Chapter Three
"You look kinda like someone I think we know," Gojou said suspiciously. Certainly the new bather was human to the casual glance, from well-manicured feet to properly rounded ears. On the other hand, it seemed the outside of coincidence that said newcomer should be wearing collars and bangles exactly like Kougaiji, not to mention a distinct similarity of looks. Dark red hair, currently soaked to near-black, dark eyes, bronzed skin, aristocratic manner of speech . . .
"Really?" the newcomer asked, unconvincingly.
"It's a rainy night outside," Hakkai put in blandly. He was wearing his mildest and most unassuming smile. "Anyone could turn up."
"And has done," Gojou muttered. Seeing that bastard Homura loom up out of the steam like that had nearly given him a heart attack. He reassured himself with the thought that if Homura walked in on Sanzou and Gokuu like that, they'd hear the shots and shouting fast enough. "You suppose the others are here as well?" he muttered to Hakkai, sliding over in the bath so that he could put the question quietly.
"Ah." Hakkai considered. "Those others --" he nodded towards the unexpected guest in their hot water, "-- or those others?" He glanced towards the door that Homura had just departed through.
"Oh, hell." Gojou slumped back into the bath. "I only wanted a quiet evening," he added plaintively. "Beer, hot water, a smoke or two, no fucking maniacs with swords and guns and whips and sutra fixations . . ."
---
The creak of the door behind her and the sudden breath of cold air half roused Yaone from her state of delightful steam-wrapped somnolence. Dokugakuji? Kougaiji-sama? The towel wrapped round her hair obstructed her peripheral vision, and she couldn't make out who it was through the ambient fog. Embarrassed that she had been so easily taken off guard, she began to push herself upright in the bath.
A large hand slid possessively over her bare shoulder, and down across the base of her throat and onto her chest. "Konzen Douji," an unfamiliar male voice breathed in her ear. "At last . . ."
The hand paused. Squeezed. Paused again in what might have been brain-numbed shock.
Yaone exploded out of the bath in sheer fury, grabbed the bath-bucket from where she'd left it on the ground, and caught the intruder with a straight swing of the bucket to his forehead, then delivered a couple more good solid blows before he could hit the ground. Just to be sure. Her towel collapsed from round her hair, and she caught it against her body by reflex.
The stranger lay there on the ground, mismatched eyes glazed and distant. "Konzen . . . Rinrei . . . Fields of flowers . . . Rinrei . . . Konzen . . . Fields of flowers . . ." he was muttering to himself.
Yaone clasped her towel around her, and ran for it, slamming the door behind her.
---
"I'll . . . just get that wine," Kougaiji said, sliding quickly out of the bath. The situation was a little too awkward for his liking. Sa Gojou seemed to take the whole intrusion rather too seriously, while Cho Hakkai was developing a smooth smile and a glint to his eye which, for no particular reason, reminded Kougaiji uncomfortably of Nii Jieni.
"Oh, don't hurry on our account," Cho Hakkai said blandly.
He's definitely got a devious plan in mind. I must escape. Kougaiji looked around for his bathrobe, and saw it in a sodden lump on the floor, drenched by the tidal wave of his entry to the bath. No good there. He looked around quickly for other possible sources of clothing.
Aha. The clothing left by Sa Gojou and Cho Hakkai. Damp but serviceable. He rejected the tangled pile of Sa Gojou's clothes, topped by a quite implausible pair of boxers as it was, and quickly snatched up Cho Hakkai's tunic. That would do until he could find something else. Wrapping it quickly round himself, he made for the door.
"Hey, just a minute --"
He shut the door and cut off Sa Gojou's voice behind him, then blinked as Yaone came running out of the opposite bathroom and tumbled into his arms.
---
Yaone tried to simultaneously toss her long coils of sodden hair back off her face, hold her towel around her so as to maintain some standards of decency, and run without tripping over. It was, as she recognised within two steps, a lost cause. Why did I let my hair down? Why did I relax even for one moment? What kind of immoral impression must I have given the stranger who wandered in and saw me like that? Why couldn't Kougaiji-sama have walked in instead?
A stray neuron that wasn't preoccupied with the vital matters of towel manipulation and escape finally cross-connected the descriptions that she'd had of Homura, the toushin taishi who'd so recently visited the castle -- and why couldn't he have executed a bit of divine justice on Gyokumen while he was there? -- with the shackles and mismatched eyes and strong hands and deep voice of the stranger who'd attempted to take advantage of her in the bath. Though to be fair, he seemed to be looking for someone else. Who is this Konzen Douji person anyhow? And . . .
Yaone tripped over, and found herself in the arms of Kougaiji-sama. For some reason he was soaking wet, and wearing Cho Hakkai's tunic.
Perhaps I'm asleep in the bath and this is all a beautiful dream?
A door opened further down the passageway. There was a surprised squawk. The door closed again quickly.
"Konzen Douji . . ." a voice murmured from behind her bathroom door.
Kougaiji-sama heard it too. He grabbed her by the upper arm, and they both sprinted up the stairs.
---
Sanzou looked up as Gokuu reentered the bathroom, blinking. "Where's the beer?" he asked.
"Sanzou . . ." Gokuu seemed to be in shock.
"Beer," Sanzou repeated. Sometimes one had trouble getting a basic notion such as fetch me beer properly seated in the monkey's brain. "Beer, remember?"
Gokuu managed to marshal coherent speech. "Sanzou, I just saw Hakkai in the corridor, and he was doing things with this woman who looked like Yaone!"
Sanzou put one hand over his eyes. "Things?" he enquired without much hope.
"Well, she was in a towel, but it wasn't covering much, and he was holding her, and . . ."
Bathwater went in all directions as the idiot who was claiming not to be Dokugakuji rose in fury. "He was what? The scumbag! The swine! The brute! Taking advantage of an innocent --"
"The door's over there," Sanzou broke in. "Don't let it hit you on the way out."
Absolutely-definitely-no-way-Dokugakuji gave Sanzou a freezing stare. "Like monk, like companions," he muttered, stepping out of the bath and grabbing his robe.
"Hey! Is that an insult?" Gokuu demanded.
"Ask the monk," positively-not-Dokugakuji snorted, and slammed the door behind him.
"Sanzou," Gokuu asked plaintively, "was that . . ."
"No," Sanzou bit out. "Now fetch me some beer."
---
One brief bout of explanations later, Kougaiji and Yaone were searching the upstairs bedrooms. With the mysterious toushin pursuing the equally mysterious Konzen Douji downstairs, Kougaiji hoped to have a chance to find the damn sutra in relative peace and quiet.
Unfortunately, they were on the fourth room -- obviously Cho Hakkai's -- and there was still no sign of a sutra. And Yaone was not being her usual helpful self.
"Come on now," came her voice from the corner, in what Kougaiji could only term apothecary mode. "Let me see your tongue. That's a good dragon. Now cough for me -- good, good, without setting my hair on fire this time. Good boy. Good boy. Poor thing, who's got a cold then? Don't worry, Yaone nee-san will make it all better . . ."
Kougaiji deposited Cho Hakkai's tunic on the bed, or rather, the disordered remains of the bed (the search had been rather thorough) and wrapped a towel round his loins. Perhaps, he considered disconsolately, he should try sneezing and see if that got her attention.
---
Gokuu reentered. He wasn't carrying any beer.
Sanzou looked at him meaningfully, and reached for his gun.
"No, really, Sanzou, it wasn't my fault," Gokuu babbled hastily, waving his hands. "I was just bringing your beer! Straight from the fridge! And then I ran into Homura who was coming out of one of the bathrooms and he looked right at me and then he took the can of beer off me and put it against his forehead and walked off down the corridor!"
"Hnh." Sanzou considered. "Trust the moron to not know that you're supposed to drink it."
Gokuu looked at the bath longingly. "Can I . . ."
"Not till you get me another beer," Sanzou said implacably.
---
"You look kinda like someone I think we know," Gojou said suspiciously. Certainly the new bather was human to the casual glance, from well-manicured feet to properly rounded ears. On the other hand, it seemed the outside of coincidence that said newcomer should be wearing collars and bangles exactly like Kougaiji, not to mention a distinct similarity of looks. Dark red hair, currently soaked to near-black, dark eyes, bronzed skin, aristocratic manner of speech . . .
"Really?" the newcomer asked, unconvincingly.
"It's a rainy night outside," Hakkai put in blandly. He was wearing his mildest and most unassuming smile. "Anyone could turn up."
"And has done," Gojou muttered. Seeing that bastard Homura loom up out of the steam like that had nearly given him a heart attack. He reassured himself with the thought that if Homura walked in on Sanzou and Gokuu like that, they'd hear the shots and shouting fast enough. "You suppose the others are here as well?" he muttered to Hakkai, sliding over in the bath so that he could put the question quietly.
"Ah." Hakkai considered. "Those others --" he nodded towards the unexpected guest in their hot water, "-- or those others?" He glanced towards the door that Homura had just departed through.
"Oh, hell." Gojou slumped back into the bath. "I only wanted a quiet evening," he added plaintively. "Beer, hot water, a smoke or two, no fucking maniacs with swords and guns and whips and sutra fixations . . ."
---
The creak of the door behind her and the sudden breath of cold air half roused Yaone from her state of delightful steam-wrapped somnolence. Dokugakuji? Kougaiji-sama? The towel wrapped round her hair obstructed her peripheral vision, and she couldn't make out who it was through the ambient fog. Embarrassed that she had been so easily taken off guard, she began to push herself upright in the bath.
A large hand slid possessively over her bare shoulder, and down across the base of her throat and onto her chest. "Konzen Douji," an unfamiliar male voice breathed in her ear. "At last . . ."
The hand paused. Squeezed. Paused again in what might have been brain-numbed shock.
Yaone exploded out of the bath in sheer fury, grabbed the bath-bucket from where she'd left it on the ground, and caught the intruder with a straight swing of the bucket to his forehead, then delivered a couple more good solid blows before he could hit the ground. Just to be sure. Her towel collapsed from round her hair, and she caught it against her body by reflex.
The stranger lay there on the ground, mismatched eyes glazed and distant. "Konzen . . . Rinrei . . . Fields of flowers . . . Rinrei . . . Konzen . . . Fields of flowers . . ." he was muttering to himself.
Yaone clasped her towel around her, and ran for it, slamming the door behind her.
---
"I'll . . . just get that wine," Kougaiji said, sliding quickly out of the bath. The situation was a little too awkward for his liking. Sa Gojou seemed to take the whole intrusion rather too seriously, while Cho Hakkai was developing a smooth smile and a glint to his eye which, for no particular reason, reminded Kougaiji uncomfortably of Nii Jieni.
"Oh, don't hurry on our account," Cho Hakkai said blandly.
He's definitely got a devious plan in mind. I must escape. Kougaiji looked around for his bathrobe, and saw it in a sodden lump on the floor, drenched by the tidal wave of his entry to the bath. No good there. He looked around quickly for other possible sources of clothing.
Aha. The clothing left by Sa Gojou and Cho Hakkai. Damp but serviceable. He rejected the tangled pile of Sa Gojou's clothes, topped by a quite implausible pair of boxers as it was, and quickly snatched up Cho Hakkai's tunic. That would do until he could find something else. Wrapping it quickly round himself, he made for the door.
"Hey, just a minute --"
He shut the door and cut off Sa Gojou's voice behind him, then blinked as Yaone came running out of the opposite bathroom and tumbled into his arms.
---
Yaone tried to simultaneously toss her long coils of sodden hair back off her face, hold her towel around her so as to maintain some standards of decency, and run without tripping over. It was, as she recognised within two steps, a lost cause. Why did I let my hair down? Why did I relax even for one moment? What kind of immoral impression must I have given the stranger who wandered in and saw me like that? Why couldn't Kougaiji-sama have walked in instead?
A stray neuron that wasn't preoccupied with the vital matters of towel manipulation and escape finally cross-connected the descriptions that she'd had of Homura, the toushin taishi who'd so recently visited the castle -- and why couldn't he have executed a bit of divine justice on Gyokumen while he was there? -- with the shackles and mismatched eyes and strong hands and deep voice of the stranger who'd attempted to take advantage of her in the bath. Though to be fair, he seemed to be looking for someone else. Who is this Konzen Douji person anyhow? And . . .
Yaone tripped over, and found herself in the arms of Kougaiji-sama. For some reason he was soaking wet, and wearing Cho Hakkai's tunic.
Perhaps I'm asleep in the bath and this is all a beautiful dream?
A door opened further down the passageway. There was a surprised squawk. The door closed again quickly.
"Konzen Douji . . ." a voice murmured from behind her bathroom door.
Kougaiji-sama heard it too. He grabbed her by the upper arm, and they both sprinted up the stairs.
---
Sanzou looked up as Gokuu reentered the bathroom, blinking. "Where's the beer?" he asked.
"Sanzou . . ." Gokuu seemed to be in shock.
"Beer," Sanzou repeated. Sometimes one had trouble getting a basic notion such as fetch me beer properly seated in the monkey's brain. "Beer, remember?"
Gokuu managed to marshal coherent speech. "Sanzou, I just saw Hakkai in the corridor, and he was doing things with this woman who looked like Yaone!"
Sanzou put one hand over his eyes. "Things?" he enquired without much hope.
"Well, she was in a towel, but it wasn't covering much, and he was holding her, and . . ."
Bathwater went in all directions as the idiot who was claiming not to be Dokugakuji rose in fury. "He was what? The scumbag! The swine! The brute! Taking advantage of an innocent --"
"The door's over there," Sanzou broke in. "Don't let it hit you on the way out."
Absolutely-definitely-no-way-Dokugakuji gave Sanzou a freezing stare. "Like monk, like companions," he muttered, stepping out of the bath and grabbing his robe.
"Hey! Is that an insult?" Gokuu demanded.
"Ask the monk," positively-not-Dokugakuji snorted, and slammed the door behind him.
"Sanzou," Gokuu asked plaintively, "was that . . ."
"No," Sanzou bit out. "Now fetch me some beer."
---
One brief bout of explanations later, Kougaiji and Yaone were searching the upstairs bedrooms. With the mysterious toushin pursuing the equally mysterious Konzen Douji downstairs, Kougaiji hoped to have a chance to find the damn sutra in relative peace and quiet.
Unfortunately, they were on the fourth room -- obviously Cho Hakkai's -- and there was still no sign of a sutra. And Yaone was not being her usual helpful self.
"Come on now," came her voice from the corner, in what Kougaiji could only term apothecary mode. "Let me see your tongue. That's a good dragon. Now cough for me -- good, good, without setting my hair on fire this time. Good boy. Good boy. Poor thing, who's got a cold then? Don't worry, Yaone nee-san will make it all better . . ."
Kougaiji deposited Cho Hakkai's tunic on the bed, or rather, the disordered remains of the bed (the search had been rather thorough) and wrapped a towel round his loins. Perhaps, he considered disconsolately, he should try sneezing and see if that got her attention.
---
Gokuu reentered. He wasn't carrying any beer.
Sanzou looked at him meaningfully, and reached for his gun.
"No, really, Sanzou, it wasn't my fault," Gokuu babbled hastily, waving his hands. "I was just bringing your beer! Straight from the fridge! And then I ran into Homura who was coming out of one of the bathrooms and he looked right at me and then he took the can of beer off me and put it against his forehead and walked off down the corridor!"
"Hnh." Sanzou considered. "Trust the moron to not know that you're supposed to drink it."
Gokuu looked at the bath longingly. "Can I . . ."
"Not till you get me another beer," Sanzou said implacably.
---
Fanfic Page