Hakkai fans (as opposed to, say, […x]Hakkai[x…] fans ;)), rejoice! This fic is unadulterated Saiyuki/Hakkai fluff! It's based wholly on the anime, since I have had no experience with the manga. I hope you enjoy it, and please do R and R! I would greatly appreciate it! ^_^
YunCyn—Thank you for reviewing! I like that line of Sanzo's too, and don't worry-- Hakkai's situation will soon start looking up. Give it a chapter or two *cackle* Ow! Who threw that white dragon plushie?!
real-circus—Thank you for reviewing too! As you can see, I'm rollin', I'm rollin'!
Until Sanzo stops smoking, Gojyo gets married and Gyuumaou is chipped beef…Gensoumaden Saiyuki is not mine in any way. I only own a Saiyuki fanbook that is falling apart after only a month—Oo, and Meiryuu and Old Han are mine too!

Smile of the Father
By UltraM2000

PART TWO
IF THAT IS TRUTH:
Marashaito No Juuji

The ikkou had been driving across the land in Hakuryuu for almost the whole day now, and they had gone without lunch as well because, of all people, it was Hakkai that had wanted to make up time. Goku's stomach was growling a Beethoven concert in protest.

"Naaaaaaa Sannnnzooooooooooo…haaaara hettaaaaaa…" Goku whined hungrily.

"Shut up you noisy little idiot!" snarled Sanzo, whipping out his trademark harisen and swatting Goku over the head with it. Goku whined some more in pain and received more blows for it.

Gojyo took a last drag out of his cigarette and reached for another, only to find there wasn't another. "Crap. I'm out of cigs."

Sanzo almost couldn't hide a superior smile as he dug into his robes for his own…and his fingers closed around a completely empty box of Marlboros. "S—t. So am I."

"There's a town nearby," said Hakkai without turning from the road. He still wasn't smiling. "We could stop there for the night."

"Let's!" chirped Goku. Towns, to him, meant food, and food he certainly wanted. Then his face fell a little and he inched closer to Hakkai.

"Naa, Hakkai, are you all right? You still sound so…angry."

_Angry at myself, Goku. Not you. And I want to be left alone._


"I'm all right, Goku, no worries," Hakkai said quietly and firmly, as if more to convince himself than Goku. The youth pouted and turned away, looking crushed.

_He's keeping something secret. He knows I hate secrets! I sure hope Hakkai doesn't stay like this forever. He's the only one who treats me nice in this bunch._

_They arrived at the town within fifteen minutes; it was a small, quiet hamlet, almost a village. It had to do; the next town was a whole five hours drive away, and Goku's persistent toilet pleas, food pleas, and 'get-me-away-from-the-ero-kappa-please' pleas were wearing Sanzo (and Hakkai)'s nerves short.

The residents had never seen such a strange group before—one brown-haired youth, a monocle-wearing brunette, some blonde in monk's robes and a crimson-haired, crimson-eyed man.

Emphasis on crimson-haired and crimson-eyed. Those were the signs of a child born of union between demon and human, the taboo offspring.

"Kinki no ko!" someone yelled, and the crowd began to buzz. Tensions rose sharply, for the sentiment towards demons had grown increasingly negative since the events that had sparked off the quartet's travels.

"My, my, what a wonderful welcome. Looks like I'll have some exercise today," mumbled Gojyo, and reached for his bladed shakujou stealthily. That is, until Sanzo got out of Hakuryuu.

"Don't be so juvenile," the monk snapped, "he's just an ordinary idiot like the rest of you." The chakra on Sanzo's forehead, his robes and the sutras across his shoulders were a dead tip-off to his identity.

"Ge…Genjou Sanzou-houshi da!" exclaimed the crowd, and almost as one, they fell on their knees and began kowtowing in relief to the ever-so-holy Master Genjo Sanzo. Sanzo gritted his teeth in exasperation, a rather large vein beginning to throb on his forehead. Goku started giggling madly, and despite himself, Gojyo burst out guffawing madly. This resulted in several strikes from the harisen for both of them.

"Rise, you fools," Sanzo said crisply, shoving the harisen into his robes. "My servants…"

"Whaaaaat?! Sanzo, we're not your servants!!!"

Without missing a beat, Sanzo again bestowed the harisen's wrath upon Goku's head. "As I was saying… my servants and I are looking for provisions and a place to sleep. Anyone able to help?"

"Old Han needs some farm work done doesn't he?" someone else in the crowd interjected and the others nodded and murmured in agreement.

"What of it?" asked Sanzo.

"Sanzo-sama, the policy in our village is no work, no food. Old Han is our village chief, but he's getting on in years and his farm needs a bit of help. We usually do it for him around this time, but if you help him, he'll give you ample provisions. We're sure of it."

"You expect me to do work in the mud and the fields like a peasant?" the monk said very slowly and dangerously.

The peasants, for lack of anything else, had a lot of intestinal fortitude. "Yup. That's about the size of it. Sorry."

"Ch'…!"

Hakkai, who was standing nearby, got treated to an unexpected earful of Sanzo's profanity as he muttered away under his breath. Goku, however, was eager to please and grinned gamely. "No problem! We'll do it! We'll do it!…"

'Grrrglegrrrggllrrrg….' went his stomach.

"…But could we have something to eat first?"

--------------------

Old Han lived in a shack at the other end of town. A large shack, considering the fact he was the village chief, but still a shack all the same. Sanzo knocked on the door, and a stooped, wizened old man with flowing beard and long white eyebrows answered.

"Yes? What can I do for you strangers?" he asked.

"The villagers told us we might gain shelter at your home for tonight as well as provisions if we help you clean out your fields," Sanzo replied. "How about it?"

The bluntness of the query didn't seem to surprise Han. "It's hard work, son."

"I was afraid of that."

"Ah, no problem for strong young men like you, though. Come inside." Han let them in.

"I'm not doing the dirty work," grumbled the monk as he entered, "you lot can do it alone."

"Hey!!!" whined Goku.
"That ain't no fair, you corrupt monk," Gojyo cursed.

Hakkai sighed. Here we went again... His eyes wandered around Han's abode until his eyes fell on a table nearby. His heart skipped several beats when he saw a silver cross on a chain lying on it.

Kanan used to wear a cross exactly like it.

"That's a nice cross," Hakkai remarked nonchalantly. "Where'd it come from?"

"Oh, that?" Han asked cheerfully. "It belongs to my adopted daughter, Meiryu. She's out at the moment. I shall call her." Han shuffled off, calling "Meiryu! Meiryu, we have guests! Come and meet them!"

Hakkai picked the choker up, traced the outline of the cross in his palm with delicate touch. Uncanny. Every nick and rough patch, just as he remembered it, in the exact places they should be. No, it couldn't be.

Could it?

"Hey, 'niichan! What are you doing with my cross?!"

The rest of the Sanzo-ikkou were already almost gaping with shock when they saw the answer's face, so imagine Hakkai's surprise when he saw this six-year-old child staring back at him.

Eyes the colour of pure Eastern jade and shaped like the only two that had seen the colour of the demon-convert's soul. Hair that dark-brown, almost black colour, hair the colour of the hair that had mingled with Kanan's long tresses many a night while they were still together, with two symmetrical bangs framing her face, and falling over her eyebrows. Skin clear and fair like the hands that loved Cho Gonou's hands and held his heart with the touch of a butterfly…

This was REALLY uncanny. Even her simple dress was yellow—not exactly resembling Kanan's favourite garment, but the colour alone…

"Ah... I'm sorry," said Hakkai suddenly, handing the cross back to Meiryu, "I didn't know it was yours." A smile more from embarrassment than anything else reached up from within to touch his face, light the viridian eyes and give the old Hakkai back. She smiled back, shyly took it and slipped it over her head. In proportion to this girl's size, the choker was as good as a necklace.

"Thank you, oniichan. This was my mom's. I'm Meiryu. What's your name?"

"Me? Oh, I'm Hakkai. Cho Hakkai desu."
"That was a quick change," mumbled a very surprised Goku. Gojyo shushed him without an insult, for once.

"Cho Hakkai? Hey, you have the same name as my dad, oniichan! His name was Cho Gonou!"

In the resulting five-second long silence, you could almost hear the air molecules flying through space.

"Er…where is your father, Meiryu?"

"I dunno, oniichan. I never saw him in my life, but Han-jitchan says she really really loved him, and he really really loved her. Kaachan died after I was born. Jitchan told me."

"Yes, that's true," Han interrupted her. "I found the lass wounded and weak, and so I tried to dress her wounds and give her shelter. It didn't take long before it became clear she was with child. She told me everything about her husband. He seems
like a nice enough fellow, still don't know why she tried to kill herself for him."

Hakkai cleared his throat nervously. "Sou ka? What was her name?"

Han stroked his beard. "Hummmm. I think…it was…wait, yes, that's it. It was Kanan."

_Oh saints…_ Hakkai thought despairingly.

"Who are the rest of these people, oniichan? Are they friends?" Meiryu asked innocently, unable to detect the turmoil that was increasing within Hakkai by the minute.

"I'm Son Goku! Nice to meet you!" grinned Goku.

"Hey, little girl. I'm Sha Gojyo." This said very smoothly with the cigarette not moving an inch.

"Hi hi!" Meiryu broke into a nice big grin, not unlike Cho Gonou's. "Er…and who's the blonde monk?"

"W-h-a-t did you SAY?"

Sanzo looked fit to explode, and his forehead vein throbbed in double time, but Hakkai saved him the trouble. "That's Genjo Sanzo."

"Sanzo-houshi-sama? Wooooowwwwww…" You could almost count the stars in Meiryu's eyes. The monk resisted the growing urge to palm his forehead.

Old Han interjected at this point. "I can give you gents work, but we'll start tomorrow. Come, you all look starved. Let's have dinner."

"Whoopee!" Goku cheered.

"These oniichan are going to stay with us?" asked Meiryu.

"Yep."

"Yay! That's great!" Meiryu beamed. "Come on, Hakkai-niichan, Goku-niichan, Gojyo-niichan, Sanzo-niichan, let's go eat!"

Sanzo's feet went into motion, but it took his brain a while longer to engage. The voices around him had a somewhat floaty, distant sound to them compared to the little voice talking in his head.

_Did she just call me Sanzo-NIICHAN?!!!_

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Japanese notes

~Chan = diminutive form of 'san'.
Genjou = Sanzo's, errrr, Buddhist name?
Gyuumaou = Bull Demon, also known as Strong Buffalo.
Hara hetta = 'I'm hungry!' (Literally, my stomach is going down)
Harisen = Sanzo's (in)famous paper fan
Houshi = 'Master'
Jitchan = Shorter, cutesy form of (o)jisan, uncle, or in this case, (o)jiisan, grandfather. I saw it used in Ultra Ninja Manual by Midou Kazuhiko.
Kaachan = cutesy form of (o)kaasan, which is what you call your mother.
Kinki no ko = 'Taboo child'
(O)Niichan = cutesy form of oniisan, big brother.
Sama = Honorific form of 'san'.
Shakujou = Khakkhara, bishop's staff.