"Help!"
"Please help!"
Koumyou frowned, as he took a different turn from the path that he had intended to take.
Was this the true reason for him to come to this area?
It was a sudden burst of inspiration, for him to decide without warning to head to Zen'ou monastery to visit his old friend. Not that he suddenly wanted to check out how Momo had been taking over the task of training future Sanzo candidates there. And neither was he thinking to look for possible candidates to become his successor amongst those monks under Momo's tutelage. (Because if he did, he wouldn't have needed to travel far as Kinzan temple also has enough potential candidates to choose.)
So what was it that he was supposed to do here?
"Please help!"
There goes that voice in his mind again, asking for his help. He was sure that he hadn't been hearing that voice with his ears, or else someone else would've run over to this place like he did.
So whose voice was it that he's been hearing? And why was it that he could even hear this voice?
The voice led him deeper into the forest, up the hills and down lower... until he could see a clearing and the sound of a flowing river reached his ears. Koumyou sped his steps as the voice started to sound even more anxious and urgent.
Yet, as he reached the riverbed, he couldn't see any glimpse of any young lady in distress. Was it just an illusion that he thought that he had heard a voice calling for his help? Was it a trap by some supernatural creature to lure him to this place? As if it had heard his thoughts, the voice in his head started to call for him again.
"Please help!"
"Please save my child!"
As soon as the voice finished speaking, Koumyou began to hear yet another different voice.
It's a cry of a newborn baby.
xxx
"Momo-chan! Momo-chan, help!"
Suddenly the entire Zen'ou monastery was in an uproar as a disgruntled Goudai Sanzo marched out towards the entrance just in time to see a very un-Sanzo-like high priest running up towards the monastery, completely drenched.
"CALM YOUR ASS DOWN, HOUMEI!" shouted Goudai at the top of his lungs as Koumyou froze in front of him, whatever that alarmed him earlier completely disappeared. Koumyou blinked dumbly at his old friend.
"Momo-chan! Why did you call me with that old name?"
Goudai glared back at the idiot. "I'd like to ask you that same question!" said Goudai again before telling the other monks to return to what they've been doing. Just as the larger man was about to repeat his question to his old friend, a loud cry suddenly broke out from inside the bundle Koumyou was carrying.
Koumyou blinked again as if suddenly remembering the reason he had been running up towards the monastery in a rush.
"Ah! You scared the poor thing... Momo-chan! Look," he exclaimed before showing the bundle to his friend, which turned out to be a small baby wrapped in a white blanket.
Goudai stared at his friend in horror. "What have you done, Houmei?! Have you lost your mind? You're a Sanzo priest, dammit! You can't just suddenly kidnap a baby—"
The golden-haired baby Koumyou was holding started to cry even worse as the man hastily cooed at the child to calm it down.
Koumyou glared at his friend accusingly. "Momo-chan! You're scaring the baby!"
If this was any other day where he had to deal with this very air-headed fellow Sanzo priest, Goudai would've started smacking his friend all over as usual but then he noticed the state Koumyou was in and stopped himself.
"Come on, let's get you inside and dried up. What the hell had you been doing earlier?"
xxx
Achoo!
Koumyou sneezed as he wrapped his with a thick blanket, his robes hung nearby to dry near the fireplace. Likewise, the baby was similarly wrapped in a dry blanket as it lay asleep in the basket. Goudai just shook his head as he brought over a tray of hot sake to serve to his old friend.
"You should be glad that right now it wasn't actually wintering season. Why would you even run all the way here all sopping wet like that—"
"—That's what I'm trying to tell you!" Koumyou repeated again with a sniffle. "I heard this voice calling me and later on I found this baby floating in a basket. I barely even noticed the baby before the basket started to sink into the water with the baby—"
Koumyou started pouting at his friend uncharacteristically. "In that situation, I didn't have time to think what should I do—I just jumped into the river to save the baby before it could drown."
Goudai just scratched his head, dumbfounded as he let out a long sigh. "Well, at least that sounded a lot better than you randomly kidnapping babies out in the blue. Imagine how people would react if someone like you—"
Koumyou pursed his lips at his friend as he cried out indignantly. "—that's what I'm saying, I didn't—Momo-chan!" Koumyou wailed pathetically. If you hadn't known better, you wouldn't have believed that this guy was one of the highest-ranked monks who had been bestowed the responsibility of protecting the Founding Scriptures of Heaven and Earth. In fact, Koumyou had two scriptures with him... after their dearest friend Tenkai passed away and entrusted Koumyou with his Maten scripture. Goudai shook his head again before picking up his pewter staff.
It's hard to even believe that this guy was nearing his forties...
"Let's go—" urged Goudai as he threw Koumyou's almost dried robes to his face. "The sun hasn't gone down yet so there should still be people out and about at the town near here. So we should be able to find something."
Koumyou blinked at his friend dumbly. "Huh, why—where are we going?"
Goudai just rolled his eyes at his idiotic friend. "Koumyou, you idiot! Did you forget that the baby still needs to be fed and taken care of? What the hell are you gonna be feeding to that baby—a scrawny guy like you?"
Koumyou just stared at his friend blankly before slapping his fist on his palm. "Oh!" exclaimed the idiot as if he had just made a great discovery.
Goudai just smacked his palm to his face as he started questioning himself on why this idiot was even a Sanzo priest.
A/N: Writing Koumyou-Goudai at midnight sure struck something weird in me. It's hard to write their antics proper when Koumyou kept wanting to make me laugh at his silliness. Pardon me as these two forget themselves and be their old stupid idiot selves again lol