Disclaimer: Oh, great genie of the Lamp grant my wish that I may own Saiyuki! What's that? Get in line? Hey! That's not fair!
Things are not always, how they seem……
Introducing:
Saiyuki- The Demons Within
Chapter Three: Sickness, Wrath, and Envy
Gokuu was the last one to wake up the next morning. Sanzo had told the others that the youkai did not remember anything of last night. Collectively, they decided to leave things at that. The creature was dead; there was nothing that could be done about that now. Breakfast was short and everyone piled into Hakuryuu. Hakkai drove a little faster to get them out of the forest. Gokuu still feeling unwell soon fell asleep again leaving the journey to continue on in silence and the white smoke of cigarettes.
Much to Hakkai's dismay, the forest never seemed to have an end. However, by noon, everything was back to normal. Gojyo was bickering with Gokuu who seemed to be feeling better and Sanzo was trying to make them shut up. Hakkai was glad for it. All these uncomfortable silences and awkward moments were getting to be a bit much for him. The afternoon soon passed and they were forced to stop again for the night. Hakkai consulted the map while he was warming dinner up. He was sure that with their travel time and the fact that they had been double-timing the last day that they should have been in Trimal by now. Something just made no sense about this forest. There was just a small marking for it on the map. Technically, they should have been out of it since last night.
Sanzo sat down by the fire as his meal began. Seeing Hakkai across the fire made the memory flash again. Sanzo turned his gaze away only to see Gokuu glaring at him over his own bowl of rice. The glare was soon accompanied by a growl of irritation. Gokuu turned to Hakkai after a few moments when Sanzo looked away from him as well.
"Hakkai, Sanzo wants—" Gokuu started only to have Sanzo lunge at him knocking him flat on the ground with the fan raised threateningly. Sanzo glared, and Gokuu growled back.
Gojyo whistled, he could not help himself, "Hey, Hakkai, what did you put in this rice? I need some more if it's enough to make an uptight monk get all worked up."
Sanzo's expression flattened as he noticed the awkward position that he had ended up in and the implications of Gojyo's comment. The monk snarled in angry disgust then collected himself and returned to his seat. He gave Gokuu a threatening look. For some reason, he just felt like beating the hell out of the earth youkai. He could not remember when he had last been so irrationally angered before.
Hakkai attempted to regain the peace by refilling Gokuu's bowl of rice, which had been spilt. Gokuu, however, sat brooding over his bowl, glaring dangerously at Sanzo. Sanzo frowned back. He was still trying to think of why he was so mad. The earth youkai was merely looking after him in his own simplistic way. Being sick was defiantly not improving Gokuu's mood any. Regardless of any of the boy's good intentions, Sanzo would find his own way to overcome this problem. He was the one who had killed Hakkai and he was the one who was going to deal with it. Hakkai was looking back and forth between the two worriedly. He wanted to say something but the situation looked volatile. He had never seen Gokuu so irate before. It just seemed so out of place for the cheerful monkey boy.
"Oi, saru. You going to eat that rice or stare it to death." Gojyo was attempting to calm the situation down for Hakkai's sake by distracting the only one he could. He did not want the attention of a super pissed Sanzo.
"Take it!" Gokuu's voice hissed in one outburst of breath. He slammed the bowl down and stood up swiftly. He stalked off angrily away from the camp.
"Gokuu?" Hakkai called worriedly as the youkai disappeared from eyeshot. His brow creased.
"Damn it!" Sanzo slammed his own bowl on the ground and stood. He was not taking some sort of stupid guilt trip for this, he absolutely refused. Sanzo quickly started after the retreating youkai.
"Sanzo?" Hakkai received no answer as the monk stalked off. He started to get up as well.
"Don't worry about it, Hakkai." Gojyo put a hand on Hakkai's shoulder in a sign of comfort, "Let them go talk. Better than letting them stew over it until Sanzo snaps and kills someone, you know how that bohzo gets. Besides, you know them. Sanzo won't let anything happen to Gokuu and that baka-saru adores that dirty monk as if he's some kind of god. God of pissiness, maybe. They'll be ok."
Sanzo walked faster trying to catch up with the earth youkai. He had expected the boy to stop walking when he noticed that Sanzo was following him but instead, Gokuu showed absolutely no signs of slowing, in fact, he was walking faster. Getting more than annoyed, Sanzo reached out quickly after nearly running to catch up and grabbed the long ponytail that was trailing behind the youkai. Gokuu immediately stopped and whirled about yanking the hair from Sanzo's grasp.
"What the hell is your problem?" Sanzo demanded. He glared to cover up the fact that it was disconcerting to see angry golden orbs staring back at him almost eye level. Height made the raging face seem more dangerous than usual. Sanzo had almost forgotten that Gokuu had grown. Then again, he was not used to staring him down either. This sudden use of a backbone was really grating Sanzo's nerves. Gokuu had been rebellious sometimes before but this was just brazen.
"I've told you already!" Gokuu snapped, leveling his own glare, "You hesitate to give up your guilt and now you stink of denial. Last night, Gojyo told me that something was wrong but I couldn't smell anything above you! I know something happened because no one will tell me about it and now I feel sick, like something beneath my skin is trying to put me to sleep. I can't stand your smell anymore! It's five time's as bad as Gojyo's stench when he hasn't been laid in a while!"
"Then you should stop breathing." Sanzo's brow creased angrily at having his emotional turmoil compared to Gojyo's 'needs', "I will handle my affairs any way I see fit. It's none of your business."
"You don't have the guts to apologize." Gokuu's teeth flashed menacingly.
An insane anger swelled up inside Sanzo. If he had been in his right mind, he would have realized that it was only partially his own. Something else was heightening it far past its normal parameters. Sanzo lost all control in an instant. He swung out striking Gokuu in the face then pressed the attack as the youkai staggered backwards from surprise. Gokuu dodged away from Sanzo's attack while watching the monk intently as he did so. The first hit had caught him off guard. Sanzo had not physically struck him in a very long time; that is what the fan was used for. Granted, he now thought that perhaps he should not have lost his temper but it was bothering the hell out of him. Then since they had stopped for the night, a new strange smell had been hanging around Sanzo. It smelled like sulfur.
The exchange was very awkward as Gokuu easily dodged Sanzo's failed attacks. He wondered when the monk would get exhausted for he seemed intent on hitting him. Angry he may have been, but Gokuu would never hit Sanzo. With his strength versus the fragile existence of Sanzo's humanity, he could severely hurt or possibly kill the monk. He moved back out of the way until the heel of his boot was stopped by something hard. Slightly startled, Gokuu glanced over his shoulder to see that it was a large root blacking his way. Sanzo's fist took that momentary lull in Gokuu's defense to slam itself hard into the youkai's stomach. Gokuu was popped off the ground by the sheer force of the blow. The wind was knocked out of his lungs.
The root, it appeared was a marker for the deep water hole behind it for when Gokuu's feet found the ground again, he staggered disoriented and tripped on the root falling backwards into the water. The resulting splash seemed to dissolve Sanzo's anger leaving only a wet irate monk. He stared at the water for a second as his mind ran up to him blowing the time out whistle. Why had he attacked Gokuu like that, it was not like him. Not like him at all. Sanzo put a hand to his head; he could feel a headache coming on. That stupid monkey…speaking of which… Sanzo looked back to the water. Shouldn't Gokuu have climbed out by now? He saw only the last wisp of brown hair sink beneath the surface.
"Gokuu!" Sanzo quickly plunged his hand beneath the cold, water surface and grabbed the long tail of hair. He pulled and brought the earth youkai back to the surface. He grabbed a shoulder as soon as it became available and hauled him to the ground. He cursed. Gokuu was not moving.
"Damn it, wake up!" Sanzo slapped Gokuu across the face a few times. His chest was not moving, he must have inhaled the water. Sanzo frowned.
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Hakkai watched the fire occasionally glancing off the way the other two had stormed off in worried. Despite Gojyo's attempt to calm him, he felt as though something were wrong. He fretted while awaiting their return. He started packing away the remnants of dinner. Remnants…had they ever had leftovers before? After a while, Hakkai stood and started in the direction that Sanzo and Gokuu had left. It was too dangerous for them to be wandering around in the forest after that last freaky night.
"Hakkai, where are you going?" Gojyo stood as well.
"Take care of the camp please, Gojyo." Hakkai called over his shoulder.
Entering the dark forest, Hakkai used his sixth sense to determine which direction they had taken. Following his instincts and a small trial of broken branches, he searched. After only a few minuets, he heard a curse. Hakkai turned toward the sound. It soon brought him to a clearing by a river. The river was almost completely hidden by the darkness. The only thing that gave it away to Hakkai was the ripples in the surface. Beside the river shore, he saw Sanzo leaning over a prone Gokuu. He was pressing his palms against the youkai's chest then leaned forward and holding Gokuu's nose put his mouth over the boy's. Hakkai hurried forward as he recognized that Sanzo was attempting to resuscitate Gokuu. Something bad must have happened.
Sanzo glanced briefly at the dark haired man as Hakkai came to kneel beside him, then continued to try and breath air back into the water filled lungs. Hakkai checked the earth youkai's pulse briefly, when Sanzo's next attempt resulted in all the water that Gokuu's lungs had excavating. Sanzo and Hakkai sat back as Gokuu curled up coughing out water. The youkai looked piteous as he coughed.
"Gokuu, I'm so glad you are alright." Hakkai smiled at Gokuu reassuringly. He looked up to see Sanzo put a hand on the wet brown hair, "What happened, Sanzo?"
"Ch." Sanzo let out an annoyed sound and sighed heavily. He was silent for some time, "About your death…"
Hakkai watched the silent monk for a few moments. Sanzo seemed to be struggling about for something, "Sanzo, sometimes people have to do what's best for others regardless of the outcome. No matter what that price is."
They sat in silence and simple understanding. Hakkai understood finally, what the whole fiasco had been about. Sanzo had been overcome with regret and guilt and needed to know that Hakkai did not blame him. The more Hakkai thought about it, the more he knew that he probably would have done the same thing if the tables had been reversed. If Sanzo had not killed him first it would have easily been him with the guilt not to mention Gokuu's eternal hatred. The problem had been that Sanzo lacked the ability to ask for forgiveness.
"Hah-choo!"
Hakkai blinked and looked over at Gokuu who was still curled up in a fetal position. His eyes were now open and he was staring blankly ahead. Half lidded green eyes that were slowly fading back to gold. The earth youkai was shivering, "Gokuu?"
"It's happened again." Sanzo frowned while watching the green eyes, "There's something wrong with him…and with me."
"What is it?" Hakkai looked concerned.
"I'm not sure yet." Sanzo looked briefly at his hands pondering what had led him to lose control like that. It was as if he had been someone else.
Hakkai picked up Gokuu whose eyes were shut tiredly, "We need to get back to camp. He's freezing. Besides, I'm afraid that Gojyo may have caught fire to something."
"Let's go." Sanzo stood.
Hakkai entered the camp to see that Gojyo had indeed set fire to something, his clothes. The demi-god was running around lit on fire; even rolling on the ground did not seem to put it out. Hakkai set Gokuu down immediately and rushed over to beat the fire out with one of the blankets. He sighed in relief as Gojyo sat down.
"I swear, sometimes, you are just as bad as Gokuu."
"What? I can't help it if I have hot pants." Gojyo grinned with a wink.
"You could have put it out at any time, couldn't you?" Hakkai crossed his arms.
"Maybe. Besides, I thought that it would be a good tension breaker. You guys are solemnly bugging the hell out of me." Gojyo grinned.
"I see." Hakkai smiled again then returned to where he had left Gokuu and moved him by the fire. He took most of the youkai's wet clothes off and stretched them out to dry by the fire. He then covered Gokuu up with one of the thicker blankets they owned. After that, he made a little nest of one blanket for Hakuryuu.
"Ha-cheeo!"
"What happened to him?" Gojyo walked over to check on his arguing partner.
"Accident with a lake that's none of your concern." Sanzo glared.
"Grumpy, grumpy." Gojyo moved to his bed beside the fire, "What do I care that you went for a midnight 'swim' with the saru? For all I care you two could have gone out there to—"
"Urasei!" The gun was immediately drawn.
"Ha-chee!"
"You too!" Sanzo threw a small rock in Gokuu's direction and surprisingly enough, the sneezing stopped.
Sanzo went over to Gokuu's side before going to make his own bed. He looked down at the hazy sick eyes and stared annoyed at them. He rested a hand on the brown hair, "Dead saru get left behind."
A small smile lit Gokuu's face briefly then he closed his eyes and curled up beneath the blanket. He felt sicker now than before, as if there were some kind of heavy weight in his chest. He was scared of this terrible feeling, but Sanzo was here. Sanzo would watch out for him. When he had fallen into the water, just after he had gone under, he saw something horrible. He could not remember what it was but he remembered being afraid of it. The fear is what made him inhale the water. He shivered as he tried to get warmer; he was so very cold. He almost jumped when he heard something beside him. Gokuu cracked open one eye and looked over his shoulder to see Sanzo with his back to him lying beside him.
"Go to sleep. I'm tired of hearing you move around. If I catch your disease, I'm killing you."
Gojyo tossed and turned in his sleep. His dreams were filled with fire and hot coals. In his dream, he could smell the scent of burning flesh with a sick vividness. The heat was all around him, stifling, as if in an attempt to smother him. He briefly saw flashes of the others. Hakkai looked as if he were sleeping peacefully though blood was splattered all across his pale face. Gokuu's face was twisted in grief, tears flooding down from his closed eyes. Sanzo, however, was shadowed in darkness, standing still as a statue.
Hakkai dreamed that he was walking through the walls of a huge never-ending maze almost like a ghost. He passed Gojyo and tried to greet him but the man did not seem to acknowledge his presence at all. The demi-god seemed to be searching very intently for something. He continued on, passing through walls until he came across Gokuu. He gasped. The little youkai was surrounded by six shadowy figures that forced the struggling youkai to go the way they chose. Hakkai shouted and reached out to attempt to rescue his companion when the scene shifted and he looked to be in a different place. Sanzo was standing before him but there was something terrible in the monk's eyes. They were sharper, filled to the brim with malice and hatred. Hakkai stepped back. What in the world?
Gokuu's sleep was ill rested as well. He dreamed of running across a long stretch of shadowy field but everywhere he went, two walls would appear before him. They were trying to trap him, to block his movements. Written on the walls were the names Envy and Sloth.
"Get away from me! What do you want?" Gokuu ran in a different direction.
He could hear two voices speaking but he did not know where they were coming from.
"The Seiten Taisei is too powerful for us. Azreth's mistake may have been bigger that he thought."
"When there are more of us, the little creature won't be able to run. Oh, no. He won't run at all."
"Get away!" Gokuu turned to run another way as the walls appeared before him, "Leave me alone!"
Where was Sanzo? Where?
Sanzo muttered something irately in his sleep as he heard Gokuu make a piteous sound from deep sleep. No dreams for him, nothing but the utter peacefulness of darkness.
Hakkai woke early the next morning as he always did and he was very glad for it. That dream had bothered him a lot. He shook it off; he had breakfast to prepare. Hakkai started the fire again and smiled to see the others still asleep. They were quiet and seemingly harmless when they were not moving. Hearing a sneeze, Hakkai looked over to see a spike of brown hair sticking out from under a blanket. He took the now dry clothes from beside the fire and lay them near Gokuu's bed. He reached down and ruffled the hair.
"I'm starting breakfast." He directed a smile at the yawn he heard in response.
Hakkai turned to the fire and warmed up some of the leftover rice, adding some more. As he started to pull out the bowls, he heard a rustling of cloth and a few seconds later, a dressed Gokuu was by his side.
"Good morning, Gokuu." Hakkai smiled, "How are you feeling?"
I'm fi-hah-ah-chee, fine." Gokuu gave the dark haired man a half smile, "How much longer? I'm hungry."
"It'll be just a while now." Hakkai patted him on the head.
"Aw..hah-chee, but I'm hungry now." Gokuu whined and gave Hakkai his best sad hungry face. Hakkai chuckled.
"Oi, saru." The voice of doom came then Gokuu found a meat bun shoved into his open mouth, "Urasei."
Gokuu munched the bun happily. Gojyo, however, slept right on until Sanzo gave him a solid kick to the ribs, "Wake up, Kappa."
"It's a nice morning today, Sanzo." Hakkai smiled kindly. Deeming the food ready, he scooped the first bowl and gave it to Gokuu, "Here you are. Eat it while it's hot. Maybe it'll help your cold."
"'Sank you." Gokuu too the bowl with a wide grin then promptly sneezed.
Hakkai gave him a sympathetic look then served Sanzo and Gojyo their food. He turned to see the sleeping Hakuryuu. Reaching over, he gently petted the little dragon until he stretched his neck and yawned. Hakkai picked up a water flask and started to pour some out for the dragon when he realized that it was empty.
"Ah, it seems that we're out of water. Sanzo, please watch the rice while I go to the river for some more."
Sanzo did not have time to argue the point as the monocle wearing man disappeared with the water flask. Instead, he glared irately at the rice. Gokuu moved up to the kettle and refilled his bowl. He looked up as he sensed Sanzo watching him.
"Are
you ok, Sanzo?"
"You need to keep your guard up. Even if
it's me." Sanzo stopped looking at him.
Gokuu smiled, "I'll remember that."
Sanzo ruffled the youkai's hair and could not help but smirk slightly at the bright smiling face. He had missed that stupid unselfish smile. It never seemed to change at all. Nothing compared to the sheer ego trip of being everything to someone who has nothing. Still, he had noticed lately that the innocence that used to fill those bright heretical eyes was replaced by a heavy sadness. He had always asked himself what would happen when he died, and he had always come up with the same answer.
"What did you do when I died?"
Gokuu's smile faded in favor a serious expression. He was quiet.
"You lost your limiter." It was a statement, nothing more.
"All I remember was that Gojyo was yelling at me over and over to clam down then it's all hazy. Kanzeon caught me two days later and put the limiter back on. A lot of people got killed."
"And Gyumaoh?"
"There wasn't much left of him. After all, he was the one who killed you."
"What happened after that?"
"After, that…Gojyo took care of me until he died. It was silly, one day he just got sick and didn't get better. Gojyo thought it was some kind of terrible joke that the gods played on him. With Kanzeon you can never tell. When he was gone, they were going to put me back under the mountain." Gokuu shivered at the thought, "But Gojyo chose to ascend to a demi-god so that he could keep watching after me until you came back. It was Gojyo who got them to take the time to fix me. Then for the years I waited for you to grow back up, I stayed on the mountaintop and guarded your sutras. I read them. They were very insightful."
"Ch. Baka-saru."
When Gokuu looked back at Sanzo, the monk was watching him with a stoic expression. There was no anger or irritation, perhaps a bit of amusement. Gokuu smiled again.
"Hey, perverted monk and idiot monkey, what's going on over there, huh?"
"None of your business." Sanzo's scowling face returned.
"Sanzo…"
"What now?" Sanzo looked over at Gokuu to see that the earth youkai was sitting stiff and unmoving. He had his head cocked to one side as if listening intently for something.
"Something is coming."
"Damn it." Sanzo stood quickly and brandished his gun.
"Hakkai's not back yet." Gojyo made to go look for him.
"Don't, he can take care of himself." Sanzo glance around quickly trying to see something.
The Chin Issou copy stepped out of the shadows and for the brief instant, that Sanzo was still aware; he thought that he saw Gokuu's eyes turn green. Without any warning, Sanzo felt a pain to the back of his head and mind reeling he fell forward knowing no more.
End Chapter Three
Next time on: The Saiyuki Rangers
With Sanzo and Gojyo fighting over who gets to wear the red suit and be the leader will Hakkai and Goku be enough to stop the plans of the nefarious Kanzeon Bosatsu and her evil claymation feinds? Will they ever realize that by adding a little water that the claymation creations will just dissolve? Find out next time on….The Saiyuki Rangers.
Sorry I just had to do it again so really….
Chapter 4: One Hell of a Bad Time
In which Sanzo finally uncovers the truth of the spell and is forced to agree to play a game that may cost them all their lives and everyone gets a little taste of Hell.
