Series: Saiyuki and Monkey

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: PG13 or T for mild language and violence

Disclaimers: Neither Saiyuki or Monkey or any of the characters from these two series belong to me. Only the main adversaries of the Tripitaka-ikkou are mine!

Summary: Monkey and Saiyuki are based on the same legend. What happens when the Sanzo-ikkou meet a group somehow so familiar and yet so different? Not shounen ai. Please Read & Review :)

Warnings: None really. This is not a yaoi story though there are hints scattered here and there because Gojyo and Hakkai really should be together. I mean hell, the hints are littered throughout the official manga, even if Gojyo is a skirt chaser!

Distorted Mirror

Ch - 4

Hakkai drove the Jeep around yet another bend in the road and the town finally came back into view. Sanzo sighed in annoyance at having had to come back to this town again so soon. 'Today has been a complete waste.' he thought to himself irritably. 'Somehow, I just knew something like this was going to happen when I woke this morning…' His scowl deepened as he heard Goku lean forward in his seat.

"Sanzouuu…" Goku whined

"If you want to live, don't say you're hungry!" Sanzo stated coldly in irritation.

Goku sat back in his seat and was silent. Silent that is, for all of thirty seconds. "Haraheta, Sanzouuu." Goku exclaimed miserably. He had kept quiet about his hunger all morning and now, enough was enough. He couldn't keep silent about his empty stomach any longer. It was just too torturous.

Sanzo sighed again, it had been inevitable after all. "Bakazaru!" he then snapped, hitting Goku over the head with his harisen, "Shut up!"

Goku glared through the pain of being hit, "I can't help it if I'm hungry. Someone did keep stealing my breakfast this morning." He glared at Gojyo.

"Hehhh? Only because as usual, you were eating too much." Gojyo retaliated.

The usual argument was starting so Hakkai laughed softly, "Never mind about this morning, everyone. We will be back at the tavern in a few minutes." The Jeep was just beginning to enter the town. "We can have an early lunch then." Hakkai placated.

"Yay!" Goku looked at Hakkai happily.

"Tch! Don't encourage him, Hakkai." Sanzo growled.

Hakkai chuckled again, "And here I thought, you would appreciate the relative peace from Goku not being hungry."

"As if it makes any difference. Give that saru ten minutes after he's eaten and you would think he hadn't eaten for days." Sanzo glanced into his side mirror to look back at Goku, scowling. Luckily the saru wasn't looking back because Sanzo's expression then softened a little at the sight of the happy look on Goku's face. It was an expression that the monk would have been embarrassed to allow Goku to see.

Hakkai pulled the Jeep up in front of the tavern and Goku jumped out, running inside excitedly, the other three following much more sedately. Once they were inside, they ordered lunch as they waited for the Tripitaka-ikkou to arrive.

About twenty-five minutes went by and finally, to Goku's delight, the food arrived, just in time for Tripitaka, Monkey, Sandy and Pigsy to enter the room. Yuu-Loong, still in his horse form was left outside. Hakkai smiled and waved the group over to their table.

Tripitaka's eyes widened as he took in the sight of the table positively laden with food. "Why is there so much food?" he gaped incredulously.

Pigsy was the first to sit down and he grinned, "Now this is what I call a meal!" He started to dig in.

Gojyo grinned disarmingly at Tripitaka, "If we don't get at least this much food, then the saru keeps complaining that he's hungry. Then again," he added, "he's always hungry again within five minutes of eating anyway."

"Don't call me that, ero-gappa!" Goku yelled, suddenly standing over Gojyo in anger over being called a saru yet again. He only sometimes didn't mind being called that if it was Sanzo that was using the name. If it was Gojyo calling him saru, well, forget it, every time!

Gojyo stood as well, now towering over the much shorter youkai. "Why shouldn't I call a saru a saru, you bakazaru!"

Sanzo gritted his teeth as Gojyo grabbed food off of Goku's plate. He could feel another headache coming on.

"Don't call me baka either, you thieving cockroach!" Goku reached up and grabbed one of the strands of crimson hair, which he likened to cockroach feelers and gave it a yank. This caused the recipient to drop the spring roll he was about to place into his mouth. As Gojyo yelped in pain, Goku triumphantly caught the piece of food and ate it himself.

"You stupid little ape, that hurt! How would you like it if someone did that to you?"

"Not much chance of that, ero-gappa, I don't have any cockroach feelers!" Goku jumped backwards and danced out of the way as Gojyo lunged at him.

The sudden crack of gunfire shut the fighting twosome up. Sanzo didn't speak, he didn't need to, his glare and the still visible gun pointing at them said it all. Gojyo and Goku silently slunk back to their seats.

Tripitaka watched the scene unfold as he sat there silently with a look of shock on his face. Hakkai noticed and gave a reassuring laugh, "Oh, don't worry about them, they're always like that. Personally, I think if they weren't, I would be quite worried."

Tripitaka turned his eyes on Hakkai as he spoke and swallowed. "Always…" he said quietly. 'But, Sanzo is supposed to be a Buddhist priest.' he thought.

After the meal was over, the anti-social monk sat in silence, drinking beer and smoking leaving Hakkai, Gojyo and Goku to tell the Tripitaka-ikkou a bit about themselves and their mission. At the end of it, Tripitaka asked "So, the five founding scriptures of Heaven and Earth have been passed down from Sanzo priest to Sanzo for hundreds of years?"

"Hai!" Came the reply.

"And the original journey to India for the scriptures was a few hundred years ago?"

"Hai!"

"Then, that means…" Tripitaka paused.

"That we must have travelled forwards or sideways in time." Monkey concluded. "Then again, this could all just be an illusion, but I really don't think so."

"Sideways?" Pigsy asked, "How can you travel sideways through time? That's stupid!" he snorted.

Monkey shook his head. "Its not stupid, it's just a very old, forgotten magic."

"If it's so forgotten, how do you know about it, Monkey?" Sandy asked curiously.

"I've been around for hundreds of years, even before I was imprisoned under that mountain." Monkey explained, amazingly patient for once as he did.

"Does that mean you can get us home, Monkey?" Tripitaka asked hopefully, "We still have our own mission to complete, after all."

"No, I can't." Monkey admitted.

Pigsy laughed, "Finally, something the know-it-all, invincible ape can't do. Uh… but I thought you said you knew the magic?"

"I know of it, but I don't know the actual magic itself. I did say it was forgotten magic, remember?" Monkey answered in annoyance at the pig spirit's impertinence.

"Yeah," Pigsy admitted in disappointment. "Monkey, what did you mean by sideways in time?"

"Just that. We might not have gone forwards or backwards, we might have gone sideways instead, so that we are in another world, like ours but different."

"I think I liked the illusion option the best." Pigsy muttered dryly. Everyone was silent for a few moments.

"Why do you not you think it is an illusion, Monkey?" Tripitaka asked, breaking the silence.

"The original attack for one thing. That monster was trying to kill us, specifically you, Master." Monkey reasoned, "And besides, do you really think that anyone, monster, human or anyone else from back home could imagine things like what is here, this," Monkey hesitated as he tried to think of the right word, one that was foreign to him, "technology? The lights that shine without a flame, the money boxes, carriages that don't use horses, the boxes that have music and voices coming from them?"

One of the waitresses walked by at that moment and Gojyo called out to her, "Excuse me, oneechan," he put on one of his most charming smiles, "could we please have another ashtray? Ours is full."

"Of course okyakusan." She answered pleasantly, appraising Gojyo with her soft blue eyes as she did so.

"More beer too." Sanzo cut in, his eyes cast in shadow by his blonde fringe.

"Right away, sir!" she replied. The pretty waitress took the full ashtray with her, returning a few minutes later with a replacement and the requested beer.

Gojyo gave the waitress a flirtatious smile, "Thank you. You know, when I first saw you walk by, I thought I had died and gone to heaven, when you came back, I discovered that I am still very much alive and that heaven has instead come to me."

She gave a vaguely embarrassed but responsive smile and left for the next table that was calling for her attention.

Gojyo smiled longingly after her. He then lit up a new cigarette and joined in drinking with Sanzo who had already started smoking and drinking again, much to the obvious disgust of Tripitaka. Gojyo decided to ignore the other priest's reaction, as he simply did not particularly care about it. "The three of you are youkai aren't you?" Gojyo asked looking at Pigsy who had obvious pig ears. The other two, Sandy and Monkey were harder to tell just by looking.

"Youkai?" Sandy asked after the three of them looked at each other in confusion, "I haven't heard that word before but I think I know what you mean. Pigsy and I used to be from heaven. That is, until we were kicked out and reincarnated as a pig monster and a fish monster. As for Monkey, he's different again, he was born of the earth itself."

"The same as Goku was." Hakkai observed in wonder.

'I knew there was something similar about those two.' Sanzo thought looking at first Monkey and then Goku, intrigued, despite himself.

Goku looked happily to Monkey, "Now I want to fight you again even more than I did before." He exclaimed brightly. "I was hungry in our first fight but… I still don't think I could have won because you're so strong and most of my power is sealed."

"Why do you have your power sealed?" Monkey asked, unable to comprehend why anyone would wish to do such a thing to themselves. As far as Monkey was concerned, that would be the same as deliberately crippling oneself.

Goku looked ashamed. "I can't control it, that's why. Too many people get killed."

Gojyo smirked but placed a comforting hand on Goku's head, "When he becomes Seiten Taisei, he doesn't even recognise his friends. It's a good thing that the corrupt monk can seal his power again and that it doesn't happen very often."

After a short time, as Hakkai and Goku continued to talk to Tripitaka and his disciples, Gojyo decided to go off with the waitress that had served them a little while ago. She had just told him that she was going on a break and had asked him if he would like to join her.

Tripitaka watched as the two flirted with each other, their laughter ringing out across the room before they exited it via the back door. He wasn't very impressed, not with any of the Sanzo-ikkou. Not at all, except for maybe Hakkai. Maybe! Hakkai seemed pleasant and well behaved on the surface but when he took the other three into consideration, who knew what Hakkai was really like. Speaking of, what had been with that look on his face as Gojyo was leaving the room? His normally smiling face had had a vaguely unimpressed look to it, though the expression had been faint, almost unreadable. Tripitaka sighed, a little ashamed of his suspicions, but honestly, who would really blame him based on what he had seen so far. Take Goku for example, he appeared to be a nice enough teenager but that appetite! He put Pigsy to shame for goodness sakes! He also liked to fight way too much. Goku didn't seem to be quite as violent as Monkey often was, however he argued a lot more and not only with Gojyo, though the arguments did appear to be mainly with the redhead. Gojyo and Goku also seemed to actively fight more than Tripitaka's disciples all put together. It seemed to be that the hanyou usually deliberately egged the teenager on. As for the former, Gojyo appeared to be about as bad as Pigsy when it came to women judging by all the flirting any time a woman had passed by the table. At least Gojyo however had more respect for the opposite sex and didn't quite let his lust rule him the way Pigsy tended to. Another major fault of his was his complete lack of respect for Sanzo. Looking at Sanzo, it was easy to understand why. Here he was, a priest, on a holy mission no less and he sits at the table, in a tavern, drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco. Even worse, he's violent! Tripitaka had already seen Sanzo fighting against the clones that Monkey had produced with his magic. He had even seen the monk shoot at his companions. What else was this man capable of? It wasn't Tripitaka's place to judge, especially when taking into consideration his own faults and those of his followers but Tripitaka couldn't help but feel that this man, these people, just shouldn't be on a mission as important and holy as this. They shouldn't be doing the Buddha's bidding. Tripitaka sighed again as he fought to hold his tongue.

"Ne, ne Sanzo!" Goku suddenly spoke up about fifteen minutes later, "If we're staying in this town again tonight, can we get some of the fried noodles from the market place? They smelled so delicious when we passed by there last night!" Goku almost drooled at the thought and then laughed, "Maybe we can get some now, I'm already starting to feel hungry again!"

"Stop thinking of your stomach!" Sanzo snapped, thwapping Goku over the head once more. "You only just ate!"

Gojyo sauntered back to the table just in time to see Goku gaze with almost damp eyes at Sanzo as he whined, "I was only asking for later. I can't help it if I get hungry all the time."

"That's true," Gojyo drawled, a mischievous smirk on his face, "The saru can't help being hungry because he's only a monkey brained, bottomless stomach on legs, after all."

Goku opened his mouth to yell abuse at Gojyo for his remark but stopped when he discovered that Monkey had beaten him to Gojyo. It was Goku's turn to smirk, seeing Gojyo held by his jacket lapels in the air by a shorter, very annoyed Monkey.

"Is monkey brained supposed to be an insult? If it is, you better learn to choose your insults more carefully in case you find yourself insulting other people, you red swamp algae!"

"Red… swamp… algae?" Gojyo asked, too shocked to think of anything more to say at that point.

Goku laughed, "Yeah ero-kappa and stop calling me saru!"

Gojyo broke out of his shocked state and twisted around somewhat in Monkey's grasp to sneer at Goku, "Give me a good reason not to, chibi bakazaru!"

"PERVERTED COCKROACH!"

"MIDGET CHIMP!"

Sandy and Pigsy took a moment to exchange amused glances. Hakkai covered his mouth, shaking from silent laughter. Sanzo twitched, while Tripitaka just looked extremely uncomfortable as they both noticed that everyone else in the room was staring at the very public domestic happening in the middle of the tavern.

"GO PLAY WITH YOUR CUCUMBERS YOU HORNY WATER SPRITE!"

"AT LEAST I HAVE SOMETHING TO PLAY WITH, UNLIKE YOU WHO CAN'T EVEN MANAGE TO PLAY WITH THE CORRUPT MO…"

"SHUT UP!" Sanzo screamed, managing to hit the hanyou with such force, that Gojyo struck the ground, hard! The monk then followed that little feat up by laying into both Monkey and Goku, in that order.

Monkey glared! His glare, easily out-glared Sanzo's own death stare. He then tore the harisen out of the blond monk's grasp, turned and hurled it across the room, narrowly missing the waitress that Gojyo had gone off with before. She gave a cry of fright as she felt the breeze pass her face then sank to the ground in shock. Monkey then advanced on the furious Sanzo who stood his ground, practically daring Monkey to actually do something to him.

"That is enough!" Tripitaka snapped angrily. "I am very disappointed in you, Monkey!" Monkey stopped and backed away from Sanzo with a stung expression on his face. Tripitaka then whirled on Sanzo, "As for you, how dare you hit Monkey like that! You have no right to do so! And your disciples! Their behaviour is also appalling!"

Gojyo snorted indignantly, "Whose disciples? I'm certainly not a disciple of that kuso bouzu! Neither is Hakkai and as for the saru, he's more like the crappy priest's pet!"

"Hey!" Goku cried indignantly.

"Pet?" Tripitaka looked even more appalled, if that was even possible but he shook his head and managed to continue. "The three of you are not disciples and yet you are on a mission of such extreme importance with him?"

Tripitaka received several glares from the members of the Sanzo-ikkou but he ignored them and shook his head again in an effort to get back on track. "As for you, Sanzo, just what kind of priest are you? You should be setting a good example for your friends!"

Sanzo's face was set with a look that was becoming more dangerous by the second. He had kept silent through the last couple minutes, not because he wanted to but because he was so surprised over Tripitaka speaking to him like that (and to tell the truth, he kind of enjoyed seeing Gojyo getting so pissed off at the other priest's words, it was kind of amusing). Now though, Tripitaka had pushed it too far. "They," he almost hissed in anger, "are not, my friends!"

"Maa, maa!" Hakkai placated, stepping almost but not quite between the two priests. "Please, can we stop arguing? Sanzo is Sanzo. It is just the way that he is, Tripitaka." The youkai gave a friendly smile to the visiting priest. "We are used to his personality... quirks just as he is used to ours. Tripitaka, I have a question and I do not mean to be rude or anything, but shouldn't a Buddhist priest hold his temper?"

The smile on Hakkai's face turned amused as Tripitaka's face coloured in embarrassment over the green-eyed youkai's question. "I… I am sorry. Losing my temper is a large fault of mine." He admitted. After a couple of moments he added, "I am going for a walk.

Tripitaka stood up to leave so Monkey told Sandy, "Go with the Master, Moonface."

The fish spirit nodded, getting up to follow the young priest. Tripitaka gave Sandy a small smile, "Stay here Sandy, this is only a small town, I will be fine on my own. To be honest, I would rather be by myself for a while anyway."

"But Master!" Both Sandy and the over-protective Monkey protested.

"I am going on my own!" Tripitaka firmly stated as he walked out the door. "I do not need a baby sitter!"

- . - . -

Back at the bottom of the rocky hill, where Tripitaka, Monkey and the others had entered this world, all the birds abruptly stopped singing and flew off in a sudden, blinding panic. All was silent, deathly so for a little over a minute. The air, a couple of meters above the ground seemed to split apart once more and three figures dropped to the ground, landing easily, though with varying degrees of grace. As they stood, they looked around with a very business like intent.

One of them, the only female among the three, pointed in the general direction of the nearby town. "If this world is close enough in layout to our own, the town should be that way," she declared. The hill in front of them was, of course, obscuring their view. She then turned and pointed approximately one hundred and sixty degrees in the opposite direction, "and a good cave system we can use should be that way."

The tall person looked regally at the woman, "Lead the way and secure the caves. You," he turned to the other man, "check out the town, do not do anything other than report back what you find."

"Yes, sire!" They both bowed slightly and the three split off in their different directions.

- . - . -

Tripitaka was feeling a lot calmer now. He hated losing his temper but sometimes, it was just so hard to hold it all within. The priest usually only lashed out when Monkey was trying his patience, often due to being unnecessarily violent or when Pigsy let his lust or greed take control of his normal reasoning. And this time, there was Sanzo, not doing a thing to stop those traits in his companions. Some of those traits, the other priest was guilty of as well and he just didn't seem to care. Tripitaka had felt extremely frustrated by those observations, from seeing the faults of both himself and his disciples mirrored in the actions and behaviour of the Sanzo-ikkou, only, those faults were magnified many times over.

Tripitaka sighed. Getting out in the fresh air and looking around the town had truly helped but he still didn't feel quite right. However he smiled as a small group of children ran by, laughing happily. As Tripitaka continued exploring, the priest came across a small shrine. He stopped there for a short time to pray and offer his respects before continuing. Not long later, he came across the edge of the town. That was when his now peaceful mood was shattered.

The priest stared at a small army of youkai that was amassing on the horizon. "Monsters!" he breathed. Tripitaka turned and ran back towards the tavern, warning every person he came across of the impending threat.

To be continued…

A/N:

Haraheta - (I'm hungry) hara – stomach, heta - poor

Oneechan - sister or in this case Miss

Ero - erotic (perverted)

Kappa - water demon

Chibi - (derogatory) short person, kid

In the series of Monkey, Monkey always came across as the one in charge unless he went too far in which case Tripitaka would then make his presence felt as the one who was truly in charge. If Monkey got too unruly that's when he would start using the headache sutra, which basically caused the gold band on Monkey's head to tighten and cause him pain.

Thankyou to all of those that reviewed my story :-)

Me-Nuriko: Yeah, I had fun writing Gojyo in the pool. A friend of mine (Tora Macaw) who just read chapter 3 last night was inspired by that and has now written the story where Gojyo finally learns to swim. Heh heh! That will posted hopefully sometime next week once she gets it to me to type up for her :-)

miracleme: Thanks, In Australia on ABC and on the dvds, the English version is known as Monkey, some people refer to it as Monkey Magic but that is probably due to the opening song more than anything, heck I often call it Monkey Magic myself. Don't worry, updates will continue at an average rate of every week and a half.

panatlantic: Ouch… well when you come back to Perth I will give you copies of the last 2 chapters of the manga. What a place for the burn to die though… Sorry, chapter four slowed down a little but the next couple of chapters though are going top be picking the pace up again. I don't have aim, only msn and yahoo but I always forget to use yahoo.

JOE VOLCANO: Thanks, the first 3 chapters were really easy to write, I had more trouble with a couple of points in chapter 4 though. Yes… Monkey and his violence… but that's what makes the show so interesting :p

Klee5: Yeah… it's a pity, I haven't seen a lot of mentions about Monkey other than in Australia and the UK, apparently its still played in Japan a lot. I know someone who went there last year and she saw it then after only ever having seen the dubbed version and she thought the similarities in the voices were hilarious. Sure, I don't mind meeting online, my msn address (if you have msn) is I don't think there is a lot of time difference between Singapore and Western Australia but I am usually at my computer in the evenings.