"Hey, don't take my meatbun, you stupid dragon!" It was the beginning of another lively day, along the never ending road west.
"Now, now Goku. Don't you think Hakuryuu deserves something to eat. Afterall, he doesn't have to turn back into a jeep, and he could just leave us to walk, if we don't treat him fairly." Hakkai replied, very level headedly.
"But-" Goku was about to complain when …
"Stop whining, you stupid monkey! You won't starve, when you eat constantly, like you do!" Sanzo growled, briefly looking up from his newspaper. He was reading it again, instantly after he yelled at Goku.
"When's Gojyo gonna get back with the groceries?" Goku whined miserably.
"I wouldn't count on him coming back soon, Goku. He'll probably get distracted along the way, like he did that last time. Remember? Let's just hope he doesn't almost get us killed." Hakkai said. Goku scowled at the floor.
"No, the pervert probably just stopped to fuck someone before he came back." Sanzo glanced up one more time from the newspaper: the center of his attention.
"Do you think he'll get more meatbuns?" Goku moaned, just loud enough for Hakkai to hear.
"He'd better because that was the first thing I put on the list."
"No, he'd better because I'll kill him if he doesn't and I have to hear that animal whine all day tomorrow!" Sanzo interrupted their intentionally private conversation, "Did you put cigarettes on there?"
"Of course, Sanzo. I'd rather not suffer the death penalty." Hakkai looked up just as Gojyo opened the door, looking just as pissed off as when he had left. Oh, yes. His favorite chore: getting groceries. It was his current punishment for constantly grinding his cigarette butts into Hakuryuu when he was in jeep form, even after Hakkai told him quite seriously not to do it. He was stuck with this job, and a few other "cruel and unusual" punishments (as he put it) for the next month, and if he whined about it, it doubled. Sanzo had come up with that idea right off the bat.
"Now, we should get some rest. Afterall, we have an early start tomorrow." Hakkai said, reading Gokyo's expression quite clearly, and hoping not to have to deal with him acting like a jerk. Being an ass and whining were two very different things in Hakkai's mind. Sanzo, on the other hand, found any form of noise, beyond a quiet conversation annoying.
"But I want a meartbun! I'm starv-" WHACK! "OWWW! What the hell Sanzo! What'd you do that for!" Goku protested. WHACK! This time he just rubbed his head, after the second hit from the fan, and crawled into bed, whimpering.
Meanwhile, Hakkai took the list from Gojyo, and looked it over, doing a mental checklist, to make sure Gojyo bought everything on the list.
"Umm, Gojyo?" He asked after a few seconds, in a very calm voice. Too calm. Hakkai was holding down his anger.
"Yeah, what?" The kappa snapped back, angrily, not doing anything to restrain himself.
"You forgot to buy meatbuns."
"WHAT!" Goku was out of bed instantly, rushing over to the grocerie bags, and ripping through them, to confirm that Hakkai's statement was true. Sure enough, there were absolutely no meatbuns in sight.
"Shit, I'm sorry. Sure as hell ain't my fault that there were none left in the market!" Gojyo yelled above the ruckus.
"Gojyo," Hakkai said 'calmly' again, "You didn't buy cigarettes either."
"People're against smoking here. Didn't carry all that fancy Marlboro red shit. Only had my good priced smokes!" Gojyo shot back. Sanzo's expression grew dark, and a vein was pulsing in his forehead. He had slammed the newspaper down on the table, and to keep himself from committing homicide, started ripping it up vigorously, into tiny little pieces.
"Alrighty. Goku, Gojyo. Let's go see if we can find what Gojyo missed," Hakkai saw the dangerous look in Sanzo's eye. "I'm sure it was just a mistake, and Gojyo simply overlooked these very important items. Come along."
Gojyo saw where Hakkai was going with this, and without shooting a second glance at Sanzo, hurried out the door to wait in the hall. Goku, on the other hand was not so bright.
"But, I wanna stay here with Sanzo! PLLLEEEEEAAAASSSSE-" WHACK! "OWWWW! Damnit Sanzo, that hurt more'n usual!"
There was no reply, as Hakkai, quickly forced Goku out the door.
Hakkai led the way, with the other two following right behind him, towards their hotel room. He had been sure that they wouldn't be out long, considering Gojyo had most likely seen the items that they had missed, and simply ignored them in order to get on the other members of the group's nerves.
Unfortunately, though, it really had been difficult to find the exact kind of cigarettes that Sanzo demanded, and the meatbuns that Goku loved to snack on. They had been gone for at least an hour and a half, maybe two hours, and it was very late, Hakkai thought. He decided that it really had been a good idea to buy Goku a separate meatbun to munch on during the walk back to the inn that they were staying in. Gojyo didn't seem to have a problem with going out either. He just took drags on his cigarette, and whistled while following the bottomless pit and his temporary 'owner' at the moment around. Yep, Gojyo thought, Sanzo only get's the wonderful title of being Goku's master when he was around to order the monkey around. And since he wouldn't get his lazy ass off the chair that he had practically been glued to all night …Hakkai opened the door and gasped, practically dropping the bag, but catching it fortunately, before Gojyo finished his nasty thought.
"What?" Gojyo drawled, in between a few puffs. They all walked in, one by one, and both Goku and Gojyo realized exactly what Hakkai had sounded worried about: Sanzo. He didn't look in that bad of condition, but was still sprawled across the floor in front of his chair, facedown, so that they couldn't see if he was unconscious or not. He looked knocked out though, because he wasn't fighting or struggling to get up, like he would have had he been awake.
Though the other two didn't see it, as they quickly approached, Hakkai took a mental note of one thing immediately: The sutra was gone. He looked around him to see if it had merely fallen to the floor but it was nowhere, and Sanzo's full cloak was still on, so there was no way that he could have just tucked it inside his robes somewhere. The sutra was gone.
"Sanzo?" Hakkai asked gently, turning him over. To his relief, there was only a slight bruise and a welt at the top of Sanzo's forehead, so that you could barely see it beneath his hair. Nothing serious about his condition, just a slight swelling.
"SANZO! Is he alright, Hakkai?" Goku demanded, pulling Sanzo's head into his lap, like a good little pet. Gojyo stood, leaning against the doorway, trying to seem calm, but knowing that he was worried, deep down inside. The sutra was gone. It was more then likely that it was one of Gyumaoh's assassins, who had been paid to retrieve but not kill.
"Hn," Sanzo had finally woken up, after Hakkai's smooth gentle calls, and Goku's loud distruptive shouts, "What the hell?" He demanded, sitting up, and adjusting his robe…
Sanzo froze, as he looked at his shoulders.
"Where the fuck is my scripture!" He demanded, then he seemed to think for a minute about what had happened before he had blacked out, "Youkai." He said darkly.
"That's what we presumed." Hakkai looked truly worried now. All were thinking the same thing, but none were willing to speak their thoughts, at a fear of being snapped at by another member of the group. Gyumaoh would be resurrected without fail, and it was all their fault. All they knew that they had fucked the whole mission up, but none were willing to call it quits yet. They would stop the resurrection or die fighting, damnit.
"Pack your bags. We're leaving earlier then planned." Sanzo declared.
"Not tonight!" Goku whined again, seemingly back to his old self.
"No! Did I say that we were leaving tonight, you stupid ape? We're leaving tomorrow at five AM rather then seven! Got it?" Sanzo turned on his heel and stomped off to his bed in the corner of the room, "Rain or shine, we're gonna haul ass outa here, and get to Houtou castle as soon as possible so I can fucking kill the dick face who arranged for this waste of skin to be revived!"
No one answered, but all went to bed quietly. Goku didn't even whine for food, and Gojyo didn't call Sanzo a priss for not going after his beloved scripture that very night, even if he was a little surprised that the priest hadn't called him the waste of skin, like usual. . Everyone just went to sleep quietly, without a word.
"Kou!" Dokugakuji banged on the door to Lord Kougaiji's room, knowing that this was good enough news to wake him up in the middle of the night over, "Kou, wake up."
No answer. Confused, Dokugaku opened the door, expecting to see Kou sleeping soundly or walking to the door. Instead he saw two lumps under the covers.
"Kou?" Doku steadied himself before continuing, "Kou! Kou, we've stolen the scripture!"
"What?" Kou sat up and …Doku did a double take.
"Kou and …Dr. Huan?" He said, unsure of how those two as a couple sounded. This was just not right! Both figures in the bed blushed, and pulled the covers tightly around themselves to cover their nakedness. They both scooched away from each other as well, as if that would keep poor Doku from getting any ideas. AS IF!
"Umm, that uh… great! Umm, Doku, can you uh …"
"OH! Yes, of course. I'll leave at once." Doku quickly shut the door behind him, and hurried down the hall, trying not to feel disturbed by what he just saw!