Onna: Disclaimers apply desu!
Bluejay: Wait! Wait! Just a warning!
Onna: What sort of warning?
Bluejay: Slight spoilers for manga 8! Slight though, doubt anyone would've learnt the story from what I mentioned here. Oh, and a line from the Requiem too :D
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"As you can see," Facheung continued. "Sanzo Houshi has opted to join us, as is right for someone like us."
"Like what?" Gojyo scoffed though there seemed to be a slight hesitation in his tone. "Like youkai killers? If that's the case we ought to be joining you too."
"That's not what I meant, halfbreed." Facheung spat the last word with utter disgust on his face, dark eyes smouldering with hatred. "What I meant is empathy. Our dear Sanzo-sama can hear voices of the soul. It is enough reason to say he is one of us."
"That's stupid!" Goku cut in. "Sanzo doesn't belong with you!"
"Yes, he does! What do you have to say for your own kind, youkai filth?"
"I've had about enough of being called names..." Kougaiji snarled.
"Yeah!" Lirin chimed in. "Someone ought to wash your dirty mouth! Lirin-chan kick!"
Sanzo stepped back as two of the kin moved forward to block the young youkai with their mind shields. He watched her bounce back from the unseen wall, unconcerned with the confusion in her green eyes-
"...Sanzo!"
The boy was calling him, golden eyes fearful and desperate. Sanzo could almost recall hitting the boy several times or firing his gun at the young youkai-and deliberately missing. He could recall shooting at the red-haired half-youkai beside the boy too, as well as his wanting to smash the half-youkai into a puddle numerous times. Did he...join these two in a journey...somewhere...?
"Sanzo." The third member of their group had stepped closer to him. Close enough to reach out for him.
Sanzo stared at the green-clad youkai. For a moment, the memory was clear...but it was gone as soon as it surfaced. And all he did remember was pain and the smell of his own blood when the youkai had been near him.
"Sh*t!" Sanzo jumped back and pushed at the youkai, all by instinct. The youkai was thrown to the far wall without anything touching him.
"Hakkai-san!"
"Hakkai!"
"Oi, bouzu! What do you think you're doing!"
"Don't let them near!" Humans surged to his and Facheung's sides as they mentally pushed, or hurled objects at, the youkai.
But one of them, the boy with the golden eyes, determinedly avoided the objects and struggled against what was forcing him to stay back. He had almost reached Sanzo with his arm stretched out, and all Sanzo could think was-
Oshishou-sama. And how a youkai reached out to claw away at his life.
The words came unbidden to his lips, words his master had passed on to him - and the scroll on his shoulders erupted in power.
It lasted for only a few moments, and he wasn't really in control of the divine strength that poured into him. But the sutra had done its work. The youkai that killed his master had been flung away as though they were flies to be swatted. The rest of the kin were now moving in for the kill.
But Sanzo's gaze lingered on the three youkai - or rather two and a half - the ones who chose to remain human despite their inherited strength. A familiar image sparked in his memory, of the three similarly lying motionless on the ground with their blood on his hands.
They're dead because you failed as a leader. You. Failed.
"No..." he couldn't stop himself from whispering as the mocking voice filled his ears – no, his mind. He was only hearing it in his mind.
"Sanzo-sama?" Facheung's voice. But the rest of his words were drowned by the swirl of voices.
You failed...
Koryu, the river drifter.
The reason why we're here, is because we were bored.
Something was pushing at the voices to get back. Sanzo blinked. Facheung's forehead was creased in concentration, dark gaze directed at him. He blinked again as he pushed past Facheung and grasped at the voices, searching...
Be strong, Genjo Sanzo.
I'm not strong enough.
Sanzo...
He looked up sharply. That voice. He had heard it before.
"...Sanzo..." it was just a whisper, coming from the boy several meters away. But it penetrated clear through the fog in his mind.
"Goku." He moved to take a step – but a hand clapped on his shoulder.
"We'd better leave, Sanzo-sama." Facheung's tone held a tone that brooked no arguments.
"Sanzooo..." Sannnzoooo! The boy was picking himself up from the floor, as were the others. "Doushite...?"
Sanzo...don't leave me...
Sanzo smiled grimly at the voice; half-remembered, half-heard. "Bakasaru. I can't get rid of him, can I?" He slapped Facheung's hand away.
The leader of the humans appeared to expect it as he nodded and casually withdrew his hand. "If that is your decision, Sanzo-sama. Too bad. We could have taught you more control over your empathy."
"Urusai." Sanzo replied automatically. "I don't need your help." He turned and shot Facheung, right in between the eyes.
Shocked silence heralded the body's collapse. The surviving 'kin' stared at their dead leader in disbelief.
"You...killed him." Whispered one. "After what he's done for you..."
Sanzo snorted. "Stop kidding youself. Whatever he did, he did it for himself."
"Then, you can only blame yourself," the same man mentally called a knife to him, shock giving way to rage, "for our decision!"
They surged again, with more than a handful favoring weapons over using their powers. They surrounded him as he was the closest, forcing Sanzo to alternate between kicking and diving to defend himself.
They were mere humans.
He was as strong and as fast as a youkai.
They were too many.
And the barrel of his gun was quickly drained of bullets.
A burst of red flew past him, blasting away a handful.
"Don't think...I'll forgive you...for using the sutra...Sanzo..." Kougaiji's rough voice was interspersed with pants, probably from exhaustion.
"I don't owe you anything." He retorted, finally managing to reload his gun. He shot at the remaining humans without remorse., as if they were merely youkai come to kill them. "The bakasaru might."
"Sanzoooo!!" He had to readjust his aim to keep from shooting the boy that had just landed in front of him, nyoibo sweeping an arc of felled humans at his feet.
"Arara, the one with the biggest appetite is the one who recovers first." Hakkai's voice was interspersed with chuckles as ki balls flew left and right.
"You're back to your corrupted self again, bouzu." The crescent blade of the shakujou circled around the 'kin', quickly spraying blood around until it lodged in one of the humans' bones. At that, the half-breed simply tugged at the staff in his hand and the blade retracted.
"Hn. Stupid kappa-"
"Hage Sanzo!!" Small youkai hands suddenly pressed on the monk's shoulders as Lirin's short build hurtled above and over him towards the massed humans. "Lirin-chan Kick!"
"I'm not some stool you can just jump off of, gaki!"
"Lirin-sama! Behind you!" And Sanzo had to avert his eyes from the explosive flashes that burst among the humans.
"I got this one." Kougaiji's right-hand man rushed past them, barrelling through the mass of humans with his sword before him yet deftly avoiding the white flares brightening the room. The humans fell back, their numbers dwindling.
"Tch." Sanzo held his gun upwards, not wanting to waste any more bullets when the others occupied the kin's attention.
And then, there were only a handful left standing, and these weren't even undamaged. With hand clutching at bleeding limbs or torsos, the humans stared at them, defiance still in their eyes.
Dokugakuji moved to finish them off but was held back by Kougaiji's raised hand. "Kou?"
The youkais looked to their prince as Hakkai, Gojyo, and Goku looked to Sanzo.
Kougaiji lowered his arm. "Hmp. I do not need to slaughter those who cannot even win against us." I don't need to massacre humans. These can't match up to youkai strength after all.
Sanzo snorted at that. "Don't be an idiot." He aimed his gun at the remaining humans. "We don't turn our backs on a bitter enemy and pretend the problem's solved."
"Then finish it!" As one, the rest of the humans rushed him.
Nyoibo, shakujou, and ki blasts quickly laid waste to them even before they could reach him.
The silence that dawned was suddenly deafening. Sanzo tucked his gun into his sleeve and turned to walk away. But as he passed one of the bodies scattered on the floor, he caught a tendril of thought.
One last word, Sanzo, the voice behind it was faint and weakening with each second. What Facheung gave you – gave all of us – never wears out. Now no one can help...
And the voice faded from his mind.
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Bluejay: Gaah, it took me sooooo long to finish this chapter. Work's really killing my creative side T_T
Onna: That has got to be the simplest showdown I've ever read.
Bluejay: The simpler the better, he-ey~!
Onna: *BONK!*