DISCLAIMER: I don't own Saiyuki, it's characters, or anything related to Saiyuki. Kazuya Minekura has all rights to Saiyuki and it's incarnations. Any storyline, characters, and anything that you don't recognize is otherwise my own.
Chapter 1
White hair glistened as the woman walked through town, green eyes flickering around as she glanced around the faces in the crowd. She needed to find her brother before heading back to the inn, hoping to easily have him get fed and cleaned up before they left the following morning. She needed to keep him safe and she needed to be sure that she remained hidden with them. She wore an old and battered black shirt, torn jeans, and a pair of worn work boots, all of which she had intended on switching out while in the town six miles away from her childhood home.
'I wish mom and dad were with me to give me some advice,' thought the woman. 'Then again, you both would have me join a temple, turned in, or something along those lines after what I got mixed up in.
"Sis!" shouted a boy's voice from the teen's right.
The woman jumps and places right hand onto her scythe's handle, eyes wide as she looked at the boy to her right. He grins up at her as his sister grabbed his arms, on the verge of shaking him. His hair the same color as his sister's and eyes green, taking after their father like her. He wore a blue shirt, gray pants, and white shoes, his hands in his pockets.
"Where were you, Yaro?" inquired the woman. "Do you realize how worried I've been looking for you?"
"Sorry, Xia," said the seven-year-old. "I saw something that you might like and happened to have the money for it."
Xia gives the boy a confused and curious look as he brought up his left hand, a necklace holding a purple crystal tightly. She smiles at the piece of jewelry, wondering just how her brother managed to get the money for it. The crystal wasn't tiny and it wasn't huge, something in-between. It captured the afternoon light and had a few people glance over at the two.
"Yaro, you didn't have to get it for me," murmured the woman as she released her brother. "Thank you."
"You always bailed Akito and I out of trouble whenever we did something bad or wandered off too far," stated Yaro. "You've always been so nice to us that I felt like this would be a good gift for your birthday."
"Thank you, Yaro," said Xia. "It's beautiful. How long have you been saving up for this?"
"I saved for three years and managed to get some more by doing the odd chore for mom and dad." answered Yaro.
Xia gingerly takes the necklace and put it on, the purple crystal catching the light and casting small rainbows from the sunlight.
"No wonder why you ran here after me," said Xia. "Though, I think you were really upset with Akito than anything else."
"The argument with Akito was part of it," answered the child. "But I had a feeling you would leave after what happened and I wanted to get you your birthday gift before you left. It's two days late, but I tried to get you something you would enjoy."
"Just make sure to get home before anything happens to you," said Xia. "I'm not going to be around to protect you and Akito anymore now that I've left."
"Will you visit us someday, Sis?" inquired Yaro. "I'm gonna miss you. So will mom, dad, and Akito."
"I will eventually," answered Xia glancing around the emptying streets. "Not sure when, though. We'll talk more about this in our room at the inn, okay? We need to get back there before we go our separate ways. Don't want our family to worry about you."
"What about you?" inquired Yaro. "Mom and dad will worry."
As Xia straightened up and looked around her, she wondered what happened to the people that once filled the streets.
"I'll be fine, Yaro," answered Airi hand going to her scythe. "After all, dad trained me to use the scythe. I can at least defend myself with some ease."
Yaro had noticed the eerie silence, feeling uneasy about the situation. He had gone to her left side, hands going to her shirt as he looked around. Something about this situation wasn't normal. The last time Xia was here, the townspeople didn't disappear. The twenty-six-year-old didn't hesitate to grab her brother's wrist and started to sprint to the inn, hoping that nothing would happen between until after they returned to the inn.
"What's going, Sis?" inquired Yaro. "I'm getting a little scared."
"I don't know, Yaro," answered Xia, the inn seemingly getting further away. "I'll keep you safe from danger, I promise."
Xia trips over something, Yaro going down with her as she fell forward. As she and Yaro get up, shadows loom over them. Xia gets up, pulling her brother with her as she did so. She shoves him forward and turns, getting her scythe out of it's carrier. She sees that there's five youkai before her, a number she could handle on her own. Xia dodges an attack and rushes forward, the blade of her scythe going through the abdomen of the youkai before her. The one falls to the ground as the other four scatter away from her, making her worry about her brother as the four surround her.
Acting on a protective instinct, Xia goes for the two behind her. She didn't see Yaro in sight, making her settle a part of her mind. She launches forward, her scythe cutting through a second youkai as the other three converged onto her. Xia manages to get two of the three off her before Yaro appears in her line of sight with a rusty pipe in hand. The youkai behind her bites down on the right side her neck, his claws digging into her back as he kept a rough hold on her. The seven-year-old runs toward his sister, going around her to slam the pipe into the youkai. Yaro looks up at his sister, giving her a grin before he went after another, hoping to beat one of the youkai to death. The youkai that was on her back attacked her while she was distracted, shoving claws into her arms. Xia hisses in pain and manages to get the youkai off, shoving him towards the ground.
"Yaro, go hide!" shouted Airi, turning towards the youkai behind her. "You're not strong enough to help me just yet!"
"I'm not going to let you die on me, Sis!" Yaro shouted back.
He manages to stun the youkai he was fighting, not taking note of the youkai that appeared behind him. Xia kills the youkai that had bitten her and dug his claws into her. Rushing towards her brother, the woman noted Yaro's potential as a sword wielder, hoping to get him a sword and training him as they traveled together. However, Xia needed to keep him alive in this battle for that to happen. Besides, she couldn't let anything happen to her brother, not after what she had to do earlier in the day. There was no way she's letting another person die because of her stupidity and her foolishness. She didn't care if she died, but she couldn't let the life of her brother and those around her be snuffed out. She saw the youkai bring down his claws, nailing her brother on his right shoulder.
"NO!" shouted the young woman, something snapping within her.
She saw red, her attacks become more vicious as she killed the youkai behind her brother. Yaro had gone to the ground, the rusty pipe laying before him as he cried from the pain in his shoulder. He wasn't able to stand yet, the injury taking his attention. His sister went forward and destroyed the youkai he was beating on, killing him before turning her attention to the final youkai. He seemed terrified of her as she made her way towards him. Xia rushes forward and leaps towards him, scythe above her head. The blade cuts through the youkai's shoulder like a melon, his blood spraying her and the air around them. She removed the blade and pierced his head, serving the killing blow.
Her vision returned to normal and quickly removed the blade from the corpse, turning to her injured brother. Yaro laid in his own blood, unconscious from blood loss. Xia looked around hoping the townspeople would leave their shops and homes to help her. She picks up Yaro, deciding that she would look for help before something else happened. She didn't take note of another group of armed youkai that appeared or a group of travelers that appeared a distance away from the youkai. She heard the sound of feet hitting dirt too late to even react, turning with her brother in her arms. Her eyes widen and turn to protect Yaro, crouching over him.
"I'm sorry, Yaro," whispered Xia. "Looks like our trip is cut short."
She closes her eyes and waits for the group of youkai to attack, but the sounds of a scuffle and gunshots fill her ears instead.
"Miss, are you okay?" inquired a quiet male voice.
Xia straightens up and looks to the person who spoke, the group of four jumping seeing the blood soaking her face and clothing.
"I'm fine, but my brother needs help," said Xia, voice cracking. "His right shoulder is injured from a different group pf youkai."
"Okay, let me have a look at him." said a man with brunette hair and in a green shirt, beige colored pants, and boots.
He steps towards Xia and her brother tears threatening to trail down her face. The other men appeared near the brunette, one of which looking uncomfortable with Xia's teary-eyed expression. He walked over to her cautiously, not wanting to upset her more. He pulls out a cloth from his pocket as Hakkai took Yaro from Xia. He had his canteen with him, pour some water from it onto the cloth. His red hair shone under the summer sun, his brown leather jacket open to reveal a white shirt, dark brown pants, and black boots.
"I-is Yaro gonna be okay?" inquired Xia. "Dear gods, what am I going to tell my parents? They're gonna hate me if he dies on my watch."
Tears smeared the semi-wet blood on her face, the blood from Yaro having stained her left arm and a portion of her shirt.
"Don't worry, Hakkai will have him fixed up before you know it." murmured the redhead.
"He should have stayed hidden, he would have been safe had he stayed hidden." murmured Xia as the redhead wiped her face off.
"Sanzo, she's not okay." said the youngest of the four.
Xia didn't hear a response and her vision going black, her body falling forward. She is caught before hitting the ground. As the man beside cleared off the blood from her face and neck, he noted the teeth marks on her neck.
"Hakkai, when you're finished with her brother, she needs to be healed," said the man. "She's bitten on her neck. She might have other injuries, but I can't really tell at this point until we get them to the inn."
"Alright," answered Hakkai, finishing up Yaro's injury. "That should get him by for now. Let's get to the inn before the townsfolk get out of the stores, homes, and what not. Can't have them freaking out over two injured humans. Do you mind carrying her, Gojyo?"
"I don't mind at all," said Gojyo, picking Xia's legs up into a bridal carry. "At least we got here before anyone died."
"Let's just hurry this up," said Sanzo. "The longer these two sidetrack us, the longer it'll take for us to get back to our mission. We didn't come all this way to India to get sidetracked."
"Goku, you'll need to hold the inn door open for us when we get to it." said Hakkai.
"Got it." stated Goku.
Gojyo begins to walk forward, knowing there wasn't enough room within Hakuryuu's jeep form for two more passengers on top of the four already occupying the four seats of said jeep form.
"Gojyo?" inquired Goku.
"I'll carry her to the inn," said Gojyo. "I'm not sure if Hakuryuu can handle the weight of four men, a male child, and a woman. I don't want to overload him. Besides, he's tired from carrying us and a handful of belongings."
"He's right," added Hakkai. "We need to let Hakuryuu to rest up before we test how much weight he can handle."
Goku and Sanzo get out of the vehicle, letting it go back to it's more comfortable form. The small white dragon gave a tired chirp before going over to Hakkai and drapes himself over said man's shoulders.
Xia awoke to the sound of two heavy bodies thudding to the floor, her eyes greeted by a dimly lit room. She sits up and looks around blearily, unsure of where she was at the moment. Her memory hadn't quite reached her, tiredness still clogging her mind. Xia reaches up to her neck and flinches when her nails meet one of teeth marks on her neck. That brings back her memory and she looks around for her brother, the dim lighting giving her just enough to see around the double room.
Yaro lay on the bed near the bathroom, still sleeping from earlier. He looked paler than normal, signaling his blood loss. Xia gets up and goes over to her brother and sits down beside his bed, grabbing his right hand as she did so.
"I'm so sorry, Yaro," whispered Xia. "I wasn't enough to keep you safe."
It wasn't too much longer after that when the door opened to reveal the brunette haired man from before. Xia looked over at him and stood, releasing her brother's hand for a moment. She bows to the unfamiliar man, a sad smile on her face.
"Good to see that you're okay," smiled the brunette. "I'm Cho Hakkai. May I have your name?"
"I'm Shu Xia," said the woman. "The boy in bed is Shu Yaro. Thank you for helping us."
"No problem, Miss Xia," answered Hakkai. "Your brother should be wake up in a few hours. We had a doctor come in and perform a blood transfusion. Since we don't know anything about you both, we had him use your blood to place into Yaro."
"Yaro and I both are A positive," said Xia. "You did the right thing by using my blood for him. Thank you for helping us. You and your companions could have left us there, leaving us to the mercy of others that live in this town."
"We wouldn't have done that," stated Hakkai. "Besides, your brother needed help. I'm not entirely sure what would have happened if we just up and left after you passed out."
Xia looked to Yaro, hoping that he didn't hate her for not doing her job and protecting him. She knew that their parents would hate her if she sent him home with the injury and would most likely give her hell for failing to even do anything as an older sibling.
"How is she, Hakkai?" inquired Gojyo.
"She's awake, Gojyo," said Hakkai. "She seems to be doing fine after some sleep and having her injuries healed."
Xia looked up at the taller man as he approached her. Now that she wasn't going into a panic, she noted that he was a hanyou. She knew about hanyous, but never met any before now. Xia didn't have a problem with friendly youkai, unlike her parents who had become incredibly protective of her little brothers.
"Sorry for panicking earlier," said Xia. "I'm Shu Xia. My brother is Shu Yaro. Thank you for helping my brother and myself."
"No problem, Xia," said the hanyou. "Name's Sha Gojyo."
"I'm going to town in a few hours, Gojyo," stated Hakkai. "Is there anything we need outside of our usual supplies?"
"I need some more smokes," answered Gojyo, turning towards Hakkai. "If anything, I can go with you and help get everything with you."
"That will be a big help." said Hakkai.
Xia had sat back down on the floor, hand going back to Yaro's and holding it tightly. Gojyo gave a look of sympathy, hoping that the child didn't hate his sister.