Author's note: Blinks and looks surprised at reviews Wow... not a single flame! YAY! Thank you to everyone who reviewed and to those who read the last chapter (I saw that 120+ views!). I am perpetually grateful Bows humbly
Review Responses:
blueeyedchibi- Bangome is the best pairing ever!
Frozen Current- Thank you! I was wracking my brain for a good username, and my dog brought in my sister's large plushie of a duck. It just clicked! Thanks about the disclaimer, too; I was reading Prisoner of Azkaban for the umpteenth time when I was writing that last chapter.
sexysesshoumaru-2- Thank you! I am not 100 percent sure on a lemon yet. Most likely, yeah, but I might be too embarrassed to write it... I'm terribly shy at writing stuff like that! (Muse mutters to self: She's 18 and shy about writing about sex! Puh-leeze!)
Thank you also to Sachichan16, Bankostu-Lover, Reki-sama, and DMWCB! You guys rock!
And on with the chapter!
Irrational Decisions
Chapter 2
Kagome sat ridgidly on the floor of the cave, brown eyes wide and darting from side to side, as her captives laughed and talked about their various jobs. She tried not to move, so as to not catch attention to herself. That was the last thing she needed after what happened before. She gulped quietly as she remembered what had happened...
Mukotsu grinned lecherously when he walked into the cave and saw the shivering girl. He licked his lips as he crept towards her, fingers twitching. Kagome started to wheeze... she suspected she knew what Mukotsu had in mind. She started to slide farther from him, tried covering her legs with her short skirt, but all of her attempts to no avail. However, some being in the sky intervened when Bankotsu barked to the man.
"Oi! What the hell are you trying to do?"
"Oh! Brother! I just thought... since we fulfilled the job..." Mukotsu stumbled, obviously surprised at the interruption, "We could have some entertainment." Kagome cringed at the words 'Entertainment...!'
"She's not for you," Bankotsu barked. "We're just using her for the shards." Glaring at Mukotsu, he added, "And if anyone so much as thinks about touching her, your blood will spill upon Banryuu."
Geez. What a speech to tell your men. Still, Kagome thought, Bankotsu's speech didn't really help matters much. Mukotsu still stared at her with the same glazed look in his eyes, and she still felt violated. True, she was never actually touched, but she still felt violated. Gazing behind her at her large, yellow backpack (she had, luckily enough, held onto it for this long), she hoped that it held something that could help her get away from the Shininichintai. If not... well, she could always wish for InuYasha to show up andslaughter them all.
A girl could wish, couldn't she?
Looking around quickly and seeing no one looking her way, Kagome quickly slid off her backpack and rummaged through the items inside. 'Flashlight? Nah... Geometry book? Maybe I could use the Pythagorean Theorem on them to death... always works for me... Nah.' She smiled to herself as she pulled out a box of pocky. Strawberry flavored, her favorite. Sure, it wasn't a way out, but pocky generally helped Kagome think of a plan in a quick situation (like trying to feign her way out of a date with Hojou). Maybe it could help now?
She was just about to put a pocky in her mouth when...
"... the hell she's eating?"
Uh oh. Busted.
"Get it from her!"
Bankotsu saw her. Damn!
"Uh.. um... " Kagome stammered as she pulled the pocky from her mouth. 'Come on, pocky, I need some help!' "This is just... uh... um... food! I mean... erm.."
"Food, eh?" Bankotsu said thoughtfully. "Give us some, wench. And hurry it up. We have to leave soon." 'Soon? Why?' "Apparently, Genkotsu over here heard a rumor about a certain hanyou coming closer to this area." 'InuYasha? Yes!' "And we don't want you to escape. Tie her up, Mukotsu." Bankotsu turned and walked off quickly out of the cave, followed by the rest of the Shininchintai. Kagome grimaced when she saw Mukotsu come near, but she quickly stood up and, swinging her backpack around, smacked Mukotsu in the face.
Stumbling, Mukotsu cursed her. "Damn you, wench..." Kagome smacked him again and stomped out of the cave. She did not miss the dagger-filled look from Bankotsu.
"Oi, where's Mukotsu?" He stomped towards her. She didn't flinch. 'No, be strong. InuYasha is near. If you can stand your ground long enough...' She glared into his face.
"I'm not afraid of you!" She said, boldly. "I can defeat you with one single arrow!" She expected him to back down a bit, if possible. Maybe even look bored at her threat? But no, Bankotsu did something worse.
He laughed.
"What! What's so funny! I can defeat you with an arrow!" She insisted, stamping her foot on the ground. "And I'm not going to find the shards for you. Sheesh, I'm already InuYasha's jewel detector. I'm not gonna be anyone else's!" Suddenly, Bankotsu's laughter stopped. That cold malice that she recognized from inside the cave returned to his eyes. She suddenly felt very scared.
"As I told you before, you have no choice. Find the shards and you live. Refuse..." He paused to pull out Banryuu. "And Banryuu gets sharpened on your pretty little neck." A cold smile crept on his face as Kagome's face paled and her knees shook. "I will do it, too." She gulped but still held his gaze.
"Just because you threaten my life doesn't mean I'm gonna waver," She told him. "If I have no choice, as you say, I will find the shards for you." Bankotsu noticed her eyes glaze over a bit. "But, I have one condition. If you evercome across InuYasha, Sango, Miroku, or Shippou, do not kill them." Her jaw tightened. "Because if you do, you will not live long yourself."
Bankotsu's laugh echoed through the trees again.
"My dear, " He began, "I already died once."
Sango and Miroku exchanged looks as InuYasha went through one of his mad rages. Again. Kagome had gone missing, and InuYasha believed she had left for the Bone Eater's Well, since her backpack was missing. Even though the group insisted that he go through and find her, InuYasha refused.
"That wench is a pain in the ass! Why should I find her? We can find the shards on our own."
Those were his very words. What an idiot, echoed in Sango and Miroku's minds.
"InuYashaaa!" Shippou's little voice was heard. "I'm hungry!" Suddenly a bag of Kagome's so-called 'poe-tay-toe chips' was thrown into Shippou's lap. "Ooh! Bar-bee-cue!" As the cub started to gobble down the food, Miroku rose from his seat on a log to smack InuYasha in the head with his staff.
"Ow! The hell was that for, monk?" InuYasha demanded as he howled.
"Kagome apparently did not leave through the well as you think." Miroku mentioned. "Shippou told me a few minutes ago about how her scent seemed to come from the mountains." InuYasha nodded.
"I knew that." Miroku smacked him again. "What was that for!"
"You've had us on a wild goose chase when you knew where she was the entire time!" Miroku exclaimed. "Why aren't you going after her?" Miroku raised his staff, preparing for another stupid answer when he heard...
"She saw me an' Kikyou..."
Miroku lowered his staff. Ahh... yes. Kagome witnessed a private scene with the dead miko and hanyou, got emotional, and ran off. And who resided in the mountains? Kouga, of course. InuYasha assumed Kagome went off to talk with Kouga. It made sense.
"You know, InuYasha," Sango said, still sitting down, "If you explained everything to Kagome immediately, we wouldn't have to worry about her running off again. She'd understand everything." InuYasha turned to the taijiya. He didn't say anything, just started off towards the mountains. Miroku and Sango smiled to each other as Sango picked up the kitsune, who was still gorging himself on barbecue potato chips, and followed the hanyou.
To see Kagome and InuYasha's "reunion" would be a disaster the two just could not miss.
Her feet hurt. No, that was an understatement. They were killing her. And she made sureBankotsu and the rest of the Shininchintai knew it, too. Every time they stopped to eat or sleep, she complained at how blisters were forming on her feet.
However, that stopped after Jakotsu threatened to slice off her feet if she complained again.
'Mou... I'm so tired!' They still hadn't found the closest shard yet. In fear that her friends would be found and killed, Kagome complied (not very willingly, mind you) to their commands and pointed them to the west, where she felt a nearby shard. After a few days of walking after leaving the cave, they still hadn't found it. 'I wish I could find InuYasha and the others...' Suddenly, a sharp twinge pierced her heart, and she remembered, after days of being terrified of the Shininchintai, just what had convinced her to leave the others. 'Kikyou...'
"Kagome-chan! I'm hungryyyy!" Shippou's little voice rang out. "Did you get my treats?"Kagome grinned from ear to ear as she climbed out of the well.
"Hai, Shippou-chan, I got your candy," Kagome said, smiling, "But... where's InuYasha?" The kitsune quickly (almost as if he simply appeared out of thin air) grabbed the outstretched bag of Hershey's Kisses and started gobbling them down.
"He... - munch - said -munch, munch - he had something - munch - to do," replied the now-chocolate coated kitsune.
"Oh..." Kagome said, downtrodden. She had a surprise for him... "Which way did he go?" Shippou pointed in the direction away from Kaede's village. "Okay, tell the others I'll be there shortly." Shippou nodded as he kept gobbling down the sweets, and she walked in the direction Shippou showed her...
"Oi! Wake her ass up and tell her to get a move on!" A loud, obnoxious voice broke Kagome out of her reverie. She growled (a very InuYasha-like characteristic, her conscious told her) as she looked to see who talked. Bankotsu. Upon seeing her glaring at him, he continued. "Wench, apparently your little friends caught a hold of your scent." He tossed her a cloth bag. "Get changed in this and give your weird clothes to Jakotsu."
"Why?" Kagome asked, confused.
"Because," Bankotsu answered, "You don't need to know." Kagome growled again at him (Tsk, tsk, you're acting way too much like InuYasha, her conscious told her) as she was about to unbutton her blouse...
"Wait!" She shouted. "You perverts! Quit looking at me!" Bankotsu smirked.
"Like I'd be into you," He answered, "A hanyou's whore, disgusting!" Furious though she was at what he called her, she felt a little grateful that he turned and commanded all but Jakotsu to turn around, for, if she would run, Jakotsu wouldn't hesitate to kill her. She hurried up and changed into the contents of the cloth bag, which was a plain, lavender colored yukata, and she handed her school uniform to Jakotsu.
"All finished," She said, "Now will you tell me what you're going to do?"
Instead of answering her, Bankotsu began barking orders to each of the Shininchintai.
"Renkotsu, you take Ginkotsuand this to the north," He took Kagome's red kerchief and tossed ittowards them. "And keep it out in the air so the hanyou can smell it." Tossing her shirt to Jakotsu, he told Jakotsu, "Go to the east with this." Finally, tossing the last piece of clothing, her skirt, to Mukotsu and Kyokotsu (+), he finished his orders, "Go to the south with this. I will head west with the wench to find the shard. Try to lead the hanyou away from her." Each of the Shininchintai nodded and headed off to their ordered areas. When each had left, Bankotsu turned to Kagome with a rope.
"And to make sure you don't try to escape," he said, tying the rough rope around her wrists, "Because you don't want to escape, right?" A sinister look entered his eyes. "Remember what I told you, escape, and Banryuu gets to taste blood again." Gulping, Kagome nodded. "Good. Now, let's get that shard."
Author's note: Alas, no fluff here. Of course they wouldn't just jump their bones as soon as possible, it wouldn't make sense. After all, Bankotsu hates Kagome right now and she him. But... you can all jump for joy. A little fluff will enter the next chapter.
Disclaimer: Sit boy! Damn, no falling white-haired hanyou? Then I guess it means I don't own InuYasha. (But I could always try for Kouga-kun or Bankotsu-kun!)
