Title: Finding the Sun
Author: AznSage
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.
Pairings: Goku+Konzen/Konzen+Goku
Rating: PG
Note: Goku POV. Whee for war and Gaiden deviation.
Konzen had volunteered to take me to Nataku's room on the other side of Tenkai. He had said it was to keep certain perverts from trying to make a move on me. Who was I to question the reasoning behind Konzen's decisions?
I was Son Goku, that's who. The reader of the minds of pissy, blond deities. The possessor of the soul of a being that could crush Tenkai under my fingertips if I wished it so. The bringer of the rain of blood.
...
Where had that come from?
I shook my head to try and lose these thoughts, but failed miserably in doing so, falling to my knees haphazardly in the process. I could hear Konzen again, who all of a sudden was by my side and in my head, screaming questions to find out what was going on.
"Goku!"
Asking what he could do to help.
"Goku!"
Pondering what would happen if I collapsed right here, right now.
"GOKU!!"
Fearing everything that was to come.
Slowly, I peeled my eyes open to see his pale face again. Speaking wasn't exactly the best idea right now, as haggard breathes were all that I could manage in between struggles to try and make my voice work. His violet eyes were wild, I imagine as wild as my own were. I could see my own reflection in his eyes, thanks to the bare distance between the two of us and my ability of sight having been multiplied by so much from this sudden...jolt within me. I could feel his warmth upon me, gradually reminding me of who I was, breathing life back into me. The hyperventilating stopped eventually and we just sat there for what seemed like an eternity, him on his knees with me in his arms. The strange tap into the unknown within me was slowly dying down and I heard a relieved sigh, but I did not know whether it came from him, me, or his voice in my mind.
"Are you going to sit there all day or actually go visit Nataku Taishi, Konzen Douji?" A new voice broke the silence between us and we simultaneously swiveled our heads to see who it was.
"Homura!" Beside me, I heard a low growl.
"Well well, isn't this a pleasant way for me to find you, my dear boy." He leered at Konzen in that manner that only he could manage to hold without seeming insulting. "Such a...compromising position. I wonder what Kannon-sama would say about it."
"Fuck off, Homura." Konzen picked me up carefully, then slowly got up and brushed off his own pristine clothing. "And how did you know that we were going to visit Nataku?"
"Oh, a little bird wearing a lab coat told me." He turned his attention to me this time and smiled. "You know Goku, it wouldn't be much of a visit if you didn't bring Nataku some flowers." He produced a large boquet from seemingly nowhere and handed smoothly to me.
"Oh! But then what about you?"
"I don't know the kid that well myself. Take 'em. Tenkai's littered with them. I'm sure if they came from your hands though he'd be happy."
"Ah! Sankyuu, Homura!" I smiled at him in thanks and he returned a fond look at me. "Would you like to join us in visiting Nataku?"
"Well, I wouldn't want to intrude on a private moment..."
"Nah, that's alright! Huh Konzen? Can he come with us? Can he? Can he? Please please please?" I jumped up and down to try and emphasize my point, which seemed to give Konzen a headache.
"Alright already! Damnit, just stop jumping around!" He placed his hands firmly on my shoulders to stop me from moving and looked at me annoyed but I just smiled back. Homura chuckled and sent him an odd look.
"Oh~ So the great Konzen Douji can't even control his pet without having to resort to physical means? For shame." To top it off, he gave an amused looked and wagged his finger at Konzen.
Konzen growled at him and then pounced at him with his full fury. "Damnit Homura!" His hands went straight for the throat but Homura ducked out of the way just in time and, in the next moment, appeared at my side and smirked.
"Looks like I win this time, Konzen Douji. I don't know what you think strangling me can accomplish, but I have your monkey and you can't do anything about it." He turned to me again and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "Come, Goku, we shall go visit Nataku."
The walk to Nataku's room was rather uneventful. The chat with Homura was pleasant and taught me quite a few things, but there was just this little thought in the back of my mind that kept gnawing at me. Konzen had not tried to take me back from Homura after that travesty of an attack and for some reason it hurt and I could not comprehend why. I bit my lower lip with worry over what I should do, a sign that Homura took to easily since I had not replied to his comment for a while already.
"What's wrong, Goku?"
"Well...it's just that Konzen's so lonely walking behind us with no one to talk to. I just thought maybe I should go cheer him up...?"
Homura pondered the thought and then nodded. "Sounds like a good idea. Go." He proceeded to push me in the direction of Konzen and smiled smugly at him.
"Your monkey wants you, Konzen Douji."
Konzen glowered at him menacingly. "I suppose this mean I can bring him to Nataku's room faster so that he can go visit him already? We've been walking for longer than I had planned and Tenpou and Kenren are probably going to be looking for us."
"Hey, he's your monkey. Do as you please."
The two glared at each other for a few more moment before Konzen decided that time was a-wasting and dragged me by the arm in the right direction.
"Itai~! Konzen~ that hurts!"
For some reason that truly escapes me, Homura laughed at that comment.
Konzen just grumbled.
Within a couple of minutes, we were outside of Nataku's room, where Homura smooth-talked the servant into allowing us to see him. I entered the room as quietly as I could, both Konzen and Homura insisting that they stay outside as not to disturb me. I set the boquet down gently at the bedstand where a bowl of water lay. Placing my hands on either side of his face, I felt the cuts around him and the fever that was settling in on him. Taking the towel off his forehead, I place it in the bowl and lightly dabbed at the injuries on his face. Then, wetting it a final time, placed it back into its original position upon his head.
"Nataku..." I grabbed his small hand from where it peeked out from under the sheets. "Please be well."
My grip must have been too tight or something since his eyes suddenly flew open and he flung his upper body off the bed and looked at me in surprise.
"You!" The towel fell sluggishly off his head and he grabbed it, the temporary amnesia having worn off. "How long was I out for?"
"Not long. How are you feeling?"
"I'm...fine."
"I seriously doubt that you're fine."
"Well, I will be fine once my father treats me."
"You mean that Li Touten? He doesn't look like a man who cares for his son."
"There are things you don't understand. There are debts that I must repay to him."
"But that doesn't mean he can go around treating you like nothing and making you do his dirty work!"
"It's not like I want to do this either, but I owe him lives. There's something you must know about me. I..."
Whatever he was going to say was lost all of a sudden as the doors flew open, the body of a now dead man forcing them so. Apparently, there had been a scuffle outside. There were soldiers. Homura's sword was whipped out. Konzen had managed a punch on one of the men who approached him. Ken nii-chan and Ten-chan had appeared and was holding the soldiers back as well. And at the head of them was Li Touten, who had managed to make it through the chaos and to the opened doors.
"Father!"
"Nataku, get away from that boy and get here this instant!" His command was sharp and left no room for argument. The soldiers outside had held their positions, the fighting having stopped because there was no reason for them to be held back anymore.
"Li Touten, you are the reason why Tenkai doesn't open its doors to humanity." Homura looked angrier than I had ever seen him before, a look that I would never want to see ever again.
"Oh and what are you going to do about it, Homura-sama? I'm just taking what's mine. You have no right to stop me from coming into this room."
"We were just trying to let your son have a moment that every child deserves."
"Well, he's no child." He grabbed Nataku's wrist roughly and pulled him from the room. "He is my soldier."
Homura ground his teeth to stop himself from saying anything too bad. "Bastard."
"Think as you wish, I'm just doing my job." He motioned to his men and began to leave, pulling Nataku the whole way.
In the final moments, I realized that I had yet not told him my name and ran after them. Konzen had taken off after me, his voice ringing in my head spitting curses at every direction. He had caught up to me when I was only a few feet from the struggling Nataku, restraining my full body with all the strength he could muster to stop me from catching up with Li Touten's party. "Nataku! My name is Goku! Son Goku! Remember me!" I just hope he had heard me.
Ten-chan, Ken nii-chan, and Homura had caught up to the two of us. Nataku had disappeared into one of the halls that lay in that wing. I calmed down and looked at Konzen mournfully.
"Do you think he heard me?"
"Aa."
Ten-chan lay a comforting hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure he did. But right now, I need you to come with me so that we can enlist the help of some of my men. I know we're risking immediate execution if one of them decide to tell Tentei of our plot, but it's a risk we're going to have to take. I seriously doubt any of them would go against me though."
I nodded in agreement and our party of five followed him back to his study, where his men were waiting for the return of their Gensui. Upon entering, the whole lot of them saluted at him and he nodded them instead of saying "at ease" like any other general. The room was cramped with so many of us in it, the soldiers standing in every possible space they could without stepping over another man and the five of us cramped one against the other by the door. Ten-chan moved through the throng of men to his desk with Ken nii-chan in toll and the two sat on the flat surface and grinned impishly.
"I'm sure you're all wondering what warranted such a meeting in my office of all places."
Murmurs were heard throughout the crowd at this.
"But first of all, any of you who doubt my loyalty to the heavenly order should leave."
No one left.
"Second, any of you who doubt my abilities as a Gensui should leave."
No one left.
"Third, any of you who have ever doubted any order I've executed should leave."
No one left.
"And fourth, any of you not fed up with the way things are going with Li Touten should leave."
No one left.
"Good. Then we can begin." Ten-chan hopped off his desk lightly and straightened himself out before clearing his throat. "My comrades, you have fought beside me at every turn, for the sake of the heavenly order. But now, I implore you to reflect on everything that has happened, everything that has been unjust." He paused for a moment. "Our job is to keep peace on Heaven and Earth, but our true purpose is to right what is wrong." He pushed his glasses back up a bit and I could've sworn I saw a malicient gleam. "Punish the unjust." He smirked at the confused looks from his men.
"Gensui, what are you trying to say with all this?"
"Ah, direct as always. Well, if you must know, we plan to protect that child," he pointed to me at this through the crowd, "from harm."
"But Gensui, isn't that the itan?"
"Does he look like he will bring great misfortune to Tenkai? The only way that he will is if Tenkai believes that he will. Because I am willing to put my name on the line to defend him. And the only way to do that is to go against the celestial army itself."
"But Gensui--!"
"No buts. I have made my choice, as has Kenren. We are both prepared to feel the wrath of the army if necessary. We are already risking that your lot kill us for saying such treasonous thoughts, but we do need your help. This is beyond just defending the child though. We want to free Nataku from the clutches of his sinister father and defame Li Touten's name. We want our world back, free from the hold of an evil man. That is all that I have to say about the matter, but if you wish to join me or not is your own decision. If you wish to tell Tentei of my plot, it is your decision. If you wish to just pretend all this never happened, it is your decision as well. But in the end, I will ask the same question. Are you with me or against me?"
The men were quiet for a moment. The emotions coarsing through their face in the confusion.
"Please..." Ten-chan was trying a final time to convince them. "I am not asking you as your Gensui, but as your comrade." He kow-towed to them in a desperate move to convince them, the air of the Gensui stripped from him. Ken nii-chan shot up in surprise at this and tried to pry Ten-chan off the floor, only to have Ten-chan fly a hand at his back and slam him to the floor into a kow-tow position as well. His men were, to say the least, overwhelmed. Shouts of surprise at their Gensui's actions rang throughout, his sincerity in the matter felt truer than ever.
"Gensui, Taisho! Please get up! We will help! Just please Gensui, get up!"
Ten-chan slowly picked himself and Ken nii-chan off the floor and bowed at them one final time in thanks. "I'm glad you agreed." He smiled a final time at them and then returned to his former scarier mode. "The first movement of our plot will require that we get to Earth, but we cannot go through the gates of Tenkai as that would be too obvious. We will have to go through the prisons and get to the South Gate where there are less men. We can take them out and then leave for Earth. If nothing goes wrong, we will have some time to plot outside of listening walls. Homura will stay since no one knows of his immediate involvement with us. Before we leave, Kenren and I will leave a mess for the army to clean up before they can pursue us, if they find out. Gentlemen, I will meet you all in the prison in twenty minutes. If you are not ready by then, I will have alternate methods for you to reach me. If you get caught, please kill yourself."
The men were unshaken by the final order and all saluted before quickly running out of the room to prepare themselves for the battle that was to come. Homura bowed smugly at us, ruffled a hair one last time, and then turned to leave us, billowing cape and all. I wonder when I would see him again. I would definitely miss our talks.
"Stop thinking, saru." Konzen looked at me knowingly. "We have to go." I looked over at the other two and they had already grabbed a sword each and were ready to leave.
"But where are we going?"
"That's for Tenpou to worry about and us to find out." He pulled at my wrist gently to follow the other two towards the prisons. The walk there was in solemn silence and the halls had sparser and sparser people in it as we continued down towards what seemed like infinity.
"We're here." With a curt nod at Ken nii-chan, Ten-chan flung the doors to the prison open. I had never heard so much noise and wailing before. The creatures, all in agony and pain, screaming for freedom. This one was imprisoned for trying to protect her nest. That one was almost killed for trying to protect itself from a bunch of hunters. My brethren...they were calling to me. Each imprisoned in kekkai too small for them, with no room to move, with bloodlust for those who did this to them.
The four of us stepped into the prison quietly but Ten-chan motioned for us to stop. He spotted the dead body of the warden by one of the kekkai and knelt down to the check for the pulse.
"None." He stood quickly and drew his sword. "Someone's in here. It can't be any of ours since there's no way they'd get here before us."
The four of us stood in silence, both Ken nii-chan and Ten-chan had their swords drawn and I stood firmly by Konzen. Suddenly, the sound of boots reached my ears. The clanging of swords and the shouts of promised death rang from the door. In burst Ten-chan's soldiers along with a few in the exact uniforms as them. I could barely tell which was which, but apparently they could and the fighting continued down towards us.
"Gensui! It's a trap! Someone tipped off Commander Goujun!"
"Shit! Then where is that damned dragon!?" Ken nii-chan drew Konzen and me closer to the kekkai for protection.
"I see you're as expressive with your expletives as ever, Kenren Taisho." From the shadows, that being that I had seen before stepped out to us, fury in his eyes, the aura of battle completely engulfing him. "It ends here."
Ten-chan and Ken nii-chan tensed. They had not expected this and their minds creaked for a way out without spilling his blood. The look in Ten-chan's eyes shifted suddenly and he screamed out an order for all his men to come to him immediately. They cut their way through the bodies that tried to prevent them from moving quite easily and made it to their Gensui's side virtually unharmed. I was amazed by their display of valor. Every man I had seen in that room was here, the greatest injury was perhaps only a six-inch cut that could easily be healed.
"Goujun, I'm sorry to do this while you're in here. It wasn't meant to be like this."
And with that, he released the kekkai on the creature.
-TBC-
Wouldn't you all like to know what happens? *leers* I'm just being evil to Goujun...Anyway, thanks to the continued support of gallatica (Goku *is* intelligent, hence he should have intelligent thoughts! But yes, that mind reading is important later =P), D-chan (The thoughts that he *can* read are those at the forefront of Konzen's mind and stressing him out the most. Their psychic link isn't strong enough for him to read random thoughts like, say if Konzen wanted to go pee. Glad you liked Kanzeon! I was afraid that she was going to turn out a bit weird since I haven't really written her being serious ever. I have to go read your fics when I have time, but I'm barely getting time to update right now...too much stuff to do), Ashen Skies (Nataku, Nataku. I don't know what I'm gonna do about that kid, but I have a feeling that whatever I'm doing with him involves him going against his father...and then going back...I don't know >oUltraM2000 (The strangling bit wasn't really meant to be important, I just thought it'd be funny to insert that into the preview ^^;;)