I hope you all had an amazing Halloween! I'm so excited for the Walking Dead series that just started on AMC :)

H-Dawg-luvs-anime: The thought of Gojyo and Sanzo hugging and singing is one of the most hilarious, yet terrifying images I think I've ever imagined.

Princes de la Luna: Meika's mother has not yet been revealed and I'm really not sure if she ever will be or not…

Sakura02: They didn't show any blood even though there probably should have been some…

Thanks: CBarbie92, mimi, Mako-clb, and White Arc Angel for reviewing!

Meika yawned, slowly sitting up in the back of Jeep. She looked around, frowning when she saw no one was around. Poking her head up over the edge, she saw Sanzo shoot a youkai with his banishing gun. "Aw, why didn't you guys wake me up? I wanted to fight."

Hakkai smiled as he came over and smoothed Meika's disheveled hair down. "Sorry. You finally fell asleep and we didn't want to disturb you. Did you have a good nap?"

"Yeah." She blinked as Goku suddenly began sniffing the air. "What's wrong, Goku?"

Goku followed his nose over to a tree. "Something smells really good in here…Hey!" He yelped as Gojyo shoved him out of the way.

Meika hopped out of Jeep and ran over to Gojyo's side. "What's wrong, JoJo?"

Gojyo grinned, scooping Meika up and spinning her around. "It's sake! First rate, wonderful, sake!"

Meika blinked as Gojyo put her down and began rummaging around Jeep, looking for something. The last time she had seen Gojyo so excited about something was when he found a really pretty woman. "HaHa, is sake really that good?"

Hakkai chuckled as he helped Meika back into Jeep. "When you get older, I'll let you have some and you can see for yourself."

Meika's eyes lit up as everyone once again piled into Jeep, Gojyo happily clutching a thermos full of sake to his chest. "Really, HaHa?"

"Yes, when you're 38." Hakkai laughed as Meika let out a wail of despair.

Goku patted Meika's head sympathetically. "So, why was there sake in the tree anyway?" Goku asked as Meika crawled into his lap, the little girl still pouting.

"It was probably the monkeys." Hakkai answered.

Goku glared at the back of Hakkai's head. "I didn't do anything!"

Gojyo let out a howl of laughter. "You just admitted to being a monkey. Hakkai wasn't talking about you, he was talking about real monkeys."

Meika looked out into the line of trees and began tugging on Goku's sleeve excitedly. "Look at all the monkeys! They're so cute! ZoZo, I want one for a pet!"

"Absolutely not." Sanzo said firmly.

"Please? Please? Please?" Meika whined, hanging halfway over the front seat, rounding her eyes as much as she possibly could.

Sanzo glared at her, yanking Meika into the front seat between him and Hakkai. "No. You already have a pet monkey. Be grateful I let you keep that one." He rolled his eyes as Gojyo and Goku once again began arguing with each other. "Taking what belongs to stupid monkeys and drinking it, you're worse than an animal."

Gojyo stopped fighting with Goku long enough to grin eerily at Sanzo. "Really? Why don't you try some before you complain?"

"I still don' think it's fair that I can't have any." Meika pouted as Sanzo traded places with Goku.

"Trust me, Meika," Hakkai said patiently. "you wouldn't like it."

Gojyo grinned as Sanzo took a sip of the sake. "Now whose worse than an animal?"

Sanzo rolled his eyes, continuing to drink. "I'm just drinking your sake, Moron. I'm not the one that stole it form the monkeys."

"Let me try some." Goku whined, reaching for the thermos.

"No." Sanzo said firmly. "Brats shouldn't drink."

"I'm not a brat!" Meika poked her head over the edge of the seat. "Can I try some?"

"I said no!" Sanzo shouted, smacking Gojyo upside the head with his fan.

"What the hell?" Gojyo shouted.

Sanzo sighed irritably, poking Meika in the nose with the edge of his fan. "Listen, Brat. Drinking sake is like sake itself. You can't appreciate it until both your body and soul have matured. If you force yourself to drink it and your body isn't mature, it'll eat away at your body. If your soul isn't mature, it will eat away at your soul. Sake that eats away at you will only taste bitter." His eyes suddenly seemed to lose focus as he stared blankly up at the sky.

"ZoZo?" Meika crawled into the back seat, looking intently up at Sanzo's face. She realized then that he was thinking of his master long since dead. She enjoyed the times when Sanzo's master would visit her in her dreams and talk to her. He seemed like a nice man and very fond of Sanzo. She blinked out of her own reverie as Goku leaned over to try and take the cup from Sanzo.

"I told you no!" Sanzo snapped, smacking Goku upside his head. "I'll drink it all myself before I let you have any!"

"Hey!" Gojyo yelped as Sanzo stole the thermos from him and began chugging it down.

"Please leave me some, Sanzo." Hakkai asked cheerfully.

Meika giggled as Sanzo continued drinking. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful save for Gojyo whining about Sanzo hogging all the sake. She really wished she could try some but she really didn't think it would be a good idea to push her luck with Sanzo. He was definitely more irritable when he had alcohol in his system.

"Look!" Goku crowed excitedly as they pulled up to a large town. He hopped out of Jeep. "Hurry up! I'm hungry!"

"Wait for me, GoGo!" Meika hopped out as well and rushed over to Goku. She grabbed his hand and chastised him for running off from the group. She looked over her shoulder to call the others over and blinked. "GoGo, did that monkey follow us?"

Goku looked into the tree that Meika was pointing to and frowned. "What monkey?"

"There was a monkey there just a minute ago." Meika frowned as well as Hakkai and the others walked over. She shrugged it off, deciding it wasn't worth worrying over. She took Goku's hand and allowed him to drag her off ahead of the group.

Goku perked up as a man up ahead was shouting excitedly. "Guys, there's something interesting happening over here!"

Hakkai went up to one of the men in the gathered crowd, smiling politely. "What's going on?"

The man grinned. "The new tavern just opened up and they're hosting a drinking contest. The winner gets a years supply of sake."

"Can we play, ZoZo?" Meika asked excitedly, tugging on the priest's robes.

"No." Sanzo said firmly, ignoring Gojyo's wail of despair. "The wine for the contest and prize are probably cheap and no good."

"Yeah, it's probably best that you children don't play." A guy stepped forward with two others flanking him. "We, the Fei Brothers, are going to win."

Sanzo rolled his eyes, prying Meika off of his robe. "I just said that I don't like cheap wine."

One of the men sneered at Sanzo. "Those that know they can't do it, always have excuses from the beginning."

Meika sighed as not only Sanzo, but Gojyo and Hakkai were bristling at the challenge. "This is going to be so boring. I can't play."

The leader of the group scoffed. "Really, how could a bunch of womanly men like you three possibly expect to win."

"ZoZo's going to kill you." Meika sang as Sanzo tensed up and stormed over to the sign up booth. "He's going to do something stupid, isn't he, HaHa."

Hakkai sighed as Sanzo pulled out his gold card. "I believe so."

"Hey, what'd I miss?" Goku asked, coming over with a bagful of bread. He handed a piece to Meika, grinning at her squeal of excitement.

Meika happily gulped down the bread before turning back to Goku. "ZoZo, HaHa, and JoJo are going to beat those idiots in a drinking contest." She shuddered as she swore she felt eyes glaring at them. She turned around and yelped, tugging on Goku's arm. "There they are!"

"Who?" Goku asked, whipping around. "Homura?"

"No, the monkeys!" Meika pointed back to the roof, frowning when the monkeys were no longer there. "They were just there…"

"Never mind that." Goku tugged Meika over to where Sanzo and the others were already seated and ready to drink. "Stay here with Hakuryuu for a minute."

Meika sighed as Hakuryuu perched on her shoulder and nuzzled her cheek. "ZoZo, don't lose!"

Goku appeared a moment later with a large plate of dumplings. He handed one to Meika before stuffing one in his own mouth. "This should be interesting."

Meika sat on the ground, watching as Gojyo, Hakkai, and Sanzo easily beat the first team they were up against. The matches continued until only Sanzo's team and the Fei brothers were left. Meika didn't know whether to be more amazed by the amount of alcohol that the two groups had consumed or all the food that Goku had eaten by himself. She patted Hakuryuu's rather fat belly and giggled as the little dragon let out a tiny burp. She glanced over her shoulder and wasn't surprised to see the large number of monkeys lining the roofs. They had been steadily growing in numbers since the competition began.

"You can do it, Hakkai, Gojyo, Sanzo!" Goku cheered.

"JoJo is taking a nap." Meika giggled. "HaHa won't let them lose. He's the king of drinking."

Meika's point was proven as Hakkai was the only one that remained conscious. She grinned and ran onto the stage, hugging Hakkai. "You did it, HaHa! You're the best drinker in the whole world!"

Hakkai blinked. "Well, that was rather easy."

The tavern owner grinned as he approached. "Why don't you come inside? We'll get your friends in where they can rest."

As soon as they were in the tavern, Meika helped seat the now sleeping Gojyo, Sanzo, and Goku at a table. While Hakkai sat at another table with the tavern owner and continued drinking, Meika went to look out the window. Night had fallen suddenly and without warning. Meika frowned, seeing strange shadowy shapes moving outside which she swore were the monkeys from the forest.

"Meika, it's past your bedtime now." Hakkai said softly, leading the young girl away from the window.

"But, HaHa, I saw…"

Hakkai smiled cheerfully, picking Meika up and walking back over to his seat. He sat with the little girl in his lap and rocked back and forth with her. "Don't worry about it, Meika. Everything will be okay."

"HaHa, when I get older, can I drink all the sake I want?" Meika asked, yawning sleepily.

Hakkai chuckled and kissed the top of Meika's head. "Of course, Meika. Now, go to sleep."

Meika hadn't been sleeping for very long when a strong killing aura woke her up. She clung tightly to Hakkai as the tavern owner stepped into the room with the monkeys from the forest in tow. Her eyes widened when she saw that the tavern owner was a youkai. "HaHa…"

Hakkai said nothing but squeezed Meika's waist tightly, reassuringly.

Meika squeezed her eyes shut tightly as Hakuryuu lit the lamp dangling from the ceiling. She could hear the monkeys chitterling nervously.

"Really, attacking us while we're drunk and asleep." Gojyo tsked disapprovingly. "That's pretty low."

"Meika, stay close to me now." Hakkai said soothingly as he stood up, placing Meika on the ground.

Meika eyed the monkeys nervously, clutching Hakkai's pant leg tightly. "Okay…"

The tavern owner frowned. "Damn it. Get them!"

Meika squealed as the monkeys launched themselves at the group, clawing and biting wherever they could find purchase. "Their angry because JoJo stole their sake!" She wailed. She blinked as the monkeys before her didn't launch themselves at her, only hissed at her. "Bad monkeys! Go away!"

"Now, we don't have time to play, Meika." Hakkai shook the monkeys off of himself and plucked Meika from the ground.

"Who was playing?" Meika whined as Hakkai ran out of the tavern, following Sanzo and the others into the cool night.

"Jeez, monkeys sure are a pain." Gojyo said as they continued running.

"What'd you say?" Goku snarled out.

"Now, you two." Hakkai chastised. "The monkeys are only being manipulated so please go easy on them."

"What's the plan?" Meika asked, looking over her shoulder at the monkeys chasing them. She blinked when she saw them slowing down.

"Simple; we run until they get worn out and go to sleep." Gojyo answered.

It wasn't long before the monkeys grew tired and curled up, falling fast asleep just outside the inn. Hakkai chuckled as he put Meika down. "Now, be a good girl and make sure our monkey friends are safe."

Meika eyed the sleeping monkeys warily. "What if they wake up and try and eat me again?"

"Please," Gojyo ruffled her hair as Sanzo and the others approached the tavern. "Monkeys love you. They wouldn't ever try and hurt you."

"Fine." Meika huffed, plopping down on the ground in the middle of the sleeping monkeys circle. Hesitantly, she reached out and stroked one behind its ear. At that moment, she heard Sanzo's gun go off inside the tavern and all the monkeys woke up. She squealed as the monkey she had been petting launched itself into her lap. "Stop, that tickles!" She laughed as the monkey began messing with her hair.

"Meika, it seems you've made some new friends." Hakkai laughed as more of the monkeys came to play with the little girl.

"I told you that monkeys love you, Meika." Gojyo chuckled.

"ZoZo, can we keep them, please?" Meika asked.

"I already told you, no!" Sanzo shouted, smacking Gojyo in the head with his fan.

"What the hell did I do?" Gojyo yelled.