Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Saiyuki characters. All the characters belong to Sensei Minekura-san.

Ayie: Chapter 3 is up and the next chapter is coming soon. If you realized, the blue flower with red thorns was borrowed from 'Shrek'..remember when Donkey was send to get the flower when Princess Fiona and Shrek wanted to be alone…

Sanzo: Ch! You gave me a headache…can you think of another flower than the one taken from Shrek…vein popping out

Ayie: I have edited chapter 2, for Kuroi-san, thanks for reminding me about my grammar. I'll try to improve it in my next chapters ^.^ sankyu..

Chapter 3 – Recovery and discovery

"Yay yay!" A yelping voice woke the three guys from their sleep. Sanzo snapped his eyes open and jerked forward. He glanced around to find Hakkai rising up, rubbing his eyes with the back of his palm and Gojyo yawning and stretching his arms. They looked around, looking for somebody.

"Ohaiyo, minna-san" a warm greet welcomed them. Sanzo, Gojyo and Hakkai looked at Aiko who was smiling down at them. The girl stared at them for a moment before she went to the fireplace. She was doing some cooking actually.

"Go…" Gojyo was about to ask something when Aiko interfered.

"Goku went to the river with Kazo to take their morning bath. They just left" she explained. 'Wow! This girl not only heal but she could reads mind too!'. Aiko boiled a pot of water by the fire.

"Ah naw! Now I had to give away my lunch to that baka saru" mumbled Gojyo as he stood on his feet. He looked toward the direction of the river. His instinct persuaded him to go to the river.

"Ee..saru? Where?" Aiko looked around. She didn't find any monkey nearby.

Hakkai chuckled. "He's referring to Goku" Hakkai explained. He rose up and walked toward Aiko. Hakkai gave the girl a helping hand, assisting her with the cooking.

"Eh! Goku's a saru?" Aiko couldn't understand the mocking. Hakkai chuckled.

"I'll explain to you later" Hakkai assured her. He smiled to the confused girl.

"A promise is a promise kappa!" Sanzo reminded, his arms folded on his chest. He didn't even looked at Gojyo. Hakkai nodded eagerly, agreeing the monk's statement. Gojyo grunted. He crossed his arms at the back of his head and headed for the river. After all the fighting and running last night, he would desperately need a bath.

A while after Gojyo left, the rest remained could hear a loud bickering of Gojyo and Goku, followed by splash sounds and lots of bobbing noise. Particularly the usual sound when Gojyo and Goku were poking each other's head.

"Good way of showing relief" Aiko broke the silence around her.

Hakkai just smiled. He looked at Aiko and was about to say something when Aiko turned to him and returned his smile. "About last night…Gomen, not that I don't trust you but the answer might turn to be ridiculous" She said.

"It's okay, we understand" Hakkai replied. "I don't mean to offend you but Kazo…Is he really your brother?" Sanzo turned to Hakkai, giving him a deadly glare that probably said 'Stop it Hakkai! Don't get too far'.

Aiko smiled, so much to their relief. "Actually, he was my step brother" Aiko explained. "We shared the same father but with different mother. My father wed his mother, a youkai, after my mother's death" she continued. She said it calmly; even Hakkai and Sanzo felt that her reaction was a little bit threatening.

"Youkai or no youkai, my stepmother was a very dear mother to my older siblings and me" Aiko stated. She sipped the coffee from her cup after distributing other cups of coffee to the men around her. Aiko looked at Hakkai. "My family died in a massacre 3 months ago and since then I've been traveling with Kazo" She gave Hakkai the look that seemed to show the signal for the man to stop asking another question.

"Souka…"Hakkai nodded. He fell silent after that. 'Massacre huh?'. His mind wandered off somewhere, to the event that happened three years ago.

"Hakkai!" a giggling voice snapped Hakkai's mind back to reality. A pair of thin, slender arms appeared from behind him and hugged his neck. Hakkai felt a sudden weight on his back when Goku's body fell on him. He turned his head and found Goku grinning to him. 'He looked great despite his dying condition last night'. Hakkai returned the grin with a welcoming smile. "Ohaiyo Goku" he greeted.

"Ohaiyo, Hakkai!" Goku chirped. He let go off Hakkai's neck and marched toward Sanzo who was reading his newspaper. "Sanzoooo…." Goku almost sang the word out with a melodious rhythm. He opened his arms wide and hugged the monk's waist. He acted as if he hadn't meet Sanzo for a decade.

Sanzo, feeling embarrassed at that act of caring brought out his harisen and whacked the boy's head continuously. The boy yelped in agony.

"Ittai yo Sanzo…What's that for?" Goku pouted when the whacking session finally ceased. Bumps started to form on his head. He glanced at Sanzo.

"That's for being so stupid to let yourself poisoned" Sanzo muttered. Hakkai smiled at Sanzo's way of showing relief. Aiko just stared at him with disbelief. 'Several hours ago, he was going to kill me for putting the boy in danger, now it's him who's killing that boy'. Aiko looked at Hakkai, requiring for explanation.

"It's typical of Sanzo" Hakkai whispered. Not wanting to let Sanzo hear what he's saying, or else the harisen would came flying and knocked his temple although the harisen never landed on any of his body parts before. He just didn't want to take the risk of started having one. Aiko sweat dropped. 'This guy should be an assassin, not a monk'

"I'm going for a bath"

Sanzo rose up and started walking toward the river. Goku was tailing behind him, jumping and hopping in glee. The younger boy chattered continuously, the outcome? Sanzo's harisen landed on his head over and over.

"Arara…what a big fish we have here" Hakkai chirped cheerfully while holding a fish at its tail and waving it in front of Aiko. Aiko sweat dropped, if she never knew Kazo she would surely think these foursome were the weirdest men she ever met. 'Ops! Only if it didn't count Leon, Yue-nii-chan and…' Aiko startled when Hakkai threw a stick into the fire, sending tiny sparks of flame in the air. One of the sparks burned Aiko's blanket, making a hole out of it.

"Eek…! Gomen nasai" Hakkai chuckled nervously.

Aiko stumbled head over heels. 'My mistake, they are the weirdest men on earth even if Leon, Yue-nii-chan and O-nii-chan counted in'

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"Ah! The best fish I ever had" Goku rested himself by leaning against a maple tree. He just finished eating a ton of fish. It seemed like a ton if you looked at a mountain of fish bones beside him.

"So much for a dying guy" Gojyo finished his last fish. He did not favor his own act of having to surrender his meal after promising it to the saru. Lucky for him, Hakkai saved him half of his own lunch so he wouldn't start the day with an empty stomach.

"Oi kappa! How come you're eating? You promised to give me your meal" Goku protested. Actually, he was only looking for a reason to fight. His stomach won't be able to receive any more food.

"Wrong! I'm not eating my meal, I'm eating Hakkai's meal" Gojyo corrected. He threw what was left of his meal into the flame. Goku looked at Hakkai with protest. Hakkai smiled with guilt.

"Gomen…" Hakkai apologized.

"Kyu?" Harkuryu nuzzled his master's cheek.

"I'm still hungry…" Kazo sighed heavily. He cried in alarm as soon as a stone made encounter with his head. He rubbed the aching spot and looked at his sister. "What was that for?". He knew his sister so well that he's aware she was the one to throw the stone at him.

"For being ungrateful" Aiko answered simply. Kazo and Goku actually finished the same amount of fish, almost three times larger than the elders' counted together. Kazo stuck out his tongue to Aiko, resulting in another stone darted toward him and knocked his head right on the temple.

"Ittai!!!" Kazo screamed in agony.

Hakkai smiled at that sight. The brother and sister did remind him of Sanzo and Goku. Gojyo and Goku were laughing hysterically at Kazo's face, now with two major bumps on his head. Sanzo just gave a simple "Ch" and at sudden rose up to his feet.

"Ikkuzo!" he said sternly.

"Hai!" Hakkai rose up and called for Harkuryu. He summoned the little dragon to transform into his mechanical self. Harkuryu cooed for once and transformed into a green jeep.

"A jeep?!" Kazo was amazed. He walked around the jeep, patting every part of the jeep his hand came in contact. Harkuryu cooed with glee.

Goku was upset with Sanzo's decision. Actually he wanted to spend more time with Kazo. This was his first time to hang around with a kid with the same mentality as his, other than Lirin of course. He tugged at Sanzo's sleeve. "Can we stay for a while?" he pleaded with a puppy look, which always managed to win over Sanzo. Not this time.

"Iya!" Sanzo declined the pleading. He looked away from that saru. Goku pouted. "But I want to play with Kazo" his eyes started to water.

"Naa…Goku, we cannot stay any longer, even your friend was ready to go" Hakkai patted Goku's shoulder. He tried to cheer Goku up. Goku looked at Aiko who was packing her things into her backpack. She rose up, lifted the backpack onto her shoulder and walked toward the ikkou.

"Where are you heading?" asked Gojyo.

"To the west" Aiko's answer made the bishounens's head turned to her. Aiko looked up with wonder. "Something's wrong? We are heading for Taisume, a day ahead from here" she continued. She didn't know which part of her answers that stunned the guys. The guys sighed with relief. 'How could they think of that?'

"We are heading the same way then" Hakkai smiled. Sanzo grunted. "May be you can come with us" Sanzo knew that offer would come out from Hakkai's mouth.

"Oi! Hakkai!" Sanzo was not in favor of Hakkai's hospitality.

"Ma…ma…Sanzo, you are not going to leave a girl and a boy behind won't you?" Hakkai smiled to Sanzo. Sanzo sighed with disgust. He could never win over Hakkai.

"Arigatou" Aiko bowed her head politely. "But it's okay, we can go by ourselves"

"Nani?!" Gojyo was astounded. "How are you going to get there? We can't leave you two behind, it's going to take the entire day walking to that town". Him? Leaving a beautiful girl behind? God have mercy on him if he would ever think of that in the future.

"Walk? Who said anything about walking?" Aiko sneered. She whistled and a white figure dashed toward them at high speed and landed on Aiko's shoulder. A little white dragon just like Harkuryu, only this one was a she-dragon. You can see that from its cute face. The dragon snuggled Aiko's neck and cooed softly.

Gojyo patted the hud of the jeep, "Gee…Harkuryu, it's a she" he exclaimed. Harkuryu cooed.

"Meet Nimmiku" Aiko introduced her pet. She whispered something to the little dragon. Nimmiku then flew to the ground and transformed itself into a Harley Davidson. The bishounens' jaw dropped.

"That answered my question" Gojyo stared in amazement.

"Can I ride in Harkuryu?" Kazo tugged at Hakkai's sleeve. The emerald eyed man, who was still astounded with the vehicle in front of him looked down with bewildered eyes.

Hakkai scratched his head and smiled. "Why don't you ask that man over there?" he pointed his thumb over his shoulder, to the already raged monk.

"Hakkai! You don't…!" Gojyo grabbed Hakkai's shoulder, sending the brunette to jerk backward. He could not stand it with one saru on board and now Hakkai gave a way to two sarus. He would never survive another day.

Kazo marched toward Sanzo and tugged at the monk's sleeve. Goku did the same thing on the other side of his robe. Now two kids stared at him with that innocent puppy eyes look on their faces. It's making him insane that he wanted to shoot a bullet through his head.

"Okay!" Sanzo retreated, much to his relief when both of the boys let go off his sleeves and hugged each other. Gojyo slapped his head. 'Damn, he's dead'.

"Kazo, you should ask your sister first" Hakkai reminded the red haired boy. Kazo and Goku ran toward Aiko. The girl jerked back and stumbled down on earth when the boys jumped on her all together. Both Kazo and Goku looked down to her face. 'Gesh! The puppy eyes…the pleading looks, God help me!'

Aiko groaned. "Whatever you want" she made her decision. Aiko rose up with Gojyo's assistance.

"Yay-yay!!" the boys hopped into the jeep merrily. For Kazo, this is his first time boarding a jeep and for Goku, this is his first ride with a boy with a same behavior of his.

"Yare…yare" Hakkai shook his head. He could predict what would happen with two genki kids on board. Chaos! Mess! Turmoil! Everything.

"Kyu..?" Nimmiku cooed out of jealousy at the sight of his young master on board of another vehicle other than her.

"Ne…I think she's jealous with Harkuryu" Hakkai chuckled. He spent so much time with Harkuryu that he could understand the meaning of their cooing based on the tone.

Aiko smiled. She patted the handle. "No need to get jealous Nimmi, we are going to meet him in town". She looked at the ikkou.

"We'll meet at Taisume city" Aiko put on her gloves. "There's only one inn in the city, you'll find me there" She sat on the bike's seat and fastened the safety belt on her helmet. She put on her goggles and turned on the ignition switch. The bike gave away a loud vroom sound.

"Hai!" Hakkai agreed. "Ride safely" He reminded.

"You too" she replied with a smile. She gave Kazo a deadly glare. "Behave yourself or I'll kill you the next time we meet" She warned him. Aiko looked at the older bishounens. "Ja nee" with that, she stepped on the accelerator pedal and went off with her bike.

"I've to get one of that in the future" Gojyo watched the bike disappeared, leaving behind storms of dust.

"I guess we better get going now" Hakkai hopped into the driver's seat, followed by Sanzo and Gojyo.

"Ikkuzo!!" the two boys lurched forward and pointed to the west, much to Sanzo irritation. He brought out his legendary paper fan and…

"WHACK!WHACK!" two whacks on two heads.

"Ittai!!" both of the kids sunk to their seats and clutched their heads in their arms.

"Hwa…Hwa…served you right" Gojyo laughed frantically. May be that red haired kid on board was a good idea after all. That would save him Sanzo's whack. 'Ek! Buzzer sound he was all wrong'

"Thwack!" the paper fan hit Gojyo right on his temple. So much for thinking he was safe. "Oi bouzu! You should use that fan to whack my head, not to throw it to my head!" Gojyo protested while rubbing his sore head.

"It's multifunctioned!" replied Sanzo, without even looking at Gojyo.

"Yada yada…what a peaceful day" Hakkai switched on the ignition switch, stepped on the gas pedal, stirred the gear and off they went, with full speed.

To be continue…

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Ayie: I'll be uploading the next chapter soon. Thanks for reviewing. I was planning to put the ikkou in big trouble when they reached the town. Taisume? It's just an imaginary town. ^__^.