AN: All the protagonists are in this chapter but Sanzo! It's pretty fast paced so the chapter seems a lot shorter than it is. Finally some good ol' Saiyuki style action, but ramped up to like 10.

Credit to Qualapec the She-Wolf for starting this story and writing chapters 1-5.

Chapter Content Warning: violence

Chapter 22

Houtou Castle was a like a giant labyrinth, and after searching many hallways and rooms, Dokugakuji was beginning to lose hope of finding his best friend and sovereign. He turned the last corner of the section he was running through, and he was almost trampled by the charging demon girl who had all but forced her way into helping him.

"Ah, watch where you are going, Doku!" She pointed a finger at him.

"You were the one running into me, Lirin."

"I had good reason!" She cut him off. "I finally found something!"

Pulling his arm, the girl rushed Doku to the scene. "Look, see!"

There on the floor was the unmistakable crimson of blood, but examining it closer, the swordsman felt disappointment but also relief that it was not the prince's blood. "This is human blood, Lirin."

"Oooh, I thought is smelled funny. Smelled rich. How can you tell it's human blood, Doku?" The girl bent down, oddly studious for her normally carefree attitude. Doku figured it must be from her interest in medical training.

"See here at the coloring? Youkai blood is a darker red than that. Also, youkai blood is thicker. This here is not arterial blood either. Do you know how you can tell?"

Lirin shook her head.

"Arterial blood for a human is a bright red. Also, there should be a lot more of it then these drops down the hall. For youkai, arterial blood will be a brighter red as well, but with a slightly purplish tint to it."

"Ooo. I see. How do you know all this stuff, Doku?"

"I've seen a lot of blood in my life, princess. As a fighter, it pays to pay attention to what kind it is." He grimaced. "Now, there are only two possible humans that could have left this blood. Dr Nii or-"

"Sanzo," Lirin interrupted as her eyes squinted. "I thought he escaped. What's he doing back here?"

"Well, I'm not sure it's Sanzo, but it's a pretty good guess. I presume he might never have escaped, and instead was just hiding out in the Castle somewhere." Doku stroked his chin.

"But he was at the Prison Outpost. Why would he come here instead of escaping?"

The fighter sighed at the girl's incessant questioning. It was pretty obvious why the monk would be here, but he was not going to implicate Yaone if he could avoid it. "Yes, why indeed." Standing up he told Lirin, "We need to follow this trail and see if it can lead us toward any hints to Kou's whereabouts. Question is, which direction?"

"I say that way!" Lirin pointed towards their right.

"It's as good a guess as any. This time we need to stick together in case there is trouble though, so no running off."

With a serious nod, Lirin agreed. "Got it."

They headed towards where either the blood trail had come from or was heading towards. After changing direction a few times and even heading down to another floor, they found a room with an open door. The scent alerted Doku first, but then the sight of a darker blood trail confirmed it. Demon blood splattered its way from the room and in the opposite direction from the human blood. The fighter's stomach clenched at the fear of who's blood it was likely to be and peered inside the dimly lit room to check for any bodies, living or dead.

Unfortunately, the youkai child ducked around him and snuck inside the room before he could stop her from seeing the gruesome sight. Both human and youkai blood covered the floor and even splattered the wall in places. The stained ground and bloodied tools scattered on the table told a macabre tale of what had transpired not too long ago, and Doku felt his pulse hitch at the implications.

Lirin stood in horror, taking it all in. "Doku-gaku-ji?..." Drawing out the syllables of his name, the girl was begging for some reassurance he could not give her.

"Come on Lirin, we've got another trail to follow." He led the child by her shoulder out of the room and they followed the youkai blood down the long hallway.

As Dokugakuji started seeing smears of blood on the wall like someone was struggling to stay upright, he quickened his pace. Finally, when he turned the corner, he found what he had hoped not to find, even as they had been searching for him. It had indeed been Kougaiji's blood they were following.

The prince was slouching against the wall, sitting in a puddle of dark blood.

"Kou!"

"Brother!"

Doku and Lirin had called in unison and rushed over to the injured man.

Weakly, Kou lifted his head when his sister crouched in front of him. "Lirin…"

"Kou, what happened?" Doku asked as he knelt beside him, checking him over. He was covered in blood and bruises. The most notable wound was a long cut across his torso that Lirin was already studying.

"Doku…" Kougaiji said blearily. "Nii happened. I got out though. I need to help Yaone. Where is Yaone, Doku?" Grunting, he started to attempt to stand until his friend gently took his arm to keep him down.

"Hey hey, careful there. I don't know where Yaone is. She escaped her lab while I held off the guards that came for her. You've lost a lot of blood Kou." He really wished he did know where Yaone was. The prince's wounds were extensive, and Doku was deeply concerned with how sluggish he was. He needed treatment, and fast.

"Hold still brother, Lirin's got this." She checked his pulse and asked, "Did you hurt your neck, head, or back at all?"

"No," the prince said, eyebrows furrowed at his uncharacteristically serious sister.

"Ok, good. Doku, can you help him lay down over there away from the blood. I need to check where his worst wounds are and start treating them."

"Sure, Lirin…" The fighter eased his friend over a bit away from the dark red puddle and laid him down. Was she really going to treat him?

Apparently, the girl was wearing a medical kit around her waist in a pouch filled with emergency supplies. She really had been taking her lessons with Yaone seriously, and Doku watched her in astonishment as she critically assessed the worst of her brother's wounds before cleaning and dressing each one, starting with the wound on his chest to which she applied stitching. He obediently helped with anything she asked as she worked diligently to triage and keep the prince from losing too much blood.

By the time she had finished all she could do for him, Kougaiji and Dokugakuji were beside themselves with how impressively the princess applied her lessons from the healer. Lirin's stitches were not very neat, but they were effective, and the girl even knew some of the ointments and herbs to help with his cuts and broken bones.

"There we go, big brother. That's all I can do. You'll have to see a real healer as soon as you can, but we've got most of the bleeding stopped, and hopefully some of the pain is better."

"Lirin, I… You learned all of this?" her brother asked as he raised his head to admire her work.

"Yep. Took a lot of work! But I was serious this time, and Yaone has been a really great teacher."

"That's really good, Lirin." Kougaiji let his tired head back down to rest. "I'm really proud of you."

Lirin beamed her widest grin at her older brother, and Doku realized the little demon really was growing up.

Flying up to the castle, Yaone led the remaining members of the Sanzo party to a recently demolished area that looked as though it had once been a bedroom. By the sharp intake of breath and tension of her shoulder's, Hakkai would wager it had been Yaone's. She descended towards the broken down outside wall and landed both of the flying beasts onto the rubble piled in the middle of the room. The wreckage was singed and still burning in the corners of whatever had caused the destruction's path. It was clearly some kind of blast since it took out a large area of stone wall and ceiling, causing it to scatter around a twenty to thirty-foot radius in a line. Being the logical person he was, Hakkai could only imagine a certain someone's fire fiend caused this familiar pattern of devastation.

The apothecary slid off her dragon after a less than perfect landing and covered her mouth as she took in her obliterated surroundings. "My gods… Kougaiji…"

"Kougaiji did this?" Goku asked in awe as he and Gojyo simultaneously dismounted.

Yaone was distractedly walking over to a spot on the balcony and bent down to examine some spotting of blood by the railing. "Yes," she distantly answered.

Carefully climbing off his shared mount, Hakkai asked, "Am I correct in assuming these were your chambers, Yaone?"

"Yes," she said and stood to look over the damage once again. "Last I saw of Lord Kougaiji and Sanzo, they were over here, facing off against Dr Nii. Kougaiji had summoned one of his lesser fiends and Nii just took the blow as if it were nothing, and then I left to find you guys. It seems Kougaiji summoned Engokuki before the fight had finished. I do not know the outcome for certain, but I fear our Nii won that fight."

"Then we should go find them." Gojyo summoned his Shakujo and shined a cocky grin.

The eager energy in Goku was evident as the boy took off towards the exit. "Yeah, lets go! Come on guys."

"Wait up there, Goku," Hakkai said. "Yaone, do you have any idea where they could be?"

The woman sighed and started walking over the rubble towards the exit by Goku. "No, not really. I can lead our search since I know my way around, but Dr Nii has several areas he uses for research. Many areas in the castle he has commandeered for running experiments in and they are scattered and hidden. He's very private and keeps his research unknown to us." As Yaone summoned her spear, she set her jaw and her face became hard. "We do need to hurry though. I don't recommend splitting up since it is easy to get lost if you don't know the way."

Nodding in agreement, Hakkai followed the others quickly through the broken door and into the long hallways of Houtou Castle.

They ran for several minutes down the confusing and twisting corridors. Hakkai marveled at finally being inside the place they had been traveling to for almost two long years. The atmosphere of the youkai fortress was as gloomy as the thunderstorm surrounding the castle. Lifeless metal and stone walls were dimly illuminated and every section they searched through looked the same as the last. He wondered how it was Yaone did not get lost in such a place herself.

Finally, the group reached an area that opened up into a larger foyer lined with three stone statues of regally posed youkai on both sides of the room. Hakkai would have enjoyed a closer look at what he assumed were royal ancestors of the youkai, but his distracted glances were cut short as he almost ran into Goku. It was fortunate they had not run into trouble yet, but Yaone had explained this was due to the majority of their forces having left for a battle. However, Hakkai feared their good fortune may have ran out.

"Yaone, hold up!" he called as he saw Goku's gaze fixed down the hall and his posture held rigid. "What is it, Goku?"

"I dunno. I thought I saw somethin' from the next hallway, but it's gone. Maybe I was just sensing something. I got a bad feeling."

Now that Goku mentioned it, Hakkai could feel the same. Like another youkai presence was around. This feeling was confirmed, when Yaone turned her head back towards the next hallway and twitched her long ears.

"Someone is coming," she whispered readying her stance to fight.

Gojyo came to stand by Yaone also at the ready. "About time we get to fight something."

"I wouldn't be so excited, Gojyo. Something feels off," Hakkai said while he and Goku got into position next to the other two fighters.

They waited in tense silence for a minute. Hakkai tried to listen for any sounds of the possible menace above the pounding in his ears.

But there was no sound. Just a glowing set of eyes in the shadow behind the farthest stone silhouette. Hakkai gasped as the towering pair of green blazing eyes crept forward, revealing next a wide row of snarling teeth before fully stepping out into the faint light. It was a demon, but not like any Hakkai had ever seen. The tall build was too muscular, and its movements too languid and focused.

"My gods." Yaone gasped. "What is that?"

"I was hoping you could tell us that, angel," Gojyo said with an unwavering wide-eyed stare studying the youkai.

The demon slinked closer and flexed its claws, building a visible tension in the party opposite the beast before, finally, it lunged towards them.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't seem friendly," Hakkai said, summoning a ball of chi.

Goku was the first to attack, the young youkai was more than ready for a fight. He used his Nyoibo to vault himself towards his enemy, feet first, in a forceful kick. However, the hulking demon did not even bother dodging as it took the full force of the kick, not even flinching.

Just as Hakkai suspected, their foe was not going to be an easy one to take down. Shooting off a large blast of chi, he covered Goku's next attack as Yaone set off some explosives in unison. The monkey's staff plowed into their opponent's back as, this time, it had to brace against the united blasts in front of it.

Hakkai hoped they did some damage, but the beast only growled before Gojyo's Shakujo followed the assault. The blade only grazed the large demon's forearm as it used the limb to catch the wrapping chain before pulling the half-breed off his feet.

"Gojyo!" Hakkai cried as his friend received a crushing punch to his gut, flinging him back towards he and Yaone.

Coughing, Gojyo tried to blow off the strike. "Someone ate his green vegetables as a kid."

Hakkai offered him a hand and helped him to his feet. "Are you ok, Gojyo?"

"Yeah, just fine," the hanyou answered while holding an arm around his ribs.

Hakkai would disagree that Gojyo was 'just fine', but now was not the time to worry about any injuries his friend was willing to fight through. Instead, Hakkai followed up to cover Yaone's attack as she advanced on the demon. She and Goku were aiming to flank their enemy in a simultaneous attack. Aiming low with her spear, Yaone sliced towards their foe's left ankle while Goku lunged towards its head, bracing his legs around its neck to throw the demon down.

Their attack worked to bring the youkai down, but it grabbed Goku easily from above and threw him into Yaone. Hakkai blasted his chi and ran over towards the tumbling pair. Fortunately, it seemed Goku was uninjured as he ran back at the beast, and Yaone merely held an injured shoulder while he helped her to her feet.

Quickly turning back, Hakkai saw Goku and Gojyo throw another attack, and he ran back to join. This time, the monster avoided the kid's assault and lunged at Gojyo as it took another cut from his weapon. Hakkai's heart almost burst through his throat when he saw the demon use its large fist to grab its assailant's long red hair and slam his head into the stone floor with a resounding thwack.

Feeling his inner power flowing from his hands into a tangible weapon of force, Hakkai wasted no time in saving his friend from his attacker and released his chi into its back. None too pleased about the painful blow, the demon roared and flung its claws at Hakkai, sinking into his flesh with a force that sent him flying.

Flying over to his master with a desperate 'kyuu', Hakuryuu worriedly nuzzled his hand.

Goku and Yaone ran between him and the subsequently charging youkai, and Goku turned. "Hakkai, you ok?"

Groaning, Hakkai clambered to his feet and felt the warm trails of blood make its way down his abdomen followed by an immense flash of pain. "I'll be fine, Goku. Cover me." He ignored the searing wound and stumbled his way back towards Gojyo while the other two distracted their opponent.

Flowing into a small puddle, the half-breed's unique blood trickled steadily from a large gash on his skull. Gojyo remained unresponsive as Hakkai flipped him over and began to emit a warm glow from his hands to heal the trauma. "Gojyo! Can you hear me? Gojyo!" Hakkai's frantic voice exposed his concern over his friend's critical state. He hoped to the gods he could heal him and prevent any swelling as he felt the break in Gojyo's skull with his chi powers.

While he continued to push his life force into his comrade's skull, knitting together flesh and some of the bone, Hakkai could hear Goku and Yaone struggling to fight the demon raging behind him. The little white dragon hovered close by to loyally defend his master against any threats, giving Hakkai a small sense of peace that his back was at least marginally covered while he could not defend himself. Hearing Yaone cry out after a loud percussive sound almost made him turn his head, but he could not be distracted from his work, or it could mean Gojyo's life.

Slowly, as Hakkai's chest began to ache from the draining of his powers and his own heart began to struggle, the hanyou's red eyes began to flutter open. "Gojyo!" Hakkai said, breathless and relieved.

"'Kai?" Gojyo slurred.

"I'm so relieved you are awake." Hakkai smiled and withdrew his healing hands, quickly looking behind his shoulder to check on the fight. The room spun a bit, but after blinking, Hakkai could see Yaone and Goku were not too hindered by any injuries he could see. Once he began to rise to his feet in order to join their efforts, the edges of his vision began to darken, and Hakkai wavered.

"Woah there, 'Kai."

Hakkai felt a gentle hand on his arm and looked down to find his concerned friend lifting his body onto an elbow to reach him. He knew Gojyo was worried, maybe rightly so, but he had to help Goku and Yaone or they could lose this fight. Noting his devoted little dragon floating next to him, Hakkai said, "Hakuryuu, watch over Gojyo for me, 'kay?"

'Kyuu'

Despite Hakkai managing to now stand without difficulty, Gojyo still furrowed his brows and frowned at his condition. "Just be careful, Hakkai."

"Don't worry; I will be." He smiled and then headed into the fray.

Yaone crossed over to Hakkai once she saw he was back to join the fight. "Hakkai, I need to get to close enough to hit him with my spear, but he's too fast with just the two of us and is holding me and Goku off too well. Can you move in with Goku to keep his focus on just you two?"

"Sure thing." Setting his jaw, Hakkai gingerly walked over to where Goku was currently raining punches at the demon's side.

When Goku bounced backwards to avoid an oncoming strike, Hakkai motioned for the boy to stay before he rushed off again. "We need to stay on this side to attack. Yaone is going in from the back."

With determination glowing in his golden eyes, Goku grinned and nodded. "Not a problem. This guy is going down. Blast your chi right after my next strike."

The boy leapt into action immediately and swung his Nyoibo at the youkai's head with staggering force. A cracking sound followed by their opponent's head whipping to the side would have made Hakkai believe there was a significant injury dealt, but the youkai almost instantly looked back at them with a sneer. Blasting the demon with a flash of chi, Hakkai hoped to wipe the sneer off its face. Unfortunately, it only served to grow the sneer into snarl before the hulking youkai charged to swing his fist at Hakkai once again.

The healer braced himself. He had no time to dodge, so he tensed all his muscles for the inevitable while attempting to throw up a shield of energy at the last second.

Standing ready for impact, the roar of pain and sudden halt to his oncoming foe startled Hakkai, and he dropped the shield to discover the youkai turned towards Yaone – a spear sticking out of the middle of its back. It fell to one knee but was spinning around to catch the feisty woman who was evading its slower swings with little effort.

Using the opening, Goku extended his staff, driving it between the pair of glowing eyes.

Even with enough force to send the youkai's head whiplashing back and surely cracking its skull, the blow only stunned the demon. However, when it tried to rise to its feet, it lilted to the side and tumbled back down. Yaone threw another explosive at it as Goku took another swing at the monster's head.

Now crawling towards them, the battered enemy was still not giving up.

Saving his energy, Hakkai stood back and let Yaone and Goku deal the finishing blows. It took Goku using Nyoibo as nun-chucks and strangling the demon from behind until the final crack of its neck breaking could be heard.

Simultaneously, the party sighed in relief at their hard-won victory as the demon lay unmoving on the ground.

Hakkai crouched next to Yaone who was examining their fallen foe.

The question was on everyone's lips, but Goku was the one to voice it. "How was that guy so strong? He looked like a regular berserk youkai, but just bigger and nastier."

"I don't know…" Yaone said.

Before Hakkai could echo the apothecary's uncertainty, a groan from behind him caught his attention. Turning around, he saw Gojyo struggling to his feet with Hakuryuu buzzing around him in circles. He almost rushed to help him, but his own lightheadedness prevented him, and Gojyo seemed to manage on his own.

Blood still covered half of the hanyou's face, blending-in to the crimson color of his hair and causing him to look like quite the horror victim. Gojyo waved off Goku's attempt to help him walk and instead leaned against his Shakujo as he hobbled unsteadily over to join the others at the body.

"You sure its dead?" Gojyo asked warily.

"Yes," Yaone replied. "I'm not sure why it was so strong, but it is definitely youkai." She stood up and brushed her hands on her vest. "The poison I applied to my spear at the end should have paralyzed any regular youkai within seconds."

Whatever the beast was, Hakkai knew the arrival of such a foe did not bode well. "There could be more. I suggest we move forward with stealth and try and avoid any others if we see them."

"Yes, I agree." Yaone nodded then turned to Gojyo. "How's your head, Gojyo?" The healer in her was unquestionably concerned.

"No need to worry yourself, doll. This ain't nothin'." Gojyo waved her off with grin.

"Yeah, Gojyo's skull is too thick to take any real damage. Even then, he's dumb enough you wouldn't be able to tell." Goku teased.

"Watch it, monkey." The red head glared.

Frowning, the apothecary walked over to Gojyo and examined the closed wound. She flattened her lips at being unable to assess the head injury properly, "You let us know if you feel too dizzy to walk. I'd rather you hang on to Hakkai in case you start to black out. Looks like he could use the extra hand as well." Squinting knowingly at the other injured youkai, she walked over to reclaim her spear before leading the way again.

Hakkai just rubbed the back of his head and chuckled sheepishly as Gojyo took his arm.

AN: Pretty sure there is no perceptible difference between human and youkai blood mentioned in canon but I thought it would be neat to add. Holy Sanzo blood smells (and probably tastes) appetizing to demons :P

Golly, I struggle writing Lirin so I hope she is ok. She adds to the team at least :) Yaone is a good teacher.

Choreographing fight scenes is an extra level of hard as well, so let me know what you think! Lol watching the original anime if funny because of how they take almost all the action out of a fight scene and it's so slow, so sometimes I think I need to be that level of canon. Then I think, nah, that's a terrible idea lol.