Authoress' notes: Review, review review! X)
10/30/05--Chapter edited. (brandishes the spork again)The out-of-character sentence near the end of this chapter has been sent into pixel oblivion. Again, random words are still getting smushed together, but I seem to have no control over that.
Wayward Ransom, chapter 16.
by artisanrox
In the blinding light of the next morning, a knock sounded at the front door that caused Bankotsu to waken first from his light sleep. He undid his arms from around Akiko, who was still sleeping soundly on his shoulder. He awakened her gently, holding a finger to his mouth to quiet her in case the guest's intentions were to find out her whereabouts and cause her harm. She was even more flustered to notice that she had been encircling his waist with her arms all night. However in the increasing daylight it wasn't as easy to hide how red she made herself again discovering it. She blew it off, yawning and rubbing her eyes, thinking that maybe it was just some kind of reaction from being in so much danger the day before.
The knock sounded again, this time a little louder and impatient. Bankotsu, completely absorbed in the sudden anticipation of danger, padded cautiously over to the door. Sliding it open a little at first, until he recognized the entourage in front of the cottage. He was greeted by horses and official looking men from the daimyo sponsoring Akiko's protection upon opening the door all the way. The man at the door was one of the daimyo's higher ranking men, Yukio. He was a more mature man, in his forties, with hair that was turning grey just slightly at the temples, and was not that much taller than Bankotsu. He had a pompous and intellectual, yet resentful air about himself that would either make one intrigued by his intelligence or utterly repulsed by his arrogance.
Yukio handed him an ornate bag full of money, which was Bankotsu's personal share of the daimyo's reward. It obviously contained a "generous" and unasked-for bonus.
Upon seeing Bankotsu bare-chested, and the tiny bit of lipstick on his sternum marking where Akiko had pressed her lips into the day before, he looked down the bridge of his nose at him and raised one side of his upper lip. He obviously thought a lot more went on than actually happened. Things that wouldn't have been any of his business, anyway, even if they did happen.
"With regards from the daimyo, sir. Here is the rest of your reward. Your men have eliminated both the opposing daimyo and his men in no time at all. Quite...frightening, actually. And you have guarded the whore's life." The tiny figure of Akiko showed up behind Bankotsu at the door, and Yukio managed to crack a wry smile in her direction. "Go buy yourself a bedroom full of women like her."
Akiko's face went white with fury at those words.
"You have some kind of a goddamned problem with her?", Bankotsu quietly shot back, cocking an eyebrow. Akiko had something nasty ready with which to retort him, but Bankotsu beat her to the punch.
Yukio's sly smile disappeared at the unexpected, gutteral reproach by the much younger man. He was taken aback that the mercenary would become so...offended...by his words about the woman inside. She was a whore, after all. "She is of no use to the daimyo now, she may go back to her disgusting lifestyle. You are dismissed from duty here."
Akiko was appalled, and Bankotsu was furious.
Bankotsu too-casually leaned against the doorframe, lazily supporting himself with an elbow and placed the other hand on his hip. He crossed his feet, smirked and cocked an eyebrow upwards. "You don't seem to know who you're talkin' to." His smirk quickly vanished, and his face became frighteningly deadly, even though he never raised his voice below a menacingly confidential tone. "If you did, you'd just pay me, shut up, get back on your horse and not come back here, especially acting like an ignorant asshole."
Though it took a few moments, Yukio had a few polished, haughty words of his own prepared. "I-"
However, he was cut quickly off by the young man. Bankotsu grinned again, this time even more wickedly. "And another thing. I don't really like being called 'sir'. Way too formal for me. So remember that too. No 'sir' next time I see your ass up at the old man's place. K?"
Yukio was beside himself. He had nothing witty ready for that one. The young man's toungue was as sharp as his precious custom blade. Yukio looked at the girl and said as sympathetically as he could muster, "I'm sorry...miss...but I seem to be one bag short. Your reward will be delivered to you promptly."
Akiko frowned angrily at the government official. "Bullcrap," she quietly said, her face barely visible behind Bankotsu's shoulder.
Bankotsu took his hand off his hip for a moment and made the slightest motion backward with it, towards Akiko, in an effort to let her know she needed to keep quiet. He would be more than happy do the talking here. Which caused Akiko to become a bit miffed.
Bankotsu's fury rose again as his attention turned to the official in front of him. "She saved your damned lives and you didn't give her one lousy yen for that yet?" he sneered.
The girl was too smart for her own good, and too much like the cocky mercenary. But...that was all well and good. Yukio always looked down on the morals of mercenaries, but on the other hand...never hesitated to use them, either. He cunningly figured that he could easily have the two of them continually watched for now, at all hours of the day anyway. He suspected the mercenary had some feelings for her to defend her so vehemently. That was, in fact, very fortunate. Yukio knew, for a long time, where this girl was. And he knew she was very, very important to him.
He remembered this while forcing himself to reply calmly. His first priority was to assuage the mercenary. "I will reward her swiftly. I do apologize for that oversight. Now, I must be off. I have an important meeting to attend."
Yukio bowed, turned around, and walked down the single step to his horse. And he then promptly and conveniently forgot about Akiko's reward...again.
Bankotsu and Akiko watched the men ride off to the distance. "Lying sack of crap," Bankotsu growled.
"I could have told him that myself," said Akiko, still furious. She turned around and, with a deep scowl, headed back inside.
Bankotsu fingered the ornate bag of money. He turned his head partway back toward Akiko. "And I'm the one that can rip his head off any time I please. Not you," he said to her over his shoulder.
Akiko opened the door to the rear room as she turned back to him. "You had no business speaking for me." Immediately, she thought twice after telling Bankotsu off. She briefly feared he'd probably kill her for mouthing off to him. He just killed fifteen men on his own, after all.
He was surprisingly perfectly rational. He leaned casually against the doorframe, crossing his arms and legs. He leaned his head back and sighed. His face was almost...kind, and Akiko was shocked when he answered her quietly. However, his eyes were locked on to hers, and they were uncomfortably piercing. She had trouble directly looking into them.
"If I want them pissed off at anyone, I want it to be me. Nothing you or I say will make a difference. It's just that if he retaliates, he can retaliate against me anytime he likes. He just knows he'll be the dead man if he tries, because I'll kill him first."
Akiko sighed. He was right, and it made her even more angry. Being in his presence and seeing all the things he could do made her feel all the more powerless the way it was. And to not have that respect from the officals made her almost envious of him. The officials were why she was in the situation she found herself in.
But in all, he made her stay here rather interesting, even after getting a first-hand glimpse of his terrifying combat experience. She was afraid to admit that she was intrigued by him, in spite of his frightening viciousness and bloodlust, and now, his perplexing gentleness. She figured her brief time here at the cottage really could have been a lot worse.
Leaving the door opened, Bankotsu made his way over to his armor, picked it up, and got ready to help himself out the door. "Well, at least they pay well," he said with a smirk and a chuckle. "Anyway, I'm done here."
Bankotsu made it to the door. Looking out, he saw a soldier in the distance walking toward the cottage. He turned around to look over to Akiko. He saw silent worriment on her face.
"Oh, yeah. Here." He threw the bag of money to Akiko with an underhanded toss and a grin. This was the thing he planned on doing last night. To temporarily fix everything.
Acting on reflex, Akiko had to step forward awkwardly to catch it. After she found her balance, she stood there in shock for a moment, wide-mouthed at what he just did. When she picked up her eyes, he was out the door already. She ran to the threshold and called out to him. He already cleared the single step and was ready to unearth his weapon. His long, almost knee-length braid was quickly becoming a dark streak. It swayed back and forth, brushing against one solid shoulder blade, then the other.
"But...I...!"
He turned around with a huge smirk, the increasing light playing on the muscles in his broad back this time. "And I insist," he said as he picked up his huge weapon and slung it over a shoulder. The soil fell off it, some onto his back, and the blade left a deep, painful-looking scar in the ground. "Eh. I've got so much of it, I hardly know what to do with it all anymore," he laughed, with a wave of his hand. When he turned around the approaching young man now passed him out, still headed toward the cottage.
Akiko was left in the doorway, holding the money and shifting her wide eyes back and forth from it to the young man who gave it to her. She soon undid the red tie, and looked inside it. It was enough for someone like her to live off quite comfortably for at least two years. Those less fortunate might have been able to stretch it out further than that.
Akiko remembered that greasy official saying something about this being only part of the money for the job Bankotsu and his men accepted. Sooo...she told herself that she shouldn't feel too bad about accepting it after all. She lifted her eyes with a silent "thank you" to him, and he responded with a silent "you're welcome".
By this time, the tall, gaunt soldier was at the step himself. Both of them knew what he was there for. Bankotsu stopped for a moment. He had an inkling of what would happen, and wanted to stick around just long enough to see it. Especially when he saw Akiko turn angry, and run inside as she heard the soldier make some disgusting comments to her. Bankotsu placed a hand on his hip and grinned widely.
The soldier disappeared into the cottage. Bankotsu heard the soldier call out more things to her, but he was cut off by a thock! coming from the threshold.
"Son of a ...!" he hear the soldier yell.
It was obvious Akiko didn't need to take any more customers, and successfully used the dagger-in-the-threshold trick to get the point across.
Definitely a newbie, thought Bankotsu with a laugh. And she hit the doorframe too! Hah! Good for her.
The soldier immediately appeared again in the doorway, running quickly away, his face pale and his eyes wide with terror. He almost ran past Bankotsu again on the way to where he came from, but sheer envy made him stop and scrutinize the grinning, barechested, handsome young man with the huge blade slung over one shoulder, and carrying some armor in the other hand.
The newbie glanced at the spot of deep red lipstick on Bankotsu's sternum, then pointed at the banryuu. "If I had one of those damned things, the whores would do whatever I wanted them to do too!" Still scowling, he continued walking away at a very fast pace. In no time he was out of eyesight.
Bankotsu turned his head back from the soldier to Akiko, who reappeared in the doorway. He commenced chuckling at any implications the soldier may have meant with that statement. Akiko smiled and laughed a bit, too.
As their laughter died down, Bankotsu and Akiko gave each other a last long look. Akiko disappeared into the doorway, her hair whisking after her, to gather her things to leave.
Let 'em all believe whatever they want about me, Bankotsu thought to himself with a smile as he turned and walked away. Right now, he had to get back to his men and find out how they fared.