Succubus - 3
By: Liv
Disclaimer: I own Gensomaden Saiyuki...in my dreams.
*****
It had been hours of silence ever since the group left the town this morning. Hakkai could not occupy himself with driving. Gojyo's condition was driving him nuts! "Goku?" He finally spoke which almost startled the boy.
"Hai?" Goku went.
"Could you check on Gojyo?" Hakkai hoped Sanzo wouldn't groan or get sick of him and his worries about Gojyo. He thought he had every reason to be. And so does Sanzo.
Goku turned to the man to his right and leaned close to Hakkai. "Na, he's sleeping."
Hakkai sighed in relief. "Yokatta, at least he's resting." He turned to Sanzo. "Maybe we shouldn't have dragged Gojyo out of bed--"
"Iiya."
"Demo, Sanzo! Gojyo wa--"
"Wakarimashita." Sanzo lowered his head to light a cigarette.
Suddenly, Hakkai couldn't say anything. He had not expected Sanzo to say that.
Sanzo kept his lighter and faced Hakkai. "There's a possibility that Gojyo's fever would come back. But if we stay in that town, nothing is going to happen. We won't know what's wrong with him. Surely you understand that this isn't any kind of fever."
Hakkai was silent still. But soon, he spoke. "I find your point...demo...that's selfish...!"
"Death is never selfish. Just as how God saves no one." Sanzo looked in front of him. "Neither chooses who dies, who lives and who is saved."
When Sanzo said that, Goku found himself looking at Sanzo. His head turned to the sleeping half-youkai. He felt Jiipu pull to a stop and turned to Hakkai. "Na! Why did we stop?" He looked forward to see why.
"Yareyare desu ne, we've reached a rocky forest." Hakkai faced Goku dismissing the thought of his and Sanzo's conversation awhile ago. "Can you wake Gojyo up?"
"Anou...hai." Goku crawled over to Gojyo and nudged him. "Na, Gojyo! Mezame!" His response was a groan.
Gojyo's eyes opened and squinted as he sat properly. "Doushite?"
Hakkai faced the man. "We've reached a rocky road. We'll have to walk."
*****
Other than the sounds of the forest and their footsteps, there was the sound of a backpack being dragged by the monk.
"Ne, Sanzo. I think it's best that you carry that thing, ne?" Hakkai had on another one of his smiles. He himself was carrying a backpack.
"Chi!" Sanzo ignored Hakkai's advice and continued to drag the backpack as he lead the way.
"Na~ Sanzo~" Goku spoke up, his arms crossed behind his head. "You DID get the lowest card."
"Don't be so cocky, namagusa bouzu." Gojyo was walking casually, his hands in his pockets. "Don't tell me this is your first time to carry something like that? Or are your bones to weak already, Ojisan Bouzu?"
"Urusai." Sanzo muttered.
"Ne, Gojyo." Hakkai smiled at the man who faced him. "You look okay now."
"Minor hangover," Gojyo replied. "Demo, I got my health back." He stopped when Sanzo did.
Sanzo turned to face Gojyo. "Then carry this bag."
"Matte!" Goku found everyone look at him as he sniffed the air.
"Incoming!" Hakkai dropped the backpack and grouped closer with his companions as youkais started leaping out of their hiding places behind the trees. Soon, forest bandits were around them, snickering.
What looked like the leader stepped closer to Sanzo and offered his hand. "We'll carry that bag for you."
Sanzo smiled mischievously. "Fine." He tossed the backpack over to the leader who caught it but fell heavily. When the leader was down, Sanzo had already wielded his gun. He started shooting at the demons, five of which have diminished from his bullets.
The leader tried to push the bag off him when a shadow was casted over him. He wailed in fear.
"It's heavy, ne?" Hakkai smiled at the youkai before he kicked the bag off and threw a Chi Gong to the youkai who let out his final cry.
Goku and Gojyo were handling the rest of the demons. When Gojyo had retrieved the chain blade he swung off and slashed three youkais in a row, he turned around to see a youkai coming to attack Goku who was handling Gojyo's supposed surprise attackers. "Saru! Heads up!"
Goku threw off the demons he was handling and ducked just in time to send Gojyo to the ground after the latter was smacked and kicked.
"Shimata!" Gojyo got up with his weapon. "Teme!!" He threw the chain blade over to his attacker and killed him.
Goku stood up and approached the center where the party regrouped.
Sanzo looked at everyone before he turned and left. "Ikuzo."
Gojyo turned to see Hakkai pick up the backpack he once carried. He smirked and shook his head, bending to take the backpack Sanzo once dragged. "So I have to carry this thing, eh?" When he had already grabbed hold of the backpack, he felt numb and suddenly dizzy. He stayed still as he saw a vision of him hugging a woman, both of them uncovered. *It's...it's her again...* He felt slowly being drained and the numbing feeling was growing. Everything he felt on the pass few days came back.
"Gojyo?" Hakkai's voice was wavy, his eyes wide. This was what he had feared of.
"Gojyo!!" Sanzo heard them call and turned around to see Gojyo slamming against a tree and gritting his teeth, his eyes shut. He was grabbing his chest as he slid down to a sitting position.
"I..." Gojyo gasped for the little air he could get. "I can't breathe..." He had the hardest time saying it.
Goku turned upon hearing Sanzo's footsteps to see him jogging. "Sanzo!"
The vision he saw kept on coming back. He wanted it to wave it off but he had no strength. Losing to his pain, he coughed off blood and dropped to the soil on his side, panting.
Hakkai's fear grew. "Sh, shimata...!" He whispered.
"Na! He's pale!!" Goku approached the panting youkai. "Gojyo!!"
Gojyo half-opened his eyes responding to the boy's call. 'Kill him!' He heard someone tell him. He wasn't about to, but numbness had completely overtaken his right arm. He could only watch it zoom towards Goku's neck and squeeze it.
"Gojyo--" Goku shut his eyes close and gritted his teeth while his hands grabbed on the strangling hand.
"Gojyo!" Hakkai called. "Gojyo, yamete!!"
Gojyo heard the voice repeating itself. "Why...why should I...?" With the little strength he had, he opened his hands hoping the boy would drop away from his grasp but he lost again and his hand clamped back on Goku's neck tightly.
"Gojyo!!!"
Goku couldn't even cough anymore. He was losing air, his eyesight dimmed and the world was spinning faster.
Sanzo took his gun and moved to hit Gojyo with it when the latter had dropped the boy and fainted again.
Goku dropped to a sit and coughed. He felt his blood rushing in his veins and felt hot while he held his neck and his chest. He felt Hakkai behind him and couldn't make out the words while he was gasping for air. But he was sure Hakkai was asking him how he is. Either way, he couldn't answer.
Sanzo knelt beside Gojyo, looking at his right hand. *The same hand that punched me...* He also remembered what Gojyo uttered.
'Why...why should I...?'
*And how he tried to loosen the grip...it was the same as yesterday...when he wanted someone to stop him.*
*****
Gojyo's eyes opened from his long sleep. He felt the softness of the bed he was lying on. He looked around the room, everything was the same. He was there again, with only a quilt to cover him. He heard footsteps and saw who was coming. "L, Liu Chang...?" He sat up, surprised to see the woman unashamed by her nakedness.
"I can't wait any longer, Gojyo." Liu Chang sat in front of Gojyo and embraced him, pressing her body against his so she could seduce him to sleep with her. "I need.you...want...you..." She whispered, her voice in a pleading tone.
Gojyo embraced the woman back. "I...I don't understand...!" He gasped. Everything was the same. The bed, the room...even the woman. *Masaka! Could Liu Chang be...?* He was to push her way when he felt Liu Chang's lips on his shoulder. Pain shot through his body making him squeeze Liu Chang tighter to ease it.
But nothing was happening.
*****
Goku sat in front of the gas lantern inside the tent. He was in an Indian seat, his elbows on each knee and his head rested on his hands.
Hakkai was busy petting a drowsy Hakuryu. He was the one closest to the sleeping Gojyo. He heard the half-youkai cough and turned to him.
Goku did, too. His eyes widened when he saw blood drip out of Gojyo's mouth. "Shimata!"
"Gojyo!" Hakkai pushed Hakuryu away, who had flown, and crawled over to the man who continued to cough.
"Kyuu!!" Hakuryu called the man as well.
"Hakkai," Hakkai turned to the monk who had his robes down. "Check his breathing." Hakkai nodded and placed his hand over Gojyo's mouth. He almost felt nothing. His heart began to beat fast as he took off his monocle and placed it in front of Gojyo's nose. He expected a thicker fog but there was almost none.
"He's dying!!" Goku called.
"Gojyo, wake up!!!" Hakkai had almost lost his pitch as he shouted at the coughing man.
Sanzo stepped backwards. He brought up his robes again and wore his sutra. He clasped his hands in prayer and closed his eyes chanting for the purification of evil.
Goku turned to the glowing violet light and watched the sutras flying.
"Makai!" Sanzo opened his eyes. "Tenjo!!!" He called casting one of his hand to Gojyo who the sutra has entwined making him let out a cry of pain.
*****
Liu Chang let out a painful cry and let go of Gojyo and disappeared.
Gojyo dropped back to his bed and panted heavily.
*****
Gojyo's face was still again. But he was panting, and his skin color was almost like Goku's or Hakkai's.
Sanzo knelt beside Gojyo. "He's alive."
Hakkai dropped to a sit and covered his hand with trembling hands and cold fingertips. He felt Hakuryu land on his foot and 'kyu'. "W, what's...h, happening to him, m...?" His voice shook, so did his open mouth.
"Someone is using him." Sanzo saw Goku and Hakkai turn to him. "More so, someone is living inside him."
"Living...?"
"A vampiric youkai."
"Heh??" Goku blurted out. "There's such a thing??"
"Youkais aren't just morons who massacre people. There's a lot more of them out there." Sanzo turned to Goku. "Like the 100-Eyed Devil who feeds on women. This youkai that infested Gojyo," He looked at the calming man. "Can also be called a parasitic demon." He took a cigarette stick and his lighter. "It's just bad luck that we came across her." He lit his cigarette and kept the lighter.
"Her? Na, Sanzo! Who 'her'?"
Sanzo faced front. "Liu Chang."
*Liu Chang?!* Hakkai gasped. He remembered what Sanzo said.
'Something is terribly wrong. Something I can't put my finger on.'
*Could it be...?*
"I'm not jumping to conclusions." Sanzo cleared. "I'm just suspecting."
Hakkai looked at Gojyo.
*****
She sat on the corner of her dim room, her opal earring smashed to bits beside her. *Time is running out...he must give me his blood soon...* Her claw held on her enlarged abdomen and smoothed it. *His taboo blood will make my baby and I a ferocious demon...one who will finish you off...Genjo Sanzo...* She smiled evilly and laughed as she continued to smooth her womb.
*****
Gojyo heard the door open and turned to see Liu Chang approaching him again. But she was different this time. She no longer was human. "O, omae wa..." Fear slowly crept over to him.
"Your blood...give me your blood..." Liu Chang climbed on top of him and held his shoulders from any movement.
"Sh, shimata...!"
"Give it to me...I want it...need it..." She was growing more desperate each second that passes. "Now!!" She shouted as she leaned over to Gojyo's shoulder and bit it.
*****
Gojyo shouted in pain and woke up, panting.
"Na, nani?" Goku woke up along with the others and rubbed his eye.
"Gahk!" Gojyo's left hand moved to his shoulder as he felt pain on it.
"Gojyo?" Goku turned to the man. His eyes enlarged "Na! You're bleeding!!"
Gojyo slowly moved his hand away from his shoulder and saw his blood on it. His hand trembled as his eyes grew in fear. "Shimata...it's true...?!"
"What IS true?!" Hakkai came to Gojyo's aide. "Gojyo!!"
"Th, the dream! Liu Chang...kono kisama--Urk...!" Gojyo held on his shoulder again and was to fall back if Hakkai had not caught him. He felt his blood slowly being drained away. The numbness returned and so did the fever and dizziness.
Sanzo was just watching Gojyo from his side of the tent, unbothered. Suddenly, he felt something and threw off his cover and rushed out of the tent.
"Sanzo?" Goku turned. "Sanzo!" He stood up and followed. When he was outside, he saw Sanzo already casting his gun on a familiar woman. "L, Liu Chang?!"
Liu Chang was pregnant and teal-skinned, an insane grin on her face.
"I was right, Liu Chang was behind this." Sanzo cocked his gun. "And the baby inside her womb...is a demon...a taboo."
"Taboo?!" Goku exclaimed.
"Sayonara, Genjo Sanzo." Liu Chang's forehead formed a cut that went all the way to the middle of her womb. She did no movement as her skin hardened. Then it broke and revealed a shikigami that rooted itself to the soil and grew bigger. On top of it was Liu Chang's upper body and a demonic baby's sprouting out of her womb.
"N, na!" Goku summoned his nyoibou. "This has GOT to be the BIGGEST shikigami I've ever seen!!"
"Chi! Your impudent show is useless!" Sanzo called readjusting his gun's range to shoot Liu Chang. "You're going to die, anyway!"
Liu Chang laughed. "What makes you think you can still kill me, Genjo Sanzo?! Why, I could just smash you with my right hand!" She extended her arm as it grew longer quickly for a heavy fall on Sanzo.
"Sanzo!!" Goku called and leapt backwards.
Sanzo hopped away from the hand. The soil exploded and it traveled towards the tent from underneath.
*****
Hakkai was getting frustrated while he tried to close Gojyo's wound. No matter how long he had been doing it, nothing was happening.
Hakuryu turned to see something crawling underground. "Kyuu!!!"
"Nandesuka?" Hakkai was interrupted as he saw the crawling thing rise behind him. He gasped upon the sight of a huge hand. It grabbed Hakkai and threw him away from Gojyo along with the tent.
"Gahhhh!!!" Hakkai flew to a tree and slammed against it hard causing a dent on it.
Gojyo turned ignoring his weakness. "H, Hakkai!!"
"Kyuu!!"
Gojyo looked above him to see the hand ready to grab him. When it moved over to him, he saw Hakuryu fly in between them and blow fire that burned pass the hand and the whole of it. A hoarse, loud cry of pain was heard. The hand's ashes crumbled to the ground.
Hakkai grunted as he tried to stand up. He saw the whole of the shikigami and Goku leaping, ready for an attack.
"Teme!!!" Goku shouted and slammed his nyoibou hard on the shikigami's chest. But instead of the growl he expected, what he had in response was Gojyo's cry.
"Nani?" Sanzo turned to the man who grabbed his chest.
"Gojyo!" Hakkai did his best to ignore the pain on his back. He jogged towards Gojyo and knelt behind the man.
The shikigami laughed once more. "The taboo child and I are bonded. If I die, he dies along with me."
"Masaka!" Goku shouted.
"It is the creation of the taboo blood he had shared with me. The blood that is from the wound on his shoulder."
"Taboo blood?!" Hakkai exclaimed. *Sou ka...she feeds on the blood of taboo children.*
*' It is the creation of the taboo blood he had shared with me...The blood that is from the wound on his shoulder'...he had returned with a bandaged wound after their date. After that, Gojyo started weakening.*
"Hakkai!" Sanzo turned to the man. "Kill the demon attached to the shikigami."
"Demo, Gojyo--" Hakkai protested.
Sanzo casted his gun on Gojyo. "Then you might as well go with him, you damned shikigami."
"Sanzo!!" Hakkai and Goku called.
"Kono...Bakabouzu!" Gojyo grunted. "What the hell...are you thinking...?!"
The shikigami laughed. "Are you seriously going to do it?"
"Hm! It's not like I care for him." Sanzo pulled the trigger sending his bullet over to Gojyo's shoulder.
The shikigami cried in pain in chorus with Gojyo, its head thrown backward.
Gojyo felt the numbness go away. By this, he knew Liu Chang had lost her control on him.
Sanzo turned to the monocled man. "Hakkai!"
"Wakarimashita!" Hakkai stood creating a Chi Gong and threw it to the baby that diminished from the shikigami's body with a hoarse cry.
"Now's my turn! Stretch out, nyoibou~" Goku ran over to the shikigami and leapt with an elongated staff. With a battle cry, he slammed his staff to Liu Chang's cheek, distorting the demon's face and causing it to bleed heavily.
Hakkai heard something metallic move beside him and turned to see Gojyo running over to Liu Chang. "Gojyo!"
"Shine!!!" Gojyo swung off his chain blade sending it to tear pass Liu Chang's chest causing her to diminish with her death cry.
After which, he had fainted again.
"Gojyo!" Hakkai rushed towards the man. He knelt beside him and placed his hand over the wounded shoulder. A green glow shined under his palms.
Goku approached Sanzo who was watching Hakkai's miraculous act. "Na, Sanzo...do you think..."
"Iiya, cockroaches don't die easily." Sanzo took his cigarette pack and bit the last one off with his lip. He took his lighter and lit the stick. Upon keeping it, he looked at the sky while his other hand crushed the empty pack. "Go look for a new campsite, Goku."
"Hai! Hakuryu, ikuzo!" Goku heard the dragon's 'kyu~' and jogged off with him.
Hakkai removed his hand from Gojyo's shoulder and placed it on his lap. "Now...I guess all we can do is wait..."
*****
After the longest sleep he had probably had...he had finally awoken. Gojyo opened his eyes and blinked a number of times. The first thing he saw was the white roof. "Are?" Two faces came in front of him. One was the boy's and the other was his monocled friend's. "Gojyo!" They both called.
"Wai! Yokatta, Gojyo!" Goku smiled widely.
"Okaeri nasai, Gojyo." Hakkai smiled as well, relief can be easily read from his face. The gleam on his eye whenever he smiles is back.
Gojyo smirked. "I was that terrible, eh?"
*****
"Hontou ni?! Asleep for a week?!" Gojyo exclaimed while following Hakkai towards Jiipu.
"Daijoubu, Gojyo. You had to get your blood back." Hakkai wore a smaller smile. "And your color, too."
"Chi, I kind of missed my tan." Gojyo looked at his skin with a proud smile.
"Naa~ you scared Hakkai to death, Ero Kappa." Goku approached his side of Jiipu.
Gojyo felt a vein pop near his temple. "Watch your mouth, saru. You should remember I got my strength back. Dakara...I can do THIS to you!" He pushed Goku down to the iron floor.
"Na!!" Goku landed face first and glared at Gojyo as the man took his place. "Teme, Kono Ero Kappa!!" He waved his fist.
Hakkai laughed as he settled on the driver's seat. "Don't stress yourself now, Gojyo. You just got well from your sickness."
"Maybe I should have made him a dead cockroach...!!" Sanzo muttered under his breath.
Hakkai laughed louder and drove off towards the sunset with the noise of Goku and Gojyo's argument he had to admit he missed on the past few days.
"URUSEI! SHINE!!!" Exorcism bullets echoed throughout the town outskirts.
"Na, Sanzo! That nearly got me!"
"Spoilsport bouzu!"
"URUSAIIII!!!!" Then there was the infamous whack.
"Ite!!!"
+owari~+
Disclaimer: I own Gensomaden Saiyuki...in my dreams.
*****
It had been hours of silence ever since the group left the town this morning. Hakkai could not occupy himself with driving. Gojyo's condition was driving him nuts! "Goku?" He finally spoke which almost startled the boy.
"Hai?" Goku went.
"Could you check on Gojyo?" Hakkai hoped Sanzo wouldn't groan or get sick of him and his worries about Gojyo. He thought he had every reason to be. And so does Sanzo.
Goku turned to the man to his right and leaned close to Hakkai. "Na, he's sleeping."
Hakkai sighed in relief. "Yokatta, at least he's resting." He turned to Sanzo. "Maybe we shouldn't have dragged Gojyo out of bed--"
"Iiya."
"Demo, Sanzo! Gojyo wa--"
"Wakarimashita." Sanzo lowered his head to light a cigarette.
Suddenly, Hakkai couldn't say anything. He had not expected Sanzo to say that.
Sanzo kept his lighter and faced Hakkai. "There's a possibility that Gojyo's fever would come back. But if we stay in that town, nothing is going to happen. We won't know what's wrong with him. Surely you understand that this isn't any kind of fever."
Hakkai was silent still. But soon, he spoke. "I find your point...demo...that's selfish...!"
"Death is never selfish. Just as how God saves no one." Sanzo looked in front of him. "Neither chooses who dies, who lives and who is saved."
When Sanzo said that, Goku found himself looking at Sanzo. His head turned to the sleeping half-youkai. He felt Jiipu pull to a stop and turned to Hakkai. "Na! Why did we stop?" He looked forward to see why.
"Yareyare desu ne, we've reached a rocky forest." Hakkai faced Goku dismissing the thought of his and Sanzo's conversation awhile ago. "Can you wake Gojyo up?"
"Anou...hai." Goku crawled over to Gojyo and nudged him. "Na, Gojyo! Mezame!" His response was a groan.
Gojyo's eyes opened and squinted as he sat properly. "Doushite?"
Hakkai faced the man. "We've reached a rocky road. We'll have to walk."
*****
Other than the sounds of the forest and their footsteps, there was the sound of a backpack being dragged by the monk.
"Ne, Sanzo. I think it's best that you carry that thing, ne?" Hakkai had on another one of his smiles. He himself was carrying a backpack.
"Chi!" Sanzo ignored Hakkai's advice and continued to drag the backpack as he lead the way.
"Na~ Sanzo~" Goku spoke up, his arms crossed behind his head. "You DID get the lowest card."
"Don't be so cocky, namagusa bouzu." Gojyo was walking casually, his hands in his pockets. "Don't tell me this is your first time to carry something like that? Or are your bones to weak already, Ojisan Bouzu?"
"Urusai." Sanzo muttered.
"Ne, Gojyo." Hakkai smiled at the man who faced him. "You look okay now."
"Minor hangover," Gojyo replied. "Demo, I got my health back." He stopped when Sanzo did.
Sanzo turned to face Gojyo. "Then carry this bag."
"Matte!" Goku found everyone look at him as he sniffed the air.
"Incoming!" Hakkai dropped the backpack and grouped closer with his companions as youkais started leaping out of their hiding places behind the trees. Soon, forest bandits were around them, snickering.
What looked like the leader stepped closer to Sanzo and offered his hand. "We'll carry that bag for you."
Sanzo smiled mischievously. "Fine." He tossed the backpack over to the leader who caught it but fell heavily. When the leader was down, Sanzo had already wielded his gun. He started shooting at the demons, five of which have diminished from his bullets.
The leader tried to push the bag off him when a shadow was casted over him. He wailed in fear.
"It's heavy, ne?" Hakkai smiled at the youkai before he kicked the bag off and threw a Chi Gong to the youkai who let out his final cry.
Goku and Gojyo were handling the rest of the demons. When Gojyo had retrieved the chain blade he swung off and slashed three youkais in a row, he turned around to see a youkai coming to attack Goku who was handling Gojyo's supposed surprise attackers. "Saru! Heads up!"
Goku threw off the demons he was handling and ducked just in time to send Gojyo to the ground after the latter was smacked and kicked.
"Shimata!" Gojyo got up with his weapon. "Teme!!" He threw the chain blade over to his attacker and killed him.
Goku stood up and approached the center where the party regrouped.
Sanzo looked at everyone before he turned and left. "Ikuzo."
Gojyo turned to see Hakkai pick up the backpack he once carried. He smirked and shook his head, bending to take the backpack Sanzo once dragged. "So I have to carry this thing, eh?" When he had already grabbed hold of the backpack, he felt numb and suddenly dizzy. He stayed still as he saw a vision of him hugging a woman, both of them uncovered. *It's...it's her again...* He felt slowly being drained and the numbing feeling was growing. Everything he felt on the pass few days came back.
"Gojyo?" Hakkai's voice was wavy, his eyes wide. This was what he had feared of.
"Gojyo!!" Sanzo heard them call and turned around to see Gojyo slamming against a tree and gritting his teeth, his eyes shut. He was grabbing his chest as he slid down to a sitting position.
"I..." Gojyo gasped for the little air he could get. "I can't breathe..." He had the hardest time saying it.
Goku turned upon hearing Sanzo's footsteps to see him jogging. "Sanzo!"
The vision he saw kept on coming back. He wanted it to wave it off but he had no strength. Losing to his pain, he coughed off blood and dropped to the soil on his side, panting.
Hakkai's fear grew. "Sh, shimata...!" He whispered.
"Na! He's pale!!" Goku approached the panting youkai. "Gojyo!!"
Gojyo half-opened his eyes responding to the boy's call. 'Kill him!' He heard someone tell him. He wasn't about to, but numbness had completely overtaken his right arm. He could only watch it zoom towards Goku's neck and squeeze it.
"Gojyo--" Goku shut his eyes close and gritted his teeth while his hands grabbed on the strangling hand.
"Gojyo!" Hakkai called. "Gojyo, yamete!!"
Gojyo heard the voice repeating itself. "Why...why should I...?" With the little strength he had, he opened his hands hoping the boy would drop away from his grasp but he lost again and his hand clamped back on Goku's neck tightly.
"Gojyo!!!"
Goku couldn't even cough anymore. He was losing air, his eyesight dimmed and the world was spinning faster.
Sanzo took his gun and moved to hit Gojyo with it when the latter had dropped the boy and fainted again.
Goku dropped to a sit and coughed. He felt his blood rushing in his veins and felt hot while he held his neck and his chest. He felt Hakkai behind him and couldn't make out the words while he was gasping for air. But he was sure Hakkai was asking him how he is. Either way, he couldn't answer.
Sanzo knelt beside Gojyo, looking at his right hand. *The same hand that punched me...* He also remembered what Gojyo uttered.
'Why...why should I...?'
*And how he tried to loosen the grip...it was the same as yesterday...when he wanted someone to stop him.*
*****
Gojyo's eyes opened from his long sleep. He felt the softness of the bed he was lying on. He looked around the room, everything was the same. He was there again, with only a quilt to cover him. He heard footsteps and saw who was coming. "L, Liu Chang...?" He sat up, surprised to see the woman unashamed by her nakedness.
"I can't wait any longer, Gojyo." Liu Chang sat in front of Gojyo and embraced him, pressing her body against his so she could seduce him to sleep with her. "I need.you...want...you..." She whispered, her voice in a pleading tone.
Gojyo embraced the woman back. "I...I don't understand...!" He gasped. Everything was the same. The bed, the room...even the woman. *Masaka! Could Liu Chang be...?* He was to push her way when he felt Liu Chang's lips on his shoulder. Pain shot through his body making him squeeze Liu Chang tighter to ease it.
But nothing was happening.
*****
Goku sat in front of the gas lantern inside the tent. He was in an Indian seat, his elbows on each knee and his head rested on his hands.
Hakkai was busy petting a drowsy Hakuryu. He was the one closest to the sleeping Gojyo. He heard the half-youkai cough and turned to him.
Goku did, too. His eyes widened when he saw blood drip out of Gojyo's mouth. "Shimata!"
"Gojyo!" Hakkai pushed Hakuryu away, who had flown, and crawled over to the man who continued to cough.
"Kyuu!!" Hakuryu called the man as well.
"Hakkai," Hakkai turned to the monk who had his robes down. "Check his breathing." Hakkai nodded and placed his hand over Gojyo's mouth. He almost felt nothing. His heart began to beat fast as he took off his monocle and placed it in front of Gojyo's nose. He expected a thicker fog but there was almost none.
"He's dying!!" Goku called.
"Gojyo, wake up!!!" Hakkai had almost lost his pitch as he shouted at the coughing man.
Sanzo stepped backwards. He brought up his robes again and wore his sutra. He clasped his hands in prayer and closed his eyes chanting for the purification of evil.
Goku turned to the glowing violet light and watched the sutras flying.
"Makai!" Sanzo opened his eyes. "Tenjo!!!" He called casting one of his hand to Gojyo who the sutra has entwined making him let out a cry of pain.
*****
Liu Chang let out a painful cry and let go of Gojyo and disappeared.
Gojyo dropped back to his bed and panted heavily.
*****
Gojyo's face was still again. But he was panting, and his skin color was almost like Goku's or Hakkai's.
Sanzo knelt beside Gojyo. "He's alive."
Hakkai dropped to a sit and covered his hand with trembling hands and cold fingertips. He felt Hakuryu land on his foot and 'kyu'. "W, what's...h, happening to him, m...?" His voice shook, so did his open mouth.
"Someone is using him." Sanzo saw Goku and Hakkai turn to him. "More so, someone is living inside him."
"Living...?"
"A vampiric youkai."
"Heh??" Goku blurted out. "There's such a thing??"
"Youkais aren't just morons who massacre people. There's a lot more of them out there." Sanzo turned to Goku. "Like the 100-Eyed Devil who feeds on women. This youkai that infested Gojyo," He looked at the calming man. "Can also be called a parasitic demon." He took a cigarette stick and his lighter. "It's just bad luck that we came across her." He lit his cigarette and kept the lighter.
"Her? Na, Sanzo! Who 'her'?"
Sanzo faced front. "Liu Chang."
*Liu Chang?!* Hakkai gasped. He remembered what Sanzo said.
'Something is terribly wrong. Something I can't put my finger on.'
*Could it be...?*
"I'm not jumping to conclusions." Sanzo cleared. "I'm just suspecting."
Hakkai looked at Gojyo.
*****
She sat on the corner of her dim room, her opal earring smashed to bits beside her. *Time is running out...he must give me his blood soon...* Her claw held on her enlarged abdomen and smoothed it. *His taboo blood will make my baby and I a ferocious demon...one who will finish you off...Genjo Sanzo...* She smiled evilly and laughed as she continued to smooth her womb.
*****
Gojyo heard the door open and turned to see Liu Chang approaching him again. But she was different this time. She no longer was human. "O, omae wa..." Fear slowly crept over to him.
"Your blood...give me your blood..." Liu Chang climbed on top of him and held his shoulders from any movement.
"Sh, shimata...!"
"Give it to me...I want it...need it..." She was growing more desperate each second that passes. "Now!!" She shouted as she leaned over to Gojyo's shoulder and bit it.
*****
Gojyo shouted in pain and woke up, panting.
"Na, nani?" Goku woke up along with the others and rubbed his eye.
"Gahk!" Gojyo's left hand moved to his shoulder as he felt pain on it.
"Gojyo?" Goku turned to the man. His eyes enlarged "Na! You're bleeding!!"
Gojyo slowly moved his hand away from his shoulder and saw his blood on it. His hand trembled as his eyes grew in fear. "Shimata...it's true...?!"
"What IS true?!" Hakkai came to Gojyo's aide. "Gojyo!!"
"Th, the dream! Liu Chang...kono kisama--Urk...!" Gojyo held on his shoulder again and was to fall back if Hakkai had not caught him. He felt his blood slowly being drained away. The numbness returned and so did the fever and dizziness.
Sanzo was just watching Gojyo from his side of the tent, unbothered. Suddenly, he felt something and threw off his cover and rushed out of the tent.
"Sanzo?" Goku turned. "Sanzo!" He stood up and followed. When he was outside, he saw Sanzo already casting his gun on a familiar woman. "L, Liu Chang?!"
Liu Chang was pregnant and teal-skinned, an insane grin on her face.
"I was right, Liu Chang was behind this." Sanzo cocked his gun. "And the baby inside her womb...is a demon...a taboo."
"Taboo?!" Goku exclaimed.
"Sayonara, Genjo Sanzo." Liu Chang's forehead formed a cut that went all the way to the middle of her womb. She did no movement as her skin hardened. Then it broke and revealed a shikigami that rooted itself to the soil and grew bigger. On top of it was Liu Chang's upper body and a demonic baby's sprouting out of her womb.
"N, na!" Goku summoned his nyoibou. "This has GOT to be the BIGGEST shikigami I've ever seen!!"
"Chi! Your impudent show is useless!" Sanzo called readjusting his gun's range to shoot Liu Chang. "You're going to die, anyway!"
Liu Chang laughed. "What makes you think you can still kill me, Genjo Sanzo?! Why, I could just smash you with my right hand!" She extended her arm as it grew longer quickly for a heavy fall on Sanzo.
"Sanzo!!" Goku called and leapt backwards.
Sanzo hopped away from the hand. The soil exploded and it traveled towards the tent from underneath.
*****
Hakkai was getting frustrated while he tried to close Gojyo's wound. No matter how long he had been doing it, nothing was happening.
Hakuryu turned to see something crawling underground. "Kyuu!!!"
"Nandesuka?" Hakkai was interrupted as he saw the crawling thing rise behind him. He gasped upon the sight of a huge hand. It grabbed Hakkai and threw him away from Gojyo along with the tent.
"Gahhhh!!!" Hakkai flew to a tree and slammed against it hard causing a dent on it.
Gojyo turned ignoring his weakness. "H, Hakkai!!"
"Kyuu!!"
Gojyo looked above him to see the hand ready to grab him. When it moved over to him, he saw Hakuryu fly in between them and blow fire that burned pass the hand and the whole of it. A hoarse, loud cry of pain was heard. The hand's ashes crumbled to the ground.
Hakkai grunted as he tried to stand up. He saw the whole of the shikigami and Goku leaping, ready for an attack.
"Teme!!!" Goku shouted and slammed his nyoibou hard on the shikigami's chest. But instead of the growl he expected, what he had in response was Gojyo's cry.
"Nani?" Sanzo turned to the man who grabbed his chest.
"Gojyo!" Hakkai did his best to ignore the pain on his back. He jogged towards Gojyo and knelt behind the man.
The shikigami laughed once more. "The taboo child and I are bonded. If I die, he dies along with me."
"Masaka!" Goku shouted.
"It is the creation of the taboo blood he had shared with me. The blood that is from the wound on his shoulder."
"Taboo blood?!" Hakkai exclaimed. *Sou ka...she feeds on the blood of taboo children.*
*' It is the creation of the taboo blood he had shared with me...The blood that is from the wound on his shoulder'...he had returned with a bandaged wound after their date. After that, Gojyo started weakening.*
"Hakkai!" Sanzo turned to the man. "Kill the demon attached to the shikigami."
"Demo, Gojyo--" Hakkai protested.
Sanzo casted his gun on Gojyo. "Then you might as well go with him, you damned shikigami."
"Sanzo!!" Hakkai and Goku called.
"Kono...Bakabouzu!" Gojyo grunted. "What the hell...are you thinking...?!"
The shikigami laughed. "Are you seriously going to do it?"
"Hm! It's not like I care for him." Sanzo pulled the trigger sending his bullet over to Gojyo's shoulder.
The shikigami cried in pain in chorus with Gojyo, its head thrown backward.
Gojyo felt the numbness go away. By this, he knew Liu Chang had lost her control on him.
Sanzo turned to the monocled man. "Hakkai!"
"Wakarimashita!" Hakkai stood creating a Chi Gong and threw it to the baby that diminished from the shikigami's body with a hoarse cry.
"Now's my turn! Stretch out, nyoibou~" Goku ran over to the shikigami and leapt with an elongated staff. With a battle cry, he slammed his staff to Liu Chang's cheek, distorting the demon's face and causing it to bleed heavily.
Hakkai heard something metallic move beside him and turned to see Gojyo running over to Liu Chang. "Gojyo!"
"Shine!!!" Gojyo swung off his chain blade sending it to tear pass Liu Chang's chest causing her to diminish with her death cry.
After which, he had fainted again.
"Gojyo!" Hakkai rushed towards the man. He knelt beside him and placed his hand over the wounded shoulder. A green glow shined under his palms.
Goku approached Sanzo who was watching Hakkai's miraculous act. "Na, Sanzo...do you think..."
"Iiya, cockroaches don't die easily." Sanzo took his cigarette pack and bit the last one off with his lip. He took his lighter and lit the stick. Upon keeping it, he looked at the sky while his other hand crushed the empty pack. "Go look for a new campsite, Goku."
"Hai! Hakuryu, ikuzo!" Goku heard the dragon's 'kyu~' and jogged off with him.
Hakkai removed his hand from Gojyo's shoulder and placed it on his lap. "Now...I guess all we can do is wait..."
*****
After the longest sleep he had probably had...he had finally awoken. Gojyo opened his eyes and blinked a number of times. The first thing he saw was the white roof. "Are?" Two faces came in front of him. One was the boy's and the other was his monocled friend's. "Gojyo!" They both called.
"Wai! Yokatta, Gojyo!" Goku smiled widely.
"Okaeri nasai, Gojyo." Hakkai smiled as well, relief can be easily read from his face. The gleam on his eye whenever he smiles is back.
Gojyo smirked. "I was that terrible, eh?"
*****
"Hontou ni?! Asleep for a week?!" Gojyo exclaimed while following Hakkai towards Jiipu.
"Daijoubu, Gojyo. You had to get your blood back." Hakkai wore a smaller smile. "And your color, too."
"Chi, I kind of missed my tan." Gojyo looked at his skin with a proud smile.
"Naa~ you scared Hakkai to death, Ero Kappa." Goku approached his side of Jiipu.
Gojyo felt a vein pop near his temple. "Watch your mouth, saru. You should remember I got my strength back. Dakara...I can do THIS to you!" He pushed Goku down to the iron floor.
"Na!!" Goku landed face first and glared at Gojyo as the man took his place. "Teme, Kono Ero Kappa!!" He waved his fist.
Hakkai laughed as he settled on the driver's seat. "Don't stress yourself now, Gojyo. You just got well from your sickness."
"Maybe I should have made him a dead cockroach...!!" Sanzo muttered under his breath.
Hakkai laughed louder and drove off towards the sunset with the noise of Goku and Gojyo's argument he had to admit he missed on the past few days.
"URUSEI! SHINE!!!" Exorcism bullets echoed throughout the town outskirts.
"Na, Sanzo! That nearly got me!"
"Spoilsport bouzu!"
"URUSAIIII!!!!" Then there was the infamous whack.
"Ite!!!"
+owari~+