A/N: This piece was the revised version of my 2003's Fatal Dose. Once I completed the revision, I'll delete that old piece of childhood trauma of teenage writing.
Things to note: Of the main thing I changed from the old writing (besides adapting my current narrative style) is to transfer some of the pov narratives to Goku. So hopefully that would improve the story much better.
"Master. Master Koumyo Sanzo sir! What're you doing skipping lecture here?" Kouryuu made a face at his master as the older man made no move to leave his spot at the edge of the veranda. "The other monks had been frantically looking all over for you."
Koumyo gave a fleeting glance at Kouryuu, and smiled sweetly... before throwing a paper airplane out to the sky. Kouryuu stared at the paper airplane as it changed directions due to the wind and landed not far from where they were.
Koumyo just shrugged at the boy. "I'm not bothering to give any sermons to them. There's nothing I could teach them any more than I could teach myself." The man sighed as he glanced down at the already folded origami in his hand. "The only thing that I could teach anyone properly, is how to fold a paper airplane."
Koumyo threw out another paper plane as if to make his point. Kouryuu stared at the paper plane as he marvelled at how the orange paper plane contrasted with the bright blue of the sky above. Koumyou smiled as he noticed the boy doing that.
"—Kouryuu." Koumyo suddenly spoke out.
"These paper airplanes can only fly in the blue sky..."
Kouryuu frowned.
"—Why was that, Master?"
"Be strong... Kouryuu..."
xxx
"Aaaaargh!"
A searing pain suddenly exploded all over his body as Sanzo gave out an involuntary cry. It took him a while to realise that he had been stabbed in the back with what felt like a giant stinger. Sanzo felt his body weaken almost immediately as he felt himself collapse to the floor. But before his body could touch the floor he could feel someone grabbing his body.
"Sanzo! SANZO!"
"Seal the wound, Hakkai!"
Shut up! You're too loud! he wanted to scream but he couldn't even muster his own voice to cry out. Heck, it was even harder to try keeping himself awake, let alone open his eyes.
Everyone was being too loud, especially Goku's voice.
He could sense Hakkai's presence nearby, trying to heal his wounds. And he also felt someone else, present beside Hakkai... holding his body tightly. Who was it? Gojyo? No... that red-haired kappa's not the type to be doing this.
But that just left... Goku.
"—Don't die, Sanzo!" The tiny voice whispering next to his ears confirmed his suspicion that it was indeed Goku who had been holding him close. "Don't leave me again... please!"
By the way Goku was reacting, it sounded as if he was really about to die. The thought that he would die right now without recovering his master's Seiten scripture sounded so ludicrous to his mind. How dare the monkey think that he'd die so easily? Just because he once got badly hurt before? Not to mention, as if he could leave the kid alone to die now.
How could he? Since he'd promised the boy to always be by his side.
Funny, how did his priorities expand to include the boy as well?
Without warning, Sanzo could hear Hakkai gasp.
"This wound... it was poisoned!"
Ah. So that changed everything.
Sanzo could feel the grip on his body tightening. Goku... was crying. The boy may not be doing it physically, but he could hear Goku's cries so clearly inside of his mind.
He wished that he could summon some bit of strength to push himself awake. Then maybe he could knock some sense into the boy's head and tell him not to cry so much. Or at least, do something to reassure the boy that everything's gonna turn up alright.
"Certainly, it is!" An annoying voice greeted his ears. So the scorpion thing was still here? "—My nails are soaked with the scorpion's poisonous venom! Of course, the amount's lethal!"
For a moment, everything turned quiet before Goku's angry voice broke the silence. As if on cue, he suddenly found it difficult to breathe, his airways felt constricted as if someone had stuffed wads of cotton into his throat.
"Sanzo!" he could hear Goku cry out to him again as the boy gripped his body too closely. That frustrated him. The thought that there was nothing he could do to stop the idiot monkey from crying frustrated him a lot!
"Bastard!" He could hear Gojyo exclaim. "Cut the crap out. Remove the poison, now!"
He could barely hear anything anymore... and soon enough, darkness has overtaken him. Which was probably not a good thing.
But it's not as if he had any control of it now.
xxx
"...she's dead," said Gojyo plainly.
"It must be due to profuse bleeding," Hakkai commented with a sigh. "I guess the whole 'Immortal, eternal youth' theory was just a myth after all.."
The scorpion demon was dead. But before she died, she had poisoned Sanzo. What should he do? Poison... since the lady was a scorpion demon, it must mean that the poison she used was scorpion venom, right? But in order to counter the effects of the poison... they needed an antidote. An anti-venom!
But, with the scorpion demon dead... how? How could he save Sanzo?
Goku tightened his hold on Sanzo's body until their cheeks touched. Sanzo's skin... was still warm to the touch. He could feel Sanzo's soft breaths touching his face as well. Sanzo's still alive! There was no reason to panic... yet!
And he couldn't afford to panic... and lose control of himself. Not this time. This time, he needed to protect Sanzo properly.
"Hey, will he get out of control again? It's the same situation as the Rikudou incident."
Immediately Goku was reminded that he was not alone inside this underground castle. Right, he shouldn't be acting like this right now. Since it'll make the others worry. After all, Gojyo and Hakkai had seen him going berserk before.
Sanzo... please give me courage—!
"Hakkai..," said Goku slowly.
He could hear Hakkai let out a sigh of relief as he spoke. "What can we do? What can we do to save Sanzo?"
Yes, he could do this. He'll become stronger. For Sanzo... and himself as well. Since he can't always let himself be protected by his elders.
Hakkai smiled at him. That means that he's doing well, right? So even if he had no idea what to do right now, he still have Hakkai and Gojyo.
It should be all right!
"There should be a way out of this."
"It's okay. This man won't die so easily like this," said Hakkai again to reassure him. "In any case, our priority is to get back to the surface."
xxx
"This is an underground base... right?"
"How did we escape the dungeons?"
"What'll happen to this place once the important supporting beams were destroyed?"
Everything started happening all at once. As soon as Hakkai pointed it out, the ceiling of the room they were in started to crack and break. And with it, torrents of sand started to seep into the room.
Goku glanced up towards the ceiling worriedly. True enough, the cracks started to spread further. At this rate, it'll be no time before the whole ceiling would break and crash on top of them—!
As soon as he thought of it, the whole ceiling above them broke...
.
But strange enough, nothing too drastic happened to them—And when Goku opened his eyes, he understood why. Hakkai had been shielding the with his ki.
"Hakkai!" exclaimed Gojyo in alarm.
"I can only protect our heads!" Hakkai responded with difficulty. "Please watch out and make sure your feet don't get buried!"
Goku immediately gathered his strength to lift Sanzo's body in his arms. But by doing so, he noticed that the sand continued to cover Hakkai's legs!
"You told us to watch out... but Hakkai, you might end up getting buried!"
"Better than all of us dying here!"
"Hakkai! This is reckless! You're going to pop a vein!"
And just as things started to become dire, a red wind suddenly appeared to save them from imminent doom.
xxx
So it turned out that they have been saved by Kougaiji. But just as he thought that his prayers were answered, he was told that Kougaiji's medicine woman, Yaone, was not with them. And Sanzo was still being poisoned.
The nearest village... the one they went to earlier, was still quite a long distance away. If they could use the jeep, they should be able to reach the village in time. Those villagers should allow them in now that the scorpion lady was gone. But Hakuryuu was in no shape to carry them all back there!
Goku gritted his teeth. There's no choice. Sanzo depended on him to live right now.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
He bit his lips. "I'll carry Sanzo on my back.."
"You idiot monkey! Under this hot blazing sun, how much farther could you go? It's impossible!"
Goku turned around to look at Gojyo. "But it can't be helped!.." he cried.
"We don't have time, right? We can't use Hakuryuu but... I can't let Sanzo die!"
Why can't they understand? What other ways do they have? Sanzo needed some immediate help!
Goku lifted Sanzo again as he turned to leave...
.
"Wait Goku—!"
Goku froze in his actions as he glanced toward Kougaiji.
The red-haired demon prince pointed towards his back.
"Over there is the flying dragon that we used to come here. If you use that you'll be able to get to the nearest city easily."
"I won't mind lending it to you... on one condition. That is if you can kill me. If we win, we'll take the Maten scripture. If you win, the flying dragon is yours.'
"Let's settle this..."
xxx
"Kougaiji?"
Something was odd with the guy. Why... why's he doing this?
"What's the matter with you? You were acting so weird..."
While he was aware that Kougaiji's faction had been after Sanzo's Maten scripture all these times, he had never really seen the guy as his enemy. Because, unlike the assassins, Kougaiji would never resort to underhanded methods. In a way, it's what he'd grown to respect the man for. But what about now?
As much as he really does want to save Sanzo as soon as possible, there's no way he could ever hand over the Maten scripture!
"—Goku watch out!"
"Eh?"
Before he could react to Hakkai's warning, the area around him suddenly exploded into clouds of dust! Goku instinctively held on to Sanzo's body to protect him from harm.
Once the dust settled, Goku looked up towards Kougaiji. "Kougaiji! What're you doing?"
"What are you hesitating for—?"
"Kougaiji..."
"Don't misunderstand. I am your enemy."
xxx
This was a serious matter, he realised that. As soon as Hakkai explained it to him, he understood it completely. There must be a reason important enough for Kougaiji to do this. But unfortunately for Kougaiji, he also had someone important whom he swore to protect at all cost.
There's no way that he'd allow himself to lose.
Yet, he didn't have much time to spare to fight Kougaiji with leisure. Sanzo needed to be treated as soon as possible. That means that he has to keep the fight short.
But with his current ability...
"Hakkai..."
He heard the man behind him gasp in surprise at suddenly being called.
"Can you do something to stop me later?"
"The current me can't kill him now..."
"But I can't lose..."
Goku reached out towards his diadem.
"—I'll entrust this to you..."
.
He brought me out from the darkness...
He'd given me a world brighter that the sun...
I wonder why I could remember this so clearly... I know this feeling, though...
...from a long time ago...
I don't want to lose it!