It was about 10-15 minutes later when he came back to find her shins back in the water—her hair fanned around her face as she continued to look down at something she was playing with in her lap.

The mercenary sighed as he plopped down on the ground. "Strange." So she was with the hanyou.

He noticed her head lifted up quickly, surprised. She probably hadn't noticed him coming, which made him proud of his stealth skills.

Looking closer at her, he realized she was soaking wet…. Her black suit and armor glowed as her once dry and straight hair turned curly at the ends. Her body was more visible than it was dry so he could see her lovely curves, he wondered if she knew (for she seemed quite the shy one, lacking confidence to even show a bit of leg like he knew most girls were like). But, for now, he wouldn't be the one to tell her.

"Did you fall in?"

Sango flushed again, "Uh, not really." She looked to something a little ways beside her.

There, he saw his Baby—all clean and sparkly in the moonlight.

'Wooww! Look at my Baby! She's such a beauty…' His conscious said with hearts in his eyes. His outer self gave her a skeptical look. "You went in?"

Annoyed of his 'looks', Sango's eyes narrowed as her voice blared slightly. "Well of course—its not like I can get it out using magic."

He raised his hands defensively, giving her a sheepish look. "Alright, alright, sorry. I'm thankful you got it out though…my baby would have drowned."

Sango's annoyed expression drowned as her eyes turned serious, looking down into her lap as she fiddled with her fingers.

The man waited for her to speak to explain her facial expression, but when she didn't he spoke. "What's with that face, ghost-woman?"

Ignoring the nickname, she looked off to the side in the direction of the moon, making her eye-color lighten to a bright hazel. "You're…you're so different than before."

"…Do I know you, then?" He scratched at his temple. "I don't remember your face at all…"

"No, we haven't met. But…I saw you today. You and you're friends, slaughtering that village." She replied in a small voice.

Bankotsu smirked. "Oh yeah?"

"I saw you, especially. Your hands, face, and sword were smeared with blood—most of it not being your own."

"Yeah…I had managed to clean that off earlier."

"…Fire…a really long sword…even claws…"

Bankotsu recognized those as his brother's weapons. "Those would be my brothers' stuff."

She kicked a little water into the air, not exactly angry, but not completely shyly either. "I would have thought you as a cold-blooded murderer. Not some childish and clumsy man."

'Clumsy…?' He thought.

"Well when I fist saw you in the field—I thought you would be some ordinary village woman. But lo and behold you're a very pleasing young ghost lady."

Much to his surprise, her eyebrow twitched at the comment.

"Hey, hey, it was just a compliment—take it easy." He spoke flashing her an amused smirk.

Rolling her eyes she took her left leg out of the water—exposing her smooth leg for an instant before she lowered her suit's leg. Sango let her bend so that her knee was close to her chest.

"Well, the second time I saw you I couldn't believe someone who had managed to kill a whole village just smacked into a tree! Then trip and fall down the incline two steps away from the stream"

"…Heh…You saw that, did you?" He embarrassingly rubbed the back of his neck.

Sango suddenly cracked a smile after a moment or two. "Yeah."

They both lingered in humorous silence.

"…Throw me my Baby, would you?"

"You're leaving?"

Bankotsu stood, dusting off his behind. "Yeah, might as well. My group wakes up early and we don't want to be around here when the sun breaks. We didn't kill everyone in the village— and the unimpaired ones will come searching for us and 2 of my brothers are wounded."

"Oh…well, serves you right for trying to massacre a whole village."

Strange as it was, for a woman, she didn't even seem scared of him. She saw him kill dozens of people—yet she still came to give him company. 'She's the strange one.' Even so, Bankotsu laughed. "You're probably dead on." He continued to cackle at his 'dead' joke.

Thinking again, Bankotsu guessed they were both sort of strange. She was unafraid of someone who had looked as if they were dipped in blood with a smile on their face. He was talking to a ghost as if he did it everyday.

For some reason…he seemed a bit attracted to that.

As lame as it was, Sango chuckled along with him as she reached for the halberd's hilt. "Wow, good one."

Using the halberd as a cane, she pulled herself up as Bankotsu waited for her.

"…So are you swimming over or not?"

"…Uh, not."

"Why the hell not? You're already wet!"

"I'm drying!"

Bankotsu sighed, but he couldn't blame her. He didn't feel like getting wet either.

"Alright back up then. I'll just try to jump over the stream."

The image of him not making it by an inch flooded into her mind whether she liked it or not. He'd splash into the water and get angry since he didn't feel like getting wet in the first place. Sango started to smile. He would stand there in the water and start complaining about how he might as well have just jumped in and walked across to save him the embarrassment.

Almost immediately Sango began to laugh. Why she can imagine those exact words popping out of mouth, she would never know.

"Now what, woman?" Bankotsu replied frustrated, thinking that again, she was laughing at him.

Sango made a hand motion with one hand (while the other held the halberd in place) as if shooing him away. "Nothing, nothing."

A few moments later Sango scooted back a foot or so and was watching Bankotsu get ready to jump.

"You coming?"

"Shut up, wench—I'm stretching."

She rolled her eyes, letting the smile that bit its way to her lips, linger—even as he looked at her suddenly for some reason.

Shaking his head, Bankotsu stepped back. "If I crash into you, it's your own damn fault."

"Mhmm."

Before she knew it he had lunged at her—

Sango suddenly eeped as his body almost crashed into her, but thanks to her hand reflexively placing her hand on his chest for balance, he made it.

Stepping back, Sango moved the halberd in front of her. She scratched at her cheek as if something was there, where in reality she was just trying desperately to hide her blush.

Her mind played back to those two second after he landed that his face was so close…

Unexpectedly a waving hand made it's way to her vision.

"You-who…ghost-woman?" He asked in a sing-song voice.

"U-uh," She stammered.

"You can let go of my Baby now."

Looking down, she realized her hand was still on the hilt of his sword. "Er—sorry."

"Spacing out?" He grinned, lifting the halberd single-handedly before setting it on his shoulder.

Backing up another step, Sango replied, "Yea—"

In a second flat there was unexpected searing pain in her back. Her sight showed white and grey as she fell into Bankotsu's chest before blacking out.

"W-we got her!"

"We got the mercenary's woman!"

Bankotsu easily caught her with one had as the other tightened it's hold on Banryuu. He was giving her a question look to see why she had just fainted all of a sudden. Looking over her shoulder and down her back—he saw two arrows lodged between her shoulder blades. His expression, if anything, looked more confused.

A team of about 10 village men walked out of the shelter of the forest and to where Bankotsu could see them as they surrounded Sango and himself. 'So they started looking early.' They were far enough from being cut by his Banryuu if he stayed put, and close enough to kill him with their arrows if they were skilled enough.

Most of them had bows and arrows, while the others had spears and lit torches. Looking closer, Bankotsu noticed most of the arrows poised in the men's hands were shaking. He glanced at each man's face to see sweat beads. They all had weary looks as to why Bankotsu wasnt 'shaking in fear' due to their first attack.

One of them, the leader he supposed, spoke up. "Stay away f-from here or the next arrow will be aimed to-towards you!" For emphasis his men stretch the bow a little more.

Bankotsu chuckled, making them sweat even more. "Even if you did I wouldn't even care. You're all shaking so bad you're probably shooting your arrows half-assedly. 'My woman' as you called her is still breathing." He mentioned, feeling her heart beat against him.

The men exchanged looks before Bankotsu took Banryuu off his shoulder, smirking.

"Uh-uh, didn't anyone ever tell you never to take you're eye off the target?" He chortled.

Onward to the 2nd power!