Hey everyone!!
Hope you enjoy, please review, If only to make me feel better in my bed-ridden state!!
Discliamer: I don't own Saiyuki, But SW has kindly allowed me to borrow Kougaiji from her every now and then. (Grudgingly. Don't blame her really, he's a hunkybabe.)
==========================
Broken Bonds
By: Von of Chaos
usabunny@start.com.au
==========================
"KOUGAIJI, LIRIN JUST SAID YAONE WAS GETTING MARRIED!!! TO SON GOKU!!!
WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME?! WHAT ABOUT MY- er, never mind."
Kougaiji looked up from the mug he was nursing. "Belieevvee mee... The
saame thing kinda passsed through myyy mind buddy.." He slurred.
Doku stared in jaw-dropping shock. "Kou...Kougaiji..?"
"Yeah?"
The table around Kougaiji was littered with empty bottles of Alcohol.
The tanned man was slumped over a mug of something he had obviously
concoccted himself after running out of the shop stuff. If smell was
anything to go by, it had the potency of a small atom bomb.
He noticed Kougaiji's eyes were unfocused, as his leader turned his
gaze
on him.
"Doku...I've lost Yaone....to...to....a LITTLE KID!!!" Kougaiji
wailed, tears leaking from his eyes. He hunched back over the mug,
shoulders shaking with sobs.
Doku stared wide-eyed at the scene, then moved hesitantly forward to
awkwardly pat a distraught Kougaiji on the shoulder.
"Um...uh...I'm sure it's not that bad.. That Is...er..."
"A LITTLE KID!!! SON AT THAT!!"
"Um. Well, I...um.."
"DOES YAONE THINK HE'S BETTER-LOOKING THAN ME?!?! DOES SHE THINK HE'S
STRONGER THAN ME?!?!"
"Well...yknow...he *did* kinda kick your arse recently..."
Kougaiji burst into a fresh tears.
"I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW IT!! SHE, SHE DOESN'T LOVE ME ANYMOOOORRREEEE!!!"
Doku's eyes were so wide, he thought they might fall out of his head.
This stoned, bawling Kougaiji was seriously starting to creep him out.
He managed to get an arm under the drunk's shoulders. He hefted him
up, leaning the smaller man's weight against himself.
"Now now, you'll feel better after you have a nap..."
"She doesn't love me anymore Doku..." The exaughsted mumble made Doku
look down at him. Kougaiji's head was lowered, ruby hair hiding his
face from view. But there had been something in those words...a tone of
dispair that went beyond a drunk's incoherent ramblings..
"Now now..."
They moved along in silence for a while. Then, just as they reached
Kougaiji's door, Doku heared a whisper that made his blood run cold.
"I will kill him."
It wasn't on the Emperesses orders, or for his mother. This time he
would kill Goku for himself, or die trying.
"Later, later. Now, just sleep the booze off. Please, sleep it all
off."
Doku assisted Kougaiji into his room, feeling his way through the
darkness.
"Doku? 'sat you?" Doku cursed silently. Lirin was sprawled on her
older brother's bed, having just taken a snooze.
"What's the matter with Onii-chan?"
"He's, er....Sick. So go away so he can have some quiet."
Lirin ignored him as he dropped Kougaiji's limp form on the bed.
She reached out and smoothed some hair back from his eyes.
"Onii-chan? Are you awake?"
Kougaiji's face turned slightly at her touch, eyes opening.
"Lirin..? Wha..?"
"Are you ok? Did Goku beat you up again?" At the mention of Goku's
name, some life came back into Kougaiji's eyes. He started to haul
himself up, swaying slightly as the alcohol in his system made itself
known.
"Kougaiji, you should lie down.."
"No....Im going to go....kill...Son..."
"You will do no such thing."
Three sets of eyes turned to look at the speaker.
"Nii." Kougaiji snarled. "What the hell are you doing here."
Nii smirked that infuriating smile of his and walked into the room.
"The Empress wishes to have a chat with Son Goku. We can't do that If
you go and kill him. Supposing for a moment that you could even make
it out of your room."
Kougaiji glared at the man.
"Now, why don't you sober up and bring Son to the Empress hmmm? Don't
want to stop being usefull. If you're not usefull anymore...."
Nii left the idle threat hanging, as he moved away from the room, the
ever-present rabbit tucked under his arm.
"One day, I will kill that son of a bitch." Kougaiji swore, glaring
after him.
Lirin wrapped her arms around her sitting brother and rested her head
against his neck. "I wonder why the Empress wants to see Goku?"
Doku rolled his eyes. "Why wouldn't she want to be aware of an enemy
stalking through the building."
"Nii didn't make it sound like she wanted to kill him. If she wanted
that, she could have just told Kougaiji to kill him."
Kougaiji turned to her. "Do you think I can?"
"Of course Onii-chan!! Especially now."
Doku glanced at her. "Why now?"
"Cause he's sick n stuff. So he'd be easy pickings." Lirin said, as if
explaining the obvious.
"Why's he sick?"
Kougaiji put a finger against his little sister's lips to halt her
reply. He didn't need all this yabbering, his head was killing him.
"Later." He said firmly. "Doku, go and bring Son to the Empress before
she has a fit. Lirin, go and see what the Sanzo group is doing without
him. We need to know if they're comming for him."
The two Yokkai nodded then moved off to do as he ordered.
Kougaiji was left alone in his room, the silence pressing as heavily
upon him as the alcohol.
"Yaone.."
He sighed and gingerly lay back down. He had been a fool to drink as
he did, and now he was starting to pay for it, his system processing
the chemicals faster than a human's.
Almost as soon as he closed his eyes, he dropped into a dreamless
sleep.
The shadow moved out the open door and set off down the hallway.
'So, now the prince wants to kill the boy. Good, good, good.'
-----------------------------------
Golden eyes opened grudgingly. Leaning over him was a dark-haired man,
who looked vaguely familiar. He scowled up at him. His entire body
felt like it had been torn apart and shoved back together. All he
wanted to do was sleep, who did this guy think he was?!
"Hey Son, you awake yet? C'mon and get up ya lazy brat."
Goku followed Doku's greeting with a fist to the jaw.
Or would have if Doku hadn't been prepared for such a response.
Catching the fist, he pulled the monkey boy off the bed and over his
shoulder, slamning him onto the ground.
Goku hissed as shockwaves of pain and dizzyness assulted him. The room
around him wavered and turned black for a moment, before conciousness
painfully returned.
A strong hand was pressing the side of his face into the ground,
another holding both his wrists together behind his back. A weight
around his lowerback/hips revealed where the black-haired man had
gone.
He snarled at him. "Get the HELL OFF ME!"
Doku grinned. "Hey settle down stupid, remember who has your face
pressed in the ground." Goku struggled, albeit weakly, against Doku's
restraining weight.
"Doku, get off him. Kougaiji-sama said for you to take him to the
Empress, not beat him up." Doku didn't answer. He knew he didn't need
to use such force on the kid, had seen the exaughstion on the boy's
face even in sleep. But he had hurt Kougaiji somehow, and no-one hurt
Kougaiji while he was around. He didn't know what was wrong with the
kid, but he sure wasn't gonna get off light because of it.
Transferring his grip from Goku's head to the back of his neck, Doku
shifted his weight. It was enough.
With a cry of triumph, the younger boy threw him off with supprising strength. Doku hit the ground, rolled and narrowly missed the fist that came crashing down where his skull had been. He leapt to his feet and lashed out with a kick to Goku's jaw. The boy flew backwards, hitting the wall hard enough to leave an imprint.
As the golden-eyed boy staggered away from the cracked wall, Doku leapt forwards and wrapped a hand around his thin neck, cutting off the boy's air supply.
Before the limited Yokkai could counter-attack, he used his grip on him to lift him off his feet and crash him back against the wall.
A sudden tensing of muscles was all that showed of the pain. With no air to breath, let alone use, Goku's struggles became weaker and weaker, eyes dulling.
"Doku, what the hell are you doing?!" Doku turned his head just in time to get Yaone's slap full across the face. Startled, he released his grip on Goku, who slid down the wall and collapsed at his feet without a sound. Yaone immediately knelt to check him over.
"What am _I_ doing?? I'm not the one who's helping the enemy here!" Yaone scowled up at him, as she turned Goku's body over to check his head. "It's a good thing his limiter took the force of that blow against the wall. The head wound he already has does NOT need to be aggravated.
"Yeah yeah." Doku muttered, stooping to pick up goku's concious, but weakened body.
He slung it over his shoulder and headed for the dorway.
---------------------------------------------------
The Jeep purred down the road, dull green metal reflecting the sun's glare. Hakkai was driving with a fixed scowl, eyes on the road.
He was the first to see the Yokkai.
It dropped down from some branches, landing on the hood and scabbling towards him, claws ready to tear him apart.
But Hakkai was in no mood to die.
With a negligent guesture, he blasted the creature out of existance, while twisting the car to a spinning stop. He leapt out well ahead of Sanzo and Gojyo, who had braced themselves against the unexpected movement. Slightly green in the face, Sanzo got out and immediately started yelling at him.
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"
Hakkai glared at him, as two more Yokkai appeared.
"What the hell does it look like?"
Gojyo joined in, ignoring the Yokkai.
"First you're against us looking for the kid, now you're against us killing Yokkai?? What the fuck's your problem?!"
The Yokkai shifted their weapons.
Furious violet eyes bored into his. "We have a mission to do, one that comes above all personal..that comes above all else."
"Oi! What about us??" One of the Yokkai yelled.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!" The three males yelled, not taking their eyes off eachother.
"So you'll hide behind your religion when it suits you huh? Hypocritical shit."
Gojyo found the buisness end of Sanzo's gun in his face.
"Oh thats right." He sneered, anger overcomming caution. "You hate us dont you, you're just looking for an excuse to get rid of us. Goku's running away must have been a blessing for you."
Sanzo's eyes narrowed dangerously, and behind him, Hakkai drew a slow, cautious breath. They all knew Gojyo was crossing a line, but he didn't seem to be able to stop himself.
The Yokkai exchanged confused looks. One shrugged and motioned towards them. The other nodded.
"Better for him that he ran away, what would it do to him when you killed him. Would you be happy? Would killing him give you a buzz? How about killing me?"
"Don't tempt me." Sanzo hissed, eyes sparking with the fires of fury.
In a fluid movement, he took down the Yokkai with two quick shots, before returning the gun to Gojyo's face.
Gojyo glared right back.
Silence ticked loudly, as fate hung suspended in the balance.
Lirin slipped away, green eyes glowing with anger.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Oh damn.
I didn't want to stop here, but Im not feeling so great, and I figured you'd want a chapter asap!!
It's (I think) the longest so far, so not *too* much to complain about.
Thanks for the hand SW!!
Goku's behaviour will be explained at a later time.
-Von
Hope you enjoy, please review, If only to make me feel better in my bed-ridden state!!
Discliamer: I don't own Saiyuki, But SW has kindly allowed me to borrow Kougaiji from her every now and then. (Grudgingly. Don't blame her really, he's a hunkybabe.)
==========================
Broken Bonds
By: Von of Chaos
usabunny@start.com.au
==========================
"KOUGAIJI, LIRIN JUST SAID YAONE WAS GETTING MARRIED!!! TO SON GOKU!!!
WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME?! WHAT ABOUT MY- er, never mind."
Kougaiji looked up from the mug he was nursing. "Belieevvee mee... The
saame thing kinda passsed through myyy mind buddy.." He slurred.
Doku stared in jaw-dropping shock. "Kou...Kougaiji..?"
"Yeah?"
The table around Kougaiji was littered with empty bottles of Alcohol.
The tanned man was slumped over a mug of something he had obviously
concoccted himself after running out of the shop stuff. If smell was
anything to go by, it had the potency of a small atom bomb.
He noticed Kougaiji's eyes were unfocused, as his leader turned his
gaze
on him.
"Doku...I've lost Yaone....to...to....a LITTLE KID!!!" Kougaiji
wailed, tears leaking from his eyes. He hunched back over the mug,
shoulders shaking with sobs.
Doku stared wide-eyed at the scene, then moved hesitantly forward to
awkwardly pat a distraught Kougaiji on the shoulder.
"Um...uh...I'm sure it's not that bad.. That Is...er..."
"A LITTLE KID!!! SON AT THAT!!"
"Um. Well, I...um.."
"DOES YAONE THINK HE'S BETTER-LOOKING THAN ME?!?! DOES SHE THINK HE'S
STRONGER THAN ME?!?!"
"Well...yknow...he *did* kinda kick your arse recently..."
Kougaiji burst into a fresh tears.
"I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW IT!! SHE, SHE DOESN'T LOVE ME ANYMOOOORRREEEE!!!"
Doku's eyes were so wide, he thought they might fall out of his head.
This stoned, bawling Kougaiji was seriously starting to creep him out.
He managed to get an arm under the drunk's shoulders. He hefted him
up, leaning the smaller man's weight against himself.
"Now now, you'll feel better after you have a nap..."
"She doesn't love me anymore Doku..." The exaughsted mumble made Doku
look down at him. Kougaiji's head was lowered, ruby hair hiding his
face from view. But there had been something in those words...a tone of
dispair that went beyond a drunk's incoherent ramblings..
"Now now..."
They moved along in silence for a while. Then, just as they reached
Kougaiji's door, Doku heared a whisper that made his blood run cold.
"I will kill him."
It wasn't on the Emperesses orders, or for his mother. This time he
would kill Goku for himself, or die trying.
"Later, later. Now, just sleep the booze off. Please, sleep it all
off."
Doku assisted Kougaiji into his room, feeling his way through the
darkness.
"Doku? 'sat you?" Doku cursed silently. Lirin was sprawled on her
older brother's bed, having just taken a snooze.
"What's the matter with Onii-chan?"
"He's, er....Sick. So go away so he can have some quiet."
Lirin ignored him as he dropped Kougaiji's limp form on the bed.
She reached out and smoothed some hair back from his eyes.
"Onii-chan? Are you awake?"
Kougaiji's face turned slightly at her touch, eyes opening.
"Lirin..? Wha..?"
"Are you ok? Did Goku beat you up again?" At the mention of Goku's
name, some life came back into Kougaiji's eyes. He started to haul
himself up, swaying slightly as the alcohol in his system made itself
known.
"Kougaiji, you should lie down.."
"No....Im going to go....kill...Son..."
"You will do no such thing."
Three sets of eyes turned to look at the speaker.
"Nii." Kougaiji snarled. "What the hell are you doing here."
Nii smirked that infuriating smile of his and walked into the room.
"The Empress wishes to have a chat with Son Goku. We can't do that If
you go and kill him. Supposing for a moment that you could even make
it out of your room."
Kougaiji glared at the man.
"Now, why don't you sober up and bring Son to the Empress hmmm? Don't
want to stop being usefull. If you're not usefull anymore...."
Nii left the idle threat hanging, as he moved away from the room, the
ever-present rabbit tucked under his arm.
"One day, I will kill that son of a bitch." Kougaiji swore, glaring
after him.
Lirin wrapped her arms around her sitting brother and rested her head
against his neck. "I wonder why the Empress wants to see Goku?"
Doku rolled his eyes. "Why wouldn't she want to be aware of an enemy
stalking through the building."
"Nii didn't make it sound like she wanted to kill him. If she wanted
that, she could have just told Kougaiji to kill him."
Kougaiji turned to her. "Do you think I can?"
"Of course Onii-chan!! Especially now."
Doku glanced at her. "Why now?"
"Cause he's sick n stuff. So he'd be easy pickings." Lirin said, as if
explaining the obvious.
"Why's he sick?"
Kougaiji put a finger against his little sister's lips to halt her
reply. He didn't need all this yabbering, his head was killing him.
"Later." He said firmly. "Doku, go and bring Son to the Empress before
she has a fit. Lirin, go and see what the Sanzo group is doing without
him. We need to know if they're comming for him."
The two Yokkai nodded then moved off to do as he ordered.
Kougaiji was left alone in his room, the silence pressing as heavily
upon him as the alcohol.
"Yaone.."
He sighed and gingerly lay back down. He had been a fool to drink as
he did, and now he was starting to pay for it, his system processing
the chemicals faster than a human's.
Almost as soon as he closed his eyes, he dropped into a dreamless
sleep.
The shadow moved out the open door and set off down the hallway.
'So, now the prince wants to kill the boy. Good, good, good.'
-----------------------------------
Golden eyes opened grudgingly. Leaning over him was a dark-haired man,
who looked vaguely familiar. He scowled up at him. His entire body
felt like it had been torn apart and shoved back together. All he
wanted to do was sleep, who did this guy think he was?!
"Hey Son, you awake yet? C'mon and get up ya lazy brat."
Goku followed Doku's greeting with a fist to the jaw.
Or would have if Doku hadn't been prepared for such a response.
Catching the fist, he pulled the monkey boy off the bed and over his
shoulder, slamning him onto the ground.
Goku hissed as shockwaves of pain and dizzyness assulted him. The room
around him wavered and turned black for a moment, before conciousness
painfully returned.
A strong hand was pressing the side of his face into the ground,
another holding both his wrists together behind his back. A weight
around his lowerback/hips revealed where the black-haired man had
gone.
He snarled at him. "Get the HELL OFF ME!"
Doku grinned. "Hey settle down stupid, remember who has your face
pressed in the ground." Goku struggled, albeit weakly, against Doku's
restraining weight.
"Doku, get off him. Kougaiji-sama said for you to take him to the
Empress, not beat him up." Doku didn't answer. He knew he didn't need
to use such force on the kid, had seen the exaughstion on the boy's
face even in sleep. But he had hurt Kougaiji somehow, and no-one hurt
Kougaiji while he was around. He didn't know what was wrong with the
kid, but he sure wasn't gonna get off light because of it.
Transferring his grip from Goku's head to the back of his neck, Doku
shifted his weight. It was enough.
With a cry of triumph, the younger boy threw him off with supprising strength. Doku hit the ground, rolled and narrowly missed the fist that came crashing down where his skull had been. He leapt to his feet and lashed out with a kick to Goku's jaw. The boy flew backwards, hitting the wall hard enough to leave an imprint.
As the golden-eyed boy staggered away from the cracked wall, Doku leapt forwards and wrapped a hand around his thin neck, cutting off the boy's air supply.
Before the limited Yokkai could counter-attack, he used his grip on him to lift him off his feet and crash him back against the wall.
A sudden tensing of muscles was all that showed of the pain. With no air to breath, let alone use, Goku's struggles became weaker and weaker, eyes dulling.
"Doku, what the hell are you doing?!" Doku turned his head just in time to get Yaone's slap full across the face. Startled, he released his grip on Goku, who slid down the wall and collapsed at his feet without a sound. Yaone immediately knelt to check him over.
"What am _I_ doing?? I'm not the one who's helping the enemy here!" Yaone scowled up at him, as she turned Goku's body over to check his head. "It's a good thing his limiter took the force of that blow against the wall. The head wound he already has does NOT need to be aggravated.
"Yeah yeah." Doku muttered, stooping to pick up goku's concious, but weakened body.
He slung it over his shoulder and headed for the dorway.
---------------------------------------------------
The Jeep purred down the road, dull green metal reflecting the sun's glare. Hakkai was driving with a fixed scowl, eyes on the road.
He was the first to see the Yokkai.
It dropped down from some branches, landing on the hood and scabbling towards him, claws ready to tear him apart.
But Hakkai was in no mood to die.
With a negligent guesture, he blasted the creature out of existance, while twisting the car to a spinning stop. He leapt out well ahead of Sanzo and Gojyo, who had braced themselves against the unexpected movement. Slightly green in the face, Sanzo got out and immediately started yelling at him.
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"
Hakkai glared at him, as two more Yokkai appeared.
"What the hell does it look like?"
Gojyo joined in, ignoring the Yokkai.
"First you're against us looking for the kid, now you're against us killing Yokkai?? What the fuck's your problem?!"
The Yokkai shifted their weapons.
Furious violet eyes bored into his. "We have a mission to do, one that comes above all personal..that comes above all else."
"Oi! What about us??" One of the Yokkai yelled.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!" The three males yelled, not taking their eyes off eachother.
"So you'll hide behind your religion when it suits you huh? Hypocritical shit."
Gojyo found the buisness end of Sanzo's gun in his face.
"Oh thats right." He sneered, anger overcomming caution. "You hate us dont you, you're just looking for an excuse to get rid of us. Goku's running away must have been a blessing for you."
Sanzo's eyes narrowed dangerously, and behind him, Hakkai drew a slow, cautious breath. They all knew Gojyo was crossing a line, but he didn't seem to be able to stop himself.
The Yokkai exchanged confused looks. One shrugged and motioned towards them. The other nodded.
"Better for him that he ran away, what would it do to him when you killed him. Would you be happy? Would killing him give you a buzz? How about killing me?"
"Don't tempt me." Sanzo hissed, eyes sparking with the fires of fury.
In a fluid movement, he took down the Yokkai with two quick shots, before returning the gun to Gojyo's face.
Gojyo glared right back.
Silence ticked loudly, as fate hung suspended in the balance.
Lirin slipped away, green eyes glowing with anger.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Oh damn.
I didn't want to stop here, but Im not feeling so great, and I figured you'd want a chapter asap!!
It's (I think) the longest so far, so not *too* much to complain about.
Thanks for the hand SW!!
Goku's behaviour will be explained at a later time.
-Von