Authoress' Notes: I SO do not own Inuyasha or anything in the Inuyasha universe. My original characters are...well...mine.
And again, thanks for your continued reading and support of my stories!
Wayward Ransom, chapter 32.
The girl behind him had brought herself up to a sitting position, her legs folded together. She was nervously looking around, seemingly trying to find an explanation for her existence, and the torn ground, destroyed teahouse, and other signs of chaos surrounding her.
Even though the pain was not quite over, Bankotsu had to grin. Heh. A woman, too... He looked more closely, his blurred vision recovering. His grin faded away when he realized who the girl was. That's... His brow lowered. That is her. The daimyo wasn't lying... A sudden twinge of embarassment raced through him, and he pinched his mouth together tightly. He recalled all the times she had tried to teach him how to read and write, to no avail. By her presence, Bankotsu suddenly felt like he was knocked down a few rungs on the developmental scale.
When he regained control over himself, Bankotsu rose slowly and painfully from the ground, and began to walk over to her.
The frightened girl turned her head this way and that way, both hands up at her mouth. She sniffed her tears a few times before finding herself enveloped in a dark shadow, and flinched backward, her eyes widened in horror. Not daring to look up at whoever loomed above her, more tears began to stream from her eyes. "P - please don't make me into that bird form again!" She squeezed her eyes shut and shielded her face with a forearm. "Please!"
Bankotsu half-knelt, half-fell down to the ground next to her. He silently gazed down at her, allowing her a moment to realize who was in front of her.
Akiko opened her eyes, disoriented as nothing was happening to her. She sniffed again, and dared to open her eyes, and lower her arm. Leaning backward on one hand, she wiped her cheek with the other, while returning the gaze of the young man in front of her.
Is...this...? She leaned forward, then reached up, to Bankotsu's surprise, and parted the fringe of thick, sweat-dampened hair covering his forehead. Shocked at seeing the easily indentifyable, perfectly cross-shaped scar, her eyes widened again. "It's...You're...!"
Bankotsu grinned stupidly as she sweetly drew her hand down along his dark face, then traced his jawline with her fingertips. "Yeah," he said said quietly, desperately trying to ignore the burning sensation her touch to his skin caused. "Long time, no see."
After a brief wave of boyish embarassment, he decided that he was rather pleased at seeing his former teacher in her rather unclothed state. He flicked his eyes up and down, running them all along her, taking full advantage of the fact that this was the first opportunity to see her so since he had known her. He was quick to note her characteristic, unusually long neck. Her unkempt, long, orangeish-brown hair partially hid a slightly pear-shaped body, terminating in almost disproportionately short legs.
Bankotsu laughed inwardly. Pretty fitting for a woman who transforms into a duck. Most interestingly, her firm-looking breasts, and her stomach, were covered in what looked like a light, soft-looking layer of pure white down. Huh...that's pretty interesting!
He knew nothing could much be done about her until he recovered from his battle, but he had to smile...he would have to remember all this for later!
Oh, yeah, and she does have the other half of that stone in her body, too, he thought, turning down his mouth, and briefly taking a look at the corresponding black opal embedded into the skin between her breasts.
Akiko removed her hand from Bankotsu's jawline, to both his relief and disappointment. Completely oblivious to Bankotsu's intense observation of her, she leaned over to see what was behind him. Just like when she saw the guard with the horrible looking spike impaled in his forehead, her face turned green seeing the decapitated body lying on the ground. "That's...that was the daimyo..."
Bankotsu looked back, and gave an arrogantly nonchalant puff of air. "Pffft. Yeah," he said, shrugging his shoulders and turning back to her. He briefly considered whether he should give Akiko his outer jacket to cover herself, in spite of the fact that it was now blood-stained and torn, but he couldn't quite commit himself to a decision.
She looked right into his eyes, but Bankotsu could not understand her flat expression. Reading people was one way he kept himself alive, and he found it quite unsettling when it couldn't be done. "You...killed him..."
Still grinning, Bankotsu looked her up and down again. Nah, he thought, reaching his decision about giving her the jacket.
After the moment of distraction passed, he addressed her comment. "Yeah. Did it in three blows, too," he said with a chuckle.
Bankotsu looked at her puzzled, as her face turned horribly dark. Tears poured from her eyes even more than before. He raised an eyebrow in question. She...was upset that I killed him?
With a sudden burst of anger, Akiko's brow furrowed in fury. "You...you killed him too quickly!" she said, squeezing her eyes shut again and pounding the ground with a small fist.
Rudely jolted by her sudden change in demeanor, Bankotsu's eyebrows raised in puzzlement.