"What the hell do you think you're doing? If you were gonna sleep in oh great, almighty, Tenpou Gensui, then you shoulda told me. I would've stayed instead of going to that boring ass military briefing!"
Tenpou...Gensui...
So Hakkai, being the highly self-conscious and highly courteous man that he was, immediately pulled the covers higher around him and asked the question of the millennium, "And you are?"
There was no way in hiding the fact that he sounded completely scandalized.
"Deserving of more compensation in the future, dammit." the man retorted, his anger only half hearted as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket and proceeded to light it. "That is...after your meeting with Kanzeon-sama."
"Kanzeon..." The pieces of the puzzle were slowly...and painstakingly being put together. Kanzeon. was here, which meant that there wasn't any immediate danger. That was a good thing, he hoped. But back to more pressing matters:
1. He was naked.
2. In a room not his.
3. With a man he didn't know.
4. Who obviously didn't know the rules of propriety.
People leave rooms when other people get dressed. Unless they were lovers, which most certainly they were not. Question number two. In Gojyo's style: Where in the fucking hell was he?
"Where am I?" Hakkai fidgeted nervously under the other man's piercing gaze which seemed too roam over too much over his body for comfort.
"In a heluva lotta trouble if you don't quit playing around." he took a drag. "But damn, we must have fucked pretty well last night for you to /still/ be out of your senses. Come on. Can't keep the Goddess of Mercy waiting , you know." He paused, then stalked forward with nothing less than a near possessive smirk curving the corners of his lips. "Or are you waiting for me give you a good morning kiss? Hey, I thought we didn't have that type of relationship."
"Um..." But what else could he say with that man's forehead pressed against his? He smelled incredibly good. With fresh cologne.
What else was he supposed to do? When their lips lightly met in a kiss that kept soft and only soft. Such things happen at times...when your mind draws a complete blank for a good eternity. That's when your body starts to do the thinking. And now, it was thinking.../nice...very nice.../
A bit how he imagined Gojyo would kiss him, though he never had. They weren't like that...or like this...
But then his mind woke up. Finally. /Gojyo.../ Breaking the contact, Hakkai shrunk back and covered his slightly swollen lips. "That's...enough."
"Yeah, you've had enough, Marshal, even though last night you kept asking."
"What are you taking about?" the poor healer demanded, his mind whirling in the possibilities of that statement. Who in the world was this? "Excuse me for being rude, but I believe you are deluded. In any case, an introduction would be appreciated..."
"Okay. Fine. Have it your way. Play stupid." And with that, the man walked out the door, most likely waiting for him on the other side.
Okay. He could handle this, Hakkai repeated to himself. WORSE THINGS have happened.(Not that this was anything too bad...) THIS was just an oddity borne of consequence. Deja vu in the eyes of a stranger... And he didn't like it, bodily pleasure or not.
Wrapping the sheets around him and padding to the door, he said through the cracks, "Just let me shower, okay?" he said with as much composure as he could muster up.
He felt like he hadn't showered in days...even though he distinctly remembered going to the bath house last night and having a nice long and well deserved soak.
From the other sound came a choke as if the other had swallowed the smoke of his cigarette. "Geeze, don't /do/ that without warning me first! It's, like, really freaky."
"What? Surprising you like this?"
"No, saying that you're gonna take a shower."
"So are you saying that I shouldn't? Is that how things are done here? What strange customs...And while you're at it, could you please tell me where I-"
"Take the damn shower, Tenpou. Even I won't let you see Kanzeon-sama smelling like sex."
Like...sex? But he didn't even...what was...and why was...
Hakkai had a vague idea, and the only piece of solid ground in the whole thought was the fact that he was absolutely positive that Tenpou Gensui was dead. As surely as Hakkai breathed, he knew that Tenpou Gensui was a pile of five hundred year old ash.
And then he found a mirror...
***
Chapter 4: Without A Trace
Author's note: I'm going to have to raise the rating on this fic to 'R' sometime in the future. Kinda gives a hint as to where this thing is going...
Chapter 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."
