"Your Voice, Your Heart" by: Setsuna X
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Summary: Stuck in a town for days Goku finds himself enraptured by a young girl. When the time to leave comes will he leave with Sanzo, who always treats him badly, or stay with the girl who promised to love him forever?
Disclaimer: These bishonens do not belong to me…although it'd be nice if they did.
Chapter 1- The Finding
"Ugh, when are we getting to the next town already!" whined Goku, clutching his stomach "I'm hungry over here!"
"Shut up!" replied Sanzo in a monotone voice, used to hearing the same damn thing day n and day out.
"Yeah, shut up you stupid monkey" said Gojyo putting Goku into a headlock. "Hey!" exclaimed Goku.
"According to the map" said Hakkai, glancing at the paper that fluttered on his lap "the next town should be just over this hill". Just as Hakkai said the three youkai and one human spotted the town with its bustling people and rowdy children. Just as they were about to descend a low moan caught their attention as well as the sound of rustling leaves.
All four of them became tense, waiting for one of Lord Gyumaoh's assassins to strike, but when nothing showed up Goku was the first to speak.
"You all heard that, right?" he asked as he slowly descended from the iron ca. Gojyo and Hakkai nodded as they followed Goku out of the car and toward where the sound came from. Sanzo stayed in place with an irritated look on his face as he crossed his arms across his chest. Goku, Gojyo and Hakkai had finally reached the bushes and all of them let out a startled gasp.
A human girl, around the age of sixteen, was lying there with bruises covering up her body and her ribs poking out slightly from her thin frame.
"Hey are you okay?" asked Goku as he reached out toward her tentively.
"Hold on Goku" Hakkai reprimanded "let me heal her first, moving might cause her more pain." Goku nodded and backed away from the girl slightly.
"Man, I wonder what could have happened to her" said Gojyo as he lifted the girl bridal style and carried her over to the car.
Sanzo gave an annoyed glare at the bundle in Gojyo's arms and bluntly, if not rudely, asked "What the hell is that?" lighting a cigarette in the process.
"Sheesh, she's just a little girl Sanzo, no older than the monkey."
"Hey!" yelled out Goku as he approached the car followed by Hakkai. "I'm not a monkey, damn water sprite!"
"She's in very poor condition Sanzo, we should take her into town with us" Hakkai said calmly. It was rare for him to ever ask Sanzo for anything.
All three of the guys stared at Sanzo and awaited his response partly nervous that he'd tell them to leave the poor girl on the road. It was a fact that Sanzo didn't like helping others.
"Whatever" he snorted as he turned back into his seat, facing forward. The rest of the guys shared a grin as the clamored back into the vehicle.
"Let's go Hakuryu" said Hakkai as the engine roared on and sped toward the town.
Once the four travelers entered the village they received an awful lot of attention. Mostly people staring at them with a look of disgust on their face or sneering at them openly, but they noticed those looks weren't sent at them directly, but at the girl in Gojyo's arms.
"The quicker we get to the inn the better" reasoned Sanzo as the others nodded in consent. The further they got into town the more aggressive the people became. Some began throwing insults that sounded a lot like 'Demon-spawn' and 'Devil-child'. Women began gathering their children and ushered them away. To say that they were stunned with this behavior was an understatement. They finally reached the inn, miraculously in one piece.
"I'm sorry, but you may not have a room" said the elderly innkeeper once he got a look at the child Gojyo was still clutching in his arms.
"And why would that be?" asked Sanzo threateningly.
"A-a Sanzo priest!" gasped the innkeeper. "You wouldn't happen to be Priest Genjo Sanzo, would you?" stuttered out the man.
"Who wants to know?" retorted Sanzo. The other three grinned at each other knowingly; there's no way anyone would turn down Sanzo.
"R-right" stuttered the innkeeper "right this way to your rooms please, but might I ask what you plan to do with that demon-child?" he asked while pointing at the girl
"Demon?" asked Goku in a surprised tone.
"Yes, she is an evil demon who terrorizes our village. That is why she was banished and is heavily scorned here." Sanzo just gave the man a glare. "B-but of course it isn't any of my business…heh heh" laughed the man nervously, stepping out of Sanzo's room.
Slowly Gojyo put the girl on the bed and sat down in the remaining chair.
"So…what do we do with her?" he asked looking at each of the guys in turn.
"Well, we can't just leave her starving and beaten on the outskirts of town!" declared Goku.
"I agree, but what if the things the innkeeper said were true ands she does terrorize the people of this village? They seemed rather active in their dislike of her" said Hakkai. Before anyone could answer a clap of thunder was heard along with the sound of rain. The pitter patter of droplets soon got heavier and heavier and it would only take it a couple of hours for it to really begin pouring outside.
Sanzo let out a sigh as he rubbed his face with one hand. "Well since it started raining and doesn't look like it'll let up by morning we're forced to stay here" said Gojyo logically.
"Hn. Well since you three picked up this excess baggage then you'll deal with her. Leave me out of it" said Sanzo, lighting up another cigarette.
"So where would she stay?" asked Goku.
"I suppose we could rent her a room" said Hakkai.
"I'll be damned if I'm wasting any money on some brat, a stranger even!" replied Sanzo, enforcing his statement with a most pronounced glare.
"Hey cheapskate! That's not even your money, that belongs to the three floating heads!" admonished Gojyo.
"Anyway, despite that I doubt the innkeeper would allow her to have a room anyway" continued on Sanzo, ignoring Gojyo's outburst.
"That is true. He did seem pretty forward about how he felt about her" said Hakkai.
"Well, she's not staying in my room, that's for sure" said Sanzo, glaring that the three youkai.
"Well, I have Hakkaryu and there wouldn't be any space left in my room" said Hakkai.
"And we can't let Gojyo stay with a girl, right? I mean, he is a pervy water sprite" continued on Goku.
"Hey!" exclaimed Gojyo "she's too young for me to do anything to her."
"So that means that she will stay with you, Goku" continued Hakkai, ignoring Gojyo completely.
"All right, I'm going to ask the inn keeper if he has any more futons or something so I can sleep on the floor. Gojyo, take her to my room and put her on the bed."
"Where do you go off giving me orders, you stupid monkey" retaliated Gojyo, annoyed at everyone.
"It wasn't an order as much as a request, dumbass" calmly responded Sanzo "although you are stupid enough to get the two mixed up." Instead of retaliating to that comment as well, because he knew that Sanzo had a point Gojyo simply grumbled something that sounded an awful lot like 'stupid worldly priest' and 'dumb monkey' as he lifted the girl up and carried her over to Goku's room with Hakkai trailing behind him and Goku had gone to retrieve the futon. Sanzo remained in the room with a cigarette in his mouth, the smoke escaping from his lips.
There was something bad and wrong with that girl. The villagers called her a demon, yet her appearance was nothing but a broken and fragile human girl and she had no visible power limiters either. Were the villagers calling her a demon based solely on behavior or was there some truth to what they said? There was also the feeling that something was off with her chi and aura…but he couldn't figure out what it was, but the thing that bothered him the most was how attached Goku seemed to her, especially after such a short time.
Sanzo sat contemplating these things for a few moments more, but decided it was too much of a hassle and began to read his newspaper…perhaps there would be something on the child in there.
TBC
A/N: Finally finished typing up chapter 1. –sigh- That took longer than I thought. I'll see how fast I can get chapter 2 up, but considering work, school, and other fics that I'm currently typing out it might take a while. But bear with me please and await any new chapters.