The Shadows Beyond by Elvaron

Index

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Where things get dangerous.
Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Where people get lost.
Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Where people wander around.
Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Where people get introduced.
Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Where people quarrel a lot.
Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Where some stay and some leave.
Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Where trouble starts brewing.
Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Where things fall apart.
Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Where blood is loosed.
Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Where a lot of fighting ensues.
Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Where confrontations occur.
Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Where the sky falls.
Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Where revelations occur in the night.
Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Where morning comes without a dawn.
Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Where the glass shatters.
Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Where three go forth.
Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Where an end is come.
Chapter 18: Epilogue

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Where things get dangerous.

THE SHADOWS BEYOND
By sf
Begun : Apr 30, 2002

Summary :
The sequel to Borderline. Natsuji’s son swears to exact vengeance on Sanzo and seeks to break apart the Sanzo-ikkou.

Notes : Rating — PG-13
Sanzo shooting his mouth off, Sanzo shooting people’s heads off, people getting killed, the works. Non-yaoi, non-shounen-ai (unless you see implications, in which case I leave it up to you). I’m trying my best not to get the Sanzo-ikkou too badly damaged (especially Sanzo), but it just seems to be impossible (especially for Sanzo), because the injuries just write themselves in! (Especially for Sanzo.)

What has gone before :
While travelling through the mountaineous Tatensai region, the Sanzo-ikkou were ambushed by group of youkai in the middle of the night. The party was split in two. Unable to locate each other, they ended up at the centers of opposite sides of a local human-youkai conflict — Sanzo and Goku at a monastery doubling as a human stronghold, and Hakkai and Gojyo at a youkai camp.

When both sides marched to war, the Sanzo-ikkou found itself embroiled in the conflict. Shortly after locating each other, they encountered the youkai leader, Natsuji. A vicious fight ensued, during which all members of the Sanzo-ikkou were injured, and Natsuji was eventually killed by Sanzo.

2 Months later, having begun their journey anew after recovering from injuries, the shadows of the past begin to catch up with them…

PROLOGUE

"Isir-sama. The Sanzo-ikkou is entering the area."

The words sent a certain thrill through him, the anticipation of a hunter closing in on his prey. Muscles tensing for the fight, adrenaline pumping through his veins… excitement. Excitement that finally, finally, long months after his father’s death, vengeance was in sight.

It galled him, it really did, that his father had perished at the hands of these.. interlopers. Or this one interloper, Genjo Sanzo, this human, who’d appeared out of thin air. And shot his father, Natsuji, greatest all of youkai, like a common dog. A disgraceful, dishonorable death. The thought was enough to make his blood boil.

"Gather the troops."

"Hai."

"And remind them… remind them that I want the human priest alive."

"Hai, Isir-sama."

He would have vengeance. He would not rest until he had vengeance.

***

"Sanzo, we seem to have company," Hakkai announced cheerfully.

"I know," the priest growled. "Chi… Damn waste of time."

"But I’m hungry!" a voice piped up from the back. "I’m so hungry that I don’t think I can move!"

"And if you don’t move, bakazaru, you’re never going to move again. So get your butt in gear, will ya?"

Complaining and muttering curses, the Sanzo-ikkou clambered out of the jeep to face the enemy.

"Great, it’s a freaking army again," Gojyo noted. "Couple a hundred of them and not a single woman in sight."

"I’d place it closer to fifty, actually," Hakkai said.

"That… that means 20 each, right?" Goku asked.

"Baka," Sanzo muttered.

"Genjo Sanzo!" one of the youkai announced through a loud-hailer. "We–"

"Quit that nonsense," Sanzo snapped, and fired. The loud-hailer shattered into a million pieces.

Murmurs rose from the youkai crowd.

"If you wish to die earlier, be my guest," a youkai on horseback to the side of the roadblock called. "Forward!"

"That’s the leader," Hakkai noted.

"Well, let’s do it!" Goku yelled, summoning Nyoibou. Charging through the onslaught like a streak of lightning, he sent three youkai flying with a swipe, then kicked another in the chin hard enough to snap his neck. To his left, Gojyo lashed out with the cresent blade of his shaku-jou — his double bladed scythe — gutting one attacker in an instant.

"Gojyo! Behind you!"

Without missing a beat, he rammed the scythe backwards, and the flat-blade at the other went straight through the attacking youkai’s stomach and out the other side. The youkai went down with a scream.

"Nice weather we’ve been having, lately," Hakkai said with a smile and a golden globe of ki forming in his right hand. "Pity you won’t be able to enjoy it." The ball spun forward, smashing into a crowd of youkai and expanding to the size of a house. When it faded, only ash remained.

"Oi, Hakkai. Do you always talk this much?" Sanzo asked irritably, snapping off another bullet. Five gunshots, five youkai down, and he paused to reload.

"Sometimes," Hakkai replied cheerfully. "Duck!"

A wave of fire blasted overhead.

"What the hell?" Sanzo demanded.

"Powerful youkai. I’ll deal with him." Hakkai set off at a run. Gunshots sounded behind him, as youkai dropped to the left and right. Another wave of fire scorched the battlefield, helping him to pinpoint its origin. It was the youkai on horseback.

With practised ease, he gathered another ball of ki and fired.

The youkai leader spun as the ball arced towards him. Too late. The ball crashed into him head-on, sending him flying off into the darkness.

"That’s settled," Hakkai said to himself.

"Yeah, everything's settled," Gojyo said, coming up beside him. "We’re getting faster, I think. Saru is finishing off anything that moves."

Hakkai glanced around at the bodies. "Not bad for a little pre-dinner entertainment."

"Sometimes, I can’t tell whether you’re being sarcastic, or whether it’s your warped sense of humor speaking," Gojyo muttered. "Well, let’s go."

***

Isir swore. He’d been so occupied with trying to snip the priest that he hadn’t seen that ki blast coming. If he’d been any slower.. if he’d been any weaker, he would be have been as dead as the rest of them.

"Isir-sama.." his chief of staff looked concerned.

"Nothing serious, Chiro." He sat down, wincing. "A weak blast."

"They were more powerful than I expected."

"We underestimated them. The fact that they could take down my father should have warned us that these are no ordinary enemies." He rapped a clawed finger on the tabletop.

"We should separate them," Chiro suggested.

"Hm."

"A road accident, maybe a smoke screen… it should be easy to arrange."

"Ah. No. I have a better idea. I intend to separate them more.. permanently. Betray the trust that Sanzo has in his companions. Break them apart… then hunt them down individually. Give me the data we have on the four."

Chiro passed him a thick wad of paper and stood to one side as Isir read, absorbing and assimilating the information.

"Do you intend to make them betray him?"

"No. It would be impossible. I can, however, make it appear that way. And Sanzo, being the paranoid bastard that he is, will form the conclusions himself."

There was silence for another moment, interspersed by the flipping of pages.

"Not Goku, I think," Isir concluded after a while. "His loyalty is unquestionable."

"Gojyo? A level of animosity already exists between them."

"Perhaps. But somehow not.. satistfying." He paused at a page. "But Hakkai… on the other hand… would be perfect. And it would pay for the insult earlier today." Isir smiled. "Yes… this will be so much sweeter than simply killing him."

***

CHAPTER 1

"FOOD! FOOD!" Goku leapt into common room of the inn, eyes shining. "FOOD!"

"Urusai, bakazaru," Sanzo snapped.

"I want.. I want… I want everything on the menu!" Goku said jubilantly, ignoring him.

"Oy, saru! Stop hogging the menu, then," Gojyo said, pulling it away.

"Hey!"

"Well, you’ve already decided what you want, right? Let others–"

"I haven’t decided how much of each I want, ero-kappa!"

"Don’t. Call. Me. That!" Gojyo whacked Goku with the menu.

"Yeah? Ero-ero-ero-kappppaaaa!"

"BAKAZARU!"

"URUSAI! KOROSO!" There were two resounding thumps, followed by two smaller ones as Goku and Gojyo fell off their chairs, nurses sore heads. Sanzo glared around before restoring his paper fan to his sleeve pocket. "And try to shut the fuck up during the course of the meal. For once," he added.

"I don’t think that’s possible, Sanzo," Hakkai said softly.

"It’s worth a try."

In fact, there was peace, of a sort, over the course of the meal. Gojyo still quibbled with Goku over the last dumpling, but it was more of a reflex action than out of any real want for it. And it was cut short by a deadly glare from Sanzo.

Goku sighed happily. "That was good~!"

"I think… I’m going to throw up," Gojyo groaned.

Sanzo, signing for the meal with his gold card, just ignored them.

Hakkai simply smiled and sipped his sake.

"You know… I think there’s a chance that I won’t be hungry before breakfast tomorrow…" Goku told the ceiling. "Best meal I’ve had in ages."

"Biggest too," Gojyo added.

"Yeah."

"Well, time to retire for the night, I guess," Hakkai said, rising. His head felt light, for some reason. It might have been the sake, but he normally didn’t get drunk…

Tired, maybe. Just tired. It’d been a long day, with the fight and all…

Abruptly, his spine tingled as the sense of youki peaked all around them. Youkai? Here? Again?

Sanzo slammed into him, knocking him to the ground, as the windows shattered and arrows rained down where he’d been standing. "Watch it, baka!"

Hakkai frowned. "How many, do you think..?"

"Can’t tell."

"I don’t care for a fight directly after a meal like that…!" Gojyo complained as he took cover behind a table.

Fortunately, the common room had been almost empty. The remaining patrons were fleeing.

Sanzo snapped a few shots out of the window and dived for cover as more arrows rained down. "Watch the door!"

The warning came a little late, as the door splintered inwards in a shower of wood. Youkai came swarming in, preceded by swarms of arrows. It was impossible to prevent their entry.

"Well, time to stop hiding," Gojyo muttered. "Oy saru, up to a fight?"

"Yeah!"

Both of them broke from cover and dashed towards the enemy, with Hakkai and Sanzo providing support fire. The first youkai throw the door went down, but were rapidly replaced.

"They’re coming in through the windows," Hakkai warned, just seconds before the frail metal frames gave way and youkai poured through.

"Break cover," Sanzo ordered, diving to the left. Hakkai took the right.

It was hard to fight indoors, against greater odds and with limited room for movement. On the otherhand, they didn’t have to face all the youkai at the same time, so that was good.

Hakkai found himself next to Goku, who was radiating every semblence of enjoyment at the fight, crunching heads and smashing youkai to a pulp with Nyoibou. Hakkai whipped out a few ki blasts, taking down the closest attackers. Goku turned and grinned at him. The grin faded almost immediately. "Hakkai, are you okay? You look pale."

"Me?" When he thought about it, his vision did seem to be going slightly hazy, and his balance wasn’t quite what he’d expect it to be. "I’m fine." It can’t be the sake… and if it was poisoned, I’d have been able to tell. Please don’t tell me I’m falling sick..

Several youkai rushed in for the attack, and in the resulting melee, he was seperated from Goku again. The ranks of the enemy seemed to be thinning out. The attack was getting beaten back.

His vision was starting to swim. He leaned against the wall, swiping at his eyes. Blinked, and his vision focused properly again. Fatigue. Definitely fatigue.

"Hakkai," Sanzo called, in a silent query regarding his health.

Hakkai glanced across. Sanzo was standing in the middle the room, reloading his Smith and Wesson.

Hakkai blinked again. "Sanzo! Behind!"

The priest spun at the same time Hakkai fired a ki blast.

He wasn’t sure what happened. He could have sworn that there had been a youkai standing right there, but when he blinked again, all he saw was Sanzo flying backwards in a spray of blood, as his ki blast caught him dead on.

"SANZO!" Goku yelled, springing across. "HAKKAI! What did you do that for?!"

"There was a youkai…"

"There wasn’t anything," Gojyo frowned. "Hakkai… what’s wrong with you…?!"

Hakkai shook his head violently and raced across. He’d seen it.. a youkai right there.. what happened? What happened? "Sanzo…"

Goku was glared at him as he neared. "Why, Hakkai? Why?"

Hakkai shook his head. "It was.. a mistake.."

Goku clenched his teeth and didn’t reply. He lifted the unconscious priest and headed for the stairs. Hakkai felt his heart wrench at the sight of the blood soaking through the sleeve of his robe. If it hadn’t been a glancing hit… he might… he might have been dead… oh no, what’s wrong with me?!

"Goku…"

"Go away."

"Goku!"

"Don't you dare come near him!"

Hakkai sighed and collapsed into one of the remaining chairs, his head buried in his hands. Goku’s footsteps came echoing back to him as went running — to someone else for help. Then silence.

There was a scrape as Gojyo pulled up another chair. A click as he lighted up, and a long pause.

"What did you see?" Gojyo asked, eventually.

"A youkai." The memory was getting more hazy by the moment. "Standing right behind him. I don’t know… I aimed for the youkai… I don’t know why my aim was off… I still don’t see how I could have hit him instead…"

Another long pause. Then Gojyo laid a friendly hand on his shoulder. "Go to bed. I think you’re tired. I’ll talk to the saru and the monk."

"I guess…"

"There’s nothing you can do right now. It was a mistake, right?"

"A mistake…" Hakkai said dully.

"And Sanzo isn’t dead, so all’s well."

Hakkai sighed.

***

"Excellent. This is better than I expected," Isir smiled. "I forgot that Goku would take sides against Hakkai if Sanzo was injured."

"I wonder what Gojyo will do," Chiro said.

"I suspect.. he will take Hakkai’s side. Until such a time when it is impossible to do so. By then, it will all be too late." He cocked his head. "The uses of a little medication and a simple illusion… it’s a pity my father never appreciated the power of magic."

***

Consciousness returned slowly. Sanzo cracked an eyelid open, and promptly shut it against the blinding light that filtered in. He frowned, trying to recall the night’s events. Memory led him up to the point where Hakkai had warned him–

"Sanzo…"

If he stayed still, maybe that voice would go away.

"Sanzo!"

No such hope.

"Urusai," he muttered.

"Sanzo, are you okay?"

He hurt all over. Which meant that Hakkai probably hadn’t been on hand with his ki-healing techniques. Which meant that Hakkai was probably injured. Badly. Damn.

He opened his eyes again, more slowly this time. Goku was standing by the bed, concern written all over his face.

"What happened?" he asked.

Goku hesistated.

"Hakkai was gunning for a youkai near you. You were hit by the wake of the blast," Gojyo answered for him.

Sanzo frowned groggily. Recalled… nothing standing behind him. Surprise surprise surprise. "There… wasn’t any youkai."

He gathered from the sudden silence and the tension that he’d hit on something significant.

"No… there wasn’t…" Hakkai said from somewhere off to the side. "But… I thought… I’m sorry."

"Shooting at shadows? Not your usual standard."

"There was something wrong with me last night," Hakkai said quietly.

"Did someone spike your drink?"

"Perhaps. I’m not sure." Hakkai looked tired. Tired and dazed and confused.

"Ch," he muttered, closing his eyes. "Just get out of my room, all of you." Too tired to think. Too tired to consider the ramifications of what had just happened. He could deal with it all … later…

*

It was afternoon by the time he awoke again. Sanzo glanced at the sun and swore at the wasted time. His right arm and shoulder were a mess of bruises and minor burns where the ki blast had hit, and a long gash where the worst of it had passed, but it was scarcely life-threatening. It certainly didn’t warrant losing almost a whole day’s worth of travel time.

He dressed quickly, and was checking on the ammunition status of his gun when a knock sounded on the door.

"Come."

It was Gojyo who stepped in, a cigarette in his mouth and a nonchalent look on his face. "About Hakkai…" he began.

Sanzo turned and nodded minutely, a gesture for him to proceed.

"It was a genuine mistake. Too much sake at the end of a long day, and nerves, probably."

"Mistake, then," Sanzo replied neutrally.

"You don’t think that he did it on purpose, do you?"

"The thought crossed my mind."

"So what do you think it was?"

Sanzo frowned and reached for a cigarette. Took his time lighting up before answering. "If he says it’s a mistake… let’s leave it at that."

Gojyo looked marginally relieved. "Yeah well, you might like to talk to him. He’s been tearing himself up with guilt just thinking about it."

"Hn," Sanzo muttered. "If he wants to talk to me, tell him to come here and see me."

"Yes, Sanzo-sama," Gojyo replied, with a big grin and no little sarcasm. Sanzo shot him a glare as he scurried out. "I’ll send Hakkai riiiiight over."

He was almost through the cigarette before Hakkai poked his head in. "Ah, Sanzo. How are you?"

"I’ve been better," he replied.

"I’m sorry…"

"Gojyo tells me it was a mistake," Sanzo said.

"I was seeing things…"

"If it was a mistake, then come right out and say it, man!"

"Gomen…"

"Hmph. Get the others. Let’s see if we can make some headway before sunset."

Hakkai looked unfazed by the sudden change in topic. "It’s a long way to the next town."

"Then we need to get started, don’t we?"

"True," Hakkai replied, turning to leave.

"Hakkai."

He glanced back. Sanzo snapped the magazine of his Smith and Wesson into place. Cocked the hammer to chamber the next round. The click echoed off the walls in the looming silence.

"Remember… anyone who gets in my way… is the enemy."

"I won’t forget it," Hakkai said softly.

"Good. Then let’s get going."

***

"Yeah, the monk’s forgiven him," Gojyo told Goku.

"How do you know? He didn’t say anything."

"Sanzo-sama doesn’t say anything. You gotta deduce it from the silences. And the fact that if he hadn’t forgiven Hakkai, Hakkai’d be dead or running for his life."

"How do you know–"

"Because I’m not a bakazaru like you," Gojyo replied. "Pity to leave this place. It was quite nice before we busted it up."

"Yeah," Goku sighed, probably in memory of the vast dinner they’d had the night before. "Good food too."

"For you, anything that amounts to quantity is good," Gojyo rolled his eyes. "Doesn’t matter what it tastes like, as long as there’s a lot of it."

"What’s wrong with there being a lot of it? If you weren’t around, I’d have it all to myself!"

"Greedy pig. You shouldn’t be called saru. You should be called Pig."

"COCKROACH KAPPA!" Goku yelled.

A fist banged on the door. "Shut the fuck up and get moving! If you don’t want to get left behind!"

"You can't leave anybody behind unless you steal Hakuryuu!" Gojyo called back. "And hell, if you weren’t around, bouzo wouldn’t keep hitting me with that fan. It’s not as if I do anything."

"Wanna bet? If you weren’t around, Sanzo wouldn’t have to use the fan at all!"

"Riiiight. And who was it who broke three fans, all by himself, that–"

There was a knock on the door and Hakkai looked in. "Are you done? Sanzo’s really getting quite impatient."

"HAKKAI!" Goku yelled, flying over and glomping him. "I forgive you too!"

The shock on Hakkai’s face eased into a genuine smile. "Thank you."

"Leave it to the saru to be all obvious about it," Gojyo said.

"Who are you calling a saru?!"

"Who else?"

"Cockroach kappa! Cockroach cockroach kappa!"

"ARE YOU GUYS QUITE DONE UP THERE?!" a very pissed-off Sanzo yelled from downstairs.

Hakkai sighed in relief. Yes, everything was back to normal…

TBC.

***

Sf : I was going to wait until May 15 before I uploaded, but I've been writing so quickly that I decided to upload the first installment earlier. For those of you waiting for an update to 'And Time Again', I'm sorry, but Shadows intrigues me so much more than Time at the moment..
Muse : Me too!
Sf : And in accordance with the new policy at sf works, I've extended chapter length from an average of 1,000 to 2,500 - 3,000 words (discounting author's blurbs at the end). ^_^
Muse : Of course, that means less chapters in the end. -_-
Sf : Either way, I personally find this better than Borderline, and I hope you will too!

***

Back to index

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Where people get lost.

CHAPTER 2

There was a fork in the road that shouldn’t, by all rights, have been there. It wasn’t on the map… it wasn’t on any of the maps that they’d purchased, and it quite stumped them.

"It’s probably a new road," Hakkai noted. "These maps haven’t been updated in a while."

"Question being, which is the new road?" Sanzo’s finger the traced the road that they’d been taking. "We passed that… yes, there’s a slight bend in the road here. Seems to be going left. Perhaps we should take the left turning."

Hakkai peered at the road. "But the left track looks new. The right track looks older, and we should be following an old road."

Sanzo glanced up. Indeed, the left track had fresh dirt and was relatively clean, while the undergrowth was creeping onto the other one. The ground below the weeds was dry and cracked.

"So… what will it be?"

Hakkai stared at the road a little longer. "I’d rather not trust the maps. The bend isn’t very obvious, and it could be misleading. After all, these were drawn by hand."

"True."

"So… I guess we’d have to trust the road. Shall we go right?"

Sanzo leaned back. "You’re the driver. It’s your call."

"Right it is, then."

***

They traveled for a while, as night deepened and the forest grew closer and darker around them. In the backseat, Gojyo was nodding off and Goku was already snoring blissfully. Sanzo brooded in silence in the front seat, while Hakkai concentrated on the road.

"You know, Sanzo," he said after a while. "This doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere."

"I noticed," Sanzo said drily. "But we’re surrounded by forest, after all. Did you really expect to see landmarks?"

"I guess… we go on, then. I’d better pick up speed," Hakkai said.

"As you see fit."

They travelled for perhaps another hour before Hakkai started slowing down again. Something certainly didn’t feel right. "We ought to have hit the stream by now."

Sanzo snapped out of the light doze he’d fallen into and glanced across. "Did you miss it in the dark?"

"I don’t think so…" Hakkai frowned. "I think–"

His senses were assaulted by the stinging cold that betrayed the presence of youkai, just milliseconds before they burst from hiding.

Sanzo swore viciously, going for his gun.

"GET OUT!" Hakkai yelled. "They have explosives!"

From the backseat, Gojyo began cursing as well. "Goku! Wake up! GOKU!"

"Eh.. break–"

Gojyo grabbed Goku and flung him out as Hakuryuu transformed back into dragon form.

"SCATTER!" Sanzo yelled.

The world exploded.

Gojyo swore. And swore. His head was ringing from the proximity of the blast. Blinded by the light, all he could see were dancing spots that flashed purple-green-purple-green in front of his eyes. He couldn’t hear a damn thing.

The youkai were coming for him. Angrily, he strove to keep two at bay, when the third slipped under his guard. He leapt backwards, and then Goku was there with Nyoibou, to finish the job.

Goku said something, but he couldn’t hear it past the persistent ee-ee-ee sound in his ears. "WHAT?" he yelled. He couldn’t hear his own words. Goku shook his head and vanished off to the side. Another youkai went down with a crunch.

Comeon, Gojyo. Concentrate. Or you’re dead meat. He gutted another youkai with the flat-blade of the shaku-jou, not quite trusting himself to use the detachable cresent one. Not with Goku nearby, and his senses not working.

It would be funny, he thought wryly. Hakkai shoots Sanzo and I slice up Goku… all in the same day… accidents, yeah.

The ringing in his ears was subsiding, and he was slowly regaining his night vision. Enough to see the damn stupid youkai come charging at him straight on. With a snort of disgust, he casually deflected the sword stroke and kneed him in the gut. As the youkai fell back, retching, he took off its head with a single swipe.

"Learn how to ambush people properly in the afterlife, will you?" he said sarcastically.

"Gojyo!" the saru’s voice came drifting faintly to him. Goku came hurrying up. "I can’t find them!"

"Who?"

"Sanzo! And Hakkai!"

"Ch…" Sanzo would have exited on the left of the jeep. Both of us and Hakkai got out on the right. Which means that Hakkai might be around, but Sanzo might have gone in the other direction.

"Should we split up and look for them?"

"No. That’s the stupidest thing you possibly do. Search the area. They can’t have gone far."

Goku nodded, worried.

*

Sanzo hit the ground, rolled, and assumed a firing crouch. Sniped out the two youkai who came rushing for him, and leapt to his feet.

There was a thin whistle through the air. Ch! More explosives!

He leapt backwards as the small firebombs hit the ground and blew. Damn.. He tried to target the youkai who was flinging them, but there was another clatter nearby, and the ground exploded just inches away.

Swearing, he fired at the nearest enemy, and ducked away as a youkai with a morning star attacked from the left. Aimed and shot the attacker through the throat, then retreated back a few footsteps to reload.

There...! It wasn't just one youkai who was carrying explosives. There were at least half a dozen armed with these small firebombs.

More explosions, right in front of him.

I have to get out of range. Swearing, he took off running.

*

The big blast meant for Hakuryuu caught Hakkai as he tried to shield the dragon, throwing him off his feet. He hit the ground, hard, his right foot at an odd angle. A tingling wave of pins and needles and a sudden numbness through his foot informed him that he'd sprained his ankle.

"Kyuu!" Hakuryuu called in warning, as enemy youkai charged him. Releasing the dragon, Hakkai summoned a ball of ki and fired.

Several black spheres came hurtling towards him, nearly invisible in the darkness of the night. He evaded, dodging backwards, as they clattered to the ground and exploded. Several more were already arcing through the air. He flung up a barrier, and the blasts licked against the blue shield.

He lost ground again as another group of youkai attacked him from short range with swords and maces.

They're forcing me back, he realized. But it was impossible to stop them, as they closed in from all directions but one, attacking viciously and flinging explosives at his feet whenever he ran.

There're too many of them! It was hard, fighting without support in the blackness of the forest, when his eyesight and nightvision weren't as good as theirs. And they weren't making the mistake of grouping together. They were attacking individually, from multiple directions. It was impossible to take them down at the same time. Especially when he couldn't even see where they were attacking from.

"Well, Hakuryuu.. it looks like we have to run." Wincing slightly, and hoping that he wouldn't do his ankle permanent damage, he turned and disappeared into the forest.

*

Goku and Gojyo found the road empty. The ground was scorched by fire and littered with youkai corpses and discarded bullet shells, but there was nothing alive there.

"You know.. I thought there were more youkai than this," Goku pointed out.

"The bulk of them must have gone after Hakkai and Sanzo. I thought I heard blasts."

"Well, it's all quiet now. I don't hear anything." Goku tilted his head, listening.

It was quiet, now that his hearing was returning to normal. Very quiet. "Well, smell anything, saru?"

"Gunpowder. A lot of it."

"Must be the blast. But how about the other two?"

"I can't smell anything over the gunpowder. But it seems to have go in two directions." Goku pointed.

Gojyo groaned. They had to be two completely separate directions.

"Let's follow," he said, picking one at random. "And I thought we could have a peaceful night. Ah shit."

"Yeah. And we haven't had dinner!" Goku wailed.

Complaining under their breaths, they followed the trail into the night.

*

Sanzo ducked around a tree and slammed bullets into the magazine. Got two in before a youkai popped up on his left. Without missing a beat, he elbowed it viciously in the stomach, slapped the magazine back into place and slammed his fist, gun and all, into the attacker's face. There was a gurgle as the youkai fell back, and Sanzo snapped off a shot that punched straight into an eye. The youkai fell without a sound.

One bullet. He ran, trying to put more distance between him and the attackers, as he tried to reload again. Bloody annoying. This time, he managed to refill the magazine before another youkai got into attack range. He took it down with a head shot and spun.

Youkai eyes glowed in the darkness. He couldn't quite make out their forms, but the dull glow gave the game away, and he fired. There were screams in the darkness.

Explosions to his left and right, close enough for him to feel the heat and dust generated.

There! He targeted a shape in the darkness and fired. It went down with a scream, and he was out of bullets again.

There were no more blasts as he reloaded, just short-ranged attacks. It seemed that he'd gotten the ones with explosives.

He reloaded quickly, ducking and evading blows and sword-thrusts all the while, then took out an attacker with a heart shot. Emptied the magazine again by taking down another four, and paused in the sudden quiet.

The sense of youki was fading. Cautiously, he glanced around as he snapped the gun open again and loaded the next five bullets.

Nothing. No more attacks.

He breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Except..

He now had another problem.

He was totally and absolutely lost.

*

Hakkai leaned against a tree and sighed. Somewhere in front of him was the bloodied corpse of the last youkai they'd encountered.

Running had been every bit as horrible as he'd thought it'd be. His ankle was starting to swell. The shock was wearing off, and it was starting to hurt.

"And the trees are too close to drive through, aren't they, Hakuryuu?"

"Kyuu!" Hakuryuu nodded his head in affirmation.

"So.. where does that leave us?"

Hakuryuu launched off his shoulder, flew a little distance away, and paused, flapping his wings.

"I guess you're right," Hakkai replied with a smile. "So.. walk it is."

They trudged through the trees for hours. Hakkai didn't have much of an idea where they were going, and relied on his instinct instead. Every now and then, he sent Hakuryuu out to perform air reconnaissance, while he rested his ankle. But it was difficult for Hakuryuu to see anything, even from a bird's eye point of view -- or dragon's eye, in his case -- since the dense foliage effectively hid most of the ground from above.

Hakkai sniffed. The air had achieved that slightly chilled and damp feeling, that deep, restful silence that indicated that it was the deepest part of the night. A few hours to dawn.

He couldn't quite go on without a break. Not if he ever wanted to take his right shoe off again. The ankle was definitely swelling, and he needed to bind it.

"Kyuu!" Hakuryuu came shooting back to him. "Kyuu! Kyuu!"

"You found something?"

Hakuryuu nodded.

"Who was it?"

Hakuryuu shook his head. Not a 'who', then. Probably a 'what'.

"Let's check it out."

*

"I'm..." Goku took a deep breath. "HUNGRY!"

A fist crashed down onto his head. "Shut up, bakazaru!"

Goku's stomach growled viciously.

"See?" Goku said. "I'm hungry! And there's nothing to eat!"

Gojyo sighed. They'd lost the trail after a while. They had found a river - a stream, actually - which was good. Streams were landmarks, and Hakkai had been talking about one earlier. And people in the stories always followed the streams to their destinations. Sooner or later, if they kept following the stream, they'd find Hakkai and/or Sanzo.

Problem number 1 : Hakkai and Sanzo might not have the same idea.

Problem number 2 : Streams definitely weren't edible.

Goku was rambling on about meat buns and dumplings, and every possible way you could cook noodles or fry rice, and all that talk was making him hungry.

"Ah, I'm tired. Let's just sit here and wait it out," Gojyo grumbled. "And I want some sleep."

"But we haven't found them yet!" Goku said, bouncing up and down.

"Yeah, but they're nowhere nearby, are they? You can't smell anything."

"No... but--"

"So there's an equal chance of them finding us here, as us blundering into them in the dark, right?"

"Think they're together?"

"No. We're not lucky enough for things like that to happen. We'll have to find one, then find the other, probably."

Goku sat on the bank and sulked. "And we don't have food!"

"If you don't stop talking about food, I'm going to eat you!" Gojyo snapped.

*

There was a glow of light in the darkness. Hakuryuu chirped and looked at him.

"It's a house," Hakkai said, limping towards it. "They might have seen something.."

It was a house. A small, well-built wooden cabin with a fence around it and a garden. A stream ran past the back, possibly the very stream that they'd been supposed to find.

"I guess we're not that far off track, then! I remember that there were some little settlements in this part of the forest."

"Kyuuu..?"

"Because there aren't many youkai.." Hakkai frowned. "Well, maybe the attack earlier was an exception. Probably a group that followed us into the forest."

He limped up to the door and knocked.

There was the sound of footsteps. A gate was opened, just a little.

"Sorry about the disturbance--"

"You're human?"

"Well..."

The gate creaked open a little wider. "Oh, you are. You'd better come in. It hasn't been too safe out there recently."

"I--"

A hand shot out and pulled him through the gate.

He found himself standing on the driveway, a neat, narrow path leading up to the door. A rather short, middle-aged man was standing in front of him - presumably the fellow whom he'd been talking to. He held a rake in his right hand, and a relieved look on his face. At the door, half-opened to reveal a friendly yellow glow, was a women. The slightly worried expression eased up when she saw him - or more precisely, saw what he appeared to be. Human.

"How can we help you?" the man asked.

"Actually, I'm looking for some companions. Has anyone passed by..?"

"What would they look like?"

"One's a priest, golden-haired and purpled eyed. One's a tall man my age, long red hair, smokes, wears a blue vest and brown pants. The last one's a youth, about 18, wearing a red shirt and an orange cape. Brown hair and eyes."

"I thought I saw someone running past earlier in the night. There was quite a bit of commotion. Quite a large pack of youkai after something." He shuddered, fingering the rake that he'd been holding. "I don't know where all these youkai have come from. We never used to have a youkai problem."

"Which way did he go?" Hakkai asked. Might have been Sanzo. Gojyo and Goku were together, the last time I saw them.

"I'm not too sure... back past the house, I think," the man indicated.

"Thank you. I'll be on my way.." Hakkai turned back.

"Are you injured? You're limping," the woman, coming up beside her husband, said in concern.

"Just a small sprain," Hakkai replied, smiling.

"Come on, we can't have you wandering around in the dark with a sprained ankle," the man said. "You'd become youkai fare in no time. Why don't you wait until it's light?"

"You'll never find your friends, wandering around in the dark. Dawn is just a few hours away. You'd better let us take a look at that foot of yours," his wife added.

"Mummy... a dragon!" a small voice called from the door.

Hakuryuu perked up his ears.

"Yes, it's a dragon," Hakkai said, as a child came running up. "His name is Hakuryuu."

"Mummy, can I pet it? Will it bite?" the boy, probably no more than 8, tugged at his mother's skirt.

"He won't bite," Hakkai assured them. "Hakuryuu, say hello."

"Ohhh.. he's really cute.."

"Won't you come in for a while?" the woman asked.

Hakkai glanced at the dragon and the kid, who'd already become friends. Of course, the food bribes that the boy was slipping to the dragon had something to do with it. No separating them, at least for the immediate future.

"Well, I guess so.."

***

"All goes according to plan, Isir-sama."

"Excellent. Just a matter of time, then..."

TBC. Those horrible words.

***

Sf : LOL! Maybe I should have added : I'm trying not to seriously debilitate the Sanzo-ikkou such that they get dangerously close to the Point of No Return. *nod**nod*
Muse : Which means they can look forward to lots of little scratches, but nothing life threatening. ^^
Gojyo : I'm *really* looking forward to that!
Hakkai : You can die from too many papercuts, you know.
Sf : I know. I can also die from a lack of good fanfic. I'm halfway there already.
Sanzo : Shall I speed up the process?
Sf : -_-;; So generous, Sanzo-sama. But no thank you.
Goku : Does 'debilitate' mean we get more food?
Gojyo : No, bakazaru! It means 'injure'!
Muse : sf, stop showing off your vocabulary.
Sf : *innocently* what vocabulary?
Muse : *dangerously* Quit that before you get seriously debilitated..

Back to index

Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Where people wander around.

CHAPTER 3

The sound of running water caught Sanzo's attention. Scanning the area, still wary of an attack, he made his way towards it.

The stream wasn't very far away, and as he reached it, the first glint of sunlight was reflected off the dark waters. Looking up, he could make out the faintest of pink glows in the distant east. Dawn was breaking.

The water was a welcomed relief after the fight and a night of trekking. The light was good. All he needed to do was to find the road--

--after he got a rest, he decided. Carefully, he tested the injured arm. It still ached dully.

Gods, but he was tired. He wanted a bed. He wanted to flop down and not move. He wanted a roof over his head, an arm that didn't hurt, and a few blissful hours of oblivion.

He settled for a tree against his back and a cigarette instead. Ahead, the sun crept up into the sky.

*

Morning found Gojyo and Goku holding a snoring competition by the stream. Gojyo wasn't doing too badly -- his snores battered the leaves of the trees around them and echoed through all parts of the forest. Several trees shook and threatened to fall. But he couldn't beat Goku, whose snores rocked Hell and woke the dead.

One set of snores became muted as Gojyo turned over onto his side. He muttered something in his sleep that would have made any listeners blush, and flung out an arm.

His hand smacked into Goku's face.

"Ehhhhh... breakfast..." Goku muttered. His snoring didn't miss a beat; his eyes stayed firmly shut.

It was Gojyo who came groggily awake. "Why do I always wake up at the good parts?" he complained, rubbing his eyes. The stream gurgled happily onwards, and didn't answer him.

It was light enough to make out the silhouettes of the trees. Light enough to make a move. Standing, he stretched, yawned, and kicked Goku to wake him up. "Oy, Goku!"

"Itai..." Goku rubbed his head and sat up slowly. "Is it time to get up already?"

"Come on, saru. The faster we find Hakkai, the faster we get breakfast."

*

Hakkai, in the meantime, was eating breakfast and having his ankle bond up.

"Does it hurt?"

"No, no, it doesn't. Thank you, Houli-san," Hakkai said, sipping tea. He flexed the ankle experimentally. "As good as new."

"Try not to put your weight on it. Don't you go running anywhere," Houli, the man's wife, cautioned.

"Hai." He glanced out of the window. "It's starting to get brighter."

"Yes it is," his host, Hanto, said. "You're going in search of your friends?"

"Yes I am. Where's Hakuryuu?"

"I'll go with you. I know this part of the forest better than you do, and you'll need an extra set of hands and eyes if those youkai attack."

"But--"

"No arguing. Besides, I need to find out if those youkai have left the forest. I'd have gone, with or without you. And you aren't fighting anything with an ankle like that."

Hakkai, being Hakkai, didn't tell him that he'd just taken out about a dozen youkai earlier with a sprained ankle, in the dark and single-handedly. "I still think--"

"I said, no arguing," Hanto steam-rollered his unvoiced objection.

"Let's make a move, then," Hakkai said with a wry smile of defeat.

They followed the stream. It became evident after a while that it was useful to have a guide who knew the lay of the land. Especially a guide who could lead him back to the road..

But it wasn't easy, walking with a sprained ankle. Hakkai's smile disappeared, turned into a frown, and eventually became winces. He was just about to propose a stop when there was a click and the cold metal of a gun barrel met his head.

"San..Sanzo..? It's me. Hakkai."

"Chi." The gun moved away, and Sanzo stepped into his field of vision. "One can hear you coming from a mile away."

"It's the ankle," Hakkai replied, by way of apology.

"Who is this?" Sanzo asked, indicating his companion.

Hakkai opened his mouth--

--when the sudden surge of youki slammed into him.

He glanced over in alarm, and instead of the short, friendly man who'd been standing there, a youkai towered over him and Sanzo. Black haired and clawed and ruby-red eyes glistening in anticipation. The bushes exploded into movement, and as more of them surged into the area.

Unexpectedly, the youkai that had been Hanto turned to Hakkai. "Thanks for the directions, Hakkai-san," he said, grinning.

Sanzo's gun was in his hands and his glare darted around the clearing... and came back to fix on Hakkai.

"Bastard... You led them onto me..."

"I..." Shock obscured rational thought for a moment. He hadn't known.. but he should have. He could detect youkai, even in human form. But it took effort. He hadn't checked. He'd trusted implicitly..

He should have known that little old men didn't live alone in a houses in the middle of a forest...

Youkai surged past, obviously ignoring him in favor of the priest.

Five shots rang out, and the five youkai directly opposite them fell. Then Sanzo was gone, breaking out of the circle that was rapidly closing in on all sides.

"SANZO!" Hakkai yelled. He tried to give chase, but a stab of pain through his right foot stopped him. Too slow. The whole party had overtaken him and was disappearing into the forest ahead. He fired, taking out a few stragglers, and lost the rest as they vanished in pursuit of Sanzo.

"Hakuryuu, follow them!" he said desperately.

"Kyuu..." Hakuryuu voiced his relunctant assent and winged off.

*

Fuck.. he didn't raise a finger.. Sanzo swore as he reloaded. Snapped off a few shots over his shoulder and was rewarded by screams. This is the fourth attack in three days. Someone is definitely after us.

The whole pack of them had swarmed past Hakkai, totally ignoring him. Right in the lead was the one who'd been accompanying him.

Memory clicked. Hakkai's ki blast filling his vision with a yellow-white glow...

He winced and dumped more emptied shells on the ground.

Hakkai.

Youkai.

When...? Why...?

His feet pounded against the forest as he ran. He was still outpacing the pursuers, but he was running out of air. Still drained. Still hurting from Hakkai's attack.

Outnumbered, outgunned and betrayed. He clenched his teeth in sudden anger. He'd learnt to trust. Made that grave mistake somewhere along the line and couldn't even remember when he'd done so. Damn damn and damn.

A wave of sudden cold slammed into him.

Slammed into him and seeped.. no, raced through his entire body. Every muscle abruptly locked up. The next moment, he was falling, slamming hard into the ground. The gun left his fingers and skittered off. He couldn't get up. Nothing responded.

There were footsteps as his pursuers caught up. Then darkness closed in around his vision and cut him off from the world.

***

"I hear something!" Goku perked up.

Gojyo glanced around. "Where? And what's 'something'?"

"Footsteps. Someone running..." Goku's eyes went wide. "Youkai!"

By now, Gojyo could fill it. The tingling sense of youki that indicated youkai presence. It was faint, distant. He still couldn't hear the footsteps that Goku had mentioned.

"This way!" Goku indicated, setting off at a run.

"Oy, are you just going to chase them like that? Oy! Bakazaru! OY!"

They crashed through the undergrowth. Goku leapt over bushes and ducked to avoid branches as Gojyo hacked his way through with the scythe.

He espied movement out of the corner of his right eye. "Goku!" he yelled, diverting. Crashing through the trees, he raised the scythe to strike--

--and screeched to a halt as he came face to face with Hakkai.

"HAKKAI?!"

"GOJYO?!"

And together : "What are you doing here?"

Goku came running up. "They're going in the other-- Hakkai!"

"We're following youkai," Gojyo said curtly.

"They're after Sanzo," Hakkai said flatly. "I sprained my ankle. I couldn't keep up."

"I'll follow!" Goku volunteered, and raced off.

"What happened to you?" Gojyo demanded.

"Go. I'll catch up. Get them first. We can talk later."

There was something wrong with Hakkai, Gojyo knew. Something more wrong than the ankle. But it was true. They didn't have time to waste.

"Damnit, can't the monk look after himself?" Gojyo grumbled, and dashed off after Goku.

"OOF--!"

Gojyo sped round a bend and slammed into Goku. Both of them went down in a tangle.

"OY! Why did you stop, bakazaru!" Gojyo asked, furiously pushing Goku off and leaping to his feet.

Wordlessly, Goku held up something.

Silver glinted in the sunlight along the barrel of a Smith and Wesson revolver. Gojyo swore. "Sanzo's."

"He never drops his gun," Goku said quietly. "They.. they must have gotten him."

"Well, then we follow them, baka! No use standing around!"

"They're gone. They're too far away. We'll never catch them in time." Goku sounded angry.

"What choice do we have?" another voice called out. Hakkai appeared behind, limping as fast as his injury would allow. "We can't afford to stop. We'll track them down to where ever they're going.. when they stop, we'll catch up."

Goku nodded, but didn't move.

"What's the problem?" Gojyo demanded. "And stop giving me that 'I'm-so-depressed-that-I'm-going-to-jump-off-the-nearest-cliff-look'."

Goku shook his head furiously. "I failed him. I failed him again.."

Gojyo growled in frustration and clapped an arm around Goku's shoulders. "Baka. Wait till Sanzo's dead. Then you can say that all you want."

"I--"

"In the meantime, shut up about it."

"Lead the way, Goku," Hakkai said wearily.

*

They hit the road just minutes later. Hakkai knelt and scanned the ground. "They headed back east."

"Che! Couldn't they have done us a favor and gone in the direction that we were travelling in?" Gojyo muttered.

"Something's wrong," Goku, who'd been silent thus far, said suddenly. Hakkai glanced at him and gestured for him to continue. "No blood," Goku cocked his head. "I'm sure that Sanzo wouldn't have gone down without a fight."

Hakkai frowned slightly. "No blood? Are you certain?"

"Eh, that's true. Not a spot of blood on the ground where we found the gun," Gojyo added. "Course, that could always mean that they brained him good and proper with a blunt object."

"There were youkai corpses back the way we came.."

"But none where we found the gun," Goku pointed out.

"Kyuu..." a soft but familiar chirp interrupted them. Hakuryuu appeared, flying down the road to meet them.

"Hakuryuu! What happened?" Hakkai asked.

"Kyuuu..."

"He's hurt," Gojyo noted. Blood was seeping across one haunch, and the dragon meeped pitifully again.

"Hold on.." Hakkai laid him on the ground. Goku and Gojyo stood back a little give him space.

Gathering his ki, Hakkai channeled it with practiced ease into a gentle, healing stream. The green glow enveloped the wound, a long gash almost two inches across.

Flesh knitted. Slowly but surely, the ragged edges melded together and merged, leaving a healthy pink scar. Slowly, the glow faded, and Hakuryuu opened his ruby red eyes.

"Better now?" Hakkai asked.

"Kyuu!"

"You know, Hakkai," Gojyo said in a nonchalant kind of way. "I know that Hakuryuu's hurt and all that, but you've seen to him and he should be fine... now, it would be a lot faster if we could--"

"Pursue them on wheels instead of on foot?" Hakkai interrupted, raising an eyebrow.

"Exactly."

"Hakuryuu, are you up to it?"

By way of reply, Hakuryuu took to the air again, and glided to the middle of the road.

In a flash of colors, he grew, turning into a glowing white ball of light. The light took form and came gently to earth. Then it faded. A jeep stood where dragon had been.

"Well, let's go!" Goku leapt into the backseat, as Gojyo and Hakkai climbed in the front.

"Hold on," Hakkai warned. "We're going to break speed limits." He slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and they raced down the road in a cloud of dust.

***

"Look! Horse tracks!" Goku called out, pointing at the ground.

"Hoof marks," Gojyo corrected him.

Hakkai peered through the windscreen. "So it would appear. Seems that a group of horses milled around here for a while before moving off."

"Oy, don't slow down!" Gojyo cautioned him. "There's nothing much to see!"

"Mm hm," Hakkai replied.

"Think it's them? The youkai?" Goku asked.

"Quite certain," Hakkai told him. "This road isn't commonly used. In fact.."

He looked at the rough ground. "I think it hasn't been used."

"What do you mean?" Gojyo asked.

"Remember when we hit that split in the road?"

"Yeah. We took the older road, didn't we? The right fork."

"I'm hungry~!" Goku interjected from the backseat, leaning forward to place his elbows on the headrests. "We haven't had breakfast!"

"Shut up, Goku! We're trying to figure out something here!"

"Actually, Goku's right. Since you're free, you might as well have breakfast," Hakkai said.

"YAY!" Goku attempted to glomp Hakkai through the seat.

Jiipu swerved madly.

"Goku.. please don't cover my eyes..." Hakkai said worriedly.

"BAKAZARU!" Gojyo yelled, leaning over to push Goku backwards. He hit the gear instead.

"Waaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"

Jiipu careened backwards before Hakkai slammed on the brakes. They went into a spin instead of stopping, Gojyo and Goku's yells harmonizing nicely with the screeching of tires.

"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!"

In a cloud of dust, they screamed to a halt by the roadside. Hakkai sank over the steering wheel and breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Then the storm broke.

"Bakazaru! It's all your fault! Don't distract the driver!" Gojyo yelled.

"Oh yeah?! It's your fault! If you hadn't leaned back, we wouldn't have gone into reverse!"

"If you hadn't grabbed Hakkai, I wouldn't have to--"

"If you hadn't--"

"Maa, maa," Hakkai flapped his hands. "Please get back into your seats.."

Since he didn't have the Sanzo Fan of Doom, neither side was inclined to listen to him. Gojyo was practically standing on the back of his seat, waving fists at Goku, who had one foot on the back of Hakkai's seat, and was yelling threats of his own.

"Hakuryuu, should I just step on the accelerator and send them flying?" Hakkai asked the one creature who was still listening to him.

"KYUU!" Hakuryuu squeaked a heated affirmation.

"Well..." Hakkai smiled in a worried sort of way and put his foot down again.

Jiipu leapt forward. Gojyo and Goku went flying backwards.

"Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"

Goku landed hard on his rear on the backseat. Gojyo flopped forward and tumbled into the back with him.

"Itai yo!" both combatants protested.

"HAKKAI!" Gojyo roared. "I'm gonna get--"

He was cut off as Hakkai shoved a bento box into the backseat. "Breakfast, gentlemen?"

Goku leapt up. "MINE!"

Gojyo snatched it from Hakkai. "I get first dibs on it."

"Hakkai gave it to me!"

"Well, I have it!"

"Not for long!"

And so the fight went on.

Alone in front, Hakkai stopped smiling.

He was thankful for Goku's timely interruption. The more he thought about it, the more puzzled he was about the situation, and somehow, he didn't want to discuss it with Gojyo just yet.

The roads... that had been strange. The right road had definitely been older. But the track that they were driving on right now was brand new, as if it'd just been carved out a few days or a few weeks ago. The hook marks showed up clearly, which they wouldn't have, on an older road.

He frowned, his mind flying back to the fork in the road. He'd advocated the right fork, while..

..while Sanzo had advocated the left.

And they'd taken the right, straight into a youkai ambush.

Hakkai's grip on the steering wheel tightened.

Something was definitely going wrong here. Something was wrong with them.. something was wrong with him, that all his actions, all his choices, were going horribly amiss.

They'd gotten so used to youkai attacks that they didn't think about where the youkai came from. They'd simply assumed that this pack that was following them were either operating indepedently or under Kougaiji's command.

They're too numerous to be Kougaiji's, Hakkai thought. Which means they're probably a clan of their own. In which case, why would they be after Sanzo? Why would they..

It didn't make sense. It really didn't. This bunch of youkai were too well-equipped to be a simple bunch wandering around on their own. They were too big and too persistent to have been sent by Kougaiji, who, nowadays, either came himself or not at all. Their target was, evidently, Sanzo himself, but they were taking pains to .. to..

He was clutching the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles were turning white. "Oh no," he whispered. "Oh no..."

Someone was specifically targeting him. Someone was deliberately trying to shatter the trust between him and Sanzo. And whoever that someone was, he was succeeding brilliantly.

***

sf : Just for the record, Sanzo is not going to get hurt -_-. SERIOUS. Don't get your hopes up!
Muse : ...
Sf : Hm. The heat seems to have killed my Muse. *prod**prod*. River of reviews seems to be drying up as well. Eek. We're all doomedddddd. -_-.

***

Back to index

Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Where people get introduced.

CHAPTER 4

He was falling. Instinctively, he kicked out, a violent reflex action.

Or tried to.

Nothing happened. The falling sensation stopped, but his muscles weren't obeying him.

Wake up, he told himself. You're dreaming. Wake up!

Sanzo brushed the edges of consciousness. Opened his eyes and reached for the curtain to let the light in. Turned around and realized that he was still dreaming.

Move. Do something. His limbs felt heavy. Couldn't move. Trapped in the dividing region between awareness and sleep. Roll off the bed, he decided. That'll wake me up.

His fingers twitched, groping for the edge of the bed that should have been there. He grasped something. Pull. Slowly, his mind sending individual commands for what should have been automatic, he tried to roll over.

It wasn't working.

There was danger building around him. The small hairs on the back of his neck were beginning to stand, and the tingling sensation traveled all the way down his spine.

Danger.

Danger.

***

"Up to a fight?" Hakkai glanced at Gojyo and Goku, who were standing beside him. Ahead lay a youkai stronghold, a heavily guarded castle.

"Ready when you are," Gojyo replied.

"They'll have arrows," Hakkai said, indicating the battlements. "I'll erect a barrier, you two break down the door and take out the guards."

"Right!" Goku said enthusiastically. Hakkai smiled briefly. After hours of pursuing the youkai, Goku was raring to go after them and spill some youkai blood.

"On my count... three, two, one.. GO!"

He flung up a barrier, covering his companions as they charged.

Goku sprang at the door, Nyoibou extended. Wood creaked and splintered as he landed.

"One last time, Goku!" Hakkai called out.

Goku paused for breath. "Yeah..." He moved back, and charged. Leapt. The end of Nyoibou came crashing down on the wood. With a groan, the entire contraption gave way.

"Well, that's the 'break' part of 'break and enter'," Gojyo remarked cheerfully. "Now let's enter."

"Look! They've even prepared a reception for us!" Hakkai observed.

Goku grinned. "Let's not keep them waiting!"

***

Sanzo snapped back to awareness. For a moment he blinked, convinced that he was still dreaming. It was as dark as before, a gray darkness, as if the sun had risen behind a thick bank of cloud. Then he realized, from the sharp outlines and the dry taste in his mouth, that he was really awake this time.

The sense of danger was fading, now that he was conscious. But the sense of youki, the sense that warned that a youkai was present, still tingled violently. He blinked again, his eyelids feeling oddly heavy.

It suddenly struck him that he was staring at the floor.

He tried to move, and realized that the paralysis had followed him into waking. He couldn't even twitch a muscle. Worse, he couldn't feel a thing. Couldn't even feel the floor beneath his feet or the wall against his back. His nervous system was completely, absolutely, out of commission.

Sanzo had the sinking feeling that things weren't going well. Not at all.

***

The defence was strait. The guards were well armed and armored. And vicious fighters, every one of them. To his dismay, Hakkai found that armor absorbed part of the damage from his blasts. And quite a bit of damage from Gojyo's shaku jou.

Goku was making progress, darting in and out of the attacks and landing heavy blows. But, where his attacks would have crippled or killed an unarmored opponent, they only sent these staggering back.

"Hakkai, we have a problem," Gojyo growled.

"Yeah!" Goku seconded, sending another youkai flying backwards in a clatter.

Hakkai smiled. "Let me try something. Both of you, shield your eyes!"

There was an explosion of pure light. A brilliant glow that burned red all the way through closed eyelids and left purple spots dancing on the retina.

Then blackness.

"Goku! Gojyo! Now!" Hakkai's voice came drifting to them.

Goku snapped his eyes open, blinking slightly against the blue-green-blue motif that danced across his sight. Youkai were screaming and clutching their eyes, and between Hakkai's hands was the fading glow of a dazzling white star.

They cut through the enemy with ease after that, taking them down as they blundered blindly around. Several more guards rushed up to join the fray, but it was too little, too late.

Finally, not ten minutes after they'd broken into the fortress, they found themselves standing in a blood splattered courtyard, alone except for the corpses at their feet.

"Hakkai! What now?" Goku asked.

"Which way, more like?" Gojyo said, looking around. "This place is freaking huge. Butt ugly too. I mean, all those skulls and feathers really turn me off."

"We're not here to observe the decor," Hakkai said seriously. "We hunt around. My instinct says that we go downwards."

***

A hand captured his chin. Fascinated, he observed the sharp claws on either side of his face, wondering at the significance. Even his thoughts felt sluggish.

"How do you feel, Sanzo-sama?" a voice came, from far away. He ignored it, still engrossed in taking stock of his surroundings. Information came slowly.

He was shackled against a wall, he realized, his arms outstretched and his feet just touching the floor. There had to be additional restraints besides those around his wrist, but he couldn't feel them.

There were vertical lines in the distance. Bars. A dungeon, then. It would explain the darkness.

"Ah? No response?"

He struggled to focus his eyes on the source of the voice.

Youkai.

Dark blue hair. Intense blue eyes. Black markings on his face.

He looked.. vaguely familiar.

Sanzo worked moisture into his mouth. "...what..."

The youkai cocked his head. "I see. Humans. Faah. A little bit too much binding energy and you're paralyzed for a week. You can't feel anything, can you?"

The talons curved in. There was a pressure on one cheek, an indistinct, distant sensation. One long claw came away, tipped with blood.

"No, I thought not," the youkai said, sounding disappointed. He removed his hand, and Sanzo fought to keep his head up.

"Later," the youkai promised him. "When the bindings wear off."

"...who..." the words came out as a whisper.

"Ah? You don't recognize me?"

Sanzo narrowed his eyes in what could pass for a glare.

"I don't blame you," the youkai smiled unpleasantly. "After all, you only knew my father. Actually, seeing how fast you killed him, I'm surprised if you can even recall him."

A recent memory clicked. A mountain top. The evening sun. Another blue-haired, blue-eyed youkai, advancing towards him, sword in hand.

"..Nat.." His voice trailed off. Mentally, he cursed his inability to speak. But the youkai front of him nodded. "You remember, I see. I am Isir. Natsuji was my father."

Ah... that explains it.

His head sank. Darkness began creeping in around his vision.

Don't fall asleep, idiot! he railed at himself. You'll never wake up again!

A stray thought was trying to catch his attention. Something about something that he could use.. a weapon..

Panic drove the blackness back. He flicked his eyes to the right, to the left, and back again. The sutras were missing from his shoulders.

"Looking for something?" Isir said mockingly. "This, perhaps?"

He found the strength to look up. Isir held a green scroll in one clawed hand. "Mine, now. Finders keepers."

"I think not," another voice said from behind.

"Ah. We have company." Isir stowed the sutra in a pocket and turned. Sanzo strained to see beyond him. He couldn't hold off the darkness much longer. His eyelids were being dragged down, and he couldn't find the strength to stop them.

Blink, and Isir was standing in front of him.

Blink, and the youkai was gone.

There was a breath of wind, and a whisper in his ear. "We will meet again. I will have my revenge."

Blink, and the world went black.

*

Hakkai fired.

The bars of the cell shattered inwards, sending shards of metal flying. Isir dodged neatly. "I must confess that I didn't expect you so soon." He cocked his head. "How did you find us?"

"We followed you, baka," Goku replied.

"And I take it that you broke in." Isir's lip curled in disgust. "The guards must be useless."

"A pathetic bunch," Gojyo agreed. "At least they aren't alive for you to scold them."

"You look familiar," Hakkai mused.

Isir smiled thinly. "So do you."

Gojyo frowned. "Hey... haven't I seen you somewhere? Somewhere recent?"

"A cocktail party, perhaps?" Isir replied sarcastically.

"Naw... I don't go for that kind of party..." Gojyo paused in thought. "..yes, that's right. I have seen you before."

"Who is he?" Goku asked.

"Weren't you the one standing beside Natsuji that first night? The one who looked so much like him? You're his kid or something?"

"It is none of your business. Neither is this. Leave."

"Who says it isn't our business?" Goku demanded, lunging forward. Nyoibou flashed into existence in a sparkle of blue light.

Isir dodged the first swipe. "You have to be faster."

"Temee..!" Goku struck again, and missed Isir by a hair's breadth.

"Wait... I thought I killed you," Hakkai said in sudden recognition.

"Dying's a nasty experience. Thank goodness for my resident necromancers."

"You're kidding," Gojyo replied.

"But of course. It's easy to survive something as trivial as light attacks." Isir sneered at Hakkai. (Footnote)

"Well, you won't survive this!" Gojyo swung. The cresent blade of his scythe snapped out on its long chain.

"Not so easy, I'm afraid." Isir dodged again, and came to a halt behind Hakkai. "You're not attacking? You did rather well the last time, I thought."

Hakkai spun, a glowing ball of ki already in one hand. "Just waiting for the right moment," he replied, smiling. The ball shot out of his hand..

..and exploded against a wall.

Hakkai turned, expecting another attack.. but Isir was gone. He'd vanished into thin air.

"Where...?!"

"I don't know!" Gojyo replied, scanning the area. "Stay alert!"

Goku sniffed. "He's gone. He's really gone."

Laughter echoed down the corridor. "Three against one. Most unfair."

"Damnit! Stop running like a coward!" Gojyo raged.

"Your target is the priest, is it not? Take him and go. I have no use for him right now."

"You're just going to let us walk off like that?" Gojyo called. "I thought that all youkai had this big ego thing going. Can't let their enemy win and all that.."

More laughter. "It will take him a few days to recover. When he does.. I will find you. Or you will find me. And I will have my revenge."

"What revenge? What are you babbling about?" Goku snapped.

The reply was faint and distant. "..You'll see. You'll see..."

"I am.. most disappointed." Gojyo slammed the end of his scythe into the ground and glared around. "I was all looking forward to a good fight. Instead, we have to meet this wimpy, cowardly youkai who runs away."

"He's not weak," Hakkai replied. "He must be extraordinarily powerful to be able to teleport like that."

"And he's fast too!" Goku added.

"He still has the Maten sutra. One way or another, we'll have to face him again," Hakkai said seriously. "In the meantime, let's go."

They walked out, Goku carrying the unconscious Sanzo. A thin cut ran along his right cheekbone, but the priest appeared otherwise unhurt.

It will take him a few days to recover.. Hakkai frowned. Recover from what?

The place was eerily quiet as they left. After the massive fight they'd started in order to get in, after taking down almost twenty youkai guards at the front door alone, followed by another dozen guarding the dungeon.. the sudden lack of resistence was more worrying than reassuring.

They left the castle unmolested. Hakuryuu converted back into jeep form, and they piled aboard.

"I feel like we're running away," Gojyo complained. "After chasing them for almost a day, after all that trouble getting in.. getting away so easily feels like cheating."

"Don't worry about it," Hakkai replied.

"Ne, Hakkai, where are we going?" Goku asked.

"Back to the town where we stopped two days ago," Hakkai replied. "It's on the way."

"But we still haven't gotten Sanzo's sutras back," Goku pointed out.

"I know. We'll have to wait until Sanzo's recovered before we make a return. That youkai said that he'll find us... I don't think he's about to run away with them."

"What's wrong with Sanzo?" Goku asked.

"Happily sleeping the day away while we run our asses off looking for him," Gojyo said.

"I think... it's a binding spell. A very powerful one," Hakkai said carefully. "They probably overestimated how much power is required to take down a human."

"Will he be okay?"

"He'll probably be out for a day or so. But he'll be okay once it wears off."

Goku nodded. There was a pause then, the silence broken only by the whirring of jeep's engine and the whistling of the wind.

"...Isir..." Hakkai said slowly.

"Huh?" Gojyo asked.

"Isir. The youkai back there. Natsuji's son. Remember?"

Gojyo frowned and thought back.

"Yeah. I remember." Gojyo shook his head. I thought that episode was over and done with. Now it seems like the past is catching up with us.

They'd all had a part to play in Natsuji's death, even if Sanzo had been the one to shoot him in the end. All four of them had battled against him, all four had been injured in one way or another by him. Alone... they couldn't have hoped to defeat Natsuji. He was that powerful.

Scary thought.

*

Isir stepped amongst the bloodied corpses and stared out at the jeep accelerating away from his fortress.

Fortress... he sneered at the thought. Certainly, fortress was the wrong word when a bunch of renegades could simply barge their way in. He would have to improve the defenses. And find better guards.

"Isir-sama.. you're allowing them to leave?" Chiro asked from behind.

"I have.. plans. It's more fun this way," Isir replied. "Besides, I didn't feel like fighting."

"You could have defeated them."

"In a one-on-one battle, certainly. Three of them together.. well, it's possible, I grant you. But it wouldn't be easy. Besides... I want to split them up. I want Sanzo to feel betrayed. He hasn't had the opportunity to discuss his differences with Hakkai yet."

"What if we can't.. recapture him?"

Isir smiled thinly. "I have his sutra. He will be back. And, hopefully, the rest will not even follow this time." He glanced back at his chief of staff. "In the meantime... we have a little housekeeping to do."

"Hai."

He turned back to the road, which was empty. The Jeep was gone, and the Sanzo-ikkou was speeding back towards the town. But they would be back. At least one of them would be back.

"Revenge... does not simply entail killing your target," Isir said softly.

***

Footnote : To clear up some confusion, this particular part of the conversation is in reference to the events in the Prologue, where Hakkai injures, but does not kill Isir. Isir's not Chin Isou v2.0, just very sarcastic. (To the point of misunderstanding. *sweatdrop*. Gomen nasai.. ._.;;)

Muse : I have a disclaimer to make. I am not skimping on the action. I'm saving it for later.
Sf : The Muse is being lazy.
Muse : Am not! And, as Isir said, Sanzo hasn't had the chance to discuss his differences with Hakkai.
Sf : So stay tuned for Chapter 5 : Domestic Squabbles. XD

***

Back to index

Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Where people quarrel a lot.

sf : There are things being explained in this chapter. Blink and you'll miss them.
Muse : *blinks*
sf : You nut.
Warning : More bad language than normal. Angst. Cliffhanger! Wahhahaa.

CHAPTER 5

Dark. The quiet silence of the night.

Rain. Blood. Youkai.

His master.

*

"...no one..." Sanzo murmured.

"Sanzo?" a voice reached him.

He opened his eyes and turned towards the source of that voice. It wasn't easy. He felt as if someone had filled him with lead.

Hakkai was seated in a chair beside the bed, a smile of relief on his face. "Feeling better?"

Hakkai.

Unconsciousness had not driven away the memories of what had happened. The fact that he could barely move a finger testified that it hadn't been a dream.

The silence stretched.

"Sanzo..." Hakkai evidently knew what was going through his mind. "Gomen nasai. It was a mistake."

"Sanzo, I didn't know that they were following me. I didn't know that Hanto was a youkai. If I had, I'd never have let him accompany me."

"..get lost."

"Sanzo.."

Purple eyes narrowed. "..You're lucky that I can't shoot you. So I'm giving you this chance. Get lost. The next time I see you, you're dead."

"How can I convince you that it wasn't intentional?" Hakkai asked.

Silence. Quite a bit of it.

"Sanzo.."

"Quit calling me that!"

"It was a genuine mistake!"

"Mistake my ass! Do you expect me to believe that you fucked up gloriously three times in forty eight hours? If it were the kappa, I'd say that his incompetence is reaching new heights--"

"I would never betray you. Why would I want to? What would I have to gain?!"

"How the fuck would I know?!"

"Look, Sanzo.. if I wanted to betray you, I had plenty of chances in the past. Why now?"

"Goddamnit.."

"Why would I have changed?!"

"Natsuji brainwashed you. Isir brainwashed you. Why the fuck are you asking me?!"

"Sanzo!"

"Get... the... hell... LOST! I swear I'll kill you if you stay any longer!"

"I rescued you. Does that count? I saved--"

Wrong thing to say. Sanzo made a concerted effort to get up and reach for the gun on the side table. He made it all the way up onto one elbow before collapsing back. "Bastard. Get out of my sight!"

Clenching his teeth in anger, Hakkai stood and left. He barely managed to restrain himself from slamming the door.

Blinded by a combination of guilt and absolute fury, he stormed down the hall. He had to go. He had to..

In a way, it was my fault. I can't blame him for feeling that way. But I didn't do it on purpose! I didn't! Someone's trying to get back at us. Someone's trying to split us up. Who?!!

Hands. Hands gripping his shoulders. Shaking him. "Hakkai! What's wrong? Hakkai!"

"Hakkai! Snap out of it! What's wrong?"

Red. Red hair. Gojyo.

"Sanzo.."

"What the fuck did he do? I'll kill that bloody--"

"No. No." Hakkai took a deep breath and shook his head.

"Hakkai.."

He took another breath, calming himself and clearing his head. It seemed.. as much as he hated the notion, there really wasn't very much other choice. There was only one course ahead of him now.

"I'm leaving."

"What?"

"I'm leaving," Hakkai repeated.

"You mean the monk is fit to travel?"

"No. I'm leaving. Alone."

"What the--! Come to your senses! Did Sanzo get to you or something?! What happened between the two of you?"

"Please don't stop me, Gojyo."

"Damnit, Hakkai, you at least owe me an explanation!"

Hakkai paused and looked up.

Explanations.. there were too many things unexplained between them.

Finally, he sighed. "It's a long story. I think I need to start from the beginning." He pushed past Gojyo and headed for his own room. Gojyo followed.

Hakkai sat on the bed with a sigh. Hesitantly, he recalled the events that had transpired since they were split up by the attack. Meeting Hanto. Finding Sanzo. The chase that ensued.

"Someone is deliberately trying to set me up," he said wearily. "That night.. the ki blast.. I wasn't quite myself. Things were.. fuzzy. But I never meant to hit him. I.. didn't know that we were taking the wrong turning. I didn't know that Hanto was a youkai."

"I'm sure that you told the monk that."

"But... when I say it, it sounds like a justification. I mean... it just sounds like .. a bad excuse." Hakkai's words trailed off and he chewed on his lip.

"What was his response?"

"He.. he told me to leave," Hakkai replied. "And I'm not surprised."

"He's crazy," Gojyo declared, pacing the room. "He is absolutely and entirely nuts. There is no way we're going to reach our destination on foot. The next time he gets his ass busted, he can heal himself the hard way."

"Gojyo.."

"Fucking insane." Gojyo was mad. Gojyo was damned mad, and Hakkai wasn't sure his words were reaching him any more.

"I'm going to pound some sense into his thick skull," Gojyo snapped, heading for the door.

Hakkai was on his feet in an instant. "Gojyo, no."

A pause. "Why not?"

"Can you imagine.. if you were in his shoes, you'd be thinking the same way too."

"Yeah, but how can he.. how can anyone accuse you of doing something like that on purpose? How long have we known each other? How many times have we watched each other's backs? How can he even suspect that you'd .. you'd... do something like that?! I'll make him see sense, even if it takes a sledgehammer to do it!" Then he was out of the door.

*

"Oy, bouzu. Wake up."

Sanzo cracked an eyelid open. "What is it?"

"Are you out of your damned mind?! Sending Hakkai away?"

Sanzo closed his eyes again. "Do you want a traitor at your back?"

"Hakkai's not a traitor," Gojyo growled. "If you'd just stop being an ass and just listen for a change!"

Purple eyes snapped open. A glare that almost made Gojyo back up a pace. Almost. "You weren't there," Sanzo said in a low voice. "You weren't there when he came by with a youkai by his side and a whole pack of them on his heels. He would have known if it was a youkai in human form. You weren't the one on the bloody receiving end."

"Yeah, which is why I'm still thinking clearly. Look, Hakkai was distracted. After one night of killing youkai and chasing through the woods looking for you, not to mention the ankle, he couldn't have been thinking clearly. What do you expect? It's not like detecting youkai with limiters is the easiest thing to do. Hell, you've slipped up before."

"Fuck it, Gojyo.. the youkai didn't lay a finger on him! They were thanking him!"

"And you'd take a youkai's word over Hakkai's?!"

"It's not as if Hakkai's not youkai."

Something snapped in him. After all they'd been through.. for Sanzo to let that old grievance get between them again, just because he was human and they weren't..

Gojyo grabbed Sanzo by the front of his robe and hissed, "Yeah, and so are the rest of us! What, do you think we'd betray you? Me? The bakazaru?"

"I've considered the possibility."

Things went a little red after that. Gojyo wasn't exactly sure what was happening until his fist connected with Sanzo's head hard enough to hurt his knuckles. "If he wanted you dead, you'd be dead by now! See sense, damnit!"

"Fuck you.." Sanzo was truly furious now. Furious at Gojyo, furious at Hakkai, furious at his own inability to retaliate. A fist glanced weakly off his shoulder in what was probably meant to be a punch before dropping limply back.

"Yeah? Fuck you too," Gojyo snarled back. "Damn elitist human bas--"

Something bowled him into him, slamming him into the floor. The next moment, a blow stung him hard across on temple.

Gojyo blinked. "Goku?"

"Keep your hands off him!" Goku yelled. "Goddamnit, what the hell did you do that for?! "

"Goku!" Hakkai yelled from the doorway. "Goku--"

Goku leapt to his feet and spun. "What is wrong with both of you?"

"Nothing," Gojyo replied, standing. "There's just something wrong with him." He jerked a thumb at Sanzo.

"You were the one who hit him! When he can't fight back!" Goku snapped.

"And that's the only reason why he's still alive," Sanzo said dangerously.

"Yeah?" Gojyo said. "You can't--"

"Gojyo. Stop it," Hakkai intervened. "Goku... let me explain."

"Yeah. Everyone shut up and let Hakkai tell the story. For his point of view." Gojyo's last comment was pointedly directed at Sanzo.

Hakkai took a deep breath, and began all over again.

*

By the end of it, Goku was looking confused, Gojyo had calmed down and retreated to the window to smoke, and Sanzo..

Sanzo had struggled into a sitting position with some assistance from Goku. His expression was completely unreadable.

"I don't deny that strange things have happened," Hakkai concluded. "Personally, I think that Isir had a hand in them." He glanced at Sanzo.

"Well?" Gojyo said, a touch of annoyance creeping into his voice. "What's your verdict, oh high and mighty Sanzo-sama?"

"It's possible," Sanzo conceded.

"But..." Goku frowned. "Why?"

"Who knows?"

Typical Sanzo, Hakkai thought. He knows.. or he guesses more than he's letting on.

Purple eyes met his. He still couldn't make out what the priest was thinking. Acceptance? Distrust? It was impossible to tell.

"Very well. Do as you like," Sanzo said. He lowered his eyes in what was obviously a gesture of dismissal. Probably the closest to forgiveness that Sanzo would ever get.

"Huh?" Goku asked.

"Urusai, bakazaru," Sanzo muttered.

"I'll see you in the morning, then," Hakkai said quietly. "Oyasumi nasai."

Nothing. Sanzo's face was a closed book. Hakkai felt a twinge of unease as he left the room.

Gojyo's footsteps sounded behind him. Hakkai turned. "Thanks, Gojyo."

"You don't need to thank me. Hey... if you left, I'd go with you. I'm not sticking with Mister Worldly Monk if you aren't."

"I'm not leaving," Hakkai replied, smiling.

"You know, I'm thankful that the Isir fellow was overzealous with his binding spell. No way we'd have gotten Sanzo to sit down and listen otherwise."

"Sometimes, you're too harsh on him."

"It's nothing that he doesn't deserve."

"Really? Who are we to say who deserves what?" the slight smile had disappeared; Hakkai was studying him with all seriousness.

Gojyo was silent for a moment. "All of us are fucked up. It doesn't give him a reason to act the way he does. I don't see what Goku sees in him."

"That's because you're not Goku."

"You're too nice."

"Am I?"

"Yeah. Come on, let's go and get a drink. I need a beer. And since you're so nice, you can buy me one."

*

"Sanzo...?" Goku, resting his chin on the back of a chair, looked across the room. "Do you think Hakkai did it on purpose?"

Sanzo glanced at the window. "How would I know?"

"Well, what do you think?"

"You really are a nuisance," Sanzo replied. "Pass me the lighter."

Goku located the lighter and the pack of Marlboros and tossed them over. Sanzo lit one unsteadily. His hands were shaking.

"You didn't answer the question," Goku said doggedly.

Sanzo glared at him. "And why are you so interested in the answer?"

"Because.. because.. I don't know if Hakkai's lying or not." Goku cocked his head. "I trust Hakkai.. but I don't know.. I really don't know.." The confusion was clear in his voice.

Sanzo took his time answering.

"Believe in yourself," he said at last. "Believe in what your eyes tell you."

Goku studied him, golden eyes deep in thought. Then he nodded slowly.

"Ne, Sanzo."

Distracted from his thoughts, Sanzo looked up.

"Are you hungry?" Goku asked. "You haven't eaten all day."

He wasn't. He assuredly wasn't. "No."

"Do you want a drink? A beer?"

Sanzo arched an eyebrow. "If you're hungry, go get something from the kitchen, bakazaru."

"Really?" Goku leapt up. "You sure you don't want anything?"

An annoyed look then. "I can look after myself."

"Okie!" the door slammed, and Goku was gone.

Sanzo stared at it for a moment. The binding spell was wearing off quickly, leaving behind nothing worse than a dull ache from stiff muscles. Experimentally, he flexed his fingers, and was relieved to find that they responded. By morning, the worst of it would have passed.

He would wait till morning, then.

*

Gojyo awoke first, which was surprising in itself. Normally, Hakkai was the one who dragged him out of bed in the morning, or disappeared silently to procure breakfast, then dragged him out of bed.

But Hakkai's door was closed, and the brunette was presumably still asleep. It was probably the events of the past few days catching up with him. Yawning, Gojyo made his way downstairs. He was halfway down the steps when a familiar snore reached his ears.

"Eh? Goku?" he stepped into the common room (still bearing marks from the last youkai assault), and his eyes were drawn instantly to one table.

A plate, surrounded by crumbs. Several empty vessels around it. And Goku, the largest empty vessel, happily slumped over the table and snoring, oblivious to the world around him.

Gojyo shook his head with a slight smile. The two most important things in life to the saru were food and sleep, in that order. Oh, and Sanzo.

"Ohayo gozaimasu," a voice said from behind. Gojyo jumped and spun. Hakkai was standing behind him, wearing his usual cheerful smile.

"Oy, don't sneak up on people like that," Gojyo muttered. "And I thought you were sleeping."

"Oh, I overslept a little. Breakfast?"

"Yeah, the ape's already at the table. Spent the whole night there." Gojyo glanced over. "And the monk's holed up in his room."

"Let him sleep. It's still early. In fact, what are you doing up so early?"

"I thought I heard a door slam. Figured that it was you, which meant that I'd have to wake up soon.. so I went back to sleep and dragged myself out of bed when I next woke up. Imagine my surprise when I found that it wasn't you. Might have been the saru, though."

"When was that?"

"Dunno. I was half asleep when I heard it and I dozed off again afterwards. I think it was still dark."

"Probably one of the other guests," Hakkai replied.

"Ehhh, Hakkai, did you say breakfast?" a very sleepy Goku was looking at them.

"Good morning, Goku," Hakkai called back.

"A bit slow on the uptake, saru," Gojyo said. "But then again, you always are."

"Don't call me a saru," Goku grumbled. "Ero-kappa."

"Not so early in the morning, please," Hakkai said pacifyingly. "You'll wake everyone else."

"Yeah, and the monk will be pissed," Gojyo groaned. "I tell you, Sanzo's just weird. Either he doesn't sleep at all or he's dead to the world."

"That's usually because someone knocks him out," Hakkai noted.

"Well.. whatever," Gojyo reached for a cigarette.

"Isn't it a bit early in the morning for that, Gojyo?" Hakkai asked.

"Nope. Never too early for smokes, drinks, and chicks."

*

Sanzo didn't join them for breakfast.

He still hadn't made an appearance by the time Goku was through his second breakfast, by which time, the sun was high in the sky.

"Goku? Could you go and check on Sanzo?" Hakkai said.

Gojyo glanced over. Normally, Hakkai was the one who did the wake up calls - he was the only one who get Sanzo out of bed without running the risk of being seriously damaged in the process.

"Mmm k," Goku replied, pushing his chair back and clattering upstairs, all happy and energetic now that he'd been fed.

Hakkai met Gojyo's inquiring stare briefly and smiled.

"Well, it's high time the ape earned his keep, anyway," Gojyo said. "Say... do we have to pass through that godawful forest again to get to the next town?"

"We have to get Sanzo's sutra back," Hakkai reminded him.

Gojyo winced. "I'd forgotten. And he'll be oh-so-bright-and-chirpy because he's lost it. Probably'll put a few bullets through someone's head before the day is out."

"Then you'd better stay out of his way."

"Ahaha. Yes. Excellent idea." Gojyo popped another cigarette out of the pack. "By the way, how's the ankle?"

"Much better. I used a bit of ki-healing on it last night, and the swelling's almost gone."

"Sanzo? Sanzo?!" Goku's voice came drifting to them from above.

Hakkai and Gojyo instinctively turned towards the stairs. Split seconds later, Goku came charging down, glancing wildly around. "Hakkai! Sanzo's gone!"

It took two heartbeats for that to register. Then : "Gojyo! When did you say you heard that door close?" Hakkai said urgently.

"Sun wasn't up. Maybe 5, 6am. Shit... you don't think..."

"It must have been." Hakkai glanced at the clock. "If it was 5, that would have been 3 hours ago."

"What?! He left in the middle of the night?!" Goku cried. "Without telling us? Where would he have gone?"

"Certainly not for a morning stroll," Gojyo said grimly.

"K'sou!" Goku swore, and bounded out the door before anyone could stop him.

"Goku!" Hakkai called.

"Damnit, bakazaru! Get back here!" Gojyo yelled.

Hakkai shook his head. "I'll go after him. You stay here in case Sanzo comes back."

"Why me?! What about your ankle?!"

Too late. Hakkai was out of the door and running, Hakuryuu gliding along after him.

***
TBC.
***

sf : I anticipate that Shadows will be about the length of Borderline. If a certain plot twist that I'm considering actually does happen, I'll write it into a sequel, rather than add it to the fic. The estimated final length of Shadows is 30,000 words, standard for a medium length fic, which means that we're about halfway through..

Muse : Wah! So much more to go..

Sf : Regarding the Kougaiji-tachi.. I seriously don't think they'll make an appearance. Ch 4 of Reverse Psychology aside, the last time I wrote Kougaiji was in Circumstance, and I'm not familiar enough with his character to try again. It's all very well and good for other authors, but I know a Kougaiji fanatic who'll pummel me into dust if he's OOC.. -_-.

Muse : Besides, I can't find any room in the plot to fit them in.

Sf : And, in case you weren't reading carefully.. yes, Sanzo and Hakkai may figure out that Isir's manipulating them. However, it doesn't make a difference, because they can't stop it from happening.

Muse : Bwahahaa. We're so evil...

Sf : And if the Sanzo-Hakkai showdown wasn't violent enough, blame my Muse.

Muse : OY!

***

Back to index

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Where some stay and some leave.

CHAPTER 6
Warning : Minor spoilers for Volume 8 and the beginning of Volume 9 of the Manga.

Sanzo felt himself drawn to the river, for some odd reason. He'd been wandering through the darkened streets of the town, looking for a shop that stocked ammunition for his revolver, and come up with a blank. Eventually, his feet had taken him to the large river that the town had grown up beside.

He wasn't overly fond of rivers. Wasn't overly fond of large bodies of water, for that matter. Getting dunked in one when he was a kid might have had something to do with it. But he couldn't remember that incident, although there were dark nights when the rain became the roaring of water in his ears, and his dreams turned to drowning, and he hated rivers with a vengeance.

Still, it wasn't that. Now that he thought about it, it was probably the way the sound of the rushing water sometimes went deep into his heart, forming sounds, forming words, forming names. A name. His name.

He hissed in frustration. It was starting again. The moment he was out of sight of the bakazaru, it started.

"Urusai," he muttered to the mental voice. I'm not coming back, he thought viciously back at it. So you can shut up now and get lost!

He turned away from the river, pushing back the tinges of regret he felt. It alarmed him. Regret at finally leaving that bakazaru behind? He should have done it a long time ago. Heck, he should have done it the first time he laid eyes on him. He, damnit, didn't want to regret this. He didn't want to see the utter misery in Goku's eyes.

I will not leave you. His own words drifted back to him. His promise to Goku, scarce months ago.

But that had been before Natsuji and Isir. That had been before Hakkai turned on him. Whether Hakkai was betraying him for real or whether he was being manipulated was of no consequence. The result would be the same. Staying any longer in Hakkai's company equated certain death.

And Gojyo blindly took Hakkai's side. Did it for no other reason than the fact that he thought he trusted Hakkai, thought he trusted this man that was not a man. How long had they known each other? 3 years. 3 years, and all of them still kept secrets in their hearts, kept their pasts behind closed doors, kept their true feelings walled away. None of them really knew each other.

So that meant leaving the kappa behind along with Hakkai.

And that meant leaving the saru too, because there was simply no easy way to bring him along without alerting the others. And Goku would plead and justify and beg him to go back.

He wasn't going back.

Getting to the West alone, on foot, was preferable to putting himself in the sights of someone liable to shoot him in the back. And not even realize whom he shooting until he was dead.

The voice was truly annoying. If he ever saw the bakazaru again, he'd have to smack him -- extra hard -- and tell him to shut the fuck up.

He needed to get away from the river. He needed to get away from the river now.

"Leaving already?" a voice said from the side.

Sanzo spun.

Standing just a few meters away, framed by the light of the rising sun, was Isir.

Without batting an eyelid, Sanzo drew his gun and fired.

The bullet shot straight through Isir's forehead and exitted the other side, without leaving a mark.

Isir smirked. "Not one for talking, are you? We have a lot to catch up on, you know. And you recovered pretty fast. Faster than I would have thought."

Not a trace of youki. Not even a wisp-- wait, it was there. Faint and diffused and drifting around. And none of it was emanating from the youkai in front of him. Which meant..

Sanzo lunged forward. His fist passed straight through Isir's grinning face. An illusion, then. Which meant that Isir himself was somewhere not too far away. Possibly even in the town proper.

Narrowing his eyes, Sanzo scanned the area. The youki was too diffused to help him pinpoint anything, but it also meant that any youkai were still far away. He scanned his remaining supplies of bullets. Dangerously low. He had enough for one reload, tops.

"You're so amusing," the phantom mocked him.

"If you want to talk to me, come out and meet me yourself, kusoyaro!"

"Not yet. Not just yet..." the voice faded. The illusion did, leaving him alone except for the river.

Sanzo swore viciously.

***

Alone in the inn, Gojyo lit another cigarette and yanked the tab off a beer can. He glanced at the clock. It had been almost ten minutes since the saru had charged out of the door, Hakkai in hot pursuit. No sign of success.

"Che. Stupid.. damn, stupid monk.." it occured to him that Sanzo had agreed to Hakkai's staying.. simply because he'd already made up his mind to go. Damnit, the monk was just so freaking paranoid at times.

The more charitable side of him, the side that he didn't like to admit to, especially where it concerned Sanzo, was calling for attention. He kicked it into a corner with a vengeance, and concentrated on the cigarette instead.

***

Goku instinctively knew Sanzo's whereabouts. No matter how far he was from the priest, something, some little compass needle in him always pointed him the right direction. Problem was, it wasn't too accurate.

He heard Hakkai calling his name, but he hardly heeded - Sanzo had walked out when he was in no state to walk out, and Goku was worried.

Not that the priest couldn't take care of himself. Just that, nowadays, it usually took all four of them to defeat the opposition. Gone were the days when Kougaiji sent one or two errand boys to deal with them. Fame has its down sides.

A quiet whisper in the back of his mind. Sanzo.. annoyed, angry.. not coming back?

SANZO! Goku yelled back at that voice. Sanzo.. don't leave me! Don't leave us!

Nothing. Not the whisper of a response, just the sense of his presence fading. As if he was leaving in spirit as well as body.

Something was catching in Goku's throat. He found himself shaking his head violently as he ran, following the wavy little compass needle in his mind. Nonono, he can't leave.. he won't.. he promised.. No!

Then : Danger. Youki!

Dark shapes leapt down from the rooftops to block his path.

He skidded to a halt, Nyoibou materializing in one hand.

There were no words; the youkai just charged.

Goku leapt towards the nearest one, bringing Nyoibou down in a two-handed swing that would have snapped the youkai's neck.

Except... where there should have been flesh and blood and bone.. Nyoibou hit air and slipped straight through the youkai's grinning face.

Goku overbalanced heavily and lost his footing. Youkai closed in from all sides. He felt a whisper of air against his neck and instinctively lashed out. The end of his staff crunched heavily, and a youkai stumbled backwards, coughing blood. Leaping to his feet, Goku sprang over and planted a foot in his throat, sending him tumbling to the floor. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and brought Nyoibou up to counter the stroke.

The sword passed right through the staff and right through him, without leaving a mark.

Goku lashed out at another attacker, and hit nothing. He attacked yet another and took him down in a spray of blood. He couldn't counter every attack, not when he didn't know which was real, and which was an illusion. Realizing that he was outmatched, Goku dodged and sprang lightly away. This was just a diversion. He needed to reach Sanzo.

***

Hakkai lost sight of Goku in a matter of moments. Frowning, he turned and headed down the next street...

***

The sense of youki was becoming stronger with every step he took. It seethed around him, cold and scathing and terrible. Sanzo frowned and quickened his footsteps. If there were youkai in town, there was no telling what damage they'd do in their hunt for him...

..And the thought of anyone else getting hurt on his behalf..

He shook dismal thoughts away and focused on the source of that youki. The youkai had to be near.. it was getting so strong..

They jumped him from above.

Sanzo felt the rush of air, glanced up, and dodged to one side as five youkai leapt down from the roof. He nailed one with a head shot even before it reached the ground. The remaining ones attacked simultaneously on all four sides. Sanzo ducked away from the wild slashes of the foremost, and narrowly escaped being skewered by another. There were more than four of them now, he realized. They were closing in, cutting off all possible escape routes..

His next bullet zapped through the head of a youkai and thudded into the wall beyond. The phantom grinned and swiped at him, claws passing harmlessly through his face.

His senses tingled. Sanzo slammed an elbow backwards, and heard a grunt as it connected. He spun and fired. Blood splattered. A youkai went down.

It didn't take him long to realize that he wasn't functioning at his usual standard. Certainly, he wasn't as fast on his feet as he would have liked. He wasted another of his precious bullets and felt a mounting surge of panic.

One bullet left in the magazine. One reload.

He missed the sutras. He really did. He kicked a youkai in the stomach and sent it back a few paces before it came charging back, furious. He dived out of the way and it barreled past him..

.. and suddenly, there was an arm around his neck, dragging him backwards and cutting off all his air.

Sanzo gasped and fired over his shoulder. There was a scream and blood sprayed over his robes. The grip slackened, but the weight of the falling youkai behind him sent them both tumbling to the floor.

The remaining youkai, real and illusion, closed in.

*

Goku heard the gunshot.

He raced around the corner just in time to see Sanzo go down, dragged backwards by the youkai behind him. He ran, accelerated, and leapt.

Nyoibou passed through illusion and thin air.

Goku flailed with nothing to stop his forward trajectory. He crashed heavily into the ground. He was on his feet as fast as possible, in time to see Sanzo regain his footing. There was a blur, a youkai attack, and the priest went crashing backwards again. The youkai turned to face Goku..

..just a second before Nyoibou came crashing round hard enough to crush skull and shatter bone. The youkai dropped soundlessly to the floor.

There were two more youkai closing, one from either side. Goku twirled his staff. The end went through the one on the left without pause, and impacted solidly with the one on the right. The youkai howled in pain and retreated a few steps, before Goku decked him from close range. There was a crash as youkai and wall collided. Goku sprang forward to finish him off--

"Yameru, Goku!"

Goku glanced around as Sanzo limped over, breathing heavily. "San.."

Sanzo ignored him, opting to train the sights of the Smith and Wesson on the youkai. Goku turned and scanned the area, but it appeared to be clear.

"What's the deal?" Sanzo asked. "Your leader wants me alive, doesn't he?"

"The Boss wants you dead," the youkai sneered. "The only question is how long he takes to kill you."

Goku hissed in anger. Sanzo didn't react. "What were your orders?" he asked levelly.

The youkai snarled and spat. "Think I'm gonna tell you, human?"

Sanzo's finger tightened around the trigger.

"That doesn't scare me."

"Answer him! Or I'll beat you into a pulp!" Goku snapped.

"Ha. That doesn't scare me either. But I'll tell you. Our orders were to rip you apart. Tear you into tiny little chunks and bring your head back to Isir-sama. How's that?"

"You're lying," Sanzo said dryly.

"You'd better believe it."

"Interesting. Which means that this attack was destined to fail. All of you... sacrificial goats. Nothing more."

"You--!"

"Goku. Finish him off."

"Hai!" Goku went for the kill. He took the youkai down in one stroke and turned to look for Sanzo. The priest was striding off.

"Matte Sanzo! Wait!"

Sanzo paused. He glanced over his shoulder. "Go back, Goku."

"Huh?"

Purple eyes narrowed. "Don't make me repeat myself."

"But.. where are you going? Why can't I go with you?"

'Because Hakkai might be following you' didn't seem like a good thing to say. "This is my business," Sanzo replied instead. "I'll handle it myself."

"Is it because of Hakkai?" Goku asked. "Sanzo.. I trust him! I don't think he'd.. he'd.. betray us.."

"Whether he's betraying us or not is irrelevant."

"What do you mean?"

Sanzo sighed. "Whether that ki attack two days ago and the whole youkai fiasco was intentional or otherwise is not important. What's important is that.. consciously or not, Hakkai is being manipulated. It's evident that he can't stop it."

"Are you saying.. that Hakkai would end up ..doing something bad without even realizing it?"

"Yes."

"But..." Distress welled up. "Then how can we stop it? And why can't I come with you?"

"Go back. I won't be long."

"You're coming back, right?"

Sanzo didn't reply. He turned back and continued on his way. Goku stared at his retreating back in dismay. "Where are you going?" he called.

No response. Just the sound of quiet footfalls echoing down the street.

***

"You just let him walk off like that?" Gojyo demanded. "Have you no sense?"

Goku hunched over the table and looked miserable. Hakkai laid a hand on Gojyo's shoulder. "Maybe it's for the best."

Goku glanced up. Gojyo gave Hakkai a questioning look.

"Sanzo... wants to get his sutras back himself. He wouldn't want us tagging along."

"We don't.. 'tag along'," Gojyo replied, with a trace of annoyance.

"You know what I mean."

"But what's so bad about following him?" Goku asked. "After all, the last time he lost his sutras, he needed us to help him get them back."

"That was different."

"Not really. We have no idea how powerful Isir is. As powerful as that kami-sama fellow? Anything's possible," Gojyo commented.

Hakkai frowned. "On the otherhand, if we follow him, and things go wrong.. well, how do I say this? Perhaps it would be better if we weren't there, to forestall any suspicion from falling on ourselves. We might even forestall the chance of things going wrong in the first place."

"Isn't that terribly selfish?" Goku said. "I mean.. leaving him to walk into Isir's clutches again.. it's not safe!"

"Goku, even if we were there, Sanzo might not exactly welcome us," Hakkai said quietly.

Goku... Goku looked absolutely crestfallen. "He doesn't trust us any more?"

"I don't know. Sometimes.. even I don't understand him," Hakkai's eyes were shadowed; his usual smile was absent. "Maybe, if he defeats Isir and regains his sutras.. things might change."

"Especially if it's Isir who's screwing things up, yeah," Gojyo said. "Shit, trust bouzu to pull something like that. And make bakazaru here absolutely miserable."

Goku shot him a glare.

"Well, no use worrying about it," Hakkai sighed. "We just have to wait until he gets back..."

***
TBC
***

Extensive Author Note :

Alas, I've run out of updates across the board. This is the last Shadows update I had on standby...

Which means that I'll be taking a short leave of absence (inclusive of the ff.net downtime, well, it amounts to about 1 month) from the writing scene for a while. This is partly because I have exams on right now. Normally, exams wouldn't stop me from taking an hour out each day to write, but my Muse has been working non-stop since Chapter 7 of Borderline, (March 14, 2002), clocking some 4 new fics and 64000 words in just 3 months.

And Time Again - 7,902
Borderline - 24,301
Firearm - 1,892
Reverse Psych - 9,796
Shadows Beyond - 18,762
World of Saiyuki - 1,551
Total - 64,204

That's an amazing amount of writing for me, since my writing sprees didn't use to last more than 2-3 weeks with 1-2 month breaks in between, and 60,000 words would typically take me an entire year to reach. *smiles* I guess all those reviews do help...

But my Muse is exhausted and has started thinking of ideas for original fiction (which probably won't get written. I'm interested in the story, but it takes too long to write and I never finish those pieces of work.) So my Muse is taking a well deserved break.

At any rate, it's a good time to take an opinion poll on Shadows thus far.

Subsequent parts will be focused on Goku, and, as such, on Sanzo, due to a promise I made to one of my readers earlier. However, I don't neglect characters, so Hakkai and Gojyo will receive their fair amount of screen time. I was hoping to write in a section about the Kougaiji-tachi, but I just realized that this fic, based after the events in Vol 8 and 9 of the manga, would also be based after the ...changes... in Kougaiji. So.. no Kougaiji. I'm sorry.

But what does everyone think of the style of writing thus far?

Should I have :

More descriptors?
More introspection (not angst, but feelings, thought, dialogue, musing, etc)?
Or should I just get on with the action and the story, like what I've been doing thus far?

I'm perfectly capable of extensive elaboration and stuff, the only question being.. should I increase my wordcount by resorting to fluff? XD I'm not saying that I'll definitely change my writing style in response, but I am interested to know what you think.. ^_^.

And, as of June 16 2002, sf-works constitute ~5% (numerically) of all Saiyuki fanfics on ff.net! *grins* Although I'm quite certain it's closer to 10%, wordcount wise, I'm too lazy to go and add up the total word of the Saiyuki fandom.. *g*.

Scheduled date of release for Chapter 7 - July 15, 2002. Till then..

-- sf, June 24, 2002.

Back to index

Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Where trouble starts brewing.

CHAPTER 7

Sf : Minna-san, apologies in advance for the delay in this update. RL has not be good to me. At this point in time, I'm writing Ch 7 with a cold messing with my brains. Please overlook any errors / weirdness in this chapter. Also, I took time out for a quiet moment for the two characters the fic is starting to spin around - Sanzo and Goku.

Due to the shifting PoVs, there are slight shifts in time frame. These are illustrated by italicized words at the top of each section.

There was nothing to do but wait.

The day went by. They stayed indoors, away from the prying and frightened eyes of the townsfolk who were trying to understand why the youkai were attacking in such numbers these days.

Time weighed heavily on Goku's shoulders as he watched the road. He knew that Sanzo wouldn't return within a day, or even two.. the youkai fortress was quite a distance away by jeep, and the priest was covering the distance on foot. But he couldn't tear himself away from the window.

Couldn't tear himself away from the nagging fear that Sanzo wasn't coming back.

A flash of red hair at the corner of his vision. A familiar, quirky grin. "Bouzu can look after himself."

He'd smiled then, sort of. A small, sad smile, and continued staring at the road.

"Goku, worrying about it won't help." Hakkai's calm voice.

But he did worry. He worried and he wondered why Sanzo hadn't let him follow. And he waited.

But the road remained empty, as the sun rose and set, and night fell.

That night, Goku dreamed.

*

Somewhere else, Sanzo was watching the full moon. And remembering.

It was a full-moon .. that night.. when oshou-sama died, wasn't it?

He remembers?

Sanzo shook his head. If things went badly, he wouldn't be seeing Goku again. And even if things went perfectly.. who knew? He wasn't sure what path he would trod if he got the sutras back, what he would do if Isir were dead and his hold on Hakkai was released. To chance going back was to place his bets that all the accidents had been rigged by Isir. If they weren't, if he misjudged, he was dead.

He sighed, feeling a brief pang of wistful longing for simpler days and simpler times. But nothing had been simple since Koumyou Sanzo had died, nothing had been simple since he met Goku, then Gojyo, then Hakkai.. and certainly, nothing had been simple since this journey started.

Times like these, he wanted nothing more than to damn the world and the mission to hell. Throw away the Sanzo title and all the burdens it entailed. And just.. stand in some sun-drenched field in the middle of absolute and blissful solitude.

Although.. perhaps this wasn't too bad either -- alone, except for the moon and the stars. On the road with a definite purpose in mind, but one that didn't require immediate action. Just the road under his sandals and the wind in his hair. Where the most complicated thing in the world was putting one foot in front of the other, and making sure that you didn't trip in the dark...

And the night spiralled away under his feet and the stars turned, until the first golden rays of a new day fell gently across the horizon.

***

One day later.

The sun was setting again.

Hakkai sat by the window, fingers trailing through Hakuryuu's soft mane. Despite his reassurances to Goku, he could feel the little nagging sense of worry lingering in the back of his head like an annoying headache. Unable to stand the inaction, Gojyo had opted to take a walk around the town.

"The saru is driving me crazy, moping and worrying like that," he'd said.

"I was planning on doing that. After all, we have time to kill, Mister Sanzo-sama isn't here to impose on us, and we're in town. Can't afford to miss this golden opportunity, ne?"

"He is worried, I think," Hakkai said to Hakuryuu, who simply leaned into his petting and did not reply. Despite his exterior of nonchalance, even Gojyo was subject to the occasional bout of worry about the priest. If questioned, he might have laughed and attributed to it 'Your bad influence', but the fact was, it was difficult not to worry about a man who was taking more abuse on this journey than most mortals faced in a lifetime.

"I hope that he doesn't get injured this time," Hakkai said out loud.

Nevermind his bad temper and general self-centeredness; Sanzo was still very much a part of their rather mismatched group. And despite his protests to the contrary, he did need all of them on the long road West.

There was a clatter of footsteps on the stairs. Hakkai mustered a smile. "Hello, Goku."

"Sanzo?"

"Not back yet."

"It's been two days," Goku said unhappily.

"He's probably just reached his destination."

"Where's Gojyo? Went out? Chasing chicks?" there was a little note of bitterness in Goku's voice.

"Goku, you know how he is..."

"Hakkai, if Sanzo's not back by tomorrow night, I'm going to look for him."

Hakkai regarded Goku with a neutral expression. The youth gazed back with nothing but stubborn determination in his eyes.

"Sanzo explicitly said not to follow," Hakkai replied.

"I know. But Sanzo... he..." Goku's voice faltered for a moment. Hakkai waited with a patience borne of long years of teaching. Goku took a deep breath and plunged on. "Sanzo believes that he can do everything himself. But sometimes, sometimes it helps to have us around. Even if he can handle it on his own, our assistance might make it easier for him."

Methinks... Goku is starting to become very perceptive. He nodded. "Very well. Then we'll look for him. If he's not back by this time tomorrow."

There was relief in Goku's face after that. It swept over his features, and was mirrored in the way he slumped into a chair with a loud sigh. "Well, now that that's settled, can we have dinner? I'm starving to death!"

*

But the resolution to wait until the next evening proved short lived. Even as Gojyo returned in the dead of the night, slightly drunk and somewhat richer, but unsuccessful in his hunt for a bed partner, Goku was tossing and turning next door in the throes of a nightmare.

And a few hours later, as Hakkai was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and studying the sleeping Hakuryuu with a slight smile of affection, there came a massive hammering on his door.

"Come--"

The door was slammed open, and Goku rushed in.

"Goku?"

"We have to leave now," Goku said urgently. "We have to go."

"What's wrong?"

"Sanzo's in trouble. Sanzo's in serious trouble..." At that, Goku's tenuous grip on self-control slipped, as if, by saying the words, he'd suddenly come to realize their full import.

There was a slam as he brought both palms down -- hard -- on the tabletop. "Sanzo's hurt, Hakkai! We have to help him!"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down, saru," Gojyo said from the doorway. "What makes you think so? You have a direct line to Sanzo that we don't know about or something?"

"It's... a feeling..."

There was a warm hand on his shoulder, and Hakkai's calm voice from directly overhead. "I think you're just worried, Goku."

Goku shook his head violently. "No. I'm absolutely certain. I'd know if he was in trouble..."

Hakkai felt a stab of old pain at those words.

Swallowing the sudden lump in his throat, he glanced at Gojyo, who shrugged, but didn't answer.

"If Goku thinks there's a problem, it can't hurt to investigate," Hakkai concluded.

Goku took a shuddering breath. "Let's go. Let's go now."

***

"What makes you think that Sanzo's in danger?" Hakkai asked, over the quiet whirr of Hakuryuu's engine.

"I had this dream last night... there wasn't any light, there wasn't anything to see but solid blackness. I thought.. I thought I was back in the cave, back in the mountain, it was that dark. Then... I think I heard his voice. He was calling me .. somehow, and I knew he was in danger. But I couldn't find him..."

"And you're sure it's not a nightmare?" Gojyo said, sounding just a little sarcastic. Tired and edgy from a late night and too little sleep, the 22 year old was understandably irritable. Being dragged out of bed to go on a chase early in the morning wasn't going down well with him. Not at all. He hunched further down into the passenger seat. "Che.. if Sanzo wants to get into trouble, he can get himself out of it himself."

Goku glared at him from the backseat. "How could you say that?"

"Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? Isn't he the one who quotes that proverb at us -- how does it go... dust on one's head should be swept off by oneself?"

"And who was the one who ran off to look for Kami-sama? Forcing the rest of us to go running after him?" Goku snapped. "I seem to remember that Sanzo was badly hurt in that fight..."

"Hey, that was.. well.. ah damn." Gojyo's rebuttal skidded to a halt. "Ah, crap. But hey, at least I didn't say 'Don't follow'."

"Well, if you don't want to come along, get out of the jeep and go back," Goku said. "I never asked for your help."

"Oh, touchy, aren't you?" Gojyo said, but the retort lacked force. Truth to be told, he wasn't exactly sure what to make of Goku's behavior. This side of Goku was new, and Gojyo still hadn't quite decided on how to deal with it. And hell, the kid was right. Wasn't often that that happened, either. He glanced over at Hakkai in the driver's seat, but Hakkai simply smiled and didn't meet his gaze.

"Hakkai, do you know which way it is?" Goku said worriedly.

"I believe I remember the route. It follows the road," Hakkai replied cheerfully.

"What if Isir decides to sidetrack us? Disguise the road or something..."

Gojyo's eyebrows shot up. "Is it me.. or did the bakazaru just suggest something intelligent?"

"Don't call me that, ero-kappa!"

Ah, good. Some things still haven't changed. Gojyo settled more comfortably into his seat and took a drag on his cigarette. "Then we'll have to rely on your nose, bakazaru," he replied in all seriousness.

***

The gates were open.

No, make that -- the fucking gates were open.

Sanzo glared at them. So Isir had been confident that he'd return. And was sitting there waiting for him to step in.

Fuck.

He grabbed a drink of water, draining the bottle, and ditched the remainder of the scant supplies he'd brought. No use bringing them into a fight. He could retrieve them on the way back.

The gates were still open. There wasn't a guard in sight.

Well, having come this far, there was no way out but through. Sanzo performed a cursory check on the Smith and Wesson. If Isir wanted to leave his door wide open, that was fine by him. He had all of five bullets, no reload, and he had one bastard youkai to kill. Fair enough.

Flicking off the safety, Sanzo crossed the remaining hundred metres or so to the entrance, and strode boldly through the gate without pause. And halted in the courtyard.

No one challenged him. But they were there, alright. He could sense the ever-present stink of youki, slithering around in corners just out of his field of vision.

"Well?" he called out, the challenge ringing through the cracks in the stonework and echoing up to the battlements.

Far ahead, the door at the other end of the courtyard opened slowly.

"Ch," Sanzo muttered, and continued forward. The quiet slap of his sandals echoed in the looming silence.

No one met him. No one challenged him. He stepped through the corridor to find a hall. He followed the long, winding staircase up, passed through the door at the top and made his way down a series of corridors. And never saw a soul. But they were all there. Watching.

There was something in the air. Anticipation, perhaps. It could have been fear, but they certainly couldn't be afraid of him. No. Isir was definitely up to something.

Walking into a trap, he growled at himself. He hated this feeling of being led further and further into the domain of the enemy.

Then a pair of double doors parted before him, giving way to just a velvety darkness, barely illuminated by rows of flickering candles.

Steeling himself, winding up nerves that were already wire-taut, he stepped through that last threshold, fully expecting the doors to swish shut behind him.

And they did. But even as they closed, more candles burst into flame, chasing away the darkness to reveal another massive hall. It was completely empty, except for the candles in their brackets in the walls. No furniture. No trappings and hangings. Nothing. Just bare stone. The ceiling was completely lost in shadow; he could not see to the other end.

Then his attention was drawn to the single figure standing in the middle of the room. Isir smiled as he turned to face the priest. A simple, chilling smile.

"Welcome back, Sanzo-sama."

***

TBC

***

Back to index

Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Where things fall apart.

Warning : Major Sanzo abuse in this chapter --;;. (toes, you can stop reading now.) Major, major violence.
Muse : To make up for earlier.
Sf : *growls*. So much for not getting him hurt.

CHAPTER 8
Where things fall apart.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...
-- The Second Coming, W. B. Yeats

"Hakkai, can't you hurry?"

"I'm afraid not, Goku.. we're going as fast as we can but the terrain's a little.. rough, to say the least."

"Ah, stop worrying, bakazaru."

"Easier said than done, Gojyo!"

"Calm down, minna-san. We'll be there in an hour or so."

***

Footstep.

A click as the heel of Isir's boot chimed against the stone floor. The gun was in Sanzo's hand and the sight at eye level at the speed of thought. But he didn't fire.

5 bullets, an insidious voice whispered at the back of his head. Why didn't you wait to get more?

"Of course, if you kill me, you'll never find the scroll," Isir nodded. He was holding a katana, silver steel still hidden in its matt black sheath.

Another footstep, echoing into the vast reaches of the hall. Somewhere, a candle flickered and died. Sanzo glared, but did not answer.

"And if you fight me, you'll never win," the youkai continued, taking another step forward. In the background, another candle winked out. Sanzo tracked Isir's movement with the barrel of his Smith and Wesson.

"And since you were so good as to visit me, it won't do to leave too early, would it?" That smile again, as chilling as the winter wind. One hand on the hilt, Isir casually unsheathed the blade. The sheath clattered softly to the floor.

Another step closer.

Another candle dimmed out of existence.

Footfall.

The gun's report split the silence into a cacophony of echoes. Sanzo swore as Isir dodged the round with inhuman speed. A footstep behind warned him in time to avoid Isir's sword thrust. Air whistled past his ear as the silvered blade sliced through space.

He sprang aside as Isir struck again. The gun buckled in his hand as he sensed an opening and fired--

--and the jarring screech of metal resounded through his eardrums as Isir blocked the round with the katana blade.

"Well," Isir nodded. "I'm fairly impressed." He inspected the blade, which was cracked along its length. "You're excellent, for a human. Looks like I'll need to craft a new sword."

A whisper of movement was the only warning.

Isir literally disappeared from his view, leaving only the katana falling to the floor in slow motion--

--Sanzo spun, searching for his enemy--

--and suddenly, all he saw was the darkness that hid the ceiling and the walls moving past in the corners of his vision--

--a curious sense of weightlessness--

The impact with the floor stole all breath from him. The sudden surge of pain through his ribs hit him then, seconds after Isir's punch. I didn't even see that coming..

"But humans are humans," Isir said, stepping into view. "Weak. Inferior. Yet they somehow believe that they have a divine right to rule this world. To drive us out of it."

Sanzo rolled out of the way as Isir's foot swished past, using his momentum to push himself to one knee. The youkai turned to regard him with a bemused expression.

"Well, you're certainly not out of it, I see. But aren't you going to retaliate?" Isir inquired.

The candle light bounced off the barrel of the Smith and Wesson. It was just a few meters away. Sanzo's eyes flickered from the gun to Isir and back. The youkai was still talking.

In a single movement, Sanzo was on his feet and lunging for the gun.

Before he'd taken two steps, however, Isir was in his path, grinning, clawed fingers raised to strike...

Sanzo caught him with a kick hard enough to send the youkai reeling backwards, surprise washing across his features. Unfortunately, the distraction had been enough to make his lose sight of his goal...

As he glanced through the darkened room, Sanzo nearly missed Isir's blow. He evaded at the last moment; too little, too late. The claws caught him across the shoulder and ripped backwards, as blood spurted to match their trajectory. Sanzo staggered backwards, clutching his shoulder and swearing. Blood seeped through his fingers, tracing patterns down his glove and his sleeve.

Isir was smiling.

Sanzo lunged forward. Isir parried his first blow, and the second, missed the third. There was a thud as Sanzo's fist slammed into his jaw, a blow that would have been hard enough to crack human bone. But youkai were tougher than humans, and even as Sanzo rallied for another attack, Isir lashed out, too fast to avoid.

There was crunch as Sanzo slammed against the wall and fell to the floor. Blood splattered the stone from the impact.

"You ought to be proud, you know. I don't use so much force against humans, normally. I don't have to."

Sanzo blinked furiously to clear his vision. His right arm, which had taken the brunt of the impact, was wellnigh unusable. I can't match him strength for strength. I need--

Perhaps it was the light, perhaps it was the way the room had been swimming, perhaps it was that Isir genuinely moved too fast for him to see...

But suddenly, a blow stole his breath away, and there was a clawed hand grabbing the front of his robes and hoisting him to his feet--

--And before he could even summon the strength to hit back, he was slamming against another wall some distance away.

Vision went.

It came back, slowly, stained red by the blood that seeping down from the gash in his head. In time to see Isir stepping fastidiously forward.

Panic welled up. He had to move before the youkai closed to attack range, get the gun, and put a bullet through the bastard's head...

Desperation gave him enough strength to stagger to his feet. His head swum madly and pain raced through the assorted wounds. Something was definitely broken somewhere.

"Good. I like an enemy with some fight in him," Isir said approvingly.

Sanzo's knees were buckling. "Fuck... you..." he said in reply. Wait for him to attack. Watch him, a voice was saying in his head. Avoid the attack and then counter attack...

He saw the blow sailing towards him in slow motion and darted to one side, heard the crunch as the youkai's fist hit the wall behind. His eyes fixed on the glint of metal in the darkness, and he raced towards it.

He felt the youkai coming even as his hands closed around the pistol grip. Instinctively, he tried to sidestep and bring the gun to bear, and it might have worked if his reflexes hadn't been shot to hell by all the earlier injures...

A foot caught him across the ribs. He tried to break his fall, hit the floor on his bad arm instead, and the world went under in a wave of pain.

Get up.

The gun was still in his hand, he realized, held in a death grip.

Get up. The fight's not over.

It wasn't. He could hear the sound of Isir approaching, the steps ringing through the stone beside his ear and louder than even the sound of his own harsh breathing.

But gods, it hurt. Everything hurt. Nothing felt like functioning at all. Perhaps it would be better to let that sinking darkness pull him under again--

With an effort, he forced his eyes open. He was in the floor. In the hall. And Isir was approaching...

He was crawling to his knees before he knew it, as Isir raised an eyebrow in surprise and slowed his footsteps. "Amazing. I almost thought I'd killed you by accident."

"I'm ... harder ... to ... kill ... than ... that..." he gasped, and on that note, he was on his feet, swaying unsteadily, but standing nonetheless.

"I applaud your efforts," Isir said gravely. "Perhaps I will give you a quick death, seeing that you're a worthy adversary."

"Bastard," Sanzo hissed. Despair was slithering in around the edges, obscuring rational thought. He's practically unscratched..

He fired.

There was a splash of blood as the bullet slashed past Isir's side. Ringing laughter. "Well done. That almost caught me by surprise."

Sanzo clenched his jaw tight around the distress that was welling up. Two bullets left.

Isir was in front of him again. "Bravo, bravo. You intrigue me. Very well, I'll give you a chance to fight back. Give it your best shot, Sanzo-sama." A grim smile. "The pun fully intended, of course."

The hand holding the gun was starting to shake. Badly. Sanzo tried to steady it with the other hand, but stopped short, wincing at the pain lancing through elbow and shoulder.

He's up to something, his senses warned him, as he regarded the youkai standing before him.

It was then that he noticed how dark it was. How many candles had inexplicably been extinguished. The shadows had crept up on them, dark and devouring, potentially lethal to a human with inferior night vision.

Then Isir's form started to shift.

Sanzo blinked, but it was still the same -- the youkai's form had blurred out, into two, three, four different copies, each identical, each wearing the same self-satisfied smirk.

"Which one's the real one? I'll leave it to you to guess," the youkai said, laughing. The voice sounded from all directions.

Five, six...

Sanzo unleashed a bullet at where Isir had last been standing, and growled in frustration as it swept through the illusion and hurtled into the distant wall.

The light was failing faster now. He could barely make out the details of the enemy -- enemies. There were just silhouettes, seven, eight, nine of them...

"My turn now," Isir said mockingly. And as one, the forms moved in.

Damn, damn ... it didn't help that the pain was throbbing through him now, clamoring for his attention, endeavoring to pull him apart. Sanzo backed up against the wall, the waves of agony strobing in tandom with the drumming of his heart.

Which one which one.. they were closing in, a semi-circle of death, the same insane, self-assured grin on every face, every grinning fang...

The light was fading even further...

He hated the idea, hated the menacing slowness in which the specters closed. Hated the fear that raced through his veins, a fear that he hadn't tasted in a long time, not since he was thirteen and confronting youkai for the first time. That night. That night where one life had ceased and another had started.

The touch of air from the side gave the youkai away. The gun recoiled in his hands.

Blood, splashing across his vision.

Red mist.

Isir, smiling, blood seeping through a bullet wound, one arm hanging limply.

Isir, hurt, but very much alive.

Slowly, Sanzo became aware of the searing pain through his stomach. He glanced down and beheld the blood-stained the katana, Isir's hand wrapped around the hilt, and the blade.. lost in.. him. In the haze that was rapidly obscuring all thought, he realized that it was buried far in enough that the point was had to be protruding from his back. In morbid fascination, he watched as the blade, cracked and weakened where the bullet had hit it earlier, splintered and snapped into two an inch from the hilt.

His legs gave out at that moment and he dropped to his knees, and a split second after, the gun fell from fingers gone suddenly numb. The pain was going curiously dull -- the nervous system going into shock, he thought. He felt a warm hand on his injured shoulder in an almost companionable fashion, except that the grip was going tighter and the claws were dugging furrows into existing wounds. But it didn't hurt. Tingled, but didn't hurt.

The numbness engulfed him, and his vision was tunneling.

His last thought was something confused about failing someone -- a man with long, brown hair, dressed in the some robe that looked vaguely familiar, with a scroll draped about his shoulders.

Then the world faded away.

***
TBC
***

Back to index

Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Where blood is loosed.

CHAPTER 9
Where blood is loosed.

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

-- The Second Coming, W. B. Yeats

Light. There was light in the darkness.

He was falling...

The pain came next, a stinging stab as he felt, for some reason, an impact with a cold, rough floor...

Voices, sound... nothing got past the whirlwind that was racing through his head and roaring through his ears...

The darkness folded in again.

***

They reached the fortress under the cover of night, and stood for a moment, beholding it's impressive silhouette against the brilliant moon.

"What are we waiting for?" Goku asked, seething with impatience.

"We have to get in somehow. I'm sure there's a backdoor," Hakkai said.

"We came in the front the last time."

"Which is why I'm certain that they've increased the guard," Hakkai told him.

So they skulked around to the back, hunting for another entrance, as the wind whispered through the trees and the cold started to seep into their bones.

"This is hopeless," Gojyo said, after a while. "There's no other way in."

"I still don't like the idea of going in through the front door," Hakkai replied, frowning. He sighed softly. "But I guess we have no other choice..."

"Kyuu," Hakuryuu nodded his assent.

"Then let's go!" Goku stalked off towards the main gates.

"Wait," Hakkai told him. "Since we're doing this, we might as well do it in style..."

The front gate exploded inwards in a shower of light and metal. Guards, hereto preoccupied with dice and cards, leapt up in alarm in time to catch a brown streak racing through the wreckage. Half a heartbeat later, Goku was in their midst, swinging Nyoibou like he was demented. Two guards went down, and as the others closed in on the attacker, two more suddenly went down in showers of blood, as bolt of light slammed into the remainder.

Goku eliminated the survivors as Hakkai and Gojyo appeared in heartstopping suddenness. "Which way?" the eighteen year old asked.

"Don't you know?" Gojyo asked. "After all, you're the one with the Sanzo-compass."

Goku glared at him, but did not deign to reply. He paused, as if sensing the air, then spun unerringly towards one of the side passages. "This way."

They were racing across the courtyard, when the hail of arrows started. Gojyo took one in the shoulder and swore as they ducked into the safety of the passage.

"Let me take a look at that," Hakkai said, probing the wound with gentle fingers. "You're lucky, it's not barbed. Hold on.. this might hurt a little.."

"Do your--ow," Gojyo bit down on his lip as Hakkai got a grip on the arrowshaft and yanked it out in one swift move. He examined the tip for a moment. "I don't think it's poisoned.."

"Then let's get a move on, before the welcoming committee arrives."

"Yeah," Goku said, racing off.

The next moment, there was a sickening rumble. Hakkai paused in midstep, glancing at the ceiling. And not a moment too soon. There was a whisper of air and the groaning of stone as a solid wall abruptly fell from the ceiling and slammed into place just a foot in front of him, blocking the passage beyond completely.

"What the hell was that?" Gojyo said, his voice shaking.

"A trap..." Hakkai glanced back at him, and back at the wall. Then his eyes went wide. "Oh no.. Goku's on the other side."

"And here comes trouble," Gojyo said, nodding towards the crowd of sword-bearing, armored youkai that were pouring through the entrance of the passage. "I don't think we can fight all of them."

Hakkai glanced at the youkai, and back at the wall. "Buy me some time. I think I can clear this barrier."

"You sure?" Gojyo asked. "It's solid stone..."

Hakkai smiled, a little smile that had nothing humorous in it. "I'm certain." He took a step back, a ball of light already forming between his fingertips. "Just hold off those youkai!"

***

Goku jumped a foot into the air as he heard the roar and the crunch. He spun, in time to see the wall come crashing down behind him, cutting him off from Hakkai and Gojyo.

His first instinct was to summon Nyoibou, preparing to charge the blockage. Just as the staff flickered into existence between his fingers, however, a voice drifted down the corridor to him.

"You want the priest, don't you?"

Goku whirled. In the darkness, he could barely make out the figure standing some 10 meters away. There was a glint as a candle lighted by itself, reflecting off deep blue eyes...

Blue eyes....

Goku growled. This had to be that Isir fellow...

"You'd better hurry, if you want to see him.. alive," Isir said mockingly.

"Alive? What the hell are you talking about?"

Isir laughed. "This way, Son Goku." He smiled, then melted into the shadows.

Swearing, Goku abandoned any thought of his companions, and raced after the youkai.

***

The gates were open.

No, make that -- the fucking gates were open.

Sanzo frowned at the fortress before him in bewilderment. He was quite certain that he had been through this before. But that couldn't be, for here he was, standing outside Isir's stronghold, the sutras missing from his shoulders and the gun in his hand.

Strains of mocking laughter seemed to hover in the air, just out of the range of his hearing. Evidently, someone found something extremely amusing.

He shrugged. The mind played weird tricks sometimes... He performed a cursory check on the Smith and Wesson, noted the five remaining bullets, and stepped up to the fortress.

***

The first blast shook the entire wall, but did not succeed in blowing it away. Hakkai gritted his teeth, summoning his ki again. With an effort, he ignored the sounds of a massacre happening just behind him, putting his faith in Gojyo to hold them off.

The second blast went straight through the center of the stone, but more of the wall caved in to take it's place. One more blast would do it... Hakkai paused for breath, beads of sweat collecting on his forehead. It wasn't often that he had to exert so much energy at one sitting.

He glanced over to where Gojyo was being swamped by youkai. The narrow passageway ensured that only a handful could attack him at one time, which was to his advantage...

Gojyo rammed the fixed blade of the shaku jou through another youkai's stomach. Before he could yank it out, however, another youkai slipped past his guard, sword raised for the kill--

--when the small ki ball slammed into him, throwing him off balance. Gojyo spun, kneed the attacker in the gut, then swept his head off with the blade. "Thanks.. but hurry up there!" he called to Hakkai.

"Hai." Hakkai clenched his jaw as he readied another attack. He poured all his energy into it, draining all his reserves, until the strain grew unbearable... then he released it.

When the dust cleared, there were only smithereens where the wall had been.

Hakkai turned slowly. Candle light from the passage beyond cast a glow around him, a glow that shadowed his face. One eye, narrowed in dangerous contemplation, was barely visible.

It suddenly struck the attacking youkai that they had lost almost half their number against one of the two intruders... and that the other intruder, who was capable of levelling walls of solid stone, had just turned his attention on them. Several guards began to back away discretely. When Hakkai readied for another attack, even the most stout hearted quailed.

Gojyo grabbed hold of the moment with both hands, stepping back to give himself room, then unlocking the mobile blade of his weapon and letting it fly. The cresent blade arced down, decapitating one youkai in a stroke, then burying itself deep into the back of another. The youkai went down with a scream as Gojyo recalled the blade.

Most of the remaining youkai took that as a cue to flee. The two that remained were treated to an unparalleled display of Hakkai's light and magic show, and ceased to be a problem.

As the sound of footsteps disappeared down the corridor, Hakkai slumped against the wall, breathing hard. Gojyo limped over, clutching at his arm where a youkai and his sword had scored a lucky hit. "You okay?"

"Just need to catch my breath," Hakkai replied. "That was tiring.."

"Yeah," Gojyo squinted into the darkness. "The bakazaru ran off without us."

Hakkai sighed. "We'll catch up with him eventually, I guess."

"Oh well, the kid's old enough to look after himself."

"Yes... he is."

***

Goku rushed after the retreating figure in front of him. No matter how fast he went, he never seemed to gain ground. He spun down corridors, through the twisting depths of the fortress. He didn't notice as he pounded up stairs, he hardly even noticed as he passed darkened windows. His mind was intent on one thing -- he had to catch Isir. He had to catch Isir to find Sanzo, and Sanzo was hurt.. Sanzo was.. dying..

He shook his head. Sanzo couldn't die!

Desperation gave him new strength, and he flung himself forward, racing up the last bank of stairs and through a massive pair of doors. And paused, gasping for breath.

It was a large room, a seemingly endless room, barely illuminated by rows and rows of candles in little hollows in the wall. He could smell blood in this room; blood had been split, and recently.

In fact.. he could smell Sanzo's blood.

He summoned Nyoibou once more, clutching to it like a life line as he glared around the murky darkness and tried to spot his quarry. There was a flash of movement to the side--

--he dived, rolled, and sprang to his feet. Isir stood in the place he had just vacated. The youkai was not even breathing hard from the long run.

"Well met, Son Goku," Isir said, the courtesy in his words unable to mask the chilly undertone. "This is an unexpected honor."

"What did you do to Sanzo?" Goku demanded.

"Him? We had a fight." Isir smiled unpleasantly. "Simply put, he lost."

"Where is he?"

"If you want to know.. you'll have to kill me first."

"You..!" Goku snarled and glanced around. He didn't have time for this fight. Turning, he peered towards the ends of the hall. There were no other exits. Isir had led him to a dead end.

"See this?" Isir indicated a small pile of rubble, stained with black tracks that could have been blood. "This is where he hit the wall. Broke his arm, I believe."

Goku turned slowly back to regard the other. Fury burned in both eyes.

"And that large patch of blood by your foot? That's exactly where I ran him through." Isir hefted a katana hilt with just the remains of a blade. He tossed it into the air and caught it again. "I was quite disappointed. He didn't scream as loudly as I would have liked."

Goku was clutching his staff so hard that his knuckles were dead white.

"Are you sure you should be taking so much time?" Isir taunted him. "After all, Sanzo might die at any moment. And only I know where he is."

However, Goku did not rise to the challenge. Grinding the end of his staff into the floor, he glared back. "Get out of my way."

"I'm afraid that it's not so simple," Isir smiled darkly. He snapped his fingers, and the doors swung shut with a massive clang that reverberated through the hall. "Even if you find him... I've put him under a spell, that only I can release. So.. Goku.. what will you do?"

There was a long, long silence.

Finally, Goku spoke.

"Since you want to die so badly," he announced in a voice that was nothing like his normal, chirpy self, but dark and deep and furious, "...I will kill you."

"If you can," Isir replied softly.

***

The sense of unease grew as he stepped through darkened corridors. Sanzo glanced around, feeling strangely disoriented. There had been no sentries at the gate, no youkai in the fortress... the grounds had been completely empty. But the youkai were there - he could sense their presence all around. Diffused and somewhat distant, but there.

He was quite, quite sure that he'd seen all of this before, which was impossible..

He stepped through another corridor that looked exactly like the one before. And paused. He could hear the sound of footsteps heading down the corridor, headed towards him...

He ducked back around the corner, readying his gun to shoot whoever was coming, when--

"Sanzo!"

"SANZO!" The brown haired boy streaked around the corner and collided into him. He bounced back, eyes shining. "You're safe! We were so worried about you..."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sanzo demanded. "I told you not to follow!"

"But we were worried..." Goku sulked. "I don't want to lose you, Sanzo. What if you had run into trouble? So we rushed after you, I'm so glad that we got here in time.."

"And I'm starving, Sanzo! We didn't stop for breakfast!"

"Ah, there you are."

Sanzo glanced up at the new voice. Hakkai had rounded the corner. The brunette smiled, but there was something twisted, something terribly disconcerting about that smile...

Without realizing it, Sanzo tightened his grip on the pistol.

"Hakkai?" Goku asked, turning. "What's--"

"Since we're all here, I might as well settle this." Light glinted off his monocle as he ducked his head, still smiling that sinister smile. "Nothing personal, Sanzo, but certain parties want you dead."

Sanzo ducked to the side even before his brain registered the full import of the words. But Hakkai had anticipated his move, and the ki ball he had been covertly summoning was dead on target--

--when Goku leapt into the path of the blast.

"GOKU!"

Everything went red for a moment, then Goku was falling backwards, a gaping hole where his chest had been. There was the stink of burnt flesh and vaporized blood.

"GOKU!" Instinctively, Sanzo caught the boy as he fell. Oh shit, this is not happening...

"Sanzo..." the voice was almost too weak to catch. "I'm.. sorry..."

"Fucking ape!" he railed. "What the fuck did you do that for?"

Goku smiled, a small strained smile that betrayed the incredible pain he was in. "I didn't want.. to ...lose you... be.. alone... again..."

"You stupid damn idiot!" Sanzo cried, anger and grief twisting inside him.

"Sorry..." the body in his arms shuddered once...

...and was still.

"Goku... ano.. bakazaru! Don't you dare to die on me, you idiot! You're harder to kill than that! Damnit, Goku, answer me!"

But the golden eyes had gone terribly, terribly blank, with a glazed look that they could never have worn in life...

Desperation welled up. Dropping the gun, Sanzo grabbed Goku's limiter and wrenched it off, and held his breath.

When nothing happened, the sinking feeling he felt in his gut was all too reminiscent of the same pain he had felt when his master had died.

"I'm afraid that he's really dead," a voice intruded into his thoughts. "No one could survive a blow like that."

Deliberately, Sanzo lowered Goku to the ground, his right hand closing around his pistol. When he rose to his feet to confront Hakkai, the look on his face was dreadful to behold.

And Hakkai smiled. "This time, there's no one to protect you."

"I'll kill you first."

"I don't think so. Goodbye... Sanzo."

As his finger even pulled the trigger, the entire world was filled with yellow-white light. He heard the report of the pistol, curiously soft in this enclosed space...

Then he was flying backwards, and there was just this massive fiery pain that was burning him up and tearing him apart, and the smell of blood blood blood...

... then nothing.

***
TBC
***

sf : To those of you who don't understand what's going on, wait for the next chapter. However, it is technically explained in this chapter. Read the dialogue between Isir and Goku carefully.

Back to index

Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Where a lot of fighting ensues.

CHAPTER 10

Warning : Angst, violence, character-abuse, swearing etcetc.. I should raise the rating.

Goku shifted his grip on Nyoibou and charged as Isir grinned at him, unmoving and wide open for an attack.

Instead of hitting his target, however, Goku found himself thrown off balance as a shape blurred into existence in front of him. Nyoibou hit metal with a resounding clang and Goku staggered forward from the momentum of his charge.

It wasn't Isir in front of him... it was another youkai, wielding a wide-bladed saber.

"Out of my way!" Goku snarled.

"I'm afraid that you'll have to get past me before you can even dream of picking a fight with Isir-sama," the youkai said mildly.

Goku leapt backwards and charged again.

As Chiro moved to parry, Goku inexplicably strafed to the side, avoiding him altogether. Chiro spun in confusion, calling a warning to his liege...

In time to see Goku bring Nyoibou crashing down on the double doors. There was a thunderous clang, but the double doors of solid bronze did not yield an inch.

"You can't escape that way, Son Goku," Isir called after him. "Neither is that the right direction to be going in."

Goku spun back, eyes blazing.

"You're supposed to be fighting me, remember?" Isir taunted. "Or are you coward enough to run?"

Goku's eyes flicked towards Chiro and back to Isir. "Then fight me yourself. Don't rely on your hencemen."

"I'm afraid that it wouldn't be a fair fight," Isir said, gesturing at the injured shoulder. "Sanzo left his mark, I'm afraid."

"Damn you!" Goku cried.

"Fight, Goku. You have no alternative," Isir said softly.

"Then I'll send you straight to Hell!" Goku bolted towards Isir. Chiro parried on his behalf, then lost ground as Goku beat furiously at him with Nyoibou, moving so fast that there was just a red blur. Isir watched the fight, captivated. The youth's strength and speed were admirable.. each stroke was backed up by a great deal of strength and was almost too fast to see. No wonder the Sanzo-ikkou was so powerful. Goku alone was a match for any normal youkai, and his weapon would allow him to tackle multiple, unarmed enemies.

Chiro, however, was neither a normal youkai nor unarmed. Realizing that he could not meet Goku head on, he chose to disengage and try for an advantage with range and speed. He had not, however, reckoned with the magical nature of Goku's staff, and realized his mistake a moment after Goku extended Nyoibou to deal him a staggering blow.

Isir applauded mentally. First blood had been drawn, and not quite on the side he'd expected it to be. He would definitely have a problem confronting Goku, in his current state. Fortunately, there were backup plans...

Goku and Chiro clashed again, the latter noticably favoring his right side. It was a pity that.. good fighter that he was, Chiro simply could not match Goku in speed or in strength. He was, however, a far more experienced fighter, and the outcome of the encounter was still very much in question.

Chiro parried another stroke from Goku with the staff then lunged in from short range with a dagger in his left hand. There was the sound of ripping fabric as Goku dived out of the way with a wince, and Isir noticed the growing red stain his side where the dagger had left a gash. So now they were equal.

The next few blows were traded without either side gaining any advantage, both sides alternately gaining ground and losing it. Isir could sense the growing frustration in Goku, a sense of urgency fueled by desperation. Chiro, on the otherhand, was a cold, calculating contrast, searching for any opening that his enemy availed to him.

They disengaged again, circling slowly, checking each other out for weaknesses. Goku was the first to charge and they clashed viciously again. This time, however, Nyoibou shimmered once and seemingly broke into three, taking its flail form that lashed down to catch Chiro across the side of the head. Blood flew from his mouth and he staggered back as Goku lunged forward again, opting to switch to fists to beat the life of out his enemy. Blow after blow swept in, and caught the crack of bone. The fight would be over soon. Goku raised his fist for one, final strike...

There was the shimmer of silver and abruptly, he staggered back with a cry of pain, the dagger protruding from one shoulder.

"Careless," Isir muttered.

"Urusai!" Goku yelled at him, tearing the dagger out with a rough motion that sent blood gushing from the wound. Summoning Nyoibou, he leapt for the kill.

Isir interceded as the end of the staff came crashing down, casting a ki-barrier over his fallen second in command. Goku stopped short, his face twisted in a combination of pain and frustration.

"That'll do, Goku," Isir smiled. "I'll fight you now."

"Bastard," Goku ground out. "You just used him to injure me.."

Isir inclined his head and regarded Goku with cool amusement. "You're beginning to sound more like Sanzo by the day. I wouldn't take after him, if I were you. He's a bad influence."

"Stop talking and defend yourself!" Goku lashed out with a high kick that Isir ducked back in the nick of time to avoid. The staff flickered out of existence as Goku pivotted and attacked, sacrificing the advantage of range for additional speed and maneuverability. Isir concentrated on evading, dancing out of range as Goku struck, half blinded by anger and his growing sense of urgency. When he finally summoned Nyoibou again, however, Isir decided that it was time to stop toying with his enemy.

"That's quite enough," he said smoothly, summoning a ball of ki.

Goku half-shielded himself from the blast with his staff, skidding backwards as the wake barrelled through the air to either side, the vortex split in two by Nyoibou. He leapt up in time to avoid another blast, and found himself racing along the side of the room in an effort to outdistance each successive attack.

This isn't fair! he raged, desperately seeking a way to eliminate Isir's massive advantage. If only he had a gun... or if only he knew how to focus his ki like Hakkai did...

Another blast lighted on his heels, close enough that he could feel the heat. Another struck the wall nearby as he rolled out of range, sending a shower of dust and gravel down on him. He can't keep this up forever. And when he stops... I'll go straight for the kill. Clinging to that grim hope, Goku evaded another attack as he frantically sought an opportunity ... any opportunity to counter attack.

As Isir continued his relentless assault, however, it did not seem likely that such an opportunity would surface any time soon.

***

The pain was what drove him out of the darkness. There was just too much of it to be ignored, and any attempt to drift back into unconsciousness ended in dismal failure.

Sanzo cracked his eyes open.

He was still in that dank corridor, plastered against the far wall. Damn, but he hurt all over .. it felt as if someone had ripped his guts out and taken a hammer to his right arm. And he'd probably cracked his skull open from the impact with the wall. Certainly, the spinning in his head and the red wash of blood that kept filming his vision over suggested that.

But wait, hadn't this been inflicted during his fight with Isir?

...What fight with Isir?

It was Hakkai who'd.. and Goku.. and.. shit.

Why the fuck was he still alive? If Goku hadn't been able to survive Hakkai's ki attack, then why the hell was he, a human, still fucking alive? It would have been so much damn easier to just have..

Ah shit.

I can't die, right? he thought unhappily. I owe it to Goku to hunt that bastard down, preferably before he kills the kappa... and there's still the mission...

Fuck. Thrice damned fuck. He would much rather have been dead.

It took every ounce of his willpower to drag himself off the floor. His gun, amazingly enough, had survived. One bullet had been discharged; he couldn't remember having pulled the trigger.

Painfully, he staggered to his feet. The nausea receded after a few seconds of leaning against the wall, and he ventured a tentative step forward. When he didn't fall over, he took another one.

Several dozen paces down the corridor, he stumbled across Goku. It was exactly as he had left him, eyes staring at infinity, the golden limiter missing from his head... Dead. Cold. Lifeless. He wasn't even bleeding - the heat of the blast had cauterized the blood vessels. Sanzo frowned. If Goku wasn't bleeding, then why was blood dripping down his robes, creating a glorious mess?

No answer came to mind. He shook the thought away, too weary to care. He had to hunt Hakkai down, then return and...

No. Last rites for the dead were pointless. He had not stayed for his master's funeral; he was in no shape to conduct Goku's. He might not even be alive to do so.

He felt an incredible surge of guilt as he stepped away. For a moment, there was something other than blood obscuring his vision, until he swiped it furiously away. If the bakazaru had died in the normal course of things, in a fight or on the road or something... that would have been nobody's fault. But.. the damn idiot had died... died protecting him. As if he needed protection. As if he needed anything or anyone.

Shit. He was running out of energy, and despite his mental protests to the contrary, those damned, stupid, human emotions of guilt and grief were wrenching at him...

Anger welled up then, anger at his own weakness, anger at Goku, and above all, absolute fury at Hakkai.

This guy would rather bite off his own tongue than betray me. Those were the words he had uttered to Chin Isou, that centipede bastard, just scant months ago. And how wrong, how utterly, completely, absolutely wrong he'd been proven.

But Hakkai had slipped up. Hakkai had made the mistake of not making sure that he had been dead. And Hakkai was going to fucking pay...

***

"Well," Gojyo said between gasps, "It seems that there are walls aplenty."

"You could say that," Hakkai replied, as they raced through the bowels of fortress.

Indeed, walls, not just of brick and mortar, but also of armored guards, perpetually cropped up in the most inconvenient locations. Slamming from the ceiling across perfectly empty corridors or crashing down behind them.. or simply crashing after them, they barred the way when the pair could least afford delay.

Gojyo cast a quick glance over his shoulder and whistled. "Reckon... there're at least 20 of them."

"I'd place it closer to 30, actually."

"Probably forty by now."

"Couple of hundred."

"Can't argue with that."

They pounded down another side corridor, desperately trying to outpace the pursuit. "We can't keep this up much longer," Gojyo noted.

"I know. We're destroying the foundations of the building. The whole place will--"

"That's not what I meant! We can't keep this up for much longer!"

"Oh. Sou desu. That too." Hakkai screeched to a halt. "Oh dear. We seem to have run into a dead end."

"They're right behind us," Gojyo reminded him.

"Very well. Stand back, please."

"Hakkai..."

"I'll be fine. Here.. goes.."

Light and magic.

There was a high-pitched whine and the sharp stink of ozone as the far wall exploded into flame and withered into a cloud of dust. Hakkai nodded in satistfaction, and stepped through the rubble.

And halted abruptly.

"What's wrong?" Gojyo demanded.

"We seem to have a slight change in altitude ahead," Hakkai replied.

Gojyo sprang over.... and slithered to a stop inches away from a sheer drop. The very heart of the fortress lay before them : walkways illuminated by shimmering candles, spiralling staircases leading towards untold heights... and untold depths. Beneath their feet lay sheer blackness. The bottom could have been a meter or a mile away.

"So. Back the way we came?" Hakkai suggested.

Gojyo glanced once over his shoulder and back again. "I never retreat. Do you?"

Hakkai looked at him, surprise lighting his face for a moment. Then he smiled warmly, laughter dancing in his eyes. "Neither do I."

"Ready?"

A nod.

And they sprang over the edge into darkness.

***

Back to index

Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Where confrontations occur.

A/N : Rush rush rush. Written on on a late night of a bad day with far too much medication, far too little inspiration and a clawing need for Saiyuki fanfic. More fight scenes. *sighs and pushes Muse to write*

CHAPTER 11
Where confrontations occur.
Warnings : Angst, violence, character-abuse, swearing, terminally stressed fanfic author.

"You're just stalling for time!" Goku yelled, as Isir showed no sign of halting his ranged attacks.

"Am I?"

"If you want to fight me, fight me! Don't keep up this cowardly pretense..." Goku glanced at the doors. "If you're not going to be serious about this, I'll be on my way!"

Isir smiled, the lazy grin of someone who had the upperhand and knew it. "You have no idea what you're asking for. But since you asked for it..."

The last ki blast barreled deep into the ground at Goku's feet, raising a cloud of dust. Coughing, Goku swatted at his face, his eyes tearing and his vision totally obscured. "What--"

Air flew out of his lungs as the fist caught him into the stomach, and he was aware of a brief moment of weightlessness before he crashed into the stony floor, skinning both elbows. Hastily, he summoned Nyoibou and used it as a crutch to push himself to his feet, prepared to ward off the follow-up attack.. that never came.

Isir stepped forward. Distant candles were mirrored in his eyes, dancing flames in a sea of blue, and Goku felt a surge of self-doubt.

He adjusted his grip on his staff, aware that his palms were uncomfortably damp.

Unpredictable. I can't tell where, how, or even when he's going to strike. And he took down Sanzo, even with his gun..

"Are you going to stand there, Son Goku? Or are you going to strike, as you promised to do? Time is passing, as you pointed out."

"You're not going to goad me into attacking," Goku ground out.

"Oh?"

Goku glared back.

Isir raised a slender eyebrow. "If that's so... then I'll perform the honors."

***

Sanzo staggered. There was something nagging at the back of his head, a half-familiar sound, that he was sure he had heard before... heard a lot, in fact. But he wasn't quite thinking straight at the moment, and thoughts chased themselves and became entangled in other thoughts, then lost themselves in the darkness.

He couldn't remember how long he'd been walking for. He'd counted turnings, trying to memorize the way back in case he needed it, but as he turned and turned and walked and walked and saw nothing but identical corridor after identical corridor...

No sign of Hakkai. No sign of Gojyo, Isir, or any living object.

The stone was cold beneath his fingers, a welcomed contrast to the burning heat of the fever that seemed to be creeping through him. His eyes drifted shut, just for a handful of breaths, he promised himself, just to get to back to a level where he could continue the mad search for Hakkai or for something that would give him a clue as to his whereabouts. Just a few moments...

His consciousness had other ideas. His consciousness sank like a stone, racing down through the darkness, and dragged him down with it.

***

"Good morning."

Gojyo groaned and flung an arm over his face. "Shut the damn window, Hakkai. You're letting all the light in."

"But it's time to get up," Hakkai replied, relentless in his courtesy.

"Just five more minutes," Gojyo mumbled. Damn, but the bed was hard today. Had he fallen asleep on the floor again? And what was that bug that was crawling over his arm--

--Memory snapped back into place with all the force of a rubber band stretched to its limits and released.

"Shit!" Gojyo sat bolt upright. "What the--"

"You have a cockroach on your arm," Hakkai pointed out.

"SHIT!" He swatted the intruder to the ground, leapt to his feet, and stomped it into a paste before it could scurry away.

Hakkai held up the torch that he'd purloined from a bracket in the wall. The glow reflected a short stone corridor, ended by a stairwell that wound downwards.

"How did we get here?" Gojyo said woozily, discovering the largish bump on the back of his head. And the world goes round and round and rounddddddd......

Hakkai reached out an arm to steady him before he could go crashing down onto the floor again. "We fell. There was a beam in your way, I'm afraid."

"Oh. That's gotta suck," Gojyo mumbled. "How far was it? Did we manage to evade those guards?"

"Far enough, it seems," Hakkai said, looking upwards. "But, thankfully, not far enough to break anything either."

"So it worked, then. The lucky pair, both of us."

"Indeed. If you're up to it, I think this is the only way out," Hakkai said, indicating the corridor with a tilt of his head. "The other way would just be back the way we came."

"But several storeys lower."

"Even so. I have a hunch..." Hakkai cracked a smile -- number 503, if Gojyo was any judge, the 'I'm sorry, but I can't think of a better excuse' smile.

"Oh, whatever. We can't get more lost than we already are."

"Absolutely."

It was the slight touch of wind on their faces that alerted them; it was a stone here or a mark there that tipped they off, so they gathered after a while that they were entering a section of the fortress that they'd been to before.

Gojyo kicked a shard that might have once belonged to a metal bar, and glanced at the ruined cell where they had last seen Isir. He glanced at Hakkai, who nodded briefly. "One suspects.. if Sanzo lost in a fight against Isir..."

"What makes you think so? The monk's got a gun, guarenteed to give anyone a run for their money."

"Goku mentioned that he was in trouble. And Isir... Isir's not the type to fall to a gun."

"If he did, I'd feel awfully cheated," Gojyo muttered.

"And I can sense blood down here," Hakkai continued. "Something.. not youkai, and definitely split recently."

"Well, nothing to do but go on," Gojyo shrugged. "If Sanzo's down here, we'll find him.. sooner or later. Preferably sooner."

***

"Sanzo..."

Then there was a new voice, overlaying that one, sounding in his ears, not in his mind...

"Sanzo?"

A new, equally familiar voice, a pleasant voice that oftentimes greeted him after a particularly long and nasty recovery.

Hakkai.

There was no interference of conscious thought -- the impulse raced from receptor directly to effector, bypassing the brain entirely. He lashed out, his bad arm latching onto fabric in front of him as his eyes flickered open, then his left fist collided into flesh with an audible thump as he caught Hakkai in the gut, sending him crashing to the ground even as he rolled to his knees.

His next punch, aimed for the jaw, never connected. Someone caught him and dragged him backwards, an arm around his neck that denied him the air he needed. Gasping, he punched backwards with an elbow, a blow that would have been effective if all the pain from overtaxed injuries hadn't chosen that moment to hit him all at once.

The world went crazily gray and red for a few seconds.

When thought returned, there was air again and the ceiling above his head, and voices from outside the range of his vision.

"--Don't know what the fuck he thought he was doing!"

"Surprise, I take it. Reflex reaction. Did you notice that someone else already bandaged his wounds? Someone wants him to live."

Hakkai. And Gojyo. And if what had just transpired was any indication, Gojyo was helping Hakkai out...

His attempt to get up went so far as getting an elbow underneath him before he collapsed back onto the floor, his breathing harsh in his ears. Then there were hands on his shoulders, supporting him, helping him to sit up. "Sanzo," Hakkai's voice sounded in his ear. "It's us."

He wanted to strike out. Wanted badly to turn and grab that bastard by the throat and wring the life out of him, but his muscles didn't seem to be keen on listening to him. And then there was the matter of superior odds...

The gun, the thought occured belatedly. Can take them both out before they even get close.

He went for the gun, summoned enough adrenaline and enough willpower to force himself onto his feet, turning in one move--

--And came up empty handed.

He was staring stupidly at his hands, as if expecting the Smith and Wesson to emerge just by wishing for its presence. Hakkai scrambled to his feet in front of him, a worried expression on his face. Gojyo was a step behind, regarding him with an equally puzzled look.

He looked up, amethyst eyes meeting green, then shifting to meet red, some thought clamoring loudly for his attention at the back of his head. Something about Isir...

"Fine welcome that was, monk," Gojyo snorted. "Can't even say thank you to us for dragged ourselves all the way out here to save you."

Confusion was starting to bubble through him, a whole mishmash of conflicting memories. He blinked, trying to sort them out.

"I mean, we're not asking for much but a 'Thanks' or at least an acknowledgement of our presence would be nice," Gojyo continued, digging in his vest pocket for his stash of Hi-Lites.

Sanzo shook his head, trying to think. There was something, something... what the hell was it?

Hakkai took a step forward. "Are you--"

Sanzo struck, throwing aside whatever it was that was trying to get his attention, ignoring wounds and all, ignoring pain and all.

Hakkai intercepted his punch in midair and caught the other wrist. "What's wrong? It's us! It's me, Goku's somewhere, we lost him along the way..."

Sanzo blinked uncertainly at him. "Goku..." Fuck, but it sounded like his voice had been through a grater as well.

"Goku came with us, but we were separated," Hakkai repeated.

"And if you don't mind, we'd like to go looking for him. Even if you'd like to stay in your nice cozy little cell," Gojyo cut in.

"What the fuck do you mean? Goku's dead! You killed him yourself!"

Hakkai visible eye went wide at that, then narrowed as he frowned. "I see," he murmured to Gojyo. "I understand now." Then louder : "But Isir's outdone himself. The deception ends here." He released his grasp on Sanzo's wrist and the priest tensed, regarding him warily.

"I don't know what Isir did," Hakkai continued. "I don't know what illusion he cast over you. And I don't know what illusions he cast over me, those times. But Goku's alive, and that in itself speaks volumes for everything that's transpired."

Illusions. The word sparked something in his mind and things started falling together, like pieces of a shattered mirror released from a height to rain towards the ground, each piece not quite fitting, but all reflecting the same thing...

Isir. Isir and his twice and thrice blasted katana. A hall, with candles. The gun, clattering across the stone floor. Five bullets. He'd discharged all of them.

He'd shut his eyes somewhere in that torrent of memories, and now that he was there, he just wanted to slid further into the blackness and rest. But what he seemed to remember... wasn't proof in itself. This wasn't a resolution. He had, in equal part, the memory of Hakkai standing over Goku's corpse, the memory of those wide, golden, lifeless eyes, the memory of the limiter falling to the floor with no visible effect. He couldn't distinguish illusion from reality. He just couldn't.

And neither could he afford to run the risk that Hakkai was indeed telling the truth. If he wasn't...

And I'm damned sure he's lying... a voice said to him, obscuring logic for a moment. Goku's dead. Goku's dead and you're just standing there, listening to him? Of course he'd lie. He'd lie and wait for you to turn around and then stab you in the back when you least expect it. So get him. Get him now. You might not be able to take down both of them, but at least you'd get the murdering bastard...

"--That's a stab wound," Hakkai's voice found its way into his consciousness again. "Pretty deep; I'd recommend you don't move around too much. Someone bandaged it, but didn't bother to do more than stop the bleeding."

Stab wound. Ki blast. Ki blast?

Conviction wavered.

"--And Isir still has your sutras. And, from the looks of it, your gun too," Gojyo was saying. "So you coming or not?"

"And we're slightly lost," Hakkai again. "We thought... maybe you'd know where Goku is..."

And at that mention, he recalled that voice at the back of his head, and strained to listen.

Goku.

Unmistakably Goku.

And Goku was hurt-needyou-lookingforyou-holdon...

Slowly, he opened his eyes. Hakkai and Gojyo were watching him intently, the latter smoking, the glow of his cigarette painfully bright in the near darkness.

He could not shake the feeling that he had when he looked at Hakkai, the odd feeling of intense hatred ... which, when he thought about it, wasn't quite characteristic of himself. Anger was an emotion he was familiar with. Distaste he knew all too well. But hate, fury, loathing... not quite, except in a dry, dispassionate sort of way. Not the kind of feeling that would have him fling everything aside in the careless pursuit of a meaningless revenge.

Dared he trust that he was being manipulated? Dared he trust anything at this point : what others said, he thought he remembered, what he thought he heard...

But as Hakkai had said, there was a way to find out.

Sanzo... the voice in his mind had a sense of growing desperation to it.

Shut up, he snarled back at it. And : I'm coming.

Turning in his heel, he strode out towards the corridor.

***

And somewhere in a hall lit only dimly by corridors, an eighteen year old youth, bleeding from a multitude of gashes, faced his opponent with a sense of increasing desperation. His mind flickered to the image of the man he'd set out to save, as his heartbeat seemed to count out the seconds that were passing, were being wasted, and his opponent's taunts sounded in his ears.

"Should you be taking so long? He might be bleeding to death."

"Urusai!"

"In fact, he probably is. Sword wounds are nasty, messy things, and extremely painful..."

And Goku's thoughts raced in increasingly frantic circles, centering around the one thing that would guarentee his victory in this fight, but which would spell disaster if it were not restored.

The golden limiter that encircled his head.

Do I have a choice? Should I? Should I?

It would be so easy...

***
TBC

Back to index

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Where the sky falls.

CHAPTER 12
Where the sky falls
Warnings : Violence, character-abuse, swearing.

The stairs were the killer. Flat ground was bad enough, flat ground with uneven footing took all his energy to navigate, but the rockiest sections of the castle they'd passed through didn't hold a candle to the stairs they'd found themselves on. It was a massive spiral, from the dungeons to the top, tall, narrow steps with no sides, no rails, nothing to offer support to a faltering human.

Sanzo paused, gasping for breath, one hand on the steps ahead and one hand on the bandages that circled his torso. The pair of footsteps behind scuffled to a halt, and he could feel their uncertainty radiating up. "...Damn youkai architecture..." he hissed under his breath, trying to summon the energy to continue the arduous trek to the top. How many steps had they climbed? Five hundred? A thousand? He hadn't stopped to count.

"I can see the top," Hakkai said softly, squinting into the darkness. Sanzo didn't bother to look up knowing that his vision couldn't compare to a youkai's. He didn't bother to reply either, not when half of him still wanted to turn and shove Hakkai off the edge of this seemingly infinite staircase.

Footsteps behind preceded a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, you want a hand?" Gojyo. Gojyo being unusually nice, in fact.

"I don't need your help," Sanzo returned.

"Yeah? Well, I don't want to be stuck in the middle of this stinky castle just because you can't handle the stairs, monk. So up you get, before I carry you."

Sanzo shot him a venomous glare. But it was difficult to refuse the offer, with every breath grating painfully against chest wounds and his muscles protesting every move.

"It's just a hundred steps or so to the top," Gojyo said, evidently drawing no little amusement from his predicament.

"Damn you," Sanzo swore, pushing himself to his feet.

"Already done," Gojyo replied, steadying him. Sanzo ground his teeth, but did not reply.

In that way, they limped slowly heavenward.

***

His fingers brushed the limiter, cold, unyielding metal. Something stirred in him as he did that, a sort of muted cry that hinted at the other nature he possessed when he removed the limiter. Hunt-kill-rend--

He could never remember what happened when that happened, just emotions and feelings and color. There was always blood -- the smell of it, and sometimes the taste, and the feel of it trailing across his claws.

Isir was studying him, Goku realized, not saying a word.

"You know what happens when I remove the limiter," Goku challenged him. "Tell me where Sanzo is and I won't kill you."

There was a pause. Then : "Below. Downstairs."

Goku sighed and removed his hand from the limiter--

--and there was a flash of movement from in front--

--he somersaulted backward as Isir's silvered claws swiped the air before him. As the youkai gathered himself for a second strike, Goku leapt backwards again, seeking additional room. "I'm warning you--" he cried out at Isir in warning.

Movement again. And again Goku dodged. No hesistation this time, he promised himself, his hand flying up to grab the limiter. But who'll stop me? What if---

Isir struck him, hard, sending him crashing backwards against the stone floor. Consciousness went for a moment, and came back just as blast of pure fire struck him in the chest.

He slammed both feet upwards as Isir closed for the kill, sending the older youkai careening backwards. There was a crunch and a curse in the distance, and Goku, both hands wrapped around Nyoibou for support, pushed himself to his knees. There was blood in his mouth and breathing hurt, and the world spun crazily every now and then. His ears rung with the sound of the ki explosion. It's now or never, he told himself, shouldering aside regrets.

He grasped the limiter in one hand and tugged---

---and someone grabbed his wrist from behind and jerked it back down.

*

There was a blast from the inside as they shouldered the doors open. A blast that conveniently masked their entrance. Blinded by the sudden flash of light, Gojyo stood for a moment in the doorway, blinking owlishly. Beside him, Sanzo stiffened. Then there was a whisper of motion as the priest darted forward.

"Sanzo!" Hakkai called out, fighting his way past Gojyo. He saw Goku -- it could only be Goku, kneeling near the doors, one hand raised to... A premonition of dread swept through him and a warning rose to his lips. Then Sanzo was there, grabbing Goku's wrist even as he attempted yank the circlet off.

*

"--kazaru!"

Goku glanced up, trying to fight free of the grip pinioning his wrist. His vision, still dancing with colored flashes of light from the ki blast, failed to pierce the darkness. Panic overwhelmed him, and he jabbed backwards with an elbow. There was a curse and the grip on his wrist disappeared. His elbow struck fabric.

Remarkably.. familiar fabric.

He froze.

"OI. GOKU!"

"San--"

"About damn time."

There was a rustle behind him and he spun, to find Sanzo hunched over behind him. A trickle of blood was winding its way down his chin.

"Sanzo!"

"Idio--" the word was cut off as the priest slumped forward. Goku got his arms around him just in time to stop him from hitting the floor.

"Goku!" Hakkai was at his side then. "Are you okay? Gojyo, keep an eye on Isir!"

"I'm doing that," came the reply. "Except... he's just standing there and staring..."

"What happened?" Goku demanded. "Where were you guys?"

"You shouldn't have run off on your own, brat!" Gojyo snapped in reply.

"You should have followed!" came the retort. "What happened to Sanzo? Why's he hurt so bad?"

"Later, Goku," Hakkai told him. "We have to get out of this first."

"Oh spare me the family reunion," came the caustic snarl from Isir. The youkai took a step forward, barely visible in the gloom. "And since you're all here, it's time to dispose of all of you at one shot."

*

Isir couldn't fit a suitable descriptor to his mood. It wasn't fury. It wasn't anger. It was something past that, a burning rage that had him clenching and unclenching fists, that had him grinding his teeth together, that made him want to kill something in the messiest way possible.

He knew he'd missed something. He'd miscalculated, somehow assuming that the guards would have taken care of those two pesky interferences -- Hakkai and Gojyo -- leaving him to rid them of the greatest threat -- Son Goku. Everything had proceeded according to plan. They had been separated, the two had been cornered with nowhere to flee, and Goku... Goku had been occupied. And Chiro hadn't inflicted quite as much damage as he would have liked, and Goku showed a remarkable resilience, but given a little while longer, the youth would have been far too tired to retaliate. Then the limiter issue had arisen and a crisis had been narrowly averted by his quick responses... but then something else had gone disasterously wrong. And now Hakkai and Gojyo were standing here, very much alive, and Sanzo... he'd expected Sanzo to kill Hakkai on sight, the next time he saw him, or at least try to do so. And then Hakkai would have been forced to put the priest out of commission. But it hadn't happened.

He was getting remarkably tired of this. It was past time to be rid of them.

The incantation was an old one, one that he'd never had the opportunity to use before this. It was far too.. destructive.

The power grew in him, a black and swirling one, gushing through his fingertips as he murmured the words. It was a demon and it wasn't one -- it was the power of a demon without the form, without the body, drawn from the nether regions of the world. It lacked the splendour of Kougaiji's demons, the colors and the light, it lacked the sentience and visibility, but it did not lack the power. It needed only to be directed.

The bronze doors crashed shut and began to melt, effectively sealing them shut forever. A wind sprang up, howling through the crevices and extinguishing the candles. Cracks traced the length of the floor, and the ground trembled.

The voices of his enemies rose, in fear and panic, and that made him smile, content in the surety of his victory and their ultimate demise. "It's no use," he whispered to them, and the sound somehow carried through the tumult of the wind. "You are all.. doomed. Enjoy."

It was complete, and he whispered it command. Then grabbing the fallen form of his comrade, Chiro, he extended a little more of his power and teleported out of the storm.

*

The lightning came first, splitting the ground asunder. Hakkai flung up a barrier and the fingers of light crackled along its shell, threatening to fry them to a crisp should the barrier fail. The air stank with the acrid smell of ozone.

"What the hell is this? Hakkai!" Gojyo's voice sounded from behind him.

"It's an electric storm, I think!"

"It's a hell of a storm, yeah!"

Another bolt crashed against their barrier and Hakkai staggered.

"Sh--it," Gojyo breathed. "How the hell are we going to get out of this one?"

"I think we can ride it out," Hakkai told him. "As long as the floor doesn't give..."

Another crack wound itself past their feet.

"It... it feels like a demon," Goku said. "Like Kougaiji's demon.. but different."

"...Demonic power," Sanzo murmured. "Not the demon, just its power. Unleashed and unrestrained, wracking havoc as it will. And unassailable by physical means."

"So what do we do, Sanzo?" Goku asked urgently. "Can I fight it?"

"No, you idiot," Sanzo growled, his eyes flickering open. "And don't you dare touch that limiter!"

"But we can't just sit here and let it rage around us either!" Gojyo snapped.

"If I had the sutra.." Sanzo muttered, pushing himself upright.

"How about praying to the gods for help?" Gojyo asked sarcastically.

"Shut up," came the breathless reply. "I might.. try..."

Hakkai glanced over at him. "Don't--"

But Sanzo was already chanting, sketching sigils in the air. They glowed for a moment then faded out, leaving only a blacker impression against the darkness. "What's he doing?" Goku asked Gojyo.

"I don't know. I just hope that he doesn't take a bloody long time about it."

Another crack sounded, and more lightning struck. The wind howled again, and Gojyo could swear that he heard laughter.

"Hakkai," Sanzo called, pushing himself to his feet. "When I say so, drop the barrier."

"Are you crazy, monk?" Gojyo demanded.

Sanzo shot him a sardonic smile. "You'd better hope that I'm right. On the count of three, Hakkai."

Hakkai nodded stiffly, teeth gritted against the strain of maintaining the shield.

"We're all going to die here," Gojyo moaned.

"It's a distinct possibility," Sanzo snapped. "Three, two, one."

The barrier fell, and the full fury of the storm hit them. Goku went stumbling as the floor shifted beneath him, and might have disappeared into the darkness if Gojyo hadn't grabbed his hand in time. Hakkai staggered backwards and fell, one arm raised to shield his eyes. The lightning whipped past, dangerously close to make the hairs on their skin rise.

Only Sanzo stood, the wind whipping his robes into a frenzy, yelling words into the darkness that they couldn't hear above the roaring. More sigils appeared, flaming gold for a second, then fading into the darkness. One bolt of lightning crashed right in front of the priest, driving a furrow into the ground barely a foot away, and Sanzo winced from the heat and the sound of it.

Then the wind dropped.

"It's working!" Goku crowed, as Sanzo sank slowly to his knees, staring off into the darkness. The lightning was gone, the wind was fading.. they had to be in the clear, right?

"No," Sanzo replied. "We're not out of this yet."

Then the ceiling began to cave in.

"You know... we're really in the dump this time," Gojyo muttered. "Stuck on top of a tower with the place collapsing around our ears... I don't know how we're going to get out of this one. Just what did you do, damn monk?"

"At least I stopped it from frying your ass, right?" Sanzo snarled, as he retreated a few steps to evade a flurry of small stones that came clattering down.

"If we can't run.." Goku said hesistantly, "We could try going down." He glanced at the floor, which shuddered as another section of the ceiling crashed down upon it. "Hakkai?"

"It's worth a try." He glanced at Sanzo out of the corner of his eye, but he was looking at Goku.

"It'll be up to you to smash a way through," Sanzo said.

"No, that's too dangerous. Leave it to me," Hakkai said. He thought he saw the priest flinch and felt a pang of disconcertion.

"Go for it, yo," Gojyo seconded.

Blowing a hole through stone again, Hakkai thought wryly. And I thought this day couldn't get any longer...

There were two resounding crashes as he fired, one from the floor splitting asunder, one from another massive section of the ceiling crashing down. One could very well feel a fleeting sense of worry, remembering a narrow escape from another collapsing building not too far in the past. Then there was no time for thought as, contrary to plan, the entire floor gave way.

They crashed into stone below, with rocks raining in on them. Sanzo lost the tenuous hold consciousness that he'd maintained, and Goku had to grab and carry him as they dashed for safety.

"Where are we?" Gojyo yelled.

"I don't know..."

Goku sniffed the air. Aside from the smell of stone and dust, of the blood on them and the residue stink of ionized air, there was something familiar about this place...

"We're near the courtyard," he said, hazarding a guess. "We're pretty near the exit."

"Which way?" Hakkai asked urgently, and Goku paused again. "There seems to be fresh air coming from our right..."

"Right it is, then," Gojyo decided, ducking into a corridor to evade the lethal bombardment from above.

"Back," Sanzo rasped, pushing ineffectively at Goku. "Let go of me.."

"Er... revenge can wait," Gojyo told him. "It's prudent get our sorry rears out of this mess before the whole place--"

"I need my sutras," Sanzo returned, persistent. "I came here to get them... let go of me, moron!"

"Not when you can't stand!" Goku replied. "He'll kill you! What then?"

"Knock him out and sling him over your shoulder," Gojyo told Goku. "We're wasting time here."

"Damnit!" Sanzo wrenched free of Goku's hold. He stumbled a few steps, then his knees abruptly gave way.

Goku rushed forward. "Sanzo, you're going to kill yourself.."

"Screw that," came the harsh reply.

Gojyo sighed in frustration. "Hakkai, why don't you talk to him?"

"I .. don't think I should," Hakkai replied softly. "He's not.. thinking very fondly of me at the moment."

"Sanzo, we'll come back. We'll come back and defeat him together," Goku was saying. "But we're all injured right now.. and he has a whole fortress of youkai at his beck and call. We'll get your sutras back. I promise."

A sigh of defeat then. Sanzo's shoulders slumped, an unusual admission of defeat that betrayed just how much pain he had to be in. An unusual admission of weakness that had Hakkai wincing and Gojyo frowning.

"Help me up," Sanzo muttered.

"Sanzo?" Goku asked.

"We leave."

***
TBC

A/N : The epic goes where it will. Blame me not for drawing it out. ^^ And re : Sanzo vs Hakkai showdown, I'm sorry, but it didn't turn out as good as I would have liked either ._. But Sanzo's already too badly hurt to do much damage to Hakkai...

sf : *clutching Muse* I hate this plot! It's more tangled than ... Sanzo's emotional state of mind!
Muse : We'll untangle it as we go along...
Sanzo : ... Moron.
Muse : *annoyed* I can cook up Sanzo vs Isir round 2, if you'd like.
Sanzo : o_O;;; I must be the most abused character in history...
sf : Yeah, baby! I mean.. aww..

Back to index

Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Where revelations occur in the night.

Note to self : Draw plan before embarking on uber-convoluted fic. The problem is that my original draft never specced a chapter 13...

THE SHADOWS BEYOND -- Part II
CHAPTER 13
Where revelations occur in the night.

There was music on the wind.

It floated through the empty window, carried by the clear night air from the common room below. It was a mixture of song and instrumentation -- crude strings and pots and pans, if he was any judge. It was coarse, crude, noisy enough to grate on one's nerves.... nothing admirable. But it was light hearted, rowdy, cheerful to the point of annoyance.

And it was alien to him.

Sanzo stared at the glow of the light cast from windows below. It was a festival of some sort, and the town was bustling with excitement. The rest would be in the midst of the excitement, revelling or drinking themselves silly. Likely, Goku would be stuffing his face.

He shifted minutely on the window seat, wincing at the strain on various wounds. He'd never paid a lot of attention to festivities before; grand wastes of time that they were. In his time at the Temple of the Setting Sun, he'd attended a few, just to humor the crowd, but that had been different. Those had been formal sessions, which he had escaped from the moment propriety allowed. A far, far cry from the hubbub that milled below.

Is this what normalcy is like? he wondered, and his mind struggled with the concept. He'd never know the life of a commoner. Even when he had roamed the streets with beggars, thieves, the scum of society, he'd always been possessed of a purpose, a road to tread, and no time for idleness.

The wind brushed against the collar of the loose fitting black shirt that he wore, and an insidious thought began to grow in his mind.

The sutras were gone. He had been forcibly relieved of that burden and that onus. He had tried, failed, nearly lost his life in retrieving them.

Without the sutras, his mission was incompletable. More, without the sutras... regardless of all the trappings of the post, he was not a Sanzo.

The thought intrigued him. It slid in around the haze of pain and medication to compete with the notion of getting them back. Doubtless, the latter would be a long, tedious, and enormously difficult task.

He had never asked for the post. He didn't want it, didn't want the crown, sutras, or even the credit card. He could only conclude that it was Fate's bad taste that had caused him to end up with all of them.

The gods could exact no retribution if he discarded his title and all that it entailed. At the worst, they could kill him -- if the gods killed at all -- and that particular threat held no terror for him whatsoever.

His master might have disapproved, but even his master had died, lost the sutras, abandoned his duty to an ill prepared disciple.

I don't have the strength to protect them, he thought bitterly. Like I didn't have the strength to protect you. In their own time and way, the sutras would pass to a new protector a new Sanzo would be appointed. That was the way of it, whether he died in the course of guarding them or otherwise.

It's an enticing prospect, he conceded, leaning back against the wall. And perhaps, just perhaps, something I should consider seriously...

Below, the music played on through the night.

***

In many things... there is Success, and then there is Failure...and in all things, there is Chance, which waylays all good plans...

Isir ran a clawed hand through silvery hair and stared out of the window. In a circular fashion, he wasn't angry at the Sanzo-ikkou's escape. Rather, it gave him a second chance to see them.

Even so, he was, if not angry, then mildly annoyed that he had wrecked a good portion of the fortress for no good reason. He still couldn't fathom how Sanzo had managed to unsummon his demon. Such methods were available to him, as the demon's master, but should have been far beyond the strength of a mere human.

"Some knowledge, perhaps. Lost to us," he murmured on reflection. "I do look forward to wringing it out of him the next time we meet."

Youkai eyesight made out the details of the lands below, even under the cover of a moonless night. There were forests in the distance, the mountains behind, and surrounding the fortress... wasteland. Once upon a time, there had been youkai settlements, clustered around this central symbol of youkai authority, but then the Minus Wave had come. Some of the settlements had been deserted, others wrecked upon human retaliation... none had survived.

He felt a small pang of regret, as a leader might regret the loss of a resource. He served as what passed for a ruler amongst his clan, which, under the conquests and command of his father, had grown to encompass all youkai in the region. Once, they had the might and the numbers to rival that of Tenjiku, but while Tenjiku had been isolated from human aggression, his clan had not.

Majority of the conflicts with the humans had occured in the mountain passes, once extensively occupied by his people. They had reached a deadlock there -- neither side able to break the other's hold. Then, unforeseen and unwanted, the Sanzo-ikkou had passed through, pausing long enough to disrupt the entire balance of power in favor of the human side.

Forced from their mountain strongholds, the surviving youkai had rushed to this last refuge, which, aided by distance and the dense forest, was at least defensible against any human incursion.

Times change, he mused, then chuckled at the thought of him, a youkai leader, using a human cliche. Once, they had been concerned with the expansion of territory and the glory of the clan; once, they had paid no heed to the coming and goings of the humans, focusing rather on the inter-clan rivalry; once, they had thought the humans to be no threat to them. Times had changed, indeed.

Still, they were independent, and if not totally free of the grasp of the power-grubbing fools in Tenjiku, then they at least had their own sovereignty.

Would things have been better without the Minus Wave? he wondered. Now, small consolation, surviving -- sane -- youkai had united. But their numbers dwindled steadily -- youkai children were in short supply, and those that did survive tended to go mad.

As a race... we are probably doomed.

It was not a thought that he relished.

"Isir-sama," a soft voice called from the doorway. Isir nodded without turning, and heard the tread of footsteps across the stone floor. They paused.

"What is it?"

"A messenger, my lord. From Tenjiku. He apologizes for the late hour, but seeks an audience with you regardless."

Ah. It came as a surprise, but a small one. Rumors had been flying around the youkai community of late, something to do with the Sutras of Heaven and Earth, something to do with a travelling party, something to do with the resurrection of Gyuumao. Until recently, he'd not paid them a lot of heed. "Send him in," Isir directed.

"As you command." The servant retreated.

Isir was seated at his desk when the messanger came in, a nondescript common youkai that he did not recognize. They exchanged courtesies, a stiff formality with very little real warmth behind it. By the time they got down to business, the moon was already heading down towards the horizon.

"The Empress wishes to advise you that a certain party is, or will be, passing through this region," the messenger told him. "Their number would be four -- one human priest, one half-youkai, two full youkai. In addition, they would be accompanied by a white dragon, capable of transforming into a Jeep."

"The Sanzo-ikkou. They are already in the region."

"This party, the priest in especial, is wanted by the Empress. In her generosity, she is willing to bestow a large monetary award on the one who delivers the priest -- alive and unharmed -- into her hands."

"I understand. Tell the Empress that I have taken her advisement under consideration, and will endeavor to apprehend the party in question," Isir replied gravely.

"I will relay it directly," the messenger acknowledged.

***

Hakkai rolled over, squinting blearily at the ceiling.

Morning light jabbed into his eyes, stabbing at his brain. He promptly rolled back and buried his head in the pillow.

"Urggggggghhhhhhhh," came a drawn out greeting from the other bed. "Hakkai, just how much did we drink last night?"

"You threw up in my shoes," Hakkai said, not bothering with courtesy.

"I did? Lucky, aren't you?"

"They were my last pair of shoes."

"Get new ones. I'm sure I saw them selling some last night."

The pain in his head was clawing through his skull. Hakkai opted to stuff his head under the pillow entirely. Silence would be nice...

The door slammed open, hard enough to make walls shake.

"HAKKAIiiiiiii," a voice called, and what sounded like ten thousand elephants stampeded across the room to his bedside. "Shall we go for breakfast?" Goku yelled.

"Urusee!" Gojyo flung a pillow at the boy from across the room. "Can't you see we're sleeping?"

Goku evaded the pillow. "Aha! You're drunk! I knew it!"

"We're not drunk, idiot!"

"You're drunk! You're drunk and Hakkai's drunk!" Goku said, dancing around the room as Gojyo hunted for more projectiles. "DRUNK!"

"SHUT UP!"

"Goku, please be quiet," Hakkai beseeched, his eardrums ringing madly in tandem to the hammers pounding on his head.

"Can we go and get breakfast?" Goku pressed, relentless.

"Go and ask the monk, damn you," Gojyo groaned, flopping back onto his head. "And draw the damn curtains!"

At the mention of Sanzo, Goku paused in his antics. "He's sleeping," he replied.

"So were we."

"But he's injured, and he hasn't recovered..."

"For heaven's sake... it's been a few days already. He can at least stand up and walk around by now!"

"I don't think so," Hakkai sighed, abandoning any attempt to sleep. Perhaps his head would stop hurting if he had a large cup of water and an equally large cup of coffee. "Humans take a long time to heal."

"And he's too pig-headed to accept your offers of assistance, I know," Gojyo muttered. "It's his own stupid fault."

"How long do you think we'll be staying here?" Goku asked Hakkai.

"Actually, I have no idea at all. Let me wash up, then let's get breakfast, shall we?" he stood, swaying.

"Don't put on your shoes," Goku pointed out in the nick of time.

"Oh... yes." Hakkai glanced around, then settled for a pair of slippers. "Come on, Goku."

"And draw the damn curtains!" Gojyo yelled at them as they left the room.

*

"Hakkai... do you know what's wrong with Sanzo?" Goku asked.

"Is there something wrong with him?" Hakkai replied, taking a sip from the coffee cup.

"Of course there is! First he doesn't let you near him, then he locks himself in his room for days... I don't know if he's even eating at all..."

"Isn't he just resting?"

"He's not. He's been brooding -- I can see him sitting or standing at the window all day and part of the night. The only time I see him doing that normally is when it's raining."

"I think he's upset about losing the sutras," Hakkai answered. "But frankly, your guess is as good as mine."

"Do you think Isir did something to him? He mentioned something about a spell..."

It was a long time before Hakkai mustered a reply. "Isir... is no ordinary youkai. He's not as physically powerful as some, but he relies heavily on magic and illusion."

"Are you saying that he put an illusion spell on Sanzo?" Goku queried, remarkably quick on the uptake. "To make him ... I don't know, not trust you?"

"When we found him..." Hakkai said softly, "He was firmly convinced that I'd killed you."

"But that's not true! That's obviously not true! I'm... I'm still here, for one."

"I know. But, evidently, it's not easy for him to accept."

"Then he's being silly! I'll go and talk to him--"

"--and dissuade me of my ... silliness?" a familiar voice said.

Goku froze, looking guilty. "San..."

Sanzo stepped towards them, his uneven steps betraying a slight limp. He pulled out a chair and sat. "Have you ordered?"

"We've ordered, but the food hasn't arrived," Hakkai explained. "Service is a little slow after last night." He paused, staring at Sanzo in the eye. The priest met his gaze, unflinching.

"What happened... there... is my concern alone," Sanzo told him, cryptic.

"I believe it concerns me," Hakkai countered, his tone quiet, but brooking no room for objection.

Sanzo called a waitress, requesting coffee.

"I always believed that you were a man of logic, rather than emotion," Hakkai said, when Sanzo showed no sign of continuing the conversation. He was aware of Goku, unconsciously biting his lip and looking entirely uncomfortable, but he was in too deep to back out. For the sake of the group, for the sake of the mission... for the sake of his friendship to Sanzo, he needed answers out of the man.

Sanzo's nails dug into the grainy wooden surface of the table. "We'll discuss this another time."

"We have no time. We've spent weeks in this place already. We're far behind schedule."

When Sanzo looked at him, Hakkai became aware of something... entirely different in those amethyst eyes. Then they narrowed, in the slightest of sardonic smiles.

"Oh, but we have time," Sanzo replied. "We have all the time in the world."

***
TBC
***

*taps fingers gently against the table* You know, I get these awful bouts of jealousy when one of my fics warrants fewer reviews than something that looks like it hasn't even been proofread once, hasn't even been written in proper prose, and ... [removes a few more less-than-pleasant descriptors]. Makes me want to go into a homocidal rage and do something suicidal like eat carrots...

Oh dear, did I just type that out?

January 5, 2003 -- 12:00am.

Back to index

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Where morning comes without a dawn.

"What time do we have?" a new voice called. "You're claiming that we have time? When the great Sanzo-sama is always ordering us to hurry up? And now you say that--"

Sanzo held up a hand, silencing Gojyo in the middle of his tirade. He reached for the pack of cigarettes he had placed on the table, when a hand atop his stopped him from retrieving a stick.

The priest glared at Goku. "Let go."

Goku shook his head. "Smoking's bad for you, with all those injuries." A hint of defiance sparked in the golden eyes. "Either you get Hakkai to heal you or you wait until you're well." Swiftly, he grabbed the pack and pocketed it.

The other two members of the group waited for the explosion.

It never came. The tension was shattered as the waitress arrived with the requested drinks and food. Goku took the opportunity to break out of the staring game, and focused on splitting his chopsticks.

"You haven't answered my question," Gojyo said, as he joined them at the table.

Sanzo gave him a patient stare. "If I have to spell it out, you're even more of an idiot than I thought."

"Then we are idiots," Hakkai said quietly. "Because none of us understand what's going on."

Sanzo glanced at him. Then, very deliberately, he flicked at the shoulder of his shirt, where a sutra would have hung.

"Sanzo--" Hakkai began, when a level stare from the priest cut him off.

"Don't call me that."

"What?"

A thin smile. Sanzo emptied his cup and made to leave. Halfway, he turned back, took the gold card from a pocket and tossed onto the table. "Take it. Use it. We might not have it for much longer."

*

"Hakkai!" Goku's distressed cry broke the silence, once the priest was out earshot. "What's going on?"

Hakkai stared at the card, his features betraying shock.

"The idiot," Gojyo breathed. "The idiot! How can he do that?"

"Do what?" Goku pressed.

"He's given up," Hakkai said. "He's... given up on the sutras..."

Goku flung the chair back in his haste. "He can't do that! I won't let him!" With that, the youth was out of the door, heading with all speed in the direction that the former priest had taken.

Gojyo started after him, when Hakkai pulled him back. "Don't stop him."

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't follow him!"

"At a discrete distance," Hakkai advised.

***

Sanzo had headed out of the inn, Goku noticed. It was hard to spot the man, when one was used to looking out for flashy white robes with a flash of gold and green. The crowds blunted his speed, allowing him to keep within visual distance, but barring him from getting any closer.

He's headed towards the river, Goku realized. And, with a certain sense of relief : He's not headed out of town. He's not going to challenge Isir again. But ... what if he gets attacked again?

"Excuse me, 'scuse me," he shoved his way past townsfolk, who complained at his retreating back. He turned the corner that Sanzo had taken, and paused.

Sanzo stood at the river bank. He was not alone.

"Stop," a whisper by his ear instructed, and Goku turned to see Hakkai and Gojyo appear silently. "This audience is for Sanzo alone."

Goku looked back. "That's... Kanzeon Bosatsu, isn't it?"

"My dear nephew. You're delirious," the goddess said.

Sanzo stared at her. "Assuredly not."

"Then you're deluded. This isn't a 9 to 5 job that you can quit as the fancy takes you."

"I know," Sanzo replied.

"Then why do you insist on this madness?"

"A dislocated elbow, a fractured wrist, severe abdominal stab wounds..." Sanzo raised an eyebrow. "I didn't become a Sanzo to escape death by inches every week. Frankly speaking, I'm sick and tired of it all."

"That's a lame excuse, Sanzo."

He sighed. "And I thought that you, at least, wouldn't be a moron like the rest." He narrowed his eyes. "I'm sick of this -- of everything. Of running. Of nearly dying. Of a title and a position I never asked for, never wanted, of a job you damn well forced onto me. Of risking life and limb on a long journey with no hope of success at the end."

"No hope of success?"

"Are you a fool? Do you expect just four of us to take on all the youkai Kougaiji can throw at us.. and take out Gyuumao as well? A youkai that nearly killed a god? If you're the Goddess of Mercy, you can damn well extend a little bit of that compassion to me!"

"Sanzo, this is most unlike you."

He might have shuddered slightly as he turned away to face the river. "You've been watching. You know what happened. The bastard barely lifted a finger to take the sutra... and I nearly died trying to get it back. Let's not even go into the fact that I'm still standing here without it."

"Has it ever occured to you that... it might take more than your strength alone to retrieve the sutra?"

"And what if we get it back? There'll be a next time. And the next. And the next. Until the damn thing is in Kougaiji's hands and Gyuumao is set free on the world and.. what then?"

"Then it is your responsibility to ensure that such does not come to pass."

There was definitely a shudder this time. "I can't." The words were almost too soft for the listeners to catch.

"And what if you could?" Kanzeon asked, but her tone was gentle.

"Then I wouldn't want to. Because there comes a time when you take pride and tell it 'Screw it' -- this isn't worth what it takes any more. Because... the world could end, and honestly, I couldn't care less any more. I'm not your puppet. I'm not your pawn."

There was definitely some emotion on the goddess' face now, visible to the onlookers, even if Sanzo wasn't looking. A bit of what might have been sympathy, a little less of her normal suave smugness. "I cannot accept your renouncement, when you are obviously injured and not in your normal frame of mind. Rest. We will talk again when you are well."

"Time won't change my mind."

"But time is what you have wished for, and now time is what you will get. I am the Goddess of Mercy, you say, and this mercy I grant you -- time to rest, recovery, and reflect. Time to make a choice that you will not come to regret."

Sanzo continued to stare at the river.

"I will not attempt to persuade you either way," Kanzeon continued, "Yet if you should choose this path... then know that there is no one else we may dispatch to Tenjiku. Isir is currently ignorant of the sutra's purpose, but that may change in due time. Sanzo... would you bear the responsibility of the entire world dying on your behalf?"

The words struck home. Sanzo spun to face her, jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed in what might have been anger or suppressed guilt, or both. It was impossible to tell.

But Kanzeon had gone -- thrown her punch line and disappeared without a trace.

***

"So... my little eavesdroppers..."

Without ceremony, Kanzeon stepped out of a seemingly solid wall to face the remaining members of the group. "Did you hear all that transpired?"

"How did you know?" Goku asked.

"I know everything," Kanzeon replied lazily.

"Is there something that we can do?" Hakkai asked.

"First, you might like to settle your internal quarrels. And then..."

"And then what?" Gojyo prompted, when she trailed off.

"And then it is hard to see. A human heart is hard to predict, and Sanzo is less than predictable under the best of circumstances. He has lost that which drives him, and even I do not know what that is."

Goku frowned. "But it's true... we can't keep on like this. If Sanzo dies, it's all over, and he's barely escaped with his life!"

Kanzeon looked squarely at him. "I would not have sent you if there had been no chance of success."

"What were you saying about giving time to us?" Hakkai queried.

"Oh, just a little bit of disturbance in our dear Isir's domain -- a whole lot of youkai going rabid and attacking his castle. Enough matters to turn his eyes away from you lot for about a week or so."

"A week or so, eh?" Gojyo muttered.

"Thank you," Hakkai replied.

"Don't mention it. I've done my best, given all the non-interference rules of Heaven. The rest, shall I say, is up to you."

***

"Don't say a word," Sanzo snarled, turning and storming into his room.

"Sanzo, don't be unreasonable," Hakkai returned, following him calmly. "You can't just give up being a Sanzo..."

"I can, when the sutra is out my reach and beyond retrieval!"

"If all of us work together, we can get it back."

Abruptly, all the anger seemed to drain out of Sanzo. Sighing, he fell into a chair and cast an amused look at his companion. "Hakkai, Hakkai... stop spouting the old party lines. You sound like a broken record."

"I would, if you would listen to me." Hakkai took another chair.

"Oh, but I am listening," Sanzo replied. "I always listen. Except that I can't always act on your advice. Consider..." he leaned forward. "When you were going after Kanan, did it ever occur to you to turn back?"

"But I didn't turn back."

"But did you get her back?"

Hakkai couldn't stop the wince. Sanzo had an uncanny way of hitting you with words, and not just with insults either. "I would never have known if--"

"And you will say -- it is certain failure against uncertain failure and the slender hope of success. But -- entirely hypothetical suggestion : If you had turned back, you would still be human." He grabbed Hakkai's wrist, turned his hand to face palm upwards. "The blood of a thousand youkai and a whole village on your hands. The price of going on." He held out his own left hand, slightly callused where the pistol was wont to rest. "To what end, Hakkai? To prove your stubbornness? To prove that your persistence is worth the extravagant waste of life?"

"Our situations are not the same," Hakkai said quietly. "The fate of the world did not rest on my shoulders."

"Which was why your burden was light enough to bear to the finishing line." He released Hakkai's wrist and turned away, glancing at the window. "Go away."

Hakkai bit back a flash of annoyance. Oh, very well. Let's start this conversation from the beginning. Settle your internal quarrels first, she said... "Sanzo. Kanzeon talked to us. She said that she's given us about a week before anything happens. I don't know what will happen after that week but--"

"Nothing will happen," Sanzo said shortly.

"And what will you do? Go back to Chou'An?"

"I have a week to decide. Maybe I'll pay Isir a visit, after all."

"At least allow me to attend to your wounds. You'd never heal in time otherwise."

Sanzo flinched. There was no mistake about that -- and this from a man who wasn't accustomed to revealing his emotions.

"What's wrong?" Hakkai asked, probing gently. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing. Just... nothing." Sanzo took a deep breath. Goku's corpse in his hands, stiff as a board, lifeless... He had nightmares about that -- he'd had nightmares about it every single night since their return. Fact and fiction were already starting to blur in his mind.

"You know we can't continue the journey like this--"

"Who said anything about continuing the journey?"

"Stop being so stubborn, Sanzo! Since when was it yours to decide to throw away the hope of the world--"

"--since it involved my goddamned life!"

"I give up," Hakkai ground his teeth. "You're just too damn obstinate to reason with. Since when has the welfare of the rest of the world mattered to you? Or even the welfare of the group? It's always 'Me, I, Myself -- I don't need your help, go away, I never asked for your assistance, I don't care if you die, if you throw your life on the line, even if it's for me--"

Sanzo ground his teeth. "One more word and you die."

"That's the way you argue, isn't it? He who shoots first... wins." Hakkai allowed a ball of ki to shine through his fingertips. "Well, you can't kill me."

Sanzo was paler than usual, and a mishmash of emotions warred in his eyes. The calmer part of Hakkai's brain noted that he had hit on something especially sore, something that could be the heart of the issue, if the other half would just calm down and reason it out...

Abruptly, Sanzo spun and stalked to the window. "Get lost." His voice was shaking. His shoulders were.

Embarrassment overrode Hakkai's anger. He had come here to settle a quarrel, not start a new one. Hesistantly, he moved to Sanzo's side. "I'm sorry."

The priest was clutching the window sill so hard that his knuckles were turning white. He was staring blankly off into the distance. "Fine," he whispered. "Since you want to know what happened." Dispassionately, he related the facts of the incident, from the time he had left the inn in search of the sutras, up until the time they had met again. Hakkai held his peace, listening in silence.

"Sanzo... it was a dream. Nothing more," Hakkai said, when Sanzo's account drew to a close. "I'm sorry... for saying the things I did."

"It doesn't matter any more."

"But it does. Now that we know that Isir is messing with our minds... we can avoid the same trap the next time we attack him. We can get back to trusting each other and avoid the disaster that befell the last time. He's trying to break us apart."

"You don't understand. The reason why I didn't bring any of you the first round was that -- no matter how much I trust you, I cannot trust that, by accident, by trickery or otherwise, that some mishap will not occur. You can say that you didn't intend to hit me with that blast, when we were first here, but the fact is : You did hit me, regardless. What happens if your aim is more accurate the next time?"

"Sanzo-- none of this will be resolved until Isir is dead."

Sanzo sighed, recalling his own encounter with the youkai. "I think it's beyond our ability to kill him. Even if all four of us were to attack him. And we would be in each other's way, besides."

"Then what do you propose to do?"

"Nothing. There is nothing that we can do."

***
TBC
***

A/N :

Back to index

Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Where the glass shatters.

THE SHADOWS BEYOND
CHAPTER 15
Splinters; Where the glass shatters

Several day passed without change or incident. Hakkai had discretely relayed Sanzo's words to the other two members of the group. The priest had taken to brooding, was off his food and constantly avoiding everyone.

When the fifth day came without signs of change, Goku decided to brooch the matter over dinner.

"Na... I don't think we can leave things hanging like this," he began. Sanzo shot him a dangerous look; the other two stopped eating.

"We're not known for giving up." He met Sanzo's glare without flinching. "No reason why we should start now. We've met difficult enemies before."

"Yeah. This Isir guy isn't all that difficult either. We didn't even get a chance to fight him the last time," Gojyo said, backing Goku up.

"Exactly," Goku picked up the pace. "It was me against him and his bodyguard. Next time, with all four of us--"

"--listen to yourselves," Sanzo scoffed quietly. "All four of us? And what happens when we see each other as copies of Isir? What happens if... let's not even talk about Hakkai... I put a bullet through each of you?"

"Conventional means will not work against Isir, certainly," Hakkai answered, as the other two fell back, momentarily at a loss for words. "We need more than conventional means... but we also need more than our individual strengths alone."

"We can't take him down alone. We can't take him down in a group. It's that simple," Sanzo replied flatly. "I'm not sitting around while you discuss nonsense." He pushed his chair back.

"Go, then," Hakkai told him. "And when this entire world falls into shadow, then run. But you'll never get away from the guilt."

"Don't presume you know everything," Sanzo said quietly. Then he was gone.

Gojyo was the first to break the silence. "Of all the pigheaded, stubborn--"

"Cursing him is of no avail," Hakkai interrupted the tirade. "But what he said holds merit. Isir's strength may be finite, but he uses his skills to devastating effect."

"Isn't there a way to tell an illusion apart from the real thing?" Goku said. "I mean, normally you can sense the youryoku emitted from a youkai..."

"Not in a fight, and not in time," Gojyo answered. "Tends to get a bit diffused, the youryoku, when we're moving around. Besides, it was never very specific in the first place."

"Won't an illusion look... well... funny?" Goku suggested.

"Apparently not," Hakkai shook his head. "And certainly, we have no idea what form the illusion will take."

"Then we sneak up on the bastard and pot him while he isn't looking," Gojyo said firmly. "He'll never know what hit him."

"Yeah!" Goku said, brightening up. "We could sneak in and pretend to be servants or something, and then get into his room and you could blast him, Hakkai!"

"And you could pretend to be a dancing girl," Gojyo told him.

"I'm being serious, dumb nut!" Goku yelled.

"I doubt that we'll be able to get close enough to Isir, by that way," Hakkai told them.

"Then we could sneak in by the sewers--"

"--you can go and sneak in by the sewers, ape. I'm not going anywhere near them."

"But aren't cockroaches supposed to love drains?" Goku stuck his tongue out at his companion. Gojyo rose from his chair in wrath. In short order, Hakkai was forced to pull them apart to minimize damage to the surroundings.

"It would be prudent not to discard any suggestions at this juncture," he said. "Anything, even the idea that sounds the most foolish, might work. But sleep on it for a night or so. We can discuss this in the morning."

"Not like Gojyo's gonna sleep," Goku said. "I can hear--"

"Goodnight, idiot monkey," Gojyo said, sauntering off.

"Hah! It's true!" Goku called at his retreating back. He glanced back. "Hakkai?"

Hakkai blinked at him, and smiled. "Yes?"

"Well... you looked as if something were wrong there."

"Just thinking. I'll be off to bed too. Don't stay up too late, Goku."

"Yes mother," Goku replied. "I'll be in bed by nine, mother. After I get a bite to eat." And he raced off towards the kitchens.

Hakkai waited a moment, until all was silent. With the festival over, they were the only guests in the inn. There was a clatter of pots from the direction of the kitchen, followed by a loud exchange between Goku and the cook. Then Goku's voice rose in thanks, and there was just the sound of pots and pans.

"I know you're there," Hakkai said.

"Crawling through the sewers," Sanzo's voice came to him out the darkness. "And that's supposed to be the brilliant plan you came up with?"

"And you can do better?"

"I wouldn't even bother."

"And why not? Lost your nerve? Lost your mind?" Hakkai's calm voice provided chilling counterpoint to the acidity of his words.

"I was insane to start on the mission in the first place."

"And he finally admits that he was wrong."

"And he finally shows his true colors and starts acting like the bastard he is."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Sanzo, this is..." Hakkai gestured helplessly. "We're trying to help you. Why make life difficult?"

"I don't need your help." The response was immediate, whispered, frigid in its absolute conviction.

"You do, now."

There was no reply. Hakkai glanced into the shadows, but there was no sign of the priest.

***

Sanzo regarded the fragments of glass lying scattered across the floor.

He swore.

"Something fell. Now get back to sleep and stop pounding on my damn door!"

Something changed.

Sanzo spun, scrambling for the gun that wasn't there, wincing as he flexed his damaged fingers.

"Did you do that?"

"Who the hell--" he turned back, and found Isir standing by the door, a smile on his face.

"I'm not sure I like this version of you, Genjo Sanzo. I preferred the man who killed my father."

"I can do the same to you, since you want it so badly."

"Tough words, priest. From a fragile man." He toed the glass. "But you can't back them up, can you?"

Sanzo raised an eyebrow.

"So here you are, breaking mirrors to shy away from the truth." He stepped forward. Sanzo watched him intently, but did not say a word.

"So you need some motivation, hm? What should it be?" Isir tapped his chin in false contemplation. "Blowing up the town, perhaps? Would that be enough to make you come looking for me? Or is one town insufficient? I can sacrifice a few more to the great Genjo Sanzo-sama." He gave a mocking bow. "He who would rather run than fight to a more noble end. The world will remember your name, priest. And they will not remember it fondly."

"Perhaps I'll just end it here," Sanzo said conversationally, and lunged forward. His shoes crunched on broken glass as Isir stood stock still, smiling.

Sanzo's fists hit thin air.

"Well done," Isir applauded politely from the other end of the room. Sanzo turned, regarding him narrowed eyes.

"Now who's the coward? Can't even come in person to deliver a message to a fragile human," Sanzo spat.

"Oh, that hurt."

"Didn't they ever teach you not to toy with your enemies?" Sanzo asked.

"But it makes it ever so much more fun," Isir protested. "You pull the trigger too quickly, Sanzo. No wonder you never get any satistfaction out of the kill."

"I would get a lot of satistfaction out of pulling the trigger on you."

"I'm sure you would. But if you don't enter the tiger's lair, you'll never catch the tiger."

"Sure I can, if the tiger's foolish enough to come to me." Sanzo grabbed a large shard of glass and flung it towards Isir's grinning face. It passed straight through the apparition.

"Shall we fix a date? Two days hence, at my castle. I'll even leave the doors open and tell the guards to wave you through," Isir cocked his head. "Remember, it's just the fate of the world at stake."

"Bastard," Sanzo ground out, as the illusion vanished. "Damn bastard."

Blood trickled from the wounds on his hand, falling onto the shattered glass littered over the floor.

***

"What happened to your hand?" was the first thing Goku said, when Sanzo arrived at the table.

"An accident," Sanzo growled at him.

"A fight with Isir?" Gojyo needled. "The mighty Sanzo-sama had a domestic quarrel with his--"

"Shut your mouth before more garbage spews from it," Sanzo replied softly. His tone was deadly.

"Yeah--" Gojyo started, then fell silent as Sanzo shot him a piercing glare.

"Make no mistake, kappa. I prefer you dead." There was no hint of humor in his voice.

"That was uncalled for," Hakkai snapped, and all three looked at him in surprise. "Sanzo, I don't know what's gotten into you. But--"

"--But nothing. I am not answerable to you," Sanzo levelled at him.

"Hey, but--" Goku started.

"Shut up," Hakkai hissed. Gojyo looked surprised at that; Goku sank back into his chair, looking shocked.

"Sanzo," Hakkai began. "We aren't bound to follow you. We are your companions, not your guards. And even if you push us away, you still need us. Strength is one thing, stubbornness is another--"

"--and I never asked you to follow me. If you wish to go, go. The mission is over, understood?"

"When did your spine slip, Genjo Sanzo?" Hakkai's voice was rising.

"Hey, hey, guys, look--" Gojyo's words sailed by both men.

"--cool down, willya?" Goku said, sounding just a little hysterical. "Someone's going to get hurt..."

"My spine?" Sanzo scoffed. "Your head, Cho Hakkai. It is not courage to undertake the impossible. It is pure, unrequited stupidity."

"Then let it be stupidity. But when the world depends on foolish stupidity, then I would rather be stupid than a coward!"

"Then be the brave fool and go and retrieve the damn sutra!" Sanzo snarled. "And you can go ahead and save the world while you're at it, since you seem so confident of doing just that!"

"Fine." There was a scrap as Hakkai shoved his chair back. "I will do just that. And don't bother following." He slammed his mug down on the table and stormed out of the room.

There was a brief, shocked silence.

"By all the Gods, Sanzo, I think you just managed to make Hakkai blow his top," Gojyo said in awe.

"He was already simmering," Sanzo noted. "It was just a cheap excuse to kick up a fuss and make a fool of himself."

"Well, yeah, but you didn't have to provoke him--"

"--and you don't start," Sanzo told him evenly.

"Well, when you just drove one of your most levelheaded companions out--"

"--he is not my companion."

"Yeah? After all the times he saved your fucking life? That's not worth anything to you, is it? Should've just let you die." Gojyo snapped.

"I've had enough of you idiots!"

"I've had enough of your piss-poor attitude!"

There were simultaneous slams as both men surged to their feet without waiting to push the chair back.

"Sanzo... Gojyo..." Goku glanced worriedly at both of them. "What's gotten into all of you?"

"None of your business, ape!" Gojyo scowled at him. "You wouldn't understand it even if we were to cook it and serve it on a platter!"

Goku's clenched fist hit the tabletop. "What--is--it... with you and insults this morning?" He glared at Gojyo, anger showing in the slight flush on his face. "Sure. I don't understand. I don't understand a lot of things. And if it involves being nasty and walking out on your friends, then I refuse to understand it!"

Sanzo snorted quietly in derision, then walked off without a word.

"Sanzo..." Goku glanced at his companion, then leapt up, scowling. "Damnit, Sanzo!"

"Leave him. If the asshole wants to be an ass on his own, that's fine by me," Gojyo said in a tone of forced nonchalance.

Goku turned the scowl on him. "If you want to go on pretending that everything's fine, then have it your way."

"But everything is fine," Gojyo said bitterly. "We've just wasted all that time trooping out here just to get permanently stalled because Sanzo has a stick up his ass. And now he's just walked out on us. Even Hakkai's walked out on us. So it's fine. It's just fine."

"Did you try?" Goku demanded.

"Try what?"

"Try talking to him. This isn't Sanzo. This isn't the Sanzo we know. That Sanzo would never give up. You'd have to kill him to make him give up."

"Oh really."

"And this isn't the Gojyo I know. Nor is this the Hakkai I know," Goku said. "And I don't know where they've gone or why they've gone, but I'm going to find them."

There was a sparkle in his eye as he said that, a core of determination that had been missing from their group since they'd encountered Isir.

"...And I'm going to get them back," Goku vowed quietly. And with that, he vanished in the direction that Sanzo had taken.

In the empty room, Gojyo fished out a cigarette and lit it. The remains of breakfast lay on the table, looking forlorn.

This isn't the Gojyo I know.

"Eh," Gojyo sighed, exhaling in a cloud of smoke. "Stupid monkey." And he followed Goku out the door.

"You need four people to play mahjong..."

***
TBC
***

A/N : Well, well, well. Shadows just took another (unexpected) plot twist around the bend. It looks set to be a loooong fic, ladies and gentlemen...

Back to index

Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Where three go forth.

CHAPTER 16

"Well... Sanzo... you seem to have badly misused the time given to you."

He spun, scrabbling for the gun that wasn't there. "It's none of your business."

"Oh, but it is my business," Kanzeon replied lazily. "After all, the time was my gift to you, and it is my mission."

Sanzo sighed in annoyance. "I'm not in the mood to have this conversation again."

"But this is the hot topic of the week," the goddess mocked him. "Stop fighting with yourself, Sanzo. You know you want the sutras back."

"Really?"

"And they're not about to be handed to you on a silver platter, dear nephew. You have to go and get them back yourself."

"Or?"

"Or die trying," Kanzeon said, the smile disappearing from her face. "Remember your master's final request. He would be sorely disappointed if you went down to the likes of these. And now..." she glanced around. "I won't keep you."

To the likes of _these_...

...Shit!

The sense of unease that had been niggling at the back of his head exploded and in full-fledged danger signals. Sanzo turned; light caught the edge of a blade and sprang back, a warning.

"One assumes..." he ground out at the circling youkai, "That since you're just crawling around, that Isir has some important message to deliver."

He watched them out of the corner of his eye, watched one youkai blend seemlessly into another then splinter into two. Some fake, some false, some real.

"Astute, as always, Genjo Sanzo." Isir himself, or at least the very spitting image thereof, stepped out of the crowd. Sanzo could practically imagine the sunlight shining through the ghost.

"But you Evil overlord types always like to gloat," Sanzo pointed out.

"Charmed, I'm sure," Isir muttered. "But really, Sanzo, a good general never sends his troops out on foolhardy errands on their own."

A retort sprang to mind and was lost in the wake of the realization. What? Who? "I never sent anyone out."

"I believe the phrase was... 'Then be the brave fool and go and retrieve the damn sutra!'. Very forceful. You have the makings of a fine commander."

"The idiot went off on his own. I had nothing to do with it," Sanzo replied, but something in his stomach twisted.

"Of course, the term 'Acceptable losses' was coined for a reason, wasn't it?" Isir smiled. "Your instincts were correct. Your troops were loyal and highly devoted to you, to the extent where coercion or bribery was ineffective, forcing me to resort to other means. I must say, though, that you followed on spectacularly. All of you running off in different directions... like little bugs scattering. So easy to pick off. So easy to confuse. So--" and there was an unmistakable sneer here "--predictably human."

"Better human than youkai."

"Oh, really? At least I don’t have a quarter of my forces in enemy custody. Two-fifths, if you count the dragon. Or perhaps... neither of them count at all? And I should relay it back to Tenjiku -- that the vaunted Sanzo-sama, the Great Enemy, the emissary of the gods... dances beautifully when you pull his strings."

There was a pause as Sanzo clenched and unclenched fists, fury battling with despair battling with panic. I screwed up. I screwed up royally...

"Of course, I won’t kill him. Not immediately, at any rate. Not if you meet me on the road to my residence within the day. Where the road meets the river."

"I’d rather bite my tongue off and die."

"Sure you will, because there’s very little else you can do. And without your escort, without your gun or your sutra, what can you do?" Isir's smile grew just a little wider. "You can choose evasion over confrontation... you can bolt and try to protect what you have left... but you can never--"

"--kisama!" there was a crack, a flash of movement, a flash of crimson and scarlet. There was a brief scream, and the illusions were wrenched apart, splintering. There was the sound of a body hitting the ground. Then there was a sudden stillness in the air, a sudden emptiness.

Goku stood in the middle of the street, Nyoibou still clutched in a double handed grip. At his feet lay a solitary youkai corpse. He glanced up. "Sanzo? You okay, Sanzo?"

"Sanzo?"

So what might have happened if I had handled it differently? I knew-- I've always known, that acting in anger is the fastest way to disaster. I've known that we could never afford to let our guard down, to let the enemy into our ranks, and damn it, that's exactly what happened. He allowed us to think that he'd gotten into our minds and he did exactly that when we were-- when I was--

"Sanzo!"

"...Shit," he breathed, and the wind caught the word and twisted it away. "...Shit." Every suspicion, every flaw and weakness... I was never perfect; never claimed to be, but at the very least I thought... I thought...

A hand grabbed his own, and he wrenched back instinctively, glancing up. And saw gold.

"Sanzo," Goku said.

"What?!"

Golden eyes searched his face. "I heard you calling... I came as quickly as I could..."

"I never called anyone." He turned away. Damn it, damn it... what the hell do I do now? A quarter of my forces in enemy custody...

"It’s the idiot’s own fault," he muttered furiously. "I never asked him to help."

"DAMN IT!" He struck out blindly, hitting the wall. Go after Hakkai and we’ll be dancing to his tune again... as we’ve done all along. Leave Hakkai and we might as well abandon the mission. Leave Hakkai and...

"I never asked them to follow me!"

"No. But we chose to."

Sanzo paused; he’d forgotten about Goku.

"We chose to follow you," Goku continued relentlessly, "Just as you chose to go on this journey. Face it -- Three Heads’ orders or no, we could have been at home watching the world crumble. But we chose to be here instead."

"For the sake of saving the whole damn world?" Sanzo asked bitterly.

"No, because it’s more fun here."

One had to laugh at that, or at least restrain the laugh. "Fun? We’re here because it’s fun?"

"No. We’re here because we chose to be. Do the reasons really matter?"

He turned back, and found only complete seriousness staring back him. It is as they say -- that he doesn’t think, just acts on instinct, just acts as he feels is right...

"Comeon, Sanzo. Let’s go."

Something so fleeting that it might have been a scowl or a smile or neither raced across Sanzo's face.

...There is only I want. The reasons... completely cease to matter.

"Go," Sanzo ordered. "Get Gojyo and look for Hakkai. He’ll be at the bridge on the way to Isir’s castle."

"Look for Hakkai? Is something wrong?" Goku asked.

"It seems that we are in grave danger. Hakkai, at least, may already be in trouble."

"What about you? Are you coming with us?"

"There are things that I need to do."

"But Isir may go after you!"

Sanzo smiled bitterly. "He won't, because he is a fool. Let us hope that he remains a fool for a little longer. Buy me some time, Goku. Now go."

***

"And so they fall... one by one," Isir mused. "And so the cracks begin to show..." He squinted along the path.

"Will Sanzo come after his companion?" Chiro asked.

"Oh, he will. The man fears sacrifice and loss. It is oh-so-obvious that he fears to hold on because he fears to lose, and thus he pushes away. But when he has already -- unconsciously -- held on..."

"Nevertheless, with all due respect, I believe that we should apprehend and disable the group as soon as possible. They do pose a threat."

"Of course," Isir nodded. "In due time. Meanwhile, we wait for them to step into the trap... ah, here comes the first one."

"Surprise," Chiro said grimly. "Here comes not one, but three."

"Surprise indeed," Isir nodded. "What they fail to release, however, is that there is no safety in numbers. Rather, it simply makes things easier for us..."

***

"Hakkai!"

Gojyo? Hakkai spun at the sound of two people approaching at a run.

"Thank goodness you’re safe! Sanzo said you might be in danger!"

Goku? "Sanzo said that?"

"Yeah." Goku drew level with him. "We kinda quarrelled ... and Sanzo walked out, into a youkai ambush. I found him talking to Isir through one of the guy’s minions, then he told me to look for you. Said I’d find you near the bridge."

Hakkai glanced out. The bridge in question was just ahead, spanning the river which later ran into forest. Here it was a narrow but rapid stream, running cold and fresh from its source in the nearby mountains.

"These are Gojyo and Goku, aren’t they?" Hakkai murmured to Hakuryuu. The dragon nodded and squeaked his assent. Wait... "Sanzo said you’d find me near the bridge?" he asked.

"Yeah..."

"How did Sanzo know?"

"He musta have been talking to Isir or something, maybe Isir told him."

Maybe Isir told him--

They paused. For a moment, there is no sound save the gurgle of the river’s passage.

"You know," Gojyo said slowly. "...We might be in deep shit."

"Eh? Why do you say that?" Goku asked.

"Stupid ape... if Isir told Sanzo that he’d find Hakkai near the bridge, it means that Isir expected to find Hakkai near the bridge..."

"...and Sanzo mentioned that I might be in danger," Hakkai finished slowly.

Goku gulped. "Oops."

The sound of applause split the air. There was a shimmer of distorted light, and suddenly, without apparently movement, Isir was standing across the bridge. Chiro stood by his side, and several other youkai ranged behind them. "Well thought out," the youkai leader called. "Of course, knowing it now is too late. Or will you turn tail and run?"

Hakkai carefully dusted his hands off. "It’s a nice day for a chat, don’t you think?" he replied, a small smile stitched in place. "Very fine weather."

"Indeed."

"So... shall we do this in a civilized fashion? You have something of ours in your possession. We would be grateful if you could return it."

"Ah," Isir replied with a lazy grin.

"Seeing, however, that you are unlikely to comply, shall we thus resort to a traditional duel? The winner takes the sutras and the exorcism gun, of course."

"Of course, of course. However, it would be terribly unfair if we simply held one-on-one confrontation. As Son Goku, arguably the strongest of all of you, can attest... he alone cannot defeat me." Isir nodded companionably at Goku, who glared back. "Naturally, this can be attributed to your voluntary handicap..."

"Wearing a limiter isn’t a handicap!" Goku snapped.

"Ah, but listen to yourself. It’s very name... ‘limiter’. To limit, to restrain, to hinder... is that not a handicap?"

"Well, but if you want a three-against-one fight, that’s perfectly fine by us," Gojyo shrugged. "Less work too, so we can get back to the stuff that’s really important."

"Such as chasing pretty women?"

"Hit it right on the head, man! Don’t forget the drink and the booze too..."

"Of course not. So, shall we proceed?" He glanced at Hakkai. "The dragon is free to choose sides as well, of course."

Hakkai leaned closer to Gojyo. "He is up to something," he told his companion softly. "Isir would never... voluntarily handicap himself either."

"Maybe he doesn’t trust the rest of us not to get involved? You know, have all your enemies in front of you at the same time kind of thing... you never really expected him to take you up on his offer, did you?"

"No, I did not. However, knowing Isir, there is something more to this. Keep a very close eye on him."

"So let’s bring it on!" Gojyo raised his voice.

"Yeah!" Goku seconded, as he summoned Nyoibou. The staff shimmered into existence, and he locked his hands around it.

"Indeed." Isir nodded. "Let it begin."

***

To be continued.

***

Estimated length to completion : 2 chapters, 5,000 words.

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Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Where an end is come.

Up the stairs, as fast as he could manage — which wasn’t very fast at all. Then into the room, and the bag, just there, where he’d left it…

He grabbed it, and raced down the stairs and out the door.

***

Goku hit the ground, hard. The grit scored through his skin, leaving bloody tracks.

Shit. His breathing was harsh in his ears, and the sky spun above. How did that happen?

He could hear footsteps through the ground, a yell from Gojyo, the whine of a blast from Hakkai. Steel rang upon steel, and there was a brief scuffle. Goku eased himself onto his elbows, wincing a little.

He saw the blurred outline of Isir as the youkai ducked an attack from Gojyo. There was another confusion of movement, then the ground erupted as someone fired a blast. Another clash of steel, then he saw Hakkai stagger backwards, blood seeping from his mouth.

How did that happen? Goku thought furiously.

"Rejoining the fight, Goku?" Isir said, pausing before him. Completely unscatched, Goku noticed, except for where he had scored a hit on the shoulder earlier -- a blow largely absorbed by the mesh armor that Isir was wearing.

"You bet," Goku shot back. He sprang to his feet, grabbed Nyoibou from the ground beside him, and swung the end around.

Isir vanished.

Nyoibou collided solidly.

"Eh…?"

"Damn ape! Watch where you aim that thing! You nearly broke my arm!" Gojyo yelled at him. Goku glanced at his companion in shock. He hadn’t realized that Gojyo was in his attack radius…

There was a flash of light from the other direction, then something slammed into his side. He saw white, felt the heat sear through cloth, felt his balance going. He slammed into someone -- Gojyo -- and they both went down even as the light snapped off.

He heard footsteps through the earth again, glimpsed Hakkai standing over him. The older man dropped to one knee. "Hold still."

He saw light again, and jerked away, an involuntary response.

"Hold still," Hakkai ordered, and Goku heard the strain in his voice.

"Did you look where you were aiming when you fired?" Gojyo was demanding.

Hakkai didn’t reply. The ki seeped from his palms into the wound, and Goku felt the pain recede to leave a tingling numbness--

--then a shadow fell over them. Hakkai rolled to one side as a sword blade whistled through the air, then Isir’s booted foot made contact with his ribs. Goku got up in time to watch Hakkai crumble, then Gojyo was attacking, favoring his shakujou’s cresent blade. The blade hit armor, and there was a harsh ring. Then something must have happened, because Isir seemed to blur. Goku spun, sensing movement behind him -- and saw nothing but a shadow to his right. He spun again, and saw only the tail of the shadow, feinted to the left and--

--something came flying towards him. He strafed, but it curled around again, and wrapped around his neck.

…"GOJYO!"

"Gotcha," Gojyo’s said, as the chain tightened around his neck.

"It’s me, Gojyo!" Goku yelled, tugging ineffectively at the metal. His air was going, he was going to be strangled by the stupid kappa… no, scratch that… his neck was going to be broken-- "GOJYO!"

"So sure, you might be little tougher than the rest, but in the end, you all die," Gojyo continued, completely oblivious.

Goku felt his legs give. His knees slammed into the ground with a thump that sent his vision wavering. His head wasn’t just spinning, it was throbbing, his muscles screaming for air.

Thump, his heartbeat sounded in his ears. Thump, thump, thump.

The world began to fade away.

"That’s more like it," Gojyo’s voice came to him.

Goku rolled onto his back, taking deep gasps. The sky above was a brilliant blue, with just the barest hint of cloud on the horizon. He’d been doing something, he remembered, something urgent…

…Belatedly, he clutched at the chain, only to find it slack. With an effort from muscles gone watery, he tugged it off, and sat up. Hakkai stood where Gojyo had been. Gojyo was on the ground, rubbing his temple.

"What the hell did you do that for? I was just about to kill him!" Gojyo yelled.

"Look again, Gojyo," Hakkai said gravely. Gojyo glanced in his direction. Looked at his weapon. Stared at Goku again.

"Shit."

"My sentiments exactly," Hakkai nodded.

"So we’ve been taking each other out instead of that Isir fellow…" Gojyo said in horror.

"That explains all the blows that came out of nowhere," Goku muttered, flopping back onto his back. Speaking hurt. Thinking hurt. Everything hurt.

"It’s not over yet, gentlemen," Isir said from somewhere.

"We need to rethink our strategy," Hakkai told Gojyo.

"You might," Isir agreed. "Except that you don’t have time to." There was an explosion. When the dust settled, Hakkai was several feet away, coughing blood.

"And now to finish the job," Isir murmured, the satistfaction clear in his voice.

"Well done." A familiar voice cut through the surrounds, the dry tone doing nothing to mask the sarcasm.

"Ah." Isir turned. Sanzo stood at the far end of the bridge. "He finally graces us with his presence," Isir commented. "Notice how the human general drives his troops ahead of him while he stands behind and… let’s see… smokes a cigarette. Marlboro reds, is it?"

Sanzo shrugged. "Humans, at least, know how to enjoy life."

"They should, since their lives are so pathetically short. Or should I say… pathetic and short?"

Sanzo blew smoke at him. "At least we aren’t so pigheadedly stupid as to underestimate our opponents."

Isir paused. "Underestimate, you say?"

Sanzo took a final drag on the cigarette, then allowed it to fall. Deliberately, he ground it out. "Your target is me. Aren’t you going to do something other than stand around?"

"Oh, I see. There’s a human saying, isn’t there? ‘Play hard to catch?’ Especially where it comes to the pretty ones?"

Sanzo cocked an eyebrow. "Your intelligence is incorrect. It is not a saying. It’s a way of life." Then he turned, took two deliberate strides down the road, and took off at a run.

"Then let us pursue," Isir growled. "The rest of you! Polish off those three miscreants then join me!" Sheathing his sword, he set off in the direction that Sanzo had taken.

"San–" Goku struggled to feet, only to find his path blocked by a wall of enemies.

Chiro nodded. "Kill them."

"Whoa, whoa, not so fast," Gojyo said. "Now that big bad boss has run away, it’s just you guys and us." He pushed himself to his feet.

"The odds are not in your favor, half-breed," Chiro said.

"Yeah! We’ll slice you up in no time!" a voice cried out from the youkai crowd. Other voices sounded their agreement, throwing cheers and insults onto the pile.

"Hey, it’s not so bad. There’re only twenty of you," Goku pointed out.

"Twenty one. Which, of course, means that we outnumber you seven to one. Not to mention that you are in less than good health. I’m afraid that it’s a lost cause. You might as well as fall upon your own weapons."

"A little difficult for me, don’t you think?" Hakkai asked. "Besides, as Sanzo put it : We aren’t so pigheadedly stupid as to underestimate our opponents."

Several more insults flew at that, insults that were rudely cut short as the loose blade of Gojyo’s shakujou curved out to decapitate one unfortunate soul. As the rest froze for just that moment of shock, Hakkai’s ki blast obliterated two more. Even as Chiro furiously ordered an attack, Goku caught another youkai by surprise, smashing his skull.

"We should finish up quickly here," Hakkai said conversationally. "Sanzo might need our assistance."

"Yeah!" Goku replied.

"Not so quickly, my young friend," Chiro said calmly from behind him.

Goku whirled — not quite quickly enough. He saw the silvered edge of the blade, and Nyoibou was —almost- there to counter the stroke. Half a second too late. The sword passed through flesh like butter, carving a gash that severed the jugular. Goku staggered back, blood gushing from his neck, a scream not quite reaching his lips. Chiro raised his sword for a second strike-

-and the chain of Gojyo’s shakujou wound its way around the blade, before wrenching it away. Chiro abandoned the attack immediately, leaping away to salvage a fallen comrade’s weapon.

Hakkai was by Goku’s side in that instant, the green glow of ki already gathering in his palms. He grabbed Goku as he fell, supporting him with his left hand as his right swept down to encase the wound with a web of energy. The fountain of blood drained to a trickle.

"How is he?!" Gojyo yelled, taking out another youkai and sparing a moment to glance back. Blood was foaming out of the corner of Goku’s mouth.

"Missed the trachea by a hair!" Hakkai yelled back. "I can stop the bleeding, but he’s going to be totally useless from bloodloss!"

"Shit! Bloody useless ape!" Gojyo railed. "Hakkai! Behind!"

Hakkai fired behind him without turning. There was a brief scream.

"Goku? Goku, can you hear me?" Hakkai called. Blood splattered on him as Gojyo took out another nearby attacker. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and fired. And saw the blast streak through thin air.

"Watch it–" Gojyo’s warning came too late, but Hakkai had already avoided the sword thrust and brought a barrier up to protect himself and his charge. Chiro stood in front of him for a moment, then ducked aside to avoid Gojyo’s attack.

"You’re slowing down, half breed. Injuries getting to you?" the youkai taunted.

"You can shut that trap of yous," Gojyo replied, flicking the staff around to used the fixed blade.

"The problem with exotic weapons," Chiro said, countering his strikes, "is that they usually lack the pure functionality of a simple katana."

"Sh-" Gojyo got half an expletive out before Chiro cut under his guard and lunged–

--and never noticed the ki blast that blew him into bloody fragments.

"Are you okay there?" Hakkai demanded.

"Okay… yeah… okay…" Gojyo wiped ineffectively at the blood from the splash. No matter how many times it happens, being in the splash radius of a kill is never pleasant… "Was that guy the last of them?"

"Yes, but stay with Goku," his companion directed.

"Where-" Gojyo began to ask, but Hakkai had set off at a run. He glanced at Goku, who seemed to be slowly returning to the land of the conscious. A closed gash ran across his throat, a wound that would have been fatal save for Hakkai’s timely intervention. Just a second later… just a little deeper…

Suddenly, he felt all too mortal.

"Don’t get up, kid," he told Goku, sitting down beside the youth.

"Sanzo…?" Goku whispered.

"He’ll be fine." He’d sure as hell better be fine…

***

Perhaps, Sanzo reflected, perhaps accepting Hakkai’s offer of healing would have been a good idea…

His palm hit the trunk of a tree as he paused, gasping for breath. He thought he tasted blood, but it could have been anything.

"Out of shape, are we?" Isir said. "How do you expect to kill me in your current condition?"

Sanzo glanced up. A cold bead of sweat traced its way down the side of his face. He’d led Isir to the edge of the forest, some distance away from the scene of the original fight. With any luck, only Isir had followed him.

And luck did seem to be on his side. The youkai stood alone, his back to the sun and his face shadowed.

Sanzo smiled bitterly. "You defeated the three idiots through the dint of trickery. I’m afraid that light and magic won’t work on me."

"It did the first time."

"You’d be surprised. Humans learn quickly."

"Really." Isir studied him curiously, obviously suspecting a trap. "And you intend to kill me with your bare hands?"

Sanzo snorted, and pulled a long dagger from his belt. "So are you going to stand around all day or what? Not that it’s a problem, really. Gives me time to catch my breath."

"Ah," Isir said noncommittally. He freed the katana from its sheath. "It’s long past time to end this game."

*

Sanzo dived two steps back and countered Isir’s next stroke.

"You insult me, Sanzo-sama," Isir growled. "A mere dagger? Not even a proper sword?"

There was another clash as steel met steel. "It’s good enough for the likes of you," Sanzo returned.

"Good enough for countering, yes," Isir pointed out, "But given the lack of range, hardly usable for attacking."

Sanzo didn’t reply. He disengaged and fled a few more steps into the forest. There was a quiet crunch under his sandals. Excellent. Almost where I want him. He leapt backwards to avoid the sweep of the sword, anticipating Isir’s next attack and smoothly bringing the dagger to counter.

Exactly where I want him, and without the interference of friend and foe and idiot alike. I should not have put it past those three to fall so completely into Isir’s trap…

He countered one stroke, a second, a third. Even if he hardly ever held a sword, he used the exorcism gun to shield attacks so often that this was nothing new. And Isir was, for all his claims, not a fantastic swordsman. Fast, yes, but…

...Predictable. As with any youkai that rises to power... so certain in his invincibility. And now that I know his style...

In some ways, carrying a katana would have made Isir suspicious and alert. As it was, the youkai was pressing the attack, confident of the kill…

Sanzo saw the opening and lunged. Isir spun to one side, narrowly avoiding the dagger.

"Is that all?" Sanzo asked. "I can keep on countering all day, you know."

"Agreed," Isir replied, narrowing his eyes. "Time to try something new, perhaps?"

Here it comes.

Isir seemed to shift into a higher gear. His form blurred, as if he were moving almost too fast for the eye to catch. Attacks came faster. From nowhere. From everywhere.

He caught the first two attacks, mistook illusion for reality the third time and misjudged. Pure luck saved him from being run through. Isir pulled back for a moment.

Sanzo glanced at him, then ducked aside. The real Isir struck from behind and missed.

"Impressive. I daresay that you’ve actually learnt something. Maybe my father’s death wasn’t purely a fluke."

Sanzo whirled, kicking up dust. Almost. Almost. All I need is for him to close for the kill...

He evaded another thrust, hearing the rip of fabric as it sliced through his shirt sleeve. Almost.

"Well, it seems that I have no choice," Isir’s voice said from somewhere.

He held his ground, the dagger clutched tightly in his left hand. His palm was sweating, but there wasn’t any time to do anything about that. He took a deep breath, forcing calm.

Isir’s form blurred. Sanzo found himself surrounded by a circle of clones. He stared at them, looking from identical face to identical face. The illusions were perfect, Sanzo noted. One had to give him credit for his skill. He’d privately hoped for a way out, and Isir avoided him none at all.

"In the end, however, no matter how much you have learnt, there is simply no counter for this attack," a dozen Isirs told him gravely.

The circle closed in. Sanzo closed his eyes.

When the cue came, it rang like thunder through the dark.

Sanzo spun. Dagger met sword and flew from his grip. He opened his eyes, and saw Isir’s face and discerned the surprise in it. He moved through the slowness of time, catching the descending blade between his palms.

"How did you know?" Isir hissed.

"So here I am, breaking mirrors to reveal the truth," Sanzo countered.

Isir glanced down, where his booted foot rested upon shattered glass. He shifted his weight, and the glass crunched underfoot.

"Illusions don’t make a sound," Sanzo pointed out. Blood trickled out from between his hands, running down the length of the blade.

"But you still haven’t won."

"No," Sanzo agreed. His eyes flicked from Isir’s face to the shape standing beyond, in the shadow of the trees.

The shadow was still, awaiting his command.

And if we have been lied to all along and perhaps, there are no allies in this fight...
...If the only one I can trust in is myself, what do I when my own strength is insufficient?
No, his brain said, no, I rely only on myself, I take no gambles on the loyalty of my followers...

The blade was biting into his hands. The blood loosened his grip, and he could feel his hands slipping as Isir tried to wrench his weapon back…

The blade slipped from his grip. In the moment of blind panic, thought dissolved, and instinct charted his course.

He made a desperate grab at the blade, and flung a command: "HAKKAI!"

The shadow moved, and the world exploded in a maelstrom of light.

***
To be concluded.
***

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Chapter 18: Epilogue

Consciousness returned slowly. Sanzo cracked an eyelid open, and promptly shut it against the blinding light that filtered in.

"Sanzo..."

He sighed, and opened his eyes again.

"I’m sorry," Hakkai smiled at him. "I was gunning for a youkai near you. You must have been caught in the backwash of the blast."

Sanzo continued staring at him. Hakkai’s smile faded, and he opened his eyes to regard the priest. "How are you feeling?"

"I’ve been better," Sanzo muttered, sitting up.

"Oh, we picked up a couple of souvenirs for you," Hakkai continued. "Here."

Sanzo stared at the sutra and the exorcism gun for a moment before taking them. Turned the sutra over in his hands and peered at it.

"It is the real thing," Hakkai said.

"What happened?" Sanzo asked.

"After you disappeared, we fought off Isir’s soldiers, and I went in search of you. Impressive trick, by the way. Did you deliberately break your mirror to launch it?"

"No. Not exactly," Sanzo murmured.

"...I take it that you relied on sound to spot him?"

"He has a heavy tread," Sanzo nodded. "Something I noticed when one of his illusions paid me a visit in this room. After I’d bashed the mirror."

"And the noise of crunching glass would tip you off as to which was the real Isir. I see."

"But continue."

"I got both of you with the blast, then I picked you up and went back to look for Gojyo and Goku. Goku took a pretty serious wound, by the way. He’s still recovering, but he’s going to have a very sore throat for a while."

Sanzo raised an eyebrow.

"There was more I could have done," Hakkai admitted. "But I needed to save my energy..."

"Thank you," Sanzo said.

"...Gojyo and I proceeded to Isir’s castle. Isir had taken his elite guard with him, so what remained was just a handful of green sentries. We broke in, searched the place, and located the sutra. Then we came back." He glanced at the window. "It’s been a day or two since."

"And...?"

"Was there something else I was expected to do?" Hakkai asked.

"Is Isir dead?" Sanzo said.

"Well..." there was a pause there.

"He’s not, is he?" Sanzo asked.

"We went back. I saw a lot of blood, and no corpse."

The knot that had started to unravel in his chest strung itself together again.

"I know... I should have made sure."

"Difficult," Sanzo scowled. "The bastard can fake his death all too easily."

"So... do we go after him?"

Sanzo glanced at the sutra in his hands.

Revenge had been the reason why Isir came after them, and tried to do more than simply kill them. He’d very nearly succeeded.

"He was fiendishly clever," Hakkai said quietly, guessing at Sanzo’s thoughts.

"Indeed."

Revenge had been the reason why he failed.

Insufficient, a simple quick kill with a bomb or a ki blast. No, he had to draw blood, had to come after me himself.
Revenge had, by and by, been the name of the game.

Sanzo looked out of the window. Several roads wound out of town, and his eyes traced the one that skirted the edge of the forest, wandered down the river, and beyond that, to the tower that Isir called his own.

So... predictably human, Isir had called him.

So... predictably youkai, he thought back.

"Sanzo?" Hakkai prodded gently.

"Prepare to leave. I want to be on the road before the sun sets."

"And we’re going to after Isir?"

"No." Sanzo shook his head. "We’re going to run away."

Hakkai had been moving towards the door. Now he stopped and turned back. "Out of curiosity..."

"I’m not a youkai," Sanzo replied shortly.

"I see." Hakkai nodded. "Of course, he might follow us... and we might never know until it’s too late."

"Which is why we’re going to run as fast as we can," Sanzo returned. "Tell the rest."

"Certainly. And Sanzo...?"

"What?"

"Thank you."

"Ah."

Sanzo waited until Hakkai was out of the room, then climbed out of bed. The robe was where he had stuffed it, in the back of the closet. He stood for a moment, staring at it, then shrugged it on. Down the hall, he could hear Gojyo’s voice rising in complaint at the eviction and Hakkai trying to pacify him. Goku’s voice joined in -- sorethroat or not, the boy was still the loudest of the lot. The complaints grew, becoming more incessant. It was rapidly degenerating into a major whining session.

Silently, Sanzo draped the sutras around his shoulders and stowed the gun. Then he retrieved the paper fan from his pocket and went forth. There was much to do.

***

Somewhere, he imagined, there was a jeep, and the jeep was leaving town. The two in the back were rather quieter than usual. The ones in front were always quiet, but this time, the one in the passenger seat was dozing, and the driver was focused and alert.

Somewhere, he imagined, the jeep came to a fork in the road, and the driver shook the passenger awake.

"Which way should we take?" the driver would ask.

And the passenger would instinctively call on his usual answer -- katte ni shirou, ceding the responsibility of the decision... then pause, words unsaid, thinking of recent events...

"The left," he would say, as uncertain of the outcome of his decision as his comrade, but trusting firmly in himself.

"The left," Isir said, watching the jeep in his scrying crystal take the left fork, and continue on its journey West.

He glanced around the office. The wind gusted in through the broken windows.

"Unexpected," he said aloud.

"Should we allow them to get away?" his newly appointed second asked.

"No," Isir replied, turning back to crystal. A ruckus had started again in the backseat, and Sanzo was laying about with his fan. "But neither should we ignore the more pressing problems of the clan." He closed his fingers around the crystal. Goku was pointing something out to Sanzo. The priest frowned, smacked him over the head with the fan, turned, and sat down. But not before glancing briefly but directly at Isir.

Isir hefted the crystal and flung it out of the window. He counted five beats before there was a distant tinkle.

"Let us not neglect the greater good in the pursuit of hobbies." He sat down at his desk. "Winter is coming. There is much to do."

Incidently, since this is the last fic along these lines -- which is to say, adventure-type fics that aren't AU, (beginning with Circumstance, encompassing Borderline, and ending with The Shadows Beyond), I would appreciate it you enjoy this genre of fics and would like more. If not, I'm going to run back to my strange and wacky Alternate Universe ficcies ^_^.

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