Eclipse

by Splay

Sanzo and Ginji get trapped in another dimension.

ECLIPSE

'Today is…?' Natsumi asked tentatively, her eyes large and twinkling. It was quite remarkable that they continued to twinkle despite her spending hours trying to teach Ginji some English, in vain.

'Er… er… Wednesday?' Ginji said after some pondering. This received a sigh from the bright-eyed teacher and a thwack from Ban, who was growing more and more frustrated at the abysmally low I.Q. his partner was displaying.

'She meant you to say it in a sentence. Ginji,' Paul drawled from somewhere behind his broad newspaper, sensing that Ginji didn't understand what he did wrong.

'Today is Wednesday!' Ginji said, almost angrily. He didn't want to learn this stupid language in the first place. Natsumi had insisted and Ban seemed to have liked it. That was that. Nobody bothered to ask him what was his opinion.

'So tell me all the days of the week in relation to…' before Natsumi could finish, Ginji had started chanting, 'Sunday, Monday, Tues…' Ginji was interrupted by a series of thwacks.

'My newspaper,' Paul grabbed the thwacking object from Ban's snakebite grip.

'It's yesterday's paper,'

'Does Monday come first?' Ginji still didn't get why he was thwacked.

'Paper is always paper,' Paul said cradling it.

'I wanted you to say it in relation to today!'

'IDIOT!'

'Ok, ok…' Ginji concentrated. That is to say that he assumed a constipated expression and puffed his cheeks and started to go red in the face, even generated some electricity strong enough to make Ban jump in his seat. But his brain did not undergo the change, which was expected of it, during the process of thinking.

'Yesterday…' Ginji began with obvious effort.

'Yes Ginji, yes!' Natsumi stood up and clenched her fists in hope.

'Yesterday's today was Tuesday,' Ginji said quite sure he was saying nonsense. He smiled sheepishly at Natsumi, who was too sweet to thwack. Ban longed for the newspaper again.

'It is no use!' Paul said lowering his newspaper. The asked all of a sudden – 'Ginji, anything interesting happening in Maze city?'

'Nothing I know of!' Ginji said eyeing Paul suspiciously.

Paul again disappeared behind the newspaper.

'Yesterday was Tuesday, Ginji,' Natsumi said quite determined.

'Ok, yesterday's yesterday was Monday,' Ginji said.

'Grammatically correct, but technically wrong,' Ban said.

'Huh?'

'Day before yesterday was Monday,' Natsumi said.

'I always forget…Before. BEFORE!'

Their conversation was interrupted by arrival of Hevn.

'Beautiful day, isn't it?' she said as she glided in and said some funny stuff in an unknown language.

'Was that English?' Ginji whispered to Natsumi.

'No. At least, I don't think so!'

Jeep was not going smoothly. Sometime it wasn't going at all. Sanzo wasn't sure whether it was Jeep's fault of its driver's. Hakkai seemed to have sensed it.

'Jeep's tired, I suppose,' he said, smiling.

'Does that mean we have to walk?' Gojyo asked incredulously.

It was a very unpleasant evening with stormy clouds hovering above them and currently they were traveling through a forest. Not a very thick one, but nevertheless, very uncomfortable looking area with no proper roads.

'Then let's walk!' Sanzo ordered and jumped out to land gracefully. Hakkai descended too, after prodding awake a sleeping Goku. He seemed happy at the idea of walking.

Gojyo kept whining at this brutality and even kept throwing nasty glances at Hakuryu (alias Jeep), who decided to stay inside Hakkai's robes.

'Hakkai, look…' Goku pointed to a tall tree, 'all trees are the same with a weird looking fruit!'

'Hmm… you're right!' Hakkai wanted to say something intelligent and probably give it a place in the taxonomy of plant kingdom, but he refrained from attempting.

'You wanna climb on one and say "oo…oo…ooo?"' Gojyo said, making a couple of leaps with his extended hands, scratching his sides like a gorilla.

Picking a fight with Goku seemed just the right thing to do at that particular time, but this went unnoticed.

'I wonder if it's edible…' Goku frowned.

'If it's poisonous, we're not going to take care of you,' Gojyo said.

'May be a little… or maybe its juice,' Goku was persistent.

'I think the other variety of trees or rather shrubs, which also bear fruit, is familiar…' Hakkai said out aloud, mainly for lack of substance in the ongoing conversation.

'Can I eat that then?' Goku's face lit up.

'Monkey can think of only…' Gojyo said making a face.

'SHUT UP!' said Sanzo, whose temper was already on the rise because of the stupid jeep and now he had to endure this.

After walking silently for over a mile, Hakuryu made its first 'kyu's.

'Good news, we can stop walking,' Hakkai said smiling.

'I'm hungry,' Goku said and automatically flinched expecting either a gunshot or an unfriendly fan. But neither came. Owner of both the gun and the fan was looking away from them.

'We might be able to,' he said still not looking, 'do some refreshments.'

'Yay!' Goku yelled and looked at what Sanzo was looking at, sure of seeing a restaurant, but all he saw was a lake.

'Why is it a beautiful day, Hevn?' Paul asked looking at her sternly from behind his shades. There had been a lot of news about people missing, properties missing and most of them were around Shinjuku. That had been the reason for him to ask Ginji if something had happened in Maze city.

'I've got a lot of jobs in my hands,' Hevn said in a singsong voice. This made Ban go temporarily spell bound. When he was once again in control of his faculties, he dragged a stool to make seat for Hevn and once she was seated, he put an arm around her shoulder.

'Where do we go? What's the pay? It better not be dangerous!'

'Don't you want to know what the job is?' Hevn asked arching one of her shapely eyebrows.

But what exactly the job was nobody heard. There was a crash from somewhere outside Honky Tonk followed by a scream. Paul and Natsumi rushed outside followed by Hevn. Ban took a bit more time to disentangle himself from midst the crowd of chairs. Ginji didn't move at all. Natsumi had made a hangman on a tissue paper and he was expected to find out an English word for drinking water involuntarily. There was only three more letters to go.

'Oi, Ginji! Come out, fast!' thundered Ban's voice from outside.

Hastily Ginji stuffed the tissue paper inside his trouser pocket and got up. He had to sit again for he felt a bit dizzy. He got up again and made his way to the door with great difficulty, for he felt as though someone was pushing him back. He wondered whether
Ban would be mad at him for getting sick.

When he got to the door, he wondered whether he was hallucinating. He was seeing what which looked like a 3D wallpaper, which changed colours as you tilt your head. He snapped out of his reverie as he heard a familiar voice give a little scream. He touched the knob of the door but before he could open it, he realized that the door wasn't there. The 3D wallpaper was back and he had walked straight into it. He couldn't walk back. He seemed to have been trapped within the thickness of the paper!

Suddenly he was turning. At first slow, but later he was practically spinning. Ginji screamed with fear and pain. He felt as though his head was going to burst. He could taste blood and several of his joints were hurting like hell. The spinning stopped after a few minutes. All he could see was darkness. But once he saw something, which looked like a lake. But before he could appreciate it, he was once again swallowed up by darkness. After a few moments of complete stillness, he felt something wet on his cheek, then on his head. He spread out his fingers to catch several of the water drops falling from the darkness above. It was raining.

Goku was happy, very, very happy. There were fruits and he had eaten as much as what the other three put together. Gojyo was also happy; he got a nice refreshing bath. Hakkai always looked happy. Sanzo was the only unhappy one. But he was always unhappy, so in short, everything seemed to be fine.

'Can't we stay a little while longer?' Gojyo asked trying to look as puppy-eyes as a six-foot tall muscly man with scarlet-red eyes could. Sanzo 'tch' ed at this and shook his head. Hakkai got up and proceeded after Sanzo. Gojyo followed, so did Goku, who took some more time, as he was busy stuffing his stomach and robes with fruits.

Sanzo stopped abruptly causing Hakkai to nearly bump against him. Sanzo turned and commanded others to go back to Jeep obviously forgetting that the 'Jeep' was currently inside Hakkai's robes. Hakkai asked where he was going and Sanzo's answer was precise - he's forgotten his gun.

A stunned silence followed, which was broken only when Sanzo was out of sight.

'Forgot his gun? Sanzo-sama forgot his gun? What is happening to the world?' Gojyo asked incredulously.

'He mustn't be feeling too well…' Hakkai said.

'Maybe if I follow him I could get some more fruits,' Goku suggested, his store was rapidly depleting.

'Maybe if you follow him to get fruit, you would get a hole through your head, stupid monkey!' Gojyo pointed out.

Goku thought about it and felt that Gojyo had a point.

Sanzo himself felt it singularly strange that he should forget his gun. His gun! But he justified himself – he was distracted, yes Sanzo was distracted. There had been a strange aura about the place, which he didn't like at all. It was understandable that the gluttonous monkey and the lecherous cockroach didn't feel it, but Hakkai… Hakkai didn't seem to have felt it. Sanzo had expected an attack of some form – youkai or human and was quite surprised when none came. Only after making sure that no attack was impending, did he take a dip in the lake. After that all he had in his mind was to get away from that place as quickly as possible. So he forgot his gun.

He retrieved it and turned back. He suddenly lost his balance and staggered a bit. Weird, he felt a bit dizzy. With difficult he steered himself forward, his head throbbing and his vision unclear. He thought he might lose his consciousness any moment then but he snapped out of it as he heard his name being called. He speeded up disregarding the grogginess. He closed his eyes and took a couple of long strides and opened his eyes only to find himself only an inch away from what which looked like a colorful net-like something spread before him. Too late, he stepped into it.

He was suddenly surrounded by darkness and how much ever he shouted for others, no response came. He reached for his gun, which he had placed in its holster. But before he could get it, he was spinning against his will. His head began to hurt and he expected himself to be torn into pieces any minute then. But nothing of that sort happened. When the spinning stopped he started to feel more and more dizzy until at last, his knees gave way and he fell. He saw rain falling, but strangely he didn't feel it on his skin.

'Ginji!' Ban yelled on the top of his voice. Where was that idiot?

'Ginji, come out,'

A kid had crashed into the neon lamp in front of Honky Tonk (why the neon lamp was plugged on at 10 AM was a mystery). The wires from the lamp were dangling and was now and then touching the kid's bike emitting sparks. Ginji might be able to pull the bike out of it without getting hurt.

'Ginji!' Ban walked into the restaurant to find it empty.

'Ginji?'

'What's the matter, Ban?' Natsumi asked as she entered. 'Where's Ginji?'

'I don't know…'

Paul rushed in and not even stopping to realize that Ginji was missing he hastily grabbed a plastic apron and a pair of rubber gloves and rushed outside stopping at the door to take a wooden broom. Natsumi followed him outside.

Ban stayed. He went inside Paul's 'office' and even took a peak in the computer room. No Ginji! He then returned to the counter and jumped over it and went into the larder fully aware of the consequences of what Paul might do if he was caught.

Again, no Ginji.

'You could've at least offered help,' Hevn said as she ran her fingers through her hair to arrange it. The frightened kid had pulled at it and made it a mess. 'Useless Getbackers!'

She kept her face screwed up until she realized…

'Where is Ginji?'

Natsumi gave a whimper and looked at Ban.

Paul had realized it a while ago but preferred to keep quiet.

'I don't know,' Ban said trying to sound calm.

All together they'd called Sanzo three times. That's how it always worked. When you have to call Sanzo, you make Goku call him once. He normally wouldn't respond. Then Hakkai would call – not too sternly. The again he wouldn't respond, by rule. The Goku would call again – this time an impatient shriek. Sanzo almost always responded to this by an angry reprimand, always including the words 'baka' and 'saru', often followed by a gunshot and a dead bird.

On rare instances, when Goku's shriek goes unnoticed, Gojyo would drawl including some obscene words. This always got a spectacular response. But that day, that too failed. Generally they never look for Sanzo as he is very likely to shoot and at instances he does aim at some vital spots. At the present situation, Sanzo had gone to retrieve his gun – a very dangerous situation.

'You go,' Gojyo prodded Hakkai.

With a sigh, Hakkai left, wondering if he would unite with his dead lover in near future. He walked down the sinuous course to the lake. He reached the lake – no Sanzo. He could make out Sanzo's footprints – he wasn't very sure of it, but it seemed to him that Sanzo had stopped midway.

'Guys…!'

Gojyo and Goku arrived within a few seconds at Hakkai's call.

'What's the matter?'

'Sanzo is missing!'

'What?' they said in unison.

'He deserted us, that bastard!' Gojyo bellowed out reflexively not really meaning it.

'Think, Gojyo! Why would he want to desert us?' Hakkai pointed out. 'That we should accompany him is his need.'

'Maybe he thinks it's too dangerous for us,' Goku, who never found fault with Sanzo and his ways, suggested.

Hakkai smiled at this and shook his head, 'No, Goku, he wants this mission to get over and he knows he needs our help to get through with it!'

'He can't have get lost,' Goku mused trying to think, 'and he didn't desert us.' He looked up at his comrades, 'that means he must have been kidnapped!'

Gojyo snorted out aloud and shook his mane of crimson hair in what which suggested amusement. But Hakkai thought that could be a plausible explanation. Sanzo certainly had enemies, but kidnapping him without a struggle was impossible. And there definitely had been no struggle. He seems to have disappeared.

'He disappeared then?' Gojyo asked incredulously.

Sanzo did have a bit of magic about him, but he's not the type who would disappear. At least, not voluntarily, Hakkai thought.

'How do we find him? I mean, do we have to look for him or would he reappear?' Gojyo asked.

Hakkai merely shrugged.

Ginji expected Ban to thwack him on his head and scold him for oversleeping. He was sure he was in a nightmare. But in all his nightmares, he was in Maze city and always he saw the death of his friends and him being not able to save even one of them. But presently he was not in Maze city and there was no one – alive or dead – besides him on the vast landscape, which he presumed to be vast though he couldn't see much owing to the darkness. Then there was the rain.

He was soaked from head to foot even though it was a mild drizzle. There was no shelter, apparently. And he was cold and wet. But Ginji didn't really mind the rain. If he saw one more human being, he would have been happy. But he saw no one.

He walked about aimlessly. Now and then the rain showed signs of receding but then it was pouring again. Once or twice it thundered. Ginji looked hopefully at the sky for one streak of lightning. But all he got was distant echoes of thunder. After sometime the area lit up with one flash of lightning. And in that light he saw rocks within a few yards from where he was standing. Probably there would be caves too, he thought. But before he went he wanted one more lightning to touch and play with, sort of recharge himself with it.

He prepared himself ready before the next one came. It was a big one and Ginji got nearly thrown off as he attracted it to his outstretched arms. But a sense of warmth spread through his body dispelling all the cold that had clung to him.

Within a few seconds, the rain stopped and a dim light – similar to moonlight through a moderately thick layer of clouds – spread over the area showing him the rocks once again.

Sanzo fell in and out of consciousness for over an hour, until his mind became clear. It didn't make any sense at all. He was sucked into darkness and now thrown into some place where he could see rain, hear rain but cannot feel it on his skin. No, he can't see the rain now. But he could distinctly hear it. He hated rain, he thought as he groped around for his gun; he 'ch'ed loudly as he finally found it.

He stood up, swayed and caught something – a wall. He was inside something – walls all around. He took his lighter and clicked it on. It looked like a cave with an entrance nearly ten feet from where he was standing.

There were a couple more of lightning and thunder, after which the low rustle of rain stopped. He sat down again trying to think. What was he to do? How did he get there? Where was this place? Would Goku, Gojyo and Hakkai looks for him? Or were they still waiting for him to return with the gun?

He got up and slowly walked towards from where the light was coming. It was nothing like the sunlight. He walked towards it, initially along the walls for support, then without support. As he reached the small circular opening of the cave, he was determined to get out of this world somehow – even if that meant using the sutras. How exactly he's use them to help him he didn't know. But he no longer felt the fear.

And as he stepped out of the cave, he saw another man walking towards it. He stopped on seeing Sanzo. In the darkness, Sanzo felt that the other man was glowing. He as clad in a pale blue trousers and a pale blue shirt, which was stuck to his skin. He had been out in the rain though he didn't look cold. Sanzo, clad in full-covering robes, with a jeans and shirt inside and was completely dry, felt slightly chilly.

Unlike the other man, Sanzo didn't stop. He walked without a pause and stopped only when he was about a meter away from him. Sanzo regarded him coldly without displaying any signs of relief he was experiencing then. That man was about his height and was blond. He seemed electrocuted – his hair was standing on their ends. He had vivid brown eyes, which seemed to bore into Sanzo's. This was unusual; only rarely people stared back at Sanzo.

Sanzo felt the other guy's eyes trail from his face down to his whole body obviously surprised at the attire. Then his eyes locked on the gun. Sanzo grinned inwardly as he saw him swallow nervously.

Ginji had felt a huge wave of relief when he saw another human being. Then he felt intimidated at the way he was dressed – white and gold robes covering from his neck to his toes. Not an inch of his ankles or his wrists were visible. Then he saw a gun gripped tightly in the right hand. Ginji suddenly had a mad desire to run for it. Especially since the other guy was closing the distance between them.

But the other guy walked past him. Ginji turned back feeling a little disappointed. Suddenly that guy stopped and turned back and looked at him. This was all he had needed – all the fear the gun had instilled him left as he saw a pair of blue eyes smiling at him. The guy was looking sulkier than the sulkiest man Ginji had seen in his lifetime, but his eyes seemed very familiar and friendly. Ginji smiled at him.

Sanzo resumed walking not looking back anymore. He was sure – 9 out of 10 – that the guy would follow, but a small ten percentage still existed and Sanzo wanted to stop and ask him to follow. But that was very un-Sanzo-ish. So he just strode on.

Sure enough, he heard footsteps behind him. He still refused to look. After a couple of seconds, he had reached Sanzo and was walking beside him.

'Mind if I join you?' he asked.

Sanzo merely grunted an approval before redirecting his gaze back on the unlimited path in front of them.

Ginji knew that his new acquaintance was weird and a potential killer – people who carry gun tend to use it – and he wondered whether he'd got stuck with another Akbane. But he, unlike Akbane, didn't look like a psychopath. His face bore some evidence of kindness, for which you have to look carefully and his eyes were… like Ban's – a blue with a tinge of violet in it. He can't be that bad. Besides Ginji didn't have a choice. He felt comfortable enough, walking aimlessly with a stranger with a gun, without really bothering where they'd headed to.

It didn't occur to Ginji that questions would be appropriate at these situations. Who was he? How did he come there? Where to now? – all these ran through Sanzo's mind. But as a rule, at these moments, Sanzo expects the other man to speak. But that guy was being adamantly quiet. Sanzo looked at him sideways to see him actually smiling at nothing. He was evidently lost in his fantasies. Sanzo thought he'd be someone who'll rattle on, but he was not rattling.

'Who are you?' Sanzo asked abruptly.

Ginji seemed surprised at this.

'Ginji Amano,' he said smiling and then realized that he himself didn't know his companions name – 'And you are?'

'Sanzo!' That's all. No first name. Mainly because Genjyo sounded a lot like Ginji.

'Let me guess,' Ginji Amano suddenly said, 'you saw a colorful paper and then got sucked into darkness, went spinning and got here…?'

Sanzo stared at him. Not entirely because of surprise – he felt that staring was the most appropriate thing to do under such circumstances. Just stare and he might babble on.

But Ginji didn't babble. He again walked on with a dreamy expression. Sanzo felt himself getting incensed… this guy's supposed to talk.

'Have you any idea what's going on?' Sanzo asked, his voice almost a growl.

Ginji sensed danger but didn't show it. He smiled and said – 'nope!'

Suddenly a low rumble was heard.

'Not the rain again,' Sanso said automatically.

'Why not? Don't like the rain?' Ginji asked not looking at Sanzo. Sanzo suddenly had a mad desire to kick his companion – he was ready to talk about utterly unimportant things. He stopped walking and turned to glare at Ginji.

'Look here, Armano –'

'It's Amano. You can call me Ginji though. As I had asked, why don't you like the rain?' Ginji asked innocently, disregarding the persistent growl coming from Sanzo's throat.

Sanzo could feel the hand gripping the revolver tremble slightly. He prayed for self-control and said again,

'Armano, how did you get here?'

'I was hanging out with my friends, who were trying to… never mind… We heard a crash outside and others rushed to see what was going on while I… never mind…' the idea of learning English still felt unpleasant. 'And finally when I decided to go, I saw a colorful thingie and walked straight into it.'

Sanzo looked at him thoughtfully. It was similar to what had happened to him.

'How did you get here?' Ginji asked his first sane question.

'I stopped on my tracks to retrieve something and as I turned back I saw the colorful…' he had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from saying 'thingie' 'And like you, I walked straight into it.'

Suddenly the place seems to have lit up a bit, so that they could see far away, what which looked like a town. Both increased their speed and almost jogged until they reached the place. It was not a town, just a remnant of a town – just a bunch of broken down buildings and dust. There were not even any animals.

Ginji was hoping he could eat something there. But now – he ran about the place forcing himself through broken down doors to see if anybody was inside. But nobody was there and more importantly nothing for them to eat. Until –

'Sanzo!' he yelled poking his head out of a window.

'What?'

'Food!'

Sanzo wanted to pretend that he didn't give a damn about food but actually he was hungry – very hungry. He walked as disinterestedly as possible but soon found himself taking long strides.

Once inside he saw Ginji squatting besides what which looked like barrels. He felt a bit nauseated at the idea of eating out of barrels. And God alone knows, how old these foods were.

He looked down and saw Ginji enthusiastically taking out parcels from inside the barrels. After much thought, he squatted beside Ginji.

'These are solidified plant materials or something,' Ginji said nodding approvingly until he came across a very offensive looking parcel, a shade of green, 'this one is obviously not edible.'

He threw that away and Sanzo's stomach made a turn on seeing various moulds and slime sticking on to that particular parcel. And he directed his gaze at what Ginji branded to be edible – dark brown mass with some gray areas but mould-free.

'This food is likely to be spoilt,' Sanzo pointed out.

'Hm-hmm… no!' Ginji shook his head, 'these things are made to overcome famine and the like – will stand for years. Just have to add some water and soak it.'

Revolted, Sanzo asked, 'And for water…?'

Ginji pointed to another barrel. Sanzo walked towards it and opened it only to flinch at the smell. Not exactly unpleasant but in no ways water. After a couple of seconds he realized what t was – sakè.

Sanzo prayed to God to protect him from gastroenteritis before he swallowed the sakè-goo mixture. It tasted awful and the smell was even worse. Ginji flinched as he swallowed it but laughed after that. He must be on the same line as Goku – will eat anything.

They stuffed as much as possible; they didn't want to carry it around. If they were lucky enough they would land in a similar town with stored sakè and rock cake.

The sakè had made them both light-headed and Ginji suggested they sleep there and go. There was plenty of shelter. But Sanzo insisted on keeping on walking. A flash of lightning followed by an echoing thunder and a continuous patter of rain on the wooden roof made him change his mind.

They slept for nearly eight hours, by what Ginji's watch informed them. Sanzo woke up earlier and used his fan, not in the way a fan should be used, to wake up Ginji. Ginji who was used to thwacking to be woken up found this behavior quite normal; he was sad to see that his thwacker was not Ban. And they had one more helping of sakè-goo mixture and started their journey once again.

By then they knew one thing – there was no sun in this place nor was there any moon. Just clouds, rain, thunder and lightning. When the clouds cleared the place lit up (though dully) by some unknown source. This frustrated Sanzo and intrigued Ginji.

'Hey Sanzo,' Ginji said suddenly.

'Hm?'

'Do you carry that gun all the time?'

'Yes.'

'Why?' Ginji asked getting dangerously close to Sanzo's threshold of anger.

No reply.

'I mean… it's not like you use it all the time, now, do you?' Ginji said with a nervous laugh.

'Yes, I do.'

'Like… when?' Ginji asked happy that he got a reply at least.

'Under certain circumstances,' Sanzo said practically trembling now.

'For example?' Ginji asked looking skyward.

'Like NOW!' Sanzo turned sharply and pressed the nozzle of his revolver on Ginji's forehead.

They remained like that – Ginji's eyes as wide as saucers and as still as something awfully still and Sanzo with his right arm extended with the gun and the left arm a bit spastic with fingers drawn into a fist. After what seemed ages to Ginji, Sanzo dropped the hand and strode off without a word.

Ginji followed nervously.

Surprisingly it was Sanzo who broke the silence this time – 'Do you find anything common in the way we'd come here?'

'Huh?' Ginji asked surprised at the question and that Sanzo had asked it.

Sanzo rolled his eyes exasperated and wondered whether he should repeat the question. No, Ginji seemed to have heard it, for he said,

'Yeah, we both saw the colored thingie and we both were behind the others – we'd lagged behind!' he said and added after sometime, 'and I felt dizzy.'

'Me too,' Sanzo added surprised that the seemingly foolish companion of his had observed this much. Then why didn't he feel anxious about getting out? Or did he know something, which he isn't telling?

'Armano…' Sanzo said, 'do you know where we are?'

'Nope!' he said shrugging.

'Are you sure?' Sanzo said now looking at him, boring his stare deep into Ginji's eyes as if to pick up some missed detail.

'Yeah… why should I lie to you?' he asked.

'Damn it!' Sanzo said all of a sudden, making Ginji jump.

'I can't afford to get lost in this God-forsaken-land! I have a lot of important… Ergh! We have to get out of here' he said vehemently.

'Calm down, Sanzo,' Ginji said, 'I myself doesn't enjoy this lost world.' He smiled and added, 'If we stay calm, we can get…' he shook his head, he can't afford to make any bad suggestion in front of Sanzo, 'I want to get out of here as badly…'

'NO YOU DON'T!' Sanzo bellowed, 'If you do, you'd have done something about it.'

'Like what?' Ginji also had an anger threshold, however high, 'Bellow at the only other human being present, like you're doing?'

Strangely Sanzo felt that he had made a point there, though he didn't want it coming from a lunatic like Ginji. If it had been Hakkai, he'd have felt it ok. Ginji reminded him more of Goku – foolish, hungry, happy-go-lucky. Even Gojyo had more brains…

Damn it! Sanzo felt like kicking himself as he caught himself thinking about and missing his comrades.

'Don't worry, Sanzo, we'll get out. I promise!' Ginji said smiling. Sanzo reminded him of some of his friends he used to have in Maze city, always longing to get out, but never able to. Ginji had promised them just like he's doing now. And finally Ginji himself had escaped…

Ginji shook his head, dispelling those thoughts. That was his past, he's not going to repeat it again – he repeated to himself for the hundredth time.

After walking uneventfully for nearly 3 hours, they heard a new sound – definitely ensuing from a throat – human or animal – they couldn't place. This brought hope – there were other creatures besides them. They turned at an angle and walked towards that sound, each immersed in his own thoughts.

Sanzo was thinking: maybe it's a bad idea. What if it's a wild animal? He felt for his gun and felt slightly reassured.

Ginji was thinking: maybe we could eat it. He looked at Sanzo's gun and for the first time he felt happy at that sight.

They stopped in their tracks seeing a strange sight – an upturned tree. Furthermore another tree – not upturned – but being hurtled towards their direction. They both jumped to either side, barely escaping the tree. Sanzo looked around expecting a demon or a monster or a fantastic combination, while Ginji vaguely wondered whether trees fly. And then they saw –

It resembled a dinosaur, but not that big nor was it exactly reptilian. It was bright orange and furry with large head and long tail and comparatively smaller body. It had big teeth and big claws – that was enough for them, they scrambled themselves up and ran for it.

For a thing, which looked so genetically deranged, it was awfully agile. It hopped and jumped at times and reached them very quickly. And to their horror they'd reached a dead end. They ran in opposite directions, each hoping that the dino-demon, would chose the other.

It chose Ginji. He felt the unfairness of the situation, but wasn't in a position to dwell upon it. He ran like hell. He wondered whether he should blast it. For that he'd have to turn around and that's be enough for the demon to launch itself upon him.

Sanzo slowed down realizing that the demon is not after him. He almost laughed aloud thinking of his former companion. Then he realized that if something is to happen to Ginji, he'd lose the sole company he have, besides the monster, in this land, where he might have to spend the rest of his life. Then he saw his gun – Damn that guy is defenseless!

Ginji soon realized that he couldn't run forever. He stopped and made a sideways dive and landed painfully on his neck. Gritting his teeth, he held out his arms and put his entire energy into frying that creature and finally he managed to throw the creature off its foot, hit a tree and fall down. Ginji observed it for a minute, satisfied himself that it was dead, and fell, arms spread out and closed his eyes only to open it a second later hearing something. It was picking itself up.

Before Ginji could brace himself for another attack or charge up, the monster was near him in two bounds. Ginji stretched out his arms, clenched his jaw and tried to concentrate his entire energy on his outstretched fingers but before he could release it, he head a gunshot followed by a deafening screech. The monster was on its back writhing.

Ginji got up and supported himself on a nearby tree and looked around – Sanzo was standing across the monster quite a distance away with the gun on his hand. The monster didn't seem to die. It got up once again and moved, much more slowly than before, towards Sanzo.

Sanzo contemplated whether he should waste another bullet or should run for it. But before he had to fix on one plan, he saw it open its mouth in a silent scream and was lifted off its foot to fall quite a distance away. Confused, he looked for Ginji and his jaw nearly dropped seeing sparks emanating from Ginji's hand. Ginji swayed again leaned against the tree, while Sanzo walked towards the now-motion-less monster. Just to make sure, Sanzo pointed the revolver on its head and fired once again.

Ginji was now sitting on the ground. When he fell he had hit some part of his body and it still hurt. His hyperactive repair system was working on it but this consumed a lot of energy and he felt giddy. At first he saw Sanzo – two in number – coming towards him and then it blurred. He closed his eyes and fell flat.

Sanzo never tolerate such gestures. He kicked Ginji on the flank at which Ginji recoiled, gave a small cry and sat up, supporting himself on his hands. He was again seeing double – now he saw two guns pointed at him. Ginji just stared up at him until –

'What the hell did you do just now?' Sanzo growled.

'What?'

The gun came closer – 'Freak! You blasted that thing…'

'Oh… Yeah. I can generate electricity,' and Ginji smiled at him.

The gun was back safe within the vast confines of Sanzo's robes and its owner was deep in thought – generate electricity. Now, that wasn't normal. Ginji had asked him to give few more minutes to patch himself up. After that he'd just fallen asleep. When was he planning to patch?

After five minutes Ginji jumped up – cheerful as ever and offered a hand to the now-sitting Sanzo, who of course refused the offered hand and stood up.

'Where to now?' Ginji, still smiling, asked.

It must have been the 'day' since it was the brightest since the had come. They ad been walking for over an hour now. Ginji was really tired and wanted to suggest resting. But his 'friend' didn't seem to be and besides Ginji was too scared of the gun.

Abruptly Sanzo asked, 'Armano, ho do you generate electricity?'

'I don't know, it just comes,' Ginji shrugged.

Not trying to hide his irritation, Sanzo continued, 'you were generating electricity ever since you were born?'

Ginji laughed at the image which formed in his head of a toddler blasting things.

'No, by around 13 years of age, I abruptly had to use it for… self-protection,' he said unhappily; he's been trying not to think of those days.

'Tch.'

Silence…

Now Ginji asked something – 'what the thing on your forehead?' – a small dot on Sanzo's forehead had been pricking Ginji's curiosity for a while. But Sanzo didn't reply.

Ginji decided not to press, so he asked something else –

'What do you do back from where you're coming?'

'Hmm?'

'You know… what's your job?'

Sanzo involuntarily smirked when he said, 'I'm a priest' and enjoyed the expression of utter disbelief in Ginji's face.

'You're a priest?'

'A Buddhist priest. Just know that this,' he pointed at his forehead, 'has something to do with me being what I am.'

'Why would a priest carry a gun?' Ginji asked nervously.

'So that the priest could kill,' Sanzo replied coolly.

'For self-protection?' Ginji said followed by a nervous 'he he…'

'No,' Sanzo contemplated whether he should say anything more and finally decided to give away something.

'I'm on a mission… I have some associates and what we're on is really dangerous and it's a part of my mission to kill.'

'Priest who kills,' Ginji mused aloud, 'Like an executioner, I suppose?'

Sanzo didn't reply. Executioner – a nice way of putting it.

'Hey Sanzo,' Ginji said.

'What?'

'Nothing.'

The place wasn't just sand and moonlight-like-light. There were isolated clumps of trees and shrubs. It was on one such an area where they met their furry foe. And after walking aimlessly for another half-hour they reached yet another green area. They prepared themselves for another attack but none came. Instead they were welcomed by a beautiful lake and a thicket of fruit bearing trees.

'Yay! Food!' Ginji nearly jumped.

Sanzo stared at his crazy comrade who reminded him more and more of Goku.

After their last meal the sight of fresh fruits and berries felt heavenly. But Sanzo was skeptical – he remembered the time when Hakkai gave them the lecture on how some edible-looking berries could be dead poisonous. He voiced it to Ginji who had already gobbled up a fistful.

'Dombiridicullish!' Ginji replied.

Sanzo merely raised an eyebrow at this – he was used to mouth-full-of-food talk and deciphered that Ginji was contradicting him. He waited for Ginji to swallow or spit it depending on whether he took heed to Sanzo's warning. He swallowed it and –

'The poisonous berries are bitter. These are sweet,' Ginji said.

'How do you know?' Ginji didn't look like a botanical scholar to Sanzo.

Ginji grinned sheepishly and said that he'd tried those too. Thanks to Jubei Kake, a physician friend of his, he was still alive.

'Tch.'

Sanzo observed Ginji for symptoms of plant poisoning before trying one himself. It was sweet. And then he remembered that he had eaten them before – sometime in his childhood. He ate some more and felt full. He decided to take a dip in the pond but before he could do so he heard a splash – Ginji was already in it and was thrashing about merrily. His clothes were lying about on the ground. Feeling a bit disgusted and vaguely thinking about Gojyo, and what words he'd be using against Sanzo presently, he turned and took a round about the place through the woods and among the trees. He felt strangely happy when he saw some birds – though the looked odd and some insects too.

He came back to the pond for his chance only to see Ginji still in water.

'Get out of the water. NOW!' Sanzo nearly screamed.

'Ok, ok,' Ginji said, neck deep in water, but didn't move.

'Do you want me to throw you out of the water?' Sanzo said now with gun in hand.

'Aaah!' Ginji sank a bit lower, with his lower lip touching the surface and said, 'how will I come out with you looking? Turn around!'

Sanzo felt himself go red in the face and turned around promptly, furious at himself, Ginji and strangely at Gojyo.

'You can turn now,' Ginji announced. Sanzo didn't look at him directly but through corner of eye he saw that the clothes were wet – he'd worn them directly over his wet body. Only then he realized – they didn't have anything to dry themselves. He dismissed such thoughts and took off his robes.

Ginji was shocked to see Sanzo shamelessly removing his clothes in front of him, but was quite surprised to see him wear a black skin tight top and a pair of jeans underneath his robes. He walked straight into water with the clothes on. Deciding that Sanzo was weirder than Akbane, Ginji located a choice spot on the ground and sat down and stared skywards. There was no mission ahead of Ginji back home, so basically he was in no hurry unlike the priest-killer, no, killer priest. Suddenly he remembered – he pulled out from his pocket a crumpled tissue paper, slightly wet, and on it was eight dashes, five of them filled and a diagrammatic 'man' with only head and torso. Before he could finish it in Honky Tonk, they'd heard that crash. If he'd rushed along with Natsumi, he wouldn't have landed up here. But no, Ban would've lagged behind then and if Ban was in his place in this Lost World, Sanzo would've been dead by now or Ban would've gotten shot.

'What is that?' Sanzo said from behind, which made Ginji jump.

'Don't sneak upon me like that,' Ginji said frowning.

Sanzo felt a bit irritated but repeated his question.

'It's a hangman,' he gave the paper to Sanzo who was now sitting beside Ginji.

'English…' Sanzo looked at the letter – two 'N's, one 'I', one 'G' and one 'O'

Sanzo asked meaning what is the question.

'It's an English word meaning drinking against ones will,' Ginji said seriously, 'a friend of mine was trying to teach me new words.'

Sanzo laughed but soon controlled himself and said, 'Idiot, it's drowning.'

Ginji smiled sheepishly and took the paper from Sanzo's hands. Vaguely he noted that Sanzo can laugh. Ginji couldn't throw away the paper; he kept looking at the beautifully made letters (written by Natsumi, of course) and wondered whether his friends missed him.

'Wondering whether your friends are thinking about you?' Sanzo said reading Ginji's far-off expression. Ginji feeling – oh Lord he has a heart – smiled at him only to get a snort.

Sanzo was not resting, he told Ginji, he was merely waiting for his shirt, which was spread over the foliage of a medium sized shrub, to dry.

'What about your jeans?' Ginji asked.

Sanzo experimented – 'You want me to take them off as well?'

Ginji sweat dropped…

But waiting-to-dry-clothes extended into sleeping. Sitting Sanzo dropped to ground, supported his head on his hands and looked at the clear sky – not exactly blue but no clouds and a gentle breeze came, which insisted on him closing his eyes; close his eyes he did and soon was out.

To Ginji this sequence of events appeared very rapidly – a very wakeful guy, sitting still and a few minutes later when he looked at him again, he was horizontal and seemed thoroughly out. It has only been a few hours after their last slumber – he must be very tired. Ginji fell flat; a distance away from his 'friend' but sleep did not come to him easily. If he was on bed, he'd have twisted and turned and probably pulled at the bed clothing; it he was in Ban's 360, he'd have kicked either the head rest of front seat or the dash board, depending upon his position. But now, he was on cold sand, he merely squirmed.

After much squirming, he fell asleep. He woke after about an hour of seeing unpleasant dreams of having to eat whole coconuts with a Robinson Crusoe-like guy. The blonde was still asleep. Ginji edged over to him and watch his chest closely to make sure he's alive. After satisfying himself, he stood up and decided to explore the place a bit. He walked about aimlessly and felt a strange pleasure as he saw various forms of life scurrying around him. Finally he emerged out of the 'green'. He sighed seeing the vast landscape of sand again. Wait a minute! What happened to the lake… and where is the sleeping Sanzo!

'Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! I'm lost!' his mind screamed out. He shot back into the greenery ran about for a while and came back to the same spot hyperventilating. This time his mouth did the screaming part. He knew it – this place was cursed; he's heard stories of areas, once you get out, you can never come back. The lake with Sanzo is gone. Or Ginji with the forest is gone! He once again entered the forest and ran about, a bit too far this time, to be unable to get out. He had absolutely no idea as to where to go. And worse, now he can hear noises!

Ginji braced himself for an attack, but he couldn't help panicking at the situation, in which he had landed. The noises, which got duplicated into many inside Ginji's head was approaching him but he couldn't make out where it was coming from. He stumbled on several root and was now and then walking backwards, when he'd hit against a tree, in that shock he'd again hit against another tree and he screamed when one such tree moved as he leaned his back against it.

'Relax, it's me,' drawled the tree. It was Sanzo.

A huge wave of relief swept over Ginji – he wasn't the type who hid relief; but this time he settled on grinning widely and made an indistinct happy noise.

Sanzo too a step backwards seeing the flailing movements Ginji's hands were making and the extremely happy expression; he sensed this character who resembled Goku in all respects, might actually hug him. But the hug didn't come and Sanzo walked back to the lake with Ginji following.

'The lake is back,' Ginji remarked happily as the water body loomed into view.

'What do you mean?' Sanzo asked incredulously. Then asked – 'why did you scream?'

'You and the lake were gone when I came out of the forest!'

Sanzo rolled his eyes wondering if anyone could be so foolish and said – 'that's because you came out of the other side of the forest! Idiot!'

It took several seconds for Ginji to register the essence of Sanzo's words. When it did, he smiled foolishly and said, 'I have a hopeless sense of direction, as Ban always says.'

Sanzo knew that the latter part was not meant for him, but couldn't help but ask – 'And who'll that be?'

'Huh?'

'Ch!'

After a couple of minutes, Ginji replied – 'Ban Midou, my partner in business!'

Sanzo considered whether he should ask and then decided he might as well ask –

'What exactly is your business?' he tried to sound as indifferent as possible as he pulled on his now-sort-of-dry shirt.

'We're retrieval agents,' Ginji said deliberately not using the term Getbackers – 'we find lost stuff, for a payment.' And unintentionally added, 'though we're always broke.'

Sanzo snorted and asked, 'Are you that bad?'

Ginji scowled and said, 'No, we have a 100% success rate,' omitting the oft-used term, 'almost' 'We're really good at it.'

Sanzo snorted again.

'It's just money doesn't stay with us!' Ginji said frowning, thinking how exactly they had spend their last fee.

'Ch.'

After nearly ten minutes of sitting in the sand and cursing his fate, Sanzo asked, 'What kind of retrievals do you do?'

'Oh, all sorts – most of them are quite dangerous,' Ginji nodded importantly.

Sanzo gave a very unbelieving look.

Ginji went on – 'Most dangerous was probably the time when we had to get the IL from Makubex.'

'What's an il?'

'It's an optic…' Ginji wondered whether he should say it intelligently and decided not to, 'thingie used in nuclear bombs.'

Sanzo stared at this and didn't speak for a while.

'Don't tell me you're old enough to undertake dangerous jobs,' Sanzo said casually not looking at Ginji.

'What do you mean? I'm 21!'

Now that was a surprise. Sanzo was sure he'd say something in teens. Ginji wasn't stunted or anything, it's just that he was way too childish and behaved even more childishly. The way he panicked when he got lost was proof ample enough.

'You look younger,' Sanzo said.

'What's your age?' Ginji asked. Sanzo stared wondering whether he should answer or not. He saw bright brown eyes looking playfully at him.

'Twenty four.'

'Oh, you look much older though,' Ginji said innocently.

Sanzo got really irritated at this; he let out a low growl which surprised Ginji. Sanzo stood up and began to walk.

Ginji ran behind him; he didn't want to get lost again.

'Where're we going Sanzo?'

'How should I know?'

'Where's your gun?' Ginji asked merely out of curiosity.

Sanzo stared unbelievingly at his foolish companion and then at his empty holster (to see that, the front part of his robes should be moved either manually or by some external forces like wind) and then back at his companion.

'I forgot to get it. It's somewhere near the bush.'

Ginji refused to let Sanzo retrace the steps alone. Ginji followed and when they reached. They saw with delight, a child.

'A child!' Ginji yelled in glee.

'A human child,' Sanzo said to himself assuming it was not youkai but Ginji found this weird – what did he expect, a puppy?

The child was dressed in faded denim overalls, which was too big for it. 'It' looked more like a girl, but they couldn't place the sex for sure.

'Child… Civilization… Should ask…' Sanzo muttered as her marched right to the child, who on seeing the two men backed a little.

'Sanzo, you're scaring her,' Ginji said, an arm extended to stop Sanzo from going.

Sanzo glared at the steady hand barring his way and then at its owner. Rarely did people stop Sanzo like this. He didn't tolerate such actions. But Ginji wasn't even looking at Sanzo. He started to walk very slowly, almost crouched towards the little boy – Sanzo thought it was a male. About a couple of feet away from him, Ginji dropped to his knees and began to speak softly. And then turned at told Sanzo, 'she doesn't understand Japanese.'

They heard a rustle of leaves and suddenly a woman appeared panting and looked around wildly until she saw her child.

'Mommy,' the child cried and ran towards her.

The woman was about to pick the child up and go, when Sanzo said, 'Wait' In English.

The woman appeared to know English; she asked, 'who are you?'

'We're lost here. Can you help us?' Sanzo asked cringing at his own helplessness. They both gave a brief explanation as to how they got there. The woman's eyes widened hearing their story and suddenly seemed to want to go.

'Can we come…?' Sanzo started uncertainly seeing her rush with the child pressed to her chest.

Soon she disappeared into the trees.

'What the…?' Sanzo cursed.

'What we said was quite abnormal and it's quite justifiable that she… hey wait for me,' Ginji ran after him, seeing Sanzo take off after her.

After a few seconds, Sanzo realized, 'My gun!' What was wrong with him?

'Sanzo you forgot your gun again,' Ginji said smiling.

With a sigh of frustration, Sanzo turned back, sure that he'll never see civilization again.

'I'll get it,' Ginji said nervously. He wanted to prove he'll be able to find his way back and not get lost again.

'You'd get lost again, idiot,' Sanzo said not really irritated with Ginji. Ginji shook his head at this and took off. Impatiently Sanzo waited.

Ginji was panting with effort and speed. But he knew that his heart was drumming for different reason. What if he got lost again? He spotted the pond and the bush and lo – the gun! In a flash he got there and held the weapon with great reverence and care – not even accidentally should his fingers touch the trigger. The he sped towards where Sanzo, hopefully, would be standing.

'De ja vu,' he mused as a familiar feeling of rushing to some place where he was wanted. He felt stupid and he half-expected Natsumi and Ban to be waiting at the other side of the forest. He had to slow down and he started to feel dizzy. Again a familiar feeling… He closed his eyes – he saw something inside his eyelids. Immediately he opened his eyes to see his nose only inches away from a very familiar colourful net-like thing. The next minute he was swallowed up in darkness and was spinning.

The spinning stopped after a few seconds and the place began to brighten – a bit too bright for his eyes to take in. He shut his eyes again and opened them only to see a very surprised Ban.

'Ban!' Ginji yelled in delight and lunged forward to trap his friend in a bear hug and he saw on the other side of Ban, over his shoulder, his own finger almost touching the trigger, a gun, whose muzzle was pointed at Ban's head.

'Aargh!' he dropped the weapon.

'What? What happened? Where were you? You just…'

Ginji looked to his right to see two customers leaving hurriedly, one of them howling.

'Ginji!' a female voice screamed ad Ginji found himself being squeezed in the middle by a pair of slender arms.

Gun forgotten, Ginji hugged Natsumi back.

Ban saw the gun on the ground and picked it up. 'Where were you?' he asked facing Ginji now. 'And what is this?'

'That's Sanzo's,' Ginji said and felt a pang of guilt. 'I left him there… You think he'd have gone to his place?'

'Who's Sanzo?'

There was suddenly a tinkling noise and Paul who hasn't shown the slightest interest or surprise at Ginji's arrival said, 'Natsumi, someone's come.'

Natsumi went towards the door saying her by hearted line, 'Welcome to Honk…' she stopped on seeing the weirdest looking man standing at the door.

'Armano!' he said fuming.

Sanzo felt that it was all Ginji's fault. He had agreed to Ginji bringing the gun back but he hadn't had trusted him and had followed him without Ginji knowing. When Ginji had picked the gun Sanzo was quite nearby and as he looked as though he's about to collapse Sanzo had rushed forwards and suddenly he was on a street busy with vehicles and prattling people and realized that he was in front of a restaurant – Honky Tonk.

'Sanzo!' Ginji felt confused. How did Sanzo get here? Or was he originally from around. Ginji joyfully voiced this which made Sanzo growl.

'Fool, I'm from China,' he snarled as he marched forwards and grabbed the gun out of a confused Ban's hand.

'Oh in that case,'

'Excuse me,' Band strode forwards and placed himself in between the two blondes. 'Who would tell me, what the hell had happened?'

Ginji blinked and looked at Sanzo, who sighed and gave as short a description as possible and whenever Ginji tried to put in a word or two, Sanzo glared at him, which shut Ginji up.

'Probably the lake was another portal, just like this stupid restaurant,' Sanzo said thoughtfully.

'Hey,' said Paul who did not appreciate people calling his restaurant stupid, but was ignored by other four.

'But this time two people disappeared,' Ginji pointed out.

'I was very near you… you had suddenly appeared ready to pass out,' Sanzo said and wished he hadn't.

Ban was very confused and if he hadn't had witnessed the whole thing he'd have thought the other two lunatics.

'Enough with the nonsense,' Ban hissed with a cigarette newly wedged between his teeth. 'Ginji is back. I don't see why we should rack our brains more on it.'

He wanted to irritate the highly irritable newcomer and it had worked – 'Click.'

Ban sweat dropped as he saw the muzzle of the gun he had recently befriended only an inch away from his pointed nose. Sanzo glared at him for a while before withdrawing it and puffed out his chest as if suffocated.

Ban goggled at this gesture and at Ginji who didn't seem even mildly concerned.

'Sit down Ban,' he said, 'Sanzo does that all the time.'

Natsumi brought the three cups of coffee and sandwiches and smiled at Sanzo as his eyes widened at this kind gesture.

'You guys must be starving. Ban, yours is not on the house,' Natsumi said and she spend a couple of minutes, which was all it took, to watch Ginji gobble up the sandwiches. Sanzo rejected the sandwiches, but took the coffee and drank it. Strangely the coffee reminded him of Hakkai and his excellent cooking.

There was another bell chime and Natsumi rushed to the door and saw Hevn enter.

'GINJI!' she nearly screamed as she nearly ran to him, who had stood up nervously and threw her arms around him and kissed him flat on the lips. As she withdrew Ginji collapsed on the chair, dazed.

'Ch!' Sanzo remarked in disgust.

This was when Hevn noticed a handsome blonde in strange clothes sitting beside them.

'Who's that?' she whispered to Ban.

'Aren't you even curious to know what had happened to Ginji?' Ban asked incredulously.

'No.'

The next few hours, the six people sat there wondering how to get Sanzo out of this world. Paul appeared disinterested but was not too keen to keep an armed person, who tends to use his weapon during times of irritation, in his café. Hevn, on contrary, was in no hurry. She was sitting close to Sanzo, making an occasional pass at him, which caused the victim much discomfort, until he said,

'You ought to be warming to your boyfriend there,' he pointed at Ginji.

'Boyfriend? Him? Please, you underestimate me! Don't misunderstand a friendly kiss,' she made the last word a sensuous hiss.

Sanzo turned his attention back to a box of tissue paper.

'If we came together, probably…' Ginji started but was stopped when Ban – 'Maybe we should reproduce the scene of the kid crashing into the neon lamp and instead of Ginji maybe this guy should stay back.'

'… we could go…' Ginji attempted again but Hevn had something to say – 'why don't you stay?' and fluttered her eyelids.

Sanzo gave her a death glare after which the persistent fluttering ceased.

'… how'd you get out of…?' Ginji was getting irritated when he was once again interrupted by Paul requesting Sanzo to keep the gun away.

Suddenly Natsumi said, 'Why don't you get a plane ticket to get you to China?'

Everybody stopped their discussion and turned their attention to the small girl making such a practical suggestion.

Sanzo shook his head and said, 'I'm from a different time dimension.'

'What's a time dimension?' Ginji asked. Again no one took any notice.

'My associates and I are traveling time and it's a different time from where I'm coming from,' Sanzo said. And asked, 'What's the time now?'

Ginji promptly looked at his watch and said, '2:30 PM.'

'THWACK!' Ban with newspaper.

'THWACK!' Sanzo with the paper fan.

'Ouch, ouch!' Ginji cried out in agony rubbing his both arms.

'My paper!' Paul made a grab for it.

Natsumi laughed and said, 'February 16, 2002.'

Sanzo smiled very slightly and said, 'I'm from 1508 AD.'

'You can't be! Revolver wasn't invented then!' Ginji exclaimed.

Sanzo growled at his with irritation.

Suddenly Ginji got up and finally succeeded in getting everyone's attention.

'Listen,' he said, 'we both came together… so we go back together to that place until we figure out how to reach separately to our respective homes.'

'You are not going,' Sanzo said, now standing.

'I am!' Ginji said so fiercely that Sanzo felt for his gun which he had placed on the counter upon Paul's request and found that it's been pushed a couple of feet away and covered by baby blue tissue paper. He glared at a now-whistling Paul.

Sanzo sat down panting.

'Ginji, you may never come back,' Hevn said softly.

'I would, so would Sanzo, I mean… would return!' Ginji said with finality in his voice.

'Armano, we can get stuck there or maybe die at the hands of another furry orange dinosaur!' Sanzo said flinching at his pathetic description of a terrifying creature.

'Ginji,' Ban said looking into his partner's eyes, 'Come back in one piece, will you?'

'Don't you want you friend to be safe? Make him stay!' Sanzo growled at Ban with a sudden mad desire for cigarette.

'Of course I want to,' Ban said wearily, 'But once an idea gets into his head, it's hard to knock it off his thick skull.'

After that everybody sat in silence brooding over their own problems. Ginji wondered whether he was making a mistake; Ban whether he should persuade his friend to stay; Sanzo didn't want any favor and he hated owing anyone anything; Hevn – 'why can't he stay here?' and Paul was sad that thanks to his abnormal friends, he'd lost the only two customers who had come there on that day.

Natsumi had left at around 3 pm.

Another tinkling noise snapped everyone out of their thoughts and all turned their attention to the door to see a tall black someone enter.

'Aah! Akbane!' Ginji gave a small cry and tried to hide behind Sanzo.

'Ginji, my boy, I'm so relieved. When I heard you were missing, I was so worried,' Akbane said smiling as evilly as he could and sat down beside Hevn. Ginji gave a little whimper and slid down, if it were possible, a bit lower on his stool.

'Hello, Kurodo-san, are you on any job?' Hevn asked turning away from a highly frigid Sanzo.

'I came to see Ginji; to see if he's still… well,' and he smiled once again.

Actually he was smiling continuously, thought Sanzo, like Hakkai did. No, Hakkai had a benign though fake smile to hide his agony and to relieve others. This guy had a sinister smile. And unlike his gentle friend, he had a hard cold look, dead pale skin and an intense hungry expression in his small eyes. Akbane's eyes fell upon Sanzo, who promptly looked away.

Akbane thanked Paul for his coffee, paid and left. Before leaveing he turned to look at Sanzo who was again looking at his direction and chuckled softly.

'Take care of Ginji now, Ban.'

Another jangle and he was gone.

Sanzo could see that Kurodo Akbane was not so popular amongst his acquaintance seeing the petrified expression on Ginji's face and rather strained expression on Ban's. Hevn looked just about composed. Paul was the only happy one – he finally got a customer who pays.

Paul pointed out that they can't remain there forever. Sanzo stood up and took off immediately without a word. Hevn stared sadly after him. Ginji was feeling worried – when were they to go? He automatically stood up and started walking towards the exit.

'Where are you going? After that irritable blonde?' Ban asked catching up.

'No. To 360,' Ginji said absently staring at opposite wall.

'I got an apartment now,' Ban said grinning, 'You can stay there if you want to…'

'I've been gone only for a day or two and you… got an apartment? Did you even bother to look for me?' Ginji asked feeling slightly hurt.

Ban's eyes widened at this. Of course he had looked. He had even stooped low enough to recruit the old Volts clan to look for Ginji – even Shido.

Ginji seemed to have sensed this – 'Of course, I know you did. It's just that getting an apartment involves a lot of… er… investigations; right?'

'A client got it for me and agreed to pay a month's rent,' Ban said lighting a cigarette. They walked into the street and Ginji realized how beautiful Tokyo was.

'Ban,' he said.

'Hmm?'

'That place is horrible,' he said shivering slightly, not exactly due to cold.

'Whatever,' Ban said. He was initially irritated with Ginji for offering to go back. Now he had accused him of not having looked for him.

'Look Ban, I'm sorry,' Ginji said now facing Ban and forced Ban to look back. Ginji knew Ban – he won't stay mad forever.

'Ginji,' Ban said sighing, 'whatever happens, just come back alive, ok?'

And he turned sharply into a lane and jogged away. Ginji followed; soon they reached their apartment. It wasn't mush but it had two beds, two chairs, one TV and a small kitchen.

Ginji only remember sitting on his bed.

Sanzo wondered whether Ginji would accompany him to the lost world once again. He had said he would but did he really mean it. Sanzo knew he had. He had half wanted him to but his proud half didn't. He was also aware of it being a huge sacrifice on Ginji's part. Probably Ginji blames himself for coming here all of a sudden. Sanzo was jerked back into reality as he heard a soft 'hello' from behind.

Sano had an excellent sense of direction. He knew where he was walking to. He was planning to return to Honky-whatever restaurant by next morning. So he had wandered aimlessly into the lanes, over the backyards of big buildings and hotels. He didn't like the main city. He felt more comfortable with these dark and deserted places. He was safe anywhere he went – he had his gun, he was powerful and if it came to that, he'd use his sutras.

He turned to see a tall black-clad figure with pale face and long hair. Sanzo turned and walked away. He heard foot steps behind him. He sighed and asked, without turning, 'what do you want?'

'Where are your manners? Is this the way to behave to a charming acquaintance?' Akbane said and was suddenly in front of Sanzo.

Sanzo understood one thing – Akbane was awfully fast – too fast for a normal human.

'Get out of my face,' Sanzo snarled and turned. But Akbane was persistent – he appeared wherever Sanzo had turned, until Sanzo would take it no more. Soon Akbane found Sanzo's gun pointed at his temple and his expression clearly said, 'move or die.'

'Oh goodie! You want to fight!' Akbane's face lit up like a child whose whims have been satisfied.

'Why are you doing this?' Sanzo asked gun still in position but Akbane had glided away from his dangerous situation.

'It's been too long since I had a good fight and I know you can satisfy me, Genjo Sanzo,' Akbane said smiling broadly.

That Akbane knew his name surprised Sanzo but he did not show it. Was he famous? Maybe he'll be in the course of time.

'Ch!' he said and once again turned and said, 'sorry. Not interested.'

Akbane clucked his tongue and said – 'Oh, but I'm not giving you a choice.'

Sanzo on an instinct turned around to face Akbane, who in a flash was by his side and then melted into darkness somewhere. A second later, a searing pain on his left arm made Sanzo look – three slashes each nearly two inches long were made on his arm and blood oozed from them staining his robes. He felt a warm trickle down his fingers.

Sanzo took his gun aimed randomly and said, 'show yourself.'

Akbane came from, apparently, thin air. Sanzo kept the gun back in the holster and abruptly threw a punch on Akbane's face, who was too surprised to have ducked it. Sanzo had expected him to move away, but he was too slow for a moment. Akbane himself was surprised at this exhibition of strength by a seemingly frail man.

Akbane was beginning to enjoy this – the man was keeping him properly entertained. He didn't seem to like the gun as much as he showed. It remained in the holster forgotten.

Sanzo was fast but Akbane had evaded most of his punches and kicks by then. He decided to change the strategy and as Akbane glided in with three scalpels protruding from between his fingers, Sanzo suddenly disappeared.

Akbane was taken unaware as he fell face down with Sanzo on his back, with one knee pressed down on the small of his back. Akbane's hat had fallen off. Sanzo grabbed a fistful of his opponent's hair and pulled his head up and then brought it hard on the ground. And wondered whether this man ever gets hurt as he didn't even utter a cry.

As a matter of fact, Akbane chuckled and extended his hands to either sides and after a couple of seconds, Sanzo's back felt as though it was going to rip apart. He got up and felt his neck and shoulders only to feel something warm and slick and he realized that several of the scalpels had been driven inside.

'As interesting as you prove to be, I must say you do not fight gracefully,' Akbane, now standing, said wiping his face off the dirt, 'I'll have to punish you for that.'

Sanzo's knees buckled in pain and he screamed as Akbane summoned his scalpels back, out of Sanzo's body. He then picked his hat, dusted it taking plenty of time and placed it on his head and said, 'time to finish this game.'

Ban doesn't as a rule sleep before 12 AM. And that night he had other reasons to keep him awake. He was worried about Ginji and wondered whether he'd ever see his friend again once he goes back. Occasionally he thinks that the guy Sanzo is dangerous but Ginji seems to trust him. But Ginji generally tens to trust people. For instance he trusted Ban… But Ban had caught an accidental slip of tongue when Sanzo had said that he had been there when Ginji was about to pass out. Probably he wasn't all that bad.

Some strange noises coming from Ginji's side of the room caught Ban's attention. Ban went over there and looked over at the sleeping form of his friend. Ginji was muttering in his sleep, He was drenched and was restless. He seemed to be trapped in a nightmare. Ban caught hold of Ginji's shoulders and shook him roughly – 'wake up, Ginji.'

Ginji snapped open his eyes but it took a few minutes for him to surface. The first thing he said was 'Akbane!'

'Ban Midou, that's my name,' Ban said.

'No, Ban,' Ginji sat up and dangled his legs on the bed and said, 'Akbane was torturing me… again. And I looked like you.'

'Come over here and watch TV,' Ban kept a hand over Ginji's shoulder and went back to watch TV. Ginji plopped down beside him and after several minutes, said, 'Maybe we should go look for him…'

'Who? Akbane?' Ban asked his eyes glued to TV.

'No, Sanzo.' Ginji got up, 'come on Ban. We have to… I don't like this at all.' Ginji shook his head and was out of the door before Ban could even argue.

Sanzo could clearly see that his charming acquaintance was going to finish him off. He wasn't ready to die – he had a mission ahead of him and by dying he'd be letting a lot of people who had trusted him, down. Biting back the pain, he lunged forwards his right hand stretched out and closed it around Akbane's neck and pinned him to a wall. And he concentrated with all of his power in squeezing the air out of the devil's windpipe.

Initially Akbane just continued to smile and make several maneuvers with his hands and once caught the gleam of scalpel and could feel the sharp blade incising his skin – on his thighs, on his shoulders, on his abdomen but this finally stopped as Akbane clutched Sanzo's persistent hands on his throat in a vain attempt to pry it off.

Sanzo was unconsciously chanting and probably that's how he got the power to restrain such a man with his bare hands despite his injuries. And felt delighted when he heard the first gasp and felt his own nails penetrate the soft skin behind Akbane's neck. Slowly the hands clutching Sanzo's wrists loosed their grip and fell on either side. Almost at the same moment, blood splattered on to Akbane's shirt – blood from Sanzo's chest.

Surprised Sanzo jumped back releasing his grip and looked down – a thin blade stuck at the centre of his chest and blood spurting forcefully out of it, bathing him and Akbane. Feeling giddy Sanzo slid down and supported his weight on his knees and hands. A hand pressed on his hat, Akbane took a leap backwards and chuckled softly.

Sanzo's stuporos mind pleaded him to use his last weapon.

'Ginji, wait up,' Ban ran after his friend, who had turned all of a sudden into a lane, which would end up dangerously close to the Maze city. What was that idiot up to?

Ginji wasn't heading for Maze city – he was heading for the dingy alleyway where he had to fight Akbane the last. It was a misunderstanding and they didn't have to end up fighting but Akbane even after realizing that both were on the same side, had insisted on thrusting a scalpel under his collar bone, up to its full length. Ginji's instinct to detect danger was much stronger than his hopeless sense of direction and he knew he was going the right way. He slowed down as he reached the backyard of a nearly broken down apartment building. Ban caught on, panting and asked what he was up to. But before he got an answer, he heard a distinct shout coming from their left.

They ran past the building, jumped over a wall and stopped on their tracks seeing a strange sight.

Sanzo was on his knees and was shouting incoherent something with his arms stretched out and what which appeared to be broad white ribbons were uncoiling from around him and winding around a stunned looking Akbane. Akbane was trying to send scalpels but they got burnt off as they made way towards Sanzo.

Ginji noticed the wounds on Sanzo and this extra effort is not going to help him. 'Sanzo, STOP!'

'No, Ginji,' Ban said – Akbane might take advantage when Sanzo stops what he's doing.

Sanzo turned – the white ribbons hastily made their way into Sanzo's robes but Akbane didn't strike but collapsed.

Sanzo looked ready to pass out himself. Ginji caught him before he hit the ground and pulled one arm around his neck and looked pleadingly at Ban, who sighed and took Sanzo's free arm. It was then he had noticed the scalpel which thrust out of his chest and the great amount of blood seeping from the wound.

'Ginji…' Ban said.

Ginji pretended not to have seen that. It was remarkable that Sanzo was still alive. By the time they had caught a cab, Sanzo was completely unconscious. The cab driver was very hesitant to let a dying man in, but after Ginji made a small lecture on value of human lives and Ban gave 200 yen, the driver agreed.

'Bastard! We needn't have brought him to hospital… A shield! What was that anyway?' Ban asked to a very happy looking Ginji.

'Bamboo I think… but Ban, the scalpel had penetrated it. And he was bleeding so badly,' Ginji pointed out.

After they had brought an unconscious Sanzo to the hospital he was taken to the emergency room and after a long time a doctor emerged out to say that besides losing a lot of blood, he was ok and, much to Ban's annoyance, no internal injuries. That was when they pointed out that a scalpel was sticking out of his chest. And came to know that he was wearing a shield, which considerably reduced the damage. They were given Sanzo's bloodied clothes plus the shield. They had seen the 'shield' before on Sanzo but thought it to be a fancy decoration; it appears to have a function.

Now Ban and Ginji were in his room, were Sanzo's still-unconscious form was resting on a bed. Ban was pacing the room clearly upset that he had spent so much money on a total stranger, who was not even in mortal peril.

'It was better if he had died. Then you needn't go,' he said loudly enough for Ginji to hush him and said, 'No, I'd have gone then to return his body to his friends.'

They heard a distinct snort coming from the other side of the room.

Sanzo had been awake for a while, but felt too tired to open his eyes. Besides the conversation was quite amusing. Sanzo now sat up and swung his legs over to the side of the bed and felt an uncomfortable tugging sensation on his left arm – an IV drip set had been fastened to a cannula sticking our of his arm.

He was about to pull it off, when Ban snarled – 'Don't you dare! I'm not spending money for nothing. As long as I'm paying the hospital charges, you're lying right there,' pointing a furious finger at the bed.

'I don't need your charity. Where're my clothes?' he asked Ginji, who brought forth a large bag and handed it to Sanzo.

Ready to flinch at the smell of his own blood, he opened it to find it remarkably clean and blood-free.

Then… it is likely… he took his robes out and let it fall to its full length… that the money… he ran his fingers through the insides of the robe… is gone! Until his hand struck something hard.

Ginji and Ban who were watching this curious process with interest was very much surprised when Sanzo extended a few gold coins, each the size of a cookie, at them. Ban had a good mind to accept them, but it'd hurt his pride and since he had plenty of that, he turned his back and left.

'Bastard!' Sanzo muttered.

After a few minutes, Ginji approached him and sat beside him and said, 'How do you feel now, Sanzo?'

'I'm fine. I have to get out of here…' Sanzo said checking whether the gun was in the bag. It was not!

'Where's my gun?' Sanzo growled.

'It's with us,' Ginji said with a finger pressed to his lips, 'we took it from you when we brought you here. Since it was an attack, Ban thought the gun might not be a good idea.'

Sanzo got the point but that didn't stop him from growling – 'I want it now.'

'Eh… it's with Ban. He'll return it, I promise,' Ginji added before Sanzo could explode.

Ginji jumped hearing a couple of knocks on the door. Ginji looked at Sanzo who was being deliberately indifferent and said, 'come in.'

Two people walked in – a police officer and a doctor. The policeman took out a white notepad and started describing the circumstances of the assault and the injuries sustained by the victim. After he had finished, he pulled a chair towards Sanzo and said, 'Now I want you to tell me what had happened.'

'I don't remember,' Sanzo said abruptly and once again turned his attention towards the bag.

'Be cooperative; you do want to see the man who did this behind the bars, don't you…' he smiled as though he was trying to persuade a stubborn child and might as well have added, 'young man' but nevertheless it made Sanzo angry.

'Look… I don't remember my assailant and I have no complaints. Now leave me alone!' Sanzo said trying to sound as angry as possible.

The policeman got up and said – 'You will have to answer me if not in front of me, in front of court. I'll see to that!' And he stormed out.

The doctor who had come in was rather young and Ginji felt sympathetic seeing his terrified expression. He took out something from his coat – a thin book, most probably his case sheet but didn't speak anything but mouthed wordlessly looking at it – more like praying rather than reading and said, 'You're to remain in bed…'

Nothing happened.

'Like now,' he ventured on, 'You're sitting, you should be…'

'I'm on the bed,' Sanzo pointed out as mildly as possible since he too felt sorry for this doctor.

The doctor turned his attention towards Ginji – 'He needs plenty of rest. He had lost a…' before he could complete, Sanzo said – 'I wan to leave today.'

'You can't…'

'But I am!'

The doctor looked sadly from Sanzo to Ginji and left muttering about going to get someone. And that someone came in five minutes time. It was the chief physician – properly doctor-looking guy with graying hair and typical smile came and said that he's going to examine the patient and whether on not Sanzo wished Ginji's presence. Ginji took the glare to be a 'no' and promptly left.

Sanzo did not resist examination. After that Sanzo again voiced his opinions of having to get out of there. The doctor's smile faltered a little.

'We can't force you to remain here. But once out of here, if you find yourself passing out every now and then don't blame us.' He smiled in a fatherly way.

Ginji was surprised to see that the doctor was still smiling when he left. And even more so when he saw Sanzo in no hurry to leave.

What was more annoying than hospital life is, Sanzo realized, was what which came along with it - visitors. Sanzo had managed to shoo off a very persistent Ginji an hour after the doctor had left. Actually he'd have liked to Ginji to stay a while longer, but no, that will be very unlike him.

He spent some beautiful solitary hours in his room wondering what Goku, Gojyo and Hakkai would be doing then. He supposed they'd be trying to bring back Sanzo; he just hoped that they wouldn't use any extreme measures. His solitary brood was broken by a long array of visitors.

Natsumi came along with Ban. Ban was still furious at Sanzo and didn't even look in his direction. Natsumi, much to Sanzo's discomfort, had brought much goodies and was talking as though they'd known for years.

'I'm coming from school you know… on the way I met Ban… I'm doing junior high…'

And when she got no coherent reply, she went about the room adjusting and readjusting the furniture until –

'Sit down!' Sanzo yelled.

Natsumi had got hold of Sanzo's bag evading Sanzo's flailing arms in an attempt to catch it. She giggled and moved away form bed well aware of Sanzo's handicap.

'Give it back,' he said beginning to feel very irritated.

'I will, tomorrow, after I patch it,' she said happily, pulling out the robe from the bag.

'I don't want it patched,' Sanzo said through gritted teeth.

'Oh, but,' she said, her eyes extra-wide, 'The robes are so beautiful. I'll manage to mend it without any evidence that it had got torn.'

Sanzo sighed and extended his arms indicating her to give it back.

Ban who had found all this very amusing said, 'Drop it blondie, she's not going to give up. If you don't yield, she'll torture you until you do.'

And all of a sudden, the door opened and a tall man with a weird hairdo and shabby clothes walked in. Sanzo liked him immediately as the first thing the stranger did was to catch Ban by the collar and slam him to the wall.

'Midou! You didn't tell me Ginji was back – for last 24 hours!' he screamed to his face.

Ban smirked and pushed his assailant off, 'I don't see why I should have.'

'And I had to hear it from the missing person himself,' he puffed out his chest, 'I was searching the whole Shinjuku, not to mention me friends…'

'Bah! You keep in contact with you animal friends but do you ever talk to that girlfriend of yours? I'd told her over the phone. Didn't she tell you? Or you guys don't talk but just hu…'

The newcomer went red on the face and said that he hadn't seen her for the last couple of days as he was busy looking.

'Then get yourself a cell phone, caveman,' Ban hissed.

Sanzo was fascinated by the guy's hands as it gripped Ban's shirt. It had a hard claw-like appearance. And as the conversation proceeded the nails seem to grow. In an instinct he looked at his ears – yes he knew it.

'Are you a demon?' Sanzo asked abruptly.

All the three looked at him.

Shido looked nervously at Natsumi and then at the blonde. Ginji had given him an idea of Sanzo and his fight with Akbane, which he had won. But how did he get to this…

Natsumi registered that the silence was due mainly to her presence. She looked at Shido and smiled, 'It's ok. Madoka had told me you were abnormal.'

Ban almost fell with the force of his laughter.

Natsumi added immediately, 'Come on, Shido, it's no big deal. Look at the two I constantly hang out with!' The laughter stopped.

'So you are a demon?' Sanzo asked feeling a bit impatient at being not responded to.

'So what?' Shido snarled at the invalid.

'Nothing,' he said and added against his own better judgment, 'My job from where I'm from is to kill demons.'

'I'd like to see you try,' Shido growled.

'You don't count. I don't kill… tame ones,' he replied casually.

At this Shido again growled and the only thing preventing him from ripping the blonde from limb to limb was the fact that he was an invalid. And that was the last Sanzo saw of him.

Sanzo closed his eyes waiting for others to leave. But they were evidently in no hurry as he could feel two pairs of eyes boring into his face; one of which averted as he opened his own.

Bans said, 'so you kill demons,'

'Hm.'

'Does Ginji know that?' Ban asked.

'He is aware that I'm prone to kill. But demons… I don't think he knows,' Sanzo said.

'Maybe I should leave,' Natsumi said.

'Maybe you should,' Sanzo said encouragingly.

'Maybe you should stay,' Ban caught her on her shoulders and pushed her back into her seat. He wanted her to be traumatized a bit. She'd called the getbackers abnormal. She'd now know how abnormal one could get.

And focused his attention back to Sanzo.

Sanzo sighed and knew that this new founded attention was due mainly to concern for Ginji's safety. He said, 'don't' worry, I won't kill your pal.'

'What exactly are you?' Ban asked now wondering whether he was a demon.

'Armano didn't tell you?' he asked. When he didn't get a reply, he said the same thing he'd said Ginji a few days back – A Buddhist priest.

To Sanzo's satisfaction, he saw them adequately shocked.

'Priest?' Ban voiced, 'that should explain those scriptures you carry around.' And then he produced a cigarette from nowhere, wedged it between his teeth and realizing it to be a hospital room put it back in its box. A Marlboro!

Sanzo hadn't had a smoke for over three days and it was getting to his nerves. Now he sees his brand being tantalizingly brandished before him.

'Hello,' said a mild voice and he saw a slender hand waving an inch away from his nose.

Sanzo snapped back from his nicotine dreams and glared at Natsumi and gave a nonspecific grunt, which he hoped would pose as a satisfactory answer to the unheard question.

'What exactly are you doing in… the dimension you're from?' Ban asked.

'A bunch of demons are trying to resurrect an ancient demon. And I'm appointed by the…' he paused and continued, 'to stop the process and me and three of my associates have been behind this project for the past couple of years.'

A silence followed.

'Your associates,' Natsumi asked, 'are they priests too?'

'No, they're demons,' Sanzo said feeling tired now.

'So how can you trust them? They may try to help the hibernating demon!' Natsumi said her eyes wide with pointless concern.

'Enough of this!' Sanzo snarled, irritated with himself for being irritated at accusing his comrades, 'I'm done with this! Just…' he stopped seeing the remarkably innocent eyes staring at him and went a bit soft, 'Just leave me alone. I'm tired.'

Natsumi got up and Ban walked towards the door. Sanzo nearly begged her to take the chocolates and made a final appeal for the robes. The chocolates went so did his robes.

Sanzo had fallen asleep but was jolted back to consciousness when he heard a knock at the door. He ignored it initially but it was persistent.

'Come in,' he screamed.

And in walked HEVN.

All his sleepiness left him – he was afraid to close his eyes. She might take advantage of him. She was big and strong woman and he was presently weak.

'So you beat Kurodo Akbane?' she asked clearly impressed.

'So what?' he asked.

'Are you sure you want to leave?' HEVN made a final appeal at which Sanzo got up so violently, that she didn't repeat the question.

She was an agent who brought 'Getbackers' jobs, she said, since those two had an affinity towards trouble, she occasionally had to get other 'gifted' people, like Kurodo-san, to work with them. She smiled – 'you'd be fun to work with,' and she gently caressed his face with one highly manicured index finger.

Sanzo slapped her hand off.

'Get out!'

HEVN stared at him for a couple of minutes thinking of other possible mechanisms of luring a man immune to her sexuality, to staying. When she decided that there were none, she shook her head impressively, said a loud 'fine' and left.

Sanzo wondered if it was Gojyo in his place, what would have happened.

Then came the last and the most unwelcome of his visitors – Akbane.

Considering the amount of energy Sanzo had put in kicking Akbane's ass, he looked quite healthy.

'How do you feel, priest Genjyo Sanzo?' he asked seating himself very close to the bed.

Sanzo didn't reply, just eyed him suspiciously.

'It's interesting to see you like this,' he said, now giggling, 'I'm glad I didn't kill you.'

Sanzo opened his mouth to remind him who had defeated who, when –

'Oh, but I forget,' Akbane said, eyes wide with fake realization, 'it was you who'd have killed me.'

And the next moment, Sanzo saw a shiny scalpel wedged between Akbane's extended fingers. It disappeared as fast as it had appeared.

'Not today,' Akbane said smiling, 'Another time, after you recover.' He produced a long stemmed red rose from nowhere and placed it inside an empty vase by the window and left.

Sanzo had to spend another day and before he slept. He prayed that the next day would be visitor-free. But no…

Ginji came along with Natsumi early in the morning. 'Doesn't this hospital have visiting hours?' Sanzo asked incredulously. The two looked at each other and chuckled. Natsumi walked forward and placed a plastic bag on his bed. Carefully, without disrupting his IV drip or his bandaged ribs, he sat up and leaned forwards to examine the contents. It was the repaired robe. He didn't take it out; he wanted to but didn't want to appear curious. This disappointed Natsumi a little.

She suddenly got up – 'Gotta go! School time.'

When she reached the door, Sanzo called – 'Hey,'

She turned, her long hair held in a pony tail swung impressively as she did so.

'Thanks,' he said.

Ginji was awfully quiet, which was quite welcome, but eventually Sanzo got tired of the silence.

'Where's your asshole of a partner? He's got my gun…'

'Don't worry, he'll give it back,' Ginji said.

Silence.

'Look, Armano,' Sanzo said after a couple of minutes, 'Nobody's forcing you to go. Stay here, you might not come back.'

'I'm going,' Ginji said with a finality in his voice, which made Sanzo stop further persuasion.

The doctor came in not long after and declared that Sanzo was fit to be discharged by that evening. Ginji insisted on staying till then but Sanzo had managed to shoo him off. Ginji left with a promise of returning with the gun.

Time passed away uneventfully for both Sanzo and Ginji until the next day morning when both arrived at Honky Tonk punctually at 10 am. Sanzo had passed the night in the streets disregarding Ginji's offer to admit in their apartment. Ginji had been worried but Sanzo reached unscathed.

There was a huge send away party consisting of the owner of the café, the waitress, HEVN, Ban and Akbane. The last one was as unwelcome as was unnecessary. Akbane said he'd come hoping to see Sanzo in good health, so he could arrange a fight for the next day. But no, Sanzo appear to have slight pallor and besides Akbane always gave priority to his would-be-victim's appointments.

'Have a nice time, you two,' Akbane smirked and glided out of the café.

The plan was to recreate the scene, which had lead to Ginji's disappearance. Ban, who had engineered the plot, wondered whether he should go get the kid who'd crashed his bike the other day. But he decided against it. Likewise, all except Ginji and Sanzo jumped up and ran out of the café. HEVN even exclaimed pretending to hear a crash. The two who were left out merely looked at each other and waited. It came, Ban's shout, 'Ginji, come out!'

Ginji looked nervously at Sanzo. Both counted mentally – one, two, three… and got up simultaneously. Sanzo felt triumph and Ginji some grief when they respectively felt giddy. And soon the café's door seemed to disappear and got transformed into a colourful paper-like thing and without looking at each other, they walked into it. And the next moment they were engulfed within darkness and were spinning.

'Ginji, come out!' Ban said, his command turned into a plea. He wished his friend would indeed come out instead of… He shouldn't have agreed to this stupid plan in the first place. It might be the last time he saw Ginji. Ban rushed to the door and opened it and yelled, 'No, Ginji' but too late, the café was empty.

'Don't go…'

When the spinning stopped they landed on a soft surface – sand. They had reached the pond, Sanzo thought feeling giddy. He was sure he was hallucinating when he saw himself surrounded by people – hundreds of them and all carrying guns, which were pointed at them. He turned around to look at Ginji, who looked more oriented but very scared. Then he passed out.

When Sanzo regained his consciousness, he could feel intense pain all over his body but concentrated on his arms and shoulders. He looked for Ginji – he was right beside him and gave him a reassuring smile before he realized that they were both suspended by ropes tied around there wrists and underneath them were two large water tanks – one for each.

'What's going on?' Sanzo asked, still feeling giddy.

The woman whom they'd met had obviously told of people coming from 'earth' and since the people knew that the pond was a portal, they'd appointed armed people about the place to catch any more of earthlings.

'They're also from earth. Just don't want any more additions,' Ginji added matter-of-factly.

'And what are they going to do to us?' Sanzo asked with a mixture of irritation and alarm.

'Kill us, I suppose,' Ginji said trying to sound brave.

They didn't speak and watched more people pour into the room where they were kept.

'Is that hot water?' Sanzo asked.

'Don't know, don't think so.'

'Then we could break our chains and escape?' Sanzo suggested.

'Er…' Ginji looked up. Sanzo followed his gaze to see very think iron chain tied many times around their wrists.

'Shit! We're to drown…' Sanzo said irritated at everybody.

'No. They're going to electrocute us. I heard one of them say so,' Ginji said smiling.

'I have a plan,' said Ginji, 'when they approach us, I'll scream and appear all scared and naturally they'll go for me first. Then you'll have to shout – not Ginji, take me or whatever, and they'll definitely get me first!'

He smiled triumphantly.

Sanzo raised an eyebrow and asked, 'What difference does it make if you get killed first?'

'You remember I generate electricity?' Ginji asked, 'I don't get electrocuted!'

Still Sanzo didn't get it – ok, Ginji doesn't get electrocuted but how would that save them?

There was one person in the crowd who didn't want their captives killed. He didn't say so but knew that somehow his god will save both himself and his friend. Shu on hearing about the plan had been frantic until he heard about the method of electrocution. Then he was relieved.

'What's the matter, Shu? What's got into you?' a voice said abruptly which made Shu jump.

'Oh nothing,' Shu said, eyes again at the two fated men, whom he could see from the window.

'Wondering you in there shoes?' his friend, a freckled boy named Puck said.

Shu hesitated wondering if it'd be safe to confide in Puck. But Puck was Cecil's brother. She's evil thought Shu. But deep down Shu couldn't blame her – she just had carried on the news. Everyone was terrified of new comers…

Shu said anyway, what one of those men were to him and how devastated he'll be if Ginji died and finally with a triumphant smile, about Ginji's ability and how electricity just increases his powers instead of killing him. Puck was thrilled to hear about special powers but he actually wanted both of them killed. Nobody except a fool like Shu would trust outsiders so blindly. True, Puck had been an outsider once, but he closed his eyes on that. Puck wondered whether he should tell on Ginji; he liked Shu a lot but thought the idea of a human-God foolish,

Ginji had been screaming and begging alternatively and very realistically too, as they lowered him to the electrically charged water or whatever liquid, which was inside the vast containers. Sanzo violated a lot of his principles and hurt his self-esteem very badly by playing along. He'd screamed – 'Let him go...o...o. . .' and 'take me instead…' etcetera, etcetera.

But Ginji's performance once the electrocution had started was not very realistic. He screamed beautifully – a blood-curdling scream, which made Sanzo's several hairs stand on their ends. But as he tried to imitate the physical signs and symptoms of electrocution, his actions resembled a badly played disco. He tried to twitch and become rigid alternatively, as he'd seen his victims do, but it didn't come out well. And he didn't lose consciousness after two whole minutes. These raised the suspicions of the inhabitants of the lost world.

Ginji had expected his powers to increase to such an extent as to enable him to break his shackles and somehow free Sanzo and then make a run for it. But, even though he didn't get hurt, his powers weren't increasing as much as he'd have liked. Try as he might while putting up the show, he couldn't break the iron chains. He only hurt his wrists.

Sanzo began to worry after three of four minutes, when the initially jubilant crowd started to become restless. They spoke among themselves, checked the apparatus and much hubbub later, a boy ran up to them and said something. The boy became exasperated as his audience definitely didn't get the point; he yelled – 'kill the other guy first!'

Ginji was soon out of the water and was hanging in the initial position. Sanzo was being lowered. Sanzo didn't scream; this time also Ginji did the screaming. But Sanzo screamed, albeit for a short time as he lost consciousness, once he was electrocuted.

'Do something,' a strange voice said inside Ginji's head.

He did something at that moment, for he fell into water. The tank wasn't deep, but it would take him at least a minute to get out. By then it would be too late.

Ginji had seen the supply while he was being electrocuted. He thrust his head outside the water and aimed at the supply and gave all his power to blast that thing.

For a second everything seemed still. Ginji scrambled out, had to dodge a few bullets and climbed into the other tank, where an unconscious and in all respects, dead Sanzo was sinking. He put an arm around his waist and in one desperate leap, was thrown out of water, overbalanced and fell.

He looked helplessly at the numerous guns, most of them ancient-looking pointed at them. He didn't have much choice; he needed some kind of shield. He'd done it before using charged water droplets. This was an equally desperate situation. Slowly water from himself and Sanzo's body rose and before the guns started to fire the droplets began to spin.

The crowd watched in amazement and shock as the bullets pinged off from what which looked like a miniature twister. The bullets were flying in all directions and the crowd scattered screaming. Ginji bend down and felt for Sanzo's pulse, and felt someone punch in the stomach as he didn't get any. Then he started getting irregular and feeble vibrations. He'd once been told that electricity destroys the rhythm of heart and that is how most of the Lightning God's victims had died.

His shield was falling and among the chaos he noticed a thin wiry body with mousy hair and sunken eyes; he looked oddly familiar…

'Shu…?' Ginji whispered, then screamed 'SHU!' No, that can't be possible, he thought, Shu had died in his arms, years back. So was this heaven? Or hell?

Shu was hurrying off and was indicating him to follow. Heaving a nearly dead Sanzo over his shoulder, Ginji ran following Shu… outside the building, into a clearing… into the woods… rocks… and reached a cave. Shu was gone.

Ginji's vision was blurred with tears as he laid down Sanzo and checked his breathing. He didn't know what brought the tears on… Shu or Sanzo. Ginji could get occasional gasps from Sanzo and nothing more. He then tore off Sanzo's robes and took off his shirt and place his wet palms over his chest and closed his eyes in silent prayer.

Once Ban had forced him to do this to an old man. He didn't know what he did or why he did it. All he could remember was that the old man had lived at least for a couple of months more.

After the first attempt Sanzo seemed to have lost the little life he had possessed. Pleading repeatedly to no one in particular, Ginji tried once again; and sat back and felt for the pulse again. Yes! Ginji's heart leapt as he felt a strong and regular pulse. Then why the hell is he not breathing?

Saying 'eurgh' mentally, Ginji leaned forward and did what he'd seen Jubei do once to another friend, Haruki, who had nearly drowned then. He took a deep breath. He tilted Sanzo's head back, pinched his nose and placed his mouth over Sanzo's and exhaled fast and completely. He heard some gurgling sounds coming from Sanzo's throat. He didn't take any chances, he did it once more.

Sanzo coughed, caught his throat and turned to one side and seemed to be writhing. But he was soon sitting up looking around.

'What the hell happened?' he asked, voice hoarse.

'You got killed, nearly,' Ginji said trying to hide his relief, 'we escaped. Shu saved us…' He stared at the small entrance of the cave for any sign of his once best friend.

'Tell me again,' an irritated Goddess asked to Gojyo, Hakkai and Goku, 'why can't you do anything right?'

'You let the demon live, you let one of you disappear and the rest merely travel sight-seeing…'

Gojyo desperately wished for Sanzo and his gun so that she'd have a hole in her head by now, not that it matters, her being God and all. He was jerked back from murderous thoughts as he caught the words, 'nearly killed.'

Goku gasped and for a minute everyone was silent. Goddess sighed and placed her hands on her hip, 'I'm bringing him back,' and she pointed a very shapely finger northwards, 'Just go north and by daybreak, you'll find him.'

'You did not put your mouth on me, did you?' Sanzo asked alarmed during Ginji's narration of the events following his electrocution.

'I had to,' Ginji said, his mind faraway – where was Shu?

Just then they both heard a frightened scream coming from somewhere above.

'Shu!' Ginji ran outside leaving behind a confused Sanzo, who just couldn't understand why Ginji cares so much for a boy whom he met just then. He followed Ginji outside.

Outside seemed a different place altogether. The caves were not very obviously visible; probably that's why they weren't spotted yet. He could hear screams shouts and many other noises; he looked up – there were a huge crowd making angry noises. They seemed to have cornered someone. Ginji was nowhere in sight.

'Hey!' a voice said from behind, which made Sanzo nearly jump. It was Ginji.

'What's going on?' Sanzo asked.

'They're questioning Shu,' Ginji said in a hushed voice, 'I think he's not hurt. Heard him speak up.'

'Who's Shu?' Sanzo asked.

'Later Sanzo. He's the reason why we're alive. We've got to save him. He's in trouble because of us.'

'Hey, maybe they won't hurt him. He's one of them after all…' before Sanzo could finish he heard yells, more like frightened cry rather than a scream.

Ginji had charged into the middle of the crowd before Sanzo could react. Ginji's arm was extended and was blasting everyone in his way.

Sanzo didn't follow this time. For one, he was confused. Another, he knew by now Ginji can shield himself from even bullets while he couldn't. Sanzo didn't advance until he saw Ginji fall.

Sanzo ran amidst the crowd screaming for them to stop.

'Stop it! We don't want to hurt any one,' he said, standing in front of a hurt Ginji and a sobbing boy.

'Hey! That man! He's alive!' someone said and several guns were pointed at him.

'Please let us go,' Sanzo said wishing he had his gun with him. And then he saw, his gun, wedged into the belt of a scruffy youngster who had another gun, more of a rifle, pointed at him. Sanzo slowly advanced towards him. The boy didn't back off or attack. He seemed amused at the defenseless man.

'Look,' Sanzo said maintaining eye contact, 'we accidentally got here.'

'We know. We want to stop these accidents… Hey!' In the next moment Sanzo was holding the man with his arm around his neck and his own sweet Smith and Wesson pointing at his temple.

'Back off,' Sanzo said to the crowd, nudging the captive forward.

'You think you can get away with this? Your friend… he's a bad way…'

Sanzo turned to look at Ginji and had only time to register that the latter was bleeding from somewhere near his chest before he felt intense pain on his head and everything blacked out.

'There he is, Hakkai! Stop Hakuryu,' Goku screamed jumping up and down as he saw a body lying on their path.

All three jumped out of the Jeep and rushed to Sanzo's side. Sanzo was lying on one side, obviously out and was clad only in his jeans. His scriptures were evidently not on his person. Clutched weakly in his right hand was his gun. There were several cuts and bruises, some fresh, some healed, all over his exposed skin and a chunk of his blond hair was matted with blood. Hakkai kneeled beside him and gently turned him over. His chest showed a relatively fresh and sutured wound and his face showed several scratches and the side of his mouth was torn and bleeding.

'Oh my God,' Hakkai muttered, 'Get him to the jeep, I'll see what I can do.'

'Hakkai,' Goku, who'd been scared out of his wits, spoke, 'look, he's saying something.'

Sanzo was getting restless and was mumbling something incoherent.

'So he'll live,' Gojyo said, trying to sound casual.

Sanzo just couldn't open his eyes. He was tired and was hurting all over. But he could understand that he was moving. He can't be walking, that's for sure – he barely had energy to stay conscious. Was he in Jeep? Can't be – this was a jerky and rhythmic movement; probably a boat.

'Oi, monk!' a voice said from somewhere above, 'wake up.'

As though following orders, Sanzo opened his eyes and closed them immediately as intense sunlight bore through them. He opened them again a little and caught something red before he passed out again.

He slowly surfaced again as he felt several people handling him. At firs there was a pair of rough hands and he felt his entire body shake. He wanted to protest but didn't seem to have quite enough energy. As the movement stopped he wanted to slip into unconsciousness once again but he was jerked back into reality as he felt pain and a peculiar sensation as he was again caught on his shoulder. A gentle but firm hand was pressed on his chest and a huge wave of warmth spread from there to his limbs and his head and the pain was suddenly diminished to somewhat a dull aching sensation. He blissfully went to sleep.

He woke up the next time as someone prodded him. He opened his eyes to see a pair of concerned golden ones staring back at him.

'Goku,' Sanzo said. He supported himself with his hands and looked around. Goku, looking ready to cry was sitting at his foot end. Sanzo turned around to see the smiling face of Hakkai. Sanzo seem to have been leaning on Hakkai.

Then who the hell was driving the Jeep?

With a shock he saw a mane of long and red hair concealing the steering wheel.

'Don't let the kappa drive,' he said rather feebly.

The hair whipped around and a highly irritated face with a cigarette in between gritted teeth sneered at him. Sanzo pulled the cigarette out of Gojyo's mouth and inhaled deeply on it and spat and threw the stick away – 'your cigarette tastes like shit!'

'Then get your own, asshole!' Gojyo yelled channeling his attention back to the road.

Only then did Sanzo remember… the lake… orange creatures… a blonde man in blue clothes. Who was he?

Sanzo swung his legs around and sat up. He swayed a bit and had to catch the edge of the seat for support. Sanzo could even see him generating electric sparks. He could see those clear brown eyes filled with tears…

'Oh Lord!' Sanzo exclaimed 'Ginji Armano!'

'What?' Hakkai asked mildly concerned about Sanzo's sanity.

'Ginji… Armano…' Sanzo said, 'He's a guy I met at that place. He's hurt; badly.'

'Where did you disappear to?' Goku asked.

This is not time for explanation, it's time to react, Sanzo's mind screamed out.

'How did I get back?' he asked.

'Merciful Goddess,' Gojyo said and added with a sneer, 'she didn't know you had made relationship over there.'

Sanzo ignored it and said, 'I'm going back.'

'WHAT?'

'Why?' Goku asked in a small voice.

Sanzo said, exasperated, 'This guy, Armano, he's seriously hurt.'

'Why is the mighty Sanzo-sama so concerned about another person who's not involved in going to the west?' Gojyo went on.

'Where's my gun?' Sanzo asked suddenly remembering.

'Take it easy man, I was joking…'

'No, where is it?' he got the gun back and realized with a pang that his scriptures is still in lost world.

'Anyways I have to get my scriptures back…'

'So,' Hakkai asked, 'you owe this man something?'

'Yeah, my life.'

And they managed to summon the Merciful Goddess.

'Sanzo-sama wants to return?' she asked, her hands folded across her chest.

Sanzo nodded.

'And I'm going with him,' Hakkai announced.

'No, you're not.'

'Yes I am!'

'No.'

'Yes.'

Click.

'How do you plan to save an apparently mortally wounded Harmano?'

Sanzo thought about it and finally said, 'all right.'

'Then I'm coming too,' Gojyo said, and added hastily, as he always did 'for Hakkai's sake.'

'No way I'm staying back,' Goku said, his voice faltering a bit under Sanzo's glare.

'Fine, fine… All can come. But I'll not be responsible if any one of you falls prey for orange hairy dinosaur!'

Merciful Goddess didn't help much; she just transported them to the lake, which on Jeep would take a whole day. And then she disappeared.

'How the hell are we going?' Gojyo asked.

'Stop whining,' Sanzo said remembering the way Ginji and himself teleported themselves from Ding Dong, no Honk Honk.

'We reproduce the scene…' Sanzo said.

'Oh I see,' Gojyo said rolling his eyes.

Sanzo went to the lakeside and precariously placed his gun in the somewhat same spot and went to where the jeep was parked, only to realize…

'Someone has to call out… just like you guys did when I was missing for some time. That means, one of you has to stay. Gojyo, I can live without you!'

'No way!'

'Goku?'

'Sanzoooo…'

'Kyu?'

'Hakuryu!' Sanzo and Hakkai cried in unison.

'Kyu?'

'Listen Hakuryu,' Hakkai said to the dragon in his arms.

'Kyu?'

'Please understand. You stay here. Over there. And call out for us… What's it Sanzo? Ok, call out only for Sanzo!'

'Kyu?'

'No, Sanzo… make it sound like Sanzo,' Hakkai pleaded.

'Kyuuuoo?'

*sigh*

And he returned to the lake, where Sanzo and his gun remained.

'So?'

'Let's hope it works,' Hakkai said smiling.

'Ok people… In places…' Gojyo said.

'Holy shit! I forgot my gun!' Sanzo turned midway to where Hakuryu remained and retraced his steps to the lakeside and spotted his gleaming Smith and Wesson. He stopped, inhaled deeply and picked it up and felt happy that he was already feeling unsteady. His head swam as he made his way to where Hakuryu stood screeching – 'Kyuuuoo, Kyuuuoo…!'

Sanzo had given the others clear instructions – they were to rush to him when he shows any sign of instability. As Hakuryu 'Kyu'ed they saw an extremely unsteady Sanzo ready to pass out. They ran and as soon as they had reached him they saw a gleaming rainbow colored shield in front of them and everything blurred and started to spin.

It took a few minutes for Sanzo to come around and when he did he saw the other three – Hakkai crouched low inspecting him.

'There's been a massacre here, man,' Gojyo said looking around.

Sanzo had expected hundreds of armed men but all he saw were hundreds of dead bodies – some intact, many torn and a few reduced to mere body parts. And he frantically searched among the bodies for his blue-clad friend. There was not sign of him or 'Shoe'.

'He must've escaped,' Sanzo said hopefully.

'You said he was badly hurt,' Hakkai pointed out.

'He's got to be alive,' Sanzo said, more to himself; if he dies, it's entirely Sanzo's fault. Ginji had returned solely for Sanzo's sake.

'ARMANO!' he screamed out hoping for some response.

'ARMANO!'

'Hey Sanzo, look!' Goku pointed – far away from where they were standing, stood a small figure bouncing up and down and waving.

'Shoe!' Sanzo said and ran towards him.

'How many friends did our surly monk make here?' Gojyo asked awestruck before following him.

'Where's Armano?' Sanzo asked grabbing the gasping kid's shoulders.

He pointed to a cave – that was the cave where Ginji had brought an unconscious Sanzo a few hours ago. It felt like ages ago…

All five rushed into the cave and inside they saw Ginji – his shirt and part of his trousers soaked in blood and a roughly made bloodied bandage around his chest. His eyes were closed. As Sanzo came nearer, he saw with relief that his chest was heaving.

'He's gasping,' Hakkai declared, 'he doesn't have much time.'

'Quick then,' Sanzo said trying not to sound concerned.

Shu expressed doubt seeing Hakkai approach Ginji but Sanzo assured him – Cho Hakkai, he's a healer.

'Ginji can self-heal, that's why he survived so great a wound,' Shu said in between sobs.

As Hakkai unwound the bandages, Ginji's eyes snapped open and with a cry of protest tried to shrug off Hakkai's hands.

'Easy Armano,' Sanzo said as he secured the restless arms and pinned it, as gently as possible, on the ground.

'Sanzo,' Ginji said and smiled. And passed out.

Immediately the healing hands hovering above Ginji's opened up chest glowed with an ethereal green hue and it formed a ball which gradually grew and finally dissolved into thin air. He repeated his actions a few more times until he was satisfied with his work.

Gojyo was ready – he put his arm around Hakkai's shoulders as the latter leaned onto him – Gojyo knew that life-saving healing can wipe out Hakkai.

Sanzo looked at Hakkai questioningly.

'He'll be fine,' Hakkai breathed out, 'let him sleep.' Saying this Hakkai's eyes fell shut.

Ginji and Hakkai were both totally out but otherwise healthy. That gave Sanzo plenty of time to ask Shoe what had happened.

'It's Shu,' he corrected.

'Ok, SHU, what happened? How did those people die?'

'Ikelons, they attack us all the time,' Shu explained.

'Hairy orange dinosaurs?' Sanzo asked, very serious.

Shu nodded.

'Armano and I had killed one' he mused, 'Anyway serves them right'

Shu's eyes filled with tears, 'don't say that. They're not all bad – it's the leaders Equador, Muzabe and Diladus – they're the trouble-makers. Poor Puck – he didn't have to die!'

'Are those three dead?' Sanzo asked trying not to sound hopeful.

'Muzabe and Diladus died. Equador is alive, I think…'

'How about that horrible woman who gave us away?' Sanzo asked.

'Cecil is nice. She's alive. Her husband… poor Lil's dad died though.'

After a while, Shu asked, 'So you and Ginji have killed one before?'

'Yeah,'

'Can you…?'

'No.'

'You're from here, aren't you kid?' Gojyo asked Shu.

'Er… yeah,' Shu said looking down.

'Then how do you know… him?' Gojyo asked pointing at sleeping Ginji.

'I came here a couple of years ago. I don't know how though… but I used to live in Tokyo', he said.

'So, there you were pals?' Gojyo prompted and immediately regretted it as the large brown eyes filled up again.

'Hey, it's ok if you rather not tell,' Gojyo said; he hated to see kids cry.

'No,' Shu said in between a couple of strangles sobs, 'it's ok. I… yes we were very good friends. He was our king,' he said looking at the peaceful face of Ginji and continued, 'then he lost control – became the Thunder Emperor – we used to call him that.'

'Thunder Emperor?' Gojyo asked incredulous – Ginji looked like an average high school kid – now he's being called such fantastic names!

'Yeah and he couldn't stop himself, he killed a lot of people,' Shu said and added hastily, 'to save us. They used to send people to kidnap and kill kids.'

Sanzo itched to asked, who 'they' were but refrained. But Goku came to his aid – 'who're they?'

'People from Babylon city… it's too complicated,' Shu swallowed and continued, 'then a man named Ban Midou came and finally managed to bring him to his senses. And Ginji felt it's safe for us if he left.'

'But he came back though,' he immediately added, 'the day I got teleported here.'

'How did you get here?' Gojyo asked.

'I don't know. Some guy tried to kill me and managed to strike me. The last I remember is the horror-struck face of Ginji and then I was here.'

Sanzo got up and walked around looking for his stuff. Ginji must have thrown them about here somewhere… His robes… his sutras!

'It's over there,' Shu pointed to a corner as he watched Sanzo.

With great relief Sanzo took the robes and the unraveled sutras. The parchment was intact but the robes and the rest of the clothes were torn very badly.

All of Natsumi's efforts wasted… he caught himself thinking.

'You took quite a beating, neh? Sanzo-sama?' Gojyo remarked seeing the state of the robes.

'Ch.'

Sanzo put on the torn shirt and the robes and spread the scriptures carefully over his shoulders.

'Don't worry, Sanzo, we'll get it mended,' Hakkai said.

'Oh you're up.'

'He's not yet woken?' Hakkai asked indicating Ginji.

'Nope,' Gojyo said offering a hand to help Hakkai to his feet.

'He should be alright. It's time he woken up though,' Hakkai went over to Ginji's side and prodded him.

Ginji screwed up his eyes and then snapped them open and smiled in a general sort of way.

'Idiot,' Sanzo muttered, just for sake of saying something.

'Ginji,' Shu called out and sat down and wrapped his arms around him.

'Shu, are you all right?' Ginji asked groggily.

'You should worry about yourself,' Gojyo said. Ginji who was sitting on the ground had to crane his neck to see the entire length of Sha Gojyo.

Ginji smiled and turned his attention to a boy beside the tall man – he must be around Shu's age, he thought.

'Who are you guys?' Ginji asked.

The tall guy replied, 'Sha Gojyo. And this man here, Cho Hakkai; he saved your life.'

'Thank you, Cho Hakkai…'

'I'm Goku,' the youngest one said as he offered one hand. Not sure what that was for, Ginji shook it.

'Are you Sanzo's friends?' Ginji asked smiling.

'Ch.'

'Yes, Ginji Amano,' Hakkai.

'Ch.'

Ginji sighed and slumped into a lying down position, and then jumped up into his feet and stretched before saying, 'All right! Let's kick some orange dinosaur butt!'

'Yay, lets!' Goku yelled with joy.

'What the hell are you talking about?' Sanzo asked glowering at the two.

'What?'

'They tried to kill us… fry us to death. You want to help them?' Sanzo asked, now positively fuming.

'But all of them didn't… Shu here wouldn't kill us,' Ginji reasoned.

'But the others…' Sanzo began but before he could continue, Ginji said:

'They're just a bunch of Shus with some bad people ruling over them.' He added, 'and the bad guys are dead.'

Ginji extended an arm to Shu who promptly took it.

'Eeh… Sanzo-sama is melting,' Gojyo chuckled.

'Shut up!' Sanzo said and strode out.

Ginji who was about to stop him was stopped by Hakkai. He shook his head and indicated that they all follow the monk.

'Where're we going?' Gojyo asked loud enough for Sanzo, who was walking ahead of them, could hear.

'Ask Armano.'

Gojyo tilted his head towards Ginji, who shrugged.

'He doesn't know…' Gojyo yelled again.

Sanzo chose not to reply.

'HE SAID GINJI DOESN'T…' Goku tried to help.

'I HEARD THE MAN, SARU!'

Sanzo and Ginji had met with their dinosaur in a particular spot and Sanzo with his sharp sense of direction was steering them to that spot. The idiot Armano doesn't seem to remember.

'Don't you think you should leave, Shu?' Ginji, as he recognized where they were heading to, said.

'No, I'm staying with you' he said.

'It's very dangerous, you know. I think you should listen to him,' Goku said nodding intelligently.

'And I think you should as well stay back,' Ginji said to Goku.

Gojyo snorted and Ginji's eyes must be deceiving him, but he thought he saw Sanzo smile a bit. Goku went red in the face and said, 'I'm not a kid.'

'He's right, Armano, he's coming; while the kid stays,' Sanzo said.

Before Shu could argue, Ginji said, 'I can't watch you die again, Shu.'

Shu bend his head down and pressed himself against Ginji and started to cry.

'I've brought you only trouble…'

Ginji knew that Shu was thinking of what had happened many years ago – when the Lightning Lord had first appeared.

'Shu, you saved our lives,' he said stroking the kid's hair, 'everything's going to be alright. Soon as this is over, we can both go back to Tokyo. You'll be with all your friends again.'

Shu looked up: with his friends? In Maze city? How was he going to get there?

Shu didn't accompany them. And after about twenty minutes of walking, the five of them reached the shrubbery, which Sanzo recognized to be the place where they had met their orange foe first. Shu had informed them that was the usual habitat of those creatures.

Feeling rather foolish, they stood in a circle facing away from one another. Until they heard a very sinister sound…

'Er… Sorry,' Goku apologized rubbing his stomach.

'Ch. You're an idiot,' Sanzo remarked assuming his original position now that the sound didn't prove to be of dangerous origin.

'I'm hungry,' Goku said.

'Me too,' Ginji said.

'Idiots.'

'Hey guys, look at that tree over there,' Goku pointed out. Following his direction, Hakkai looked and remarked – 'Ah, fruits.'

'Yay!' Goku sprinted forwards in top speed only to stop a few feet away from the tree as the ground slightly shook. And a low growl emanated from somewhere behind a nearby thicket. Before Goku was ready, a massive creature had landed in front of him with a loud 'Thump.'

'Aah!'

'Goku!'

Goku scrambled backwards and joined the others and soon they found themselves surrounded by at least a dozen of huge brilliant orange reptiles.

Ginji allowed himself a fraction of a second to be fascinated by the weapons which Gojyo and Goku had conjured out of thin air. Then he gave all his attention to one particularly nasty creature, which had come charging towards him.

'Aargh!' Ginji screamed as his charged fist made contact with its body. That was not a planned move and both flew a few feet away from each other. Ginji recovered earlier and with all his might put another few volts into the creature to leave it writing.

He didn't get time to make sure that he had killed it. He was pushed off the ground – Gojyo had blocked him from being tramples upon by another Ikelon.

Gojyo's crescent blade flew in the air and sliced through an Ikelon neck. He noted with satisfaction that it was easily killable but was soon put out of his glee as another landed in front of him and started to evade his Shajuku.

'A quick learner, aren't you?' he asked.

'Are you asking me?' Goku asked as he knocked out an Ikelon with his Nyoboi.

'No idiot… Why don't you kill it rather than making it unconscious?' Gojyo asked exasperated.

'It has a thick skull like yours,' Sanzo said as he shot two Ikelons, rendered unconscious by Goku.

'Now, now, stop fighting,' Hakkai said smiling as he fired a chi ball into an Ikelon, which burst into a million pieces.

'Cool,' commented Ginji after blasting another Ikelon. He was awed by Sanzo and his friends – they didn't even seem to be exerting themselves, they were even carrying out conversations.

'Hey, watch it!' Ginji cried out as one of Sanzo's bullets went very close to his right ear before hitting the Ikelon behind him. 'That was too close…'

'Welcome to another chapter of Living with Sanzo-sama,' Gojyo joked as his weapon finally killed the evading Ikelon.

'Shut up, fool,' Sanzo fired yet another time but this bullet failed its mark and as Sanzo bend his head to reload his gun, an Ikelon landed nearly on top of him, causing him to fall to one side.

With an eerie growl, it lowered its gaping mouth to Sanzo.

'Sanzo!' Goku screamed and he ran with his Nyoboi held like a spear and forced it into the creature's gut. With another shrill cry it fell. Sanzo scrambled out of the way before it hit the ground.

'Sanzo, you all right?' Hakkai asked disorganizing the molecular arrangement of yet another Ikelon.

'Yeah,' Sanzo had recoverd the gun and fired one which had just popped up behind Hakkai with every intention of biting his head off.

'Aargh!'

'Hakkai!'

The dead Ikelon had fallen over Hakkai's legs. As Gojyo rushed over to help his friend, Hakkai used a ball of Chi to disintegrate the Ikelon's body. Ginji and Goku covered their back as Gojyo roughly assessed Hakkai for injuries.

'I'm fine, Gojyo,' Hakkai said between gritted teeth.

'Then why the hell are you bleeding from mouth?' Gojyo said as he helped Hakkai to his feet.

After steadying himself against Gojyo, he smiled and raised an index finger and said, 'sudden increase in intrathoracic pressure resulted in consequent increase in venous pressured, which resulted in rupture of venules…'

'O… K… You sit this one out, alright?' Gojyo said and he resumed his earlier activities.

Hakkai slumped himself on the ground and used his chi as a shield to protect himself from Ikelon claws and Sanzo's stray bullets.

'Is this one dead?' Ginji asked after blasting a particularly heavy Ikelon.

Bang!

'Now it is.'

'Hey, that thing's got my Shajuku,' Gojyo yelled as he ran after an Ikelon, which had caught the crescent in its rear end.

'Gojyo's such a pain in the ass!' Goku laughed happy with his own idea, 'get it? Pain in the ass? Shajuku in the ass?' Goku laughed as he hit an Ikelon on the head causing it to howl in pain and collapse.

'Yes, oh ingenious one!' Gojyo scowled as he swung the retrieved Shajuku to slice another Ikelon neck.

'Hey! Are they all dead?' Goku asked noting the lack of noise.

'Looks like it,' Hakkai remarked getting on his feet.

But they heard a growl, which now resembled a whimper and saw the receding figure of an Ikelon – it was running for its life.

'Hey! Come back here, coward!' Goku screamed as they all ran after it.

The first to feel the change was Sanzo. His vision blurred, his gait became unsteady. Could this be a portal? He looked around; Ginji seemed to be thinking on the same lines – he looked pointedly back at Sanzo.

'What the – ' Gojyo remarked as he lost balance and toppled over.

'So all are feeling unstable? You think this is THE portal, guys?' Hakkai asked.

Goku was still running. With a huge effort Sanzo sprang forth and threw himself over Goku. The other three closed in on them.

'What's going on? The thing is getting away,' Goku whined.

'Shut up, monkey.'

Who is to lag behind? Just as this thought flashed through Ginji's mind he saw in a distance the frail figure of a boy. Shu…

'Shu hasn't come,' he took a step forward meaning to go to him.

A hand caught him at the wrist, 'No, it's too late,' Sanzo said.

Indeed it was – they soon found themselves engulfed by a colorful net and then everything was spinning…

When the spinning stopped, Ginji found himself in the familiar atmosphere of the Honky Tonk. Two people screamed and ran out.

'Not again,' Paul whimpered gazing sadly at the screaming customers as they made their way out.

'Hey, Ginji,' came Ban's drawl from behind.

He turned to see Ban smirking at him.

'Welcome back.'

Meanwhile, somewhere in a parallel world in another time dimension…

'Kyu?'

'Hakuryu, we're back,' Hakkai said, stroking the white dragon, which shook slightly with excitement.

'We're back?' Goku asked incredulously.

'Yes, Mr. Genius,' Gojyo snorted, 'Ginji must've reached his place, right?'

'Probably,' Sanzo said trying to sound indifferent.

'What now?' Hakkai asked though he knew the answer.

'Going west.'

Fin.