Disclaimer: Whoops. Wrong fic. Standard disclaimers apply.

*****

"Where are the others?" Sanzo kept his gun trained on her, his voice emotionless.

Chen Ming sneered even more and showed off her sharpened canines. Her grip on her bracelet shifted. "I kept them busy. They won't be here till after I'm done with you."

"Those idiots would be too powerful for you."

"I have my ways." She shrugged and plunged one end of her bracelet into her wrist.

Blood quickly welled up around the silver bangle and dripped into the bucket. All at once, the water rose up to form the familiar limbs from the lake.

"K'so!" He shot twice at the still-forming tendrils, managing to hit two of them before he dove beneath two more darting for him.

"Ironic, isn't it?" She sneered as he shot another tendril. "To be able to pass the 'lake dragon', humans must travel with youkais." He twisted out of the way of one tendril, cursing at the enclosed space around him. There was one way of ending this quickly...

"With things as they are now, I'll be preying on humans for a long time."

"Stop kidding yourself." Sanzo brought his gun up and shot at Chen Ming instead. But the woman leaped quickly to avoid the bullet. She was too fast.

He had to duck from more of the reaching tendrils, cursing all the while over the last two bullets in his gun. Chen Ming definitely wouldn't give him enough time to reload. Not even the few seconds he needed for the sutra. What then?

"Sanzo!!"

He turned sharply at the sound of Goku's cry - at the gaping doorway and the brown-haired youth making his way towards the monk. "Sanzo!"

"No!" Chen Ming's voice cut through the din. "He's mine!"

Sanzo was about to retort when Goku finally stepped into the room - and the shimmering limbs writhed as though in confusion.

"Shit!" Chen Ming plunged her bracelet into her arm again and stretched it out over the bucket.

She was going to make more of those things.

"Goku!" Sanzo vaulted over the bed to stop her but the boy was closer. A swing of his Nyoibou sent the woman crashing against the bed Sanzo was using.

Their movements only attracted the tendrils to the monk.

He cursed again when an icy cold grip snagged his ankle, making him stumble halfway to the door.

"Sanzo!"

He shot at the limb holding him and ran for the doorway. Coral shards clattered behind him as he reached Goku. A blur of red and brown was all he saw of the boy when the latter charged into the fray to help. Sanzo whipped around to fire his last bullet at yet another shimmering tendril even as Goku made a sweep of those surrounding him in a semi-circle, giving him enough time to clear the doorway.

"You're not getting away from me!" cried Chen Ming, inciting the tendrils to renew their attack. They were more numerous this time. The woman must have created more of the fucking things.

Sanzo slammed bullets into the chamber one after the other as he watched the writhing limbs out of the corner of his eye. The new ones weren't as hesitant as the first, darting and thrashing at Goku as though they were whips.

He shoved the gun chamber back in place and started shooting at the closest limbs until his gun clicked on empty.

Just as a tendril broke through a wall of shards and hurtled towards him.

Sanzo leapt back, but he didn't see the bench until his legs fouled up on it. He stumbled backwards, tried to scramble away from the tendril reaching for him, saw it touch one of the nailed limiters - and collapsed in on itself.

He wiped away the water from his eyes and shot to his feet. He had almost forgotten about the limiters. Through the doorway he could see Goku surrounded by those things. Thin red lines criss-crossed the boy's skin, though they were somewhat distorted by the water.

Sanzo snorted. He had never asked for help. Nor did he ask for anyone's protection. And still the dumbass ape clung to him.

He snorted again and began to gather the sutra's power.



Hakkai threw several ki balls at the whipping tendrils facing him. This batch seemed smarter than the last one, as the individual limbs quickly evaded his attacks. Not to mention the fact that they kept tossing water-spheres at him and Gojyo.

He spared a glance at the latter in between throwing ki balls. The halfbreed was happily swinging his chain blade all around, decapitating practically anything that came near.

Hakkai kept a smile to himself. He jumped back from another water-sphere and quickly followed it with a ki blast. The limb disintegrated, blown away by the wake of his attack. Still more came at him.

"Oi, Hakkai," He heard Gojyo call. "How long do you think until we finish these bastards off?"

"Ano...a long time, I think." He smiled and casually flung up a barrier to shield them from a rain of shards. Gojyo's shakujou immediately took care of the tendril that was poised to strike.

"Shimata. These morons just won't die, would they?"

"Hai hai, sou desu ne."

They both watched the mass of limbs thrashing before them.

"I wonder how Sanzo and Goku are doing." Hakkai mused.

"They're fine. Those two can take care of themselves. Especially against easy youkais like these." As if to prove his point, Gojyo whipped his chain blade around and severed more of the tendrils.

He was about to reply when the tendrils froze. As one, they fell back into the lake with a thunder-like clap. "A-re…?"

Empty silence greeted him, broken only by Gojyo's voice. "What…happened…?"

*****

A/N: I…think I'll remain quiet now.