Memory
Waking up the next morning went something like this:
Light was already streaming across Gojyo's eyes when he opened them. Something that smelled like meat was cooking. He closed his eyes again and pretended to be asleep.
It wasn't until he heard the sound of someone leaving the cave that he opened his eyes and sat up. When he ran his hand over his head, there was no wound. In fact, he felt a full head of hair, cut a great deal shorter than he preferred, but enough to call a shaggy crew cut, complete with irritatingly floppy bangs.
He staggered over to the stream and looked in. His hair was black like the ink of the strange mark on his forehead. Now he remembered where he'd thought he might have seen a mark like that before—the four aspects that Sanzo-sama was always handing down missions from. He'd never met them, but once saw a picture in the temple. He couldn't say for sure if the mark was the same; his water-reflection was pretty crappy.
He rubbed against his forehead, but the skin felt no different. No chance of wiping off goddamn permanent ink anyway. First civilized town he got to, he was getting that thing removed by the local tattoo artist. And then he was dyeing his hair.
It occurred to him that he might ask Sanzo what the mark meant first, but on second thought, why would he care? Once he had the regular monkey back, Gojyo never wanted to think about the Seiten Taisei again.
It had been perhaps 49 hours since Goku had lost his limiter and the Seiten Taisei had awoken. Still no sign of Sanzo. Perhaps the trail of his own blood that Gojyo had left leading to the cave hadn't been clear enough for the priest. Or perhaps Hakkai was still too injured to be left alone (especially if he'd lost his mind, or was stuck in a yokai appearance that would have gotten him killed in a human village.) In a sense, no news was good news, because Gojyo had no doubt that if Hakkai had been dead, Sanzo would have ditched his corpse in a heartbeat.
If Sanzo hadn't gotten Hakkai a doctor by now, then Gojyo was going to kill him. He might kill him anyway, for not putting the monkey's diadem on tighter, for being a magnet for whole armies of crazed yokai, for giving Hakkai the nod to take off his limiters then letting him try to take on the army by himself while they struggled to hold the Seiten Taisei off, and for suggesting that they take a shortcut through this damn wasteland to begin with.
The Seiten Taisei had left food on the table. Gojyo ate it, because he needed his strength. Then he made the best use of his time he could before the Seiten Taisei returned.
The Seiten Taisei didn't keep a very close eye on Gojyo or even worry about leaving him alone for short periods of time, which was probably an upsettingly accurate estimate of his capabilities. Brute force hadn't worked very well even when Gojyo hadn't felt like hell. Not that he was injured anywhere he could see, but he just generally felt like hell. He'd never had superior speed over the monkey either. That really only left subtlety, more Hakkai's specialty, really.
But if Hakkai had failed to teach Gojyo subtlety, the half-yokai had still managed to pick up a few things from his healer roommate, such as what Hakkai gave patients to drink when they were in pain (or occasionally when they were being loud and obnoxious). And among the rubbish Goku had brought back had been someone's herb kit.
As he combined his mixture with some honey tea (the only kind sweet enough that Goku had used to like it) he reflected that he was lucky Hakkai was not there to see. If he'd had any idea how much Gojyo had learned about herbs from him, then Gojyo might have been roped in for considerably more work. Sometimes incompetence was bliss.
When the Seiten Taisei returned dragging the day's kill, Gojyo said curtly, "I turned the leftover rabbit into a sandwich and made tea—oh, I see you found it. You know, I might have wanted half of that pitcher before you guzzled it."
He spent the next half an hour watching the Seiten Taisei for signs of drowsiness, but the yokai seemed to be a mass of energy, practically bouncing off the walls. All Gojyo learned from his close observation was that he had retained his ability to create fires and was also developing some interesting chi-like talents with water and air. This confirmed the notion that he had better not try a frontal assault again—and raised an uncomfortable suspicion that the Seiten Taisei was getting more powerful the longer unrestrained.
The kit didn't have ingredients for anything stronger, and Gojyo was tempted to blame lack of effect of his first potion on the poor quality of his materials. That was more comforting than the alternative.
His next attempt was a bottle of rat poison that he'd found lying in a corner of the cart. He'd felt a little guilty about that, but comforted himself by remembering that he'd been once drank rat poison mixed with vodka on a dare and been horribly sick for days, but if it hadn't killed him it wasn't going to cause any permanent damage to a cast-iron stomach like Goku. Finding a way to dilute it had been a challenge, but luckily the monkey could usually be counted on to scarf down an entire plate of meat buns himself if he didn't have any competition.
But as soon as the Seiten Taisei picked up one of the meat buns, he sniffed it, then set it down again. Then he took the entire plate outside and dumped it in the sand. So much for that plan. Goku had never been that picky about food, Gojyo thought sourly, unlike a certain snobby Great Sage Equaling Heaven.
The aforementioned Great Sage returned to the cave only to stick his face into Gojyo's and sniff him. Gojyo wondered if he was being suspected of the poisoning and tried to remember if he'd spilled anything on his hands. But the Seiten Taisei seemed satisfied with sniffing his mouth, and then immediately went off to sniff the rest of the food.
The next thought that occurred to Gojyo was that maybe the Seiten Taisei was testing to see whether he had gone bad, seeing how he was an emergency food supply. This was followed by a more intelligent observation that the Seiten Taisei might have been testing to see if he'd eaten anything bad. Of course, the two weren't mutually exclusive. Gojyo was planning on keeping one eye on the Seiten Taisei whenever he was around just in case.
As soon as he was done with the food rounds, the yokai walked out of the cave without so much as a warning look in Gojyo's direction. Perhaps inspired by the food apparently going bad, the Seiten Taisei had decided to set out on another hunting trip. And curiously, this time he'd grabbed the cart.
It dawned on Gojyo that if the ape really was worried about lack of meat buns, then he just might go hunting for more in the nearest human residency, and a heavy feeling settled in his stomach.
Gojyo had no choice but to try and stop him. This was his fault to begin with, and what he'd seen of the Seiten Taisei in the past made it hard to believe that he could be near people without someone getting killed. He wasn't sure what he could do to stop the Great Sage from doing whatever he pleased, aside from being a distraction, but if the monkey wanted something to chew on then he'd go down hard.
He didn't need to do more than step outside before the Seiten Taisei turned around, fixing him with a glare that was at least the equivalent of a nine on the Sanzo scale (also known as a seven on the Hakkai scale).
As if he expected a glare to be all it took to put down any rebellion, the Seiten Taisei turned around again. Well, showed what the Great Sage knew about Gojyo. He stooped down to scoop up a rock, and tossed it.
The rock did not hit its target, mainly because the aforementioned yokai was suddenly in a different location, an inch away from Gojyo's face. "That got your attention? I'm ready to play when you are," Gojyo snapped at him.
For a tense moment, he was wondering whether to block with the right arm or the left, because the right was his dominant but the left one had already been broken recently. Then the Seiten Taisei's shoulders slumped with defeat. Before Gojyo had time to react, the yokai grabbed him with one arm and the cart with the other, then hauled both back into the cave.
At least the Seiten Taisei didn't protest when Gojyo scrambled back his feet and away from him. He just tracked his movements wherever he went with those intense gold eyes. Well, now he had the slim comfort of knowing that when the Great Sage was watching him he wasn't off slaughtering anyone. This put a crimp in Gojyo's own escape, but so be it.
Gojyo wasn't sure when he'd drifted off. He blamed a rough night, but it was hard to believe he'd managed to sleep, much less sleep without conscious effort, with the Seiten Taisei still giving him that creepy-ass stare.
But the Seiten Taisei wasn't watching him at the moment—he was alone in the cave. He started to stand up, then realized that one of his arms was tied to the broken faucet of the bathtub he was leaning against.
So, Goku—the Seiten Taisei—had responded to his defiance earlier. Too bad the monkey had yet to figure out that if he only tied one arm, it was pretty easy to undo the knot with his other hand. (Rather belatedly it occurred to Gojyo that perhaps he should play dumb on this one and stay tied up, but his arm was cramping.)
Also, he wasn't planning on staying the cave—it might not be the smart thing to do, but he still needed to find out where the Seiten Taisei had run off to. The cart was gone and Gojyo had already decided he didn't plan to turn a blind eye to whatever the Seiten Taisei was doing, not if it might involve non-Minus waved people.
But no sooner had he grabbed a bottle of water for the trip then a scraping noise alerted him that the Seiten Taisei had returned.
The grand reaction to his rope trick was…nothing. The Great Sage didn't even seem to have noticed. He chose to ignore Gojyo in favor of unpacking his haul.
And what a haul it was. There was no point in deluding himself that the Seiten Taisei hadn't poked his yokai head into a town, because this was clearly people-stuff. Difficult to say what it all was, because this time every item was wrapped in a box. The sole exception was an enormous oak desk with a matching velvet chair, but unlike the shattered furniture of last time, this had been wrapped with cloth to avoid damage, with boxes neatly stacked around and under it. There were few metal tins that were probably food again, but mostly boxes wrapped in cloth or colored paper, all neatly stacked and tied into the cart with a long length of rope. The first box the Seiten Taisei ripped open sent flying a load of the cushy wrapping they used to pack expensive stuff.
Gojyo wondered if the Seiten Taisei had learned from experience, but—he didn't think even the original Goku had ever been capable of such fancy packaging, complete with bows and ribbons. Someone else had put this together, with great care and even apparent enthusiasm.
They looked like offerings before a god.
Gojyo had declined to help unpack the illicit haul this time, feeling too glum about being unable to prevent whatever had happened. And he was out of ideas for escape, too. One more lousy day like this and he might seriously start counting on Sanzo and Hakkai to find them, which was mortifying on principle. His fingers itched for his shakujou. Too bad he didn't see anything that looked like a sickle emerging from the pile. There was a kitchen knife and a few objects could be used as a makeshift club, such as some elaborate metal statues that Gojyo suspected the Seiten Taisei hadn't particularly wanted, judging by the way he had tossed them over his shoulder. He seemed to be looking for something.
That suspicion was confirmed when the Great Sage let out a small sound of triumph. What was it, a jumbo meat bun?
The Seiten Taisei practically gamboled over, hands behind his back like a child with a surprise. Gojyo treated this with all the respect that a surprise from the Seiten Taisei deserved, meaning that he brought a wooden plate in front of himself to use as a shield.
Standing in front of him and grinning broadly (almost Goku-esque) the Seiten Taisei pulled his hands out from behind his back and held out a pack of Marlboros. With a lighter.
"That's not my brand, you know," Gojyo said. The Great Sage's spirits did not seem to be dampened.
Nicotine was nicotine at this point. Gojyo accepted the pack, and the stare of a wide-eyed demigod didn't derail him from lighting one up.
"If you think this means we're friends again, you are sorely mistaken." He took a deep long drag. No, after last time he wasn't about to forget who he was dealing with so easily, but it did feel good to take a smoke.
The Seiten Taisei had abandoned him to go play with a stream, so Gojyo went looking for the box the precious treasure had come from. It was the one lying on top, and it was filled with packs of cigarettes of different brands. Including one of his own Hi-Lites. "Not bad for a stupid monkey."
He almost jumped a food in the air when the aforementioned monkey tapped him on the shoulder. He wasn't going to get used to those claws any time soon. One of them was currently pointing in the direction of the broken-off bathtub, which was filled with steaming-hot water
"How did you even do that?" Curiosity drove him closer. As Gojyo peered over, he could see that the water even looked clean, not as if it had come out of that scummy stream. "I hope you didn't just use all our drinking water." He looked around, but couldn't see any kind of pot for carrying water or heating it over a fire. Perhaps he should have paid a little more attention to what the monkey was doing, less to the smokes.
He felt a shove on his back. "Alright, I can take a hint. Apparently I smell bad. Now let me make sure this water isn't going to boil me—not bad, but it's still a little on the hot side, let's give it a few minutes." And buy time for Gojyo to decide how he felt about this. Admittedly, he did feel very grimy (almost like he'd been sleeping in a pile of mud or something) but he was sure Hakkai had a pithy saying about accepting gifts from people who had in the past tried to kill you.
He heard a faint growl behind him, and suddenly the back of his shirt was ripped clean off. Well, that took care of any illusions he might have had that this was a choice. "You don't smell that great yourself, monkey." Admittedly, the Seiten Taisei looked cleaner than he did. Surprise, the yokai must have been eating less dirt to face over the last couple days.
He stripped his pants off rapidly, because he hadn't seen another pair of jeans yet so he was loathe to lose these. Then he made the plunge.
The water was very hot, if not quite bad enough to make him suspect the Seiten Taisei had decided to cook him. He risked a glance to see what the voyeur was doing now, but he wasn't even looking. Instead the Seiten Taisei had turned his attention to Gojyo's pile of blankets serving as a bed.
He picked one up and shook it. The dirt fell off in a way that would have made a professional laundress turn bug-eyed with envy, or maybe fear for her job.
"If you could do that, why not try it sooner?" Gojyo called. He was ignored. But he'd been sleeping in mud for two nights now! Stupid monkey.
Unless this was another new ability only developing now…and so was the water. Well, it wasn't like housekeeping-chi made the Seiten Taisei any more terrifying, Gojyo told himself. He tried not to think about the other uses that an ability to make liquid hot could be put to (such as boiling your blood…oh, too late, he'd thought about it.)
However, the laundry trick got boring once you'd seen it a few times. Gojyo turned his attention to trying to separate a layer of dirt off his skin. This was harder than it looked—turned out that soap existed for a reason after all, and he didn't have any.
Trying to wash out his hair was a grim reminder that it wasn't his hair anymore. It didn't even feel like it had the same texture—this was thicker and less silky.
Meanwhile, the Seiten Taisei was laying out futons. The real five-star experience. Again, Gojyo wondered where all this had come from, and whether he should be reassured at the lack of signs of violence or wonder if this was all that remained of some poor village. But someone had to pack this junk, right? Maybe someone who had sufficient intelligence not to fight the Seiten Taisei? Someone with an odd affection for creepy religious statues too. Maybe Goku made some friends in derangement.
The water had chilled and he was wondering if he had the nerve to ask psycho-Goku to try the laundry trick with his clothes. That was when he realized that the clothes were gone. In their place, at the foot of the tub, was a pair of black leather pants, black boots, and a long black leather coat with thick white shoulder pads and a belt that looked military, and an ugly-ass winged skull for a fastener.
Unfortunately, there was nothing else to wear, his old clothes having vanished when he wasn't looking. Okay, there was a towel, but it had a fluffy bunny on the front so that wasn't really an option.
For a moment, Gojyo was furious. The Seiten Taisei had the nerve to play dress-up doll with him? He wouldn't wear this junk. He was seriously considering going out starkers, and let the Seiten Taisei make of that what he would, when he noticed that the boots were actually pretty snazzy. And those pants were made of genuine calf leather, which he'd never been able to afford. At least monkey version 2.0 (crazy) had good taste.
Dignity, or black leather coat? It was a tough one. But the thing left his chest open. And it had a skull fastener. He just couldn't resist.
There was also a golden revolver lying on underneath the clothes. If this was the Seiten Taisei's invitation to fight to the death, Gojyo would rather pass on that, especially now that he was wearing what were probably the most valuable clothes he'd ever had in his entire life. But the revolver wasn't even loaded. Either monkey brain had failed to grasp the fundamental concept of firearms or this was just another weird accessory.
For a second, he would have sworn the weapon looked familiar. Then he spotted that it had someone's initials crossed out on the handle. No, this wasn't the gun that he was thinking of. Whatever gun he'd been thinking of. The memory was already slipping away.
At least half of Goku's cart seemed to have been stuffed full of books. At least this time he didn't bring back any more copies of the farmer's almanac. A quarter of the haul was just junk: much of it made of gold and jewels, but in a desert where food, water, and shopping were lacking, that just made it pretty junk. Goku didn't seem to care about Gojyo piling assorted statues, vases, and jewelry in the back of the cave, or about him breaking off a few small jewels to pocket just in case. But he did object to Gojyo tossing the frog ashtray. The monkey must have an eclectic sense of taste, because that thing kept turning up on their table or next to Gojyo's futon, like a bad penny.
The only other thing the Seiten Taisei made any objection to him using was the oak desk—he spat out incomprehensible syllables the first time Gojyo tried to sit in its chair. Not that the monkey showed any interest in sitting there himself. Instead, he decorated the desk with papers ripped out of a book and stacked neatly next to an enormous stamp. Since there were already two chairs, Gojyo saw no need to disrupt this bizarre Feng-shui, incomprehensible though it might be.
In addition, the Seiten Taisei was moving the books into precarious piles all around the cave, tall stacks that looked like they might topple over under the weight of a decent breeze. When Gojyo attempted to turn the piles into something flatter, the monkey glared at him. It was more a Goku-glare than a Seiten Taisei-glare, so Gojyo felt free to ignore it.
His eye was caught by one book. It looked like a hand-engraved copy of Yuding Animals. He flipped open the cover. It was even signed by Wu Cheng'en.
Hakkai would love to get his hands on this book. Gojyo sighed as he closed the cover.
He almost placed the book back down, but then tucked it under his arm. Maybe it would be foolish to let something like that weight him down when he tried to escape again, but—he could set it aside somewhere he could find it again. He dearly wished that he knew where Hakkai was, or at least whether baldy-Sanzo had managed to get him proper medical attention.
He turned around to find the Seiten Taisei staring at him. The blank-eyed gaze had signaled bad things in the past, and he took a step back.
But the other did not come any closer. He said, in a voice rough with disuse, "Tenpou is still alive. Even at this distance, I can smell him." He added, almost as an afterthought, "Most of the blood on him is not his anymore."
"Tenpou? Who the hell is that?"
He had no idea why Goku suddenly looked like he might cry.
Gojyo's latest escape plan involved trapping the Seiten Taisei in a pit. With spikes in it. Okay, it wasn't much of a plan, but resources were limited. Gojyo had already realized that he simply wasn't going to be able to sneak past the Seiten Taisei. He didn't know if the monkey really could "smell" him or whatever, but even dead asleep he seemed to know where Gojyo was, which became increasingly creepy the more one thought about it. His attempts at fighting the Seiten Taisei generally fell into three categories: "brief," "laughable," and "oh dear god the pain." Also, Gojyo was fairly certain the Seiten Taisei was getting stronger the longer he was loose. The last time their three-legged table had started to totter, the cracks had repaired as soon as Goku looked at it. The monkey had definitely not been able to do anything like that before.
Theoretically, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven was defined as a being with power the equivalent of every single god in heaven combined. It was hard to believe something like that had gotten its ass kicked by Hakkai in yokai form, however scary Hakkai could be. Now, Gojyo was starting to suspect that what he'd seen in the past hadn't been the Seiten Taisei's full power.
With running and fighting out, that only left dirty tricks. The monkey was dumb enough not to notice Gojyo creating a makeshift shovel from a broken dish and a miscellaneous tent pole, or to notice the pile of dirt that grew every time he returned from an excursion out of the cave—so perhaps he'd be dumb enough to fall into a stick-covered pit. Okay, it was a stretch, but then yesterday he'd seen the Seiten Taisei get his hand stuck in a pickle jar.
It had been pretty hilarious, watching the Great Sage Equaling Heaven yank at the jar trying to figure out why his fist wouldn't come out now that it had pickles in it. Why he didn't just break the jar, Gojyo had no idea. Instead he'd tried different angles, holding the jar above his head, holding it straight down and shaking, and even trying to use water to slide his hand out. Eventually Gojyo had taken pity on him and demonstrated with a different jar that a hand in fist was larger than a hand relaxed, and how to use a spoon. The Seiten Taisei had rewarded him with a pickle.
Incidents like these made Gojyo think that the spikes were a little too harsh. Perhaps he could manage to hold the Seiten Taisei in place with something sticky.
On the other hand, he was still leaving some noise-generating cans strung up around his futon when he went to bed, because psycho-Goku remained unpredictable. And he was still sleeping lightly and uneasily.
That was why when his eyes opened and it was still dark, Gojyo's first instinct was to throw a hand over his head for protection, fearing an attack. But it wasn't the sound of anyone approaching that had awoken him. Instead, he heard a faint choking sound.
It took a few more minutes for his brain to wake up enough to realize that he was listening to someone sobbing.
Gojyo slowly got to his feet, cursing briefly when he stepped on one of his own cans. He was certain there was only one other person in the cave, and it was hard to believe that his ears were correct.
But as he approached where the Seiten Taisei was lying, there could be no doubt as to the source of the cries. And as his eyes adjusted, he could make out the monkey with his face shoved into a pillow and shoulders rocking.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked uncertainly. There was no acknowledgment, not even a subtle body shift. Could the Seiten Taisei still be asleep?
His body was thrashing rhythmically, as if he was in pain, and between sobs, he screamed into the pillow. Gojyo had overheard Hakkai's nightmares before, but to his knowledge Goku had always slept untroubled—though he didn't like sleeping in a room alone. Tentatively, Gojyo reached out a hand.
Then it occurred to him that touching the Seiten Taisei, especially when he was already snarling, might not be the most un-suicidal thing he'd ever done. He went looking for a long and pointy stick.
Having found a piece of rejected firewood that fit the bill, he came back and gave the Seiten Taisei a poke. "Are you awake?" he asked, feeling foolish.
The touch on his back caused Goku to roll over. Gojyo could see that his eyes were squeezed shut, but leaking tears. The Seiten Taisei let out a long moan, like someone watching himself (or someone he loved) be torn to pieces. His head was shaking so frantically it looked like his neck might twist out of shape.
Gojyo hesitantly extended the stick again. The Seiten Taisei began to claw at his own hair. When Gojyo had first picked up Hakkai, back before he'd even called himself Hakkai, he'd once clawed himself bleeding while in the thrall of a nightmare.
The kid screamed. It was the sound of a mountain falling.
With the Seiten Taisei in this state, he should probably get on the other side of the cave and stay very still so he didn't look like a target. It briefly crossed his mind that he might try to leave while the Seiten Taisei looked distracted, although he wasn't sure that would end well. A Seiten Taisei who was capable of hurting himself might kill Gojyo. Unquestionably, the smartest thing to do would be to back away slowly and not make any sudden movements.
But he was Sha Gojyo, idiot extraordinaire. He had never done the smart thing before in his entire life, so why start now?
Gojyo kneeled down, and grabbed Goku's hands to pull them away from his face (he still had claws, he might seriously injure himself if he scratched an eye). The yokai didn't try to bat him away; he only whimpered. "It's okay, Goku. It's just a nightmare," Gojyo said, shaking him gently in an effort to wake him up.
The Seiten Taisei froze. His eyes snapped open, bright and gold in the darkness. Then he launched himself at Gojyo.
Gojyo found himself knocked flat on his back, his heart pounding like a waterfall. It took a few seconds to realize that the Seiten Taisei was hugging him tightly. Two arms had a death grip on his back and a face was buried in his chest. Despite the strength of his grip, Goku was trembling. Gojyo shifted his body up and wiggled his arms free so that he could return the embrace.
"Ken-niichan," Goku sobbed into his shirt.
Gojyo patted him on the back, wondering if any second now the yokai was going to rip off his hand and stuff it down his throat. Ah, well, he'd thrown his body into the fire for people who deserved it far less than Goku did.
He wished Hakkai was here. He was way better at this stuff then Gojyo. Sanzo, on the other hand, would probably hit the monkey with his fan for disturbing his sleep. Of course Sanzo could surprise you occasionally. Maybe he'd actually have something wise to say that would be better than anything Gojyo could ever think of.
After a bit more hugging and a clumsy attempt by Gojyo to be soothing when he didn't even know if the other person understood what he was saying, Goku finally stopped trembling and relaxed his grip. He'd gone back to sleep.
The half-yokai attempted to extract himself, but realized that while Goku might have relaxed his grip, it was only from "bruising" to "inescapable." No way he could wiggle free without waking the kid up.
Sleeping on the monkey's futon was, obviously, undignified. So he really had little choice but to carry Goku back over to his bed. The cans, meant to warn of the Seiten Taisei's approach, scattered when he gave them a good kick, but Goku didn't even stir.
The next morning, Gojyo woke up with the monkey cuddling his arm, and resisted the urge to feel guilty about trying to drug him, knock him into a pit full of spikes, etc. Guilt was only assuaged by reminding himself that this was actually for Goku's own good; if Gojyo was trying to run away it was only with the long-term intent of coming back with Hakkai and Sanzo and returning him to sanity. Couldn't let the monkey go his whole life thinking that inch-long fingernails were an acceptable fashion statement—he'd never become popular with the ladies.
"Kenren," Goku muttered in his sleep as nudged his head closer. Gojyo decided he could lie still a little longer.
There were really only two changes noticeable after that night. The first was that the Seiten Taisei decided to drag his futon over and sleep next to him. This should have upset Gojyo given how hard he'd tried to stay on the other end of the cave from the demonic child of the earth, but then if he'd survived last night he figured his odds of being murdered in his sleep later were low.
The other change was that when Gojyo accidentally said, "Goku, quit hogging the butter," at breakfast, the Seiten Taisei turned his head towards him. As if he'd recognized that the name "Goku" meant him.
Gojyo had some decidedly mixed feelings about the Seiten Taisei responding to Goku's name. If this was a sign of returning sanity, that was good. But it might just be because he'd called the Seiten Taisei that last night. In all his transformations, Gojyo didn't remember the Seiten Taisei ever responding to the name Goku before. But then, he also couldn't remember the last time he'd tried to address him as anything other than "hey you."
Gojyo tried the names "Sanzo" and "Hakkai" but got no reaction. An attempt to clarify his own name (pointing at himself and intoning, "Gojyo") got him a disgusted look. The first time, Goku had also talked back at him, but full of meaningless syllables such as the often-repeated "Ten-po" and "Ko-zen" which confirmed that he was still struggling with comprehensible speech.
Also, he did not give back the butter, so it was still a toss-up as to how much he understood.
Getting cuddly with the Seiten Taisei (literally, merciful goddess help him) didn't change the fact that Gojyo couldn't stick around here. It had been long enough that he could only conclude something had delayed Sanzo and Hakkai, likely more of the inevitable trouble they seemed to draw wherever they went. It was enough to make Gojyo a little worried (more worried about Hakkai than droopy-eyes, obviously) but those two could definitely take care of themselves. They were probably at the top of the list of people in existence who could take care of themselves (as long as the judging was based on taking care of stuff trying to kill you and not, say, taking care of your mental condition).
In other words, it wasn't that Gojyo didn't think Hakkai and Sanzo would turn up eventually, it was more that he wasn't sure they would do it in time. The Seiten Taisei version of Goku was increasing in power and intelligence. True, if they only had Sanzo they would have much better odds—they wouldn't have to beat the Seiten Taisei, just get the damn monk close enough to touch him and call back his diadem. And even if the Seiten Taisei did become a bit much to take on head-on, Gojyo was confident that Hakkai would have some better ideas than he did on how to be sneaky. Thus he needed Hakkai for his planning ability and Sanzo for his Sanzoness—and while he could have just waited for them, he was getting a little sick of the monkey's meat-obsessed diet. One more dead horse-thing and he might go stir crazy.
The pit idea actually worked far better than Gojyo had hoped. The Seiten Taisei's godly abilities did not extend to spotting when the ground was actually a hole covered with sticks. Unfortunately, he found the pit before Gojyo was done.
A resounding crack was Gojyo's only clue, before he spotted the Seiten Taisei standing in a waist-high hole looking vaguely bemused.
"That's been known to happen. Very unstable ground, caves," Gojyo said.
The Seiten Taisei just stared.
"Need a hand out?" Gojyo asked, since it was already obvious his trap had epically failed. "Just say nicely, 'Please Gojyo.' Repeat after me: Goooo-jooooo. Two syllables, you can pronounce them."
The Seiten Taisei snarled at him. Then he planted both hands on the level ground and hopped out with disgusting ease. He stalked over and snapped his teeth in Gojyo's face for good measure. But the half-yokai doubted it was the hole in the ground that had him upset. For some reason, despite continuing to respond to "Goku" he seemed to have taken a dislike to Gojyo's name and any attempt to make him learn it.
The monkey then spent the next half hour examining the pit, then examining the rest of the cave, then placing the sticks back over the pit, and after a few attempts, figuring out how to lay them on top so they covered the hole. By the end Gojyo was confident that he'd been sussed out—another pit trap would not work.
Funny how Goku was smart enough learn from the trap, but didn't seem to be smart enough to figure out that Gojyo was responsible. Who else was in this cave? Or did he even realize that it was a trap, that camouflaged pits weren't a phenomenon of nature?
Or perhaps it had done him so little harm he just viewed it as a harmless prank. If so, Gojyo dearly hoped that he hadn't started a prank war.
What happened next could have very well been the Seiten Taisei's idea of a prank, although Gojyo doubted it, because it fit in too well with all the other creepiness that had been inflicted on him of late.
Goku hadn't just dragged back another rabbit from his daily excursions. He'd also brought back some funny looking plants and a long flat rock. After handing the rabbit over to Gojyo (what was he, gofer?—the only reason he was skinning the damn thing was because last time Goku did it he almost choked to death on a leftover furball) the Seiten Taisei began piling plants onto the stone and, at one point, setting them on fire. Well, if the monkey thought he could cook, it wasn't Gojyo's place to dissuade him. He just had better not expect the half-yokai to eat the stuff.
The smell was very odd, like sakura and a hint of jade, and Gojyo could swear it was familiar even if he couldn't say from where. He decided to just leave Goku to his being crazy and go back to subtly perusing a hunter's guidebook looking for any better clues on traps to hold very large, strong animals.
This proved to be a bit of a mistake.
The first clue he got that Goku had gone a little psycho again was when the Seiten Taisei walked up behind him and snatched his book out of his hands, only to lay it down gently on one of the ever-tenuous piles of paper. He was slightly less gentle in tipping Gojyo out of his chair.
"You see, that picture showing the monkey dangling from a rope tied to a tree, that wasn't supposed to be you at all, however strong the physical resemblance might be," Gojyo attempted to explain. Crazy-Goku was too busy setting the chair back with the table to pay any attention. "And since when did you develop Hakkai's obsession with placing furniture? I was going to put the chair back when I was done."
The dumb monkey returned with a bowl in his hands of whatever gunk he'd been creating. "Oh, no, I am not taste-testing that. Not even if you hadn't just shoved me out of a chair. And definitely not now that you've just stuck your fingers in it-"
He was caught completely off guard when Goku flicked the stuff straight into his eyes.
Then he was screaming.
The pain when the liquid splashed into his eyes was like having a miniature sun thrust into his eye socket. He'd frantically tried to dig it out with his fingers, but his hands had been batted away. And then there was the sensation of pressure against his right eye, and then his left, and his entire vision turned bright red. He was aware of wet all over his face and that his back was against a solid surface, but mostly everything faded against the feeling of a drill through his eyes.
The pain didn't stop when everything went black. He just went from feeling like he was on fire to feeling frozen into a block of ice.
Something slammed into the back of his head. If this had been done by someone then it was probably a mercy.
He opened his eyes. He was a little surprised to see his hands resting on top of a blanket. Not so much surprised that he was back at his futon, but that he could see. There was no pain in his eyes.
For a crazy moment, he wondered if any of that had actually happened. He glanced around for—for that person. Who was sitting by the fire turning a four-legged creature on its spit. There did not seem to any other strange concoctions cooking.
Though Gojyo didn't think he'd made a sound, the other's head still turned towards him. Those golden eyes locked on him and did a one-over across his face. Gojyo glared at him with all the venom he could muster.
To his surprise, the other smiled broadly, looking for all the world like a child who had completed all his chores early.
The urge to wipe that smile off was overwhelming. It was, in fact, irresistible. Gojyo pulled himself to his feet (no weakness in his body), strode over, and punched the Seiten Taisei straight in his smug face.
He tumbled over without resistance, eyes wide with surprise. The smile was gone—in fact, he looked like he might be tearing up.
That look would have made Gojyo feel guilty earlier that morning, but had no effect now. He couldn't even decide if he was relieved or angered that the Seiten Taisei wasn't showing any desire to hit back. Relief would have been logical. Anger was possible because right now he needed to fight something.
He whacked the yokai on the head again for good measure, but this time couldn't muster up his full strength to hit someone who wasn't even defending. There was blood pouring from the Seiten Taisei's nose, but he couldn't tell if it was broken because it was already healing.
This wasn't making him feel the slightest bit better. But as soon as he lowered his fists, the Seiten Taisei went back to tending to the fire. As if everything was normal. Even regular Goku would have hit him back by now. But then, he'd known women on PMS who were less volatile than psycho-Goku.
It finally occurred to him to touch a hand to his face, but he could feel no trace of an injury, even when he gingerly poked at his eyelids. He hesitated to turn his back on the monster, but he had to know. Making a wide circle around the Seiten Taisei, he walked back to the cart to where he had found a partly-cracked hand mirror earlier that morning.
His eyes were as black as coal.
Gojyo suppressed a shudder. It wasn't as though he missed that cursed red, really. But the face staring back at him now seemed to belong to a stranger. Black hair, sticking up around his head, with spiky bangs. A black mark on his forehead, like a divine symbol. Black eyes staring back at him. The oddest thing was his sense of déjà vu. He felt as if he was looking at someone he'd met long ago, but who had since become a stranger.
He had an irrational urge to shake Goku and demand, "I thought you said you liked red? That my hair reminded you of fire?" But this Goku was a stranger too. A stranger with hungry golden eyes.
Gojyo allowed himself a few hours to sulk and avoid the Seiten Taisei, who returned the sentiment. But that was all he could afford, because he didn't intend to give up.
He forced himself to sit down at the table for dinner, because it was smarter to act normal. He even resolved to call Goku "Goku" because that was what he previously did. His acting abilities were not put to any real test. Goku was extremely subdued, even going as far as to eat a little less than half the food at dinner.
He went to bed early. Not to sleep, just to lie there waiting for his companion to decide to sleep as well. It was hard to lie still but not hard to avoid drifting off while waiting for the Seiten Taisei's breathing to slow, because he was far too tense to let himself slip into unconsciousness.
When he was confident the other was asleep, he rolled over and wrapped the rope around his throat.
Gojyo kept his ears tightly peeled as the choking started. He had to be careful, because he knew that the Seiten Taisei could heal near-fatal injuries but only Hazel's creepy pendant had ever been able to heal death. He couldn't risk crushing Goku's throat. He couldn't risk going too easy either. He had to let go exactly when the breathing stopped.
Except Goku's chest stopped moving at the same time a pair of gold eyes snapped open, and for a second they stared at each other, frozen. Then, without taking a breath, two arms shot up and in an instant their positions were reversed, with Gojyo on his back and psycho-Goku leaning over him, one hand tearing the rope off his throat.
Gojyo tried to knee him in the stomach, because it wasn't his nature to give up just because he knew he was outmatched. But Goku merely wrapped his arms around him, the same as he had when he'd been suffering from a nightmare, and was impossible to budge that grip. Kicking him was like kicking a rock. He patted Gojyo's back as if in a twisted parody of that night, and mumbled something in a language Gojyo didn't understand.
Finally realizing that there was no fight left, Gojyo simply tried to push Goku off him. This time, the Seiten Taisei let go, although his eyes remained fixed on Gojyo's face. When he attempted to stand up, he was yanked back down again.
"Don't you at least think we'd be better off sleeping separately?" Gojyo asked. "Not worried about losing your beauty sleep to the occasional murder attempt?" But there was a choked note in his voice that bothered him. He hadn't cried since the last time he looked at his mother's illusionary dead body, and he wasn't about to start with the Seiten Taisei of all things watching him. So he spent the entire night holding himself together out of sheer willpower.
The next day, he refused to eat.
It was not a surrender, it was a deliberately passive-aggressive tactic. Not the type Gojyo favored, but he had exhausted a long list of other options. He would be satisfied with anything that forced the Seiten Taisei to act, to do something to break this endless stalemate.
The first time he ignored a meal, the Seiten Taisei did not seem to care. The second time he brought food over, and stood around awkwardly while Gojyo refused to take it. That evening, he came back with a plate of restaurant-style barbequed meat, along with a bottle of fancy wine. Gojyo assumed this was intended as a temptation, an elaborate one if the Seiten Taisei had gone all the way out of the desert to find a meal. When this was ignored as well, the monkey snagged a few bites for himself, but somehow refrained from scarfing down the whole plate.
Before night had fallen, the Seiten Taisei had cracked enough to try and shove food into his mouth. He had no particular skill at it. Gojyo felt more strain from the mouthwatering-smell than from the hand trying to pry his jaw open. (There wasn't much strength behind it—what, like he cared about hurting Gojyo now?)
When the Seiten Taisei left with the tray, Gojyo resumed pretending to read. Shortly the Seiten Taisei stormed back and grabbed him by his shoulders. Again, Gojyo felt a strange tingling through him, a little like receiving a zap from touching wool during winter. When the hands let go, he realized he was no longer hungry.
The voice which emerged was Goku's, but spoke with a strange accent. "Don't think I'm not capable of keeping you alive whether you eat or not."
"Oh, now you know what speech is," Gojyo grumbled. "Then are you feeling willing to tell me what it is that you want?"
"I want to find Konzen and Tenpou."
Gojyo threw up his hands. "Well, this is me not stopping you! Do you want me to direct you to the exit?"
"I want you to go back to normal again."
Gojyo thought about this. "You may need to provide a pack of cards and a gambling house for me to do that. I would not say no to some hot babes either."
"I want to become stronger. Strong enough to get that thing off my head."
And suddenly, they were treading on thin ice. Gojyo said cautiously, "You mean the diadem? You remember that?"
"It restrains me. That and the chains kept me from my full power. At first, it was too much for me to handle. I had no sense of self. But gradually I can direct the destruction to thrust a blade into reality where I chose. With my full power, they can't stop me from remembering."
That was an unnerving statement. Gojyo always thought of the Seiten Taisei as having no memories because he lost his time being Goku. It had never occurred to him that there might be a different set of memories that his Goku was missing. But the monkey never had been able to explain what he was doing in the cave where Sanzo had found him, had he?
Wondering aloud, he asked, "What do you remember?"
The golden eyes closed. "Five hundred years."
"That sounds…difficult," Gojyo said.
"It will not happen again. This time I will not fight them until I am strong enough."
"Strong enough to do what?"
"Kill the gods. All of them."
Gojyo resisted an urge to face-palm. "You know, when droopy-eyes spouts off his bit about 'If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha,' I don't think he meant to be taken quite so literally. I mean, sure any god which annoys Sanzo is likely to get a face-full of lead, but it's not as though he has a grudge against gods in particular. He just likes to shoot things. And yet he's still not as bad as you right now."
"Konzen."
"What?"
"His name is Konzen. And they killed him."
"Who?'
"They killed you too."
Gojyo shook his head. "You're lucky you're cute, monkey, because you sure won't be getting the ladies with your brains."
The Seiten Taisei scowled at him in a way that screamed "Goku." This only killed Gojyo's enjoyment of the moment. He cut straight to the point. "I really only have one thing I need to talk to you about. Do you have any more objections to my face that are likely to lead to a makeover with your claws?"
The Seiten Taisei cocked his head. "I suppose you're as fixed as you're going to get."
"Oh, goody. Can I have the no-more-attacks part in writing?"
"As long as you don't go crazy again, I won't be forced to restrain you."
"Now that's completely ridicu-" Gojyo remembered last night. "-you started it."
"As for your mind, if I cannot force the gods to restore it I will have to make do."
Gojyo suppressed a shiver. "Lovely. How are you going to find a god anyway? I should warn you that the usual way people attempt to send themselves to heaven is called suicide and is a bad idea."
This time, the Seiten Taisei's smile had nothing of Goku in it. "I know where they live."
"Wonderful. Mind letting me make myself scarce before then? I have a few friends I need to find again, and I really suspect they've gotten themselves in trouble without me."
"I can't go near Konzen, not until I can destroy the diadem."
"That's nice. The people I'm looking for are a droopy-eyed monk and a healer with a white dragon. I think they'd like to see you too." And before you become resistant to the diadem, please let that be the insanity talking and not something that's actually going to happen, Gojyo added mentally.
"I suppose we can let Gojun come along too. Tenpou always liked him."
"I feel that we're not having the same conversation here."
The Seiten Taisei gave him a condescending look. "It's not my fault that you've lost your marbles, Ken-nii." He cocked his head. "Actually, we may need to leave. They're coming."
"Please tell me 'they' aren't gods. I had enough grief from the one who was supposed to be merciful."
"They used to be gods, but you've forgotten their names. Konzen and Tenpou, with Gojun. Such a lovely trail of death they've left behind them. But before we meet again, I need to buy a little more time to absorb power from the earth, until I'm stronger than the diadem. And having to spend power on you isn't helping."
"Wait. Are you talking about Sanzo and Hakkai? Are they supposed to be this Konzen and Tenpou?"
The monkey's patented "duh you idiot" look answered that question. Gojyo explained, "It was the 'trail of death' that gave it away. Honestly, you could have been clearer about that from the beginning."
"I won't call them by those names," the Seiten Taisei said coldly.
"And I refuse to just wait here for them. If Sanzo gets the idea that he has to rescue me a second time, he might really kill me just to save himself the trouble. Got any memory of a crazy guy who called himself Kami-sama lurking around your skull, monkey? You helped them almost kick me to death. So, apologies to your grand plans for deicide, but I haven't got the patience to wait around here. And if you plan to stop me, we'll be having it out right now." The threat was not impressive, but Gojyo hoped to at least convey sincerity and ability to inconvenience.
For a long moment, the Seiten Taisei hesitated. "Then go."
Gojyo tore his eyes away from the table, where he'd been eyeing whether or not he could make it to the kitchen knife. "What? Are you serious?"
"Yes."
Gojyo made for the water bottles at a run. Who knew what was going on in the crazy head, or how long it would take for the Seiten Taisei to change his mind, but he'd best be out of there before then.
He didn't think this was a gotcha-can't-leave-after-all trick. The Great Sage Equaling Heaven had the subtleness of a kick to the head. Perhaps he'd finally managed to be just enough trouble to be not worth it. Perhaps this was connected to Sanzo and Hakkai approaching, if he could believe the Seiten Taisei about that. Perhaps he was bait. He still had confidence this was the best thing he could do right now. The almighty Sanzo needed a little warning that he might find his monkey off the leash more dangerous than he remembered, and if anyone could figure out what was going on it was Hakkai.
Still, at the cave opening, he hesitated. Turned back. "Do you want to come with me? If you do there's bound to be a fight, and you always did seem to enjoy beating the crap out of the three of us in that form. It'll be fun."
The Seiten Taisei said, "I know that you'll come back for me. You always did."
For a second, an image flashed across Gojyo's eyes—a child thrashing against the floor, a mob screaming for blood outside. He blinked and it was gone. There was nothing but the cave and the golden eyes.
Gojyo ran.
The Seiten Taisei let him go for two reasons. First of all, he could sense nothing large and living in twenty miles, and he had confidence that if a god came, he could make it in time to save him. Second, it would only take him one more day to gather enough power that the gods' manacles would no longer be able to hold him, and that time would be lengthened if he was forced to fight Kenren off again. Success was so close. He would wait this very short period of time, and then he would finally be ready.
Even so, it was the nature of a predator to chase anything that ran, and his claws were itching. Long after Kenren was out of site, he could hear that strong heartbeat throbbing, and could scent a thread of anxiety that was not quite fear, but close enough to be enticing.
He distracted himself by setting up the room. They might need to be there for whatever time it took to get Konzen and Tenpou back to normal, so it was important that it would be comfy. He had set up a desk, a pile of paper, and a stamp that looked sort of similar to the one Konzen liked to use. He'd had a fondness for walnuts while stamping papers too, and Goku had made sure to provide them as well.
The books were a mess, but Ten-chan had always seemed to prefer his books that way. He'd feel right at home. Goku had rigged the pile so that if he pulled out one of them, they would all fall on Tenpou. It would be funny. Admittedly, both Konzen and Tenpou would probably find it even funnier if they fell on Kenren (and he owed Kenren one for the pit).
He could smell Konzen and Tenpou moving closer even as Kenren moved towards them, and there was also a keen energy in their presence thrumming under his skin. It might be divine energy or it might be from a bond between them—Goku would like to believe the later.
Eager though he is to see them, he knows it won't be easy. Kenren had his near-lucid moments, but could go violent without warning and couldn't be reasoned with about anything important. He's aware the other two are equally damaged, and so far his attempts to destroy what looked wrong with them hadn't worked. But it was at least a place to start.
It would be smartest to take down Tenpou first. He had reeked of danger once he had removed his own restraining metal, and the energy of violence combined with that appearance was maddening. On one level, Goku was happy that Tenpou had retained most of his former deadliness, and more importantly his resistance to dying. But the untidy hair and crawling skin made him look even more alien. The vines, everywhere, they just didn't belong on Tenpou. He needed serious pruning.
Konzen, thankfully, looked the most unchanged, albeit in a body so weak and fragile. Seeing that golden hair had thrown Goku enough to let himself be sent to sleep again twice. For a moment he'd come close to feeling betrayed, but it had been quickly evident that Konzen had no idea what he was doing or who he was doing it to. Another thing to blame Heaven for. Fear that the person who named him might never remember was almost crushing—but seeing his own guts would surely persuade the Jade Emperor to cooperate in undoing what he'd done to Goku's friends.
He needed to find Nataku, too. Settling old scores was less important than that, although it had the potential to be fun. The gods were a threat, and their blood smelled so tempting. The hard part was waiting for his chains to wear off, waiting to become strong enough that it wouldn't end like last time.
He was going to get his family back. And when the gods come, well, Goku would be strong enough for all of them. He wouldn't let anything happen to them. Not ever again.
To be continued
Author's note: In my original plan for the story, it was all going to go to hell at this point. Goku accidentally kills Sanzo and goes further off the deep end, everyone dies, etc. I also considered ending it here to leave the ending ambiguous. But my little sister likes happy endings. So if you like happy endings too, you can thank her for persuading me to write the next chapter. You should also stay tuned for the next chapter if you like Sanzo and Hakkai, because they (finally) show up.