "Lady Kagome certainly has learned quite a bit from you people, hasn't she? one of them asked Bankotsu.

"What's...she doin'...with my Banryu?" Bankotsu breathed.

"Winning the battle..." one of the women answered, with a bit of pride in her voice.

The procession led right up to Suikotsu's unit, and that was where Kagome stopped. The unit was hopelessly outnumbered, and Suikotsu would be engulfed in moments. But still, the crazed combat brother yelled to her, "Find Jakotsu! His flare just went off!"

"Are those what those yellow sparks are?" Kikyo asked. As soon as she asked that, orange ones blasted into the air, and then, just after, blue ones. Ja, Gin and Ren were all in terrible danger. (Suikotsu probably should have set off his own, but that was just not a Suikotsu thing.)

Kagome didn't make the decision, the Silver Lady did. The halberd spun above Kagome's outstretched hand, over their heads, and lightning began to crackle, as though Banryu was a generator, and the electricity from the earth and sky were being pulled in.

At once, lightning bolts rained down upon the army. With a precision that defied human ability, the bolts struck anyone with a thought of doing harm to any of the Band or their villagers. It was as though the lightning sought out thought, rather than deed. But still, the army soldiers were convinced that the lightning would destroy them all. The screams were even louder now than they wer in the village, since this was pure magic, and what army could stop magic? The earth soon roared with feet pounding upon it, hundreds and hundreds of men running as fast as their armor would allow them to run.

The battle was over. The village was safe. For the time being. And that was when Kagome collapsed from the power that had engulfed her. Kikyo caught her, and Kaede examined her. Bankotsu was propped up by two men, and he had them take him to Kaede's side.

"Please tell me that Kagome will be alright!" he cried weakly.

That tinkling laughter filled his mind, the same one he had heard when taking Kagome back to the village to go home to her time. She will be fine. She uses me well, doesn't she?

Bankotsu let out a long sigh. "Yeah, she does..."

Don't think eveyone's problems are over! Next chapter, it will become apparent that the remaining Shichinintai must find a way to survive without the Sacred Jewel shards. How will they find an way?