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The Seven: Wanted Dead or Alive	By : Hairann Category: InuYasha AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2712 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 139
- 140
- 141
Title: Starting from the bottom

Prompt and Word Count: "It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question." by Eugene Ionesco-1266

Characters: Bankotsu and Renkotsu. Slight Jakotsu

Summary: Part 140 of The Seven: Wanted Dead or Alive.

Prompt Summary: Renkotsu and Bankotsu arrive at the mining camp.

Instead of questioning him verbally, Jakotsu simply turned back toward him in silence and waited for him to continue. “The recent storm we had did quite a bit of damage to many of the houses in and around town. We are still scrambling to repair them all. We can always use an extra set of hands to help,” the pastor informed him with a smile.
“Honestly, I have very little experience with construction, basically just repairing one fence, but if you believe I would be useful, I would be happy to help,” Jakotsu told him, slightly concerned that what little Bankotsu had taught him would cause him to get in the way more than to be able to actually help.
Smiling, either unaware of his concern or choosing to ignore it as there was no way to figure out how things would go without first trying, the pastor rose to his feet once more. Making his way toward the door Jakotsu had entered a while before, he called over his shoulder, “Follow me.” Doing as he was instructed, Jakotsu shielded his eyes from the bright light that assaulted them the moment they walked out of the dim church.
…
Around the same time Jakotsu had walked into the church a little while before, a few miles away the rest of the group was making their own entrance. Scanning the area around him, taking in his first view of a mining camp, Bankotsu was surprised to find it was almost exactly as he had pictured it being on the way there. Having never had seen a mining camp before, Bankotsu honestly had thought his vision of one would have been rather generic and likely inaccurate, but as it turned out, that was not the case.
Off to one side, as far away as they could be from the mining tunnels, were the tents for the miners; including a rather large log cabin way away from the others. Across from the tents, were the mining tunnels. Two of them stood a few yards apart on a rather large mountain side. Realizing there was plenty of room for more, Bankotsu made a mental note to ask Renkotsu about it later. Lined up next to each of the openings were pickaxes and shovels that the miners grabbed as they walked passed and into the mines.
A little ways away from that were wheelbarrows and a few carts set on a small set of railroad tracks. Noticing the tracks didn't go into the mines themselves, and actually stopped a few yards away, Bankotsu made his second mental note in as many minutes to ask Renkotsu about it later. “There he is,” Renkotsu mumbled to himself, drawing Bankotsu's attention away from his observations as he started making his way toward a man that was sitting down in the middle of the camp; watching the men begin to work and drinking a cup of hot coffee.
“Let me do the talking,” he whispered to Bankotsu before turning his full attention to the man in front of them; stopping just a few feet from him. “Good morning foreman,” Renkotsu greeted with a dip of his head; ignoring the annoyed look the foreman quickly shot up at him. “My friend here is clean and I used to be dirty. We're needing work.” For a moment, the foreman just regarded the two in silence, giving them each a once over.
“Grab yourselves some wheelbarrows and carry out the loads from below,” the foreman instructed even as he turned his attention back to his coffee; completely dismissing them. Giving Bankotsu a quick nod, Renkotsu gestured for him to follow and began making his way toward the wheelbarrows he had noticed before.
“Basically our job will be to collect the useless rock that is removed down in the mine shafts. Honestly it's the lowest job there is, but it's really not that bad until you stop for the day,” Renkotsu explained only to be met by Bankotsu's confused expression. As he elaborated, he began pushing one of the wheelbarrows toward the closest mine entrance and gestured for Bankotsu to do the same. “For two reasons really.
“First, we do not get to stop for the day when the pickers and sifters do. We have to wait until all of the rock that was mined out that day has been brought up. And secondly, once you stop moving for a few minutes at the end of the day, you really start to feel how much your body aches. During the day, you'll be far too busy working to really notice it,” Renkotsu explained before stopping when the two of them had reached a fork in the tunnel.
“Take the right fork. Once you reach the bottom, pick up all of the discarded rocks and bring them up. If you need any help, ask one of the pickers and explain to them that you are clean. Just don’t go bothering the sifters because they have to concentrate on what they are doing in really dim light and they can be rather rough.”
Bankotsu glanced down the tunnel for a moment, realizing he could not see very far as there was a slight bend a little ways down, before turning back to Renkotsu and interrupting him as he started to move down his own tunnel. “What do you mean by clean?”
Turning back, Renkotsu explained, “It means you've never worked in a mine before. Dirty, or used to be dirty in my case, means that I used to.” Nodding his head in understanding, Bankotsu began making his way deeper into the mind; quickly losing sight of Renkotsu as the fork in the tunnel became separated by a mine wall.
As he carefully made his way deeper and deeper into the tunnel, Bankotsu found himself passing small groups of men every so often; each group an on alternate side of the tunnel wall than the last had been. Watching them work as he walked passed them, it was easy to figure out that two were pickers-skillfully driving the pickaxes into the wall and knocking away various sized rocks- and that two were sifters-kneeling on the ground and carefully sorting through each fragment of debris for any sign that there was more than just rock inside of it.
Unsurprisingly, none of them bothered looking up as he passed them. Quickly deciding it was just the way things were, Bankotsu didn't bother to greet anyone he passed. Instead, he opted to pick up his pace a bit and moved further down into the tunnel still. It was not long before he found the final group, as the tunnel itself ended in a dead end, and quickly spotted the sifters going through their piles of rocks. The only problem was, he quickly realized as it was taking them quite a while to expect each stone in the dim light of a lantern, he had no way of knowing which was the discarded pile and which was the one they had yet to go through.
Not wanting to risk taking the wrong rocks and losing his job minutes after getting it, knowing there was no way he would discover anything about the death of his parents if he was not allowed to stay here long enough to question the man Renkotsu had told him about, he quickly turned his attention to the pickers. After all, it is not the answer that enlightens, but the question as one can only be enlightened by the answer if one first asks the question.
- 139
- 140
- 141
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The Seven: Wanted Dead or Alive