Authoress' notes: I went back through some previous chapters and edited them, mostly for using the damned SHIFT key waaay too much. Fixed one totally out of character faux pas in another chapter.
Wayward Ransom, chapter 18.
Silence suddenly fell on the battlefield in the mountainous area next to the abandoned village. Or in this case, it would be more apt to call it "the cage", "the trap". Bodies, most cut cleanly in half, and as plentiful as the falling light flakes of snow, lay all around him. He was alone on the battlefield, so very, very alone. He had ordered his men to run, but Bankotsu had remained behind voluntarily. If only he could attract enough attention to himself so his men could get away...
However, they were all separated and missing by now, and Bankotsu was left surrounded in droves and droves of too-subservient archers, angry peasants and mindless soldiers. Cornered all around, he had nowhere else to go.
A signal made to announce someone's approach made everyone freeze out of respect. The approaching important man wanted to confront his prey, as it only made sense to allow the respectable man a few words with him before his prey was killed. Perhaps even let the gentleman do it himself. After all, it was only right.
A shocked Bankotsu saw the daimyo's son, who was also the army's first general, and who had known Bankotsu for so long, approach on a pure white horse. Behind the daimyo's son were more men, including another lower-ranking, middle-aged man that always seemed to follow wherever he went, and stroked his ego, enjoying the bliss of wealth like a lapdog. They were on more white horses, each in more splendid armor than the last. The opposing daimyos, who all along had been gleefully using the Seven to cut one another to pieces, had apparently and suddenly joined forces to orchestrate this event.
Unbelieveable.
Bankotsu looked for the old man's other man in command, Yukio, solely so he would know who exactly to kill after he was done with the lapdog, the old man's son, and every daimyo before him today, if need be. Bankotsu believed in going from the top down...because that's how power worked. Nothing was ever accomplished the other way around. But he could not fathom why the old man would so suddenly have all this done to himself and his men. And he did not see Yukio, strangely...maybe he crawled off and died...or better yet, and most likely, one of his men already had killed him.
The young warrior let the tip of his crimson-stained weapon drop to the ground, out of not only blatant intentional disrespect, but fatigue. He had been battling too many today. There were just...too many.
His heavy breathing became a white mist as it left his mouth. From all the slaughter going on around him, himself taking no mere small part in it, he was surprised it wasn't red mist. He practically breathed in blood right now instead of air, and it soaked into his pores as his red-stained clothing and armor stuck to his skin.
The instant he stopped swinging the banryuu, hundreds of sharp points were delivered to his neck. He stood encircled by drawn weapons, each with their edges outward, each hungry for his blood. A wall of sharp steel. Ha. To keep him from running away. What a laugh.
Men parted like a wave of water in front of the approaching man on the pure white horse. The horse's elaborate bridle and saddle clinked softly as the horseman silently instructed his steed to halt.
The man eyed the young mercenary and his huge halberd, both covered in blood, and his clothes soaked in it from defending himself. The eyes and dark complexion of the daimyo's son matched that of the mercenary's perfectly. However, even though both the official and his lapdog were almost the same age as the surrounded young warrior, their faces told the tale of consistently being pampered, and having had things handed to them. The one standing on his own, in the center of the circle of steel, had none of that in his countenance.
The mercenary spoke first, astounded. "What's the meaning of all this? Have you gone insane? Has your father gone insane?"
The man on horseback addressed Bankotsu in a most stately fashion. "The need is painfully apparent to crush you, mercenary. You will no longer be a threat to these helpless villagers. I take on the responsibility of dispatching you, which my father left to me when he died. Preparations have been underway for a month already, after many years of watching him fall in and out of illness. Your time has come, and we are the instrument of its arrival."
Bankotsu, also in the most stately fashion, hiding his utter rage at this betrayal, chuckled, and replied calmly. "Don't give me bullcrap, general. You're afraid of us. You're afraid for your position." His voice was loud enough to carry over to the horseman, but controlled enough so it clearly wasn't shouting. Amazingly able to collect himself to speak, his words were totally contrary to the fact that he looked like a blood- and sweat-stained, tired, savage animal. He knew by the timeframe given to him by the daimyo's son that the old man had nothing to do with this. His son, and who knows who else, instigated it all.
The hush was broken as villagers in the crowd whispered among themselves at this suggestion. Hearing them titter, the man on horseback knew the mercenary's response was way too accurate to let him live much longer. But he would certainly be wiping that self-assured smirk off the mercenary's face in no time. "We are afraid you don't know how to handle power very well. So it is necessary right now to forcibly take it from you," calmly said the man.
Bankotsu's voice rose a bit, but he was still utterly unruffled. His eyes never moved from the man on horseback. "We are in no need of your power! Members in the Band of Seven have been in political positions before, and given it up after they see realize the shithole they've stepped into! They have hurled political power out of their tents on its sorry ass!"
"The villagers here are appalled by your unmerciful killing tactics!" The man on horseback unconsciously began to show his temper first because of Bankotsu's cutting words. Which meant...he lost. And the general knew it.
Ha, he chuckled to himself. He knows I have it all figured out. If my men and I die today, there will be no shame in that. But for that one... "Guess what, General? I personally did not tolerate that! You and your troops are the unmerciful ones! We accomplished in one day more than you and your army could accomplish in an entire month! What's better, General? Cutting off an enemy's head in one week, or slowly beating them to death for months, like you and your helpless little army of ants?"
"Ants have been studied by warlords for centuries, mercenary! And they know they either take orders or die! They know that they're more effective creatures in the colony than going off on their own, doing as they please!"
"Effective! Kiss my ass! " shot back the young man with the double-edged weapon. "We may only be seven, but I knew what each of my men were doing at all times! And in battles fought for your sake! When I needed to bring order, I did it! I beat their asses, and damn it all, I kept order! Most of my men had a lot of other things in their heads to distract them, and my job was to clear it all out! Do you do that for your men, General? Is that why you all paid emperors' ransoms for your dirty work? Because you were too lazy to do it yourself?"
The daimyo's son was unconsciously moving the horse under him back and forth, back and forth. The horse, padding continuously while Bankotsu threw his firey arguments at his former recruiter, seemed to sense how embarrasingly uncomfortable its rider was growing. The man on horseback was getting quite perturbed. This was not a court, where both sides could be heard out! This was a mission to eradicate evil!
"Insolent, unmerciful mercenary! Telling us how to keep order in our own homes..."
Bankotsu ignored him and continued to fire back. "Making sure every single one of your men are trained properly, and taking them and making them into the men they are meant to be. Quality over quantity! That's how you win wars, General! That's how!" He paused slightly. He knew he had the upper hand in their verbal sparring match. He always had the upper hand, and not just using weapons. "Your whole house more than gratefully used us to slash, burn, and roll over your enemies in a matter of days...as opposed to weeks or months...and now we are handed this?"
It was the general's turn to chuckle. "Quality over quantity indeed." He turned back briefly to his fellow horsemen, and they began giving things to him, which he in turn threw at Bankotsu's feet. "These are what I have to hand you."
As the items fell, each hitting the dirt with a distinctive resonant sound, Bankotsu recognized them as Jakotsu's blade, an opened container that once held some of Mukotsu's poison concoction, one of Kyoukotsu's weapons, and one of Ginkotsu's hooked wires. "The last two of you will quickly be killed off in the village near us to where they have run. We can always return those weapons to you, too...if you'd like."
Mind games. There was no end to these mind games! The young man with the bloodied halberd spoke through his teeth. "Bastard! Finish off your witchhunt by dueling with me, General! Me!" he shouted.
The man on horseback laughed. "I don't need to, mercenary."
"Coward!" Bankotsu bellowed. His patience was at its last now.
"Do you know how to kill a headstrong, uncontrollable young man like you?"
"Get down here and show me, general!"
The general paused for a short time, leaving the two of them glaring at one another. The daimyo's son finally spoke, answering the question he asked without acknowledging Bankotsu's repeated challenges at all. "You kill his soul first."
"Don't speak to me about religion, general!" Bankotsu shot back. "My Banryuu and I will both convince you to pray to whatever particular god you may worship, because once I get this blade into your skull, you'll be praying for an escort across the Sanzu! Weapons will do the talking here!"
The daimyo's son made a motion to the right half of the crowd with his fan. The people silently and obediently parted in a wave, and an outlet for Bankotsu was created in the solid wall of steel. The open path led to the east. The general glared at Bankotsu again, and smiled. He raised his fan, and with it, pointed toward the outlet. "Go and tell that to your whore, mercenary."
Not being able to comprehend the general's words at first, Bankotsu narrowed his eyes. When he realized the implications of what the official spoke of, his eyes suddenly widened, and had a glazed, wild look over them which they never, ever had before. He gritted his teeth and gripped his weapon tightly. "You...goddamned...no..."
With an even louder "No!", he broke instantly into a run, heading east. He knew it made no difference at this point where or if he ran or retreated. They wanted his blood, and he knew they were sure to follow him wherever he went.
Banryuu in hand, he ran at break-neck pace in the direction of the abandoned village where Akiko was housed about a year ago.
She had nothing to do with any of this!...With me! Nothing!...Nothing! was all his mind could repeat, as he desperately ran as fast as he could.
If at any moment in his life he was truly tasted bitter terror in his mouth, it was now. Not because of the lynch mob he had just run through, or the high government official he just insolently disrespected, but for one of the few people on earth he could truly trust, and after all, cared about.
And now he was brought to the present again, teeth bared. He heavily leaned against the broken doorway, gripping both katanas in one hand. With the nodachi tassel firmly held in the other hand, he peered through the overgrown shrubbery still standing. He could not keep back the horrible flood of memories. His body was too broken right now to shoulder them, and he was too fatigued to fight them. They had won. They had taken over, and he made his way, as fast as his hip would allow, to one place he knew he could hopefully cleanse himself from it all.