IMPORTANT NOTICE: My user name will be changing! So for those of you who’s links operate on my username or whatever, make sure you keep up!

Warnings: Blood, violence

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Chapter 5: The Black Spot
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“A relative, huh…” Bankotsu muttered to himself as he coiled some rope.

“What was that, Aniki?” Jakotsu aske from where he was doing his chores nearby.

“I was just thinking… That creature said it was a relative of someone who’d taken the Tama. You don’t have any relatives, do you Jakotsu?” He turned to glance at the other.

“Nope!” The other man chirped, though he paused thoughtfully, “Do you, Aniki? Oooh, I’ll bet if you did, they’d be just as good looking! Tell me you have a brother!” His dark eyes were bright with excitement.

“No.” The captain replied flatly, a small smile springing to his face as he watched his crewmate deflate. “Still,” He continued, “I wonder who it was…”

“Are we going to keep looking for the jewel?” Jakotsu asked.

“Maybe.” Bankotsu sighed, rising from where he’d been leaning on the rail, “Though we’ll have to stop and raid a few ships on the way.” He grinned.

“Damn it.” Inuyasha cursed under his breath. “Three days – THREE DAYS – and you’re STILL not done repairing the sails?”

“Well excuse me!” The fox kit returned angrily, “If you’d help once in a while, then maybe it’d get done!” He fumed.

“I have more important things to do than repair sails, you dumb fox.” Inuyasha jeered, picking the small child up by the collar of his shirt.

“LemmegolemmegolemmeGO!” Shippo cried, flailing his small arms.

“Inuyasha, SIT!” Kagome cried, exiting the cabin where she’d been resting away the pains of the past few days. “Torturing poor Shippo isn’t going to get the sails fixed any faster!” She glared at the hanyou.

“Shut up!” Inuyasha snarled, picking himself up fro the deck, “We’ve got to get this ship up and running, or else we’ll lose the Shichinintai AGAIN! We were THIS FREAKIN’ CLOSE!” He raged, pacing in front of the teenaer for a moment, before breaking into another vicious bout of swearing, “This is all Bankotsu’s fault!”

“You know, the irony is if we’d LISTENED to Bankotsu instead of chasing them, we probably wouldn’t be in this mess.” Miroku sighed from where he was attempting to repair the railing.

After the monk had realized what was going on - after the normally incompetent pirate no less, something that mildly irked him – the crew had managed to make it back to the ship, and had managed to sail far enough away so that they were not caught entirely in the explosion, but were still close enough that it had done some substantial damage to their ship. The entire first day had been spent bailing water.

‘And now,’ He thought to himself with a sigh, ‘We’re stranded. At least until we get everything fixed.” But there was no telling how long that would take, knowing the way this crew normally operated. Especially since Inuyasha was irritable, which normally led to a fair number of ‘sits’ in the near future.

He watched silently as the small demon child made his way back up the mast, no doubt to continue his repairs. Raising a dark eyebrow, the monk wondered idly why the kit was waving his arms and shouting like that…

“Inuyasha! A ship!” He cried, pointing out to the ocean.

“What!” Inuyasha snarled, jogging lightly over the railing, “Kouga.” He growled threateningly as the standard came into view. “That bastard, what does he want?”

“Kouga-kun!” Kagome cried, coming to join the hanyou near the edge, “That’s great! He probably has some supplies we can borrow!”

“I am NOT taking charity from that wimpy wolf!” Inuyasha roared, though he doubted the teenager was listening.

“Kagome.” Kouga breathed once he had arrived, grasping her hands in his, “We’ve been apart far too long.”

“Kouga-kun.” She smiled uneasily, “What are you doing here?”

“I was worried about leaving you in his care.” He said, jutting a thumb in Inuyasha’s direction. “And from the looks of it, I was right.” He continued, surveying the ruined ship, whilst Inuyasha fumed in a corner, all the more enraged since he knew the wolf prince was right.

“You damn wolf! Either do something useful or get lost!” He snarled.

“As it happens, dog crap,” The demon said calmly, turning to face the captain, “Lord Sesshoumaru sent me with supplied and provisions for you. Even your brother was able to see you’d get yourself into a mess.” He sneered.

“Then give them to us and get out of here already!” Inuyasha exploded.

Kouga ‘tutted’ the hanyou lightly, obviously deriving great pleasure from having one-up on his love rival, “There is a condition.”

Inuyasha paused in his frenzy, growling, “What? From Sesshoumaru?”

“I was ordered only to let you have these supplies if you agree to return to port.”

Inuyasha snarled, swearing so vehemently that Kagome covered Shippo’s ears, glaring at the hanyou.

“Fine.” Inuyasha snapped, “I obviously have no choice.”

“Still, I wonder what could be so urgent that Lord Sesshoumaru would need to bribe us to return to port…?” Miroku mumbled, wondering to himself.

“Keekeekee!” The demon squealed, dancing back and forth, waving his cutlass, “Come on, ya’ dogs! Let’s show these lubbers wot bein’ a pirate’s all about! Fire another shot!” He broke off again into a fit of laughter.

“Damn it!” Bankotsu cursed, spinning the wheel viciously as he avoided another shot from the enemy’s cannons. It landed in the water, sending up a great splash and soaking his hair and clothes with the salty liquid.

“Send ‘em to Davy Jones’ locker, boys!” The captain of the other ship cried out, repeating his little dance.

Bankotsu cursed vehemently, condemning the bastard to the lowest circle of hell he could think of.

Of course, he was already well on his way there – he was a mutineer.

The Hatten had once been captained by a demon called Trebor, a particularly vicious pirate, but one that had never gone against the Shichinintai. In fact, once could go as far as to say they were friends, out of a mutual respect for one another, and perhaps a little fear.

However, this little whelp – the former first mate, turned captain, named Sadaj – had had the balls to murder Trebor, like some common thief! Something about him deserving to die since he had the ‘audacity to associate with scum like human pirates’.

Bankotsu ground his teeth at the memory. Then the little weasel had attacked them, saying ‘weakling humans had no right to sail the seas alongside a pirate as great as he’.

But even THAT wasn’t what had gotten Bankotsu as pissed as he was right now.

It was the little bugger’s style. He stayed just out of range of the Shichinintai’s attacks – Jakotsu’s sword, Mukotsu’s poison, the works – so that the only thing that had a chance of hitting was Ginkotsu’s cannons. Likewise, the crew of the other vessel had no chance of boarding them, and could only fire their cannons.

In other words, they were waiting for a lucky shot.

Bankotsu gritted his teeth. Lousy cowards. He was going to KILL them.

Steering out of another shot, he shouted to Renkotsu, “Oi! Renkotsu! Take the wheel!”

“Uh, sure, Aniki!” Renkotsu returned, mildly startled. When it came to a time such as this, Bankotsu was normally the better one to handle the wheel.

Stepping aside from the helm, Bankotsu grabbed his Banryuu from where it leaned complacently against the door of his cabin. Leaping lightly down the stairs, he headed over to where his youngest brother sat, yelling a variety of colourful curses at the opposing ship.

“Kyoukotsu!” He called, successfully catching the giant’s attention. The man turned, rumbling something unintelligible as the captain approached. “Kyoukotsu,” Bankotsu repeated, “I need you to throw me to the other ship.”

Kyoukotsu stared.

“But, aniki…” He replied slowly, “What if I miss?”

“We’ve gotta do this somehow, Kyoukotsu!” Bankotsu nearly snarled, “So just throw me over there, damn it!”

“Alright…” Kyoukotsu sighed, still sceptical. He gently wrapped his massive hand around his captain, staring him in the eye as though ascertaining whether he was really certain. Bankotsu glared back, getting impatient. Sighing again, the giant wound his hand back, and waiting until the spray from the opposing ships cannons fell, before giving a great heave and throwing the smaller man across the span of water.

Bankotsu flew through the air, squinting as the remaining sea spray attacked his eyes. He heard his companions call out- he hadn’t told them what he’d been about to do, after all. No time.

He saw the Hatten grow larger as he began to fall towards it, as the crew stared up at amazement at the falling Captain. He smirked, and just before hitting the deck, flipped gracefully and falling onto the wood with a gentle thump.

Silence rained for a few moments, as both crews gawked, open-mouthed, at the young man.

Bankotsu sniggered, before shifting his grip on his Banryuu and cutting down the mast, and the unfortunate crewmember standing nearby.

Sadaj screamed.

Blood began to fountain out of the torso of the unfortunate first victim, drenching Bankotsu in blood much as he had been drenched in sea water before. Turning, ignorant of the sickening combination he was now covered in, and a vicious grin on his face, he searched around for the disgusting little imp they called captain.

Sadaj screamed again as the blue eyes found him. Turning, the demon ran. Bankotsu leaped after, his Banryuu ripping a gory swath as he spun it around his head. He faintly heard a cheer come up from his own crew, and his grin widened.

The ship rocked dangerously as one of Ginkotsu’s cannons hit home.

Bankotsu cornered Sadaj near the helm of the ship.

The mutineer whimpered slightly.

“You disgusting little bastard.” Bankotsu growled, slicing off the demons head with a swift strike, “I’d prefer you’d died a much more horrible death, but hell will see to your suffering.”

“!” He heard Jakotsu call. Turning, he grinned and waved. “Aaaanniikkiii!” Jakotsu called again, “HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET BACK?”

Bankotsu paused. How was he going to get back? He scratched the back of his head. Guess he hadn’t thought that far ahead. He couldn’t very well swim with Banryuu…

“Dunno!” He called back.

Renkotsu sighed, hitting his face with his palm. Sometimes…

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End Chapter 5
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Closing notes: Sorry about the delayed update. I actually write LESS in the summer, so…

But I expect I’ll be getting more writing done this year. I have a laptop now, so I’m able to write whenever and wherever! Like now. This’s band class, but my teacher’s a dumbass so we’re not getting anything done.

Ah, well. I have treats!

AMV: www. youtube. com/ watch? v oN7ie4j1Vjw

Pirate Jakotsu: i13. photobucket. com/ albums/ a281/ deadpheonix13/ LilBitOLeg. jpg

Just take out the spaces, add an 'equals' sign between 'v', and that giant line of random numbers, and an underscore between 'dead' and 'pheonix'. doesn't seem to allow ALOT of signs. Once again, the picture is courtesy of Crazy Mishka. I love her so.

And the AMV is by yours truly. Check out my other stuff if you feel the need