CHAPTER 4
He was falling. Instinctively, he kicked out, a violent reflex action.
Or tried to.
Nothing happened. The falling sensation stopped, but his muscles weren't obeying him.
Wake up, he told himself. You're dreaming. Wake up!
Sanzo brushed the edges of consciousness. Opened his eyes and reached for the curtain to let the light in. Turned around and realized that he was still dreaming.
Move. Do something. His limbs felt heavy. Couldn't move. Trapped in the dividing region between awareness and sleep. Roll off the bed, he decided. That'll wake me up.
His fingers twitched, groping for the edge of the bed that should have been there. He grasped something. Pull. Slowly, his mind sending individual commands for what should have been automatic, he tried to roll over.
It wasn't working.
Danger.
Youki.
Danger.
There was danger building around him. The small hairs on the back of his neck were beginning to stand, and the tingling sensation traveled all the way down his spine.
Danger.
Panic.
Danger.
WAKE UP, DAMNIT!!!
***
"Up to a fight?" Hakkai glanced at Gojyo and Goku, who were standing beside him. Ahead lay a youkai stronghold, a heavily guarded castle.
"Ready when you are," Gojyo replied.
"They'll have arrows," Hakkai said, indicating the battlements. "I'll erect a barrier, you two break down the door and take out the guards."
"Right!" Goku said enthusiastically. Hakkai smiled briefly. After hours of pursuing the youkai, Goku was raring to go after them and spill some youkai blood.
"On my count... three, two, one.. GO!"
He flung up a barrier, covering his companions as they charged.
Goku sprang at the door, Nyoibou extended. Wood creaked and splintered as he landed.
"One last time, Goku!" Hakkai called out.
Goku paused for breath. "Yeah..." He moved back, and charged. Leapt. The end of Nyoibou came crashing down on the wood. With a groan, the entire contraption gave way.
"Well, that's the 'break' part of 'break and enter'," Gojyo remarked cheerfully. "Now let's enter."
"Look! They've even prepared a reception for us!" Hakkai observed.
Goku grinned. "Let's not keep them waiting!"
***
Sanzo snapped back to awareness. For a moment he blinked, convinced that he was still dreaming. It was as dark as before, a gray darkness, as if the sun had risen behind a thick bank of cloud. Then he realized, from the sharp outlines and the dry taste in his mouth, that he was really awake this time.
The sense of danger was fading, now that he was conscious. But the sense of youki, the sense that warned that a youkai was present, still tingled violently. He blinked again, his eyelids feeling oddly heavy.
It suddenly struck him that he was staring at the floor.
What the hell?!
He tried to move, and realized that the paralysis had followed him into waking. He couldn't even twitch a muscle. Worse, he couldn't feel a thing. Couldn't even feel the floor beneath his feet or the wall against his back. His nervous system was completely, absolutely, out of commission.
Sanzo had the sinking feeling that things weren't going well. Not at all.
***
The defence was strait. The guards were well armed and armored. And vicious fighters, every one of them. To his dismay, Hakkai found that armor absorbed part of the damage from his blasts. And quite a bit of damage from Gojyo's shaku jou.
Goku was making progress, darting in and out of the attacks and landing heavy blows. But, where his attacks would have crippled or killed an unarmored opponent, they only sent these staggering back.
"Hakkai, we have a problem," Gojyo growled.
"Yeah!" Goku seconded, sending another youkai flying backwards in a clatter.
Hakkai smiled. "Let me try something. Both of you, shield your eyes!"
There was an explosion of pure light. A brilliant glow that burned red all the way through closed eyelids and left purple spots dancing on the retina.
Then blackness.
"Goku! Gojyo! Now!" Hakkai's voice came drifting to them.
Goku snapped his eyes open, blinking slightly against the blue-green-blue motif that danced across his sight. Youkai were screaming and clutching their eyes, and between Hakkai's hands was the fading glow of a dazzling white star.
They cut through the enemy with ease after that, taking them down as they blundered blindly around. Several more guards rushed up to join the fray, but it was too little, too late.
Finally, not ten minutes after they'd broken into the fortress, they found themselves standing in a blood splattered courtyard, alone except for the corpses at their feet.
"Hakkai! What now?" Goku asked.
"Which way, more like?" Gojyo said, looking around. "This place is freaking huge. Butt ugly too. I mean, all those skulls and feathers really turn me off."
"We're not here to observe the decor," Hakkai said seriously. "We hunt around. My instinct says that we go downwards."
***
A hand captured his chin. Fascinated, he observed the sharp claws on either side of his face, wondering at the significance. Even his thoughts felt sluggish.
"How do you feel, Sanzo-sama?" a voice came, from far away. He ignored it, still engrossed in taking stock of his surroundings. Information came slowly.
He was shackled against a wall, he realized, his arms outstretched and his feet just touching the floor. There had to be additional restraints besides those around his wrist, but he couldn't feel them.
This is.. not good.
There were vertical lines in the distance. Bars. A dungeon, then. It would explain the darkness.
"Ah? No response?"
He struggled to focus his eyes on the source of the voice.
Youkai.
Dark blue hair. Intense blue eyes. Black markings on his face.
He looked.. vaguely familiar.
Sanzo worked moisture into his mouth. "...what..."
The youkai cocked his head. "I see. Humans. Faah. A little bit too much binding energy and you're paralyzed for a week. You can't feel anything, can you?"
The talons curved in. There was a pressure on one cheek, an indistinct, distant sensation. One long claw came away, tipped with blood.
"No, I thought not," the youkai said, sounding disappointed. He removed his hand, and Sanzo fought to keep his head up.
"Later," the youkai promised him. "When the bindings wear off."
"...who..." the words came out as a whisper.
"Ah? You don't recognize me?"
Sanzo narrowed his eyes in what could pass for a glare.
"I don't blame you," the youkai smiled unpleasantly. "After all, you only knew my father. Actually, seeing how fast you killed him, I'm surprised if you can even recall him."
A recent memory clicked. A mountain top. The evening sun. Another blue-haired, blue-eyed youkai, advancing towards him, sword in hand.
"Four travellers through the mountains one day, two youkai with human semblences appearing at my doorstep the next. And a powerful human priest on the other side. Coincidence? I think not." The stranger spoke first.
"Who the hell is that?" Himself, asking of Hakkai.
A pause, as gravel crunched, and the stranger came to a halt.
"Natsuji," Hakkai replied softly. "The youkai leader."
"..Nat.." His voice trailed off. Mentally, he cursed his inability to speak. But the youkai front of him nodded. "You remember, I see. I am Isir. Natsuji was my father."
Ah... that explains it.
His head sank. Darkness began creeping in around his vision.
Don't fall asleep, idiot! he railed at himself. You'll never wake up again!
A stray thought was trying to catch his attention. Something about something that he could use.. a weapon..
The Maten-Kyomen!
Panic drove the blackness back. He flicked his eyes to the right, to the left, and back again. The sutras were missing from his shoulders.
"Looking for something?" Isir said mockingly. "This, perhaps?"
He found the strength to look up. Isir held a green scroll in one clawed hand. "Mine, now. Finders keepers."
"I think not," another voice said from behind.
"Ah. We have company." Isir stowed the sutra in a pocket and turned. Sanzo strained to see beyond him. He couldn't hold off the darkness much longer. His eyelids were being dragged down, and he couldn't find the strength to stop them.
Blink, and Isir was standing in front of him.
Blink, and the youkai was gone.
There was a breath of wind, and a whisper in his ear. "We will meet again. I will have my revenge."
Blink, and the world went black.
*
Hakkai fired.
The bars of the cell shattered inwards, sending shards of metal flying. Isir dodged neatly. "I must confess that I didn't expect you so soon." He cocked his head. "How did you find us?"
"We followed you, baka," Goku replied.
"And I take it that you broke in." Isir's lip curled in disgust. "The guards must be useless."
"A pathetic bunch," Gojyo agreed. "At least they aren't alive for you to scold them."
"You look familiar," Hakkai mused.
Isir smiled thinly. "So do you."
Gojyo frowned. "Hey... haven't I seen you somewhere? Somewhere recent?"
"A cocktail party, perhaps?" Isir replied sarcastically.
"Naw... I don't go for that kind of party..." Gojyo paused in thought. "..yes, that's right. I have seen you before."
"Who is he?" Goku asked.
"Weren't you the one standing beside Natsuji that first night? The one who looked so much like him? You're his kid or something?"
"It is none of your business. Neither is this. Leave."
"Who says it isn't our business?" Goku demanded, lunging forward. Nyoibou flashed into existence in a sparkle of blue light.
Isir dodged the first swipe. "You have to be faster."
"Temee..!" Goku struck again, and missed Isir by a hair's breadth.
"Wait... I thought I killed you," Hakkai said in sudden recognition.
"Dying's a nasty experience. Thank goodness for my resident necromancers."
"You're kidding," Gojyo replied.
"But of course. It's easy to survive something as trivial as light attacks." Isir sneered at Hakkai. (Footnote)
"Well, you won't survive this!" Gojyo swung. The cresent blade of his scythe snapped out on its long chain.
"Not so easy, I'm afraid." Isir dodged again, and came to a halt behind Hakkai. "You're not attacking? You did rather well the last time, I thought."
Hakkai spun, a glowing ball of ki already in one hand. "Just waiting for the right moment," he replied, smiling. The ball shot out of his hand..
..and exploded against a wall.
Hakkai turned, expecting another attack.. but Isir was gone. He'd vanished into thin air.
"Where...?!"
"I don't know!" Gojyo replied, scanning the area. "Stay alert!"
Goku sniffed. "He's gone. He's really gone."
Laughter echoed down the corridor. "Three against one. Most unfair."
"Damnit! Stop running like a coward!" Gojyo raged.
"Your target is the priest, is it not? Take him and go. I have no use for him right now."
"You're just going to let us walk off like that?" Gojyo called. "I thought that all youkai had this big ego thing going. Can't let their enemy win and all that.."
More laughter. "It will take him a few days to recover. When he does.. I will find you. Or you will find me. And I will have my revenge."
"What revenge? What are you babbling about?" Goku snapped.
The reply was faint and distant. "..You'll see. You'll see..."
"I am.. most disappointed." Gojyo slammed the end of his scythe into the ground and glared around. "I was all looking forward to a good fight. Instead, we have to meet this wimpy, cowardly youkai who runs away."
"He's not weak," Hakkai replied. "He must be extraordinarily powerful to be able to teleport like that."
"And he's fast too!" Goku added.
"He still has the Maten sutra. One way or another, we'll have to face him again," Hakkai said seriously. "In the meantime, let's go."
They walked out, Goku carrying the unconscious Sanzo. A thin cut ran along his right cheekbone, but the priest appeared otherwise unhurt.
It will take him a few days to recover.. Hakkai frowned. Recover from what?
The place was eerily quiet as they left. After the massive fight they'd started in order to get in, after taking down almost twenty youkai guards at the front door alone, followed by another dozen guarding the dungeon.. the sudden lack of resistence was more worrying than reassuring.
They left the castle unmolested. Hakuryuu converted back into jeep form, and they piled aboard.
"I feel like we're running away," Gojyo complained. "After chasing them for almost a day, after all that trouble getting in.. getting away so easily feels like cheating."
"Don't worry about it," Hakkai replied.
"Ne, Hakkai, where are we going?" Goku asked.
"Back to the town where we stopped two days ago," Hakkai replied. "It's on the way."
"But we still haven't gotten Sanzo's sutras back," Goku pointed out.
"I know. We'll have to wait until Sanzo's recovered before we make a return. That youkai said that he'll find us... I don't think he's about to run away with them."
"What's wrong with Sanzo?" Goku asked.
"Happily sleeping the day away while we run our asses off looking for him," Gojyo said.
"I think... it's a binding spell. A very powerful one," Hakkai said carefully. "They probably overestimated how much power is required to take down a human."
"Will he be okay?"
"He'll probably be out for a day or so. But he'll be okay once it wears off."
Goku nodded. There was a pause then, the silence broken only by the whirring of jeep's engine and the whistling of the wind.
"...Isir..." Hakkai said slowly.
"Huh?" Gojyo asked.
"Isir. The youkai back there. Natsuji's son. Remember?"
Gojyo frowned and thought back.
Separated from Sanzo and Goku, he and Hakkai had found their way to a youkai encampment instead. They'd met the youkai leader, Natsuji. Only later had they been introduced to .. to.. Isir. That was it. Isir. The guy's son.
"Yeah. I remember." Gojyo shook his head. I thought that episode was over and done with. Now it seems like the past is catching up with us.
They'd all had a part to play in Natsuji's death, even if Sanzo had been the one to shoot him in the end. All four of them had battled against him, all four had been injured in one way or another by him. Alone... they couldn't have hoped to defeat Natsuji. He was that powerful.
And what about his son? As powerful? Or, heaven forbid... more powerful?
Scary thought.
*
Isir stepped amongst the bloodied corpses and stared out at the jeep accelerating away from his fortress.
Fortress... he sneered at the thought. Certainly, fortress was the wrong word when a bunch of renegades could simply barge their way in. He would have to improve the defenses. And find better guards.
"Isir-sama.. you're allowing them to leave?" Chiro asked from behind.
"I have.. plans. It's more fun this way," Isir replied. "Besides, I didn't feel like fighting."
"You could have defeated them."
"In a one-on-one battle, certainly. Three of them together.. well, it's possible, I grant you. But it wouldn't be easy. Besides... I want to split them up. I want Sanzo to feel betrayed. He hasn't had the opportunity to discuss his differences with Hakkai yet."
"What if we can't.. recapture him?"
Isir smiled thinly. "I have his sutra. He will be back. And, hopefully, the rest will not even follow this time." He glanced back at his chief of staff. "In the meantime... we have a little housekeeping to do."
"Hai."
He turned back to the road, which was empty. The Jeep was gone, and the Sanzo-ikkou was speeding back towards the town. But they would be back. At least one of them would be back.
"Revenge... does not simply entail killing your target," Isir said softly.
***
Footnote : To clear up some confusion, this particular part of the conversation is in reference to the events in the Prologue, where Hakkai injures, but does not kill Isir. Isir's not Chin Isou v2.0, just very sarcastic. (To the point of misunderstanding. *sweatdrop*. Gomen nasai.. ._.;;)
Muse : I have a disclaimer to make. I am not skimping on the action. I'm saving it for later.
Sf : The Muse is being lazy.
Muse : Am not! And, as Isir said, Sanzo hasn't had the chance to discuss his differences with Hakkai.
Sf : So stay tuned for Chapter 5 : Domestic Squabbles. XD
***
