"Your Voice, Your Heart" by: Setsuna X
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Summary: Stuck in a town for days Goku finds himself enraptured by a young girl. When the time to leave comes, will he leave with Sanzo, who always treats him badly, or stay with the girl who promised to love him forever?
Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. They still belong to Minekura. Damn, I really want some bishies of my own.
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Once Sanzo reached the inn he knew that something was amiss. He could usually sense when one of his companions were nearby, especially Goku, but at the moment he couldn't feel any of their signature auras. The blonde priest walked toward the inn keeper in slow, measured steps, undeterred because of the current situation. Those idiots would not die. Despite always yelling at them he still felt that they should be able to take care of themselves, well, at least Hakkai could. And if they did, well then, he'd find a way to bring them back then kill them himself, just so someone worthy was the one to off them.
"Where are my...companions?" asked Sanzo, unsure of what word to use to describe the rest of his party.
The innkeeper just looked at him, surprised that the one who had stormed out was now looking for the others. "I believe they went up to one of the rooms, Master Sanzo," replied the innkeeper truthfully.
Sanzo looked at the man, completely unbelieving but it didn't look as if the brown haired man was lying. He nodded his head briefly and walked slowly up to the second floor of the inn where the rooms were situated. He took out his gun just in case and made sure there were six rounds in the chamber. He stepped lightly upon the wooden steps, careful to not be caught off guard. The hallway was quiet, but that was understandable since it was hard to hear anything inside the rooms without putting an ear to the door.
Sanzo decided to return to his room first and was relieved to see that it was empty, though that left him wondering where the rest were. His three youkai companions would usually rest in his room while on trips, either because it was easy to congregate there or because they simply loved annoying him. Regardless, they weren't there and he still couldn't sense them. The monk removed the Maten Sutra from his shoulders, laying it on his bed, allowing it to dry. He then removed his robes, since being out in the rain even for that short amount of time, had practically soaked them. He walked around the room until his steps led him back to the window.
A new cigarette was smoking tightly held between two pink lips, Sanzo's amethyst eyes scanning the bustling crowd below. The things that he heard from the towns people were running through his head as he tried to figure how to convince the other stubborn people of his group. Once his Marlboro cigarette finished and became nothing but ashes did Sanzo move from his place from the window and figured it was about time he found the rest of the members of his group. He glared slightly at his still damp robe, but donned the priestly garb along the the sutra draped over his shoulders once more. He headed out of his room and decided to check the rest of the other rooms before moving onto scourging the town.
"Oh wow, you really got the hang of this!" cheered Goku. "You sure you haven't played before?" he asked, helping Hakkai swirl the tiles on the wooden table.
"No, this is my first time," answered Teitiel humbly, but proud at the praise. Her ears perked up as she heard something outside. "Um, do you think we can go somewhere else at the moment?" she asked the group hesitantly.
"Why?" asked Hakkai first, voicing the question of the other youkai. "Is something the matter?" he continued gently.
"It's just that the people of this town aren't really nice to me and I feel that they're going to hurt me again," she ended in a near whisper.
Gojyo, Hakkai, and Goku's eyes all steeled at that comment. What could this small girl have done to warrant such punishment. No matter what, they vowed, they would protect her from the rest of the villagers.
"I hear some foot steps outside...what if they're after me?" clambered Teitiel, suddenly frightened, though she did narrow her eyes slightly.
"Calm down, everything will be alright," Goku said quite gently, surprising the other members around the table. "Even if they managed to make their way in here all we gotta do is beat them up. Right guys?" Goku declared as he shot a look at Hakkai and Gojyo, asking them to agree.
"Hell yeah we would," declared Gojyo, actually meaning it. It wasn't everyday they ran into such a sweet and innocent girl. Something did seem a bit off about her, but he figured that was just his imagination, even if the feeling kept niggling inside his head.
"Of course we would," replied Hakkai gently, though his eyes opened up and the emeralds steeled slightly. There was no way he would let harm come to someone if he could help it. He might not have been able to save Kanan, but that didn't mean he couldn't save Teitiel. There was only so much guilt a person could take.
Teitiel really wanted to get out of the room. There was no telling what the monk would do when he returned to look for his companions. She was growing rather fond of the group, regardless of the countless warnings other people have given her. They were...comforting, for lack of a better word. Yet, she still had a mission to accomplish and wasn't about to let something as ludicrous as feelings stand in her way. Despite her good nature and obvious trust she placed in these men to protect her, it wasn't really what she was worried about.
When the priest had stormed out of the inn and left her alone with the demon's of the party she couldn't help but feel as if Buddha himself was looking out for her plan. This gave her more time necessary to gather the amount of power to begin the spell work on the three demons. Each of them was a special and tricky case. When she examined them together it seemed simpler, but it seemed that these three were no ordinary demons. Far from it actually. So she decided to look at all of them separately. During breakfast, while Goku and Gojyo were happy to fill in the silence with endless chatter, she had stayed calm and quiet, concentrating on the task at hand.
She spread her powers, they weren't really telepathy, but it was something like it, and soundlessly and painlessly invaded their minds. Usually she would conduct this procedure with as much pain as she could muster and render the other useless with a mind somewhat intact, but this was a different assignment and it required stealth and a lot of patience and time. She extended the tendrils slowly, starting with Goku since he already seemed very fond of her. Teitiel smiled at the thought. No one ever had really liked her for who she was and that made her wish she didn't have this mission. Then again, it wasn't as if Goku knew her really either. His opinion could drastically change once he found out what she was doing to him.
Goku's mind seemed the easiest to invade at that time simply because the boy was so open, trusting, and free that he didn't have any real mental barriers. As she explored his mind several images of memories passed by her. She could probably stay there forever with nothing but memories to look through, but she wanted to avoid that. Getting stuck in someone else's mind was not a pretty thing to think about. She shuddered at the thought and the memory of her sister. Yes, not a pretty thing to think about at all.
As she continued her exploration she came to the memory of what seemed a younger version of Goku and the priest. Goku looked as if he was imprisoned in a cave with nothing to see but a changing landscape and a brilliantly shining sun in the sky. It was a very odd memory and part of her felt unease at looking at such a personal thing, but curiosity got the best of her. She played the memory as if it was a movie clip as she watched everything from the outside instead of from a persons point of view like it was usually done. She noticed the blonde Sanzo priest approaching the naturally made, yet magically enhanced, cage with an annoyed look on his face. She then noticed how his step faltered a bit as he noticed the cage for himself. The younger Goku looked up at the young man's face, surprised to see that someone had actually found him, where ever he was.
Teitiel was about to continue to finish looking at the memory but breakfast had just ended and they were going to go and play some mahjong. Anything to be in this groups company longer. She rubbed her eyes a little wearily, the memory viewing took a lot out of her. Maybe she shouldn't do it again. It felt as her powers were everywhere at once and felt herself spread a little too thin. She subconsciously gripped the jewel hanging around her neck and under her shirt. None of the guys around her had asked about it, then again, they probably hadn't seen it either.
Throughout the games they played the older demons around her continued to converse. She would answer only direct questions and dared not elaborate since her concentration was somewhere else. She continued her exploration of Goku's mind, well aware of the other tendrils making their way into Gojyo's and Hakkai's minds. Those tendrils were only getting comfortable inside their heads and clouding some of their demon sensoring, but weren't active since she decided to explore their minds one at a time. A sudden rush of power reached her and replenished her a bit. It seemed that the demons she had taken control of earlier were now gone. It was only a matter of time actually.
As she continued with her infiltration into Goku's mind she found the part that held his feelings and emotions. She was quickly able to find the one about her since she knew herself best and increased the affection levels in that particular emotion. She hated doing this and she hated having to need to do this too. It just wasn't fair, but then again, nothing in life was. After that she went in search of Goku's power core. Once she found it and tried to gain access to said core something had violently threw her out a bit. She felt her real life body shake a bit, but was unconcerned about that. Something had shoved her, but what was it? A sudden flash of a person who looked like Goku but wasn't passed in front of her, protecting the power core. The Goku like creature had long hair, cat like eyes, and sharp claws and teeth. Who was this?!
She decided that it would be too much of a hassle at the moment and that it would require too much power to make another attempt. Teitiel left another tendril of herself in there. The longer a tendril stayed inside someone's mind the more it actually seemed like part of the mind and would therefore be able to bypass most mental barriers. She hoped this would be the case with Goku's power core.
Next she would focus on the gentler one of the group. Hakkai should be simple as well since he seemed like such a caring individual, despite him feeling a little different than the other demons she invaded before. Teitiel steeled herself against any mental barriers as she slowly reached out to the tendril that had been buried inside the green-eyed man. As she reconnected with the tendril she suddenly felt hurt and attacked.
So much for Hakkai being an easy case! The man had mental barriers so thick that it would take her a very long time of careful dissection to get through them. Now she wished this wasn't a stealth mission. It would be much easier to just rip apart the ebony-haired mans' mind and enter without having to deal with the barriers, but that just didn't seem like an option right now. She gave the tendril a much needed power boost as she doubled herself inside his mind and looked for something, anything, that could help her with this mission. There was no luck though as the mans' barriers held. She reconnected with herself, made sure the tendril had enough power to break through the barriers at the moment and left it in there much for the same reason as the one in Goku.
She looked across the table where her last victim was sitting. Gojyo sat there with a grin on his face as he traded insults and stories with Goku. Teitiel felt herself hesitate. These men had done nothing to her to warrant such deceiving tactics, but again she squelched those thoughts and focused her mind against the red-haired man. She did the same thing as when she entered Hakkai's mind first. She reconnected herself with the previously left tendril and noticed that although Gojyo's mind had mental barriers as well they weren't as tough as Hakkai's. She wanted to sift through some memories first, to get a sense of who this person was. It was standard procedure. As she approached that part of his mind, however, is when she encountered the strong barrier. There was no way she was going to get through this part any time soon either. She let out a mental sigh. This mission was turning out to be harder than she first assumed.
She continued her exploration a little more, sifting through feelings and the little memory clips attached to them. It was better than nothing. She was about to head to the power core, much like in the exploration through Goku, but felt something odd with the tendril she had left. It wasn't connecting properly as it should be. What was wrong though? Teitiel thought about it a little more, analyzing the reason for the instability.
To start with the basics, her power only affected demons. Did this mean that Gojyo wasn't a demon? No, that wasn't right. She felt his demon aura before she had even invaded his mind. But then why was there a resistance to her power. Only humans could not be affected by her. Was that it? Gojyo was clearly a demon, but was he also a human? Was he both? Now there was a thought that made sense. Just great. Now she didn't know which one of these victims would be the hardest to deal with.
To recap: Goku was easy enough to invade, until she reached his power core. An extremely dangerous part of him guarded that very tightly. With Hakkai she hadn't even made any leeway into his mind. The man's barriers were like steel. Gojyo on the other hand had only minimal mental barriers, but what made him difficult was that he wasn't a full demon, therefore rendering her powers a little useless against him.
She let out another mental sigh. Things weren't looking too good. Oh, and now to make things a little more difficult it seemed as if the priest had finally made it back to the inn and was searching for the rest of the group.
Goku's praise cut through her thoughts.
"Oh wow, you really got the hang of this!" cheered Goku. "You sure you haven't played before?" he asked, helping Hakkai swirl the tiles on the wooden table.
"No, this is my first time," answered Teitiel humbly. "Um, do you think we can go somewhere else at the moment?" she asked the group hesitantly.
TBC
A/N: Okay, I know a lot didn't happen in regards to moving the plot, but at least some major background information happened. Despite me wanting to finish this up in 7 chapters it turned out that really isn't going to be the case. Please look forward to any future chapters and thanks for reading, especially you my reviewers:
gerigirl-you're just going to have to keep reading to find out how our 4 heroes fair in this battle. Haha, thanks for reviewing and sorry so much about the chapter taking so long.
Jarm-thanks for your review too. I won't abandon the story, it's just a matter of sitting down and typing up chapters that gets tricky.
StarComets 04-Thanks so so much for your kind review last chapter. I'm really glad that you feel like they're still in some good character and haven't OOCed yet. Haha. Hope this chapter also helped clear up why the guys were acting a little out of it and stuff. I'm definitely going to continue this fic.
Ashler-haha, thanks for the review. Sorry about the late update, but hey, at least there was an update!
Keep reading please!