A/N: Yikes! This chapter kinda grew legs and became a moving target, but, well, it's done. In other news, I might have fanart soon on my Livejournal account. My sister is such a sweetie.
"Watch out, he does bite," Gojyo called cheerfully over his shoulder. Private Shin grimaced as he dragged the med kit out of his pack, eyeing the scowling, mud-covered man seated on the rock. He kind of wished the guy would stop clutching the damn gun, especially since his own rifle was currently perched precariously under the guy's filthy sandal. He so wasn't getting paid enough for this.
Sergeant Nu, however, was completely unsympathetic. He was far too engrossed in studying the segmented monstrosity half-buried in the swamp. The loud one had claimed it was a spider leg, but Shin was dubious. The thing had to be at least seven feet long. He didn't even want to contemplate what a spider that size would look like, fully assembled. Of course, with his luck, he'd be the one who ended up carrying it back with them, like some bizarre trophy. Being a peon sucked. A loud click rang out, disturbingly close. His eyes slid to the metal pressing firmly against his right cheek.
"Watch what you're doing." Vivid violet eyes were staring straight at him. He looked down. The dressing was a mess. He hurriedly unwrapped it and started over. Damn. This really sucked. And who the hell wore black leather tunics and armbands, anyway?
"So, what did you say you used to slice this off with?" Sergeant Nu was crouched next to the spider leg and looking directly up at the slouching redhead. The guy had managed to light himself a cigarette. He blew a puff of smoke into Nu's upturned face.
"Oh, you mean this?" The wickedly curved pole reappeared in Gojyo's unoccupied hand. He waved it around casually in Nu's cautious face. The weapon vanished again. "Pretty cool, eh? Convenient too."
"How does it work?" The sergeant was straightening warily, not breaking eye contact with the figure leaning against the tree trunk.
"Nuh-uh. That would be telling, wouldn't it?" Gojyo tapped his nose, a deceptively friendly smile stretching across his handsome features. "Much less cool that way." He scrubbed his grimy boot against the tree trunk and swung his arm around Nu's shoulder companionably. Sanzo twitched, causing Shin to flinch, and glared harder, his eyes tracking their movement. "Now, you wouldn't happen to know where these buggers live, would you? See, this one," he waved his boot negligently at the dismembered leg, "claimed he knew where our friend was, but he kinda left in a hurry."
Gojyo's vivid red eyes were fixed on Nu's, as if they could see right through him. Feeling pressured and vaguely uneasy, Nu moved away. Gojyo let his arm drop without resistance, his thumb hooking itself back in his borrowed belt loop.
Nu shook his head firmly. "Nope. Not a clue. They specialize in isolation tactics. Nobody's ever seen one and lived before." He glanced at his watch. He'd been gone for close to thirty minutes. Time to get back. "Look, I've got to get back to my post. The mine was attacked again, and I'd rather not leave my men any longer than I have to."
Sanzo slogged over to the two figures, leaving Shin to rescue his abused rifle. "We're coming with you," he announced, then spun his pistol's cartridge. Luckily, the bumbling idiot who'd patched him up had had a few useful items in his pack, including extra ammunition.
Gojyo frowned and glanced over at the filthy and bandaged priest. There were still angry red marks gouged into the man's neck. He shook his head and shoved away from the tree again. "What he said." Gojyo jerked his thumb at Sanzo and grinned encouragingly at Noodles.
Sergeant Nu paused, considering, and then nodded. If they could fight off these giant spiders, they'd make valuable allies. Besides, it was unlikely that he could shake them off, even if he tried. "Right, Shin, let's move." Shin straightened from checking the cocking mechanism on his rifle and saluted. As Nu turned, nestling his own firearm in the crook of his arm, he called over his shoulder,"Bring the leg." Shin deflated and glared at the jointed appendage as he bent to sling it over his shoulder. He really hated his life.
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After a tense fifteen minutes of travel, during which Gojyo casually raided the harried private's backpack and Sanzo scowled at everyone indiscriminately, they arrived back at the cave's entrance.
Gojyo crunched loudly as he chewed the last bite of the apple he'd appropriated, and then, aiming carefully, chucked the core at a distant clump of vegetation. When it collided with the leaves with a satisfying rustle and then vanished from view below the swamp's surface, Gojyo turned and grinned at Sanzo. The bastard was entirely too smug ... and irritatingly mesmerizing.
The redhead refused to be daunted by the withering look he received. He turned back to Nu. "Nice digs, Ramen-chan, but the neighbors are a bit shady, don't you think? Annnd," he yanked at some overhanging vines around the cave's entrance, "it looks like it's got some mature weeds, here. Bit of a fixer-upper all 'round."
Sanzo rolled his eyes as he ducked under Gojyo's arm and passed through the cave's entrance. The kappa was nothing without an audience. And Sanzo didn't have the patience to humor him right now, especially when he was shamelessly turning up the charm for these uniformed thugs. What the hell was his problem, anyway, swarming all over Sanzo one minute and then slinging his arm around uniformed thugs the next? Maybe the roach had a uniform kink. Sanzo glanced down at his own ruined robes.
The soldiers at the entrance bristled and demanded an explanation, but the sergeant called them off. Arms crossed, and shoulders hunched to avoid hitting his head, Sanzo surveyed the interior of the cave. It wasn't much to look at, even with the flickering torch burning in a discrete nook of the main entrance chamber, such as it was. There were some roughly hewn support beams stationed at each of the two tunnels leading off from the main chamber, but boulders were scattered throughout, mostly larger ones, and it looked as though a recent rockfall had occurred immediately above the cave's entrance. It was just as well that Sanzo wasn't claustrophobic because all this looked rather shady and decidedly unstable.
Turning swiftly on his heels, Sanzo confronted the meaningless babble that had been carrying on behind his back while he'd been more productively occupied. Was the kappa still at it? "Where do those tunnels lead?" he demanded, cutting across the cockroach's attempt at bartering for something or other, possibly the unfortunate thug's virginity. Sanzo shifted uncomfortably and scowled. At least now he had the lust-addled bastard's attention.
Sergeant Nu, who had confirmed that his men were, in fact, still all accounted for, turned to face the imperious, mud-streaked blond. Even in his ruined robes and bent over to fit into the small space, the man still commanded respect. Again, Nu wondered who and what the hell these two "travelers" were. Regardless, he pitied their superiors ... and their subordinates, if they had any. Sighing, he scratched the back of his head and gestured to the tunnel on the right. "That one leads to the main excavation chambers." He swung his hand off to the left tunnel. "And that one is the return, where the mined materials and debris are carried out to be processed or dumped." His hand dropped. He was exhausted and overworked, and he just wanted to sit down for five minutes, so he did. Heavily. "That's about as much as I know. The villagers pretty much discouraged exploration. I don't think they trusted us." He mumbled into his hand, which was now holding up the right side of his face, "And they certainly don't now." He lifted his head again and continued in a louder voice, "According to the miners, the older passages are no longer safe, especially if you don't know your way around."
Sanzo's eyes narrowed. Perfect. "These older passages. Do any of them lead to the surface?"
"Maybe. ... Sorry. I couldn't tell you." Nu leaned back against the cave wall and shut his eyes briefly. The messenger had come back from camp while they'd been gone, and the news hadn't been encouraging. Nevertheless, Nu had sent Shin and Rin back to camp with the grisly trophy of their investigation. He needed backup and direct orders before he could carry things any further on his end, and Tenjo would need concrete evidence before he could lay out a reasonable plan of action. For now, Nu was just hoping to survive the night with all his men intact.
"Hang on, I thought we were supposed to avoid the older passages," Gojyo cut in suspiciously. He had a nasty feeling he wasn't going to like this. Sanzo glared at him impatiently. Yup. He definitely wasn't gonna like this.
"I'm surrounded by idiots," the priest grumbled, exasperated. He strode over to tap his pistol against the kappa's empty skull, just to prove his point. It sounded decidedly hollow. Also, the hurt and irritated expression on the redhead's face was intensely satisfying. That's right. Pay attention to me, and stop the hell flirting with everything that has legs! "How the hell do you think the spider bastards are getting in and out of the caves without being spotted?!" Realization dawned in the widening red eyes. "Exactly!" He seized the kappa's ear and started dragging him toward the right-hand tunnel. They had to pick one or the other, and the right one looked larger. There was no need to get boxed in right away. "Let's go."
"Owwww! Let go, dammit! I'm coming already." Gojyo's face twisted into a grimace of discomfort as he was half-dragged through the arch of the tunnel. After they'd turned the first corner, Sanzo abruptly released the struggling kappa. "Che! What the hell, Sanzo!? That bloody hurt!" He rubbed his throbbing ear indignantly, partly to reassure himself that it was, in fact, still attached.
"Keep up or get left behind," Sanzo tossed over his shoulder as he navigated the idiosyncrasies of the passageway, ducking and turning as necessary.
Gojyo's eyes narrowed. He was pretty sure that little performance with the ear had been designed to get his attention, but he was damned if he knew why. Dragging his left arm across his body with his right arm, he popped his shoulder and resigned himself to the inevitability of back pain for the foreseeable future. Hunching over uncomfortably, height could be a disadvantage sometimes, he shuffled rapidly along after the priest, who was only really identifiable in this pitch-dark tunnel because he'd lit a candle. The clever bastard had probably pinched it from that flunky earlier.
The passage definitely had sections in which Gojyo felt decidedly claustrophobic, especially because he wasn't as compact as a certain maddening priest, but then there were sections where the lack of visible boundaries around him made him feel even more uneasy. Apparently, the miners had taken advantage of natural cave formations whenever possible, thereby reducing the amount of rock they had to remove themselves. Eventually, after he'd shimmied through the second shaft that had dug into his ribs and pulled his hair, he tugged firmly on the priest's robes, forcing him to halt.
"Hold up," Gojyo panted, catching his breath. The air was definitely thinner down here. "What the hell are we looking for here, exactly?" His right leg was throbbing again, and, much as he hated to admit it, he had been having trouble keeping up. His Holiness was remarkably intense and tenacious when he made a decision, the stubborn git.
Sanzo's vivid eyes flashed in the flickering candlelight as he turned to face Gojyo. Dried blood mixed with fresher patches soaking through the bandage on the priest's shoulder, and his robe had long since been slipped off his shoulders to offset the oppressive heat. Sanzo stared measuringly at the redhead hunched over in front of him. His intense violet eyes still fixed on Gojyo, he lifted his candle higher, so that it illuminated the curve of rock above them in the narrow passageway. "Spiders," he answered.
Gojyo's eyes felt strangely heavy as he dragged them up and away, where they darted back and forth before settling inexorably on a thin, but unmistakable, stream of tiny spiders scampering along the uneven rock overhead. They were only visible for a minute or two before they had all, as a group, ducked back into the safety of the shadows. Gojyo's eyes fell back to the strands of muddy blond hair in front of him. He could feel that his face was frozen into an odd mixture of surprise and disgust. "R-right. That's not creepy at all." Damn, those creepy little buggers had been crawling along next to him all this time and he hadn't noticed? He glanced down at himself, checking to be sure they weren't actually crawling on him. That would be really nasty.
After a cursory glance failed to reveal any movement on his filthy army fatigues, Gojyo forced a sloppy grin onto his face. "So, we're following the bitty spiders, eh?" He shrugged, forcing himself not to imagine tiny clawed feet crawling all over his skin. "Works for me."
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When the trail of spiders had split into two groups, Sanzo had taken the right branch, and Gojyo had reluctantly taken the left branch. Gojyo blew his stiff bangs out of his face. The mud was starting to flake off his nose, and he ached all over. He felt uneasy about this whole setup, and not just because he couldn't ogle Sanzo's muscular, black leather–clad back twisting and flexing in front of him anymore. Gojyo shook his head to clear the mental image and drew in a long drag from his cigarette. Leaning forward to retrieve the flickering candle perched in a nearby crevice, Gojyo rolled awkwardly to his feet. The path had narrowed once again, and he'd had to periodically dodge puddles and rotted wooden beams.
Stumbling along, worn down by fatigue, and eyes fixed in unfocused determination on the thin line of spiders that flitted in and out of the edges of the candle's glow, Gojyo suddenly found himself falling downward as the ground gave out beneath his feet. His arms flew out automatically to steady himself and brace his descent. His fingers tingled as they clung to thick, rope-like strands that were suddenly everywhere, stinging and clinging.
Shocked fully alert, Gojyo struggled in the tangled, disorganized mass of vaguely shimmering strands all around him. The candle was nowhere to be seen, lost to the depths below him, but a stray shaft of moonlight did vaguely illuminate his surroundings, enough to assure him that this space was much larger than the passage he'd been traveling along earlier. "Shit!" Gojyo growled as he conjured his shakujou and twisted in place, dangling like a puppet.
The muffled sounds of sobbing and hissing below him alerted him to the fact that he wasn't alone in here. Straining forward and leaning against the strand strung across his stomach, Gojyo searched for the sources of the noises. He could just make out two small, twitching silvery cocoons off to the left. The hissing, however, seemed to be coming from the dark mass vibrating directly below him. Ah-ha! The blasted thing had eight opalescent eyes.
"Hey! Hey, you!" Gojyo coughed as one of the strands dug into his neck as he leaned farther forward. "You seen a chimp 'bout this big!?" He gestured awkwardly with his hands as he swung back and forth. The long, dark legs flashed menacingly as the spider scaled the strands rapidly, abandoning whatever it had been hovering over earlier. Suddenly, Gojyo's nose was inches from those hideous rows of milky eyes. "One of your buddies said he'd seen 'im around," Gojyo continued gamely as he swiftly and awkwardly began sawing through the strand holding his right hand in place.
The disconcerting, lidless eyes continued to examine him, and the wicked, long legs splayed out on either side of him. Gojyo stared right back at the spider, choosing to focus on the nearest set of eyes for convenience, and grinned grimly. "What's wrong, big guy?" He cocked his head to the side, eyeing his opponent for possible vulnerabilities. The reddish pattern on the spider's underside looked disturbingly familiar. He had a nagging feeling he should recognize the dot-crescent combination. Tearing his eyes away from the distracting puzzle, Gojyo returned his gaze to the vicious, curved fangs that were twitching less than a foot away from his face.
"Look, bud, I've had a really shitty day so far, so if you could just pick up the pace a bit, I'd appreciate it." Gojyo's wrist ached from maintaining its awkward position as it sawed, but he could feel the strand weakening. "See, I've got this really temperamental boyfriend who hates to be kept," tug, saw, "waiting and all."
Just as Gojyo felt the last strand part and swung his shakujou around, the spider's body jerked back and landed on what appeared to be the cavern's ceiling. Great. Now what? A terrified squeal from one of the two cocoons below him distracted Gojyo from his contemplation of which strand to slice next. The cry was quickly cut off by another voice making desperate shushing noises. Terrified, labored breathing from the two quivering cocoons filled the sudden, consuming silence.
When he could catch his breath again, Gojyo's face contorted with rage. "KIDS!? You fucking tied up a couple of kids!? You unmitigated BASTARD!!" He twisted desperately in the restraining threads clinging to him. He knew he needed to calm down, but he couldn't. Rage filled him and drove him mad with the need to be free. Knowing that it couldn't reach, he released his shakujou anyway and watched it slice through the strands strung in front of him. The severed strands swayed gently, but the blade completely missed the vibrating spider crawling around on the rock formations overhead.
"Feeling protective, little brother?" The spider's hissing, whispering voice grated on every nerve in Gojyo's tense body. "Bring me the priest's sutra, and you can have the kids. But hurry." The spider's fangs clacked impatiently. "I'm getting hungry." The spider launched itself back at the tangle of strands and pinned the shakujou's pole with the claw of a long, shiny segmented leg, pinning the pole against the nearby rock face.
"You're no brother of mine, you damn asshole!" Gojyo panted, yanking on his shakujou to free it. "My brother likes little brats," he tugged harder on his weapon, "and not for a fucking SNACK!" Even as the words left his mouth, Gojyo hesitated. Could this be Dokugakuji? No! His brother would never go this far, not even for Kougaiji.
The sharp, cold edges of the spider's body shimmered and coalesced, condensing into the figure of a man clad in a long, white robe, hands and feet braced against the webbing. "Wanna bet?" The face and voice were terribly familiar, and Gojyo stared, frozen, into the dark, unreadable eyes of his brother. He knew he should move, speak, do something, but he couldn't manage to tear his eyes away from the sight of the dot-crescent pattern tattooed across the nose and forehead of the face hovering inches from his own.
A shot rang out in the tense silence. A familiar voice growled, "Go to hell." Three more shots followed in quick succession, and, each time, a new red patch blossomed on the stunned, swaying figure before him. When the fourth shot made contact, his brother's body fluttered backward in a tumble of flowing cloth and landed with a dull, sickening thump on the cave floor below.
Sanzo was standing over the fallen corpse and prodding it with a sandal, his pistol still out and held at the ready. Gojyo felt stunned. He didn't know whether to feel betrayed or relieved. He knew, he knew that crumpled pile wasn't his brother, but it looked so much like him.
After a couple more experimental kicks, the blond raised his head so that fierce, impatient violet eyes stared directly into wide, confused red ones. "Hurry up and get the hell down here." Black, leather-clad arms crossed, and the blond's brows furrowed as a trail of smoke drifted away from the cigarette smashed between his lips. "You look ridiculous."
Gojyo's mouth fell open in indignation, and a wave of unexpected relief washed over him. "Thanks a lot, you bastard! You could fucking give me a hand!!" Gojyo jerked against the restraining threads, which caused him to unbalance. After a few seconds of frantic flailing, in which he nearly dropped his shakujou, he managed to regain an semi-upright position, but, by then, Sanzo had already moved over to the cowering cocoons in the corner.
Growling in frustration, Gojyo managed to stow his shakujou and retrieve the hunting knife he'd nicked earlier and stowed in his boot. Methodically, grumbling the whole time, he severed each thread holding him in place. It got a bit tricky toward the end, though, because he hadn't really thought through which thread to sever first. Finally, though, he managed to brace himself against a tangle of strands and leap, more or less gracefully, to the cave's floor. At least he'd landed on both feet.
Bending over the crumpled corpse, Gojyo shook his head, reminding himself that this wasn't his brother, no matter how viscerally it resembled him. Glancing over at the priest, who was still working on the first bundle, he had to hand it to the bastard. His Holiness really did have a flair for the dramatic. Sighing and stumbling somewhat, Gojyo made his way past the eddying trails of smaller spiders to lend a hand.
Crouching next to the priest, who flinched somewhat but continued working at the silvery strands with a wickedly sharp blade, Gojyo ruffled the second kid's hair. The little brat was shivering, probably in reaction more than anything else. Hopeful but guarded eyes met his, and he grinned reassuringly. "So, kid, what brings you here?" he asked as he slowly and carefully drew out his knife and began sawing through the constricting strands.
The kid flinched a bit, but he managed to choke out, "We're looking for our brother." His eyes flicked nervously over to the bundle next to him.
Gojyo's brow furrowed, and his eyes softened. "Yeah?" he asked gently as he pried a handful of strands away from the kid's chest. "And who's he?"
The kid squirmed a bit, trying to wriggle out of the confining bundle. Gojyo placed a restraining hand on the boy's chest. The last thing he wanted to do was cut the kid by mistake. The boy seemed to sense the meaning behind the gesture and lapsed docilely back into stillness.
"I'm Yun, and that's Wai." His eyes slid toward the other cocoon again. "Our brother was one of the miners clearing out the debris from the cave-in. He's even bigger than you!" The kid's voice swelled with pride, and Gojyo smiled indulgently as he worked. "But he never came back," Yun finished forlornly. "And then Dad said nobody was gonna look for him!" the boy continued angrily, stiffening. "He said enough people had lost their lives to the monsters, and he wasn't gonna let anyone else go near the caves."
The kid sniffled a bit, then continued. "Sho's friends didn't come back either! So, we had to get him back ourselves," he finished defiantly. "'Cause he's the only big brother we have!" The other kid, Wai, crawled over and hugged Yun's arm protectively, nodding fiercely in agreement.
Gojyo finished cutting through the last of the strands around Yun's feet and nodded in approval. "Well, I'm Sha Gojyo, and this here's a really crappy priest." He jerked his thumb in the general direction of Sanzo, who was sitting with his back turned away from the rest of them and puffing on his cigarette.
Sanzo turned around to glare. "Watch it, pea-brain. Who was it who saved your sorry ass?"
Gojyo smirked and flipped him the bird. "And I'm sooooo grateful, Your Highness." He rolled his eyes when Sanzo stood up and wandered back toward the tangled mass of threads. He turned back to ruffle both heads of hair next to him. The guy had all the social skills of a bull elephant. No wonder they locked him up in a monastery. "Sooooo, kids. Any ideas where your bro is now?"
Yun frowned, though it could have been because he had to blow his bangs out of his face. "He wouldn't have left without his friends, so he has to be here somewhere." The kid looked pretty skinny, but tough. A good kid.
"So you thought you'd just have a look around, then?" Gojyo asked, lighting a cigarette, leaning back against the cave wall, and staring up at the moonlight pouring down on them.
A smirk crossed the kid's face. "Yup. We know all the best routes. Those soldiers don't know nuthin'. They were guarding the main entrance, but there're dozens of bolt-holes, man. We snuck right past 'em, no probs." He jerked a cocky finger upward, toward the shaft of moonlight.
Gojyo cocked his head, a bit skeptical, but then he caught sight of a slim shadow dangling from the opening above them. "You shimmied down a rope, eh?" He grinned lazily and turned to regard the boy hunched next to him. "Good work."
Yun nodded, and Wai piped up. "The rope was my idea! It was dad's, but Yun said he'd never miss it 'cause he's a coward and he's not gonna go back to the caves till the soldiers leave."
Yun glowered at his little brother and bopped him on the head. "Shut UP!" he hissed. Gojyo's grin widened and he yawned lazily. Such cute little rascals. They kinda reminded him of Goku. ... Crap! Goku!! Gojyo's shoulders jerked as he bolted upright again, hands knotted in his lap. Where the hell could the little chimp be?
A small tussle had broken out, which Gojyo didn't feel inclined to interrupt. Sanzo seemed to have found something. Gojyo stood up and craned his head to see what Sanzo was up to.
"Well, that's what you said, so what's the big deal!? Besides, the rope was my idea! You wanted to go clear around to the north vents, and that woulda taken hours!" Wai sounded indignant.
"Hey, this one's alive. Is it yours?" Sanzo's voice cut across the boys' argument, and Gojyo loped across the cavern, dragging the two startled kids after him.
They stared down at the cocoon Sanzo had rolled away from the others. The guy's chest was barely moving, and there were dark splotches seeping through the bindings. Cautiously, Yun and Wai bent down to have a closer look. Sanzo was busy digging through the rest of the pile, most of which seemed to consist of dessicated husks. Gojyo winced and shot an angry glance back at the sprawled and bloody pile of robes. Fucking bastard got what he deserved. The water sprite's fists clenched as he saw a couple of smaller dessicated bundles.
"Pei! Pei! It's me!" Yun shook the unconscious man by the shoulders. When the man didn't respond, Yun shook him harder and Wai tried to pry his eyelids open. "Where's Sho!? Where is he?"
"Hey, easy there," Gojyo shot out a restraining hand and gently shoved the kids away. "Give the guy a chance." Whipping out his hunting knife again—really it was much more practical than the shakujou, which was much too large and awkward for delicate work like this—Gojyo set to work freeing the captive.
Wai just stared at the man's face, as if willing him to wake up and make everything okay again. Yun was a bit older and more restless. He turned to the discarded cocoons and froze for a second, processing what, in fact, they represented. After a brief shiver, though, he continued, carefully studying each one before laying it aside.
"Dammit!" Sanzo stood up abruptly and ruffled his fingers distractedly through his hair. "Where the hell is the little bastard!? I can't get him to leave me alone for five minutes together, and then he wanders off for two days!? What the hell!" A fierce series of smoke clouds rose above the messy, muddy blond bangs.
Gojyo sighed and sucked on the finger he'd managed to nick with the knife. Damn, but this shit was tough, and slippery, too. ... And tasted nasty. He yanked the finger back out of his mouth and glared at in disgust. "No monkey, eh?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the stillness of Yun's frame. "Ya got something there, kid?" He hated to ask. Really he did. But sometimes the awful truth was better than always wondering, never knowing for sure, one way or the other.
"Yeah." The kid's voice sounded stiff and cold, but deadly calm, resigned. Jarringly, it reminded Gojyo of Sanzo. Cutting through the last of Pei's bonds, the redhead slowly rose to his feet.
"Okay, then. I guess that means the search's over for you." He patted the boy's knotted shoulder. "Time to go home, yeah?"
Wai looked up with wide, frightened eyes, flicking from his brother's ramrod back to Gojyo's grim face. They fell quickly, though, along with his head. After a short, tense silence, in which Sanzo stared hard at the two boys, Wai looked up again, tears streaming silently down his face. "What about Pei? And Su?"
Yun turned around and faced his little brother. "Su's not coming back either."
Gojyo bent to lift the wounded man and lean him against his shoulders. "Lead the way, boys." He glanced sidelong at Sanzo, for confirmation.
"No," Sanzo grunted. "We're not done here yet." Gojyo's face screwed up in disbelief. How could the callous bastard abandon kids? Goku ... had been missing for two days now. And that wasn't like him. "They're plenty old enough to take care of themselves." Sanzo turned to Yun and awkwardly fished something shiny and metallic out of his back pocket. "Here." He shoved it into the kid's stiff hands. "You know how to use this?"
Yun stared numbly into Sanzo's eyes, and then nodded once, his eyes now fixed on the service revolver cradled in his hands. After a short silence, in which Gojyo had time to contemplate the very thorough raiding of Shin's backpack that had taken place, Yun's head rose again, and he confronted the blond standing before him. "You're really a priest?"
Sanzo glared back at the kid. "Yeah, so?" A stream of smoke wafted up past his narrowed eyes. "Don't flinch, or you won't make it, understand? If you shoot, shoot to kill. And don't miss."
Yun nodded again and gripped the revolver tightly in his right hand. Gojyo couldn't help but stare at the two of them for a moment. For some reason, he felt like he was witnessing something deeply private, a side of Sanzo he rarely showed the world. Priesty boy really was charismatic: unconventional, but undeniably compelling, which was probably why Gojyo would follow the prat through hell and back if the nutjob took it into his head to go there. That and the guy was hot as hell.
Turning away from the distracting sight of Sanzo sweating in his black leather armor, Gojyo caught Wai's eye and gestured to the rope. "Go grab that for me, will ya? We can use it to make a harness so you can drag this guy along with you."
Wai stared up at Gojyo, unmoving.
"You can't carry him up the rope, can you?"
Wai shook his head.
"And you know your way around, right?"
Wai nodded.
"Good. Go get the rope."
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"Think they're gonna be okay?" The aggravating redhead had to turn around and look over his shoulder. What the hell was he thinking? The terrain in this part of the cave system was terrible, and, when he turned his head like that, the flickering flame of the candle playing over his face and hair was ... distracting.
"For the hundredth time, they're going to be fine," Sanzo growled and gestured forward meaningfully with his gun. "They're older than I was when I left ..." Shit. Stupid candle. Sanzo's eyes narrowed.
The kappa, who'd almost turned his head back around, actually turned to face Sanzo at that and had the audacity to stare. "When you what?" he asked, his eyes flashing with curiosity.
Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit! "When I left the temple for the first time," Sanzo answered gruffly. He reached out with his empty hand and seized Gojyo's chin to turn it in the right direction. "Now turn around and pay attention to where we're going."
He wasn't entirely sure he trusted the kid's directions, or their ability to remember the directions, but the passageways had been looking more dilapidated and ill-kempt the farther they'd gone, and the kid had said they were headed for the abandoned section, so they couldn't be too far off.
After the kappa had taken a couple of steps in the right direction, Sanzo felt he might actually have dodged the bullet, but then bastard stopped again and asked, without turning around, "Wait, is that when you got your gun?"
Damn the perceptive roach's sixth sense for sniffing out the details of other people's personal lives. "Yes," Sanzo bit out. Take the damn hint and shut the hell up.
After a brief silence, there was a muffled snort and motion continued. Suspiciously, Sanzo narrowed his eyes, but he followed. With any luck, that would be the end of it.
"So that's why it's so small," Gojyo muttered under his breath. Sanzo glared at his pistol and contemplated his options. After wrestling with his pride for a couple of seconds, he opted to pretend he hadn't heard that. After all, the kappa was much more entertaining, really, when he was animated. Much more annoying, but also definitely more interesting.
Silence descended for a while as Gojyo limped along in front, pausing intermittently to examine their options. Sanzo swallowed his impatience. He could move much faster on his own, but that was part of the problem, really. Originally, he'd been the one holding the candle, but when he'd made a comment and not gotten a smart-aleck answer, he'd realized that the redhead had fallen too far behind to hear him. That was when he'd decided that it was better all around to keep the kappa where he could see him.
After an unusually long pause, Sanzo prodded the camo-clad back with his pistol. "What's the holdup?" It made him tense to be this close to another person, especially this particular person, and, when he was tense, he was grumpy, dammit.
"I think this is where we're supposed to turn."
"So turn, then!"
"We can't. It's collapsed."
Sanzo shoved the useless cockroach out of the way impatiently and stared at the mountain of rock that had slid down into the rough side passage, closing it off completely. "Fine, take the next turn, then."
Gojyo leaned into Sanzo's personal space, the candle's flame flickering between them. Most of the mud had dried and flaked off his face, but now there were dark streaks of rock powder mixed with some dried blood. "What if they don't intersect, Sanzo-chan?"
Before Sanzo could come up with a suitable retort, or, worse yet, suggest they actually turn back, the tunnel suddenly flooded with a dense white fog that the candle was doing nothing to repel. Peripherally, he registered the familiar whooshing sound of the shakujou materializing next to him as he jerked his pistol up and swung around, scanning for any hint of their attackers. Nothing. All he could see was a dense wall of white, no matter which way he turned.
Dimly, he could make out echoes, but he couldn't pinpoint which direction they were coming from. Subconsciously, Sanzo pressed his unarmed side against the solid, warm body next to his. He wanted to be damned sure he knew where his ally was. His shoulder ached and twinged. Damn. Damn, damn, damn. Where were those footsteps coming from? Ahead? Behind? One of the side passages?
Suddenly, the echoing footsteps stopped. After an interminable wait, filled with suppressed ragged breathing and the kappa's racing heartbeat thudding against his shoulder, Sanzo was getting ready to suggest they start moving again. He shifted uncomfortably, taking a step away from the warm distraction at his side.
This small movement sparked an immediate reaction. A hail of bullets showered the rock next to Sanzo's head. "Fuck!" The shots were coming from behind them. He dove, dragging the kappa with him. Stumbling blindly along the rock wall, shoving the resisting redhead in front of him, Sanzo fired a couple of return shots, hoping at least one would connect with a target.
He felt his injured shoulder take a hit, and then a shot graze his right leg. "Move it, dammit!" he hissed as he shoved the uncooperative water sprite through the first opening he found in the tunnel wall. He was pretty sure the noisy prat was swearing, but he couldn't really hear anything over the ricochet of bullets.
After firing another couple of shots down the main corridor, he ducked into the side passage himself, hoping it would provide at least temporary cover until he could actually pick out a target. Without warning, his feet slid out from under him, and he was sliding, tumbling, scraping, falling, limbs flailing. He couldn't see a damn thing, and he couldn't orient himself at all or even do much to protect himself. Shit. He could feel rock sliding all around him. Just before everything went black, though, he thought he felt water filling his nostrils.