"Wow….so this is where we'll be staying?" Jakotsu looked around wide-eyed, at the large house, as he stepped into it.
"Yes, for as long as you work for the daimyo, this house will be provided for you." Said one of the men leading the Shichinintai. Jakotsu, who was used to living in a small, single roomed house, when he was younger, was awed by the multi-roomed house he was now in.
"If we have need of you, we will contact you. You should be prepared to do battle at all times."
After much talking, the Shichinintai decided to work for the daimyo. The pay was very good, and the daimyo also provided them with a place to stay, so they all had thought it was a pretty good idea.
So now they were employed.
The days went by quickly, with the Shichinintai often being rushed off to fight armies from different lands. The armies were always very large, with thousands of soldiers, however the Shichinintai had no problem beating them.
In-between battles, Jakotsu and Bankotsu often relaxed with each other. Jakotsu mostly just felt brotherly love for Bankotsu, and was sure Bankotsu felt the same. Plus, Bankotsu was totally straight. Bankotsu was very fun to flirt with, though.
One memory, Jakotsu was quite fond of. Later, in the bleaker times of his life, Jakotsu looked back at it with a bittersweet happiness. It happened on a gorgeous day, where the sun was bright and the fields full of blooming flowers. The Shichinintai had no battles to fight on that day, so Bankotsu and Jakotsu walked in the field, with Jakotsu gazing dreamily into the blue sky. They were chatting about one of their previous battles, when Jakotsu tripped on Bankotsu's foot. He landed straight on his face.
"Jakotsu!" Bankotsu said loudly, looking down at Jakotsu. His expression amused Jakotsu. It was one of shocked concern, and Jakotsu couldn't help laughing a bit, when he saw it.
"Really, Jakotsu, you should pay more attention to where you're going!" He looked worried.
"You should keep you're feet away from me!" said Jakotsu playfully. He took Bankotsu's hand, and pulled himself up.
"Are you okay?" Guilt had mixed with the concerned look on Bankotsu's face, which made Jakotsu giggle even more.
"I'm totally fine...How about you though?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean are you going to be able to live with the guilt, from the knowledge that you tripped me?"
Bankotsu laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I feel so guilty…I might starve myself." His voice was full of sarcasm.
"That's not fair, Bankotsu. I think you should give me a kiss as a way of apologizing." Jakotsu gave Bankotsu a wicked smile, and batted his lashes.
Bankotsu stopped laughing. He still wore an amused smile, however.
"Jakotsu…"
"Come on Aniki, you owe me!"
"Tell you what, Jakotsu…If you can catch me, I'll give you a kiss."
"Hmm? Oh!"
But Bankotsu was already running, across the field, in great bursts of speed. He looked back at Jakotsu and waved.
He's really fast! Jakotsu thought. He began running, laughing as he ran. However, it seemed although Bankotsu was fast, Jakotsu had way more endurance…after awhile Bankotsu began to slow.
"Seems like I'm going to get a kiss today!" Jakotsu called out, happily. He was just a few meters away from Bankotsu now! So close…
Jakotsu put on an extra burst of speed, and shortened the distance by a few feet. Closer…
Jakotsu reached out. He could almost touch Bankotsu!
"Gotcha!" Jakotsu lunged forward and collapsed onto Bankotsu. They both fell down, in a messy tangle of limbs. Jakotsu panted trying to catch his breath. Bankotsu was doing the same.
"I….win…" Jakotsu managed to say, through breathless pants of exhaustion.
Just then Suikotsu came over the hill, followed by Mukotsu. They stopped and stared.
"Its not what it…" That's as much as Bankotsu got out, before Jakotsu interrupted.
"Oh hi! Me and Bankotsu were just fooling around, before you came!" He said brightly.
Bankotsu's face flushed, into a shade of deep red. It really was quite funny to see Bankotsu blush.
Suikotsu chuckled, and nodded at Bankotsu. "Don't worry, I understand." The other members of the Shichinintai were all familiar with Jakotsu's habit of flirting with Bankotsu.
"I've just come to tell you that there has been a surprise attack, on the lords castle. They think it's an army from the continent, and the daimyo expect us to be there right away." Suikotsu didn't sound overly worried.
"We're sorry to have interrupted you." Mukotsu said, a slight smirk on his face.
Bankotsu could only blush more.
"Okay, I'm coming!" Jakotsu chirped. He jumped to his feet, and followed Suikotsu and Mukotsu across the field. But before he went, he could have sworn he saw a small smile on Bankotsu's lips.
On the battlefield, lay the slain bodies of hundreds of soldiers. Jakotsu recognized the armor, as the armor of the soldiers who worked under the same daimyo that the Shichinintai did. They rushed up against the other army, only to be beaten by the sheer numbers of soldiers.
"Finally!" One of the soldiers that worked for the daimyo limped to Jakotsu. "We were worried you guys wouldn't show up."
"What's happening?" Asked Jakotsu, although it was already pretty obvious.
"We were hit by a surprise attack. We tried to drive them away, but there's too many of them."
Jakotsu peered across the rows of dieing soldiers, and saw a huge army of soldiers with black markings on their faces. Jakotsu had never seen an army so large before! There must have been not a thousand soldiers, but thousands.
Suddenly a spear ripped through the chest of the soldier, who Jakotsu had been questioning. Dark blood, ran from the wound, and spurted from the young man's mouth. Then he fell forward, collapsing at Jakotsu's feet, his blank eyes staring lifelessly, up at Jakotsu.
"Heh, heh…are you gonna be next?"
Jakotsu found himself looking into the eyes of a soldier whose face was marked with black. His voice was thick with an accent.
Jakotsu unsheathed his Jakotsutou. "I don't think so." He hissed, before slicing off the soldier's head.
And then the fight was on.
There were soldiers surrounding him. Jakotsu couldn't remember the last time he had fought so hard. It seemed like every time Jakotsu killed one, another would be in front of him, slashing a sword.
A cold blade, slashed into Jakotsu's arm. He gave a small cry of pain, and slashed out wildly. The thrill of the battle…Jakotsu could feel adrenaline coursing through his veins. Everything turned red. From the corner of his eye, Jakotsu could see Suikotsu rip out the heart of a man. Mukotsu was throwing poisonous powder at the enemy. Bankotsu was swinging his banryuu, a strangely hungry look in his eyes as he slashed. All of them…all of the Shichinintai were swept up in the thrill of fighting. The next thing he knew, Jakotsu was standing in an empty field, piled high with bodies.
During the fight, Jakotsu had hardly noticed how tired he had been. Now his muscles ached and his breaths came out in ragged pants. He was covered head to toe, in blood. He suddenly remembered the other Shichinintai. Were they all right? Jakotsu looked around, and to his relief, he saw them all, standing in the bloodstained field. They were panting slightly, and Mukotsu was clutching his arm, but other then that, they were fine.
"Shichinintai!" The voice came from behind Jakotsu, and he turned to see a man on a horse riding towards them. Jakotsu recognized the man as the one who had asked them to work for the daimyo, and had showed the Shichinintai their house. His name was Kyouta.
"You…you did well." There was something funny in his expression, something Jakotsu couldn't quite lay a finger on…
Bankotsu nodded. "That was a good battle. Come on." The last to works had been for the Shichinintai. He began walking in long strides, away from the battlefield. The rest of the seven-man army began to follow. Jakotsu hesitated, looking at Kyouta. Was it his imagination, or did Kyouta's breathing seem irregular?
"Jakotsu, are you coming?" Jakotsu was interrupted from his thoughts, when he heard Renkotsu's voice.
"Oh…yeah." With one quick look back at Kyouta, Jakotsu hurried to catch up with his fellow Shichinintai.
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When the Shichinintai were out of view, Kyouta took a chance to survey the battlefield. In his time as a solider and the lord's messenger, he had seen many gruesome sights before, and usually the sight of blood did not bother him. However, he could not help noticing the many detached limbs, and organs that covered the field.
He turned his horse around and rode, heading straight to the lords castle.
Lord Misaki was a relatively young lord. He wasn't the best lord, but he wasn't bad either, so most of the people under his rule, respected him, as they were supposed to respect their lords.
When Kyouta reached the lords sitting room, he almost forgot to knock, but luckily he remembered at the last second, and rapped his fist on Lord Misaki's door.
"Come in." the deep voice called out.
Kyouta stepped inside. He bowed slightly, as he walked forward.
The Lord was drinking tea. Kyouta briefly thought to himself, how inappropriate a time it was to be tea drinking. The castle had just been surprised attacked, and they had lost hundreds, maybe thousands of soldiers on the field, yet the Lord still had time to lounge around, and drink tea! The lord looked up at Kyouta expectantly.
"It is good to see you are unharmed, Kyouta. Really, you do not have to fight in those battles if you do not want to. You are a very valuable messenger to me." His face was friendly, a smile on his lips.
"I am only doing my duty. I feel honored to fight for you, my lord."
The lord laughed. "How did the Shichinintai do? This army was quite a bit larger then the other ones they have fought. I suppose I need to send doctors for them…oh, do I need funerals for any of them?" Lord Misaki sighed. "It will have to be a grand funeral so the remaining ones will be satisfied…"
Kyouta cleared his throat. "Actually…none of them are dead."
The lord blinked. "That's…incredible…"
"In fact…none of them are even injured." This bothered Kyouta quite a bit. He had known they were strong, but this…so many of Kyouta's comrades had died that day, and yet the Shichinintai were barely scratched.
"Then they are much more stronger then we expected them to be. We have an invincible army on our hands!" The lord sounded pleased, but Kyouta thought he heard uncertainness under the pleasant tone.
"Lord if I may say so…. I'm am slightly worried about them."
The lord stared at Kyouta. "Why is that?"
"Well…they are growing stronger, I think. They are human, and yet they have the strength of demons. I am afraid…I'm afraid that soon we might be unable to control them. If they grew any stronger…and the decided they did not want to work under the daimyo anymore…what would happen?"
A flashback from the battle suddenly burned in Kyouta's brain. It was of one of them, the one with the snakelike sword, slicing through the air. His eyes were filled with savage pleasure, as his sword found its victim. He drew the blade towards his mouth and licked the blade, laughing as he did so. His laugh was chilling, slightly feminine, and full of murderous intent. Despite the warmth of the room, Kyouta shivered.
Lord Misaki was now looking quite troubled.
"I will think about this problem. It is very worrisome…" His brow furrowed. "You may leave Kyouta."
"Yes, my lord."
Bowing, Kyouta left the room.