Chapter 1

Gojyo was certain this was all quite unfair.

He wasn't exactly sure why he had agreed to do the shopping anyway. Or perhaps not agreed, per se. He'd agreed to draw cards with Hakkai, and the lowest would go out and find something to eat. He should have known better than to draw against Hakkai. He really should have. He blamed on a moment of weakness and 48 hours without beer. Since the stupid little so-called inn they had chosen to stop off at offered neither food nor drink, they were stuck with finding it themselves. And Gojyo had lost the completely fair method of deciding who would be the one to go out.

He scanned the crowd, searching for a stall or shop that would serve a serviceable meal. He was just about to veer towards a hopeful looking edge of the square when someone stepped in front of him.

"Please take this, sir," a shriveled shrew of a man said, holding out a bag.

Gojyo accepted the small sack without a word or a thought, holding onto it while he continued walking, looking for some random fruit or vegetable or teriyaki stand. People did odd things all the time, he had learned after the umpteenth village. Probably some piece of paper or other inside, telling him he would get a free beer or free bean if he went to some restaurant in the outskirts of the village. He'd look at it later, or maybe throw it away when the man couldn't see him. He was tired. He wanted food. He wanted to go back to the hovel of an inn he and Hakkai were staying at. He wanted to sleep.

Really, what he wanted was to be back home. No more saving the world, no more being hated or adulated wherever they went, for something that really hadn't been their choice in the first place, although the journey west certainly hadn't been against their will, either. He wanted to sleep in his own damn bed, not a thousand more futons, floors and beds that most definitely weren't his.

Sure, they'd been back. But they kept having to go places. Bothersome places. Gatherings and meetings and places where they either had to prostrate themselves, or were prostrated to. All quite, quite mind-boggling, and completely maddening. ああ

Now Hakkai and he were in some little backwater village, spending a night or two in the inn on the way back to the cottage they now shared. After yet another meeting at yet another temple that felt it was required that all four of them had to corroborate each other's accounts of how they had saved the world from the tremendously horrible threat. After which they'd been fed heavily, and sent on their individual ways. Sanzo taking Goku one direction, Hakkai and Gojyo traveling in another. It was something they'd done a dozen times or more. Boring. Annoying.

Lost in his train of irritable thoughts, Gojyo was not ready for the gunshot. He felt it whistle past his ear, smacking into the wall. Those closest to him moved away quickly, most everyone didn't even seem to move. Business as usual. Gojyo dropped the sack and spun, scanning, trying to find the attacker. There was none to be seen.

Cautiously, still scanning, utterly baffled as to the reasonably unconcerned behavior of the citizens, Gojyo turned back to the wall. A half-inch chunk of material had been blasted from the soft plaster. Definitely a projectile.

The next one hit him in the lower arm. It stung, burned, and started bleeding. Gojyo blinked in shock, shook his head slightly to clear it, and darted around the corner. Best not to stay where there were people shooting at you randomly, even if no one else gave a damn. His eyes darting carefully around the alley, marking escapes and possible points of entry. Quickly, ready to move again, Gojyo paused to examine the wound, and his confusion grew. It had already stopped bleeding, But a strange sort of blue webbing, either from the shock of the hit or something in the arrow mixing with his blood, was visible in and around the wound. Bright blue, practically glowing. Either the strangest poison in the world, or he was being marked for something. Gojyo figured either way, he should probably continue moving. He didn't like this at all. He suddenly wanted an ally. Wanted Hakkai. Maybe the man could figure this shit out.

He turned, swiftly moving in the direction he had come. If the damn blue stuff was some sort of poison, he wasn't about to wait around and let it mess with his body or dye his entire body blue. He'd look like some sort of freak. And even in possibly dire straights, Gojyo took a moment to appreciate the irony of that.

The arrow that hit the wall above his head promptly drove all moments of appreciation from his head. This time, when he spun around, he saw his attacker, sitting calmly in a doorway with a cigarette in his mouth. The man smirked up at him, casually cocking the crossbow in his hands for another shot. Gojyo didn't waste words trying to convince the man that he was an ally. He ran. Running was good. When people had large, high-power projectiles pointed at your chest, you got the fuck out of their way. Especially if you had a glowing blue arm that might kill you at any moment. Gojyo dropped the sack and the small change purse he'd been carrying and swung himself down the next alleyway, cursing. As he gained distance from the attacker, he forced himself down to a swift walk. As cool as could be, a ruse for anyone not trying to kill him. Footsteps would be treated as enemies until proven innocent, he decided.

What he was not prepared for was the crying. Soft, choked, and utterly terrified sobs, coming from behind some piles of garbage.

He shouldn't stop. For all he knew, in five seconds he could be dead, either from a bolt in his back or the blue stuff having its merry time on his arm. Or from some random god in heaven deciding to strike him with a lightening bolt. He wouldn't be surprised.

But Gojyo considered himself to be a nice guy, as was. And nice guys didn't just walk away from the terrified cries of children, even when people were trying to kill them. He shifted his gait, slightly, letting it take him towards the side of the alley where the sound was coming from.

"Hey?" Gojyo called quietly, barely over a whisper. He wanted the person doing the crying to hear him, but was less willing to call attention to himself to anyone stalking the shadows. Especially since the shadows apparently came with complimentary crossbow bolts.

The sobbing halted, with a quick and shocked intake of breath. There was no answer, and the shift of bags and boxes indicated that whoever it was had moved further away from him, closer to the wall.

"Hey, kid," Gojyo pressed, not sure why. He really needed to get the fuck away from this damn place, and the random people who were trying to kill him for no apparent reason. "I won't hurt you."

There was a long pause, and Gojyo finally stood with an annoyed grunt. This was ridiculous. He might be dying, and he was trying to help some snot-nosed brat who didn't even want his help. He was setting himself up for another careful retreat when three men entered the alley to his right, simultaneous with the man with the crossbow catching up, blocking passage on the left.

He knew he shouldn't have stopped. Slowly, Gojyo shifted. Fighting position, all bravado and guts, neither of which he was particularly feeling right now, but it was better to give the impression of arrogance and self-assuredness than none at all. Carefully, he took stock of the situation. There were more than he'd thought. Three on the right, one with a gun and two with quite sharp looking and angry weapons Gojyo was unfamiliar with.. The man on the left with the crossbow, and another behind him that Gojyo couldn't quite make out. A quick glance upward confirmed for Gojyo that he was surrounded. Two more on the roof. He'd taken down more, but he was good at fighting in, and had developed his style for, large open spaces. Not narrow dark alleys with everything to get in the way of the staff and chain of his weapon. But it was always better to pretend.

"I just came into town to buy some lunch," he said, carefully. "I don't want any trouble." Of course he didn't. It just seemed to want him. Along with his head, together on a silver platter with a garnish of parsley.

All seven of the men burst out laughing simultaneously.

"No offence, half-breed," the largest, a big man with a shotgun and a face that looked like it had once been blown off by one, sniggered. "But you're just the Blue in this game. It's the girl we want, she's the Gold."

Gojyo didn't think about it. He was pretty sure that it wouldn't make any more sense even if he did think about it, so he just went with it.

"Okay. But I seem to be in your way. I'm sure none of us want to die," he said, eyes scanning desperately for a way out that didn't involve mowing anyone down. It wasn't available, and so Gojyo began to search again, this time for the path of least resistance. Technically Crossbow and the gooney behind him were only two men, but he couldn't tell what kind of men they were, and Crossbow himself had the sort of look about him that made people want to be on the other side of the village square from where he was. The three on the other side, however, seemed soft. The kind of people who would come out to play once a month, and spend the rest of their days drinking and gambling and smoking in excess. That was the direction he was going.

"Listen, kid?" he said, out of the corner of his mouth, hoping she was listening. "I really don't want to die, and am going to get the hell out of here. You can either sit here and get shot, or come with me."

Another pause. Gojyo could hear the wheels turning.

"You can help me?" Terrified words, but hopeful.

"Yeah, kid, I can. Just stand up and run when I tell you to. As fast as you can."

"...alright."

Gojyo wasted no more breath or time. The kid understood. He darted his gaze around again, at the three doughy men that were blocking his escape, at the cold guy with the crossbow, and at the arrogant bastards sitting on the roof. They were the most dangerous. At least one of them had to go.

It just took a quick flip of the wrist. The chain extended, flying up the wall, skittering on the roof and slicing the guy in half before anyone had figured out what was going on, and then Gojyo had it retracted, and was holding out his hand to whatever mysterious figure was being masked by the trash heap. "Now!"

They both leapt forward, the girl apparently less helpless than she'd first appeared, as she immediately began to dart along the wall of the alley, holding to it and the curve tightly. Gojyo took the front in a few long strides, laying the three men flat well before they'd even figured out what had happened. The big man lay on the ground, heaving from a hand in the center of his chest, and the other two were thrown well to the side. As they rounded the corner, Gojyo heard laughter. From Crossbow. The man sounded pleased, almost. Happy. Insane.

Gojyo decided that this was an absolutely horrible day. People in some random backwater town were trying to poison and kill him, and laughing while they did it. Not to mention that Hakkai was going to give him The Look if he didn't get back with dinner soon. Shortening his stride slightly, so that he was between their attackers and the girl should they decided to pursue, Gojyo briefly wondered what the hell else was going to happen.

For maybe ten minutes, they ran, avoiding who and what they could, walking quickly whenever they met someone who wasn't trying to kill them, running when there was no one else in sight. Methodically and carefully, Gojyo surveyed out the area, looking for somewhere to hide, rather than continuing the run in pointless circles around houses and yards. Finally, he pulled the girl into the shadows of a broken building, barricading themselves and their voices behind layers of cracked beams and splintered wood.

The girl had stopped crying almost as soon as they had started running, but it was a deliberate effort on her part. She still bore the pale look of someone who was terrified for their very life, and was only holding onto strength by a very thin thread. Her eyes were wide, even as she observed Gojyo carefully, alternating between examining him and watching the shadows for Death and his hounds.

"Alright, kid," Gojyo said roughly, grating the words out, "I need some answers if I'm going to protect you."

She flinched, crouching down on the ground across from him, arms drawn tightly around her legs. In the shadows, her left arm glinted gold, in contrast to whatever dyed Gojyo's blue. He smiled fiercely. At least he could assume the blue itself wasn't going to kill him. Apparently he couldn't be so sure that it wouldn't get him killed, though.

"Sorry. But I'm a bit confused. See, a lot of people have tried to kill me. A lot. Some of them for pretty stupid reasons. Those guys out there don't appear to have any reason at all."

"We're the Prey," the girl muttered.

"So they said. What, exactly, does that mean?"

"It means that they get a prize when we die," she said, the first hint of emotion entering her voice. Bitter. Angry. Scared.

"This happen a lot?" Gojyo tried to keep the surprise out of his voice. After all, it wasn't the first weird, cultish, horribly wrong place they'd come to. This really couldn't be all that different than the places that sacrificed demon maidens to hungry monsters that supposedly existed in deep lakes, or the ones who sacrificed human boys to demon monsters in deep caves.

"It's the Game."

Nice game, Gojyo thought. He could think of a couple of games he would rather play than 'hunt the half-breed'. "Why you?"

"I don't matter," the girl said, quietly.

Gojyo grunted, and pushed himself up. They weren't being pursued, and he was pretty sure that getting out of this place was the best thing to do at the moment. Leave the village, see if Hakkai could figure out how to get the damnable markings off their arms and be on their merry ways.

"Come with me," he said, holding out his hand. The girl looked at him like he was crazy.

"What?"

"We're leaving. We're going to find my friend, and we're leaving. Unless you want some deranged fucker with a crossbow to shoot you and take your head back for whatever bounty is on it."

"...why take me?"

Gojyo rolled his eyes at the shocked disbelief in her voice. This town was fucked up. "Because," he said, pulling her to her feet and throwing an arm around her shoulder. "I wouldn't be very much of a man if I left a beautiful girl to die while I protected my own hide."

"...you're going to protect me?" the girl asked, sounding even more surprised than she had in the alley.

"You could say it with a bit more enthusiasm, thanks. I do know how to take care of myself in a fight."

"Oh," she replied. Still stupefied. She looked at Gojyo's arm, around her shoulders, and at the weapon he had slung over his own. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet." Gojyo muttered. "I haven't done anything."