Act 15.2

Ghosts in the Dark

It was late into the night and Sanzo had been woken up by another one of his bad dreams that seems to haunt his sleeping moments every now and then. Sweat had matted his yellow blonde hair and dripping down his neck. His heart was racing against his lean sculpted chest.

I couldn't protect him...

Fuck it! Sanzo angrily tossed the blanket off of himself and got to his feet, damn fuckin' dreams. Cant he even sleep in peace. He slid a hand under his pillow, feeling the reassuring cold steel of his gun laying there. He took it and tucked it in the back of his jeans' waistband , under his shirt. The weight and cold of the handgun was a comforting feeling to him, as it has always been since he was thirteen. Even before he met his companions now, this gun has been his sole means of protection and he had entrusted his life to this steel weapon more than once. He trusted it and it made him feel secure, he hardly ever go anywhere without his gun, if ever.

He remembered that night long ago, when he was brought to that room to pick his weapon of choice before he set out on his journey to avenge his master. Out of all the menacing, intimidating items in there, from holly katanas, scythes, battle axe hammers and all manners of enchanted weaponry, this small steel gun had caught his attention.

The two inch barrel Smith and Wesson M-36 banishing revolver with a nickle finish and rosewood handle, it has a five round capacity and a swing out cylinder and has an exposed hammer.

He remembered holding it in his small thirteen-year-old hands and remember thinking that it was the perfect size to aim at his own head. And that he had done, many a-times when he was swallowed up by the crushing weight of guilt and drowning in the darkness literally a breath away from free-falling from the brink of insanity.

Hmmph, that was a long time ago. How things have changed now, he thought a bit bitterly.

He yanked out his earplugs and was immediately assaulted by Gokus' deafening snores in the dark room, the stupid chimp had fallen out of his bed again and was sprawled on the floor.

He tossed the plugs on the bed and grabbed his pack of cigarettes and lighter and started for the door, deliberately allowing the toe of his boot to clunk the monkey's sleeping head on his way out. The snore never wavered, Goku simply rolled over and snored even louder.

Tch, idiot. Sanzo thought, a somewhat affectionate smirk crossing his lips.

Despite his gruff and impersonal attitude, he cares deeply for his companions - though he'd loath to even allow himself to acknowledge it . He and Goku spend the most time together, owing to the fact that they've known each other for so long. Sanzo often - though grudgingly - takes a parental role in Goku's life and has been responsible for his upbringing and well being.

He shut the door and and lit a cigarette. He had walked out onto the open corridor of the inn, the night air was cool and crisp against his hot skin. It was a nice relief. He leaned on the barrister, half propping himself onto it and stared ot at the bright almost full moon in the velvet blue sky. It reminded him of nights when he was young in the Kinzan temple growing up along side his master, Sanzo Koumyou.

"If you meet Buddha, kill the Buddha,

If you meet your father, kill your father,

Free of everything, bound by nothing,

You live your life simply as it is."

Hold onto nothing ...Bound to nothing

Though he never actually took Buddhist vows and seems to hold all divinities in contempt, he has kept that teaching from his master.

Genjo Sanzo is of relatively average height and athletically wiry, although he's usually enveloped in his very loose white robe. He has bright golden blond hair kept vaguely short at the front and a little bit longer in back, jst long enogh so that the ends touched the back collar of his robe. And bright violet eyes, and was considered to be strikingly attractive by both and women and men. Normally draped over the shoulders of the traditional tell-tale Sanzo-houshi white robe is a green-bordered scroll covered in Tibetan calligraphy, the Maten Sutra, the one that he had inherited, it is one of the five Tenshi Kaigen or "Sutras of Heaven and Earth". The sacred sutra's powers protect it from accumulating any signs of damage or wear, despite its being worn in all sorts of weather every day for years.

Underneath the robes, he's usually wearing simple pale blue-jeans and a thin, tight-fitting mock-turtleneck with no sleeves, with black finger-less gloves connecting to slave-rings on the middle finger on each hand that stopped just a few inches below his shoudlers that ended was supported by a coil of steel armband, leaving his shoulders and underarms exposed. That's what he was wearing now, just his ndershirt and his jeans, it was too late and he didn't bother wearing his robe, he just needed some fresh air and wanted get away from the sleeping snoring monkey. He dragged on his ciggarette and exhaled satisfyingly.

The night seemed calm and lazy, and otherwise perfect spring night to sleep in. But his mind was heavy with old ghosts from the past. It was more common for him to get like this when it rained. But sometimes late at night, this tends to happen now and again. But he irrationally blamed it on being in this sleepy town too long. He was really anxious to get back on the road. The calmness and lack of chaos seems almost unsettling and somewhat off. Like the calm before a storm.

Huh? His attention was suddenly drawn when he felt a presence, a strong powerful presence coming his way.

That energy...

It belonged to the same one they felt that time in the forest. His eyes narrowed into slits as in its direction, he prepared for an attack.

A small rather short figure emerged from around the corner turn that led onto the corridor. It was the girl from before. Now dressed in a loose tunic and a long skirt, it seemed that one side of it had been ripped to jst above the knee. She was leaning against the wall, it looked as if she struggled to even stand. Sanzo's eyes darted to the bruises and bandages on her exposed leg.

So this was the girl that's been causing so much fuss lately. She caught his eyes and looked at him indifferently, Sanzo took in the bizarre color of her eyes and turned his gaze back ot into the country-yard.

Ch'... gazed back ot of the garden and he flicked his cigarette over the banister and though it was against his will, he muttered,

She stopped and slumped and steadied herself against the wall across from him. He watched her from the corner of his eyes.

"Hey, you there," her voice was slightly breathless. "Spare me a light?"

"Get your own damn light," he muttered and noticed she was holding a box of blue highlights, no doubt it was Gojyo's. As memory served him right that idiot always kept his lighter in his pocket ans was always bumming off Sanzo's own lighter.

"If i could, i wouldn't be asking you now, would i," she replied. He took one of his own cigarettes and lit up then... begrudgingly without glancing her way he tossed the lighter her way.

He noted from the corner of his eye that she had caught it ease with her free hand. Some reflexes for an injured person. He heard the click and inhalation.

"Thanks."

His hand shot out swiftly and caught the throw effortlessly and pocketed the lighter and whilst still watching her from the corners of his eyes, he studied her as she continued to slowly walk a little ahead of him and leaned on in one of the corridors pillars not too far away from him. He inhaled on his own cigarette.

"What are you doing ot here all by yourself?" came her low voice.

"What does it look like i'm doing?" he snapped irritated. Not too bright is she.

"Hmmph, not very chatty, are you," she blew smoke into the air.

"I don't care for idle chi chat," he stated gruffly. And against his own will, he muttered, "So im assuming you are Ayane?"

Her turned to look at him, silver flashing in the dark, "Who wants to know?" her voice was steely, cautious. Only those with things to hide would be that cautious.

Hmmph, Sanzo knew it all along. The others' judgement might've been clouded by sympathy and owing to that fact that she looked harmless. But Sanzo recognized that bite in that voice. It carries a certain weight, a weight he knew all too well himself. The kinda weight that comes when you have taken too many lives. Oh yes... he narrowed his eyes at her and dropped the leg that he was resting on the banister and walked over to her. Hakkai might've perfected the art of hiding his past behind his politeness and smiles, but occasionally, the past tends to show through the cracks of even the most well designed masks. He stopped a little before her.

"Is that the kind of attitude you show to the person that has taken you in?" he said as he bowed his head down to light another cigarette.

"Oh," her hand with the cigarette paused half way to her lips, realization dawning on her visage. "You must be the other one they mentioned." she drew on her cigarette and blew it up into the air above them. "You sure are friendly." a little smirk on her lips. "You got a name, pretty boy?"

A nerve twitched in Sanzo's temple. "Shouldn't you be resting? I was under the impression that you are not able to walk yet." he looked at her with contempt in his untrusting eyes.

"Barely. Just needed some fresh air... clear my head a bit," her face darkened slightly as she shifted herself to the side and limped slightly towards the corridor's banister and supported herself on it. "Cant seem to get any sleep. "

He studied her a bit, there may not be an evil aura present but he sensed a darkness inside of her. A dangerous kind of power. Almost like a time bomb just waiting to detonate.

"Listen here, missy, the others might not see it but i ain't buying this down trodden in the mud bullshit," He voiced lowly. "i for one couldn't give two shits about you, if it wasn't for them being so persistent, i'd leave yo there to die."

She turned to look at him, her eyes cold and flashing in moonlight. "You're very kind, sir," that sarcastic comment made Sanzo even more annoyed. His trigger hand was itching to pull out his gun.

"They might not see it in you, but im afraid im not that easily fooled," he flicked his cigarette at her feet deliberately. She stared at it, a looked a of confusion on her face before something else crossed it, making it unreadable. She stubbed her finished cigarette on the banister and he saw a little smirk on her face.

"You know, you remind me of someone i used to know," her eyes glinted. "Anyway, thanks for the light, i think the air wasn't as fresh as i thought it'd be." She started to walk away, using the walls to support her.

Ch', Sanzo angrily lit another cigarette as he felt her presence fading away and stomped back to where he perched before. He stared back out to almost full moon and closed his eyes as he rested his head on pillar behind him and exhaled a long train of smoke.

He wanted forget their encounter, it only pissed him off more. Maybe if he wasn't plagued by rude awakenings, maybe he wouldn't have been so cold to her but it's not his fuckin' problem in the first place, not as long she doesn't do anything that would make it his business.

He sighed slightly,pressing the back of his head harder against the pillar,moonlight shining off his yellow hair making it look as if glowed in the dark against his pale skin, the little red chakra on his forehead peeked in between wisps of gold. He breathed in the cold night air. Doesn't seem that night was forgiving enough to give him any wink of sleep tonight. Damn bloody ghosts and specters that dance and cohort in the gloom, hell, sometimes he feels as if he was one of them too... he thought with the hint of a wicked smirk.