InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tainted ❯ Chapter 15 ( Chapter 15 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and its characters. I also do not own a few of the quotes here. I do not make any money off of this story.
Warning: May contain scenes of violence, rape, or sex.


They waited until she was gone before they took the other path. Neither man said anything as they continued their trek to Mount Hakurei. Once they approached the foot of the mountain, Bankotsu stopped.

Renkotsu took a deep breath. “Big Brother, do you think it wise to have let the girl live? Wouldn’t it have been better to kill her?” he asked.

Bankotsu closed his eyes and bowed his head. Kagome… Renkotsu had a cannon in his hands, but Bankotsu wasn’t worried about it.

Without warning, the young mercenary stabbed his comrade in the neck with his fingers. Renkotsu froze in shock and sudden pain as the young leader pulled two jewel shards from the older man’s neck. Bankotsu counted in his head: Kyokotsu, Mukotsu, Suikotsu, Ginkotsu, Jakotsu…

He nodded. “Right, right,” he said more to himself. “You still have one more. You know, for a smart guy, you sure can be stupid.”

He turned to face his old comrade. “You kept plotting and planning, but you waited too long to act,” the young mercenary continued.

“Will… Will you kill me?” Renkotsu asked as he grasped his bleeding neck.

Bankotsu raised an eyebrow as he held up one of Jakotsu’s hairpins. “Well, what should I do?” he countered. “After all, you killed Jakotsu for his Sacred Jewel shard.”

The older man growled and threw his hand away from his neck. “Who the hell are you to talk?!” he snarled. “In the end, all that matters is power. And the more shards you have, the stronger you become.”

Bankotsu gave a soft chuckle as Renkotsu continued, “What’s so funny? Don’t forget. You have jewel shards, too, Big Brother. And you used us to get them for you.”

“Let’s put your theory to the test,” Bankotsu said.

“What do you mean?”

The young leader threw the two shards back to Renkotsu. “Here. Take them. What’s the problem?”

He caught Renkotsu’s glance at the halberd and immediately stuck it in the ground. “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t even use Banryu.”

As Renkotsu put the shards back into his neck, Bankotsu smirked evilly. “Now I will demonstrate how different you and I actually are. Well? What are you waiting for? If you won’t attack, then I’ll come at you first!”

The older mercenary shot at the young leader with his cannon. Bankotsu dodged it easily. Renkotsu shot his cannon four more times before the young man was able to get close enough to knock the weapon out of his hands. Renkotsu fell backwards onto the ground.

The leader glared down at the man. “Get on your feet,” he ordered.

“Damn it!” Renkotsu snarled as he jumped away from the other man. Grabbing his gourd, he took a huge chug of the liquid and spit it out at Bankotsu.

Fire enveloped the young mercenary and Bankotsu growled in anger. He waited patiently while Renkotsu relaxed, thinking he won. Then the young leader threw Jakotsu’s hairpin and the hairpin stabbed Renkotsu in the shoulder.

The older man fell to his knees in pain. “I don’t get it,” he snarled as Bankotsu calmly stepped out of the flames and approached him. “Wh-What’s the difference? Tell me! What’s the difference between what I’ve done and what you’re doing now?!”

The young mercenary stabbed the man in the neck again with his fingers and dug out the jewel shards. As Renkotsu’s flesh turned to dust, Bankotsu answered, “The difference is, I would never betray my friends.”

Bankotsu stared down at his fallen friend. What a waste of good talent.

Kagome… Bankotsu closed his eyes before turning to glance back up at the mountain. The only people standing in his way now were Inuyasha and Naraku. He knew what the outcome would be as he retrieved his halberd. With any luck, he’d take the demons down with him.

“Seems like I’m the only one left,” he commented to himself. He squared his jaw in determination. “This will be the final battle of the Band of Seven.”

*8*

She wiped her tears away and shook her head. Mount Hakurei was where Bankotsu was heading. That was where Naraku was hiding.

She stood up and dusted herself off. Grabbing her bicycle, she turned away from the village. She knew she wasn’t following Bankotsu’s orders, but she didn’t care. He wasn’t with her anymore.

Like him, she had a job to do. If she were meant to give birth to this child, she would, but she would do so on her terms.

Naraku lay in that mountain. If she had any hope of finding peace for her friends, herself, and Bankotsu, Naraku had to be destroyed.

With a newfound determination, she began her trek towards the mountain. Now that Renkotsu wasn’t blowing smoke around her, she knew her friends would find her easily.

*8*

Both Koga and Inuyasha froze and stuck their noses in the air. “Kagome!” they shouted in unison.

The two rivals glared at each other before taking off in the direction of the scent. Miroku and Sango stole quick glances at one another before Sango tightened her grip on her cat. “Kirara!”

*8*

Kagome stopped as she suddenly felt the presence of two jewel shards behind her. She recognized them immediately and turned around. She was confronted by Koga who suddenly drew her into his embrace.

“Kagome,” he greeted.

The miko smiled softly and slipped her arms around his waist as she returned the hug. She tightened her grip as she realized how much she had missed him. She closed her eyes and breathed him in. “Koga,” she whispered.

“Hey, you stupid fleabag! Let go of Kagome!” Inuyasha shouted as he ran up to the two.

Kagome gasped as she released the wolf and broke his embrace. She practically fell into the hanyou’s arms. “Inuyasha!” she cried.

As Inuyasha held her, Koga growled, “Where did he go? Where’s the ass wipe who kidnapped you?”

The priestess steeled herself and she gently broke away from Inuyasha. Those questions came much sooner than she had expected. Over Inuyasha’s shoulder, she caught Kirara approaching with Miroku, Sango, and Shippo. As they got closer, Shippo bounded off the cat and jumped in Kagome’s arms.

“Kagome!” he cried, hugging her as tightly as he could.

The entire reunion was tear filled as each of the people, and Kirara, took their turns hugging Kagome. For once, Miroku’s hand did not even stray.

Inuyasha growled, “You smell like that mercenary, Kagome. Where is he? I want to kill him.”

“The only one who’ll be killing him is me, mutt!” Koga snarled. “I told you already. You had your chance and you blew it.”

“Would you two stop?!” Kagome snapped. “You’ve more important things to worry about.”

The group looked at the priestess as she took a calming breath. “Naraku is in Mount Hakurei. He’s been rebuilding his body there,” she explained. “If we get to him now, we might have a chance of defeating him.”

Sango placed a worried hand on her friend’s shoulder. “What about Bankotsu? Did you defeat him?”

The priestess shook her head. “He let me go,” she told him, gaining shocked looks in the process. “His job is to keep us from going to Mount Hakurei and he got sidetracked by me.”

Both the hanyou and wolf demon cracked their knuckles. “Then I still have a chance of kicking that corpse’s ass,” Inuyasha sneered, a vicious gleam in his eyes.

Kagome gave him a sad look before nodding. “He’s actually waiting for you,” she told him.

Koga smirked as he glanced at the road ahead of them. “Well, it would be rude to keep him waiting,” he said before he disappeared in a whirlwind.

Kagome sighed. She just hoped that whatever awaited them at Mount Hakurei, they would make it out alive.

Bankotsu

Inuyasha jerked his shoulder towards the road. “I’m going ahead,” he told his companions. “I don’t need that wolf getting Bankotsu before I do.”

He gazed at Kagome and she looked away. Inuyasha’s expression hardened. “I’m going to make him pay for what he did to you.”

As the hanyou took off, Kagome sighed. She was so confused. Logic told her that Inuyasha was the one who was actually alive, so Inuyasha is the one she should root for. But Bankotsu…

The priestess placed a hand on her stomach. “You’ll always have me, my little miko. Even when I’m gone… I’ll always be with you… I love you.”

As his words echoed in her mind and touched her heart, she bit back her tears. “Don't you dare cry over me, miko. You're number one priority is to defeat Naraku. I'm just an obstacle in that path. I died a long time ago."

She closed her eyes and nodded. He was right. She had to defeat Naraku.

“Kagome? What’s wrong?” Sango asked.

The miko shook her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she replied as she opened her eyes with conviction. “Our job is to defeat Naraku. And that’s what we need to be doing.”

Sango nodded, but did not move. She glanced down at the hand Kagome had placed on her own stomach. “Kagome, did…?” Her eyes met the miko’s and she saw the truth in them.

The demon slayer drew her hand back as though something had bit her and put her hand over her mouth in a gasp. “Oh, god…”

The priestess shook her head. “Don’t,” she told her friend. “That’s not important right now.”

Miroku glared at the path before them. “What a scumbag!” he snarled. “I hope Inuyasha does kill the bastard.”

“Miroku, please,” Kagome begged, but the monk wasn’t paying attention.

“As a monk, I don’t normally condone killing, but in that filthy criminal’s case, I’m willing to make an exception,” he sneered.

The priestess crumbled to the ground, unable to control her tears any longer. “Kagome!” Sango exclaimed as she followed her friend and embraced her.

Miroku watched the women with wide eyes. He hadn’t meant to upset the miko. He was merely… The monk bowed his head and closed his eyes. “You’re in love with him,” he murmured.

Kagome sobbed, but she did not deny his claim. “I’m sorry,” she whispered through her tears.

Sango shushed her as she rubbed the miko’s back. “It’s ok,” she soothed. “It’s understandable. We have no way of knowing what happened between the two of you. And Miroku was just being insensitive, which is rare, but it’s only because he cares about you. We all do. He hurt you. And worse, because of him…”

The demon slayer pulled away from the priestess and looked into her eyes. “Kagome, we would understand if you did not wish to continue. Yes, Naraku needs to be defeated, but your child…”

The priestess shook her head. “No,” she hissed. “I won’t be left out! Naraku will be defeated and I will see it done. That monster has hurt me far more than anything Bankotsu could ever have done.”

“Your child will be in danger,” Sango pointed out, concern written on her face.

Again, the miko shook her head. “I will go back to my time and see a doctor there,” she explained. “The doctor will be able to tell me when the child is due. If we haven’t defeated Naraku by then, I’ll give birth in my time and leave the baby with my mother.”

Sango nodded. “I don’t know that we’ll have Naraku defeated by then though,” she said as she glanced at the monk.

Miroku held his chin as he thought. “You’ve been away from us for four months,” he stated as he silently did the math. “So, if I’m correct, you have at least another five months before the baby is born. We may be able to hunt Naraku within that time, but by the time we get to him, you will be too pregnant to fight.”

“Unless we defeat him today,” Shippo suggested, speaking for the first time.

The monk gazed at the women and kitsune and nodded. “That seems our only option. Defeat him now and we won’t have to worry.”

Sango stood up and helped her friend up. The companions left the bike behind as they began making the trek to Mount Hakurei.