Hello fellow FFnet-ers! This is your author speaking, back from the dead. Or, rather, back from approximately 5 years of living real life, doing things other than writing fanfiction. 5 years is an awfully long time...I've tried coming back to this story, I really have. Obviously, I've never managed. But I happened to stumble across it today, and I ended up on my old profile page here, and I see the story still has hits. Five years after it was updated. I'm amazed, and a little proud. So, I reread it, and I'm a bit ashamed of my 13/14 year old self. In hindsight, there are some things that I feel could really use some fixing-up. As much as I tried to keep my character from becoming a Mary Sue...I think she still kind of is. Sorry, I'll fix that. The older you get, the more evident it becomes. So that's what I'm here to do. I will be revising this story, and, if I can keep my attention on it for long enough, I will try to add to it. Now that I'm a bit closer in age to our heroine (I'm 19, and she's, what, 21?) it should make a bit more sense...psychologically. Wish me luck. I hope my writing skills have improved since middle school.

Sincerely,

"Error 404-chan"

PS: Reviews to let me know how it's going? Also, this is un-betaed, so there may be a few typos. But I promise my grammar has gotten a lot better in the past 5 years.

PPS: I've changed the character's name. I hope you don't mind, but I'm really done with the whole making up a unique name out of a noun thing. In short, her name was bugging me. Her full name is pronounced "May-ve" and her nickname is pronounced "May". I've spelled it "Mei" so it's written as the Japanese would write that syllable.

Disclaimer: I don't own this series. I only own my rather strange OC.

Chapter One: In which they meet

The boys had him surrounded down by the river. One of them whacked Kouryuu, sending him flying into the water. Kouryuu positioned himself so that he wasn't getting his clothes wet but he still looked good and beaten. Maybe then the boys would leave him alone. But alas, they felt it was their duty to shove him on his rear in the cold edge of the river. Suddenly, a voice sounded from up on the top of the hill, drawing their attention away from the shivering figure whose clothes were rapidly soaking up water.

"Oi freaks! Leave him alone!" The voice belonged to a girl. She leapt down the hill, clearing it in two jumps. It looked almost like she was flying. "If you're lookin' for a fight I'd be happy to provide one."

At this, the leader of the boys stepped forward. He gave her a once-over and smirked disdainfully, tilting his head back in arrogance.

"You think a girl like you can stop me?" he challenged. It was true. The girl was probably a head shorter than Kouryuu, and so she was only almost up to the boy's chest. He towered above her, glaring down at her. You could practically see the sparks flying between their eyes. Without warning, the boy shoved her hard, which would have normally pushed someone over. Instead, the girl took the opportunity to jump backwards. She then hopped over him in one swift move, and jabbed a spot on the back of his neck. He fell forward, and lay sprawled out on the ground, unmoving. The rest of the boys stared at her, a horrified look collectively dawning on their faces.

"So, anyone else?" she asked sweetly, feigning innocence. The other boys turned and scrambled up the hill, away from her. She strolled over to the river and offered a hand to Kouryuu. He grabbed and she pulled. She was surprisingly strong for her size, as Kouryuu realized how small she really was. She was several inches shorter than him, yet she was strong enough to pull him out of the river. As he started wringing his clothing out, she burst out suddenly: "Hey, do you wanna to come with me? I know a good place where you can get dried off. The sun shines real bright there. I always go there after swimmin'."

Kouryuu stared at her ruefully. "You call this swimming?" he quipped.

"Well, no, but like I said, you want to dry off, right?"

"...sure."

"Great! I'm Maeve. But everyone calls me Mei. You can call me that if you want."

"My name's Kouryuu."

"Nice to meet ya!"

She led him to a spot near the edge of a cliff, where a big flat boulder sat, on top of a pile of other rocks. She climbed up, careful not to tear the skirt she was wearing. When she got to the top, she lay, sprawled out on the top, staring at the sky. "There's lots of clouds to look at today." She turned and peered down the rock at him. "Whatcha waitin' for? C'mon up!"

Kouryuu scrambled up the pile of rocks, and sat on the opposite side of the boulder from where she was laying. She looked at him and said "You don't have to sit so far away. I don't bite. Usually. Besides, if you sit so close to the edge you'll fall off." Kouryuu didn't say anything, but scooted closer to the middle of the rock. She sat up and looked at him. "Hey, why were those guys bein' so annoyin' anyways?"

"It's because I'm Master Sanzo's favorite student. They're jealous."

She giggled. "You're real modest, ain'tcha?"

He gave her a look. "I'm just stating a fact."

She was unaffected, but gave him a fake hurt look. "To-uchy."

"How old are you, anyway?"

"I'm eight."

'Smart for her age,' He thought."Oh, you're two years younger than me."

"Really? You're ten? You're..." she thought for a second. "Six years younger than Onii-chan."

"Who is your brother anyway?"

"Oh! My brother's name is Ryuu. Me 'n him live over that hill over there. I don't got any parents, so he takes care of me."

"Oh..."

"It's not like it's big deal or nothin'. He takes real good care of me, 'n he's real nice," she paused pensively, following the path of a cloud with her eyes for a moment. Then, when the silence seemed to be settling in, she piped up. "Where d'you live?"

Kouryuu gestured toward the temple. "I live there. Koumyou Sanzo is my master. I live with him."

"So you don't got any parents either?"

"No."

"Ooh." There was another pause, shorter this time. "Hey, when you're dried off, ya wanna come over to my house? Onii-chan's working today, and I don't wanna be there alone. That's why I was down by the river before. The house is creepy when empty."

Kouryuu stopped for a minute, trying to figure out what she was asking. "Okay."

After he had dried off, she led him up over the hill, down a dirt path, and up to a house. It was fairly small, but studily built. She grabbed a key from her pocket, and stuck it in the lock. Wriggling it around for a second, she kicked the door a few times and it came open. She walked in, motioning for him to follow. He led him down a short hallway, into a room with a sloping ceiling. She immediately bounded toward the bed, and jumped up on it, and started bouncing up and down. He watched at she bounced up and down a few times, then went to high and whacked her head on the slope, causing bits of plaster to fall down on her head. She brushed the plaster out, unaffected, and sat down on the bed, noticing he was staring at her. She broke into a smile.

"What? I do that everyday. You can sit down if you want." She moved over and made room on the pale blue bedspread, now flecked with bits of plaster. She looked at him as he sat down, then turned to the front again, and blew a few times to move a stubborn bang from in front of her eye. Finally she gave up and grabbed it with her hand and pushed it to the side. After tucking it behind her ear, she turned to Kouryuu, who had been looking at his hands as though they had suddenly turned into tentacles. He had never sat next to a girl before, or been near one, for that matter. There were no women around the monks.

"Hey, what d'you wanna do?" she asked him. He didn't answer, so she thought for a second then sprung up so suddenly, he almost jumped a foot in the air. "I know, I know! How about we go out to the backyard? I have this thing there, I mean I asked Onii-chan to attach some fabric to a frame, and it's fun to bounce on." She sprinted out to the backyard, Kouryuu following a few paces behind. She climbed up onto the makeshift trampoline and started bouncing up and down. As he watched her bounce, he caught glimses of the bright green shorts she was wearing underneath her skirt. She bounced up and down a few times, then stopped and hopped over to the edge. "Are ya gonna come up or am I gonna hafta drag ya?" He gave her a look that said 'touch me and die' and carefully climbed up, minding the edges of the fabric where holes were gaping between it and the frame. He hopped a few times experimentally, and them starting jumping up and down, having a good time. After what seemed like minutes but was probably nearly an hour she slowed down and jumped off, landing a few feet away from the trampoline. Kouryuu followed, sliding off the edge so he wouldn't kill himself trying to jump. She looked at him and said "I'm hungry. Are you?"

He was about to say no, when his stomach betrayed him and growled. She took that as a yes. "C'mon. I'll find something." She ran inside, him still trailing behind. She ran into the kitchen and skidded to a stop in front of the counter, with cupboards above it. In one smooth motion, she grabbed the edge of the countertop and pulled herself up to where she could reach into the cupboard. Kouryuu stared up at the backs of her legs, her green shorts a short distance above him and blushed, turning away. She grabbed a basket from the cupboard, then ducked and she pushed the cupboard door shut, and somehow still managed to get whacked in the head by it. It didn't faze her at all, however, and she hopped off the countertop and skipped over to the door, yanking it open. She turned around, and motioned for the befuddled Kouryuu to follow her. He snapped out of his thoughts and followed her back outside, where she pulled a blue cloth out of the bag, and spread it out on the ground, emptying the basket out on it. Seeing the clueless look on Kouryuu's face she explained "Onii-chan knows that I don't cook, and I like to eat outside. So he makes these and I just eat them for lunch. There's about enough for two people, I think." She grabbed a bun from the basket and shoved it in her mouth, her cheeks bulging as she chewed.

"Why do you have so much food in here?" Kouryuu asked.

"Mmm mmm mm mmmm m mmm mmph." she said, with her mouth full, then paused and swallowed, saying again. "Sometimes Onii-chan has to work overnight, so he packs extra so I don't poison myself trying to cook."

Kouryuu looked away again. "Oh."

She ate fast, so he followed her example and they finished in a matter of minutes. Then she shoved the remaining food and the cloth inside the basket again, and pulled it up. She ran back to the house, so quick Kouryuu didn't even attempt to follow, dropped the basket off, then ran back out again, skidding to a stop as was her custom. "Wanna go for a walk? There's this really nice path that way—" she pointed off vaguely to the left, "—that I really wanna go further down, but it's kind of spooky."

He nodded. She thought for a minute then perked up and said. "Let's go down by the river, first. I'll race ya!" she sprinted off. As she ran, Kouryuu weighed the advantages and disadvantages of running after her. Would he degrade himself by trying to catch up to her by running when he had about a one in a million chance of winning, or just walk over and meet her in a minute? He decided on the second option. When he got there, she was hopping up and down, doing a victory dance and singing "I won I won I won!" Maybe the first option would've been better. After all, there was that tiny chance he could've won. But it was too late now. After about three more 'I won!'s she stopped and said "Let's head over to the woods." He followed her, as he had been doing all afternoon. She walked this time, thankfully. As they were walking toward the trees, another group came running towards them from another direction. The other boys almost ran straight by them, until one of them stopped short and the others followed.

"Hey, look it's Kouryuu. What're you doing here? Visiting your girlfriend?" At this Mei's gaze darkened and her brow furrowed deeply.

"What did you call me?" she hissed.

"Don't concern yourself, little girl. Go home and play with your dollies." he taunted. At this she visibly snapped and was on him in a second, clawing and biting him. He stepped back, trying to throw her off, and finally she jumped off and started pummeling him in the chest, prompting Kouryuu to grab her by the back of the shirt and yank her away.

"Never call me little." she spat at the boy once she had a few seconds to calm down. She glared at the other boys with a look that said 'anyone else wanna say anything?' The boys looked at her, disturbed, and went off in the direction they had come from, forgetting about their original destination. She turned to him, and her expression changed to that of a small smile. Kouryuu followed once again, as she led the way away from the trees. As they neared the path to the temple Kouryuu said,

"I need to get back to the temple; I still have some chores to do."

She gave a slight laugh. "That's okay. I do too. I better do 'em 'fore Onii-chan gets home...I guess I'll see ya then. Come to my house tomorrow, if ya can. I won't have anythin' else to do but sit and be bored. Besides, like I said…it's spooky in there alone."

"Alright. 'Bye." They turned and went their separate ways.

Many times after that they played at her house. It wasn't until a month after that Kouryuu met her Onii-chan. He was as nice as she had said, but whenever he was there he was always hurried, like he had to do something else. Kouryuu guessed that came from having to support himself and his sister.

One day, when they had been friends for about half a year, Mai asked him "Hey, do ya wanna spend the night at my house tomorrow night? We can sleep outside on the bouncy thing!"

He looked at her, wondering what that meant by the invitation, then dismissed those thoughts when he saw the innocent, hopeful look in her eyes. "I'll ask."

When he did ask, the other monks looked at him like he was crazy. Koumyou made that decision, knowing that Kouryuu wouldn't be asking if there was any chance something innappropriate would happen. So later that night, Kouryuu walked to her house carrying a small bag with the things he'd need for the night.

She answered the door when he knocked, wearing a fleece nightgown and pulled him inside, through the house, and out the back door to the trampoline. She had a big pile of blankets on it. When he got there she jumped up and started separating them into two piles. When she finished she laid them out, three in each pile. She pointed to the group topped by a red patchwork quilt. "That's your bed," she said as she jumped and landed on the other pile of quilts. She burrowed under then stuck her head out said "C'mon up."

He climbed up and crawled under two of the blankets on his 'bed,' his head sticking out near the pillow. She did the same and faced him. "Now what..." The sun had been setting, and the darkness was coming quickly, so she reached into a bag and pulled out a flashlight. Holding at a spooky angle she said "And now it's time for sca-ary stories..."

Setting the flashlight on the ground, she started her story...

"Once, in a forest a lot like the one around here, there lived a giant monster that liked to eat little boys. He was 20 feet tall, and as wide as three trees all squished up together. One day, a boy with blond hair and purple eyes wandered into the forest alone, and the monster grabbed him and said 'Raaawr I'mma eat you, little boy!'"

She wiggled her fingers menacingly at him and snarled. Kouryuu raised his eyebrows daintily and sat back on his pile of blankets, feigning distress at her newly-concocted story.

"The boy obviously didn't wanna get eaten, so he said 'Please mister monster, don't eat me, I'm too skinny, I wouldn't make a good meal anyway.' But the monster was still going to eat him. The monster put the boy on the ground, getting some rope to tie him to a tree while he heated up his pot where he cooked people before eating them. But the boy ran away while the monster wasn't looking. As he ran through the forest, he could hear the footsteps of the giant monster chasing after her, getting closer and closer. So he ran faster. He barely got out of the forest before the monster caught him. The monster couldn't leave the forest so he just stopped behind the trees and howled while the boy ran all the way home. He never went in that forest again, but boys kept disappearing after going in there, so he knew the monster still lived there and would catch him if he ever went in again."

She stopped and stared at him seriously. "That's why I don't go in the forest alone. I'm pretty sure there's something like that in there." She seemed so earnest, he didn't have the heard to tell her that he had been in there many times, collecting firewood, and he had met so such creature.

"Do you know any?" she inquired, tilting her head to the left so her hair fell away from her eyes, which were wide open.

He shook his head, and she said. "Okay, then. Guess we should just go to sleep..." she stopped talking, and curled up into a little ball, pulling her covers close to her. "'Night." she drifted off. Leaving Kouryuu to stare at the stars, pondering how quickly she managed to fall asleep after being so awake just a moment before. The stars were beautiful at night. He couldn't see them very well through the window in his room, but out here he could see the whole sky, glittering with stars. It stretched out before him, and he stuck a hand skyward to swipe at a pinprick that was probably millions of miles away. The night air was cold. Retracting his hand, he pulled a quilt up to his chin, and turned sideways to look at his friend. Her hair was spayed around her head like a crooked halo, and her mouth was open, and he could see where she was missing a tooth. He reached over to smooth her hair away from her face, and brushed her cheek by mistake. She made a noise in her sleep, and he pulled his hand back quickly, turning the other way, but she didn't wake up. Sighing to himself in agitation, Kouryuu pulled the blanket over his head, squeezed his eyes closed, and tried to sleep.

He woke late the next morning. He could tell by where the sun was in the sky that it was around eight in the morning. Mei was still sleeping, so he shook her. She turned away from him and murmured "Too early...need more sleep..." He persisted, however, and after three more good shakes she woke up and looked at him. Her hair was sticking up three different ways. Kouryuu suppressed a laugh. She saw him looking at it and quickly flattened it down. She hung herself over the edge of the trampoline and grabbed her bag, pulling out a couple pieces of fruit. Tossing an apple him she said "Here. Breakfast." She dug voraciously into an orange then. When they had both finished, she led the way into the house. She stopped near her bedroom door and turned to Kouryuu. "You can change into my room. I'll change in the bathroom. Just meet me in the kitchen." He smiled. So she did know the rules of propriety, it seemed. Five minutes later, they both met in the kitchen. Mei was dressed in a Chinese style dress, and her short brown hair was neatly brushed, although it still stuck out around her already round face.

As she walked him back to the temple, he promised to come visit again the next day.

And he ended up doing that, and the next day, and the next, and the next, and the next. During these he learned a few things about her. For one, she was very afraid of thunderstorms, and she despised being called little (although this he had already guessed.) She liked singing, and couldn't cook, not even the most basic dish. She had learned about fighting her older brother, who had taught her how to bring down a bigger opponent with just a few well-placed jabs. Unfortunately, because of her size, if someone held onto her, she was stuck. That is, unless she was provoked. Once that happened, she would fly into a blind frenzy and tear away from whatever was holding her down and begin to beat the offender senseless.

Their lives continued on mundanely for sometime, until Kouryuu's life was changed forever in a single day.

Kouryuu watched in horror as the youkai slashed through, leaving only remains of what was once his beloved master. Shuuei ran in and saw him standing in shock, and quickly dashed over to the boy. The only sentence he could get however was "I couldn't protect him..."

[This part is completely canon, copied from the book]

"I understand." the high priest said. "So thieves broke into Master Sanzo's room, and slaughtered him for the Seiten Sutra. Is that correct, Kouryuu?"

"It is. My master shielded the Maten Sutra and me with his body, so it remained safe. From what I could see, the burglars appeared to be youkai. "

"They took my master's life and treasured scripture of this temple. This is my responsibility," he clenched his fist tightly.

One of the other monks spoke up. "You think to fool us with those lies? That brat killed Master Sanzo! Check his room for the Seiten Sutra! We all know he's a monster!"

"Watch your mouth! You have no-" Shuuei shot at the monk.

"Forget it, Shuuei." Kouryuu said. "I request permission to leave the temple. I will avenge my master and regain the sutra, even if it costs my life."

"LIAR! He's making up excuses to escape!"

Kouryuu turned and gave the monk a hostile glare.

The high priest decided to intervene. "But Kouryuu, vengeance aside, it's not a sin you should bear alone."

"It's not that. I just want back what's mine."

"What?"

"Master Sanzo called me to him last night. Before he died, he bestowed upon me my official title." He took off the bandage that had been wrapped around his head, revealing the crimson chakra. "Genjo Sanzo. From this day forth, that is my name."

Some of the other monks stood in surprise. "His forehead! He's wearing the chakra!"

"Kouryuu..." Shuuei said.

"I see..." the high priest said. "So this is the Buddha's will?"

"High priest, you can't!"

"This is Koumyou Sanzo's golden crown." he continued, ignoring the previous outburst. "I hereby recognize you as Priest Genjo Sanzo of China, Thirty-first Successor of the Seiten and Maten Sutras."

[End selection from book]

Kouryuu took one last look back at the temple before he left. He had one last detour before he went out to search for the sutra and to avenge his late master's death by destroying those youkai. Heading over the hill, he set off for Mei's house. He had to tell her what had happened, so she didn't get herself in trouble by coming down and looking for him.

As he walked over the hill's crest he was met with a horrible sight. Mei was lying on the ground, still and silent. Blood was spilling out of a line across her chest and arms, right above her heart. The youkai had obviously made another stop in their journey. He quickly turned away from the sight, revolted, and swallowed the lump in his throat. Then, he turned and started on his journey to regain the sutra.