Disclaimer: Am I Minekura Kazuya? No. Do I own Saiyuki? No.
NOTE: Since the last chapter was told in the point of view of the others, this one will focus more on Goku and Lirin's perspective. The previous chapter took a turn that even I didn't expect so I decided to split the event into two perspectives in two chapters.
After all, you're probably wondering what those two were busy doing while Sanzo and Kougaiji's groups were arguing. So we're backtracking a little bit to where the second chapter ended.
It will be a bit cheesy so forgive me for that. There will be action too, though, since the story nears its end and this is the penultimate chapter.
Hope you enjoy this one.
Chapter Four: This Force Irresistible
Lirin couldn't bring herself to meet Goku's eyes as he walked closer to her. There was an intensity in his gaze that both frightened and fascinated her. She didn't know what to do about it.
Now that they had decided on realizing the dream, she wasn't so sure about herself anymore.
She hadn't even noticed that her hands were trembling until he took them in his.
"Hey," he said gently, lifting her chin up so that she could look at him, "it's just me."
At this she forced herself to look at him, and the moment green met gold, all her hesitation just disappeared.
Lirin nodded and gave him a small smile. He smiled back as well as sighed with relief. He wasn't going to take it against her if she changed her mind, but he really did not want her to.
If they had been the more thoughtful type, they would have stopped to consider why they bothered to do this at all, even for curiosity's sake. But they seldom spent too much time thinking and analyzing situations. They preferred to take things as they came.
So, while they both still had the guts to go through with it, they closed their eyes and leaned forward. Goku captured Lirin's lips with his and for the next few moments, they were both drowning in a sensation completely alien to them.
The meeting of soft flesh against flesh was at first surprising, and then, as they got used to the feeling, absolutely breathtaking. Instinctively, Goku pulled Lirin closer to him and she leaned easily into his embrace, her hands resting on his chest. They reveled in the experience of their first kiss, and neither ever imagined it to be this good.
Neither two youkai noticed the glowing light that had surrounded them as they kissed, nor the fact that the vines on the pillars were unwinding and quickly forming a barrier around them. All they could feel was the force coming from within them, more than a feeling or emotion but a power that neither understood and yet both of them refused to let it go. It was invigorating, refreshing, and liberating, like there was nothing in the world that could spoil their current state of happiness.
Though strange at first, the force grew and they both knew that it was futile to resist it. So instead they succumbed to this building passion within them.
But eventually, they had to break apart for air, and while struggling to breathe, they looked at each other wordlessly, their eyes wide with the newness of the circumstances.
"This feels right," their eyes seemed to be expressing, and now, they were no longer embarrassed or shy about it.
After staring at each other for a few more minutes, they silently decided that they had not had enough. This time, their lips met with greater ease, and both opened their mouths slightly to deepen the kiss. Lirin's arms went around Goku's neck and pulled him deeper into the kiss while he tightened his hold around her. They had both discovered why other people enjoyed this activity so much.
However, neither of them knew that what they were feeling was not common to every couple. More than attraction and affection, there was a great power that was amassing between them, as a result of their unique backgrounds.
After all, something extraordinary was bound to come out from the union between the powerful and unconquerable spirit of the earth and the daughter of Gyumao himself. This was what the "prophets of the power" had been wanting for years, had been planning and preparing to control for their own sick purposes.
And yet for the two youkai involved, this was a new, wonderfully unexpected chapter in their lives. The thrill and euphoria that gathered within them intensified as the minutes passed because they were gradually realizing that this whole development was not to be attributed to the dream alone.
No, the dream had merely been a clearer vision and articulation of what had been developing between them long before it. They had been too blind and confused to understand that their feelings towards each other had been undergoing a slow, careful, but significant change.
In the past few encounters Sanzo's party had with Kougaiji's group, there had been something markedly different about the way they bickered with and dueled each other. Not that those two groups were ever truly serious about confrontations.
Sometimes Sanzo believed Kougaiji was just passing the time when he went to see them, and the monk was not too far from the truth. For however necessary it was for them to procure Sanzo's sutra, Kougaiji and the others could never bring themselves to really maim Sanzo's party, and the same went for the latter (although Sanzo really couldn't care less.)
After all, Dokugakuji and Gojyo were brothers, there was a grudging respect between the leaders Kougaiji and Sanzo, and there was more to be said about the mutual understanding between Hakkai and Yaone. Such a strange pair of "enemies" they made, never truly antagonistic towards the other. So it happened that Goku and Lirin somehow began thinking of each other less as enemies than as something else entirely.
Perhaps the attraction had something to do with their endless appetites or their similar lively personalities. They were both childish and stubborn but fiercely determined to protect their friends. Next to Hakkai and Yaone, Goku and Lirin were among the more soft-hearted and kind members of their respective groups. The more they had pondered on the matter, the more they had slowly realized that they had so much in common, after all.
But being similarly slow on the uptake (and partly in denial of such contradicting emotions), they had not understood the change that had began in their hearts some time ago. They teased and sparred with each other as usual but there was already some awkwardness and a greater reluctance between them which they had been unable to explain.
And they weren't completely to blame for being oblivious to their feelings. After all, their companions had not noticed it either despite being sharper observers. Probably because it had seemed like such a ridiculous notion – Goku and Lirin coming together. Their friends and family had not believed them mature enough for such things. It had seemed too far-fetched and just downright crazy.
But where the two young youkai stood now, locked in a passionate embrace, oblivious to their darkening surroundings, none of all these confusing considerations mattered any longer. They had been in love with each other for quite some time and it was only now that they were fully taking advantage of this new and exciting fact. Their bodies seemed to understand it more than their minds, so they were reacting to each other naturally.
And they had to admit that it had been quite a while since either of them had felt even remotely as happy.
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The power springing from Goku and Lirin's kiss was unlike anything in the world, and with the initial realization of their attraction to each other, the emerging force was still not yet at its maximum strength. As their relationship would progress, the more power would grow from their being together.
But the prophets did not know about this and merely believed that at the point of contact between the two strong beings, the greatest weapon on earth would emerge. Through various means were they able to divine the date, the hour, and the exact spot where this union would first take place, and now, they were beginning a ritual they had practiced and perfected for many long years.
Harnessing this new power was the only purpose of their existence; this moment was what they had been waiting for so patiently and diligently. Though these prophets wandered through the land for many years, they only did so to pass the time and to gather whatever useful skills they would need for this monumental event.
Though they were spiritual practitioners, they were still a separate sect, functioning all on their own. Sanzo and the other monks were aware of their existence but did not pay them much attention since they seemed quite mad and obsessed with the vaguest of prophecies. There were times that they would lose the trail of what they sought, that they would stumble upon unions of other powers.
But on that day, they were absolutely certain. The Seiten Taisei and the spawn of Gyumao were definitely the forces the prophets had been waiting for all along. And they were not going to let this opportunity slip past them.
Unfortunately for the mystics, they had been so engrossed with the ritual to harness the amazing power that they had made little allowances for defense in case anyone tried to attack them. After all, they had always been either ignored or treated like non-threatening lunatics so they had never worried about being interrupted in their schemes.
And they certainly had not anticipated being ambushed by adversaries as powerful and as annoyed as the combined forces of Sanzo's party and Kougaiji's group. So needless to say, the prophets were losing, even after all their threats to their enemies about the consequences of killing them.
Whatever strength and power the mystics had had to initially defend themselves against Sanzo and the others had now significantly waned as this power was never meant to be theirs in the first place, and they had no way of controlling it.
Therefore, while Goku and Lirin continued in their oblivious state of bliss, the barriers fell and the mystics were one by one being knocked out by the annoyed and impatient companions.
"For all your crazy spiritual mumbo-jumbo, you guys are really pathetic, after all," Gojyo muttered as he beat up a hapless hooded monk.
"They made the fatal mistake of underestimating us," Hakkai commented as he knocked out another one, "and now they're paying the price."
"This is what happens when you try to fight using powers you stole from others and not using your own strength," Sanzo remarked, kicking a monk while nonchalantly smoking a cigarette, "crazy fools should have known that."
"They're even weaker than I imagined," Dokugakuji said, "their defenses only held at the start."
The youkai easily beat up his opponent and now he seemed really bored by the fight. He was more concerned with what would happen afterwards.
"At least, we can get this whole mess sorted out soon," Yaone said good-naturedly, as she punched a hooded mystic in the gut.
"I doubt it will be as simple as you say, Yaone-san," Hakkai told her with a smile, jerking his head to where Kougaiji was maniacally unleashing his fury on a pitiful prophet.
Yaone saw his meaning immediately and sighed. They shared a look of comprehension and shook their heads at their companions.
Kougaiji was still visibly upset by Goku's involvement with his sister, and since the furious older brother could still not have his revenge on the golden-eyed youkai, Kougaiji was letting his anger out on the pathetic monk before him. But even beating up the people trying to manipulate Goku and Lirin was not satiating his desire for vengeance.
Seeing the young couple continue with their kissing, unaware of their surroundings, only served to exacerbate the situation.
"When I get my hands on that monkey, I swear I'm going to …" Kougaiji cried out in exasperation. (The rest of his threats need not be mentioned here as they are the result of irrational anger and therefore too unpleasant to relate.)
"Ch," Sanzo muttered in annoyance, "I'm going to punish him as well for causing this inconvenience!"
Now, the monk wondered, how were they going to push through with their mission? Things had been complicated enough before Goku's hormones decided to manifest themselves.
And seeing the growing tension and fury building up in both Sanzo and Kougaiji's faces, the others looked at each other apprehensively. This was going to be really troublesome and they worried if they would be able to restrain the pissed off monk and the overprotective brother from slaughtering Goku.
"Looks like you've got your work cut out for you," Gojyo told Hakkai and Yaone. The red-haired half-demon was very reluctant to be caught in the cross-fire that would happen in a little while.
Hakkai and Yaone sighed heavily, both painfully aware that they would have to be the ones to placate their irked leaders.
Soon, there was only a heap of semi-conscious, moaning "prophets" lying by the side of the ruins, which continued to be basked in the ethereal glow of Goku and Lirin's amazing power. The prophets had never expected that Sanzo, Kougaiji, and the others would make good on their promise of keeping them barely alive but this only showed how ignorant they were about their opponents to begin with.
They all moaned despondently about their current situation. More than the physical injury they had suffered under the hands of their fierce adversaries, they were devastated by the fact that they had been unable to complete the ritual that they had been preparing their whole lives for. And now, it was too late to start again. The one chance they had been given to acquire the prophesied power was now lost to them, and this was more painful than any blow dealt them by Sanzo and company.
Seeing them all reduced to a sniveling mass of fools, Kougaiji looked away in disgust.
"Idiots," Sanzo muttered, blowing a puff of smoke, as he looked condescendingly on the mass of hoods and bodies, "did you really think that with such little strength and true power, you'd be able to contain whatever force generated by those two lovesick children over there? How amazingly stupid of you."
"What a bunch of losers," Gojyo remarked with repulsion, "wasting all their energies on such a useless ritual. I can't believe so many actually believed in such a stupid way of life."
"You can't expect much of feeble, frightened people," Hakkai explained, though he looked at the victims with distaste, "they are weak in mind as well as in body. They couldn't have figured any of this out on their own."
"I have no respect for weaklings trying to steal the power of others," Kougaiji commented angrily, "instead of building their own strength. You're pathetic, and you don't deserve to live."
But even as he walked towards the trembling prophets with his sharp claws bared, Kougaiji remembered the source of the great power and turned at once to angrily break apart the still kissing couple. He also noted with alarm that even after the ritual had been interrupted, Goku and Lirin were still enveloped in a great light.
"Save your anger for later, Kougaiji," Sanzo warned, "with so much power exposed around those two fools, it won't be safe to approach them just yet."
"What do you mean?" Kougaiji asked fiercely but he saw that the monk had a grave expression in his purple eyes.
"I'm as eager to beat the crap out of that monkey as you are, believe me," Sanzo explained, "but at the rate they're going now, we couldn't stop them if we tried. You know as well as I do how powerful Goku is and for all her silliness, your little sister has a strength of her own."
Kougaiji nodded and the others listened gravely and carefully to what Sanzo had to say.
"You can feel the waves of energy coming from them, can't you?" the monk continued, "it's almost as if Goku isn't wearing his power limiter at all."
Though he hated to hesitate in his attack, Kougaiji knew that Sanzo spoke the truth. He could feel the great power emanating from the pair. They could all feel it. And now they understood why acquiring such great power had been so tempting to the prophets, no matter how foolish they had been in their choice of method. There was no way they could have contained such an irresistible force, even if they had not been stopped by Sanzo and the others.
More likely than not, they would have been completely destroyed, or worse, they would have unleashed greater destruction over the rest of the world. Hakkai, Gojyo, Yaone, and Dokugakuji now saw why it had still been important to defeat the mystics. Power in the wrong hands always led to disaster.
But now, they knew that they would have to wait until the power settled down somewhat around them, and they all hoped that Goku and Lirin would break apart from their kiss very soon. The sky was clearing, however, and some sunlight was peeking out from behind the dark clouds.
"So now, we wait," Dokugakuji said and the others nodded in agreement. This would give some of them time to figure out how to deal with the peculiar situation.
"What are you doing, Sanzo?" Kougaiji asked, noticing that the monk had assumed a familiar position with his hands clapped together and had begun chanting something.
The monk paused in his ritual to briefly explain himself.
"I'm going to get rid of these stupid prophets once and for all," he said simply.
The others stared at him in astonishment.
"Well, couldn't you have done that earlier and just spare us all this trouble?" Gojyo asked exasperatedly.
"If you must know," Sanzo snapped, "this particular ritual can only be done under sunlight, and we didn't have any of that earlier, did we?"
Gojyo was quiet after that and watched with the others as the sutra pages came alive behind Sanzo and the monk raised his hand and yelled a chant powerfully. Immediately, a familiar glow of spiritual energy engulfed the entire group of "prophets" and swallowed them up until they disintegrated into dust in the sunlight.
"They were neither human nor youkai," Sanzo said later on, "only weak shadows that fed off others' strength and power. The world has no need of pathetic scum like them."