ShadowKitsune95: Yeah I know, the last thing I need is another story, but for reasons I'm not even sure of, I'm really excited about this fic. I had fun writing it. So...yeah, I hope you enjoy and if you do make sure you thank my muse, she helped me loads.

Disclaimer: Saiyuki doesn't belong to me, however the idea for this story along with Amaya Sawada, Noboru, and Hisoka do. Saiyuri Aizawa belongs to my dear twin face Kris Kaulitz -Untouched-


The day started out normal enough – that in its self should have warned them that the day would not end well. The Sanzo group drove into the small village, looking forward to a good meal and a soft bed. It had been weeks since they had seen civilization and they were running low on food. "Food, food, food." Was the chant to which they made their way through town. Goku's stomach growled hungrily when the smell of freshly baked pork buns reached his nose. He jumped out of the jeep before it came to a complete stop and raced inside the inn, disappearing before anyone could say anything to stop him.

Sanzo sighed and flicked his cigarette onto the ground, grinding it out with the toe of his boots. He looked over his shoulder at his other traveling companions as they gathered their belongings and proceeded into the inn, followed by the newly transformed Hakuryuu. They made an odd group to be sure. A Sanzo priest, three demons posing as humans and two half-demons, with their pet transforming dragon definitely made them a hard group to miss.

Inside the inn, an old man stood behind the registration counter watching an anxious Goku jump up and down impatiently, waiting for the other members of the group. A small bell above the door announced their arrival, making the old man look up. He offered them a small smile. "Hello and welcome. How can I help you?"

Hakkai stepped forward, returning the man's smile with one of his own. "Hello. Is it possible for us to get three bedrooms, two beds in each?"

The man consulted the guest registration book before nodding. "Indeed you can. If you could just sign your names…" the man trailed off, pushing the book toward Hakkai. The brunette leaned over the counter and scrawled the names of each person he was traveling with onto the page.

The man glanced at the page when Hakkai was done. He then reached under the counter and pulled out three keys on separate chains. "Your rooms are on the second floor, the room numbers are on the keys. Just give me a holler if you need anything; my name's Noboru."

Hakkai took the keys and passed them out to the group. They started up the stair case, carrying their bags with them. Goku followed slowly behind, rubbing his stomach. "Sanzo, I'm hungry. When're we gonna eat?"

Sanzo scowled and half wished the monkey were just a few steps closer so that he could beat him with his fan. Unfortunately, Goku was behind him and down a few stairs. So instead Sanzo sighed and ignored him. This wasn't exactly the easiest this to do, the monkey was incredibly loud and whiney when hungry. Sanzo could feel a head ache beginning to form.

They reached the second floor and stood in the hallway trying to decide who would share a room with whom. Obviously the two girls, Amaya Sawada and Saiyuri Aizawa, would room together, but there was no way that Sanzo was going to share a room with a hungry, snoring monkey. That left either Gojyo or Hakkai…Sanzo pushed Goku towards Gojyo and stepped slightly toward Hakkai. "You're sharing with Goku." Sanzo demanded.

Gojyo glowered at him. "Why the hell do I have to share with the monkey?" He demanded.

"Not a monkey!" Goku growled, finally managing to drag himself away from his thoughts of food.

Sanzo rolled his eyes. "I don't care whether you're a monkey or a not, you're sleeping with Gojyo!"

Everyone stopped and stared at Sanzo. Sanzo blinked a few times, wondering why everyone was looking at him. When it finally sunk in he frowned and hit everyone over the head with his fan. "That's not what I meant you idiots!"

This sent everyone scrambling to the respective rooms in an attempt to escape the wrath of the irritated priest and his fan. Amaya and Saiyuri made it to their room first, slamming the door behind them as if they expected Sanzo to follow them. The two girls looked at each other before dissolving into laughter. It wasn't very often Sanzo said something like that, but it was priceless when he did.

After a minute Amaya darted across the room and launched herself at the closest bed. She smiled and bounced slightly on it, the bell attached to her power limiter jingled quietly. "Look Sai, a real bed!"

Saiyuri rolled her eyes at her friend's childish antics. She tossed her bag into a random corner and sat down on her own bed. She watched as Amaya dug through her bag, letting out a triumphant cry when she pulled out her latest book. "What's it about?" Saiyuri asked, gesturing to the tattered book.

Amaya held up the book. "This, my friend, is one of the best books ever written. It took me forever to find it."

"Ok," Saiyuri said. "First of all, that book looks like it's been through hell and back. And second, that didn't answer my question."

Amaya shook her head. "I wasn't finished. And, I'll have you know, this book is a classic…I had to get it from a used book store."

"Classics an understatement, that things friggin' ancient." Saiyuri sighed, already wishing she hadn't asked.

"Will you let me finish?"

"Depends, are you gonna answer my question?"

Amaya briefly glared at Saiyuri before sighing. "Fine, rush me then." Amaya swung around on her bed to face Saiyuri, holding the book up for the half-demon to see. "It's a love story. One of the greatest ones ever written. A young man name Hiroshi Toyota [1], is sent off to war shortly after meeting the love of his life. After a few years Hiroshi is just a few weeks away from being sent home when his division is sent on one of the most important missions ever. Unfortunately he dies before being able to return home to his love."

Saiyuri stared at her friend. There was no way Amaya had spent all that time trying to find a book as cliché as that one. "Gojyo found it for you didn't he?"

Amaya slumped slightly. "Yes." Amaya pouted and flopped down on her bed, facing the ceiling. "Every time I ask him to bring back a book when he goes shopping, he brings back a book like this." She said waving the book around in the air.

"Why don't you ask Hakkai to pick some out for you for a change then?" Saiyuri asked though she already knew the answer. This wasn't the first time the two had, had this conversation, in fact they seemed to have it every time they stopped in a village.

Amaya blushed slightly and covered her face with the book. Her voice slightly muffled by the book's thick cover, she said, "I don't want to be a burden."

Saiyuri rolled her eyes. "Of course you don't." She also leaned back in her bed, scooping up the menu that lay on the nightstand between the two beds. She skimmed the small black print, trying to decide what sounded good. Finally she settled on a vegetable dish with a beer. She passed the menu to Amaya. The demon glanced over, not looking to concerned with what was there. Eventually, she sat up and stretched. She got up and walked toward the door without asking Saiyuri what she wanted – chances were she'd known what her red haired companion would choose the moment she looked at the menu. What with Saiyuri being a vegetarian, it was usually pretty easy to guess.

An hour later found the two girls around the small table in their room enjoying a quiet meal, something that was hard to come by when you traveled with the Sanzo party. For once they didn't have to fight over food or worry about being shot by Sanzo. It was a nice change of pace. However, as usual, the quiet was doomed from the start. A long winded, high pitched scream of terror tore through the air, startling Amaya and making her drop her sake cup. The class shattered at her feet, sending sharp shards spinning across the room. The two ignored the glass and raced to the door, Saiyuri still gripping her beer in one hand. Sanzo, Hakkai, Goku and Gojyo had also appeared from their rooms.

"What the hell was that?" Gojyo asked. But of course none of them could give him an answer. The scream came again and this time the group was able to tell the direction. They raced down the stairs, ready for anything…or so they thought.

The six skidded to a halt at the bottom of the stairs. Blood coated the walls, pooling around the body staked to the registration table. The blood dripped onto the floor in steady streams of blood. By the looks of things, it had been gutted. Saiyuri leaned over and vomited, dropping her beer as she did so - sending glass into the thick coating of blood. So much for dinner, she thought as her stomach emptied its contents onto the wooden floors. Out of the corner of her eye, Saiyuri noticed a small boy, no older then five, standing in the doorway of the kitchen staring wide-eyed at the body. Tears fell down his cheeks; he seemed unable to look away from the gruesome sight before him.

Gojyo moved forward to get a closer look at the body, completely over looking the boy. He reached out and carefully wiped some blood off the face. The lanky red head withdrew his hand quickly, as if he had been burned. "It –It's Noboru." He said in disbelief.

Saiyuri straightened up, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. The movement caught Amaya's attention and she turned her head slightly, just enough to watch her best friend pick her way carefully across the blood soaked floor to a terrified boy. Saiyuri gently picked up the boy, hiding his face from the bloody scene. She turned and made her way back up the stairs with the boy crying into her shoulder. She took him to her and Amaya's room and set him on Amaya's bed. She wiped the tears away from his face only to have them quickly replaced by fresh ones.

"It's ok." Saiyuri whispered comfortingly. "What's your name?"

"H-hisoka." The boys sniffled.

Saiyuri smiled. "Hisoka, huh? I'm Saiyuri. Where are you're parents?"

This brought another wave of tears from Hisoka. "Th-they're dead…i-I was staying with my gr-grandpa."

"You're grandpa…you mean…" Saiyuri trailed off. So Noboru had been this kid's grandfather. Saiyuri winced slightly, the whole incident hitting a little to close to home. She took a deep breath and asked a question she wished she didn't have to. "Did you see anything, Hisoka?" The young boy shook his head frantically. "Please, Hisoka, I know it's hard but if you saw anything that might be able to help us find the person who did this, you have to tell us." But he continued to shake his head.

Saiyuri sighed and sat next to him on the bed. She pulled him into a hug. "I know it's hard, but you're grandpa's in a better place now and I'm sure he wouldn't want you to be so upset." She said soothingly.

"H-how do you know?" the boy hiccupped.

Saiyuri frowned thinking back to her own childhood. "I've been through…something similar. I found my brother in almost the exact same way." She replied sadly.

Hisoka rubbed his eyes with his small fists and looked up at the red haired woman who still hugged him. "I sorry." He whispered.

It was almost midnight by the time Amaya stumbled back into the room. She had spent the last few hours cleaning and helping the local doctor pry the stake out of Noboru's body in order to remove it from the desk. She had spent a half hour in the shower scrubbing the blood off her body and she still didn't feel clean –in fact she wasn't sure she ever would. Her wet hair hung loose, instead of in her usual braid and reached her waist. She played with her bangs absent-mindedly as she thought over the events of the night. She was so absorbed in her thoughts she almost missed Hisoka sleeping in her bed and would have sat on him had Saiyuri not thrown 'Hiroshi Toyota' at her head.

Amaya winced as the book hit her in the side of the head before falling to the floor with a dull thud. She rubbed the now tender spot on her head as she turned to look at her friend. "What was that for?" she demanded. Saiyuri mearly waved a hand at the bed. Amaya turned to look, her annoyed look disappeared as she watched the small boy sleeping. She leaned over and pulled the blanket further over the sleeping child before joining Saiyuri where she sat at the table, still cluttered with the dishes from thier half eaten dinner. Amaya dropped thankfully into the chair. She propped her elbows on the table and rubbed her temples, colsing her eyes. However, she soon opened them again; while they were closed all she saw was Noboru's body pinned to the desk and pools of blood. "How's the kid?" She asked in an attempt to block the dark images.

Saiyuri shrugged. "How do you think? His grandpa's just been murdered and he was the one to find the body."

Amaya nodded slowly. "Yeah, sorry…just, ya know…trying to keep myself busy."

Saiyuri smiled sadly. "I know…" Both of them looked toward Hisoka as he mumbled in his sleep and rolled over, tears starting to wet Amaya's pillow.


1: 'Hiroshi Toyota' is both the name of the main character and the name of the book Amaya is reading. The name was actually decided when I told my dear muse to pick two random words. The first one's she picked were butter cheese, but I couldn't really think up a story for that…well I suppose a rare cook book would've worked.

ShadowKitsune95: If anyone's to OOC please tell me; I'm still trying to get use to their characters.