Title: Reborn
Rating: M

Prompt: Under my Skin
Character: Bankotsu

Genre: Dark, Horror-ish
Word count: 869

Warnings: Mild gore and dark content, character death and rebirth.

Summary: The death and rebirth of Bankotsu

A/N: Inspired by the chapters about the band of seven but my own adaptation of their death and rebirth.

Four lord's armies, that's how many it had taken to bring down the band of seven; the notorious group of mercenaries led by a ruthless young boy with a cocky-smirk.

The head samurai stood over them, their bodies torn and impaled by arrows, half alive Bankotsu glared up at the samurai. Blood, his own blood ran down his face, even more blood from his injuries pooled around him. He grasped Banyru by the hilt but did not have the strength to lift it. The samurai stepped on the sword pinning it to the ground, as if it made any difference.

"Foolish boy," he spat.

"Don't… discount… me… yet," Bankotsu said his voice a mere thread.

"What do you plan to do? You're at deaths door your comrades have all fallen this is the end."

"I'll… have…my…revenge…" Bankotsu said as blood filled his lungs.

"I find that unlikely," The samurai laughed before kicking the dying boy in the head.

Snow fell softly, mixing with the blood on the ground, as the samurai watched Bankotsu take his last breath.

"It's done," one of his subordinates said with relief.

"Cut off their heads," the head samurai said turning on his heel.

"But sir, why? They are already dead."

"Just do as you're told!" the head samurai commanded before striding away. Something about that boy, the way he said those dying words, he meant it. And he wouldn't rest easy until he knew his body was separated from his head and sealed by a priest then, and only then would it truly be over.

He was trapped, trapped between this word and the next, this was worse than hell, his soul attached to an immovable rotting corpse, he could feel ever inch as it decomposed, the worms and maggots as they crawled beneath his skin. His skin, turning leathery with time, his hair was like cobwebs of death, resting somewhere near his body, he wasn't sure where. It was close; he could feel it but not close enough to free him from his rotting prison. He was trapped in darkness beneath the seal, among the bones of his comrades and so he would be for all eternity. He would have preferred the burning fires of hell, and endless torment, to this slow horrible decay. If only he could be freed; he wanted his revenge, his soul pined to hold his companion once more in his hand, to complete its transformation. No, that was not his fate he was to feel every inch of what was his body as it turned to dust around him. 'Damn them, damn them' his spirit chanted.

He lost consciousness over time, as his soul slowly slipped away into darkness, leaving behind his anger, his want for revenge; it scored the earth with his malevolence.

No one would come near their final resting place, whispers through the village said that the place was cursed that the long forgotten bodies of the band of seven lie beneath that shrine. Soon he became legend no more real than the tales they told of him, just as his flesh fell away leaving only bones in their wake, so did he as he became nothing. If he had believe in Kami's he might have thanked them for this release; but he didn't believe in such things. He was free of his torment though he wasn't aware of it; he was only free for now.

A voice spoke through the darkness, soothing yet malevolent it spoke to him it called out his name.

"Bankotsu!"

Had that been his name once? He wasn't sure any longer.

"Bankotsu!" It commanded again.

Yes it was his name, but he was dead the dead could not hear, he was in a place that could not be reached, this must be some sick dream maybe he had indeed travelled to hell.

"Bankotsu awaken!" suddenly, his soul was brought from the darkness. He was being cradled like a child in milk white arms. Completely naked as a newborn he was laid in scattered bones of his comrades.

"Wake up Bankotsu, I have a job for you," the voice called through the darkness.

"Who are you?" he found he could speak once more.

"Who I am is not important; I have given you new life, work for me and seek revenge on those who have wronged you."

That was right; the rage came flooding back all the memories flooded him like a thick poison coursing through his body.

"You remember," The voice laughed a high mirthless laugh.

"Yes," Bankotsu said through newly formed gritted teeth.

"Take these," a pale hand reached through the blackness that surrounded him, slivers of a pearlescent jewel rested in its unearthly palm. "Resurrect your comrades and work for me Bankotsu."

Bankotsu grabbed the fragments

"Tell me who you are!" Bankotsu demanded.

"I am Naraku, now go Bankotsu you are reborn!"

A crack of lighting illuminated the sky revealing the shrine as it split in half, collapsing it, smoke billowed from the destruction. Rumbling shook the surrounding area. The earth itself opened up its contents to the heavens and crawling from beneath the ground, a newly formed body reached for the sky.