Disclaimer: I don't own Saiyuki; Kazuya Minekura does. I just obsess over it.
It had been two days since Gojyo and his friends left. Since they'd been gone, there hadn't been a single word about youkai attacking.
As per her usual routine, Shunrei was outside hanging her clothes on the line beneath the jewel blue afternoon sky. Only the slightest breeze rippled through the air, but the temperature was a bit low so it was enough to make her want to quickly finish the job and head back inside. In spite of that, she hung each freshly washed and sweet smelling garment up as lovingly and caringly as the first. She was smiling, smiling at the message Gojyo and the others had given Auntie Pan before they left.
Jien will come back to you.
She would continue to do his laundry until that day. After all, if the youkai she'd encountered in the forest had been any indication, Jien would be beyond thrilled to wear something that was actually clean.
She straightened out the shirt she'd just hung up and looked at it almost admiringly. It was one of his favourites. It had thinned with wear and no matter how many times she washed it, that coffee stain near the breast pocket never came out.
And thanks to those four, she'd be alive to see him in it again if--no, when the youkai's sanity was restored at long last.
Having hung the last item, Shunrei put her unused pegs in her basket and turned to go back inside.
As she walked, she started to wonder how they'd managed to drive those sick youkai away from her. When her mind wandered in that direction, she got an awful, sinking feeling.
They'd killed the youkai. That much was obvious. The death penalty wasn't undeserved there, but did that mean...?
Shunrei shook her head. She knew Jien would never attack a human, so there was nothing to worry about.
Of course, she'd been so certain that nothing could take him away from her and look what happened. The purity and warmth in Jien's soul hadn't been enough to save him from the Minus Wave's affliction and he'd lost himself along with the rest. Not-Jien probably wouldn't hesitate to draw blood, and if Gojyo and the others discovered him tearing at human flesh, they--
Shunrei froze in front of her door, paling with realization. The clothes basket fell from her hand and the pegs scattered on the ground around her feet.
They'd kill him.