Disclaimer: I do not own the character of Saiyuki. The characters belong to Minekura-san.
Chapter 1

Sanzo pointed his shoureiju around, scanning the area for any surviving youkai. Clear. He put his gun down, assuring himself that they had terminate all the youkai.

Hakkai looked around. There was no trace of any living youkai. He turned to his back, to his teammates.

"That's one hell of a fight!" Gojyo stroked his red crimson hair and yawned.

Hakkai sweat dropped. He slapped his head in disbelief.

"I guess everyone's all right ne?" a smile appeared on the brunette's lips. A little white dragon came flying and landed on his shoulder. The dragon licked his master's cheek and cooed softly. Hakkai patted the latter head affectionately in return.

"We better move on with our journey, the next town is still a day ahead," he suggested. He looked at his pet with a warm smile. "Can you transform now?" he asked.

"Kyu" the dragon cooed and flew onto the ground. A moment later, the dragon gleamed in a white light and transformed into a green jeep.

Hakkai hopped in the driver seat. Followed by Sanzo who settled down beside him in the passenger seat.

"We better hurry, or I'll die listening to the saru's whines of food," Gojyo climbed into the backseat. "He won't last long with an empty stomach, eh saru?" he looked around and spotted the saru he mentioned, a boy with spiky brown hair and a pair of golden eyes, standing on the ground behind the jeep.

The boy startled and looked to the elder red haired. "Uh.what?" he asked blankly.

Hakkai looked at the rear-view mirror on the windshield, to the image of the boy. The boy was staring blankly at Gojyo. 'Weird, Goku doesn't seem to be himself'.

"Doujibou desu ka, Goku?" Hakkai asked out of concern. He turned to his back and looked at Goku, who was now climbing into the backseat.

Goku looked at Hakkai, golden eyes of his met Hakkai's emerald. He was sweating all over the face, and he's trembling severely.

"Goku?" Hakkai called out, his voice was getting softer.

Hakkai's sudden change in his voice aroused attention from the monk beside him. The monk, who has the hair of sunshine's gold, glanced at Goku from the corner of his amethyst eyes.

"Oi! Saru, you are too hungry that you don't have the strength to talk?" Gojyo teased Goku and landed a punch on the boy's head. Goku didn't even react to that, which was abnormal for him. Gojyo gaped at Goku with wide eyes. 'If the saru didn't yell back and called him red haired cockroach, then it's not a good sign'.

"Goku?!" the three elders of the group yelled alarmingly when Goku tripped over and fell unconscious on the floor of the jeep. He fell with a loud thud, even Gojyo didn't manage to stop him from falling. Hakkai jumped to the backseat and kneeled beside Goku.

"What happened?" Gojyo asked. He kneeled down beside Hakkai. He looked down at Goku. The boy's face was blue pale.

Hakkai raised Goku's head and placed it on his lap. His palm wandered on Goku's forehead. The heat of the child's forehead burned his palm, making him yanked his hand off.

"He was burning up with fever," Hakkai could not understand it.

"How could that be? He was fine a moment ago" Gojyo voiced out Hakkai's thought.

Sanzo looked at the boy. He was trying to recall something, which happened during the fight.

"Argh!!" the saru's sudden scream interrupted Sanzo's aim.

"Oi! Saru, don't get too loud" Sanzo warned and shot a youkai who was darting toward him.

"Weird, but the fever was burning him fast" Hakkai lifted Goku from the floor. The boy was now trembling hard in his arm and sweating all over from head to toe. Goku growled and groaned in his state of unconsciousness, which seem to look as if he's having a terrible nightmare in his sleep.

"Ch" Sanzo has his own way of expressing his concern. He glanced at Goku, wrapped in Hakkai's pampering arm and noticed something. There was a trickle of blood running down from Goku's sleeve.

Sanzo stood up and reached out for Goku's arm, much to Hakkai's surprise. The monk tore the boy's sleeve, revealing a gash on Goku's slender arm. Hakkai and Gojyo stood motionless. The wound was severe and it was indeed got infected judging by the color of red on Goku's arm.

"He's poisoned" Hakkai was talking based on his experience of treating his fellow comrades during their journey to the west. He looked around on the ground, searching the area for any source of the poison. A sword, what was last left of the youkai leader, the one Goku fought with, attracted him. The sword was much different than the one the other youkai used. Along the blade was stained with green fluid. By the look of it, Hakkai was sure it was a poison and judging on the color, it was a deadly poison.

"K'so" Sanzo cursed beneath his breath.

"Gojyo" Hakkai called out for the red haired. "Take care of him" he handed Goku to the half-breed, leaving him to assist on the young heretic. Hakkai quickly jumped to the driver's seat and switched on the ignition switch.

"How far is the nearest town?" Sanzo asked as he settled himself back to his seat.

"We'll reach there."Hakkai stopped, calculating perhaps. "By nightfall" he continued. But then, he was hoping that they would reach there sooner, because Goku wouldn't last that long with that poison streaming fast in his body. The poison entered Goku's vein from the wound in his left arm. And to Hakkai, who has a very good knowledge in medical field, he knew well that the poison would flow faster to the heart than it would if the wound was to be at the right arm.

Sanzo looked at Goku, the boy was trembling harder than he was before and the boy's skin grew white pale as if his blood was drained off. "Darn!" he cursed at the tip of his tongue and hardly let it out.

"Harkuryu, please speed off, we need to get Goku to the town before nightfall" Hakkai patted the steering wheel.

"Kyu!" Harkuryu cooed and the jeep speed to its limit, sending the passengers on board to dash backwards.

"Oi Goku!" Gojyo was stripping off the bandana that he wore around his head and used it to bandage Goku's wound. He stroked the boy's hair, feeling the sweat soaking the brown hair to its root. "Hold on!" he swallowed the word down to his throat. He's not even sure if Goku could hold on any longer, considering on the size of his body that was the size of a nine year old. May be he's saying it to make himself stop worrying.

Gojyo looked over to Hakkai.

"Hakkai! Can you at least heal the wound?" Gojyo glanced back to Goku. The boy's head on his lap.

"I'm afraid I can't. I need to keep the wound so the doctor would know what kind of poison he got infected with" Hakkai explained. He looked at the rear-view mirror, catching a glimpse of Gojyo trying to assure Goku, who was now rambling in his state of unconsciousness.

Gojyo caressed Goku's head, just to find the boy's temperature was sky-high.

"Hakkai, he's getting so damn hot!" Gojyo's tone increased as if he's getting mad of himself. "What should I do?"

"Ano.." Hakkai's mind was all mixed up. He could not even think straight anymore. "Take his cloth off and soak his body with water" he answered back, not even aware if he was saying the right thing or the otherwise.

"I think there's some water left in the container back there" said Hakkai, his eyes on the road, his mind on Goku. 'We need to reach the village before sunfall or Goku will die'.

Gojyo quickly got the container. He took off Goku's shirt and poured the water all over Goku's body.

"Argh!!" Goku screamed in agony as the pain overtook him by sudden. He clutched his head in his arms.

Sanzo turned his head over his shoulder. Goku is struggling in his seem- like-a-sleep state, both hands clutching to his head and he's screaming out of his lungs.

"Shit! The poison has flooded his system, it's doing it's damn work" Hakkai almost lost control of the steering wheel by Goku's howl of pain. The howl seemed to pull Hakkai's heart out of its place.

"Oi Gojyo!" Sanzo's voice snapped Hakkai's mind out from his anxiety. Sanzo had jump from the frontseat to the backseat, setting himself to kneel beside Goku. "Hold yourself!" Sanzo shook Gojyo's shoulder, which was now trembling uncontrollably.

Gojyo looked at Sanzo, his eyes showed emptiness. 'We are going to lost Goku'.

"Oi! Two sick people are the last thing I need right now, snapped out of it!" Sanzo scolded the red haired. "Daydreaming and you'll die" he warned, pointing his Smith and Wesson to Gojyo's forehead.

Gojyo smirked. He slowly moved the gun away from his head. 'The monk won't let them die easily unless it's by his own bullet'. He looked at Goku. 'Especially the saru'.

"Goku, I swear if you survived this, I'll give you my lunch" Gojyo lifted Goku's head and wrapped it with his arms. He pulled Goku to his chest, hugging that boy's head as if preventing it from exploding due the pain.

Sanzo kept his shoureiju back inside his robe.

Miraculously, Goku eased. The shivers started to slow down a bit, not all, but a bit. Enough to make the others sighed with relief.

"You must keep your promise kappa" a weak voice came under Gojyo's arm. Gojyo loosened his grip and stared at the boy's face blankly.

The boy's golden eyes were fix at his face. Gojyo could see the heat that burned the little guy inside out.

"Baka" Gojyo smiled. "Sure, make sure you survive this or else you won't get a bite". 'Huh! I'm not even sure if I could eat anything if the boy was not around'.

"Sanzo."Goku called out.

Sanzo didn't even bother to look. 'That face.ch!'

"Nanda?" Sanzo snapped back.

"Gomen.I always got into our way" Goku was getting delirious; he was starting to lose consciousness again. His eyelids were getting heavier.

"Baka!" Sanzo muttered. "Urusai saru and rest!" scolding was his best way of showing his concern.

Goku closed his eyes and sunk his face onto Gojyo's chest, as if looking for protection. It's an irony due to the fact that the red haired was the one who kept fighting and hitting him.

"Ch!" Sanzo pulled out a blanket and tucked the boy to sleep. Gojyo smirked at Sanzo's act of concern and gained himself a whack on the head by Sanzo's infamous harisen.

Gojyo retreated his eyes from the monk deadly glare, promising death for another smirk.

"Ma..ma..Sanzo, this is not the time" Hakkai smiled helplessly. He sweat dropped at the sight. 'Darn, still a long way to the town, we are not even halfway yet'. The red orb was starting to sank at the west.

Hakkai didn't need to look at Goku's physical condition to know that the boy was getting worst. He could hear it. Goku's breath heaved with pain; it's getting heavier and harsher, almost like there's something stuck in the middle of his airway. Goku was breathing through both air cavities, nasal and aural. He's gasping for air to breath. The boy's chest heaved up and down hastily. In another word, Goku was barely breathing.

'If we did reach the town in time, would they have the antidote?' Hakkai steered the steering wheel to the left. Sanzo was back beside him.

"How long you think he would last?" Sanzo consulted for his opinion, which he usually did when any of them got injured.

Hakkai glanced back for a while.

"I don't know what poison infected him" Hakkai fixed his eyes back to the road. "But it sure act fast" He was trying to avoid answering to Sanzo's question.

"Hakkai!"Sanzo snapped back. "How long?" he repeated.

"Tonight, can be less but no more" Hakkai answered at the lowest point of his voice. 'I can't do anything to help Goku, a healer am I'. Hakkai sneered to himself. Sometime he just hates being the only person in the group to have healing power and medical knowledge.

Sanzo fell silent at the answer. "That saru is too stupid to die like this" he said.

Hakkai looked at Sanzo. There's a sound of hope in that monk's voice. 'May be he knew Goku better than any of us did'. Hakkai smiled quietly. 'May be Goku would survive this after all'.

"Kyu!!" suddenly Harkuryu cooed and it was followed by a loud bang. The jeep went crazy. It swerved to the right and to the left madly before Hakkai stepped on the brake and stopped the jeep in time, right before it could crash into a tree.

"Doujibou desu ka, minna-san?" Hakkai panted, nervously. He glanced at Sanzo and Gojyo, both of them startled. Goku's still in Gojyo's protective arms. 'Thank God they are okay'.

Sanzo and Hakkai leaped out from the jeep and looked for the cause of its going mad.

"The tire burst" Hakkai announced, he sounded disappointed at the sight of a flat tire.

"Kyu." Hakuryu moaned. Hakkai patted the hud, reassuring. Now he got two sick person on board, first Goku and now Harkuryu.

"Gojyo, bring Goku down, I need to heal Harkuryu" Hakkai ordered. Gojyo enveloped the boy in his arms and jumped down from the jeep, immediately before Harkuryu turned into its dragon's form.

Harkuryu flew and took its place on Hakkai's shoulder. He licked his right feet which was now covered with blood. Hakkai healed the wound by using hi ki-beam. Slowly, the wound on the poor dragon's feet closed, not leaving even a single bloodstain.

Sanzo glanced at the west, the sun already set down. The afterglow filled the sky, but then slowly fading away. Darkness of nightfall started to form.

Goku choose that time to give away a heart-rending cry.

Hakkai immediately got to Goku's aid. He checked the boy's pulse. The pulse was getting slower at pace. Goku was soaked with sweat and his body was terribly pale, except for the flush of fever on his cheeks.

Hakkai looked at Harkuryu, the dragon was not any better. "We can't travel with Harkuryu condition like this" he exclaimed.

"If we remain this way, we are going to lose Goku" Gojyo protested. Goku was now hot like fire.

"Then, we walked!" Sanzo made the decision. He started walking right after the words came out his mouth.

Gojyo positioned Goku on his back. He carried the boy on his back and started following Sanzo, who was now speeding his way toward the west. If they want to save Goku, whatever the way is, they need to do it now.

Things were getting quiet, no sounds escaped from their mouths except for Goku's gasps for air.

'Shit! It's impossible to reach the town in time by foot'. Sanzo tried to lit his cigarette but 'damn it' he couldn't even hold the lighter right. His hands were trembling. The sound of Goku's painful breath was indeed irritating and annoying.

Hakkai didn't like the silence that fell upon them. He was so used to the patterned fights of Goku and Gojyo, their bickering, Goku whining for food, Sanzo's harisen whacking the heads of the other two and his gun blasted off, that he didn't like it when they don't happen. 'Goku, we already missed you'. Hakkai sped his way. Now he wished he could fly.

'Hang on saru. Don't die on me!' Gojyo tightened his grip on Goku's body as the boy trembled so hard that he couldn't hold him right. He could feel Goku's chest panting heavily behind him.

"Crack!" suddenly a cracking sound put them into a sudden halt. Sanzo pointed his gun to the direction of the noise.

'A fight is the last thing we need, Goku can't survive another attack'. Hakkai was forming a ki-ball in between his fingers. He stood in front of Gojyo, protecting the wounded in the red haired arms.

They waited nervously as a sound of footsteps advancing toward them. It came from their right, from a bush of berries. Silent! Only the sound of their heartbeats could be heard.