（最游记同人）镜里镜外(8)

"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?"