I never meant to leave you all hanging so long. I got very preoccupied with the election, so I couldn't concentrate much on writing. Now that it's over, I brushed the dust off this file that had been languishing for a couple of months, gave it an overhaul, and now upload it for your reading pleasure.

Little Sister

Chapter 36: Heroes?

"Jakotsu! What is this?" Bankotsu demanded as he and his brother-in-arms tumbled through the void between times.

"Don't worry, Big Brother, we'll be there soon! Weird, huh? Imagine that our Little Sister does this all the time, like it's nothing to her!" Jakotsu grinned.

"Well, you're getting good at it yourself! I'm not liking this too much!" Bankotsu admitted. "There's no ground!"

"Look, Bankotsu! There's the end of it, right up there!" Jakotsu pointed out to him. "Oh, Bankotsu, I can't wait until you meet Toshiro!"

"I hope we have time!" Bankotsu said.

"Maybe he'll be there! But don't worry, I know how to get to him quickly if he isn't there," Jakotsu assured his worried brother.

"Alright fine, as long as you make it really quick, Jakotsu!" Bankotsu snapped sharply. Then, he asked, "Ja, what kind of world is this we're going to?"

"It would take much longer to explain than we have time to talk, Big Brother, so you'll just have to see it for yourself! Here we come!" Jakotsu announced, and suddenly, the bright light surrounded them and settled them onto the dirt ground of a well, which technically was exactly the same well that they had leaped into, five hundred years ago.

"Hey, why's it so dark?" Bankotsu complained.

"There's a shrine built over the well here in these times. You'll see once we climb out of here."

Bankotsu leaped out of the well, and climbed up the shrine stairs, and slid the doors open. He had to blink several times to beleive what he was seeing. There was not just a shrine built around the well, but an entire complex built where there had once been just forest. He saw that most of the forest's tree were gone, except the God Tree. Jakotsu was beside him a few seconds later.

"That's Kagome's house there. I haven't been inside it actually, I've been too busy visiting my beloved Toshiro. Her grandfather is a Shinto priest, but he's actually rather odd, in my opinion. But maybe he might know if Kagome did something with Banryu."

"No, I think my Banryu is here, Jakotsu. Hurry up and find your Toshiro; time is of the essence!" Bankotsu warned him.

"Fine, but remember, Inuyasha is here too!" Jakotsu said.

"Just go. I think if he was here, he would have been attacking us by now, so he's probably not around. Once I have my Banryu back, if Inuyasha wants to start some shit, I'll be more than happy to take him back to our times and oblige," Bankotsu answered. Jakotsu just gave a nod and dashed off.

Bankotsu scanned the area. The house was put together rather well, in his opinion. Surely, in all those years, people might have figured out how to make houses that were more sturdy, he thought as he peered into the sliding glass doors that led inside. But then again, who ever heard of making doors out of glass?

He slid the door open tentatively. He took a step inside, and to his joy, he found Banryu right there! He gasped and picked his baby up once more. "Kagome! Thank you for keeping her safe, though it was supposed to be the other way around!" Bankotsu turned around and looked at the room in front of him. So much furniture! He had never seen chairs with padding on them! He actually squeezed one of them, just to feel how soft it might be. He noticed a large screen that reminded him of the screen on his cam-era. And, much to his surprise, on a low table before the screen, there was his cam-era! What's this doing here? Did Kagome take this to see my pictures? She must have! She was scared that I wouldn't come back! Bankotsu dropped down before the large screen, examining it. Then, another item caught his eye. It looked like a photo of a person but it had no colors in it.

Before he could touch the item, Bankotsu thought he heard a sort of squeak. Like quicksilver, Bankotsu rose from the floor and crept silently away. He walked a few feet into the hallway that led upstairs. And since he heard nothing more, he continued up the stairs, since he saw something hanging on the wall. When he got to it, he saw that there were photos, a lot like the ones in his cam-era. They were of Kagome! Bankotsu tapped the glass of the picture frame, having never seen such ornamentation on a wall in Japan before, let alone with glass over it. He unhooked the frame off the wall, and happily proceeded into the upstairs hallway. There were a few doors, and they were all closed. Bankotsu wandered past one, which had nothing hanging on it at all. Another had a pair of small house slippers before it. He turned the knob, but it wouldn't give. He backed away, then turned to another door. He touched it. It felt like Kagome... He turned that knob, and it opened.

Bankotsu gaped at Kagome's bedroom. The pink carpeting under his feet. The bed she slept in when she was here. The white desk with the well-worn chair, with books covering the top. He placed Banryu down on the carpeted floor, and put the picture frame on the bed. He knelt on the floor, and just touched the ruffle of the bedspread. Kagome, please be well until I get you back! You will sleep in your pretty warm bed once more. You will get to read your books again, I swear it on my new life that I will make sure that happens. A snapping sound make Bankotsu stir. Then he noticed the sunset beams had crossed over Kagome's bed from one of the windows, and Bankotsu gasped. He hadn't realized he'd spent so long in this house! He had to get back.

But when he turned around, he saw a small boy backing away from the door in sheer terror...

Sota had been in the bathroom. While he was in there, someone tried to open the door, but obviously couldn't since he'd locked it. That was stupid, he had thought, didn't they see the bathroom slippers right outside the door? When he got out, he had gone to his bedroom, where he had picked up his cell phone. He had been thinkng of calling Inuyasha back and inviting him to dinner, since he loved Mom's cooking so much. Inuyasha had taken Kagome's cell phone, (since he had learned how to pick up calls and read text messages one of the last times he was here, when Kagome had gotten ligitimately sick with a cold) and had gone with Toshiro to his friend Kazu's place, where they had a Guitar Hero battle going on.

Between the time he went from the bathroom to his bedroom, Sota had heard Kagome's bedroom door squeak open. Oh, good, she's back, Sota had thought, so now we can call Inuyasha back and they could make up so she loses interest in this evil Bankotsu guy that Inuyasha told me would hurt her if she kept going with him! So imagine Sota's shock when he saw, in his sister's bedroom, a young man with a long braid and that huge halberd that Kagome had plopped at their door, kneeling in the waning sunset and feeling the bedspread ruffle.

I have to get Inuyasha! Sota thought in panic, and then very quickly texted his sister's cell phone as fast as he could and as silently as he could, not wanting to alert this Bankotsu to his presence. It was only at the last second, when he snapped the phone shut, that Bankotsu turned to look in his direction. Sota couldn't scream, he was too afraid, so imagine his surprise when Bankotsu bowed his head to the carpeted floor and said, "Please do not fear me! I mean you no harm."

Sota finally found his voice. "MOM!!!" he screamed, then dashed down the stairs. Bankotsu swept down as well, and followed Sota's screams to the kitchen, and he stopped dead. A woman whose eyes resembled his Kagome's a great deal stood in a corner. The look in those eyes tore at his heart. It was nearly as bad as if Kagome were staring back at him with such fright. Of course, it occurred to him that here he was, wearing full battle armor, with a huge weapon in his hand. Not everyone was like Kagome, who learned how to ignore the weapons and see who was carrying them instead. So, Bankotsu pointed Banryu down, and repeated, "Please don't be afraid of me! I am Bankotsu of the Shichinintai. I only came here to claim my Banryu, which Kagome had kept in this era for safe keeping. I will leave you in peace now. I am only glad I got a chance to see with my own eyes the mother and brother of my Kagome."

The slide door banged open. "INUYASHA! HELP!!!" Sota cried.

"Bankotsu! Get the hell away from them!" Inuyasha roared as he charged into the kitchen.

"Outside, Inuyasha!" Bankotsu hissed back, now pointing Banryu right at him.

"Agreed," Inuyasha seethed, then turned on his heel to go back outside.

Inuyasha had been at the home of Toshiro Hojo's friend Kazu. At first, Inuyasha kept the baseball hat on, knowing that was what he always did when he visited Kagome in her era, so people didn't get upset when they saw his Akita's ears. But his appearance was still unusual, so Toshiro still had some explaining to do.

What he came up with was pretty damn brilliant. "Well, he's an upper classman, but he's trying out his costume for the Cultural Festival next week," Toshiro said smoothly as he and Inuyasha sat down on Kazu's sofa and Toshiro's friend turned on the Playstation.

"It's awesome! Guess what I'm dressing up as? Ichigo from Bleach," Kazu reported, as he handed this mysterious "upperclassman" a guitar. Inuyasha shrugged and took it. He and Sota had played Guitar Hero before. He knew what he had to do. The strange but fun things they do to pass the time in this era continually fascinated Inuyasha. That, and McDonald's.

After roughly a half hour, Kazu knew that he was hopelessly outstripped by Inuyasha, whose quicker reflexes and sensitive ears were both extremely valuable assets to playing the game. Suddenly, Kagome's cell phone, which Inuyasha had put on Kazu's coffee table, began to buzz.

"You're buzzing," Toshiro reminded him. Inuyasha took the phone and flipped it open, spending a second more than normal to think about how to retrieve the "New Text Message from Sota." Then, he pressed the correct button, and read the unbelievable message: "Bankotsu is here."

That bastard! How did he get here! Inuyasha pretty much tossed the guitar onto the sofa and said, "I gotta go!"

"Whew? Something going on?" Kazu asked in confusion.

Toshiro picked up the cell phone that Inuyasha dropped in his haste to get out the door. He read the message and said, "Yeah, I'd say something came up. I'll see you later!" And he left too.

Now, Inuyasha faced his enemy. How far had he gotten with Kagome? The mere thought of this scum touching her was enough to send his blood to boiling. Was he doomed to repeat this sick game, of a woman he loves being consumed and destroyed by some vile human? First Kikyo being destroyed by Naraku, and now Kagome with this Bankotsu. He pointed Tetsusaiga at him, his hated foe, and grimly realized that he loved Kagome. It was a grim realization, indeed, because he might just have lost her.

He asked Bankotsu, "How long did you think that you would get away with having violated Kagome without anyone else finding out?"

"I swear to you that I did not defile my Kagome. What Koga must have told you is what he thought was the truth, but had you asked Kagome, she would have told her differently."

Inuyasha pondered this for a moment. "Alright, fine, let's say I beleive you. It won't save you."

"That doesn't matter. The truth is the truth. Whether you kill me, believe me, or not, will not matter," Bankotsu pointed out.

"If I believe you, that will work even better for me in the end. Because this mean I save Kagome from you, a filthy lecher of a corpse!"

Bankotsu then felt the smile cross his lips. "Corpse, am I? Better take another sniff of the air, Inuyasha!" He watched as Inuyasha did so, put his sensitive nose to the air and sniffed. Bankotsu watched the look of growing dismay cross his face. Yes, that's right Inuyasha. I'm no longer a decaying corpse. It was only that I had been one that beautiful night when Kagome offered herself to me, yes ME, that I restrained myself. Now, I no longer have that problem. And you know it...

Note: Yeah, I know, short chapter. Just like with the Las Vegas stuff, I just had to do something with Inuyasha playing Guitar Hero. Too bad that he and Bankotsu can't face off with the Playstation instead of their weapons! Next chapter, a stunning development! Has Naraku finally gone too far?