"Ten-" Like teaching the alphabet...
"Ten-" Goku repeated.
"-chan."
"-chan. Ten-chan? Ten-chan. Ten-chan!" God, it felt good to hear that voice say that name. It hasn't even been that long, but still...it put his heart more at ease. He bid his eyes closed and pictured a smaller boy with longer hair. Clanking chains with that same diadem. "Who's that? Someone you know, Hakkai?" Goku then went to the bandages, wrapping it around Tenpou's hand once. Twice.
He choked. "Not really. He hides himself in a library all the time. I never did have the time to get to know him well."
"It's not good to lock yourself up all the time. Not healthy. I tell Sanzo that. Tell him that too."
/Dammit Tenpou, don't you know it ain't good for you to stay cooped up in here all the time? Look, the kid's just begging for attention...
Ten-chan! Let's go on a picnic, kay? You, me, Ken-niichan and Konzen. Okay Ten-chan? It's nice outside and the books can't make jokes and laugh and talk to you.
He's got a point, Tenpou./
"It's as good as told, Goku. Thank you." Tenpou examined his newly bandaged hand. At least he didn't have to look at that dreadfully short lifeline half as much anymore.
"Second?"
"What?"
"Second favor, Hakkai." Goku pushed on as he carelessly stuffed the supplies back into the first aid kid and tossed it over to one side of the room for future use. A bit pessimistic for someone like Goku, Tenpou thought, maybe I'm really scaring the hell out of him.
Second favor most important. For the ruse and for his dignity. "Please don't tell the others about what I did. Something...something's happened to me and I can't get good control over my...powers. I'll be fine within a week's time. I promise, if you promise me that you won't tell." But Goku didn't look convinced. /Kenren's right. I'm such a bad liar./
"Promise." the boy chirped cheerfully, alleviated by the fact that Hakkai would get better. "It was kinda clutzy of me to run into the mirror like that. Seven years bad luck, right?"
Tenpou ruffled Goku's hair. "Seven years isn't very long. Don't worry about it."
Really, I shouldn't force you to keep my secrets all the time...
****
"What do you mean *gone*?" Gojyo roared as he grabbed the front of Sanzo's robe, only to have his hand violently slapped away.
"Gone to the lake, no doubt to investigate those rumors of celestial warriors." replied the monk, lighting himself a new cigarette and settling back into his chair by the windowsill, newspaper in hand. "Left an hour ago."
"And you just let him? What kind of friend are you, monk?"
"Don't talk to me about friendship." Sanzo growled. "If he needs to make peace with the gods, let him."
There was no denying that the storm outside was getting worse, but what bothered Gojyo the most was the fact that Hakkai went off alone just like he did three years ago. His mind did a dreadful replay. "And if he dies along the way?"
A cynical scowl graced the fine contours of the other's face as he flipped the page. "A journey in the name of the gods is never a journey lost." he said tritely. "Besides, no one's tying him down with this journey. He always has the choice to leave."
"Fuck you. He's coming back."
"Doglike faith you have for your master."
Gojyo's temper erupted and he clenched his fist, his knuckles going white. "Same goes for you, bastard!" He threw a punch directed right at the blonde's face, but it was blocked by Sanzo's left hand, the right one with the gun aimed point blank at Gojyo's forehead.
"Don't tempt me too much, Gojyo. I might just do it."
"Fuck you straight to hell." Gojyo spat out, retracting his fist and spinning around towards the door. "You might not give a damn for your companions, but I do."
"Stop treating him like your little wife. Hakkai can take care of himself."
Gojyo opened the door, only to face a scene of pure white chaos. He blanched, "Ch'. dipshit." then stepped through into the storm, closing the door behind him.
****
Tenpou pulled the cloak tighter around his body as he trudged wearily through the snow. The winds were picking up and clouds were moving in, blocking the sun's light. His skin screamed for warmth, and perhaps he would have collapsed by now if it weren't for Tenpou's insistent mind willing this new body to go on beyond its limits. Through the growing storm that seemed to take on a life of its own. Like destiny working against him. Through the snow that stuck to his boots. Through screeching winds that seemed to beat down upon him like invisible harpies.
One foot in front of the other. One. Two. One. Two. In time with the celestial army's drum beat. One. Two. As if he were going to war. Boom. Boom. It never ceased, an echo of the soldier's heart as he is thrown into the heat of battle. One. Two. And as long as it rung clear in the distance, he could be sure that others were fighting right next to him, that he wasn't alone. One. Two. The lake was getting nearer, he could sense it.
Then the sound of drums wasn't only in his mind. He could actually hear it faintly over the howling winds. Boom. Boom. Slow this time, like a death march. And so he journeyed, as if to his death because it was this beat of heaven which he followed so doggedly through the squall. Tenpou rounded the hill and there it was- a lake within a crater. Frozen yet solitary. Nobody was there, but something about the lake beckoned to him. Holy water.
With one last burst of energy, Tenpou sprinted towards it and fell at its icy shore. The winds seemed to blow less harshly here as if the powers of the earth had no place. On his knees and with shaking hands, he reached out and touched the glassy surface. It stung, but he refused to break contact. Leaning forward and cleaning the scattered snowflakes off the ice, the marshal felt as if his heart stopped beating. Staring back was his reflection. Tenpou Gensui's reflection. His real reflection.
A strong gust suddenly washed over him, made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The beating got stronger. Closer. It came again, with enough speed that he was knocked off is knees and into a snowbank. And a mist was rising around him. Then came whispers- at times indistinguishable from the winds that carried them.
"Marshal Tenpou..." they said. "Marshal Tenpou, you've come!"
Tenpou must have blacked out for a minute or two, but when he opened his eyes, he was on the surface of the lake, surrounded by Kenren's thirty soldiers...or at least what was left of them.
****
It all went right back to Chin Lishou, the feeling anyway. When you see someone and yet you don't. It was pissing him off. Should have just shot him through the head this morning, Sanzo thought dolefully. Or through the heart. Give him a few seconds to say where Hakkai really is. But the strange thing about it was that this was Hakkai, not some strange spell made to look like him. And dammit, he needed a driver. No use killing the real thing.
The simplest conclusion would be to say that he was possessed, Sanzo mused as he looked up from the paper and towards the wall. A crack ran through it as if something from the other side had stricken it hard.
There were just some mental frequencies that were simply Hakkai's- see it in the smile, hear it in the tone of voice, and especially his silence. Hakkai's silence was completely, utterly self-controlled. He would just vanish within himself and vanish from the room altogether until he willed himself to speak. Like magic. And he would be there again like a fairy godmother/mother hen at your service. Now the silence was different. It was unbearably loud- worse than Goku calling out to him from the mountain.
This was somebody screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Sanzoooooooooo!" Goku shouted from the hallway, his footsteps bounding closer, shaking the floorboards.
Shiiiiiiit. Right when I had a bit of peace. Please, " .Hell."
And soon glass was flying. The beside him shattered into a thousand pieces as ice arrows penetrated the glass followed by streams of fire, quickly making the rickety wooden lodge into a burning inferno. Goku burst into the room, panting heavily.
"The village is being attacked!"
"No shit Sherlock!" he snatched his gun and loaded. "Let's go before this piece of crap collapses on top of us!"
Outside, they were met by bloody carnage. People were running every which way. Nobody fighting the onslaught of snow youkai that swept the streets like a plague. Sanzo spat. "People who live without danger turn into chickenshit pretty fast."
