InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Story of Seven Men ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
Chapter 1- Coup
Gunfire rang out through the office building, followed by the screams of innocent people being mercilessly slaughtered by the lead tears of rifles and pistols. Bankotsu popped a second cartridge into his gun and sighed “This is so damn boring. When are we going to get some real action?" he growled, shooting two rival men in the head, as if that wasn't enough. Looking over at the dead men, a small smile graced his lips as he saw the red and black gang colors of the Rojo Lobos. “I should have known that mutt was involved in this, though I thought that we had agreed on a truce,” he thought as he headed toward the fighting that continued through out the corridors.
As he entered the fray his 9mm barked as lead bullets rained down upon every target. A yell of caution from his right was silenced in a matter of a split second. Confused as to the yell, his face contorted in anger at the realization he was the intended target. Bankotsu turned around, his eyes growing wide as the roaring sound of a bullet's fire entered his ears. He felt a tingling sensation in his back as his spine screamed in agony, and he fell to the ground, weakened like a stray dog.
The gunfire through the corridor ceased as the leader of the Band of Seven lay there in a pool of his own blood, his arms curled in a look of disgust as he held his stomach in agony. Murmurs of the witnesses drowned out the continuing fight a few floors below as the steady, rhythmic foot steps of the killer approached. All fell silent as the man knelt near the head of the fallen leader. Schooling his features to hide the hate and contempt of the man before him, Bankotsu laid in his own atrophic pit, trying not to cringe from the excruciating pain running down his back.
“Well… well… look at what we have here,” the killer mussed. “Looks like I get to sprout a new look after this day, thanks to you. Though it should have been mine after that old man died 5 years ago, but no… you had to come in and take over as if it was your right. I should have killed you before now,” he spat, moving back to his feet only to give a swift kick to Bankotsu's ribs, smirking when he coughed blood all over the hard, unforgiving ground.
After the first kick, Bankotsu tried his hardest not to cry out in pain. With the following dozen or so more that followed, he tried his hardest to maintain consciousness. He knew that if he were to loss consciousness now, he'd never wake up again. Trying to keep his eyes locked on the face of Renkotsu, the bastard who he had thought was his most trusted advisor and second-in-command, Bankotsu saw for the 1st time what everyone else had been trying to tell him over the years. A few tears ran down his cheek, not of emotion, but simply his eyes were watering from all the gun smoke and blood ran down his mouth and forehead.
Renkotsu Feuer was out for one thing and one thing only, power. His eyes burned with the flames wrath and hatred as he launched another round of torture on the broken man's body, inflicting more pain on Bankotsu's already cracked or broken ribs and groin. With each kick he cursed Bankotsu, until his rage slowly ebbed away and his leg began to tire from the continued torture.
He pulled his gun from the holster at his waist, grinning manically as he pulled back the slide as he said, “I'm almost sad to see you go, Bankotsu. You were a worthy opponent, but now you're just a useless slab of flesh. I'll be the better man and put you out of your misery.” A sly smile crossed his lips as he leveled the weapon at Bankotsu's head as he continued, “This shall be my finest moment… your death,” he said bombastically.
Blood bedewed the concrete as Bankotsu crawled toward those he once called his brothers, who turned away, as Renkotsu stepped on the worm of a man and kicked his teeth in, as the scarlet terror of blood rained out from his ravaged teenage body. He whispered as he looked up to his best friend with warm eyes that had never been unsheathed from the cold disposition he always had on his face. Jakotsu turned away, tears falling in his eyes as Renkotsu kicked Bankotsu around some more. "You pathetic little man, get on your feet and fight me damn it!"
As his finger slowly squeezed the trigger, gunfire rang out through the corridor once more sending lead flying in his general direction. Quickly he ducked, unable to fire his weapon into the leader's head and thus confirming his ascension to the helm of the Band of Seven. He turned his head toward the gunfire, noticing that the red and black gang colors of the aggressors.
“Damn them,” he thought before he turned his weapon on them, opening fire as one young punk leapt toward his position, effectively ending his life as the bullet plowed through his skull and buried itself deep down into the concrete, with a tiny spot of blood marking the back. "Can't they even follow freaking stupid directions like who they are to shoot at?!” he continued as he moved toward the stair well that was spewing out the Rojo Lobos gang members like some mass production assembly line.
A good ten minutes later, once the last of the Rojo Lobos were rounded up and formally `dispatched.' Renkotsu growled under his breath as he moved toward where he'd left the body of his former rival. “Damned mutt… should have known that he'd try some shit like this,” he thought darkly, knowing that he'd just basically declared open war on the Rojo Lobos while using them as the backdrop for his own coup.
With the occasional crack of gunfire echoing in the background, Renkotsu moved through the corridor, his temper flared as he flipped over every dead or injured body. “Damn it to hell!” he roared when he came to the splotch of blood where the half dead Bankotsu had been laying. Anger flowed through every fiber of his body at the fact that he'd lost his chance to kill the infamous Bankotsu Störrisch, thus claiming his place at the head of the largest criminal organization on the West Coast.
Where the hell could he have gone too?” he growled looking around the corridor for any evidence that could give him any clue as to where Bankotsu had escaped. Seeing that nothing seemed out of place and there was only one way to that particular floor, Ren roared out in frustration, opening fire on anything and everything in sight. The room echoed with gunfire and little particles of gray dust fell from the ceiling as the bullets etched at their surface. "BANKOTSU!!!" he shouted with unfulfilled wrath.
Down in the parking garage struggling to maintain consciousness Ban inched his way through the hidden panel that he'd sought refuge in. “Must stay awake,” he thought as he crawled toward any means of escape. Ban heard the receding gunfire, knowing that the fire fights were nearly over and it was only a matter of time before the winning faction came through to clean up the mess.
“I should have known Renkotsu would have been behind something like this,” he thought, groaning with the pain running through his body. Suddenly, breathing became excruciating and black spots began to cloud his vision as he tried to sit up, leaning against the rear tire of a black Escalade. After a few minutes, his breathing became easier, allowing for his vision to clear. Ban looked around the semi crowded garage trying to figure out his best means of escape. Blood stained his entire wardrobe, and bits of flesh stuck to the concrete ground beneath him.
As he tried to move once more toward his means of escape, his breathing became labored once more with black spots before his eyes as well as a pounding headache that seemed in tuned with his beating heart. “Can't stop… not now… too much at stake,” Ban thought as he crawled toward his salvation. Blood trailed down his leg from the wound in his back, leaving a slick trail for him to pull his leg forward.
A Cherry red Mustang shown like a beacon of hope amongst the dark vehicles, that his most trusted associate Jakotsu drove. With a weak smile Ban thought of how much they'd been through over the years and no matter how odd he was, Jak would always be there for him. As he inched closer to his goal, the spots before his eyes and labored breather got worse and worse. “Too much… at stake… too much… at stake…” were as a mantra to keep him going only to finally to succumb to the darkness a mere foot from his goal.
“Damn that Renkotsu,” Jak growled as he moved through the parking garage. Under orders to sweep up the riffraff, he checked all the vehicles for stray members of the Rojo Lobo gang. “Who died and put him in charge,” he thought as he checked an Escalade when he came across a bloody trail. His lips turned into a smirk as he thought, “Easy prey.” Pulling his Berretta from its holster, Jak slowly and methodically followed the trail, making sure that it wasn't some clever ruse by the rival gang.
He peeked around the back end of a dark Suburban, spying a booted foot and jean clad leg lying near the blood. The smirk on his face quickly disappeared as he recognized the prone form lying on the pavement. “Big Brother!” he practically shrieked as he sprinted toward the unconscious body.
The sight of his leader's broken and blood threshed body was too much for the effeminate man. Once he reached the mangled body, Jakotsu carefully reached toward the exposed neck, fearing the worse. “Please… please let there be a pulse,” he murmured, tears riming his slate gray colored eyes. Pressing the battered and bruised vein in Ban's exposed neck; Jak found a faint heart beat. Breathing a sigh of relief, Jak looked around the parking garage once more, fearing that he wasn't alone.
Looking back at his leader and friend, Jak said softly, “I see now why Renkotsu is acting so strangely. With you dead, he'd become leader the Band of Seven." Jakotsu stirred with anger looking at his broken best friend. "I'm not going to let him just kill you!"