Usually, I wait until I've managed to become 'up to date' with a series before I start writing fanfiction for it. I like being able to place a story roughly within continuity, or at least choose a stable point in the continuity from which to work. The best explanation I can offer for my writing this story now, when I'm only just nearing the point where I will have seen half the anime and that in (surprisingly good) Engrish, is that my muse sneaked up and attacked me with this story.
Because of this, I am going to flat-out admit right now that I'm going to blithely ignore my usual policy of making it possible to place this even vaguely into continuity with anything but itself. Aside from that, there will be swearing, cheerfully and rather evenly distributed acts of violence, and some original characters of the doomed sort because 'red shirts' are cliché and very boring to kill off. There will not be romance of any sort unless you have a strange definition of such, so please don't ask for it.
I do not own Saiyuki. It is the property of Kazuya Minekura. This is not being written with any intentions of making any money out of its existence. (However, if anybody gets any money for this specific story, I would like to be among that 'anybody'.)
Comments, questions, suggestions, and actual constructive criticism will be highly welcomed. (Particularly the last, because of its rarity.) Dark chocolate would be liked, too.
~~~~~~~~~ + Dream-Land + ~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~ + A Saiyuki Fanfic + ~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~ + By Ryo Hoshi + ~~~~~~~~~
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule -
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of space - out of time.
from Dream-Land, by Edgar Allan Poe
The village had not been expected. Normally, villages grew up near crossroads or near places people would want to stay visit, not nestled into a gods forsaken bowl in the mountains. The strange bowl in the mountains and the settlement within it had not been mentioned in their increasingly vague map. Still, by the time they had gotten there they were in need of supplies and the sun was setting.
None of Sanzo's traveling party paid much attention to the village's half-ruined condition. It seemed to be only what they should have expected, since the village was right inside a pass west. Those going in that direction would have quite regularly passed through there, and it wasn't like many people were sending money there. That they were actually going to pay instead of simply looting would probably make them more than welcome visitors.
The news at the inn wasn't good, though. According to the innkeeper, there was currently a food shortage because the last few expected shipments of supplies hadn't arrived. As a result, there was a general shortage of nearly everything but the mushrooms they grew in nearby abandoned mines.
It didn't take much discussion for them to decide that it was worth it to separate. Nobody wanted particularly to find out how hungry Goku could get, and besides that their supplies of cigarettes had run dangerously low. The idea of Sanzo suffering from forced nicotine withdrawal was very motivational.
Hakkai tried to remember exactly what had happened to him. He and Goku had been trying to find cigarettes, and the lady behind the counter had gone into the back and... He couldn't remember anything after that, until waking up here with a headache and blurry vision.
Carefully, he used the nearby wall to push himself up into a sitting position. He felt dizzy, and his vision was blurry, but he knew he needed to start figuring out where he was and how to get out as soon as possible.
His roughly carved cell seemed to be one of several rather shallow ones carved out along the sides of an old mine shaft. The dim light from the corridor and the faint hum of what he certainly hoped were the ventilation fans were somewhat reassuring, though from the look of the bars whomever had made these cells had been prepared for the possibility of strong youkai. Damn, he thought to himself. It's going to be hard to break out.
There was a groan from somewhere nearby, a familiar one, and then a string of curses. Those were, once he knew that Gojyo was also there, expected. What was definitely not expected was the final, "at least she still has a pulse."
"Who's still alive?" he asked politely and wishing he could do something to help. What Gojyo had said didn't sound at all like a good sign.
"Some youkai girl who was used to lure me in," was the somewhat surprising reply. "She tried to warn me, but some human man she called 'brother' hit her hard, and his friends got me by surprise when she fell against me. What happened to you, and where's Goku?"
"I don't remember clearly just what happened to me. The last thing I can remember is the shopkeeper going into the back to check for any packs of cigarettes just after her daughter had offered Goku some food. I've not seen Goku since then."
"Shit. So we've got sleeping beauty here instead of the monkey."
"My, Gojyo, such a reaction to having a girl sleeping near you."
"Normally they're not bleeding from a head wound, and she's showing no signs of waking up." The implications of that didn't need saying. "I don't like the looks of the youki limiter that's been bolted around her neck, either."
Hakkai cautiously touched his own neck, which had felt rather stiff, and felt a rough metal band around his own neck. He cautiously explored it with his fingers, discovering that it was bolted on and wouldn't be easily taken off. "There's one around my neck, too..."
"Shit." There was a short silence, and then Gojyo spoke again. "Do you think Goku managed to get away?"
"I hope so. Sanzo might get around to looking for us sooner if Goku got away."
"Damn. I don't like having to rely on the monkey and the corrupt monk for a rescue."
The darkness enveloped him, and the only sign of time's passage was the slight but constant breeze and the syncopated dripping of water. The air smelled stale in some way he couldn't define except as 'bad.' He didn't know why, but it made his head hurt and it felt like he wasn't getting enough air.
He kept trying to remember how he had gotten there, but it was so hard to think and he was so scared that nobody'd ever come and he'd never get out. He knew this wasn't the first time he'd been trapped, and that eventually the man with hair like the sun had come and let him out, but...
It was so dark, and he couldn't remember clearly anymore.
The paper hit the table with more force than necessary. Sanzo's patience had finally run out. The sun had long since set, and the moon was high in the sky already. Goku and Hakkai should have returned from their errands long since.
To top it all off, he had discovered that they were completely out of alcohol at the inn, and he was now completely out of cigarettes.
"Sanzo-sama?"
Sanzo turned to glare at the perpetually shy waitress, who looked like she was probably the innkeeper's daughter. "What?"
"Since it seems that your companions won't be returning, my father offers to share our meager personal food supplies with you. We would be quite honored if you would dine with us, Sanzo-sama."
He looked at his ice-cold and barely touched cup of tea with an expression the girl completely misread. Sanzo felt himself caught between the knowledge that the invitation would not be easily turned down and his dislike of both being called Sanzo-sama and the waitress's shyness. The solution, though, was easy. "I'll stay here and wait for them."
A corner of the waitress's mouth twitched nervously. "Please, Sanzo-sama? My father would think that I had offended you somehow."
Sanzo briefly considered telling her that she had, but decided that she would probably start crying loudly and that was definitely something he could live without. "My companions would be worried if I was not here when they returned." And if they don't return soon, I'm going to go find them...and shoot them.
The waitress nodded, apparently thinking that message would manage to keep her father from being angry with her. "I'll bring something out for you as soon as I can, then, Sanzo-sama. It would be very bad for us to let you go hungry."
If you have been hit hard enough to be knocked out, you won't remember the blow. In this case, remembering this little bit of trivia has been quite useful for me.
The additional, bolted-on youki limiters are used because it would be rather embarassing if your prisoners could escape by simply taking off some of their jewelery.
The smell of the air in the place Goku is in is kind of stale scent air gets when there's barely enough oxygen. The slight breeze doesn't manage to move enough air for there to be enough for somebody to be really comfortable. (Yes, there is a reason for this. It will even be given, eventually.)