Get A Cold, Get A Life
by yumeneko
Disclaimer: Everything Saiyuki belongs to Kazuya Minekura-sama :)
Done for the "Doktors For Sanzo" challenge at western eyes ^-^
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"Achoo!" Sanzo sneezed in his sleep. As Hakkai heard this, he awoke.
Must be the weather... He thought, "Sanzo, Notice the funny weather lately? It has been quite cold... No wonder you're sneezing." He smiled as he looked for a very close village to get everybody warm.
Yes... The village called Setsuzan, the mountain of snow.
Where the exterior freezes over, yet inside there is warmth.
Could that be the perfect place for Sanzo?
A town like him, looking so cold, yet inside there is warmth?
"Sumimasen! Sumimasen!" Hakkai knocked on the door of a clinic. There wasn't any inn in sight yet the locals did say that the clinic was always abundant with rooms. The door opened and a nurse with pink hair appeared and let the four in.
"Mejiro-sensei! There are four men here who want to stay the night!" The nurse called out to the upper floor. The doctor, whom the nurse called Mejiro, decended from the stairs. Her eyes were gray and her ice blue hair was pinned back with a gold pin.
"Looks like your clothes aren't fit for surviving this climate. You're all practically blue!" Mejiro observed the faces of the four. Sanzo was near fainting, Gojyo was shivering, Goku lost some of his vigor while Hakkai simply looked worried, "Mister, what's your name? We'd need some help to get your companions to their rooms. It's hard enough when it's only two girls in this clinic. By the way, my name is Kai Mejiro and this is my assistant, Fu Xiao"
"Boku no namae wa Hakkai desu." Hakkai said as he carried Sanzo to the upper floors.
Meanwhile, from the high mountain tops, Yaone and Kougaiji watched Setsuzan from a distance.
Setsuzan, where feelings run so deep.
Where Mejiro-chan said she will be if I ever needed help.
She was a good friend of mine back then.
But she had always said...
"My motto is, 'A doctor always places her patients first!'" Mejiro smiled as she diagnosed the three, "Hakkai-san, you must be the healer of your friends, since I see that you value them over yourself."
Hakkai sighed as he watched over Sanzo, "So far, all I can say is that some call Sanzo immortal, others call him lucky. He is his own ultimate secret."
"Well then, don't worry too much or I'll have to diagnose you for stomachache." Mejiro smiled as she tucked Gojyo into bed, "It's getting late. You all should sleep."
"I'll watch over Sanzo. He seems to be the one who needs watching." Hakkai bade the doctor.
"Ah... I knew it. A good virgoean like you. The stars were right about you, you're fit for being a doctor." Mejiro smiled as she closed the lights and left her patients.
"Science does not remove the terror of the gods. Be aware, Sanzo-ikkou. Would it be fate that I have encountered you, even if I myself am a demon, under Kougaiji's rule... No. I am simply a friend of Yaone. But I am torn between choices. Shall I follow my motto of keeping my patients first or will I succomb to my friend's master? This shall truly ache." Mejiro sighed as she wrote in her diary, "Xiao-chan, did you reheat the hot tubs?"
"I have, Mejiro-sensei." Xiao smiled.
Meanwhile, Hakkai sat on Sanzo's bed, watching the monk. His face was so serene while he slept. The moon cast a glow around him, making his blond hair shine like gold. Hakkai smiled as he viewed the face of the one he cared for. Sanzo always told him his darkest secrets, and Hakkai told him his. It was a mutal understanding, but Hakkai had always wondered if Sanzo can heal that wound in his heart. Sanzo was so different from his beloved Kanan.
Maybe that was it. Maybe he could have made me forget. Forget about Kanan. Forget about the past. But it hurts to forget. It hurts, Sanzo... It hurts...
Tears fell from Hakkai's eyes as he thought. What if Sanzo was truly a key to forgetting Kanan? Yet forgetting this past would hurt him just as much as having this past would.
Just tell me Sanzo. I don't know what to do... I can't think. Should I forget this past, or should I keep it here. I feel so pained... So alone... Onegai, Sanzo...
Hakkai laid on Sanzo's chest sobbing. Soon, Sanzo's sheets were damp with Hakkai's tears. He didn't know why it was Sanzo he was crying on. It could have been Gojyo, but there was something, something he couldn't describe. This feeling that Gojyo couldn't quite know, or that Gojyo has known too much already. It was like pleading for something to a person who doesn't have it. It was a painful feeling and Hakkai couldn't help that pain... It was ringing through his heart. That want to be held, that want to be comforted, that want to know that he was worth something.
After all that I've done for you, Sanzo, I just want you to know that I need you, too. I want you to treat me just as I treat you. I can't explain it Sanzo, but it hurts so much to know... to keep inside me this question... Do you really appreciate me? Do you really value me? I need to know...
"If you have no faith, it is because you don't own yourself. You let someone else decide how you're going to get screwed. Decide for yourself how you're going to get screwed. Some ways are fun." Sanzo murmured as he buried one hand in Hakkai's hair, "Just stop crying. It isn't quite like you."
Hakkai wiped his tears on the back of his palm and sniffed, "I know, Sanzo... I just couldn't help it. I don't know why I chose to cry on you rather than on Gojyo."
"Gojyo hates tears," Sanzo murmured as his eyes met Hakkai's, "I don't mind them. I was crying when I lost... No, I shouldn't say that."
"Tell me..." Hakkai smiled, "I'll listen."
"My master, the late Komyo Sanzo, you remind me so much of him. He smiled so much. I can't erase how I felt whenever he smiles at me. You bring back that feeling to me, the feeling that the whole world hates you, but when that one single person smiles that smile, you feel as if someone out there cares for you," Sanzo sighed as he combed his hand through Hakkai's soft hair, "Goku and Gojyo's smiles are something different. They smile as if they ruled the world. The only time you can see them caring for others is when they don't smile. You're the one who I have my eyes on Hakkai. During those times when I was in need of help, you were there with your smile that told me to keep on living. If there was one thing I can never live without, it's your smile... I love you so much, Hakkai..." A tear escaped Sanzo's eyes. Hakkai moved upwards on Sanzo's body and stroked his face.
"I'll always be here... by your side."
Outside the clinic, in the blistering cold, Mejiro saw Yaone.
"Yaone-chan..." Mejiro smiled, "Did you come to visit?"
"We know that the Sanzo-ikkou is in your clinic." Yaone said, "We need to get Sanzo's sutra. Will you be able to get it?"
Mejiro hesitated. She knew that this was inevitable. It was a painful choice. Would she prioritize her friend's wishes or prioritize her patients. Will she break her motto of 'A doctor always places her patients first' ? But she promised so long ago...
"Yaone-chan... I'll help you. But I won't harm my patients." Mejiro answered with a kind smile, "I will keep my promise..."
So that night, Mejiro crept into the Sanzo-ikkou's room. Hakkai and Sanzo were asleep in one bed, Goku was snoring loudly and Gojyo was simply in his bed, Mejiro's tucking wasn't undone. Mejiro smiled as she quietly took the sutra from the table. But as she tried to escape, she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder.
"Where are you going with that sutra, sensei?"
Mejiro sighed as she gave up. As she turned to see who her captor was, she smiled, "Gojyo-san... I knew it. You're an insomniac..."
"Mejiro... You said you'd prioritize your patients. Why rob them of their valuables?" Gojyo asked the gray-eyed doctor.
"Long ago... when I was a little child, Yaone was my best friend. You know Yaone, right?" Mejiro explained, "Before she started working for Kougaiji, I promised her that anytime she needed my help, she could find me here."
"Wakatta... I know it's hard to let a friend down." Gojyo sighed, "But before you can take the sutra, you should fight me first!"
Mejiro put the sutra back on the table, "I'm sorry, Gojyo-san... I shouldn't fight you, you're my patient. I might as well be punished by Yaone-chan..." She walked away.
The snow started to fall outside. Gojyo sighed.
Snow... This frozen rain.
This frozen tear of a god.
Rain means so much.
Lest it means death and destruction.
Yaone faced the empty-handed Mejiro in the snow. Mejiro's tears were streaming down her face, but she was smiling.
"Forgive me, my friend... I have not brung back the sutra..."
"Don't mind it. You're still a friend. You don't need to push yourself."
"Arigatou. But, I am just the rain..."
"Nani?"
Mejiro stepped back, "I killed my own patient once. But I put part of my soul into him to let him live. I only am half-dead. I know death now... I am the rain... the rain that embraces death tightly."
Yaone watched her friend with patient eyes, "You don't need to waste that other soul."
"But I need to keep my promise to you, or else this soul will disappear..." Mejiro took off the pin that held her hair. It was a limiter and Yaone finally saw what the soul-halving has done to her friend. Mejiro's right arm was covered in bandages and her right eye was hidden by her hair, "Yes. I have destroyed my right side. My arm is deformed with scars, and my eye is replaced with a shikigami that allows my right side to function. Now, I will keep my promise, and I will get that sutra... Even if I die!"
"Yamete! Yamete!" Yaone begged her friend, "Why do you have to keep that promise anyway?"
Mejiro looked back at her friend with those cold, gray eyes, "I used that promise to keep this soul intact. If I break it, I will die..."
Hakkai and Sanzo woke up sensing danger near.
"Another one of Kougaiji's assasins?" Hakkai asked the blond monk.
Sanzo nodded in approval. Hakkai rushed downstairs to check who it was.
Cold gray eyes
Ice blue hair
The perfect picture of the cold winter
I would have never thought of her to be an enemy
"Gomenasai, Hakkai-san, but I have a promise to keep..." Mejiro brought out her iron fan, "And if I don't keep that promise, I'd be dead by then..."
Hakkai got into a defensive position. He knew Mejiro was going to attack relentlessly but he had no idea of how violent her attacks would be. Mejiro showed no emotion at all, keeping her emotions to an expressionless state. The fan she held was of short-range and could easily be avoided, but Hakkai didn't have time to use his barrier. Mejiro was able to inflict so many damages to Hakkai. Hakkai's limbs were bleeding badly. He knew the fan wouldn't be enough to make him suffer more than several scratches but even if the wounds didn't hurt, he saw that he was bleeding badly.
Sanzo felt a premonition and scrambled downstairs. Mejiro was attacking silently with an iron fan while Hakkai was suffering mere scratches, but judging by Hakkai's emotions, he knew that Mejiro's fan had some sort of illusionists drug.
"Hakkai! Snap out of it! It's an illusion!" Sanzo shouted at the brunette. Hakkai, awakened by the call, made a barrier in time to repel the blue-haired youkai. Mejiro stood up unharmed. She was still expressionless as she started to cast a spell.
"Impossible..." Sanzo murmured, "The only demons who can use magic must be high-classed ones... Hakkai! Try to defend it!"
Hakkai built a barrier around himself as a blue aura surrounded Mejiro.
"Shi-ne!" She yelled as a snake of ice wrapped itself around Hakkai's leg, breaking through the barrier.
"This is purely impossible... It's just like Kougaiji's engokuki..." Sanzo watched as he started to chant. But his chanting was cut short as Hakkai yelled in pain. The snake of ice bit deep into his leg and he was slowly being encased in ice.
"Teme... Let him go! You said that you would value your patients first!" Sanzo yelled at the doctor.
Mejiro's expressionless state broke, her face started to become regretful, "This shikigami... it has controlled me... It forced me to keep the promise." She brushed the hair away from her right eye to reveal an orb shikigami. The kanji within it said 'promise', "You'll have to kill me to save Hakkai-san!"
"Don't worry... Sanzo would kill you to save you..." Kougaiji's voice was heard.
"Kougaiji-sama..." Mejiro whispered as she went back to her state of expressionlessness.
"I know you've been working hard to keep that promise, Mejiro-san," Hakkai pleaded, "But you also kept another promise! A promise to value your patients!"
Mejiro shook her head, "The promise I had embedded into this shikigami was the promise I made to Yaone-chan! I will get the sutra no matter what!"
"Yamero!" Kougaiji yelled at the blue-haired doctor, "You're just going to destroy your whole philosophy if you keep on following what that shikigami wants!"
"Kougaiji-sama's right!" Yaone joined in, "I don't want you to lose your mind, Mejiro-chan!"
"Then kill me..." Mejiro whispered, "It has been a year since this shikigami has possesed me and now it has full control over me! Kill me before I kill him!"
Sanzo looked at Hakkai, he was up to his shoulder in ice, "I have no choice... Kougaiji, Yaone, stand back! I'll finish this, once and for all! MAKAI TENJOU!!" The sutra wrapped itself around Mejiro. Kougaiji covered Yaone's face, shielding her from the terror of her friends death.
Sanzo took out his gun and pointed it to the trapped Mejiro, "I'm thankful for you saving us. But who are more important? Your own life, or your patients life? I wish you could be saved in another way, but there is no other way anymore... I guess the best thing you can do is sleep..." And so, Sanzo shot the doctor who was perceived to be a sanctuary. Mejiro fell to the ground. She wasn't extinguished yet, but the ice around Hakkai began to melt and the wound began to heal. Sanzo ran towards him and took him in his arms.
Yaone, breaking from Kougaiji's grip, caught her friend with Xiao the nurse. Mejiro looked to the sky as blood dripped from her fingers.
"Sensei! Sensei!" Xiao cried out. But all Mejiro could do was lay one hand on her nurse and the other on her friend.
"At last... I've been saved..." She whispered as she died smiling.
"Mejiro-chan..." Yaone smiled though tears were running down her face, "Oyasumi... tomodachi..." She placed a small kiss upon her friends cheek.
A lone tear fell as Mejiro's body began to disappear, just like all the other demons before her. All that was left was the orb shikigami with that single kanji, 'promise'.
"The problem with most people is that they often don't know just how free they are." Kougaiji murmured as he placed his hand on Yaone's shoulder, "They trap themselves. Whether it maybe for themselves or for others. That promise. That shikigami. She kept herself in that labyrinth of promises. She never knew that promises were meant to be broken." Just as Kougaiji finished his words, the orb cracked and broke.
Was life truly like this
Losing a friend, losing a life
But life will go on...
No matter how many obstacles there are
Inside that shikigami, there was a small flower. It was a memento for Yaone.
"At least she left something for me..." Yaone smiled holding the flower close to her heart.
Kougaiji held Yaone close to his heart, "But I'll never disappear. We'll keep this memento together... forever."
"Kougaiji-sama..." Yaone closed her eyes as her lips met Kougaiji's.
"We might as well leave these lovers alone now, Hakkai..." Sanzo smiled at the brunette in his arms.
Hakkai smiled as he watched the intimate scene, "Hai, Sanzo... Those two were meant for each other. And ain't it so that the same applies with us?"
"Let's just leave this place before they decide to chase after us..." Sanzo smirked as he went upstairs with Hakkai.
They had never noticed that the flower in Yaone's hand became a beautiful rose. A blue rose with white leaves.
And to think that all this has started with a cold...
~Owari~
Author's Notes: Wow... Kougaiji and Yaone... How sweet *sniff, sniff* I even thrown a nice amount of Hakkai and Sanzo. I'm so happy!! This probably may be the best Saiyuki fic I've written up to date!!