Chapter 21
The metallic clang woke Gojyo with a start. Hakkai felt him grow rigid against his chest, intent on the noise of approaching footsteps, then there was panic—blind panic, as Gojyo began struggling to free himself from their embrace.
"Don't," Hakkai ordered, tightening his hold, though each jolt sent agonizing waves of pain through his head. "Gojyo… Wait, I can't… Let's just…" Gojyo intensified his thrashing and managed to stand. Hakkai seized him by his good wrist and pulled him back down none too gently. "Fuck, Gojyo, stop!"
Gojyo stilled and stared, shocked.
"I suppose the guy these humans were waiting for has arrived," Hakkai rasped, trying to sound composed. He squinted at Gojyo and attempted to smile. "Let's not give them any reason to overreact again, right?" Please?
Gojyo nodded and averted his attention to the bareness of the corridor outside their cell. "What about the guy we are waiting for?" he asked in a murmur. "Where is Sanzo?"
"I don't know." Hakkai reached out and skimmed his fingertips over Gojyo's dirty bandages. "Did I hurt you when I wrestled you down?"
"Uh? No, I'm—it's okay."
"I hope Sanzo is here," Hakkai mumbled, dropping his hand and sagging further against the wall. Gods, his head… He was going to throw up at any minute if it kept pounding like that. He had also vomited in the park, hadn't he? Either way, there was not much in his stomach right now.
"What about you?" Gojyo demanded. "Hakkai?"
"Yeah, I'm okay." The footsteps were drawing closer and Hakkai willed his eye to focus. The humans were bringing more light—the corridor was now considerably brighter—which helped his blurry vision. Was Sanzo among the ones who strode in their direction? Impossible to tell, at least for him. Goku was the one with the powerful youkai senses attuned to every infinitesimal detail that made and meant a certain priest. He… He could only hope.
He swallowed hard, frustrated, when five soldiers—old acquaintances from the earlier scene in the park—halted before their cell. No Sanzo.
"Aw, look at this!" taunted the sergeant who had conducted their arrest. "Aren't they cute, cuddled together like kittens in a basket? Damn, but you like to roll about in filth, eh, punk? How can you get so comfy with demons?"
Hakkai maintained his silence, knowing that any attempt at refuting those rhetorical questions would just cause Gojyo and himself more harm. He concentrated on calming his heart, instead. Anger was not, and never would be, conducive to well-fought battles.
"Yeah, don't goad Bully-san," Gojyo said in a barely audible whisper and Hakkai had to bite back a nervous chuckle. All things Gojyo were unusual like his exotic coloring.
The lack of answer disappointed Chen Dan. He pulled his gun out and advanced, towering over the prisoners. "What, no fancy words to explain your perversions to us, punk? Well, maybe you could show us how you fuck your pet demon up the ass. Or does it fuck you?"
At Hakkai's continued indifference, Chen Dan clashed the handle of his gun against the iron bars. The deafening noise reverberated through the ward, amplified in a thunderous wave, and the man winced, shocked. Only then did a still completely impassive Hakkai allow his lips to curve upwards in a flitting spasm. Enough to reassure Gojyo and share the joke with him. Enough for it to be perceived by 'Bully-san' as the slap in the face it was intended to be.
"Sergeant, you okay?" one of Chen Dan's men asked in the following silence.
"Shut up, Mou!" Chen Dan shouted, face contorted in fury. The outburst created another chain of booming echoes, and Hakkai could sense Gojyo's anxious amusement bubbling. Hakkai cautioned him with a brief touch, hoping Gojyo would act on his own advice about not goading the human. Chen Dan positioned his gun between the bars and aimed at Hakkai's head. "You think that you're so smart, don't you, punk?" he hissed. "Well, guess what? I have the power, right here in my finger, right here, punk, in one single finger, to destroy that precious brain of yours. If I press this trigger, punk, I will make you a corpse or an idiot for life."
Hakkai peered up, unafraid.
"Sergeant?" came Mou's frightened voice again. "The captain is waiting for the foreigner in his office." A pause. "This scumbag isn't worth your career, Chen Dan-sama." Hakkai looked past Chen Dan at the soldier—who immediately lowered his head, avoiding eye contact.
"I know, Mou," Chen Dan muttered. "I fucking know." And slowly, as if still hesitant about shooting or not, he holstered his gun. Hakkai noticed the relief on his face, though—the timely intervention had offered Chen Dan a gracious way of backing down from his threat without losing face. "And if you don't shut your mouth I swear that I'll throw you in this cell with the demon," he remarked in a calmer tone. "It's very friendly to people, as you can see." A volley of laughter went round and Chen Dan nodded to his audience before focusing on Hakkai once more. "Up, punk. The chief wants to see you. Say good-bye to your lover."
"What about Gojyo?" Hakkai asked tentatively. "We're together—"
"If you," Chen Dan interrupted, "make me enter this pigpen to drag your ass out myself, punk, you'll regret giving me trouble. As for your lover, it stays exactly where it is. Or it'll be put down on the spot." Chen Dan clicked his fingers and his men took stance, weapons trained on Gojyo.
Seeing no other alternative, Hakkai started the difficult task of commanding his body to stand. Should he meekly go along or was this the moment to attack? If Sanzo were upstairs, negotiating their freedom, he would ruin whatever ground had already been gained. But yet… What if Sanzo had not come? He and Gojyo could defeat five humans, of course they could; five humans were virtually nothing, even armed…
Pain exploded in his head when he locked his wobbly knees under his weight.
"Hakkai?"
Gojyo.
And Gojyo could not move, otherwise…
For Gojyo, Hakkai compelled his unsteady legs on, all his physical responses now needing conscious control. Right foot. Left. Right. Never, ever had such a ridiculously small distance seemed so impossible to cover. Cold sweat ran down his face as blood pounded in his ears, hammering needles inside his skull.
One more step, for Gojyo, just one more step… His vision darkened and he toppled forward, breaking his fall by instinctively grabbing the bars.
"Hakkai!"
"Stay … stay where you are," he slurred. "I—I'm fine."
"Yeah, stay, dog," someone mocked. "And stop barking."
"Hurry up, punk, we haven't had dinner yet," Chen Dan said, obviously enjoying himself.
Hakkai stared up at Chen Dan's mouth and tasted bile. The strange acoustics of the place amplified and overlapped Gojyo's frantic murmurs and the humans' scornful orders alike, sent them back and forth, wrapping the scene in a cacophony of a nightmarish quality—but then there was that mouth. Chen Dan's smiling mouth was the element that kept unconsciousness at bay and hoisted Hakkai up.
"…very good, punk, come on, you can make it!"
He wanted to shut up that mouth with a punch.
He was going to shut up that mouth with a punch.
He was still fighting to regain his balance when Chen Dan opened the cell door, jerking his support away, and seized him by one arm. Hakkai was then thrown against the wall of the corridor.
Pain. There was nothing else but pain. Pain and…
"…bastards! You fucking cowards! I'm going to kill you with my bare hands, you assholes!"
…Gojyo.
"Shut up, demon! Or I'll—"
"Let the thing be, Hu," Chen Dan purred. "It's already dead." Hakkai let gurgled when a hand grabbed his hair and pulled his lolling head up. "Now… You, punk? You'll behave. And you'll be quiet. I don't want to hear your slimy rattle anymore. Understood?" Hakkai tried to nod. Chen Dan grunted in satisfaction. "Shit, you're all sticky, punk. I never liked slugs." There were other petty references and half-elaborated jokes. There was laughter. Hakkai paid them no heed—the small part of his mind that still rationalized things just kept asking how could he have considered fighting when he was not even able to turn his head to reassure Gojyo.
Vaguely, he felt his wrists being secured on his back.
"Okay, punk, let's go," Chen Dan growled. "Fuck, Mou, help him!" And their little group was moving.
Gojyo's forlorn howl enveloped them in the corridor, cascading into every cell of the subterraneous maze. It seemed to go on forever.
Hakkai scrunched his eyes shut, equally desperate.
"How touching!" Chen Dan chortled. "The thing is already missing its bitch."
More lewd comments.
More laughter.
They were always laughing, these humans.
"Damn, Sergeant, I'm starving. How long do you think the captain will keep us here?"
"Why don't you ask him, Hu? I'm not a diviner. Shit, punk, I should go back and shut up that demon of yours with a bullet. Noisy motherfucker!"
Hakkai did not reply. He hung from his captors' clutches, despising his failing body as much as he despised these humans. Sanzo should be here already. It would be better if Sanzo was here already. If Sanzo was willingly letting them fend for themselves in this prison, to teach them both a lesson on caution, or because of his personal feud with Gojyo, Hakkai would kill the monk bastard himself, holy mission or not.
They mounted a narrow staircase at a leisurely pace, the soldiers now talking congenially over Hakkai's throbbing head—regular workingmen counting the minutes until their day off.
"My wife took the kids to see the floats yesterday, Hu. Not as impressive as the ones from last year, they said."
"Yeah, but those things only look pretty at night, with their lanterns lit. They're ugly in the sun."
"Is it true that Lao Lin is going to perform for free? Has anybody else heard that?"
Hakkai was hit by a blast of fresh air when they reached the area dedicated to the bureaucratic procedures that inescapably ruled such a place. His stomach churning, he noticed that one of the passages did not end with another sterile wall—beyond it there was just clear, glorious summer night.
"It seems so," Chen Dan concurred. "She has a lot of money already, ne? She might well afford some charity from time to time."
"Buddha, what I wouldn't give to have an hour with that woman!"
"In your case, it would only last five minutes, Mou." Chen Dan hurried forward, opened the door to a large room without knocking, and pushed Hakkai into it. "The prisoner, Captain," he announced in a respectful voice.
The older man who pored over some papers at a barred window barely looked up. "Yes. You and your men are dismissed, Sergeant."
'Bully-san' acknowledged the words with a short bow and signaled his group back to the corridor. Deprived of any physical support, Hakkai staggered, keeping vertical only by sheer willpower. Indifferent to his plight, the captain shuffled through his papers, pulled a sheet out, and carried on reading.
As soon as he managed to regain some semblance of control over his watery legs, Hakkai began mapping his surroundings. No Sanzo. No other doors. Stone floor. A desk. A few chairs. The whitewashed walls were naked, except for functional lanterns and a sword displayed on a shelf. He squinted at the human, who wore nothing that could be related to a firearm.
Interesting.
Finally, the captain went to his table, took a seat behind it and started sorting out his papers. Only when he had them arranged in two neat piles did he acknowledge Hakkai's presence. "I'm Captain Wu Tai," he said calmly. "I was informed that your name is Cho Hakkai. Is that correct?"
Hakkai bowed clumsily, trying to make the room stop spinning. "That's correct, Captain."
"Very well. Please, take a seat, Cho Hakkai."
Mustering a last bout of energy, Hakkai shuffled to the nearest chair and dropped into it with a sigh. His head throbbed unbearably and the tight rope 'Bully-san' had fasted his hands with was cutting his wrists—but why worry about such insignificant details when the window let in a fresh, caressing breeze that stirred his hair? So good… For a split second, he wished he could go to sleep. "Captain Wu Tai?" he croaked tiredly. "May I ask about my friend, sir? The one who was arrested with me?"
"No, you can't ask anything here, Cho Hakkai. In this room, your only task is to answer questions and answer them truthfully. I assure you that I have ways of knowing if you're lying." Wu Tai drummed his fingers on the pile of papers at his right. "Let me tell you what we already know about your group, so you won't be tempted to weave fancy tales. Three men and a youkai male entered our town this evening, riding a dragon that can change into a vehicle. One of the humans is a monk; the second, a teenage boy. The third is you. We received several complaints about this … youkai invasion. Your group headed to an inn, badly frightening the customers." Wu Tai frowned and consulted his papers again. "Actually, your group split up and you and the two youkai entered the inn a few minutes later, after the monk secured rooms for you all. The dragon isn't important, though. Are my reports accurate so far, Cho Hakkai?"
"Yes, sir," Hakkai answered, stunned.
"Good. We're very proud of our efficiency. But allow me to continue, eh? Lieutenant Yao dispatched a party to capture the demon. On his way to the inn, Sergeant Chen Dan and his men met a messenger sent by the inn's manager, asking for help. Then, you and the youkai were found together in a park and resisted arrest." Wu Tai lifted an eyebrow at Hakkai, perhaps expecting a contest on this last part. When none was offered, he proceeded, "Your two human friends, I was notified, have left the inn. I gave orders to let them go and wait to see what they're up to. Such a confusion on the eve of our most important holiday is certainly demoralizing to our force, Cho Hakkai-san."
Hakkai took a deep breath, conjuring up all his mediator's skills; pain and exhaustion, if not entirely submerged, would have to be ignored. Each word would count now, as well as each facial expression—he had to do his best. For Gojyo. And the truth was his ally…
The truth, with a slight twist.
And his chi.
He focused it on the captain, despair lending him a strength he would not be fit to summon otherwise, and projected forth subtle reassurances, along with an order: You will believe me. This particular trick would not do his cause any good if the subject was not amenable to the suggestion to begin with—in fact, he did not know if it would have any real effect at all. The few times that he had resorted to such precarious artifice and things had swayed his way, he had not been able to attest if his own wishing had influenced the final result. He had tried to experiment with this possible resource on his friends just once, without success. Goku had ended up snoring, Gojyo had stared amusedly at him from behind a cloud of cigarette smoke, and Sanzo… After fifteen minutes, it had been Hakkai who had been able to pick up Sanzo's thoughts—Piss off— without having to make use of his youkai powers, imaginary or not.
"Captain, I assure you that we did not have any intention of demoralizing anyone," he started in a coarse voice. "We are travelers, sir, nothing more. The monk is on an important holy quest, and we are his servants. Bodyguards, when necessary, for these are very dangerous times for a priest to roam alone. Gojyo, the half-youkai you arrested, is very important to our mission. We wouldn't have come so far if not for his help." You will believe me.
"Half-youkai?" Wu Tai asked, interested.
"Yes, sir." Knowing that racist societies tended to be very protective of their women, but were much more lenient if their own males made raids among the ones considered inferior, Hakkai quickly changed Gojyo's genealogy. "His father was human."
The captain grunted. "I read something somewhere about half-breeds having red hair," he commented. "It fits in with the description that I have of your youkai friend in my report. We don't have that kind of creature here, of course."
"We were on the main road," Hakkai went on, feeling more confident, "but it was growing dark. We saw your town, and we thought that it would be a good idea to have a bath and spend the night in a real bed." And this is the unadulterated truth, so you will believe me!
"Why that inn?" Wu Tai demanded. "Why did you choose that specific inn?"
"We didn't, Captain. It was fortuitous. Gojyo and I fell a little behind because Gojyo suffered a serious injury a week ago, while protecting the monk from certain death. He isn't well yet, and that's why I'm begging you, humbly, to bring him to this office, sir." You will bring Gojyo here!
Wu Tai played with his papers, neither agreeing nor saying no, which was already a huge step ahead.
"But about the inn," Hakkai felt an annoying prick on his cheek and quickly lifted his left shoulder to wipe his face on his jacket. "At one point, the boy who travels with us came back to tell us that they knew where to find rooms. I can only guess that the monk asked someone on the street, and was directed to that park."
"Did that person on the street see your youkai?" Wu Tai asked.
"I don't think so, sir. We were having problems keeping up with the monk. Only at the inn did we find out that youkai are not welcome in this town. We decided to leave, to go back to the main road, but we had to wait for our companions, so we went to the park. Was this the infraction that sent us to prison?" And doesn't it sound laughable? Absolutely ridiculous? To arrest two men because they sat on a public bench in a public area? Of course it does. Of course it is!
Wu Tai consulted his papers again. "Well, at least your story matches the information we've gathered," he said distractedly. "I know our laws may sound … laughable, even … uh, ridiculous, sometimes. But they have kept us alive."
Hakkai gasped. Was it working? Was it really working? Collecting himself quickly, he observed, "Yes, sir, but how could we know about them? We—"
"Do you have any other sight problem besides the obvious discomfort of your head wound, Cho Hakkai-san?" Wu Tai interrupted.
Hakkai blinked, surprised. He was so intent on the human in front of him that he had barely noticed the continuous tearing of his single eye. "I—I'm… My eye…" he trailed off, lost. He was not going to admit that he wore a glass eye, would he? Bone tired and in pain as he was, there were limits one could let slip during a friendly conversation with an enemy. "I—I miss my monocle, sir, that's all."
"Monocle?"
"Sergeant Chen Dan took it from me," Hakkai muttered, embarrassed. "In the park."
Wu Tai tightened his lips, stood up, and went to the door, calling for 'Bully-san.' When the man appeared, they started a hushed conversation in the corridor, the captain's hard pitch a clear contrast to Chen Dan's deferential mumbles. Hakkai sat frozen, not really caring if that useless bauble would be returned to him or not. He should have not diverted the talk to himself; he should have kept it focused on Gojyo.
When Wu Tai returned he had the monocle in hands. "Here, Cho Hakkai-san. My apologies." And the captain himself put the dirty lens back on Hakkai's nose, since it would have been impossible for him to do so.
Hakkai leaned slightly forward in his chair, trying to emulate a bow. "Thank you kindly, sir."
Wu Tai sat at his desk again, face grim. "To deal with some of the men I have around on a daily basis… It's enough to make even Buddha a killer." He frowned at his papers. "Fortunately, I'm retiring soon. Very, very soon."
"It's hard to find men who understand honor, Captain," Hakkai answered softly. Now, you? You do understand it. That's why you won't bother yourself with innocent travelers. You have in a cell only a mere half-youkai, and tomorrow is the Summer Festival. Why raise such a fuss over nothing? Send for Gojyo! "Captain, we aren't here to cause you any trouble," he said aloud. "Everything was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time." You will believe me. You. Will. Believe. Me. You—
"I believe you, Cho Hakkai-san," Wu Tai stated with conviction. "Yes, I believe you. Everything was just a misunderstanding. Please, don't think that everybody on the force is like Sergeant Chen Dan. He's only a garbage collector. Sometimes he brings me valuable things, though; things that don't belong in this place."
Hakkai bowed once more, so grateful that he felt like dropping to his knees. "Again, thank you very much, Wu Tai-sama."
A loud crash sounded in the corridor, then a demanding voice. And when a familiar slim figure stormed into the office, Hakkai could have jumped in the air, could have laughed and sung and invited Wu Tai to join him. Instead, he calmly met the baffled captain's eyes and said in his most polite tone, "Captain Wu Tai, may I introduce to you the monk I was telling you about? Sir, this is Genjo Sanzo-sama."