Don't you think this story is quite different from the others that I've done? Well, this is just a side step, a break from my normal work. It was actually an idea that I've toyed around for some time but I decided to commit myself to "Sick" till I finished it. So now that I've finished "Sick' well... Shall not talk nonsense anymore!


.BANG.

Everyone, including the girl, jumped at the sudden loud noise, originating from Sanzo's gun.

"No. Not deaf."

"What did you do that for? Your scaring her even more!" Goku questioned harshly.

"She cringes at loud noises. Not deaf." Gojyo drawled as he placed his pile of wood down too, explaining Sanzo's intention.

"Then..." Hakkai said as he too placed his pile of wood down. "Why hasn't she spoken?"


"What the-? Who the heck are they? Where the am I?" And what the hell are they speaking?!"

Ava had all these thoughts rushing through her head. She was immensely confused. But her confusing was turning into irritation. One moment she was at home, chilling out, and the next some strange transvestite pops in, grabs her by the collar and flings her upwards. The last thing she remembers is falling, falling very fast. Then hitting something. Darkness.

At first Ava thought I to be a strange dream. A very strange dream. She didn't dream often, even if she did, she could never remember them after she woke up. The tendrils of the dream coiled around her head would uncurl and float away and no matter how much she would try to grab at it; it would elude her like wisps of smoke.

Now she realized it couldn't be a dream. It hurt too much to be a dream. But this was way to weird to be reality. A green jeep, a forest and four men. A monk, a red haired guy, a half-eyed guy who kept smiling weirdly and a boy to be exact. Way too weird.

Ava wasn't scared. She somehow didn't feel scared. Just major confused. Everything made her confused, the unfamiliar terrain, unfamiliar vehicle, and unfamiliar people, basically everything was unfamiliar. She hated this insecurity. BANG

'What the hell?!' Ava thought. 'The monk has a freaking gun!'

This was the first time she ever thought a holy being was lethal. That didn't make her feel good at all.

Right about then she felt the strain of having her eyes open as wide as she could for such a long period of time. She blinked and tried to calm herself down. Ava decided that she really wanted to know where she was. She was reluctant to speak up to these strangely clad people, but not that she had a choice anyway.

"Where is this place?" She could sense a slight quiver in her voice. She cursed herself for it. She never liked to let people know she was being even remotely insecure, or heaven forbid, afraid.

Ava looked at them. They stared blankly at her. There was a moment of silence with tension thick enough to be sliced with a knife.

Then all at once, the strange men started to speak gibberish to one another again. This time with more gestures and speed. She glanced from side to side, trying to follow the strange conversation with whom was speaking, but it was hard to comprehend especially since she had no idea what language they were speaking.

Ava heaved a sigh.

"This is going to take a long time..." She muttered to herself.


"What did she say?!' Gojyo gestured wildly at her while looking at Hakkai, bearer of all worldly knowledge.

"Ah... I- I don't know?" Hakkai brought his gaze from the girl to Gojyo.

"What was she saying?"

"Does it mean all this while we've been wasting our breath!"

"Ch...this is ridiculous."

"Ne, when do we eat?'

"Idiotic saru, how can you think of food at a time like this?"

"What?! Urusei ero KAPPA! I haven't eaten in 3 hours!"

"That's not a very long time baka!"

"Maa maa... Calm down... I'll go get the fire started...'

"Yay! We get to eat soon!"

"Stupid hungry monkey..."

"Ch."

It was thus all dialogue stopped. Hakkai went to start the fire while Gojyo helped him. Goku was digging the jeep for some food. The girl had scooted away from the jeep and settled herself in the shadows against a tree, far enough go unnoticeable but near enough to feel the warmth of the fire. Sanzo was leaning on another tree opposite of the girl, smoking. Ava knew he was keeping an eye on her. Ava was relatively much calmer now than she was before, the pain in the abdomen had subsided somewhat to a livable dull throb. She knew better than to try to find means of escape. There was no way a city bum like her could maneuver around such dense forestry alone, much less with an injury like what she had.

The food was being cooked. She could smell it. It made her stomach growl in remembrance of lack of substance since morning. Ava turned away and tried to think of something else to curb her appetite. There was no way she was going to grovel at the feet of these strangers to ask for food.

Someone prodding her lightly on her forearm awakened Ava. Strange, she didn't remember falling asleep. She must be more tired than she thought.

It was the man with the one sided glasses thing. He was holding out a plate of food for her. He had spoken something to Ava when she woke up; though she had no clue she looked down and saw a plate of food being offered to her. The hunger in Ava's stomach came back with renewed vigor. But that didn't stop her from eyeing the food suspiciously.

The guy muttered something to her again and placed the plate carefully on the ground before standing up and giving her a smile before walking back to the campfire to join the rest of his cohort in the meal.

Ava looked at the rest of them, they were quite contentedly eating their meal, well, one of them was gobbling it up with such vengeance that he could have been eating the last meal of his life.

'Well, if they wanted to kill me, they could have while I was sleeping...' Ava thought, as a consolation to herself.

She cautiously picked up her plate and gingerly picked at the food.

"There better not be any poison in this..." Ava muttered. She sighed and proceeded to eat the food.

"She's eating the food..." Gojyo spoke softly to Hakkai, still looking at his food.

"Good..." Hakkai replied without skipping a beat.

They both resumed eating as if the short dialogue hadn't happened at all.