Um, sorry about the last chapter getting uploaded twice. My life is kinda chaos-y right now. This chapter is dedicated to ChoHakkai941, for getting the answers right, and also to everybody else who pointed out my mistake.

Speaking of mistakes, I don't think I ever gave Hakkai's little brother a name. It was Satoshi, in case you were wondering.

"What the hell is all this?"

Koumyou grabbed a random passer- by.

"Haven't you heard? Houtou castle has been taken from the demons!"

"I know. I was just there. So why is everybody evacuating?"

"We're not evacuating. We're all moving up into the castle."

The boy scurried off to wherever he had been going, leaving Koumyou to wonder what the hell his people were thinking.

"What are they thinking? That castle's a deserted wreck!"

Not willing to admit the half- breed had echoed his own thoughts, Koumyou made do with just glaring at his two companions.

"Why do you keep following me? I swear, if you try to come into my room I'm going to shoot you."

"What's wrong with him?"

"He's always like that."

"YOU DON'T KNOW ME!" Koumyou avoided the two pairs of eyes. "I've never seen either of you, and if my future goes better than my past has, I never will again, either."

With that, he stormed off down a seemingly random tunnel. He'd find his way to where he wanted to go, eventually.

"He's always like that," Goku repeated.

"Ah, we'll see him again." Gojyo dismissed the blonde with a wave of his hand.

"How do you know?"

"Because once everybody's gone, these tunnels are going to fall into ruin. He'll either have to swallow his pride and come with the rest of the humans, or…"

"Or what?"

"He'll get crushed to death by mud in the next rainy season."

Goku took a moment to examine his memories. He decided that Gojyo was probably right. Sanzo was proud, but he was neither stupid nor suicidal.

"So what do we do until then?"

"I dunno about you, but I need a drink. And I'd be willing to bet that there's a bunch of happy guys buying rounds today. And by happy I mean smashed."

Goku smiled up at his old friend. Gojyo, it seemed, would never change.

"Can we get food?"

Three down.

It was, in fact, three days before Koumyou showed up in Houtou castle. No one was left behind in the tunnels. Mostly because they were dark, wet, and generally inhospitable. Houtou castle, on the other hand, was dark, wet, and inhospitable, but it had running water and also electricity. That made it better.

It was Goku who first saw him, and went running off to find Gojyo. The red-headed man was in the old informatory, which had been turned into a veritable hospital. The people left behind were working in shifts, watching over the wounded or comatose. Every once in a while someone would wake up, and that was good. But every once in a while, someone would die, and that was bad.

Life has a way of evening out like that.

"Gojyo! I just saw him! He's here in the castle."

The saru received a dull glance in return.

"Tell me in an hour, I'm off duty then."

"But this is important!"

"That guy over there just went into seizures and died, okay? Tell. Me. Later."

Not really looking to where Gojyo was pointing, the monkey nodded.

There was pain. There was a lot of pain. Hakkai's muscles were burning, making him wonder if maybe he hadn't had to fight for his life recently.

Memories came back in bits and pieces.

The attack on the demon castle. Satoshi's unexpected appearance.

Even more unexpected death. Not death. Murder.

The subsequent mass murder. That might have something to do with why he was so tired. Murder was quite tiring, when you really think about it…

Right. Moving on.

Then… the thousandth demon. Had he really killed a thousand? Didn't seem like that many.

But he had definitely done… something. Changed somehow. So maybe he had killed a thousand?

There was a bit less burning now, or he was getting used to it. His attention was drawn to a light tingle on his right ear.

Maybe it was missing?

Cautiously, he lifted a hand up to his face.

Somewhere along the line he figured out that he was lying down on something other than the linoleum he had passed out on.

And his ear wasn't missing, which was quite a relief. There were three metal clasps around the rim. Something told him he shouldn't move them.

Oh. So they were probably limiters. So he was a demon, then.

"Hey, this guy isn't dead!"

Oh, that's good.

He silently waved an invisible little flag. Hooray for our side.

That's either funny or sad. He couldn't decide which.

"Hey, man. You got a name?"

Poor bastard. He'd come back from the brink of death and how they were gonna interrogate him.

Hey…

Wait a minute…

Something red came into focus. There was an upside- down face hovering above his own. Red Thing's hair was long enough to be touching Hakkai's face.

Heh.

What's that feeling you can only say in French?

Deep green eyes slowly focused. That was good. When they didn't focus, it usually meant that their owner was letting go.

Gojyo didn't want this one to let go.

There wasn't really a reason for this, but he just… didn't.

"You got a name?"

There was a pause.

"Completely Screwed."

"Nice to meet you, Screwed. You have a lot of relatives in here today."

The man on the bed would have laughed, but pain wracking through his stomach stopped it. Of course it was. There was a gash across his whole abdomen. It was a wonder that the muscles survived enough to let him sit up. He would have one hell of a scar.

"My name's Hakkai."

Déjà vu. More of it. Dammit, where does all this shit some from?

"Gojyo, nice to meet you. Can you think?"

"…I think so."

"Wait, that came out wrong. Basically the only painkiller we've got right now is opium, so most of the people can't really think much when they wake up."

"Is that safe?"

"Probably not. But most of these poor bastards are done for anyway, so it doesn't matter much anyway."

"That's horribly cynical."

"Isn't it just?" Gojyo gave the brunette a wide smile. "Next question on the list: Any relatives we should contact? Anybody who'd care to know if you're alive?"

"Probably not."

Now that Satoshi's gone… there's no one to care…

"You neither, huh?"

Any response Hakkai could have given was cut off when a young man three or four beds down began to scream.

"Hold that thought."

The red was gone, and Hakkai was too tired to see where it had gone. Slightly disturbed that the strange lullaby didn't bother at him, he drifted once again into unconciousness.

"YOU DON'T KNOW ME!"

Heh. That sounds so freakin' emo. I hate it when Sanzo's emo.