Chapter 1
A dark haired teen walked down a dusty, deserted road. He had a carefree look about him, a wistful gaze. His clothing was odd, at the very least. Unlike most men in that feudal era, he wore no visible armor, not even pants, really. His legs were exposed, at least one of them, his clothes loose and haphazardly, with a scarf loosely draped about his neck, and one hand holding the odd looking sword behind his back. His dark hair was looped about itself and held in place by a butterfly pin.
And, he was bored. And not the kind of boredom that just comes from having nothing to do – he could solve that easily. This was the kind of boredom that came from having nothing he wanted to do.
He sighed, re-adjusting the sword on his shoulder. The worst part was, he was in farm country. And everyone knows, farm country – at least in this day and age – tended to be full of doddering men who were too old to fight, so they stayed home in the field.
He sighed again, glancing at the scenery around him. It was early winter, or late fall, depending on how you looked at it. The trees had lost most of their leaves, and even though snow hadn't begun to fall, there was still a definite winter chill to the air. He frowned. His feet were cold, as were his legs. Perhaps he should consider wearing pants or something, at least until spring came along.
He paused, his ears perked. He heard something. Swords?
"Let's check it out, shall we?" He asked no one in particular, breaking into a brisk trot, "Maybe there's a good-looking guy or two." The sound of fighting became louder- he must be heading in the right direction. He paused, listening. They were close, but nowhere in sight. He frowned. He wanted to get there before too many of them died. With no other real option, he turned and headed into the wood.
He hated woods – he heard someone cry out, probably in extreme pain or death – they tended to scratch his legs, his face, and sometimes even his feet, as he wore simple flip-flops. He heard someone else cry out, and a muffled 'thump'. He broke into the clearing just in time to watch the last man hit the ground.
Correction, second-last man.
The last man –correction, a teen, possibly 3, maybe 4 years younger than himself -turned and faced him, his gigantic halberd resting casually on one shoulder. "Yo."
"Well, damn." He sighed, a whining tone entering his voice, "They're all dead!"
"Why do you care?" The teen with the halberd asked. He was dressed gaudily, but anyone with eyes could tell that this teen, despite his years, was an experienced fighter. After all, he was surrounded by at least 15, 20 grown men, all dead, and the teen didn't seem even the slightest out of breath. "Unless, of course, you're with these guys." He nodded his head towards the corpses, and tightened his grip on the massive weapon on his shoulder.
"Me?" He asked, "No, no, no, no. I just heard fighting, and thought I'd join in." He smiled disarmingly.
"You?" He snorted, looking the man over, "Be thankful you didn't make it in time. I would've kicked your ass, if these guys didn't." He motioned to the corpses.
"Oh really?" He smirked, unsheathing his sword, "Care to test that theory out?"
"No." The man replied, turning on his heel, "I don't like to fight weaklings. Not my thing. Much as I'd love to just kill you now, I've had my fill of killing for the day. Come back tomorrow." He waved his hand dismissively.
"O-oi!" He cried, nearly falling over in surprise, "You can't just turn away! I challenged you!"
"Later." Was all he got as a reply.
"Now just a god-damn MINUTE!" He cried, slashing his wickedly curved blade in the direction of the man, even though he was a good number of feet away by now.
White lightning streaked towards the charcoal-haired teen, slicing through the trees by his side and arcing back around, landing with a comfortable 'thunk' in the trunk of yet another unsuspecting tree. The teen was left with no way out.
He gave an impressed whistle, and turned to face the older man. "Impressive."
"I'm not about to let such a cute guy get away so easily." He smiled, recalling the blades with a tug.
"Sorry, but I like women." The teen replied dryly, "But I will fight you. This is starting to look interesting." He smirked, lifting the enormous weapon off of his shoulder and holding it in front of him.
Okay, he took a breath, if he's using a weapon that huge, he's probably strong. Speed- not so much. Perfect. He smirked. He couldn't wait for this guy to be at his feet, bloodied and begging for mercy, among other things.
"What's the matter? Hurry up and attack." The teen snapped, "If you won't, I will!" (1)He took a step forward, then quickly dodged to the side.
"What the-" He cried, trying desperately to follow the younger man's movements. He was faster than expected. Catching a flicker of movement to his right, he slashed in that direction, his blades slithering to their target, slicing branches and trunks in their path. "You can't escape!" He chirped. He heard a faint 'thunk' from between the trees, and blinked. He hadn't expected him to go down that quickly.
"Over here!" He heard a voice cry.
He spun, just in time to see the man leap towards him from behind, halberd poised. He jumped lithely to the side, narrowly avoided the colossal blade as it tore apart the earth where he had been standing only moments before.
He cursed, stumbling back a few steps. He tugged on his sword, intending to recall the blades and attack again, only to find it would not. He cursed again, and saw that, since the end of his sword still remained lodged in a tree, with the little maneuver he had taken to avoid the teens attack had wrapped the rest around another tree, like some warped pulley not in his favor. He seethed, placing both hands on the hilt and tugging.
"Too slow!" He heard the teen laugh, and looked up just in time to be punched in the face.
He flew backwards, losing his grip on his sword. He landed roughly on the ground, nursing his sore cheek, "Man, that's not very nice…" He whined, before rolling to the side, side-stepping around his opponent, and grabbing his sword, untangling his sword before the teen even knew what hit him – even though technically nothing did. Yet.
He gave a light tug, this time recalling the blades smoothly and swiftly. "Who's too slow now, blue-eyes?" He cooed. The teen just stared at him.
"And now, we get to take a look at your insides!" He laughed, unmindful of his opponent's uncharacteristic silence. He slashed his sword, expecting the younger man to burst into a beautiful elegy of screams, but was instead greeted with an ugly screeching sound – not the one he had expected to hear.
"Na-nani!" (Translation: (if you don't know this you really are a pathetic anime fan.) What!) He turned helplessly to start at his sword, which seemed unwilling to strike the teen. Its blades were still gathered, but through no choice of their own.
Coating the many blades was sap. Gooey sap, that had just been thickening for winter. Sticky sap, the kind that took many, many days to wash off of anything. It covered his sword blades, preventing them from streaking outward like the snake they had been named after.
He turned to stare, shocked, at the calm visage of the younger teen. Had he planned this their entire battle? "A…amazing." He lowered his sword, totally in awe of the charcoal-hair teen. He had known he was strong, but to be able to do something such as this in the middle of what he considered to be heated battle… this was out of his league, and that was saying something.
"I surrender." He held up his hands.
"Smart man." The teen smirked, walking over to where he had left his halberd before his assault on the older man's face. "I'm Bankotsu, by the way, if you ever want a rematch." He placed the weapon back on his shoulder.
"Well, Bankotsu-chan, I am Jakotsu, master of the Jakotsutou." (2)He smiled, lifting his sheath from the dirt and returning his sword to it with a grimace. He'd have to clean it later. Not fun.
"Cocky for someone who just got their ass handed to them." Bankotsu laughed.
"After confidence, victory is the first thing to go." Jakotsu smiled in return.
"I suppose. Later." Bankotsu lifted his hand, and gave a short wave to the older teen.
"Wait!" Jakotsu called, jogging after the younger man.
"Come on; don't tell me you want to fight again?" Bankotsu sighed, not stopping.
"No." Jakotsu snorted, "But as I said, I'm not going to let someone as cute as you get way."
"What?" Bankotsu turned to stare disbelieving at the taller man. Even staring up at someone –which happened often- he could be intimidating.
He just wasn't now, with surprise plastered all over his face.
"I'm going to travel with you, Bankotsu-chan." Jakotsu sang, walking past the black-haired-teen.
"You're going to even if I tell you not to, aren't you?" Bankotsu sighed.
"Yup! I'm as sticky as that sap!" He grinned, giving a thumbs-up.
"Whatever. As long as you stop calling me Bankotsu-chan. Otherwise I'll have to kill you."
"Sure thing, koibito." (Translation: lover)
"Not that, either. Unless you want to die. You're choice."
"Anata?" (Translation: Honey/darling – endearments.)
"No."
And so, one of the deadliest groups in the history of Japan began.
"Darling?"
"No."
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End Chapter 1
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(1-- I know. Purposeful!
2-- Jakotsu's sword. Written with 'snake' 'bone' and 'sword'.)
(A/N: Well, that's chapter 1, version 2.0 for you. I must say, it's much, MUCH better than the first. I HATED that chapter- I didn't like what I did to Jakotsu. Which is actually the reason I couldn't seem to write the second chapter, which I'll get started on right away, don't worry. Oh, and my SINCEREST APOLOGIES for taking so long to update. Yes, it's just a revamp, so it doesn't count, so I'll get started on that TOMORROW. (It's 11:30 at night and I've been working on this, since, like 7:30-ish. My eyes are starting to hurt.) But… like… High school is hard! And my mother stole my computer! And then I had to write during Info. Pro at school and that was HARD because I was half-way through the old version of chapter 2, and I couldn't remember where I'd left off and … and….
I'll stop now.
So I'll update soon, I PROMISE. In the meantime, review! Old readers, is this better or worse than the old chapter 1? New readers, is it good? Please, tell me!)