CHAPTER 4 - Interlude
The search raged through the city .. not for a day, not for three, but for a week. However, it proved futile in the end.
Gojyo sat at the bar, chain smoking and listening with half an ear to the conversation at the next table, yet another account of another search party's failed attempts to locate the priest.
He sighed, exhaling a thin stream of smoke that twisted upwards to disappear between the rafters. He'd screwed up, big time. Deep down, he'd hoped that Sanzo would be reasonable, that he'd, given a little persuasion, would follow him meekly back to Chou'An.
Wistful thinking indeed.
He was rather at a loss as to what to do, now that his quarry had seemingly vanished. There had always been hints before... city guards and the odd refugee tended to remember gold haired priests travelling east. It had been, more or less, a straight hop from his village to this city, and he'd always had his target in front of him. At this point, it was a tough choice -- to go on, and run the risk that Sanzo was still here... or to stay, and fall too far behind the priest to catch up, if he had left.
Trading the cigarette stub for a drink, he wondered for the umpteenth time why he continued on this half-baked mission. Why he'd started was never in question ... it had been hard to turn down the offer of divine assistance in escaping the pack of hate-crazed humans in return for what, at that time, sounded like a fairly simple mission: Get teleported into the vicinty of a Sanzo who was just a few towns away, and bring him back to Chou'An.
He'd never anticipated the youkai attacks, the distance, the sheer difficulty in keeping up with a man who seemed to dash across the miles with inhuman speed and endurance. But he'd done it because, for the first time in far too long, he had a purpose to cling to. Life before this had been gambling and women and women and gambling, the same old story day after day. Simple survival was so easy that it disgusted him, and, deep down, he'd been waiting for change.
"Change," he chuckled to himself. Oh, he'd gotten change, and plenty of it.
The conversation at the next table caught his attention again, and he paused to listen.
"...if he's outside the city, he's going to have a problem. The youkai have been attacking again."
"At the rate they're going, they're going to besiege us."
"Damn straight they are. And a lot of people on the road in and out of here have gone missing, I heard."
"It'll be a pity if he goes down to the likes of them."
"Pity? A pity for us, you mean. We're all doomed and here he is running away from it all..."
"Perhaps you would see it differently, if you were in his shoes," a new voice cut in, its low and pleasant tones a stark contrast to the bitterness in the previous speaker's voice.
Gojyo glanced across. The newcomer had paused by the table, smiling benignly. Light shimmering off the metal frames of his glasses, and revealed his hair to be a deep brown.
"What do you know about it?" the other growled, "Damn school teachers... philosophy doesn't work in the real world, get it?" He pointedly returned to his drink.
Seemingly unfazed, the brunette glanced up and Gojyo caught sight of his eyes for the first time.
They were green. A deep, verdant green.
Gojyo's breath caught in his throat. It was him. This was the man who was destined to be the one who would prove that---
He clamped down on that train of thought. Kanzeon Bosatsu had made him swear not to interfere, however tempting it might be...
But it sucked, knowing that disaster was about to befall this stranger who would one day be his companion... knowing that disaster would befall this very city... and to stand aside and not raise a finger.
"Another drink?" the bartender offered.
"Ah. Another drink. Make it a strong one."
***
Under the cover of nightfall, a solitary, cloaked figure drifted from shadow to shadow, heading slowly but surely towards the city gates.
At the gates, two guards fell without a sound and a shape stepped over their unconscious forms to glide, unchallenged, into the night beyond.
***
"Well, he's gone," Gonou noted.
"Yes. His heart is set on going East," Kanan replied. She glanced up. "You don't look surprised."
"I'm not. Like him, I don't believe that one person can save the world," Gonou replied.
"But one could try..."
"I don't know. It is a difficult choice, and one that I'm grateful that doesn't rest our shoulders. But.. whichever path he chooses, I wish him luck.. his road is not an easy one."
***