Disclaimer: Saiyuki is not my work. All characters belong to the lovely and talented Kazuya Minekura. All original characters belong to...themselves. :) I'm making no profit in writing this fanfiction except for the pleasure of doing so.
A/N: I try very hard not to create Mary Sue-like characters. I rather despise such OC's, so you won't find them in my story. OC's are kept as realistic as I possibly can make them. If you are a reader from the original story and already know who the originals are modeled after, I would appreciate it if you'd let the new guys figure it out on their own ;) Constructive reviews are well-received. Flamers will more or less be ignored. All I can say is please, read more than just a few chapters before making a full-fledged opinion. Thanks!
Prologue
Tenkai Ruins- 500 Years Ago
A pair of indigo hued eyes turned wistfully toward skies of perpetual blue. A vision as unchanging as the day the realm of the heavens was formed ironically belied the horrific events that had recently come to pass. One could not deny the calmness of such a beautiful sky, ever cloudless and steeped in harmony. Yet one could not deny the calamity which had befallen the sacred home of resting souls, immortals, and gods alike.
Chaos had ensued this day.
Those promised the sanctity of Tenkai, the protection of an immortal life had fought against forces they never would have imagined they'd rise against. The safety net of agelessness, of living forever in peace, had been cast off with the smoldering corpses drowning in a tumultuous sea of crimson.
Closing her eyes, the buxom goddess who had witnessed the atrocities from a distance turned toward the expanse on ground level. She needn't look upon what lay before her here, for she had the image already engraved in her memory.
What should have been was a field bejeweled with blooms and fragrant trees as far as the eye could see.
Instead, it was something none who remained in the heavens should ever want to cast their gazes upon again. Yet she would see it always.
Those sweet smelling plants all scorched beyond recognition. Naked limbs of trees scored by blade and fire alike reached toward the sky as if pleading for their lost lushness. Their branches once holding magnificent Sakura petals now were broken with Death.
Patches of blackened earth pock-marked the once colorful Sakura orchard. Rings of withered grasses yellowed toward each other, soaked in the drying blood of the foes who had fallen there. The bodies were gone, taken away by the army of Tenkai to be laid to rest forever, yet their screams still echoed eerily in the goddess' ears.
The stream which started at one end of the grassland and ran glittering and bubbling out of sight had been dried up. Victim to the extremities of the battlefield, all flora and fauna in the immediate vicinity had simply stopped to exist. In the land where Life was extended, here there was nothing at all left.
The goddess waited, holding her breath for even the smallest hint of a temperate breeze to caress her face. For the sound of rustling sweet grass or the charred stalks of flowers to reach her ears.
It never came.
It may never again.
Not even the grace of the wind would alight the toiled grounds.
Not for a very long time.
The struggle had been a brutal one. Who could have foreseen the seemingly small army under command of a self-proclaimed leader being any match for the four responsible for all Life and Death? The very founders of Tenkai itself felled by the hands of those of lesser power...it did not add up to the goddess, yet it was what she had seen.
Where had it begun? What incident was there to set all of it in motion? Why had the Four allowed themselves to be turned upon one another so easily?
Footfalls approached from behind the Bodhisattva; she relinquished her gaze to the silver-haired subordinate coming to her side.
His gray eyes took in the desecrated terrain before them while he remained silent for a time, respecting those who would never return to this world or any other.
"Can anything be done, Merciful Goddess?"
Raven locks swung from a high-set ponytail as the deity shook her head in uncertainty.
"Perhaps, though now...now there is very little we can do, Jiroushin. What has come to pass is still too fresh. The self-named Jade Emperor is on the rise to power and he's gathered many followers. The only ones who could have stopped him from corrupting our peace are gone. One imprisoned indefinitely...the other Seven...dead."
The quiet hung heavily over the pair for a stretch of a few minutes. It may as well have been an eternity, for time had no bearings in Tenkai. The world was separate from those who had only so many years before Death took them. Yet an eternity in the heavens now would seem dreadfully dull after the loss of those who had made it so lively.
"Jiroushin." The Merciful Goddess at last spoke, turning toward her junior. "Have you heard any news of reprieve for those charged by the Emperor?"
The subsidiary god's eyes brightened briefly- this was why he sought the goddess in the first place.
"Yes. The Seven are due for reincarnation in the Lower World."
"Is that so?" Her voice mused in laced skepticism.
While it may seem like a lucky break to some, the hard life of a mortal in Togenkyo was not always as simple as one might hope. There had to be a catch. A man as harsh as the Jade Emperor would not likely leave the sentence to something as easy as reincarnation as mortals.
"However," Jiroushin continued, catching the knowing glint in the goddess' eyes. "They are destined to a multiple-life sentence of hardship after hardship. The Seven must never cross paths in each others' lives again. Their Fates have been sealed by the Emperor himself. The Eighth must spend his life eternally imprisoned. He is granted no reprieve for his crimes."
The Merciful Goddess placed a finger to her red-painted lips, trying not to let the news distress her. "What has he done..?"
The rhetoric set to motion the wheels of her thoughts, turning in hopes of coming across an idea- any idea- that may save their precious Tenkai from absolute turmoil. Long had this Emperor overlooked the Bodhisattva as a possible powerful enemy. She was one deity just short of the final ascension to enlightenment. Her duties called her to oversee mortals, to lend a hand whenever it might be necessary. How could one such as she possibly hold a flicker of threat to the god marching his way to a seat of ruling?
It seemed that could be the Merciful Goddess' only advantage. She would have to play her abilities to tempt Fate into twisting away from its guided path. Perhaps all was not lost; perhaps the Seven could be saved.
Nevertheless, the effort wouldn't go without some price- but that would be dealt with when the occasion was met.
The Seven would have to lead their difficult lives and muddle through the troubles that may befall them. They were likely doomed to repeat these lives until the Emperor decided that they had been punished enough and could be granted full reprieve of reincarnation. They would die and their souls would disappear, returning neither to light, nor to Tenkai.
She had to find a way to prevent that. They must all be brought together somehow.
The Eighth- a rambunctious chimp-like youth sentenced to eternal imprisonment beneath the great Mount Gogyou- would have to remain patient. It was not an easy task, as the boy had been the most impatient thing the goddess had ever seen. She brought him together with her nephew, one of the Seven, with great expectations of the duo.
Those plans would remain suspended until all those who belonged together met once more.
"What of the Elements?" Jiroushin inquired, breaking the goddess' mindful scheming. "The power has been dispelled from them. Extracted and stored...what can we do about that?"
A wry smile curled the goddess' mouth. "Keep them safe of course. It won't be an easy feat, but then what in this life is easy anymore?"
"What are you planning? Mistress Kanzeon?" The subordinate shuffled after her as she took long strides toward the inner walls of Tenkai's outlying border.
"I have something of a...daunting mission for you Jiroushin. Are you up to it?"
"Up to it?" The silver-locked god narrowed his severe eyebrows, gathering his robes into his fists to keep up with Kanzeon. He felt a rise of acid fluctuating in his throat. Stress always gave him heartburn.
He followed the black-haired Bodhisattva through the red and gold pillared corridors of the Tenkai city limits until she suddenly stopped, ducking behind one of the broad cylinders.
Just across the corridor were four guards, armed heavily with their spears and blades, surrounding a massive ornate golden door.
"The treasury," Kanzeon whispered to Jiroushin, never once taking her eyes from the army's servants.
From around the corner, an emissary sent by the Jade Emperor stalked the hall with clipped precision, a party of three more guards accompanying his short travels. A small sound emitted from the goddess' throat, though it was not the foolishly decorated emissary who had caught her attention, but what he carried.
Jiroushin gulped soundlessly. "What are you thinking?"
"Look." Kanzeon murmured, nodding her head to a crushed velvet pillow holding four distinctly different spheres the size of small grapefruit.
Each orb shone with glimmering colors, setting them apart from the next: one with swirls of white, yellow, and pale blue; the next of varying shades of green and rich brown; the third swimming in deep aqua and touches of coral; the final flashing with fierce reds and oranges.
The guards remained oblivious to the eyes watching them, stepping aside to allow the emissary to pass through the newly opened doors. As the servant disappeared inside, Jiroushin feared that Kanzeon may try and send him to ambush the men- and he was certainly no warrior.
Kanzeon smoothed the gauzy white film of the outfit she deemed a 'dress' and stepped out casually into the view of the guards. Jiroushin, frightened by what his imagination was filling his head with, quickly fell into step beside the goddess, relieved when she merely nodded in the direction of the armed men and continued walking.
She was not, however, without the benefit of a fast glance inside the treasury before the doors closed.
Once the pair had traveled back to the Merciful Goddess' quarters- a pristine, open-aired chamber filled with light- Kanzeon took her place upon the cushion of a white, high-backed wood-carved chair.
It was then that she graced her subordinate with the reply of what plot she cared to carry out.
"I do think, Jiroushin, that a nice game of Shogi is in order. Be a good helpful hand and fetch the game board, would you?"
Puzzled by his goddess' command, yet finding no way to question it, the robed male disappeared to find the ancient strategy game.
Kanzeon rested her chin in one slender palm, bangles clinking around her wrist. "Let the games begin."