The Seven: Wanted Dead or Alive

Title: Picking up their trail

Prompt and Word Count: Sanctuary-452

Characters: Bankotsu and Jakotsu

Prompt Summary: After leaving Jakotsu in the safety of an inn, Bankotsu heads out for revenge.

Not long after noon that day, the two of them arrived in the next town; little more than a tiny western village like countless others like it littered across the frontier. There was a saloon, a barber and a general store; each of them sporting a little wooden sign that informed customers that they didn't service those of color. Ignoring the signs as they didn't pertain to him and he had yet to experience something like discrimination to understand exactly what it meant to be excluded like that, Bankotsu called for his horse to stop just in front of the two-story boarding house.

After helping Jakotsu down off of the horse after getting off himself, he pulled a few coins from his purse before handing them over to him. "Head on in and get us a room. Put it down that we are brother and sister, that should draw less attention to us. I'm gonna make a stop by the blacksmith and have him check out her shoes; one feels like it's coming loose," Bankotsu explained while petting the horse's mane.



"I will probably be gone for a few hours though. I'm gonna search around a bit for some clues since I haven't been able to find any recently. It's a long shot, but his reach is far and wide. Who knows, I might just get lucky," Bankotsu told him with a half attempted smile before grabbing the reigns and beginning to lead the horse away. Thinking nothing of his words or the fact that he hadn't noticed any difference with the horse, Jakotsu nodded his head before heading inside.

Once inside the modest boarding house, Jakotsu quickly paid for the room that would be his sanctuary for the next day or so and made his way up to put away his things. Having nothing to do at that moment or enough money on him to buy supplies, Jakotsu decided to take a much needed nap. After everything that happened the night before, it wasn't too surprising that he had been unable to get back to sleep.

Outside, once he was sure Jakotsu had gone inside and wasn't going to be coming back out anytime soon, Bankotsu remounted his horse before heading back out of camp the way they had come in. Though Jakotsu hadn't noticed them, Bankotsu had seen the tracks the men left the night before when they had left camp. They tried to cover up their trail by knocking him unconscious, but they had failed to take into account that their horse tracks would lead him in the exact direction they had headed off in. And as long as it didn't rain, they would lead him straight to them.