Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of Gensomaden Saiyuki. They honorably belong to Minekura-san Sensei.

Ayie: For those who reviewed my fic and like it, thanks a lot. Glad you guys enjoy it. For those who read but did not review, thanks for reading ^_~. In this chap, I'm going to torture everyone a lot….he..he.. I'm a bad bad person.

Sanzo: I thought you never realized that….

Ayie: Actually, my computer went wrong, causing chapter 4 to vanish. Hu…hu.. ~_~. I have to retype all over again. Wa…!!!

Hakkai: ma…ma…calm down

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Chapter 4 – The new town

Goku and Kazo pushed the door and entered the inn, followed by Gojyo who looked like as if he's dragging himself in. He was terribly exhausted, having to deal with the latter two for the whole day. Sanzo was next to enter the inn with Hakkai's tailing behind him. Sanzo held out the golden credit card, a courtesy of Sanbutusin, to Hakkai. Hakkai took the card and went to the reception counter. Sanzo and the rest of the ikkou went to the diner.

A man at his middle age stood behind the counter, waiting for Hakkai with a welcoming smile. Hakkai smiled in return. "We need four rooms please?" Hakkai asked politely.

"Sumanen….but there was no more room available" the innkeeper was not fond of turning his customer down. "You see…this was the only inn in town" he tried to give the best reason.

"Yare…yare" Hakkai was not in favor of this either. They've been driving for the whole day under the burning sun. Every one of them had worn out and desperately need a nice and comfort place to rest.  Alas Gojyo's energy was drained to his last for having to take care of two mischievous kids and Sanzo's right hand got cramped after whacking a lot throughout the day. Hakkai could imagine what the two men would do to him if he failed to get a room. Disaster! Hakkai gulped uneasily. He gave the innkeeper a pathetic smile.

The innkeeper lost over that smile. He felt rather guilty. "The last single room was rented by a girl under the name of Genjo Sanzo" he checked his logbook, hoping that the information would help the young man. "She came in an hour ago"

"Ano..?" Hakkai felt a sudden delight. His hope returned. Lucky for them, Aiko reached the inn just in time to rent the last remaining room. "That girl was our friend, that blonde man over there was Genjo Sanzo" Hakkai pointed his index finger to Sanzo, who is now whacking the daylight out of Goku's sight. His companions sat around a table at the diner, waiting for him. "May we have the key please?"

The innkeeper smiled. 'The information does help'. He handed the brunette a key and took the golden card from the young man's hand. The innkeeper charged the card and returned it to Hakkai. "Room 20"

"Arigatou" Hakkai replied. "Sumimasen, can we ask for extra mattresses?" he asked. Hakkai knew his comrades so well that he's well aware that neither of them would consider of sharing the same bed. Having the single room, which was another problem, they only got one bed.

"The girl already ordered four extra mattresses and they have being sent to the room a while ago" the innkeeper explained. Now he knew why the girl insisted on having extra mattresses even though she was alone.

"Sankyu" Hakkai left the counter and went to his companions. It amazed him when neither of his friends seemed to complain about sharing the same room. 'They must be really tired'. They just walked up the stairs and headed for room 20, which happened to be just around the corner.

Gojyo was about to turn the doorknob when Hakkai stopped him. "Nanda?" he asked, not really happy with that.

"Shouldn't we knock first?" Hakkai smiled. 'Ah! Hakkai and his polite self'

"I'm really tired that I don't give a damn about manners" Gojyo exclaimed. But he did let Hakkai took the honor of knocking the door. Hakkai was about to knock when Goku and Gojyo turned the doorknob and pushed the door opened.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a pillow dashed toward them. Hakkai managed to dodge the attack but the pillow hit Gojyo right on his face. Bull's eye!

"Hey!" Gojyo was so annoyed. He stared at the girl who's sitting on the edge of the bed, in the middle of the room.

"Served you right for not knocking!" Aiko sneered. She looked terribly furious. "Don't you ever learn manners?"

"And which manners taught you to throw a pillow right on the guests' face?" asked Gojyo with the highest pitch of his voice. He then stood dumbfounded, amazed at his own ability to raise his voice to a woman.

Aiko smiled and that smile made Gojyo waved a tiny white flag tied to a stick. He would never won over women. That's his weakness.

"Iya! That's not what I call manners, I called it an act of self-defense" Aiko exclaimed with her index finger pointing up. She rose up and went to the door.

"Gomen nasai…I only managed to get one room" Aiko picked up the pillow from the floor. She looked up to Sanzo and rose, facing the monk face to face. "Do you mind sharing?"

"Ch!" that was Sanzo's typical way of saying 'yes'.

"Who's having the bed?" Goku's voice dragged the elders' attention. They stared at the bed and then turned to the futons arranged side by side on the floor.

"You guys aren't expecting me to sleep on the floor don't you? Cause I won't" Sanzo said sternly.

"Oi! Oi! Don't expect me to do so, I'm feeling like hell and I'll have the bed at all cost!" Gojyo protested.

"Kono kappa! What about us?" Goku demanded for explanation. "We're only kids, we're the one who deserved the bed" he claimed with Kazo nodding eagerly behind him.

"Oi! Kono baka saru! A saru supposed to sleep on the tree, not on the bed" Gojyo teased the young heretic.

"I'm not a saru!" Goku insisted.

"Yada…yada" Hakkai slapped his forehead. 'Always the same problem'.

"We're not going anywhere like this" Gojyo said. He took out a pack of cards from his pocket. "Let's get this over with once and for all" He shuffled the cards hastily. 

"Go!" Sanzo agreed. All of them sat on the futons, forming a circle. Gojyo held out several cards to his friends. Each one of them took one card.

         Hakkai looked at his card. But then he felt a pressure in the atmosphere around him. He looked up and found pairs of red eyes and amethysts stared at him with grimace look. Hakkai grinned nervously. "Yare…yare…this is the first time I lost" Hakkai smiled.

         "Ch…me too" Sanzo tossed his card away. So did Gojyo. Aiko looked at them with a smile.

"Yay! I win" Goku held out a King card to Gojyo's face, much to Sanzo and Gojyo's disgust. Goku did not waste no more time, he grabbed Kazo by his wrist and dragged him toward the bed. Kazo on the other hand, only got the Jack card. Both of them leaped happily onto the bed.

"Goku, don't you think ladies should be first?" Hakkai managed to stay polite the whole daylong. Goku and Kazo startled. They forgot that they got a girl with them and girls always come first. The kids stared at Aiko and jumped down from the bed.

Aiko chuckled edgily. "Iya!" she said it with melodious tone. "You guys earned it" She said. "You won over the cast, it's just not my luck" Aiko was indeed a bit embarrassed to the hospitality showered upon her. Goku and Kazo jumped merrily at the offer and hopped back onto the bed.

"I don't mind sleeping on the futons" Aiko looked down to the futons. 'They looked comfortable though'. "As long as mine was separated from the rest three" She just realized that the futons were arranged side by side on the floor. 'No way I'm sleeping side by side with the guys'.

"Yare…yare…" Hakkai sweat dropped. "Sumimasen"

Gojyo was the one appointed with the task of lifting the futon to the other side of the bed. He did it with two reasons. First, Sanzo made him do it by pointing a gun to his temple and threatened to kill him if he refused. The other reason? It's just that there's a part of him meant to be ladies' man.

"Sankyu" Aiko returned his favor with a smile. Gojyo found the smile a little bit embarrassing since the smile was much different from the one he always got when he flirted with women. It's not a typical smile that says 'Come and play with me'. The smile looked more like Hakkai's. So hideous and mysterious. That kind of smile usually made him felt miserable.

"I've cooked dinner" Aiko announced. That announcement made Goku and Kazo leaped away from the bed and darted toward the dining table.

"Oi! Oi! Don't you know how to behave?" Gojyo teased Goku and Kazo. He pulled out a chair and sat in between Sanzo and Goku. Hakkai pulled out a chair for Aiko before he settled himself down beside Sanzo.

"Wa! Fried noodles, dumplings, meat buns, siu mai, chop suey….sugee!" Goku looked at the cuisine with saliva dropping from his mouth. "I'll have it all" Goku started gobbling the food greedily. Kazo was doing the same thing.

"Kyu?" Harkuryu cooed at Goku, amazed by the boy's ability to eat without stopping to breath.

"You cooked all this?" Hakkai was amazed at the amount and the variety of food served on the table. Even Sanzo and Gojyo stared at the cuisine with bewildered eyes.

"Hai! I just loved cooking" Aiko chirped. "It's my hobby"

"Honto ni? Me too" Hakkai chuckled.

Sanzo and Gojyo sweat dropped at that brunettes' conversation. 'Great, now they have two Hakkais and two sarus'.

"Oi! Save some for us, kono baka saru!" Gojyo hit Goku hard on the head and caused the saru to snatch away the dumpling he's holding in his hand. Gojyo snarled. The fight for food started again.

"Yare…yare…" Hakkai sweat dropped. He slapped his head in disbelief. Aiko chuckled edgily.

"Urusei!" Sanzo took out his Smith and Wesson and pulled the trigger, twice.

"BANG!BANG!" two bullets missed Goku and Gojyo's head by inches. The latter two stood dumfounded before they settled down quietly. It didn't last long though; they started fighting again, this time over a siu mai.

"Gomen…" Hakkai was about to apologize for his friends' misbehavior before he stopped and chocked with his word. Aiko is giggling in glee at the scene. No sign of fear in that girl's face. Even a slight one. No fear except happiness.

Hakkai retreated with a curl on his lips. He never thought he would someday met a woman who would laugh at the fighting scene of Gojyo and Goku or the scene where Sanzo interfered in the middle of the fight with his harisen or shoureiju in his hand. 'This girl sure is different'

However, Hakkai could feel a different aura from the other side of the table. He looked from the corner of his eyes and saw Kazo's staring at his sister. A dumpling stuffed in his mouth but there was a thin smile on the corner of his only visible part of the lips. The boy stared at her sister for a couple of minutes before he gulped the dumpling into his throat. He joined Gojyo and Goku in the battle for food and it was obvious he was on Goku's side.

Sanzo found out the same thing as Hakkai did but he remained silent. His calmness lasted for a while before he blasted off several bullets toward the trio.

"Hakkai" Hakkai turned to Aiko and found the girl grinned devilishly at him. "I never knew Joker was weaker than King" Aiko held out a Joker card between her slim fingers.

Hakkai sweat dropped. 'How she managed to get the card?'. He saved the card so nobody would ever noticed that he let Goku won over the cast on purpose. Hakkai smiled nervously, his hand rubbed the back of his head. "Yare…yare…"

Aiko chuckled. "It looks like you guys have been planning this from the beginning" she said, almost whispering. She held out two other cards. This time the Ace of Spade and the Ace of Heart. The cards were no doubts belong to Sanzo and Gojyo. If you remember, Sanzo and Gojyo never drew out their cards. They just tossed it away randomly and Goku being Goku, would never retrieved for it.

"Your secret's save with me" with a deft movement of her fingers, Aiko slipped those cards smoothly into her sleeve. Hakkai sighed with relief.

Hakkai looked at Sanzo and Gojyo. Actually they have agreed to let Goku has the bed since the boy was still a bit shaky because of his fever. They considered on his dying condition last night and decided that he might need extra rest, as comfortable as possible. Even Sanzo compromised with that.

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Kazo glanced around. The room went a little bit quiet after dinner. Well, don't expect the room to be too quiet with Gojyo and Goku in it. Alas, now they are pounding each other's head as the red haired man tried to snatch away Goku's pillow.

Sanzo's still sitting the dining table, a newspaper was held to his face. He wore a pair of glasses, which Kazo found it quite hilarious, but he didn't dare to laugh at it. The monk's robe was carefully folded, leaving him wearing a jeans and a black suit that seemed to stuck to his body.

Harkuryuu was busy cooing something with Nimmiku. The male dragon nuzzled a spring roll toward the female dragon, urging her to eat it. Nimmiku's cheeks gave away tiny flushes of red. She took a bite on the spring roll and nuzzled Harkuryu at his wing. They are using a language that only Hakkai and Aiko would understand. Well, they seemed to understand since they laughed adoringly everytime their pets cooed. But Kazo doesn't have to understand the language to know that the dragons are falling for each other.

Hakkai and Aiko were much entertained by their pets. They are cleaning the table right now, after finished washing all the dishes. Hakkai insisted on lending Aiko a helping hand with the cleaning and Aiko didn't resist it since she did need extra hands to complete her task.

Kazo's lips curled slightly as he watched his sister at work. 'She never looked this beautiful, with the smile on her face since…'. Kazo was surely glad that he decided to help the foursome the night before. He didn't even know why he'd help them. It's just his instinct and he simply followed it. It's not like him to offer help since every time he offered, the one they helped always turned to be their foes later in the end.

But this 'people'? He could not help it. He just have the feeling that even he could not tell what. For the past few months, he only trusted his sister. No one else. It's just me, myself, my sister and I. It's better that way. 'Why? Why these guys were different?'

Sanzo looked at Kazo from the corner of his eyes. That monk looked as if he is reading the news headlines but actually his gaze was on Kazo. The boy stared at his sister for about half an hour now. 'What's with this kid? Is he having a doubt on his sister?'

"Oi! Kazo!" Goku's voice snapped Sanzo's mind back to reality. The young heretic whom he found eight years ago, jailed in a stone prison on top of Mount Gogyo, jumped on top of Kazo. The sudden impact sent Kazo to stumbled hard on the bed. They wrestled on the bed furiously. Their act sent the pillow to fly all over the room.

"Ch!" Sanzo grunted as his eyes retreated to the news headline on that piece of black and white paper. Suddenly, a pillow dashed toward him and hit the monk right on his head. There were numerous vein popped out onto Sanzo's forehead. The blonde's face was red with rage.

"O'o!" Goku, Gojyo and Kazo started to get panic. 'What will happen now?'. They don't have wait too long to get the answer.

"Get ready" Hakkai reminded Aiko.

"Nani?" Aiko didn't seem to understand what he's saying. She looked at him with wonders.

"Shi – ne !!!" Sanzo lurched toward the bed with a harisen in his hand. He whacked the gakis' head hard and twice as hard onto Gojyo's as the red haired acted as the judge for the chibis' fight just now. He's not satisfied. He took out his shoureiju and blasted off several bullets, even into the direction of Hakkai and Aiko. The brunettes dodged the bullets just in time. Hakkai grabbed Aiko's hand and dragged her into a hiding spot, under the dining table. They managed to grabbed Harkuryu and Nimmiku with them by clinging to their tails. Before that, the dragons flew frantically around the room in order to avoid the bullets from Sanzo's shoureiju.

"Kuruso!!" Sanzo kept on shooting, to all directions, sending the rest of his roommates to scatter around the room like a maniac. It doesn't seem that he's going to stop soon.

Hakkai and Aiko sweat dropped. They dodged off another bullet that passed over their heads just by an inch. 'Ma…this monk really is short-tempered'. Aiko cuddled Harkuryu and Nimmiku close to her chest. Sanzo's still shooting crazily around the room.

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Aiko glanced at Goku and Kazo. Both of them snored soundly on the bed. Their arms and legs sprawled across each other's body. Bumps and bruises, courtesy of Sanzo's infamous harisen, were everywhere as far as one's eyes could see on their bodies. The pillows were sent to the floor, it scattered all around the floor near the bed. The blanket on the other hand was shoved off to the edge of the bed and a pair of dragons made a bed out of it.

Aiko smiled and at a sudden rose up from her chair. Her abrupt movement attracted the other's attention. Sanzo put down his newspaper and glimpsed at her before he continued on his reading. That monk finally ceased fire after twenty minutes of chaos and it took about half an hour for Hakkai to calm him down. Gojyo and Hakkai, who are playing cards, turned their heads toward Aiko.

Aiko stared into the darkness of the night through the wide opened window. The stars shone brightly, guess it's not going to rain.

"Doujibou desu ka?" Gojyo asked. His face was covered with bruises, bumps and plasters.

"Doujibou…" she answered with a faint smile. She turned her head toward the brunette and the red haired.

"I'm going to do some shopping for our supplement" Aiko put on her black vest on top of her white turtleneck t-shirt. She rolled her braid in a bun and headed for the door.

"Matte Aiko!" Hakkai put Aiko into a sudden halt. "I'm going with you, after all we need to do some shopping too" Hakkai stood up after he drew his card onto the table.

"Argh!" Gojyo sighed. "I owe you a glass of sake" he waved his hand frantically in the air. Gojyo rose up and put on his vest.

"Going somewhere?" Hakkai asked as he walked toward Sanzo, who's holding the credit card between his fingers.

"Iya! Just want to have some beer at the diner" Gojyo replied coldly. 'Who's going to stay alone in a room with a bloodthirsty monk and two sleeping sarus anyway?'. He walked through the door and passed Aiko, who's leaning against the wall next to the door. He winked at her and she returned it with a snarl. Gojyo laughed as he walked down the stairs.

Aiko could hear Gojyo's footsteps as he walked down the stairs. The sound faded away a moment later. She glanced at Hakkai and Sanzo. A golden credit card exchanged hands without Sanzo even turned his eyes from his newspaper. 'A very up-to-date monk he is, I bet he knew what's going on around the world'. Aiko smiled.

"Buy me a pack of cigarette" Sanzo ordered. He looked from on top of his gaze and found Aiko's smiling broadly at his direction. "What are you smiling at?" he gave her deadly glare. Aiko shook her hand in front of her and giggled nervously. She's not going to take the risk of having a bullet shot through her head. She smiled an innocent smile.

"Ch!" Sanzo started reading again.

"Get rid of here right away, the shopkeeper won't wait for you" Sanzo shooed them off. He's a little bit embarrassed at that smile and hid his face behind the newspaper. But Hakkai could saw that the monk is blushing.

Hakkai smiled. It was once in a blue moon to see Genjo Sanzo blushed.

"Soreja" Hakkai greeted as he softly pulled the door behind him, with Aiko's leading their way.

Sanzo put down his newspaper and gave an empty glare to the door. He sighed. Sanzo leaned his head against the wall behind him and sled an arm on his forehead. 'That girl seemed terribly familiar, but where I've seen her before?'. His eyebrows connected and his forehead distorted. He seemed to be thinking hard. Sanzo closed his eyes and fell asleep soon after that.

To be continue……

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ayie: Yare…yare…finished the chapter already.

Goku and Kazo: Yay! Yay!