'Learn the art of silence'

When the Sanzo-ikkou reached the next town, a strange surprise met their eyes.

"A festival?" Sanzo looked up at the banners, flags and balloons and sighed. He then realised that the monkey couldn't talk, and therefore couldn't bother him and laughed to himself.

Gojyo, meanwhile, was dragging Hakkai out of the car and grumbling about his imminent task. He had the job of finding Hakkai a psychiatrist and dumping him there for as long as humanely possible. He grabbed onto Hakkai's arm and dragged him down the crowded street, ignoring the crowds and Hakkai's whining about how their banners were prettier than any he could ever make.

"So, monkey. This festival's going to be fun then?" Sanzo turned to grin evilly at Goku, who was gazing with extra wide eyes at the town. "Such a shame you can't…"

"Hello, travellers." Sanzo turned round to see a man standing with a basket of candy apples. "Welcome to our town. You've come on our festival day. We celebrate all that we have received this year." Sanzo rolled his eyes, waiting for a long speech about how they should be grateful for what they received blah blah blah.

But to his surprise, what the man said next was not boring after all, "So, please help yourself to the free food, gifts and other items that are at the stalls placed on the high street." Goku was half way down the street when the man said one more thing "Oh, but there's one proviso: You have to say please."

Sanzo, who didn't usually smile, let alone laugh, was in hysterics for at least 5 minutes.

Once he had calmed down, and everyone had ventured within 10 metres of him, he and Goku decided to wander down the high street, with Jeep, back as a dragon, resting on Goku's shoulder, as his owner was probably locked in an insane asylum by now.

When they reached a stall serving meat buns, Sanzo turned to the person at the stall, "Mmm, those sure do look tasty, don't they chibisaru?" Goku nodded ferociously, "Well then, why don't you ask the man for one?"

Goku was suffering from inner torment and felt as if he was being ripped apart. On the one hand, he wanted those meat buns sooo bad, but then if he broke his resolution, then Sanzo would be mad, and he would break his resolution too, and hit Goku.

He didn't want to disappoint everyone by not keeping his resolution, and Gojyo would just say he had no brain if he didn't keep it. So, after a few minutes of internal struggle, Goku tried a new tactic.

"What you trying to say, lil' buddy?" the stall owner asked, as Goku attempted to spell out the word 'please' using his arms as letters of the alphabet. "Sorry, don't understand you."

He then used flags to spell it out, using the flag code thingy, still no reply, and then he tried Morse code, sign language and mouthing the word. However, the shopkeeper still didn't understand him.

Goku then got a stick and scratched into the ground the word 'PLEASE' in big capital letters. "Sorry, can't say that I can read." Said the shopkeeper, while Sanzo watched Goku's plight with a look of extreme smugness of his face.

"Hey guys," Gojyo jogged over to them, smudging Goku's message on the ground, which made Goku jump up and down in anger and the corners of Sanzo's mouth twitch.

"Where's Hakkai?" asked Sanzo, who was trying very hard not to drop his façade and laugh.

"Oh, I couldn't find a psychiatrist, so I dumped him in a day care centre."

Everyone was silent, except Jeep, who 'kyuued' with indignation and then flew off in search of Hakkai.

Gojyo looked round at their faces, "What? He likes kids and they won't listen to him, cos they're too busy being brats, so maybe he'll shut up about his problems."

"Fine." Sanzo resumed watching Goku's attempt to communicate to the stall owner that he wanted some meat buns.

"What's with the monkey?" Gojyo asked, pointing at Goku, who was writing 'please' in a variety of languages on a napkin.

"On their festival day, you have to say please if you want some free food. Goku has a problem with that."

"I see…" Gojyo walked up to the stall, "Hey Mr Festival Guy. Can I have 5 meat buns, please?"

"Sure." And the man on the stall handed over 5 meat buns to Gojyo who then proceeded to eat them, with added relish.

Goku then decided to try a new tactic. He walked over to Sanzo, who told him to go away and looked up at him with biiig puppy dog eyes and attempted to make Sanzo feel sorry for him and get him a meat bun. Geez, Goku must be stupider than we all thought.

"Get away from me." Sanzo was about to raise his fist to smack Goku, but then Gojyo reminded him.

"Now, now Sanzo. You're not supposed to hit people, remember?" Sanzo grumbled, but otherwise they escaped the situation quite easily.

By the end of the evening, two members of the Sanzo-ikkou were happy, one had his sanity reinstated and one was extremely annoyed.

Sanzo had a multitude of wonderful free things, which included Cigarettes to last him for at least 2 months (Marlboro of course), lots of beer, extra bullets for his gun and another fan, which was of course hidden, as he would get it confiscated if otherwise.

Gojyo's list of items did not vary immensely from Sanzo's, except his cigarettes were 'Hi-Lite', he got packs of cards instead of bullets and a fan and got a lot more alcohol. Oh, and of course the meat buns with which to torment Goku.

Hakkai returned from his stint in the day care centre back to almost normal, his eyes looked a little dazed and he had crepe paper in his hair, but apart form that, he was fine. Well, there was no more whining is what I mean by fine.

Goku, who was very annoyed and hungry, was only taken pity on by Jeep, who had returned with Hakkai. By the time they were settled into a hotel, he was nearly dead from starvation, so Sanzo decided to feed him, but nothing too fancy.

Anyway, who knows what tomorrow will bring?

(Well, we all know that Sanzo will suffer in some form, as it's his turn :D)