Generic Disclaimer: Gensomaden Saiyuki and the characters contained within don't belong to me, much as I wish they did. sigh...

I finished the chapter! Finally! I ended up writing out the beginning and end before the middle, because the fight scene kept tripping me up. I think it sucks, but if you overlook that, the chapter is pretty good. I especially like the ending, and would love to see an image of Hakkai and Gojyo -beeps out spoilers-. Whoops! Can't ruin it before anyone can even read the chapter! ;P!

I foresee only two more chapters: Goku's dream and the ending. However, there is a possibility that I will split Goku's dream into two chapters as well, because I also have to get Homura in there... but if it feels better as a longer chapter, I may just keep it all in one file. I have no clue how much longer this is going to take, though... writing about death while my best friend's father is on his death bed just feels... wrong. However, I do promise that I will not abandon this story, as I have done so many others, and eventually it will get done. I just don't know when.

R for blood and violence and Gojyo's potty mouth. Hakkai even gets a swear word in there. Spoilers for Hakkai's past. All but two lines that Chin Isou utters in this chapter I took from the English anime. This chapter is longer than the other seven, but only by about a thousand words. Hope that makes up for the shitty fight scene and the length of time it is taking for me to finish this story. u.u''

Review comments on the bottom.

---

---

italics indicate emphasis, internal dialogue, and dialogue that has occurred in the past/memories.

FEAR ITSELF

"...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

Franklin D. Roosevelt, first inaugural address – March 4, 1933

---

---

SECTION EIGHT

---

---

"My, my," a low voice drawled out, disturbing the silence. "Isn't this just precious."

There were many people in life that Gojyo hated. He hated his father for running off and dumping him on a woman who didn't want him and a brother who didn't really know what to do with him. He hated whoever it was that first spouted the line that "a child born from both demon and man will bring nothing but misfortune and pain." He hated the retard who had to go try and resurrect a demon five-hundred-years dead. He hated men who beat on women, and sometimes he even hated Sanzo (though that was a twisted love-hate relationship indeed).

But if there was anybody in the world that he could pin down as the one person he hated the most, despised with the deepest, blackest part of his heart, Gojyo would have to say that person was the blue-eyed, smirking demon that now only existed in Hakkai's dreams.

Chin Isou...

He looked different from what Gojyo remembered, but that could only be expected; when he had come upon their party gods-only-knew how many months back, he had been over three years dead and animated only by a mahjong tile and his own burning animosity. What Hakkai remembered here, though, was a man full of the confidence of arrogant youth, hair worn loose and long, the flowing robes of an aristocrat adorning his lanky frame. Chin Isou had stood the same way when Gojyo first met him, even when wearing the clothing of a commoner – death had, apparently, frozen him in time, held him still while the rest of the world moved on without him. Chin Isou had changed his hair and changed his dress over the three years he had stalked the human who had killed him, but everything else remained the same: the eyes, the smirk, the way he folded his hands inside his sleeves and leaned back slightly at the hip. It was all the same.

Gojyo wanted to kill him. He wanted to kill the fucker right now.

"How proud you two must be," that lazy voice continued, "to have slain every demon in this castle all by yourselves."

Chin Isou smiled wider, mockingly, like a cat playing with a mouse. Like a serpent ready to strike. Hakkai hadn't told him much about what kind of encounter he had with the son of Hyakuganmaoh, only revealing that the blue-eyed demon had been his thousandth kill and the man who inflicted the terrible wound on his stomach. But whatever kind of encounter it had been, Gojyo needed to end it now. This must be the embodiment of the kudzu vine – this would be how the plant would try to kill Hakkai and suck up all of his chi.

Damned if he hadn't dropped his weapon, though. The shakujou lay discarded between where he sat and where Chin Isou stood shadowing the doorway, the paddle-blade stained with the blood of the demon-guts it had landed in. He wouldn't take but a second to get up and grab it, but the half-breed remembered all too well how fast the centipede demon was. And there was also the problem of the mahjong chips he liked to fling around. Had Chin Isou already been proficient at that, or had he picked up the trick after Hakkai had wiped out the Centipede Clan?

"No human could have accomplished a feat like that all alone..." Those mocking blue eyes turned to look down at Gojyo, the reflection of torch flames flickering on the cat-like pupils. "Then again, that's probably where this little pet of yours came in, hmmm? Let him do the dirty work while you sit back and reap the rewards?"

"Shut your fucking mouth," Gojyo hissed, and lunged for his fallen weapon. He ignored the slippery blood that had smeared on the pole of the shakujou, ignored the cold meat that his fingers brushed against as he half-slid across the floor and swung out with the paddle-blade while still on his knees. But the demon was no longer standing in the doorway – the red-head caught the flutter of white silks out of the corner of his eye, heard the strangled gasp and the sound of a body being forcefully thrown against the bars of a cell.

Goddamn he's fast! he thought, and spun around to see Chin Isou pinning Hakkai to the bars of the cell, the brunette's eyes wide with pain and more fear than Gojyo had ever seen him exhibit. One hand was wrapped around Hakkai's throat, the other around his upper arm, the long nails digging into the flesh and drawing blood.

"I'm so happy for you," the demon murmured, completely ignoring Gojyo. His voice conveyed anything but sympathy. "Her suffering has finally come to an end."

Gojyo shoved himself to his feet, preparing to let loose the sickle-blade of his weapon, but had to pause. If he attacked Chin Isou from this direction, he would risk hitting Hakkai if the demon dodged. And that would totally defeat the purpose of this little dream-expedition, wouldn't it? That meant he would need to come into close quarters with the other man, and he knew that would put him at a direct disadvantage.

Not that the odds mattered. He just had to do whatever was necessary to get this thing over and done with. So long as the demon remained distracted with Hakkai, he could -

whispering across the floor like dark shadows

- the fuck?

One of Hakkai's hands had wrapped itself around Chin Isou's wrist, a strange parody to how Gojyo had clung desperately to Gonou's wrist, but something in his visible eye had changed; the pain, the fear, it faded away like water down a drain, and in its place the emptiness had returned. Gonou was coming back to the surface.

The demon's smirk widened, and Gojyo could almost see tiny black strings pulling the flesh into place.

There were shadows on the floor where there should not be – as though the darkness cast by Chin Isou's form was alive. The demon murmured, "My goodness. What a terrifying look," and as Gojyo squinted harder, he could see how the shadows seemed to all be interconnected, like strings on a marionette, emerging from the black beyond the open door to flow across the stone floor into Chin Isou's shadow.

He could almost hear the sound of thousands of leaves rubbing against each other, whispering of the hunger of the kudzu vine. It whispered of Chin Isou's hunger as well, and of Gonou's hunger, and of Gojyo's hunger to just end it all.

He lunged forward, stabbing out with the weapon clenched tightly in his hands.

"You must – "

Green eyes widened once again, but this time it was Hakkai who was peering out, not Gonou. It was with satisfaction that Gojyo watched the hand lose its grip on the blood-speckled throat, though he especially reveled in the heavy feeling of the demon's knees going out from under him, the way the paddle-blade briefly caught on reddening silks when Gojyo levered the pole to let him fall away and off his weapon. He could not see Chin Isou's face when he landed on the stone floor in a puddle of ever-expanding blood, but he was all right with that; he was happy enough to know that he had killed the fucker, and now this nightmare would end.

The dream would end.

Hakkai sucked in a deep breath, one hand coming up to touch the minor scratches on his neck, and whispered, "Gojyo, what's happening?"

The dream is fucking supposed to end!

Why weren't they waking up? Where were the writhing kudzu branches and the full moon overhead? Where was the scent of leaf mold and rotting grapes? Why were they still in this bloody memory?

Fuck you, Sanzo, you impotent Buddha-humper! Why the hell aren't things going the way you said they would?!

"Goddamnit," the red-head mumbled under his breath, tightening his hands around the pole of the shakujou. He dragged his eyes away from the downed body of the centipede demon, glaring at the prison chamber around him, trying to find anything that might have changed. It figured nothing would ever be easy for him. There must be something he missed, some little detail of the dream that had been overlooked but was still crucial to their escape. After all, Chin Isou was dead, regardless of how easy the kill had been, and he had to have been the embodiment of the kudzu vine, so –

"Gojyo," Hakkai whispered, but he didn't look over, squinting and trying to peer through the gloom that had suddenly descended past the door that led to the blood-streaked stairwell. He had at least been able to see the first step before, he realized; now it was as if nothing even existed past the wooden door that had been left half-open. The shadows were so complete that a solid wall of black greeted his eyes.

It had to do with the shadows, he realized. Something about the shadows and the way they had seemed to almost manipulate Hyakuganmaoh's son, like the strings on a puppet. Like they were alive... like...

"Gojyo," hissed the other man, urgently, and Gojyo turned to look back at his friend – and saw, from his peripheral vision, that Chin Isou was no longer lying on the floor. There was nothing left save for a bloody smear on the cobblestones.

"The fuck?" he said in disbelief. How the hell could a dead demon up and disappear when he was practically standing on the man's clothing?

"That's what I – "

Gojyo was unable to keep his balance when Hakkai abruptly lunged forward and slammed into him, knocking them both away from the cell bars and onto the floor. He automatically curled up in an attempt to keep from hitting the back of his head on the stone floor; pain flared in his shoulder blades, briefly lighting up the darkness behind closed eyelids, stealing his breath away. It was only by instinct that he was able to keep from impaling either himself or his friend on the shakujou.

What the hell was that for? he wanted to ask, but his lungs weren't exactly working for him at the moment. Hakkai tried to keep from landing on Gojyo, hands outstretched to smack loudly on the stone to either side of the half-demon's head, but the impact on the floor was more than enough to force the air from his lungs. It wasn't a move he had expected, and he couldn't even ascertain why his friend had jumped him in such a manner.

Until he reopened his eyes, preparing to curse up a storm, and saw the mutilated corpse standing over them, pale intestines hanging out of a ripped-open abdomen and dragging on the ground, a short sword clasped in one bloody hand. He was able to see up into the chest cavity from where he was laying, glimpses of white ribs showing through the shredded flesh and organs.

The dead demon raised the sword overhead, and Gojyo tensed with a renewed surge of adrenaline.

Holy fuck.

Instinct took over from there; he shoved Hakkai away from him and rolled in the opposite direction, tucking the long pole of his weapon close to his body. It sounded as though sparks might have flown from the impact of the sword striking the stone floor, but he didn't bother to pause and look – the half-breed got his knees underneath him and readied the shakujou to block or attack.

"Shit!" Hakkai said behind him, startled.

Three armed demons stood in the prison block, each showing varying causes of death. The one closest, disembowelment; one further away, a stab wound to the heart; the demon furthest had apparently had its throat slit so deeply that the muscles on one side of the neck had given way, and now the head hung on only by a thin piece of flesh. The distorted face, lolling against a shoulder, bared crimson-stained teeth at them.

Holy shit, he corrected his friend mentally. These three demons had been dead long before he had even come down the stairs and into this dream – how in the world could they be up and trying to attack them now?

But as the dead guards of Hyakuganmaoh lumbered towards the two dreamers, Gojyo could see the same writhing shadows that had crawled across the skin of Chin Isou; thin, barely visible strings that tugged the limbs into place and forced stiff muscles to move. They weren't alive, just animated... like marionette dolls.

The kudzu was doing this, he realized. The shadows were just like creepers, crawling across the stone floor, rubbing phantom leaves together in a kind of hissing monotone – the kudzu was forcing its way into the dream and influencing the events, bringing up new 'bad guys' to try and kill the dreamer... and the most easily accessible would be the dead demons.

Well. If Chin Isou was so easy to kill, Gojyo doubted these three clumsy idiots would give him any difficulties whatsoever.

The muscles in his shoulders protested when the half-demon twisted his weapon and let loose the long chain of the sickle-blade, aiming for the grinning demon in the back. It didn't even have a chance to bring up its sword to block before the sharp edge sliced through the remaining neck tissue. The two separated demon-parts slumped to the floor before vanishing entirely, and the sound of meat impacting on stone seemed to be the cue for everyone else to move.

The remaining two demons converged on Hakkai at the same time, moving faster than Gojyo thought an hours-dead person could move, and as a result he missed the man he was aiming for on his blade's return. There really wasn't enough room for him to bring the chain into play, and with his friend trying to defend himself against two swords at the same time... he really couldn't risk throwing out the blade and hoping Hakkai wouldn't jump into its path. That meant he could only deal with one demon at a time.

Hope your skills are as good in your memories as they are in real life, buddy, he thought, and threw himself at the closest enemy.

Hakkai danced away from the gutted corpse, not allowing any strikes to make their way through his defenses, but not really blocking, either. The other demon, the one which had been stabbed, was just far enough back from the other two that Gojyo was able to maneuver his way in front of it and hinder any further progress forward. The sword rose and fell, clanging against the pole of his weapon – the red-head was forced to take a step backwards in order to brace himself against the surprising strength.

"You're almost as strong as your breath smells," he muttered, half in jest. The demon snarled and disengaged, striking out again.

Twisting backwards, Gojyo allowed the sword to swing past him, catching one arm of the demon with the curved edge of his weapon and wrenched – flesh tore and sinews snapped, and then blood was dripping down the polished edge of the sword as the arm was torn free and thrown to the floor. Nasty, he thought, and the demon (showing no signs of discomfort or pain at having been deprived a limb) immediately threw itself back into the fray.

Shadows fluttered across the flesh of the corpse, and by their movements Gojyo was able to predict which way the sword would swing and when; he blocked a strike, stepped backwards to try and make more room to bring the sharp edges of his weapon into play, and slipped on the arm he had chopped off and discarded on the floor. His opponent followed closely, refusing to give him the space he needed, and swung the sword more like a baseball bat than a weapon. Had Gojyo the balance, he could have used that opening to dispatch of the kudzu-animated-corpse, but as the bones rolled out from under his foot, he could only bring the pole of his shakujou up to block.

The force behind the strike was impressive, coming from a one-handed dead man, and Gojyo found himself thrust back against the bars of another cell. Light briefly obscured his vision when his skull connected with the iron rods, but he refused to allow another moment of hesitation; he twisted the weapon in his hands, thrusting out blindly with the sickle-blade, and was rewarded with the sound and sensation of a body being impaled.

The red-head blinked rapidly, struggling to clear his vision. Demon number two hung grotesquely from the blade of the shakujou, the blood-smeared sword dropping from limp fingers to clang loudly on the floor. Shadows no longer clung to the pallid skin, leaving the demon as empty and lifeless as it had been when he first entered the room.

Finally, he thought with disgust, and angled the pole away from him so the body would slide off the blade. The corpse vanished before it could even hit the floor, fading away in a puff of smoke that made one wonder if it had even been there in the first place. The throbbing in his head, though, served well as a reminder of the kudzu-doll's once-presence.

Gojyo leaned back against the bars, brushing tangled hair out of his eyes, and glanced over to where Hakkai was handling the third, previously eviscerated, demon. In only three blows he had disarmed the creature, knocked it down, and snapped its neck – the sound of vertebra cracking fairly exploded inside the stone prison block, and Gojyo couldn't help but wince. But that was the last one; without the corpses, he and Hakkai were the only ones left in the dream. As soon as Hakkai released the corpse and it faded into nothingness, they'd be out of this place and back into the real world. And he'd be more than happy to start in on some weed-whacking.

The demon dropped away from slender fingers, vanishing, and Hakkai straightened, wiping his hands on his pants with a grimace.

Any second now, Gojyo thought with satisfaction. About time I get a fucking cigarette, too...

A strangled gasp echoed against stone, a combination of pain and surprise. Hakkai whirled about, instantly assuming a defensive stance, his one visible eye narrowed against the blood that poured from a gash on his forehead. But Gojyo could see his friend was not otherwise injured – where had that sound come from?

Soft fingers ghosted against the skin of his neck, underneath his jawbone. Under normal circumstances, the half-breed would have found the touch erotic, perhaps even ticklish, but for some reason he only felt cold and... numb. He could feel the reassuring weight of the shakujou in his palm, but could not feel the blood he knew was smeared beneath his fingers and coating the pole of his weapon.

"You cannot have him," a sweet voice whispered in his ear, airy and feminine. "He will always be mine, even in death."

That was when the pain hit him, in the same instant that Hakkai's eyes widened in fear and disbelief, in the same instant that he could feel the blade being withdrawn from his back. He had been wrong, he realized now; those three demons hadn't been the only corpses in the prison block that the kudzu could animate. There was still Kanan, Hakkai's sister and lover, who had stolen his knife and used it to kill herself and the half-demon growing in her belly. Kanan, whose cell he had inadvertently put his back to without even realizing she was still within it. Kanan, who had just stabbed that same knife through the small of Gojyo's back and probably through his left kidney.

Pain overrode his ability to hear any more, but he could still see Hakkai's lips move as the brunette shouted his name.

Pain overrode his ability to think, to breathe, but he could still feel the fury of being taken down from behind like that, anger that swept through his veins with the same ferocity and liquid heat as the fire in his side.

Pain may have numbed his hands and threatened to drop him to his knees, but the rage was stronger – rage at this dream, at the woman behind him who had chosen suicide over life, at his own weaknesses, but most especially at the plant that was pulling the strings behind this nightmare.

Gojyo reversed the shakujou and thrust it backwards through the bars of the cell, and his wound screamed with the shuddering impact of the paddle-blade sinking into flesh. He could not see Kanan's face, did not know what she looked like, but all he could think of was the shapeless black shadow that had been his mother's face in his own dream, the way her eyes had burned like blue fire, the hunger that had shone through before Sanzo had blown her away with the banishing gun, and the way the world had vanished in a wave of light –

"Gojyo!"

The air around him was fairly vibrating with the rattle of bones, the hissing of serpents. The ground beneath his hands surged and writhed, refusing to give him enough purchase to push himself up off his stomach – When did I fall onto my face? – and everything was black, so dark that he couldn't see the nose in front of his face much less the area he was in. He couldn't breathe; burning, debilitating pain flowed through his veins with every heartbeat, with every blink and with every twitch of his body. And he was so fucking tired...

"Gojyo, get up!"

Goddamnit, he thought irritably. I just want to go to sleep...

Now hold still. It'll only hurt for a second... just a pinprick...

...mamma will make it quick, just... just hold still...

Pure, animalistic fear bit through him, and Gojyo squelched any further urge to sleep. No way was he going to fall asleep again... not with the image of his mother looming in the backdrop of his mind, axe held high overhead, bright blue eyes burning with rage and sadness and hunger, just waiting for him to let his exhaustion get the better of him again...

Something brushed against his cheek and he automatically flinched away from it, forcing his burning, aching arms to push him up off the ground. He tried to ignore the pain, tried to override it with adrenaline and the fight-or-flight urge, but only partially succeeded. Sparks of lightning were racing up and down his spine, up into the base of his skull and down into his legs, but he made himself move anyways, getting his knees underneath him and scuttling sideways as fast as he could manage. The half-breed didn't go very far, though, before a set of warm arms wrapped awkwardly around his torso.

"Hold still, Gojyo. I can't see you in this darkness."

The words took a moment to reach him through the heady fog of pain, and then it took a moment longer before his brain could process the words into information he could understand. It was Hakkai – Hakkai's arms were wrapped around him, Hakkai's breath on his shoulder. The noise in the air was lessening, he realized, fading from a vicious tangle of angry serpents hissing to the muted backdrop of wind blowing through trees.

"What – " Gojyo tried, but his voice didn't want to work; the sound that issued from his throat sounded more like an angry frog than like any semblance of a word. His tongue felt swollen and heavy in his mouth, as numb as his fingertips and lips. As numb as everything on his body felt, in-between the waves of pain.

"I don't – " Hakkai's voice caught, and the red-head could feel how heavy the other man was breathing – panting, really, as though he had run for miles and miles until he simply couldn't lift his feet to go another step. He sounded weak. "I don't know. The dungeon..."

Hakkai's voice caught again, but this time he made no effort to continue. The dungeon? Gojyo thought, and then it came back to him, hazily – Hyakuganmaoh's castle, the corpses, the blood-stained cells, Chin Isou, and the blade that Cho Gonou had used to slice his way through a thousand demons, the blade that had killed his lover and sister and that had ripped its way through Gojyo's back...

The pain flared up again, just to remind him that those events were no dream. Or rather, had occurred in a dream that was all too real.

"Fuck," he whispered, and between one blink and the next – not that he could see anything to begin with – the half-demon could feel himself being cradled against Hakkai's chest, a lean arm wrapped around his shoulders. One of the buttons on the other man's shirt was poking into his eye.

It was funny, he thought lazily, how this whole situation seemed so reversed. He was supposed to be the one who was doing the saving, after all, and look how good a job he had done. Not only had he been unable to save himself from his own mother (both in truth and in nightmare), he had been unable to find Hakkai without Hakuryuu's help and was unable to save the same man from his nightmare without royally screwing things up. First Sanzo had needed to save him, and now Hakkai, who had been in the kudzu's nightmarish cocoon for gods-knew-how-long, was saving him from... something. What the hell was he doing in Hakkai's arms, anyways? Whatever the reason was, he felt more comfortable than he had in hours. Even the pain that managed to reach him felt subdued and far away.

"Gojyo?" Hakkai whispered, and his voice sounded faint, even though the half-breed could feel the word thrumming in his chest.

"Um," was his intelligent reply. He felt too secure to say or do anything more.

"I've stopped the bleeding as best I could," the other man continued, and it was then that Gojyo could feel the stickiness of blood on his back and stomach, making his pants cling to his legs. Hakkai's other arm, the one that was not wrapped around Gojyo's shoulders, was shoved up under his shirt and vest, the long-fingered hand resting lightly on the small of his back. The reality of him being stabbed smacked back into him, and the warmth and security of hearing Hakkai's heart beat beneath his cheek disappeared under the swell of worry and fear that Hakkai might be hurt as well.

The half-breed got an arm underneath him, the inside of his wrist brushing against Hakkai's hip, and pushed himself away from the other man. The twinge of pain that rode up his spine was not nearly enough to incapacitate him this time.

"Are you okay?" he whispered, straining his eyes to see through the darkness. Little good it did him – outlines were becoming clear, but he still could not see Hakkai, only feel him through the heat of his body and the shallow, quick breaths that puffed on his cheek.

"The vine..." the other man said slowly, "... I think it's gone."

Gojyo held his breath, straining his ears instead of his eyes. Silence greeted them, the same absolute, deadening quiet that felt like it was pressing against the eardrums. Nothing rattled or hissed or scurried through the underbrush. Nothing moved except for the rise and fall of Hakkai's chest.

That was a relief. He had half-expected they would need to run from the kudzu, same as when Sanzo had pulled him from his own nightmare, but if the plant decided to withdraw by itself, he certainly would not be one to argue. Not having to deal with a rabid vine was one less thing the red-head had to worry about. He took another breath, through his nose, and was pleased to find that the scent of the kudzu blossom, while still strong, was no where near as heady as it had been when he was trying to hack the plant away to get to Hakkai... before he had gone through the whole nightmare bullshit. How long ago had that been, anyways? A few minutes? An hour? There was no way to tell in this darkness.

"Are you okay?" Gojyo asked again, his voice strengthening. After having been chewed on by a chi-eating plant for several hours and then turning around and using more chi to heal Gojyo's wounds, the man had to be exhausted...

Several more breaths puffed on his cheek before the other man shifted, and then he felt the warmth of Hakkai's cheek on his shoulder, felt the hand beneath his shirt slide upward and tighten its hold beneath his ribs.

"I'm tired," he whispered. "Very tired."

Gojyo sat up more, wrapping one arm around his friend, and rested his free hand on the back of Hakkai's neck. In the distant darkness he could see the faint red glow of two small eyes coming closer, and soon the pale white shape of Hakuryuu had alighted on the ground by his knee. The poor creature mewled pathetically, rubbing its head against Hakkai's hip, but received no response.

The brunette's breathing was slow and deep now, and his body was limp and relaxed. Although Gojyo still couldn't see very well, he was better able tell where the gaps in the canopy were, where the moon overhead had become covered with clouds. He could feel the beat of Hakkai's heart against his shoulder, and where his arm was wrapped securely around his friend. Even in the darkness, even with the sickly strong scent of grapes all around them and the threat of the kudzu vine possibly returning, he felt safe – with Hakkai in his arms and Hakuryuu nearby, ready to show him back to the road, he felt safe and capable of being in control once again. Already the insecurities were fading in the face of his need to protect his friend.

"It's okay," he said softly, and reached down to run his palm over the soft spikes along the dragon's spine. It cooed pitifully at him.

Even with the memory of his mother looming overhead, and the memory of delicate fingers ghosting across his neck, and the memory of a sweet voice murmuring, "You cannot have him. He will always be mine, even in death." – even with all those things bearing down on him, along with the exhaustion of blood loss, he felt safe and back in control.

"It's okay now."

---

Me-Nuriko: I'm glad you're enjoying this story so much. Hope the rest of the chapters are up to par!

Puckwolf: Keeping the people in character without making them stagnant is difficult; the same goes for trying to allow for character development without really taking it too far. I've found that I really enjoy Gojyo's morbid sense of humor, and I'm glad that I'm managed to do it right. Hopefully this chapter will take off a little bit of the tension – although of course you've still got to wait for Goku and Sanzo's chapter. :p!

Haruka Hana: Gojyo and Hakkai are a wonderful couple – even though there really isn't anything in canon that says, "Yes, these two are an item," there are still so many little things that make you wonder. I'm particularly pleased with the ending here; I think they are quite sweet together. :) Glad you're liking this so much, and I think you'll enjoy what I have planned in the next chapter!

Sanada: No worries if you haven't reviewed! I always love to hear that readers are enjoying my work, but I hardly want to beg or pressure anyone into saying anything! Hakkai didn't exactly get to kill Chin Isou in this chapter, but I'm hoping that you enjoy the resolution reguardless.

Merf: You definitely got more than just Chin Isou in this chapter, eh? It would have been too easy if just the one guy was going after them! I really wanted them to fight Kanan, but that would have been a little hard, what with her being stuck in the cell and all... so I tried the next best thing. :3

keistje: More blood, just for you! XD! The sequels are flowing, believe you me – although I've got to do Goku's nightmare first. Hopefully the Sanzo/Goku, gen as it might be, will tide you over until I can get the smut out again. I hope you have a good fourth of July weekend!

Eat A Peach: I will admit that even though I'm not that big of a 585 fan, I still think it's probably the most canon couple in the whole series. I really enjoyed the little scene at the end, and would draw a picture of it if I had the skills. :3 I'm sorry that you've got a cold (or did when you last reviewed), and hope this little bit of yumminess makes you feel better. So glad you're enjoying this!

VG Terra: I had thought about referring to Hakkai as "Hakkai" when he was attacking Gojyo, but it just wouldn't have fit... after all, there's such a monumental difference between Hakkai and Gonou that one simply can't refer to them as the same person, even if they inhabit the same body. I'm glad that you liked that subtle change, and I'm planning on making up for every sucky fight scene in the next chapter with Homura and Sanzo. :3!