SailorStar9: This is Chapter 1 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, will it kill you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?
Disclaimers: I own nothing, except for the plot bunny and the pairings.
Chapter 1: An Ode to the Living
During the Silver Millennium...
"Artemis, Luna, seal her other power." Queen Selenity ordered, unsettled by the immense aura the blue-haired infant before her emitted. "That power will destroy us all. She must be kept obedient and docile."
"At once." both Mau advisors bowed and proceeded to use the most powerful restriction seals on the Mercurian heiress.
"Looks like she's awakened." the Kanzeon Bosatsu smirked, sensing the limitation seals Chang-E's descendent placed on the last member of the Sanzo party shatter after the battle against the Metallia-ized Beryl. "Jiroushin," she instructed. "Go retrieve her."
At your command, my Lady." the assistant bowed and vanished.
In the Saiyuki universe...
"You will not harm my village!" the village leader glared at the vulpine demon at the gates. "Fuin!" he called, sealing the fox into his new-born daughter.
"I"m sorry to disturb you at night," Sanzo voiced after Gojyo answered the door. "But I'm looking for someone. He's a diabolical criminal, on the run after committing mass murder. He's a young man in his twenties with green eyes. His name is Cho Gonou."
"Really?" Gojyo echoed. "Never heard of him."
"Don't play dumb." Sanzo snapped. "I heard in town that you took this man in."
"And I'm telling you I've never heard of him." Gojyo insisted. "Who the hell are you anyway? What's a monk doing looking for a murderer?"
"Let go." Sanzo glared, Gojyo having stopped him from opening the door.
"What if I say no?" Gojyo taunted. "Bastard!" he cursed, Sanzo having brought him to the ground via a kick to the stomach.
"I'll kill you, you sorry bastard!" Sanzo swore, Gojyo having intervened again.
"You're no ordinary monk, are you?" Gojyo chuckled.
"Don't think you can take me." Sanzo threatened. "Now get out of my way."
"You might be pretty, but you are a man, so no can do." Gojyo was insistent. "Damn it!" he hissed when Gonou opened the door and kicked Sanzo's gun off. "Just go!" he barked.
"Goku!" Sanzo shouted, the teenage-like boy blocking off Gonou's escape.
"I just have to beat this guy right, Sanzo?" Goku grinned and the two decked it out.
"Please don't move." Gonou pleaded, training Sanzo's gun at Goku. "Just listen to me. He has nothing to do with me. Please don't blame him for any of this. It's true that I've committed horrible sins. But there's just one thing I must do. Time... please, just give me a little more time. I'm sorry for having done this." with that, he took off.
"Tokusa, I know you're there." Sanzo called.
"Nothing escapes you, does it, Sanzo?" Tokusa grinned, appearing from the tree she was hiding and 'Body Flickered' in via a swirl of cherry blossoms.
"Go after him." Sanzo instructed.
"On it." Tokusa nodded and vanished.
"My wound opened up again." Gonou panted. "I guess it's not surprising." This is... he was snapped out of his thoughts when a foot stomped him to the ground.
"Right, that's my older brother and you killed him." Chin Yisou's younger brother snapped. "I've been looking for you, Cho Gonou! So I could give this to you! Do you remember? The dead faces of my family that you killed? And the dead faces of my clan that you killed? We of the Dark Crow clan were being threatened by Hyakugan Maoh, and were forced to take your lover. For doing do, my clan would've been allowed to live. With the sacrifice of one woman, my clan would've been saved. But you... you took everything away from us with your meaningless revenge! I'll do the same to you. I'll give you a taste of what our clan suffered."
"I see, you wish to have your revenge so badly?" Gonou mused. "All right then, it's not a life I'd miss anyway. I'll give you my right eye first." his two fingers were poised before his eye. "After that, my left eye."
"Taking revenge is such a troublesome thing." Tokusa announced her arrival via a sakura 'Body Flicker'. "Seriously, what's up with you men and your goddamn prides?"
"Stop that!" Goku jumped into the frenzy. "Your eye!" he landed on Gonou. "Is your eye... why did you do that for?" he barked, relieved that Gonou's eye was unharmed. "I thought you had pretty eyes."
"I heard you said that red is the color of penitence." Sanzo added. "Penitence to whom? The Gods? The Gods don't save anyone. You are the only one who can save yourself. You can kill yourself if you want. You can escape that way. Your death won't change anything. But there are some things that will change if you are alive. Just ask Tokusa."
"Who are you?" the crow youkai demanded. "His friends?"
"No," Gojyo corrected. "You want to kill him, right? Then continue what you were doing. We won't interfere."
"But those who kill others and live on, must, at the same time, be prepared to be killed themselves." Tokusa added, forming her 'Psi-dagger'. "That's the law of consequences."
"Damn, Tokusa-nee is pissed." Goku gaped.
"Don't mess with me!" the crow youkai snapped, charging at the Jinchūriki turned demoness.
Tokusa's fist connected with the youkai's forehead and everyone watched as his eyes rolled up into his head and for several minutes nothing, then he let a scream of pure terror and pain.
"Tokusa-nee's 'Psi-dagger' digs up the worst memories and pain and amplifies them a thousand fold." Goku explained.
"They're all such idiots." Sanzo sighed, Gonou having finished the youkai off with his banishing gun. "Hey!" he called. "You're going, right? Hyakugan Maoh's castle." he reclaimed his gun.
"Here." Tokusa tossed Gonou back his pocket watch.
"Thank you." Gonou blinked.
"Let's go." Sanzo gave the order.
"This is..." Gonou gaped at the demolished remains.
"It's the remains of Hyakugan Maoh's castle." Sanzo supplied. "It seems someone," he cast a knowing look at Tokusa. "Set fire to it a couple of days ago. Nothing survived it."
"Hey, asshole was the one who forced my merge with the demoness sealed inside me." Tokusa shrugged. "I deserve some payback."
"Merge?" Gojyo echoed.
"I was once human, a Jinchūriki." Tokusa's stature darkened. "The bastard found out about me and had me captured to experiment on. In an act of self-preservation, Kyuu forcibly imprinted herself onto me."
"I see." Gonou knelt.
"I won't chant stratas for the dead." Sanzo sat.
"Shit!" Tokusa cursed as Sanzo started his chant as the sun started to rise. "Sanzo, can you at least let me get away first?" and 'Body Flicker'ed off before the sunlight hit her. "That was way too close." she muttered, hiding in the shade of a tree before the purifying power of the Hana no Tama reacted with Sanzo's purification chants.
SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.