Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Modern Reality	By : Tassanaburrfoot Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Shichi'nintai (The Band of Seven) > Shichi'nintai (The Band of Seven) Views: 4216 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not now, nor have I ever, owned Inuyasha. I will not recieve any compensation for this.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Bankotsu sat at the table watching his new bride bustle about the kitchen. A cup of juice lay untouched in front of him and two pieces of buttered toast sat in a saucer just a fraction away. Directly in front of him was a bowl of rice cereal.

The sound of shuffling feet drew Bankotsu’s attention to the door and he gazed at the little boy as Banryu entered the kitchen and climbed onto a chair next to Bankotsu. The boy said nothing as he picked up a pair of chopsticks and began eating his own bowl of rice cereal.

Kagome turned to face them with a plate of sliced fruit. “Oh! Good morning, Banryu,” she greeted with a smile as she approached the table and dished some fruit onto their saucers of toast.

“Morning, Mom,” the little boy mumbled as he set his bowl down and picked up some toast. “Morning, Dad,” he added between bites as he looked up at his father.

Bankotsu gave the boy a smile. “Good morning, young man,” he said. “Ready to begin training today?”

Banryu tilted his head in confusion and wrinkled his nose. “Training?”

Kagome sighed. “Don’t forget, dear, swords are illegal in modern day Japan,” she chimed.

The boy’s eyes widened as he took in what his mother was saying. He glanced at his father happily. “You’re really going to teach me how to sword fight?” he asked, his eyes filling with hope.

Bankotsu inclined his head as he picked up his cup of juice. “We’ll start with that sword I bought for you the other day. Of course, I’ll need to find one for myself,” he mused as he took a sip of the juice. His eyes widened slightly at the taste and he pulled the cup away from himself to look at it. “What is this stuff?”

Kagome was just starting to sit in her chair when she paused and looked at him. “Do you not like it?” she asked.

He licked his lips and took another sip. “Actually, I do,” he admitted. “It definitely has a different taste, but it’s good. What is it?”

“Mango,” she answered as she bit into her toast. “Mango, Pineapple, and Strawberry juice. It’s one of Banryu’s favorites.”

He nodded as he set his cup down and continued with his food.

As the small family ate, Shiori and Inuyasha walked into the kitchen. Inuyasha sat at the head of the table and stared at Bankotsu as Shiori set food in front of him. The mercenary glanced up and met the hanyou’s glare with one of his own. “What’cha lookin’ at, half-breed?” he growled.

The dog’s eyes narrowed as he sniffed. “You smell different,” he commented as he picked up the tea Shiori had set on the table for him.

“Maybe because I don’t smell like graveyard soil anymore,” Bankotsu suggested with a laugh. “I am alive now.”

This only made Inuyasha frown more. “No, that’s not it,” he said. He continued to stare at Bankotsu, not bothering to touch his food.

For his part, Bankotsu ignored the hanyou, focusing instead on his son. “When you are finished with your academic studies today, I will take you for some swordsmanship practice,” he said to the boy.

Banryu’s eyes lit up as Kagome sighed. “I don’t know why you bother. He can’t even use a sword in this day and age,” she explained. “You’re better off helping him practice Judo.”

“Battojutsu was good enough for me, it will be good enough for him,” was Bankotsu’s reply.

Inuyasha scoffed. “You’re going to get yourself arrested, stupid,” he mocked.

The mercenary shot him a look as Kagome squared her jaw. “Battojutsu teaches discipline,” he stated calmly. “Even if swords aren’t allowed to be carried around here, it is still a good skill for him to know and he will know it.”

Kagome sighed. “Maybe something a bit softer?” she compromised. “Judo is much like Jujutsu, but it teaches more about being gentle. The country isn’t at war, so it isn’t…”

“Right now,” Bankotsu interrupted. He sneered. “Am I the only one who saw all the demons in that building yesterday or heard the training that was happening down the hall from that daiyoukai’s office? He needs to be prepared for anything. He needs to learn discipline and how to read his opponent. It’s not just about sword fighting, though that is the main focus. It’s about learning to judge yourself and those around you. To be aware of your environment. To be alert at all times and to effectively predict whatever is going to happen next.”

“All of which he gets from Judo,” Kagome pointed out. “The difference is, he’ll be able to subdued his opponent rather than kill him.”

He tilted his head. “Is that even Japanese?” he asked.

She huffed. “Yes. It happens to be a modern form of martial arts, thank you very much. Less deadly than the things you were taught,” she assured him.

He nodded as he thought it over. “Jujutsu,” he said finally. “I’ll start him on Jujutsu and we’ll move into Battojutsu. But he will learn Battojutsu. He is from a lineage of samurai.”

“And priests,” she added. “My family has always owned that shrine and we were taught the ways of priesthood. Peace, gentleness, kindness.”

For a moment, she thought he was going to argue with her, but then Inuyasha interrupted, “There it is again. What is that smell? And I sense a demonic presence.”

Shiori nodded. “But you and I are the only demons here,” she stated as she looked around. She pushed her chair back and got up, walking to the door. “Unless we have company…”

Inuyasha’s eyes shot back to the mercenary. “It’s coming from you,” he said.

Bankotsu rolled his eyes. “I think you already established that I smell different. Kagome and I did have sex last night quite a few times.”

“I know what sex smells like,” Inuyasha spat in annoyance. “And yes, you do smell like sex, but there is something else, but that isn’t even what I was talking about. You have a demonic presence about you, corpse.”

Both the mercenary and the miko stared at the hanyou in surprise for a moment. Then Bankotsu erupted in laughter. “I’m a human, not a demon,” he managed to say between chuckles. “Even if you keep calling me a corpse, I can guarantee that I am very much a live human.”

Inuyasha stood up at the same time Bankotsu did. “Inuyasha,” Kagome warned.

“Get out of my face, half-breed,” the mercenary snarled as Inuyasha moved to stand in front of him.

The hanyou sniffed again and lowered his arms. “No,” he stated, “this is definitely the scent of a demon. Who are you really?” he demanded.

Bankotsu set his jaw and Kagome wondered if he would rise to Inuyasha’s bait, but the mercenary glanced at his wife and scoffed. “I don’t have time for this,” he huffed as he turned away from the hanyou. “Banryu, go get ready to go to your academy. Your mother and I have business today and I don’t want you to be late.”

“Yes, Daddy,” the boy said as he put his chopsticks down and slipped off his chair. He looked up at Inuyasha for a moment before running down the hall.

As Bankotsu turned to follow his son, the hanyou stepped up to block him from the hallway. The mercenary sent Inuyasha a deadly glare. “Move.”

“I’m not letting you down there,” the hanyou growled. “I don’t know who the hell you are, but you will get out of my house.”

“You said you sensed the demon, Inuyasha,” Kagome said, “but yesterday your brother wouldn’t give him any time at all because he didn’t sense demon blood on Bankotsu, remember? If Bankotsu was a demon, wouldn’t Sesshomaru have known?”

“That’s because yesterday there wasn’t any demon scent to him,” Inuyasha spat. “No blood, no aura, nothing. He was a human, simple as that. But now I sense the demon.”

The hanyou turned back to Bankotsu, preparing to fight and then froze. “What?” he stuttered.

“It’s gone,” Shiori breathed, coming up behind Kagome. She looked concerned as her eyes went from Inuyasha to Bankotsu and back again. “I don’t understand.”

Inuyasha shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. He’s still not staying in this house,” he argued.

“Inuyasha, you forget that this is my house, too,” Kagome said, irritated. “I pay half the bills here and that hall is part of my half of the house. And I say he can stay, so he stays. He’s Banryu’s father and my husband.”

Exasperated, the hanyou threw his hands up in the air and then waved an accusing hand at the mercenary. “Do you not see what he’s doing to you?!” he shouted. “You don’t think I grew deaf last night? Do you not realize that I heard everything?”

“Wha –? “

“Everything, Kagome!” he spat. “The shouting, the screaming, the begging. I heard it all! And you still defend this asshole! And just now… I am not that old to start going senile. I not only felt a demonic presence, but I could smell it. It wasn’t from me and it wasn’t coming from Shiori.” He pointed at Bankotsu. “It came from him.”

Kagome folded her arms. “If it came from him, then where is it now?” she asked, looking at the hanyou expectantly.

“The hell if I know!” he growled. “Why don’t you ask him? Since you and I have lived together, I never gave you any reason to doubt me. So, why are you doing it now?”

Shiori gave a slight nod to her head and calmly added, “I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t understand it.” She looked at Bankotsu and pinched her lips together. “I want to believe that you came back to become a better man for Kagome and Banryu. However, I sensed the demonic presence as well. I don’t blame you for it, Bankotsu, but something is not right.”

“I’m not a demon,” he said, looking back at her. “I was born a man, I died a man, and when I was brought back, both times… I’m still a man. A human. So, I don’t know why you would sense a demon.”

The bat hanyou nodded. “Don’t you think it is worth checking into, though? To find out why this happened?” She gave Kagome an imploring look. “It could be a fluke. Maybe someone was passing by the house or something, but we should find out.”

Kagome glanced at her husband for a moment, then sighed. Turning back to the pair of hanyou, she relented, “If it will make both of you feel better, we’ll go back to Sesshomaru’s office today and speak with him. See if he can pick up anything. In the meantime, we have to get Banryu to school and try to find Bankotsu a job somewhere.”

“And you have to inform your job that you won’t be going back,” Bankotsu reminded the miko. “There’s no need for you to work since I’m here now. You have more important things to worry about.”

She gave him a small smile. “We’ll talk more about that later,” she said and his eyes narrowed.

His eyes did not leave Kagome as Bankotsu addressed Shiori, “We will go to that demon’s office today. If he doesn’t sense anything, my suggestion would be to drop it for now. There are other matters that we should focus on, honestly.” As Kagome looked away, Bankotsu turned his attention to the bat hanyou. “As much as I appreciate you helping to take care of my girl and son while I was gone, I would like for us to be able to have our own place. I hate the idea of crowding you, especially as both of our families will be growing with time.”

Shiori blushed at the charming glint in Bankotsu’s eye as Kagome gasped and Inuyasha stared at him, stricken. “Oh, I didn’t do much,” she murmured. “It was mostly Inuyasha.”

Bankotsu scoffed. “Oh, I don’t fully buy that. Someone had to be there for Kagome when Inuyasha was being a dick. And he does that more often than not,” the mercenary stated. He gave her a knowing look. “You’re being too humble. Besides, I feel you deserve a compliment and some recognition for all that you do. Even these past few days since I’ve returned, you’ve done far more than your fair share.”

“You are too kind,” the hanyou commented with a blush. She glanced at Kagome, who stared at Bankotsu as though he had grown a second head.

It was at that time that Banryu had reappeared. Not wanting to be late, Kagome snapped out of her daze and pulled Bankotsu to their bedroom so they could get dressed for the day.

(II)(II)

“So, that’s three applications so far,” Kagome listed off as she sipped her milkshake.

The moment they dropped off Banryu, she and Bankotsu had started going to several places looking for jobs. So far, he had refused any sort of food service and most of the retail jobs. She was able to convince him to put an application in at the hardware store Inuyasha worked at, but that made her a bit nervous. She was also able to convince him to apply for the janitorial job at Banryu’s school after explaining how he would using tools to fix things that broke, along with the normal cleaning that they did. The final job she convinced him to apply at was as a bellhop at one of the local hotels.

He took a bite of his burger. Pausing a moment to chew and savor the taste, he swallowed and said, “You know none of those jobs are going to last long. I don’t know why you won’t just let me apply to work security somewhere.”

“Because security does not mean you get to kill every person who does something wrong in a store,” she explained. “And you would. Or at least you would try.”

He gave her a patient look and set his burger down on his napkin. Reaching across the table, he took her hands in his and caught her eyes with his. “Kagome, I’m a mercenary. You know this about me. I kill people and I enjoy it,” he said to her. “Even if I get one of these jobs, it is in my nature to kill and it will happen again. If I get a job in security or even law enforcement, at least I would be killing criminals, which is legal, unless they changed those laws, too.”

“You hate taking orders from others, though,” she pointed out.

Releasing her hands, he sat back in his chair. “I do, but there’s always opportunity for advancement in those fields,” he told her. “So, I may have to take orders for a year or two. I can handle it. Before you know it, I’ll be the chief and then I’ll give the orders.”

She shook her head. “There are problems with that, though. You don’t have an actual diploma,” she commented with a sigh. “Aside from that, if you were to go into that field, you would have to conform to their uniforms and dress policies, which means, you would have to cut your hair for starters. Then you would have to find a way to cover up your tattoo because it’s not exactly in a place that’s acceptable by today’s standards.”

He didn’t say anything. Looking back down at his burger, he picked it back up and took another bite from it. They continued eating in silence for a while before he spoke again. “Shiori said she was going to pick up Banryu from school, correct?”

Kagome nodded. “Normally, Inuyasha does it, but I know things are tense between you two and I didn’t want another fight to start up. When I called Shiori, she agreed and promised to pick him up after work.”

He took a sip of his own drink. “Speaking of work,” he said. “We still need to go by your job.”

“Bankotsu, I don’t know…”

“Kagome,” he snapped. “We’ve had this discussion. You’re not keeping that job.”

“Can’t I at least put in my two weeks?” she asked. “Even if I never get another job, not doing so still looks bad. Not to mention, right now, you don’t have a job.”

He glared at her as he sucked on his straw. His drink was gone for the most part, judging by the irritating sound. Spitting the straw out of his mouth, he sat back and licked his lips. “We will go to your job today,” he told her. “And you will put in your two weeks. If I get a job before your two weeks is up, then you will simply quit. Period. Are we agreed?”

She sighed. “Bankotsu…”

He shot forward in his seat, his body leaning over the table so his face was close to hers. “I am doing the best I can,” he hissed. “I’m trying to be fair and considerate. I have compromised more with you today than I have ever compromised with any of my men. And that includes Jakotsu. You have to meet me half way here, Kagome.” He fell back into his seat. “This isn’t easy for me. Do you understand? In my time, most women didn’t have jobs. My mother never held a job. Her job was giving birth to and then raised my brother and me. Her job was cleaning the mansion and making sure my father was served a hot meal every night. Her job was teaching my brother and I arithmetic and how to read and write. Her job was to teach us history, both of Japan and of our family. Her job was to teach us religion.” He shook his head. “We didn’t have a ‘school’ like Banryu has. There were tutors, sure, but my mother did most of the work in that regard. And when we weren’t learning from her, we were in the fields with my father training, or fixing the house.”

Pushing his chair back, Bankotsu stood up and walked around the table. He held his hand out for Kagome. When she placed her hand in his, he helped her up and slipped his hands around her waist. Looking down at her, he murmured, “One moment I was dead, Kagome. And the next, I was in an entirely different world. I don’t know this place, these customs. This isn’t the Japan I grew up in. I am a stranger to this world and I don’t have the same benefit that you did when we first met. I didn’t fall into a well and end up 500 years in the past. I woke from my grave and found myself 500 years in the future.” He lifted a hand and brushed his fingers across her cheek. “You’re always reminding me that this isn’t Feudal Japan, but the problem is, that’s all I know. I don’t need to be chastised. I need to be taught. More importantly, I need some semblance of normalcy. Thus far, all I have is you. You and Banryu. My brothers are gone. Even my parents are gone. I’m a leader with no one to lead. A mercenary with no sword. A killer with no one to kill. Everything I have ever known is gone, so I have to learn something new. And I need your guidance in this. I need you here with me. I’m relying on your strength and constant presence to get me through and remind me why I’m even doing this, why I bother. Without you, I will go mad. And trust me, it would be so easy for me to slip back into that mindset of a killer.” He glanced around at the people walking by and his voice lowered as he pressed into her and dipped his head to whisper into her ear. “Look around us. All these people? There’s a sword in the window across the street. I know carrying a sword is illegal, but I also know that people still have them, if not to use, then as decoration. I have no problem crossing this street and grabbing that sword and just killing everyone around me. In fact, I crave it,” his hot breath blew across her ear and her eyes fluttered as she felt his body harden against her. “Do you feel that?” he asked as his lower body came flush with hers even more. Her eyes snapped open as she felt his hard cock. “Just the thought of slicing these people turns me on.”

He pulled his head away and let his eyes drift from her eyes to her lips. He licked his own lips and glanced back up to her. “I know I’ve been asking a lot of you,” he finally admitted. “But nothing I have requested has been unreasonable. You are my wife, the mother of my child, and you’ll be the mother of my future children. We’ll finally be able to build a life together, as we had talked about back in that mansion all those years ago. Those dreams we had? We can finally do them. But I need you here, with me. I need you to be as committed to me as I am to you. To us. Because, I can promise you this: without it, I will end up going on a killing spree.” He shrugged. “It’s just my nature.”

Biting her bottom lip, she nodded. “Ok,” she breathed. “Just… All this talk of killing needs to stop. That’s not you anymore. It can’t be you.”

“And it won’t be,” he agreed. She gave him a soft smile, which he returned. “Let’s go and finish what we need done. I promised our son I would give him fighting lessons.” As her mouth dropped, he smirked and winked at her.

(III)(III)

Kagome glanced nervously at the people around her and leaned closer to Bankotsu. “Maybe this wasn’t a good idea,” she murmured.

He looked down at her in confusion. “What was that?”

She bit her bottom lip as her eyes fell on a particularly nasty looking demon. Snapping out of her thoughts, she stopped walking and turned to the mercenary. “I was just thinking,” she said with a smile, patting his arm in her nervousness. “Maybe we should do this another day. I know Koga doesn’t work tomorrow and as much as I trust Shiori, I really think we should get home to our son.”

The lines in his forehead deepened as he stared at her. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

Her face fell and she froze as the stared at the figure behind him. Kagome could feel all the warmth leave her face as the tall, sinister demon approached them. Her mouth opened to speak, but no words came out. She had never felt so much fear for this one person and, that terrified her even more.

“I assume you’re going to tell me why you are here?” Sesshomaru’s deep voice commanded. Had that been an echo she had heard?

As Bankotsu turned around, Kagome tugged on his sleeve. “No, no,” she insisted. “We were just leaving. We came here by mistake…”

The mercenary turned back to his wife. “What? You’re joking,” he demanded. “After all the fuss you made?” He looked back at the daiyoukai. “Kagome and I wished to speak to you about an event that occurred this morning in our home,” he explained.

“Why would I care what two mortals do in their spare time?” Sesshomaru asked, his annoyance flaring.

As the dog demon turned, Bankotsu interrupted him. “I would have thought a great demon like yourself would be interested in hearing about the demon that his younger brother discovered, but oh well.” He grabbed Kagome’s arm. “Let’s go.”

Kagome had heard many strange and unusual things in her relatively short lifetime. She had survived a Feudal Era war against, quite possibly, the evilest being she had ever had the displeasure of knowing. She had seen things she never thought she’d ever see; demons being one of them. She watched, in surprise, as a being more powerful than any she had known had befriended and cared for a small mortal girl. She had seen a family become ripped apart only for them to be pieced back together. What she had never heard, nor seen, however, was Sesshomaru, the great dog demon from said Feudal Era, chuckle as he smirked.

She blinked as she gazed at him in awe. Sesshomaru was chuckling? She licked her lips nervously. “Uh… Sesshomaru?” she inquired uncertainly as she absently tugged on Bankotsu to make him stop.

As quickly as it had begun, the humor Sesshomaru displayed disappeared. He dropped his arms to his sides. “Follow me,” he ordered the two humans as he turned and began walking to his office.

Bankotsu’s eyes narrowed, but quickly followed behind Kagome as she rushed to catch up to the daiyoukai. Once they were back in Sesshomaru’s office, the dog demon turned to the couple. That was when Kagome noticed Jaken running about the room. Had he always been there or had he suddenly appeared? She opened her mouth to ask such question, but was interrupted by the daiyoukai.
“Now, tell me what it is you wish to say,” he said softly.

Kagome tore her eyes from the small toad demon to look at Sesshomaru and then at Bankotsu. She frowned slightly in confusion. “We aren’t sure what happened this morning,” she admitted honestly as her eyes roamed back to the great demon. “Inuyasha was the one whom had noticed it. Well, him and Shiori. One moment, Inuyasha and Bankotsu were arguing, as they usually do in the mornings, and the next, Inuyasha claimed that he had sensed the presence of a demon.”

Sesshomaru stared at her. “Did you not also sense this presence?” he asked. “I was under the impression that you were a priestess.”

She sighed as she lowered her head. “Even when I was in the Feudal Era, I couldn’t sense the presence of demons. Now, however…” She glanced back up at him. “I’m married and with a child. I’m hardly as pure as I was back then. In fact, I haven’t even attempted to try any of the things Kaede taught me since I’ve returned here.”

“I do not sense a demon presence amongst the two of you,” he told them flatly. The couple glanced at one another.

Rolling his eyes, Bankotsu scoffed. “I knew that half breed was making false claims. I’m telling you, Kagome, if he had it his way, I’d be gone and the two of you would be on the road to marriage with each other.”

The miko shoved her fists in her hips. “And I’m telling you, it’s not like that, ok?” she spat. “Inuyasha has been nothing more than a kind, caring friend. Besides, he has Shiori now.”

The mercenary gave her a knowing look. “But if he hadn’t Shiori?” he questioned. “If that sweet bat hadn’t come into his life? Then what? You and Inuyasha already act like a married couple, if you ignore that you haven’t had sex with one another.”

Kagome folded her arms. “And what makes you think we haven’t?” she challenged.

Bankotsu’s eyes darkened as they narrowed. “You wouldn’t dare,” he growled as he gritted his teeth.

“Wouldn’t I?” she asked. “I mean, for all I knew you were gone and weren’t coming back. I saw you die that second time. I saw your Banryu get buried in the rubble. You weren’t coming back. You were dead. I was well within my right to move on, if I chose. Especially after Banryu was born. Granted, my mother managed to raise my brother and I alright after my father died, but there was no reason for me to make my son do the same, especially if there was someone there who would willingly step into the role.”

Bankotsu’s fists clenched at his sides as he took a step towards her. “I’ve killed men for less,” he warned her. “You are mine, Kagome. Do you understand what that means? You and Banryu both belong to me.”

“We’re not pieces of property,” she argued. “We’re human beings and we have rights. Before you came back, I had the right to fall in love again. I had a right to meet someone and even marry them if I wanted to. There is nothing that says I couldn’t.”

“Our marriage…”

“Was what people did during the Feudal Era,” she interrupted. “It has no bearing on modern times. In fact, if you and I hadn’t gotten our marriage license, we wouldn’t be married now. At least, not legally. And I would still have a right to marry someone else if I wanted to.”

“Hold,” Sesshomaru ordered, cutting off their argument and gaining their attention. His eyes widened slightly as he stared at Bankotsu. Lifting his right hand, he called for his Tensaiga and held it in front of him. His lips pinched together as he looked at the sword then back at the mercenary. “That’s odd.”

Kagome dropped her hands. “What is it?” she asked, forgetting about the argument she was having with her husband. She glanced at Bankotsu in concern then back at Sesshomaru.

The dog demon stood there a moment longer with Tensaiga poised as if ready to attack. Bankotsu glared at the demon. “Planning to attack an unarmed man? I didn’t take you for a coward, Sesshomaru,” he snarled.

“You idiot!” Jaken shouted, running to the trio to defend his master. “How dare you….”

“Jaken!” Sesshomaru growled. “Go back to your duties.”

The little toad bowed his head. “Yes, m’lord.”

Sesshomaru lowered his sword and looked up at Bankotsu. His brow furrowed. “What are you?” he asked.

Bankotsu raised an eyebrow. “I am Shimazu Bankotsu, former leader of the Band of Seven,” he replied. “I’ve been resurrected after five hundred years, but I am still human.”

Sesshomaru pressed his lips together for a moment. Kagome thought he was about to dismiss them, but his eyes narrowed when she took a step back, indicating that he was aware of her every move. Not taking his eyes off the mercenary, he placed the sword on his desk. “You’ve been searching for employment, have you not?”

Bankotsu folded his arms. “Yeah, and?”

“We haven’t had much luck,” Kagome told the demon. “Most of the places we’ve been to don’t really have anything he can really do, or they aren’t what interests him.”

“I might have a position for you,” Sesshomaru stated. He set his jaw. “I don’t really care to do dealings with humans and there are few demons I trust. However, this is a delicate job and I could benefit from having a human do it.” He looked to Kagome. “I wouldn’t even consider it if you weren’t married to him,” he assured her. “He is loyal to you, is he not?”

The miko tilted her head. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“Kagome is my woman,” Bankotsu stated. “She is my wife and I am her husband. I honor my commitment to our growing family.”

Sesshomaru gave a single nod of his head and turned away from them to walk to his desk. “Good,” he replied. “Then the task should be simple enough for you.” The demon walked around the desk and sat in the large chair behind it.

Bankotsu looked at the demon curiously. “What sort of job is this?”

“I need a personal guard,” the demon explained. “Not for myself, but for someone else within my mansion. This morning she had come to me begging to walk the streets of Tokyo, but I do not trust the humans here. Or the demons, to be honest.” He glanced up at the mercenary. “Do you know how to wield a firearm?”

Kagome gasped and reached out to touch Bankotsu’s arm. The mercenary frowned. “I’m not sure,” he answered. “As the leader of my band of men, I didn’t need to wield anything like that. Usually Renkotsu and Ginkotsu dealt with those things.”

“I see,” Sesshomaru said as he picked up his brush and began writing on a scroll. “Then, I shall have to put you through some training before I can trust you with her life.” He looked up and glanced between the two. “You will have benefits and a steady income.” His eyes fell upon the mercenary. “Your duty will be to guard the girl. Let her do as she pleases, so long as she is safe.” He glanced at Kagome for a moment before turning his attention to a drawer in his desk.

The humans looked at one another while the daiyoukai was distracted. “He’s giving you a job,” Kagome whispered, mystified.

Sesshomaru straightened up and the humans looked at him again. He had put his brush up, though neither human had seen him do so. In his hands, he held a small stack of banknotes. Kagome’s eyes widened as the daiyoukai offered them to Bankotsu. The mercenary reached out to take them, but Sesshomaru pulled away slightly at the last moment. “There are 10 ten thousand banknotes here,” he explained. “In a month’s time, you should make enough to give your wife and child a proper home away from my disgusting brother. You’ll even be able to register your son into a better school.”

Kagome’s jaw dropped as she stared at Sesshomaru. “But… why?” she asked. “Yesterday you had no interest in helping us. Why now?”

Sesshomaru stood and walked over to a file cabinet. Searching through another drawer, he pulled out a folder with a stack of paper. Flipping through the papers, he spoke without looking up. “Your father was a samurai lord,” he commented, ignoring Kagome’s questions. “Which means that you do know how to read and write, correct?” He glanced up at Bankotsu as he approached the mercenary. Snapping the folder shut, he handed it to Bankotsu. “I need you to fill out this paperwork. Given that I do know where you come from, you are free to be as honest as possible in your answers. In fact, I insist you do such. I will not tolerate deceit. As I said, I am trusting you because of your station and your choice in spouse. Do not make me regret it.”

Bankotsu took the folder he was offered and straightened up. “Shall I fill it out now or bring it back?” he asked.

Sesshomaru squared his jaw. “You need to read everything written in those documents,” he said. “They explain in detail what is expected of you and what your benefits entail. Given that your wife has lived in this modern era her entire life, I expect her to help you understand the things you may not. Fill out the papers and return them to me tomorrow at this time. Once you so that, we will begin your training in firearms before I bring you to my home to meet your charge. You will not go out in public with her until I am satisfied with your training. Aside from firearms, you will also learn how to drive and go through a refresher course in hand-to-hand combat. This is the modern age, and as such, swords and their like are merely for show and training, not to be used.”

Kagome sighed. “Sesshomaru,” she tried again. “Why are you helping us with this?”

He glanced at her. “You came here asking for a job,” he replied. “I am offering one. I wasn’t aware that my reasons for such needed to be questioned.”

“It’s fine, Kagome,” Bankotsu stated as he tucked the folder under his arm.

Sesshomaru handed the mercenary the money and stared at Kagome again. “I would also like to study you as well, miko,” he said. At her widened eyes, he elaborated, “You were a priestess during the time I had known you. I want to see if you do still have that gift or not. If you do, I may have you tutor the girl.”

Kagome sucked in her lower lip. “Who is she?” she asked, curious.

Sesshomaru gave her a single nod. “You will meet her tomorrow night,” he told them both. “After Bankotsu returns the folder to me, and after we are finished here for the day, we shall all dine in the mansion. I expect proper attire and if you wish to bring your son, that will be fine. However, I am only inviting the three of you. Inuyasha has no need to make an appearance. Now, you are dismissed for the evening.”

Kagome gave her husband an uneasy look as he smiled and bowed his head to the daiyoukai. “We appreciate your generosity, Lord Sesshomaru,” he said as he handed the money to the miko.
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Modern Reality