Somewhere I Belong
A Saiyuki fan fiction by Iapetus
Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Saiyuki.
This chapter was delayed because of studying for finals, and the fact that I REALLY wanted to nail this chapter. It came out VERY different than I originally intended, but I REALLY like how it finally decided to write itself. Sanzo/Goku fans, eat your heart out. *evil grin*
I usually try to update on the weekend, but due to the fact that I finally finished it, I decided to post it now. ^^ Review responses can be found in the link in my bio. Thank you to everyone for reviewing!
WARNING: If you so choose to interpret it as such, there is a bit of a citrus scene in this chapter. Incredibly slight (not enough to be considered lime so I'm not upping the rating yet), but I thought I should warn you all.
Please make sure you read the note at the end of the chapter.
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Chapter 4: The Other Option
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It's so different than it was a few days ago, Sanzo thought to himself. He knew perfectly well that it was because it was much earlier in the evening, but it didn't shake the odd sense of déjà vu that he had while walking down the streets from his apartment.
Vampires always grew restless when dusk came, and were often out as soon as the sun set. Sanzo was no different – if he stayed in his apartment at night he'd go stir crazy. It was the reason he had gotten a job in the first place even if he didn't need the money – it gave him something to do. Sometimes he wondered if boredom could kill vampire as well as a man like the saying said…
Most of the time on his nights off, the Keikan would often wander the streets in an attempt to find an area where he could be by himself yet still be outdoors. However, there were occasions where he could feel his instincts overpower him. Sanzo's body had never obeyed his mind, and despite the fact that he did not want to be around people, he'd be overcome with an anxiety to suddenly be in close proximity of them. In a somewhat strained compromise, he'd simply walk through some of the more crowded sidewalks. He tried to avoid going to bars – he got enough of that at work.
Tonight was different than either type of night, though. Sanzo's thoughts had been consumed with the conversation he had heard earlier at work. He had suspected that something might be going on, that some sort of resistance had been formed against the vampires, but he was still taken aback at the idea of Shuuei leading the organization. That man was the one person he had ever really considered to be a friend, but Sanzo had hoped that he would not have been affected by the "accused souls."
He had planned on one day going back to the shrine and telling his friend what had happened that night three years ago – but it would be after he avenged his master. Now that he knew that Shuuei knew about vampires, Sanzo began to question himself. Would it really be alright for him to go back? If Shuuei knew the Truth, then he'd be able to handle what the vampire had to tell him.
All of this led him back to the reason he was out tonight. He knew perfectly well from the rumors he heard at work that the Prodigy Child of Sports liked to frequent the pool halls in his off season. If Shuuei indeed had connections with him, they he would be Sanzo's best source for information. The men he had eavesdropped on weren't really that well informed. They simply flaunted their information to help make themselves feel more important. Those kinds of people disgusted him.
Son Goku, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. Goku had appeared to be a "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" kind of person, so the thought of a prodigy child going against the Diet greatly intrigued him.
As he neared the fourth pool hall that he had approached so far that night, he noted that something seem to be… off… about it. The building seemed to be completely deserted.
That isn't possible, he reasoned to himself, this is one of the busiest halls. When he focused his senses closer on the area, Sanzo realized that the surrounding businesses had several more customers than they were used to.
Sighing in disgust, Sanzo continued on in the direction of the "vacant" building. Some vampires could really get sloppy in their hunting, especially when they traveled in packs. There were seven of them, and they seemed to be converging on a single human. It was going to be a massacre.
Or so he thought.
The pack had moved onto the human with a precision that Sanzo knew could only come with time, and was a sure way to take out their target. It was why he was surprised when the first one to fall was one of the Weaklings.
Che, they must really be stupid if they started to fight amongst themselves, the Keikan thought logically. Vampires did not generally work well together, and it was why most Creatures of the Night kept to themselves. But when a second Weakling fell, he could feel his suspicions growing. The human's ki had been rising, but there was no way that a human could have killed a vampire. The moment they would, they'd cease to be humans themselves.
Sanzo found himself running the rest of the way to the pool hall, only to pass right by it and head for the alley at the back of the building. He couldn't believe his eyes.
The person he had been searching for all night was right there in front of him – weaving through the mass of Weaklings and slowly killing them all. Two bodies already lay on the ground, bloody holes where their hearts used to function. A glint of silver caught his eye, and he saw Son Goku use what appeared to be a foot long spike to impale yet another Weakling. The spike triggered something in Sanzo's memory, and he tried to place exactly where he had seen it before.
Yet another presence brought Sanzo to attention as he looked to the top of the building. A new Keikan had arrived, and by the looks of it, he was the master of all of the Weaklings in the alley. The blonde-haired vampire also had the feeling that this was the other Keikan's territory to begin with, so yet again he found himself as a trespasser.
Goku seemed oblivious to the presences of the two powerful vampires as he continued to fight the Weaklings. Both Keikans were mystified at how this human was able to actually kill vampires and retain his humanity. In the city of Oniori, no one could explain why, but if a human knowingly took the life of another person, whether human or vampire, they would be transformed into a vampire themselves. It was one reason the Diet's most important rule was "Do Not Kill." As the last Weakling fell, Sanzo took a moment to get a good look at the young man.
His appearance was so much different than Sanzo had ever seen on TV or in the magazines. The Prodigy Child had apparently been originally dressed for a night on the town, however now his clothes were torn and covered in blood. Yet, as he examined the young man's body closer, he could see no physical injuries. The blood must have all been the Weaklings'… That actually made sense – the only wound a vampire wanted to draw blood from was from the neck – and they would unconsciously make sure that their victim was not injured in any other way.
As Goku fought to catch his breath, he looked up and saw Sanzo for the first time. The Keikan was staring at him, and the man's golden eyes widened in surprise. His gaze seemed concentrated on Sanzo's sunglasses. Goku's expression became confused, almost as if he wanted to ask the vampire a question.
Before he even had the opportunity to speak, the other Keikan seemed to instantly materialize behind the human and grabbed both of his wrists. The other Keikan continued to tighten his grip on the arm with the spike, eventually forcing Goku to let his weapon fall to the ground.
"You know, you did put on a quite a performance back there," the other vampire said idly. "Thank you for the entertainment." With one quick motion, he forced Goku's arms behind his back and held them tight with his right hand. His left began to brush the young man's neck with his fingers in anticipation of what he was about to do.
"Keep your filthy hands off of me, you pervert," Goku spat as he still futilely tried to wrench his way out of his captor's grasp.
The vampire laughed. "Really? That isn't any way to talk to me." His finger trailed from the human's upper neck to his chin as he forced the man to look him in the eye. "You don't know what you're missing." By the extreme concentration in the vampire's face, Sanzo could tell that he was trying to put the human under hypnosis.
He's fighting off the hypnosis, Sanzo thought, amazed. That's supposed to be impossible…
Either way, he had had enough of this other vampire. Sanzo couldn't have the only reliable connection to Shuuei that he knew of get killed or worse.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked in a lofty voice. The other vampire had been so concentrated on his prey that he seemed to have forgotten completely about Sanzo's presence. The unfamiliar Keikan's stupidity confounded Sanzo. How the fuck did he become a Keikan like that? He thought critically. One did not rise to the level of Keikan simply by luck. The road to greater strength for a vampire was bloody and violent. There was a reason for the huge division within the species of vampires – the Keikans were truly the ones in charge and were a force to be reckoned with.
The other vampire snapped out of his almost self-induced trance and glared back at Sanzo. "Didn't your master ever teach you manners?" It demanded in an attempt to match his opponent's aloofness – but failed miserably. Still, he had touched a nerve, and the blonde could feel his jaw clench. He knew that what his opponent was implying and what he was thinking about were two different things, but Sanzo would never let anyone insinuate something like that about his master.
"It is very rude to interrupt someone when they are about to feed," it continued, "or are you simply one of those scavengers that can't find their own prey?"
That was the last straw. The vampire truly was an idiot, picking a fight with him.
"Stupid," Goku whispered in a strained voice. "Scavenger Keikans don't exist. It's an oxymorous."
"Oxymoron," Sanzo corrected automatically as he walked closer. He saw the human grin faintly, as if he had read Sanzo's mind and saw what he wanted to do.
Sanzo's cigarette still had a few more drags on it, but he took it out anyways and flung it in his opponent's face. The vampire recoiled when the cigarette butt hit its skin. Ash floated around the vampire, stinging him everywhere. He glared at Sanzo in hatred as he ruthlessly pushed Goku to the side.
Unlike the girl a few days ago, the young man was able to brace himself, although the action seemed to have knocked the air out of him. The other Keikan walked over to his prey's fallen figure and drew a short cut somewhat lightly against his throat. Goku winced as his wound began to ooze. The vampire took the finger covered in blood and licked it clean slowly.
"You taste incredible," he said in an awed voice. "I must have done something really good for my master to let me have you. You will be a lot of fun to clean up," the vampire said in a vulgar tone. Sanzo's face drew back in an expression of revulsion. It was said that some vampires had fetishes, and it looked like he was dealing with one. "And don't even think about trying to escape."
By the pained look in Goku's face, Sanzo couldn't help but think that the young man wouldn't be able to even if he tried. His head was tilted to the side, as if he were trying to keep his hair out of his wound. However, the action caused Sanzo's attention to be drawn to the blood that was slowly trickling down the human's tanned neck. His heavy breathing did not help matters, and Sanzo found the sight very… alluring. It was making him hungry again.
The blonde couldn't help but begin to feel a bit territorial as the other vampire eyed Goku again. He had been hunting for the young man for the past few days, even if he had no intention of feeding on him. Sanzo had the perception growing in his brain that the other vampire was messing with his property.
It was a bad idea to mess with Sanzo's things.
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Goku fought not to lose consciousness as he tried to keep his breath steady. It would have been hard enough getting to the shrine after his first fight, but now the opportunity seemed impossible. He had no idea that he had been set up for an ambush – and there would be no one to bail him out like Gojyo had with Lirin.
Wincing against the pain, Goku continued to tilt his head to the side. There was vampire blood in his hair, and if it somehow got in his wound…
Kougaiji had told him that there was a reason Hunters bit their tongues off if they were about to transform. Unlike normal humans, a Hunter would skip the stage of "Weakling" completely and directly become a Keikan, because of all the vampire blood that was already on their hands. Kougaiji was the only ex-Hunter they knew of that this happened to – for he had escaped the botched attempt on his life. The transformation of a Hunter to vampire was the most painful thing that the ex-Hunter said that he had ever experienced.
Even though he knew why he was doing it, Goku still felt self-conscious leaving his neck so exposed like that. It was as if he was offering himself – the prize for the victor. The thought brought him back to the two vampires who appeared to be in a standoff.
The first vampire, his captor, was one that Goku was already very familiar with. A Hunter needed to know the names and descriptions of all known Keikans in the capital, as well as what they… preferred. It was one thing that confused him, because this Keikan was supposed to be one of the most infamous womanizers. He was not the good kind, either, like Gojyo. He isn't supposed to be into men…
What puzzled him even more was the blonde-haired Keikan that had thrown the cigarette in the face of Goku's captor. The Hunter didn't recognize him, and as he naturally compared the two levels of power, Goku realized that the stranger was at least four times as powerful as the other vampire. How the hell did we miss someone this strong? And then there were the sunglasses…
An infuriated scream pierced the air as his captor made the first move. The Hunter did his best to observe the fight – he had never seen a real fight between two Keikans before and the speed was incredible. That, and his fatigue he was beginning to feel in his body made the fight incredibly difficult to follow.
The two vanished into the darker shadows and seemed to reappear instantaneously ten feet from where they had started. Dodging a left hook, the blonde quickly changed his footing and threw a punch at his opponent's face. It connected, and sent the vampire flying across the alley into the wall. Goku could feel the body come in contact with the brick as he himself leaned against it to help find his balance. The vampire recovered quickly, but the Hunter didn't miss the pieces of mortar that fell off his back as he went to attack again.
It was like something he was seeing out of a dream. Goku was amazed at how the blonde Keikan moved as he fought. Not only was he more powerful than his adversary, but he actually had fighting skills. There were many vampires who were simply street fighters – fighters with no formal training – but it looked like this one had studied extensively in the martial arts. While the blonde had a few street fighting techniques woven into his style, it was very rare now a days to come a cross a true master of fighting.
No matter how hard he tried, the other vampire just couldn't seem to connect. Goku could see his fangs stand out prominently against the rest of its teeth as he lunged for the blonde's throat. The blonde raised his eyebrows briefly before kneeing the advancing vampire in the stomach, again sending it flying out of Goku's field of vision.
A terrified shriek rose in protest from the vampire as he hit the ground hard. Goku waited for him to get up again, but no noise came from the body. Shifting carefully, the Hunter saw to his astonishment that the vampire had fallen onto his discarded spike that had somehow been at the correct angle to piece the creature's heart. It was a one-in-a-million chance that it would ever happen, but he had a feeling it wasn't really chance. That blonde Keikan is just too good…
The thought of the blonde brought his thoughts back to reality. He wasn't out of hot water yet – he now had to face a more powerful vampire and he couldn't move. Goku desperately wanted to cover his bleeding neck, but his hands were still stained with vampire blood and he wasn't going to be that stupid. The pain was growing to a dull ache, though, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could stand it.
Turning from where his former opponent lay, the blonde walked up to where Goku had propped himself against the wall. The Hunter knew that he should be afraid of his advance, but while the vampire was incredibly powerful, something seemed different about him.
He reminds me of Gojyo and Kougaiji… the young man thought to himself. And those sunglasses…
"Those sunglasses" were now looking him in the face. It almost felt indecent simply lying there against the wall, he felt so exposed. There would be no way that he'd be able to resist if the vampire decided to take him.
Wait a second… Why wasn't the vampire taking him? While many predators like to play with their prey before feeding, it was risky for a vampire to do so out in the open. What was he doing?
Again, Goku found himself comparing the blonde to the other Keikans he knew. There seemed to be this hatred hovering around him – a hatred for what he was. Maybe this vampire could actually get him somewhere – Goku knew that Hakkai was having another "meeting" at his apartment, and if he got close enough he knew that the Hunter and two Keikans would be able to help him. Of course, if Goku was just reading him wrong, he would be at a huge risk of exposing Hakkai…
As another flash of pain went through his neck, Goku realized that he didn't have a choice. His predicament had him completely incapacitated.
"Help me…"
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That particular request was the last thing Sanzo thought he'd hear in this situation. Someone who knew what he was begging for his help? Either the person was very brave or very stupid. It was also growing difficult to be near the man with his neck exposed in that fashion.
"You wouldn't want my kind of help," Sanzo replied coldly.
"Please!" Goku's expression turned to one of hopelessness. "I can't stay here. Will you at least take me to Hakk- my friend's house?" Hope lingered on his face desperately, startling the Keikan. He had never seen such determination in a person's eyes before. It also startled him to hear the note of trust in the human's strained voice.
Sanzo looked the situation over critically. What did this young man think he'd be able to do? He couldn't go to the hospital – all the blood on his clothes would make the doctors and nurses suspicious, and would probably alert the police. Sanzo couldn't afford to lose his quarry once he had found it – the trail would grow cold if he simply let the young man go. It was possible that this friend of his could clean him up, but then he'd never get a chance to ask him any questions. Had Goku been even slightly better regarding his injuries, Sanzo might have commenced with his question-asking right then and there, but…
"You can stand up. Walk there yourself."
"No!" Goku responded quickly. "I can't clean my wound first…"
So he did know, and still refused to move. Sanzo stubbornly and silently refused to let him out of his sight before he got the answers he was looking for.
All of this left him with one other option, the one that had not been posed. Sanzo felt his fangs slip down as he removed his sunglasses. Looking Goku in the eye, he used a very light form of hypnosis to help waylay the pain. The vampire remembered that this man could throw hypnosis, but as Goku's eyes became vaguely distant, he realized that he had let himself fall under the trance.
Lowering his mouth to Goku's neck, he slowly began to lick the human's blood from his skin. It took all the willpower he possessed to not sink his fangs into the tanned neck and take the young man on the spot.
His mouth drew closer to the man's wound, but he found that he kept lingering on certain areas, becoming fascinated with the taste of Goku's skin. Sanzo was taken aback when he felt Goku's hands grip his shoulders as the vampire continued his assault.
Both their minds went out the door when Sanzo's lips finally touched the actual injury. The blood flow had lessened, but the vampire lapped up all of the liquid hungrily as his lips tended to the cut. Goku's grip tightened as his breath quickened. The other vampire had cut directly across the pulse point, which was already sensitive in the first place. That, plus the fact that the mystical trance helped replace the pain with pleasure, made the experience almost overwhelming to the young man.
Sanzo began to feel a little heady as Goku pressed his neck further into the vampire's eager mouth. As the blood flow continued to decrease, Sanzo found his fangs move tantalizingly across the human's skin, touching firmly enough to tease yet light enough not to penetrate.
A moan rose from Goku's throat unconsciously, and the action snapped the vampire out of his activity. Goku's eyes widened as he fell out of the trance – trying to figure out exactly what had happened.
While the blood flow had greatly decreased, Sanzo still needed a way to keep the human's neck uncontaminated from vampire blood until they could clean him up properly. Shrugging off his trench coat, he took off his shirt and tore it into strips. He took a piece of fabric and wrapped it securely around the man's neck. Taking a second section, he reinforced the makeshift bandage to make sure that none of the vampire blood would get through. The last section of his shirt was used to do a rough clean-up job of the rest of the blood.
The Keikan's senses pricked again, and he could sense someone, a human, approaching. They needed to get out of there – it would be very bad to be discovered surrounded by eight corpses, even if it was by a human. It had just taken him a bit longer to take care of his prey than he thought it would have originally.
His prey… Sanzo didn't want to think about how naturally he had thought that. This man was not his prey – he had just helped save his life. Had he left him there, another vampire would have been sure to come to him and finish what the others had started.
Sanzo was about to ask Goku if he could stand when the man collapsed completely onto the ground, breathing shallowly. The vampire criticized himself for not thinking it through better – this man had just killed seven Weaklings, and a human was not supposed to be able to be a match for one. He had also lost a bit of blood and had undergone hypnosis. It was supposed to be more than a normal person could bear.
The vampire had seen enough from the past events to see that Son Goku was far from normal, even if one disregarded the fact that he was a Prodigy Child. Quickly putting his trench coat back on, Sanzo took the young man into his arms and vanished into the night.
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Shunrei looked down at her watch for the third time in five minutes. No matter how much she checked it, she couldn't deny the fact that she was running late.
It was one of the few days in which she was not working the evening shift, and the woman had hoped to be able to stop by her apartment before heading over to Yaone's place like she had planned to that evening. Apparently Lirin and Goku were having trouble with a few of their classes, and had asked the two women to help them study. Shunrei had never been able to refuse a request from the two young Hunters, and since they happened to be struggling with their computer class…
Ideally Shuuei would have been the perfect person to teach them – he had taken over the two Hunters' training when their former teacher, Kougaiji, had transformed – but he had been too busy with his Abbot duties recently to be able to take time out to do such things. Shunrei also suspected that he was working on some large project on the computer, and the other Hunters were going to let him concentrate his effort on cyberspace. Very few people were born with a natural affinity for the kind of work that they did, and despite the Diet's efforts to track down these rare individuals, many slipped through their fingers. Shunrei had even heard a rumor once that they tried to make Shuuei the Prodigy Child of Technology, but it was around that time that he came to be under Koumyou-sensei's care and simply "disappeared" from public knowledge.
Something told the woman that it would probably do her friend some good if he was able to sit down and actually teach someone basic computer programming. He always seemed to be relaxed around computers, and if he could actually take the time to work with something that couldn't possibly get him caught, it might relax him even more than his hacking. No one could go a hundred percent without burning out eventually, and the last thing they needed was Shuuei falling apart.
A strand of long blonde hair fell in front of Shunrei's eyes, and she paused momentarily to push it behind her ear. Most of her hair was in a braid, but after a hard day of work, many strands had somehow found their way free. She mentally promised herself that when she got to Yaone's apartment she'd put the hair in a ponytail. With this promise in mind, she quickened her pace.
It was soon that the woman found herself passing through the area that Goku liked to hang out in the most, and briefly wondered if the young man was out and about tonight. He often would spend his time out doing something, and would only come to their study sessions at the last possible second before being late. She wouldn't be surprised if Goku was in his favorite pool bar right now making a little bit extra money before he was forced to do his homework.
I don't think a little peek would hurt, she thought to herself. After all, the pool hall in question happened to be in the side of the street she was on, and she could simply look in the window. Goku always did stand out – it was very easy to pick him out in a crowd.
As she neared the building in question, an odd sense of foreboding pricked at her senses. It was as if something dark was trying to keep her back, as if she were about to intrude on something very private. Shunrei knew that her senses were nowhere near as sharp as any of the Hunters, but they had taught her to recognize certain feelings, and to trust her instincts. Something isn't right…
Peering into the front window, Shunrei saw that the pool hall was completely empty. Curiosity getting the better of her, she walked in to an alarming sight.
By the appearance of the room, Shunrei could tell that a vampire must have hypnotized the people of the room to leave. Halfway consumed mugs of beer were on end tables, and many pool games were incomplete. At the back of the room, she saw that one of the tables had been overturned, and she hurried over to examine it better.
The thought of the pool table left her mind when she found a body pinned to the floor with a splintered cue stick. Its mouth was opened slightly, and Shunrei could see the telltale fangs, revealing the creature's identity. She shuddered – it had been a long time since she had seen the dead body of a Weakling. Even if she was Aware, a human who knew of the situation in the city regarding vampires but was not a Hunter, she did not often personally deal with the dead ones. Her job was to help supply the living ones with fresh blood from her work.
She looked with a note of sadness at the body and realized that this was one of Lirin and Goku's former classmates. It was obvious by the location and destruction of property (even if it probably wasn't his fault) that it had been Goku who had made the kill, and that thought made her shudder. She didn't think that she'd ever be able to kill someone who used to be a classmate of hers, no matter what the circumstance was.…
A flyer from a bulletin board in the back fell to the floor, catching the woman's attention. It glided slowly to the floor in an erratic pattern, falling just outside of an open door. Shunrei stood up from where she had been kneeling next to the body and walked toward the back exit. Goku wasn't stupid – he'd never leave a scene that had his most recent kill exposed like that. However, her curiosity turned to nausea when she stepped out into the back alley.
The whole scenario seemed surreal. It was as if she had stepped into a sea of blood. It seemed to coat the concrete pavement, decreasing the traction of her feet. Among the blood the woman grisly counted out eight bodies.
Oh my god, it was another ambush… Each body had been pieced through the heart – the only injury a vampire could never recover from. But, if they were all dead, where was Goku? Had he escaped? Every single ambush that had happened in the past six months had always been lead by a Keikan. For once, was this just an unrelated incident?
Shunrei knew it wouldn't be good to try to convince herself with false illusions. As she carefully walked among the former battle scene, she found something else of interest.
A glint of silver caught her eye, and Shunrei made her way over to a particular corpse at the far side of the alley. While most of it was covered in blood, the woman was able to figure out that this particular vampire was still impaled by a Hunter's spike.
If anything, this made her fear for the young man even more. A Hunter never left their spike at the scene of a kill – it was the only weapon they could really use against their adversaries most of the time. True, that one vampire had been killed with a cue stick, but it would be a bit conspicuous if Hunters carried large wooden stakes around with them all the time. She bent down over the body to pull the weapon out, but started as it came free.
Shunrei recognized the corpse as formerly being one of the Keikan vampires they had been warned to watch out for. He's dead? She thought to herself, but there is no way that Goku could hope to kill him – Hunters are no match for Keikans.
If Goku left his spike here but his body isn't here… A Hunter would only abandon their spike when forced to, and that meant that either the young man was dead or had been captured. Seeing his body not among those who had fallen, the woman highly suspected the (latter). Shunrei quickly put the bloody spike inside her coat and left the morbid scene, heading in the direction of the Shrine.
Yaone, Lirin, I'm sorry, but there's been a change in plans…
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Please keep in mind that, while this is an AU, it also applies to the legends of the vampires. I've put a few twists of my own into them, which will be explained later.
IMPORTANT NOTE: (If you happen to be reading my other story, "Kindred Spirits," you can skip over this). Recently I have been having a problem with my leg which makes it almost impossible for me to sit (or stand, or lie down for that matter) without being in terrible pain. This has made typing incredibly difficult, and that plus finals have greatly reduced my writing output. So… I don't know when the next chapter will be out. THIS is the reason this particular chapter took so long to get out. I do promise you I will work on SiB, but I don't know how much I'll be able to do.
I love feedback! Please let me know what you thought of the chapter, I'd appreciate it. (Especially with my finals this week, I could use something to cheer me up from all the stress I've been under…)
-Iapetus