Kyandi: And we're back again.
Yuai: I don't really have anything to say.
Kyandi: Neither do I really.
Yuai: Then why don't we move on.
Kyandi: Right!
Yuai: Please enjoy and review.
Kyandi: I do not own Saiyuki.
Chapter 12 Yuai's True Horror
Hakkai's dreams centered on that day he had come home to find Kanan missing and when he awoke he was staring at a cave ceiling. "You awake?" Hakkai turned his head to see Sanzo at the cave opening, newspaper in hand.
"Where am I?" Hakkai asked. "We're still in the forest. You've slept half the day away." Sanzo told him. "Have I?" Hakkai asked idly. "Do you have any idea who that damn fortune teller is? Yuai obviously knows him, and he has her terrified so much she shaking." Sanzo said.
"No. But he knows about my past." Hakkai said sitting up, instantly looking for the white haired girl. "And you're old name too." Sanzo supplied. "Yes. And apparently he can sure hold a grudge." Hakkai remarked.
Sanzo didn't even look up from the paper in his hands. He didn't need to, to know the look on Hakkai's face. "You know I've heard rumors that there are survivors of Hyakugan's old clan, my friend." Sanzo remarked.
"Hyakugan….I thought for sure I had killed ever last one of those monsters." Hakkai remarked. "You should have made sure." Sanzo replied. "Funny thing for a monk to say." Sanzo and Hakkai looked up as Gojyo appeared at the cave entrance.
"No luck?" Sanzo asked Gojyo. Gojyo flapped his hand in dismissal. "Nah. The fog's way to thick." Gojyo replied. "I can't seem to find them anywhere." he added. "What is it?" Hakkai asked but neither looked like they wanted to answer.
"Goku!? Yuai!?" Hakkai asked fear spiking up in him. "Has something happened to them!?" he asked. "They both seem to have disappeared." Sanzo replied.
"We haven't seen Goku since he went to fetch some water after you collapsed. Kokoro and Hakkaryuu went with him. Yuai went off to find him shortly after and she hasn't come back either." Sanzo added.
Hakkai made to get up but Gojyo pushed him back down, a hand on his head. "You stay right here. You're the one the bastard wants." Gojyo snapped at him as Hakkai glared at him. "So you expect me to just sit here while people get hurt because of me!?" Hakkai asked as Gojyo glared back.
"He wants Yuai too in case you haven't noticed and now she's missing!" Hakkai added. "Have you ever heard the saying, "Embrace nothing."?" Hakkai and Gojyo looked at Sanzo as he got up and walked to the opening of the cave.
"If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet your father, kill your father. Only live your life as it is. Not bound to anything. That is what my master taught me." Sanzo told them.
"That is the reason I continued you kill everyone who stands in my way. And it doesn't matter whose enemy they happen to be. Now if you understand that get a hold of yourself. I don't need any excess baggage." Sanzo said looking at the other two.
Hakkai hung his head. "Got it." he said. Gojyo left Hakkai to get himself back together and stepped outside with Sanzo. "So what are we going to do?" Gojyo asked. "About what?" Sanzo asked. "The monkey, man. The monkey! And Yuai." Gojyo replied.
"The fog isn't lifting and there's still no sign of Goku or Yuai. We can't get a break." Sanzo said. "I feel like we're following someone else's script. I don't like it." Gojyo remarked. "If he gets any one of us, he wins." Sanzo added.
"I ain't dying." Gojyo said firmly. "And I tell ya, I super hate to lose." he added. "Don't say super." Sanzo told him. "What should I say, hella hate?" Gojyo smarted off. The sound of approaching footsteps made the two turn to see Goku running towards them.
"Oh! There you are!" Goku called happily. "I thought I got left behind!" he added with a goofy grin. "Goku…" Sanzo said looking at the boy. "You stupid monkey!" Gojyo snapped as he charged past Sanzo to give Goku a piece of his mind.
Sanzo watched the two fight. Something wasn't right. "Goku! You're okay!" Hakkai said hurrying past Sanzo to Goku. "Thank goodness." Hakkai said laying his hands on Goku's shoulders. "Please don't worry us like that." Hakkai told him.
Goku nodded. "Right. Sorry." Goku told him. "Hey." Sanzo called. Goku looked up at Sanzo. "What happened to Hakkaryuu and Kokoro?" Sanzo asked looking down at Goku. "Sorry, we got separated along the way." Goku told him.
"And Yuai?" Sanzo asked. "I don't know. Didn't see her. No problem. We'll find them when the fog lifts." Goku said tugging on Sanzo's shoulder. "Anyways let's get outta this creepy forest already." Goku added.
Goku was never this easy to let it slide when it was Yuai in trouble. The girl was basically like his sister. "Goku." Sanzo said making the boy stop and turn to look at him…and look down the barrel of Sanzo's gun.
"S-Sanzo…what's wrong? What's going on here?" Goku asked. "What are you doing?" Gojyo asked. "Sanzo….hey, Sanzo…w-what's wrong Sanzo?" Goku asked. "It's not you. It's the dumbass ape who called me." Sanzo replied.
"I-it's me, Sanzo!" Goku insisted. "Let me tell you something. The only one allowed to call my name that lightly…is that dumbass ape." Sanzo told him before he fired the gun. The three watched as the doll turned to sand before them.
"Come on out, Chin Yisou! The esteemed Lord Sanzo's really pissed off now." Gojyo called out. Low laughter made them turn to where Chin Yisou was sitting on a boulder his legs crossed and chin in hand.
"That was my best doll too. How did you know?" Chin Yisou asked. "You should do your homework." Gojyo remarked. "He didn't say he was hungry once." Sanzo added. "And Goku would never let it blow over if he thought Yuai was in danger for even a moment." Hakkai added.
"'I'm hungry" is it? How intricate." Chin Yisou said. "Where's Goku? And Yuai?" Sanzo asked. "Well, what do you think? Are they wandering around in this fog? Or are they dead?" Chin Yisou remarked. Sanzo fired a shot that hit the ground just to the side of Chin Yisou.
"The next one won't miss. Where is Goku and Yuai?" Sanzo asked. "My goodness, what a short tempered person. Short on calcium, perhaps?" Chin Yisou asked. "Hurry up and fire. That is, if you can." he added before snapping his fingers.
All three looked down at centipedes covered them from shoulders down. "What the hell!?" Gojyo asked. "Centipedes?" Hakkai asked. "Demon King Hyakugan was a centipedes demon. Move too much and they'll bite and poison you. Being bitten by that many could well prove life threatening." Chin Yisou said as he came to a stop in front of Hakkai grabbing him by the chin to make him look up at him.
"Not enough hatred? Well then get a good look at the face…of the son of the man who raped and impregnated your woman!" Chin Yisou told Hakkai, watching as his eyes went wide with remembrance. "Did you plan to take revenge by killing my entire clan? Or was it a sense of justice, protecting humans?" Chin Yisou asked as he slapped Hakkai across the face repeatedly.
"Not that I don't like your heroic hypocrisy though." Chin Yisou added kicking Hakkai in the stomach. "But only that idiocy and blood thirst of your's will satisfy my heart." Chin Yisou said as he looked down at Hakkai.
"Don't say another word. You're hurting my ears." Sanzo remarked drawing Chin Yisou's attention to him. "Let me tell you two of the top three things I hate." Sanzo added. "By all means enlighten me." Chin Yisou told him. "Perverts and insects!" Sanzo snapped using his sutra to repel the bugs.
While Chin Yisou was blinded Gojyo attacked shattering Chin Yisou's right arm. "Look here you've manage to piss me off. And I'm usually such a nice guy." Gojyo remarked. "Hey, you okay, Hakkai?" Sanzo asked Hakkai who was spacing out.
"Hakkai…who's that?" Hakkai muttered. Gojyo grabbed Hakkai by the shoulder and shook him. "Yo! Get a grip! You're Cho Hakkai got it!" Gojyo snapped. "I-I'm okay." Hakkai told him. Just then Chin Yisou grabbed Gojyo by the chin yanking him back.
"That attack hurt." Chin Yisou told them. Sanzo pointed his gun at him. "Go ahead , shoot just like the last time. Will you aim for the chest again?" Chin Yisou asked getting to Hakkai. A loud yell had all four men looking up. Chin Yisou jumped away from Gojyo as Goku landed in a sprawled out form.
"Sorry about that." Goku said. "Goku! You're late!" Gojyo snapped going up to Goku and kicking him. "I couldn't help it! My leg's broken! Plus, I'm hungry! This sucks!" Goku replied as Hakkaryuu and Kokoro showed up as well.
"That's the real one." Gojyo remarked. "That couldn't be anybody but Goku." Hakkai agreed. "Hey." Goku looked up at Sanzo. "You dumbass ape!" Sanzo snapped as he hit Goku with a paper fan. "What was that for?" Goku asked.
"What?" Sanzo replied. "You know what!" Goku snapped. "He won't say it but he missed him." Gojyo remarked. Chin Yisou's laughter drew all of their attention once more. "Sanzo something's not right with him. He doesn't smell alive." Goku remarked.
The wheels started turning in Hakkai's head as more of that day when Kanan died came back to him. He was sure, absolutely positive that he had killed Chin Yisou before. "I've had my fun with the red haired man and the golden eyed boy. Next is…" Chin Yisou threw more of his little darts pins at Sanzo who caught them easily.
"Cause next time he really is going to lose some of his little play buddies." Chin Yisou remarked with his trade mark grin in place on his face. "Just try it." was Sanzo's reply. "Hey you dirty old bastard." Chin Yisou turned to Goku.
"You just try to do something to Sanzo." Goku growled. "My compliments. Your pet is quite a loyal companion I have to say." Chin Yisou said. "Goku stand back." Sanzo yelled to the boy.
"He howls too much for my taste." Chin Yisou added throwing more of his pin darts landing them in Goku's broken leg. "Awful lot of bark for a mutt who can barely stand on his own two paws." Chin Yisou remarked as Goku howled in pain.
"Dude…you really have a broken leg?" Gojyo asked. "I told you that already!" Goku snapped. "Now where were we." Chin Yisou turned to Hakkai and Sanzo. "Chin Yisou!" A yell made Chin Yisou turn in time to get knocked clear off his feet by a bloody fist.
The impact was hard enough to make Chin Yisou fly through a couple of boulders. It defiantly would have been enough to break bones. All four males of the Sanzo party turned to find Yuai, bloody, battered, and absolutely livid.
She had blood from various injuries all over her body, some deep, others shallow, though only one, that was coated in ice and went from the valley between her breast over her left shoulder, looked life threatening. She had probably put the ice there to keep herself from bleeding out.
With her shirt ripped and useless she had tied her shawl around her like a shirt, double knotting it. Her hair had come free of her tie and fell in a solid white sheet around her, blood staining parts red.
Though she looked bloody, tattered, and beaten senseless, she had a cold, absolutely livid expression on her face that sent a chill down the spine of every male present. "If you thought you were done with me, you're sadly mistaken, Chin Yisou." she told him as she stood up straight.
Chin Yisou laughed as he got back to his feet. "Already escaped my pets, little Yu-Yu?" he asked as he looked at her. "Shame, I was hoping they would keep you busy long enough for me to finish with your friends. Then we could play again as we use to." Chin Yisou remarked. The others watched as Yuai shivered her fist at her side clenching more.
"Yuai…what is he talking about?" Goku asked. Yuai's eyes darted to them and then back to Chin Yisou. She didn't say anything. "Come now, Yu-Yu, secrets don't make friends. Then again I suppose in your case they do. Why, how else would you ever find another soul willing to tolerate you let alone like you. If they knew how damaged you truly were." Chin Yisou remarked looking at Yuai.
Hakkai watched as Yuai's head hung. "If they knew they wouldn't stand beside you. How you screamed." Yuai flinched. "And cried." Another flinch. "How you became so damaged that you don't feel anything at all." Chin Yisou finished Yuai giving the biggest flinch yet.
Her friends looked between the two. "Though you deserved it. After all the pain and death you caused. After all the blood that was spilt because of y-" Chin Yisou was cut off by Yuai, his grin falling away.
"Shut up! Just shut up!" Yuai screeched. All five males stared at her. Yuai had never really raised her voice, except to call to her friends. To hear her out right screech…they were surprised. Yuai's eyes came up to land on Chin Yisou.
"You do not know what you are talking about." she told him. Chin Yisou's grin only grew. "My, my Yu-Yu, still playing denial are we?" Chin Yisou said before turning to her friends, his eyes on Hakkai. "I see she's never told you. Ironic, since she was there that night." Chin Yisou said Hakkai's expression slowing dawning on remembrance of what Chin Yisou was saying.
"She was there, watching the night you kill my cl-" Chin Yisou was cut off as a fist slammed into the rock face just an inch from his face. The fist in question was attached to a livid Yuai. Everyone's eyes turned to Yuai's face though her expression was hidden from her friends by her hair.
"Shut up." Yuai told Chin Yisou. "Yuai…is he telling the truth?" Hakkai asked the girl who froze on the spot not looking at him. Chin Yisou chuckled. "You really haven't told him? My, my. You are very deceiving, Little Yu-Yu." he told the girl.
In a flash Chin Yisou reached out grabbing the girl by her hair and yanking her off balance. "Yuai!" Hakkai called but froze on the spot as Chin Yisou yanked her hair back, revealing the right side of her neck which had always stayed hidden behind her hair.
Curling up the right side of her neck from her shoulder was more of the detailed scars that curled inward in a spiraling formation until it reached a delicately carved 'CY' in the middle. "She never told you that for a year, she was my little toy. Oh how her screams were very calming, like a lullaby for my soul." Chin Yisou told them his free hand tracing the 'CY' on her neck.
Yuai froze, going board stiff under his touch. Hakkai could see the fear, which had been carved into her so long ago, showing in the stiffness of every muscle in her body. She was terrified being in that position with the man who had tortured her for a year, right behind her.
"You're the one that put the scars on her." Sanzo stated more then asked. "Aren't they just lovely. She has the perfect skin for it. It took so long to do all of it. Hours, upon hours of carving the designs, of her screaming herself horse." Chin Yisou said fondly as he traced one swirl.
Yuai tried yanking free but Chin Yisou pulled her back by her hair. Gojyo and Goku were pissed both ready to skin the man alive for ever laying a hand on the girl. "And she was there that night, watching from a cell as you came for your human lover." Chin Yisou added.
Another piece of that night flash before Hakkai as the memory replayed itself. Him walking through the basement looking from one cell to the other in search of Kanan. All were empty except for the one before Kanan's.
In this one, was a little girl. Small, thin, bloody from her waist up. Her hair, which had been snow white at one time, was dyed red with blood and chopped off short like some one had grabbed her by the hair and cut it off crudely with a knife.
She lay on her stomach, her back, under the tattered remains of her shirt, a bloody mess. As he passed by dull, empty silver eyes looked up at him from a face to sunken in for the child to have been fed properly. Looking at Yuai now, in her healthy, happy state as she smiled and laughed with him and their friends, it was no wonder he hadn't connected the two. She looked nothing like she had back then.
"Stop!" Yuai snapped really trying to pull free now. "Why, Yu-Yu? You don't want him knowing that it was you that dragged him from that castle? That it was you that warned him of my presence?" Chin Yisou asked.
Hakkai's eyes snapped to Yuai but she wouldn't look at him. "Let go of her, you bastard!" Goku growled. Chin Yisou only chuckled. "Kokoro, sick him!" came Yuai voice. Chin Yisou looked up as Kokoro, now in her larger form, attacked him.
He released the girl in his hold letting her fall to her knees as he jumped away from the attacking Koken'nin who moved to stand over her mistress, guarding her. Yuai didn't move from where she was now sitting under Kokoro's belly. She stayed there, staring at the ground as Hakkai sent Chin Yisou flying with a Chi Dong blast.
"Yuai?" Yuai flinched as Hakkai called her name. She refused to move out from under Kokoro making the man knell down to look under the Koken'nin at her. The girl had her head bowed, her hair hiding her face.
"Yuai." he called again. "I didn't tell you, because I didn't want you to hate me. I was sure if you knew I had been there you'd hate me for living when the woman you came to find didn't." came her low, shaking voice.
Hakkai was shocked by the sudden admittance. "I didn't want you to hate me because, no matter what else you did that night, you saved me. You set me free and saved me from the hell that my life had become." she added still not looking up at him.
Hakkai stared at her for a moment before looking back at the others who were watching from a distance, giving the two space. Hakkai turned back to Yuai. "I don't hate you, Yuai." he told her.
Yuai looked up then, her wide eyes betraying her stone mask. Her face was expressionless but her eyes said it all. She was scared, and just as much hurt by her past as he was at the moment. He wasn't the only one suffering at the moment with the sudden assault of his past.
She was suffering just as much, only hers left her more terrified then he could ever be. But it wasn't fear of Chin Yisou. "I don't hate you. I never could." he assured her with a smile. But Yuai didn't look convinced at all.
"You're too nice, Hakkai. He's more right then you know." Yuai said her head hanging again. "I don't deserve your kindness and I won't ask you for it or for you to understand this, so please don't argue." she added. Hakkai stared at her.
He wanted to argue, more then he had ever before. She was wrong and he knew it. He knew he wasn't nice, but she was. Yuai was sweet, supportive, and comforting to all of them, not just him. "Hakkai, let's go." Sanzo called.
Hakkai looked at Sanzo and then back at Yuai who was still staring at the ground. "Gojyo, Goku, keep an eye on her." Hakkai told his two friends before running off after Sanzo. He would fix this after they no longer had a psycho killer after them.
END
Kyandi: This part made me sad.
Yuai: ….how do you think I feel?
Kyandi: Awful. I'm sorry!
Yuai: Just move on, silly.
Kyandi: Right! So everyone enjoy and review.
Yuai: We'll be back again soon.
Kyandi: Bye-bye!
