Prelude: Shangri-La, mid-summer: Two demons, one hanyou, and a human are arrested by the subordinates of the Merciful Goddess on charges of mayhem, chaos, and general disrepute. Why would the merciful Goddess waste her time on such petty criminals?
"Sanzo Genjo, Son Goku, Sha Gojyo, and Cho Hakkai, I sentence you all to 5 years of traveling through Shangri-La and terminating corrupted humans and demons who bring hell upon the innocent."
Who knows?

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"Would you two just shut up!" snarled Sanzo, turning slightly to glare at the two in the back. Goku and Gojyo peered back at him with overly innocent faces. Sanzo sighed angrily and sunk low in his seat, glaring across the desert like a terrorist deprived of all his explosives.
"Well, someone's certainly in a foul mood," Hakkai said in his usual mellow tone. Sanzo glared at him out of the corner of his eyes.
"I've been stuck with you imbeciles for three months now," he snapped darkly. Goku and Gojyo both looked offended and were about to reply but Hakkai's chuckle stopped them.
"And we with you."
"Touché," Sanzo said grudgingly.

A few hours later, as the sun was beginning to set, the group came across a large camp in the desert. Curious, tired, and hungry, they set about seeing where they could stay for the night.
"You can stay anywhere you like if you do one thing for us," the leader of the camp said softly. He was an old man with a lot of scars and a lot of experience in his face.
"And that would be?" Hakkai asked politely. Sanzo also gave him a curious/irritated look while absently grabbing Goku so he couldn't eat the food-laden tray that had just passed by in the hands of a pretty Asian waitress.
"We have a demon that we would like terminated," the man said softly, glancing around nervously. Despite his quiet tone, apparently some people had heard, because the bar quickly went quiet.
"On what grounds?" Hakkai asked curiously. Meanwhile Gojyo and Goku were peering around curiously at the sudden quiet. Sanzo's attention was in a far corner though. The man glanced at Sanzo but turned back to Hakkai.
"Well, uh." he looked nervous, apparently he hadn't expected this question.
"Yes Mr. Larbo, on what grounds?" a cool female voice said. Hakkai, Gojyo, and Goku all looked in the direction Sanzo had been looking. Sitting in the corner with her legs crossed and her eyes narrowed was a lean young woman with long silver hair and cold, grey eyes. The man jerked and stared at her in wide-eyed shock.
"Well? The men are waiting Larbo," she said coolly. A man near her snarled and kicked her.
"Be quiet you stupid bitch," he snapped. Larbo nodded approvingly and turned back to Sanzo and the others.
"She is." he began, but he stopped when Sanzo abruptly strode over to the woman.
"Don't go over there! She's- ack!" Larbo froze when Gojyo's staff swung out in front of his throat and glared at him. Sanzo meanwhile, was kneeling next to the woman, who was watching him apprehensively.
"What's your name?" he asked quietly, looking her over. She was covered with bruises and bleeding lacerations, several of which looked infected.
"Yare," she said warily, scooting back a few paces and keeping her eyes on him. Her reaction to his closeness made him suspicious to the true depths of her abuse.
"Why do they keep you here?" he asked, motioning to the iron shackles on her wrists, ankles, and waist. She frowned slightly and cast a look at the man who had kicked her before slowly beginning to answer.
"I, well, it's because I am three-quarters demon. They apparently had a sour go around with a demon a few years back and haven't been. politely inclined towards demons since then," she shrugged slightly and looked away; Sanzo could see that she was watching him through her curtain of silver hair though. Sighing, he rose to his feet and glared at Larbo.
"I do not recall any law that says having demon blood is a crime," he snapped coolly. Larbo's face turned slightly scarlet with anger, but he said nothing.
"I suggest," Yare said suddenly, and Sanzo looked over his shoulder just in time to see her kick the feet out from under the guy who had just attempted to attack him, "that you get out of here."
"Care to come along?" asked Hakkai, punching out a man who had attempted to jump him and strolling over to where Sanzo and Yare were. Yare smiled a bit and blocked a knife that had coming flying at her with one of her shackles.
"You don't attack women without reason!" Gojyo snapped, thumping the perpetrator on the back of the head. He gave a little wave and smile before tearing into the group of humans that were coming at him.
"Man, all I wanted to do was eat." Goku whined as he grudgingly knocked out the waitress from before.
"Well, do you want to come or not?" Sanzo asked, leaving his comrades to take care of what could definitely be called the corrupted humans. Yare watched him tentatively then nodded slowly.
"Anything to get out of here I suppose." ~$~$~$~$~$~

Heeheehee! And there chapter one draws to a close! I hope you like it and I hope you don't mind that I threw in Yare. Don't worry; I plan on having some Shonen-ai yumminess in the future!
As always, please review, I do accept anonymous reviews and critiques (please note the use of the word 'critiques', flames, especially poorly dictated ones, just irritate me and give me fuel for the pig roast).