Disclaimer: I do own it. I'm NOT insane…I think.
Story: Due to the jewel shards on their necks, the last four members of the Shichinintai were somehow able to travel to Kagome's time. Unfortunately for her, the well has sealed up. At least they don't have their weapons!
Set after Ginkotsu's death.
Spoilers: After Ginkotsu's death, no.
Warnings: Eh, maybe…this is anime after all…
Pairings: No telling! Secret, secret!

Kagome Higurashi! No Need for Shichinintai
Chapter Seven: More Hell Than She Can Handle

They were enjoying the park after they had left Oedo-Onsen-Monogatari. For a while through their walk, Kagome had stubbornly refused to talk to them and she growled at them when they got near her. But eventually the beautiful scenery of the park and their continuous pleadings got to her and she forgave them.

What the Shichinintai refused to explain, however, was why Suikotsu got a nosebleed and why none of them seem to be able to look her in the eye.

When they reached the station, Kagome sighed happily and hurriedly walked to a bench and sat down.

She shivered. She was so cold after that little dip into the hot springs. Oh, it was hot in there but getting out was another thing. She had wet both of her towels, and since at the time she was refusing to communicate with the males so she couldn't borrow theirs, therefore she couldn't get dry enough with her own. The end result was her hair wet and messy, her clothes damp and clinging to her, and skin that was moist and starting to be covered in Goosebumps.

The four caught up to her, sitting on either side and they had to scoot closer to Kagome for all of them to fit. She was a little squished but she was starting to get warm from the body heat that was radiating from all of them. Seeing who sat next to her, between Jakotsu and Bankotsu she chose Bankotsu to lay her head on and snuggle up a bit, figuring Jakotsu would just chew her head off for even trying it.

This action instead caused another row of tension to brew and still Kagome was oblivious to it.

She started to finger her beads, remembering Inuyasha and everything around her dissolved into her recollection of all the times she shared with the hanyou. Her breathing evened out and she had slipped into a deep sleep.

"I say we take the beads later and destroy them. Or something like that." Jakotsu announced to the others.

"Could make a whole bonfire filled with things that reminds her of Inuyasha and destroy the evidence." Renkotsu added to the ideas.

"Or one of us can pretend to be Inuyasha and break her heart." Bankotsu suggested.

Suikotsu scowled at them before leaning back on the bench and looking up at the stars. "We should just leave her alone. If she found out we were messing with her personal life…Inuyasha will probably break her heart sooner or later himself. We won't have to do anything but be there."

There wasn't anything more they wanted to do than to break up the little couple…or whatever they were.

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The next morning, the Shichinintai were actually up before Kagome.

Jakotsu stretched while yawning. "Man, I still feel tired."

"You just woke up and haven't taken a shower," Renkotsu grumbled, his face facedown on the table with his arms pillowing it.

Suikotsu was sitting on the counter, looking like he was deep in thought.

Bankotsu groaned. "It's too early to be thinking so seriously."

"I see three non-morning people. One is being grumpy at the table, another is griping and the last one is talking out of his ass."

All three non-morning people groaned simultaneously and said at the same time, "Shut it, Suikotsu."

He just grinned at them before continuing on. "Actually, I was remembering that Christmas thing Miss Higurashi was talking about. Well, shouldn't we get gifts for her?"

Renkotsu lifted his head up and looked a little disoriented. But after a second or two, his face looked focused and his eyes were sharp. "That's a great idea, Suikotsu. We have to solve several things before we do that. We want her not to know, right? And we also have to find a way to get to a shopping place, find some money, and we want to get something she'd like."

"That girl's name…Eri is in this book along with some numbers and some words." Bankotsu lifted up a book.

"Numbers…phone numbers! Er, actually numbers that form a phone number."

"Whatever Renkotsu. Here, catch. You deal with the new technology. I'll just break it."

Jakotsu snickered. "Yeah. Like that one time with the tea kettle."

Bankotsu's face colored. "Oh, shut it, will you. Besides it's not like none of you haven't messed something up."

"Yeah, but you were the absolute first!"

Renkotsu had already been trying to use the phone. He was mumbling stuff to himself, pressing the buttons very slowly and looking back at the phone and then the phone book.

"Have…to press…faster…"

Renkotsu pressed the buttons again, this time quicker. He blinked as it started ringing. "Oh. I think I got it to work."

"Hey! Put it on the speaker! I want to hear too."

Renkotsu waved Jakotsu off but he did turn on the speaker.

"Hello?" A female voice answered the phone.

"H-hello. Is this, um, Eri?"

"Yeah, who's this?"

"This is Renkotsu. One of the guys you saw with Kagome that other day, remember? Yeah, I kind of need a favor. Or really we. My friends and I want to give Kagome a present but we don't want her to know. We also wanted someone else's opinion on what we should get her."

"Of course! I'll come there Thursday. Don't worry about anything. I'll take careof whatever. And don't prepare money."

She hung up just like that.

"I guess we're all set then."

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They sailed right through Disneyland, loving the rides and the other entertainment and then they walked through Asakura Kaminarimon Gate, visiting the Sensoji Temple where they lit incense and placed them at the holy shrine. Lastly, they went to Roppongi Hills before they would go to the Imperial Palace.

"You know, this place is most known for a 6 year old kid's death because his head got crushed by a revolving door." Kagome stated sadly.

"Great. Now I'm scared of trying any of these…revolving doors." Jakotsu scowled.

She just laughed and said, "Don't worry about it. I'll make sure you're in one piece for your stay here." She sneezed hard after that, stopping for a moment. She started grumbling under her breath and they couldn't make out what but she seemed pretty upset at the illness that looked like she was getting.

For two hours, they spent looking through Roppongi Hills because of how large it was, and they even had time to go through Mori Tower before visiting the outside buildings. Of course, they had to go look through Mori Garden but Kagome was still feeling sick.

Before they left for Kokyo, Kagome made a face at the five star restaurant, Grand Hyatt Tokyo. "It's beyond expensive!"

At the Imperial Palace, named Kokyo, the Shichinintai had trouble keeping their hands to themselves. The place was beautiful and elaborate, straight from crossing the Nijubashi Bridge to its defensive walls and buildings. The gardens were the best by far, even though they were only allowed to see the East Gardens.

"There are only two days where the inner palace is open to the public and that's New Year's and the Emperor's birthday. And –hey! Don't touch that!" She yelled at Jakotsu who was reaching towards a statue.

"Geez, I thought you were assassins not thieves," Kagome said, exasperated at all the times she had to keep these men from taking something. "And if you want to get something, it should be small. Not some big, heavy object like what Jakotsu was about to try and steal."

"Hey, thieves and assassins sometimes go together. Somehow…" Bankotsu smirked at her.

She rolled her eyes. "Come on. Sumida Cruise is calling my name and I see good food coming."

They trailed after her, butnot before they saw something that caught their eye and they began planning for the Emperor's birthday.

A little later, once they were back in the house, Kagome rushed into her room. Running through the mattresses, she climbed into her bed and threw the covers over her head.

"It's freezing," Kagome said, teeth clattering.

Suikotsu brought his First Aid kit with him and the others stood back as he took something out. He removed the covers slowly, just until her head peaked out.

"Miss Higurashi, we need to check your temperature." She grumbled and a soft 'fine' was heard. Although, her head was a little out of it, one thought out of thousands was how a simple First Aid kit had a thermometer.

As he was checking her temperature, he recalled in the beginning just right after her little promise to them, three of those early days were spent sick. All four of them had caught something at the same time and Kagome had nursed them back to health until each one of them was recovered. And then she decided they needed some kind of flu shot, or whatever, and they had been wary of the needles. Renkotsu had even threatened the people. Jakotsu had…disturbed most of the males before he went berserk and started yelling himself hoarse about the shot. Bankotsu, though, had actually tried to physically harm them. Suikotsu was glad he had been quite fine throughout the whole thing. Thinking back on it now, it all seemed embarrassing.

"You have a fever, 102.1 degrees. Just rest awhile and we'll take care of you, okay?" Kagome nodded and Suikotsu removed the blanket. Her clothes were soaked with sweat. "We're going to leave the room and you're going to change. I'll be back with a wet cloth and some of the left over medicine."

Once they all left the room, Kagome began to change. But she really wasn't feeling good…

A few minutes later, Suikotsu was holding a bowl filled with water in one hand and the medicine and cloth in the other. He waited with the others for few more minutes until he became worried. There was no sound or movement coming from the room. And it had been some time.

Jakotsu knocked on the door. Nothing. No shout, no answer, no reply at all. Bankotsu swung open the door, thankful that it hopefully wasn't going to land on their heads any time soon.

Next to the edge of the bed was Kagome, still standing up and not yet finished buttoning her pajama top. In fact, she only had two buttons in the middle buttoned and her hands were just hanging on the pajama top, looking like they were going to button another but instead frozen.

"Miss Higurashi?" Renkotsu called out softly.

She collapsed on the floor.

All of them hurried to her side, placing her on the bed. Renkotsu quickly buttoned up the rest of the buttons, looking away every few seconds and feeling hot. Bankotsu moved the blanket over her and Jakotsu moved her hair to rest comfortably straight, wiping some strands away from her moist face. Suikotsu wet the cloth and put it on her forehead, quickly setting up the medicine after.

Putting it to her lips, he made her taste it, wincing with her at the taste. All of them remembered that awful taste of the meds. Yech.

"Go to sleep now. We'll sleep right after we make sure you're fine."

Kagome could barely nod at them, sleeping quickly into sleep.

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It was snowing with a vengeance again…but…

Thursday morning, Kagome awoke to a delicious aroma.

"Mmmm."

She opened her eyes and found all four of them staring at her. In the beginning, it had freaked her out to always see them there, just staring, but then she got used to it.

"Renkotsu made chicken broth for you." Jakotsu said merrily, pinching Renkotsu's cheek and grinning at her. Renkotsu's face was blushing a little but he was starting to get annoyed with Jakotsu.

"Thank you, Renkotsu." She smiled at him, accepting help from Bankotsu who helped her sit up. He placed their pillows behind her back for her to lean against.

"Yeah, Renkotsu. Good job. It's the only thing you can cook."

A pinching war was starting up as Jakotsu grabbed the other cheek with his other hand and Renkotsu retaliated by grabbing both of Jakotsu's cheeks. Both of them started to pull every which way.

The rest of them just ignored the two, although Kagome had to be persuaded a little as she stared and began to giggle at first. Suikotsu started feeding her the soup, blowing on each spoonful to cool it down. It was all downed after a couple of minutes and then Suikotsu gave her another dosage of the medicine.

"Thanks, guys. I feel a lot better now."

Of course, they knew that there was one more thing that troubled her but they didn't mention it.

"If only…Inuyasha was here. He'd make that special recipe he made that one time to cure me." Kagome said sadly.

The four looked at each other sourly. Bankotsu forced a smile on his face. "Don't worry. We'll be back…we had one too. We just…have to make it. Right, we'll be right back, Miss Higurashi."

The four hurried out of the room and into the living room.

"Why'd you do that for, Big Brother? We don't have a special recipe for illnesses." Jakotsu pointed out.

Bankotsu waved him off irritably. "I know that. We're going to steal Inuyasha's. We'll call her family and ask if they know what that half-breed used to make it."

"What if they don't know?"

"Trust me. I think they do. How else would Inuyasha be able to make it, here in this time without Kagome's help?"

Once again, Renkotsu was found dialing another phone number and putting it on speaker.

"Oh, I want to speak this time!" Jakotsu said as he grabbed the phone.

"Hello? This is Souta Higurashi speaking."

"Hi! Do you know Inuyasha?" Jakotsu asked without even introducing himself.

"Uh…yeah. Who's this?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, name's Jakotsu. I was one of those guys you saw with Mis –Kagome the day you left."

"I remember. What's this about Inuyasha? Has he finally gotten together with my sis?"

Jakotsu's eye twitched. "Actually no. This is more to do with a recipe he made to cure Kagome of a sickness. Do you know what he used?"

"Oh boy. Do I remember that thing. Nasty. Liver, liver, and liver. Different kinds of liver…"

Renkotsu started writing it down.

"…and she's supposed to at least take a nap after. You got that?"

"Yup, thanks."

They hung up and all four of them grimaced.

"Yuck. And Kagome drunk that?" Jakotsu gagged.

"Well, if it makes her feel better quickly…" Suikotsu said weakly, looking a little green.

"Then get to it, Suikotsu." Renkotsu said with false humor. "You're the doctor."

"Yeah, you are the doctor." Bankotsu confirmed, catching on.

"You heard them." Jakotsu said, still looking nauseated.

The 'doctor' scowled and glared at them before doing just what they wanted. It took another long while, most of the rest of the morning, before it was finished.

"It looks normal."

"I guess…"

"Bankotsu, Jakotsu. Shut up."

"I think Suikotsu's sore because we got him to make 'it', Bankotsu."

"I agree."

"It looks so harmless that it makes me even more scared of it."

"You got that right, Renkotsu."

"Renkotsu…Jakotsu…"

Suikotsu growled at them before proceeding up the stairs to deliver the 'thing'.

"Miss Higurashi! Here's…the…um…thing…it…special recipe medicine."

Suikotsu tried to keep the disgust out of his voice. Trying to keep his face straight, he entered and moved next to her. The pillows still there to support her, he handed it to her and waited.

"Thanks! Wow, this looks like the one Inuyasha made for me. Maybe it's a traditional recipe."

Suikotsu just nodded, not wanting to say anything.

She started to down it.

Started 11/8/05 –Completed 11/11/05