DISCLAIMER: I shall only own Saiyuki should a certain Gojyo cosplayer win the inaugral CosMas cosplay contest (and 'Gojyo' doesn't even know if 'Gojyo' should register because it is the first time 'Gojyo' is cosplaying)
Warning to Gojyo fans, there's quite a fair bit of Gojyo torture in here. *ducks plastic shakujous, guns, red flowers and...condoms?!*
MADDER
Akane
Do re mi fa so la ti do...
It had been some time after the piano incident, and Gojyo found himself under the fearsome tutelage of his stepmother. It turned out she had a good ear for music, and was now listening to her stepson play different scales, head to one side.
So far, so good. Gojyo felt a little more confident now, and sped up a little. Unfortunately, his finger slipped, he missed a key and the resulting jarring note made Kouka snap her head upright again and frown.
"G-gomen yo, kaasan! That wasn't on purpose! Please don't be mad!" he stammered fearfully in apology, face paling once again. Kouka glared down to see a crimson-haired figure cowering before her, trembling like a leaf. Pathetic individual. Pathetic stepson. Pathetic bastard child who could somehow play the piano with unusual skill...
_Get a hold of yourself, Kouka. _
"What's the matter with you, eh?" she snapped at Gojyo.
The reply was rather muffled, as the boy was shielding his head from any intended blows with his thin arms. "I'm sorry, kaasan. I never meant to make you angry, honest! I won't make any more mistakes! I only wanted to make you happy with my playing, because...because I never made you happy with me before," he finished in a small voice.
"...Idiot..."
"Huh?" Gojyo looked up. Kouka was squinting at him in a not entirely unpleasant manner.
"Start again, and no-more-mistakes. I mean it. Hiké! Play!" she barked.
It was more of an order than anything else, but Gojyo had never felt so eager to obey before. She had given him a chance, a rare chance. Finally.
"H-hai!"
++++++++++
"...Ying, you're a hanyou too?!" spluttered Gojyo.
"As much as you are," replied Hong Lang Ying as he tied his long crimson hair up into a ponytail. For some reason, though, he left his lopsided fringe loose, and while he looked at Gojyo with his sharply angled right eye, the left one was obscured behind a curtain of hair that flowed down to Ying's shoulder.
_Well, perhaps he was born blind,_ thought Gojyo to himself, _or he grows his hair out for the same reason I do. All the same, Shing Wei and Hong Wu seem like nice enough individuals..._ He winced involuntarily. He had a sudden urge to scratch his itching left cheek.
"Hey, Gojyo, what are ya doing? I'm going to eat your share of the food if you don't come quick!" yelled Goku.
"You wouldn't dare, monkey!" roared Gojyo, galloping towards the dining table. His thoughts were lost in the pursuit of nutrition.
++++++++++
The stars were very bright that night, Gojyo noted as he chewed the tip of an unlit cigarette. Everyone had gone straight to bed, and the whole house was silent. Unfortunately, Gojyo hadn't gone to bed earlier than ten since he was fourteen, and staying in his bedroom sleeping the night away was not his idea of how to spend the time.
The demon-hybrid looked around the room he'd been given. Smallish, but cleanly and simply furnished. Ah Ying and his family lead quite a frugal existence. Surely, the young one must have been supporting his family for some time, as he doubted Hong Wu could work properly with his crippled leg. Gojyo had caught a glimpse of it as his host had shuffled off to bed--it was thin, pale and withered looking, in stark contrast with his other three still strong, tan limbs.
There was a soft knock on the door just about then. "Gojyo-han. You in there?"
"Nope," came the quick reply. "I've jumped out the window and I'm sitting in your mom's carrot patch smoking cigarettes."
"Funny." The door opened and Ying appeared. "I came to check on all of you. Is everything all right?"
"Yes, except for one thing. What do you DO here for fun?"
"Sit in the living room and read," Ying deadpanned. He burst out laughing at the resulting disgusted expression from Gojyo. "I work to support my folks and my kid brother, Gojyo-han. Any leisure time I have, either I read or I sleep."
"You have a very weird idea of what fun is, Ying."
"So do you," came the counter. Ying laughed silently. "Sa Gojou, 'Sand Understanding Purity'. Nothing could be further from the truth--you're the horniest, dandiest individual I've ever been privileged to meet."
"Why, thank you! I'm flattered."
Ying smiled, sighed nevertheless and looked out the window. "But I think, however, you and me understand that word more deeply than anyone."
"Speak for yourself. I don't follow," Gojyo lied.
"How long has the stigma of being a hanyou existed, I wonder, Gojyo-han? We're regarded as the lowest of the low. A few notches above the itan, the heretics, and several levels below a demigod. After all, who would dare point fingers at a god's taste for 'different flavours'? The mixture of human and demon genetics, however, seems always within reach of ridicule. I don't think a human could believe that the bonds of love could extend to a species they find positively sickening. Likewise demons."
"Then, your parents...and Zhen Ji..."
Ying shook his head. "We are born from the same mother and father," he replied. "My old man knew well beforehand about his bride, and my mom and her whole family had no objections. They swore they would teach us that crimson-haired or no, we were part of this world and had a right to assert our place in it." Ying smiled wryly. "Although Zhen Ji is still too young to realise the fearful implications of his crimson eyes and hair."
"It attracts the girls all right."
"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" Ying marked dryly.
"Funny that you should hide it so thoroughly, then. I'm surprised none of the chicks swoon over you. About this evening...your ring..."
"Ah, I'm too much of a homeboy to be swooned over, Gojyo-han. And this--" he held up his ring, a twin band of silver etched with a pattern of feathery ribs-- "is a hanyou youryoku limiter. It doesn't affect your strength or genetics, but it DOES mask your eye and hair colour, which saves a lot of trouble."
"A hanyou demonic limiter? Such a thing doesn't exist!"
"Seriously. My mother is the resident limiter-smith, and she learnt the skills to make one for me so I could go out and work without having to worry about being assailed by anyone."
"Very useful."
"Very. The sunglasses and the bandanna are extra measures, you see. What I hide behind my left fringe isn't pretty."
"We all have scars, Ah Ying," Gojyo replied, tilting his head up slightly. The moonlight caught the angry scars that cut the width of his cheekbone. "Who inflicted yours?"
"Only myself, I'm afraid." Ying's eye narrowed. "I have found it hard to trust anyone since my youth," he continued softly. "Hated by humans. Shunned by demons. In this world, you may trust nobody. Trust only yourself, and you will survive." He realised how harsh his words must have sounded, and his cheeks coloured slightly. "Well," he mumbled as he pushed away from the window, "if all is well..."
"Just answer me one question. What CAN you do here for fun?" Gojyo asked casually, as if resuming the non-philosophical part of the conversation.
Ying's lips turned up in a half-smile. "How about I tell you over at the village bar? They make a great maotai liquor blend."
"Now you're talking!" Gojyo beamed, flashing his teeth in a rakish smile.
"You pay, if course."
"Ah, nuts!"
"...Nanchatte ne?" (Just kidding)
++++++++++
Gojyo was down very late for breakfast the next morning. Hakkai expressed quite a bit of concern, as his redheaded comrade was usually up by breakfast, come rain or shine, but Sanzo suggested he just drink his tea and enjoy the silence. Goku took it upon himself to finish Gojyo's share of the vittles.
"Naa, Goku-san, save some for your friend, won't you?" Zhen Ji piped up, tugging on Goku's sleeve as he guzzled a third bowl of rice porridge.
Sanzo almost got a faceful of Goku-chewed congee at that. "FRIEND?!"
"He's your enemy, then?"
"Nah. Just a convenient person to irritate."
"I HEARD that, saru. *hic*"
"Gojyo! Good morning! Are you quite...er...all...right?" Hakkai's cheerful greeting faltered as Sha Gojyo made his appearance. To put things kindly, the man was an absolute WRECK. His hair usually bore only the faintest semblance of neatness, but it was now sticking up in twenty directions from his scalp and his face was a very nasty, sickly colour.
Goku very unkindly, though not surprisingly, burst out laughing. "So that's why you were so quiet last night! You sneaked out for a drink, and now your pickled kappa face's the colour of pigeon droppings!" he guffawed. Zhen Ji quietly decided he didn't feel hungry anymore.
"He had too much to drink last night," Ying grinned as he appeared behind his fellow half-demon.
"That was your fault! *hic* You never told me the Maotai Madness was *hic* double-distilled! *hic*"
"The stronger the better, they always say in Feiyan," Ah Ying replied innocently. Gojyo tried to control the veins popping out on his forehead.
"Ah Ying, you're such a troublemaker," sighed Shing Wei. I'd better go prepare a cure for this poor lad." She got up, opened a jar of herbs and sprinkled a handful into a tumbler of goat's milk. The mixture bubbled and frothed furiously as she stirred. Gojyo felt his stomach involuntarily cower as she handed him the tumbler. "Now then, Gojyo-san, drink up. It'll take the edge off your hangover."
"I think I'd rather stick with 'hair of the dog' for a cure, thank you Shing Wei-san." The liquid was a strange, curd-like yellow.
"Nothing doing!" Shing Wei exclaimed, rapping him several times on the noggin and ignoring Goku's taunts of 'Erogappazuke! Erogappazuke!' (horny kappa pickle). "You'll pickle your poor liver that way! Goodness gracious. Now drink up. You're in no fit state to stand, let alone go to Weishan!"
Nothing left to be done. Gojyo always had been soft on the ladies, so he sat down, mustered his courage and practically chucked the whole tumbler of liquid down his throat.
"How do you feel now?"
"Somewhat sick," Gojyo replied after blinking rapidly a few times, and raced to the bathroom. Several sounds of indeterminate origin were heard as even Sanzo went a little green. Three-quarters of an hour later, a dazed-looking but not at all hung-over man exited.
"What--was--THAT?!" he spluttered.
Shing Wei smiled innocently. "What I gave to Ah Ying once to teach him the evils of drinking," she replied. "We'll just say you found out the hard way madder and goat's milk has a--a purging effect, if you like--on alcohol. In many ways."
It took a full fifteen minutes to revive Goku after he passed out laughing, another five minutes to revive him after Gojyo smacked him silly, and another three minutes to stop Gojyo spewing obscenities at Sanzo after being hit in the head with a harisen. Hakkai did not escape unscathed either. His thighs were sore for days afterwards, thanks to his slapping them repeatedly as he surrendered to helpless laughter.
++++++++++
After that rather lively breakfast show (and several bowls of plain rice porridge for the dizzy Gojyo), Ah Ying put his limiter on, tied on the electric blue bandanna, shoved his sunglasses on and went to work. They later found out he was a 'delivery boy' for a construction company, meaning he got to lug around big blocks of timber, granite and concrete for nine hours a day, six days a week. Hong Wu tended to the garden and goat, Zhen Ji helped him, and Shing Wei led the ikkou down to her basement workshop.
"Now, let's see if we can find something to facilitate your entry to Weishan," she said as she flicked on the light switch. Its pale glow fell on a table loaded with boxes and boxes of metal, crystals, soldering irons and finished limiters.
"Sugge~!" Goku exclaimed, eyes shining like miner's lamps. "This is what you do to make a living?"
"That's right, Goku-kun. I make all this limiters for clients who want them. They don't come cheap, but they look inconspicuous and they last a long time. In fact, I wear one of my own." She pointed to the choker that hung round her neck and the blue jewel set in it. They hadn't taken much notice of it until now, and Hakkai said so. That was pretty much the point of the whole thing, came the reply.
"If you've got to control your youryoku, at least you can do it in style," she explained. "First, you, Goku. Let me see your limiter." Goku shoved his fringe out of the way, and Shing Wei studied the headband for a long while, rapping on the metal and tracing its contours. At last, though, even she had to admit defeat. "I have never seen the likes of this before," she sighed. "The metal is harder than anything I've ever crafted. I don't think I have anything that could duplicate its restraining power."
"I suppose not," Hakkai admitted. "The kinko was something crafted in Tenkai (Heaven)."
"That's a new one on me. I've never heard of that town before," Shing Wei admitted. "Well, the best we can do is cover it somehow...yes, I think that'll do!" She rummaged in the boxes of metal limiters and came up with a cloth bandanna. "Perfect! Tie this round your head, Goku-kun, and put these on." She handed Goku two small, round pieces of plastic. He blinked at them cluelessly. "What are these?" he asked.
"Contact lenses. Y'know, some people believe that golden eyes are the sign of a heretic. We'll have to disguise those, too."
The demon nodded and set to work. When he had finished, he ended up looking like the Karate Kid, what with the headband having a blazing hinomaru or rising sun motif on it.
"How patriotic you look, Goku," sniggered Gojyo.
"Huh! Then, your whole HEAD makes you look even MORE patriotic!" snapped Goku. His now gold-brown eyes blazed hotly.
"Now, now, everyone, let's not fight..." Hakkai began. "We haven't even started the journey yet and OW! Why are you pulling my ear, Shing Wei-san?""
"Just checking your limiters, Hakkai-san."
"Oh. You should have given me a prior warning, though..."
"I work with this metal very often. The people around here call it gara-tetsu--glass steel. I admit it does emit a rather musical sound when struck. This will do nicely in their place." She placed a single silver ring with four smaller eye-shaped rings hanging on it in Hakkai's palm.
"An earring? Shing Wei-san, it's very pretty and all but I..."
"Better one earring than three clips," came the reply. "They'll think you have multiple piercings. And it's a clip-on."
"Right..."
"Er, Gojyo-san...I looked all last night but I couldn't find a suitable hanyou limiter. I make those to order, and I don't have any spare, although I thought I did. I'm afraid this will cause quite a bit of trouble."
"No worries, ma'am," Gojyo drawled slowly, "pay me back later. Later tonight, maybe."
Shing Wei blushed as Sanzo aimed his pistol at Gojyo's skull and muttered unprintable cuss words. "I'm a married woman, Gojyo-san! I'm afraid you'll have to use this instead." The bottle she tossed to him was deftly caught.
"What is this? Do I have to drink it...? Huh? No! AW, MAN! No way in hell are you gonna make me--!"
Sanzo snatched the bottle out of his hands and read the label aloud for the benefit of Hakkai and Goku. "Acme Brand Hair Dye. Non-drip crème formula. Colour: Midnight Black."
++++++++++
And now, review thanks...
Shaoli -- Wow! I'm glad you enjoyed the fic to such an extent. You will see many more flashbacks before this story is over. Yeah, perhaps the ice, fire, star and stone ref was a little bit obscure ^_^;; Please do work on that Goku fic u mentioned. Would love to read it!
H. Mauvecloud -- Yes, I will write more about the mother-stepson relationship (and at some point you will find out what his nightmare was) and although the Hongs' names will stay, I'll see about changing some of the other names I've planned. (See, I wanted to name Lang Ying 'Ah Ying' at first...and you have to admit Kou Aei doesn't quite have that charm...;))
L.L. Artemisan -- *takes deep breath* Goku's marker pen was shown when he draws a new, long lifeline for Hakkai in the anime ep 12 'Wandering Destiny', or manga chapter 23 'Alive'. No, Sanzo's not the last remaining one, probably *coughkamisamacoughukokucough*, but when you're not bald and you shoot demons on your way to the west, your reputation DOES precede you. Yes, that's what 'namae nante iu no' means. No, names need not necessarily be shared, right? ;)
whitesoul -- I update!
ayie -- I've translated some of the more obscure terms for you, ne? ^_^