Little Sister
Chapter 37: Hojo's Arrival
Toshiro limped through the streets of Tokyo. He was glad that Kazu didn't live too far away from the Higurashi shrine, or he would have been in real trouble. If Bankotsu made it through the well, surely that meant that his beloved Jakotsu also made it through too, right? He winced a little more with each step. It didn't matter, he told himself. Jakotsu was worth the pain.
Suddenly, he felt a strong hand grip his arm. Toshiro gasped and turned around. "Ja...Jakotsu?" he stammered. With the smile on the other man's face, Toshiro knew in an instant that it really was Jakotsu. "You made it back!"
"Come with me, as fast as you can, my beloved!" Jakotsu urged him. "Is your ankle still ailing you?"
"Jakotsu! You look wonderful! You look so alive! I would never have known if you hadn't gone and done...whatever it was you did..." Toshiro gasped.
"Aren't you sweet? Here I have no make up on, I must look like hell! No matter, my brother Suikotsu shall be able to heal your ankle far better than these monsters in these days!" Jakotsu proclaimed.
"But, Jakotsu, that would mean that you'd be taking me with you?" Toshiro asked breathlessly as he was fairly carried by Jakotsu by one shoulder. The duo caught a few glances from others, but for the most part, they were moving far too quickly through the streets to be noticed very closely. Besides, Jakotsu, aside from the fact that his hair was falling loose from a jade butterfly pin, didn't look quite as feminine as usual, and therefore, didn't attract the usual amount of attention from others.
"If you aren't able to come through the well, then I will take Suikotsu here to heal you. One way or the other, I will help you, as you have helped me."
"How did I help you? I think I'm just a big hinderance," Toshiro sighed.
"Nonsense! You gave me a reason to take a chance and go with Sesshomaru to the World of the Dead! If it were not for you, I think I would have decided to dissolve once my time was determined, once Naraku needed his jewel shard back. No, my beloved, you have helped me more than I can ever tell you!" Jakotsu told him fiercely.
"The World of the Dead? I had no idea you were going to a place like that? Oh, Jakotsu, how did you ever manage to get out of there alive?" Toshiro asked.
"It was Inuyasha's elder brother that aided us. Speaking of Inuyasha, have you come across him here? I heard from his comrades that he was left here by my Little Sister," Jakotsu asked.
"Inuyasha got a text message from Kagome's brother, telling him that Bankotsu is there. I'll bet he already made it back to the shrine!" Toshiro told Jakotsu, showing him the text on Kagome's cell phone.
"Hmph! I knew I hated those things for a reason!" Jakotsu groused as he quickened their pace back to the Higurashi shrine...
It was a moment of complete stillness. Bankotsu standing about ten feet away from Inuyasha, both of them pointing their fearsome weapons at eachother. The sky above their heads almost seemed to darken with the tension in that moment, but actually, it was getting dark outside. Kagome's mother and brother stood just inside the sliding doors, she with her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming, he with his hands in fists at his sides.
The two enemies eyed eachother, waiting to see who would strike first. But they didn't have a chance to strike at eachother, because a third strike occurred first. A wave of silver slithered between them effectively breaking the spell of tension. "Big Brother!" Jakotsu called, effectively ignoring the murderous glare coming from both Bankotsu and Inuyasha. "I'm back, so we can go now! Oh, I see you managed to get here too, Inuyasha. Well, if you want to get back to our time of we can rescue Kagome from Naraku, you'd better get ready to go too!"
"Wait! Kagome's been captured?" Mrs. Higurashi gasped.
"By Naraku?" Inuyasha demanded. "How did that happen?"
"Apparently, it must have happened right after she returned without you!" Jakotsu clarified.
"Naraku? Isn't he...the bad guy?" Sota asked.
"Yeah, he's the bad guy," Inuyasha agreed. His head was swirling. Kagome was in Naraku's clutches! Here he had that son of a bitch Bankotsu right where he wanted him, and now, he'd have to forgo the chance to kill him without Kagome being around to see it. "How did you get here anyway?" he suddenly demanded from both Shichinitai brothers.
"I can go through the well," Jakotsu told him. "Big Brother needed his weapon, and, I had to tell Toshiro in person that I was back!"
"Huh?" Inuyasha asked, then shook his head. Never mind that one, he never makes any sense! I can smell them both now, I don't smell graveyard soil and dead bodies! I...I have to smell Suikotsu too. I have to know, and if I don't get back through the well, I'll never know. "Toshiro! You're coming with us?"
"Yes, if he can make it through the well," Jakotsu told them.
"Mom Higurashi, I promise I'll get Kagome back, even if it's the last thing I do!" Inuyasha told her.
"It had better not be the last thing you do, Inuyasha!" Kagome's mother cried. Bankotsu turned his eyes to hers. He tried to tell her, with just his eyes, that he'd made a vow to return his Kagome to this time, to safety. Could she tell? He didn't know. He just didn't know.
Renkotsu and Ginkotsu paced by the Bone Eater's well. Shippo was with them, answering their barrage of questions. "When did Koga leave here?"
"Once he saw Kagome wasn't here, he had left. After he had told us he had stopped Bankotsu from attacking Kagome, that is," Shippo sighed unhappily. "Everybody was acting really weird about it after that."
"Don't worry, Shippo-chan; Bankotsu would never have done that to Kagome! He loves her!" Ginkotsu assured the kitsune.
"Yeah, like you do..." Renkotsu said almost under his breath.
Ginkotsu frowned very deeply. "Of course I love her; she's our little sister!"
"Right," Renkotsu agreed slyly. And just as Ginkotsu growled and reached for Renkotsu to straighten his thinking with a pounding on the head, a blue light began to engulf the surrounding air. Soon, a familiar sight, Banryu, poked up through the well. Shippo yelped in alarm as he bounced away to make room for the men bounding out of the well. First, Bankotsu, then Inuyasha, and followign them, Jakotsu, who turned around to reach behind him. Soon, a new face greeted the Sengoku Jidai.
"Is that who I think it is?" Renkotsu muttered.
"Gin? What are you doing to your brother?" Bankotsu asked sharply. Ginkotsu dropped Renkotsu like a hot stone and made like he was completely innocent. Shippo giggled in spite of all the bad things going on lately. Jakotsu carefully guided Toshiro out of the well. The young man was agog at the sight of Jakotsu's brothers. "Has Suikotsu come back yet?"
"No, and why did you send him to scout ahead? You always send Jakotsu for that?" Renkotsu asked.
"I needed to have him take me to Kagome's time to get Banryu back," Bankotsu explained to Renkotsu very shortly.
Toshiro stood on the edge of the well, listening to their excited chatter, their outbursts and tempermental wisecracks, mostly ignored, except by Shippo. "Are you from Kagome's time too? Is that your school uniform? How come it's black, and not white and green like Kagome's?"
"Uh, is that a tail?" Toshiro asked.
"Look I'm sure this is a very stimulating conversation, but we've got to get moving!" Renkotsu cut in, giving Toshiro a cold look. Sheepishly, Toshiro stepped onto the grass.
"Just one moment! Brothers, though one of us is not here at the moment, there is something else we must do before we leave here. Renkotsu, Ginkotsu, Jakotsu...come here." Bankotsu ordered them. Jakotsu patted Toshiro's hand and smiled at him before joining his other two comrades lined up before Bankotsu.
Curious, Toshiro, watched as Bankotsu first reached for Renkotsu's face. "Renkotsu, my second-in-command, the one who commands the elements, one of the Shichinintai!" he said, and with his fingers, he traced lines over Renkotsu's face. Lines of purple streaked down his cheeks, over his brows, and a symbol appeared on his forehead. Renkotsu responded with a nod and murmured, "Big Brother." Then, Bankotsu went to Ginkotsu, a big, burly, wild haired fellow with gleaming silver armor, and said "Ginkotsu, the silver one, one of the Shichinitai!" Bright blue circles appeared around his eyes and slashed of the same blue across his cheeks. He answered, "Big Brother," just like Renkotsu had. Bankotsu went to Jakotsu, who grinned evilly. "Jakotsu, the snake, one of the Shichinintai!" Bankotsu declared as two deep blue streaks reappeared after their short absence. Toshiro barely contained an "Aha!" as Jakotsu acknowleged "Big Brother," with a bigger grin than before.
They all took a step back as Bankotsu raised Banryu in the night air and a four pointed star appeared on his forehead. "And I am Bankotsu, the brutal one! One of the Shichinintai!"
Inuyasha, who had been remarkably silent until now, finally remarked, "Teh! Even if you manage to track down Suikotsu, that still leaves you with only five!" he reminded them with a sneer.
Bankotsu's blue eyes glittered with utter delight. "Perhaps you might have forgotten Mikokotsu?" he asked with a broad smile. The other brothers of the Shichinintai nearly gasped, and Renkotsu let out a small laugh as he saw Inuyasha's expression.
"Kagome will never be one of you!" Inuyasha sputtered. "Now, I'd better go find that mad moron before he gets himself killed!" With that, he leaped into the night sky as he often does.
"What's he doing? How is he going to find Suikotsu when you all smell different now?" Shippo sighed in frustration.
"That's a good point Shippo!" Renkotsu answered. "Besides, even if he does find Suikotsu, what's he going to do?"
"Presumably, keep him from getting killed," Toshiro piped up.
Now, Renkotsu gave Toshiro a dirty look. "So, you must be our new Little Brother! Delightful! Just wonderful. Made my day, meeting you!" Toshiro was drawn into Jakotsu's arms. They were protective. "Toshiro Hojo is mine, and I am his, and that is all you need to bother about, Renkotsu, so stay away from him if you don't like it!"
"Well, Inuyasha should certainly be happy then, shouldn't he?" Renkotsu remarked.
"What is with you? You are acting downright evil!" Ginkotsu growled.
"I'm tired. Without that jewel shard, I've been just like I was when I was alive before; worn out before everyone else," Renkotsu sighed.
"Well, take a nap then!" Jakotsu snapped.
"Fuck off, Jakotsu!" Renkotsu bit out.
"That's enough!" Bankotsu boomed. Toshiro shuddered in Jakotsu's arms ever so slightly. "First of all, Inuyasha's pretty damned pissed, and Jakotsu is the last person on earth that he's thinking about. I don't know what he's doing going after Suikotsu, but anything that keeps him from causing us trouble is good enough for me. If he's going to be in any way a disruption, Toshiro will have to go back into the well, Jakotsu! And Renkotsu, if you can't keep your damned mouth shut, when I find Suikotsu I'm going to have him wire your jaw shut!" He turned his glaring blue eyes on Toshiro. "Keep out of the way, Toshiro. Once Suikotsu is back with us, I understand you have knowledge of herbs and remedies, so you can help him. He's our doctor as well as our warrior brother. And Inuyasha is worried for nothing; Suikotsu is probably one of the toughest sons of bitches that I've ever known."
Toshiro clenched his jaw to keep from talking. They thought he was pretty much useless! What was he going to do to prove his worth? He glanced up into the night sky of five hundred years in the past. There were so many stars that he never got to see, since he lived in a city where the lights made it almost impossible to see any of them at night. Some odd shadows crossed over the stars, shaped like really large hornets of some sort.
"Jakotsu, what are those things?" Toshiro asked him. Jakotsu and a few of the others glanced up, and the curses started flying again.
"Saimyosho! What are they doing here?" Ginkotsu grunted.
"Spying, most likely," Renkotsu opined.
"But there's a lot of them! I don't like this..." Shippo said. And just as those words left his lips, a horrible shriek, distant but still startling, filled their ears.
"It's Sango!" Shippo said, leaping up and darting toward her. Everyone raced to follow him, including Toshiro, who Jakotsu fairly dragged by the hand. Over the hill, Toshiro saw a young Buddhist monk, a very large cat with fire surrounding her paws and two tails, and a young woman dressed much like a ninja. She was sobbing over a small bundle on the ground, the young monk was restraining Shippo.
Bankotsu did not wait. He dropped his huge halberd on the ground and ran over to the sobbing woman, who began to yell at him, calling him a bastard and that he should get the hell away. This did not seem to stop Bankotsu, who looked at the bundle on the ground. The blood curdling wail that he cried out afterward made Toshiro's stomach twist.
Renkotsu demanded from the monk, "Miroku-sama, what the hell happened?"
"The...Saimyosho...dropped it here...for us. No, Shippo, you can't, not yet!" the monk insisted as Shippo wriggled in his arms.
Toshiro knew it was really bad. He broke from Jakotsu, ran as fast as he could, ignoring the searing pain of his ankle. Bankotsu was on his knees, nearly convulsing with anguish. With the widest eyes he'd ever had, Toshiro edged around the sobbing Sango and saw, finally, what he almost figured it was, though it was still a terrible shock, sending jolts of helpless powers throbbing through his fingers.
It was Kagome's head.
Next chapter, Toshiro makes himself useful, especially to Bankotsu!