A Study: Seventh Sense by Zan

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The general populace largely are born with five senses. Some of us believe in a sixth sense. Fewer of us believe in it enough to be able to tap into it. More rare is the person who can touch intuition and act on it. Hakkai does not believe in it. Gojyo visits his intuition every now and again labelling it a gut instinct. Goku’s spare sense wires directly into Sanzo’s well being! We cannot speak for Hakuryu for no one knows much about shape-shifting wyverns and their dragon-sense. So, of the travelling circus we all know as the Sanzo-party, what of Sanzo. A monk extraordinaire; gun-bearing, smoking, drinking and foul-mouthed. What strengths of senses does he allow himself?

The aura of a person is not something a pure scientist will accept. Not, that there are many men of pure science. Men of religion especially are a different class to your standard everyday Gojyo. Gojyo with his gut feelings will attest to that even if he will not say anything aloud. Gojyo may complain that the only thing that Sanzo emanates with is irritation, moodiness and anger. A more purpose driven, high-and-mighty, prissy priest Gojyo hopes never to meet again, because one in this lifetime is plenty.

For Hakkai, Sanzo’s strength is his will and his clarity of thought – usually. Hakkai will always be grateful to Sanzo for giving him a second chance at humanity, even though being again human is impossible. Sanzo does not like the idea that anyone entertains such thoughts about him. Down the long road that they are travelling, Hakkai will follow him even though they disagree on quite a few things.

Hakuryu thinks that Sanzo must be powerful indeed. To be able to cause someone with astute and intelligence such as Hakkai make Hakuryu drive an endless road.

For Goku, Sanzo means life. Being in a prison for five-hundred years does not constitute life. Goku seeing the same scene, tasting the seasons in the changing air, hearing birdcall just out of reach, smelling the change in seasons in the earth and touching the same ground underneath his form as he lay sleeping, not alive for five-hundred years.

The man Sanzo is now is not the boy Kouryuu. The self-doubt and guilt bearing down on his shoulders as heavy as the silk parchment that lay about his shoulders. Humming and tingling with power, as it does. The first time Sanzo leaves Kinzan temple in search of information. The weight of the newly acquired gun, and sutra as they nestle next to each other in his satchel, lay comfortably with thoughts of fear and death, warring with determination and survival, with grief shining with a dark glow in the back of his mind. He is angry and feels guilt because a part of him is glad that he is alive. How he would play with the shiny heavy metal thing, slide it up and down against his temple in meditation. Suicide so tempting all those years ago, losing its lustre and definitely not an option now just as he never reads Sutras for the dead, for only the living can change the world about. The dead are dead. It is meditation, just that. A thinking pose. The coolness of the metal metaphorically clears his mind. The lines of the weapon fit snug in his hand, in turn moulds around it now after years of companionship. Willing neither to welcome nor entertain Death on any terms, unless to send those idiotic enough to try sending him first.  

The initial grief, the ensuing search, the eventual acceptance of his ministerial duties of running a temple and the errands the floating heads give him; are all what Sanzo – on a good day – will label as training days. However, on this mother of all errands, good days are few and besides far between. There have been times when he might be tempted to off Gojyo and Goku. Of course, Hakkai may then decide not to drive him to the West then, so the argument against shooting them outweighs the momentary pleasure Sanzo is sure he will get from it.

Although he will himself still indulge in bouts of remembrances and grieve, this is just a way of reminding himself why he is on this journey in the first place! It is perhaps a heady cocktail of revenge, determination, an ‘up-yours’ to the powers that be and a search for peace of mind.     

Peace of mind so that Sanzo can deal with the daily running of his body and interpreting information that comes his way. His brain – as with us all – is responsible for maintaining homeostasis that allows Sanzo to function as… well Sanzo. Peace of mind is thus essential for the switching unit - that is his brain, the place impulses flow to and from - to work smoothly.

His conscious thought always sharp whether it was for sweeping up leaves, absorbing lessons from Koumyou Sanzo, or evading youkai assassins. Whether it was for learning the language, sound and song of ancient texts and scriptures, trying to remember a past beyond Koumyou Sanzo and being able to judge whether the acolytes and monks from the lowliest to the high ranked were sucking up or being honest. Who he is now, is more due to nurture as opposed to nature. Water is the only nature he knows, for a river brought him to the life with Koumyou Sanzo. That trust is earned and mistrust learned the only way life, knows how to teach its lessons. Who he is now is from how he sees, hears, tastes, touches and sniffs out the world and the people in it.

With Sanzo, it is as much as how the world looks at him as how he views the world. Like an angel, shining and golden, the chakra to mark his third eye, blessed and favoured son (or nephew) of Heaven. In this land his violet eyes and sunshine hair, mark him as an oddity and being inconspicuous is just a joke. Sanzo still asks himself “Why?” Why it is that he is travelling with three of the world biggest idiots? The words of his bosses come floating back at him.

“So that the eyes of your heart may see.”

Sanzo feels that one day he will learn what those cryptic words mean. He has an inkling that it will be something so simple, and even more than a hunch that someone is having a fine time at his expense. He studies his companions. He entrusts his life to them on a regular basis, and many question his sanity in doing so. Sanzo figures he can guess at the reasons why Hakkai and Goku will follow him. The wild card is Gojyo. He can only deduce that the redhead tags along because of Hakkai.

“I just fixed that guy up, I’m not about to let him die.” Sanzo remembers vaguely.

There is something there in Gojyo, that Gojyo keeps hidden. It is in his eyes. Sanzo knows that there is just something just out of reach. If the wild card is Gojyo, the open book Hakkai must be. All the smiles, those that glint off the prosthetic eye, those that touch the healthy one, the set of the jaw when the healer is not happy, the whitening of the knuckles on the steering wheel when he worries, and wry laugh when he is finds something to laugh at. Huh! Gojyo is not the only one who can read Hakkai. The real mystery is Goku. Goku looks to Sanzo in a mirroring of Kouryuu and Koumyou in a different time and place.

“What will you do when you hear a voice calling you?” The words echo in his ears, alongside Goku’s whine of hunger. Unceasing.

The ear is not just for hearing but also for balance. It is able to detect stimuli that make us aware of our movement that aids us in keeping our balance. Perhaps then, hearing Goku – his calling – is as much a need for balance in his life at a time when there was none. Adrift and losing sight of what it is he is searching.

It was all very well to say that he will shoot anyone who makes such a din in his ears, but when push comes to shove, at the end of the day, Goku is an innocent. With no memory, of his past, starving from contact with the world, his taste buds will never have enough. Sanzo does not let innocents die unwarranted. Perhaps that is why he finds himself standing before Rikudo’s spear. Perhaps that is why he feels strongly enough about Goku that the strength of his will is able to remake the diadem power limiter, twice. Sanzo laughs at the ironies of life, because you have to.    

As much as his beauty holds people, Sanzo’s voice also captures. Always chasing sunsets, Gojyo does not remember many sunrises, but he remembers that first time the four of them watched a sunrise together. That is the first time that Gojyo hears Sanzo saying that he does not read Sutras for the dead. Gojyo can only guess (at the time) that it is as much for Sanzo that Sanzo recites scriptures, as the rest of them. A voice low and ringing clear but not loud. Over a barren wasteland, the sunrise playing with shadows and light casting Sanzo in an ethereal glow. Just like an angel.

“Gonou is dead,” Sanzo plays with Gojyo when he tells him that. It is the idiot’s own fault for taking him literally. The angelic illusion balances out with real-life once more when the redhead finds out the truth later. You cannot believe everything you hear and sometimes you need to see with your eyes.

Hakkai sees salvation in Sanzo and in gratitude will watch over his health and heal his wounds as they occur. Though sometimes when they sit and watch the rain together, soaking in grief and memories, Hakkai is not so sure he is appreciative enough. The indulgence means different things to both men nevertheless; it is something the outside world sees that they share.

Goku does not understand this need to remember. The here and now is very important to Goku, because the past hides behind a curtain and pulls at heartstrings and he cannot understand. For his world is Sanzo and as long as Sanzo is all right, Goku will be the earth in orbit round his sun, and all is right in this world. Goku does not ever want to know true darkness again. Although sometimes when Sanzo tires, Goku can see, as much as sense the clouds about his Sun’s shoulders, like grey wings. He tries to help dissipate the grey though sometimes all Sanzo needs is space; breathing space to find peace of mind. Stillness of mind for balance, balance to strengthen his will and resolve to go on. For, it is beginning to feel like they have been on the westward road forever.

The tiredness hangs over Sanzo in a cloud of Red Marlboro smoke. Stale and still. Like gunshot residue, invisible to the eye, but you can smell the acridity of it, faint but still tangible. Like the blood smell, of a death so long ago, mingling with the metallic tang of copper and iron that may be his or that dead youkai’s just now. On this road, he must be strong enough to be able to bear the sin of killing. For only by living and surviving can he do anything about his life. Once upon a time, the stench of blood may have frozen him, not now.       

“Perhaps, the smell that you can smell is that of blood. It is the blood that is running through your veins,” or so someone old and wise says to him. Blood is not the only thing that is red, and the smell of blood indicates life and you can hear it in your ears – and your mind. You can taste life and you can touch it. You make a choice to live and die by rules your way. The lessons belong to somebody else though.

The texts say that taste and smell are chemical senses. In the case of food, you need both smell and taste to detect flavours. Perhaps that is why food is an intrinsic part of Goku’s daily rituals. Sanzo is sandalwood, smoke and sweet life for Goku. Yes, Goku really can smell him out as much as Sanzo can ‘hear’ Goku. His reasoning on why Sanzo picks at his food and eats so little is that Sanzo forgets that life has its many flavours. Comments along the lines of ‘not enough calcium’ are common around Sanzo. Nutrition is not his strong point.  He likes his beer and sake well enough and needs that nicotine fix, yesterday. The taste of it playing around in his nerves and feeding his mind and psyche. The fools that dare cross Sanzo’s path when he is in a state of nicotine and caffeine deprivation; are fools indeed. Not long for this world!

If Sanzo picks at his food, so does he pick at life? No, he chooses to live. It is no kind of life for an everyday layperson. Not for any of them really, but it is theirs.

Of all the senses, touch is the most palpable. However, to invade Sanzo’s personal space is likely to invite an encounter with his Smith &Wesson. It is a special kind of touch. However, when Goku first arrives at the temple ‘officially’, he sometimes awakes on Sanzo’s lap. The child’s nightmares seem to vanish at Sanzo’s interjection. He makes allowances for Hakkai’s healing hands. He fights off Gojyo’s attempts at close contact. It is besides the fact that Gojyo does not really get close unless he needs to, sometimes though - just to wind him up. It is just to help Sanzo out of trouble, you know. Gojyo knows better than to expect thanks, but that is fine. For, Gojyo actually understands quite a lot about keeping the world at arm’s length. Just to keep the pain to yourself.   

Apparently, pain receptors are located throughout the skin. That touch can be pain. The sensation of pain can come to you as a prickling, fast pain or a burning and aching slow pain. Electrical, chemical, mechanical or thermal energies are the stimuli, which cause the pain receptors to react. They do not tell you of the slow and fast pain that you feel in your heart as your mind overloads when you see someone you love die in front of your eyes. That the thing that touches you is all these energies and not a mark on the skin will show. Sanzo knows this, as does Hakkai and few know of the double blow that Gojyo bears. Sanzo carries the chakra and Hakkai wears a monocle, one enlightened and one a third eye blind. Gojyo wears two stripes down the side of his face. Goku with his purity of innocence is their lifeline to healing. One day the chakra will not weigh so heavy, one day Hakkai will get proper eyeglasses, one day Gojyo’s scars will fade. Maybe.

Sanzo hears Goku. It is not just something his ears catch. He hears it in his head and denies that he hears it in his heart. Goku is not the only one he can hear. Sanzo is also able to hear people who have lost themselves to powers not of their own calling. He is able to save them. Even Gods concede to this gift of acuity. Is this a sixth sense? Perhaps you can argue it scientifically, by saying that everything gives off an electric field; therefore, if a person has finely tuned receptors, you may say that they have an electro-sense. Just like a shark. A kind of ‘animal sense’ that is able to calm down bears, endear Sanzo to cats and the ability to calm children (namely Lirin and Goku) down.

So what is that sense which saves Sanzo many a time? The feeling of foreboding, which hails a prelude to an attack, be it from humans, daemons or gods. Is there a sixth sense and a second sight? Something about the change in air pressure and temperature, that warns him of the approach. Very like a warrior. All senses sharp, aware at all times, the smell, the sound, the taste, the sight and touch of all that surrounds him. Add to that, the extra awareness. Call it what you like. Sanzo just is. 

Owari

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Nothing more to see here now move along. Move along.