When there had been no response for ten minutes, Sanzo set out irritably into the heavy white mist, pistol cold and clammy in the tight grip of his left hand. He was half tempted to leave all the idiots behind, but, the last time he'd tried to leave one of them behind, it had only caused more delays. And what the hell was taking Hakkai so long? Without the jeep, none of them would be traveling anywhere fast.

As Sanzo made his reluctant way back through the slime and muck, he kept his ears pricked for any sign of movement. The fog rendered the forest singularly unresponsive, though, smothering the senses and obscuring its secrets from interlopers. His robes now felt damp and heavy, so oppressive was the air around him, and the hem of his robes was caked with mud and slime. To top it off, he was nearly sure that bunch of scraggly weeds looked familiar.

"Dammit!" Sanzo growled, and crouched, leaning back against a tree. His sandals slid out of sight into the ooze at the base of the tree. They were filthy already. It hardly mattered now. "Those bastards are really going to pay for this," Sanzo thought, "Gojyo most of all," because Sanzo was sure the water sprite was somehow responsible for all this.

As Sanzo was fumbling with his lighter, attempting to coax a slow, relaxing burn from the squashed and damp cigarette hanging from his lips, he heard the unmistakable sound of gunshots off to his right. Growling, Sanzo shoved his precious cigarette and his lighter back into his jeans pocket and retrieved his pistol from the robes gathered in his lap.

Provoked by this latest demonstration that the gods lived to harass him, Sanzo stood abruptly and slogged through the mud toward the gunshots, which were less coordinated now, but were still ringing out, sharp and unrelenting. As Sanzo drew nearer the source of the gunfire, the heavy mist started to dissipate, parting slowly at first and then rather quickly, leaving behind only a few low-lying wisps wrapping around the bases of the larger trees.

This was rather fortunate because it helped the irate priest avoid tripping over the youkai corpses scattered around like shells on a beach. As Sanzo continued moving forward, an increasing number of them appeared to have lacerations and thick, rope-like bruises. "The water sprite's calling card," Sanzo thought absently, picking up his pace.

A trail of shockingly blood-red hair caught his eye, and he turned toward it. After another couple of squishy, unpleasant steps, Sanzo was towering over the prone, mud-splattered water sprite. The priest glared down at the body before him, and, when he detected the chest slowly rise and fall, he maliciously struck out with his foot, which connected solidly, if rather wetly, with the side of the kappa's head.

"Get up, you bastard! What the hell are you doing lying around here!?" If Sanzo's voice was a bit hoarse, it was just because he was furious at being kept waiting and not because the damn cockroach's right trouser leg was much redder than it should be.

A pained grunt was quickly followed by hands flying up to fend off any further attacks. Scarlet eyes flew open briefly, peered through strands of hair, and then shut tight again. The water sprite winced. "Well, fuck! That hurt, you selfish sonuvabitch." Gojyo attempted to roll over and away from the vindictive priest, but a restraining hand was pressing against his chest.

"Not yet, you useless waste of space," a gravely voice ground out. "You're still anchored." Gojyo tried to pay attention, because it sounded like it might be important, but his vision kept graying at the edges and his leg hurt like hell ... especially when that sadistic bastard kept prodding at it. He twitched and tried to move his leg out of reach. A sharp pain lanced through it, and Gojyo decided that staying put might not be such a bad idea after all.

Sanzo's droopy violet eyes narrowed. He could no longer hear gunshots, but prying the teeth of this trap apart was not going to be easy. It appeared to be spring-loaded: simple, but effective. The trap itself also seemed to be anchored in place with a heavy metal chain, possibly to a tree root. He set his pistol down on the kappa's stomach, for easy access in case the rustling and voices he could hear in the distance turned out to be hostile, and pulled as hard as he could on the two jaws of the trap. They separated by an inch briefly, and then snapped violently back into place. Sanzo winced. That had to hurt.

"Watch what you're doing, you sadistic bastard!!" Gojyo had risen quickly to a sitting position and was gasping for breath. "You tryin' ta kill me?!" Feeling dizzy, the redhead grabbed for something to steady himself. He got a fistful of the back of Sanzo's robes.

Sanzo swiveled his head and glared pointedly at the hand brazenly invading his personal space. A deliberate leer spread across Gojyo's face. He leaned even closer to Sanzo, so that their noses almost touched, and cooed, "Now, isn't this cozy, Sanzo-chan?" He took vindictive pleasure in baiting the unmitigated bastard. The priest was pricklier than any cactus, and the one sure way to get his goat was to tease him.

Of course, it wasn't always worth it, Gojyo reflected regretfully as Sanzo's arm swept out a vicious arc, knocking the water sprite once again flat on his back in the mud. A hand seized a fistful of filthy tank top and fierce purple eyes glared into startled and defiant red ones. "Don't you EVER ..." Sanzo's gravelly voice growled, but he got cut off by the sharp report of a rifle being fired at close range. The mud just to the left of Gojyo's head splashed briefly. Both men froze.

Sanzo's eyes slid toward Gojyo's lap. No pistol. Damn! Fucking water sprite and his juvenile games. Where the hell was it!?

A stern female voice rang out. "You're surrounded. Keep your hands where I can see them and turn around slowly." The ominous clicking of rifles being cocked surrounded them.

Sanzo raised his hands, glaring daggers at Gojyo all the while as he straightened up from his crouch. The rifles pointed at them were rather ridiculously large, in Sanzo's opinion, but they also looked depressingly effective. Turning around to face the leader, a redhead of course, Sanzo ground out, "What the HELL do you want!?" He was furious at being caught unarmed and it was all because he'd tried to retrieve that worthless cockroach. The rifles twitched a bit as the soldiers narrowed their focus to one very irate priest.

From behind him, he heard the mud splash and slosh a bit and then Gojyo's pained but languorously seductive voice say, "Forgive me if I don't get up, sweetheart, but I appear to be stuck."

ooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooo

"Mmmm ... fooooood," Goku murmured as his eyelids fluttered open. He was surrounded by mountains of food, and meat was present in every elegantly arranged dish. With a wide grin of anticipation, Goku seized the first roasted leg of meat he could see. He bit into it with relish only to gag unexpectedly on what felt distressingly like a hair. Goku hacked and spat, and then stared in disbelief. The strand of hair was blood red.

Before Goku could really process what this might mean, he heard the sound of familiar voices arguing. Making his way carefully through the piles of food, which Goku now eyed warily, he made his way toward the sound of raised voices. They were on the other side of the wooden wall that lined the four sides of the room. After circling the room ten times, Goku concluded that there was, in fact, no door on any of the walls.

Puzzled and starting to feel frustrated, Goku began to feel that this must be an elaborate prank, and he was being left out somehow. He walked back to the wall where the muffled voices were loudest and pressed his ear up against it. The voices definitely belonged to Sanzo and Gojyo. Goku banged on the wall with his fists and shouted, "Oi! Where's the door!? Oi! It's me, Goku!" There was no answer. Goku pressed his ear to the wall. They were still arguing. Where was Hakkai?

"Sanzo! Sanzo, it's me!" Goku conjured his nyoi-bou, backed up over the piles of food, kicking plates left and right and slipping on sauces, and dashed at the wall with all his might, nyoi-bou extended. It hit the wall with satisfying force, but, just as Goku was starting to feel relieved, he bounced backward instead of charging through to the other side. Landing in the middle of a pile of sushi, Goku frowned and stared at his weapon. It seemed to be in one piece.

The food, however, was starting to smell. And not appetizing. The smell reminded him of Gojyo's disastrous attempts in the kitchen, which invariably ended in the four of them going out to eat and subsequently forcing Gojyo (armed with a kerchief tied around his face) to bury the remains in the backyard.

Goku was starting to feel dizzy and queasy. Yes, this was definitely reminding him of Gojyo's cooking. Goku shook his head and wished he knew where the bathroom was 'cause he really needed to blow chunks now. Disconcertingly, when Goku tried to stand to investigate the walls once more, he noticed that the walls seemed to be much closer than they had before, and his back was throbbing. Worst of all, the tentacles from the nama tako seemed to be growing longer and winding around him. Goku tried to struggle, but that just made them cling tighter. He could feel his breathing being constricted as he took shallower and shallower breaths.

Shaking his head violently, Goku's eyes opened.

It was dark out, but he could feel a breath of wind against his face and insects humming in the background. As his eyes adjusted, Goku could make out a tree across from him. A dream. It had all been a dream. But where was he? And where were the others? Had he just fallen asleep and been left behind?

Goku shook his head again and realized that he still felt dizzy. All the blood was rushing to his head ... because he was hanging upside down. Huh. Gojyo would probably get a laugh out of this, and Sanzo would be pissed that Goku was fooling around.

Determined to catch up to them and get some dinner, Goku's stomach was, of course, growling, he tried to reach out to grab the tree limb and hop down onto the ground again. But his arms were frozen in place at his sides. Goku swung gently in the air as he struggled. Something was definitely not right. Straining to bend his neck, Goku could make out a silvery gray mass surrounding his chest and, by the feel of it, the rest of his body. All he could feel from his neck down was an overwhelming sensation of being struck all over by millions of tiny pins and needles.

Something waved in Goku's peripheral vision. Hoping for an explanation, he swiveled his head around to catch the movement. And froze. Four pairs of long, shiny black legs were pulling a sleek dark body up toward the limb from which Goku was hanging. Eight translucent bubbles protruded from the small head. The monkey had a nasty suspicion that those were eyes. And beneath those gleamed two vicious, curved fangs.

Paralyzed by a mesmerizing and detached sense of fascination, Goku didn't move at all, not even to breathe, as it moved inexorably higher. It suddenly paused and then struck at a cylindrical grayish bundle dangling ten feet away from Goku's watering eyes. He squeezed them shut and tried with all his will to relax, to control his erratic breathing.