He prefers to sit at the front, next to the driver, although he knows that a quick change of seats would silence the annoying bickers of his companions by at least a half. His reasons are his own, just like the reason he chooses the Marlboro red. He doesn't need to go with them and he wants their company even less, but Hakkai has a jeep and the faster the job gets done, the better. His fondest memory of Hakkai is telling him that since he did kill that many people that everyone claims he did, he ought to prepare to be killed himself. It's only the way things work.
He uses a Smith and Wesson. He's a damn good shot with it. He likes it. It kills youkai. It's light. It's also just good enough to shoot yourself with after all is said and done.
He fires it. That silences the pair at the back for a while. He needs to restock his bullets. Bullet prices have gone up thanks to the whole minus wave problem. He doesn't care. He doesn't pay for them. His trip is fully financed by the Three Aspects. You tell someone to clean up messes for you, you better pay them well.
Bullets don't silence the two for long. It was Goku who opened his mouth first. Stupid kid doesn't get a point if you hammer it on his head with a mallet. Common sense: you don't love someone who's determined not to be loved. You get nothing in return. Of course he knows how monkey-brain felt for him. The kid can feel what he likes. It's not his business to care. No point keeping a check on someone else's emotions. He knows it'll stop nothing.
He's been there before.
Unlike Gojyo, he has no souvenir of it. No dramatic scar that requires hiding. What he has is a chakra. He prefers to hide it too, but not for the same reason Gojyo does. It's more of a question of convenience. He doesn't want naïve mindless devotees clamouring around him begging for enlightening sermons. Between Gojyo and him, there's little in common. Gojyo talks, he shoots, Gojyo flirts with him, he shoots again. Conversations tend to end there. One with a scar, another with a chakra. Things couldn't get more different than that.
Maybe it's not that different. Gojyo's scar came from his mother, who could've nearly killed him but for some idiotic reason still gets stuck in his head as the tearful tragic. His chakra came from the only one whom he would ever call father, and the only one whom he would never deny loving.
Damn it. He shouldn't start thinking about that. When it rains and you're holed in a shelter you haven't got much to do except think and remember. When you're crossing terrain and the sun is all bright and scorching and two people behind you can't keep their fucking mouths shut –
- Ne Sanzo, what's today? -
- Mmh? It's Sunday –
Wasn't him, it was Hakkai, ever the housekeeper of them all. He alone could never be bothered to check the passing days. There's the newspaper he buys at every town stop, but if it weren't for that, every day would be the same.
- No, I knew that, just why is this day dotted with pink? –
Goku's been rummaging their luggage again. The map, some trash, some food, and a calendar bought at the town before the last stop just because it seemed like a good idea at the time.
- Idiot, it's Mother's Day – oh, redhead erokappa would know it.
And Goku goes "Oh".
And he says, never had any reason to celebrate it in a temple full of men (and in the back of his head he recalls the name river-drifter and the voices of the children separating him from them, favourite disciple, river-drifter,).
Hakkai adds: - Never had any reason to celebrate it outside a temple full of men –
- You aren't missing much – says Gojyo, grin still stuck on his face – You buy cards and flowers, and soon the cards get thrown out and the flowers wilt and die anyway. Waste –
And Goku goes, "Oh", again.
- It's Sunday – says Sanzo, and the lighter goes click – How far are we from the next town, Hakkai? –
So Hakkai smiles that smile he always does, runs an estimate (if we move at this speed I believe we'd arrive in a few hours in time for dinner and we might just be able to make it before nightfall…) but his words fall on deaf ears. The word dinner struck familiar squabbling ground for the pair at the back, Goku starts complaining of hunger, Gojyo starts name-calling, and it all goes downhill from there. Hakkai laughs. Sanzo leans back in his seat.
It's Sunday, and today is just like any other day with the same old gang.
He likes it that way.
11/05/2003
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