Author's Note: Alright, you ask for it, you get it ;) lol. Here is Chapter 5. It's about the same length as Chapter 4. The chapters after these will be a tad longer, lol, I promise. Enjoy Chapter 5!
Reviewer Responses:
Youkaigirl99: :) :) :) You always know how to make me smile :). My favorite thing to do in a story is characterization. I love making characters and building them and playing with them, so I'm glad you like what I'm doing :) Thank you for reviewing. Take care and I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Me, just me: :) Thank you! I'm lost on the monologue part though lol. Take care and I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Ibara-hime: Yes, these chapters are short. Me sorry. I'm trying to do the short story deal, but for some reason I don't think it's going to work out for this series lol. Expect longer chapters later ;). I'm glad you like my Jakotsu... I'm not really trying to make him a different person than who he is in the anime though. I'm just trying to add more to him, give him some seasoning. Hopefully in later chapters or stories he will start to seem more like the one from the series :). Hmm...Bankotsu and Jakotsu getting together in this series is unlikely lol. I love yaoi, but this is a brotherly love type of story :). It would be cute though ;) Thanks for the review and take care!
Gerbil: Hehehe, glad you thought the chappie was "cute." Thanks for reviewing and take care!
Lynxzeo X: Yes, it is short. This one is short too, lol. The next will be a bit longer, promise :). Glad you like Jakotsu's clothing fetish. Thanks for reviewing and take care!
Cattico: Inspector Jakotsu was fun. I don't think Jakotsu is stupid, just... flighty, so I wanna show that he's good for other things besides killing and entertainment lol. People think you're a demon? Bwhahahaha!! Can't say I've had that experience. What are you doing to your classmates over there? Lol. Well thanks for reviewing and take care!
Corrina: Hehehehe, the "past" Hardy Boys. Surprised you didn't say Nancy Drew lol! Yes, he did get more clothes :). Thanks for your condolences on my laptop. Nimue (laptop) thanks you for your concern. Thank you for reviewing and take care!
Evil-Zukin: Lol, of course Jakotsu's having fun on his shopping spree. He didn't have to pay for anything; those are the best kind. I wish I could have those kind of shopping sprees :(. Thanks for reviewing and take care!
Tareacel: :). I hate when people make him stupid too. I'd like to think Bankotsu wouldn't draft complete idiots into his group, and for Jakotsu to have traveled with him for so long, I know there has to be something else to him. I'm glad he stills comes off as cute too :). Sometimes I overdo it with humor and such, but I'm happy to know you think I got the balance just right this time ;). Thanks for reviewing girl, take care! And hurry up with those stories so I can read them!
MageofDarkness: Hehehe, people stare at you like you're nuts? No?? (Sounding astounded). (J/K) ;) Lol. Jakotsu is cutie in the anime and I hope I'm not doing to awful of a job of trying to keep him that way in my story. And yes...our heroes are a little closer to finding the killer. Dun, dun, dun. Oh, I am in the process of reading your stories. You have so many and they are all so long. I got excited just looking through them. Now I have something to do at work. Expect long reviews from me soon. I'll even sign them and everything ;). Thanks for reviewing and I hope you enjoy this next chapter!
Skittlez: Lol, now I'm an "everyone"...sigh... Glad the tantrum explanation made sense and didn't seem like I was just trying to come up with something lol! Happy to know you saved some of your stories from being eaten ;). Thanks for the review and hope you enjoy this new chapter; take care!
Chapter 5
It was nightfall before they found any traces of the killer or rather traces of the killer found them.
"Do you smell blood?" Jakotsu asked casually, tilting his head a bit as he played with the knot on a purple scarf.
Bankotsu stopped walking and held out a hand to halt Jakotsu as well. Sniffing the air, he smiled. "Yes, I do."
"Are we to follow the scent?" Jakotsu asked.
"Of course!" Bankotsu grinned. He shook the sheath from Banryuu and flexed his muscles a bit, giving a few good practice swings with Banryuu. Then he gazed up at the sky, pinking into a more respectable navy blue. Stars were starting to show themselves and one winked at him.
The game was about to start. Maybe they'd found the killer, maybe they'd found demons or thieves; either way, Bankotsu was going to spill blood. "Jakotsu, you can't take that bag."
"I can't leave it here. Someone will steal it!"
"You'll take the chance. Get ready and come on."
"All right, Aniki," Jakotsu sighed dejectedly. He shrugged the leather bag, bursting at the seams with unnecessary clothing, onto the grassy floor of the forest. Slowly, he pulled Jakotsutou from its resting place and held it at his side. The curved sword never seemed to lose its sheen, even after being bathed in blood and wiped clean with a sweaty hand.
"Would you like to split up and approach from different sides or..."
"We stay together!" Bankotsu snapped, giving Jakotsu an incredulous look. After what happened the last time they'd split up Jakotsu should know better! Jakotsu wasn't always very keen on what was going on around him once he'd honed in on a victim.
Bankotsu shook images of Jakotsu holding impossibly still as Bankotsu tightened a bloody strip of white cloth over a wound on his side. The older boy had been on the verge of collapsing from blood loss by the time Bankotsu realized something was wrong and Jakotsu himself decided to speak up about the injury.
Jakotsu blinked, long lashes veiling his gray eyes for a moment. "Sorry."
Bankotsu shrugged and began to prowl forward, listening for any alerting sounds of something foreign approaching. Jakotsu's steps were light behind him. Bankotsu marveled at Jakotsu's stealth. He could sneak right up on a hare and have it around the neck before it knew what was going on.
Bankotsu stepped on something soft; raising a hand to halt Jakotsu, he prodded the lumpy mass with his foot as he gazed down at it. Body. Recently killed, the blood hadn't even dried yet. Bright red slashes crisscrossed the chest, gashes deep and wide enough for Bankotsu to see that the rib cage had been broken and the arteries ripped to shreds.
"Aniki?" Jakotsu peeked over his shoulder to see what held his attention. "Those are claw marks."
"Our Mystery Man wears steel claws, someone said. Would make it easy for someone to confuse his work with that of a demons, but he's sloppy and lets people see him."
"Maybe he wants to be seen. Not everyone is as secretive as we, Aniki," Jakotsu said lightly.
Bankotsu huffed. "We're not ready for public exposure, Jakotsu. We need to establish ourselves with the right people so that we'll have enough income to not need to lodge with strangers who might freak and turn us in..."
"Relax, Aniki! I know! I was just saying. This man is not concerned with things like that. I don't think he's concerned with anything," Jakotsu murmured. "How are we to approach him about membership? He may not be... of sound mind."
Bankotsu was stumped. Well he hadn't thought of that at all. He poked out his lower lip and leaned forward on Banryuu, folding his arms over the hilt and resting his head on them. What if the killer was some kind of idiot savant? What if all he could do was kill well, but he wasn't capable of speech or normal thought patterns? Bankotsu wouldn't want to work with anyone like that. He'd never be able to turn his back on him.
Gah.
"Why do you have to be so smart, Jakotsu?" Bankotsu grumbled.
"I'm not," Jakotsu chirped. "Now, lets see if he's left us a trail. We can follow it to him, and when we meet him, you can decide what you want to do with him."
"Yeah." Bankotsu straightened and slung Banryuu back over his shoulder, after making sure Jakotsu wasn't standing directly behind him.
More bodies marked the path into town. Men, women, children, old and young, horses, cattle... the killer showed no prejudice. Bodies were left in the center of town, bodies were left on the front porches, bodies on the front steps, a body draped over the well.
"I think he's killed the entire town," Bankotsu said.
"Do you think he would have gotten blood all over everything inside the houses like he did in Kaji's house? I want to see if I can find something to match this purple scarf, but I don't want anything bloodstained already. Who wants new clothes you have to wash?"
"Jakotsu!" Bankotsu smacked his friend with his free arm.
"What? I can find some things for you too..."
Red and orange flames blossomed from one of the houses and a child's terrified cry was cut short. Bankotsu smirked, and here we go. "Come on Jakotsu!"
The wood of the porch was weak and creaked under their weight; the fire had spread faster than it should, leading Bankotsu to believe the killer had doused the small house in kerosene. He could do a smell test to be certain, but as the smoke began to burn his eyes and back draft lifted the stray hairs about his face, he ruled against it.
He could hear the sound of flesh being torn violently and felt his heart beat faster. The door to the back room was broken, and all it took was a light tap with Bankotsu's foot to cause it to fall in on itself.
A blast of heat struck Bankotsu full in the face and he heard Jakotsu's soft gasp of surprise. He shut his eyes briefly against the heat and brightness of the flames. "Bankotsu..." Jakotsu was whispering.
The man was very large; the size of three Bankotsu's across easy. "Jakotsu?"
"I'll get on the other side of him," Jakotsu said softly. "I know you want to challenge him, Aniki, but if... Signal if you need help."
'I know you want to challenge him.' When had Jakotsu become a mind reader? Bankotsu acknowledged Jakotsu with a nod as they both stood, waiting for the killer to turn to face them.
The man seemed very occupied with the act of mutilating the little girl's or maybe little boy's body until there were no distinguishable features left. The corpses of the parents and grandparents littered the floor. They must have been hiding the child.
Finally satisfied with his work, the big man straightened and whirled to glare at Bankotsu and Jakotsu. Jakotsu shot a look at Bankotsu and quickly moved to be on the other side of the killer.
The man's beady black eyes monitored Jakotsu's every move, giving Bankotsu a chance to bring Banryuu in front of him and take up a fighting stance.
"My name is Bankotsu," he spoke in a loud, clear voice. His voice had always been a little lower than other boys his age, and right then he was glad for it. "I am leader of a band of mercenaries. The best mercenaries in all of Japan. I have seen your skill and believe I have a place for you among the ranks of my men. Will you join us?"
The man's black eyes snapped back to Bankotsu and seemed to swallow his appearance whole. Blood was spattered over his face and smeared in his spiky black hair. Slowly, the killer smiled, revealing his bloodstained teeth and gums. "You think I would serve under a little boy and his pretty girlfriend?"
Bankotsu narrowed his eyes, not taking them off the killer. "I am young, but no one has ever defeated me. I am slayer of both men and demons."
The killer laughed heartily... too heartily... and a tone of familiarity struck a chord in Bankotsu's ears. "You? I don't believe you."
"Fight me and see," Bankotsu said, looking hard into the man's eyes. Something was "off" about this guy, but he couldn't figure out what. Yes, he was a crazy, bloodthirsty killer, but those types never repelled Bankotsu or made him want scratch his head in confusion.
Damn. What was it about this guy?
"Fight you, boy?" the killer gave a sneer. "Gladly. This village was rather small, and I didn't slaughter nearly as many people as I had wanted. You and your girlfriend just may quench my desire for tonight."
Cocky bastard. Bankotsu chanced a look at Jakotsu to make sure he wasn't advancing on the killer without a signal. The man had-- after all- called Jakotsu his girlfriend, twice. Though he dressed as a woman, he didn't like being called one. Jakotsu held his ground, meeting Bankotsu's eyes evenly.
Very good, Jakotsu.
"Lets take this outside," Bankotsu said. A burning house wasn't exactly an ideal battlefield for him, but the killer didn't seem to agree. Instead the large man lunged at Bankotsu, long metal claws outstretched and Bankotsu barely had enough time to whirl out of the way. He felt hot air on the bare skin of his stomach and looked to see part of his shirt had been torn away.
He liked this shirt!
He swung Banryuu like a paddle, smacking the killer across the chin, torso, and stomach and watched as the man stumbled back a few steps. He was too large for such a blow to knock him on his butt. Damn, he'd been practicing that on only Jakotsu for too long. He'd misjudged the weight difference horribly. Jakotsu would have fallen flat on his ass and been winded for a good minute and a half.
The man growled deep in his throat like an injured animal and with a roar threw himself at Bankotsu. He was so angry at Bankotsu's love tap he was charging blindly. Bankotsu could end this if he really wanted to. He could kill the man, but what good would a dead inductee be?
He instead jumped out of the man's path at the last possible second, raising Banryuu high over his head and bringing it down on the base of the man's skull. There was a resounding crack and down the giant fell.
Not giving the killer a chance to retaliate if he was still conscious, Bankotsu kicked him over so he could see his face and put the heel of his foot on his jugular. He could easily crush the precious artery if the man made a wrong move.
With his eyes closed and his expression free of bloodlust, he looked different. He was the killer, but he also looked like someone else. Bankotsu stared, frustrated. He hated when his brain obviously knew something he didn't and wasn't telling.
"Is he dead, Bankotsu?"
Bankotsu didn't take his eyes off his quarry. "No. I can see him breathing. Come here and look at him, Jakotsu. Does he look like someone we know?"
"Aniki... perhaps we could take him outside and then look. This house is about to come down," Jakotsu said, moving across the floor quickly. "He is a big man, maybe we should forget about him. He was too easily defeated, anyway."
"He just needs to learn to control his temper. He lost his concentration." Bankotsu kicked the man. Out cold. "Come on. Between the two of us, I'm sure we can pull him out of here."
Jakotsu groaned and wiped a few beads of sweat from his brow. "Fine."
They tied the man up with rope Jakotsu had scrounged up from one of the sheds in town and sat, watching the fire spread from the house they'd vacated to its neighbor.
"Too bad we don't have any meat," Bankotsu sighed sadly. What a waste of a perfectly good bonfire.
Jakotsu snorted. "We could look for some."
Bankotsu shook his head, turning his attention back to the killer who showed no signs of stirring. "Ja... look at him now. Does he look familiar?"
Jakotsu was staring off into space. "I wonder if my clothes are still where you made me leave them, Aniki. I think I will go back for them in a bit."
"Jakotsu!
"What?" Jakotsu looked at Bankotsu curiously, and Bankotsu groaned, shaking his head.
"You didn't hear a word I said! What am I do with you?" He reached over and dipped his finger in the purple paint on Jakotsu's cheek. The heat of the fire had melted the make up Jakotsu wore on his eyes, causing it to run in two thick streaks over his face. "Interesting new look, Jakotsu."
"Hmm..." Jakotsu said, smirking wickedly and using Bankotsu's stained finger, began to doodle a design on Bankotsu's forehead. "There. Now you look interesting too."
Bankotsu resisted the urge to rub at his forehead with the heel of his palm, instead rising and going to the well. After pushing away the corpse of an older man laying across the wood, he dipped some water into the hanging bucket to glimpse his reflection.
The moonlight illuminated the water, giving his reflection an eery glow. Jakotsu had drawn a large star in the center of his forehead that showed through his heavy bangs. A star of all things... He could have drawn a knife or something deadly. Maybe a viper... but then again, it was Jakotsu. Jakotsu liked butterflies, flowers, and stars.
He studied his reflection, turning his head this way and that.
Actually...
The star didn't look so bad. It had its obvious flaws. It was sloppy, since it had been done on a whim. If Jakotsu would do it over, carefully next time, Bankotsu might consider keeping it there. It could be his symbol.
Every good band of mercenaries needed to have a mark, a seal, uniforms, something. He'd leave it up to Jakotsu to decide that part of the deal. He enjoyed doing that sort of thing.
"Aniki!" Jakotsu called, his voice perturbed.
Bankotsu let the bucket fall back into the well with a splash as he ran back to where he'd left Jakotsu. Was their mystery man waking up?
Jakotsu was kneeling next to the killer and had used part of the killer's shirt to clean his face. Without all of the blood and with sweat starting to matt his hair across his forehead, the man really sort of looked like...
"Dr. Kaji?"
Author's Note: This was Monday's update actually, but was down. I'll post again on Wednesday if you guys like this one :). I hope you did; please review!