The cards glided through Gojyo's hands as smoothly as silk, the brightly colored pieces of pasteboard moving as though they were extensions of his own person. He'd shuffled decks so often that he didn't even have to think about it anymore, his hands moved in automatic patterns that he'd long ago learned by heart. Riffle shuffle...ribbon shuffle...cut the deck...interlace the piles. The paper rectangles ticked into place against each other with a warm, satisfying sound. Gojyo grinned around his cigarette, noting that the other three players sitting around the table were watching him like hawks. Relax, guys. I'm not gonna pull any fast ones on you tonight.

Gojyo knew all the tricks of the trade, though he hardly ever used them. Certainly he had no need of them with this crowd. These guys couldn't read the flow of the game if it were spelled out in front of them in big black letters on the worn tabletop. It was a little boring...even if the growing pile of cash in front of him was nice. Still, it was just about time for him to throw another round. It wouldn't do to have these jokers getting too paranoid. There was no sense in being called a cheater just because of some lousy card-player's wounded pride.

He squared the cards, preparing to deal the next hand, when a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye attracted his attention. A couple of guys had appeared, hovering just outside the doorway to the common room. Two-bit toughs, by the look of them. Black leather jackets, ripped jeans, and lots of gaudy jewelry. The younger of the two scanned the room. He jerked a little in surprise when his gaze met Gojyo's. The older one noticed, nudged his arm and stepped back, doing his best not to look over in Gojyo's direction. The two of them headed off in the vicinity of the stairs.

Gojyo stared at the space they had vacated with narrowed eyes. He was certain he'd been the one that they'd been looking for just now, and equally certain that he'd never seen either of them before in his life. He put down the deck of cards and slid them over to his left. "I'm gonna sit out this hand. Somebody else can deal."

His words sparked a wave of protest from the other men at the table. But Gojyo only grinned as he stood up and stubbed out his cigarette. "Don't worry. I'm leaving my till with the bartender. You'll have plenty chance to win it all when I get back."

There was nobody at the front desk when Gojyo walked past it, and nobody in the corridor when he reached the top of the stairs, either. Gojyo stood a moment, contemplating the two doors that were the only ones in the inn's short hallway. It would have been nice if Hakkai had bothered to tell him the number of the room where he was staying. Gojyo stepped to the door on the right and tested the handle quietly. It was locked, of course. So was the one on the left. Oh well, Hakkai had gotten really good at smoothing things over with the owners of establishments like this, and there was a 50/50 chance of guessing right the first time. Gojyo drew his foot back, and gave the door in front of him a solid, well-placed kick.

The door swung violently open, and Gojyo stepped inside and put out a hand to stop it from coming back and hitting him as it rebounded off the wall. There were definitely people in this room. In fact it was the same two guys he'd just seen downstairs. Gojyo drew in a breath, all set to make up some loud, mock-drunk apology about loosing his keys and barging into the wrong room by accident. Then he saw the glint of long knives in their hands, and worse, the crumpled shape at their feet--the familiar white turtleneck and spill of dark brown hair fanned across the floorboards. The words promptly evaporated from his mind. What the fuck?!! Action immediately followed reaction, as Shakujou's reassuring weight materialized in his hands. "I don't think we ordered any fucking room service tonight," he said dangerously.

The younger of the men looked a little panicked. He turned to the other, and hissed in an undertone, "What do we do?"

The other man kept his eyes on Gojyo. "Doesn't matter," he said, not bothering to keep his voice down. "We're supposed to kill them both, anyway." Casually he reached up, grasping at one of the gold chains that ringed his neck. With a single jerk, he snapped the clasp, and let it fall to the floor at his feet. The younger man's eyes opened wide with shock. Then he gulped in a breath of air and yanked a gold thumb ring from his right hand.

The transformation from human to youkai took only a matter of moments. Aww, shit. I just knew it. Gojyo held Shakujou diagonally across his body as the two youkai raised their weapons and spread out to either side of him as far as their cramped quarters would allow. The younger one had stopped acting so skittish. In fact, he had begun to move with the calm certainty of one possessed.

There was something...not very sane, glittering in those dark eyes.

There wasn't enough clearance in the room to release Shakujou's chain. So Gojyo used the weapon as a pole arm instead, parrying a flurry of slashes that came in from the right and using his weapon's longer reach to keep that knife-wielding youkai at bay. But there were two of them to worry about. Motion telegraphed intent, as the second youkai leaped into the fray. His knife darted forward, cutting a diagonal slash across the front of Gojyo's black shirt as the half-youkai slid back out of reach. The near miss was sobering. These guys weren't playing around; they were seriously trying to kill him.

Shakujou sliced out, and there was a dull clatter as one of the knives spun across the floor. The disarmed youkai was hardly inconvenienced; he simply ducked inside the arc of Shakujou's blades, vicious talons extended towards Gojyo's throat. The half-youkai blocked the demon's strike with Shakujou's pole, and brought a knee up into his gut. The youkai collapsed, wheezing, and Gojyo turned quickly to deflect a knife-thrust from the other demon. At least their knives were clean. It meant they hadn't had a chance to use them before this. Gojyo doubted that he would have been able to keep a level head if they'd had Hakkai's blood all over them already. The knife-wielding youkai attacked him again, overextending himself this time. Gojyo brought Shakujou's pole down hard on the back of the demon's head, and the youkai crumpled in a motionless heap on the floor.

The remaining youkai had recovered his knife, and leaped at Gojyo with a snarl, bringing the weapon downward in a vicious arc towards the center of Gojyo's chest. The half-youkai swung Shakujou around automatically, and the demon impaled himself on the twin points of the crescent blade. Gojyo lowered the weapon, and the youkai slid to the floor, light already fading from his eyes.

Gojyo stepped over the body to the far side of the room, where Hakkai was lying prone, unmoving. Gojyo rolled him onto his back. Hakkai's face was very pale, but he was breathing and his pulse was steady. Gojyo could find no sign of any injuries except for a bruise along one cheekbone where Hakkai's head had met the floor. A quick shake to one of his shoulders did nothing to rouse him, so Gojyo slapped him lightly on the face. "Hey, it's not time to go to sleep yet, Hakkai. Wake up." But he got no hint of response.

Something was clutched tightly in Hakkai's right hand. Clutched tightly? In the fist of an unconscious person? Frowning, Gojyo reached out, hesitated a moment, then pried open the clenched fingers. Light glinted off something clear and faceted that dropped from Hakkai's hand and skittered across the floorboards.

Hakkai's eyes snapped wide open on a startled breath. In the next instant, he sat upright so fast that Gojyo had to rock backwards to avoid colliding with him. Relief flooded through the half-youkai. "Damn, don't scare me like that!"

Hakkai swayed a bit, then bent over upraised knees as his shoulders heaved with a deep, shuddering sigh. "Ah," he murmured, pressing an unsteady hand to his forehead, "that was...careless of me."

"Are you all right?"

"Yes. I think I will be in a moment." Hakkai glanced sideways, and pointed at the clear piece of crystal lying a short distance away on the floor. "Destroy that, please."

"Sure thing." Gojyo stepped over to it. With an efficient flick of his wrist, he reversed his weapon and drove the paddle-like blade of Shakujou's smaller edge down onto the small shard of rock. The quartz shattered into tiny fragments.

"Thank you." The color was starting to return to Hakkai's face now--apparently accompanied by the return of his equilibrium. He gave an apologetic smile. "It appears that I've been an inconvenience. Sorry to have interrupted your evening."

Gojyo gave a careless shrug. "Don't worry about it. The cards were starting to get boring anyway. I needed a break."

He was answered by a soft laugh. "And this was a good excuse to get some exercise?" Hakkai's gaze fell on the two bodies on the floor, one of them breathing, one of them, not, and his smile faded. "It's likely that this was how that man was abducted on his way to Chou'An."

"Yeah." Gojyo prodded the dead youkai with one foot. "I bet this is the work of a band of rogue youkai. One of those that don't believe in co-existing peacefully with humans." Crimson eyes met green as he added, "There's probably not much chance that we'll find that high muckety-muck of a monk still alive. I heard downstairs that the two guys traveling with him were already found dead a couple of days ago."

"That's unfortunate. According to the ransom demand, we should have had three more days," Hakkai looked over at the white powder that marked the remains of the crystal shard. "But it seems that these kidnappers are not very straightforward in their methods. They already knew that we were coming. They must also have known that they weren't going to be given what they demanded."

There was the sound of hesitant footsteps on the stairs, and both men looked over towards the open doorway. "We've been quiet so long that they've finally gotten brave enough to see what's going on," Hakkai observed dryly. He shot Gojyo a reassuring smile. "It's okay. I'll handle this."

The incident proved easier to smooth over than Gojyo had hoped. Apparently this wasn't the first youkai attack that had occurred in the area. Aside from the missing monk, which they had already known about, there had also been three other incidents involving kidnappings or deaths. All of them had occurred within the past month, and all of the targets had been human. It wasn't too hard to pinpoint who was behind the attacks. A group of youkai had moved into the area a short time ago, lead by some sort of youkai sorceress. They'd made their presence known by kidnapping the daughter of the town's leader, holding her hostage as insurance to prevent the town from seeking outside help. Like most groups of youkai that moved in and took control of territory like this, they demanded a tribute from the town in the form of foodstuffs and supplies. A failure to meet these requirements a few weeks ago had resulted in the murder of a handful of townsfolk, and the people here had been very careful not to do anything to make them angry ever since.

"Sounds like a familiar pattern," Gojyo commented, when they finally returned to the room later that night. The place had been cleaned and the lock on the door had been repaired. It looked like nothing at all had happened here. Even the remnants of the crystal had been carefully swept off the floor. Gojyo kicked off his boots and flopped down onto one of the beds. "Power-hungry types are pretty predictable whenever they start to set up shop in these backwater towns."

Hakkai frowned at that. "Predictable except to the point where they got a major Buddhist temple involved." He hung up his coat on the hook behind the door, and took off his shoes before walking over to the opposite bed. "Sanzo never told us what they wanted for the ransom."

Gojyo only shrugged. "Something that would give them more power, of course."

"I suppose so." Hakkai didn't look entirely convinced. "Still, it seems like a pretty bold move for people who are otherwise keeping a low profile. Even if it's something that they wanted very badly, it doesn't make a lot of sense to draw so much outside attention all at once."

Gojyo mulled that one over for a minute. "Maybe it was just an opportunity," he said at last. "High-ranking monks don't go wandering out to visit other temples every day. It could be that it was too good a chance to pass up."

Both of them slept lightly during the night, but no other assassins turned up to attack them in their sleep. The next morning they set out early. Their path was easy to follow, once it had been pointed out to them by a couple of nervous townsfolk. The way had been well worn in the snow by the repeated passage of many youkai feet.

"Gojyo," Hakkai said thoughtfully, as the town receded behind them in the distance, "how common is it for youkai to have supernatural abilities?"

Gojyo shrugged. "I dunno." They'd never had to fight a youkai magic-user on any of the jobs they'd done before, and no one in his own family had ever shown any particular magical ability. The half-youkai frowned, thinking it over. "I don't think it's very common."

"I don't think so, either."

They continued walking, and Gojyo stuck his hands in the pockets of his coat as he tried to think of any useful information that he'd ever heard about youkai magic in the past. He became so absorbed in his own thoughts that he never stopped to wonder about the thick silence that had fallen, until a passing sideways glance made him realize the reason for it. Hakkai's eyes had turned inward, and his features had become very calm. Too calm...too controlled. Gojyo knew that look. It immediately made him wonder, with a surge of unease, how many magic-using youkai Cho Gonou had faced on that rainy night nearly two years ago. He'd faced one, at the very least. Hyakugen Mao hadn't earned his name as a centipede demon for nothing.

Shit. Hakkai had seemed okay after the problem with that strange crystal. But the situation had to be bothering him a lot if he was making himself start to think about crap like that right now. Gojyo spoke up quickly, to draw Hakkai back to the current situation before he could lose him to the bottomless mire of that dark past. "So how are two guys with no magic supposed to take on a sorceress?"

Hakkai blinked a moment as if thrown off-guard by the question. Then a half-cheerful, half-embarrassed smile spread across his features, making his previous expression vanish as if it had never even been there. "Really, I have no idea."

He was getting so damn good at covering for those dark moments; it was starting to get a little unnerving. But at least he was back in the present again. Gojyo growled at him good-naturedly, and reached for a cigarette. "Ch. You're no help at all. Couldn't you say something useful, like if you see some magic coming get out of the way?"

Hakkai chuckled at that. "Sounds like good advice."

"Damn right it is." Gojyo blew out a stream of smoke into the chilly air. After a few minutes, he spoke up again, "I never had to fight a woman before. I wonder if she's cute."

Hakkai laughed lightly. "Why, Gojyo, I do believe it sounds like you're planning to charm her into surrendering."

"Nah. She's probably just some old hag, anyway." Gojyo crested the top of the next snow-covered rise, and abruptly came to a halt. "Huh? What's this?"

A strange-looking building had come into view at the bottom of the hill. It was huge, covering most of the valley floor. The entire thing was one big dome, composed of triangular plates of dark-colored glass. Gojyo would have expected the top to be covered with snow like the roofs of ordinary buildings, but the glass plates were devoid of any trace of ice or snow. They glittered like the facets of some huge gemstone in the light of the bright morning sun.

"Well, it looks like this is the place. Where do you suppose they hid the door?"

Hakkai, however, wasn't looking at the dome. Instead he was glancing to the left of them, at one of the two groves of evergreen trees that bracketed the top of the rise. "I'm afraid we'll have to worry about it later," he observed in a level voice. "It appears that our approach has been noticed." Gojyo followed the direction of his gaze, and saw dark shapes starting to move out from the shadows and into the sun.

"Nice hosts, to send such a welcoming party," Gojyo said. He felt an anticipatory grin spread across his features, and he flicked the remaining end of his cigarette down into the snow. "I guess it's about time we go over an introduce ourselves in person."

+++++

A/N: I'll try and keep this brief, so that the notes don't get to be longer than the story. *bows* Sincere thanks to all the kind people who have left reviews. Zimus, SeaGull, and Chiefraz: Glad you like the premise. The subject of how certain characters got their weapons/abilities certainly isn't new in fanfic--but hopefully this little fic will offer a little bit of a different perspective from the creative works of others. Black-ocean, Attiquah Gensui: I hope you didn't get too impatient waiting for the next part! UltraM2000: *laugh* No fair! You were over there when Reload 3 came out! Oh well, air-mail is a wonderful thing. -_^ ...And you're perceptive as always at discerning the direction of the plot. RaichuTec, Nightfall Rising: This chapter was definitely next on my project list. Unfortunately it doesn't have nearly as interesting a cliffhanger as chapter one. YunCyn, krimson: Those are wonderful comments. Thanks so much for the feedback! Blades of Ice: Glad the story captures your interest. That you'd consider making up a chapter of your own while waiting for the next part is quite a compliment. ^_^ Thanks for reading, everyone! -V