Pairings/Characters (for this chapter): Genjo Sanzo's reincarnation/Kougaiji, Son Goku, Homura's reincarnation, Shien's reincarnation, Tenpou's reincarnation/Kenren's reincarnation
Rating (for this chapter): PG-13
Chapter summary: Jinhai takes a walk down memory lane, Long and Wei talk about what needs to be done, Rick prepares to leave, and Allen pouts.
Word count (for this chapter): ~1,481

Chapter Ten: Quality Time

Yesterday, Long's informant had told him that the Americans were preparing plans to ambush them in retaliation for the nuke that they'd stolen. Long knew that they didn't really have a chance to fight against the American military—while they had a large number of men dedicated to their cause, the Americans had far superior firepower and weaponry.

"Long, what do we do now?"

Long looked up at Wei and felt a rush of affection. Wei could have rubbed it in Long's face that things weren't going according to plan, could have used the bad news as a starting point for a sermon. But he didn't. He was getting ready to plot out countermeasures against the inevitable attack instead. "To be honest, Wei-ge, I'm not sure."

Wei turned to look at the informant. "How big will the team be?"

"It'll be a small group—no more than ten, probably. The plan is just to go in and render the nuke completely useless."

"A quick in-and-out, then," Long said thoughtfully.

Wei placed a hand on his shoulder. "I think I have an idea, boss."

The idea required hostages, and luckily, Long knew of a dig site that wasn't too far away.

"I'm Guang Long. Cooperate, and I won't shoot you."

Jinhai froze, eyes focused on the guns aimed at them. Beside him, Goku tensed up as well, and Jinhai prayed that the monkey wouldn't do anything stupid. While he didn't doubt that Goku, Kougaiji, and he could take care of themselves, there were too many innocents present. He didn't want any sort of unnecessary collateral damage.

Another man urged his horse forward and began issuing commands. "Start tying up the hostages. We need to get back to camp by midnight. You three, fan out and see if we missed anyone."

Kougaiji stepped forward, seeming far too relaxed for someone who had a gun aimed directly between his eyes. "There's no need to get everyone here involved," he said calmly, looking directly at the teenager who'd introduced himself as Guang Long. "I believe I have a proposition that you'll find interesting."

Guang smirked. "Really? I'm all ears."

"I'm a very important youkai noble." Guang snorted in disbelief, and Jinhai barely restrained himself from reacting as well. Youkai noble was an understatement. "If you hold me hostage, I'd fetch a much bigger ransom than all these people combined."

Goku's hand tightened around his arm, but Jinhai kept quiet. If Kougaiji wanted to martyr himself, who was he to interfere? He wasn't Kougaiji's babysitter, and Kougaiji was perfectly capable of annihilating Guang's goons in the blink of an eye without even breaking a sweat.

There was a tense silence as Guang mulled over Kougaiji's proposition. He spoke with the man who'd been giving out orders. Somewhere behind Jinhai, a woman had started sniffling. He heard what sounded like a whispered prayer from a man beside him. Finally, Guang seemed to reach a decision. He nodded at Kougaiji. "I accept your proposal. But I'll be taking some precautions." Guang glanced at the man beside him. "Wei-ge."

Wei unholstered his gun and aimed it directly at Jinhai's head in one smooth move.

"I've heard that high-ranking youkai are capable of doing magic," Guang said. He smiled slowly. "But I doubt that even you could stop a bullet from killing someone else at point blank range."

Kougaiji paled. "That's not the deal."

"I'll need some way to keep you in check." Guang shrugged. "I can't be too careful."

"If you're taking him, then you're taking me, too!" Goku yelled, his grip growing even tighter on Jinhai's arm.

Once again, Jinhai wondered what he'd done in a past life to earn such shitty karma.

The cave was large and looked more like a storage room than a prison area. Guang's men had blindfolded them on the way to their hideout, and the light from the lanterns placed around the cave, though dim, made Goku's eyes water after being covered for so long. Across the cave, on the far side, a group of Guang's men were gathered around a table and playing cards. Guns were propped up against their chairs or slung over their shoulders. From time to time, one of the men glanced over, and Goku got the feeling that they were actually quite aware of their prisoners though they seemed to be engrossed in their game.

Goku, Sanzo, and Kougaiji were seated against the wall of the cave, their arms tied together behind their backs. Beside them was a pile of things Guang and his men had taken from the camp, haphazardly stacked against what looked like the gang's provisions.

"We could totally bust out of here, you know," Goku said, eyeing their guards. "Sanzo can totally take care of himself. You don't have to worry."

"Keep your voice down, monkey," Jinhai hissed. "And don't call me Sanzo."

Goku resisted the urge to pout. It was annoying that Sanzo still thought of him as a monkey, but at least that meant Sanzo remembered enough about him to call him that.

"I don't want to risk Jinhai getting hurt," Kougaiji interjected. "And I'm pretty sure that when it's late enough, there'll be fewer guards. We can escape then."

"Yeah, that worked really well the first time we did it," Jinhai muttered. "Look where it got us."

"Man, Sanzo. I can't believe you're still so mean to Kougaiji," Goku said. "I remember you being a lot nicer after the two of you—ow!" Goku looked at Kougaiji in disbelief. Beside him, an equally surprised Jinhai eyed the youkai warily. "Did you just kick me?" Goku asked.

At the card table, one of the men stood up and shouted, "Hey! Keep it down over there!"

There was an awkward moment as Kougaiji refused to make eye contact with either Goku or Jinhai.

Kougaiji's swift kick confused Goku, and his brow furrowed. When Kougaiji finally returned his stare, Goku almost missed the small shake of his head. Everything clicked into place. "You—"

"Quiet!" Jinhai snapped.

"You haven't told him?" Goku whispered, disbelief all over his face.

"It doesn't matter," Kougaiji replied, his voice even. "There's no point."

"What do you mean there's no point? There is totally a point!"

"Can the two of you shut up?" Jinhai snarled. "Talking about Kougaiji and some past version of me isn't going to help us get out of here."

"Jinhai's right, Goku. We need to get ready to escape."

Goku opened his mouth to protest—after Gyumao's defeat, Kougaiji had become as important to Sanzo as Goku, or Hakkai, or Gojyo—but the hard look in Kougaiji's eyes made him close his mouth.

His head was hurting. Jinhai closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the sullen throbbing. He wasn't sure when it had started, but it was steadily getting worse and making it hard for him to concentrate.

"I thought we'd agreed that you'd stop smoking."

Jinhai glanced at Kougaiji with narrowed eyes. The voice had sounded like him, but the youkai hadn't spoken, hadn't moved since his cryptic conversation with Goku. Jinhai pressed his forehead against his knees. His head hurt, and now he was starting to hear voices. Great.

"You'll kill yourself with those things."

"You okay, Sanzo?" Goku asked, scooting closer.

"I'm fine," he snarled. He ignored the looks Goku and Kougaiji were giving him and concentrated on blocking the voice in his head.

"Maybe we can find something else to put in your mouth."

Jinhai screwed his eyes shut. Kougaiji's voice had been low and husky and seductive, and it sent a bolt of arousal through him. He didn't need this right now—they weren't exactly in a place where he could deal with stupid voices in his head. But what was more disturbing was the stirring of something else, of feelings that he didn't remember having a few hours ago.

It wasn't that he didn't believe in reincarnations, it just pissed him off that people kept treating him like someone he wasn't. If what he was hearing—and starting to feel—was something from Sanzo's life, it wasn't anything that had a place in his. And it also meant that Kougaiji wasn't just Sanzo's 'friend.'

Rick shouldered his pack and took a deep breath. The rest of the strike team was already making its way towards the jeep, but he'd lagged behind because Allen was still pouting in that admittedly adorable way of his. "I thought you said you'd stop pouting."

"I never said that," Allen replied, pouting even more and crossing his arms. "I said I'd stop sulking."

Rick resisted the urge to give Allen a reassuring hug and instead settled for a pat on the shoulder. "We'll be back before you know it." With a last smile and wave, he jogged off to the waiting jeep and climbed on.