Authoress' notes: I never,ever thought I'd end up writing a thirty-plus chapter fanfic when I first laid eyes on Bankotsu, sittin' on that hill, tryin' to write that stupid threatening letter. Oh, the unexpectedturns our lives take! (rolls eyes, then laughs stupidly)
Wayward Ransom, chapter 30.
by artisanrox
Soumeikarasu watched the extraordinary discomfort of the young man as he wrapped an arm around the girl, then lowered her to the ground, all the time a twisted expression of extreme agony on his face.
"Get that weapon away from him!" ordered Yukio to his two helpers.
Soumeikarasu looked over to the guard in the silkwork armor, mkaing herself solid. "Help me," she said to the guard, "that thing looks damned heavy!" The guard nodded.
The demoness instantly took the form of a huge, demonic raven. She leaped into the air with a flapping of her black wings, and swooped over to where Bankotsu and the girl were on the ground.
The guard ran over, mirroring the demoness' direction on the ground.
Using every last reserve of strength, the demoness wrapped her claws around the shaft of the banryuu, and not without great effort, began to straining upwards, trying to at least pick the weapon up enough to drag it an inconvenient distance away from the young man.
The guard, now in the past of the demoness' direction, stood a distance away from the weapon. He caused filament-like cords to be released from his fingertips. Grasping them with his other arm, he began pulling on the weapon, aiding Soumeikarasu in removing it from Bankotsu's easy grasp.
It worked, and slowly but surely, the huge banryuu started scraping along on the ground, getting carried away by the two of them.
Bankotsu succeeded in getting the girl off his body, and glared back at the two opponents pulling away his weapon, his breathing heavy and strained, the back of his white jacket now bright red from the gashes on his back.
A dark shadow enveloped him, and Bankotsu startled when he heard Yukio, now a shorter distance away.
"Have you forgotten about me, boy?"
Bankotsu scowled. He watched Yukio cooly throw the necklace into the air.
"I'll kill one of you, one way or the other," Yukio stated simply.
The necklace now in mid-air, Yukio drew his crossbow, raising it up, aiming it at the purplish black opal in the pendant.
He squeezed the trigger.
A bolt flew upwards, and, within a hairsbreadth of smashing the opal to pieces, missed the pendant, as a long piece of leathery material wrapped around it, and pulled it out of harm's way.
The necklace landed in Bankotsu's ready hand. He had used the lanyard as a lasso to retrieve the pendant. "I think I'll be keeping this for now," he snarled, "so I don't think you'll be doing anything to it anytime soon!"
Yukio, thoroughly angered, lowered the crossbow, and squeezed the trigger twice, aiming for both the girl's and Bankotsu's heads.
Bankotsu dropped the necklace, and easily caught one bolt in either hand.
He paused and gave Yukio a wicked grin. "...getting nervous?" he asked the daimyo, his voice fierce, intense, and unnervingly quiet.
Yukio's eyes went wide, and he began to sweat.
I don't like that painful-looking spell at all, thought the demoness in her demonic bird-form, flicking her depthless black eyes at an increasingly uncomfortable Yukio. There is a chance my demonic nature will cancel it out when I take him...but I'm not so sure of that, debated Soumeikarasu.
Bankotsu heard something snap at his feet. Filaments of a light, airy material were now fastened around the pendant, and Yukio's guard, wearing the silkworm armor, was now at Bankotsu's left. The guard snickered, and was ready to pull on the pendant, in an effort to recover it for his lord.
Bankotsu reared back, and with a jump in the air, flung the bolt in his right hand hard at the guard.
With demonic accuracy, the bolt impaled the guard deeply right between the eyes. The guard gave a horrifying scream, bringing his hands up to his head, and falling to his knees. The filaments that wrapped around the necklace became untensed, and came unattached with a snapping sound.
Soumeikarasu turned herself unsolid and returned to her human form. She growled hoarsely, lying on the ground, thoroughy exhausted. Now I must be on my way. The boy will win. She gave a hint of a grin. How frighteningly deadly he is. Makes me want him all the more! But... she said, scowling. Not today, she thought, disappearing into a mist of purple miasma.
Drawn out of his sorrow by the ungodly noise, the tea ceremony host poked his head around the wall of the teahouse, peering at the scene. Seeing the guard's agonized body and the crossbow bolt sticking out of his head, the host's face turned green. Feeling quite nauseous, he hurriedly gathered up whatever of his tools he could carry, jumped out of the damaged teahouse, and sprinted toward the downhill trail that led to the nearest town. Tears flew out of his eyes, catching the sun's rays and making little trails of shimmery lights as he ran.
Back in the garden of the castle, Bankotsu turned his attention to the daimyo. "It's just you and me...my lord!" murmured Bankotsu, smiling sarcastically despite his clenched teeth, flipping the heavy bolt back and forth through his fingers deftly like a well-seasoned gambler. His quiet voice was almost drowned out by the screams from the dying guard to his far right.
While the young man and the daimyo were locked in heated glares, the guard bearing the silkworm armor dropped over dead, and his agonized screams gave way to ghostly silence.
Yukio now gritted his teeth, holding the crossbow out in front of him stiffly. His face paled. He was now thoroughly unnerved.