Authoress' notes: Thanks RahabsRehab! (sweatdrop.) (laughs stupidly and changes preferences.)
Thanks also to GothGirl04. I appreciate your comments!
Wayward Ransom, Chapter 11.
Acting too quickly to let Akiko's slap reach his face, Bankotsu's intense gaze suddenly changed to utter joy, and he laughed out loud. He was overjoyed at seeing someone familiar, and someone he hadn't seen in a long, long time. He happily called out her name again, effortlessly scooping her up off the floor. She yelped in terror as he casually threw her up in the air, caught her, and happily swung her around in a circle. He gently placed her feet back on the floor.
"Akiko! I haven't seen you in so long! I never expected I'd meet you like this!" Bankotsu was thrilled. Still holding on to her as he could tell she could barely stay on her feet from shock, he drew her close. His teeth flashed white in an intoxicating smile.
Little Akiko was so shocked she could hardly say anything. She forgot how angry she was before. She wanted to slap him so badly for being nosy, then for actually discovering who she was. But she just couldn't now. She couldn't make herself do it. Because of what she knew about him, and because of what he did for her well over a decade ago.
All she could do was hold on to his shoulders and scan his face up and down. She really seemed to be drinking him in, though a high degree of fear was still evident in her eyes. "Ban...kotsu...you're...so different..."
"Heh. And you're just the same as you always were." He released her and slid his hands over to her arms, holding her hands. "What...happened to get you here?"
She tore her gaze away from his face at that question and dejectedy looked side to side. "It's a really long story...Daddy's house had a fire...when he rebuilt, it took all his money, then our crops all got ruined, his business went broke, I set out on my own to help him..." She waved her head side to side, and broke away from him. She backed away as she stared at him fearfully. "And you...I heard the soldiers talking about you. They said that they were terrified of you. You're in the Band of Seven? You're...their leader? How did you...? I thought your parents said you went away to the military? You wanted to be a soldier? I don't remember anything at all, though, except that it was all so sudden..."
Huh, so that's what people think happened, thought Bankotsu. He leaned casually against the doorframe again and crossed his arms and legs. His face slightly became bittered as he spoke. "Yeah, I was in the military. I was continually trained for over twelve years. A few months ago I decided that the military..." He searched for the right word to say. "Sucked," he said finally. He painfully looked away from her briefly again. He turned back, and suddenly his face brightened, and his cocky half-smirk returned. "I needed to do things my own way. So I dragged my buddy Jakotsu along and we met up with some pretty powerful fighters along the way. We began hiring ourselves out, and pretty soon the daimyos, especially the one I was trained under, had us doing their crapwork for them." His grin broadened. "Even in place of their entire armies," he added, chuckling.
"Wow. That sounds like a terrible way to live," Akiko said, trying to sympathize. Her eyes reflected sadness.
He waved her off. "Nah. My men make it all worth it. I tripped over practically all of 'em, but that doesn't make them any less important to me."
Akiko looked around worriedly again. She clasped her little hands tightly together again. "I...don't understand...but...I guess it's the same with my friends." She paused for a moment, and her face grew angry. "Daimyos...government. I hate the government. That's why I'm here. That's why I am what I am now. I was so happy working for my father...the government just can't be trusted by anyone. They're all out for themselves."
This wasn't entirely a new concept to Bankotsu, but he laughed anyway. "No daimyo messes with my men and me. They're too busy using us to make sure they hold on to their positions." He grinned widely again. "And paying us really well for it, too." His face softened as he asked concernedly, "Hey. You helped save the old man's neck. You should be getting something, too."
"They'd never give me a dime. They'd just send me back to the brothel and make me work there as a prostitute so I don't cause any trouble in managing their accounts." She took her hands off her face after trying to wipe the tears escaping from her eyes, streaming down her face. "I'm not who I was before, Bankotsu. I'm not the same...I'm not...look at what I am."
He closed the gap between them. Why would he think any less of her because stuff in her life forced her to do what she did? "The knife? Paying at the door? The 'not-seeing-my-face' thing?" He rubbed the small cut in his neck, and smoothed out the now dark purple collar.
"Oh, my! I actually hit something! But...it was you that I hit...I'm so sorry-"
He cut her off with laughter at the thought of her apologizing to him for giving him such a tiny nick. "I can't tell you how many times I've practically been killed, Akiko. This is nothing."
She laughed through her tears. "My friends who are still back there told me to do all that. They were concerned I'd get hurt or something. The soldier who told me the assassination plans was my very first customer, so they knew I'd have it rough on my own like this. And since I look sort of weird they said I might have worse customers than anyone else. I'm obviously part something, so rough guys would probably think they're messing with something...dangerous." She became silent with the impending thought of it all. And she knew she wasn't "dangerous" at all. Not anywhere near dangerous enough to fight anyone off. He knew that, too.
"And the wakazashi...you don't seem to have been trained much..."
"Bankotsu, I can't hit the broad side of a barn with a halberd." She laughed, and he took this as a cue to allow himself to laugh a bit too. "And I couldn't even pick up the halberd. And you've seen what I could do with a wakazashi. The dagger...I've practiced doing that and flew right out the door almost every time, then I looked dumb walking outside to pick it up." She laughed again. Bankotsu found her laughter quite cute too. Almost as cute as when she nailed him with that dagger earlier. "I'm used to desks and figures and writing..."
She got quiet all of a sudden, and turned around to gaze out the window above the desk for a moment.
"Akiko..."
She turned back toward him. "Yes?"
"Those marks on your arms...?"
She brought her hands up to look at them and examined them for a moment. The raised areas were darker red, and they almost looked like scars from getting burned, or very large raised veins. They twined around her forearms and came down to the nails on her fingers. "Oh, I don't know what they are." She looked at him directly in the face, puzzled. "They appeared after the fire at Daddy's place. They've been getting more prominent as things happen."
Bankotsu noticed something on her face, so he stepped forward to her to examine it. He took hold of her cheek gently, and taking his thumb, moved it back and forth, over a small mark on her cheek. It looked like a scar, and a fairly recent one. Most others probably would have never noticed it. "What's this?"
She looked frightened from him touching her face, then she was frightened at the answer to his question. "From the guy that told the assassination plans...he was really drunk. When I was trying to get away from him so I could tell someone about the plans, he threw a hairpin at me, then passed out. So I was able to get away and tell someone about the plans before more of them came looking to kill all of us."
Still stroking her cheek, Bankotsu flashed a devilish smirk while he gazed at the mark. "Know his name? Where he went?"
She was terrified at the hints he was throwing toward her, and snapped backward, out of range of his hand. "You want to go after him?" she breathed
He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Sure. I'll kill 'im for you."
Her eyes widened and she looked down at the floor. She couldn't believe how he could be so cold. How he could say something like that so flippantly. "Bankotsu...you really are different now."