Chapter Twenty: Hostage

"You're…." Kagome said, dumbfounded. She did not expect to ever see anyone from the Feudal Era in her time except InuYasha. "…That girl who was with the Shichinintai," she finished.

Neikotsu nodded slowly. She did not trust this girl. Neikotsu figured she couldn't be too dangerous judging from their last encounter when the girl, Kagome, depended on her friends to help her.

'Maybe she was no threat in my time, but she might have a few tricks up her sleeve in her own time,' Neikotsu though. 'Of course I shouldn't let her know that. If I can kill her quickly enough, perhaps I'll make it back to Normal Time unscathed.'

"Hey!" Kagome yelled. "You have a Shikon Jewel shard in your neck! Give that back!" she picked up her bow and arrow that were laying on the floor beside her and aimed one at Neikotsu.

"No way," Neikotsu said sharply, pulling out her good old, reliable Dohanone. "The Shichinintai stole it fair and square, so it belongs to us now."

Kagome shot an arrow, which missed Neikotsu by a mile, and crashed through a window. The schoolgirl shrieked and pointed another arrow. However, as she let go of it and it headed toward Neikotsu, Dohanone cut the arrow in half and it disintegrated in mid-air.

'This girl may be someone InuYasha cares about. I bet taking her hostage would make up for getting sidetracked and coming here. And even if InuYasha doesn't care about her, I can always just kill her.'

Neikotsu moved quickly enough so Kagome could not pull out another arrow and used her index and middle finger to jab her hard in the throat. Her old trick she learned way back when she wasn't strong enough to fight to defend herself worked as Kagome fell to the floor, incapacitated. Sota stood dead still, terrified that the kunoichi was going to hurt, or kill, him.

MEANWHILE

"Damn hanyou," Bankotsu said irritably. InuYasha had sniffed the Shichinintai out and had already come to attack them. Bankotsu wasn't afraid, but he hadn't been ready to kill the half-breed and his friends yet.

"Heh, prepare to die, Bankotsu," InuYasha growled, jumping into the air with his sword above his head. He thrust it down yelling "Kaze no Kizu!". Bankotsu blocked the attack and slashed Banryuu at the dog demon. It made a deep gash across his chest. With a large spurt of blood, InuYasha fell back down to the ground. "Shit," he muttered.

Jakotsu laughed in an evil, maniacal way as he closed in on Sango. Her Hiraikotsu had already been slashed at so many times by the sword that it couldn't last much longer and she could not use it to block Jakotsutou anymore. Nor could she use it as a weapon- by the time she had a chance to throw Hiraikotsu, Jakotsu's weapon would already have killed her.

Suikotsu and the monk, Miroku, were steadily going at it. Miroku was blocking Suikotsu's metal claws with his staff. But, like the situation between Jakotsu and Sango, the villain was moving too quick for the hero to stop blocking and attack.

Shippo and Kirara were trying their hardest to fend off Renkotsu and Ginkotsu. It seemed they had an unlimited supply of gunpowder. Every time Shippo used his fox magic, Renkotsu used some kind of gun or explosive to turn the attack against him. Kirara growled fiercely as she ran toward Ginkotsu to tear him apart with her fangs or claws. She could not get close enough, though, because Ginkotsu continually shot bombs at her, or entangle her in metal wires.

Kyoukotsu and Mukotsu had wanted to keep a safe distance from all the ruckus. Kyoukotsu claimed he hadn't eaten enough and wasn't ready to go into battle yet while Mukotsu did not have all of his poisons ready yet. They had managed to get out of range of the sounds of fighting. Unfortunately, they had not tricked Koga's and Sesshoumaru's noses.

"You guys!" Koga yelled, running up to them quickly. After a short battle, Koga reached in to Kyoukotsu's forehead and ripped out the jewel shard. The body of the dead mercenary turned to bone as the wolf demon now held the bloody jewel shard in his hand.

"Bastard!" Mukotsu said angrily, pulling out a poison that would melt Koga's flesh clean off his bones. But, like his Brother, Mukotsu was unsuccessful. Sesshoumaru, who had been passing through because she smelled the scent of InuYasha's blood, cut the poison user down the center. He too turned to bone as Koga made sure he grabbed the second jewel shard. Koga and Sesshoumaru gave one brief look of acknowledgment and went separate ways.

InuYasha was covered in blood. His gold eyes had started to go blank as he was close to passing out. Miroku had several deep stab marks on his chest and shoulders from were Suikotsu managed to dig his metal claws into. Sango had a rather deep gash in her stomach from where Jakotsu hit her pretty hard with Jakotsutou. Shippo and Kirara had burn marks on them that were starting to really affect them. Besides the death of two of them, the Shichinintai were hardly beat up.

MEANWHILE

Neikotsu dragged Kagome into the shed where the well was located. She knew she couldn't go down the steps while dragging the hostage so she decided to go back the next best way she could think of: jumping.

'I hope this works. I really don't want to stay here forever. Hmm…' Neikotsu used her free hand to feel the tainted black jewel shard that was keeping her alive in her neck. 'Could this be the reason I was able to come here? The jewel shard? I wonder why this one let me go through the well. Maybe because Kikyou-sama purified it and this Kagome is her reincarnation? Oh well, I guess it's not that important. As long as I can return back home where things are normal. Bankotsu should be happy.'

With that, Neikotsu jumped down the well, dragging Kagome the Hostage with her.

IN THE FEUDAL ERA

Bankotsu laughed evilly. "This is great! Because of that damn hanyou, InuYasha, two of my friends were killed. Now, we have the ability to get revenge by killing one of his. Good work, Neikotsu. However, we have to do it so he knows. Or better yet, so he sees. If we're going to slaughter the girl, we have to do it brutally and making sure InuYasha suffers as much as she will. Neikotsu, I have one last favor to ask of you. Send a message to InuYasha and his friends telling them if they don't bring us the jewel shards, Kagome will be killed."

Jakotsu who had been looking forward to seeing InuYasha said, "Hey, Oo-Aniki, want me to go give him the message? …And we are going to kill her even if they do bring the Jewel shards, right?"

"Of course we're going to kill her no matter what, Jakotsu. And I suppose you can go give him the message. In fact, that'd be even better. Hit on him so we can really make him suffer, okay?" Bankotsu joked with his friend, but Jakotsu took it literally.

"Okay! Bye-bye, see you guys later!" And he was off.

"So, what do we do with this bitch while we're waiting?" Suikotsu asked kicking the still unconscious Kagome slightly.

"How long will she be out?" Renkotsu asked Neikotsu, who had been quietly thinking to herself.

"I dunno. I hit her in the throat almost hard enough to kill her. Probably not too much longer, though."

Renkotsu, Suikotsu and Ginkotsu dragged Kagome off to make sure she wouldn't escape when she woke up while Neikotsu went to check on Bankotsu. She walked up to him and sat by him. He hadn't looked her in the eye since she returned and was now not even facing her.

"Is something wrong? Are you sad about Kyoukotsu and Mukotsu?" she asked concerned with how quiet Bankotsu had been.

"It couldn't be helped," he said rather coldly.

She sighed and leaned against him. "Bankotsu, it's okay if you are. I am. Is there any hope that they could be revived again?"

"No…" he responded, but sounded like there was a tiny bit of hope in his voice. "Really, it's okay. The best thing we can do now is get revenge." Bankotsu laughed, but it wasn't evil like before. It was his regular laugh that Neikotsu had grown to love.

He stood up, kissed her roughly and went over to where the commotion was. Kagome had woken up and Jakotsu was returning. Meaning that soon InuYasha would be there and it would be time for revenge.

And soon enough, InuYasha, Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Kirara, still badly wounded, came to the aid of their friend.

"Kagome!" they all yelled when they saw Bankotsu holding Banryuu right behind Kagome, with one move he could slice her in half.

"INUYASHA!" she yelled. "Help!"

"Do you have our Jewel shards?" Bankotsu asked calmly.

InuYasha growled out of hatred and gave two jewel shards to Suikotsu who had come over to get them.

"Alright, you've got the jewel shards. Now give us back Kagome!"

Bankotsu chuckled evilly. "As you wish," he said softly and in one quick fell swoop, brought Banryuu down across Kagome's back. Blood and guts spurted out her back as her eyes went dead as with the rest of her body.

"KAGOME!" InuYasha yelled as he rushed over to her. But it was too late- she was already dead. The Shichinintai all laughed, enjoying their revenge. Sure, she hadn't been tortured, but the point got across as two tears slid down InuYasha's face. As he held the lifeless body of the schoolgirl, the Shichinintai walked away. They were satisfied for now. Their two friends had been avenged and the Inu-Tachi had gotten their asses kicked.

"Feel better?" Neikotsu asked Bankotsu as they walked through the barrier of Mount Hakurei. Naraku would have wanted to know that one of his enemies was killed. Perhaps there would be a reward.

"Yeah, I do." He put his arm around her and kissed her neck. "I'll admit, I wasn't too happy to hear that Kyoukotsu and Mukotsu were dead, but I do love revenge," he said quietly in between kisses.

"Bankotsu," her voice shook as she spoke. "JAKOTSU, and everyone are right near us!"

"Yeah?" he said sarcastically, stroking her leg, moving more inward the higher up his hand went.

"Bankotsu!" Neikotsu moaned, but tried to make it sound more like an exclamation. "Can we do this later? You know… like when there isn't someone who will probably sadistically kill me if he saw this?"

With a smirk, Bankotsu stopped and started walking ahead of her. "Okay. But you better mean that. Besides, it's hard to do anything because of this barrier."

With a grumble, Neikotsu ran to catch up to Bankotsu.

MEANWHILE

"Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! DAMN!" InuYasha yelled angrily. "No matter what… I swear I will get my revenge."

Author's Note: Yeah, I know it's kind of weird to mix Ban and Nei's making out with revenge and killing a main character of InuYasha, but what can I say? Trust me, this is leading to something really important to the story. So, thank you to all who review, and please continue!