Guten tag!

I suppose this is the quickest I have ever updated a story, but I figured I might as well since you all asked for me to [and I'll try my hardest to make it better this time].

Love Bunches,

Yaoi4Life

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Gojyo sat on the edge of the bed, lightly stroking Hakkai's hair absent-mindedly as he watched Sanzo pace the room, back in his robes. Goku was sitting in a corner, golden eyes following Sanzo's every movement. The priest's strides were long and quickly took from one side of the room to the other side and his hands were busy cleaning his gun, doing so quickly but efficiently.

"What do they look like again?" Sanzo asked, still pacing.

"I've told you a million times already!" Gojyo growled softly so as not to wake Hakkai. "And they've probably changed into something else by now!"

Sanzo flashed a glare at Gojyo but held back his retort—the man had just seen his friend be raped! The very thought caused anger to flash through his body.

"I can go look for them," Goku piped up suddenly, looking up at Sanzo. "I can try and find where they're at."

"How do you propose to do that?" Gojyo asked, with more anger than normal.

"They don't know what I look like so I can go through the town and look for them, not asking for names, without getting their guard up."

Sanzo paused in his pacing at this. "No," he said before resuming his pacing and clasping his hands behind his back, having placed the gun back in its holder.

"Why not?!"

"Because of what happened to Hakkai!" Sanzo snapped. "He's bigger than you and couldn't fight off one of them!"

"He was also caught off guard! I won't be!"

Hakkai stirred slightly as their voices rose, eyebrows drown together in a frown. His hand clenched on the pillow before he slowly relaxed again.

"No!" Sanzo growled once Hakkai had relaxed.

"It's a good idea," Gojyo interjected suddenly. "They don't know what he looks like and he can find them for us. Then we can take care of them. And it's not like he can't take care of himself."

"See? Even Gojyo thinks I'm right!"

Sanzo glared at both of them, but sighed softly. "Fine, but I'll follow Goku at a safe distance," he said after a moment's consideration.

Goku shook his head. "That's not a good idea because you're tall and if they notice you, they'll notice me."

"He's right," Gojyo said softly. "And I want to find them."

"Fine!" Sanzo snarled. "Goku, get back here as quickly as possible! If you don't find them in two hours, come back here!"

"Will do," Goku answered, standing and leaving the room quickly.

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"I should have killed them!" Ryu hissed through clenched teeth as he paced the alleyway, keeping to the shadows.

"Like two bodies lying around wouldn't catch attention," Kono mi answered, rolling his eyes, arms crossed over his muscular chest.

"Now they can squeal!"

"Why would they? The one looked like he was going to die after you got through with him!"

"But the other one, the red-haired one, looked murderous!"

"Are you scared?" a voice floated out from the darker shadows, laughter running through it.

"Of course not, Kani!" Ryu snapped, bristling at the very thought that someone would think he was cowardly.

"It sounds like you are to me."

"I could handle him if I needed to!"

"You will need to, he won't let this go."

"You should have let me kill them, then!"

"Let you! Let you!" Kani growled, eyes flashing in the darkness. "You could have done it and I wouldn't have cared!"

"We can handle both them," Kono mi said after a minute. "There's only two, right?"

"I think they came in with two others," Ryu answered.

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Goku slinked along the wall, pausing to listen to the voices that floated out of the alley way. He pressed himself as close to the wall as he could get before remaining motionless. So the people seemed to be nervous regarding the others wrath? Well, they should be—they're as good as dead! He needed to return back to the others now that he knew where they were at. Before the voices stopped talking, he slipped into the crowd and made his way back to the inn.

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Hakkai rolled over in his sleep, a soft moan of pain escaping his lips as he did so. He was not even truly asleep: it was more of a half-sleep, half-awake state of mind. He could hear the words of his friends speaking, but it was as if he was hearing them from across a fuzzy speaker. The pain was coming in as sharp as ever and consumed most of his feverish thoughts. In this world, the pain seemed to rule everything and governed everything he felt and heard. He wanted it to go away, but even the light touches on his head seemed to command all of his attention until he felt like he was going to scream with the pain. At the same time, he wanted to caresses to continue because they meant someone loved him, or cared for him at the very least.

Through the pain, a knock reached him. At the knock, he felt his consciousness begin to stir more and he began to struggle through the darkness and pain to reach the light that was just out of his reach.

Then his eyes snapped open and he took a deep, shuddering breath. He groaned softly at the light that met his eyes and covered them with an arm to keep the light at a minimum.

"Hakkai?" a voice whispered softly and someone lightly placed a cool hand on his shoulder causing him to inhale slightly at a soft flare of pain and the hand left his shoulder.

"It's…fine…" Hakkai answered softly, rolling over slowly to face the person. He smiled slightly when Gojyo's face, lined with worry, floated into view. He thought he would never see that face again and all there would be would be the darkness and pain that ruled everything.

"How do you feel?"

Hakkai laughed softly. "Fantastic…"he answered with a slight smile then a thought struck him and he sat up straight in the bed and looked around the room, certain that he would see Ryu in the room, certain that this had just been a reprieve from....it…All he saw was Sanzo perched at the end of bed with Goku at his side and both of them staring at him with worry…but it could all be a hallucination…Ryu could be coming back…He could not stand it if IT happened again! It had hurt so badly…the pain…nothing sweet…"Oh, gods…"he whispered, drawing his knees to his chest and covering his face with his hands as tears began to slide down his face. His body shook with the sobs and the fear, even when Gojyo pulled him close and held him. He just buried his face in Gojyo's chest and wrapped his arms around the red-haired man and cried against him.

"Shhh…I'm here," Gojyo murmured softly, giving Sanzo a look that said: They will pay and they will die, as he lightly rubbed soothing circles on Hakkai's back.