Shooting Stars

by Miakaghost

An orphan is picked up by a Sanzo and brought to the temple. However, at the temple he has 'problems' with one of his fellow priests-in-training, these problems being they beat each other to a bloody pulp. Sanzo ikkou appearin chap. 3

1. Finding Master Sanzo

Shooting Stars

Chap.1

Talking….what had it ever done for me? A big fat nothing. That's what. I was thrown out of my house, and then it was burned down.

I'm just a kid, they say. I don't matter. I'm just a street urchin. No one should care about me, they say. I'm just some orphan brat, they say, and I deserve no respect or manners. All they say I deserve is a sharp insult and boot to the stomach. After all, I have no feelings, right?

……Or so they say. They? Who is they, you ask? They….'they' is everyone else. The children not but a year older than me, the children about to be teens, the children who are already teens, the adults, the elders, and even the crows say it. I can't hear them, but I just know, in their own crow language, that's what they're saying.

Once, I asked my mother,

"What are those bright things that fly across the sky?" She replied with this.

"Those are shooting stars, the spirits of those who have done great deeds or were of pure heart in life."

"Momma, do you think I'll be a shooting star some day?"

"Of course you will, Tante. Of course you will."

That was all a lie, wasn't it? It was, wasn't it, mother? How am I to be a shooting star someday when you're dead? When our house has been burned down? When I'm an orphan who barely survives as it is? How, mother? How?

I suppose I should be happy that I don't have to live in a cardboard box. Instead, I've got an entire alleyway to myself. It's not much really, but it's shelter in those trash cans, it's food in that trash. Not particularly nutritious, or even clean, but it's a living.

Then…he came. Above his head was an umbrella, and he wore such dazzling white robes, I had to turn away from him. He came closer to inspect me, and I attempted to escape the man. He caught me by the arm, and he stared me in the eyes. He was such a kind priest. Master Kinto Sanzo, the men following him called him. Master Kinto promised me a home, and he said he would take care of me. And for once….I trusted him.

And this decision is what brought about the legend of the immortal Sanzo.