The Miko Joins the Fray
The bell dinged three times, releasing a herd of angsty high school students to attend their lunch break. A flood of bodies wearing traditional uniforms fanned out through the outdoor courtyard, appreciating the fresh spring weather. Among them, Kagome Higurashi sighed, brooding over her geometry class before collapsing onto a bench near an old unused basketball court— her usual spot for lunch, though today it appeared to be occupied by a group of boys she didn't recognize. Noticing a familiar face approaching from the corner of her eye, she stood up and waved her friend over and greeted her, "Hey Sango, how was your morning?" Sango had been Kagome's best friend since middle school, a confident young woman who could be both badass and feminine at the same time. Sango shrugged in response to Kagome's question.
"We should eat somewhere else today," Sango urged, noticing the occupants of the normally abandoned basketball court, "I don't want to be anywhere near those guys." The brown eyed woman shifted her feet and stole glances behind her back, as if periodically confirming that there wasn't a gang of serial killers sneaking up on her.
"Those guys?" Kagome frowned. Sango gestured at the group of boys who were currently playing ball. As if on cue, one of them threw his head back and laughed, whacking one of his companions on the back playfully.
"You haven't heard of them?" Sango shook her head, "They're called the Band of Seven. They go to this school— but not really because they're either suspended, or not suspended and skipping class until they do get suspended. It's a miracle they haven't been expelled permanently yet."
"What's wrong with eating lunch near them?" Kagome peeked over her friend's shoulder to stare at the boys more closely. They certainly appeared to be delinquents, but they hadn't been doing anything to antagonize her yet, so they couldn't be that bad, right?
"Well…" Sango frowned, at a loss for words, "They are notorious for being bad news."
Kagome rolled her eyes dismissively at her friend, "Oh please. It'll be fine. We're just eating lunch by ourselves. What's the harm?"
"You are way too trusting, Kagome." Sango's shoulders slumped and she sat down on the bench, reluctantly agreeing with her best friend.
Kagome grinned and opened her lunch box, digging into her home cooked meal happily. Sango followed suit, and the two girls chattered idly. However, Kagome found that what Sango had said intrigued her— her round brown eyes constantly wandering off to stare at the Band of Seven, and her ears twitching as she picked up little snippets of what they were saying. By the time the bell rang again, Kagome had not only memorized their faces, but also had been listening hard enough to be able to name all seven of them: Kyoukotsu, Mukotsu, Ginkotsu, Suikotsu, Jakotsu, Renkotsu, and lastly their alleged leader figure, Bankotsu. Kagome reluctantly tore her attention away from the boys, then waved Sango goodbye before rushing off to attend her afternoon classes.
The rest of her afternoon went by without a hitch, and Kagome joined Sango again after class to catch up before she went home. They were in the middle of discussing idle nothings when a youthful male voice called out. Sango wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, noticing who was approaching from behind.
"Higurashi!" Hojo called out, smiling brightly and causing lingering girls in the classroom to swoon and giggle. "Do you have any plans for this afternoon? There's a movie I think you'd like coming out today."
Sango winked and nudged Kagome with her elbow, mouthing a silent go for it. Kagome shook her head, turning Hojo's offer down before apologizing for not being able to make it. Hojo looked crestfallen for a split second, before his expression lifted again. "Maybe next time then!" Hojo promised her, before leaving the two girls alone. Sango looked at her friend and cocked an eyebrow.
"Still not interested in getting a date, huh?" she muttered unhappily. Kagome just shrugged, and the two friends parted ways for the day.
It wasn't that Kagome Higurashi wasn't interested in dating boys. In fact, with all the attention Hojo gave her daily, it was hard to not be interested in boys. But that's besides the point. The sixteen year old modern miko had more important things to do than to concern herself with boys at the moment. Yes, that's right— she had geometry homework. As she sat dejected in the deserted high school library, staring at her paper and wondering half heartedly that if she stared at it really hard, problem seven would just solve itself. Unfortunately, that was not how geometry homework worked.
As Kagome felt herself slumping over in her seat, the rays of the evening sun beating down on her back through the library window, she absentmindedly chewed on the end of her pencil and wished that she had invited Sango to study with her. Suddenly, she felt some sort of thing whack her in the back of her skull. Shards of glass exploded behind her, reflecting the light of the sun and scattering around the room. She blinked, once, then reached behind her head to rub the spot where she had been hit. Feeling a bit dazed, she heard a young male voice call out to her.
"Ah fuck—" the voice cursed crudely, causing Kagome to turn around slowly, still not being able to shake that cursed homework question seven out of her thoughts. "Sorry. Do you have my baseball?" the owner of the voice asked sheepishly, not quite sure what else to say. He had dark blue eyes and a singular long black braid of hair which fell past his shoulders. He was dressed like a delinquent, though, now that Kagome had a moment to digest the situation, she realized that he was a delinquent, the iconic purple cross on his forehead giving everything away. She immediately recognized the offender as Bankotsu, the leader of that Band of Seven group from lunch.
"Are you going to stop staring and give me my ball back?" Bankotsu—which Kagome noted looked like he could have been a model upon closer inspection— waved his hand in front of the stunned girl's face, snapping her out of her trance, "I know I'm handsome— I'll let you take a picture later." Bankotsu had been playing baseball with the gang, and he was eager to get back into it. He had been having fun, and god forbid anything stop him from having fun. Having fun was his aesthetic— if he wasn't doing something he enjoyed, he was not himself.
Kagome frowned, not quite sure how to respond. "Aren't you concerned about the broken window?" she asked finally, massaging the growing lump on the posterior of her head, making a mental note to see a doctor later about a possible concussion.
"Broken window?" Bankotsu tilted his head to the side, trying to act clueless, "What about it?"
"You broke it, shouldn't we tell someone?"
"I broke it, so shouldn't I not tell someone?" he shrugged, "Then I don't have to pay to get it fixed."
"What if I told someone you broke it?"
"What if you didn't tell someone I broke it?" Bankotsu leaned forward to stare into the girl's eyes, trying to intimidate her. Unfortunately, he leaned just a tad too far into the gaping opening in the window, and braced his hand on the edge of the broken glass beneath him. Pain spiked up his arm and made him flail backwards, and he reached up to clutch his wrist. He stared at the ugly gash left on his palm, watching the crimson red blood flow down his arm like a river and drip onto the grass. Kagome winced and stood up, being careful to step around the glass shards as best as she could, and reached out to grab the boy's hand.
"Are you okay?" she asked, alarmed by the amount of blood. He acted like it was a simple paper cut, and Kagome had to appreciate his seemingly high pain tolerance. "I'll walk you to the nurse's office!"
Bankotsu shook his head. "No, no, no" he refused her quickly, "If you bring me to the nurse's office I'd have to explain how I got hurt. That would mean paying for the window."
Kagome frowned. "You're still dwelling on the window?" She wondered offhand if his family was extremely poor.
"I just don't wanna get caught." Bankotsu's expression darkened, remembering that time in middle school. It left a bad taste in his mouth. Kagome picked up on the delinquent's mood and realized that she was walking into a land mine.
"Well," Kagome cut in quickly, "You should do something about your hand." She mentally patted herself on the back for noticing the danger and steering the subject away. Also, she really couldn't help but be concerned about the cut, which was still bleeding profusely and looked like it really hurt.
Bankotsu looked thoughtful for a second, then gazed at the school girl— which he offhandedly noted was actually really pretty— and decided on the best course of action to handle a broken window, an injured palm, a forgotten baseball, and a cute girl who was fussing over his injuries. Without warning, he climbed into the library— being more conscious not to cut himself on the broken glass this time— grabbed Kagome's arm and bolted towards the set of double doors which led out of the library. She yelped as she got tugged into the hallway, before she dug her heels into the ground and tried her best to struggle against the delinquent's brute strength.
"What are you doing?!" she shrieked, still getting dragged along, albeit slightly slower due to her resistance. Bankotsu grunted, tempted to just pick her up and carry her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He refrained.
"We're running away, obviously." Bankotsu rolled his eyes.
"Why?!" Kagome protested.
"Because the window is broken, and you don't want to get caught at the scene of the crime, trust me." Bankotsu winked and Kagome just took a moment to mentally register that he was implying that he had experience with fleeing a crime scene.
"I'm not the one who broke the window," Kagome retorted, and then put her back into pulling in the opposite direction in which she was being led. Bankotsu halted suddenly, being at a loss for how to argue with her logic. Now that he thought about it, she wasn't responsible for breaking the window. Huh. Then again, she did imply that she might sell him out for breaking the window, thus, he had to make sure she didn't get the chance to. There. His logic trumped all, as usual.
"Too bad," Bankotsu smirked, "But I'm not gonna let you leave." With that, all previous self control had escaped out that window he broke, and he promptly swept the poor girl off her feet and slung her over his shoulder. He mentally felt proud of himself for refraining from doing that for as long as he did; He was such a gentleman, really.
In response to her sudden repositioning, Kagome flailed her limbs and demanded that she was released. Bankotsu refused, then rushed off at full speed, zooming past a bulletin board outside the commons area which had a large neon poster plastered to it which read in bolded lettering: No Running In The Hallways. Wincing as she caught a glimpse of it as they passed it, she silently apologized to the Gods.
Notably, she had time to consider that Bankotsu was really fast and really strong for a seventeen year old adolescent boy. She knew he wasn't an athlete, she knew most of the members of the school's sports teams through her friends. Besides, he was running almost as fast as Kouga—the ace of the track team—while carrying a person with one arm. As Bankotsu blasted through the school like a maniac, it gave Kagome adept time to evaluate her current predicament: Where does he get this kind of strength? Do all delinquents work- Oh damn! These are some crazy biceps. I wonder what his abs feel like? With that, Kagome turned red as a tomato and then shook her head. Oh gosh, is this what Miroku thinks about all day? But with boobs and butts I guess… Ah. I want to crawl into a hole.
Kagome's derailing train of thought was rescued by Bankotsu skidding to a halt. He set her down on her feet and then collapsed into the grass outside the school building, panting as he stared up at the clear blue sky and tried to catch his breath. After a marathon like that, the cut on his hand was throbbing, but Bankotsu didn't care, already used to minor flesh wounds from all of the street fighting he did.
He smirked. "That was fun."
"I can't believe you just did that." Kagome huffed, still recovering from the shock of their joyride through the school hallways, before reluctantly deciding to ask the question that had been weighing on her mind the entire time. "Do you work out a lot?"
Bankotsu smirked even wider, looking extremely smug. "I'll let you touch em' later, if you wanna." At that remark, Kagome sputtered and her cheeks heated up, instantly regretting ever bringing the subject up. Not wanting to stroke his ego any longer, the miko hastily denied ever being interested in his muscular build. Though, she had to admit to herself again that he really was handsome, and gods, did he look dashing when he grinned. If he just cleaned up a little bit—was less rough around the edges—he'd be a real heartthrob. Or maybe he already was—the bad boy type wasn't exactly a turn-off for some girls. The tantalizing smell of danger definitely had its own appeal for Kagome, who was never one to shy away from such things.
Bankotsu broke into the troubled teenage girl's musing after climbing to his feet and flashing her a million watt smile. "What do you say we hit an arcade?"
Kagome frowned, remembering that she still hadn't finished her geometry homework— in fact she had left it behind at the "scene of the crime", as Bankotsu had called it. Beating down her sudden impulsive urge to forget about all that and continue pursuing the intoxicating aura of danger, she shook her head. "I have homework." Plus, she already turned down Hojo's invitation to a date, and she'd feel extremely regretful if she let her determination to not be interested in boys in favor of salvaging her mathematics grades be defeated by a mere bad boy.
"I have homework too," Bankotsu reminded her, "That never stopped me."
"You must be that 'bad influence' gramps keeps warning me about," Kagome muttered.
He chuckled. "Spend one afternoon enjoying the thrill of doing whatever the hell you want and you'd understand where I'm coming from."
"Spend one semester actually attending classes and you'd understand where I'm coming from?" Kagome insisted, though it ended up coming out as more of a question, as it sunk in that she wasn't very convincing. Bankotsu made a solid point: classes sucked.
The delinquent leader cocked an eyebrow, "Is that a challenge?" He loved challenges. He loved proving people wrong— especially the people that underestimate him. "How about we make a deal: I'll go to my classes this upcoming semester, but in exchange, I'm gonna show you the wild side, little miss goody-two-shoes."
Kagome raised one eyebrow skeptically. "Are you sure you can endure an entire semester of school without getting bored, bad-boy?" she taunted. Kagome was actually looking forward to this. For one, it satisfied her urge to do something out of character, and secondly, she wanted to see if he even knew how to attend classes at all. In fact, last time she checked, the teacher didn't even call his name during attendance anymore— Ms. Kaede had inked out his name on her roll call sheet on the first day and probably forgot he was technically her student. Yeah, she was in for a spectacular semester this spring.
Bankotsu crossed his arms and tilted his chin upwards. "Bet."
A loud angry yell shook the school building and broke the staring contest which had been initiated between the two teens. "Who broke this window?!" the middle aged gym teacher stomped around the school building, his heavy footsteps getting louder as he neared the exit where Bankotsu and Kagome were standing.
Bankotsu grinned down at his new partner in crime (though in reality Kagome technically shouldered no blame for what had happened). "Do you need me to carry you over my shoulder again, missy?"
Kagome shot him a glare. "I'll run. And the name's Kagome, by the way— so don't try and come up with unsavory nicknames for me."
"Bankotsu," he nodded, though he had a feeling she already knew his name. And with that, the duo took off at full speed for the arcades, though Kagome struggled to keep up with Bankotsu's pace. Absentmindedly her brain reminded her that she had left her geometry homework behind, and for the first time in Kagome Higurashi's life, she decided she didn't care.
Problem seven just couldn't be solved, after all.
Jakotsu's eyebrows wiggled up and down like snakes as his dark brown eyes shifted back and forth between his older brother and a high school girl who had burst into the game center a few paces behind Bankotsu. Either he had finally lost all his marbles, or there was something going on between the two. Deciding against commenting on that for the time being, the homosexual teenage boy settled on just raising his eyebrows and observing.
"You're going to school?" Kyoukotsu asked in disbelief, looking at his reliable leader as if he had just grown a third eyeball. Ginkotsu grunted from the console to the left of Renkotsu.
"Big brother sucks in all subjects. Remember that time we let him order pizza? We didn't know what was taking so long until we realized Ban had spelled his own name wrong on the form." The Band of Seven erupted with laughter at the recollection.
"Bunscutzu," Suikotsu snorted. "You should give up, Kagome. He's a lost cause."
Renkotsu frowned. "Coming from you guys. Jakotsu can't even subtract single digits." At that remark, the boy in question squawked indignantly.
"I can subtract just fine," Jakotsu protested.
"Oh yeah? What's seven minus two?" Renkotsu demanded.
Jakotsu answered without hesitation. "Four." He straightened up and glared challengingly at Renkotsu, who just had his point proven. The bald teenager just sighed and dragged his hand down his face. Watching the Band of Seven interact, Kagome giggled. They all seemed really close, as they freely bickered and gossiped over their various activities. Ginkotsu and Suikotsu were playing a fighting game against one another, while Mukotsu was mumbling curses at a slot machine nearby. Bankotsu, Jakotsu, Kyoukotsu, and Renkotsu were sitting with Kagome around a table next to the other three, sipping sodas and shoving their faces with potato chips. Despite their reputation, they seemed like a friendly bunch to Kagome, though she could tell from listening to their stories that they certainly deserved their label as epic troublemakers.
"Well," Kagome started, considering their words, "I'm sure if Bankotsu takes the time to study every evening, he'll definitely improve." She must have said something funny, because the entire table started to shriek with peals of laughter. Blinking, the miko tried to pick apart her statement and figure out what was so amusing. Bankotsu solved that mystery for her.
"I won't study," he insisted. He didn't care about his grades. Studying took up too much time in which he could be doing things that were infinitely more fun.
Kagome shook her head. "You have to study. If you're going to go to school, then you have to participate and try to raise your grades, or it'll defeat the purpose!" she declared, "If you aren't going to study, then I will make you study!" Stubbornly resolving to make sure Bankotsu passed all of his classes, she flashed him a determined glare.
"Oh?" Renkotsu leaned forward, intrigued by the girl's sudden declaration. "You're going to try to turn that," he jabbed an accusing finger in Bankotsu's direction, "into a good student?"
Straightening her spine, she affirmed in her mind that yes, she would try to make Bankotsu a mediocre student. Remembering what he had said to her before they left the campus, Kagome bit out a confident, "Bet." At that, Bankotsu barked out a laugh, then smirked at her. If she was so determined to challenge him, then he fully intended to meet her halfway and do his absolute best to show her a good time. Maybe he'd start with convincing her to ditch class with him on their first day and bring her someplace fun.
As the six other members of the Band of Seven felt the tension at an all time high in the room, sparks flying as their leader and the feisty goody-two-shoes had a stare down, they resolved to buckle their seatbelts in for a wild new semester. Besides, if their leader started to hang out with a pretty girl everyday, it meant that they might get a cute little sister to dote on. And, they begrudgingly telepathically agreed that Bankotsu could need a set of brakes to compliment his gas pedal. The promise of maybe some extra brain cells was appealing too. The pizza incident was really embarrassing and no one wanted a repeat of that. With that, a brave three tributes hardened their resolve.
"If big brother is going, then we'll go with him," Jakotsu offered loyally. He had been attached to Bankotsu at the hip since they were toddlers and the boy wasn't about to let school seperate them, plus, he had a feeling he got that subtraction question wrong and being dumb as a rock really was not sexy. Kyoukotsu grunted.
"Count me out," he spoke up, "Ginkotsu and I got that day job at the car garage. We aren't getting no degrees anyway." Mukotsu nodded, uninterested in going back to campus only to get bullied again because of his face. Renkotsu and Suikotsu glanced at each other once and shrugged.
"He already is determined to become a doctor, if I don't grab this opportunity now I'll never be rid of this awful headache," Suikotsu volunteered, and Renkotsu agreed solemnly. Bankotsu grinned at his companions.
"Awww, my brothers are the best!" he announced cheerfully, "You guys are the only ones I can trust to have my back." With that, an announcement boomed through the game center warning the occupants that it was about to close for the day, and the seven troublemaking adolescent delinquents and the one cute high school girl parted ways with promise of seeing each other again soon. Kagome couldn't help but smile as she tucked herself into bed that night, looking forward to the next day…
Beep! Beep! Her smartphone which she had left plugged in at her nightstand buzzed, and Kagome rolled over to see who was texting her. It was Sango.
Sango [8:34 PM]: Miroku said he saw you at the arcade this afternoon with the Band of Seven. What the hell were you doing with those nutjobs?
The text made Kagome frown, and she quickly typed up her reply.
Kagome [8:35 PM]: I was just having fun. What's the matter?
Sango [8:35 PM]: Are you kidding me? Those guys are totally not your crowd. What happened to doing your homework?
Kagome [8:36 PM]: I can choose who I hang out with.
Sango [8:38 PM]: Don't say I didn't warn you, girl. I heard rumors about some incident they were involved in at their last school…
Kagome [8:38 PM]: Incident?
Sango [8:38 PM]: You didn't hear about it?
Sango [8:40 PM]: Well, I was told they were really violent. You just look at one funny and you got beaten up. Badly. Then the whole school plus a handful of other local kids got so fed up they called the police.
Sango [8:40 PM]: The POLICE, Kagome. They went to fucking court.
Sango [8:41 PM]: They got expelled from the school and then put on probation or something for an entire year… I don't even know.
Sango [8:41 PM]: It's crazy. They're bad news, okay.
Kagome knit her eyebrows at the story Sango was telling her. She had spent the entire afternoon with them, and she didn't get that vibe at all. Sure, they certainly weren't well behaved, but they were far from overly aggressive. Aware that gossip was oftentimes spread after stretching facts, she considered that maybe the story wasn't true. Tempted to call Bankotsu about it with the number he had given her before she went home, her finger hovered hesitantly over the number pad. What if it is true? Kagome pondered, torn over whether or not she wanted to know, What will I do then? Shaking her head, she steeled her nerves and punched his number in. Her next course of action all depended on his answer. Preparing herself mentally, she pressed the green call button and held her phone up to her ear.
"Who is this?" Bankotsu's voice came from the other end of the line. He sounded weary, like he had just rolled out of bed. "Kagome?"
"Uh, yeah," she answered slowly, trying to calm her pounding heart and figure out how exactly she wanted to ask him. In retrospect, she should have planned out what she was going to say before she called. "Look, I don't want to accuse you of anything, but my friend told me this story about you guys from a year or so ago."
The other side fell silent, making Kagome's stomach churn with the implications. Finally, Bankotsu spoke up, "Then you're going to believe some stupid rumor your friend told you?" His tone was harsh and edged with malice, but underneath it Kagome thought he sounded hurt.
"Ah! No, no, no! That's why I wanted to call you and—"
Bankotsu interrupted her. "What if I told you the rumor is true?" His suggestion was met with silence as Kagome's breath caught in her throat. She wasn't even sure what she was going to do with that information. Were they still attached to their bloody ways? Or had they somehow changed in the past year? Did she even care? Kagome had always been one to stand for justice, the mere thought of unnecessary violence made her sick.
"I- I don't know," she choked out.
"I'm not going to sugar coat things for you. The truth is the truth," Bankotsu started. "I don't think we've changed much. I still get in street fights all the time. But we've got a pretty shitty record now, so I'm trying to stay under the radar."
"That's why you were so freaked out about the broken window?" Kagome asked hesitantly, recalling how insistent he was on not getting caught.
"I can't afford to jeopardize our futures. We won't go back to that court. Once you've got a record, it stays with you for the rest of your life." Bankotsu cared more for his brothers than anything else. They had already been sentenced once, and he refused to allow it to happen a second time.
Kagome paused thoughtfully for a second, processing what he was saying. He was being honest, and she respected that. A million questions bounced around inside her head, but when she opened her mouth to reply, only one thing rolled off her tongue.
"I'll see you at school tomorrow. Good night, Bankotsu."
Bankotsu smiled to himself on the other side of the phone. "Good night, Kagome."
