Chapter 8: Amnesia

"Che." Gojou wrapped his arms behind his head while staring straight upfront. The jeep was again on its way, to the west. "What's that 'Che' for, Gojou?" asked Goku curiously. "It just means Che, baka," answered Gojou. "But I want to know what that means!" he cried. "Can't someone say something without having you climbing all over!" Gojou thundered. "But I just want to know what that means!" Goku repeated. In front, Sanzo clenched his halisen (I think I mistaken it in the earlier series, it's halisen and not tessen) and with veins popping out from his head, shouted " URUSAI, BAKA KOZO!" *Whhack* "ITAI!" They both shouted.

Hakkai grinned sheepishly as he stopped in a town. "Aah, look Goku, we've reached town. Do you want to get something to it?" Goku looked up at him, eyes shining and cheeks red, "Oh, wouldn't I?! You're the best Hakkai!"

"Don't go promising that bottomless pit, Hakkai, " Sanzo said as he walked into the town. " Ah, what can I do? He's a growing boy, " Hakkai replied. Gojou walked on behind, thinking," Natsumi didn't do what she was supposed to do. I know, I didn't actually found the ball, but she should still..., dang I miss that small kid (Meilin)."

Meanwhile, Natsumi, or rather the Goddess of Wealth, crept quietly along the hallway of the Heavenly Palace. She stopped in front of a huge door, and looking left and right, slipped inside.

Now where did I take this from? Natsumi thought. Aah, I think it was on this shelf, but it's so high. She climbed up a ladder, reaching the topmost shelf and as she nearly succeeded in placing the ball back, the huge doors opened.

"What are you doing, Natsumi?"

Oh no! I'm dead! Natsumi lost her balance and with a horrified scream, fell down.

"NAT-SUMI!!" Suddenly, Natsumi was surrounded with a golden light, which slowed down the impact, and she landed on her feet. Natsumi opened her eyes.

"O-nee-sama!!" she cried out in relief. Ai (Goddess of Love) was standing at the doorway, looking very worried. When she realized Natsumi was out of danger, she looked angry.

"What are you doing, sneaking around in Daddy's room? You know we aren't allowed!"

Natsumi suddenly remembered, the ball! Oh, where's it! Ah, got it! She hugged the ball.

"Natsumi?? Did you hear what I said?"

Natsumi ran to her sister. "O-nee-sama, oh please help me! I didn't mean to borrow it ! Don't tell Daddy please please !" she begged.

"What did you take this time?" Ai sighed. Natsumi showed her the ball. Ai's eyes widened in surprise, and then she laughed.

"Well, you are lucky this time Natsumi. It belongs to me. Anyway, I came here for it too." She took the ball from Natsumi. "Ma, now, come on to my garden."

Natsumi sat by the water-mirror in Ai's garden, playing with the ball. Ai was busy making her love arrows.

"Naa, o-nee-sama, how does the ball work?"

"How? Well, it is a matchmaking ball. It helps me find potential lovers so I can bring them together." Ai narrowed her eyes and asked playfully, " Did the ball show you something?"

"Yeah.... well, you see, when I was holding it....." Natsumi was cut short.

"Homura!" Ai set down her arrows and ran to him, hugging him happily. Homura, who had just came back, smiled in acknowledgement at Natsumi.

Natsumi grimaced inwardly. Sure, o-nee-sama had other interests now. Even having a heart-to-heart talk was nearly impossible, since Homura would always come butting in. Yes, Homura was no longer lonely and didn't have that haunted look anymore, but why must he come between her sister and her? She set the ball down.

"O-nee-sama, I'm going off. Bye!" she waved before flying off.

Ai looked after her curiously.

"Y'know, Homura, she's been acting weird ever since we got together. Do you think something's bothering her?"

"I don't know....."

Ai frowned and walked over to pick up the ball Natsumi left on the floor. When she picked it up, the ball was surrounded in white light again, and new kanji appeared.

" Ta-boo pai-ring....." she read. When she saw the names, she gasped.

Gojou decided to take a walk around town. Anything to keep his mind off a certain goddess. He stopped in front of a gambling centre, and looked at it. Aahh, he remembered the time when Yuuki made the whole centre bankrupt back then. She was so cute there.

*********FLASHBACK***********

"Straight Flush!" Yuuki cried. "Not again!" Gojou exclaimed. "Man, you're gonna be better than me!"

"I'm always better than you!" Yuuki smirked, throwing a new bag of money at Gojou, who struggled to catch it, his hands already full with other bags of money.

"Watch where you throw things, kid!" Yuuki was already at the other table, placing bets.

"Hurry up, Gojou!" "Gojou, look, I won again!" Yuuki jumped and hugged Gojou, bags and all.

********************END FLASHBACK****************

Gojou sighed. No use thinking back, he thought. He smiled suddenly to himself, the past always brings back stupid memories.

Suddenly above him, something twinkled and fell heavily on him.

"Youch!" Gojou yelled, as he fell to the ground hard.

"Ii-iitai!"
There was something very familiar about this voice. Now who....

"Gojou! I haven't seen you for a..a.short time! How are you??" Ai shouted happily pulling Gojou to his feet once she got up from him.

"Yuuki..-No, Ai! Hisashiburi da na!" Gojou exclaimed. Wow, long life.

"Hai! Where are the others?" Suddenly Ai turned serious.

"Inside an inn, as usual," said Gojou.

"Please take me to them. Now. I have something I need to talk to all of you about."

"Aah, of course." As Gojou walked, he suddenly asked, "How's Homura? He hasn't been giving us our badly-needed exercise these days."

"Well, maybe not now. We'll have to see when he'll get bored again." Ai smiled.

They reached the inn. Ai ran in happily, thinking that it would be such a please to see all of them again. She saw the other three sitting there, eating and drinking as usual. Goku spotted her, and with a delighted cry of, "Yuuki!" ran to her. Both of them high-fived (Goku learned this from Homura) each other. Sanzo, at first with looks of surprise, reopened his newspaper. Hakkai saw this and smiling (Again! When does he ever stop doing that?!), greeted her. Ai then ran to Sanzo.

"Genjo!! I'm back!" Getting no response, she pulled the newspaper out of his hands, and hugged him. Sanzo, so unused to this, could not react fast enough (taking out his gun). Gojou noticing this smiled slyly and was about to make a comment when just as suddenly Yuuki turned with HUGE very serious face, "I need to talk to you guys."
All of them fell back. "You didn't need to turn so serious so quickly!"

Natsumi, flew above tree tops trying find something.He should be around here, she thought. Suddenly, as she flew, she didn't notice an energy barrier surrounded a certain place and crashed right into it. Knocked unconscious, she dropped all the way down.

Meanwhile, Kougaiji was just outside the barrier, attending to some demons (For this was the place where Gyukumen had all her scientists doing research on the resurrection of Gyumaoh). He looked up, as if by a sixth sense, and saw a body hurtling from the sky, right towards him. He managed to catch the body in time.

Kougaiji's eyes widened. "Natsumi!!" He shook her. "Hoi, Natsumi! What's wrong with you!" The demons looked in surprise. Kougaiji, suddenly realizing they were there, ordered them away. He took Natsumi deep into the forest, far from the place Gyukumen's place. He set her down quietly and looked anxiously at her. She must have hit the energy barrier. Oh how he hoped no one would've noticed that! Gyukumen would surely be after her if she knew!

She looked extremely pale. Who was she, exactly? He grimaced, remembering the rope. She surely couldn't be a mere human! There was only one thing to do. He had to save her. But his 'ki' wasn't for saving people. But I must try, he thought.

He made her sit cross-legged, holding her up, and with his hands did a series of complicated 'hand dances' on her back.
(Author's Note: The Chinese did that long ago when they tried to save a person who was suffering from internal injuries. I'm not sure how to explain it, but it was a form of passing 'ki' to the sick person's body, called 'qigong".)

Natsumi's pulse became stronger. He turned her around. She would be coming to any moment now. And yes, Natsumi's eyes fluttered a little before it opened.

"Who are you?" she said weakly. "Yo. What business do you have, coming all the way here? You almost died." he said, a little roughly

"Who are you?" Natsumi repeated. "Damn, you can't remember me?" Kougaiji asked curiously. Natsumi ignored his question, and tried to stand up. Unfortunately, her legs couldn't stand her weight and she crashed down onto Kougaiji.

"Whoa. Don't do silly things!" Kougaiji exclaimed. He wormed his way out from under her. "If you don't want to tell me, fine. Just get out of here before you get hurt." He turned to walk away. Barely even a few steps, Natsumi cried out loud. (literally!). He jumped, startled and then grabbed her and covered her mouth tightly.

"Shut up! Do you want Gyukumen to kill you!" He said fiercely. Natsumi stopped her crying. He was really nice... she couldn't remember when she had been treated this nice. Her memory was blank. She turned and hugged him tightly, sobbing into his jacket.

"Whatthe......now, stop crying, stop crying, " Kougaiji said gently. "What's wrong?"

"Nobody's treated me this nice before!" she sobbed.

Kougaiji sighed. "Okay, looks like I'll have to send you back. Where do you stay?" Natsumi opened her eyes innocently. "Why, I....I don't know! I can't even remember my name! You seem to know me, " she said peering at him.

"Of course I do! You nearly killed me last time!" Kougaiji burst out.

"I did? I don't remember anything about that. In fact, I don't remember anything at all!" she cried out. "What's your name?"

"Damn. I'm Kougaiji." He tried to detect something, anything that would at least tell him WHAT she was. But there was nothing. He couldn't feel any superpowers coming from her, or anything indicating she was a youkai, or a god. It was because, Natsumi due to her memory loss and her zapping the barrier, her system as an immortal automatically closed down, something like an automatic power-control device. She was still an immortal (in a sense) , but didn't have the powers anymore. So, she was very vulnerable, and easily hurt now. As she had lost her memory, she couldn't remember how to reactivate her system, and anyway, she couldn't remember who she was herself.

"Kougaiji! Suits you...." Natsumi said thoughtfully.

Damn, what was wrong, Kougaiji thought. I can't detect anything! But when she attacked me last time, I could clearly feel her enormous power! Now she's just like a helpless human being. What am I going to do with her, he thought burying his head in his hands.

"Kougaiji! Are you sick?" He looked up and saw Natsumi's huge blue eyes peering anxiously at him. "Don't you even remember where you came from so I can send you back?" Kougaiji sighed. "Nope." "If you don't try to remember, where am I going to send you to?" "Okay, okay for Kougaiji, I'll try." With that Natsumi screwed her eyes shut and tried to think. Kougaiji glanced hopefully. After a few moments, Natsumi's eyes flew opened and she cried, " I can't think anymore. It's all blank!"

Kougaiji groaned. I guess there's nothing else to do than to take her in, as my subordinate. But he would have to do it carefully, so that neither Gyukumen nor that mad scientist finds out.

"I'll take you for the time being. But you have to be very careful so that no one knows you're here okay?" He told her. "Now close your eyes for a while."
He chanted something, and slowly some of his powers seeped into a beautiful necklace he was holding.

"Take this. Let me warn you, the whole time you're in there, don't remove it, " Kougaiji handing it out to her.

"Why do I need this necklace?" Natsumi asked, fingering the necklace delicately.

"So that no one can detect you're a normal human being, silly. A youkai is recognized by his power, just like a dog associates a certain smell with a certain person. If the other youkai knows a human being is here, they won't hesitate to kill you. And eat you." Kougaiji said as he walked.

"Youkai are that bad?" she asked. "Some are. Long ago they weren't this violent, but... something changed them." Kougaiji answered. Natsumi shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess you weren't one of them who changed then. You're a youkai, but you're not cruel, and very kind, and generous." Natsumi told him. Kougaiji was taken aback. No one had told him that before, never. Everyone had thought of him, as the merciless youkai prince. Just as well. But now, this girl without any fear told him outright. Fools really do tell the truth, he thought. He felt all warm suddenly. What's this.... I've never felt it before, he thought, blushing. But it feels nice.

They got through the energy barrier and reached the entrance without any problems. "Waaah, " Natsumi exclaimed looking at her surroundings.

"Now remember what I told you, okay," Kougaiji said before taking her hand leading her inside.

*Author's Note: This chapter is really long-winded, because I wanted to introduce the beginning of Kougaiji and Natsumi's relationship. Gomennasai!*