The Pugilistic World

Disclaimer: This is based on Jin Yong's novel, The Return of the Condor Heroes. The plot belongs to him, as do any of his characters that appear here. The saiyuki characters that have graciously agreed to play the parts of the protagonists and antagonists and so on definitely do not belong to me. I only own the idea.

Warning: Spoilers, only for Jin Yong's novel. Probably PG. OOCness extremely likely

Pairings: Definitely Goujun/Tenpou, 58. Others may crop up as the story goes on.

Notes: Do give reviews, this is the first Saiyuki fanfiction I've posted. Plot and characterization criticism appreciated.

Chapter 1: Mulan's descendent

Goujun gazed at the sheet of paper in his hands, outwardly still and immobile, but inwardly perplexed. Every Commander must have a Field Marshal, unless he wanted to be overworked; Goujun tended to keep a slim ship, and now that his Field Marshals had retired from active duty several days ago due to physical disabilities, he was extremely short-handed.                    

So now, Commander Guo had to select a new Marshal. He had thought that such a task would have been moderately simple. Despite his stringent criteria, he was in command of one of the Four Army Divisions, the West Army to be exact, and there were hundreds of Generals to choose from. Of course, Goujun had known that a good ninety percent of said Generals had no potential of progressing further; the gap of ability and responsibilities between the posts of General and Marshal was huge, and few could make that leap. So the choice had been narrowed down to a short list of seven, and thinned to a choice of two. And that was where his mind balked.

The General Kenren was popular with his men - especially the lower ranked, Goujun thought sourly - and hence few of the masses would resent his promotion. However, Kenren had no respect whatsoever for authority or his peers. Even his fellow Generals were dissatisfied with his behaviour and conduct; they had complained of his lack of discipline, responsibility and gambling and womanizing habits, which encouraged his men to follow suit. It would set terrible precedents if Kenren were to be promoted; it may well be the first instance of a Commander killing his own Field Marshal. He was a talented General; Goujun had to admit that grudgingly, but had none of the tact and character that the position of Marshal demanded.

That left the eccentric General Tenpou. Oh, he had the qualities that Goujun demanded from his Field Marshals; he knew his place, could follow orders when it was needed, and was confident enough to politely disregard them when the situation demanded it. The thing was that no one really knew what ran behind his woolly façade; half the time one could not be sure whether he was listening, daydreaming or cooking up schemes to do the job better. And most of his weird schemes worked, to the disadvantage of the superior giving the orders. Tenpou was clever, ingenious even, and his harebrained, absent minded way of doing things did not really count against him; no, the truth was that General Tenpou needed a lesson in delegation. He certainly got things done, his way, and the one doing it had to be him. When it was not, the situation tended to go less than perfect, despite the end result working out, more or less, though hardly to his satisfaction. And Tenpou doing things personally led often to his subordinates looking much like fifth wheels at best, and severely injured trying to protect his back at worse. There was such thing as giving matters one's personal attention, but by Heaven, Tenpou took it far too literally.

Besides that, Goujun also felt that he had been favouring the eccentric General too much. Most of his Generals were straight-laced; efficient, but nevertheless book-bound, and most of them were telling him, in a round about manner, that the relatively lower ranked General needed a Lesson, or else he would be setting a dangerous precedent. And Goujun had been ignoring them. To promote Tenpou over such generals, and most of them a decade or more Tenpou's senior, was seriously asking for trouble.

But these two were his only choices; he had contemplated promoting a general from one of the other Armies and transferring him here, but that would result in friction, for the upper echelon of the Armies were notoriously tight knitted, and the new Marshal would face resentment from the generals and below, and disdain from the other Marshals, as well as disorientation. Besides, he had not seen any other general in the other Armies with the potential.

Goujun sighed. Being a Commander at such a young age - he was not yet thirty - was such a pain in the neck and he certainly had not asked for it! His predecessor had said that he had the talent, and Goujun had subsequently been skimmed through the ranks, not staying in one any longer than a year before he ended up in the position of Commander of the Western Army. And now he had a decision to make that could potentially create havoc in his Army.

Well, barring further factors, he would have to rely on his gut feeling. He had just affixed his stamp to a sheet appointment when he heard a soft knock at his door.

"Hmm?" He muttered, and the person outside took it as an acknowledgement and the door swung open and his attendant showed in another figure. The young man bowed to Goujun and showed himself out, closing the door behind him.

''Sir?''

Goujun looked up from his documents, and sighed. It would be General Tenpou, of course. Think of the devil, and the devil would come. 'What is it?" Another of his wild schemes, probably. "It's ... I mean ..." Tenpou made a soft sound and turned away from his superior.

Goujun frowned; this was the first time that he had seen Tenpou loss for words, or even not at ease. He narrowed his dark eyes as he regarded the General; he was actually fidgeting, touching his tied-back hair in a nervous manner. The problem must be big for Tenpou to act like this.

Tenpou visibly drew a deep breath and turned to him again, his face pale but determined. His green eyes appeared luminous in the afternoon light, and Goujun thought absently that he could detect a trace of fear. Amazing, thought Goujun. "Sir, I have to tell you something very important." Tenpou brushed his thick bangs out of his eyes. Goujun raised an eyebrow, questioning and just slightly curious. Tenpou's fuzzy absent-minded exterior seemed to have been discarded, forgotten and now he was sharp - nervous, but sharp. The slender General drew another breath, visibly steeling himself, and spoke in soft measured tones.

"Sir, I am a girl."

Goujun's other eyebrow rose to join its twin.

Actually, when Goujun thought about it, the revelation was not really surprising. It was an open secret among the Commanders and the higher-ranked Generals that there were a number of girls in the army - there was even a blanket pardon pardoning such girls, issued generations ago by the Emperor himself, one that had not been rescinded yet, so still applied. Such young women had their own reasons for joining the army, and most of the time they were easily spotted by attentive superiors. And they were quietly questioned; the Army tried to help them where they could, and the young women were clever - how could they not, they had planned their military career after all - they accepted what help they were offered and left before their colleagues found out.

Strange, then, that no one had voiced out officially their suspicions to him about Tenpou. He had heard the rumours that moved insidiously around in the officers' mess, of course. The Generals all had, at one point or another, pondered the possibility of General Tenpou not being what he appeared to be: his figure was Jess muscled than what one would expect from a man who practiced martial arts as often as Tenpou obviously did; he bathed less regularly than anyone else, or at least, that is what everyone noticed; the way he spoke was unfailingly polite, and surprisingly unchanged from the rough language of the other soldiers. Little clues that could have meant everything and nothing, and there was nothing about the glass mask the young talented General Tenpou wore with a glassy smile that gave anything to suspect further.

Goujun himself had seen no reason to investigate further; Tenpou was an effective officer, strange and eccentric, but still effective and he did get things done. And Goujun was a man who treasured effectiveness - the question of Tenpou's gender affected Tenpou's ability to carry out his duties little, if at all.

"Care to tell why then that you are here?" Goujun watched as Tenpou's visible astonishment at no obvious attempt for his blood manifesting was gilded over with his usual woolly blank smile. No, wait, her.

The General Tenpou that Goujun knew was back, feathers unruffled, unchanged except only in Goujun's perspective. It was strange to have to restructure his thinking as to rank Tenpou as a her, but not odd or surprising, for when Tenpou had been first presented to him to be promoted to General, 'he' had struck him as the deep type, a person with many hidden talents and secrets. Quiet waters run deep indeed.

"May I take a seat, Sir? My story is long indeed."

Goujun gestured that she may, and Tenpou seated herself in a relaxed and almost casual manner.

"Have you heard of the East Heretic, Sir?" At Goujun's nod, Tenpou nodded to herself fractionally. "I thought so; always believed that that you were involved in the martial arts world." She paused, reflectively, before beginning.

"The East Heretic is my father. My mother died when I was two; he brought me up himself. "My father had several disciples to whom he taught his skills however and whenever he taught fit. He taught skills and certain aspects of his teachings to his disciples according to his assessment of their characters.

"The only female disciple Father accepted was Mei Chao-feng; she fell in love with the second oldest male disciple. That In Itself was not wrong; especially since he loved her back as well. But both of them were more ambitious than Father had believed - they stole the manual for Father's Yi Yang Zhi, the skill that Father had refused to teach them, and fearing his anger, had fled together.

"That was when I was sixteen.

"In his fury at discovering their disappearance, Father broke the legs of his remaining disciples, leaving only the youngest - he was no more than a boy - and I untouched, before driving them all away. I admit that I was no little frightened by Father's anger, so I too stole away.

"I had many adventures; most of which is not really relevant." Tenpou's smile softened a fraction in memory. "Eventually I decided to enter the army."

"Why the army?" Goujun looked like a marble statue, pale and still, his white hair in its customary braid down his back. Goujun took strange comfort in the consistency of its weight.

Tenpou smiled beatifically. "I just wanted to try something new."

And that, considered Goujun wryly, was so Tenpou. "Well, that was an interesting chain of events." Goujun glanced at his paper and frowned marginally at it, wondering whether he was making the right decision, in the light of this revelation. "And you are telling me this because...?"

Here Tenpou's smile dimmed and the brilliant green eyes darkened. "General Kenren, sir."

Goujun's eyes shot to hers, surprised. Tenpou's mouth was a hard straight line that brooked no further questioning. "I hold nothing against General Kenren, Sir, only ..." Her voice trailed off as she shook faintly, in anger or something more, Goujun could not quite say. Her green eyes steeled and she stood again. "Are you not going to arrest me?" She asked, voice low and face hard.

Goujun regarded her, unmoved and stony. "I am still your superior, General."

"I'm sorry Sir."

He regarded her for a moment longer than passed a sheet of paper to her. He stood and paced leisurely towards the window as she scanned through the sheet quickly. He heard the faint Intake of breath as Tenpou caught the gist of the writing, and smiled inwardly.

"You are joking, Sir." Goujun turned back to assess her reaction, but saw nothing, for her eyes were hooded and blank.

"I assure you, I do not 'joke'." He tapped the sheet. "You may report to the supplies for your new uniform and to get your new room. Dismissed."

The silence had the flavour of the stunned, and a moment later she saluted him and turned sharply out of the door, fuzzy mask dropped in surprise and shock. Well, Goujun considered, that went well, and he supposed that it was best that things turned out that way.

Tomorrow he'd have to tell the new Marshal why it was that he did not arrest her.

Tenpou sat on her new bed, in her new room – she still could not quite believe that this really was true – and tried to wrap her mind around the thought that she was the new Marshal. It was so sickeningly similar to the Hua Mulan legend that Tenpou would have laughed herself if she had been told this story.

She frowned. Commander Guo had not seemed surprised beyond the first change in his expression. Had he suspected all along? She had heard the rumours, of course, and the only one she could not help was the fact that she could not bathe along with all the other men. The rest were just plain stupid, and could be attributed to anyone else. Still, if her superior had known all along, why had he not done anything? Let alone promote her over all the other Generals, like Kenren…

The thought of the redhead turned her thoughts stony again.

Kenren was her best friend, though 'had been' would have been more accurate. He had had time for a newbie in the army, even when Tenpou had muzzily told him in no uncertain terms that 'he' had no need of a nanny. And Kenren was different from all the other officers in Army; he burned with a fire of life that hurt the eyes, and yet was easy to get along with.

Nice friendly Kenren.

Best friend Kenren who had just tried to blackmail her.

The knocking at her door broke into her thoughts, and Tenpou hurriedly set her mask back on before answering the door.

"Yo."

"Kenren." Her voice was flat, dark even.

"Nice digs. Heard that you got promoted to Field Marshal." Kenren leered at her, red hair garish and far too close for her liking.

"Hm." Her gaze was stony and hard, eyes flat and opaque.

"This is even better, then, now that you're a Marshal." Kenren pushed forward, forcing Tenpou to back up. "Thought about it?"

"I do not know what you are talking about, General." Her words were dead, not even the fuzzy smile that she would pull on all the time. "And I have told Commander Guo everything, so invalidating anything that may have applied."

 "Really?" Kenren's dark eyes shone with a dangerous light, and despite herself, Tenpou backed away another step.

"Yes." Her voice was admirably steady and calm, and her thoughts were piercing in their clarity. She could take him down, right now, if she had to. She had learnt the Beating Dog skill from Old Master Hong several years ago, and she had no doubt that even with her poor skill and handling, Kenren was not her match.

"Did you offer something to him, that he'd promote you, even knowing?" He sneered. Tenpou did not answer, instead, she glared evenly at her now subordinate.

She could not entirely blame Kenren; he had found out through her own carelessness. He had taken the revelation badly – first he had accused her of not trusting him, then he… Well, for some reason, he had treated her with contempt; at first she had thought that it was his way of dealing with the information, but after she had seen the way he had dealt with the prostitute of two nights ago and a noblewoman he had met on the street, she realised an aspect of his character that she had not noticed before: he held all women in deep and heavy contempt; they were nothing but sexual objects.

And now Kenren saw her, Tenpou, his best friend, as nothing more than a whore.

Just as Kenren was about to lunge – she had already reached for one of the spears against the wall – when a sharp voice stopped them both in their tracks.

"General!"

Kenren turned, his anger and heat smouldering, even as he saluted Goujun as protocol demanded.

"I believe that there is a lot to be done, is there not, General?" Goujun's dark eyes were cold and emotionless, his tone brooking no argument.

Kenren saluted less then smartly and took himself out, his whole posture aggressive and dangerous.

Tenpou replaced the lance as Goujun walked into the room.

"He knew?"

Her smile was wry and twisted bitterly.

He fixed a glance at her; even with her face set hard and blank, she was still beautiful – it was a wonder that no one had called her to account for that fact alone.

"General Kenren is a problem that can be taken care of easily," Goujun continued evenly, his voice not betraying any of his thoughts on what Kenren had said before.

By all accounts, Kenren had been best friends with Tenpou; how had the relationship deteriorated so quickly? And so badly that Kenren could insinuate that his ex-friend would do such a thing?

Tenpou continued to gaze steadily at Goujun, not even offering him a seat, evidence that the Marshal was shaken enough to forget protocol.

"We have more important things to take care of, though." Goujun handed the silent Marshal several sheets of paper.

She scanned through them quickly, eyes narrowing as the content was quickly integrated in her mind. "So, that is what it is."

Goujun nodded and turned to leave the room.

"Sir."

He turned back to Tenpou. She smiled faintly at him.

"Thank you, Sir."