Saiyuki
does not belong to the author of this fic.
Through
the Looking Glass by Mitsima
Part 4 - Without a Trace
It could be the coldest sight in the
world, looking in the mirror and looking straight into the eyes of
a stranger. Worse, when it was a dead stranger. Then, not so strange.
Long dead. May he rest in peace beside...
He saw Cho Gonou. In the mirror. Staring back. //That//
dead past. With the longer hair and two good eyes. Without the scar.
Just smooth, sweat drenched skin. No blood. Pristine.
Without the traces of murder...
“You never die, do you?” asked Hakkai
dumbly to the looking glass before turning on the water and getting
in the shower.
It felt different, to wake up and have all your sins
washed away with the body that committed them...
***
“You’re going to die, Tenpou. Accept at
least that much.”
“Doom-sayer.” snapped Tenpou back at the
Goddess of Mercy as her image wavered in the inn’s bedroom mirror.
Explained and analyzed forwards and backwards, he
heard. Though refused to understand. And the only thing he knew to
do was curse Litouten to the depths of hell- wherever he was now.
Whenever it was...
“I will not die.” he concluded with recalcitrance,
but Kanzeon sensed that hint of doubt that tainted his voice. //I
will not...//
“Immortal, but not invincible, dear marshal.”
she interrupted, a smile spreading. “Or I could let you die
now, though I must say, what an anti-climactic end that would be.
The end Litouten had been planning for you.”
“I prefer ‘no end’ Kanzeon-sama,
if you please.” Tenpou blinked. Squinted his left eye, saw only
blurriness then opened it. Closed the bad right one. Scrunched up
his face.
“You might as well request the rivers to flow
backwards.” Was the reply from the other side of time and space,
but sensing she was being little merciful in her apocalyptic heraldry,
she added, “Tenpou, give me one week to find a way to change
you back. And during that period, I have only one request that you
must keep.”
“And that is?”
“Stay alive, because I’d hate for that
body to be destroyed. It’s endured enough.”
Tenpou’s hand immediately went to the scar on
his abdomen, an angry slash of puckered skin hidden by the modest
green of fabric. “And what of *him*?” He pointed to himself,
odd as it was to do so.
“You mean, Cho Hakkai?” A thoughtful pause
as if she were listening to something beyond Tenpou. Perhaps to something
in her room...the sound of footsteps...a knock on the door and Jiroshin
running to answer it.
“Kanzeon-sama! Tenpou Gensui is here to see
you.” announced her manservant much to the goddess’s expectations
and to the real Tenpou Gensui’s abject horror.
His fist landed on the dresser in a furious, futile
thud. “He’ll raise hell!”
“Then perhaps that’s what this ice garden
needs. A little heat for flavor.” Kanzeon stated gravely as
she returned full attention to the marshal. “Everyone needs
a little inferno. Here’s your dose. Specifically tailored to
you by fate.”
Nothing much to do now, so he threw himself back on
the bed and stared up at the ceiling as the celestial’s image
began to fade and all that was left to see was some stranger he was
already starting to hate. “So what do I do in the mean time?”
“Become a better man, Tenpou Gensui, with a
little hell and a little earth.”
***
“Hey Sanzo,” Goku said while sinking into
his chair while the three of them sat at the table and trying to hide
the loud growling coming from his stomach. “What’s wrong
with Hakkai? He hasn’t come down yet.” And then the inevitable...
“Ne Sanzo, I’m hungry.”
And then even more inevitable, *wack* “It’s
too early to hear you whine, so shut up.” the monk grumbled,
casting a glance at the winter wonderland outside.
“Owww.” the boy rubbed his head. “It’s
not as if we were leaving or anything like that.”
“And that’s what’s pissing me off
so don’t push it, saru!”
Gojyo was in somewhat of a reverie, cigarette dangling
lazily from his lips, looking from the stairs leading to the bedrooms
and back towards the others. To the stairs. To the snow. To the hot
waitress which had undone the top two buttons of her high collar shirt
just for him. To the stairs.
The food would come soon, but it would have been rude
to start without Hakkai. And there was the poor waitress, hauling
(albeit with a bit of difficulty) everything on the left side of the
menu.
Gojyo stubbed out the almost new cigarette- only half
burnt out - and got up. “I’m gonna get him, okay?”
“Get who?” A voice suddenly sounded from
behind him. Gojyo jumped ten feet.
“Hakkai! Don’t *do* that!” the half-breed
halfheartedly snarled as he spun around to face the smiling face of
his best friend.
“Do what Tai-?” Tenpou stopped himself.
“Gojyo.” They were both so predictable when it came to
surprises.
“Forget it.” replied Gojyo, taking out
a fresh cigarette as he sat down again. Tenpou did likewise, only
without the cigarette. Damn. What I wouldn’t give for...but
Cho Hakkai didn’t smoke. Kanzeon gave him a run-down on the
things Cho Hakkai didn’t do. Smoking was one of them... cursing
was another...getting mad...getting laid...
The marshal leaned over the table and rubbed his temples.
This was going to be a looong week. But at least Cho Hakkai drank
alcohol. That, in itself, was quite a bit of consolation.
Since Goku finally kept his mouth occupied by eating,
their meal that morning was relatively peaceful. Tenpou picked at
his food (which had not gone unnoticed by a certain redhead and a
certain blonde) trying rather fruitlessly to ignore the idea of mortality
and directing his thoughts to something just as nagging, but not as...fatalistic.
Cho Hakkai didn’t do this. Cho Hakkai didn’t
do that. Well, what *did* Cho Hakkai do? And also, what had Cho Hakkai
done? The wound on his abdomen tugged at his mind, as if it were trying
to evoke a memory that wasn’t there anymore.
He felt a hand at his shoulder. “Oi, Hakkai.”
Tenpou turned around, only to be stared down by eyes only too familiar,
this time filled with obvious worry. “You look like you haven’t
slept in days.” Then he grinned with a bit of mischief. “Or
did you have a nice long night, eh?”
“Uh...”
But Sanzo interrupted him, glaring at Gojyo over the
newspaper. “No, that was you.”
Truth be told, Tenpou *was* having a nice long night
until he woke up to a damn nightmare. He yawned just as the elderly
innkeeper lady walked to their table. She smiled heartily at all of
them and ruffled Tenpou’s hair as if she were his mother or
something so crazy like that. “Poor young man.” she sympathized
after asking them if they enjoyed their meal. “Must have been
kept up by the ghosts around this place.”
“Ghosts?” The word was enough to draw
Sanzo’s attention from today’s paper. “Is that why
you have six bolts on the door?”
The woman nodded gravely. “Yes, but they don’t
hurt anybody. The bolts are just to be sure it stays that way.”
What an odd village this one was. “They why
don’t all of you leave and set up a home somewhere else?”
inquired Goku, making a face. “I wouldn’t want to share
a town with a bunch of freaky dead guys.”
Gojyo waved his cigarette in agreement. “The
saru’s got a point, lady. Besides, I’m sure there are
nicer places than this frozen wasteland.”
“Oh no!” the inn keeper. “We can’t
just do that! If anything, they scare raiders away. Who would want
to ransack a haunted village? But most importantly, we wouldn’t
want to disrespect the gods. No sir.”
“The gods?” Now it was Tenpou’s
turn to sound skeptical. “The gods have nothing to do with this
place.” The statement was turned into a bleeding pulp with one
sharp comment from a certain priest.
“And you know this how?” Sanzo turned
to him, raising a slim brow and shooting a critical glance.
“I don’t. I only assume. Their business
is among themselves and heaven. Not with humans.” Which left
another loophole for the a similar question. ‘And you know this
how?’ It could have gone on for days, but Sanzo dropped the
third degree before it could get bad.
“Ch,”
“Then there’s the legend...” she
continued, as if this story was repeated to a thousand different guests
on a thousand different days. “...about the lake on the other
side of the foothill. A lake of holy water, frozen to create a mirror
half a mile wide. A mirror to heaven...”
A mirror to heaven...
“...and that is why those spirits are here,
to protect that mirror...”
Those spirits...
“...and the ancient tale also talks about their
arrival! Here you shall see how the gods truly do care about us...”
Their arrival...
“It has been passed down by word of mouth, since
few of our ancestors could write (after all, this is a rural area
filled with farmers) that heaven’s army sent its finest warriors
to protect that holy water.”
Finest warriors...
And then she bent down, lowering her voice to a mere
whisper.
“We tell the children never to leave when the
ghosts are out, for fear that their souls may be stolen if they anger
the gods...but one time...I did go out. I must have been twelve or
eleven at that time. I snuck out of my home and went to the lake even
though the warning bell had already sounded and I saw them! I swear
to it on my own life. I saw them. With the marks in the middle of
their foreheads. They lingered on the lake like mist, but I could
see them! And count them! Thirty. I saw with my own young eyes. Thirty.”
Thirty of heaven’s finest warriors...
Chopsticks fell to the wooden floor.
“Hakkai, what’s wrong with you today?”
...who disappeared without a trace.
- TBC -
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