Sanzo, Goku, and Gojyo had followed Wei away from the bank of the river and through the forest along what looked like an overgrown deer path. ...Make that a goat path. For mountain goats. Their guide hadn't been kidding about their route leading over rough terrain. There were some parts that Gojyo swore went nearly straight up. He considered himself to be in excellent shape. All of them were. Hell, you couldn't fight off youkai ambushes daily and come out of the battles unscathed if you weren't. But trekking through the mountainous wilderness on foot was exercise of a completely different sort. Gojyo was becoming acquainted with a whole new set of muscles that he never even realized that he had before.

They hadn't been able to make the trip all in one day, but small detour had taken them to a spot where Wei had cached supplies. Dinner hadn't exactly been a feast, but no one had complained--not even Goku, although it was clear that he would have liked a second or third or fourth helping. They had constructed makeshift beds from the thick carpet of pine-needles, and considering that Gojyo had spent only an hour the previous night dozing with his back against a tree, he had no problems at all getting a good night's sleep.

Gojyo stopped for breath after scaling a particularly bad outcropping of rock, squinting up in the late morning light. "This is supposed to lead to a mine, right? How the hell did they ever get anything back to civilization from here?"

"There is a road," Wei answered. "Unfortunately, it goes down the opposite side of the ridge. This is the shortest path that cuts across to it." He looked ahead. "We should reach it pretty soon."

Goku came up beside them. The monkey wasn't even out of breath after climbing up that steep section. It was easy to forget how much energy the kid had, and how strong he was. That line of thought only made Gojyo irritated, since it brought to mind his own fatigue and aching muscles; so he sat down on a rock, lit up a cigarette, and tried very hard not to think about it.

"You know this area really well," Goku said to Wei, settling down on the rocks as well, as Wei's brown dog picked his way up the path to join them. The dog had become quite attached to Goku, and settled down beside him to let the boy scratch his ears, panting happily. "You must have been living out here for a while, huh?"

"For about four years," Wei replied, taking his canteen off over his shoulder and offering it to Goku. "I used to work for a small trading company in a town that's a bit further down the river. The mine we're headed for isn't the only one around here. This area is rich in mineral and ores, and there's a lot of good profit to be made trading goods and raw materials."

"So you've said before." Sanzo joined them at the top of the outcrop. Even he was looking a little tired, and was breathing harder than usual from the climb. He elected not to sit down and rest with the others, but instead wasted no time lighting up a cigarette of his own. After a few long drags, he accepted the canteen from Goku without comment. His violet eyes were sharp and focused as he studied the hunter with a measuring gaze. "You've given up a lot to come out here and live in the middle of nowhere."

Wei inclined his head respectfully. "Perhaps I have, Sanzo-sama." He shrugged. "But as you get older, different things become important. Different things become unimportant, too. Priorities change."

Gojyo, listening quietly, raised an eyebrow. He'd heard that those lines before, or something similar. From old gambling partners who stopped coming around to play cards. From drinking buddies who started going home early to get back to the wife and kids. However, Wei's tiny cabin hadn't looked big enough to house a family...and certainly, one wouldn't move out into the wilderness to be close to loved ones. Wei must be talking about something else.

"So, I didn't get the chance to ask, earlier," Wei said casually into the silence that followed, carefully avoiding looking at any of them, "but this person you're looking for--he's youkai, isn't he?"

Sanzo gave him a hard look as he passed the canteen onto Gojyo. They were almost out of water. "What makes you think we're looking for a youkai?"

Wei returned the look evenly. "With all due respect, Holy One, a human being doesn't stand a chance of surviving a fall from one of these cliffs. But a youkai? Possibly." He nodded at Gojyo's jacket pocket, where the silver ear cuff had been stashed. "Maybe your friend just likes to wear that kind of jewelry. But maybe that's a demon power limiter, and you were in such a rush to find him yesterday because you were worried that whatever it is that's making youkai in this area go crazy was going to start affecting him, too."

It's not just this area. Gojyo almost said it out loud, and then stopped. Not a good idea, to say that the Minus Wave was everywhere, nowadays. He didn't want to get stuck explaining why he had a youkai friend who hadn't gone crazy. "You seem to know an awful lot about youkai," Gojyo temporized.

Wei looked at him. Was it Gojyo's imagination, or did those eyes flicker briefly over his hair before coming back to meet his eyes. "I have to. I hunt them for a living, now, after all."

"With a tranquilizer gun," Sanzo returned.

"Yep," the hunter replied, "With a tranquilizer gun." He accepted the canteen from Gojyo, poured the remaining water into a small bowl for his dog, and hung the strap over his shoulder again. "The youkai up here all belong to one clan--but some of them have gone crazy and some of them haven't. The ones that haven't can't spend much time away from the mines, because if they do, they wind up going crazy, too. But everyone knows that the dark aura doesn't affect humans like me.

"The sane youkai have hired me to round up their friends and relatives who have been affected. The ones I catch get brought back to the mines, where they're guarded by the sane ones so they can't cause a problem for anyone else."

"And does it do any good?" Sanzo asked. The violet eyes resting on the hunter were intent.

"To take them back underground? No," came the grim reply. "Once a youkai looses their sanity, it seems to be permanent. Taking them back underground doesn't do anything to cure them."

Abruptly, the hunter stood up. As a way of changing the subject, he absently rattled the now-empty canteen. "We're almost to the road. Not far from that is a side-path that leads down to a spring. We can get some more water there, if you don't mind making another short detour."

Gojyo half-hoped that Sanzo would ignore the hunter's overt suggestion that they keep moving, or at least that the monk would take his sweet time getting moving. However, Sanzo seemed to be ready to get started again as well, his movements purposeful as he stubbed out his cigarette against a rock. Gojyo barely swallowed a wise-ass complaint as he reluctantly did the same. If Sanzo was ready to go, he wouldn't stand to hear otherwise. Gojyo just wished the hell he could have waited long enough for a second cigarette.

True to prediction, the tiny path they were traveling on went on a little farther, then intersected with a wide gravel road. They had reached the tree line. Beyond the shade of the stunted mountain evergreens where they stood, there was only brush for cover until they reached the top of the ridge. "It's only about five kilometers from here," Wei said, as they emerged from the trees into the bright morning sunlight. "The spring's nearby. If you don't mind waiting here, I'll go and get some water now."

Gojyo had just found a rock by the side of the road, with the intention of settling down to rest his feet and light up the cigarette he had been denied earlier, when he heard Sanzo say, "Get up. You're going with him."

Gojyo looked up at him is disbelief. "You're kidding, right?" However, Sanzo didn't look like he was kidding. It pissed Gojyo off. "Hell, no! Why don't you send Goku? He's the one with all the energy."

"Because," Sanzo replied, a vein popping out in his own forehead, "I told you to go."

"It's no trouble," the hunter put in quickly. "It's just a short backtrack down the road a bit. It'll only take a few minutes. I'll be right back." He whistled for his dog and set off downhill along the road.

Gojyo took out a cigarette and put the end in his mouth, then rummaged around in his jacket for a lighter. He paused as Sanzo walked over. The monk waited until the hunter was out of earshot, and then said in a low voice, "You haven't noticed, so I'll spell it out for you, stupid kappa. It's not for his sake that you're going to get up and follow him."

Gojyo irritably removed the cigarette again, and looked up at Sanzo. "Say what you mean. I haven't noticed what?"

It was Goku who answered. "That they're looking for us." He glanced up at the sky overhead, as if expecting to see the shadow of one of the bat-winged youkai silhouetted against the sun. "Ever since we saw that old guy on the riverbank, they've been looking. I don't think they've seen us yet, though. Otherwise they would have tried attacking by now."

Oh. Gojyo finally got the point. The winged youkai hadn't found them because they'd been back in the trees. But now they were headed out into the open, and their guide had conveniently left. "Still don't trust him, huh?" That was no surprise. Sanzo didn't trust anybody. Reluctantly, Gojyo got to his feet. "Fine. I'll go see if he tries anything shifty. But send the monkey next time." To his chagrin, Sanzo's only reply was to sit on the rock he had just vacated, and deliberately light up a cigarette.

Asshole. Gojyo stormed away, fuming. Wei gave him a single surprised look when Gojyo fell in beside him, but said nothing all the way to their destination.

The spring was tiny, a puddle of water nestled among rocks. There was barely enough room to submerge the canteen. But the water was crystal clear, and when Gojyo stuck his hand in it, it was breathtakingly cold. After he and the hunter had both had a drink and refilled the canteen, Gojyo took off his headband, soaked it, then wrapped it around his sweating forehead. It felt good after the exertion of their journey, but... "Damn, that's cold."

A small smile flitted across the hunter's features as he sank back on his heels. It didn't reach his eyes, though, which were fixed on the wet headband. Or rather, fixed on the red hair above it. Out of nowhere, he commented casually, "Your hair. It's an odd color. Did you get it from your father's side or your mother's?"

Gojyo felt a small shock run through him. He should have expected it, from the hunter's earlier glance; but to hear it voiced aloud was another thing altogether. Abruptly he stood up, reacting as he always did whenever anyone asked about it--by getting the fuck away. "Both," he said shortly as he turned to leave.

It was the perfect goad. In the back of his mind, Gojyo knew that if Sanzo were right, and the hunter was abandoning them to be attacked, he was following right along with the script. Somehow he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Ah," he heard the hunter said softly from behind him before he had gone three steps. "My son's like that, too."

Gojyo stopped. Waited. Then pointed out the obvious. "You don't have red hair."

"Nope." He heard the rattle of metal as the hunter collected his canteen. "Neither does his mother."

Gojyo turned back to him. He had to draw in a deep breath before he could speak again. "Why the hell did you just tell me that?" he demanded.

Wei had the gall to look embarrassed. "I apologize," he said. "I know it can't be easy, to have a stranger talk about it so calmly. But you're the first grown man I've met who has that hair and those eyes. Certainly there were none in the village I come from, and none in my wife's clan either."

"Your wife?"

Wei's face darkened. "Perhaps I use the word too lightly. Of course, there is no one who would marry us, since a union between a human and a youkai is outlawed by the gods. And a child of that union is taboo." The gaze that met Gojyo's was steady. "What I'm trying to say is that I'm glad that I met you. Seeing you gives me hope for my son."

Gojyo's mouth pressed into a line, suppressing a bitter smile. Pretty damn sad world, if that's the case. But he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. The hunter misinterpreted the silence, and as it stretched, he got rather stiffly to his feet and lifted the canteen strap over his shoulder. "Thanks for your company," he said politely, as he stepped around Gojyo and started for the road.

Great. The half-youkai stared after him, thoughts in turmoil. The last thing I need is to be some kid's fucking role model. Damn the man, for confiding in him, when a confession was the last thing Gojyo wanted to hear. Damn Sanzo for making him accompany the hunter down here in the first place. And while he was at it, damn Hakkai for getting thrown off a cliff and making them run all over these godforsaken mountains in the first place. Gojyo's hand went almost absently to his pocket, to the cloth-wrapped silver cuff he was carrying there. Knowing as he did so, that given the chance Hakkai would have responded by apologizing wholeheartedly for something that really wasn't his fault at all. Dammit.

Gojyo turned on his heel and stalked back to the road, while high overhead, a single black speck silhouetted against the sky wheeled away and headed off towards the river.

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It was Goku who saw them first, pointing up at the four tiny dots in the sky. They grew steadily larger by the moment, too large and oddly-shaped to be birds. Bad luck, that. they had just crested the ridge of the mountain, and there was no cover anywhere to be found. As he looked up at them, Wei's expression turned grim. He unslung his gun, and checked to be sure there were two darts in the chamber.

"I take it these aren't friends of yours," Sanzo remarked.

Wei loostened the cover of a case at his belt, a case that contained more of the fletched darts. "Well, that's a bit of a problem. One can never really tell until they get within shouting distance."

"Shouting distance?" Goku's wide gold eyes turned towards him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if they shout out 'I'm gonna eat you!', chances are they aren't friends."

Great, Gojyo thought. Sanzo drew his gun. Nyoibou appeared in Goku's hands. Gojyo looked up at the approaching youkai grimly, and summoned Shakujou. While he respected the hunter's decision to use non-lethal methods to defend against the winged demons, Gojyo'd be damned if he'd just stand by and let himself be attacked.

Wei wisely kept silent and didn't argue against their right to defend themselves. "I recognize the one in the lead," he said, to no one in particular. "Based on the evidence we found, chances are that she's the one of the ones that discovered your friend down by the riverbank the other day. The last time I talked to her was maybe a week and a half ago, and she was still in her right mind back then." He lifted his gun to his shoulder. "Of course, that's no guarantee."

The incoming youkai slowed as they approached, backwinging to hover in the air just at the outer edge of gunshot range. The female youkai who was in the lead was wearing a shirt of the same color as the bit of felt nap they had found by the river the other day. She was pretty, Gojyo thought absently. In a pointy-eared, long-clawed, feral sort of way. At the moment she looked more than a little pissed off, too. "I trust," she snapped to their guide, "That you have a good reason for leading a group of humans into our territory, Wei."

"Maybe," the hunter replied, unfazed. Gojyo was very aware of the fact that he had not yet lowered his gun. "And I trust you have a good reason to be outside for the second time this week, Ruri. Does your sister know that you're flying around out here when you should be underground?"

He had startled her, Gojyo could tell. "How...?" she started to say, then stopped herself. "That's none of your damn business." She stopped hovering, her black bat wings folding as she landed neatly to the ground. The other three youkai followed suit. "Explain yourself," she continued flatly. "Why have you brought humans here?"

Now the muzzle of the tranquilizer gun came down. Although none of the Sanzo-ikkou lowered their own weapons, the tense atmosphere relaxed fractionally. "These folks are looking for a traveling companion of theirs that wound up traveling a ways down the river. I thought perhaps you might have run into him."

The female youkai surveyed each of them in turn. "They're here for that guy?" She wasn't smiling, but something in her tone sounded satisfied. And...relieved? "Good. He's taking up space in our infirmary. You're welcome to him. The sooner he goes, the happier we'll all be."

The heavy knot of emotion that Gojyo had been carrying deep inside his chest ever since the fight up on the cliff suddenly unknotted itself at those words. Suddenly his heart seemed lighter than air, and he felt like laughing with giddy relief. Here at last was proof. Hakkai wasn't dead. They had finally found him, and everything was going to be all right.

"Nee, Sanzo," Goku said with a grin that mirrored Gojyo's own. "This is great. Hakkai's really okay!"

If Gojyo had been paying more attention, he would have caught the warning sign then. As it was, he was too caught up in Goku's excitement and his own exuberance to notice Sanzo's ominous lack of a reply.

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It had been a long time since Gojyo had last been underground. Although he had spent time in caves and tunnels at various points on this journey, this was the first time he had ever been underground this deep. For the first hour, he kept a careful eye on Goku in the light of the kerosene lanterns carried by their hosts, since he knew that an unpleasant memory of caves lurked in the monkey's past. However, Goku didn't seem bothered by the enclosed space, which had been shored up with fresh timber and kept meticulously clean. In fact, he looked oddly at home, deep in the shelter of the earth.

The place was a maze of branching tunnels, and Gojyo hoped that Sanzo was keeping track of their twists and turns, because he himself sure as hell wasn't. The only memorable spot was one section that opened up into a huge cavern, where bat-winged youkai congregated among teeth of stone, making use of a crystalline stream of water that fell from the ceiling to wind a ribbon of glittering blackness across the length of the grotto. Here the contingent of four youkai abandoned them, leaving Wei to guide them the rest of the way. A fifteen-minute walk and three more turns saw them at a short tunnel that led to three adjoining rooms. Wei left them at the furthest of these, then left, tactfully giving them some privacy.

There was a dark-haired youkai sitting on a straw pallet across from the large brightly-blazing hearth. His back was up against the stone wall, and an open book was resting on the blankets covering his lap. He bore evidence of serious injuries, with his left arm in a sling and dark bruises and bandages visible beneath the shirt draped over his shoulders. No monocle. Longer hair. Pointed ears. The dark pattern of the vine that was his youkai mark twined across every bit of visible skin. All differences, and yet when he looked up from his book to greet them with a small, close-lipped smile, it was clearly Hakkai.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Gojyo known that Hakkai would look like this. Of course he would. Gojyo was still carrying around the small silver ear cuff that they had found by the river, and without it, Hakkai couldn't have changed back into his normal human guise. ...And yet the sight of him in youkai form made Gojyo pause just inside the entrance of the room. He could count on one hand the number of times he'd seen Hakkai without his limiters. Always in a crisis situation. Always for the shortest possible time. As soon as the crisis was over, the limiters went right back on again--Hakkai always made sure of that. It was damn awkward, Gojyo realized, seeing Hakkai like this in a setting where they weren't all distracted by fighting for their lives.

It didn't seem to bother Goku in the least. The monkey wasted no time bounding across the small room, brimming with excitement and full of questions. Was Hakkai all right? Had he been treated well? How was Jeep doing? And was there anything to eat here, because he was really, really hungry...

In between patiently answering Goku's questions, Hakkai's gaze flickered briefly towards Gojyo. As his mismatched eyes slid quickly, almost guiltily away again, Gojyo became aware it wasn't his own reaction that was responsible for the atmosphere of awkwardness that lay heavily in the room. Sure, it was weird to see Hakkai like this. But Gojyo had lived around youkai for most of his life and never had difficulty dealing with them before. It was Hakkai's reaction that was the problem. He had gone all stiff and formal and polite-as-hell in his conversation with Goku. He hadn't wanted them to see him like this, Gojyo realized with the insight of long association. He was ashamed for the three of them to see him as he really was, trapped in the form that he despised.

Well, Gojyo thought he could do something about that. When the monkey finally paused for breath, he took the opportunity to interrupt, digging in his pocket for the handkerchief that he'd been carrying around with him for nearly three days. "Here," he said, stopping beside the pallet and holding out the white bundle. "This belongs to you."

Hakkai seemed to know what it was immediately. He held out his good arm, youkai talons carefully stretched out away from his vine-marked palm, as Gojyo deposited the handkerchief in his grasp. Hakkai placed the white bundle in his lap and unwrapped the silver ear cuff. "Ah, so you found one," he said.

The attempted light tone was a poor mask for the note of disappointment that crept into his voice. Sanzo caught it immediately. "Where are the others?" he asked.

Gojyo heard Hakkai's breath catch in a small sigh. "I have one of the others, at least." Clumsily, he picked the little silver band free of the folds of white cloth. He hesitated only a heartbeat before claiming a second one from the small table beside the straw pallet. The two tiny pieces of metal glinted in the firelight, looking a bit forlorn resting there in the center of his cupped palm.

"That's only two," Goku pointed out, his gaze focused on the pair of demon power limiters. "Sanzo, will it work with only two?"

"Ch." Sanzo leaned back against the stone by the fireplace, folding his arms into his sleeves. "That's an idiotic question. They're part of a set. What do you think, stupid monkey?"

Goku immediately replied that he was not a stupid monkey, and how was he to know everything there was to know about power limiters, anyway? While he was still sputtering indignantly, Gojyo hooked a chair with his foot and sat down. "Keh. I don't see what the problem is. A whole clan of youkai lives here, and not one of them has a spare set of demon power limiters?"

The comment caused Hakkai to glance over at Sanzo. "I have been informed by reliable sources," he said carefully, after a moment's pause, "That, due to my unusual circumstances, ordinary limiters might not suffice."

Sanzo gave a short grunt of acknowledgement, and Gojyo felt his eyebrows rise. No shit. The Sanbutsushin told him that? "Well, can't the great Sanzo-sama just make some more?"

His comment was rewarded almost immediately with a vein popping out in Sanzo's forehead. "Idiot. The set is incomplete, not broken. Shut up if you can't say anything useful."

Gojyo's mouth snapped shut. Incomplete is different from broken in exactly what way? If something doesn't work, it doesn't work, right? But he knew better than to try the monk's patience when those violet eyes were smoldering like that. They were burning with more than simple irritation at the stupid kappa or even at the clueless monkey. There was no sense in making himself a target just so the monk could vent his temper where it wasn't deserved.

"But Sanzo," Goku started again. His words came slowly, as if even he were reluctant to give voice to the question that was on all of their minds. "If we can't get a full set of limiters for Hakkai, how's he going to come with us when we leave?"

He looked expectantly from Sanzo to Hakkai and then back again, searching both of their faces for some sign of reassurance. He lapsed into a glum silence when he realized that he was not going to get an answer from either of them.

Sanzo abruptly pushed off from the wall. "This is getting us nowhere. It's late, and we can't go any farther today anyway. We'll talk about this in the morning."

"Great," Gojyo drawled. "Hear that, Monkey? I hope you like cave rat for dinner." Goku was brooding within arm's reach, and before he could dodge, Gojyo had him in a headlock. "Mmmm," he murmured next to his ear. "Stewed cave rat. With funky cave mushrooms."

"Ugh! Let go of me, you disgusting kappa!" Gojyo couldn't keep his hold--Goku was too strong for that. He twisted away easily and slapped at the restraining hands. "That's gross. That can't be the only thing there is to eat around here!"

As Gojyo had hoped, the usual antics brought a faint smile to Hakkai's face. ...And even if that smile didn't touch the concern darkening his eyes, at least the heavy mood was broken and they could all breathe a little easier. They'd find a solution to the limiter problem in the morning.

At least, he hoped they'd find a solution to the limiter problem in the morning. Gojyo was trying very hard not to listen to the tiny, nagging voice deep inside that was insisting that they'd just traded one bad situation for another. ...And nothing put Sanzo in a bad mood like more delays.

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