So basically, this story just randomly popped into my head in the middle of the day. I was just thinking about how Ban got his scar and BOOM! This story came into existence. Some of the dialogue of the story is taken directly from the manga.
The cover image for this story was taken from the manga.
This story is rated K plus because of swearing and mentions of alcohol. That is all :P
Summary: Ban wanted to know what was so special about the Captain's sword. It went everywhere the Captain went. After a mission, Ban tries to steal Meliodas' sword and is left with a neck wound that isn't healing properly. As Ban deals with the healing process, he must make amends with his Captain. Basically, what happens before Ban is left with his wicked scar and how he got it. One shot.
*EDIT: I fixed any spelling errors I noticed in the story, and tweaked certain parts of the story.*
Disclaimer: The characters in this story do not belong to me. They belong to Nakaba Suzuki, creator of Nanatsu No Taizai, or more commonly known as The Seven Deadly Sins.
Scarred
Ban winced as gauze and bandages were wrapped tightly around his neck.
The Sin of Gluttony looked at his pain, not bothering to hide the smirk that made its way onto her face. "Maybe next time you'll leave the Captain's belongings alone. He could've done so much worse."
Ah, yes. The Captain. The Dragon Sin of Wrath. Leader of the Seven Deadly Sins. It would shock anyone to learn that a midget was leading the most powerful group of knights in Britania.
Unfortunately for Ban, he got on this midget's bad side. He tried to steal the Captain's sword. He just wanted to see how the Captain would react, he wanted to see fury burn in his eyes. He desperately needed to see why he was called the Sin of Wrath.
Ban knew he'd be injured; it wouldn't have been any fun if he came out unscathed. But he didn't count on the slash on his neck to not heal. Any and all injuries he sustained would heal in seemingly record time.
Except this one.
The confrontation between the two still sent shots of ecstasy through his bones.
"Hey Cap'n, c'mon!" The Sin of Greed was staring intently at the blond sitting across from him. Actually, his sight was more on the dragon hilt sheathed behind his back. It's mystery was just to captivating to ignore. Ban was in the mood for some mischief.
"What do you want, Ban?" The Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins took a sip out of the mug in his hand. He knew what Ban wanted. He has been bugging him all night about it.
"I told you already, come oooon! Let me see the sword!"
"What's so exciting about seeing this junk?" Ban smirked. So, he really was going to pretend he didn't know. This was going to be an interesting night. "Cap'n... Don't play dumb with me..." The Captain still ignored Ban. He took a long sip of ale as Ban continued talking. "Why is the Captain of the Sins AAAAAALWAYS holding onto that piece of junk everywhere he goes...? And when it never leaves your side, not even when you're drinking, peeping into women's baths, or wearing armor... How could anyone not get curious?"
A couple of seconds passed before Meliodas deemed it safe to speak. He glanced up towards the dragon hilt. "It's like my stuffed animal, I guess," he lied. No one will ever know the true reasons behind his attachment to the sword.
Ban smirked. He sensed a lie leave Meliodas' mouth. Oh, this is how it was gonna be. "Does it have incredible magical powers," he drawled. "Or is it... A priceless antique?" Annoyance was plastered upon the Captain's face. He rolled his eyes. "It's neither," the Sin of Wrath grunted. "If you keep worrying about it, you'll go bald, Ban."
The Sin of Greed touched his cheek and gave Meliodas a small smile. "It'll just be for an iiiiiity bitty bit..." Suddenly the Fox Sin disappeared, and appeared less than a second later with a hand wrapped around the dragon hilt. "'Kay? Let me see it." He slowly started to drag the sword from its sheath, missing how Meliodas' mug started to dip. Meliodas grabbed hold of the hilt.
"Let go." Normally, Ban would listen to the Captain's command. But not this time. It was to late to be ordering him around. The Sin of Wrath's mug full of ale clattered to the ground. A rustling sound alerted Ban to a certain giantess' presence. The Sin of Envy sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Captain...? Ban...? You're still up...?" He voice was heavy with exhaustion.
"Let go, Ban," The Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins ordered a second time. "...Don't make me angry."
The Sin of Greed chuckled to himself. "Aaaaaangry...? You, Cap'n? I've been with you for many years... But I've never seen you get angry once..."
"Let go..." Meliodas ordered a third time. He felt his blood boil.
"HEY... BAN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THE CAPTAIN!?" Diane's shrieks went ignored.
"Besides, I'm curious as to why you're called the Sin of Wrath in the first place... If you're saying you'll get angry... I just want to see the sword that much more..." Ban grabbed hold of the hilt with both hands now, staring with hunger at the hilt. He'd finally get to see a pissed Captain. It was his dream come true.
"...No, I WANT TO STEAL THE SWORD!"
A millisecond later Ban was flying backwards, a stinging sensation going through his neck. He slowed himself to a stop. He looked up just as Meliodas was sheathing his sword once more. "Heh... Cap'n's secret side... A new discovery!" Ban's singsong voice echoed through the clearing, not even holding a slight hint of pain. "Sorry Ban, but this sword is..." Meliodas decided it was best not to tell him why his sword was so important. He started to walk towards the forest that surrounded them, his head bowed in anger. He needed to do something to relieve him of this anger. He didn't quite want the other Sins to know about his angry side just yet.
It has been about two hours now, and the Captain was still probably pissed at Ban. He told him to let go of his sword, and Ban didn't listen. It was just to tempting. The Sin of Wrath never got angry, although the title would probably tell you otherwise. Ban thought it'd be easy to just snatch the sword out of the Captain's hand, and then they'd fight and joke and end the night with some booze. The Sin of Greed didn't think he'd have to sit on a hard log all night and wait for Merlin to finish bandaging his wound.
After the Captain's outburst, he wandered off somewhere in the woods. "I have to blow off some steam," was all he said before he disappeared into the surrounding trees.
Ban grunted. "Well maybe Cap'n shouldn't have tempted me." Merlin gazed down at Ban. The sorceress look slightly miffed. Before he left, Meliodas woke Merlin up and ordered her to take care of Ban. Any other time, she would've just dismissed the order and went back to sleep. But one look at the Captain's dark gaze told her he was not in the mood.
It was rare for him to be mad. Of course, Merlin has witnessed this anger many times before.
"Maybe you shouldn't have tried taking Captain's things, you jerk!" A certain giantess made herself be known. The Sin of Envy had witnessed most of the exchange between the two Sins, and it was no surprise that she took Meliodas' side in the whole ordeal. She was absolutely furious at Ban,
"Calm your tits... I just wanted to see how the Cap'n would react to his shit being stolen," he replied. Diane rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her gigantic chest. "Besiiides, I just wanted to see him get a tad bit angry. No need to growl at me like some over grown dog."
"I'M NOT GROWLING AT YOU," she growled. Ban grunted. Of course, he didn't get the chance to reply before Merlin flicked his wound. Ban yelped. Of course, Ban was no stranger to pain. In fact, he craved it. The feeling of being impaled with King's sacred treasure, for example, was ecstasy. But for some reason, this wound that the Captain bestowed upon him was causing him pain.
Ban looked at Merlin with a pained expression. "What'd ya do that for?"
"You were starting to annoy me," was all she said before she lifted herself into the air and flew off to her sleeping quarters. She must've been exhausted. Fighting monsters all day and then staying awake all night will do that to you.
Ban heard a loud rustling sound, and he looked up in time to see Diane reaching towards him. "HEY, get away from me!"
Diane picked the Sin of Greed up by the back of shirt and brought him close to her face. The stark white bandages that were wrapped around his neck were slightly stained with blood. Seeing Ban hurt caused Diane some joy. He was an asshole, always bragging about this and that. Always going around stealing things that he thought were cool. And his manners! He had absolutely none. Ban deserved this. This is his punishment for trying to steal the Captain's sword.
Before she could say this all to his face, a movement in the forest alerted her. She dropped Ban onto his head and she heard him yelp. She immediately grabbed her sacred treasure, Gideon, from where it laid-directly behind her in the larger part of the clearing.
"Who's there?" The Sin of Envy called. "Show yourself." This was the only warning that the intruder would get before she brought Gideon down.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down, Diane..."
Diane froze. She dropped Gideon and the sacred treasure landed with a loud thud. The ground shook viciously and she heard Ban groan in pain. Gideon's handle landed on his leg. She heard her other comrades-who surprisingly slept through all the ruckus before-stir. Diane thought that Escanor might start screaming because of the sudden noise, but instead the wimpy man was asking King-who was unfortunately sleeping the closest to the poet-what was going on.
Diane went to her knees as Meliodas came into view. The blond no longer looked angry over the events that happened earlier. In fact, a huge smile was plastered on his face and he was practically beaming with unrestricted happiness.
That's odd, Ban thought as he peered towards the Captain. Less than two hours ago the Sin of Wrath undeniably slashed his throat in controlled rage. What was making him so happy?
"OH MY GOD! HOLY CRAP! I'M SORRY CAPTAIN! I ALMOST SMASHED YOU! PLEASE DON'T HATE ME!" the blond looked up at the giantess and chuckled. "Silly Diane. Even if you did try to kill me, I would've just dodged the attack..." And why did you feel the need to use Gideon in the first place? What if it was just a regular lost human...? Diane visibly relaxed, although her lip was still trembling. Meliodas didn't say his last thought out loud; he wanted to calm the girl down, not upset her more with the thought that she could've killed an innocent civilian wandering through the woods at night.
The Sin of Envy's hair was pulled up into twin pigtails and her orange jumpsuit gleamed as if she wasn't just laying on the ground earlier that night.
Meliodas sighed through his nose. "Hey, do you mind lifting Ol' Gideon off of Ban," Meliodas asked. Once again Diane tensed. "We need to talk."
"Y-Yes, Captain," she yelped. The giantess always got nervous around him. Meliodas suspected that she had a crush on him, he didn't really care. He just hoped that she'd eventually grow out of it.
Slowly, Diane picked up her war hammer. Meliodas could see out of the corner of his eye the other Sins watching the exchange between him, Diane and Ban.
King and Merlin were probably the only two who didn't care much about what was going on. They obviously just wanted to go back to sleep. King was just staring at Diane, as if he intended to float over on Chastifol and try to smother her in a hug. Of course, if the Fairy King tried to do that she'd probably either swat him away-very unlikely though, she wasn't cruel like that-or ask what he was doing.
Gowther and Escanor seemed to be the most interested. Though Meliodas couldn't see Gowther's face due to the armor he adorned, Meliodas suspected he was looking upon them with a bland expression with bland thoughts going through his bland head. Escanor was peeking around Gowther's giant leg-he must've hid behind his leg sometime earlier-trying to both see what was going on and trying to disappear.
Ban felt all of his broken bones jerk back into place. He stood up and sneered at the Serpent Sin. The Serpent Sin replied by sticking her tongue out at him.
"You guys go back to bed. Captain's orders," Meliodas' voice was the only sound in the quiet night. There wasn't even a single cricket making any noise. Slowly, the other Sins wandered back to their makeshift campsite. Meliodas stifled a laugh when Escanor tripped over a tree branch. Diane laid down on her side and faced the other direction. Gideon was laid down next to her.
Ban stood still, arms crossed over his chest. Ban could feel the wound slowly healing. This should have delighted him, but usually his injuries healed within a couple of minutes. Normally he didn't feel his injuries heal. It was like his way of life. His healing prowess was many times faster than a regular human's.
His neck wound was healing though. It was just taking so damn long. He could feel his nerves slowly knitting themselves back together, the skin and muscle moving to stretch over the wound.
Although it wasn't agony, the wound still hurt like hell.
Both Ban and Meliodas stood in awkward silence for what seemed like an eternity; except its only been five minutes. Finally, the Sin of Greed had enough. "Alright, Cap'n... Whad'ya want?"
Meliodas sighed heavily through his nose. The smile that had adorned his face had disappeared. He touched the bridge of his nose. Was he just pretending to be happy minutes ago? He looked at Ban through lidded eyes. "Follow me," was all he said before he made his way back towards their dying fire. He sat down on a worn down log, picked up a stick and started poking at the small flames. Ban sat across from him.
"Why did you try to steal my sword?" Ban shrugged. "I just never see you without it... I was just wondering what'd you'd do if I took it."
"I told you not to touch it though..."
"Well, maybe if you'd just told me what the big deal was about the damn sword I wouldn't have tried taking it."
Meliodas glared daggers at the Sin of Greed. To say he was mad was an understatement. He was absolutely furious. The sword itself wasn't important. It was the hilt that Meliodas specifically didn't want anyone to touch. If it were to get stolen...
No... Meliodas wouldn't think of that. The idea of the Demon Clan reawakening shook his very core. Fighting his old comrades was something he wanted to avoid for at least a couple more centuries.
"Ban, if you knew the reason I was so protective of this sword, you would leave it alone."
Ban grumbled, "Then tell me. C'mon, Cap'n. I just wanna know why you never put the damn thing down." Just as Ban finished his sentence, a thought bloomed in his head. His reasoning for keeping the sword so close to him must have something to do with his sin. Being nosey about one another's sins was a big no-no. The Seven Deadly Sins were all bestowed their titles for one specific crime. It was against their rules to share their own sin, unless they wish to do so with their own free wills.
But just baring the weight of their own crime was enough. To actually tell someone would be absolute torture. For this reason, Ban decided he'd fight against his own curious thoughts and leave the Captain be.
He wouldn't ask about Meliodas' dragon sword anymore.
"Heya, Cap'n. I change my mind... I don't want to know about your sword now. Your reasoning to not put it down is probably stupid either way." Meliodas visibly relaxed. Tension disappeared from his shoulders completely.
"Yeah, well, I wasn't going to tell you either way."
He looked at Ban and gave him his signature smile. Ban rolled his eyes.
The Sin of Greed and the Sin of Wrath sat in comfortable silence for awhile. They watched as the flame in front of them died down until there were only a couple of glowing coals. Meliodas cleared his throat and Ban looked up at his Captain with a bored look on his face.
"Whad'ya want?" Ban drawled, seemingly not interested in what the Captain had to say.
"Um, I'm sorry about, um, you know...," he pointed towards the itchy bandages that clad Ban's throat. He rolled his eyes once more. "Ehh, who cares. It'll heal."
Meliodas chuckled. "Yeah, but if it's taking this long to heal I think you're going to be left with a scar." Ban's bored face expression didn't change. He still felt the wound healing. It still hurt, but the pain was bearable now.
"I highly doubt it'll leave a scar. If it does, I'll look cool as fuck though," he said with a mischievous smile. Now it was Meliodas' turn to roll his eyes. Once again, all of his anger seemed to have disappeared and was replaced with his usual happiness. "Go to sleep, Ban. Tomorrow we have to make the journey back to Liones and it'll take forever."
"Yeah, whatever." He stood up, and the Sin of Greed made his way towards his hammock-which he stole when the Sins passed through some small village. He laid down in the hammock, and stared up at the stars. He was aware of the Captain making his way towards his little area, the small blond yawning as he tried to avoid stepping on anything that would wake the other Sins up.
Something was still bothering Ban though; he just needed to ask the Captain one more question.
"Heyyyy, Cap'n? Why were you so happy when you came back from your little adventure in the woods earlier...?"
Meliodas looked up and gave Ban a toothy grin. "Well, I actually walked to the nearest town. And wouldn't you believe it, there was a women's bath house there!" Ban gave a mighty laugh. Of course that's where he went. "All those boobies and butts cured me of my anger! It was beautiful."
The five other Sins gave long groans, alerting Meliodas and Ban to the fact that they were eavesdropping the whole time. Both the Sin of Greed and the Sin of Wrath's heads fell back, and then they were rolling along the ground, dying of laughter.
And the next day, the wound was miraculously healed. Lying in its wake was a big scar, reaching his lower jaw and down towards his collar bone. Ban was right; the scar did look cool as fuck. It gave people the idea that he was not to be taken lightly. He liked it.
This scar was Ban's only scar. He has never gotten a scar beforehand. Even before he became immortal, Ban had never gotten so injured that a scar was left over. This scar held a special place in his heart.
Not only did the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins give it to him, but his partner gave it to him. His best friend gave it to him.
Ban will never forget how this scar was born, and he will never forget the promise he made to himself.
He would never bother Meliodas with questions about his sword again.
Okay, so I'm absolutely awful at endings. I apologize. I tried to fix any spelling errors that were in the story, but I'm pretty sure there is still some. If you notice any, please message me so I could fix it.
I also tried to make the story as canon as possible. I hope you guys enjoyed the story! And thanks for the feedback!