Author's note: Came up with the idea for this a while back. Hope you like it!
Chapter 1: Go West
Two figures stood before a smaller one, separated by the bars of rock closing the mountainside prison off from the rest of the world. The two figures on the outside were male and female. The male had bright, golden hair and violet eyes, while the female had white hair and pink eyes. The two teenagers were the first people the boy sealed within the prison could ever remember seeing. He stared up at them in awe.
"... Hey, you're the one who's been calling us, right?" the girl with white hair asked with a kind smile and a soft voice.
"... What?" the boy in the prison said, confused, as he stared up at them with big golden eyes, afraid to blink in case they disappeared. "I... didn't call for anyone. Who are you?"
"Don't lie," the young man with blonde hair said sternly with a surly frown as his brow creased in annoyance. "I've heard you calling me for awhile. It's really annoying, so quit it."
"Sanzo..." the girl whispered, lifting her head to hold his gaze. The boy didn't seem to be aware of what he was doing, so there was little point in taking it out on him, but she knew her friend understood this already, so she left it at that. The young man clicked his tongue in annoyance and looked away from her.
"Instead..." he continued, nonplussed, "we'll take you with us." He held his hand out to the boy between the bars. "Since I don't see any other choice."
The girl smiled and offered the boy her hand as well. "You look like you've been in there long enough," she added gently.
The boy stared up at them, stunned. The frowning young man with gold hair shined like the sun, while the smiling girl with white hair was soft and gentle like the moon. He reached out to take their hands, and the chains around his wrists disintegrated.
—∞—
In a nebulous era when the Heavens and Earth intermingled, there was a peaceful land where man and demon coexisted, the origin of civilization and faith, Shangri-La. However, at that very moment, there was a negative aura sweeping the world and the youkai had begun to go berserk. In India, far to the west of Shangri-La, there was one who commanded those youkai. But right here in China, in the heart of Shangri-La, there were those already taking steps to counter this.
—∞—
A young monk with bright golden blonde hair and violet eyes, wearing loose white robes over a thin, tight-fitting sleeveless mock-turtleneck, with black fingerless gloves, and a green-bordered scroll covered in Sanskrit draped over his shoulders, stood leaning back against the outer wall of the Keiun Temple in Chang'an with a cigarette in his hand. Genjo Sanzo was very irritated, and he had felt the need to stop for a smoke on his way back before passing through the temple's gates. He looked up as a young woman with white hair dressed in the spice-colored robes of a buddhist nun approached him.
"Myoko. How was it?" he asked her, taking another drag on his cigarette.
"Just as we feared," she replied seriously with a sad sigh, peering out at him with her pink eyes from under the shade of her red umbrella. "This place is going to hell in a fast cart. All the villages and towns I passed through were the same. Things are still relatively peaceful if you travel far enough into the east, but it's only a matter of time... Has something happened here?" she asked after pausing a moment to note that he was in full ceremonial dress (headdress included) and observe his current mood. "You have two extra stress creases in your forehead, right here," she added, pointing to the space between her own eyebrows. She was a little amused by the thought that, for all the fancy trappings of his position, he looked more like a gangster than a monk at the moment.
His scowl deepened. "We've been given a mission. The Three Aspects, the Sanbutsushin, want us to do something about all this chaos, so you can bet it'll be a real pain in the ass."
Oh, goody. "Yeah, I bet..." she agreed dryly with a crooked smile. She could already hazard a guess as to what it might entail based on his expression and level of irritation. "Who else is coming?"
"The usual suspects," he replied, stamping out his cigarette. "I've already made arrangements to meet up with Gojyo and Hakkai. Now that you're here, all we need to do is grab Goku and go."
"Those fruits are not meant for lowly beings such as yourself!" a familiar voice cried from the other side of the wall, causing the two humans to glance questioningly up in the direction of its source.
"Aw, shuddup!" Goku called back, causing Myoko to sweat-drop as a vein throbbed on Sanzo's head.
"That damn monkey..." he grumbled, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist as he stomped toward the gate to beat some sense into him for whatever the cause of this latest headache was.
Better brace yourself, Goku! Myoko thought with a nervous laugh as she followed the angry monk into the temple proper. The motto for their 'household' seemed to be 'talk shit, get hit.' And unfortunately their little monkey could be a slow learner.
"What's it matter?" Goku asked, still arguing with the other monks. "There's a lot here. What's one or two?"
"!" the older monks gasped and stepped out of the way when he spit a peach pit down at them. Their eyes widened in surprise when the turn to follow the unusual projectile with their eyes brought the arrival of the troublemaker's guardians to their attention.
Goku... Myoko thought wryly as she and Sanzo reached them at that moment, finding the others gathered around the massive peach tree in the courtyard. If he was really looking to cause trouble, then his aim could use some work.
"What's all this commotion about?" Sanzo asked, managing to sound calmer than he felt. The frazzled monks looked ridiculously relieved to see him.
"Sanzo-sama, please do something about this," the bravest (or perhaps the most exasperated) man said first. "Your companion is..."
"He is eating the peaches that are offerings to the Merciful Goddess, Kanzeon Bosatsu!" the monk next to him concluded impatiently. For a Buddhist temple, there didn't seem to be much zen around.
"But they're just like any other peaches," Goku said, still not seeing the problem. It's not like this goddess ever came down to get them. He had watched them go uneaten and fall and rot on the ground often enough to know that much.
Sanzo grabbed the first monk by the front of his robes and glared at him. "My companion?!" he said incredulously. "It's not like I have a choice!"
"B... But..." the older man stuttered nervously.
"Hey, Goku!" Myoko called up, giving their favorite ward a friendly smile and a little wave.
"Ah! Myoko-nee is back!" Goku exclaimed happily when he noticed the white-haired nun, immediately jumping down to greet her.
"That's right!" Myoko said brightly, noticing that he had grown a whole inch taller than her in the short time she was gone. "And if you want to avoid capture next time, it's better to quietly steal one or two to take back to your room to eat in secret instead of sitting in the tree where everyone can see you..." She suddenly felt a familiar pressure on her skull.
"Oi," Sanzo said gruffly, pushing down on the top of her head with his hand. "You better not be speaking from experience. Just what kind of shady advice have you been giving him? Don't tell me you're to blame for this...?"
"It was a joke, a joke," she said casually with a laugh, trying to wave it off. Even though she knew it was dangerous, she just couldn't resist teasing him sometimes, especially when they hadn't seen each other in a while.
"It doesn't sound like a joke when you say it," he retorted sternly, still gripping her head. Goku was enough trouble already. The last thing he needed was her putting those kinds of ideas into his soft monkey brain.
Myoko's smile became a little tense as a bead of nervous sweat slid down the side of her face. He looked genuinely angry with her this time. "... I'm against domestic violence..."
"Did you bring me a souvenir?" Goku asked abruptly, sniffing the air around his favorite nun, too distracted to notice or care about the trouble she had just gotten herself into. "Something smells good!"
"When don't I bring you something?" she retorted, pulling out a bag of homemade almond cookies. "Here you go, some villagers gave these to me for helping them."
"Yay!" Goku cheered, but Sanzo quickly snatched the cookies away before he could grab them.
"Don't reward him for bad behavior!" Sanzo scolded her through gritted teeth. "It's because you're always spoiling him like this that he... Ah! Whatever!" he sighed with frustration. "If you're done eating, let's go!"
"Go where?" Goku asked.
Sanzo turned on his heel and started walking away without answering. Myoko smiled wryly as she followed and nodded her head at Goku to indicate they should do the same before they got left behind.
Goku grinned and hurried to catch up to them. If all three of them were going out together, then it had to be something good. "Hey, hey, where are you taking me? A restaurant?" he asked repeatedly, jumping up and down behind Sanzo in a way that invaded the monk's personal space in the most unintentionally annoying way possible.
"You stupid monkey!" Sanzo snapped, whipping out his harissen to strike Goku on the head in one swift and fluid motion that knocked him on his behind.
Another wry smile graced Myoko's face as she sweat-dropped. Even after all this time, she still had no idea where he pulled that thing out from... It was almost like a magic trick. A violent magic trick. She might have been concerned if she hadn't witnessed this type of scene enough times by now to know that it wasn't nearly as bad as it appeared.
"Ow! What the hell was that for?!" Goku demanded incredulously, shielding his head with his hands from further attacks as Sanzo started stepping on him.
"What do you think?!" Sanzo yelled, seriously annoyed with all his pestering after that little display with the peach tree. He was sure his desk was already piled high with other complaints from trouble he caused while he was out, and he really hated the idea of having to be the one responsible for sorting it out. "Hurry up and go change! Quit grumbling, or I'm leaving you behind!"
"Oh, fine," Goku pouted, virtually unscathed despite his guardian's attempts to vent his explosive temper.
"Come on," Myoko said, offering him a hand up. "Let's get you brushed off. He's already in a bad mood, so try not to antagonize him too much."
"Antagonize?" Goku asked, tilting his head slightly.
"I think you're the last person who should talk," Sanzo told her with a straight face.
"Such constant trouble..." the monk Sanzo had grabbed muttered with disapproval. "Why did a great man like Sanzo-sama pick up such a hooligan? And Myoko-san my be a talented nun, but her behavior is..."
"I cannot agree more," the other monk who had complained earlier said. They tensed and beads of nervous sweat formed on their brows when they realized Sanzo had stopped and was shooting them a sidelong glare.
"If you're going to gossip, do it out of earshot," he told the old men sternly. "What I pick up or throw away is none of your business."
A soft, small smile graced Myoko's lips when she heard that. No matter what Sanzo said, or how much he tried to claim it didn't concern him, or tried to pretend that he didn't have them, the truth was that he cared about his friends.
"Sanzo, did you pick something up?" Goku asked innocently. "Like a disease?"
"Pfft!" a quiet snort of amusement escaped Myoko, and she had to try very hard not to laugh as another vein throbbed on Sanzo's forehead.
"Shut up! You want to die?" he snapped at the monkey. "And what are you laughing at?" he said, giving Myoko a small shove forward to get her moving, as he continued stalking towards the exit. It had been five years since that fateful day when they found him together in that strange stone cage high on Mt. Gogyou. Why did I pick him up? he thought with a frown and his brow deeply furrowed. That's what I want to know. Personally, he blamed Myoko. They had both started hearing that annoying voice around the same time, but it was her who first suggested they take him all the way back to Chang'an with them after it became clear he wasn't an ordinary kid. Thanks to that it was him who got saddled with the brat permanently as his official legal guardian. Admittedly, she did lend him an adequately helpful hand in looking after him most of the time. Sometimes she could even be prevailed upon take the noisy monkey on a short trip once in a blue moon, when he felt like his sanity was about to reach its breaking point. Unlike the monks she never complained (even if she did sometimes screw around), but conversely it was a real pain when she was away, because the number of headaches always seemed to double when she wasn't there.
"Wait up!" Goku called, pulling him out of his thoughts. Sanzo realized the others had caught up to him again. Goku was wearing his traveling clothes and carrying a backpack, and the plain bag Myoko kept her alms bowl in seemed fuller than before and appeared to be pulling down on her shoulder a little harder. She must have packed them at the speed of light. She could be incredibly efficient when she got serious.
"Hey, Myoko, where are we going?" Goku asked her.
"I'm not sure," she replied honestly. "I don't know all the details myself..."
Sanzo could feel their curious gazes on his back, and the next thing he knew, Goku was bouncing around him again.
"Hey, where are we going, Sanzo? Hey? Hey, Hey? Hey, Sanzo, hello!?"
The creases in the young monk's brow deepened as the corner of his mouth twitched with irritation. "Make any more noise, and I'll kill you."
"You could at least tell us where we're going!" Goku persisted as they walked alongside him.
"We're going to see Hakkai and Gojyo," Sanzo replied. "And after that..."
"After that?" Goku asked. Myoko was very curious about that as well. She knew why they were meeting, but she still didn't know exactly where or what they were going to do once they did.
Sanzo stopped and they followed his gaze out in the direction of the path of the sun to the distant West.
"... That seems like a pretty general direction," Myoko remarked. "Can you be more specific?"
Sanzo sighed. He didn't need her starting, too. "Look, you..."
"Hey, Sanzo, can I have those cookies now?" Goku pleaded, tugging on his sleeve.
"Only if you promise to shut up," he replied grudgingly, shoving the bag back into his hand once he received a vigorous nod of agreement.
The cookies were inhaled in record timing, and they had managed to walk for some time in relative silence, until...
"Hey, Sanzo... How much longer?" Goku asked. "I'm really staving to death!" He stopped and plopped himself down to sit on a tree stump. "Don't you have any more snacks, Myoko?"
"Sorry, but that's all we have until suppertime, so the quicker we get there, the quicker we can eat," she apologized sympathetically, sensing another impending explosion in 3... 2... 1...
"But I'm starving now! I'm so hungry I can't move anymore," he said impatiently. "Hey, Sanzo—"
WHACK!
"—Ouch!" Goku cried when he was smacked by the harissen again.
And there it is... Myoko thought, sweat-dropping.
"Shut the hell up!" Sanzo shouted with a vein throbbing on his temple. He sighed tiredly and rubbed the back of his neck. Goku's whining was even more exhausting for him than the trek. "Damn it, to hear this coming from a guy who wouldn't die even if I killed him..."
"That's because I'm rechargeable!" Goku quipped.
"In other words, you're saying you want to be recharged now?" Myoko asked, sweat-dropping again. He'd just had a whole bag full of cookies... Most kids would be bouncing off the walls with spare energy.
"Yep~!" Goku sang happily.
"Is that something to be proud of?!" Sanzo snapped, giving him another kick.
"You could have just asked Hakkai to meet us," Goku pointed out.
"It's only a short distance!" Sanzo said. "Shut up and start walking, you stupid monkey!" Myoko took that to mean that he either didn't want that pointed out, or he had already done that and they were just meeting them halfway to save time. It was probably a combination of the two.
"But why are we suddenly meeting with Gojyo and Hakkai?" Goku asked.
"...!" Sanzo paused and shared a guarded glance with Myoko, who was staring at him rather expectantly. He didn't want to have to waste his time explaining everything more than once, but he decided he might as well just tell them now. "There's something I want to check."
"Something you want to check?" Goku repeated curiously while Myoko waited quietly for him to continue.
"Before, I was summoned by the Three Aspects of the Palace of the Setting Sun," Sanzo replied. He had only just returned when he crossed paths with Myoko outside the temple.
"Genjo Sanzo, servant of the Lord of the Heavens, humbly presents himself," the monk introduced himself formally as he bowed and kneeled before the giant screens of water illuminated by urns of burning blue fire in the temple's audience chamber, where images of the divine beings' faces were projected for the view of mortal eyes, even though they knew full well who he was from their previous dealings.
"You have done well to come, Genjo Sanzo," the male aspect greeted him gravely. "Time is of the essence. You must pardon us for pressing you."
"Not at all."
"You are surely already aware of the disturbance that is eating away at this world," the male aspect continued. They were aware that the priest had sent out agents to investigate the matter.
"From the West to the East... even as we speak, the casualties are growing throughout all of Shangri-La," the female aspect added.
"All of the youkais' sudden tendency towards savagery... and their loss of self, as well," the neutral aspect concluded.
"Indeed," said Sanzo. "Humans now cower before youkais, living their days in terror, next to death. 'Shangri-La' is now only a name. It is the very picture of Hell. What in the world is the cause of all this?" he asked grimly.
"Sanzo... do you know of 'Gyumaoh'?" asked the male aspect.
"Gyumaoh... a great youkai who was laid low in Houtou Castle by the war god, Prince Nataku, in the land of India far west of here, five hundred years ago," Sanzo said, recalling where he had heard the name before. "He refused to coexist with humans and devoured them for his own lust."
"Someone is trying to revive that same Gyumaoh."
This news startled Sanzo.
"Not only that, it is by means of a forbidden and tainted art... of combining science and black magic," said the neutral aspect.
"Forbidden? How come?" asked Goku, interrupting the story.
"Because the results are unpredictable, and that scares people," Myoko replied.
"Yes. Science and black magic are incompatible from the start, so no one knows what will happen," Sanzo confirmed.
"Just as the joining of youkais with humans is taboo," the neutral aspect continued.
"It will produce a negative aura that will destroy the balance in things," said the female aspect.
"You are saying that this is the cause of the youkais' savagery?" Sanzo asked.
"We fear it is so," replied the male aspect. Sanzo could see why they were in such a tizzy now. "Genjo Sanzo, I command you! Take Myoko, Goku, Gojyo, and Hakkai, whom you share a past with, and head to India far west, to the root of all this evil!"
"Discover who is conducting the experiments to revive Gyumaoh and why," the female ordered.
"And put a stop to Gyumaho's resurrection!" commanded the neutral.
"In order to recall the youkais to themselves," said the male.
"In order to regain Shangri-La, the land of peace and tranquility," added the female.
"As you wish," said Sanzo, accepting the grave task grimly.
"Oh, is that all...?" Myoko asked dryly, feeling a little chagrined. No wonder Sanzo was so annoyed. Why did such an important task have to get dumped on their shoulders? And there were only five of them. Sanzo could tell she understood the full gravity of the situation from the serious look in her eyes despite the sarcasm and calm expression on her face.
"Hmmm..." Goku hummed, holding his chin while he considered everything he had just heard. "So, in other words, we just gotta go to this India place and make the Gyumaoh experiments stop, right?" he asked brightly, giving the two humans a thumbs up. "That's a piece of cake!"
Sanzo sighed and held his head. "You know..."
"Piece of cake! Piece of cake!" Goku continued to cheer with a grin.
"Well, that's about the gist of it, but it's a little more complicated than that..." Myoko told him with a patient smile, sweat-dropping.
"In that case, let's hurry up and get going," Goku said, completely unperturbed. He didn't seem to be listening.
"Look here..." Sanzo sighed with his hands on his hips.
"So what did you want to confirm with Gojyo and Hakkai?" Goku asked.
"That was..." Sanzo began to explain when they heard a suspicious noise.
RUSTLE.
All three of them immediately furrowed their brows and glanced in its direction at a shaking bush as they detected a spike of malice, and three youkais oozing killing intent jumped out of hiding to attack.
"Nyoi-bou!" Goku yelled, summoning his staff as Myoko quickly reached for the hidden youkai-banishing sword attached to her umbrella's handle to counter. "ORYAAAH!!" Goku blocked his opponent's blade and sent him flying, while Myoko sidestepped the spear thrusted at her and cut hers down in a flash of metal when she drew the blade from the shaft in a single stroke. She quickly slid the rest of her umbrella into its holster on her back so she could continue to fight with both hands. Meanwhile, Sanzo dodged his opponent's strikes with ease.
"You're slow," the monk said calmly as he stepped behind the burly youkai to deliver a blow from behind, knocking him to the ground. "Freeze!" he ordered, drawing his gun and aiming it at his attacker's head before he could finish getting back up.
"Idiot! You think you can kill a demon with just a gun?" the youkai said cockily.
"You're the idiot," Sanzo retorted coolly. "This isn't just any gun." He pulled the hammer back and prepared to fire. "It's a banishing gun for killing youkais."
"Eh!?" the youkai cried in fear and alarm.
"Die!" Sanzo told him with his finger on the trigger.
"Wait!" the youkai pleaded, but it was too late. The exorcising bullet pierced his brain before he could get another word out.
"Go train in the world beyond."
"Sanzo!" Goku called as he and Myoko closed ranks around the monk, so that the three of them stood back to back.
"Sorry, they just keep popping up," she said, furrowing her brow as she glared steadily at the many demons who had gathered to surround them in the meantime.
"Hmph. You must be getting rusty for you to let them pile up like this," Sanzo remarked, causing her to sweat-drop.
"I'm not the only one fighting here, you know..." she reminded him.
"You guys can flirt later!" Goku said. "Don't tell me these guys are all..."
"Youkais who have switched sides to Gyumaoh," Sanzo confirmed through gritted teeth with a vein pulsing on his temple. That smart-ass monkey was definitely gonna pay for that stupid remark later.
"It's two humans!" one of the larger male demons exclaimed.
"Eat them!" yelled a butch female.
"I call dibs on the girl!" a particularly ugly male youkai shouted.
Myoko's eyebrow twitched. She was always popular with the worst sort... Frankly, she'd rather be eaten. "Sorry, but you aren't my type."
"Kuh! Damn bitch! I'll carve you up like a rack of spare ribs!"
Sanzo glared at them and clenched his jaw in frustration. "We let our guards down."
"Their eyes look totally crazed!" Goku exclaimed. Even he was starting to feel nervous.
Myoko gritted her teeth. She readjusted her grip on her sword and bent her knees. "If Sanzo backs me up, I can cut a path," she said, preparing to charge.
Sanzo raised his gun. "Guard the back, Goku."
Myoko watched the youkais directly in front of her carefully, searching for an opening. "Three... Two..."
SHNNG!
The cornered group of three was pleasantly surprised when a familiar sickle-blade flew threw the air to strike them down first for them instead. Their eyes followed the path of the chained blade's retreat to its owner up to the top of the cliff that loomed above them and saw the two people they had been wanting to meet up with.
"I'm finally beginning to see what's happening to this world, and why it's gotta be us," Gojyo called down, striking a cool pose, while Hakkai gave them a little wave.
"Gojyo! Hakkai!" Goku said.
"Nice timing!" Myoko praised.
"Long time no see," Hakkai greeted them with a polite smile with Hakuryuu perched on his shoulders.
Their two friends leaped down to join them, and the little white dragon fluttered down close behind.
"How've you been, you stinking monk, tomboy nun, and stupid monkey?" Gojyo asked with a teasing smirk.
"Don't call me a stupid monkey, you pervy Kappa!" Goku shouted angrily with a vein throbbing on his temple and one of his fists raised threateningly.
"Then are you a dumb monkey?! Well?!" Gojyo retorted hotly, raising his own fist in response.
"Hahaha..." Hakkai laughed awkwardly with wry smile, while Myoko deadpanned and Sanzo immediately face-palmed.
"I ain't a dumb monkey, either!"
"Now, now..." Hakkai said calmly, but his efforts went unnoticed.
"Then are you mini?! How about tiny?! Or micro?!"
"No! Why, you! Just shut up!"
"Oh, boys..." Myoko said in an eerie sing-song voice that actually made them stop and slowly turn to look at her. "I'm not going to have to come over there and stop you, am I?" she asked with a sharp, sickly-sweet smile that sent chills up their spines. "Did you forget we're in the middle of a battle?"
"... No, ma'am..." the loudmouth monkey and perverted kappa said quietly, visibly shrinking a little. She was even scarier than Hakkai when she smiled like that.
"My, Myoko-san sure is good at wrangling them in, huh?" Hakkai remarked with a bright smile, amused by their reactions.
"Hmph. When she tries," Sanzo scoffed. He really wished she would do it more often. "How did you find us?"
"I sensed an enormous amount of malignant youkai energy, so..." Hakkai replied, turning around to face him with serious expression on his face. "It seems that the only youkais in Shangri-La that have retained their sense of self are Gojyo, Goku, and myself."
"Surprise attack!" one of their remaining attackers yelled as they suddenly regained their nerve and charged forward at them to lunge in for the kill.
Gojyo smirked and spun around to grab the youkai's face with one hand, and crushed his head.
Myoko moved her own head aside to avoid the blood splatter. "It's not much of a surprise attack if they announce it."
"Ugh... You got that right," Gojyo agreed, shaking the blood from his hand. "Train yourself another two million years before you fight me," he told the youkais.
This made the rest of them change tactics almost immediately. "Kill the ones who look weak first!" one of them shouted, leading the charge toward Hakkai. "It's a bit dirty, but..."
Without turning around, Hakkai smiled and raised his arm. "Hakuryuu, It's dangerous here, so..." he said kindly, allowing the little dragon to fly to a safer location as their enemies closed in. The youkais were taken aback when he suddenly flipped up into the air and out of the way before they could even touch him. "Hya-ah!" Without giving them any time to react, Hakkai twisted around while he was still hovering over them and fired a concentrated blast of chi from his hands that completely obliterated them all in shot.
"Hakkai, when did you learn that technique?" Goku asked as he landed next to him.
Hakkai smiled with his eyes closed and held up a finger while he rubbed the back of his head. "I just tried it for the first time," he admitted, making Goku blink in disbelief. "I copied something I saw once. Well, I guess copying works pretty well."
"It usually wouldn't," Goku retorted as he sweat-dropped, dumbfounded.
"Look at those cuffs and gold band!" one of the few remaining youkais exclaimed when they noticed their bling.
"Demon power limiters!" another said.
"You four are demons, aren't you?!" they asked, pointing at Hakkai, Goku, Gojyo, and Myoko.
"Four?" Myoko asked with a frown, pointing at herself. They were including her in that? She was just albino. Didn't these idiots know the difference? "I don't really look like a youkai, do I?" she asked Sanzo.
He very calmly took out a cigarette and lit it. Then he looked straight at her. "No comment."
"Bastard..." she huffed, crossing her arms and furrowing her brow as she sweat-dropped.
"Why do you fight against us?" the yokais continued.
"I'll tell you!" Goku said. The youkais blinked, startled when he, Hakkai, and Gojyo leaped into the air to attack. "If you survive, that is!"
"!!" the yokais cried out in fear.
While Myoko and Sanzo watched them fight, he remembered the rest of his conversation with the Three Aspects.
"Sanbutsushin-samas, I have one question to ask," Sanzo said. "I can understand Myoko, since she's a nun and capable enough, but why have you appointed those three, who are youkais?"
"They are certainly youkais, but they are also human," the male aspect replied. "That is why they can maintain their sense of self without giving in to the negative aura. Genjo Sanzo, that is something you know well, having seen it all. It is ironic that the scars each of them bears from their pasts are what form the web that connects you all. Power and spiritual strength that makes them equal to the task of defeating other demons. They are the final trump cards that have been left to us."
"Yes, I cannot deny their abilities," said Sanzo. "However, as long as demonic blood flows in their veins, we never know when that blood may gain supremacy, causing them to turn it on us. I believe putting our faith in such a lot would be suicidal."
"Whether you really believe that or you are just saying that, it does not change the fact that it is true. Genjo Sanzo, in truth, the one who appointed those four as your companions was the Merciful Goddess of the Heavens."
"The Merciful Goddess?!" Sanzo asked, surprised. He closed his eyes and bowed his head. Painful memories flashed behind his eyelids. "With all due respect, the only one I can trust is myself. Ever since I lost what was dearest to me, my feelings on that have never changed."
"Then, Sanzo, you must place your trust in the eyes of your heart."
"Eyes of my heart...?" he asked. That sounded like a line from one of the songs Myoko liked to sing.
"Now you must meet them and ascertain for yourself with your eyes. From it, you will learn what you need, and what you must trust."
"We're the best! The best!" Goku and Gojyo cheered, grinning and clapping their hands in a high-five.
"..." Sanzo watched them closely. 'What I must trust...' he thought.
"!!" Goku was surprised when a youkai who was still clinging to consciousness grabbed his ankle.
"Hold it... our comrades," he growled darkly from his place on the ground, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth as he let go to point at the three youkai and Myoko. "You traitors who side with the weak humans. Your place is not with them. Reconsider it again. Won't you chant with us? Long live the youkai empire!"
"I've already said I'm human..." Myoko muttered with a vein pulsing on her forehead while the idiot laughed like a villain from a cheesy drama.
"Kuhahahahahaha! Ha...uk!" the youkai's maniacal laughter was cut short when Goku and Gojyo stabbed him with their weapons together with Hakkai as he stomped on his head.
"He sure does like to talk a lot of bullshit," Gojyo remarked, leaning against Hakkai.
"'Human side'?! Feh! Since the day I was born, and til the day I die..." Goku said, straightening up. "I stand only on my side!" he finished as the others smirked in agreement.
'Trust in my own eyes...' Sanzo thought.
"Looks like we don't have anything to worry about here, right?" Myoko commented, looking up at him with a smile.
Sanzo stared back at her and realized the same concerns had crossed her mind, too. Of course, they did. She wasn't an idiot, no matter how much she liked to play dumb sometimes. "Myoko," he said.
"Hm?"
Sanzo looked at the others. "Goku, Gojyo, Hakkai."
"Yeah?" they said, turning to look at him.
"Let's go," Sanzo told them, facing the sunset. "To the West."
—∞—
"Kogaiji-sama! There's some kind of movement from the East," a tall female youkai with purple hair reported to her superior in Houtou Castle.
"I already know," the brooding, redheaded male youkai said. "Nobody will stop me. Have everything ready by early next morning. Follow me, you three!" he instructed his loyal followers, also addressing the tall, muscular male with spiky brown hair and a younger female with white hair, pale skin, and periwinkle blue eyes.
"Yes!" they answered dutifully.
"Mother..." their leader said, pausing to gaze up at the beautiful female youkai trapped within a stone pillar. "For your sake...!!"
—∞—
The West and the East, each started to take matters into action. To the place where the sun rises, and where the sun sets.
—∞—
"Hey..." Sanzo said, sweat-dropping as a small vein throbbed on his forehead, starting to get fed up with the noise coming from the back of the Jeep.
"Dried octopus!" Goku said excitedly.
"Ki-ya! Delicious!" Gojyo said. "You sure packed a good spread, Myoko!"
"If you really think that, then why don't you leave some for me?" she asked, glaring at them for eating all of the candied sweet potato. "And can you not move around so much? It's already crowded enough back here."
"You think we're out here for a picnic?!!" Sanzo snapped incredulously at the noisy idiots arguing in the back of the Jeep. Myoko stopped talking and looked at him.
"You mean we're not?" she asked along with Hakkai.
"Well..." Sanzo said, sweat-dropping again. "It does seem like it, but..."
"There's red pickled ginger, too..." Myoko said, leaning through the gap in the seats from the back and holding out a small plate to tempt him.
"..." Sanzo fell silent as he eyed the dish. "Hand it over."
"I guess it is a picnic, after all!" Hakkai said brightly. "Are there any stuffed onigiri in there?"
"Some are egg and ketchup, and the others are mayonnaise," she replied.
"Mayonnaise and...?" Hakkai asked.
"Just Mayo," she answered with a straight face.
"..." they all stopped and stared at her, even Goku and Gojyo.
"There's also some sweet and spicy ones mixed in made with jam and hot sauce," she added.
"I forgot how weird your sense of taste is..." Gojyo told her, sweat-dropping, while Goku nodded in agreement.
"You guys are really rude, you know that?" she deadpanned in response. She didn't make fun of their culinary preferences.
"At least she got the idiots to stop arguing..." Sanzo muttered under his breath, earning a wry smile from Hakkai.
—∞—
"We've received a report from the Three Aspects. It says that they sent Sanzo and his comrades to the West," Jiroushin, the tired but faithful assistant of the Merciful Goddess reported to her in Heaven. "It seems as though things are finally moving, Kanzeon Bosatsu..."
"Hmm..." she mused. "Everything has already been started..."
"Eh?" Jiroushin said, surprised.
"Five hundred years ago..." The goddess recalled images of a brown-haired boy with golden eyes sitting atop a mountain and a white-haired girl with pink eyes and a red chakra on her forehead floating in a pool of wild lotuses. Things had been set in motion the moment that monkey and flower first appeared.