A Peculiar Shangri-la in England
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Summary: Through an accidental incantation of both Sharak and Sanzo's respective sutras, the Sanzo party gets transported into a world far different from their own. Enter a pompous, little boy with an eyepatch on his right eye, who seemed to take an interest with Sanzo's ability to expel demons to ashes, much to the chagrin of the boy's suspecting butler—who happened to be a demon himself.
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A/N: In celebration of the upcoming 20th anniversary of Saiyuki, and the animation project for Saiyuki Reload Blast in 2017, along with the upcoming Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic OVA in the same year, I bring you—this fic.
The Saiyuki boys meet the Phantomhive household. Far East meets Far West. Demons meet a fellow demon of a different kind. A haughty earl meets an equally haughty priest. A Saiyuki/Black Butler crossover. Two of the fandoms that greatly molded me into the way that I am today. Hoorah!
To anyone reading this who's not familiar with Saiyuki but is familiar with Black Butler (you mean there are people out there who don't know the glorious and testosterone-inducing series that is Saiyuki? Yes. Yes, there are—I know a few people), kindly refer to Black Butler season 2, episode 5, to the part where the Phantomhive servants went to the Trancy ball dressed in the costumes of the Monkey King (Finnian), Pigsy (Mey-rin), and Sandy (Bard), all three who urged Ciel to be the monk. That would give you a hint.
To the Saiyuki fans who have only seen the anime and have not read the manga, this fic will contain major spoiler bombs for Reload Blast. Please do read Saiyuki Reload Blast before reading this—consider that as a reminder.
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Hakkai adjusted his monocle, and tilted the map in his hands this way and that, blinking in puzzlement. His lips mirrored the rest of his companions' frowns, save for Goku, who remained looking at his surroundings with his mouth agape.
Hakuryuu cheeped for the umpteenth time, worried about his owner's current dilemma. In a way to alleviate Hakkai's worry, the white dragon nudged his head to Hakkai's cheek, purring upon seeing the green-eyed man smile, and Hakkai tucked away the map inside his pocket.
"Sanzo," he started, leveling his voice to that of forced cheer as he looked at the smoking priest, "what was the last time you remembered us doing?"
Hakkai ignored the impulsive twitching of Sanzo's eyebrow upon being asked, and the blond let out a long drag of smoke. "We were talking with Sharak and his militia in the middle of making our way to the West after the Three Aspects told us to go back, when an insane amount of demons attacked us, and I used the sutra while Sharak fended them off with a machine gun."
"Right. And then what happened?"
"Some weird ray of light erupted from the sutra and encircled all of us," deadpanned Gojyo, his red eyes darting all around in silent agitation, brows furrowing and eyes narrowing as each second passed.
"Correct," Hakkai nodded and smiled, "and?"
"We ended up in this village!" Goku cheered with his hand raised, his shock forgotten, and now recovered with utmost gusto. "Hey, Hakkai. Do you think they have food here? This place looks big. But it's weird. But big!"
The whack of the fan hit Goku's face, and Sanzo scowled at Goku's minute pout, "Speak human, dammit. How many times do I have to say that? Hakkai, where exactly are we?"
Hakkai forced a tightlipped smile, and Gojyo noticed the man's tense shoulders and the slightly quivering jaw. "I'm afraid... we're not in India anymore, everyone."
The other three glared at the awkwardly laughing man, exclaiming in unison, "What?"
"Hey, hey, hey. Back the fuck up, 'Kai. Don't spew shit on us now because that's not a funny joke," tutted Gojyo with a worried air. Hakkai said nothing, and merely kept forcing his tightlipped smile. Gojyo's eyes widened, shaking his head in denial, "No. No. Fuck no. Don't say that—what, are we somewhere near the Indian border again? Is it a barrier this time? Tell me it's a barrier so we can destroy it."
Hakkai's smile faltered, and wordlessly stared at Gojyo's disbelieving expression with gnawing unease. "I don't think...—it's not a barrier, anymore, Gojyo. We're not in India."
"Hey, Hakkai. The only one allowed to not speak in a human language is the monkey. What nonsense are you spouting now?" Sanzo hissed, feeling his temper rising. "Is the Minus Wave affecting you again?"
Hakkai shook his head, gone of all smiles, "I am quite fine, if that's what you mean. Your sutra, Sanzo."
The blond's eyebrow rose and glanced at the scripture draped on his shoulders, "What about it?"
Hakkai took in a deep breath, and spoke slowly, "Remember what you said about avoiding Sanzos who activate sutras at the same time?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, think about it. While we were too busy with our own thing, you used your sutra to expel the demons in our immediate area, but on Sharak's side..."
Goku slapped his fist on his palm, realization dawning, "Ah! Maybe we were too busy to notice that Sharak had also used her sutra!"
Hakkai nodded, his eyes intently focused on Sanzo's narrowed ones, "Exactly. There was wave upon wave of demons around us to actually notice our other companions. As we all know, simultaneously activating sutras of the Sanzo priests would lead to world-changing results—that we have yet to see... until now."
"True. But still, this sucks, man," Gojyo lamented as he lifted a section of his frayed hair. "No worries, though. I'm still fine even if you accidentally singed my hair with your ki blasts," he finished with a laugh. "I'm—still processing my head about the 'world-changing results' part."
Hakkai's shoulders sagged and beamed at the redhead who seemed to recover from the initial shock, "Sorry, Gojyo. There were too many of them, you see." Gojyo shrugged, smirking.
"Hey, Sanzo. If—if we're not in India, where are we now? These people look weird," Goku breathed, immediately standing next Sanzo on instinct, eyes searching for an enemy on reflex.
Sanzo clenched his fist to where his gun was hidden inside his robes, shoulders tensing at the unfamiliar environment they were in. "Ah, they are. If Hakkai doesn't know where this is, then I don't know where this place is."
Hakkai looked around and tried to assess his surroundings, "From the looks of it, it's like we're in one of those places I read in my books when I was a teacher—with kings and queens and with odd, tight-fitting clothing."
The group of four went silent as they looked around. They were in the middle of a busy street surrounded by buildings—confectioneries, shoppes, toy stores and whatnot—and several horse carriages galloped by, but the strangest of them all were the passing people who glanced at them with raised brows and hushed whispers among themselves, hurrying along and avoiding the four men as the people passed by.
Most of the men wore polished boots and pressed trousers that matched with their tall and stiff-looking, odd hats, and crisp, close-fitting, knee-length coats with stiff cuffs—some with single or double-breasted, and some with odd, swallowtailed ends. Some wore seamless, short coats. Around their necks were odd ribbons and what Goku whispered as tiny, black sashes, and some of them wore layers of frilly pieces of cloth that looked quite scratchy to Goku's eyes.
The women, Gojyo observed, were even odder than the men. Wearing layers of too many clothing for his tastes, he noticed their lack of freedom in movement. Some of the women wore dainty, often ribbon-decked hats that were either worn on top or at an angle. The motif of their garments puzzled the group of four. The women's dresses ranged from the very bright to earthy to dark colors, with lots of white frills on the flaring sleeves and on the hems of their bell-shaped skirts. Tight bodices and high collars seemed to be the norm, and Hakkai surmised the effects of the tight, laced-up girdle were what restricted the women's movement the most, noticing the way they all have their backs straightened too much to emphasize the bosom and the dèrriere. Most of the women not wearing bodices, however, seemed to move the way the bodiced women did, and Hakkai deduced that these women wore the bodices underneath their multi-layered clothing.
"The men's clothes kind of resemble like that of Hazel's, don't you think?" Hakkai asked, blinking at some of the men.
"You mean all these people are priests?" Goku inquired, and looked at Sanzo, to which the blond scoffed.
"Doesn't look like they're all priests. Look around, some of them have wives and children," Sanzo pointed to one couple giggling on the sidewalk, cooing at their little toddling daughter who wore looser clothing than that of the adult women.
Gojyo hissed in annoyance and scratched his head as he looked around, "Man, this sucks like fuck. Hey, Hakkai, we can ask around for directions to get to the border."
Hakkai agreed, and called the attention of one man passing by, "Um, excuse me, could you please tell us where we are? We seem to be lost—"
The man furrowed his brows and looked around and behind him, and pointed at himself, and Hakkai nodded, and heard the man speak in a language that he barely understood. He pointed at a silent, yet blinking Hakuryuu perched on Hakkai's shoulders, and the man's eyes widened.
Hakkai tried to make out the vague gestures of the man that shook his head fervently, and waved his hand in dismissal, hastily turning away while muttering something that the four didn't understand.
"Well, that was fucking helpful," Gojyo hissed, scowling at the man's retreating back.
"Now, now, Gojyo, don't be like that," Hakkai reassured with a more open smile, "we are in an unfamiliar place, it seems. And he seems to be shocked by Hakuryuu's appearance. Then again, not many people can keep tiny, white dragons as pets, right, Hakuryuu?" The dragon cheeped and nipped Hakkai's proffered finger. Hakkai looked at his companions, "Have you noticed the way the man spoke, by the way? It was just like Hazel's way of speaking to Gat at some point."
Goku grumbled and scrunched his face, trying to recall the way the priest-turned-demon had spoken to the tall and muscular man. Growling in frustration, he scratched at his head, whining and stomping. "Gaah, I can't remember! All I know is that Hazel spoke weirdly! And the only times I can recall him speaking in another language was when he took souls from demons and put them in that necklace of his! Kind of like how Sanzo says the sutra's incantation, but different!"
Sanzo tutted and grumbled in silence, looking around for anyone that might help him where they were, when the sound of a neighing horse caught his attention and looked to where an unaware Goku glared at the stone-cobbled road.
"Hey, Goku! Look out!"
"Huh—?"
Sanzo reached out his hand to grab at the scruff of Goku's cape and pulled him back just in time when the horse almost ran the brunet over. "Hey, fuckface, watch where you're going!" the priest yelled, unconsciously wrapping an arm around Goku as he glared at the carriage's driver.
Hakkai, ever the observant one, noticed a man decked in a green and gold-rimmed changshan inside the carriage. Gasping, he darted over to the carriage, repeatedly tapped the glass panes, and pointed over to the man inside.
"Please wait—excuse me. Excuse me!" pleaded Hakkai, his fist now rapping on the carriage's window. The carriage slowed to a stop, and Gojyo, Sanzo, and Goku ran up to him.
"Hey, Hakkai, what gives?" Gojyo queried, glaring at the carriage all the while.
"Someone who looks like us is inside," came Hakkai's stern voice, and the three looked at each other, blinking when the carriage's window retracted, and the face of a young, blue-eyed boy dressed in a dark blue coat appeared, frowning at Hakkai.
The boy spoke to Sanzo's party in what they assumed as a tone of irritation, and Hakkai, not quite understanding what the boy meant, bowed and muttered in apology and directed his attention at the man wearing the changshan. Hakkai leaned over to the carriage, placing his hands on the window sill.
"Um, excuse me. Yes, pardon for the intrusion. But could you please tell us where we are? We are lost and don't know our way back to India. The map that we have seems to be outdated," Hakkai implored, gulping at the notion that the man in changshan might be using another dialect and—
"Hm? Ah, fellow Chinese men! Good day! India, you say? But you're in London! To get to India by a passenger ship will take you 46 to 48 days at most!" quipped the smiling man with a shrug. "Isn't that right, Lan Mao?" The man turned to a woman who sat on top of the man, someone that Hakkai hadn't noticed until now.
"F-forty-eight days? Wait—but that's a month and a half! Hakkai, we need to return there now! Sharak needs us!" whined Goku, his eyes wide and filled with worry. Gojyo managed not to comment on the long journey back, and opted to openly stare at the woman, Lan Mao, from what he heard, who was provocatively draped on the man's lap.
Gojyo whistled at the woman dressed in a short, blue cheongsam and black tights that reached her thighs, and he raised a thumbs up to the man, "Way to go, buddy," to which the man replied with a lopsided smile and a bashful laugh laced in false modesty.
"Oh, no, stop it, you. Lan Mao here is my sister, haha!"
The group of four went silent, and Sanzo, Goku, and Gojyo all stepped back and looked at Hakkai with accusing stares.
Hakkai, sensing the incriminating glares from his companions, turned around and blinked. "Oh, my. How rude of you. I stopped the carriage because he looked like someone from China, not because of—oh, forget it." Hakkai looked at the smiling man and bowed, with Hakuryuu doing the same gesture, "Thank you for the information. I'm sorry for delaying your trip. Please be safe."
The man nodded and smiled, "No worries, fellow Chinese men. Have a safe trip, too!" He waved, only to be stopped by the boy raising his gloved palm to the man. "What is it, Earl? Ah." They heard the man speak, and the man switched his language to that of what the boy used. The boy with the long, stiff hat and eyepatch on his right eye kept pointing at them as he conversed with the man, speaking in a way that the four men couldn't comprehend. They noticed how the man in the changshan nodded with the same, knowing smile that reminded them of Hakkai's. They also noticed how the boy looked and pointed at Hakkai, specifically, to Hakuryuu, who blinked his red eyes and preened his wings with his snout, cheeping softly.
The man nodded once more, and turned to Hakkai, "Hey, gentlemen. The earl wants to know how the toy sitting on the monocle man's shoulder operates."
The four of them looked at each other, then at the confused dragon. Hakkai, with his mouth slacking the slightest, opted not to say that he was offended with the man's words, and he spoke carefully. "You mean Hakuryuu? He—he's not a toy. He's a dragon. Our pet dragon."
The man, seemingly satisfied as he nodded, turned to the boy and translated what Hakkai said. All the while, Gojyo and Goku talked amongst themselves.
"Hey, Gojyo, where is this 'London'?"
"Dunno. But if it's a place where I can bed someone like that," the redhead grinned and wagged his eyebrows towards Lan Mao's direction and shoved his hands inside his pockets, "then I wouldn't mind if we're on another planet entirely."
Goku's face twisted in disgust, "Bah. Always thinking about women wherever we go. Stupid pervert."
Gojyo's nostrils flared and opened his mouth for a loud insult to throw at the golden-eyed demon, when Sanzo planted his hand on Goku's mouth.
"Hey, you two. Stop arguing in the middle of these streets," Sanzo hissed, and let go of Goku, and crossed his arms as he glared at Gojyo. "We don't know where we are and we must be alert at all times. From the looks of it, we're in a foreign land. We don't know shit about their customs, so it's better to—"
"Hey, gentlemen. The earl asks what abilities that dragon possess if it is an actual dragon," interrupts the man in changshan. He shrugged and shook his head with a lazy smile, "These Westerners don't seem to believe in the existence of the dragons of the East, you know?"
Hakkai, agreeing with the man's words, beamed at him, and he let the previous offense slide, "Well, Westerners do have unique traditions. Ah, you want to know what abilities Hakuryuu have? Well..." Hakkai looked at Sanzo, who seemed to shrug and grunt in nonchalance.
"Let him breathe fire for now."
Hakkai nodded and looked around to check if there were people looking their way. Seeing none, he took a crumpled piece of paper from the inside of his pants pocket, flattened it, folded it in half, and held it out to the dragon. "Well, Hakuryuu? Go on, set it on fire."
The dragon cheeped and nodded, and set its mouth in a circle and blew a small fountain of fire on the paper.
The startled gasp and the wide-eyed look from the boy satisfied Hakkai, and he smiled as he looked at the surprised boy. "Does this appease the child, then?" He shook the paper in his hand until the small flame died out, and stomped it on the stoned ground. He turned to Hakuryuu with an approving laugh, "You did well, Hakuryuu." And the dragon smiled and cheeped as Hakkai patted his head.
The boy looked at another passenger beside the man in changshan, and seemed to speak in a rush of hurried excitement. The passenger, a black-haired man decked in a high-and-stiff collared, black, double-breasted coat, leaned over from where he sat and peered at Hakkai, then at the dragon, and at the three of Hakkai's companions. He stopped short at Sanzo, and pointed at him, and he muttered something to the boy.
Goku, aware that the man started conversing to the boy about Sanzo, went over to the man in changshan and jerked his chin to the black-haired man, "Hey, mister. What's he saying about us?"
The man in changshan regarded Goku with the same, lazy smile, and glanced at the blue-eyed boy and the man, "Ah, Mr. Butler here is asking for your occupations. He is curious about that blond fellow with you." And he pointed at Sanzo.
Sanzo's eyes narrowed, and glared straight at the black-haired man that spoke to the boy with the eyepatch. "Why is he asking this?" he said in a low growl, one hand already feeling up on the inside of his robes for his banishing gun.
Sensing Sanzo's hostility, the man in changshan casually waved his hand about, "Perish the thought, my fellow Chinese man—Mr. Butler here simply asks why you are dressed as such, like a priest, of sorts."
Gojyo raised his eyebrow, his lips curling downwards, and he tutted, letting out a long-drawn hiss as he scratched his nape, "Well, that's because..."
Goku and Hakkai chimed in with Gojyo, all three of them pointing at the scowling blond, "...he is actually a priest."
The man in changshan hummed, and seemed to look at Sanzo with appraise through his odd, closed eyes, and he looked over at the now silent boy and spoke to him in that foreign tongue.
Sanzo glanced at the black-haired passenger, who seemed to look back at him with suspicion painted on his narrowed, claret eyes and downturned, pale lips. Sanzo snorted.
The blue-eyed boy hummed, and stared intently at Sanzo's attire. A loose and off-white robe tied with a black sash, which covered black, fingerless gloves and a black, mock turtleneck; on his torso was a chest plate made of bamboo—and the most notable thing that caught the boy's attention was the strange, sheet of paper lined with green backing that sat firmly on Sanzo's shoulders despite the cool wind, its stark whiteness marred with strange, inked characters that seemed to resemble—
"Sanskrit?" the boy thought out loud, a word which Hakkai, for once, recognized. Hakkai pointed at Sanzo's scripture with a beam, all the while looking at the inquisitive boy. The boy nodded with a poker face, and Hakkai nodded back with eyes fluttering closed and a kind smile.
"Sanskrit," Hakkai repeated with a nod. And Goku, confused of it all, asked Hakkai what the boy said, to which the green-eyed man sighed in relief. "This child seems to know, or at least recognize, the letters on Sanzo's sutra. In our native tongue, you see, we call those letters fàn yǔ, but in the West, they call it, 'Sanskrit'. I learned about it during the time when I was a teacher. This boy seems smart, by the looks of it," Hakkai explained with a small laugh, his demeanor now relaxed, and Goku looked at the boy with a grin. If Hakkai decided that trusting this boy was okay, then it was okay for him, too.
The boy turned to talk to the man in changshan, and the man relayed the boy's message. "The earl asks why you want to go to India."
And Hakkai explained it to the man, of how they came from China and were tasked to go to Houtou Castle in India and investigate the origins of the demons going berserk throughout the East, and to stop the resurrection of the great demon king Gyumaou, and bring back peace between humans and demons. He told him about their arrival in India, and how a large group of demons attacked them from nowhere, and how they killed these demons. And he told him of how a strange light appeared around Sanzo's sutra, and they ended up to where they were now.
The man, silent throughout Hakkai's story, relayed all of his words to the boy, and when the man had finished translating everything, the boy whipped his attention to the four of them with an open mouth, his visible, blue eye widening with a glint of surprise and mounting interest—and the boy's lips slowly curled into a mischievous grin.
The boy then spoke to the man in hushed tones, and the four men observed how the longer the boy spoke, the larger and the toothier his grin became. Yet, the man in the black coat did the opposite—lips drooping into a very displeased frown at each passing second that the boy spoke.
Sanzo glanced warily at the three conversing men, and turned to Hakkai, "Hey, was that amount of detail even necessary? We might look like lunatics here."
"Yeah," Gojyo agreed, scratching his hair as his eyes roved about, looking at all the females in their huge, bell-shaped skirts, "we kinda look like we're sore thumbs sticking out in this place. And it doesn't look like it's affected with the Minus Wave at all."
Hakkai raised his shoulders, palms held out, "Well, I see no sense in telling them a story that isn't true. Telling them a lie might backfire at us later on. Besides—"
Goku's gaze fell to the pale passenger in the black coat, "That one emits an aura that he's—"
"Gentlemen," the smiling man in the changshan interrupted with a blinding grin, "the earl here suggests if you want to go with us. He says he will introduce you to the men he knew are from India."
At this, Goku's glare disappeared, and he beamed and jumped in joy, "Yes! We're finally getting somewhere—" He stopped in mid-cheer, and his face twisted in near tears, and Sanzo asked him what was wrong. "Sanzo, I'm—suddenly—so... hungryyy...!"
Gojyo balked, and laughed, joking about Goku's constant hunger, and Goku retaliated by throwing insults at Gojyo's unending lechery, until the two of them grabbed at each other's throats, much to Sanzo's growing irritation.
"I thought I told you—" the blond reached inside his sleeve, "to fucking shut it—" He pulled out a small gun and aimed it at Gojyo and Goku, much to the surprise of the passengers inside the carriage. "—when we're in an unfamiliar place." The sound of a bullet wheezing past Gojyo's hair echoed in the bustling street as Sanzo shrieked, "You fucking morons!"
Hakkai, looking quite scandalized at Sanzo's outburst, tried to placate all three of them. "Sanzo, Sanzo—I think you're the one who should behave the most right now. Please stop firing the gun when there are people around. Someone might get hurt. Goku, Gojyo, stop fighting in the middle of a busy street. And stop giving Sanzo reasons to shoot you with the gun or hit you with the fan."
Gojyo and Goku immediately pulled away from each other, but not before elbowing each other's ribs one last time, and they grudgingly apologized to the priest and the healer. Sanzo merely huffed, and tucked his gun back in his robes.
The sound of bubbling laughter then met their ears, and they turned around and saw the blue-eyed boy grinning, his shoulders shaking, and his gloved hand covering his mouth from restrained chuckles.
He said something in between the small rounds of hilarity, and smirked at the man in the black coat, and laughed at the sight of the pale man's furrowed brows.
The boy nodded and said something to the man in changshan.
"'We'll help you return to India, in exchange—you tell us about how to kill demons, and how that man who claims to be a priest wields a gun and shoots it at his companions with no restraint,' the earl says." The eyes of the man in changshan opened just the slightest, and he graced them with a smile that reeked of morbid amusement.
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Sharak grunted in frustration as she stomped her way back to her village, with Hassan and the other monks trailing behind.
"I should have seen it! I should have seen it! Hassan, why didn't you tell me Genjo was already summoning the sutra's power when I used my spell? Gah, you should have told me!"
Hassan's face twisted in agony, his head bowed as he profusely begged for forgiveness—"I didn't know, Sharak, I didn't know! I was too busy trying to cover your back with all those demons!"
Sharak pressed her lips in a thin line, shaking her head in resignation, "What will I do now? Those guys were hellbent in disobeying the Aspects after finding out they were dismissed for what had been their sole task for two years. Hell, even I would be mad if the gods who'd give me the mission to travel—and nearly die across countries in the process—would dismiss me by the very gods who gave me the same mission. I can feel Genjo's pain."
Hassan sighed, and trailed his eyes over Sharak's visible scars and on the fluffy tail on her robe. "Well, what do you suppose we do now? We need to get them back. Who knows what will happen to them?"
Sharak paused in her tracks, and craned her neck to Hassan with an ear-splitting grin, stretching the scars on her cheeks—
"Hassan, we're going back to Taruchie's, and ask for a way to bring Genjo's party back."
—and he stopped, and thought of her as the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
