Author: annadiel
Disclaimer: Saiyuki and all of its characters are not my property. The only thing I can call my own is the story of this fic. And if this fic resembles anything you have read before, then it's purely coincidental.
Synopsis: Goku gets separated from Sanzo and the others in a big bazaar. Homura seizes this opportunity to persuade Goku once more to come with him. And after being disgraced by none other than Sanzo himself, he has decided to come with Homura. Will Sanzo and the others do anything to get him once again?
Goku had left the group and finally took Homura's offer. He heedlessly fought his now former companions and left them half-dead. The three seemed to have realized what they did to Goku, especially Sanzo. Will they do something about it? Or more importantly, will they be able to escape death this time?
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VII. Enemy"What…is this…Goku?" asked Sanzo weakly, confused. Why did he take Homura's hand? Why did he do all of these?
And when he heard Goku's reply, he wished he shouldn't have asked at all.
"You wanted me to go away. I'll do so right now. Next time we meet, we'll be enemies, Genjou Sanzo."
Homura, Zenon, and Shien then started to leave. Goku gave a last glance at Sanzo, eyes showing no resentment whatsoever on what he did. He then turned his back on Sanzo and followed the war gods.
Sanzo could only watch as Goku left with them. "…Goku…wait…"
"…come back…"
And then, he was overcome by darkness.
--0--
(Sanzo POV)
It's so dark. It's so impossible to see anything in here. I can't even feel my body anymore.
Am I...dead?
I wish I was. I've hurt too many people, even caused death for some of them. Not only physically, but emotionally.
First, my master. I let him die before me. I did not do anything, I just stared as he protected me from that demon who tried to kill me. And because of that, I swore to myself I would not let myself get too attached to others, as I didn't want to get hurt again if I someday lose them. I only wanted someone who I need not protect.
And now, Goku.
I drove him away. I said horrible things to him. And that was just because of an extremely bad mood, my hate towards the rain.
He was right when he said it was all because of the damn rain. But I retorted. I told him everything was true. And he believed everything I said.
I thought it would just be another part of our lives, that the day after, everything would be forgotten. But I didn't notice Goku was at his limit. And I broke this limit unknowingly.
I was too damn stupid.
I was not a good master to him. I was not a good mentor, a good provider. I was not a good friend.
I know he considers me one. Even though I kept on pushing him away, he still kept on clinging onto me. He still believed in me. And yet I took no notice of him. I told him to go away.
Maybe now that he's in Homura's hands, he will be able to lead a better life. Homura does really show some care for him. A thing that I could not even show that openly.
Let me now rest in peace, drown in this darkness, so I would never be able to hurt anyone again...
Not now.
...What? Who is that?
You cannot go now. Not yet. You still have many things to do.
There is still a chance. Get him back.
Come now, Koryuu. Let us have a brief talk...
(end POV)
--0--
"…Koryuu…" a soft voice whispered, "..Koryuu…wake up."
Young Koryuu opened his eyes. Before him was his most respected master, Komyou Sanzo. "Master Komyou…"
They were in a grassy field, in which trees were growing at random places. Flowers filled a part of the area, and near it stood the most magnificent cherry tree, smothered in big, beautiful pink cherry blossoms, where Koryuu sat under and slept until this moment when his master woke him up.
Koryuu stood up, looked at his surroundings, at his master, and at himself. Komyou Sanzo looked at his disciple interestingly, as the latter seemed bewildered.
The kid then spoke. "Am…am I…dead...for real?"
At that statement, Komyou laughed. "What makes you think that way?"
"…Well," answered Koryuu, "It looks like…heaven, and—and Master Komyou is here, so—"
He was interrupted with another laugh from Komyou. "You think you're dead because I'm here? Here," and he took the kid's hand and put it on his chest, where his heart was, "Feel the beat?" Koryuu nodded. Komyou then placed Koryuu's hand on his own chest. "Feel yours beating?" His disciple gave another nod. The monk smiled. "Then we are not dead, right?"
"But," Koryuu retorted, "this place sure looks like heaven, master."
"How do you know how heaven looks like?" his master asked him. "Just because people describe heaven as a very pretty and serene place like here doesn't mean this is actually paradise, my young and ignorant disciple. And do not let that description ruin your true heaven. Everyone has his own view of heaven, and it may not even be like this place where we are. Now let me ask you, what does yours look like?"
Koryuu thought for a moment. Then he answered, "It's like this place, master. But I would really like it if it has a big body of water somewhere, like a river flowing to an open sea…"
"Then it is a very different place from here, Koryuu. This, then, is not the heaven you've been looking for."
"…"
There were a few silent moments that followed. Master and disciple sat beside each other, staring at the place they were in. After a while, Komyou asked another question.
"Ne, Koryuu, would you like someone to share your heaven with you?"
Upon hearing this question, Koryuu seemed a bit lonely. "But…even if I wanted to, that's not possible, for I have no friends who share my beliefs with me. I am alone."
Komyou once again smiled at the kid. "Don't worry, someday you'll find them. You are not the only one alone. There are others like you. And when you finally see them, then you will cease to be alone."
"But what if…what if I myself turn them away?"
Komyou's smile faded. He then said, "You, you have heard the voice, haven't you, Genjou Sanzo?"
Young Koryuu was gone. In his place sat Genjou Sanzo.
Genjou Sanzo replied. "Aa…I heard him call me. I set him free. I had already spent a long time with him. Yet I still do not know him entirely."
"And I don't know why, but he seems to cling to me like I am an important person. Why?"
The master let out a sigh and gave another smile. "After all these years, you still have not matured, my disciple."
"What do you mean, master?" asked Sanzo, "With all these years behind me, I have a better understanding of the world—"
"You may have the mind, but what you lack is this," and Komyou pointed to his heart. "This is the reason why you remain alone. You have chosen to shut yourself from others. And you have also chosen to prevent others from opening themselves to you. You may be feared and respected, but never loved. And because you were never loved, you also never learned to love."
"…I think I know that, Master Komyou. That is why I am wondering why he always seems to care for me more than he for himself. I never did anything for him anyway."
"What I always do is scold him, make him feel stupid, call him stupid. And now I told him to go away. That must have hurt him the most, for he did leave…"
Komyou Sanzo was silent for a moment. Then he gave an answer. "He--whoever this 'he' is--may have seen something in you. That locked door in your inner self was not a hindrance for him to peek inside you. And whatever he saw was enough for him to believe in you, to trust you. And you, after all, freed him, did you not? You are his savior. You are his light."
"He decided to stick with you because of what he saw. And, I think, the last thing he wanted to hear from you was to tell him to leave you. It was alright if you called him stupid, or other things, as long as you let him stay right beside you. And because you uttered those words that seemed taboo for him, all his beliefs in you disappeared. You instantly disappeared right before him. He then decided to go away for that reason."
The blonde monk pondered on his master's words. And he thought they were right. He was so used to keeping to himself that he didn't think first if he was already hurting others.
"What...should I do now, master?"
"You know the answer yourself," said Komyou, "Make yourself visible to him once again. I can see that he was able to slightly open the door towards your soul. Open it a bit more, if not completely, for him. And you yourself should take a look at his soul."
There was silence between them once more. It seemed that everything was clear now for Sanzo.
"Master," he said. Komyou looked at him. He continued, "Thank you. And sorry, if I disturbed you from your peace..."
"Hm? You, disturbed me? But we are not dead, I told you."
"But this place...it's your heaven, am I right?"
Another smile from Komyou. "...Yes, so you have noticed. This is indeed my heaven. But I told you I am not dead."
"How...how come you say this? Please, don't joke with me, master."
"I'm not. You see, my body was indeed killed protecting you, then young Koryuu. Yet this heart still beats up to now. You felt it yourself. It is because you keep me alive."
"...I...keep you alive?"
"As long as your heart beats, so will mine. I exist in you. You keep me, my memory, inside you. That is why I am here before you, my young disciple."
The sky was beginning to dim. Gray clouds were now forming, and it seemed like it would rain soon. Komyou Sanzo once again sighed and told his disciple, "Looks like it's time for you to go. I then wish you luck in your journey."
Genjou Sanzo suddenly felt sleepy. His head felt heavy, and his eyes drooped down. He kept his gaze at his master who smiled at him before being consumed yet again by darkness...
--0--
Sanzo was awakened by a trickle of light that touched his face. He woke up in what seemed to be a clinic ward. He noticed that his wound was covered in bandages. The light was entering a window located near the bed on which he lied.
He then sat up and looked around. There were other beds there beside the one he was on; one of them was untidy, what with the sheets and blankets disarranged, and the pillows almost out of their covers. Another one was so tidy, it stood out among the rest. Sanzo could only guess who used those beds.
Probably Gojyo and Hakkai.
When he tried to stand up, his wound hurt, and the rust-colored bandages slowly became wet, crimson blood once again seeping out of his wound. But this would not stop him from doing what he wanted, and bearing the pain, he got out of the room.
As he went out, the pain got worse up to the point that he almost fell down, had not someone caught him before he did so. Sanzo looked up to whoever it was, and saw Gojyo.
"Oi, should you really be moving around right now?" asked the redhead. He had Sanzo sit on a chair.
"G...Gojyo..."
After a few seconds, Hakkai appeared. "Gojyo I--huh? Sanzo! So you're finally awake." He then approached the two of them, and saw that Sanzo's wound has reopened. "You're still not that cautious, now are you, Sanzo? I'm going to get the doctor to check up on you."
He was about to leave when the monk got hold of his arm. "Wait."
Hakkai stopped. "What is it?"
"Where the hell are we, and how long have we stayed here?"
--0--
Goku was still lying on his bed. He knew it was mid-afternoon, yet only little light entered the place, which was constantly filled with dark and heavy clouds, not to mention a very mysterious aura.
The past two weeks for him had been so tranquil. Homura, Zenon, and Shien had taken good care of him. Homura even gave him the largest and best room he could find in the castle. Zenon, when he felt like it, told him jokes, teased him, and had some fights with him. Shien...well, he did nothing in particular, although he would show some respect to him every now and then, and sometimes he would catch the god murmuring something like, "How lucky you were for knowing him better that I did..."
He was fed, he was clothed, he was very much pampered. But that was all there was.
When the three went out to do their business, they always left him behind. He never got any actual experience in fighting alongside them. True, somehow he felt safe, as because of this he wouldn't get wounded or put his life on the line. But because of this, he continued on feeling very useless--even though Homura was always reassuring him that he was very special--and life was getting pretty much boring.
The door suddenly opened. Shien was on the other side.
"Goku-dono, Homura wants you before him."
Goku then stood up and went to where Homura was.
--0--
Sanzo was back at the clinic ward. The doctor was closing and cleaning up his wound as he toldhim on how they were found. "I was getting some medicine and was going back to this town when I found you all wounded and unconscious. Your pet dragon here was a real help. He turned instantly into a vehicle! What can be more convenient than that?...Anyway, you're lucky a doctor, or better a human, like me found you first. Demons roam around here so often, you could have been food for them."
Hakkai and Gojyo were there watching. Sanzo was a bit irritated when the two seemed to be enjoying what the doctor was doing, staring at the both of them while the doctor went on with his work. "What the hell are you two staring at?"
It was Gojyo who answered. "Well, it really seems interesting on how you heal up way, way slow. I think it has to do with the cigarettes."
"Well, the wound he got was pretty nasty and deep, so I think two weeks' time was still not enough," the doctor replied.
"And if it were for the cigarettes, you would still have been bedridden much more than I was, you perverted cockroach," added Sanzo.
"Oi! Since when have you started calling me perverted cockroach? I only hear that out of that baka-saru's--"
The hanyou then noticed that the mood in the place changed.
"--mouth...?"
The doctor also felt the change. So after he was finished with Sanzo's wound, he got up and said, "Okay, that should be better now. I'll leave you, as you seem to have too many to catch up on." He then went outside the room.
As the doctor closed the door, Hakkai was the one who first spoke. "Goku...was taken by Homura, right, Sanzo?"
Sanzo did not reply. Gojyo then said, "Sanzo, you better speak up. You were the last one conscious. What really happened?"
Again, the monk gave no answer. So finally Gojyo added, "He didn't leave us for good, right?"
When Sanzo heard that question, he felt he needed to answer. "He did."
"So he did leave..." said Gojyo, "I guess that was pretty much expected. We did hurt his feelings. It was our fault..."
"But he didn't give us any chance to say sorry," told Hakkai, "If we only said it that time--"
He then remembered that he was the one who told Gojyo to let Goku dwell on his thoughts that night when it rained. He stopped him from saying anything, even that simple word.
Gojyo noticed Hakkai stop speaking, and knew of the reason why. "Hakkai, I know what's in your mind," he then told his good friend, "But I think that's a good decision you made that time. Now what we should think of is how to get that saru back."
Hakkai said sadly, "...Thanks, Gojyo..."
Gojyo then added, "But how are we going to find that saru?"
Sanzo then spoke. "We needn't think of that."
"Eh?" asked Gojyo, surprised, "What makes you think that way?"
"Homura also needs the scrolls to make his so-called 'new world'. And I happen to have one of them. I'm sure he'll come back for that," he looked at the scroll on top of the table. "And when he does, we'll beat the hell out of him to tell us where Goku is."
"So that's it," said Hakkai, "Now all we have to do is wait."
"Oi," Sanzo said, getting Hakkai and Gojyo's attention, "When that saru indeed shows up, let me speak to him. By myself."
Gojyo and Hakkai were first confused with Sanzo's request, as to why he wanted to talk to Goku himself, but then they thought that that was indeed the best thing to do. Hakkai smiled at Sanzo. "Okay, we'll let you."
Gojyo then teased him. "Didn't think that you really care for that baka-saru! It seems like Sanzo-sama here has a heart after all! Heehee!" A second later, he received a very hard blow on the head with Sanzo's harisen. "Owwww! Where the hell do you hide that fan, anyway?"
"Shut up," said Sanzo. But at the back of his mind, he thought, Yeah, maybe I do.
--0--
"Homura?" asked Goku, "You called for me?"
Homura looked at Goku, then at his eyes. He noticed that there was already a little light present in them, yet they were still not the same as they were before. He sighed.
Goku noticed this, so he said, "Uhm, Homura?"
"How's it going?" Homura suddenly asked him.
Goku took a moment before answering. "Well I'm...okay..." But Homura looked discontented with his answer, so he continued, "...Maybe just kinda bored, that's all..."
"Bored? Are we doing something you don't like?"
When Goku heard that question, he immediately followed, saying them with energy and with arms waving left to right, "Waah! No! It's not like that! I'm happy here! I can do all the things I like! I can eat all I want, sleep all I want, and play around all the time! Now what can be better than that?" He finished with a grin.
"But come to think of it, you haven't come out of the castle since we took you in."
At that statement, the smile from Goku's lips faded. He turned silent.
"...So that's it. We leave you everytime we go out. If we keep on doing that, we're no better than Sanzo's group, after all."
Goku dismissed that by saying, "No! You're way better than them! You're all kind to me! I can see that!" And again he smiled widely.
Homura appreciated the smile, but he could sense that that smile was empty. He just smiled back. He then called on Shien and Zenon.
"Zenon, Shien, come here."
The two appeared before him, with Goku still present. He then continued, "Let's go. This time, we'll take Goku with us." Goku's eyes lit up for a very brief moment as he heard Homura say that. Homura then stood up and walked out. The three followed him.
As they were walking towards the open plain, Goku asked, "Homura, where are we going?"
Homura smiled his tender smile at him. "We'll visit your old friends."
At that statement, Goku stopped in his tracks. He looked at the toushin, confused, then followed with a question, "Why?" Homura was silent. So he added, "You...you're not going to return me to them, right?"
"Of course not," answered the toushin, "You wouldn't want that, now would you? Remember when I told I would get two things from Sanzo?" Goku nodded. "The first was you. And the other one is the Maten Kyoumon."
"...You need the Maten Kyoumon?"
"Yes. That's why we'll pay them a visit." He noticed there was still a bit of worry and confusion in Goku, so he said to him, "Don't worry, if they try to hurt you again, I'll be there."
This made Goku's worries go away. He gave a nod for an approval. "I'll also help you out, then!"
"Are you sure of that, Goku?"
"Of course! I told Sanzo that we would be enemies the next time we meet. It's okay! I promise I'll get the scroll for you!" There was the look of determination in the kid's eyes.
Homura was happy that Goku said that. "Okay then." Then they continued on walking.
Goku pondered on everything he said to Homura as they walked. Will I really be able to keep my promise to him? I just hope so.
I shouldn't doubt myself. Homura believes in me. I should get the scroll for sure.
I was able to attack Gojyo and Hakkai, anyway. And I know I can do it too, to Sanzo. He was the one who caused all of these, after all. I should pour out everything I got at him, so he wouldn't think I'm useless. No more worries, now...
...I am, after all, their enemy.
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Yay! Chappie 7's done! Isn't it too abrupt? Sorry for that. I'll make up on the next chapter. Speaking of that, the next chapter's the deciding one! It's time to get the Maten Kyoumon from Sanzo! Goku himself took that job for himself to do, as he promised to Homura. Will he be successful? And Sanzo has planned to talk to Goku and convince him back! Will he also be successful? Let's see, then!
Chapter 8: Sorry!