"I remember…"

"I remember, the time we took… the battles we fought. I remember the many days that we, a band… a band of seven, were alive."

"I also remember when we were neither living, nor dead. We were something else. We were slaves, secretly, to some other destiny. We were mercenaries, we worked for whoever paid us. Then he came after we were killed. That demon, Naraku…"

"Naraku… Inuyasha… The Shikon Jewel… I remember it all… for I am, or, I was Bankotsu, the leader of the band of seven."

"Kyokotsu, Mukotsu, Ginkotsu, Suikotsu, Jakotsu and Renkotsu… they were my band of seven, my brothers… yet, brothers… we drifted apart…"

"I am alone, now. I am in this endless nothingness… alone…"

Strangely the feel of something came over the memorable man, as he slowly stirred. Lying on the ground, the man in white with armor of his chest, black hair flowing long past his tailbone… "What?" Bankotsu sat up while he looked at his hands. They were flesh once more… he was… "I'm… alive?"

"Yes, you are Bankotsu."

The voice was from all around him. This voice was not one, the young man knew. His eyes spanned the horizon where the was nothing, where no one lay nor smells of sweet earth came from anywhere. This place was devoid of everything. Sound, smell and taste… a land or place without anything. "Heh…" Bankotsu stood slowly, "I'm in a place of nothingness. Thus, I've finally found hell…"

"No. This is but a place, a standing point. Think of it as the beginning of your possible future. Yet this place means nothing, for it is nothing, yet you are Bankotsu. The leader of the Band of Seven, powerful warrior, strong and true to his own way."

Bankotsu spun about, fists clenched as he screamed, "Show yourself apparition! I am not here to be toyed with, tell me your whims! So I may suffer my torment!"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha… It is kind of you to seek my form, but I am not such a thing. Form and substance are impossible for those that are without. Yet the whims I have are for you to destroy… Inuyasha."

"Inuyasha…" Bankotsu was a bit shocked. Then a smile, his eyes close over with the memories, "Ahh… Inuyasha, I hate to disappoint but unless he is dead, I think my intervention is passed and gone. Besides, that matter is over for me." A somber face took Bankotsu, "I have no desire, nor reason to destroy that half-breed."

"Not even a slight bit of a need to redeem yourself?"

"Redemption?" Bankotsu laughed, "I've not that desire either. The only thing I desire was…" And silence… he closed his eyes, "My brothers…"

"Then what if I returned them?" Bankotsu's eyes widened, "What if… I, could return to you, the ones you loved most? If I could give you the Band of Seven."

Bankotsu was ever so silent. The Band of Seven… yet, after what happened… "I can not be tricked by such dark want of another being… like Naraku."

"Naraku had one purpose, to be able to have power. I have all power, for nothingness is limitless. In the end I only seek your brothers revived for one purpose."

"Killing Inuyasha…" Bankotsu scoffed.

"No, to aid in my own need to exist…"

Then the silence stopped. The world was of grass, a warm wind. Bankotsu turned with his armor, his white clothes… his sword, Banryuu, all given to him again. Bankotsu looked at his sword with incredible awe, it was as if never destroyed. As if never shattered! Bankotsu was about to exclaim the alarm all over his face as the somewhat feminine voice asked, "Big Brother? What's the matter?"

"What?" Bankotsu swiftly spun to see the six of his band, sitting around in a circle of sorts, a fire in the middle. Bankotsu was just so confused, yet… that demon… that thing, whatever it was, has given him the band of seven. Yet they did not seem different from the time they met before… walking over he looked among them, as they all looked to him. "Jokutsu…" He looked at the feminine member, the man whom has the crush upon Inuyasha. He smiled asking, "Were we talking…?"

"We were…" Suddenly, all was quiet… though he saw the world, it ceased to be…

"They do not know of anything that would shatter their fragile psyche… Bankotsu. I found that best for them, if you do not agree… tell them then of their deaths, their betrayals and their ignorance of the last battle. OR perhaps tell them of me? Would that do you well?"

Bankotsu looked upon the land, "I don't keep secrets from my friends."

"And what did it serve? Telling the truth to Renkotsu…" Bankotsu looked at the Renkotsu who sat looking confused to him, "Did he not take advantage, harm you and the others? Do you not worry, such will happen again?"

Bankotsu was not sure now. Yes, he trusted them. Yet the darkness of Naraku caused much in the band to come out. Renkotsu, his brother, turned on them all. He even killed Jokutsu. If that happened again, would it be his fault? What if he did not tell Renkotsu of this matter… what did they know? What did he know, they did not? "What… did your tell them..?"

"They know only, that they were with you in death with one life, the second to Naraku… they do not. I thought it best, to have them not know of the jewels, or their effects. Think of it as a fairer trade than any other."

Bankotsu seemed to think of that, Inuyasha and his friends will just…

"Not quite…" Bankotsu frowned, it knew his thoughts. That was unsettling… "Inuyasha and his comrades will not find shards in your throats. I brought you back in a different manner. As well, a few bonuses to your power. Think of them as presents, my allies. That you may use and find when needed. As are the others with you."

"Others…" Bankotsu glared to the side, "What others?"

As if to answer… he saw things… a ship in the sea, with a crew of the damned. Skeletons towing long chains. Their lord and master a man with two blades, crossed over his chest as he stood before the helm. He was pale as the rider of the steed death. His sword the shortest, like a pistol as it rested under his right breast. The other that was longer was rust in color, and it seemed to look as if to cleave the soul.

The next was a man on horseback. He rode with a mask, white and with two serpent red tears. He wored shogun armor, and a rifle on his back. The cloak and flags around him, all had the edo empirial seal, the oda clan in specific.

Another was a large, brutish fiend. He stomped the ground with a heavy beating heart in the center of his chest. He growled with a large axe, with a weighted end. He stopped short as he glared along the village he was headed…

The next was a man… or not a man, was perhaps nothing… it was a thing. It stood in a long brown cloak, with a edo-period hat formed on its head. Yet a long slither across the eyes glowed red, like a demon. And then eyes above this, too small to be human. A pale white face the size of a normal eye formed in the forehead of this one figure, and hissed in a strange screech as the stranger stepped along, roughly strolling the path in the dust.

The next was a man whom rode the fires. A cloak of flames the consumed the ground. With him a large formation of people whom wore yellow shrouds over their foreheads. He had a long beard, and as he smiled the men charged a village in flames. He laughed, and praised the heavens for this perfect chance.

Bankotsu sneered, "What were they…"

"Others, I found. Wallowing into nothingness. Persons of fates unfit and yet somehow expected. That is how I found you, Bankotsu. They, like you…"

"Did not wish, to surrender to nothingness…"

Bankotsu felt the world returning…

"Brother?" Bankotsu looked to his band of seven. There, Renkotsu asked, "What is it that troubles you?"

Bankotsu narrowed his eyes, "Nothing…" He closed his eyes, "Nothing, at all. I have a mission."

"Aside awaking from the dead." Smirking, ever so smug Jokutsu turned up saying, "Can we rest first?"

"Haven't you rested enough?" Bankotsu smiled, but he was going to accept it. If this was like the last time. He may never get a chance to rest with them again. He sat, and asked, "How was hell?" They lauged, and Bankotsu closed his eyes, saying… "How was it a second time… my friends. This time, I won't let us fall into the abyss… I swear, nothing will come to you."

From the nothingness, stood a figure of a man. He held a sword, far longer than any normal sword. His hairs were long, flowing and silver. While his one shoulder flapped a lone, black wing… he asked, "Why concern with these people? They do not offer a possible aid."

"We have enemies… many of them, many who were called as I called them. The young rubber-pirate… the fox-faced ninja, Inuyasha an his friends along with the ones I allude. If I can not desist them, Sephiroth, I will not fulfill my wishes."

"To exist." Spoke this man of one wing. "To no longer, be a memory…"

"Yes…" The voice trailed, "We will never be, but a memory…"

(I did not make a title for a reason. As you read this, you'll see a lot of things. If you ever read my work... you'll see the final play of ALL my works. I'm getting too old to continue writing... and sadly, my heart is not the same it once was. Yet I want to end my stories, my universe for the Kagejin in one last story. Like my favorite artist Shekron Kaizar, this story will be in several places. The links will not be given, they will be in the categories of the other characters whom will appear in this piece. Eventually, all will cross into one world. The biggest, last established piece of my art into one last attempt. Pray I can keep my soul intact, for my last story. Perhaps I will finish the works I did before, so to keep the world alive.)

(Disclaimer: I do not own Square/Enix or the creators of Inuyasha and other copyrighted characters in this piece. I will only take credit to the "Nothingness" entity whom is represented in my last works, and the essences of the Kagejin, as well other persons in the piece. I will explain those as they come.)