A Reason to Live
Chapter Eight
Confessions of a Broken Home
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Also, this chapter will have a very touch subject matter in it, so for those of you who are easily offended by sexual language, or mention of forced intercourse, please stop reading at the third line break. This chapter shall have a few flashbacks to Bankotsu's past before the Band of Seven. This is my take on his past, and not part of the official Inuyasha storyline.
"Are you going to be leaving soon," Sango asked as she sat next to the mercenary, who was quietly eating his stew.
"Actually, I think I am going to be traveling with you all from now on," Bankotsu said casually. "I mean the half-demon can't even protect himself, so how does he plan on protecting anyone else."
"Keep it down," Sango hissed in annoyance. "If Inuyasha hears you saying stuff like that, there will be a fight."
"Oh you worry to much," Bankotsu retorted, lying backwards, and crossing his arms behind his head. "So do you have any blankets?"
"Not many," Sango replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Well I was hoping to get some sleep," Bankotsu answered truthfully. "It has been a while since I have had a nice, long, and warm sleep."
"Then you can have my blanket," Sango said as she rummaged through her few belongs, and pulled out a thin blanket.
"Will you have one for tonight," Bankotsu asked, generally caring if she did or not.
"No, but I won't need one," Sango replied, giving Bankotsu the most polite smile she could.
"Non sense," Bankotsu exclaimed. "We can share the blanket then. I'm sure it is wide enough to fit both of us under it."
"You are joking right," Sango said in a flat voice.
"No I'm not," Bankotsu said. "We can keep each other warm."
"No," Sango said firmly.
"Aw come on," Bankotsu whined. "I don't bite. Ok I promise that I won't do anything bad. I will be a little angel."
"Fine, just quiet whining like a baby," Sango sighed in defeat.
"I'm not whining like a baby," Bankotsu pouted. Sango had to laugh at the cute expression on Bankotsu's face, which resembled a cross between a pout and a smirk. Slowly, Sango slid closer to Bankotsu, who was holding up one edge of the blanket. Once Sango was under the blanket, Bankotsu allowed it to fall on top of her, before turning away from her, so that his back was against her back. "Tell me a story."
"What," Sango asked as she shifted her weight in order to turn and face Bankotsu's back. "I don't know any stories."
"Oh come on," Bankotsu exclaimed in exasperation. "Everyone knows at least one story."
"What about you then," Sango questioned, causing the mercenary to turn and face her. "Why don't you tell me a story, perhaps something about your past."
"Which part of my past do you want to know about," Bankotsu asked nervously.
"Tell me about your past before the Band of Seven," Sango responded, taking note of the pained look that crossed the mercenaries normally relaxed face.
"Ok," Bankotsu said, swallowing back a large lump which had seemed to form in his throat. "But I should warn you that my past is not a very happy one. Especially not this portion of my past. If you want a happy tale, then you want to here about my time with the Band of Seven."
"I know most of your history regarding the Band of Seven," Sango replied, staring deep into Bankotsu's blue orbs. "But if it is too painful for you to retell, I understand."
"I can retell it, but I will warn that it is very disturbing," Bankotsu said in a solemn voice.
"I can handle it," Sango said, reaching her hand out to grab hold of his, before giving it a reassuring squeeze.
It was a hot day out, and a young boy, around the age of ten was sitting on a luscious portion of green grass. Sitting behind him was a young girl of around the age of eight, and she was busy braiding his cascading black hair into a neat braid, which reached the middle of his toned shoulder blades.
"It is such a beautiful day, don't you agree Bankotsu," the girl exclaimed happily.
"I guess," came Bankotsu's reply, as he allowed his mind to wander back to his previous training session with the young girl's father. "Too bad it is so hot. Maybe I wouldn't be so tired if it had been a little cooler during my training session."
"Don't you ever think of anything else besides training," the girl asked in mock annoyance.
"Sorry Amaya," Bankotsu apologized. "But one day I shall be a great warrior."
"Some great warrior," Amaya exclaimed. "You can't even beat Kano." Kano was another of the young men who trained under Amaya's father, who was known simply as Master. Kano was Bankotsu's biggest rival, both young boys training as hard as they could to surpass the other.
"I beat him earlier," Bankotsu supplied dryly.
"Ok, ok," Amaya said as she flicked her shoulder length, light brown hair behind her head, allowing her deep hazel colored eyes to look at the young boy sitting with his back to her. "What do you say we go play?"
"I guess I could take a break to play," Bankotsu said as he leaned his head back to look deep into Amaya's brown orbs.
"We were the best of friends at the time," Bankotsu said with a light smile gracing his lips. "She was the one who kept me from becoming as cold hearted as her father."
"So what happened to her," Sango asked.
"A lot of things, most of which, I was too weak to stop," Bankotsu stated, his voice wavering a little.
Bankotsu was now a fifteen year old young man, who was beginning to fill out with toned muscles, and a deepening voice. His black hair was once again in a long braid, which reached to the middle of his well defined and toned back. It was the middle of the night, and Bankotsu could not bring himself to sleep. There was something nagging on his mind, a warning of danger that just would not leave him rest peacefully. 'I should go see Amaya, and see if she can help me get some sleep,' Bankotsu thought as he absentmindedly walked through a series of hallways, each decorated expensive looking tapestries. Finally he came to the beginning of a long hallway that had a dead end. This hallway was the one that the Master's family used for their bedrooms, and at the far end of the hall was Amaya's bedroom.
As Bankotsu took a step toward the hallway, the feeling that had been keeping him up all night began to form a knot in the middle of his stomach. Taking another step, the knot became so heavy that it seemed to slow his down to a crawl. As hard as he tried, he was unable to make his body move any faster. Finally, Bankotsu decided that he would just turn around, and head back to his room. As he turned around, his body seemed to return to normal, and he was able to walk away at a normal pace.
Once Bankotsu was back in his own room, he rushed to the window, before allowing the contents of his stomach to rush back up his throat and out of his mouth. 'Damn it,' Bankotsu yelled to himself. 'What is wrong with me? I must be going crazy!'
Trying to put the feeling of danger out of his mind, Bankotsu lied down on his bed, and allowed his mind to drift to some of the more pleasant times Amaya and him had spent together. 'God why can't I get Amaya off my mind, and more importantly, what was that feeling earlier? Why did my body seem to become so heavy as I approached her room. Enough of this! I'm going to go speak to her!'
Getting to his feet once more, Bankotsu rushed out of the room, and ran down the long hallways. Soon he was at the beginning of the dead end hallway. Once again the lump in his stomach began to form, but this time, Bankotsu shook it off, and began running again. The closer he got to Amaya's door, the hard it became to move his body. 'Move body,' Bankotsu yelled at his body. 'MOVE DAMN IT!!!'
Finally he was standing in front of Amaya's room, and the sounds of a man's husky voice moaning deeply came to Bankotsu's ears, causing Bankotsu to become extremely angry. Why, he did not know, but something about this was making his blood boil. 'I guess she is busy,' Bankotsu said to himself, before turning to leave, his mind thinking off his best friend being violated by some greedy bastard, who was probably taking his time, enjoying the feel of her warmth, and the innocence her eyes held.
Suddenly Bankotsu became aware of light crying, which was nearly being drowned out by moaning of the man. 'What the fuck? Why is she crying,' Bankotsu asked himself, before silently opening the door a little to peek in. As he looked in, he could see the form of a large man thrusting forward. Peering further, he could see the man's hand holding a dagger to Amaya's throat. Without hesitation, Bankotsu rushed into the room, and slammed his body into the man's large frame.
"Who the fuck are you," the man yelled as he lifted himself up off the floor.
"The one who is going to fucking kill you," Bankotsu hissed as he grabbed the dagger off of the bed, and held it at the ready. Then Bankotsu jumped back onto the bed, and with both his legs on one side of Amaya, shielding her from anything that would harm her. "You are the new guy that Master is training aren't you?"
"Yeah so," the man yelled as stared at the pissed off expression on Bankotsu's face.
"Too bad he never taught you how to face death, without showing fear," Bankotsu exclaimed as he threw the dagger at the man, hitting him in the throat.
"That is horrible," Sango exclaimed as she grab Bankotsu's hand once more. "I never knew you went through so much."
"Don't worry, it gets worse," Bankotsu said as he closed his eyes, trying to regain some of his composure. He would not allow anyone to see him crying ever again. He would be strong, because that was who he was. He could not allow anyone to see weakness in him. "When the day came, Amaya died due to the injuries she suffered at that brutes hands. Later it came out that Master had set it all up to push me into becoming the cold hearted warrior he was. I began to question everything I had once been taught about humans. I wondered how any man could tell someone to rape their own daughter. Their own flesh and blood. When the answer finally came to me, I decided that it was time for Master to join his daughter in the afterlife, and so I killed him, and all of the students who were still committed to training under him, even though they knew what he had done.
"I slaughtered them with ease. I didn't even worry about what might happen because of it, nor did I worry that I might end up dying. Hell I didn't care if I had died or not, but I knew I would take that bastard down with me. Needless to say, I didn't die. Instead, I killed everyone who got in my way, including his many mistresses and Amaya's so called mother. Those two never deserved to have a daughter as wonderful as Amaya."
"I'm so sorry Bankotsu," Sango exclaimed as she sat straight up. Looking up at her, Bankotsu could see tears building up in her eyes. Quickly Bankotsu sat up, only to be forced back down by a large hug from Sango, who continued to cry on Bankotsu's shoulder.
"It's ok Sango," Bankotsu said soothingly as he rubbed the sobbing woman's back.
Outside of the hut, Inuyasha was busying counseling a sobbing Kagome. "I never knew Bankotsu had gone through so much in his life," Kagome cried into Inuyasha's red kimono.
"Perhaps we should give them sometime alone," Inuyasha said as he scooped Kagome into his arms, before jumping away from the hut. 'That explains why Bankotsu is so cold hearted when he fights.'
A/N: Well that is chapter eight. I hope you all enjoyed it. I am trying to keep this story as original as possible, at least the storyline portion anyways, and I always wondered why Bankotsu traveled with nothing but men, and while I was discussing it with one of my friends, we began to throw this idea around that Bankotsu was not fond of traveling with women, because he believe them to be too fragile. Then we came to the conclusion that something would have had to have happened to make him think that, and this is what I came up with. So a special thanks to my friend Chris for helping me come up with this portion. Also to my faithful reviewers, thank you all so much for your continued support. I hope this chapter has not turned you off of the story, and I will point out that this chapter was just to give a little background on Bankotsu, and to give him a sad past, so that Sango is not the only tormented character. Thank you all again, and sorry for being late with this story, but one of my friends is having a problem in life, and I'm going to do my best to help them. So I don't think I will be able to update again today, but I will try. I promise that much. If not today, then tomorrow for sure. Thank you all again!!! You are the greatest!!!