Hi and welcome to my first Saiyuki fic!

Notice: This fic contains my original characters, but it's not exactly mushy characterXOC romance stuff really. Centers around the OC's, Goku's friendship with OC. No slash though, but some fluff. Enjoy reading!

It was an ambush, the guys were sure of it.

They were making their way through the forest road on feet since the snow had gotten too deep and thick for poor Hakuryu to go through. Hakkai, being the kind and understanding master, smiled and got the other two adults and one child to get off the tired dragon.

They walked along the road, trekking up a hill, as the air gets colder and the forest deeper. The group wrapped their cloak tighter around them selves even though it provided them little warmth.

Just as soon as the wind got a little stronger, the yokai jumped on them from bushes and behind the trees. The four of them undoubtedly managed to kill the demons off in easy motion, but the yokai kept on coming.

"Damn it, this isn't gonna be easy," the red head spat. "They keep on coming one by one!" Goku whined. He easily knocked out an unsuspecting demon that came up behind him.

"Don't worry boys, I'm sure they'll start to recede soon. Just hang on a bit longer, eh?" Hakkai said in that sweet face of his, giving a deadly blow to another demon. Sanzo didn't join in their conversation though; he's too busy trying to spot a leader among these demons. He's sure that someone probably rounded up these guys to ambush them, and using these snowy mountain trails to their advantage too.

A few minutes and slices afterward, the group finally killed the demons off. "Well, that was really not cool, ambushing us in this weather," Gojyo huffed and lit a cigarette. A low rumble came from the boy who stood not too far away from him, "Gah, I'm hungry! Hakkai, how much further is that village?" he whined.

"Well, just half a day's worth of drive, but with this snow it's not going to be easy," he mentioned. He petted the white dragon perched on his shoulder. "We better get moving now then. Can't hang around here much longer or more yokai are gonna co-"

"Sanzo, look out!" Goku shouted.

A demon tackled the priest from behind and placed a knife on his neck. "Any funny moves, the priest dies," it hissed, baring its fangs.

"Shit, this is bad," Gojyo said, as about six more demons emerged from under the forest darkness, surrounding them. "Hold on Sanzo, I'll get to ya!" Goku shouted and his staff appeared into his hands.

"Wait, Goku, we can't risk it," Hakkai stopped the young boy, holding him back with a hand on his shoulder.

"But..."

The demon leader laughed. "Ha! I knew it that you boys won't be able to do anything with your precious friend's life is on the line here. Now, taking the sutra is gonna be so much easier... And I'll bet my boys will have much pleasure in beating the shit out of you three," he chuckled.

"Your breath stinks," Sanzo huffed with much mockery.

"Ha? What was that, you little prick- Ugh!"

Very swiftly, a dagger stabbed through the demon's forehead, barely scratching Sanzo. The demon dropped dead to the ground, and Sanzo whipped his gun out and fired the nearest demon around him. "Shit," he cursed under his breath as he noticed his gun was out of bullets.

"Huh? Wait, what was that? Who threw the dagger! Hakkai!" Goku spluttered.

Suddenly, someone threw a bundle of three tied fat rabbits onto his arms, throwing him off guard. "Wha-?"

A tall man walked passes him by. Who is this guy? Did he give me a bunch of dead rabbits? Goku wondered.

The man was all covered up to his head. His face was hidden in a bandanna that covered his nose and mouth, his eyes by goggles and head warmly tucked in a fur hat. The man gave a small nod to Goku, as if he's saying a hello.

"What the heck is this guy- agh!" A demon exclaimed as the man pulled a small knife from a pocket in his brown leather jacket, killing him off in one swift throw directly into the heart.

The mysterious man pulled two revolvers from its holsters hung behind his back, shooting the demons to death one-by-one easily. He seemed like an expert on handling guns.

"Um, this is awkward," Gojyo inched closer to Hakkai to whisper. When the man finished, he unloaded the empty shells from his guns. He began to load new shells into one revolver.

He cocked his revolver and placed it back into its holster, and turned to face the group. Sanzo immediately pointed his gun towards the man's head.

"Wait, Sanzo! But he helped us! He saved you!" Goku quickly said. Sanzo ignored him, eyes fixed in a deadly glare.

"Are you human, or yokai?" Sanzo shouted.

The man stood in silence. He brought his hand up to the side of his face, pulling the bandanna slightly down to reveal a rounded, human ear. There were three piercings on it too.

Hakkai gently pushed Sanzo's hand down. "I guess we can say it's safe now," he smiled. "Thank you for saving our friend, good sir," The man gave a curt nod and walked over towards them.

He picked up the tied rabbits and hanged in over his shoulders, and patted Goku's head. He walked back into the forest, and stopped. Turning around, he gave a light head tilt into the forest, as if telling them to follow him.

"I think he wants us to follow him?" Gojyo said. "Oh, he probably has shelter near here? And the wind in starting to pick up, and I can say for sure there's going to be a storm soon," Hakkai said.

"Let's follow him! He probably knows where the village is at, right!" Goku chirped and walked a few steps forward. "Well, Sanzo?" Hakkai asked the reluctant monk beside him.

The blonde man gave a sigh, but nodded. He knew better that snowstorm on a mountain area like this one will be too risky.

"Yeah!" Goku threw his hands up in the air. The group of four followed the mysterious savior into the woods, leaving the demon bodies behind for crows to eat.

Goku saw a cave not too far from them. The walk was about a mile, and the man leading them barely said anything. He was so silent, occasionally stopping at bushes and trees to pick some leaves and small flowers- herbs, as Hakkai suggested when Goku asked.

As they walked nearer to the cave, Gojyo noticed something was hanging on the top of the cave mouth- a small purple coloured pouch. His brows furrowed, but chose to ignore it.

The cave was relatively wide. A warm fire burned in the middle and a motorcycle with a sidecar leaned beside the cave wall. Beyond the made fire, someone was crouching over a small bundle asleep in a sleeping bag.

The figure turned around to reveal a young teenager's face, probably 16 years old. "Dad, you're back!" his face lit up. He stood and quickly made his way towards the man.

They said something between themselves quietly as the Sanzo group came into the cave. The teenager glanced towards them. "Dad, who are they?" he asked.

"It's okay, they're safe. I saved them from a demon attack, and they need shelter for tonight's storm," the man explained briefly.

"Wha- so you can talk!" Gojyo commented, and earned a light punch into the stomach from Hakkai.

"Please excuse our intrusion," Hakkai politely said, giving the two a bow. The man had pulled his mask down by now. He handed the rabbits and herbs tied together to the boy, and began to take off his hat and goggles.

The man flipped his tied blonde ponytail back. Without the goggles and facemask, the group have a better view of his face now. The man seemed to be in his twenties or so, judging by his slim and young looking face. His blonde hair tied back but a few strands of hair hung loosely on the front of his face. He gave a gentle smile to the four in front of him; his blue eyes clearly spoke of kindness.

"I was glad that you guys decided to come with me, or I'd be worried sick to know you'll be caught in the snow storm later on tonight," he said. "Thank you for having us here," Hakkai smiled.

"My name is Cho Hakkai. This is Sha Gojyo, the little one is Son Goku, and this is Genjo Sanzo," he introduced. Goku chirped a hello while Gojyo gave a smile and nod.

"My name is Hanson Arteland. This is my son, Christopher," the man introduced himself and the timid boy who hid behind him. "Please, make yourselves at home. Come to the fire to warm yourselves up," he mentioned, his hand motioned towards the fire.

"Right, Chris, can you prepare these please? I was thinking of making some stew and a roast for dinner," Hanson said to his son. Christopher nodded, and went to the bag hung on the motorcycle to get some things.

"Goku, was it?" Hanson called.

"Huh, me?" Goku perked up.

"Would you like to accompany Chris to the stream not far from here? I don't want to risk my son being alone when there's demons around in the woods," Hanson said. Goku was more than happy to go along. He wanted to make friends too, anyway.

The adults watched as the duo walked out of the cave, Goku already chatting happily to the teenager beside him.

"So, where are you guys headed to?" Goku asked.

The boys are beside the small stream not too far from the cave. Christopher brought the rabbits and herbs, a small pot and a pouch of some kind that's used to carry various types of knives- as Goku found out soon enough.

"Um, just trying to get back home," Christopher said. He expertly skinned the rabbit he held, cutting it up and pulling the inedible organs out, throwing them into a small fire he made.

Goku tried his best to not be nauseated with the sight and smell, so instead he focused into the forest beyond the stream. "Home? Where is that at?" he asked.

"It's... really far actually. Our home is not in this world," Chris said nonchalantly. He washed the meat he cut up, placing them into the pot. He proceeded to skin another rabbit.

"Not in this world? What does that supposed to mean?" Goku asked, interested. Chris paused with his work, but continued. "Well, it's different from this world. We don't have violent demons running around, and towns are bigger," he gave a small smile.

"Aah. But, how come you're in this world then?" Goku asked more. "Hmm, it's a long story actually. But cut short, my dad and brother got caught into trouble, and we had to escape into this world through a portal," the boy explained.

Goku gave a hum and they both sat in silence. Goku felt that it's pretty weird, talking about a different world and all, cause he knows that by logic, it doesn't really make any sense... But when he took a good look at Chris and his dad, they do seemed like they are not from around here.

"It sounds weird, doesn't it?" Chris asked, as if he knew what Goku was thinking about. "My dad said we shouldn't reveal too much about our world to the humans living here though. It could be dangerous,"

"Dangerous?" Goku wondered.

"Yeah. Well, something happened years ago and it caused a lot of mess. So that's why we're keeping things low," Chris explained. Goku could see that Chris is trying his best to keep his words simple, like keeping a secret. He shrugged, and decided to change the topic of their awkward conversation.

After cleaning up, the boys walked back towards the cave, with Goku carrying the pot and knives pouch and Chris carrying two cleaned skinned rabbits impaled on sticks to be roasted.

When they came in, Goku happily announced that they were gonna have some roast meat and stew for dinner. Hanson was brewing some tea when they came in. He took the prepared ingredients and began to cook over two separate fires, one for the stew and the other for the roast.

Hanson poured the warm tea into small cups, handing each to the men. "The cooking's going to take a while, I hope that's alright," he smiled.

"So, who's that sleeping over there?" Goku asked, sipping his tea. "My little brother. He's down with a fever," Chris said. He was sitting across from the guests, near the sleeping boy.

"Chris, can you wake your brother up for his medicine?" Hanson called. He was sitting near the cave mouth, busy with the cooking so that the fire smoke won't cloud into the cave. "Okay," Chris said.

He took a small bottle of liquid from a pocket on his jacket. Popping it open, he poured a few drops into the cup of tea.

"Benji, wake up," he gently said, petting the small boy. He stirred, and woke up, yawning. "It's time for your medicine," the brother smiled.

As the little boy slowly sat up and drank from the cup, Hanson came over and sat in the empty space beside Hakkai.

"This is a bad weather for a sick person, isn't it?" Hakkai politely said. The cup warmed his hands.

"Yeah. Benjamin has been sickly since birth actually. His mother had complications giving birth to him, and she died just a few minutes after," Hanson said. He loosened his hair band, and pulled his long hair back, retying it.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Hakkai apologized. "It's alright. She knew she wouldn't make it, giving birth to him. But I'm sure that she was willing to face the consequence," Hanson smiled. He poured some tea for himself.

Goku edged closer behind Chris to have a peek at the little sick boy. His raven black hair was covering his face as he leaned into Chris's lap. "Benji, look. We have some guests," Christopher said.

Benji shyly looked up and saw a grinning teenager beside his brother. "Hi there, Benji!" Goku chirped. The little boy gave a blush a small squeak, and hid his face into Chris again.

"Haha, hey, don't be shy. They're nice people," Chris chuckled. "Benji, come say hello to them," Hanson said. With his father's order, Benjamin meekly sat and looked up to the other three men across the fire.

"Um... 'Ello," he gave a small nod. "Hello there, little one. My name is Hakkai," Hakkai smiled. "And I'm Goku! That's Sanzo, and the grumpy cockroach is Gojyo!"

"What did you say, you monkey!"

Gojyo pulled Goku's head under his arm in a playful wrestle, making quite a noise. Sanzo gave a deafening glare towards them, earning a stop in their fight but they still mumbled their rants at each other under their breaths.

Benji quietly laughed in a small voice, earning a much merrier atmosphere despite of the gloomy weather outside the cave.

"Dinner's ready!" Hanson announced, placing the pot and roasted meat carefully beside the fire for warmth. "Luckily we've got some extra bowls with us, oh but do excuse for it's small size. It's so that it won't take up too much space,"

"Oh, no, it's fine," Hakkai gave a small hand wave. Christopher helped to pour the stew into the bowls and passed it around. "Well, let's eat!"

"Trying to get back home?" Gojyo asked.

"Yes. We got into some trouble back then, and we ended up here. Now we're trying to get back home," Hanson nodded. He fed some of the soup to Benji beside him.

"So, where exactly is your home? We've passed by plenty of towns before; it could be one of them. Maybe I can show you the locations on the map?" Hakkai offered.

"Oh, but Chris said that their home isn't in this world!" Goku suddenly piped, and covered his mouth with a hand when he realized he accidentally said something he shouldn't when Chris' head shook.

"Christopher?" Hanson said with a slight stern tone. "I'm sorry..." His son bowed his head low.

"What's this about?" Hakkai asked. "Well, it can't be helped, really," Hanson sighed and leaned back. "But, I trust the four of you, so..."

"We're not from this world, actually,"

A short silence passed them by. Gojyo made a confused frown. Sanzo sipped his tea, but kept his eyes on Hanson, curious. Goku continued to eat, and Hakkai wondered, "I beg your pardon?"

"We're not from this world, Hakkai-san," Hanson repeated. "We came into this dimension through a portal, from our world. We were trying to escape from a demon attack at our base, and the only fastest and available transport was to portal our way to here,"

"From where we came from, things are much modern than this world. Technology are advanced and very depended on, cities and towns are bigger. The humans there co-exist with various creatures, and docile demons," he explained more.

"Co-exist with demons? Just like here too, only before the outbreak began and turned the demons violent," Hakkai said.

Hanson nodded. "I am a lieutenant in the army in our world. Our division specialized in Dimensional Affairs, so we had to go to different worlds for various missions. We're like what you'd call as 'Dimension Officers'," Hanson smiled. Goku gave and 'ooh' to his explanation.

"That's so cool! So you can go to different places and see lots of things? Neat!" Goku exclaimed. "Dad's visited over 50 worlds," Chris said proudly.

"It's not as easy as it sounds though. Sometimes when you arrive to a new dimension, the inhabitants are the first things you encounter. It could either end up in an alliance, or danger," Hanson said.

"Alliance? So you're going through worlds to join forces?" Gojyo asked.

"Yes. Her Royal Majesty in our world came up with this strategy. But it's also for the greater good, for we are in a war," Hanson confirmed, but suddenly bowed his head low at his last sentence.

"War?" Sanzo finally spoke.

"Against an evil entity named Lucifer. He's a demon leader of sorts," Hanson said in a quiet voice.

"May I have seconds?" Goku suddenly chirped. "Of course," Hanson smiled, and passed the pot over to him. Gojyo used a clean knife Hanson gave to cut the roasted rabbit meat in front of him and chewed.

"So then, how come we haven't heard of this? Didn't the Gods say anything, Sanzo?" he asked. Sanzo shook his head quietly.

"Well, apparently the army kept their hands off of this world. You guys have enough problems yourselves, dealing with violent demons," Hanson said.

"In fact, you boys are yokai too, aren't you?"

The three said men freeze in their seats. Sanzo's brows furrowed.

"What ever are you talking about, Hanson-san?" Hakkai flashed an innocent smile.

"There's no need to hide. The moment I found you in the forest back there, I knew you are demons. I was surprised to see that you have restrainers on, too," Hanson smirked.

Goku thought he saw Chris and Benjamin edged backwards a little.

"So what if we are yokai then? You gonna kick us out as how villagers do?" Gojyo spat.

"Dear Heavens, no. I won't kick out you out. In fact, I'm a part demon myself," the man smiled.

"What? As in, you're a half-ling like Gojyo? Born from human and demon?" Goku asked. "But your hair and eyes! They're not red!"

Hanson gave a small laugh. "I'm not born from human and demon parents, actually. I share what you call a 'Second Soul' with a demon, and it's inside me. It grants me more strength and power," Hanson explained.

"Gah, this is confusing!" Gojyo scratched his head. "I don't get it! But does that mean like; you're safe or something? You seem pretty happy and cool about it," Goku wondered.

"It's actually safe. In my world, gifted people gain Second Souls. They could be anything really, souls of ancient Gods or creatures. Mine just happen to be a demon king. When I got my 'awakening', the demon was really troublesome, causing pranks using my body. I was reluctant to accept it, but at one time, the demon saved my friends and I in a mission. I was truly grateful, and accepted it as my other half," Hanson said.

"Wow... I guess your world really is different from ours, huh?" Goku sighed. Wouldn't it be nice, if the demons here had that sort of awakening that doesn't drive them insane? Then the humans wouldn't have to suffer and die... he quietly thought to himself, earning a small feeling of sadness deep inside.

Christopher noticed Goku's sudden gloom. "Goku...?" he quietly asked. The teenager turned, and flashed a cheerful grin.

When dinner was over, the adults decided to have a round of warm tea over a small talk. Chris quietly asked his father about something, and the man agreed.

"Hey, what'chu doing?" Goku asked, standing behind Christopher who's rummaging through a bag hung on the motorcycle.

"I wanna show you something," Chris said, excited. He held out a strange little gadget. It was metal, and round. There are a few buttons on it. It seemed pretty old and was used many times.

"What is it?" Goku asked. "Wait 'till you see," Chris smiled. He brought the round thing closer, and began pressing on the buttons, making small beeping sounds.

"Wha-? Whoah!"

Suddenly, a faint blue coloured and square shaped light came up from the gadget. "It's an image viewer!" Chris said. "Wow! I've never seen anything like it!" Goku exclaimed excitedly.

The two boys sat on the ground, and Chris placed the gadget onto the dirt too. He seemed to be navigating the screen thing, a hologram as he calls it, using his fingers in a pressing action.

"This is our home, look," Chris said.

An image came up into the hologram screen. It showed a small living room. There was a sofa and an armchair around a small glass table in front of a cabinet with a black square box thing on it and a bookcase beyond that. An open way showed a small hall beside the living room. Some pictures and a large window with curtains.

"This is your house, huh? It looks really cozy!" Goku said. Chris swiped from the edge of the screen to the other, and another image came up. This time it showed a much younger version of Chris, and a small baby asleep in his arms on the said sofa.

"This is me and Benji 10 years ago. Benji was 2 months old in this one," Chris explained. Goku merely 'wow-ed'. "So you can take pictures with this, huh? That's so cool!" he said.

Chris swiped through a few more images. One showed Benjamin's first steps, another showed his father making a cup of coffee in the small kitchen. Then Chris swiped to another image that showed the three of them in front of a flower shop.

"This is dad's floral shop just beside our apartment,"

"Eh? But I thought he's a lieutenant?" Goku asked. "Well, he is, but he requested to be stationed in a faraway country with us. He only goes away for missions every 6 months or so, so he opened the shop to fill in the time," Chris explained.

"Hey, I know! Let's take a picture!" he suggested.

The snowstorm passed by quite quickly later that night. While the rest are already deep asleep, Sanzo walked to cave mouth for a smoke. He dusted the snow off a large rock and sat, enjoying the quiet forest noise of crickets and bugs chirping in the distance.

"Can't sleep, sir priest?"

Sanzo turned to see Hanson standing beside him, lighting a smoke too. "I just wanted to have a smoke," he replied in his usual uninterested tone.

"Ah, I see. I get that too sometimes, the urge. Too bad that now I have kids, I have to cut down and be careful not to influence them with it," Hanson laughed, smoke puffing out of his mouth. Sanzo wondered why the man didn't go off rambling about how indecent for a priest to be smoking like the old monks usually do.

The two of them continued to smoke in silence for a few minutes. The round moon came out behind the clouds, illuminating a soft and beautiful glow around the adults.

"Such a lovely full moon," Hanson mumbled. "It was a night like this, when I had my 'awakening'. It was a winter midnight, and I was in the base medical room. I had a really bad fever, like my body was burning. My partner was worried sick, he insisted for me to meet the army priest just in case I got myself a curse from the mission we had,"

"And all the sudden, demons attacked the base. It was in total chaos. We didn't have many soldiers on duty that night, we were out numbered," he paused to take a whiff, "My partner and I were cornered. With my weakened state, I was helpless, and my partner was heavily wounded,"

"It was then, I heard a voice in my head. It asked me; don't you want to save your friend? Don't you want to kill all these demons with great power? I can help you," Hanson said. Sanzo's eyes stared off to the horizon, but now his eyes traveled to the man who's walking a few steps forward, and stopped.

"I said, yes," Hanson said quietly. He threw his half burnt cigarette onto the snow, and took a dagger from its holder on his belt. He took his right hand's glove off with his teeth, and cut into his palm with the knife.

Sanzo's eyes widened with the sudden action. He sat up straight as he saw the blood dripped down Hanson's arm as he raised it. The man concentrated, and read a prayer in a different language.

A drop of the blood fell into the snow, and it spread around Hanson like a circle. Strange and unfamiliar lines formed, and the shape shone bright red light.

Hanson opened his eyes, and it shone in a red and white light. Sanzo stood up and slowly walked to his left.

"The demon became my Second Soul, and it helped me slaughter the demons one-by-one," Hanson said in a voice that sounded inhuman. Suddenly, a strange whiff of cloud grew bigger behind him, and it shaped into a human-like figure and had large horns and a pair of large wings.

Hanson turned around, facing what Sanzo guessed to be the demon he was talking about. Hanson gave a gentle and silent look to the demon who merely floated there in the whiffing cloud-like smoke.

"I saw this demon's thoughts, sir priest. I saw glimpses of its life, memories of the old ages it lived through," Hanson gently said. He closed his eyes, and the demon disappeared. The bloody circle melted into the snow, and things calmed back into the quiet night.

"Why are you showing me this?" Sanzo asked with his arms crossed.

Hanson looked up to the full moon in the night sky. "When I saw you there, fighting against those demons with demon companions, it made me wondered how it would be like if I could understand the demon inside me. I wondered how it would be like if these souls can roam the earth freely as how it is in this world," he said. He turned to Sanzo back with a smile.

"I was interested in the four of you. I wondered what sort of demons your companions are," he smiled.

Sanzo frowned with curiosity. He closed his eyes and gave a small huff. "To travel with a hyperactive glutton-ed monkey, a promiscuous gambler and a dude who's too calm all the time? It's a hell ride if you ask me," he said.

"But, you do trust them, don't you? They're your friends and guardians, right?" Hanson smiled.

Sanzo gave a short glare, and walked back into the cave.

Hanson quietly laughed to himself, and lit up another cigarette.

"Such a tsundere person. Reminds me of myself when I was younger..." he thought, and whiffed the smoke out.

The Arteland family (c) myself, Sanzo Group (c) Kazuya Minekura

So what do you think? I hope it doesn't sound like crazy nonsense or something like that...