This is my first fanfiction. All characters and references to Gensomaden Saiyuki belong to Minekura Kazuya, I take no credit for her work.
Spoilers for Gensomaden Saiyuki, Saiyuki Requiem (the Movie) and Saiyuki Reload are all likely to be present somewhere in this story.
I felt like exploring the idea of how each of the members of the Sanzo Ikkou (Sanzo traveling party) interact with the world. What do they bring to the world that effects their perceptions of it, what their perceptions imply about personal vulnerabilities, etc. I chose Hakkai's point of view for telling this story as he is among the more socially sensitive, and in addition, it's interesting to see how he's in the habit of uttering half-truths even when his only audience is himself.
While this may be a disappointment to some people, there is no Goku x Sanzo slash. If you're looking for hot man sex in this chapter, I'm afraid you'll have to keep looking. If I decide to write graphic sex, it most certainly won't be rated PG-13.
Speaking of ratings, PG-13 for violence and strong language.
====================================================================
I read about a mountain, far to the west.
It's a long distance away, but I heard the trees are older than the ones in our village. So ancient, they're gnarled and bent like old women gossiping on street corners. They say the earth lives and breathes there, Kanan. I heard it sings.
"..kkai."
It's a long road, Kanan, but won't you come with me? Someday, if I work a little harder, we could go there. Come with me, we could see it together.
"Oi, Hakkai."
On a road just like this.
"Hakkai!"
Such is my surprise that my first instinct is to laugh.
I do. And I'm apologizing in the same breath.
"I'm sorry," and laughter now has faded to an accent amused where I'm shaping words, catching up with what I'd missed in the meanderings of my thoughts. "It's only a little further and we'll be in the next town," is a guessed answer.
It is with a mental wince at the resulting silence, when at the sound only of the Jeep's rumbling down this dirt path I realize I've given the wrong answer. It would have been better to follow up the apology with 'What was that?' and risk betraying how deep in thought I'd been before my own name had pulled aside the shades to daylight. My punishment, amusing as it sounds, is that now I'm uneasy with two sets of eyes curious and another set turned away.
Gojyo, mercifully, is the first to break the confused silence.
"You fallin' asleep on us at the wheel, Hakkai? You missed the turn two miles ago."
Perhaps not so merciful. I wonder now how long they had been trying to alert me to my lack of attention.
"Hn," says the priest by my side, who only lights his cigarette. I remember the last snap of my name had been in Sanzo's voice, and that alone tells me it must have been enough attempts indeed from Goku and Gojyo to result in the priest raising his voice.
I stop the Jeep and leave my fingers cradled atop the curve of the steering wheel. "My mistake," I confess needlessly, and the next words are hardly out of my mouth before I hear Goku's stomach protest. "I thought it was a little further before the turn."
Normally, I would attempt to be as sheepish as I feel, save that I've noticed when I'm turning our ride around that Goku hasn't followed up his stomach's growling with the predictable 'I'm hungry'. I glance sideways, and catch the violet of Sanzo's gaze midway through the same wordless action.
I return my eyes to the road.
Sanzo sighs a stream of white smoke.
In this case, making use the rearview mirror instead is an idea I am eager to employ, and in it Goku's expression is hidden by the way his face is turned away from Gojyo. By the set of his shoulders, he seems tense as a child worried the roof will crash in on his head in a storm.
I'm too busy trying to surreptitiously follow the direction of his gaze that I almost miss the turn again and take it a touch more sharply than I would have liked. I should know better than to rely on the hope that Gojyo would miss the subtle; his look is so quick I can feel his gaze as surely as a palm to the back of my head. Instead, I hear, "Shit!" even as I'm slamming the brakes.
The road ahead is bathed in the blazing crimson-gold of the setting sun, poured molten between solitary mountains clustered like children around the base of a king standing tall in their midst, but this is something to our backs now, and what's changing my eyes to the same shade as Gojyo's is painting dark shadows standing in our path.
At the screech of tires kicking up gravel, the next few seconds are a chaos of sound; the Sanzo traveling party wakes at last from the lull of too much time spent in the company of familiar companions and the constant rumble of Jeep's engine.
"Huh? What's going on?"
"Tch. They've been waiting for us."
"Dammit! Can't they wait? We're almost to town!"
"Youkai?"
"Of course, you stupid monkey!"
"I'm NOT a stupid mon--"
"SHUT--"
"Genjo Sanzo! We will not let you pass!"
Silence falls on this stretch of gravel-strewn road filled with the creak of ancient trees too stubborn to give into the fate of most of the world and make this mountainous region dry and barren. Dying sunlight has made our position a spotlight of gold-red, my monocle a miniature sun.
Sanzo's supreme irritation at being cut off by an upstart demon needs no words. The thunder crack of a discharged Summoning Gun proves to the spokesman of the opposing party of youkai his fatal mistake enough.
My ear is still ringing from my proximity to the priest's firearm when I suggest as the youkai begin to comprehend just where their spokesman had suddenly disappeared off to as dust on the wind: "The timing on that one was a little off, Sanzo."
"TCH. He should know who he's talking to," irritably replies the priest, pulling back the hammer on his Summoning Gun once more. "Keep driving!"
"But they're in the way--"
"Run them over!" snaps Sanzo.
"--Gojyo, would you and Goku do the honors?" I suggest - from the sound of things, a chance for our resident kappa and saru to get out and blow off steam is an opportune one I am loath to pass by.
Besides, ramming youkai might dent the bumper. I can hear them vacating the back of the Jeep while my fingers are drifting from the driver-side door as I step out. Sanzo ignores the need to open and close doors entirely - I'm not quite sure how he manages this in robes, but he's scaled walls and rooftops wearing the same, so I'll assume there's a course for it.
In between Sutra Recitation and Buddhism Sessions.
Goku and Gojyo are in the thick of battle and, in the midst of so much flying chain, crimson has become a color alive and (bleeding) breathing where sunset's gasping out its last minutes over the fray. There are only five and that's too few for Goku to handle, let alone with a bored kappa, but I'm not too busy watching the dance of admonishment in chains that I'd fail to notice Goku's heart isn't in this.
It's in how he's flinging wide-eyed glances back the way we came instead of keeping an eye on the danger blocking our progress west. It's in how Gojyo's had to swing awkwardly to catch a charging youkai in the side in time to spare him a body check into the ground.
Sanzo hasn't fired again yet. I can't see his eyes beneath all that golden hair painted molten shades by the sun, but I know by how he tosses his cigarette away that he doesn't like what he sees.
Only an hour to our destination – a small mountainside village for news, supplies and a night's rest – and already youkai making themselves a nuisance. Gojyo may well be wrapped up in the heat of combat, but he's as confused as I at Goku's uncharacteristic preoccupation.
The only one among us who has traded in confusion for displeasure is Sanzo. Between two possibilities – this is either one of the priest's notorious moods or there is a silent understanding between he and the monkey – I'll lay my bet on previous history.
I may have inadvertently chosen a poor destination this time around, but there was no forewarning when our path had been laid out on the map in the previous town.
"Stop messing around, you stupid monkey!" bellows Gojyo as the last youkai hits the ground, shortly followed by his dismembered head. Goku blinks around at the red-haired half-youkai, who continues on with his cigarette between his teeth. "You can't be that hungry!"
The youth turns away and the sky dims to purple hues as the sun finally slips below the horizon. I know my face is betraying my own concern, because it's something I see mirrored in Gojyo's, and Sanzo's hands are tucked into the sleeves of his robes.
Goku breaks our silence when he's climbing back into the Jeep.
"…Sorry."
"Let's keep moving," comes Sanzo's quick command.
==============================================================================