Authoress' Notes: The Chinese repeating crossbow was (is) a real weapon, and had a box, holder-type thing on top of it that many bolts could be placed in to make the weapon have the ability of rapid-fire. Think of it as sort of an automatic version of the normal crossbow.
I'm considering editing this entire story, making it manga cannon only. It really won't change the story all that much, as it's just for my own peace of mind. But just in case you see some earier chapters edited, you'll know why.
And I do not own Bankotsu (sigh!) or anything in the Inuyasha universe. But all the original characters ARE mine. Duh, that's why they're called Original Characters. (lol!)
Wayward Ransom, chapter 28.
by artisanrox
The tea ceremony host lowered his arm while the dust cleared. He had put his arm up in front of his head in an effort to procect himself from the flying splinters, which filled the teahouse while the wall had been chopped off.
He cringed in the farthest corner of the teahouse, looking around quickly and anxiously, trying to absorb what had just happened. He couldn't believe what he had just seen, and when he looked outside the teahouse, couldn't believe that the dark young man outside could have possibly caused so much damage single-handedly.
The host then checked his own person for injury, and, when finding none, surveyed his guests, who were still sitting silently, cut off from completing their peaceful ceremony. The directed glares of the guard, the demoness, and the daimyo all led to the young man outside the remaining walls of the teahouse.
His eyes then fell upon the broken halves of his prized yellow teabowl, worth an inheritance, and the mess of tea, worth a fortune in powdered form, which now discolored the straw mats which lined the floor.
His prized set of tools...now destroyed, his set so much less complete for the sake of the broken teabowl. The irreplaceable tea bowl was now worthless. The teabowl may have only been broken in half...but his heart! Oh, his poor heart! It had been shattered in a million pieces by terrible, cruel misfortune!
Crystal-clear tears began to stream from his large brown eyes, and the watery globes fell from his round face to the floor in large, splashing puddles, as he beheld the destruction of one of his most prized posessions. He shuffled on his hands and feet over to where the broken halves of the teabowl rested, picked up half a teabowl in each hand, and commenced weeping loudly over them.
Yukio rose to his feet, almost stepping on the tea ceremony host as he blindly shuffled on the floor in front of him. Never taking his eyes off the young assassin, Yukio majestically began walking to the rear of the teahouse.
He passed by the immaterial demoness, and the guard bearing the silkworm armor on the way to exiting the now three-sided teahouse.
"My lord!" said the guard quietly as the daimyo walked by him.
"Wait for instructions."
"Yes, my lord!" quickly answered the guard, rising up after Yukio had passed him, and was on his way down the two small steps to the ground.
Soumeikarasu also arose, and found herself dizzy, the effort expended in remaining solid from the tea ceremony catching up to her. She scowled at the rest of the men in her company, knowing she was extremely weakened, and would not be of much more use to anyone...including herself. She also knew, through explanation by Yukio, that if somehow, the girl got a lucky break, she was one of the few that could make her life quite difficult.
I need to get away to recharge after remaining solid for so long...but...better not leave yet. I need to see how this battle between the boy and my...partner, she thought, scowling even deeper at the word, fares before I can plan my next move.
Outside the teahouse, the afternoon sun glinted of the blade of the Bankotsu, and an eerily faint, purplish glow could be seen on the curved, sickle-like edge on the other end of the long shaft. Bankotsu tapped the shaft of his weapon on his shoulder in anticipation while watching Yukio step onto ground a distance from him, and stop to face him. "We meet again, Master Yukio."
Yukio calmly regarded the young man. "I have a proposition to make," he began politely.
Bankotsu's mouth turned down, and his brow furrowed deeply. "There's nothing you can offer me, Master Yukio. There are more than enough reasons for me to take your life. Some are in the past," he said, beginning to grin darkly, "and some just fell in my lap when I escaped from the Sanzu."
"Anyway, the proposition," continued the daimyo, ignoring the young man's refusal. He began casually removing his royal purple jacket off his right arm, and tucking it into his belt, displaying one side of a narrow-sleeved, ornate, crested white shirt underneath the jacket. "Surrender yourself to Soumeikarasu's complete command here," he said, turning ever so slightly toward the demoness to his far left, who had made her own way to the ground and was now standing directly in front of the tea house. "In return, she can give you demonic abilities you've never had. Most importantly, demonically miraculous healing."
Bankotsu, disgusted, gave the daimyo a puff of air in response.
"Think about it, boy. That has always been the bane of your existence, hasn't it? Quite frustrating to have the strength and speed of a demon...and the body of a frail human. A terrible imbalance. Soumeikarasu will be more than able to correct that imbalance."
Yukio did not see any sign of concurrence in the young man. That was fine. He did not expect it. "If you're not willing to accept my proposal, then you will simply have to face the consequences," he added, and a circle-shaped, purplish glow could be seen underneath his white inner shirt, "and lose your soul in the process."
Bankotsu laughed derisively at the daimyo. "I don't have to worry about losing my soul. I don't have one to lose." His amused expression melted into a menacing scowl. "You made sure of that, my lord."
Yukio sighed in rather anticipated annoyance. "Never was any sense in talking to you, boy." That's why, in training, we had to resort to controlling you by other means. "I'm finished being polite with you."
Bankotsu was also at the limit of his patience. He was just about to remove the banryuu from his shoulder and ready his stance, when he felt an intense stab to the right side of his back.
He was hit hard by a large force, blindsiding him from behind. It forced a loud grunt from his lungs, and carried him along by sheer momentum. It threw him into the ground, causing him to lose his grip on his weapon, and the huge banryuu impaled itself deeply in the grassy ground.
The force pushing him angled downward, plowing him through the dirt for quite a distance, when finally it angled upwards. Bankotsu tumbled a few times when the force released him, then he was left sitting on the ground, a bit shaken, a long gash cut into the grass led up to where he sat. Judging from the pain, he knew that whatever had hit him caused a nasty, tearing puncture wound on his back.
After a matter of seconds, he recovered his senses. He saw that the area was once again experiencing a shower of down-like bits of fluff...and they led right up to the huge, phoenix-like, orangish-white, crested demonic bird who was flying low over Yukio.
"So that's your bird, my lord!" said Bankotsu, snickering, in spite of being completely confused by the weird bird's appearance. That's strange, thought Bankotsu. The townspeople called it a phoenix. It looks like a phoenix...but yet it doesn't.
The bird, he now saw, was carrying some items in its oddly webbed, heavily clawed feet. When the daimyo was directly underneath, he caught in either hand what the bird was carrying - a beautifully elaborate repeating crossbow in his right hand, a katana in his left, all of which he immediately proceeded to arrange on his belt.
The odd bird then landed next to Yukio, and, being well over twice his height, lowered its head so the daimyo could remove a quiver of crossbow bolts hanging from its neck.
Bankotsu saw the bird was gazing at him strangely as Yukio was removing the bolts it carried. It blinked its eyes, each eye surrounded in a circle of white feathers. It cocked its head, and the long, leash-like lanyard of leather that encircled its neck swung back and forth.
Bankotsu picked himself off the ground, and readied his stance. "I'll have both your head and that bird's rolling side by side when I'm done here!"
He ran over to his weapon, and grasped its shaft. Never stopping, he twirled the heavy halberd around, the right side of his back reminding him of his injury. He jumped into the air, throwing both himself and his weapon at the bird.
The bird barely dodged, flying upwards in a flash. The halberd bit into the ground deeply, causing an explosion of rocks and soil to rise from the ground.
"Huh. Pretty quick," noted Bankotsu while the dust swirled around him.
Yukio, who was now near the young man's side, grinned. "Are you sure you don't recognize her?"
"There's no one here I recognize but you, Yukio!" Bankotsu said, readying his weapon to swing again, while carefully making himself aware of the positions of bird, guard, demoness, and daimyo.
"Hm. Of course you don't recognize the girl in this form. I had to raise her to bring it out of her. Her demonic abilities only fully came out after she was driven to do so. Driven by anger, and hate, and fear."
Bankotsu glanced over to his right at the bird, which was hovering in the air.
"That is an apricot mandarin duck demoness, boy."
Bankotsu relaxed his stance to rest a hand on his hip again, laughing. "You're attempting to kill me using a demonic duck as a weapon. That's hilarious, Yukio! You're what, pushing 50 now? You've really slipped, and you've given me yet another reason to take your head. I think you've become much too crazy to live any longer."
"Look closely. You know this girl quite well. One of her forms is what you see here." Yukio pointed above, at the orange-white bird. "Her demonic nature was kept well hidden, even subdued, by her contact with humans. Lucky enough for her, she looked and acted much too human, and too harmless, to be totally rejected by them."
What? thought the young man. What girl is he talking about? "Bullcrap." A duck. A goddamned duck! I've been hit up by the villagers, by that old woman, to kill a duck! "I've been lied to by both humans and demons, Yukio. I don't buy your stories. You and your ridiculous bird's heads will still roll."
"Don't underestimate her, boy. A demonic duck can be a marvelous weapon, and I will show you why." He looked up at the bird, flying in the distance. "Dive attack."
As he spoke, the purplish glow under his white shirt returned.
The bird tucked its wings and came in at lightning speed toward Bankotsu. Bankotsu readied his weapon, grinning devilishly in response.
Coming in closer, Bankotsu noticed something off about the bird's direction, and it caused him to lower his brow in confusion. However, he still tensed his body, preparing to slice the demon in half lengthwise.
He hefted his double edged blade around, and swiped at the incoming bird.
However, all that was cut, was a few feathertips.
The bird flew past Bankotsu, over his head, leaving him in a little storm of twirling, iridescent, downy feathers.
Bankotsu came to a realization, and his eyes widened. The bird was heading for his opponent. It was heading for Yukio.
A brilliant purple flash appeared from under the daimyo's shirt, and the bird seemed to almost screech in pain when a matching whitish flash erupted from its feathery breast. It lost control of its flight, and nosedived into the ground, cutting a large gash in the ground, sending grass flying in all directions.
The bird landed directly in front of Yukio, its head at his feet.
Yukio reached into his shirt, uncovering a necklace. He took it off his neck, with his right hand, and the end of the leather lanyard around the bird's neck landed conveniently in his left. "Insolent girl!" he said, flashing the pendant on the necklace haughtily at the bird. "Might I remind you that if you want to get out of this situation alive, you will not oppose my direction!"
Bankotsu's eyes widened in disbelief as he watched the bird right itself. He saw that the black opal embedded into the pendant on the gold necklace fit the description of Masakisho's precious missing stone. This bird is the thing the old man is using the stone to control, he thought, narrowing his eyes. This bird clearly isn't interested in fighting me.
In that case, thought Bankotsu, narrowing his eyes, fighting the bird ain't my style. I should just kill the daimyo and take the necklace back to Masakisho. They can decide what to do with the bird.
"The sooner you complete your task, the sooner I will revert you out of this form!" continued the daimyo to the bird. He gave the lanyard a hard pull.
Taking note of Yukio's continued reprimand, he had to wonder. Yukio brought a girl back from the dead, in the form of this weird duck demon, to fight me?
He shook his head. No, I won't believe a word the old man says. I've been lied to enough. "Your goofy pet really hates you, Yukio!" taunted Bankotsu, at the ready again. "In that case, it'll be all the more easy for me!"
Yukio grinned. "Either your death or the girl's...what was her name? Was it Akiko?...will be satisfactory to me." Yukio grinned broadly, grasping the pendant firmly in his hand. "I'm handing her over to you! Kill her if you like!"
Bankotsu's ready stance loosened a bit, and his brow furrowed again at the sound of his former teacher's name. Akiko?