Sanzo

When I woke up the next morning, Goku had spread out in his sleep and was taking up most of my space, and Gojyo's foot was in my face, so naturally, I wasn't in too great a mood to start with. A damn shame too, since sleeping had almost made me forget how angry I was.

But him kicking me in the head while I slept made me remember what a waste of a specimen of life he was, and I was angry all over again.

I shoved his leg away and rolled away from Goku. The monkey just blathered something inane in his sleep, but Gojyo woke up immediately, looking around with that hideous, dazed expression on his face as he sat up.

"The hell?"

Ignoring him, I slid my robe on and grabbed my gun. I was sick of it all. Not just of him, but all of it. The further this journey took me, the more unbearable it all became. At this rate, I was probably going to lose my mind before we could even get to Houtou castle.

"Where you goin'?" Gojyo asked, and I heard his lighter flick on.

"Mind your own business, Kappa."

"Whatever." He flopped back down and stretched out, "I don't give a shit if you never come back."

"Hn. Then maybe I won't."

"Should we just leave if you're not back in two hours?"

I heard the sneer in his voice, but I was past the point of letting any of his idiotic yammering bother me. "Do what you want."

I left the room and shut the door behind me loudly. If it woke the other two up who gave a damn? They could get the hell over it.

Our room was on the third floor of the inn, so I had to take a lot of stairs to get down to the street, but it was worth it since I knew that every step took me further and further from my insufferable companions.

I don't know when I started thinking of them that way-insufferable-but it seemed like it had been the day after leaving the temple in Chang'an. This journey had been going for over a year, much longer than I could tolerate. And it wasn't just Gojyo getting under my skin. Recently, I couldn't handle Goku's incessant whining for food or Hakkai's schoolboy smile with his dagger-sharp remarks. I couldn't stand the bickering or riding in the jeep or putting up with Gojyo's moronic personality. I couldn't handle even one more day of wasting my time with these ingrates. If I heard one more plead for meat, one more sarcastic comment disguised by that nauseating smile, or ever saw another strand of blood-red hair for the rest of my life, I was going to shoot myself.

Or maybe just the three of them.

I sighed as I started down the street, looking for some form of respite, a place to clear my mind and just think things through.

I knew that I couldn't just leave those three idiots. First of all, they'd come looking for me if I did. Not to mention there was this awful sense of obligation—I had to lead the sped squad into the west come hell or high water, because I'd been ordered to, and because, somewhere in the last year and a half, this mission had become personal.

It probably had to do with Ukoku Sanzo attacking Goku and nearly killing him. Yes. That was it. He'd tried to kill the monkey-or at least pretended to try to kill him-and now this was deeply personal. This quest was about more than stopping some calamity or preventing a revival. It was about us. All four of us.

Still, there were getting to be more and more days where I felt this overwhelming exhaustion, this terrible sense that I was running without stopping to India, with nothing but a trio of absolute morons, knowing that it was more or less up to me to see to it that all of this went according to plan. Maybe that was what Gojyo characterized as me having a pole up my ass: the only problem being that the pissant couldn't possibly understand what this ridiculous mission was like for me. He was just a lackey. Just some muscle I'd been ordered to tote with me just in case. I was the brains of the whole damn thing. The two roles were incredibly different, and as far as difficulty went, mine was infinitely worse.

So forgive me, Gojyo, if I can't be a sweetheart day in and day out.

I stopped at the end of the road and looked back at the inn.

The town was just waking up, people starting to move around, vendors selling things, people buying their wares, school children running. The inn looked quiet enough. Those three would probably sleep for a few more hours. Really, I felt like I couldn't care less if I never saw any of them ever again, but I knew that I wasn't getting off the hook that easily, so I'd have to be back by the time the sun was fully up to lead them on.

With a distasteful snort, I lit the first cigarette of the day, "What a pain in the ass." Then I walked on.

I didn't have to go very far to realize my search for a peaceful place to meditate wasn't going to be very successful. The more time went on, the more people got up, and the noise level started to bother me. People bartering and greeting each other, kids screaming, dogs barking, hammers and carts and city noises all floating through the air, getting me more and more annoying. It was obvious that if I were going to get a chance to relax, it would have to be outside the town.

So I turned for the outskirts and took the main road into the west, determined to find somewhere I could clear my head without being in danger of my teammates screwing it up for me. I loaded my gun as I went. Just in case.

The town wasn't small, but once I was on the road that led out it went by fairly quickly. Travelers coming in passed me with a tip of their hats or a bow of their heads, but I ignored them. I wanted to get somewhere where there weren't any people at all, smoke a few cigarettes, and just think. It felt like it had been weeks since I'd been able to hear myself think.

After I got out of the town, I started to feel better immediately. The stress ebbed away, the air seemed fresher, the atmosphere quieter, and I could finally take a deep breath of nicotine, close my eyes, and just think.

Now I was surrounded by nothing but wide, green grassland, lush and full, with a small forest about a mile off to the left of me. I heard birdcalls and felt the breeze flowing through my hair and my robes, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I felt calm. Something about it reminded me of Kinzan temple, years ago, before my master died and everything in my life had to change. Koumyou had always liked standing outside and enjoying nature. I'd long since lost any appreciation for it, but it was better than a noisy town or a crowded jeep.

I was so caught up in my memories of Koumyou and Kinzan temple, and the personal journeys I'd experienced, that I really didn't pay much attention to how far I walked, although I did keep an open eye for enemies. Being alone was peaceful, but it was also dangerous.

The sun got higher and higher, and the walk went on longer and longer. I went through cigarette after cigarette, simply enjoying the peace and quiet, and whenever I stopped to think about my traveling companions, back at the inn, likely scrambling to find me by now, I felt disgusted, and only wanted to keep walking.

Unfortunately, I lost track of time and got a little further from the town than I meant to, and by the time I turned around to go back, the town was a distant speck on the horizon. Miles away to say the least.

"Dammit."

I couldn't believe I'd gone that far. I couldn't believe I'd gotten so distracted by thoughts and memories that I'd actually gotten miles from my team, not even realizing it. It was a careless, stupid move, like something Goku or Gojyo would do. Not me.

I was so frustrated with myself that I threw down a cigarette I'd just lit and stomped on it vehemently.

"Goddammit!"

Angrily, I began to trudge the long way back to the town. If Hakkai had any sense, he'd get the other two up and they'd come looking for me, pick me up on the way back, and we'd just keep going.

As it turned out though, the problem wasn't whether Hakkai had enough sense or not, but that I'd been a little more careless than I'd initially realized. I heard a distant laugh, somewhere to the right of me, and when I looked up I knew that coming out this far had been a costly mistake.

Yesterday, on our way into town, we'd had to plow through a pretty large group of youkai. We'd killed a good fifty or so of them, but that had left at least thirty that hadn't wanted to mess with us, for whatever reason.

Now, I guess, they'd seen me wandering around like an idiot, alone, and decided that they could handle just one human priest with a gun. Youkai were coming out of the woods that were up on my right, marching forward like a death army, their teeth gleaming in the sun as they smiled, their eyes bright with hunger. There were about forty of them now, and I saw women with them. In fact, the youkai at the front of the group, the one laughing, was a woman with long, black hair and an odd, purple mark across her nose. She was dressed like a man, and I saw a row of golden earrings gleaming on her right ear.

"Genjyo Sanzo!" She cried, " We meet at last. I've been hearing a lot about you from my kin, priest, and I thought you'd be anything but stupid, and yet, here I find you, wandering alone. Very foolish indeed." She propped one booted foot up on the fence that hedged the side of the road, rested her arm on her knee, and leaned forward, grinning. I saw the pommel of a sword over her right shoulder.

"I don't have time for this." I snorted, eager to disguise the slight wash of fear that was beginning to hammer through me. I let my eyes rove up and down their ranks, looking for any weaklings that I might be able to pick off in a hurry. Of course, since these were the survivors from yesterday, they were likely the strongest of the clan.

"Time has nothing to do with it, Sanzo." the woman said, "Yesterday you killed my husband and brothers, and today you dare to set foot alone into my territory. You've got balls, I'll give you that, human, but they won't save you from my revenge. Even if you dropped the sutra on the ground right now I'd kill you."

"Please." I snorted. "I'm supposed to be afraid of a woman who picked up her husband's sword? Beat it, before I kill you."

Her grin only seemed to expand, and with a fluid push off the fence post she was next to, she hopped the fence and came toward me. "That cocky attitude." She laughed. "There's something about it I like. I'll enjoy eating you, Sanzo—it's rare I get to have such a beautiful meal, seeing how the hunters are males and always bring back young girls. I get so sick of it. But you…" she seemed to purr, "I'll savor your taste for years to come."

"Not if you don't have a tongue." As quickly as I could manage, I pointed my gun at her head and squeezed the trigger, but she was too fast—in fact, she was a lot faster than any assassin I'd run into in a long time. She dodged the bullet easily, and it hit a different youkai. That one at least rolled over and died.

The woman spun around, hair and clothes flying, laughing, "Take the sutra and kill him! But remember, I get the body!"

Immediately, all the youkai standing in the feel rushed at me in waves, handfuls at a time attacking with either their bare claws or weapons. I shot them down as quickly as I could, dodging their onslaught as I struggled to reload. I was lucky to even have extra ammo on me.

A youkai came at me with a large sword, and I had to duck under it, spin to the side immediately as another tried to bludgeon me to death with a club. I shot the one with the club and kicked the sword away from the other one. Another tried to tear into my side, but I avoided that attack too and merely took a rip in my robes.

As I was fighting the youkai in front of me, a few behind me were trying to snatch the sutra off my shoulders, so I had to turn and deal with them, push them back a ways before spinning around again to kill off the others. It was a tiresome, difficult way to fight, and I knew that I was badly outnumbered. I tried not to let that scare me, but when it was roughly forty against one what was the chance of actually coming out alive?

I wouldn't die though. I refused the humiliation of being killed by these youkai before even reaching my destination in India.

I had eight bullets in my gun when the fight started and an extra round in my robes, so that gave me sixteen shots all together; I was skilled enough with my weapon to be able to take out twenty or so with what I had, but once the bullets were gone, the gun was practically useless to me. I started using it to pistol-whip my opponents, but it was hardly worth it, since most of them just got back up again.

Finally, I picked up a machete one of them had dropped and started to fight them hand-to-hand, the blade against their claws. Fortunately my martial arts skills were above average and my technique was well-polished, so I was able to hold my own for a good while, and take out quite a few more, but I was wearing down, and every now and then one would get me in the side or the shoulder, not very deeply, but enough to make me bleed, and after I'd been bleeding for a while I started to feel tired.

Bad news. If I got too tired that would be the end of me.

Best case scenario, if I managed to kill the fifteen or twenty that were left, I'd still have to fight their cocky leader, who was now perched up on the fence, just watching and laughing. From the aura she was giving off, I got the feeling she was a spellcaster of some kind.

I was in the middle of dealing with a particularly darty, small youkai, who had this stupid, perpetual grin on his face the whole time I was fighting him, when I felt deep, shredding pain in my side, and then there was the hot, sticky sensation of blood there and I felt my robes clinging to my body.

Those idiots! One of them had actually clawed me!

I spun around to kill whoever had done it, but the wound slowed me down, and I was left wide open for another blow. This one was a lot deeper. It hit my shoulder and went straight to the bone so that sharp pain shot straight down to my fingertips, and I almost dropped my sword.

They were circling around me now, laughing and gloating over a victory they hadn't won yet. I touched my damaged arm.

Screaming, I ran at the one who'd gotten my side, intending to bring the machete down on his neck. He stepped to the side and I tripped, wound up on the ground, face down.

Not a good place to be.

Wildly, I tried to jump back up, but was kicked down, stared up at them as they moved in for the kill. But there was no way I was going to die that easily.

I lopped off the hand of one that got too close, and she backed off screaming, giving me an opening to get to my feet. I looked desperately for an opening, or for some sign that my good-for-nothing teammates were on their way.

Those morons. This was all their fault.

The fight raged on, but I was definitely slowing down. I was clawed twice more, once in the stomach, and once down the forearm to my palm. The scratch there was shallow, but it bled a lot. The wound in my stomach was what really bothered me. It felt like I had ice in my gut.

Worse still, I only managed to kill one more before I couldn't fight any more.

I fell to my knees in the center of their group, frantically thinking of some way to get out of this mess.

"Now, Genjyo Sanzo," their leader was coming forward, stepping through their ranks unhindered, a bitchy smile on her bitchy face, "you're going to pay for what you did to my husband and brothers." She raised one hand. I saw the claws gleaming.

"Beg for mercy."

I spat.

That only seemed to amuse her, and I could see the felling blow in her eyes.

I wasn't going down without a fight.

She swung and I jumped up again. Her blow clipped my face, but I ignored the new gush of hot blood and hit her square in the chest with my shoulder, knocking her back. We struggled against each other for a second, but I managed to get the upper hand and pressed the blade to her throat.

"You beg." I hissed.

"Sanzo!"

That familiar voice calling me out of nowhere was just enough to distract me and give her a chance to throw me off. I went flying, heels over head, crashing into the fence and lying there, more or less upside down, astounded to see that idiot Gojyo of all people charge in like the cavalry.

He already had his shakujou out and set immediately to slicing off limbs and heads. That method of fighting had always disgusted me a little.

At any rate, the youkai were just as surprised as I was to see him, and I had an opportunity to get up and keep fighting, energy renewed now that I knew I was probably going to get out alive. The two of us together would be more than enough to finish the rest off.

Gojyo and I wound up in the middle of their circle, back to back regardless of our distaste for one another.

I cut down into a youkai, slicing him apart from shoulder to side, getting blood on my robes as a reward.

"What the hell are you doing here, Gojyo?"

"I don't hafta' explain shit to you, Sanzo."

He swung that stupid thing and the damn chain whirled around our heads so I thought I'd get mine chopped off as I sprang forward to deal with a few more of the filthy bastards. I heard their leader screaming in the background.

"Kill them both!"

We fought that way for a while, thinning them out steadily, and with Gojyo behind me, I was able to avoid being injured any further, in spite of my already existing wounds.

"You ain't looking so good there, Sanzo-chan." Gojyo grinned at me. Something about that smile had always made me think of a wolf's face. Half-human or not, those red eyes made him look twice as feral as either Hakkai or Goku—when they had their limiters on at least.

"Shut up, asshole." I took the anger I felt toward him and put it to good use, killing two more youkai with the sword I still had.

In a matter of minutes, there were just a handful of youkai left, and they were starting to back away.

One had the audacity to try to take the sutra from behind when Gojyo wasn't guarding my back as carefully as he should have been. I was distantly aware of the movement, but there was no way I had time to move. We'd just have to get the sutra back if it was taken.

Gojyo stepped between us and the youkai's claws shredded his arm from wrist to elbow.

He screamed.

"Goddammit!" I spun around, swinging the machete over Gojyo's head and decapitating the youkai.

That meant there were four left, including their bitchy leader. None of them were moving.

Gojyo was kneeling on the ground, cradling his damaged arm. I had to admit, it looked pretty bad, and the blood was flowing heavily.

I shoved aside the natural concern and focused on the youkai that were left, making eye-contact with the leader, whose disgusting smile had finally faded, much to my satisfaction. "Well? Bring it."

She snapped her fingers and pointed at us, and simultaneously the three remaining warriors started to march forward.

"Quite the little army you have there." I sneered, but I didn't feel confident. If Gojyo was down for the count I wasn't sure I could kill all four of them and protect him. As usual, he was a bigger pain in the ass than he was a help.

"What are you waiting for?" The leader demanded, "Kill them."

Immediately, the youkai's humble march turned into a sudden spring, and they came at us, claws and weapons poised to kill. Even if I took out two I wasn't sure I could get the third. The machete simply wasn't long enough, and I was out of ideas. But I refused to believe this was the end of my life.

Gojyo lifted his head, "Fucking bitches!" With a flashy swing of his arm, the crescent shaped blade of his shakujou was soaring through the air. His aim, I had to admit, was perfect-I couldn't imagine how he controlled that thing-and it sliced through all three of them consecutively, as easily as going through butter. Arms, heads and legs went flying, their screams of agony turning to gurgling, sputtering noises of gore.

The leader watched emotionlessly as her men were turned into bloody heaps.

All three of us were quiet. I heard myself breathing hard, Gojyo didn't seem to be breathing at all, and on the other side of the road, the youkai just looked at us like she was some kind of wild animal who'd chanced across civil beings. Something in her eyes was so wild and so cold I actually felt a shiver beginning to creep up my spine.

"Well," she said, her voice silent as falling ash, "it looks like a stalemate."

"Stalemate my ass." Gojyo scoffed, "There're two of us and one of you. How's that a stalemate?"

Ignoring him, she began to back away. She must have known that there was no way either of us were in any shape to chase her. Did that mean she was afraid of us? Probably not.

The smile came back to her lips as she swung her self again over the fence and gave a theatrical bow, which made her hair fly, "Genjyo Sanzo—my name is Jade Asahara, and I swear on the graves of my clan that I am going to kill you if it takes the rest of my life. You have my word, and the word the Asahara never dies."

"What an honor." I sneered.

She pointed a finger at me, her tongue touching her upper lip, "You hang tight to that pert attitude, Priest. It may be the only thing that keeps me from feasting on your blood." With that, she turned and ran, her hair flowing behind her like a midnight cape, and disappeared into the trees.

"Bitch." Gojyo muttered.

As I watched her go, I had the strange feeling she wasn't lying—I'd definitely be seeing her again

"What a pain in the ass."

Gojyo started to get up, still holding his shredded arm tightly, blood dripping on the ground. "Hey, at least she's hot. It's been a long time since I saw a youkai worth looking at.

I was too disgusted to favor his idiotic comment with a response, so I began to hunt for my gun instead, kicking severed limbs aside and nudging bodies with the toe of my boot.

He watched me for a second, quietly, then started a cigarette, "What the hell are you doing out here anyway, Sanzo?"

Of course I wasn't going to tell him that I'd just sort of wandered out here without realizing it. "Mind your own business."

"I just got all the skin ripped off my arm for your sake—I think it is my business, Sanzo."

"That was your own fault. I don't see what it has to do with me."

"Hey! I saved your ass!"

"Tch. I almost had that bitch when you showed up. If anything, you got in the way."

"You're telling me you had it under control? Look at you—you were almost lunch, Sanzo!"

"I don't remember asking for your help, Kappa! And if I remember correctly, you said yourself that if I were ever dying in front of you you'd just laugh in my face!"

He didn't have an answer to that, and I should have felt satisfied for shutting him up, but for some reason I just felt all the angrier.

Nearby I spotted my gun, half-hidden under the corpse of a female youkai, but when I bent to pick it up pain shot out from the wound in my stomach, making me dizzy, and my vision nearly blacked out. I fell to my knees, absolutely mortified to be showing weakness in front of Gojyo. "Dammit." I gripped my gun feebly.

He came up behind me, "Sanzo? You okay, man?"

"As if you give a damn."

"Hell. I don't give a shit. I just wanna' get back to the inn so we can get out of here." He stood over me a second, puffing on his cigarette.

I sat on my knees, trying to get my head together and cursing him mentally.

At last, he held out his undamaged hand, "C'mon, let's go."

I glared up at him, disgusted to see that he actually expected me to take his hand. That stupid look on his face was so trusting and nonchalant. It was so idiotic.

With a snort, I forced myself to stand up, staggering and nearly falling again.

"Hey." He put a hand on my shoulder to steady me.

I shoved him off.

"Man, what the fuck is your problem? I'm just trying to help you!"

"Stay out of my way."

"You're lucky I showed up here on time to save your no-good ass!"

"And you're lucky I don't have any more bullets, or you'd be pissing lead right now."

"Fine. You know what, asshole? Sorry I bothered. You can just get bent for all I care." He started to walk away, blood running off his fingers and leaving a faint trail on the ground.

The last thing I wanted was to walk back with him, but I couldn't go anywhere else, and standing there in the middle of the road would be stupid, even if I weren't injured, so, begrudgingly, I followed after him.

For a few minutes we walked in silence, but Gojyo seemed to forget quickly that he was angry at me, and he broke it after a little bit of time had gone by.

"So how far did you think you were going to get without us?"

I sighed, really not wanting to talk to him, "What makes you think I was leaving?"

"It could have something to do with the fact that you walked five miles west all by yourself."

"With all the noise you three misfits make can you really blame me for wanting to get away from you?" I didn't bother telling him I hadn't been meaning to leave. If he was dumb enough to believe it might as well let him.

"Believe me, we misfits don't like traveling with you either."

"Feel free to leave whenever you want."

"Right." He scoffed, "Y'know, Sanzo, you are so full of shit. You wouldn't last an hour without us, and what happened today just proves it."

"You're delusional. Imagining that you're important in some way. It's really pathetic."

His words had a biting quality as he retorted, "Face it, Sanzo, you need us. You wouldn't dream of just wandering away because you know your ass would be dinner that same night if Goku wasn't there to keep the monsters away."

I couldn't handle it. I'd come all the way out here specifically to get away from him, and now, here he was, almost as if he knew my intentions and was determined to ruin everything. I simply couldn't put up with him anymore. I took a swing at him.

Gojyo's good hand was holding his cigarette, so he had to use his torn up arm to block me. He grabbed my wrist and twisted it away. If I hadn't been dizzy I would have knocked him on his ass.

"You seriously want to start that again?" he demanded, wincing a little. "Man, you're really asking for it."

"I'm asking for it?"

We glared at each other for a second, and then, at almost the exact same time, we both realized that our damaged arms were touching and our blood was mixing. Simultaneously, we stepped away from each other, and I instinctively dusted my robes off, gave him a demeaning glance, "Keep your distance, you damn kappa."

"Whatever you say, Master Sanzo." He snorted, and began to walk again.

For a while, we were quiet. At first, I was just ignoring him, but after we'd been going a little ways, I started to feel a little dizzy again, and I didn't want to argue anymore. A headache was spreading from between my eyes out to my ears, and my steps seemed unsteady. I didn't want to look any more pathetic, so I forced myself to walk normally and tried to seem like nothing was wrong, when in actuality, the headache was getting progressively worse, but I kept going without showing any sign of discomfort. In fact, I picked up the pace just a little, eager to get back to the inn. I'd probably feel better once I could sit down.

Of course, I could have just mandated a break and gone to sit on the side of the road, but that would suggest to Gojyo that something was wrong, and I couldn't afford to show anymore weakness in front of him.

He didn't seem to be doing too great himself, and when I glanced at him, he had a pained look on his face and was dragging his feet a little.

I glared at him, daring to hope that he might make the call for a break on his own.

He just glanced at me, and shrugged, fumbling for a cigarette, even though the one in his mouth was only half smoked. "What is it now?"

"Hurry it up. We don't have all morning."

"Maybe you shoulda' thought about that before you came out here." He held his arm and winced. "Damn this walk sucks."

"We don't have time to stop." I said half-heartedly.

"'M not stopping. My arm's just bothering me a little."

"Hn. You're so damn useless."

"Are you sure you don't need to stop, Lord Sanzo? You're looking a little pale there."

"No. Let's keep going."

"Right, right." He laughed.

By the time we got back to the inn it looked like it was about ten o'clock and the wounds the youkai troop had given me were aching. I was staggering slightly, but Gojyo didn't seem to notice. He hadn't spoken at all in about forty minutes, and he seemed like he was off in his own little world.

Hakkai met us outside the inn, looking visibly relieved, "Oh, there you two are! We've been looking all over for you." He looked us over, obviously noticing our wounds, "Don't tell me you were out fighting again."

I was too annoyed and dizzy to answer his idiotic assumption—I just wanted to go back inside and go to bed.

Gojyo spoke up instead, "Naw…just had ta' save Lord Sanzo from a little batch of youkai, that's all."

"Keep tellin' yourself that." I muttered, heading toward the jeep.

Hakkai watched me a moment, "In that case, shall I close your wounds and we'll be on our way."

I tried to act indifferent, but I was suddenly relieved that Hakkai had that healing power. He'd close the wounds and the dizzy, sick feeling would go away.

"Hey, Hakkai!" Goku came around the corner, "I looked ev'rywhere but—" He stopped when he saw Gojyo and I, then grinned that impossibly huge, monkey smile and ran over to me, "There ya' are! Geez, what happened ta' ya'? When we woke up an' both of ya' were gone we thought that ya' went out ta' kill each other or somethin'."

At last I snapped, "Don't either of you have a brain?"

Goku came up to me, looking at my wounds with wide eyes, "How'd ya' get hurt? Did ya' get in another fight?"

"Sanzo almost got his ass kicked by some youkai." Gojyo grinned, "But I saved him." Hakkai was already in the middle of healing his arm.

"What? Ya' saved him? Gime' a break, Gojyo."

"It's the truth!"

"Whatever. Stupid Kappa."

Gojyo snorted. Maybe he wasn't in the mood to argue with Goku.

"So Sanzo, what were ya' wanderin' around for?"

Hakkai finished with Gojyo and came over to me. For some reason his hands felt cold, even when the power of his chi was flowing through his palms and into my body. I couldn't quite contain a shiver.

"I wasn't wandering, I was just scouting ahead."

"Scoutin' ahead?"

"Oh my, that doesn't sound very much like you, Sanzo."

"It's none of your business what I do, all right? Why don't you all just shut up and get in so we can move out?"

"Very well then." Hakkai smiled. "Hopefully whatever happened out there won't try to follow us?"

I knew Hakkai was just making jokes at my expense again, but his words make me nervous, and I couldn't help looking around, remembering what that bitch youkai had said. It wasn't that I was afraid of her, but I definitely had enough going on without having to worry about some crazy she-demon with a vendetta.

It didn't take long for Hakkai to heal me, and then we were on our way again, just another typical morning with the idiot brigade. Within a few minutes, we were driving past the place where we'd fought the youkai, all the corpses still scattered everywhere, birds beginning to flock to the scene, ready to gorge on blood and guts.

Goku leaned out of the jeep to get a better look, "Wow. There're kinda' a lot, huh? Hey, who's that?"

I glanced in the rearview mirror to see what he was pointing at, and then looked in that direction.

Up at the tree line, standing perfectly still, watching us go by, was a youkai woman with long, black hair that blew in the wind.

Jade Asahara.

Yes. I definitely hadn't seen the last of her.

"Damn."