Series: Saiyuki
Author: Zelgadis55
Rating: R
Disclaimers: Saiyuki and all associated character belong to Kazuya Minekura and various license holders. Only Sue belongs to me and I never wanted her in the first place.
Warning: This chapter of Gojyo and Mary-Sue may contain scenes unsuitable for people with a weak stomach. You have been warned.
Goku: But I don't have a weak stomach.
Sanzo: (raises eyebrows) Then what do you call not being able to go five minutes without whining that you're hungry? If that isn't weak, what is?
Goku: Does that mean I'll be hungry in this chapter as well?
Sanzo: (smirks) Probably.
Goku: That… that's not fair! Hey, Zell?
Zell: What's up?
Goku: Do I have to be hungry again?
Zell: Aren't you always hungry?
Goku: Not quite…
Zell: Well, at least always hungry again a few minutes after eating.
Goku: …
Sanzo: Weak! (walks away)
Zell: Well, I certainly won't stop you from eating. It's up to you whether you do or not.
Goku: (grins) Sank you! (chases after Sanzo)
A/N: Sorry about the delay in posting this chapter. My computer died a couple of months back and before it was fixed I went on holidays to the other side of the country. When I got back I had to reinstall all my programs etc and run a data recovery program which took forever (a freaking week) to run. Since then, I have been dealing with e-mail problems where before I could read all my emails, my in-box would dump the lot. (sigh) I hope everything is back to normal now…
At this stage, I haven't yet finished the story but it looks like it will be finishing around chapter 21, certainly it won't be much longer after that.
- . - . -
Gojyo and Mary Sue
Pt 17
Goku beamed happily at Hakkai as he finished the last spring roll. He sighed, "I feel so much better with a full stomach. I mean, it's not as if I wasn't hungry over the last day, it's just I couldn't eat. I was either too worried or, well, you know." Goku's smile transformed into a grin, "I'm just glad you found the ero-kappa."
Hakkai smiled gently at his younger friend, "I'm thankful about that as well." He said softly. 'More than you realise.'
"But, do you think he'll be okay? He wasn't acting normal on the way back. Gojyo was so quiet." Goku had been worried ever since Gojyo hadn't responded normally to the five hundred year old teenager's insult.
With a small sigh, Hakkai replied, "Just give him time. Sue played with his emotions and mind but now that she is dead, she cannot do that anymore. However, Gojyo needs to heal." Inwardly, so as to not alarm Goku, Hakkai thought, 'I just hope that he can heal. He looks to be in a lot of pain.'
Hakkai recalled the look in Gojyo's eyes when the hanyou turned to him and asked for their room key when they arrived back at the inn. Gojyo had asked quietly so their other two companions wouldn't hear and he was refusing to look anyone directly in the eye. 'Normalcy,' Hakkai decided, 'that's what Gojyo needs right now.' Hakkai recalled when Goku whined to Sanzo for food. The familiar 'annoyance' had broken through the shroud in Gojyo's mind just long enough to allow Gojyo to finally remember the teen.
"I'm going to go talk to Gojyo for a while and maybe get a little sleep." Hakkai spoke up suddenly. "Would you please look after Hakuryu for me for a while?"
Goku grinned and nodded eagerly, "Sure!" he said and held out his hands as the dragon fluttered from the other side of the table to Goku.
"Kyuu."
"We'll go for a walk." Goku decided in a matter of fact tone. "Come on Hakuryu, let's ask Sanzo if he wants to come." He said, already up and moving toward the stairs.
Hakkai shook his head, an amused smile playing across his lips. "I don't believe that would be a good idea. Sanzo has already said that he doesn't want to be disturbed."
"Yeah… you're right." Goku turned and walked out the front door of the inn, Hakuryu preening himself while perched on the youth's shoulders.
Hakkai's smile fell off his face as he stood and walked upstairs, heading to his and Gojyo's room.
- . - . -
Ever since Gojyo had walked into his and Hakkai's room, the kappa had been laying side-on on his bed, facing towards the window and staring out of it. Finally, he climbed off the bed to use the facilities and as he was about to trudge back to the bed, he caught a look at himself in the bathroom mirror. With his mind much clearer now that he was no longer being directly influenced by Sue, he was able to see for himself how he truly looked and it was a shock. His crimson hair hung lank and lifeless, the shine he always put an effort into maintaining all gone. His face was now gaunt and pale and his clothes seemed to almost be hanging baggily off of him. He stared in disbelief over the changes he had physically been through over the previous day and a half. Gojyo reached one hand up to the mirror, almost tentatively touching the reflection of his face. "How…" he whispered.
A voice coming from behind where there had been no one previously, spoke up, "She was a succubus. That is what they do; consume a person's life energy. Ever since the two of you met, she's been feeding from you and… she was about to finish her meal when I came across the two of you this morning."
Gojyo turned slowly around to look at the emerald eyed, brunette standing behind him. "I would have given myself to her gladly." He said slowly. "Even now, if she wasn't dead. I just… I can't get her out of my mind." Gojyo turned back to face his reflection, staring into his own gaunt features once more.
"Hakkai, you… remind me so much of her." Gojyo suddenly spoke, still with that unusual, quiet voice.
Hakkai blinked, not knowing quite how to respond or whether or not to feel insulted.
"You look a little alike; you're both quiet and polite until something happens to bring you out of your shell. Though… when angry, she didn't stay polite the way you do. I see that now but…" Gojyo sighed, still staring at his reflection, anything to avoid looking at his friend and being reminded all the more. "Thing is, I'm glad you're here, you know? I feel like I can cope more easily with you around Hakkai. It's just hard to look at you without stirring my memories of Sue."
It was then that Hakkai remembered Sue saying something about altering her appearance to suit Gojyo's taste. However, the healer thought better of actually mentioning this to his friend.
"I'm so tired but I can't even close my eyes without seeing her face. I feel like I'm being pulled and summoned somewhere and it's driving me crazy trying to ignore it." Gojyo admitted. He dragged himself away from his reflection and pushed past Hakkai back to his bed. He stared down in surprise.
Hakkai smiled gently, "I know you said you weren't hungry but I arranged for some food that wouldn't need to be eaten straight away. That way you can eat when you are ready."
Gojyo shook his head and moved the tray of fruit and pastries to one of the bedside tables. He sat down, head in his hands, "What is it lately with chicks wanting to literally eat me? It's almost as if someone out there finds this funny. They seem to be arranging for it to happen often enough."
Hakkai walked over to sit on the bed next to Gojyo. "Now you are just imagining things. Slintha and Sue were completely different situations. Still, it does seem to be a problem."
Gojyo let himself fall backwards on the bed so that he was staring straight up at the ceiling. On the edge of his mind, he could almost hear a soft feminine voice calling his name repeatedly. He sighed and wished his imagination would just shut the hell up! "Hakkai?"
"Mmm?" the healer asked, turning his head and smiling reassuringly at Gojyo.
"Thanks." Gojyo mumbled. "I'm, uh… going to try to get some sleep now."
Hakkai nodded, "That sounds like a wonderful idea. I need to get some myself." The healer stood and walked over to his own bed. "I'll be here if you need me for anything." He promised.
"Yeah, I know and I appreciate it."
- . - . -
"Gojyo."
"Gojyouuu."
"Gojyo!"
"Gouuujyouuu…"
Gojyo whirled around, his crimson eyes searching intently for the source of the voice. It seemed to be coming from everywhere. He would pinpoint the direction and start toward it, only to then hear his name called from a different direction altogether.
As the fog swirled around him, disoriented, he called out, "Stay still so I can find you!"
The voice ceased calling and Gojyo was left alone and floundering, not sure where to look. With everything covered in the thick misty grey, it all looked the same. There were no landmarks that he could see, he couldn't even make out more than two meters through the swirling grey and yet, even that short distance was poor viewing.
"Where are you?" he called. "Kuso! I asked you to stay in one place, not stop calling out!"
Gojyo decided to pick a direction to search in. As he jogged along, he tried to be careful of his footing. The fog was getting thicker and he could no longer see his feet. Gojyo was a little worried that he might trip or slip and fall. However, as he ran, all he noticed was uniformity to the ground. He stopped and knelt, placing his palms down and running them over the surface. He discovered that the ground was all perfectly smoothed but somehow not slippery. This place really did seem to be nothingness, wherever here was.
The perplexed kappa stood again, "Hello?" he called. There was no response, no nothing. The sound of his own voice sounded as if it were being swallowed or perhaps suffocated as soon as it left his mouth. "Where did you go?" he tried again. Still, to no avail.
Frustrated, Gojyo decided to look around himself and that was when he realised that he had no idea which direction he had been running in. Just to hear something, he spoke his thoughts aloud. "What now? There's nothing here and that voice has disappeared. For all I know, I could have been running in circles earlier and I have no way of knowing where I am." Gojyo looked around again in the hopes that somewhere, the billowing fog would have lifted a little in order to allow him to see something other than this continuous, oppressive grey. "For that matter, how did I get here?"
The worried kappa did a double-take. There! Was that movement in the fog? "Hello?" he called, already running in that direction. A face began to form through the mist and in relief, Gojyo spoke up, "Hakkai! Am I glad to see you, man!" The only problem being that the vapour swirled again, distorting the face and forcing Gojyo to realise that it had only been his imagination allowing him to see what he wanted to see. There had been no face, no Hakkai, there was no voice. There probably hadn't been any voice in the place either, after all, his own voice kept being swallowed up by the blank, grey nothing engulfing him and that, was when it started again.
"… jyo…" A whispered voice called faintly.
"I can't hear you!" Gojyo yelled after a moment. "Speak up!"
"Gojyo…" The voice was a little stronger this time. The kappa strained his ears in an effort to hear more. "Gojyo… Come…"
Suddenly and unusually, Gojyo felt extremely creeped out. There was something achingly familiar within that voice and his feelings toward it were mixed. The very sound of it was giving him the cold shivers and yet… it was so compelling, like a siren call. He decided he was better off not knowing anymore and tried to shut out the voice but it kept becoming stronger in its insistence.
"Gojyo… I need you. Please, come and find me. Gojyo, come back."
"Go away, I won't listen to you. Just leave me alone!" he yelled, filled with the insane urge to cover up his ears like a terrified child. 'Ha!' Gojyo thought, 'Like covering my ears will make her voice go away.' Again, he searched intently for the source of the voice. "Hang on a minute... did I just say her voice? That's impossible, she's dead!"
Musical laughter filled the air all around him, "You and I have bonded Gojyo darling. You can't remove me from your thoughts that easily." The phantom voice called sweetly. "You belong to me now and you always will."
"The only person I belong to is Sha Gojyo!" the kappa responded hotly. Underneath the surface though, where he wanted no-one to ever see, he could feel himself giving in to her again and was having to fight with everything he had to keep in control of his own will. The more he heard the voice, the more the grey fog surrounding him thickened, the more it felt… comforting, kind of like a warm doona on a cold winter's night or hot sex with a hot babe or… a friendly game of cards and drinks with Hakkai…
Gojyo shook his head, trying to clear it. 'Think of Hakkai!' he commanded himself. 'He's my anchor to reality. He saved me from her last time.'
More sweet laughter, "That guy cannot help you this time. He isn't here and unless he is adept at using the dreaming, he won't be."
Gojyo felt his indignation rise, "Where are you? Stop playing games with me and come out into the open." He demanded, setting himself into a defensive stance.
Silence,
And then…
"All right, I'll come out." To Gojyo's ears, her voice sounded insufferably pleased with itself. Moments later, a scraping, shuffling sound replaced her voice in his ears and the sound filled him with foreboding.
Out of the dense fog shambled a figure that unfortunately drew Gojyo's gaze. Looking at it was one of the biggest mistakes he had ever made. The thing, that may once have been a woman, dragged itself toward him, the fog clearing around it as if repelled by the abomination passing through it. Its hair hung in ragged, matted clumps, what little there was left of it anyway. Half of the skin was missing and where it was lost, maggots crawled in and out of the rotting flesh. Its cheeks were sunken in and the dead eyeballs bulged. What little clothing that remained hung in tattered strips, leaving little to Gojyo's overloaded imagination and the stench, the vile, putrid scent which wafted unerringly over in the non-existent breeze made Gojyo retch violently.
In his life, Gojyo had seen many corpses, indeed made many of them himself but nothing could possibly have prepared him for this awful reality. The horrible vision in front of him spoke, the sweet, sweet voice belying the fact that the thing's jaw hung slackly as it spoke and Gojyo could also see more things crawling and wriggling inside of its dry, cracked mouth. "I've come to finish what we started." Her voice said in a persuading tone. "Make love to me Gojyo. You know deep down that you need me."
Right this moment, all that Gojyo felt he needed was to be sick. He didn't let the thing in front of him know that however. "Heh!" he laughed weakly, "I may be a pervert but there are some things even I draw the line at and doing cadavers is one of them!"
The walking corpse's face twisted in annoyance at Gojyo's outright rejection and a chunk of dead skin dropped from its forehead. "You don't understand," it said, a musical lilt to its voice, "you seem to be under the delusion of thinking you have a say in the matter. You are mine to do with as I please."
It began to shuffle toward him again, the stench becoming overpowering. Gojyo threw out his right hand to summon shakujou as he backed away, "Huh?" Shakujou did not appear at his mental command like he had expected it to. He tried again and still nothing.
The corpse of his dead girlfriend laughed at Gojyo's misfortune. "You cannot summon if I don't allow it. I already told you, you are mine."
Gojyo's head snapped up to look directly at the horror in front of him and seeing that rotting face only ten short centimetres away from his own face made him frantic to leave her behind. He tried to back up, only to find his will being sapped too much, too fast. 'I've got to get away from her.'
"You are mine!" her voice repeated from beside him.
"You are mine!" he heard from behind and this time, he whirled his body to look.
"You belong to me!"
"Take me now!"
"Make love to me!"
"Fulfil me!"
"Give up your life to me willingly!"
All these commands and more that were similar flew at Gojyo from all around. There were dozen's of animated Sue cadavers surrounding him and in the face of them, Gojyo felt sicker than he had ever felt in his life. To top it all off, he no longer was able to say no. As he sank to the ground, Gojyo whispered, "Hakkai…"
To be continued
- . - . –
A/N: Slintha appeared in my previous Saiyuki fic 'Distorted Mirror'.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed.
SweetSnowCherryBlossomDarkness: Oh, that sucks. I know all about computer's dying now myself. Mine did so spectacularly. I'm just glad the majority of my data was saved. Did the people you RP'ed with have a copy of those RPs? Sorry about the wait for this chapter.
Tora Macaw: Thanks. (grin) I'm glad you thought Hakkai's concern for Gojyo came through. I know one of my weak points is trying to convey emotion.
Diva Urd: Thanks and sorry you felt bloody hell to be a little off. I often tend to have trouble using stronger language and since she is an original character, I didn't worry so much about using the stronger language as I would for our favourite guys. I may be starting to wind down in my rough version (working on chapter 20) but there is still a bit left to come.
