- Nietzsche in "The Birth of Tragedy"
...he never really thought about it too much. Not until now. But he wasn't noble. Kougaiji was noble. Yaone was noble. Pure hearts, he could sense. But never in himself. Nobility easily shifts into carelessness, giving no indication of the transformation until the final deed is executed. By that time, it is already too late, the world destroyed.
"But what if...by my human carelessness of course...you end with the end?" Hakkai prodded, pushing himself up higher on the pillows in order to meet the other's almost-glare that said, 'are you threatening me?' Through the darkness, he noticed that Shien balked. "I warn you now. There are some situations, destinies which I cannot control. I hold no grudge against you, Shien and I can only admire your loyalty- which makes it all the harder for me to accept your blessing of..." he hesitated to say it. "...power."
Silence as Shien digested the honest words. And Hakkai counted a good three minutes before he received an answer floating in the dim. "I would admit defeat to no other person."
Hakkai nodded with grim satisfaction as he bit his lip. It wasn't what he wanted, but in some absurd sense, he felt like he was granting a dying man his last wish- despite the fact that he already knew which of the two would die first.
"Shien..."
"Hm?" He hadn't moved.
"Find me some paper, a pen, and my seal. I believe there are some new orders I wish to issue...but..." He never issued orders before. He didn't know the etiquette. Worst of all, he didn't know how he was going to get his arm to move.
Shien nodded with partial understanding. "I will write them for you."
***
Day 1: Preliminary investigation
"Who was with Marshal Tenpou before the parade?"
"Me."
"During?"
"Hell if I'd pay attention."
"You are before the military council, Kenren Taishou. Please show more respect."
"My apologies."
"Accepted..."
"Okay then...as the gates were opening..."
***
Day 2: Post-preliminary investigation
"Would you know of anybody conspiring to do this?"
"Let me get the book."
"Taishou."
"Sorry."
"Direct witnesses?"
"Nataku-sama."
"He cannot be interviewed."
"Why?"
"He was just sent to Under Heaven yesterday on assignment by Tentei."
"Mh."
"And Konzen where was he?"
"I don't know. He came later..."
***
Day 3: Follow up investigation
"How is the Marshal's condition, Kenren Taishou?"
"Still unconscious."
"He seemed to come just in time to save you, as if he knew what was happening."
"I don't think-"
"You have not been given leave to talk."
"...m..." for the umpteenth time "...my apologies."
"It is rumored that you were planning on asking for a transfer from his command. To what extent is this true?"
"None of it is true."
"None?"
"It is an absolutely false claim."
"Where do your loyalties lie, Taishou?"
"With heaven."
"Or is it with Tenpou Gensui?"
"..." His teeth clenched. "Fu-"
"Don't answer, Taishou." Goujin ordered, cutting in after a long day's contemplative silence, staring hard at the committee of interogators in tacit derision, purposely overlooking his general's almost-transgression. "That is already out of the scope of the investigation. Thank you. You are dismissed Kenren Taishou. We will call upon you if needed."
He puttered around the Western Army's housing complex, turning from one corridor into the next and when Tenpou's unguarded door caught his eye, he passed into another corridor to push it from his sight. Stark hallways would give way to elaborate balconies overlooking the central garden and its gurgling waterfall. Balconies would give way to endless stairways which would give way to more balconies that gave a view to the same garden and same waterfall from every conceivable angle. A labyrinth that had only one true destination: his own room, Kenren concluded as he stopped his wanderings to kick his idling mind to some semblance of resolution.
And so he puttered, smoking, in the direction of his room when a disgustingly overly energetic major crossed his path and saluted as if it were 3 p.m. and not 3 a.m. Give him a few more centuries and he'll start to get lazy, Kenren concluded.
"Kenren Taishou! I'm glad I found you!"
Kenren offered him a cigarette, which was (obviously) refused due to the fact that in the "In the Military Manual given to us during training it is stated specifically on page 5834, paragraph 3, lines 4 through..."
It's always the fresh young ones.
"Cut the protocol and just tell me what the hell's gotten you so riled up."
"We've been called to duty!" he seemed unnecessarily confused.
"You're not *that* new, kid." Kenren scratched the back of his head, looking down at the young major with a look of growing exasperation. He shouldn't have had to deal with the psychological traumas of green soldiers who were still scared shitless when it came to youkai, battlefields, and fast women (poor souls). "March bravely for the glory and honor of heaven and all that crap but remember, if you're ever disarmed, rip their eyes out."
The boy visibly cringed. "But that's just it, sir."
"What's it?"
"We don't know whose eyes to rip out. We don't know where to march. Divisions six, eight, and thirteen were just advised to arm themselves as preparation for a code blue which according to the Military Manual on page 4 lines twenty-eight to thirty, signifies..."
He rolled his eyes before sparing the boy a good lung cramp. "Preparation for oncoming invasion." Kenren lifted a slim brow and crossed his arms. "And what drunken idiot told you to do that?"
"Why...Tenpou Gensui did. You didn't know, sir?"
*****
"You bastard." It was just a voice. Devoid of anger, fear, sympathy, or anything. It was just a voice that floated over his head coming from the open doorway where the lights flooded into the dark, empty save for the two of them room. His eyes were closed and he breathed deeply, half in a world of dreams, half in an unlikely reality where a certain stubborn general was cursing him from ten feet away.
And so at this moment, two things were existing at once.
The door closed and there was darkness again. Footsteps got louder to his right where the door was. And a haze materialized that made the left side of his room- the side with the window- waver as if he were trying to see through a curtain of rain. Hakkai tried to focus his eyes as a figure was fluttering there like the dying flames of a setting sun.
He squinted and before long he was looking into a pair of deep amethyst eyes, deeply disapproving and deeply relieved.. "Found you, idiot."
"Sanzo!" The name sounded strange to him as if it had been an eternity since he'd said it. He wanted to get up and reach for him, but his body was drugged with sleep. He was dreaming this. Or at least half dreaming it since Kenren was still there, oblivious. And so Hakkai looked with a tinge of longing and envy towards the monk who sat by the window as if both of them were still back in the hotel. "How did you..."
The blonde shrugged. "There were only three places where you could have been: Earth, Heaven, or Hell." he looked out the window, boredom gracing his face as ever. He went as if to reach for a cigarette then refrained. "You pamper the monkey too much to go to Hell, not that I find this place to be much of a better alternative." Hakkai wondered if he could actually see his surroundings.
"Tenpou." Kenren whispered only a little harshly, reaching out his hand in order to wake up the sleeping marshal, only to have second thoughts and pulling back.
Sanzo didn't see him.
"Hakkai, get your ass back here." the monk grumbled, but despite the language, he sounded sincerely concerned. He knew. For a long time he knew. Maybe he was even aware of the exact, the exact moment when it happened because sometime in the middle of the night when they had shared that room, the entire air above them was suddenly washed over with the scent of cherry blossoms before dying out less then a breath later. "I don't like him."
Point: "You don't like anybody."
Counterpoint: "I dislike you less."
"There's nothing much that I can do right now about it. You should at least realize that."
"I realize it."
"Then why are you here, hm? You didn't have to call my attention in order to locate me. Where's the trust?" Hakkai smiled because he knew he was forcing from the monk an answer the man was too proud to vocalize. A sense of satisfaction- knowing that no gun could be pointed at his head. No threat for Sanzo to hide behind. Exploitation of vulnerabilities was not Hakkai's style at all, but then again, where was Hakkai?
"Reminding you to come back." Stone still features glowed eerily beneath the moonlight, the pond below casting reflections up into his window which pierced right through the monk as if he were air. Sanzo's features blurred. His concentration was breaking. "Because you're an idiot and might forget to."
"You want me to come back?" The thought amused him. Are you afraid that I've abandoned you? Afraid enough that you'd starve yourself fasting, torture yourself by abstaining from your precious cigarettes, and then jumping headlong into a reckless...dangerous...meditation... just to say...
"You're coming back."
"When I can. There are a few loose ends I must tie up before I leave."
"You're not on a fucking business trip, Hakkai. You have one day. Just one day and then I'm taking you back." He didn't say how, but knowing Sanzo, there was always a way that made things more convenient, at least for him.
The blonde turned away from him, hiding what Hakkai could only assume was a pout. But even with that last ultimatum, he still didn't leave, lingering drearily out of many nights' habit. Not saying anything at first, then nodding to himself. "This is you." A quiet silence. A Hakkai silence. He still lingered.
"Sanzo?"
"Shut up."
"Ne, Sanzo..."
"What?" He didn't move.
"Get yourself something to eat then rest some. We'll be leaving soon and there's still a long way to travel. Make sure Hakuryuu's well fed too, please?"
A nod. "Don't wake up late. I hate leaving late."
"Good night, Sanzo."
"Ch."
And then he was gone. Only Sanzo could make something as simple as friendship into some impossible four dimensional puzzle.
The bed shifted next to him, and all the sensations of cold sweat and high fever dissolved, replaced by a heady musk that could only belong to a certain stubborn general smelling of cologne and cigarettes. The mist next to the window was gone, revealing only shutters and curtains. A cool hand checked the heat on his forehead, the heat on his neck. Ran down to the newly changed bandages and wondered who had changed them and why nobody else had informed him that someone else was tending to the Marshal in his absence. Farther and farther back into sleep, all that Hakkai could sense was the coolness, the warmth, cigarette smoke and musk. And the world congealed in a collective darkness, caressing and full. And something that breathed nice and slow nuzzled the crook of his neck in an apology his body seemed to understand.
"Taishou..."
"My head's been pounded by every fucking commander in all the fucking armies of fucking eternity." He felt the words on his skin. "Give me your worst. I can take it."
Given the liberty to do so...
"Broken and whimpering now? I don't like."
"Fuck off." But Kenren only pulled him closer. Don't leave.
"Are you going to stay with me this time? Or do I have to take another arrow?"
"Shut up."
And then he couldn't resist. "Still jealous?"
"Okay, I didn't mean it. I can't take your worst right now. Kick my ass for forgetting who you are. That's salt in an open wound, Tenpou. Mercy's a good virtue."
And he pretended to sleep. And he thought he would finally be able to until a single word pierced their silence.
"Well?"
Nagging wife...
"Okay, fine. Shit. Yeah, I am."
"So, are you going to stay with me this time?"
"Who the hell said I was going anywhere?"
"Mnh."
Chapter 9: The Scent of Battle and Revelation:
"Nataku. Nataku!" Litouten was vigorously shaking his son's shoulder. "Wake up!"
"Huh?" The boy dazedly asked as his father pulled him up from the bed and literally dragged him out. His long, black locks fell to his waist and he barely had time to tie them back when he was pushed onto the balcony. "Does Tentei want me again?" He rubbed his eyes.
"No."
"Then wha-"
"Ssshh." Litouten hushshed him with a vile grin on his face, a filthy hand on his shoulder. "And watch."
Nataku did. All he saw was dead blackness and the Western Army housing complex not too far into the distance. "There's nothing there."
"Not now. Just wait. Tonight will be..." he trailed off, searching for a word glorious enough to do justice to this sensation of sweet, sadistic victory he was now tasting. "Nataku, wake up!"
The boy had fallen asleep on his feet. "I'm awake, Father. Tonight will be what? You said it'll be what?"
"Mine."
He sounded like one of those comic books the Marshal always slipped under his door whenever he knew Litouten isn't around. Nataku looked grumpily towards his father and shrunk back as the hand on his shoulder tightened into an oppressive grip. He looked to Western Army, then closed his eyes again. He didn't want to see this.
