1Irrational Decisions

Chapter 3

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"Suikotsu-sama!" A child's voice echoed throughout the town. The man in question, a cheerful-looking man who was surrounded by lots of children turned to see what the child was doing. "A pretty lady in miko clothing is injured! She needs your help!" Suikotsu quickly dashed towards the child. "She's by the river! You must help her! We think she's sick!"

"Thank you, Midori-chan; go watch the others while I go see how the lady is," He answered. The child dashed off, and he went towards the nearby river, where, sure enough, a woman with long, dark hair was clothed in red and white miko clothing. Walking towards her, he noticed her still breathing. Okay... she's alive... Looking for any injuries, he turned her over to notice a pale, beautiful face. Her eyes were closed. "Alright... I better bring you to town, ma'am..."

Suikotsu picked up the woman, and he carried her back to the nearby village. He couldn't help but notice how truly beautiful she was... but she was a miko... it would be so wrong to try anything with her... Shaking himself of his thoughts upon reaching his hut, he grinned at the children who ran up to meet up with him. Finding the futon laid out on the floor of the hut.

"Midori, Ryuu, please get me some cold, damp cloths," Suikotsu asked. "We'd better wash some of the mud from her to see how extensive her injuries are..." Suddenly, the woman started to stir. Her dark brown eyes opened slowly and were hazy for a minute. Then she focused on the man who was sitting next to her. "Well, good morning," He said in a cheerful voice. "The children saw you lying near a river... you could've drowned."

"Iie, I do not believe I would have..." She whispered, her voice raw, almost as though she had been screaming or lost her voice. "But... arigatou..." She lowered her eyes to look at the circle of children around her. "Thank you to you too." They all grinned and dashed out, looking embarrassed.

"Miss, would you want something to eat?" Suikotsu asked suddenly. She looked so thin, almost like she hadn't eaten anything in awhile." The woman shook her head and tried to rise. "I... I don't think you should get up so fast..." She turned to smile softly at him, but still she continued to stand. Suddenly, she looked at him as though she was looking right through him...

"You..." She whispered. She kept her eyes on him, though Suikotsu believed that she wasn't even gazing at him. "You're... different." She stood and started to brush off small pieces of mud and leaves from her clothing. "I should be leaving. I have a large responsibility in my hands." She turned away from him.

"Wait!" He exclaimed. "What is your name?" She turned.

"Kikyou... my name is Kikyou," She answered.

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"Damn it!" Bankotsu exclaimed as the clouds above them let loose a large amount of rain. He and Kagome had been alone for only about five hours when the rain started. They started to run to find shelter. He, of course, kept a tight hand clamped onto Kagome's arm to keep her from running off to find InuYasha. "Hurry up!" She growled at him but hurried up. Spying a nearby cave, he dashed in there with the miko in tow.

"Whew!" Kagome exclaimed. "I had no idea it could rain so suddenly!" Shaking herself from the rain, she walked farther into the cave. Bankotsu quickly walked in and started to unbraid his hair. 'Oh my gosh... his hair is so much prettier than mine!' Kagome thought as she saw his long locks untangle. Her face turned a light pink, and she quickly turned away from the sight. "I... uhm... I'm sorry for any trouble I've caused," She told him, gazing away from him. "I just..."

"Don't apologize, I don't care," Bankotsu answered, "Just start a fire." Kagome glared at him, but she noticed that he wasn't watching her. He was busy twisting out the water from his clothes.

Of which she noticed that a soaked Bankotsu was not a bad sight to see. Blushing an even brighter red, she quickly gathered all that was flammable in the cave and, pulling out a small lighter from her backpack, started the fire. Upon feeling the warmth radiate from the fire, she smiled. She didn't realize that eyes were watching her as she started to try and dry her hair and clothing (while, of course, she was still wearing it).

Bankotsu was a little shocked at his reaction to the miko in weird clothing. For instance, when she was around the fire, her entire face seemed to glow... she looked well, beautiful.

"So... Bankotsu," Her voice sounded a bit shaky. "Why do you call your group the Shininchintai when there's only six of you?" Bankotsu mentally shook himself of his odd thoughts... just what had the wench fed him earlier? "I mean, you call yourselves a band of seven, but I only saw six."

"We haven't been able to seek out the last of our group," Bankotsu answered. Kagome blinked confusedly.

"What do you mean 'seek out'? What exactly happened to you?" She asked. Then, realizing she had been interrogating him, she flushed and looked down. "I... I was just wondering why... you know... you died..." Bankotsu turned to the fire. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"Good, 'cause I won't," Bankotsu answered sharply. "Now cook us something. I'm starved."

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Two ookami-youkai started to dash after the seemingly-wild whirlwind at blazing speed. One, with a white mohawk, began to complain. Loudly. The other sucked up any complaints he had and continued to follow, for their master, the ookami-youkai in the whirlwind, had declared that he sensed Kagome's scent somewhere near their cave. Apparently, it was time to mess with InuYasha, the two ookami-youkai who followed believed. Shortly after the rainstorm, they had left, and they were quite surprised to smell Kagome and not InuYasha.

"Kouga, are you sure Kagome is here?" one of the youkai, Ginta, asked. "It could just be someone else..."

The whirlwind morphed into a handsome, brown-haired youkai with startlingly blue eyes. "It's not, now get lookin'. She's probably hidden away to avoid getting caught in that rainstorm." The two youkai, Ginta and Hakkaku, obeyed and started to look. Kouga, spying a cave, went in that direction. He was about to enter the cave when...

"Get the hell away from here, youkai." A ningen with a long dark braid and a large sword - 'It's almost as big as InuYasha's Tetsusaiga!' Kouga thought - told him, his dark eyes flashing mercilessly. Kouga took a large whiff of air and exclaimed loudly.

"Where's Kagome, you bastard!" The ningen raised an eyebrow, though he didn't move his sword. "I know she's here, give her to me!"

Suddenly, a dark-haired girl stepped out of the cave, shielding her eyes from the sudden sunlight outside. Focusing on the youkai in front of her, she said, "Kouga-kun! What are you doing here?" Kouga growled at the ningen.

"Give her to me, she's my woman," He told him. "Whoever the fuck you are, you'd better give her to me!" The ningen with the large sword turned to look at Kagome.

"You spread your legs to him, too?" He asked, almost conversationally. "Well, it'd make sense... You speak to him with such informality..." The miko grew red with anger. "Oh..." He took her glare as a negative. "So you didn't." He whispered something in her ear.

"Kouga-kun... please, go away," She whispered. "Trust me, just go." Something in her eyes, Kouga thought, was pleading to him to stay, so he did. "Please! You have to go! Bankotsu's not hurting me any."

"So that's your name, Bankotsu... I bet you're working for Naraku," Kouga accused. "I smell his stink all over you." The youkai glared. "So if you're telling Kagome that you'll kill me, go ahead and try. I'm faster than you."

"Nah, I'm not in the mood," Bankotsu answered. "Go find InuYasha. Have the two of you corner me, go ahead!" The assassin smirked. "I'll be waiting... at Mount Hakurei. Then you can get her back." Whistling loudly, a loud noise broke through the forest. Out came a monstrous thing made of metal. "Ginkotsu, take care of these for me, will ya?"

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"InuYasha-sama," A small voice piped up. "I have the information you have required... This Shininchintai was a band of seven assassins who were led by Bankotsu. Apparently, they were killed off about a decade or so ago, but... could they really be back?" The flea-youkai, perched on InuYasha's shoulder, looked up at his master. "You're really not lying?"

"No, I doubt very likely we lied," drawled Miroku's voice as he helped bind Sango's arm wound. They had come across one of the Shininchintai, Jakotsu, an hour earlier. The odd man tried to seduce InuYasha once again, while taunting all of them, saying that Bankotsu was probably torturing their precious miko. "I mean, we did fight with one of them."

"Hai," Sango responded. "That sword... it was so strange..."

"Just you wait," Myouga, the flea, told them. "I heard rumors that the group has many other strange devices... strange, because they are ningen and not youkai."

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Author's note: I'm going to stop there; you'll see why, the next chapter is a long battle scene. And I didn't lie too much; there was a bit of fluff... not a lot, though...

I'm expecting this whole story to be too long to count. Anyone wanna guess how long this will be?

-Update: Just fixed up a few details. Thank you Violent Tomboy for reminding me that it was actually ten or twenty years since the Shininchintai's deaths... not fifty. Sorry, mixed up years... I shouldn't write a story while writing a research paper.

Review Responses:

The Violent Tomboy: Thank you! -Bows low- I agree; there are too many fics where Kags finds Kikyou and InuYasha, but I honestly couldn't think up any other way to separate Kags from InuYasha.

Lonely Athrun Zala: There's Suikotsu! (To be honest, I forgot about Sui-kun, but your review reminded me of our favorite split-personality-afflicted assassin.)

Blueeyedchibi: I agree; fluff and fight scenes are my weakest type of writing. I'm better at psychological drama between characters... it's my specialty. But, I hope the fight scene next chapter is good.

Thank you to sesshomaruobsessed, wickedthunder02, Bankostu-Lover, Black Hands, Kitsune Seishin, Sesshomaur's Luver, NefraLSama, Squishy Penguin (BTW, I love your penname!), and reki-sama!

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha, Bankotsu, Kagome, or anyone else in here I'm butchering up.