Disclaimer: Characters from Saiyuki and Guilty Gear don't belong to me!
Thank you for reading and reviewing! The picture of Little Anji is now up in my deviantart account! Go find the link of my account in my profile.
Here're the room numbers of the Guilty Gear characters!
Room 1: I-No (The owner of the hostel)
Room 10: Ky
Room 11: Bridget
Room 12: Dizzy
Room 13: Testament
Room 14: Jam
Room 15: Chipp (Currently missing)
Room 16: Sol
Room 17: Millia
Room 18: Axl
Room 19: Venom
Room 20: Anji
Room 21: Baiken
Room 22: Johnny
Room 23: May
Room 24: Zappa
Room 25: Faust (Currently missing)
Chapter 5
"My arms sore," groaned Axl as he wiped the mirrors with a cloth.
"Oh my hands… I need gloves." said Johnny, cleaning the walls.
"I will probably have to take another bath, I'm sweating." said Axl.
"I don't want to hear complaints!" snapped Ky as he scrubbed the floor with a brush, his knees on the floor.
The three guys had been punished by the ladies to wash the ladies' shower room, since they "liked to go the place so much". Axl disagreed, but not after receiving a good bashing from Baiken and Millia then he changed his mind. Johnny was smart enough to say yes straightaway. Ky… well, he just believed he deserved the punishment.
"Why isn't Anji being punished?" asked Axl, wiping a spot hard with his cloth. "He's the one who went in first."
"He's still little no matter what," said Ky, dripping his brush into the pail of water. "And guess who is the one who tells him about those 'pictures' that triggers his curiosity in the first place?"
"… Me." said Axl.
"C'est correct," said Ky. "Now be quiet and do your work. If it wasn't for you, he wouldn't run off and I had to go and get him back… and what in the name of God were you and Johnny doing following me?"
"We're… concerned." said Johnny, spraying the walls with the cleaner.
"Yeah right," grumbled Ky and scrubbed the floor as hard as he could. He looked up. "What time is it?"
"8pm." said Axl.
"At this rate, we can't finish by midnight and I need to rest before fighting with Sol!" said Ky and stood up.
Wincing at his sore knees, he said, "Now hurry up you two, we have to finish by 10!"
"10!" exclaimed the two.
"It's your fault, not mine, who started it in the first place?" asked Ky, pointing his brush at Axl and Johnny as if he was holding the Thunderseal. "It's you two!"
"Get the brush off our faces, it's not as if we are criminals." said Johnny.
"It's your fault anyway, now get to work!"
"Oui, oui, Monsieur Kiske." said Axl, rolling his eyes. "But… can I ask you something?"
"What?" asked Ky.
"Did you get to see Baiken's body?"
Ky responded by throwing a wet cloth right at the Englishman.
"I'm full!" said Anji as he entered Baiken's room with Baiken.
"Spending one hour eating a small bowl of rice, che…" grumbled Baiken as she sat down.
"Mummy, can I play toys?" asked Anji, leaning on the table with his elbows.
"… Get your elbows off the table." said Baiken.
Anji did and sat down, his body completely covered with Dizzy's teddy bear T-shirt.
"Can I play toys?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"There're no toys here."
"Can I watch the TV then?"
"There's nothing on."
"No cartoons?"
"No."
"Can I read books then?"
"I don't read books."
"Can I draw?"
Baiken rolled her eye and looked at Anji. "I can tell you what you can do. Go to sleep."
Anji groaned.
"What's the groan for? Go brush your teeth and get ready to…"
Knock Knock
"It's open." called Baiken.
The door opened.
"Hi." said May cheerfully. Dizzy was behind her.
"What do you want?" asked Baiken darkly. She didn't like May very much, thought that she was too annoying. Sometimes she wondered how Johnny stood her.
"Nothing, just feel like sharing this game with Anji, we scared that he will be too bored…"
"He's about to prepare for bed…" started Baiken when Anji said, "Game? I want to play! I want to play!"
"Settle then!" said May, marching into the room with Dizzy.
"Oi!" said Baiken.
"Come on, Baiken-san, Anji must play sometimes, he's still a kid." said Dizzy and smiled at Anji. "We meet again, Anji!"
Anji frowned. "Is that meanie coming?"
"No no," said Dizzy, shaking her head. "He's asleep. He sleeps early."
Anji smiled in delight. "Yay!"
May placed a box labeled "Uno Stacko" on the table and Anji came over. "How to play this?"
"Easy," said May, opening the box. "Just try to take out as many colour sticks as possible without the stack falling over."
"Oh… Mummy, you want to play?"
"No," said Baiken, who went out to the balcony to smoke her pipe.
"We will play then!" said May, finishing arranging the sticks into a tall stack. "I will go first!"
May pushed out a blue stick. "Safe! Dizzy, your turn!"
Dizzy took out a red stick. "Done! Anji?"
Anji simply took out a yellow stick and the whole stack of sticks toppled over and crashed to the floor. As it crashed, the girls screamed in delight and laughed, much to Baiken's annoyance.
"No, you have to think to see which one you must take out so that the stack won't fall!" said May, laughing as she arranged the sticks back again.
She took out a green stick from the middle. "See?"
"Oh…" said Anji slowly.
An hour later…
Screams.
Crash.
Laughter.
Baiken rolled her eye and turned to see Anji laughing with the girls. It was lucky that the rooms in the Guilty Gear Hostel were sound-proof, otherwise she would have I-No came knocking, saying "My my, what fun you girls have, but I will appreciate it if you stop it."
"Let's play another game!" said Dizzy, taking out a board game entitled "Snakes and Ladder".
"But we need four players in this one…. the more players, the better!"
Anji turned to Baiken and asked, "Play with us, Mummy!"
"… Don't want."
Anji came and took her hand. "Mummy, please?"
"No."
"Come on, Baiken! You have nothing to do anyway!" said May.
Half pulling and begging, Anji finally convinced Baiken to sit down. Baiken played unwillingly at first. Then…
Another hour later…
"Oi! Why is it that I always get a 'one' on the dice?" demanded Baiken when the dice showed 'one' again on the board for the fifth time.
"Unlucky." said May, moving her counter. Her counter landed the box where the snake was. "Ah!! I'm back to square 10!"
Baiken frowned as Dizzy threw the dice. "Here I go to square 99!" She sang.
Baiken looked at her counter. It was at square 78. A long way to go to reach square 100, the last square.
Anji threw the dice. "Five! 1, 2, 3…"
He moved his counter to square 80. "I'm ahead of you, Mummy!"
"Che," said Baiken, throwing out the dice. "…One again! This dice doesn't like me!"
She slammed her counter to the next square in frustration. "Your turn, May."
"Mummy, you won!" exclaimed Anji.
"… Huh?"
Baiken looked at the board and Anji pointed at her counter. It was at square 79. A ladder was on it, leading to square 100.
"What?" exclaimed May and Dizzy.
"You won, Mummy!" said Anji as Baiken slowly shifted her counter up to square 100. "Yay! Mummy win! Mummy win!"
Anji hugged Baiken and Baiken said, "Oh get off."
But Baiken was close to smiling.
"Ahh, not fair! Let's play another round!" said May.
"Bye Anji! See you tomorrow!" said May and Baiken closed the door.
"Now go to sleep. It's already 12.30am!"
"Okay!" said Anji, running into the toilet.
A few moments later…
Seeing that Anji didn't come out after Baiken had placed the mattresses, Baiken went to the toilet to see…
Anji playing with the water with his cup, his toothbrush in his mouth. He scooped the water with the cup and poured it back, as if he was making a pretended waterfall. The tap was still on and running, filling the sink up.
"Oi! What are you doing?" yelled Baiken and Anji quickly turned off the tap. "You think the water is free? I have to pay for it, you know!"
Anji got away from the sink and Baiken grabbed his arm roughly. "I'm warning you. You dare to play with the water again next time, you stay in the toilet with the water and don't come out, you got that?"
Anji nodded.
Baiken let go and Anji quickly went to bed. He buried himself under the blanket and stayed there in that position.
1.30am.
"Where in the name of God did he go…" muttered Ky as he walked tiredly back to the his room, his sword in his hand. "Totally lack of manners… should have told me that he's not coming… Sol that bastard…"
Ky opened his door and went in. After washing up and a change of his clothes, Ky made his prayer to God before he got into his bed. Straightaway, he fell asleep. The day had certainly worn him out.
Sol looked at the clock. 1.35am. He smirked, that boy scout had probably given up waiting for him in the Combat Room and went back. It's not his fault, he was delayed… by something more interesting. Okay, maybe it was his fault. Who cares?
He imagined the annoyed look on Ky's face, the way he frowned and clutched his sword tightly as he looked at his watch, saying: "Where did Sol go? Oh I need my sleep… I will get dark circles for sure…"
Sol snorted.
Millia lifted her head up. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing." said Sol, pushing Millia's head back to the pillow and kissed her.
Millia returned his kiss, much to Sol's satisfaction.
"Oi! Hurry up!" called Axl in Room 22.
Johnny came out from the toilet and squatted in front of the television.
"Can't you get it yourself?" asked Johnny, pulling out his box of porn video discs.
"It's your stuff, you know which one is the best." said Axl, grinning.
"True," said Johnny, rummaging through the video discs. "How about The Pink Hotel?"
"Watched that one already."
"Err… Hot Day's Night?"
"Watched that one too."
"Hmm…"
"Pick something good, we need rest after that hard work we have done today."
"This one… Smoothing Music? This is damn hot."
"That's a new one, put it on!" said Axl.
Johnny inserted the disc into the video disc player and grabbed the remote control. "Here comes the hot stuff!" he announced, jumping onto the couch, sitting beside Axl.
"Where's the tissue paper?" asked Axl, looking around for it as the "Warning" notice came on. "I don't want my blood to stain on my shirt…"
"There there!" said Johnny, not taking his eyes off the TV.
Axl looked to the direction where Johnny was pointing and found that the tissue box was under the table.
As he crawled under the table, he heard Johnny saying, "What the hell?"
"What is it?" asked Axl, looking up.
Instead of sexy ladies, all Axl and Johnny and saw was…
"… Mickey Mouse?" asked Axl, his face blank.
Silence except the sound of Mickey Mouse saying: "Here, Pluto!" on the TV.
"… this is what you call hot?" asked Axl, moving away from Johnny. "Good gracious, you are sick…"
"No wait! This is not mine!" said Johnny, jumping over the table and to the player. He ejected the disc and inserted another disc that he randomly got from the box.
"… Donald Duck… all right…" said Axl slowly, his arms folded.
"What the!" said Johnny, ejecting the disc and placing another disc.
"Bugs Bunny?" said Axl. "All right, you are really have some problem…"
"Somebody has sabotaged my porn videos!" said Johnny, playing the disc one after another. "We can't watch any videos until I get new ones!"
Axl went to Johnny. "Really?"
"All of them are being erased and replaced by cartoons!" said Johnny, throwing up his hands.
"What? It can't be!" said Axl, frantically searched through the discs. "What about the ones we used to watch?"
"… All gone." said Johnny, shaking his head.
Axl continued to search until he found a slip of paper at the bottom of the box. "What's this?"
Seeing that there's text on the paper, Axl held under the light of the television and read, "Dear Johnny…"
"What? It's for me?" asked Johnny.
"Dear Johnny, why watch porn videos when you already have me? I have erased them off. Quit it! Love, May." read Axl.
Johnny and Axl looked at each other and groaned.
"There's something wrong with your bringing up of her, definitely." grumbled Axl.
"I'm going to change the lock tomorrow."
"Run, Baiken, run as fast as you can!"
"Okaasan!"
"Go! Okaasan will join you…"
Little Baiken began to run. And run, until she tripped and fell into the pile of concrete. Seriously hurt, she stayed there, hidden under the pile, until…
The concrete piece was being lifted off and a Gear snatched her up roughly.
"Let me go! Okaasan! Otousan!"
She tried to kick the Gear, but it was no use. The Gear lifted her up and torn away her right arm.
As little Baiken screamed in agony, the Gear threw her and she hit the floor, where a sharp concrete met her left eye, blinding it forever…
"Okaasan? Okaasan…"
Baiken opened her eye and groaned. It was the dream again… the dream she had since she was a child… ever since she had lost her parents in the war…
"Okaasan… Otousan!"
The voice was still there… who…
Baiken turned her head and found little Anji shaking his head in the dark, his eyes closed.
"I don't want… don't take them away…" he moaned.
Baiken got up and said, "Oi, Anji."
"Okaasan! Let me go, I want my Okaasan!" cried Anji.
"Anji!"
"Let me go!"
Seeing that Anji wasn't waking up, Baiken got out of bed and went to him. She shook him. "Oi, Anji, Anji!"
But Anji's eyes remained close. Then, tears formed and started to flow out from his eyes. "I don't want to be locked up… I want Okaasan and Otousan…"
Baiken frowned as she thought. It was said that Anji Mito had escaped from Japan because he didn't want to be protected by the government like an animal in a zoo cage… what happened to him and his family in his childhood was unsaid…
Seeing him crying like that wasn't easy. Baiken knew how he felt exactly.
Placing her hand on Anji's shoulder, Baiken whispered, "Anji…"
Anji turned over and clutched onto Baiken's sleeping robes. "Okaasan, don't leave me!"
Baiken blinked. "Oi, I'm not your Okaasan…"
Anji just clutched onto her tighter and sniffled, still dreaming.
Looking at little Anji's innocent, sad form, Baiken sighed. "Oh forget it..."
She patted Anji's head gently. "Don't worry, Okaasan is here."
Baiken knew that the 'Okaasan' little Anji was referring to wasn't her, but she said it anyway to comfort him.
Anji's hand loosened slightly but still didn't let go of Baiken. Baiken looked at him for a while before she made up her mind.
Silently, she slipped under the blanket and lay down beside the little boy. Placing her arm around him, Baiken patted him. "I'm here, Anji-chan. Okaasan is here."
Anji sniffled again and snuggled close to Baiken's warmth, his thumb near his mouth like a baby.
Looking at Anji's sleeping form, Baiken suddenly remembered an old Japanese lullaby that her own mother had sang to her. It was so popular in her days as a child and since the adult Anji was only a year older than her, she was sure that he himself had heard it before.
She then sang quietly:
Oyasumi my child
Sleep now
Let the angels bring you to Dreamland
Dream of cherry blossoms
Dream of our motherland
Pray for it as you sleep
Oyasumi my child
Sleep now
I will be here for you
Whispering this song as you sleep
Oyasumi
Finally, Anji was fast asleep. Baiken looked at Anji and sighed. So Anji didn't have a happy childhood either… they were in the same boat.