Hah. And you thought a wild animal ate me.
No, no...on the contrary, i was actually writing a story. This one.
Here's me...right here...not being eaten by a wild animal.
Anyway, no, Blood Lust is still up and running...its just taking a rest, like a break. And heck, since it's summer, let's call it a 'Summer Break', just for kicks. This story will be finished by the end of summer break ((MY summer break)), or even earlier, then once school starts i will ironically start on Blood Lust again. ((Ironic, because i felt like it being ironic. Feel the power of being an authoress-in-training. Raww.))
By the way, me, being a spoiled brat ((pinches own cheek unmercifully)) updated this story too early. I had PROMISED myself i wouldnt put ANY chapters of this up UNTILLL, until, i had finished writing the whole story first. Unfortunatley for me, i'm still a spoiled brat, and put up the first chapter.
I told myself, "Boogars. i would REALLY like to update SOMETHING on ff(dot)net." Shifty eyes. "And Jailbreak's already beta'd...well what's been written so far." Sneaky me.
Yeah, so you all ((i was so tempted to say yall for a second there)) ((wipes brow)) should thank Crimson Kaoru, my best ff(freakin dot)net buddy, for beta-ing this so far. I love her, she's just too cool. Yayy...Kaoru-chaan!
Enjoy the read.
Face: :D
-Monica
PS: While i was writing this, all i could think of was Captian Jack freak'n Sparrow. Lovin Pirates of the Caribbean 1&2, baby. meow. So Bankotsu is very...Captian-Jack-Sparrow-ish, in his own Bankotsu-ish way. --Dont worry it changes over the course of chapters.--Oh, also, the setting the jail setting for Pirates of the Caribbean is used as the opening scene. Yay, and stuff. Also some other Pirates of the Caribbean allusions, see if you can find them. And if you point them out, i'll hit you.
It was aggravating, really. Having him stare like that.
Sango looked away, an irritated expression on her face. Only now, she could see the larger cage of men in the corners of her eyes, their own gaze upon her. In the end, Sango whirled another ninety degrees, facing the stone wall.
Her chin slowly started to droop from its high composure after a series of minutes, as did her squared shoulders. Soon enough, her back slumped, and she let her forehead meet the wall as she sighed.
"Even as my back is turned I can still feel your eyes," she declared to the one-man cell beside hers. The only thing that separated the two cells were a column of tightly placed bars.
"I wasn't lookin' at you."
Out of curiosity her head turned to look over her shoulder. Sango found him sitting Indian-style right in front of the bars that separated him from freedom. His clothed knees touched the steel while his right elbow stood against his knee, holding up his chin while the other arm reached beyond the bars, allowing his fingers to scrape the small item he held against the bricked floor—he seemed quite bored. The expression on his face reminded her solely of her younger brother when he had absolutely nothing to do, with not a single thought in his head.
Before she could notice, his playful scraping ceased and his light indigo eyes swiveled to the left corners, looking at the imprisoned woman.
"Who's lookin' at who, now?"
With that Sango's head snapped in place, her eyes fastened on the brick wall, her back supported with newfound adrenaline to hold up a straight spine.
The man's eyes lingered on the woman's back for a few more seconds, watching the lantern, placed so inconveniently outside their cells, use it's light to dance off her form. Soon enough his eyes turned back to the floor, and his mindless scraping began again.
Once she heard the scraping sound ring through the jail, she let the air from her lungs out through her nostrils as her back slackened. Sango's eyes reopened after the heavy breath and looked at nothing in particular. Before she knew it, she started thinking of just how she came to be in a jail like this.
That's right, as of late; she had been on a search for her younger brother. It seemed as if many had seen him, but not cared to remember which way he might have went.
Sango sighed while she let her forehead rest against the cold brick again once her fingers were finished raking through her hair.
Just recently she arrived at this godforsaken town in hopes. A few days later, the town was in chaos as a few demons attacked. Not wanting to cause too much attention, she left the duty of killing the demons to the town's warriors. Of course, what no one knew, beside herself, was that the chief was possessed, and when everyone excused his absence for just laziness or lack of rest, Sango knew better. And of course, being in a riled up state already, Sango didn't hesitate killing the man. And of course, because of her foolish acts and rather senseless forgetting of showing just how much the chief was possessed, everyone thought her a killer of their leader, and that she should be thrown in jail until the death penalty is decided upon, whether its by the gallows or shot in public, or some other variations she wasn't familiar with. Ironically, the chief's only job that he did quite well was dealing death penalties. So even though she did dig her own grave, she also bought herself some time.
As a demon slayer, Sango had proclaimed her origins to the council, but they wouldn't hear it. No matter how much she argued that their chief was possessed—it never mattered. She was here against her own will. Now, she was stuck in a cell—waiting to die. Of course, she wouldn't take that lying down. She would rather fight and die than sit here and allow the death to come to her.
Thankfully, they put her in a cell alone, probably because out of everyone in the jail, she was the only female. Across from her was a larger cell holding five to ten men at the same time, and like the dogs they were, they just couldn't stop making noise. A cell just like hers in capacity and size was connected to her own, which held only one man. This man had on armor of a rich warrior, and his clothing was pure and clean, only consisting of grays, whites, and a dark blue. He had long indigo hair, which he neatly pulled into a braid trailing down his spine. The dancing light worked wonders on him as they brought out muscle definition—probably making his cuts bigger than they were. The man's eyes were hard and dark in the fire's light, only sparking once looked upon.
As for herself, Sango also had long hair that she just recently took out from its ponytail atop her head. She was placed in the same dirty clothes she came with, meaning she was stuck in the dark and tight slayer suit until she could find a way to escape. The slayer had already stripped of her magenta armor the day before, finding the necessity lost.
Her eyes moved to the men in the cell across from her, finding their new target: a stray dog. Why they found such interest in it, she would never know. Abruptly, she heard the man inside the cell beside her start to laugh.
"You'll have better luck having Kami come save you than that dog."
She studied the dog, only to find the jail cell's keys all put together with a single steel ring—currently being snatched by the dog's teeth. The dog seemed to enjoy the attention it got from the whistling men, and sat there joyously watching their hope rise with each of the dog's movements.
Of course, having a neko demon as a pet, Sango knew how to call an animal to her. Knowing the dog was having fun; she'd wait a while before calling it to her and freeing herself.
It was a few more moments of loud calling and whistling pointed at the dog before a man came down the dark stairs, seemingly not even seeing the dog, and dropped a tray of food in front of each cell. The moment the food came for Sango, her hand slipped out of the bars and rebelliously pushed it towards the men across from her.
The man then spit down at her, narrowly missing her hand before retreating up the stairs. She sneered at him the whole way.
"Well, if you're going to share, you should have pushed it here…" The man in the cell appeared to almost…pout. Sango looked for his own tray food, finding that he didn't even get one.
"You're not fed?"
"Dead men don't need food, they say. Their logic is actually kind of funny." The man stared at her.
"Keh!" Came the snarling voice from a man from the other cell, "Don't complain! You don't even deserve your own cell, Banko!"
"…It's Bankotsu," Bankotsu whispered dejectedly under his breath.
This man was almost childish! Sango rose an eyebrow at his antic before turning to the other man in the cell, who was currently stuffing his mouth.
"Why does he deserve it?"
"Well, miss; he's probably killed more than all of us combined! Haven't you heard… this mercenary here is the leader of the Shichinintai."
"From the fabled legend of beings resurrected? The man who's killed over a thousand demons and a thousand humans?"
"Don't make me blush, now," Bankotsu remarked from his cell, his humor being quite lame.
Another prisoner spoke up: "No one has ever been able to get away from his legendary Banryuu."
"Banryuu?" Sango wondered aloud, having heard of it before.
"In fact, no one has ever seen Banryuu long enough to survive and spread the word."
Bankotsu started to write meaningless messages into the ground with his forefinger, clearly bored. "I wonder how one would know about my Banryuu, then…" he set is gaze on the prisoners, "If no one's escaped."
"…" The prisoners then exchanged looks, as if a bit confused themselves.
Rolling her eyes, Sango sighed. Before she could retort, a man called out to her from the other cell.
"Hey, what's a young woman like you in 'ere for? Bein' all alone in that cell… it's a sign of the damned." He looked pointedly at Bankotsu, who was currently picking at his teeth.
"Well, I seem to have murdered the chief of this town…"
Silence filled the jail, even to the point where the dog stopped panting and slipped its slimy tongue back in its mouth. Even Bankotsu turned his head, interested.
"Remarkable, and how did you do it?" another asked.
Sango smiled sheepishly at the man, wondering how he could be proud for such a deed. Then again, she was in a room filled with men who had done a lot of bad deeds… maybe they met here everyone once in a while and tried to best each other?
"W-well he was possessed."
"True, being a sloth is quite the sin now-a-days," Bankotsu spoke up lazily.
"No, I'm being literal. He was possessed by a demon, a raccoon. So I threw my Hiraikotsu, and sliced him in half."
"…Hiraikotsu? I've heard stories," a prisoner spoke up. "You're a demon slayer?"
Sango nodded, a proud smile forming at the corners of her lips.
Conversation hadn't gotten any more exciting after that. She was quiet now as they retorted to the dog for conveyance. Indeed they tried as hard as they could to call the animal over, even waved a few scraps of food they themselves had not dared to eat.
The mercenary was lying on his back, one knee bent while the other crossed over it with his arms acting as his pillow. She couldn't tell if he were asleep or if he was merely resting his eyes.
The dog had gotten tired as well and fell asleep in the corner, facing the opposite direction of the prisoners. It was as if the dog wanted to trick them into thinking it was still awake, so they'd eat their heart out trying to call it over. How unfortunate.
"You're Sango, right?"
The voice startled her into making her whip her head to look at him. His words sunk in, and she wondered just how obvious it was. But maybe he had known her before? Perhaps Hiraikotsu had been well known before she attained it?
"Hai. How'd you know?"
"Your brother's lookin' for you."
Her hands formed into fists as she quickly crawled to the bars that separated the two imprisoned. She grabbed the bars and attempted to awaken him with a shake to the steel, as if thinking they'd actually move. "How do you know him? Where is he!"
"Yeah, we knew each other. Even traveled together for a while before he left to try and find you. Of course that gave me a chance to live freely once again… when I finally reached a town, I drowned myself in sake. After that, boy, I was so drunk I—"
"Please spare me. Where did my brother say he went?"
Bankotsu opened his eyes, giving her an offended look. "Do you always do that? I was in the middle of a story."
"Did he go home? When did you two lose touch?"
He stared at her desperate form for another few seconds before looking away. "Men die at your feet don't they?"
Blushing for the first time in a while, Sango replaced her embarrassment with ferocity. "Can't you just answer the question!"
The mercenary smirked at her reaction, loving the response from the woman. He shrugged, closing his eyes and feigning sleep.
"It's not possible to fall asleep so quickly in such an environment."
"Then maybe if you shut your mouth and turn around, it'd be a lot easier," he murmured, followed by a loud yawn.
"I won't let you sleep until you answer," Sango retorted, her hands on her hips.
There was silence between the two, as if he was testing her to see how long she'd sit there and stare. And stare she did. After a bit she even started to glare, which felt as if swords were grinding into his back. Finally, not before long, he sighed, obviously disgruntled, and sat up rubbing his eyes with one hand as the other supported him.
"I would have killed you by now, annoying wench." Somehow Sango felt satisfied with that and waited for him to answer.
"The kid followed me around for a while, and we did the partner thing. Fight crime and give children candy, you understand." His sarcasm made her narrow her eyes, which was painfully horrible to watch.
"Er… anyway, once I finished with a village in the North," he pointed somewhere to the east, unbeknownst to him, "we claimed to have remembered hearing someone say something about a boomerang-wielding woman looking for a kid his age, so he went back."
"Went back where?"
"…South?" He instinctively pointed to the floor. There was silence between the two, and as if picking up her shock, he waved his hands, "No, no—he didn't die!"
Sango let out the air she took in from a silent gasp and massaged her chest bone, thankful.
Finally, she awkwardly thanked him and let him sleep on the hard ground. Turning away, Sango started to fill in the blanks he might have left in his story with knowledge of her own, beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
The light from the rising sun slippedbetween the bars lined on a window, awaking Sango. Mumbling her way through the extra yawns and such, Sango heard the chatter of the men across from her as they ate.
'Food was served already?' Sango started to blink away the blur in her eyes from having just woken up. 'How long was I asleep?'
Catching on, Sango looked around to find the rogue besides her lying on his back, eyes open and very much awake. Her gaze then moved ahead of her, facing her very own tray of food placed infront of her cell.
"…That was quite courteous…" Sango mumbled under her breath, having noticed the guard had left her a tray without even being awake.
A loud, purposeless sigh was heard from her side and she turned to see Bankotsu laying on his side, elbow propping his head up and staring at her with a bored expression.
"It's times like these I wish I were a woman. If you haven't noticed, you get more food on your tray than the tray served for 10 men." He was then surprised to find two rolls of bread being thrown to him from said woman before she pushed the rest of the food to the men across from her. "Right attitude, wrong environment." Bankotsu started chewing the loaf.
Sango gave him a perplexed look, so he went on. "Now the other prisoners wont have the heart to forgive you if you leave them whilst you escape." The girl was staring at him now, rather plainly. "What? Didn't you know the key to a man's heart is his stomach?" Bankotsu took another large bite from the bread, "By the way, many thanks for the bread. I'd make you my wife if we both weren't on death row."
The woman shook her head as she chuckled, "I'll keep that in mind," Sango commented, making Bankotsu laugh lightly. 'Interesting sense of humor,' Sango thought, sarcastically.
Sango was about to sigh contently when she suddenly remembered what the man had just said…
"How did you know I was going to escape?"
"Hm?" Bankotsu looked up at her after gobbling down the last crumbs of bread. "Well, doesn't anyone at least try to?"
She quirked an eyebrow up at him, "…You said it like you knew I'd succeed, though."
Bankotsu smiled sheepishly at her. "Just a little confidence boost."
Sango got a bit apprehensive, but remained quiet as she continued to study him. He just kept getting more and more suspicious to her…
'Could it be…that by asking that question the way I did, I clarified any doubts of me escaping. …Impossible, he cannot be that smart.'
It was probably a while after noon by now, for the sun had gone from one side of the window to the other. Sango had spent most of the day simply lying on her back—or so it seemed. She had been planning her quite amateur sounding, she admitted, escape for a while now.
Being an impatient person, she approved of the idea of starting a bit early. With that, Sango sat up and started moving over to the bars.
Her sudden movement awoke Bankotsu from his staring session with the ceiling. He looked on curiously as she sat by the bars and appeared to be looking for something.
"What're you lookin' for?"
"…That mangy dog…" She mumbled under her breath. In the next moment her eyes widened slightly, probably meaning she had found it… er, the dog.
"Uh…" Sango thought over what to do before she started patting the ground, catching the dog's attention. "Ok…now…"
Two claps, a couple pounds of the floor and a low-pitched whistle later, the dog was trotting its way over to her.
With a wide smirk slicked over his face, Bankotsu had scooted as close as he could to her cell. "That was quite a delicious show there."
Sango felt her own pride swell, but she maintained it and pet the dog's head lovingly as she slowly snatched the keys from its mouth. The girl sighed; looking relived, before standing and retreating to the back of her cell to fetch her armor with the keys dangling from the large ring on her wrist.
Once she was finished strapping on her cuirass, Sango walked over to the lock and simply unlocked the door. One could see the look of satisfaction on her features when she closed the gate and started strolling to the chamber all the way across the corridor.
"Oi…oi! You are getting me out of here, aren't you?" Bankotsu stood on his knees, watching her rather pathetically.
Sango smiled as she opened the door to the small room and took out a rather monstrous looking boomerang made of pure demon bone.
"The Hiraikotsu…" one man murmured from the other crowded cell.
"Hey, can you see my Aibou in there? Is she ok? She's not on the floor or anything is she?" Bankotsu called out, having what part of his head that could actually fit through the bars, stick out.
Sango rechecked the closet and found a mighty looking sword. Her expression suddenly turned amazed—obviously not having heard Bankotsu in the slightest. She let Hiraikotsu rest upon the other wall and turned to grab the legendary Banryuu…
"No… no, no…please don't touch it!" Bankotsu pouted from his cell. Unfortunately for him, the next thing he saw was the slayer grasping the Banryuu by the sides and holding it halfway out of the cluttered chamber.
"Amazing…" She ran a hand down the face of the carefully crafted halberd and saw her own reflection shine through. "And it's so heavy…I cant even lift it off the floor."
The other prisoners also appeared to be staring in astonishment; in fact, the only one sulking was Bankotsu. "Please be careful," he reminded her.
"It's amazing how many times that sword has cut through flesh and bone, but it still shines like it is new…" a prisoner commented.
Bankotsu's head snapped towards the voice, "That's because I spend hours cleaning it everyday, baka!" It was funny how that simple comment got him riled up.
By the time Bankotsu's irked gaze was set on Sango again, she was closing the door, Banryuu safely inside. Sango pulled Hiraikotsu close before pulling the strap over her shoulder.
"Well," Sango started walking back, heading for the window that would give her freedom with a smile. "It was a… uh… nice experience meeting you all. Thanks for the company."
Making her way over, she almost stumbled after feeling Bankotsu grab her ankle.
"…Bankotsu, let go."
"Why would I let go if I grabbed you for a reason? Anyway, what do you plan to do when you escape?"
"You know the answer to that already, baka." Sango tried kicking away his hand, but his grip was too fierce.
"And how do you plan to find this beloved boy of yours? Do you know where he is?"
"That's why I'm going to go looking," Sango replied. "Now do you mind—"
"But with all those guards after you, you don't honestly think you have the leisure time to merely look, right? If you find him quickly, then you'd be able to both escape from the guards and have your brother securely tucked under your wing. But if you took too much time trying to find your way to him, the guards will easily catch up to you, finding you before you can even see a wisp of that boy's hair."
Sango had his words circling in her head, having them all be true. Soon enough he freed her ankle and laid back on his elbows.
"Well good luck with that, anyway." He was obviously just trying to make her admit to needing him. How proud.
'But he might know where Kohaku is…'
"Don't get killed out there." Bankotsu said with a knowing grin.
'I definitely need him to accompany me long enough to find Kohaku…but he just wants me to say that I need him… that's something I cannot even will myself do.' Sango turned away from him, heading towards the window.
"I don't need luck, renegade. And don't worry, I won't die."
Quickly Bankotsu snapped off his elbows and stood, refusing to believe that she was really going to leave him there. "O-oi! Aren't you going to free me?"
Sango smirked.
"Are you begging?"
Silence filled the air between them.
Bankotsu sighed, defeated. "Maybe…"
Sango's laughter filled the jail as she turned, going to the lock on Bankotsu's cell.
I can see you with nothing on, feelin' on me before you bring that on...
Bring that on?
You know what I mean.
Girl, i'm a freak you shouldn't say those things...
I'm just tryin' to get in your brain, to see if you can work me the way you say...
Sorry, felt like breakin' into a song that i hate to the depths of my heart. I heard that's normal.
Anyway, PLEASE review. ((now inverse. Let's see how the sentance changes.))
Anyway, please REVIEW! ((Amazing.))
-M
PS: I have 8 bug bites on my ass.
PSS: Meow.