A Peculiar Shangri-la in England
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Summary: Through an accidental incantation of both Sharak and Sanzo's respective sutras, the Sanzo party gets transported into a world far different from their own. Enter a pompous, little boy with an eyepatch on his right eye, who seemed to take an interest with Sanzo's ability to expel demons to ashes, much to the chagrin of the boy's suspecting butler—who happened to be a demon himself.
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A/N: The parts that Taruchie recited to Sharak here are from Chapter 11.
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Taruchie's warning to the Sanzo party that they shouldn't continue to India and just follow the Aspects' orders—if anything—made Gojyo's teeth grind and made Hakkai smile a bit too sweetly.
Through Sanzo and Goku's moment of prayer, they have, in turn, called out to the little demigoddess. Sanzo had served as the connection, and Goku had served as the medium where Taruchie could speak—a telepathy of sorts, one that was different from Sanzo and Goku's.
All the while, a skeptic Hakkai wondered as he stared at his half-conscious companions being encircled in the Maten sutra. Gojyo had earlier cursed and yelled at Taruchie for her predictions about the group—of them dying all over again.
"Whatever happened in the past, whatever bullshit about past lives and shit you're talking about, we don't give a fuck's ass about it. We're going to Houtou and that's that. All you do there is sit around and give people some shitty predictions while we've been running around trying to keep ourselves alive day in and day out and you have no idea because you haven't experienced it from your lofty temple. And don't you dare tell me you don't know that. You claim you're a seer."
Taruchie's voice slipping from Goku's lips fell silent after Gojyo's rant.
"Gojyo, let me handle this," Hakkai muttered in a levelheaded tone. "It seems you know a great deal about our past," he gave a snorting Gojyo a sidelong glance in a silent reprimand, "but we have come this far because we are—how should I say it—we're stubborn to the bone." He laughed, and eyed the sutra circling Sanzo and Goku. "I don't know how our Sanzo managed to contact you, as he once stated that he only knows Makai Tenjou, but—"
"You, the former general, the one with the red hair. I am saying this to all of you to prevent him from suffering again."
Gojyo looked at Hakkai, confusion etched upon their faces. Hakkai then spoke up slowly, as though he were conversing with an infirm person. "Uh, pardon, Miss Taruchie, but who is this person you're talking about? Who will suffer again?"
"The very boy the three of you have sworn to protect from being turned into a killing puppet all those years ago. The Great Sage Equalling the Heaven."
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Goku woke up to a splitting headache, and when he bolted up from the bed, he saw Hakkai sleeping on a chair beside him, and on the floor, sitting on the side of the bed, was a snoring Gojyo. Beside Goku, a slumbering Sanzo quietly rolled over to Goku's side, furrowed eyebrows and constant frown in place even in sleep.
Goku couldn't remember what happened after they have called for Taruchie—all he remembered was meditating next to Sanzo, being surrounded in the sutra, hearing Taruchie's voice in his head, and then—
"After talking to this Kumari person—as Master Cho dubbed her—you and Reverend Sanzo fainted. Masters Cho and Sha quickly took care of the two of you and stood guard until they fell asleep. I hope you are feeling well right now, Master Goku," Sebastian stood by the doorway with a tray full of food, smiling at the smaller demon, who still looked confused. "I take it you're hungry?"
"Uh, yeah!" he cheered all of a sudden, all confusion gone from his face at the mention of food, and he nudged all of his companions awake. Smiling upon seeing them grumbling out their sleep-deprived state, Goku looked at the butler with puzzlement. "Sebastian, we didn't scare you off, did we? I mean, the sutra thing probably scared you off a bit." The butler shook his head, and Goku smiled, feeling relieved.
"Although you did not scare me, you did manage to make Master Soma feel faint when he saw you having the voice of a female. It reminded him of someone that you shouldn't worry about." Chuckling at Goku's sudden shock, Sebastian shrugged, "You have nothing to fear, Master Goku. My young master will not kick you out of the house for something so trivial. Come, dinner is served."
And Goku and the other three ate in the guest room, with Sebastian looking over them. Hakkai and Gojyo filled Sanzo and Goku in on what happened after they have fainted, and Sanzo merely grunted and cursed at the outcome.
"I tried calling someone for advice to return to our fucking world and all I got was to not go to India? Fucking waste of time."
Hakkai dabbed a napkin on his mouth and frowned, "About that thing you did, Sanzo. Exactly how did you do that? Summoning Taruchie through an idol?"
Sanzo drank his cup of green tea, and fought the urge to smoke. He couldn't do it when that Sebastian was around spewing words that his little master wouldn't like the smell of tobacco in his house. He clicked his tongue in annoyance when he glanced at Sebastian's smug smirk. "I read about it in Sharak's library—Kali or Mahakala, the deities of time and space, could be used as mediums of crossing dimensions. I thought I could use either of them. It happens that that Bengali prince idolizes Kali. It was worth a shot."
"And why did you get Goku involved?" Gojyo said through mouthfuls of steak, something that made Sanzo hiss in disgust.
The monk and Goku looked at each other, then averted their gazes. Sighing, Sanzo muttered his response, "I needed to have a medium of sorts to connect from this world to our world, and Goku was my only choice. Goku and I—we..."
Goku cut in and pointedly told Hakkai that—"We can hear each other's voices in our heads. It has always been that way since we met," and clamped his mouth shut. He didn't know how the other two would take the news, and he certainly didn't know how Sebastian would take that piece of information. He thought he and Sanzo would be the joke of the day, but—
"We've all been travelling together for two years and you never told us you two could speak to each other in your minds?" Gojyo was surprised, his mouth full of steak hanging agape.
"It was not worth mentioning since no one even asked. It's not like it hindered the mission," grumbled Sanzo, annoyed at being prodded with questions.
"'Not worth ment—'...?" Gojyo scoffed, his expression aghast at Sanzo's words. "Dude, you and the monkey have fucking telepathy, and you tell me it's not worth mentioning? That's a fucking sick ability! What the fuck."
Sanzo clicked his tongue, brows knotted the more he spoke, "It doesn't happen all the time, fucking idiot."
Hakkai, meanwhile, calmly sipped his tea, and smiled at Goku.
"I knew it. When we were looking for Sanzo, it was as if Goku knew his exact location. Never mind that the villagers told us where to go. Goku knew exactly where Sanzo was during Ukoku's attack. And when I said there were only sightings—"
"The monkey actually felt where his master was, right," Gojyo deadpanned, his ruby eyes darting between Sanzo and Goku.
The blond averted his gaze from the stares he received, and gulped down the rest of his tea while Goku stuffed his face with turkey in silence.
Hakkai, meanwhile, gave Gojyo a sidelong glance, and he nodded to the redhead.
From the door, they failed to see Sebastian smiling to himself.
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After the eventful day had passed and all had fallen asleep, Gojyo lied awake and stared at the ceiling in darkness. Swallowing back the urge to smoke—Sebastian had also strictly warned him about smoking—he nudged Hakkai awake, and they recalled of how their day went, until a nagging question in Gojyo's mind slipped from his lips.
"Hey, Hakkai. Why do you think that Taruchie chick—old lady—think that we'll make Goku suffer? Did we make Goku suffer? From what we've been through, Goku had been the reason we got broken ribs every time he goes into Sage mode."
Humming and barely comprehending Gojyo's words in his half-asleep state, Hakkai grumbled a response. "Maybe it runs deeper than that," he mulled in a quiet tone. "Maybe—just maybe—we have hurt Goku in a way that we didn't know. But Goku didn't look like he had any recollection when we asked him about it earlier—and he's a bad liar, so he clearly isn't trying to hide anything from us. Sanzo didn't have a clue, either. And I'm sure she wasn't talking about the time we got separated from Sanzo."
Gojyo hummed, and tried and failed to look at Hakkai in the dark. "Yeah. But that telepathy thing, though."
Hakkai laughed, "You're still sore about that?"
The sound of fabric shuffling met Gojyo's ears, and he had a hunched that he turned to face him.
"Just because Sanzo and Goku have telepathy doesn't mean that we don't have our own version of telepathy, right?"
Gojyo fell silent, and in a few moments, he chortled to himself, and huddled a tad closer to the green-eyed demon. He felt Hakkai's forehead to his, and certainly heard the beginnings of a smile saved for him alone.
Gojyo tried and failed to bite back his grin as their noses touched in the dark—
"Yeah. I guess you're right."
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The Sanzo party spent the following days cherry-picking their stories to the Phantomhive household and the other guests—how their leader was a gun-toting priest since the night he was ordained as such, how the power of the sutra worked, how Goku became Sanzo's official attendant in the temple, how they got powers from their 'sworn' ways to Buddhism—
—all the while, Gojyo, Hakkai, and Goku never told the humans that they were demons, save for Sebastian.
They also haven't told them that they were sent on a mission by a certain Goddess of Mercy and by other three gods.
They also haven't told them that a certain god appeared from the sky and had basically kicked them to the side, and had taken over their original mission.
No one needed to know that, not even Lau and his oddly farfetched, yet accurate bursts of information about the Sanzo party.
Odd man, he was.
On the day that Sanzo was well enough to move around without wincing in pain, he wasted no time in going over to the Phantomhive garden at dawn to smoke once, and meditate his grievances away.
His steadily depleting supply of cigarettes were slowly driving him even more restless than usual.
Upon seeing the sun rise, he went straight to Sebastian's quarters and requested for an area in the mansion where he could practice his shooting.
Sebastian suggested fox and game hunting, only for Sanzo to decline, stating that he didn't want to kill any animals unless it was absolutely necessary—for food, or if his life was threatened.
"In that case, Reverend Sanzo, I will prepare proper target dummies for you to practice on. The sooner, the better, yes?"
Sanzo grumbled a forced affirmative upon seeing Sebastian's too sweet of a smile, and the priest left, feeling like a child denied of a treat.
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Hakkai cleared his throat and offered Sanzo some comforting words one day while they were lounging in the guest room. The more days passed, the more agitated Sanzo became. Hakkai had taken the reins to apologize to Sebastian for their leader's grouchy behavior—it was the way he was.
Hakkai told Sanzo of Sharak's advice to return to India. The green-eyed demon told him that while the priest and Goku were not themselves, Sharak had intervened with Taruchie's summons. He told Sanzo about Sharak's advice—about letting things go for now, and wait until the group had taken grasp of the ways of the country they were in, only until they have done so could they make their journey back to India.
The suggestion was something that Sanzo did not take as comforting as Hakkai thought it would. Still, the healer begged to differ—that the sole thing they could do for the meantime under the Phantomhive's eye was to adapt to the country's customs, and hope that maybe along the way, they could find out ways to return.
"Or maybe we could just ask the Goddess for help like last time," piped Goku as he chewed on a macaron.
"Hahaha—no. You didn't even know half of what happened last time, little monkey. And we didn't ask for her... his... ugh. We didn't ask for help, okay?" Gojyo huffed at the memory of the Goddess of Mercy being so bold and bossy and—
"Stop calling me a monkey, you perverted imp. Sanzo, we could at least try, maybe she has the answers," Goku pleaded as he tugged on Sanzo's sleeve, ignoring Gojyo's further taunts for once.
"Feh. I'd rather bite off my own tongue. If you want to call that old hag so much, call that hag yourself," Sanzo huffed as he chewed on his unlit cigarette. Calling for Kanzeon Bosatsu would be like offering yourself to slaughter—at least, Sanzo thought it would.
Huffing, Goku begrudgingly obeyed with much grumbling. It wasn't until Sanzo side-glanced at his charge that he noticed the little monkey's minute pout and crossed arms, and the priest offered Goku his own plate of food, and the golden-eyed demon took it with much joy.
They heard a knock on the open door, and saw Sebastian standing there with a cheerful smile. "Good evening, gentlemen. I take it you're enjoying everything so far?"
Hakkai, Goku, and Gojyo all nodded and said their compliments, save for Sanzo, who hummed and shrugged, stating it was all fine.
"Would you like more wine, sirs? We have here an Auslese wine from 1886, a gift all the way from Germany."
Gojyo let out a low whistle, "So uh, where's that? Another town?"
"Another country, Gojyo," Hakkai supplied with a smile. "Germany is rich with their culture, isn't it? I'd love to know more about that country, if I could," he said with suppressed glee as Hakuryu cheeped and flapped his wings, something that made Sebastian smile in return.
"I'd gladly tell you about it when I have the time, then. Some of my young master's acquaintances are from Germany. Plus, I have been there recently with my young master—"
The sound of the grandfather clock chimed midnight, and Hakkai hummed. "It's getting rather late, isn't it? Ah, maybe the wine can wait until tomorrow night, Mr. Sebastian. We wouldn't want to impose much further than we already are." Sanzo and Goku agreed, while Gojyo eyed the wine with a wistful sigh.
Sebastian nodded with a tightlipped smile and a low laugh, "Is that so? Very well, gentlemen. I shall accompany you to your rooms."
On their way to their respective rooms, Hakkai lively conversed with Sebastian, asking tidbits about the different customs of different countries, while the other three observed and unfailingly admired the Western décor with silent awe.
"Hey, Sebastian. Is it me or something feels odd about tonight? I can't put my finger on it, but something's odd," muttered Goku as he stared at the moon through one of the large glass panes in the hallway.
Sebastian's eyebrow rose, and smiled with a thoughtful index to his lips, "Oh? Perhaps it will rain sometime tonight. England is a place that is always riddled with rain. I apologize, Reverend. Ah, Master Goku told me about how much you dislike rain, by the way."
Sanzo huffed, and tutted at a sheepishly grinning Goku. "I don't mind. As long as I'm not soaked in it, it's all good." He swallowed back a yawn, and when they have retired to bed, Sebastian bid them a good night, and left to check on the rest of manor.
"You mad?" Goku pouted as soon as he saw Sanzo plop on the bed and faced his side. "You're mad, aren't you? I can feel it through the lines on your face," he prodded, hovering and peering over Sanzo's face. Poking his cheek once, the brunet bit back a laugh as Sanzo scrunched his face and took hold of Goku's offending finger.
"Not mad, stupid," Sanzo muttered with a yawn as he held the demon's hand to his chest, "just tired. Go to sleep, idiot."
He heard Goku laugh and he tutted when the little monkey pecked his cheek, and he felt Goku's forehead to his back. Sighing, Sanzo entwined his fingers to Goku's, and placed his warm hand on his abdomen as they slept.
The sound of the clock striking the next hour passed by, and as the Phantomhive manor slumbered, noises from the outside nudged Goku awake, and try as he might to ignore it, when he heard a gunshot, he bolted up and Sanzo immediately followed, cursing all the while as he blindly placed the sutra back on his shoulders and readied his gun.
Looking out the window, they saw armed men—humans—aiming straight at windows and walls of the manor.
And taking them all was a lone Sebastian, with a candelabra in hand.
"Gah! Sebastian!" Goku yelled. And he summoned his cudgel and broke the window, and leapt into action, yelling with a wide grin, as he felt like he hadn't fought enemies in ages—"Sanzo, you too! Let's help!"
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he wordlessly aimed at the man hiding in the bushes, aiming for Sebastian's left side, muttering. "Stupid monkey just wants to get some exercise."
The bullet fired, and it barely missed Goku by a hair.
Growling and baring his teeth in ire, Sanzo fired as well, and shot the man in the bushes right between the eyes.
"Goku! Never mind that they're human! They're out to kill!" And Sanzo leapt from the window and into the battle—
"Ah. I apologize for having disturbed your rest, Reverend," Sebastian said through a forced smile and a twitching eyebrow as he flipped a man with a rifle onto his stomach and twisted his arm and covered his screaming mouth. "If there's anything I hate more than dogs, it's having humans destroy aesthetics. And disturbing the young master in his sleep accounts to death—in my book, at least."
Sanzo hummed as he stood with his gun ready to fire, his back pressed against Goku's. "I take it these are your master's enemies?" he asked as he aimed at another man on the trees. When Sebastian smiled in affirmative, the monk grunted and shot at the man hiding in the foliage. "These people are humans, I suppose?"
"Yes," the butler breathed as he threw a bread knife at another man's eye. "My young master is a nobleman from the underworld, you see. He may be 13 years old, but he has a—" He jumped in the air and broke the neck of a sniper from a nearby tree, "—heavy burden on his shoulders."
"Mr. Sebastian, duck!"
Sebastian leaned back as far as he could on instinct, and saw a large jet of white light passing over him, and saw it hit a man with a molotov. He heard Goku cheering as the lively brunet clobbered another man on the skull.
"We heard commotion from upstairs and we decided to join in on the fun," Hakkai said with a wide smile, and he tilted his head to his left as a bullet from behind him wheezed by. "Oh my. Such treatment. Even Sanzo has never aimed his gun at me, let alone shoot it at me," he laughed, and Gojyo, with his crescent scythe already out, backed away from the widely smiling demon with a look of nervousness.
"Yo, Sebastian. You're saying—" Gojyo slashed a gunman's arm, and kicked him in the groin to stop from screaming, "—that these guys are all that kid's enemies? At such a young age?"
"As sad as I am to admit it, but it's true," Sebastian broke one man's neck with a smile. "My young master is no ordinary child."
Whistling, Gojyo whipped around just in time to punch another guy in the face. "A boy who has enemies left and right on a daily basis. Sure does remind me of someone. Right, O Holy Sanzo?" A bullet flew past centimeters from Gojyo's nose, "Hey, you can kill me with that, you shitty monk!"
"Ah? I heard nothing, you stupid lecher. Hakkai, how many are left?" Sanzo fired bullet after bullet at the people who came close to him and Sebastian, ignoring speckles of blood that dotted his sleeves and cheek—
"There are five more, from what I can sense," Sebastian answered for the demon. "Reverend Sanzo," Sebastian laughed as he threw a fork at a man who charged at him with a bayonet, hitting said man in the forehead. "This is the proper target dummies I talked about with you a few days ago."
"Tch. Figures." And Sanzo shot another man in the nose, "Humans are not usually my targets, but—"
Goku laughed at he leaped up a tree and kicked another sniper to the groin and pushed him from the tree branch. "In a situation where it's kill or be killed—"
Gojyo stubbed his cigarette on a man's cheek and slammed his face to the ground, "—we'll value our lives—"
Hakkai hit a man on the nape with the side of his hand, smiling all the while, "—more than anyone else's."
A low laugh bubbled from Sebastian's throat, and regarded his fellow demons and the human with sheer amusement.
"This is such a wonderful night, don't you think so?"
Scarlet eyes scanned the corpses littered all around, and at the people who helped him in his fight, and noted Sanzo's ignorance at the blood splattered all over his priestly robes. "I shall prepare the hot water for your baths immediately after I—" He went over to the candelabra sitting by the wall, its small flames still lit under the moon, "—dispose of the trash. Excuse me, gentlemen. Oh, and also, don't mind the window that Master Goku broke. This night of amusement is payment enough." And he went away, chuckling as he carried the candelabra.
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"'There is a great gap between the worlds of darkness and of light, and we are unable to meet each other as we are at different ends of the universe.' It fits them well, don't you think, young lady?" Taruchie turned around, and noticed Sharak in deep thought as she looked at some of the golden deities lined up against the large walls.
She had been staying in the Temple of the Shadowed Sun for more than two weeks now, her growing worry for the Sanzo party alleviated only by the small amounts of time she conversed with Genjo Sanzo and his attendant through meditation and through Taruchie. She admired Genjo Sanzo's tenacity in getting things done, but even Sharak could sense the Sanzo priest being on edge these past few days. With his mission being stopped by a god, she supposed that he would back off, but no.
'To hell with the gods, I'll haul my ass all the way to Houtou Castle even if I'm in another fucking planet,' were his exact words.
Sharak laughed to herself.
"Yes, you're right," Sharak muttered with a grin. "I was thinking that maybe if they could find out more about the world they're in, they could find a way to return. What do you think? He and his friends may be stubborn young boys, but I doubt that they won't follow my advice."
"'Do not allow evil thoughts to arise;
Thus you will avoid all trouble.
Say not that there is no retribution;
Whether you become a god or a ghost is all determined.'"
Taruchie said all of this with the slightest hint of sadness. "I'm afraid your advice may bring ill to them," she whispered as she twirled the prayer wheel in her hand. "I am only offering them my kind word of warning."
"Ah, of course," Sharak grinned, "but I want to see them through and I'll help them with all that I can. If Genjo managed to deliver a technique he had only read from my library in a few days time, then I think he is pretty much capable of handling anything. His presence can traverse time through his companion—"
"But he is mortal, and the other is not," intervened Taruchie with sad eyes, and a vision of seeing someone that resembled her greatly crossed her mind's eye, and she frowned, and paused in her thoughts. Her brows furrowed, and her lips curled downwards, her eyes glassy and downcast, "I wonder if they are really the light..."
"Hm? Did you say something, Taruchie?"
"No. Nothing at all," the demigod muttered as she twirled the prayer wheel in her hand a bit faster than moments prior. "I hope Fate will be kind to them this time around if they follow my advice, for the sake of the poor Sage."
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A/N: This chapter's supposed to be longer, but it'll take a longer time to be posted. So yeah. XD