Chapter 7
Storm of Sin Part 1
"WHAT, WE'RE STUCK HERE ANOTHER DAY?" Goku screamed, dropping large bags of food on the floor while staring at Sanzo.
"Got a problem with it monkey?" Sanzo growled.
The monkey picked up the bags of food and mumbled to himself repeatedly as he unloaded the bags and sorted everything out, then started pigging out again.
Sanzo just rolled his eyes and walked back to Hakkai's room to check on his condition, and he entered to see Kakera sitting on the bed staring down at the sleeping Hakkai.
"How is he so far?" Sanzo asked quietly.
"Fine, his breathing is normal," Kakera whispered, but Sanzo noticed that her wounds were still tender and irritated.
Taking the wooden chair by the door, Sanzo sat next to Kakera and watched over Hakkai for a while, the rain's heavy drops providing the only sound throughout the silent room.
Gojyo had left earlier after Goku did to look for more beer and cigarettes for him and Sanzo, but the rain seemed to tell the two that the red head wouldn't come back any time soon.
"Why do you want to know how the rain affects me Sanzo?" Kakera finally asked, looking straight at him in the face as he turned to stare at her.
"I don't care-," he started.
"I heard you ask me that question earlier stupid, don't lie to me," she hissed back, turning away to stare back down at Hakkai. "The rain doesn't bother me much as it does to you four. But I do have memory the day it was raining like this."
"Does it involve your father?" he asked simply.
Kakera said nothing to reply, just sighed and checked Hakkai's forehead for a fever but found nothing and walked out of the room, leaving Sanzo to care for his unconscious companion.
'I'll take that as a stubborn yes then,' Sanzo said to himself, but his thoughts broke away when Hakkai slowly opened his eyes.
"Sanzo…W-Where are we?" he asked dryly, his voice raspy and dry.
"Still in the village, but we're going to be delayed another day," Sanzo said quickly, feeling the craving for another cigarette crawling along his lips.
"I-Is…Kakera…s-safe now?" Hakkai asked again, but only gained a nod from the distracted priest, who simply stared out the window to gaze in the eyes of the storm.
"I'M BACK EVERYONE!" Gojyo yelled as he set a long, wet blanket on the floor and set two packs of cigarettes and a six pack of beer on the table.
Sanzo walked out of Hakkai's room to find Gojyo having a smoke and a drink, but the priest just glared of how little the red head found.
"You're worthless," the priest whispered, taking a beer from the table.
Gojyo just ignored the frustrated priest and looked to see Goku snoring, face planted on the table and full stomach and laughed.
The two eventually got into a long conversation about the journey, finding Kakera, and how stupid Goku gets after he eats too much when Hakkai slowly walked into the large kitchen, left arm caressing his bandaged stomach.
"Want a drink or what?" Gojyo asked, handing Hakkai the last beer.
"No thanks, I just came out to see if Goku didn't get all the food to himself," Hakkai responded groggily, sitting across from the two and nibbled on an apple.
"Anyone know where Kakera went?" Hakkai asked suddenly.
Sanzo and Gojyo just shook their heads and continued their drinks and cigarettes, not really caring where the mysterious girl had run off to.
Goku yawned and asked the three what was going on, but the three didn't speak at all and continued to listen to the sound of the thundering storm outside. Paying no attention to the lashing wind and icy water torment her body, Kakera sat on the soaked roof and looked up the sky with salty tears thickly staining her face.
"Why did you have to leave me alone? I still have nightmares about you and I can't find ANYTHING to help them fade away! I can't move on without remembering you and your passing," she whispered angrily, pounding her balled fists on her thighs in frustration.
"I can't go home anymore, I can't go anywhere without getting noticed and hunted down. Why can't you help me like you used to before? Have you lost faith in me now huh? Why can't I sleep-," she stopped in mid sentence when Goku jumped on the roof and landed beside her.
"What are you doing up here?" he asked innocently.
Kakera just sighed, wondering what excuse she could think of this time to mask her conflict. With just a small smile and looking away, she went silent for a while until Goku took her arm and tried to lift her off the soggy straw roof.
"Why won't you come down Kakera? Gojyo's back with more food and drinks, and Hakkai's is awake too," he added quietly, letting go of her arm and knelt in front of her.
After a long minute of silence, the monkey demon sat back down beside her and sighed sadly, wondering why she was suddenly mute to his question and ignoring him.
"Did I do something wrong Kakera?" he asked softly, looking up at her.
"No Goku," she began, gathering the strength to stare back at him. "I had a bad headache so I came up here. You could never do anything to make me mad Goku, remember that ok?"
He smiled of her kind words and tried to help her up again, so she submitted to his pleading golden eyes and went back into the house, but the lingering sound of the rain somehow made her shiver.
It wasn't long before Gojyo collapsed after too many beers, Sanzo was smoking by the window and Hakkai was in deep thought when Kakera and Goku returned from the roof. They sensed something wasn't right, but they ignored the temporary feeling and got engaged in a long conversation while Kakera ate her share of food.
She couldn't help but notice that the four were very edgy about the storm and that their eyes seemed dull and lost in the storm's entrancing symphony.
Distant wolf howls added their dark sound to the rain when everyone decided to try and get some sleep for the long trip tomorrow. Gojyo slept on the floor by the door to avoid Goku's deadly snoring, Goku slept on the table for no apparent reason. Sanzo fell asleep on a small couch outside Hakkai's door, while Kakera was inside watching over him.
Outside, the storm lured slyly over the small house, sensing its victims from those fateful nights the four had outlived. The Storm of Sin had now caught up with the four guys and decided to let its magic begin the torment.
Adjusting a new cloth of Hakkai's burning forehead, Kakera looked outside to the storm and began to sense a strange, empty feeling that felt all too familiar. Her memories were in control now as she started to remember the night the rain turned evil on her and began to torment and mock her.
Fire pounded against her bedroom door, screaming and clanking metal adding to the fire's threatening roar. Young Kakera held her teddy bear closer as she heard a man scream to her mother in the fire.
"BRING HER OUT NOW OR I'LL BURN THIS HOUSE TO MERE ASHES!" the man screamed to Kakera's mother.
"PLEASE DON'T HARM ME OR MY DAUGHTER, ITS NOT HERE!"
"Worthless wench…OUT OF MY WAY!" the man screamed again as he sliced down the charred wooden door to stare down over young Kakera. "Come here young girl, you're coming with me to see your father."
With his black form hidden by the moonlight, the man reached for Kakera and grabbed her by the hair roughly and dragging her out into the raging inferno.
"A FINAL WARNING WOMAN! GIVE IT TO ME OR THIS CHILD DIES!" the man threatened.
Only a few seconds flew by as Kakera watched her mother cower in fear in front of the hidden man, but she was soon overcome as she was brutally stabbed repeatedly by the strange man.
"MOMMY!" young Kakera screamed.
"Go…child…find…," her mother told her, only to be cut off as the final stab destroyed her fragile soul.
Blood spattered to her feet and slowly embraced the flowing fire, but she suddenly felt the urge run as the man looked up at her with a bloodthirsty and crazed look.
"YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER, HE WILL FIND YOU AND YOU WILL PAY DEARLY!" the man called to Kakera as she ran out of the house to find help.
After that, most moments were blank as the storm outside ravaged and bashed into her small body. Clutching her teddy bear closer, Kakera ran into the village, tears stinging her hot face.
Jumping up from the bedside, Kakera sat up instantly and looked around with fear, the storm ravaging the trees and the house violently. She looked to see Hakkai staring at her, his face tired but confused as if he had been disturbed by her behavior.
"Kakera, are you alright? What happened just now?" Hakkai asked with concern, seeing her shocked face and heavy breathing.
Ignoring his questions, she slowly sat back on the bedside and remembered she must've dozed off about the past. Feeling her face, she noticed that she had been crying heavily as she watched the tragic memory in her head.
"I-I-I'm sorry Hakkai," was all she could manage to say as she stared down at her hands, still feeling the burnt fur of her teddy bear pressed into her small hands.
"I was remembering…," she replied, her voice slowly cracking from the immense sorrow burning in her throat.
Hakkai could only watch helplessly as Kakera whispered in a low voice, drying her eyes from her painful memory. He could remember whenever Kannan used to cry about something. But for some reason, she looked just like her while she stared at him with those teary eyes.
'I haven't thought of Kannan since Kakera rescued me from death, but why now? Why do think of all those memories and why does she remind me of my dead love?' he asked himself painfully, putting his cool hand on his burning forehead that burned with bittersweet memories.
Not giving his mind a chance to speak out, he reached over and took her hand. He could tell she even felt like Kannan used to, which gave his heart shivers of sorrow. She noticed his kind gesture, but looked up at him with a puzzled expression.
"You remind me of her," he said slowly, as if in a dream.
"Who are you talking about?" she asked plainly.
"Someone I used to care for very much, a long time ago," Hakkai told her quietly, the shivers disappearing and the burning sensation inside of him vanished.
"I'm sorry for what happened to her," Kakera said quietly, turning away from his troubled face and looked to the rain. "It's very painful and haunting to remember something you'll always regret."
Hakkai slightly gasped at her tone at her last comment, it almost sounded as if she didn't care about the painful memories that followed you like a mischievous shadow. Seeing the rain was getting more brutal and the lightning more bright, he got this empty feeling in his gut that this rain was a warning of some great evil that stalked them.
"Kakera, you should get some sleep," Goku whispered when he closed the door behind him, seeing Hakkai asleep and Kakera staring out at the rain suspiciously.
She looked to see the monkey demon staring at her blankly, the annoying growling from his stomach gone from all the food. Getting up from the chair, she set it back behind the bed and took one last look at the rain before checking on Hakkai.
"He can sleep by himself-Kakera, are you okay?" Goku commented, seeing fresh tears tear from her eyes.
She couldn't hear him at all as she gazed down at Hakkai's distressed face, as he fought away a demon in his nightmares. Guilt pricked her heart like a needle as she thought about the rain's possible power.
"Kakera, answer me!" Goku said a little louder.
Finally turning to see his confused face staring at her, she regained herself once more and followed him out the door to see Gojyo snoring on a couch and Sanzo deep in thought as always.
"I'm…fine Goku, its…nothing," Kakera choked out as she grabbed three empty beer cans from the floor and threw them out the unopened window, the shattering glass waking Gojyo and breaking Sanzo's train of thought.
"Hey Kakera, have you heard of peace and quiet?" Gojyo snapped.
Once more, she couldn't hear the three trying to make conversation with her. She felt the icy wind tear through her tired soul and felt her hands stinging. Feeling shards of glass in her hands and blood coloring her hands, she could only stare outside as the voice returned.
'Don't waste anymore time Kakera, you're time to shine has taken place! Unleash what you were given before, show them that you are their grim reaper,' the voice whispered slyly in her head, feeling the power surging through her collars.
"No…stop…GO AWAY YOU MONSTER!" she screamed as her collars started taking shiny silver, her tears turning to blood from the immense power.
"What the hell is going on?" Goku asked quietly.
Sanzo loaded his gun and waited for her to make a move, his intention correct. Kakera was a spy from Kougaiji, traveling only to kill us like the usual hitch hiker. She hid her aura pretty well; she was a more advanced pawn unlike the others before.
"Sanzo, what the hell is going on with Kakera?" Gojyo asked impatiently as he took his staff from under the couch cushions.
"Just another pawn of Kougaiji's," Sanzo explained, clicking the gun.
For a long time, everyone just stood still waiting for the first part of the battle to begin. The beating thunder and drops of blood were the only sounds as Kakera slowly turned around to face them.
Her once fiery and mysterious eyes were now replaced with empty red pupils and blood red tears, claws extended to full length and her canines slightly longer than before.
"Go now…run from…this place," Kakera pleaded, her voice not her own. "It's too…late…for me…now. GO AND LEAVE…ME BEHIND!"
'She's letting us go?' Sanzo wondered, puzzled by how she acted towards them despite the sudden change.
"But what about that summon you made and you saying you killed your mother?" Goku questioned angrily.
"All fake Goku! I had…no…choice but…to be…loyal to…Kougaiji and his mother. I'm sorry…go…LEAVE NOW!" she hissed again, the power overwhelming her throat. The purple scars appeared on her face again, but the blood tears kept going as she pulled out the red glass from her hands.
Hakkai burst from the bedroom fully clothed to see Kakera transformed again, her tears turned to genuine blood. He looked to see the others threatening weapons by their side.
"Enough excuses Kakera! You deceived us!" Gojyo accused.
"We thought you would really help us on our mission!" Goku added.
"I should've done this a long time ago," Sanzo whispered as he walked closer to her, his gun shining as the next bolt of lighting struck outside the house.
'No…not Kakera, I don't believe this,' Hakkai told himself, watching as Sanzo put his finger on the trigger. He looked to see Kakera staring at him with regret and even pity.
Time slowed as Kakera stared at Sanzo and his loaded gun, immense sorrow burning in her heart. She remembered the late night conversations she shared with him, she recalled the anger they shared of Goku's insane hunger and Gojyo's smoking. But she slowly gasped when she remembered the first night she was recruited to their team, those soft violet eyes that reflected understanding.
'He understood out of everyone else I've met, he knows about my true colors,' Kakera thought sadly, feeling betrayed by both Sanzo and Kougaiji's people. 'They all promised I would live to see my second chance at life, but why must this come to such an unfortunate end?'
'I did believe what she told us, but why did the gods lie to me?' Sanzo yelled in his head, seeing that Kakera felt the same way he did. 'But I don't have a choice about this, it has to be done.'
Hakkai ran to stop Sanzo's attempt to kill Kakera, she stood and fought the power growing stronger inside her as the shot was suddenly released.
"Traitor," Sanzo whispered as he fired the gun.
"NNNNOOOO!" Hakkai screamed as Kakera felt the bullet fly into her broken heart, feeling her legs give in.
Kakera fell to the ground defeated, her journey suddenly coming to and end after three wasteful years searching for a way to get back into reality's boat.
Hakkai held Kakera's dying body, feeling the angry power consume her completely. Her tears erupted again, but they weren't for her death he could tell, they were for someone close to her. She was thinking of someone else instead of her own demise.
Until he realized what she had truly intended and he let go of her body and stepped back in horror. He watched as the three power limiters released themselves from her body, their power turning to a strong blinding light.
"SANZO YOU FOOL, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Hakkai yelled over the light as the power started to take a form.
Sanzo could stare right at the light in shock, feeling fear and anger surge through him. He didn't see what Kakera's plan was until after he fired his Banishing Gun, releasing the monster within their innocent yet dead companion.
