Love In Purgatory

Chapter 4

Alright. Chapter four. Read and Review, and I promise I will try to write more chapters. But with being a full time mom, it's kinda hard to focus on a story haha.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, all rights go to Rumiko Takahashi as she owns Inuyasha.

They had been walking for days. The place where they had found Shippo was farther than she remembered. But she missed her little kit. Five years is way too long. Bankotsu watched her as she thought of her young demon child.

"You alright?" he asked. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just thinking about Shippo. I miss him, you know? He was like my son and I haven't seen him for five years. That's too long." she laughed. No matter how sad she thought she'd be, she couldn't deny that she was excited. Going on another adventure, searching for her friends. And this time she had Bankotsu for company. New friends were always ood. Even if they were your enemy at one point. Though really, he was never her enemy. Only by default because of Naraku and Inuyasha.

"What about you?"she asked looking at him again. He shrugged.

"I'm good. It's a little quieter than I'm used to. I'm used to Jakotsu and Renkotsu going at it all the time." He chuckled. Kagome laughed with him. She could imagine it, the beautifully disastorous cross-dresser arguing with the bald headed man.

"You know, I think that if Jakotsu didn't hate women so much, or I was a man, we could have been good friends." She said, off-handedly. For some reason, the picture he must have pictured made Bankotsu stop and double over with laugter. Kagome stopped and watched him, confusion and curiosity lining her features.

Kagome turned and looked ahead. Something familliar caught her eye, and her heart swelled with joy. She ran ahead, not worrying if Bankotsu was behind her or not- which he was. She stopped when she reached what had caught her eye.

The memorial shrine for Shippos father they had built. They finally reached it. Now if only there was some sort of clue as to where Shippo was.

"We should take a break. We can eat and figure out where Shippo might be." Bankotsu offered. Kagome nodded and instantly broke into her walked to a grassy area not far behind the shrine and layed a blanket down. No sense in getting grass stains. It had just rained in this area, after all. And since the Thunder Brothers were no longer here, the foliage actually had a chance to grow. Bankotsu gathered some firewood quickly.

"No wonder this place wasn't as familiar as I thought it would be. I didn't think that since the Thunder Brothers are dead the trees would actually be able to grow." Kagome commented as she started the fire with the sticks Bankotsu had grabbed. As she was cooking the meat, the two of them heard scuffling in the underbrush behind them. bankotsu had had hand on the hilt of Banryuu and Kagome had her bow in her hand reaching for an arrow.

To their surprise, out walked what looked like a teenage Shippo. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him. Instantly, his mind went into over drive. He flung out a statue and enlarged it on the blade of Banryuu. Since Shippo was older and stronger, his statue was bigger and heavier. Bankotsu struggled, but couldn't lift his blade. He looked up, shocked, at Shippo who had a ball of fox fire ready to fire.

"Shippo, wait!" Kagome yelled quickly. She stood and grabbed his shoulder. "Shippo it's alright. Bankotsu was helping me travel. I know, it's weird. But he's alone. And so was I, so we figured what better way to not be alone, then to travel together and find my family."

"Your family? But the well-" Shippo started.

"Is closed forever, I know. I was talking about you. You, Sango and Miroku. You guys are my family." she laughed as she wrapped him in a hug.

"You know, it's lucky that you walked through here, cause I had no clue where to find you from here." Kagome joked as they all sat. Bankotsu was looking at Shippo expectantly.

"What?" Shippo asked, looking none the wiser. Then it hit him. "Oh yeah. Haha, sorry." he continued as he deformed the statue on Banryuu. Bankotsu smiled and brushed the little chunks of statue that were left behind off his sword.

"It's alright. Understandeable, really. What were you supposed to do, seeing me sitting here with Kagome." he lauhed. Shippo nodded and looked at Kagome.

"So, you came out here to find me?" he asked. Kagome nodded.

"Yeah. After we found you we were gonna head to the Slayer's Village and see if Sango and Miroku were still there. We were gonna see if you wanted to come along." she said. Shippo smiled.

"It's really good to see you again. I've missed you like crazy. I was gonna come see you but I didn't know if you were still in Edo, or if you were even ready to see any of us. I'm glad you are now, though." he replied.

"Not ready? What do you mean?" Kagome asked.

"He means that after the Final Battle, he wasn't sure if you could emotionally or mentally handle seeing them all again. He probably thought seeing them might bring along a fit of Warriors Sickness*." Bankotsu calmly cut in. Kagome looked at Shippo and he sheepishly nodded.

"Well, I can't really guarantee that it wouldn't have. Thank you for the consideration, Shippo. It really means alot. But really, I didn't expect you guys to visit really. I mean, we had all spent so much of our lives with Inuyasha following the Jewel and Naraku. Especially you, Shippo. You were so young and had to see battle so soon." she said, mournfully. Shippo wrapped his arms around her, glad that he could properly hug his mother figure.

"You know, as glad that I am that I can actually fight and protect myself, I misspeoplecarrying me." He said jokingly, winking at Bankotsu who was laughing and nodding at Shippo. Shippo felt her shaking and at first thought she was crying until she sat up straight. Her face was already red from laughter.

"So, Shippo," Bankotsu said through his chuckles, "what have you been up to?"

"Nothing really. Just honing my abilities, honoring my father."

"So would you be willing to join us?" Kagome asked timidly. She wanted to see Shippo more and spend time with him again, but she didn't want to pull him away from anything he had going on. Especially his father. He already had to wait so long to honor him.

"You know, I've spent so much time training myself on the hill that Hiten and Manten died on." Shippo replied. Kagomes eyes went wide. "I think an adventure would do me good."

"You've been training on that hill?" Kagome asked. Shippo nodded.

"The memories help me focus." he replied simply.

*For those who don't know, I don't exactly have the correct term, but it's an easy one to figure out. All it is is referencing to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Also, let's just assume Shippo is powerful enough to maintain Humanoid form.