Chapter Eight: Nightmare

Akiko's heart began to race. Bankotsu was now staring at her completely awake. She now regretted coming to see him.

"Akiko… is there something you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked her with concern.

The kindness in his voice made her feel better. "Yes, I was wondering if you could tell me… what… death is like." She looked away, afraid that he would be mad that she had asked him something like that; something that probably brought back painful memories.

To her surprise and relief, Bankotsu just smiled. "Oh. For a second there, I thought you were going to say something serious." His smile faded when he saw the angry look Akiko gave him. "Here, lay down," he motioned for her to lie down next to him.

She blushed at this unexpected invitation. "What?" she asked quickly.

He stared blankly for a second. "Huh? What's wrong?"

Realizing that Bankotsu's invitation was innocent, she lied down. He let her rest her head on his arm as he lied back down too. Akiko's heart, which had returned to normal, sped up again, even faster than before. Bankotsu's warm body was leaning gently against her. She thought that at this distance from each other, he could probably hear how loud her heart was beating.

"So," he continued, "You want to know what death is like, do you not?" she nodded and he went on. "Well when I was captured, I was beheaded. The last thing I remember is feeling the blade of a sword go through my neck, and then everything went black. It wasn't really like sleeping though. I no longer had any feeling in my body. Everything just seemed like it didn't exist anymore. The next thing I remembered is being awoken by Naraku. I don't think I remember what happened in between that because that was when I was dead, and now I am alive once more. Because it has to do with where my soul was and not my actually body, which has my memories, I guess I just don't remember what happened then. Does that answer your question?"

Akiko nodded again. She wasn't really sure herself. Then another thing happened that she couldn't explain: she felt tears burn behind her eyes. The last thing she wanted was for Bankotsu to see her cry, but she could not hold them back. Two hot ears streamed down her face.

"What's wrong?" Bankotsu asked suddenly when he noticed.

"I guess I just haven't had much time to think about my family and everything that happened. And now it's all just suddenly hitting me that they are all dead," she choked between cries.

Bankotsu didn't know what to say. For the first time in his life he really felt guilty for killing someone. Nobody had ever cried to him telling him how upset they were that people they loved were dead. He knew she wasn't thinking it right then, but it was his entire fault to begin with. If he hadn't accepted the mission to kill them, she would be happy right now, living with her family in her village. Not thinking about death, being a sadistic, mercenary ninja.

Bankotsu used his free hand to wipe her tears off her cheeks. "I am sorry," he said truthfully. He could not think of anything else to say. He brushed her long bangs out of her eyes and stroked her hair until she began to calm down. After she had stopped sobbing and was only making soft weeping noises he spoke to her again. "Akiko, I understand that you want to kill me and the rest of the Shichinintai to avenge your village. But I cannot allow you to just yet. You see, a lot of the Shichinintai believe that Naraku can't be trusted. It was originally only Renkotsu's idea, but we have decided to kill Naraku. But we don't know how to exactly do this yet. That's why I asked you to join. You can sneak in and try to find out some stuff about him. Kind of like what you were planning with us."

Akiko was surprised that Bankotsu had already known that. She was even more surprised that he was saying sorry for what he did over ten years ago. "Bankotsu… after I help you kill Naraku, you will allow me to carry out my retribution?"

"Yes, but don't think that I or any of the others will just let you kill us. If you choose revenge, which I expect you to, you may die in the process of it. If you turn against us, we will try to kill you."

"I know," she said softly, becoming tired from the crying. "I do not want to kill any of you, but I must do it for my village. I owe my loyalties to them."

"It's like I said, I expect you to choose to get revenge. But you will help us with Naraku, right"

"Mm-hm," she muttered quietly before she fell asleep to Bankotsu still stroking her hair. Right before she finally drifted off, she was almost sure that she felt Bankotsu kiss her gently on her forehead.

Akiko sat picking flowers in a meadow outside her village. She hummed a sad, haunting melody. It was a warm, pleasant day. The sky was pure blue and birds chirped from up in the heavens. When she was done with the flowers she got up, to head back home. She walked through the busy roads of the Village of Ryuukotsusei. The mighty dragon himself could be seen not far off, towering over the village. Although he may not have been awake, he looked as if he were guarding the village.

She watched as familiar faces walked past her. Some said hello and others just greeted politely. She felt so happy to be back. Akiko walked into her own home. Her mother was cooking something on the stove. It smelled so nice.

"Akiko, where are your brother and sister? I do not want them to miss dinner. Your father should be back at any moment."

"I don't know where they are, Mother," she said truthfully.

Soon her whole family was home. They laughing and talking while they ate. Akiko had missed them so much, but she couldn't think of why. She remembered getting up early that morning and going out to get some medicinal herbs for Chiyu, a doctor who worked in the village. She then saw the flowers and thought that they were so lovely that she would pick some. It wasn't as if she had been gone very long, but she missed seeing her mother, father, brother, and sister so much.

Later Akiko was getting ready for bed. She heard her mother scream so she ran quickly to see what was wrong. Her mother was huddled over, crying. Her back was turned to Akiko.

"Mother, tell me what is wrong."

She turned around. Blood ran down her cheeks like tears. When she saw Akiko, her eyes filled up with more blood and spilled over. "Akiko, how could you? You traitor!" she yelled.

Akiko didn't know what to say. Her mother's bloody eyes grew absent and dead looking. Akiko ran away, terrified of this person. She knew that that couldn't have been her mother. It must have been some demon. She ran to go get her father.

When she finally got to him, he looked at her with the same dead looking eyes. Also, like her mother he shouted, "How could you? You traitor!"

She ran from him too. She eventually found her brother and sister. They as well had the cold, black eyes. Only they had deep gashes all over their bodies. Blood steadily drained from them. She turned around to see her mother slashed up but still managing to drag herself along. Her father's brains leaked through a huge cut going down his head.

She ran through the streets trying to find someone to help her. The farther she ran, the more people she knew had dead eyes, fatal injuries, and were yelling that she was a traitor.

She finally was backed into a corner. Her family and the villagers were approaching her; she thought they would surly kill her. Right as they all ganged up on her their flesh began to rot quickly. Soon all their bodies were deteriorated and nothing more than their bones remained. Akiko touched one gently and all of them collapsed into dust.

The pleasant, busy village was now horrid and empty. The warm beautiful day was now cold, drab and consumed in darkness. It reeked of pain and death. Akiko sat down in the center of it. It was disturbingly quiet. Right then she wanted nothing more than to leave it. 'Why did they call me a traitor?' she thought. 'What did I do? Is it because of… Bankotsu?' suddenly it all came back to her…

"Akiko," she heard someone say in a far off.

She opened her eyes slowly to see Bankotsu looking down at her.

"Are you okay? Were you having a nightmare?"

She rubbed her eyes, realizing that it was all just a dream. "I guess." She looked around to see that she was still in Bankotsu's room. "Is it morning?"

"Yeah. It's still pretty early though. I don't think anyone else is up yet. In fact I wouldn't either if you hadn't kicked me in your sleep," he yawned

"I'm sorry."

He shrugged and fell back down next to her. "Wake me later. I'm still tired."

Akiko decided that it would be best if she went back to her own room now, before anyone found out she slept in Bankotsu's bed the previous night. "I'll leave so you can sleep."

"You don't have to if you don't want to. I'm not mad or anything," he said lying on his side with his eyes closed.

"No, I'll probably keep kicking you. I will see you when you get up then." And she pushed the sliding doors open to head back to her own room. When she got to her room, though, she was not in the mood to sleep anymore. Akiko was still too shook up from her dream to go back to sleep. She sat on the floor thinking about her dream. 'Am I a traitor for not choosing to kill them right away? I did say that I planed on doing it. And I still am. No matter what.'

The thought of not avenging her family just because Bankotsu wasn't like she thought he would be made her start to feel sick to her stomach again. She was still upset from the previous night. She thought maybe if she got some fresh air it would stop her queasiness.

She stepped outside. The sky was a light pinkish blue color. The sun was still rising. It was a warm day out. It reminded her of the day in her dream. Akiko stepped onto the dewy grass. It was cool and wet against her bare feet. She rested against the edge of the castle, watching the sunrise reach higher into the sky.

She ended up getting so lost in thought that she did not realize that someone was out there with her. "You usually wake up this early?" someone jerked her out of her thinking.

"Oh! Uh, sometimes."

Renkotsu smiled mechanically. "Is something wrong?"

"Not really. Why?"

"Your eyes are puffy. It looks like you were crying."

Akiko couldn't think up a lie quick enough so she said nothing.

Unfortunately, Renkotsu would not let it drop. "So, what is wrong?"

She knew she could not think up a story, so she figured she just tell him the truth. "I was just thinking about my family is all."

His false smile returned for a quick moment and then faded. "I think Bankotsu regrets killing them."

"Really? And what makes you think that?"

This time he smirked, but it went away in less than a second. "I've heard him say a few things about it."

It then hit Akiko that perhaps she and Bankotsu weren't alone last night. She looked up at him with a quizzical look.

As if he read her mind he smirked again. "I had just gotten up to get something to drink. When I heard crying I just walked in that direction to see if something was wrong."

Akiko heaved a deep sigh and said, "Yeah, I was crying, so what of it?" she pretty much knew where Renkotsu was going with this, but refused to act like it.

He shrugged. "Nothing. I was just curious. I only listened for a second. Why? What did you think I was thinking?"

She glared at Renkotsu. He was starting to get on her nerves. "You know what I was thinking. Nothing happened. But you know what will happen if you say anything to anyone, so please don't."

Renkotsu seemed to understand how frustrated she was and gave in. "I won't say anything. Especially to Jakotsu," he added with another smirk.

"Thank you," she said truthfully grateful.

"Don't read too much into it. I still don't think you are worthy to join the Shichinintai, but you are a pretty skillful kunoichi and we need you to help us kill Naraku before he betrays us. And you can't do that if Jakotsu gets so jealous that he kills you."

When Akiko didn't say anything, Renkotsu continued, "You plan on killing us afterward, correct?"

"Yes."

"I suppose that Bankotsu already warned you that-"

"Yes, I know that you will not show me any mercy."

"As long as you know. So this means there is a truce between us until then?"

"I suppose."

Renkotsu nodded and went back inside. The sun was now almost completely risen. In the castle, Akiko could hear Suikotsu and Jakotsu awake and arguing about something. When they were still fighting a little few minutes later, Akiko began to get curious and went inside to see what was wrong.

When she got inside she saw Suikotsu, Jakotsu, Bankotsu, Renkotsu, and Mukotsu all standing around talking to each other. (Kyoukotsu and Ginkotsu, not being able to go into the castle, slept outside) When they saw Akiko standing there, they all got dead quiet. Including Jakotsu and Suikotsu. All everyone did was stare at her angrily.

A/N: Thank you everyone who reviewed. I hoped you liked chapter eight. I'll try and write chapter nine as quickly as I can.