There was absolutely no question in his tone, and definitely a message: Every single time you've seen me angry will now pale in comparison. One might even say they heard a crash of thunder, if only it wasn't a mild snowy day.

When he had woken up that morning, Sanzo was surprised to find that everyone else had already cleared out of the room. Not that he cared much about the whole breakfast ritual of listening to those two fight their way through the food (idiots), but it was irritating all the same.

The morning had gotten inexpressibly worse when he realized the sutra was missing.

The window was cheerfully shut against blusters of wind. The floor was as spotless as inn floors got. The bedsheets were either carefully made or left in their usual disrespectful tangle.

No sign of struggle. Something ticked suspiciously in his mind.

All the same, he readied his revolver with deadly intent, and stormed downstairs to gain a few answers. People always seemed to remember things better with a gun looking them in the face.

The first patrons he came across were three he recognized all too well. And that suspicious something in his mind started to howl.

There they were, seated at the table by the window, bathed in the innocent and soft white light filtering through the heavy clouds. One was sipping hot tea, and through the pale sheen of steam, Sanzo thought he could see the edge of a certain smile. Shit. The other was busied with his usual routine of eating, but his enthusiastic greeting, or any eye contact at all for that matter, was absent. The third one was mysteriously red in the cheeks.

Sanzo generously gave them two seconds before aiming and demanding the whereabouts of his sutra.

None of them said a word or bothered to look up at him, but Hakkai had gone completely still, Gojyo ducked forward to let his hair obscure his face, and Goku was eating faster than he ever had before.

The kid was the first to crack, trying and failing to obscure the snickers escaping from his mouth with another bun. That immediately set off Gojyo, who threw back his head to laugh uproariously, not even bothering to try and hide it anymore. Hakkai sat with curled fingers clenched over his mouth, sucking in sharp gasps as silent laughter wracked his frame.

He was going to kill them. He was going to kill them all.

Finally, he looked past Goku's shaking shoulder and out the window at the evidence of their morning's hard work.

And then, he started shooting.