Hey I know it's been a long time since I worked on this so I was looking though my story notebooks and found the last part of this chapter and I thought to myself "Why did you leave an eternal cliffhanger you FOOL" So here it is the final piece to Just Above Normal or until I write another short.
Chapter 2 Part 2: The Shadow of Sanzo
"I hope it's not much farther." Gojyo said after a while, "My leg is killing me and my crutch is exhausted."
"I'm hungry…"
Gojyo's bandage had soaked though and was now leaking blood. Sanzo climbed to the top a hill and looked down seeing a town. Good, soon they could get proper medical attention and some rest. They made their way slowly to town and received many a pitying stare. When they managed to make it to the inn, Sanzo approached the keeper.
"Four rooms please." He sounded nearly out of breath.
"I'm afraid that I only have two left."
"Fine, I'll take them." Sanzo saw the man look past him at Gojyo and Goku who were leaning against the doorway.
"Run into trouble?"
"You could say that." Sanzo frowned at the man, "Where's the bath?"
"Down the hall." The keeper pointed.
Sanzo did not say another word but headed off that way with the others behind him. He opened the door to see a large square public bath. There was more than enough room for all of them there.
"Ahhh……" Hakkai opened his eyes slowly.
Sanzo looked down at him, "Good you're awake. Time to get cleaned up."
It took a painstaking several minuets to peel out of their blood soaked garments but then they were all in the bath. It was a very nice bath, with bubbles of a nice clean scented soap in the water that came up to their chests. Hakkai carefully washed at his arm as pain jolted up it. He had the feeling that this bath was going to take him forever and that he was going to end up spending all afternoon here when he felt someone hurriedly washing his back for him. He glanced over his shoulder to see Sanzo.
"Hurry up and go lie down if you're so damn tired." Sanzo growled then when he finished the man's back returned to his own scrubbing.
"I thought that you were going to die for sure, Hakkai." Gojyo joked noticing as Sanzo had that Hakkai was moving sluggish as almost in a sleepy way.
Gojyo because of his leg was not actually in the bath but rather on the tiles beside it covered in well-placed soap bubbles. He scrubbed diligently at the stubborn grime and blood.
"At least we all made it out alive." Hakkai spoke still gently washing. He smiled at Hakuryuu who was preening his scales.
"Ch." Sanzo voiced his annoyance then cast a glance at Goku who was washing in a rather slow mechanical way. The boy was almost completely run down. That is when Sanzo noticed that Goku's eyes were closed and that he was slowly sinking beneath the bubbles.
"Goku!" Sanzo reached over, grabbed the little youkai by his hair, and pulled him up, "Don't drown on me twice!"
He took a washcloth and began to hurriedly scrub the boy's face rubbing the caked grime away.
Waking up under the abuse to his face, Goku struggled weakly to get away, "Ah, stop! You're tearing my face off!"
"The sooner you get clean the sooner you can lie down." Sanzo gripped the struggling youkai tighter.
He was worried and besides, Goku had more than earned his rest and maybe a moderately sized meal. Finally, having accomplished his taxing task after much laughing from both Gojyo and Hakkai and flailing form Goku, Sanzo practically tossed the saru out of the bath. He gave the boy strict orders to go lie down and sleep or die. Still snickering, Gojyo was the next victim of Sanzo's scrubbing.
"Oi, bohzo, I can clean myself!" Gojyo argued.
"You are clean now get your ugly face out of my sight." Sanzo glared darkly.
"You just wanted to feel me up didn't you, you perverted Sanzo, you. And so forward too, you could have been gentle. I can't believe that you went for the saru before me though, hurts my pride." Gojyo said feigning hurt.
"Get out!" Sanzo snapped angrily.
"All right, all right. Geez, not even a smoke after that." Gojyo grinned before drying off and dressing in a spare set of clothes.
He carefully bound his leg in a fresh set of bandages that were provided by the innkeeper, for a small sum of course, and then made his way to his room. Sighing, Gojyo opened the door and walked in. He grinned at the sight that greeted his gaze. Goku who had actually made it to his bed was sprawled across it sideways from where he had climbed into it. He looked like a little kid. Chuckling, Gojyo made his way over to Goku and pulled the top blanket backwards so that it draped over the sleeping boy.
"Thanks, baka saru." Gojyo patted the boy on the head before limping to his own bed and laying down to rest.
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Sanzo let Hakkai finish cleaning himself but remained to make sure that the man did not fall asleep in the bath as Goku had. When Hakkai was cleaned and dried, Sanzo wrapped his companion's bones, which had to be reset due to the shoddy patchwork job that they had done to them at the fight. Usually, he would not have been so motherly over the lot of them, that was Hakkai's job, but he was worried about them. More so since the voice in the back of his head was saying things about them and what it was going to do to them. Sanzo was beginning to wonder if he really was going insane. After helping Hakkai to the room that the three youkai were sharing, Sanzo went to his room for a troubled sleep.
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Goku woke first and the realization that he had not eaten in a whole twenty-four hours made itself known by his stomach loudly expressing it's indignation. He yawned and hopped out of bed rubbing the sleep from his eyes with the back of one hand. He wandered over to Hakkai and pulled on the sleeping man's sleeve. There was a tired groan as Hakkai woke.
"Yes, Goku?" Hakkai blinked blearily at the little youkai.
"Hakkai, I'm starving…" Goku gave him a pitiful look.
"You'll have to tell Sanzo, he's the one with the money." Hakkai pat Goku on the head then closed his eyes again.
Goku smiled then walked out of their room and into Sanzo's. He made his way to Sanzo's bedside and reached out the pull at his sleeve. Sanzo would understand. Sanzo would feed him. As quick as lightening, Sanzo's hand shot out and grabbed Goku's wrist yanking him closer. Goku bit on his cry, Sanzo's grip on his wrist was almost crushing. For a human, Sanzo was very strong. Sanzo sat up and glared at him for a moment as if demanding an explanation. Before Goku could say one word, the monk reached out, grabbed his neck with his other hand, and began squeezing, very hard.
Sanzo blinked and blinked again only to notice that his hand was clenching. Looking down, Sanzo let go in shock. Goku fell heavily to the floor, gasping for breath. Sanzo looked at his hand then back to the stunned youkai.
"What's going on?" Sanzo glared at nothing in particular. His heart wrenched to see that Goku had curled up on the floor defensively, like a dog that had been beaten, "Goku…"
"I'm sorry!" Goku cried, "Whatever I did to make you so mad at me, I'm sorry! I won't do it again! Just stop being so made at me." He was crying silver tears.
'If you make me mad, I'll kill you.'
He had told Goku that when they had first started traveling together. Sanzo felt so angry at himself. Why did he keep doing these things? With an annoyed sigh, Sanzo reached down and touched Goku's shoulder. He pulled the little youkai up from the floor to sit on the bed beside him.
"You surprised me you stupid monkey, that's all. It was an accident. Knock next time."
"I will knock, I promise!" Goku nodded his head as if to make his promise that much more sincere. His only thought was to make Sanzo not mad at him anymore.
Sanzo stood, "Come on you dumbass monkey, let's get something to eat."
"Okay." Sanzo frowned to see a bruise starting around the boy's neck.
Sanzo gave Goku the gold card and told him to go ahead and get them some seats at the tavern while he collected the rest of the motley crew. Sanzo walked into the other room and woke Hakkai who stretched once then walked out. When he approached Gojyo, Sanzo had to resist the urge to strangle the red-haired half-breed.
'Go away!' Sanzo thought at the voice in his mind, 'Leave me the hell alone!'
Then, the feeling was gone. Even through breakfast, he felt nothing from the voice.
"…and chicken, rice, teriyaki, and…thwack…itaiyo…"Goku held his stinging head.
"I'd like some curry, please." Hakkai added, "And some wine."
"I'd like to see you after dinner babe." Gojyo leaned toward the waitress. Thwack, "Hey! Just because you can't pick up a chick doesn't mean you have to spoil my fun you droopy eyed monk!" Thwack-- with meaning
Hakkai quietly ate his morning meal observing Gojyo's flirtations and Goku's ravenous munching when he looked over at Sanzo. The monk did not look well. He seemed ill somehow. Meanwhile, the meal boiled down to the last piece of teriyaki chicken. Gojyo reached out and snagged it.
"Hey!" Goku shouted waving his chopsticks madly, "That's mine!"
"Too slow young grasshopper." Gojyo waved it tauntingly.
"I'm not a grasshopper and you've already had twelve! No fair!" Goku stood up.
"Yes, fair. You ate everything else you stomach minded hooligan!" Gojyo countered.
After which ensued a short rendition of a 'FoodWars' chopstick battle between Darth Goku- Eater of All Foods- and Gojyo Streetwalker- Self Proclaimed Master of the Chopstick-. The battle came to a sudden halt as a different set of chopsticks shoved a piece of chicken into Dart Goku's mouth.
"Now shut up!" Sanzo snapped, annoyed at having to depart with the last bite of his meal.
Darth Goku conceded and the 'FoodWars' battle was put to an early end but…only the battle not the war ahahahahhahahhaah …. THWACK….oww…..
After the table had been cleared and they paid, Gojyo stayed around to flirt with the waitress before moving on to the more expensive 'entertainment'.
Hakkai had walked Goku back to the inn under Sanzo's strict orders. Due to the problems at the last town, Goku was not allowed in a town by himself at night. He was to stay at the inn and out of trouble. After delivering his charge, Hakkai went walking with Sanzo. They enjoyed each other's quiet understanding company, or at least Hakkai did. The other two were ok, but only in small doses. The infamous Gojyo it seemed was going to be spending the night at a most unreputable house. Sanzo ignored the fact that he saw Gojyo walk into the building. He could care less just as long at the kappa was at the jeep on time in the morning.
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Goku paced about the room with Hakuryuu on his shoulder. The little white dragon flapped his wings happily enjoying the ride. After a while, Goku decided to sit by the window and see what was going on in the town at dark before he died of sheer boredom. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach and it was not something he ate. He should not worry, Sanzo would take care of whatever it was, right? The bruise on his neck, which he had covered up from before, throbbed in a reminder that it was still there and he did not feel very reassured at all.
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Sanzo and Hakkai walked silently through the streets. It was nice sometimes to be away from it all: the fighting, the arguing, the demons slaying… and just take a long walk in the cool night air. Turning a corner, they encountered a dead end.
"Let's turn back now, ne, Sanzo?" Hakkai suggested.
There was no reply, not even the usual 'ch' sound. Hakkai turned to see Sanzo staring intently at him. He did not like that look in the monk's eyes. It looked murderous. Something was very wrong. In the next moment, it was all Hakkai could do to defend himself as Sanzo lunged at him. Unable to fight back against his friend in fear of hurting him, Hakkai soon became bloody and bruised. When the beating came to a pause, Hakkai looked up from his place on the floor and saw that Sanzo had his gun leveled with his head. Hakkai was frozen in shock. Sanzo was going to kill him!
As if waking from a cold dark sleep, Sanzo's eyes focused on the gun in his hand and dropped it for the first time in his life. He was going crazy. There was no doubt about it now. He had to go, if he stayed, he was going to end up killing one of them for real. He turned to leave when he saw Gojyo standing in his way, arms crossed.
"Get out of my way." Sanzo snapped but Gojyo did not so much as flinch.
"I've been following you two Sanzo. I saw what happened." Gojyo spoke, "And I saw Goku's neck at dinner."
"Then you know that as you said earlier, 'I'm losing it'." Sanzo flung out his hand, "Now let me leave before I kill you."
"Nope, you are far from crazy. Possessed, yes, crazy well,…other than normal no. Besides the monkey would kill over with out you." Gojyo grinned, "I've seen this kind of possession before. The youkai tries to make you think you are going mad then convinces you to kill yourself. Pretty clever, huh."
"Then…." Sanzo began.
"Don't worry, it's easy to exorcise. I've already talked to the monks at the shrine here. Come on, they're waiting." Gojyo spoke, "Goku can take care of Hakkai."
"Goku's at the inn." Sanzo said flatly.
"No, he's right here." Gojyo gestured and Goku wandered out of the shadows, "I went and got him out of the inn. We had a talk. I had to make sure that my assumptions were correct. You could have actually been going crazy you know."
"Are you going to be alright, Sanzo?" Goku asked worriedly.
"Hurry it up baldy, before you lose control again." Gojyo started to walk off.
"Ch." Sanzo followed.
Perhaps 'followed' was not the word for he walked beside Gojyo. There was no way that Gojyo was going to let a possessed and very dangerous Sanzo walk behind him, even if he did not have his gun. Gojyo sighed in relief as he saw the temple coming into view. He took his eyes off Sanzo for just a moment and that is all it took. Sanzo lunged at him, taking them both to the ground. Gojyo fell heavily on his wounded leg and cried out. They rolled across the ground exchanging punches until Gojyo finally managed to knock Sanzo off him. He spat out a mouthful of blood from his busted lip.
"I'm not Hakkai, bohzo. I'm not going easy on you just because you're a droopy-eyes monk." Gojyo leapt forward this time, initiating combat. After a while, he managed to get a clear shot at Sanzo's stomach and knocked the breath out of the monk.
Wiping blood off his mouth, Gojyo dragged Sanzo into the temple and handed him over to the priests inside. Sinking down exhaustedly on the temple steps, he waited for them to exorcise Sanzo. However, being as he was exhausted, eyes betrayed him and they sealed shut in sleep. When he awoke, the first thing he saw were sandals standing in front of his face. He sat up bleary eyed his focus adjusting to see Sanzo standing there glaring at him. Gojyo grinned.
"If you want to sleep, do it at the inn you dirty kappa."
Taking Gojyo's shoulder, Sanzo helped him back to the inn. Sanzo's way of saying 'thank you' Gojyo decided, lacked a certain…thankfulness. All well, just another ordinary day in the journey west.