Sanzo looked at him, shocked to find his power limiter off but, "...you're...alive," is all he could say. Goku smirked, his claws touched Sanzo's chin, as he came close. Sanzo came to his senses and quickly pulled out his gun and aimed it at Goku. "What's wrong?" the demon said, still wearing a smirk in his face, "you wouldn't really kill me...would you Sanzo? Or did that kiss between us mean nothing to you?" Sanzo's eyes widened, he didn't want to hurt Goku, but he didn't want to get killed himself either. He sat there with his gun still pointed at Goku, but didn't respond, or shoot him. Then he gave up, and put his gun down, "There's no way I could kill him..." he thought. Goku then stood up and said, "So you won't kill me...? I knew it." Then someone hidden in the trees said, "I knew it was a good idea to take possession of him." Sanzo quickly looked up at the trees to try and find who was talking. The one hidden then jumped down and said, "My name is Nataku, I was ordered by my father to kill Son Goku and take the Maten Scripture...and the red haired man did one of my jobs for me." "What...do you mean?" Sanzo said, as he looked over at Goku again.

"I mean Goku really is dead, all I'm doing is controlling his body," Nataku said. Sanzo noticed now that Goku's eyes seemed almost emotionless, he started to wonder whether Nataku was saying the truth or not. "So you were watching us back then?" Sanzo replied, wishing it wasn't true. Nataku stood silent for a while, then responded, "Yes, I saw you two, and..by any chance, are you looking for this? Not that you'll need it anymore," He showed Sanzo a golden headband, it was Goku's power limiter, Nataku held it his hand. "Give that to me and let Goku free!" Sanzo said angrily as he aimed the gun at Nataku. "You'll have to kill me before I do that," Nataku said. Sanzo immediately shot at him, and then ran towards him to try and get the power limiter. Nataku avoided the bullet and then called out to Goku to attack Sanzo. Goku instantly ran towards Sanzo, but Sanzo turned around and dodged his attack. Sanzo then ran towards Goku and kicked him hard in the stomach, making Goku fall to the ground. Nataku was shocked at what he just saw him do, and this gave Sanzo a chance to shoot, this time hitting his target. Nataku fell to his knees in pain as Sanzo took the power limiter from his hand. "No...Goku's...mine! I control him! You can't do anything to him anymore, to you...he'll only be a dead corpse!" Nataku yelled out, still in pain. Sanzo once again pointed his gun at Nataku, and said, "You're lying, Goku is alive, it's simple to tell really...because you didn't see anything that happened between us." Nataku's eyes widened, "Just how do you know that?! You can't prove whether I saw you or not!" "Oh, really? Then answer me this...What exactly where we doing together?" Sanzo said as a smirk grew on his face because of Nataku's silence. Then a few seconds later Nataku finally blurted out, "Just because I won't say it doesn't mean I don't know!" "Then why won't you just tell me? Otherwise I'll consider that you just don't know," Sanzo replied. Then a noise was heard, a lot of soldiers were coming towards them.

"Sir Nataku, the Emperor has requested that we take care of our other missions first, and then take the Maten Scripture and Son Goku," the soldiers said as they approached Nataku. A frown grew on Nataku's face as he stood up, still wounded, and walked away without a word. Sanzo put his gun away, and stood there until they were out of sight, then walked towards Goku and placed the power limiter back on his head. He lifted Goku up and carried him towards the inn again, where Gojyo and Hakkai waited.

"What the hell took you so long to get back?!" Gojyo asked as Sanzo walked in, but Sanzo just glared at him and walked into Goku's room. He laid him in bed, and then checked his body for any wounds or broken bones. Sanzo carefully inspected every limb in Goku's body and found two broken ribs from the attack Kougaji had done. He bandaged it carefully and then sat down on a chair by Goku's bed. Goku's heart was beating slow, and his breathing was slow too, but Sanzo didn't know what he could do to help him. "Everything that's happened is my fault, if only I hadn't gotten angry with you back then, this wouldn't have happened," Sanzo whispered as he looked at Goku's sleeping face.

As he sat there alone with Goku, he noticed that the rain had slowed down, but the sky was still gray and cloudy. "Goku...why did you have to protect me? Why would you fall in love with someone who has always treated you badly? Why did you choose me? Were you really willing to die for me or did you not know you would die? ...No, why do I ask...you answered all those questions before already...I know all those answers because you answered them right after our kiss..." he said in a low voice, then, without thinking about it, he got on top of Goku, in his hands and knees. Their faces came close, and Sanzo asked silently and sadly, "...Why Goku...? Why won't you wake up...?"