Part II
First Kiss: Gojyo
Chapter 1
The jeep was carrying its four passengers into the hills on the far side of town before the sun rose behind them the next morning.
"I wish you had stayed put one more day, Sanzo. You're still walking stiffly and still pretty bruised."
"I gave you the two days you insisted on, Hakkai. Too damn much time off already. Besides, I'm not walking."
"The closer we get to Tenjiku, the more frequent the attacks are getting. And the fiercer. We don't know when we'll next have to take on Kougaiji and his gang directly, but that's inevitable. And you're in no shape to do it. We can't afford not to be in top form."
"We've got a job to do, and it's not going to get done if we keep taking pleasant little vacations every time one of us gets a bump on the head."
"Ah, but Sanzo," yawned Gojyo from the back, his long limbs sprawled across the seat, pushing Goku into a small corner on the other side. "Don't these little vacations renew your vigor? Get your limbs rested and aching for activity? If you gave us a break every day or two, think how much more we'd anticipate the pleasant little battles ahead. Feed us. Rest us. Get increased performance. Besides—" He flashed a grin at Goku. "It seems the monkey here is finally learning the knack of how to use his downtime to best advantage. But I think he could use a little more practice."
Goku seethed up from his corner, fists crashing into the man opposite him. "Shut up, you stinking kappa! And get your damn legs out of my way!" He jabbed a knee into the redhead's nearest thigh and kicked at his boots.
Gojyo moved his legs marginally toward his own side and stuck his tongue out at the younger man. Goku swatted him with one of Sanzo's old newspapers.
Before either of them could go further, Sanzo was reaching back, beating them with his fan. "Both of you shut up! It's too early for this."
Goku slapped the fan away and flounced back into his seat, sulking. Gojyo chuckled, blowing cigarette smoke his way, but got bored with the game when Goku refused to take the bait. He sprawled his legs out again as he slid down in the seat so he could rest his head on the seat back, crossed his arms over his chest, and closed his eyes to grab a little of the sleep he'd missed by coming in late and getting dragged out of bed before dawn.
"Can we make the next town before dark, do you think?" Sanzo asked Hakkai.
"Depends," said Hakkai, "on how good the roads are, how often we stop, whether we get delayed… It's far. But Hakuryuu's well rested."
Goku, already getting hungry, rummaged through the large package of food and treats Yanane and her grandmother had packed for them. Slowly chewing on a strip of dried beef, he found himself recalling the starlight reflecting in the girl's eyes as she lay on the river rock last night, her red hair falling around her face. After she had given him the package of food this morning, she had kissed her fingertips and placed them on his lips—just for a second. But her brief touch brought back the strong sensations of her mouth locked with his in last night's kiss, the overwhelming desire that his body had felt, and the hardness between his thighs that had stayed with him long after the kiss and their walk had ended.
He had had none of the dreams of the preceding night. But he had hardly slept, and he still hadn't sorted out his feelings about what had happened. Drowsing now in the quiet of the early morning, he found himself watching the breeze and sunlight play in Sanzo's hair. He recalled the feel of Yanane's hair slipping between his fingers… wondered whether Sanzo's hair would feel as silky. He felt an almost uncontrollable urge to reach up and touch it, but knew that Sanzo's fan would come down on him in a second for such an invasion of his personal space. And why? Why was he even thinking such a thing?
His gaze wandered to Gojyo and Hakkai, and he realized that the redhead was not asleep, but was studying the other man. He wondered whether Gojyo ever imagined how it might feel to slide his hands through Hakkai's hair. Wondered whether he already did sometimes. He knew Gojyo cared more for Hakkai than for anyone—no one with a brain could miss that. But was that just because they were best friends? Or because Gojyo had saved Hakkai's life?. . . Or was there something else, too? Did Gojyo feel about Hakkai the way Yanane had shown she felt about him?
The two men had lived together for three years, and neither were close friends with any women that he knew of. But then, Hakkai had never really gotten over Kanan. And Gojyo had had a lot of women. Another thought winked in and out at the edge of Goku's slumbering mind. He jerked wider awake when he latched onto it. What had Gojyo said while they were talking over dinner at the inn yesterday? Something like, "Shit, you gotta get release somewhere, idiot! Beats doing yourself if you can't get it where you really want…"
He looked at his red-haired "brother" more intently. Could that have been what he meant? Did he go with women because what he really wanted was to be with Hakkai, but Hakkai refused him? Goku closed his eyes, brow furrowed. All of this was too confusing. He wasn't sure why, but somehow he felt suddenly sympathetic toward Gojyo. He thought again of Yanane's remark that Gojyo was his brother in spirit. And somehow it didn't bother him quite so much that the half-youkai was, as usual, taking up three quarters of the back seat.
* * *
"What the hell—"
Goku and Gojyo were jarred from their half-sleep by Sanzo's expletive and Hakuryuu's sudden stop. Gojyo squinted at the sun filtering through the trees, nearly at its zenith. Noon, then. He yawned and stretched. "What gives?" he asked no one in particular.
"Looks like we'll be doing a bit of walking," their driver responded. He and Sanzo were already getting out of the jeep.
Gojyo stood and stepped over the side of the car without opening the door, his eyes following the other two men. Ahead of them, the road was blocked by fallen trees as far as they could see. "Storm damage?" he asked as he joined the others.
"Pretty selective storm," quipped Hakkai.
"Yes," added Sanzo. "Very careful to take down only trees that would block the road, and mostly large ones not easily removed."
"A trap then? Meant for us?"
Sanzo shrugged. "Seems likely. Or perhaps just a nuisance to delay us."
"I think we'd better assume the worst and be on our guard," Hakkai suggested.
"Can we backtrack? Or take a different route?" asked Gojyo.
"Not without losing the entire morning's progress. I checked the map last night. There are only two main routes from the last town to the next one, and only one or two connecting roads. We passed one hours ago. Another should be coming up, but I'm not sure when. We haven't passed many landmarks by which I could gauge our whereabouts."
"If we have to walk," Goku complained, "can we eat lunch first? I'm hungry."
"You're always hungry, baka! You've probably eaten half our lunch already!" Gojyo chided. "I saw you pulling meat and buns out of that package every time you thought we were sleeping."
"Did not!"
"Did so."
"Did not!… well, once or twice, maybe," he admitted. "I'm still hungry."
"So shut up and get the lunch box, already, bakazaru. And bring a couple beers." Sanzo took a seat on the nearest felled tree and lit a smoke as an appetizer.
Goku bounced back from the jeep with lunch and a blanket, and he and Hakkai spread the small feast. "I love picnics," he declared cheerily. "Hey, gimme that, you greedy kappa!" He made a grab for the second of two meat pies to which Gojyo had helped himself, Sanzo and Hakkai already having split the other one between themselves.
"You ate half the dried meat this morning. This is mine, " asserted the redhead.
"I did not! And it is not! Share it at least, damn it!" He reached to take it off the other's plate, only to have it whisked out of reach.
Sanzo, closest to Gojyo, took the meat pie with one hand and clapped his harisen onto Goku's head with the other. "Stop interrupting my meal with your damned fighting or the meat pie's mine."
"Stop hitting me with your stupid fan for no good reason, Sanzo!" protested Goku. "I was only trying to make him share. Why am I always the one you hit?"
"Hits me often enough," muttered Gojyo.
"Not half the times he does me." Goku glared at the blond. "I'm really getting sick of you doing that, Sanzo!"
"Whoa," exclaimed Gojyo. "The monkey stands up to the monk! This should be interesting."
"Shut up or die, kappa." Sanzo leveled his pistol at the man beside him.
Goku took the opportunity to retrieve the meat pie from Sanzo's plate. He broke it in half and handed one piece to Gojyo. "Here, Oniisan," he said with a conspiratorial wink. "Mmm. Thanks, Sanzo," he grinned, swallowing a mouthful of his own half.
Sanzo's fan came down on him again. "Bakazaru. Stop being so fucking cheerful."
The younger man grimaced. "Ow! Stop hitting me just for being cheerful. You're so crabby, Sanzo."
Hakkai silently continued his meal, a faintly amused smile curving his lips as he observed the exchange among the others.
* * *
The four men were still on foot several miles and two hours later, Goku alternately running ahead of the others, then falling back to report on the continued clutter of trees blocking their path over the next rise, and the next.
"The object appears to have been to detain us, then, rather than trap us for an attack… assuming, of course, this road blockage was meant for us at all… Sanzo—" Hakkai paused mid-sentence when he realized that the monk had dropped far enough behind that he was unlikely to hear easily. "Goku, Gojyo," he called ahead, shifting gears quickly, "I'm getting tired. I think a rest stop is in order."
To Goku's and Gojyo's expected taunts about his frailty, he replied by discreetly gesturing toward Sanzo. A shadow crossed Goku's face when he realized how pale the other man was and how much he had slowed down.
Gojyo smoothly followed Hakkai's lead in making an excuse for a break. "Well, Hakkai, if you're getting too winded to keep up with our energetic stride, I guess we'll just have to stop for you to catch your breath."
Sanzo approached them scowling. "Dawdling is not going to get us to the next town any time soon," he complained. But that was the only resistance he raised to the stop before dropping to the ground and resting against the fallen tree on which Hakkai had taken a seat.
Goku sat down cross-legged beside him, pulling the food bundle out of his pack. "Want a snack, Sanzo?"
"A drink," replied the monk. Goku passed him the canteen of water.
Hakkai eventually ventured to ask, "How's the side, Sanzo?"
The monk reflexively removed his hand from his sore rib, where he had unconsciously placed it. "Fine," he lied, as Hakkai had been certain he would.
"Must be a little sore, with the walking and climbing over tree trunks."
"A little, maybe."
Hakkai had drawn a flask from his pack. "Here, this might help," he suggested, handing it to Sanzo.
Sanzo tasted, realized it was the whiskey Hakkai kept for medicinal use when there wasn't time to brew an herbal remedy, then downed several gulps more. He handed the flask back without comment.
Hakkai knew then how much the monk's cracked rib was bothering him; Sanzo was wary enough of an attack that he wouldn't have wanted to dull his senses with the liquor if he hadn't been hurting enough to take the risk. Hakkai exchanged a pointed glance with Gojyo, who had come to the same realization. This was not good; they really needed to put the jeep back on the road before Sanzo collapsed.
"Well if you lazy bastards are rested enough… " Sanzo rose a scant twenty minutes later, the first to start walking again, the others having tacitly agreed not to push until he indicated he was ready.
Before Sanzo had a chance to shoulder his backpack, Goku grabbed it and threw it over his shoulder with his own. "What?" he asked in response to the monk's growl. "I'm not the one who needed a rest. I slept half the morning. I need a workout, and without our lunch my pack's too light to give me any exercise."
"Baka," Sanzo responded to the transparent pretext for Goku's assistance. But he didn't argue. He could move marginally faster without the load; and he knew they were already slowing their pace to match his.
Their progress was slowed further when the road narrowed to a rough trail and became steeper as it traversed a series of ravines, thickly shadowed in the late afternoon light and dimmed by the ever denser forest.
Goku dropped a few paces behind Sanzo so he could keep a more careful watch on him and adjust his pace to the monk's. He would have felt tired himself by now if his senses weren't acutely attuned to their surroundings, listening for any suspect sounds. He couldn't believe Sanzo was still standing.
It was the sudden absence of sound, however—birdsong stifled after a mad flutter of wings and the screech of a frightened squirrel—that alerted him and his companions to the impending attack. They barely had time to draw their weapons before nearly four dozen youkai dropped on them from the trees overhanging the narrow ravine.
Goku took two of them out with Nyoibou before they hit the ground, and Sanzo blasted a third with his pistol as it dropped on top of him. The monk grunted and cursed as he fell, rolled, then smashed the gun into the face of another as he regained his feet. Six more menacing creatures were closing in on him, and he could feel the breath of another pair at his back.
"Sanzo! Behind you!" Goku battered his way through four more youkai, trying to close the distance between himself and the monk, claws tearing at his face and chest, clubs raining blows on his head and shoulders. But as each one fell to his staff, another two came in its place. Nyoibou's jointed segments blurred as Goku hurled them into the faces and chests of the next pair; but before he could deliver killing blows to any others, a powerful creature double his size leaped onto him from above, clinging to his back. Long, sinuous arms locked around him in a crushing hug, pinning his arms to his sides.
Three more shots echoed in rapid succession from Sanzo's gun, felling an equal number of his attackers. But the other five were on him before he could get off a fifth shot, dragging him away from his companion as they clawed him from all sides.
Goku roared with frustration as the distance between himself and the monk widened. He cursed himself for allowing their attackers to gain a strategic advantage at the outset by dividing him from Sanzo.
From their slightly higher position some thirty feet further up the trail, Gojyo and Hakkai registered Goku's and Sanzo's plight even as they fought their way through the other half of the youkai band, which had come down between themselves and their comrades.
The shakujou's blade had already ripped through the chests or necks of four of the assassins, and Gojyo's arms and shoulders strained as he yanked in the chain and spun around to thrust the blade at another pair descending on Hakkai's back.
The green glow of ki expanded into double bursts of white fire as Hakkai released blasts from both hands, exploding the chests of two attackers. He had only seconds to let fly two more blasts as four more youkai plowed toward him, two falling to the bursts of fatal energy. With no time to recharge before the next pair hurtled into him, he wrenched hard away from one, his shoulder and fist smashing into the stomach and groin of the other. His momentum carried him over the fallen youkai, and he hit the ground rolling onto his back, his legs pulled in, ready to jam his feet into the head of the first as it recovered and sprang toward him.
Gojyo was close behind, smashing their chests with the wedge end of the shakujou staff as Hakkai dropped them. His arms seemed almost to blur with the speed and fluidity of his movement as he shifted the staff and released the chain and blade yet again toward two more demons, slicing their heavy scythes from their hands as they raised them to strike his partner.
"Down, Gojyo!!" shouted Hakkai, and even as his blade cut into the oncoming monsters, the half-youkai dropped and rolled at his partner's command. Two blasts of ki blazed over him into two more attackers that had dropped behind him from above. But as he rolled back to his feet, he lost sight of Hakkai, buried now under another half dozen youkai. Before he could react, his blood was chilled by Sanzo's tormented cry from the other end of the ravine.
***TBC***
I'm glad so many of you continue to enjoy this story. I appreciate all the reviews. Maaya, Umi-chan, Mirai aria, Naye, and Aki, thanks for your long, thoughtful comments.
Fogwolf, you asked if the Goku/Sanzo relationship might be going more in the direction of 93 than 39… for you and others who strongly care about which order the numbers are expressed, yes, you might consider 93 a more accurate representation. Without a / or x or * between them, I interpret the numeral order loosely… and personally, I like both pairs either way, so you may see a bit of both along the way.