"You're cheating, you flea-bitten kappa!"

It was a normal day, clear blue sky, the arguing monkey and kappa in the back of the jeep, and Sanzo about to blow a gasket and just shoot them all. The blonde haired monk's eye twitched for about the billionth time that day, even though the day was only half through, as his hand clenched around the harisen, four seconds away from smacking the next one who spoke.

"You damn monkey! I didn't cheat!" The taller man exclaimed, holding up his arms. "I don't have any baggy sleeves like you do to hide any cards!" He added, motioning to his outfit. The kappa was also quite correct; the white tank top tucked into his pants, which came up above the belt enough to cover his stomach slightly, had no sleeves at all. Over that was a light blue vest with a large collar, also having no sleeves had sleeves, and thus not much of a place to hide any cards. In fact, the only things on his arms at all were what looked like white bandages wrapped around his wrists. Suicide kappa? No, just decoration.

"You're only supposed to take four cards!" the monkey boy snapped, pointing at his hand, his short orange cape fluttering behind him with his movement as the yellowish shirt underneath a red and black cover shifted over his arms, the sleeves never dropping below his elbows. "You've got six in your hand!"

"You can't count, can you, you stupid chimp!" The red eyed man lifted up his cards. "Look! One…two…three… four!" He showed the brunette boy the 'four' cards that he was holding in his hand, making sure to keep the two extra cards in his possession firmly level with the others.

The monkey's hand shot forwards and seized hold of the kappa's wrist, shaking it slightly to make two more cards show themselves. "FIVE, SIX! I knew you were cheating!"

The kappa's quick, seventy percent perverted mind quickly brought up an excuse to give to the hyper-active youth. Although he knew for sure the monkey would just deny anything he said… because he had, in fact, been cheating. Damn the chimp for having enough of a brain to figure out rough probabilities.

"Damn monkey you framed me! You slipped them in there," he yelled, throwing the cards down on the floor of the jeep angrily. He was a good actor, although sometimes that got him a smack in the face by the shitty monk's harisen.

"I DID NOT! You liar! You lose by disqualification, 'cause you cheated! So I get your share of rice tonight!" Goku cried, half angrily and half in glee at the notion of getting more than his fair share of food. That's Goku, always thinking with his stomach, everything the monkey does boils down to either the last meal or the next meal or any of the multiple snacks he has in between.

"What! There was no bet on rice!" Gojyo's strong arm came out and wrapped around Goku's neck, the kappa's free hand clenched into a fist as he drove his knuckles into the boy's scalp, twisting it back and forth. The monkey gave a yell and started to twist back and forth frantically, desperately trying to get out of the powerful hold.

"We're here!" the driving brunette said pleasantly as the jeep pulled to a stop in the town. He had a fixed smile on his face, his voice matching it as he turned slightly in his chair to look at Sanzo's whose hand was over his face and that dark look over his eyes that clearly said he was ready to kill them all. "Everyone out! Hakaryu's tired." Hakkai then added in, turning to look back at the arguing couple.
"Let me go you pervvy kappa!" Goku managed to wriggle free of Gojyo's solid hold and sank his teeth into the bigger man's forearm. Then he quickly snapped back and leapt out of the jeep gracefully and landed on his feet rushing away from the kappa's retaliation.

"I'm not through with you yet, monkey!" threatened the half-breed as he rushed after the seemingly younger of the two, his fist raised in the air.

"Get away from me!" The golden eyed young man commanded, bending down to lift up a stone from the road way and chuck it back at the kappa. There were plenty more stones were that one came from, it was just a matter of picking them up.

"You little brat!" The stone whizzed by Gojyo's cheek, barely missing. He ducked down and lunged, tackling the smaller man around the middle and they landed hard on the ground. His hands caught the monkey's wrists and they struggled, both fighting for dominance and the final pin.

"GET OFF ME!" he roared as his teeth sank once more into the kappa's forearm, struggling against him in the confusion of bodies that they had created. Neither of them cared where their struggle was taking them, for all they knew they were still ten feet away from Hakkai and Sanzo where the battle had begun.

The healer and the monk stood off to the side, one taking a long drag of a cigarette while the other rubbed the back of his head, a cheerful look on his face as a white dragon landed peacefully on his shoulder. Sanzo was thinking longingly of just pulling out his gun and just popping them both in the head, and this would all be over.

"You guys, this isn't exactly keeping a low profile you know." Hakkai inputted, holding his index finger up to the sky as he did. Sanzo shook his head, looking over at the inch-taller healer.

"It's not going to do anything."
"You're probably right…" Hakkai's fingers trailed over the soft fur on Hakaryu's neck, and the dragon responded to this gesture by giving a happy peep. "Except we should do something before they crash into something… or one." Hakaryu gave a coo, latching his claws into the pale pink sash tied like a Miss. America banner over the chi-user's shoulder.

The two currently wrestling and arguing, one of them biting, had gone into rolling to see who could pin the other, traveling steadily down the street,

"I need to check in to the in—"the monk started, obviously not interested in breaking the two up unless his precious effort was warranted.

"KYAAHH!"

Hakkai and Sanzo, even in towns or during their sleep, were always fast to respond to any type of scream… or yell as it were. They rushed down the street in the direction the monkey and kappa's antics had brought them. It wasn't that long before they came upon a tangle of arms and legs in the middle of the road.

Apparently the wrestling match had caused the tallest and shortest member of the Sanzo party slamming into an innocent passerby, who was currently pinned under the weight of the two men on top of them. Sanzo smacked his hand to his forehead as a vein started to appear on his temple, pulsing with his suppressed rage.

It was also very apparent that neither the monkey nor the kappa realized they had someone else accidentally entangled in their brawl. The monk drew his trusty banishing gun out from his robes and fired it, the bullet whizzing up into the sky harmlessly as the wheel rotated and the hammer slammed down. It was the gun's bang that Sanzo was looking for to cause the two wrestlers to freeze, their eyes wide.

After the three persons had been untangled and pulled away from each other it was discovered the poor bystander was a young lady, who was currently clutching her side with one arm. She slowly wobbled to her feet again, Hakkai's strong but gently hand cupped under her elbow to support her.

"You idiots!" Gojyo and Goku were currently in the middle of the harisen punishment of their lives as Sanzo released his anger that he had held in during the untangling. "I don't care if you kill each other but you're starting to get OTHER people hurt! Morons!"

Ignoring the background noise, Hakkai checked to make sure the woman was all right, while also taking in her rather odd appearance. His green eyes gently made sure nothing was injured, and instantly locked onto the side that she was clutching.

"Are you alright?" he asked, smiling slightly. His inscrutable green eyes sparkled gently with his natural kind nature as he bent down slightly to look her in the face. "Don't worry about those three, they're harmless really."

The startled and still dazed girl looked up at Hakkai; she was shorter by about three inches, bringing her height to maybe 5'8". Her eyes closed halfway in the daze she was recovering from, they were a passive shade of grey, nothing too bold or too amazing. She seemed to be very ill, due to the paleness of her skin, but her cheeks had a rouge tinge to them… a healthy tinge.

"Will you permit me to see your side?" he asked softly, trying to figure out what was up with her. Her eyes seemed too large for her face, kind of like Goku's eyes were rather large, but Goku's eyes portrayed innocence, hence the size. However this girl's eyes just made her face seem slightly awkward.

"Um…" her voice wasn't soft, but it wasn't loud either. Slowly, a small nod was Hakkai's answer. She removed her arm from her side, showing a good sized gash in the grey-blue material hugging her figure and a large stain of dark red.

Sanzo's purple eyes had flickered over to her just as she moved her arm and his attack on the two retreating nimrods increased. "You made her bleed you imbeciles! We have enough angry youkai after us; we don't need angry villagers as well!"

Hakkai tilted his head to the side however, his semi-untamable hair swaying gently down over his eye, despite the green headband tying it back. He brushed the forest shaded material of his tunic off gently before holding his hand out over the wound; it didn't seem like something a simple crashing-into would cause. That looked like a gash created from a blade… or sharpened claws; he had healed enough of them to know that they looked like.

"…It wasn't them who cut me…"

Everyone, including Sanzo, his harisen a half an inch from the head of the kappa, froze. What had that been? They looked at the girl who stared back in silence, her eyes widening and making her face seem even more awkward and shy. She bit her lip, which had a natural pout to it, and chewed on it softly. Why were they staring?

"What did you say?" the monk asked, turning away from the aching duo at his feet, his tan robes fluttering slightly with his smooth movement and the precious sutras around his shoulder shifting a bit.

The girl just stared back in confused silence, before her facial expression became understanding. She rubbed her head slightly, shifting her pointed hat backwards on her unnaturally straight chocolate brown hair, which came to her mid back at full length.

"Gomen…" she shook her head back and forth several times, "I said it wasn't them who injured my side."

Hakkai was the first to figure it out; she had been speaking a different language! And even now, speaking their language, the words came out slightly hesitated and with a vague accent which, luckily, didn't hinder their understanding of the words coming from her mouth. The blonde monk had been second in the race to figure out what the hell she had just said and nodded a little bit, but then frowned.

The healer shook his head slightly, then reached forward and hovered his hand over the gash on her side. Her eyes turned to him curiously, watching what he was doing as a subtle green light took life under his fingers, and the gash slowly closed over and was no more.

"There, all better." He stated obviously in a pleasant voice as the girl lightly touched her side, her eyes a little wide in wonderment. Sanzo grumbled and brushed off his robes, his fingers lightly trailing over the gold chest plate he was wearing as he turned away, but before he could say anything, Goku opened his big mouth first.

"Hey lady, what's with the weird clothing?"

"Goku!" Hakkai exclaimed, looking over at the monkey with that older brother look like, 'that was rude!'

However, Goku wasn't at fault, to him the girl's clothing was rather bizarre, for she wore a tight fitted, long sleeve button up shirt that was made of a grey-blue color with midnight blue accents, gloves and a pointed cloth hat to match. Her sleeves made a drooping bell shape, draping over her hands slightly. The thing that really made her outfit odd, at least to the monkey, was the skirt. It simply burst from her hips like a waterfall of night-sky blue, the hem nearly brushing against the dirt of the road they stood on. Further more the skirt split open in the front, exposing a white underskirt that ruffled more than the over skirt. A chain hung around her waist, falling down over the skirt at an angle and little symbols and dangles hung off it, just adding to the overall oddness of her appearance.

Sanzo's outfit was the oddest thing the monkey had seen before, but he had gotten used to it over the years after the monk had freed him from the stone prison. The tan robes of his mentor, the golden chest plate that signified his high priesthood, the chakra on his forehead that was the sign of Buddha, and the sacred Maten scriptures adorning his shoulders. Once in a while he wore his nifty crown thing, which Goku got smacked with the harisen if he called it that within earshot of the monk.

"It's all right, I suppose I do look rather odd." The girl replied softly, folding her hands in front of her. She seemed not to mind the rudeness of the monkey, although she was turning a bit red around the cheeks.

Gojyo's eyes flickered over her silently, she wasn't the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, but she was certainly one of the most out of place looking one, and that gave her a kind of subtle cuteness. Her pale skin contrasted against the darker tones of most of the people in the town, even Sanzo's skin was a shade or two darker than this girl's; she looked like a ghost! He wondered vaguely where this girl came from to get the features her face and body held. And her clothing… that was defiantly not from around here.

"All right, she's healed, everything is quiet again, let's go." The monk said gruffly, shifting his shoulders as he moved for the inn, his arms folded over his gut. The other three men just silently watched him walk fifty feet down the road and then enter the door that had a sign hanging above it that stated "Bade Inn".

"Yeah…" Gojyo muttered softly, stretching his arms over his head and arching his back as well to continue the stretch. His lanky form relaxed once more before he walked over to the girl whom Hakkai was making sure she wasn't hiding anymore wounds from him. He leaned down, looking her in the face. "Hey, before anything else happens, what's your name?"
"Eh…" the girl bit down on the hem of her glove, thinking. "Eh…"

"Watashi wa…. desu." Gojyo helped softly, motioning with his hand during the pause between 'wa' and 'desu', trying to hint that's where she put her name. Tilting his head to the side, the subtle though that language barriers sometimes sucked crossed his mind. His long wine-colored hair fluttered down and over his shoulders, falling over his blue head band easily.

"Ah." The girl gave a smile of thanks. "My name is Rinze."

"Rinze…" Gojyo repeated softly, not a common name at all; in fact, this was the first time he ever heard it. He extended his hand toward her, giving a grin. "I'm Gojyo, Sha Gojyo. That is Cho Hakkai, and Son Goku, AKA monkey." He added in, motioning to the respective owners of the names and they gave little waves, smiling. However Goku was tilting his head back and forth, as if he was sensing something was very wrong.

"What is it, Goku?" Hakkai asked softly, resting his hand down on the youth's shoulder. He had learned that sometimes Goku's instincts lead him in a direction no one else would even notice. The monkey's gold eyes turned up to look into the healer's face as he replied, softly,

"She's still bleeding."

"What?"

"There are more wounds on her, but they are hidden… maybe under that… big poofy skirt thing." Goku said, looking back at the girl, who was shifting back on forth on her feet, wincing with every transfer of her weight. Hakkai gave a nod then walked forward, holding out his hand. He should've known himself,

"Rinze, may I ask how you got that gash on your side?" he asked gently, not wanting to scare her by stating he knew she had more wounds. That would make most young ladies uncomfortable.

"…a battle," was the short reply, the girl's grey eyes looking back at Hakkai, half lidded. Gojyo stood up straight again, blinking.

"Youkai?" he inquired, his eyes narrowing a bit as she nodded. Youkai's claws would've caused more slices than just that one, there must be more. Most youkai had greater speed than the average human, and thus were able to plant multiple strikes on someone's person before they could retaliate. Hakkai seemed satisfied and he extended his hand farther out to the girl, for her to take.

"Miss, I must ask that you come with us for a little while. We know you have more injuries on your person, so there is no use lying to us. We only want to help you," he stated gently, watching her. She fidgeted, and wrung her skirt a little bit before reaching out and placing her fragile hand in Hakkai's warm one.

"Don't worry, toots." Gojyo flashed a charming grin, "he can't hurt a fly, you'll be okay."