ok, i rewrote the ending of part 2, because it kinda left something out.
sorry if you found the POV confusing, gallatica!! hopefully it's a little
clearer now...so go back and eyeball that before you take a look at this
one! =)
with luck and midnight oil some more plot will happen in this chapter. as you all will have guessed, Sanzo is...not dead. how could i? ^^
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He was careful about waking up. There were times when it didn't pay to race your way back into consciousness. He could feel pain, which he expected. When you woke up without having gone to sleep, there was almost always pain. Identifying as much sensation as he could without moving, he found a throb in his left foot, a steady hot ache from his right arm, lacerations on the chest and pain when he breathed. Yes. There was definitely a broken rib somewhere.
So far, so good. He listened.
Quiet. Not the quiet of dungeons or laboratories, but the kind of quiet filled with muffled noises. The ordinary kind you get in a room when people know there is a Very Sick Person trying to recuperate because Hakkai has explained it to them.
He opened his eyes.
"Well, look who's up." Gojyo's long red hair swung into view. "And how was your nap?"
"Shut...the fuck up...and get me a cigarette," he rasped, and struggled to his elbows. His mouth felt like it had been packed in cotton wool. The request had been reflex. What he really wanted was a drink. Or four.
Gojyo's lean frame straightened up. "Nope." His voice was smug. "Hakkai's forcing me to cut down, and if I don't get my Hi-Lites, ain't _nobody_ going to get a smoke. Especially you, your wheezy holiness. Hakkai already went and mended your busted-up ribs, but he said that you managed to nick a lung, and he wasn't sure how well he healed that."
He flexed his fingers, wincing a bit. "I see he closed the cut," he said, forcing the words through his dry throat.
"Yeah, he did that even before the ribs. Said he had to stop you from bleeding to death first." Gojyo sauntered to the door, waving him back without looking.
"You can just stay right there, O Invalid-sama, whilst I fetch those concerned with your wellbeing." He looked around before he slipped out, adding, "It's about time you woke up, too. Any longer and I'dve had to shoot the monkey. But Hakkai said one gunshot at a time was enough, even for that invincible idiot."
He lay back the second the door closed. He couldn't have been out long, or Hakkai would've done a more thorough job on his injuries. One day, maybe? Two? It was hard to concentrate. His energy felt like it was draining out through his fingertips.
Even with Hakkai doing his best, they hadn't even properly recovered from the encounter with Kami-sama yet; ki was no substitute for bedrest and natural recovery. But from the look of things, that was how it was going to be as they got further West.
At this rate, in a few more weeks they'd be ambushed about once every ten minutes.
He closed his eyes at the thought, then opened them as he heard a polite knock. Hakkai, then. Goku would have hammered (he'd managed to bash a few basic rules into that thick head in their three years at the temple), while Gojyo didn't knock at all. Said it was his dearest wish to catch "Sanzo- sama" masturbating.
Just thinking of it deepened his scowl. But Hakkai had healed him and probably dragged his unconscious body back to the inn, and so gratitude was in order. Accordingly, he tried not to look too murderous as their driver and healer stepped in.
"Ah, you are up. How was your nap?"
The hell with that, he decided. "Do something about this desert in my mouth." he croaked.
"Goodness, of course you're thirsty. I do apologize," the man said cheerfully, not sounding the least bit apologetic. He turned to a pitcher that stood upon a stand near the door and poured a cup. "Oops, don't snatch--you'll make it spill."
He gulped the liquid, too thirsty to stand on dignity, and held out the cup as he wiped his lips. "More." Hakkai took the cup from him, green eyes suddenly serious. As he refilled it, he spoke, back turned.
"It was a little different this time, don't you think?"
"They were trying to kill us. What's so different about that?" He waited for the cup impatiently, while his mind turned over the words, looking for hidden meanings. The youkai had been more intelligent, more organized than he'd expected. Could they have been from a separate group? Distinct from Kougaiji and Gyokumen's clan?
Hakkai faced him. "You were in serious danger at that time." The words were calm, free of emotion. What was the man getting at?
"It's in the job description. I shouldn't have underestimated them." He was angry at himself for the oversight. He'd been so intent on looking for an attack from the other side of the stream that it hadn't occured to him that someone might have been already there.
Hakkai sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. It was a surprisingly natural gesture, one that didn't seem to fit him. Odd how you could kill a man, but leave his ghost in the body. "We all did, didn't we? Look at me."
He looked. "What's the matter? You seem unhurt."
Hakkai handed him the water. "Exactly. Gojyo and I," he emphasized the names slightly, "were totally unwounded. They didn't even come after us. The same could've been said of Goku, except--" His eyes strayed to the door. With the step of a cat, he moved to pull it open with a swift tug. A startled yelp and a tumble of limbs fell through the suddenly empty frame.
"It's alright to come in," Hakkai said with a smile, "He's not going to disappear. Ne, Sanzo?"
He snorted, and sipped at the water, letting it trickle down his aching throat.
"Ow." The boy was wearing his loose shirt, the most convenient clothing he had for whenever he needed bandages. He rubbed his elbow and looked up at Hakkai from the floor. "You didn't have to do that!" he accused.
"Weren't you eager to see how he was?" Hakkai asked sweetly, as if it were all the excuse he needed.
Goku grumbled, but crept to the bed, looking at its occupant as if he truly were afraid that Sanzo would disappear. "Naa...Sanzo...y'feelin' better?"
He didn't feel like looking at those eyes. "Of course not, you idiot. It hurts less when I'm asleep." He set the cup down and crossed his arms. "You got yourself hurt, didn't you."
Goku squirmed in place, something he could do with a minimum of actual movement. He just managed to radiate the sense that he was fidgeting madly. No amount of hitting was going to teach him how to stand still properly. "It's not like I did it on purpose," he burst out. "And besides, it's not bad."
Without a flicker on his face he reached out and belted him across the stomach.
"Ah, I wouldn't--" Hakkai said hastily, then stopped.
Goku's face had gone paler than he'd expected. For a moment it looked as if it was all he could do to stay upright.
"It was the gun, you see," Hakkai explained, hurrying over to lift the shirt and look at the bandages. "Your bullets seem to have a few special...properties."
The last instant flashed back. That youkai, facing him with his own gun in those hands. There had been a scream--an impact--and then he'd been in the dirt. A mental picture formed in his head, and he suppressed the urge to strangle the boy. Hakkai stood between them, still fussing with him.
"Look, you've started the bleeding again," he was saying with a touch of warm exasperation. "Didn't I tell you to be careful?"
"But SANZO's the one who hit me!! And just now you let me fall on the floor!"
"Ah, but that was different," and then one eye closed behind the monocle and a small web of light was closing over the growing patch of blood. He released Goku with a pat on the back. "That should hold it for now, but you must keep still. It's healing very slowly already." The last words were directed with a bit of reproach at the bed.
He wasn't about to be deterred. "You let him shoot you?? With my gun? Are you a total fool? You know that it has anti-youkai properties!"
"There wasn't any other way!" Goku shot back, stung. "He would've shot you?"
"I'm not a youkai," he retorted. "Even if he'd shot me, Hakkai could've healed me. There wasn't any need to interfere."
"Actually, that may not be true," Hakkai put in. "If he'd gotten you through the heart, or even the lungs, I may not have been able to do anything in time." Sanzo threw him a black look, and he smiled. "Try not to break your ribs again soon, Sanzo-san. We don't want the bone becoming brittle, do we?" Sounding every bit the soul of benevolence, he left the room.
The two of them stared carefully away for a moment. His fists were clenched, and he unclenched them.
"I'm going to tell you two things," he said. "And I'm not going to say them again. So listen up."
Goku's sharp little face jerked up, unwillingly.
"First," he enunciated clearly, "the gun is even stupider than you." He was grateful to the bandages. Otherwise nothing would have stopped him from looking. Was it a graze or had it been a gut wound? There was none of the stink of gangrene, but it was too early to tell.
"The bullets don't differentiate between youkai. So. Don't. Ever. Get. In. Their. Way." He looked at the defiant set of the shoulders and the thrust-out chin, and ground out between his teeth, "Even for me." The boy nodded, reluctantly. He wanted to tear out his hair. Three years of screaming and smacking and now, you could only hope he would listen.
"Second. Go get me a beer, and some cigarettes. Now." The boy blinked, and stared. "What are you waiting for? I said GO."
Goku fled. But just at the door he paused, and looked back. "I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you and get away with it," and it was a child's words and a child's voice, but with five hundred years' worth of force behind it.
Then he went.
.................................................
"Where ya goin' with all that, monkey boy?" He leaned against the hallway, long leg stuck out casually at an angle to trip.
"Outta my way, you horny toad," his younger companion muttered and leaped over the obstacle. "S'for Sanzo."
"Sanzo doesn't need a whole six-pack or two dozen smokes. Least, not as bad as I do." He made a swipe for the goods and missed, Goku having ducked away with his matchless reflexes.
The boy danced down the hall, yelling, "I'll tell Hakkai if you smoke!!"
Irritated, he snapped back, "Go ahead! He's not my wife!"
A voice said behind his ear, "And what a good thing it is, too." He whirled, hands raised defensively.
"Oi, I was just teasing, I wouldn't really have..."
"I'm sure you wouldn't," Hakkai agreed in tones of cheerful steel.
He glanced back once more as the door to Sanzo's room clicked shut. "Is he going to be ok, you think?"
"If you mean Sanzo, definitely. He just needs a little more rest, and I'll patch him up once more before we hit the road. If you mean Goku..." he trailed off, and the smile fell from his face. "Do you remember that time when he lost his limiter in the desert?"
He blew out his breath, recognizing Hakkai's style of leading questions. "I'm not about to forget it anytime soon. Too bad, too."
"Were you awake when Sanzo finally stopped him?"
He closed his eyes, tried to recall. "Don't think so," he said finally, shaking his head. "By the time I came to you were hauling us all into Jeep."
Hakkai looked down the hall to the door. "I thought he was going to use his gun. I truly did. It seemed like the only chance we had at the point, to be honest." He sighed, and Gojyo understood. He had his own failure to recount, after all. At least Hakkai had been awake that long.
"Now I know why he didn't. He may have been afraid of this."
At that, Gojyo grabbed his shoulders. "Hey! It's not that serious, is it?" His friend's face was unreadable.
"We can only hope so. I've closed off the internal bleeding and there doesn't seem to be any infection, but the wound is being slow to close. It's almost more like a burn than a bullet hole, the skin stays raw no matter what I do."
Reading the currents under the words, he relaxed his grip. "Hey, hey," he soothed. "It's not your fault. Don't worry, the brat's got a lifeline longer than the gods and he's been through worse than this. He'll be ok. Worst case scenario, he goes off his feed for a coupla days, and that don't sound so bad to me."
Hakkai laughed, a forced sound, and shrugged him off. "You're right, of course," he said with his usual cheeriness, "It's foolish for me to worry. He's at the peak of his regenerative powers, which are certainly better than any I've ever seen."
"Kids bounce," was his short reply. Unnecessary guilt aside, he wanted his cigarettes.
"You really think so?" Hakkai asked curiously. "That he's a kid?"
"Of course!" He snorted. "What else could he be?"
"Apart from five-hundred years old and a powerful youkai?" Hakkai smiled, but not mockingly. "Do you know, I wonder..."
"What?"
"...Do you think he'll grow up?"
He stopped rubbing his fingers together absently. "Dunno. He stayed young in the cave for all those years, didn't he?"
"Yes, but I wonder if that counts, or if it was merely part of his punishment." Hakkai sounded thoughtful and for a moment he imagined it, year upon year upon year of cold and loneliness and grief without even the prospect of death to take it all away. He shuddered. The brown-haired scholar went on, "It seems to me that he's gotten older even in the time since we've met."
"He certainly eats like a growing boy," he muttered, to make up for the pang of sympathy he'd felt a moment ago.
Hakkai laughed, more easily this time. "He does, doesn't he?" He turned his gaze back onto the door. It was his contemplative look, the one when he used to figure things out. Like people. The monk had a voice that blew away your doubts and when he wanted to, could use his eyes to see into your soul. But Hakkai could look and see into your mind. He was glad that he was so rarely the target of that gaze, and when he was, it wasn't looking into the parts that he feared.
He wondered if there was anything he could see into. It didn't seem like it. He couldn't even see under the smile, sometimes.
His palms itched for a cigarette.
...................................................................
He thought that someone came in and looked at him, in his sleep. But his eyelids were too heavy to lift, thanks to the drink Hakkai had given him, and before he could get ahold of the impression it had slipped away and he'd sunk back into his dreams. They were less than pleasant, and he was almost grateful when someone shook him awake.
It was dark, and he had to squint before he could make out Hakkai's face, which was looking worried. He experienced a sinking feeling in his gut.
"Sanzo-san? Have you seen Goku? He's nowhere to be found."
The door opened and threw a rectangle of wavering light on the floor. "The brat ran away," stated Gojyo, striding over. "Again." The slight grimness of his tone betrayed his anxiety. "He said he was just going out to look for food."
"It was two hours after dinner, so we believed him," Hakkai broke in. "But we've searched the town and he hasn't come back--"
"--And Nyoibu's gone," finished Gojyo in disgust. "We oughta tie a rope to that kid."
His head spun. Goku? Gone? At this time of night? There was only one reason he could have gone, and as he digested it, he heard Gojyo say something he didn't understand.
"Well, at least we know he's grown up enough to lie."
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tbc!!!! gaaahh, how many chapters will this be? i hope your interest isn't flagging yet, because the end, if in sight, is definitely way off on the horizon ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Again, sf, gallatica, Krimson, X-parrot, labrynth, thanks so much for your encouragement!!!! and sorry this chapter took so long...as i whined, i lost the first half to a thunderstorm o_0;;;;;;;;
and woohoo!!! thanks to sf and X-parrot for updating their respective works!! ganbatte minna-san!! (as for you, ultraM, makibishi wa donna mono mo yoku wakaranai kara kimi ga warukunakatta. *grin* nobody can butcher japanese like me.)
one last plea: won't someone go read my menkui fic? i know nobody's ever heard of the manga, but i'm submitting it to a contest and really wish i had some feedback...i swear if you do, i'll update faster...and thank you sooooooo much....
with luck and midnight oil some more plot will happen in this chapter. as you all will have guessed, Sanzo is...not dead. how could i? ^^
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He was careful about waking up. There were times when it didn't pay to race your way back into consciousness. He could feel pain, which he expected. When you woke up without having gone to sleep, there was almost always pain. Identifying as much sensation as he could without moving, he found a throb in his left foot, a steady hot ache from his right arm, lacerations on the chest and pain when he breathed. Yes. There was definitely a broken rib somewhere.
So far, so good. He listened.
Quiet. Not the quiet of dungeons or laboratories, but the kind of quiet filled with muffled noises. The ordinary kind you get in a room when people know there is a Very Sick Person trying to recuperate because Hakkai has explained it to them.
He opened his eyes.
"Well, look who's up." Gojyo's long red hair swung into view. "And how was your nap?"
"Shut...the fuck up...and get me a cigarette," he rasped, and struggled to his elbows. His mouth felt like it had been packed in cotton wool. The request had been reflex. What he really wanted was a drink. Or four.
Gojyo's lean frame straightened up. "Nope." His voice was smug. "Hakkai's forcing me to cut down, and if I don't get my Hi-Lites, ain't _nobody_ going to get a smoke. Especially you, your wheezy holiness. Hakkai already went and mended your busted-up ribs, but he said that you managed to nick a lung, and he wasn't sure how well he healed that."
He flexed his fingers, wincing a bit. "I see he closed the cut," he said, forcing the words through his dry throat.
"Yeah, he did that even before the ribs. Said he had to stop you from bleeding to death first." Gojyo sauntered to the door, waving him back without looking.
"You can just stay right there, O Invalid-sama, whilst I fetch those concerned with your wellbeing." He looked around before he slipped out, adding, "It's about time you woke up, too. Any longer and I'dve had to shoot the monkey. But Hakkai said one gunshot at a time was enough, even for that invincible idiot."
He lay back the second the door closed. He couldn't have been out long, or Hakkai would've done a more thorough job on his injuries. One day, maybe? Two? It was hard to concentrate. His energy felt like it was draining out through his fingertips.
Even with Hakkai doing his best, they hadn't even properly recovered from the encounter with Kami-sama yet; ki was no substitute for bedrest and natural recovery. But from the look of things, that was how it was going to be as they got further West.
At this rate, in a few more weeks they'd be ambushed about once every ten minutes.
He closed his eyes at the thought, then opened them as he heard a polite knock. Hakkai, then. Goku would have hammered (he'd managed to bash a few basic rules into that thick head in their three years at the temple), while Gojyo didn't knock at all. Said it was his dearest wish to catch "Sanzo- sama" masturbating.
Just thinking of it deepened his scowl. But Hakkai had healed him and probably dragged his unconscious body back to the inn, and so gratitude was in order. Accordingly, he tried not to look too murderous as their driver and healer stepped in.
"Ah, you are up. How was your nap?"
The hell with that, he decided. "Do something about this desert in my mouth." he croaked.
"Goodness, of course you're thirsty. I do apologize," the man said cheerfully, not sounding the least bit apologetic. He turned to a pitcher that stood upon a stand near the door and poured a cup. "Oops, don't snatch--you'll make it spill."
He gulped the liquid, too thirsty to stand on dignity, and held out the cup as he wiped his lips. "More." Hakkai took the cup from him, green eyes suddenly serious. As he refilled it, he spoke, back turned.
"It was a little different this time, don't you think?"
"They were trying to kill us. What's so different about that?" He waited for the cup impatiently, while his mind turned over the words, looking for hidden meanings. The youkai had been more intelligent, more organized than he'd expected. Could they have been from a separate group? Distinct from Kougaiji and Gyokumen's clan?
Hakkai faced him. "You were in serious danger at that time." The words were calm, free of emotion. What was the man getting at?
"It's in the job description. I shouldn't have underestimated them." He was angry at himself for the oversight. He'd been so intent on looking for an attack from the other side of the stream that it hadn't occured to him that someone might have been already there.
Hakkai sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. It was a surprisingly natural gesture, one that didn't seem to fit him. Odd how you could kill a man, but leave his ghost in the body. "We all did, didn't we? Look at me."
He looked. "What's the matter? You seem unhurt."
Hakkai handed him the water. "Exactly. Gojyo and I," he emphasized the names slightly, "were totally unwounded. They didn't even come after us. The same could've been said of Goku, except--" His eyes strayed to the door. With the step of a cat, he moved to pull it open with a swift tug. A startled yelp and a tumble of limbs fell through the suddenly empty frame.
"It's alright to come in," Hakkai said with a smile, "He's not going to disappear. Ne, Sanzo?"
He snorted, and sipped at the water, letting it trickle down his aching throat.
"Ow." The boy was wearing his loose shirt, the most convenient clothing he had for whenever he needed bandages. He rubbed his elbow and looked up at Hakkai from the floor. "You didn't have to do that!" he accused.
"Weren't you eager to see how he was?" Hakkai asked sweetly, as if it were all the excuse he needed.
Goku grumbled, but crept to the bed, looking at its occupant as if he truly were afraid that Sanzo would disappear. "Naa...Sanzo...y'feelin' better?"
He didn't feel like looking at those eyes. "Of course not, you idiot. It hurts less when I'm asleep." He set the cup down and crossed his arms. "You got yourself hurt, didn't you."
Goku squirmed in place, something he could do with a minimum of actual movement. He just managed to radiate the sense that he was fidgeting madly. No amount of hitting was going to teach him how to stand still properly. "It's not like I did it on purpose," he burst out. "And besides, it's not bad."
Without a flicker on his face he reached out and belted him across the stomach.
"Ah, I wouldn't--" Hakkai said hastily, then stopped.
Goku's face had gone paler than he'd expected. For a moment it looked as if it was all he could do to stay upright.
"It was the gun, you see," Hakkai explained, hurrying over to lift the shirt and look at the bandages. "Your bullets seem to have a few special...properties."
The last instant flashed back. That youkai, facing him with his own gun in those hands. There had been a scream--an impact--and then he'd been in the dirt. A mental picture formed in his head, and he suppressed the urge to strangle the boy. Hakkai stood between them, still fussing with him.
"Look, you've started the bleeding again," he was saying with a touch of warm exasperation. "Didn't I tell you to be careful?"
"But SANZO's the one who hit me!! And just now you let me fall on the floor!"
"Ah, but that was different," and then one eye closed behind the monocle and a small web of light was closing over the growing patch of blood. He released Goku with a pat on the back. "That should hold it for now, but you must keep still. It's healing very slowly already." The last words were directed with a bit of reproach at the bed.
He wasn't about to be deterred. "You let him shoot you?? With my gun? Are you a total fool? You know that it has anti-youkai properties!"
"There wasn't any other way!" Goku shot back, stung. "He would've shot you?"
"I'm not a youkai," he retorted. "Even if he'd shot me, Hakkai could've healed me. There wasn't any need to interfere."
"Actually, that may not be true," Hakkai put in. "If he'd gotten you through the heart, or even the lungs, I may not have been able to do anything in time." Sanzo threw him a black look, and he smiled. "Try not to break your ribs again soon, Sanzo-san. We don't want the bone becoming brittle, do we?" Sounding every bit the soul of benevolence, he left the room.
The two of them stared carefully away for a moment. His fists were clenched, and he unclenched them.
"I'm going to tell you two things," he said. "And I'm not going to say them again. So listen up."
Goku's sharp little face jerked up, unwillingly.
"First," he enunciated clearly, "the gun is even stupider than you." He was grateful to the bandages. Otherwise nothing would have stopped him from looking. Was it a graze or had it been a gut wound? There was none of the stink of gangrene, but it was too early to tell.
"The bullets don't differentiate between youkai. So. Don't. Ever. Get. In. Their. Way." He looked at the defiant set of the shoulders and the thrust-out chin, and ground out between his teeth, "Even for me." The boy nodded, reluctantly. He wanted to tear out his hair. Three years of screaming and smacking and now, you could only hope he would listen.
"Second. Go get me a beer, and some cigarettes. Now." The boy blinked, and stared. "What are you waiting for? I said GO."
Goku fled. But just at the door he paused, and looked back. "I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you and get away with it," and it was a child's words and a child's voice, but with five hundred years' worth of force behind it.
Then he went.
.................................................
"Where ya goin' with all that, monkey boy?" He leaned against the hallway, long leg stuck out casually at an angle to trip.
"Outta my way, you horny toad," his younger companion muttered and leaped over the obstacle. "S'for Sanzo."
"Sanzo doesn't need a whole six-pack or two dozen smokes. Least, not as bad as I do." He made a swipe for the goods and missed, Goku having ducked away with his matchless reflexes.
The boy danced down the hall, yelling, "I'll tell Hakkai if you smoke!!"
Irritated, he snapped back, "Go ahead! He's not my wife!"
A voice said behind his ear, "And what a good thing it is, too." He whirled, hands raised defensively.
"Oi, I was just teasing, I wouldn't really have..."
"I'm sure you wouldn't," Hakkai agreed in tones of cheerful steel.
He glanced back once more as the door to Sanzo's room clicked shut. "Is he going to be ok, you think?"
"If you mean Sanzo, definitely. He just needs a little more rest, and I'll patch him up once more before we hit the road. If you mean Goku..." he trailed off, and the smile fell from his face. "Do you remember that time when he lost his limiter in the desert?"
He blew out his breath, recognizing Hakkai's style of leading questions. "I'm not about to forget it anytime soon. Too bad, too."
"Were you awake when Sanzo finally stopped him?"
He closed his eyes, tried to recall. "Don't think so," he said finally, shaking his head. "By the time I came to you were hauling us all into Jeep."
Hakkai looked down the hall to the door. "I thought he was going to use his gun. I truly did. It seemed like the only chance we had at the point, to be honest." He sighed, and Gojyo understood. He had his own failure to recount, after all. At least Hakkai had been awake that long.
"Now I know why he didn't. He may have been afraid of this."
At that, Gojyo grabbed his shoulders. "Hey! It's not that serious, is it?" His friend's face was unreadable.
"We can only hope so. I've closed off the internal bleeding and there doesn't seem to be any infection, but the wound is being slow to close. It's almost more like a burn than a bullet hole, the skin stays raw no matter what I do."
Reading the currents under the words, he relaxed his grip. "Hey, hey," he soothed. "It's not your fault. Don't worry, the brat's got a lifeline longer than the gods and he's been through worse than this. He'll be ok. Worst case scenario, he goes off his feed for a coupla days, and that don't sound so bad to me."
Hakkai laughed, a forced sound, and shrugged him off. "You're right, of course," he said with his usual cheeriness, "It's foolish for me to worry. He's at the peak of his regenerative powers, which are certainly better than any I've ever seen."
"Kids bounce," was his short reply. Unnecessary guilt aside, he wanted his cigarettes.
"You really think so?" Hakkai asked curiously. "That he's a kid?"
"Of course!" He snorted. "What else could he be?"
"Apart from five-hundred years old and a powerful youkai?" Hakkai smiled, but not mockingly. "Do you know, I wonder..."
"What?"
"...Do you think he'll grow up?"
He stopped rubbing his fingers together absently. "Dunno. He stayed young in the cave for all those years, didn't he?"
"Yes, but I wonder if that counts, or if it was merely part of his punishment." Hakkai sounded thoughtful and for a moment he imagined it, year upon year upon year of cold and loneliness and grief without even the prospect of death to take it all away. He shuddered. The brown-haired scholar went on, "It seems to me that he's gotten older even in the time since we've met."
"He certainly eats like a growing boy," he muttered, to make up for the pang of sympathy he'd felt a moment ago.
Hakkai laughed, more easily this time. "He does, doesn't he?" He turned his gaze back onto the door. It was his contemplative look, the one when he used to figure things out. Like people. The monk had a voice that blew away your doubts and when he wanted to, could use his eyes to see into your soul. But Hakkai could look and see into your mind. He was glad that he was so rarely the target of that gaze, and when he was, it wasn't looking into the parts that he feared.
He wondered if there was anything he could see into. It didn't seem like it. He couldn't even see under the smile, sometimes.
His palms itched for a cigarette.
...................................................................
He thought that someone came in and looked at him, in his sleep. But his eyelids were too heavy to lift, thanks to the drink Hakkai had given him, and before he could get ahold of the impression it had slipped away and he'd sunk back into his dreams. They were less than pleasant, and he was almost grateful when someone shook him awake.
It was dark, and he had to squint before he could make out Hakkai's face, which was looking worried. He experienced a sinking feeling in his gut.
"Sanzo-san? Have you seen Goku? He's nowhere to be found."
The door opened and threw a rectangle of wavering light on the floor. "The brat ran away," stated Gojyo, striding over. "Again." The slight grimness of his tone betrayed his anxiety. "He said he was just going out to look for food."
"It was two hours after dinner, so we believed him," Hakkai broke in. "But we've searched the town and he hasn't come back--"
"--And Nyoibu's gone," finished Gojyo in disgust. "We oughta tie a rope to that kid."
His head spun. Goku? Gone? At this time of night? There was only one reason he could have gone, and as he digested it, he heard Gojyo say something he didn't understand.
"Well, at least we know he's grown up enough to lie."
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tbc!!!! gaaahh, how many chapters will this be? i hope your interest isn't flagging yet, because the end, if in sight, is definitely way off on the horizon ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Again, sf, gallatica, Krimson, X-parrot, labrynth, thanks so much for your encouragement!!!! and sorry this chapter took so long...as i whined, i lost the first half to a thunderstorm o_0;;;;;;;;
and woohoo!!! thanks to sf and X-parrot for updating their respective works!! ganbatte minna-san!! (as for you, ultraM, makibishi wa donna mono mo yoku wakaranai kara kimi ga warukunakatta. *grin* nobody can butcher japanese like me.)
one last plea: won't someone go read my menkui fic? i know nobody's ever heard of the manga, but i'm submitting it to a contest and really wish i had some feedback...i swear if you do, i'll update faster...and thank you sooooooo much....