For warnings and disclaimers, please see first chapter
I'M SO SORRY! I really did think I'd have this up sooner! A million apologies! You may beat me with a plank if you wish!
Installment Six
In Which The Climax Finally Occurs
OR
Lirin is Special
"Sanzo, you're not just going to leave him there!" Hakkai yelled, following Sanzo into the kitchen. "Sanzo, what are you doing?" he snapped, standing in the doorway. Sanzo picked up the phone, not deigning to make a reply.
"Hey, Clarence, I need you to connect me to someone," he muttered into the phone.
"Sure, who?" Clarence answered.
"What's the name of that clean-up squad you hate? Permanent mercenaries?"
"Permanent freelance," Clarence growled. "Why on earth do you need to talk to them?"
"It doesn't matter, now shut up," Sanzo snapped. There was some grumbling from the other end, but the hold music began playing, and then the phone rang again.
"Hello, you have reached the Permanent Freelance branch of the Rosemont Corporation," a female voice chirruped. In the background Sanzo could here several crashes, and then what sounded like a cat hissing and a child screaming. "Please hold," the same voice said. There was a smacking sound as the woman dropped the phone onto the desk or table it was situated on.
"LIREN, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! THE CAT DOESN'T WANT TO BE HELD! HOW CAN I TELL? BY THE FACT THAT HE JUST SCRATCHED YOUR ARM TO RIBBONS, THAT'S HOW! LIREN, STOP ACTING LIKE A FIVE-YEAR OLD!" In a much more reasonable voice the woman continued, "Poor dear, act your age! How old are you now? Fifteen? Sixteen?"
"I'm fifteen!" a girl's voice replied.
"Well, no matter, hush now, I'll fix your arm in just a minute, I have a customer call right now, all right? Do you want to get Dokugakuji to clean that for you? Go on, run along dear."
"W-Where's Kou?" the girl asked, her voice still watery.
"I have no idea where your brother is," the woman said patiently. "Now, run along, otherwise you'll faint from blood loss. Look, you've already stained the carpet, and I just cleaned it, too!"
"It w-wasn't my blood last time!" the girl cried indignantly. "It was Dokugakuji's!"
"So it was, now run along! I'm taking a customer call, my dear!"
"Okay, I'm going, I'm going – whoa!"
"And don't fall! You've made the floor slippery, now!"
"Yeah, I know!" the girl called, but her voice was faint, as if from several rooms away.
"I'm terribly sorry for the wait, sir," the woman said. "Now, what is your problem?"
"Well," Sanzo began, but was immediately cut off.
"Oh, I'm sorry sir, I should have asked initially. Do you work for Rosemont?"
"Um, yes," Sanzo answered, caught off guard.
"I will need your name and registration number, please?" the woman asked. Sanzo hesitated just a moment, then gave her the information.
"That seems to be in order," she said after a moment. "Now, what seems to be the problem? Is it with your assignment?"
"Yes," Sanzo answered. "I was assigned to bring a boy into headquarters who had disappeared about ten years ago,"
"I'm sorry, but I don't believe that we can help you with anything like that," the woman interrupted him. Sanzo sighed.
"That's not it, I have the kid," Sanzo snapped, sick of being interrupted.
"You do?" the woman sounded surprised. "I'm sorry, then please continue."
"The problem is, the kid is passed out on the floor with claws the size of steak knives and canines that make him look like a vampire!"
"Oh my," the woman murmured. "This boy doesn't have yellow eyes, does he?"
"He does," Sanzo answered, frowning.
"Oh. Oh, dear." The woman said quietly. "Yellow eyes, and brown hair I suppose, and a golden diadem, and-"
"Hold on," Sanzo interrupted. "Golden what?"
"Golden… golden diadem…" the woman trailed off. "Oh… oh dear. Listen, sir, this is outside my jurisdiction. I need to confer with my boss about this, as soon as I do we'll be out right away."
"Wait a minute!" Sanzo yelled. "I just wanted to know whether I was allowed to shoot the damn thing!"
"You'll have to, if it wakes up," the woman said cryptically. "I trust you keep extra rounds somewhere, yes?" Sanzo opened his mouth to argue, but the woman promptly hung up on him.
"…The Hell?" he asked finally, after a moment.
"What happened?" Hakkai asked, frowning.
"I have no idea," Sanzo answered. "She just started talking."
"What did she say regarding…" Hakkai jerked his head towards the living room.
"Hey, guys," Gojyo walked into the room, stifling a yawn. He winced as a ray of sunlight caught the window and made his way over to the ibuprofen, grumbling.
"Hangover, Gojyo?" Hakkai asked.
"Shut up," was his only reply as he swallowed a handful of tablets.
"I really think you're only supposed to take two-"
"It doesn't matter, I'll barf it up anyway," Gojyo replied, sitting at the table. "What's up with you two?" he asked after a moment. Hakkai opened his mouth to reply but was cut off short by a groan from the living room. Without a word both Hakkai and Sanzo rushed to the other room, Gojyo stumbling behind them.
The boy was waking up. He groaned again, and pushed himself to a sitting position. He stared at Hakkai, Sanzo, and Gojyo in turn, without emotion or recognition. Noiselessly, the boy stood up, again looking at the three of them. Finally, after a moment the boy loped toward Sanzo, still showing absolutely no emotion on his face. He raised one hand experimentally, pointing his claws predatorily. As soon as he began brining his hand down, Sanzo pulled the trigger.
It went straight through him. The boy took a step back, hissing, but otherwise acted as if a bullet had not just blown a hole the size of a quarter through his stomach.
This, at least, seemed to break Gojyo out of his stupor.
"Holy FCK!" he yelled, standing straight. "What the FCK," he repeated, for lack of anything better to say.
"I think I agree with you," Hakkai muttered, taking a step back, as blood began to trickle down the boy's shirt. It turned to stare at them again, this time a murderous glint in its eyes.
"It looks like some sort of animal," Hakkai muttered, watching the way the boy's face never showed any real emotion. "Only instincts," he continued his thought out loud.
Sanzo shot the thing twice more.
"Sanzo!" Gojyo yelled. "If one bullet didn't even faze the thing, why the Hll would ya' think that two more would make any difference?"
"Well, what am I supposed to do, sit back and let the thing kill us?" Sanzo yelled back. Noiselessly, the boy appeared behind Sanzo. He swept his arm like a scythe, sending Sanzo flying in the process, leaving a deep gash from his neck to his waist.
Still noiselessly, the boy walked over to where Sanzo lay and placed his foot on his throat. For the first time he showed an emotion. As he put more pressure on Sanzo's neck, he smiled. It was a happy smile, a child's smile; not the smile of a murderer.
"Sick bstrd," Gojyo muttered, swiping at him. The boy ducked, but the blow still glanced off the side of his head, overbalancing him slightly. Just enough for Hakkai to twist one of his arms behind his back and wrestle him to the ground.
"What the Hll?" Hakkai yelled, holding on with all his might.
"Dmn, at first I felt bad for ganging up on a little kid, but…" Gojyo muttered, as he and Hakkai put both of their combined weights on the boy, only narrowly managing to keep him from writhing out of their grip.
"Can you hold him for just a moment longer?" a quiet female voice asked Hakkai. He jumped in surprise, just narrowly managing to keep his grip on the boy, who was now flailing harder then ever.
"Lirin, calm him," the woman said, still speaking in the same calming tone of voice. Hakkai tried to turn his head to get a glimpse of the woman, but the boy's struggling was too strong for him to take his eyes off even for a moment.
"Excuse me," Lirin said, gently pushing Hakkai and Gojyo outward, so she had enough room to unceremoniously plop onto the boy's stomach.
"You know," the girl said as she leaned forward, placing her hands on the boy's shoulders, "this would work a lot better if one of you two did it. And a whole lot better if Mr. Droopy-eyes over there did it. But of course he went after him first," Lirin said conversationally.
"Lirin, get on with it," the woman urged, her voice still soft, but now urgent.
"Right," Lirin murmured, leaning over until her nose was almost touching the boy's. "Be sure to keep him pinned down now," Lirin cautioned, before turning her full attention on the boy.
"Goku," she whispered quietly. "Son Goku. Son Goku, the Monkey King, come back," she muttered. The boy lurched, but Hakkai and Gojyo held on with dogged determination. "Come back to us," she whispered again. "Come back to your friends. You remember your friends, don't you? Sha Gojyo, Cho Hakkai, and… and Genjyo Sanzo. You remember them, don't you? You have to remember them. You have to remember Sanzo, at least," the girl whispered, her eyes beginning to brim with tears. "Do you remember me? Do you remember Dokugakuji and Yaone? You must remember Kougaiji, at least. You said that he was the first real fight you'd had in years, remember? Please remember!" Lirin was crying now, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. The boy didn't seem to be affected at all, but both Hakkai and Gojyo felt like they had just swallowed dry ice. "Please remember!" she begged. "Please remember! Remember Sha Jien, and Cho Gonou, and Kami-Sama. Even Hakuryu! You must have some recollection of some of them!
"Yaone, I'm not getting through to him!" she wailed. "I know he's still there! I can feel him, down there somewhere, but the Saiten Taisei is too strong! I need the diadem! Please, Goku!" Lirin was screaming now, Gojyo and Hakkai screwing up their faces against the shrill, beseeching voice.
"Fine!" she suddenly roared, yanking him up by the collar, throwing Gojyo and Hakkai off at last. "Do you see that!" she yelled, holding the boy's head so that he was forced to turn uncomprehending eyes on Sanzo. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Any idea? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT HE MEANS TO YOU?" Lirin's voice was cold and hard, not at all resembling the laughing and bubbly voice she had been using only a moment before. "DO YOU REMEMBER THE CAGE? THE CHAINS? THE NOTHINGNESS HE SAVED YOU FROM?" Her face was screwed up in horror, and she was shaking the Saiten Taisei with every accentuated syllable.
"Peace, Lirin," a voice said from the doorway. Hakkai noticed vaguely from his position on the floor, which he had not moved from since dropping there, that the door had been broken open. Whether by Lirin and Yaone or this new stranger, though, he wasn't sure.
"Hey kid," the man muttered. "Lirin, hold him still," he ordered. "Hey, kid," he repeated, returning his attention to the boy. "Looking for this?" he asked, and drew out what looked to be a golden crown.
Kougaiji roughly shoved the diadem down onto the Saiten Taisei's forehead, where it contracted for a moment, then reshaped itself obligingly.
Goku gasped as his appearance returned to normal, suddenly hanging on to Lirin for dear life. His eyes widened, and he gasped,
"S-Sanzo?" in a voice raspy from disuse. Then his eyes rolled upwards, and he fell sideways.
Yaone sighed, regarding the forms of all four of the 'Sanzo ikkou'. None of them were, at that point, conscious.
Please Review!
Oh, yeah, if anybody is sitting there thinking 'What the HECK!' Don't worry, that was the desired affect. Stuff will actually make sense in the next chapter, though. There's a novel idea: things making sense.
SWEET! There's only one chapter left. Of course, I am going to write a sequal, (I'll have to, I kept a lot of things hanging...) but I'll probably talk more about that at the end of the last (next) chapter . I'm so excited, I've only ever finished one story before this!
SOOO! A Great Big Special Thanks To... (I'm sorry if I make any mistakes. I cleaned out my inbox and now I can't figure out what's what...)
Vivid Mirage: Yay! Nitpicking sessions! They make me happy in a wierd sort of way... I hope this chapter lived up to your expectations!
Wolfstone: Thank you! I'm glad that you don't regret clicking on my story after all .
TaraYuki-Uesugi: Sorry... Goku was in this, he was just... possessed. He'll be normal by next chapter, though. AndI'm glad you liked my portrayal.
Ressurector of the Dead: Wooooow! Thanks so, so much! (I over-react a lot, too...)
Thanks so much, my lovely, lovely reviewers!