（最游记同人）镜里镜外(32)

The sound of metal upon wood thundered throughout the quiet room as Zenon dropped a hefty sword onto the desk.

A slender brow lifted. "But that would require..."

"You're playing it by ear, remember?" Zenon retorted, fishing out a cigarette from his pocket.

"Ah."

"And you might want this too." he held out a gun.

"No need, I already have one." Hakkai pointed to the silver tranquilizer over on the bookshelf.

Zenon huffed before replacing Hakkai's gun with his own pistol- the machine gun, of course, remained hanging at his side. "That one's for sissies. This one," he said of Hakkai's newly acquired weapon. "Is the real thing."

"For playing it by ear, am I correct?"

A terse nod, then, "And him?" Zenon pointed to the taishou.

"Bring him with you on your way out. Careful, he's a bit heavy."

He could have said something, but...again...they were never on familiar grounds. The marshal would throttle him for it. "What do I tell Goujun?"

"Say that the sandman knocked him out."

Zennon grinned then. The marshal didn't seem as bad a guy as people made him out to be. Then again, the Tenpou Gensui was a man of many faces "Yes, sir." And then he was gone, Kenren Taishou in tow.

Left alone in the room, Hakkai took time to examine his weapons. Looked inside the gun. Fully loaded. He stuck it in his belt then went to the the sword: slick and newly sharpened. It would do nicely.

Thirty demons? A secret, feral leer graced his face just then. He licked his lips.

Nothing to one who has slain a thousand.

*****

Gojyo sneezed. "Damn cold." he muttered before drowning a cup of weak wine. It did little to warm him. But hell, it was something, at least. Perched on the only unbroken chair in the now roofless tavern, he looked into the fire Hakkai...or rather...Tenpou...had told him to make.

"Those youkai are drawn to heat like metal to a magnet." the man had said. "Just like you, ne? Just wait here while I go get Sanzo. He's been gone for an awful long time." And he left. But Gojyo followed, eavesdropped and then ran back.

"I'm hungry." a voice said from behind him on the floor.

"Shut up, saru. You just ate the last of our reserves. If you want more, scrounge around the village. I'm sure there's some edible trash around here. Might have to fight the dogs for it."

Goku kicked himself up. "What kinda animal do you think I am?"

"What a memory you've got, saru."

"Why you-"

The sound of a creaking door cut him off as Hakkai walked through, smiling. "Don't tell me you've started arguing already. I've only been gone...about five minutes."

"Ten." Gojyo corrected morosely, turning away from the two of them to stare into the fire. It was ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. He bit into his cigarette. Fucking asshole.

"Hakkai? Is Sanzo coming back now?" the boy was looking out the glassless window again in the direction the surly priest had gone. Before Homura, Goku was never this anxious whenever Sanzo just wanted to go off alone to meditate. But ever since Homura...well...everything that had happened with him just proved how frail Sanzo really was. A mere human with the resilience of a twig when compared to a god. That's why he hated it whenever Sanzo was alone because that would make Goku feel alone. And then there was always that threat that the aloness would last forever if Sanzo never came back.

"Eh. Soon. After he calms down a bit." Tenpou replied, amusedly as he sat himself down by Gojyo's feet and leaned his chin upon the other's knee. Gojyo froze. "I think I angered him. Don't you think so, Gojyo?"

The redhead shrugged. "How the hell would I know?"

"Be it of friend or foe." Tenpou recited with a twinkle in his eye. "One cannot help but see, a third set of footprints in the snow."

"Damn you!" he lifted his hand to angrily strike him away, "Maybe one good knock on the head'll send you back!" but it was caught by Goku's fierce grip.

"Stop! Gojyo don't! Not Ten-chan!" he held on harder as he repeated the name.

He didn't know how he knew. He just did. All the questions that were asked of him...

Who taught you how to read, Goku?

It wasn't Sanzo, was it?

Then who?

...and so he began to think really hard about it. Who? Who? Who? For three nights, he'd been asking himself, finally resorting to asking the goddess of mercy (wherever she...he was)...who?

And so that night he dreamed about a library, a comforting hand upon his shoulder as another one pointed out the squiggles laid out on the paper before him. "Read it out loud with me, Goku..." Faceless, but in the shiny reflection of the book, he saw someone he thought he recognized.

"I won't let you hurt Ten-chan! It's probably not his fault that he's here. I don't know what happened, but you can't hurt him! I won't let you! Never!" Goku was starting to sound like a small child.