TITLE: Second Chances
GENRE: Feudal Japan/Romance
RATING: PG-13
WARNINGS: Reference and strong implying of adult situations
OTHER: You may want to watch Inuyasha episode 110 for reference
SUMMARY:

Ten years have passed, ten long years since the general brought his sword down hard on Bankotsu's neck, ending a romance that should have lasted longer than it did. She remembers that day more clearly than any other, the loss of her love, and her true family, the Band of Seven.

Now she lives as the shrinekeeper to their tomb, an outsider in the village, but she has one hope, one thing that keeps her going: her son, Bankotsu. He is the reason for every breath she takes.

Then, one night, she sees a strange light...coming from the tomb of the Band of Seven. All she sees is the faint silhouette of a young boy running off, and when she sees it...the stone has been cracked in two. What does this mean? For her, and for the Band of Seven?

I pushed my hoe into the earth, shuffling the soil in preparation for a vegetable garden that was to be grown there. The earth was as hard as rock from a drought that summer, but I was determined to get it soft. Already I was a little late for planting, it was already November, but that was a trait I had developed these past ten years. I was so absent-minded…

I was sure it embarrassed my son, Bankotsu. He would come back from the village where he spent his days playing and training, and I would ask him, “Why is Shoberu with you?”

“Remember, mother? He’s staying with us tonight.”

“Oh, yes, of course!” Of course I had forgotten to prepare a decent supper, and that friend would probably never come over again. Bankotsu would give me the silent treatment for a day at most, but then he would always forgive me. For such a young boy, he was so responsible and mature. I guess that was what came from being born as the man of the house.

As I pushed my sweaty bangs from my forehead, I thought about picking up Bankotsu from the village and walking him home. That would be a nice surprise for him. It seemed like he and I were never together as much as we used to be. Even though he was only nine, he had devoted himself to becoming the strongest man in the world, just like his father.

It had been a year since I revealed to him that his father was the great Bankotsu of the Band of Seven. Sometimes it was even hard for me to believe it, but there was no way to forget. He was strong, brave, and more importantly, he had loved me more than I thought any man ever would. To my great pleasure, my son accepted the information with glee.

“Tell me about Bankotsu and the bear demon!” he would ask, and I would happily tell him all that I remembered from the times I was the servant of the Band of Seven and we would all sit around the fire and they would tell me about their battles. Even more, the knowledge of his origin had given him a goal in life. He wanted to be just like his father, and protect me, “Just like he did.” I didn’t remind me that I had saved Bankotsu’s life once, it didn’t matter.

I leaned my hoe against the side of our small house, and started walking to town. I tried to avoid the village as much as I could, lest I run into “the general.” Every time I saw him, it was hard to suppress my anger, and it was getting harder each day as he started noticing how my son was growing up to look exactly like the first Bankotsu. He was growing suspicious of me. After all, he had been the man who ordered two men to hold down my love while he beheaded him with the sword that I would see strapped around his waist. The least he could do was keep my son out of any future feuds with me.

I saw Bankotsu near the center of the village. He and a few other boys were busy kicking around a ball when one of them stopped and pointed at me.

“Bankotsu, isn’t that your mother?”

“I hear she was only sixteen when a thief came and raped her! Isn’t that what happened?”

“No, no, you got it all wrong. She fell in love with a priest, one of the kinds who aren’t supposed to have children, but they did anyway, and so it was her punishment to look after the tomb of the Band of Seven!”

“I thought she looked after the Band of Seven shrine because she’s, you know.” The boy proceeded to point a finger at his ear and move it around in circles.

“My mom isn’t any of that! My dad was a warrior and he died defending his comrades!”

“Sure, Bankotsu, you’ve told us that before, ‘My dad was the strongest man in the world!’ Ha!”

It pained me to see Bankotsu putting up with this. I knew this happened most days, yet he never took it out on me, and he never blew up at his friends either. Already my boy was a better person than I was.

“Bankotsu? How about I walk you home?” I asked cheerily, pretending I hadn’t noticed anything.

“Okay,” he replied, looking a little bit embarrassed as I put a hand on his shoulder and led them away, but unlike other children, he was not embarrassed because I was walking him home, but because he knew I had heard all of that.

“Bankotsu, I want you to know that you will always be my wonderful, beautiful boy.” He made a face at me.

“Men can’t be beautiful, mom.”

I laughed, it felt good, “Quite the contraire, men can be very beautiful. Your father was very beautiful, and because you look like him, you are too.”

He made a face like he would be okay with that for my sake, but he wasn’t really buying it, “Doesn’t seem very manly…”

I laughed again, harder this time. Here I was, dealing with my nine-year-old who was already worried about being “manly.” Maybe I just had a funny little boy, or maybe, he had never really had the chance to be a kid…I stopped laughing, and we remained silent for the rest of the walk home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After I tucked Bankotsu into bed that night, I stayed up, but didn’t really do anything. I was wondering what life would be like if the first Bankotsu were still alive. Would our son and I be traveling on the road with him as he continued his life of a mercenary? Or would he be right here beside me, in this house, standing at the doorway as I sung our son a lullaby and then sleeping in the same bed as me?

No matter what, if he were alive, I would be with him. I had made the mistake of running away once, and that had cut away two precious months of our time together, instead, giving us only one night. If he were alive, nothing would keep me away.

This past year had been the loneliest to me. The second Bankotsu would always be there, but he was growing up fast, and relied on me less and less each day. I had no friends, save for a few older women who would deliver baskets of food every once in awhile, but that was just charity. The longest chats I had were with my horse, Banryuu, but the gelding was nearing the end of his prime, and he wouldn’t have too many more years left ahead of him. I wouldn’t be able to afford another horse.

I knew Bankotsu hadn’t believed in the afterlife, but even as it was, I begged him to send me something, something to give me hope and a reason to fulfill my promise to him and live long. As much as I tried to tell myself this wasn’t true, I was living each day with the sole hope that Bankotsu would come back to me. I was waiting for him, as if some part of my brain believed that he had gone off on a job and would burst through the door any minute now. In response to that thought, I went and opened the door to look out.

Instead, I saw a bright light erupted out of the ground near…the shrine! My shrine! Without hesitation I jumped out of the house and ran towards it as if my life depended on it. If something had happened to it…

When I got there, out of breath, all I could see in the distance was a faint silhouette of what seemed to be a young boy running away, and when I looked at the tomb, my heart crumbled. It was split in two. Perhaps I could repair the roof that had gone over it, but what could put two pieces of a stone back together? Right then, it seemed like everything had given up on me. I couldn’t even keep the grave of the Band of Seven right. I threw myself to the ground, and cried.