Disclaimer: I've been forgetting to put these in lately… Well, so you know, I don't own the Shichinintai.
Chapter Ten: Betrayal pt. 2
Akiko opened her eyes to find herself still laying on the bed her three new demonic acquaintances had put her. The last thing she remembered was them telling her that they would help her gain Bankotsu's trust again, then she felt dizzy and blacked out once more.
'At least my head doesn't hurt,' she thought bringing her hand up to feel where the blood had dried. "Ugh! Now I'm going to have to take a bath. Oh well, it can wait until I get back to Bankotsu."
Akiko got up and slid open the doors. "Hishouhato-sama! Kakeruuma-sama! Uzuniji-chan!" she called, not knowing where anyone was. It was eerily quiet in the odd hut they had brought her to.
"Oka-chan and Oto-chan went to go show your friends that you were innocent. I was told to wait here and watch over you," she heard Uzuniji say from behind her.
"Okay. Thank you very much to all of you for helping me. But, how are they going to convince them?"
Uzuniji giggled. "They are going to show them your memories and how Naraku set you up." She paused for a moment but then blurted out shyly, "do you want to play with me?"
Akiko smiled at the young girl and said, "sure. What do you want to play?"
Uzuniji smiled again. "Well… you ask the person a question and they have to answer it truthfully. If they do then they get one of these stones," she pulled a smooth silver rock from her kimono. "And if you lie, you have to give one to the person who asked the question. We each start out with three." She handed took out a small bag full of the stones and gave Akiko three. "Ready to play?"
Akiko examined the stones. "I guess."
Uzuniji brought Akiko outside and sat her down on the ground. "I'll go first!" she said cheerily. "Akiko-san, do you like the color blue?"
Akiko hadn't expected the questions to be this simple, even if she was playing a little girl. "Yeah."
The small redhead looked at her not blinking for a short moment. Her big blue eyes bore into Akiko's brown ones. "Here you go," she said handing her another stone from the bag. "Your turn!"
She thought for a second to think up a question. "What is your favorite color?"
Uzuniji pondered this and then said, "Purple. Do you trust me?" Akiko nodded and she said, "My turn again. Are you in love with Bankotsu?"
"Huh?" was all she could get out. In truth, she wasn't sure herself. "No," she told Uzuniji faintly.
Her blue eyes bore into Akiko's again. This time longer and she still didn't blink. Once she decided that he could tell if Akiko was lying or not, she stopped. "You are lying," she informed her. "I get your stone. Hey! So far I'm winning," she said adding the stone to her collection.
"No, I wasn't lying!" Akiko frantically yelled.
"Yes, you were. I know if you are lying or not, and you were. Sooooo, you love Bankotsu," she said happily. "Since you lied, I get to go again."
"I do NOT love Bankotsu!" she shouted.
"Well, I asked you if you loved him. You said 'no'. You were lying. Thus, you love him," Uzuniji stated simply.
Akiko continued to play the game with Uzuniji, but she couldn't help thinking about what the young girl had said to her. Was she truly in love with Bankotsu?
Uzuniji wound up convincing Akiko to play a few more games with her. She wasn't really in the mood, but she felt like she owed it to her to humor her. Soon, Hishouhato and Kakeruuma returned with solemn looks on their faces.
"What's wrong?" Akiko asked them quickly.
Hishouhato looked at her with sympathy. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this…"
"What?" she repeated worriedly.
"When we explained to your friends what had happened, we didn't have time to explain that you were with us. They got worried and went to find Naraku because they thought he had hurt you. Naraku had powerful demons guarding the castle and the Shichinintai didn't make it back."
As he finished Akiko felt a lump in her throat. Her heart skipped a beat, knowing she would never see Bankotsu again. A familiar feeling went throughout her body. It was the feeling of severe loneliness. A cold, empty feeling that filled her stomach.
She managed to utter a soft 'thank you' and quickly ran away from the hut and the demons who had been so kind to her.
She ran as fast as she could toward the inn. Akiko wasn't really sure why. Maybe it was because she hoped deeply that she would find everyone okay, waiting for her.
By the time she could see the inn, her throat burned from running so long and fast. When she reached the front doors to it, she stopped abruptly. Out of breath, she fell on to the porch. Akiko thought about what had happened in such a short amount if time. She now had no family, no friends, she lost someone she was falling in love with, she couldn't carry out her revenge, (which was what kept her alive for ten years) and she didn't even have Kageyu anymore.
Akiko felt saddened. More so than she had been feeling lately. That sadness was soon replaced with hatred. Hatred stronger than the one she felt for the Shichinintai. Her revenge was now directed toward Naraku. He set her up for the sole purpose of having her killed. In doing so, she lost the last remaining people she cared about.
'The Shichinintai… I was actually starting to like them. Even Jakotsu. It was me who was supposed to kill them. I swear that I will avenge all of them,' she thought angrily, clutching her knees up to her chest and resting her forehead on them.
Akiko was struggling to suppress the tears burning her eyes. She didn't take notice at first that someone had slipped their arms around her waist.
She gasped when she felt them rest their head on top of hers. "You're alive. I thought you were dead. I was worried you had died thinking I was mad at you," Akiko heard a familiar voice say.
"B-Bankotsu?" she whispered turning around to see the young leader of the Shichinintai looking at her, smiling as usual. "I thought you were dead!"
He scoffed. "No more dead than I was before you left. What happened?" he asked looking at the blood on her head.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing. …Why are you covered in blood?" she just noticed the blood on his hands and armor.
He scoffed again. "There were some demons that we had to take care of."
Without thinking, Akiko pressed her lips to Bankotsu's. It only took a second for her to quickly pull away and turn her head in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Bankotsu," she mumbled quickly.
His smile widened and he laughed as he said, "I'm glad you're alive too." And he moved closer to her, only a couple inches from her face. Akiko's heart beat loudly again, like when she was invited to lay down next to him only two nights ago.
Bankotsu wiped off some of the blood that remained on her forehead and moved her bangs out of her eyes, looking into them. They fluttered shut as he moved his hand under he chin and leaned in closer. She could feel his warm breath against her mouth until she heard someone yell, "Hey, Aniki, where'd you go?"
Both Bankotsu and Akiko pulled away as Jakotsu came out onto the porch. He spotted her and made a little pouting face. "Oh, it's you." He sighed and kneeled down by his two companions. "So, what happened?"
Akiko explained everything that had happened. From how she had the argument with Kageyu to when Hishouhato told her they were dead. They then explained to her how Naraku managed to get away. And how they needed to be careful to watch out for any more of his tricks.
Akiko was still depressed about not having Kageyu with her anymore. But, she figured taking a nice hot bath would calm her some. Besides, the dried blood was beginning to make her sick.
The inn conveniently had a hot spring so later on that night while everyone else was busy talking; she crept away to soak in the spring. The hot water felt so nice on her tense body. She washed her hair over and over until all blood was out. After she had washed up, she decided it wouldn't hurt just to relax a little while longer.
Akiko closed her eyes and sighed as she leaned against a rock. Her relaxation ended, however, when she heard the sound of someone coming into the hot spring from the other side of the rock.
A/N: Sorry, it took longer than I thought. It would have been finished sooner, but when I was writing, my friend came over. She tried to help me write it, but it ended up being some strange combination of Dragon Ball Z and FLCL. So, as you can imagine, I had to rewrite the whole thing. Also, school starts the 24th for me so it will probably take longer for me to update now. I'll try hard to get as much typed out as I can, though!