I greatly apologize for the extended delay in getting this story finished up. A lot has happened since I last posted a chapter, misplaced a co-author and lost a beta. So these chapters are really unbetaed. Please let me know if there are any serious erros.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha, just my own OC, the plot and ideas. I make no money from this, just the profits of gaining a vaster literature perspective.
Hope that you enjoy this as much as I have in writing it. Please read and review. Thanks.
Chapter 7- History
Unable to sleep from the revelations of the day before, Bankotsu cradled a cup of hot chocolate in his hands as he searched through the computer network of the Band of Seven headquarters. He was thankful that Tempest had given him a second chance on life despite what he had done to destroy her's all those years ago.
"If it hadn't been for her, I'd have died on the side the road, without the chance to seek my revenge," he mused to himself while sipping the hot chocolate. He leaned his head back, listening to the pitter patter of rain as it splattered against the window and the high vaulted roof. "How could everything that I had go so wrong? I had the best of everything from my job as the 2nd in command to Onigumo with the Band of Seven to being able to work with my brother Jakotsu in a business that we loved."
He opened his troubled blue eyes to view the images on the screen. Renkotsu grinned back at him from the monitor. "Him… it was all because of him that everything went to hell." He leaned back once more in the chair, the rain steadily lulling him into a sense of security. His eyes fluttered closed as the vile image laughed back at him.
"Order… I call this meeting of heads to order!" the gravely voice roared out as the gavel rapped against the table. Six heads whipped toward the man that commanded their attention. Bankotus stood at the right side of the oppressive presence of Onigumo, staring out over the six heads of the Band of Seven. His eyes landed on each of the heads as Onigumo continued the meeting, taking reports, expense reports, and miscellaneous issues.
As the meeting was about to end, Renkotsu and the others started to get up from their chairs. Onigumo spoke once more, "One final bit of business before we end this meeting. As you can see, I've asked that Bankotsu attend this meeting of the heads for a reason. He's to be my second-in-command, replacing Renkotsu effective immediately."
Renkotsu seethed beneath the thin veneer of courtesy as he took his seat once more. "Why is he to replace me?" Renkotsu ground out between clenched teeth, glaring once more at the younger man.
Bridging his fingers as his hazel eyes bore into his former second-in-command, Onigumo replied, "He's proven himself on numerous occasions as being devoted to the Band of Seven, though he is young his heart is strong. I see promise in his ideas and actions. He'll be head over the Central division and you six will be reporting to him as you had Renkotus." The hardened hazel eyes landed on each and every head of the Band of Seven as he continued, "Are there any questions?" Seeing slight nods of 'no' he stated, "This meeting is adjourned."
The other heads of the group moved from their spots at the table. A few heads grasped Bankotsu's hand to shake it and offer congratulations on his advancement while others, such as a wolf and two dog demons just walked past glaring at the upstart. Jakotsu enthusiastically grasped his brother in a rib crushing hug as he exclaimed, "Congrats, Big Bro!" Seeing the slight blue ting to his brother's complexion Jakotsu released Bankotsu. "Sorry, just a little bit excited," he replied.
"Jak…" the name gasped from his lips as he fought through the growing nightmare of watching that happy occasion turn suddenly violent and deadly.
Hours later daylight tried to penetrate the thick fog of early spring as the sun marched into the eastern sky behind the mountain cabin. Looking out the window over the desk, Bankotsu could only see but a few feet in any direction giving him the uneasy feeling of being trapped. Turning his blue eyes back toward the computer screen filled with schematics, guard rotations, and surveillance camera locations Bankotsu began to make plans for his revenge. Systematically he planned every detail of his one-man assault on the fortress that was the Band of Seven headquarters. He'd helped install and command some of the various defenses, giving him the knowledge of each weakness, and the best way to attack and counter attack.
Completely engrossed in the assault he was planning, Bankotsu failed to see the dark shadow moving along the front of the cabin porch, until the shattering of glass and the thud of a smoke bomb sailed through a picture window. As seconds turned into minutes, Bankotsu dove out of the chair as the thick white, acrid smoke billowed from the fist sized grenade. He quickly covered his mouth and nose with his shirt, only to have his eyes water, blurring his vision as he stumbled toward the back of the house.
"I don't think so!" snarled a menacing voice filtered through a pro-mask. Shots rang out as Bankotsu slipped out the back door, coughing as he gasped for breath. Hearing the running steps of the intruder, Bankotsu sprinted a short way into the woods, using a pile of aged firewood as a shield while he moved away from the house and Tempest. He was sure that with the barking sounds of the shotgun the intruder wielded would awaken his host, causing her to come to his aide heavily armed.
"Come out, come out where ever you are," the sickly voice cried out, no longer muffled by the mask. The sound of the pump shotgun being charged with another round rang through the clearing, the intent clear to anyone that it meant business.
"You should just show yourself Bankotsu. I know you're out here."
"Why should I do that Mukotsu? So you can blow my head off?"
A sickening laugh was heard, followed by the crunching of dried twigs and debris as he worked his way around the clearing.
"You were always a pain in my ass Bankotsu, ordering me never to eat my victims. But now things have changed. You were too soft for your own damn good. Ren saw to it that you were blamed for the vicious attack on the Rojo Lobos compound. Now those mutts hate you nearly as much as we do," Mukotsu goaded trying to draw out his target.
As the fresh mountain air flowed through his lungs, Bankotsu eased his breathing, thankful that he'd only gotten a small amount of the tear gas into his system. He peered around the edge of wood pile, noticing that Mukotsu had his back toward him. A little way beyond the cannibal Bankotsu could see the dark outline of a storage shed. Quickly his mind formulated a plan as Mukotsu yelled out once more, "You know that Ren has your brother. He's torturing him as we speak. He's wringing out of him how you escaped and your miraculous recovery from the brink of death. It's rather touching how much pain Jak can take before he's blubbering like an idiot, tears streaming down his face as Ren has his way with his body."
Clenching his fists in smoldering rage, images of Jak's broken, battered and bleeding body zipped through his mind. He'd personally seen the breaking of many an opponent at Renkotsu's hands and it was never a pretty affair. Limbs contorted in horrific, unnatural positions as the victims screamed in unimaginable agony. Very rarely did the victims survive a torture session with Renkotsu.
Tears blurred his vision once more at the thought of his brother at the hands of that madman. "I will get you out of there Jak. You have my word on that," he though solemnly. "And your tormentor will rue the day that he ever laid a hand on you."
A mask akin to that of death settled upon Bankotsu's face as he turned once more to the task at hand. Seeing that Mukotsu had worked his way to the far side of the clearing, leaving him a clear shot to the shed, Bankotsu sprinted toward the shed. The shotgun spit out rounds that he dodged, getting a few pellets of 00 buck into his arms and legs as the rounds struck the wooden frame of the shed.
The sounds of shattering glass and barks of the shotgun woke Tempest from her nightmarish dreams. The shots fired in reality mixed in perfectly with the shots fired from her dreams. Brilliant emerald eyes flashed open as her body quickly moved from her bed of its own accord. Quickly she checked the lower level of her home for intruders as the sounds of the shotgun resounded once more.
"Only one?" she thought as she quickly keyed in the pass code to the hidden arsenal of weapons her grandfather had left at the cabin. Grabbing up a Glock .45 APC pistol, Tempest charged it, seating a round in the chamber before grabbing up two extra clips and her trusty Kel-Tec .380 ACP, as well as a couple of clips and a Winchester 1400 semi-auto12-guage shotgun.
Slipping the bandolier of shotgun shells over her shoulder, Tempest quickly holstered her other two pistols and rammed three rounds into the shotgun. Shots continued to sound from the front of her home as she grabbed up the last weapon of her needed arsenal, a Winchester 1895 lever action 30-40 Krag hunting rifle.
Levering a round into the chamber before slipping the rifle sling over her shoulder Tempest quickly moved her way up the stairs, shotgun at the ready for any intruders who still may be in her home. Easing the door from the basement open she made a quick security sweep of the upper level of the home, noticing the broken window and what remained of the tear gas canister upon the floor. The acrid smell from the CS gas was unmistakable as it lingered in the air, causing her nose to twitch at the scent. Hearing shots and shouts ring out once more, she quickly swept through the rest of the home, ending up at the back of the house, staring out at the fog covered area.
"Damn it!" she thought as she saw the dark forms moving through the fog unable to discern who was friendly and foe. Both man shaped blobs seemed to be moving toward the service shed where she kept all her yard stuff. Silently she eased the back door open, as she saw the shapes slip into the shed. Shouts and threats were heard on the eerily quiet day.
As Tempest eased her way toward the shed, deer stalker silent, Bankotsu armed himself with the only thing the shed really had to offer in the form of a weapon, a shovel. He knew that without backup soon he'd be a goner.
"It's over Bankotsu!" the little troll like man yelled as he slowly pushed his way into the shed, looking into the darkened area for his former boss. "It's only a matter of time before I find you and end this little game."
Moving behind a four-wheeler, his eyes already having adjusted to the gloomy interior of the shed Bankotsu looked for an opening to where he could wield his weapon effectively. As he slid quietly from his hiding position with the shovel raised, Mukotsu caught the movement from the corner of his eye, turning to block the weapon as it descended toward his unprotected short neck.
"This won't work," he mumbled as the two continued to fight with their respective weapons trying to get the other disarmed.
Tempest moved into the shed door, noticing the two men locked in combat as she leveled the shotgun at the duo. "Drop your weapons!" she demanded as she took in the little man recalled him from the death of her grandfather.
"Take him out!" Bankotsu declared as he took a step back from Mukotsu, giving Tempest the best shot imaginable. Pulling the trigger as he moved, Tempest threw all three rounds at the little man only to have him chuckling at her as the sulfur from the powder filled the shed.
"I'm not completely stupid," Mukotsu mewed as the ramifications of his body armor showed that the shots hadn't done their job.
"Shit!" rang out from Tempest and Bankotsu as the duo realized their mistake. Suddenly the little man had moved, shooting two darts into Tempest's unprotected chest. She grabbed them from her chest, tossing them onto the ground only to have her vision blur suddenly. The shed began to spin as the shotgun slipped from her fingers as he knees slowly buckled.
Seeing that the venom was working its glorious magic on the woman, Mukotsu turned his attention once more to Bankotsu. "You've only got a few hours before the venom takes out her respiratory system. As it is, the excruciating pain as it hits all the nerves at once will leave her in complete agony," he commented matter-of-fact like as a wicked smile crossed his lips.
"You bastard!" Bankotsu screamed as he raced toward the twisted man before him, the shovel swinging toward the unprotected neck once more only to be stopped by an uplifted hand.
With a shake of his index finger, Mukotsu mockingly said, "Not so fast. You kill me and you kill her in the process. I'm the only one that can stop that poison before she reaches the point of no return."
Bankotsu moved around Mukotsu, edging himself toward the kneeling body of Tempest. Her hands began to shake as what Mukotsu had said began to creep slowly into her limbs. The pain slowly radiated out from the impact sites upon her chest toward her arms, creeping at a snails pace toward her fingertips and down the taught skin of her abdomen. Thin lines of black followed the pain as the venom spread tracing maps of her nerves akin to a road map. Tears streamed down her face as the pain slowly increased, testing her pain tolerance.
Having reached his friend, Bankotsu knelt near her kneeling frame as he kept his eyes upon Mukotsu who hadn't moved but continued to laugh at his former boss' predicament. Bankotsu's finger moved slowly down the shoulder of his friend, though she flinched at the contact as the pressure increased the pain in her arm. "It's going to be okay… Tempest. We'll get you out of this…" he murmured as his hand moved slowly down her back to the hidden gun at her back.
Nodding at his words of encouragement, Tempest turned her tear rimmed eyes once more toward the animal before her. Her pain filled emerald eyes took in the horror that was Mukotsu. Gramps had glossed over the lives of some of his most notorious heads of the Band of Seven. When she'd come across the access to the personnel files she was disgusted with what she had learned about the various heads. Mukotsu Noguapo was one of the worst she'd ever read about. He made Jeffery Dahmer, John Wayne Gacey and Ted Bundy look tame in comparison. She'd read his file about how he'd been a brilliant chemist but something went wrong and he'd completely lost it. Sent to numerous asylums through out his life until her grandfather had found a particular niche for him to fill, which Mukotsu relished in delight at being able to help keep the Band of Seven as one of the most notorious and deadly gangs in the world.
"Like what you see, little girl?" Mukotsu purred as he loaded his shotgun once more before leveling it at both Bankotsu and Tempest. "Get her up and move back into the shed."
Quickly slipping the pistol into the waistband of his jeans at his back, Bankotsu then moved his hands slowly down Tempest's sides apologizing for every cry out of pain he caused as he got her once more to her feet. "Let her go, Mukotsu. It's me you want. I won't fight you if you give her the antidote," Bankotsu called out as he slipped his arm under her knees before picking her up bridal style.
"What fun would that be?" Mukotsu retorted as he motioned for the two to move into the shed they'd just vacated. "I intend to hear her scream herself hoarse as you watch in horror before I put you out of your misery. Take down that rope and tie her hands together behind her back. Don't want her to wander off just yet." A manic laugh slipped past his lips as he grabbed up a gallon gas can from the shed, splashing some upon the wooden shed as Bankotsu did as he was told.
His blue eyes showed the hatred of what he was being forced to do. "I'll get you out of this, I promise," he said as he loosely looped the rope around her wrists. Tempest whimpered as the pain continued down her arms, abdomen and slowly into the tops of her legs and lower neck.
Between gritted teeth, Tempest ground out, "I want that bastard to pay for this… take him out when you get the chance. I… I won't give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream."
A smirk crossed Bankotsu's lips as he saw the fire return to his friend, though it was mixed with that of pain. Quickly he brushed his lips over her forehead as he got back to his feet once more, "Don't you dare die on me."
With a slight nod, Tempest turned her eyes once more toward Mukotsu, seeing that he was holding a lighter, watching the flame dance in the nearly windless air. Her eyes widened in fear as the smell of gas wafted toward her nose. "He means to burn us alive!" screamed through her mind as her fingers quickly attacked the ropes that bound her hands together.
Bankotsu saw the same thing as Tempest as he turned back to the manic man before him. "What are you doing?" Bankotsu asked, knowing the answer before he even asked.
"You both looked a little cold, so I thought I'd start up a fire to get you all nice and toasty warm." Quickly Mukotsu dropped the lighter as Bankotsu dove for his body. The flame ignited the gasoline soaked wood in a flash as Bankotsu tackled Mukotsu to the ground, his strong powerful hands wrapped around the thick short neck of the manic.
With his full body weight upon the upper chest of the man below him, Bankotsu removed one hand from around Mukotsu's neck to grab the gun at his back. "You've done messed with the wrong person Mukotsu. I'd have thought Renkotsu would have told you not to go in all cocky like this. You saw what happened to Kyokotus… he ended up with a bullet in his head. Seems only fitting that you get the same treatment," he commented as he put the Kel-Tec .380 ACP point blank to his forehead.
"She'll die! You'll never get the antidote in time!" the little man screamed as he moved from the hunter to the hunted role, trying for self preservation.
A sneer crossed Bankotsu's lips as he replied, "I already have the antidote… you gave it to me before your boss tried his coup d'état. Do you think that I wouldn't have remembered it?"
Calling his bluff, Mukotsu glanced toward a pocket on his body armor before he looked once more into Bankotsu's face. "She'll die before you even get a chance to give her the antidote," he called out as he motioned his head toward the burning shed.
Hearing the flames and coughing cries coming from the shed behind him, Bankotsu replied, "You're nothing but a pile of shit." He moved off the man as he glanced back toward the shed noticing in horror that the whole side had been engulfed in flames as they eagerly ate through the gasoline soaked wood. "Tempest!" he roared as Mukotsu took his momentary laps of concentration to throw the mercenary from his body.
Both men scrambled to their feet as Tempest cried out. The pain having intensified past her pain tolerance as well as the fear of burning alive crossed her mind. Seeing an ax near where she hid farthest from the fire, Tempest quickly grabbed it up as she tried to make an exit through the back of the building.
Hearing the wood shattering from behind the building, Bankotsu called out to Tempest once more as he heard her sharp cries of pain resonate in the area. "She's experiencing the full effects… Interesting that it's taking a lot shorter amount of time than it had on the previous test subjects," Mukotsu called as he moved swiftly away from the burning shed and the mercenary. "It will only be a matter of time before she screams herself hoarse and dies!"
Whipping himself around Bankotsu aimed and fired the .380 once. The armor piercing bullet zoomed straight for the back of the manic's head, dropping him without a whimper. He quickly moved toward the vile man, quickly rummaging through the pockets of the suit before he came across the bottle of antidote. Once it was in his pocket he slid the .380 into the waistband of his jeans and sprinted to the back of the burning shed. He saw where Tempest had tried to hack her way through the back wall. Grabbing up the shovel he'd abandoned earlier, he pried the loose and broken boards up and away from the building, making the hole bigger as he saw Tempest curled as close to his position as possible. Cries of pain wracked her body as the black lines raced farther into her body.
Seeing that the hole was about as big as he was going to get, Bankotsu reached in and grabbed the girl, pulling her into his arms as the roof collapsed in. Tempest screamed in pain as the pressure of Bankotsu against her body intensified the pain racing through her body. Easing her into a laying position across his lap and legs he held her in one arm as his other hand reached for the bottle of antidote in his pocket.
Pulling the top off carefully he poured some of the antidote down her throat as he soothed her, "Here… this should help ease the pain. Don't give into the pain… Fight… fight like I know you can." Slowly she began to relax, the antidote slowly taking effect to reduce some of the pain coursing through her body.
Seeing that it was working, however slowly, Bankotsu knew that he was running out of time for he knew that the antidote needed to be tested and given to her in a larger dose but that he didn't have the knowledge or lab to be able to do such an undertaking. "Seems that I'm going to have to call in a favor… Doubt that they are going to like this much," he thought dryly as he picked up Tempest and carried her away from the burning shed, hearing explosions as gas tanks and cans caught fire a grim look of determination
