A Visitor

“Our plan is victorious!” I exclaimed once we were out of Hakkai and Sanzo’s earshot. My fists pumped in the air triumphantly and I did an impromptu happy dance. Gojyo stood about ten feet away watching me.

“You think they’ll be a couple now?” Goku asked.

“Not yet, but now they’re free to talk about it!” I said.

“You planned for it to work that way?” Gojyo asked.

I stopped just as I reached the stairs and turned around to face the tall man. “’If at first you don’t succeed, redefine success.’ I originally planned to shoot Hakkai with a silver arrow of truth, which would force him to be honest with himself, but since he was willing to look at his feelings on his own I felt that it would be better… okay, it’s just easier on my conscience if he figures it all out on his own.”

“What?” Goku asked me in confusion. Gojyo looked just as confused.

I extended my left arm and Called my bow. My bow is beautifully and intricately carved ebony wood. It is five feet tall and heavy with a thick black string. When I call my bow I also call my black leather quiver onto my back. In the quiver are my ebony arrows as well as my magical silver arrows that pierced the heart with its own inner truth. They were just like my brother, Eros’s, golden arrows of love and lead arrows of hate.

I knocked one of my silver arrows onto my bow and aimed it at Gojyo’s heart. At the look of terror that Gojyo shot me I lowered my aim to the ground and pulled the arrow away from the bow. Then I held it out for him to see.

“The silver arrows of truth don’t pierce the skin. They break the barriers to the heart, making the target face the truth within. It also has the power to neutralize the effects of the magical arrows for love and hate. Unfortunately, truth isn’t gentle or easy. There’s a shock to the system more often than not, so if the target can figure it out on their own I would prefer to let them do it that way.”

“Geez, you sound like a military person talking about targets and not people,” Gojyo said, stepping up close to me. I turned back around and we went up the stairs to the room we were staying in. I banished my bow and arrows as we walked so that I wouldn’t scare any of the other patrons as we passed.

As we walked I shrugged. “It’s easier to think of people as targets. If you take away a person’s face it’s easier to become emotionally detached and you don’t have to worry about feelings or morality or ethics.”

We reached the room and Gojyo opened the door for me. Goku entered behind me, which started Gojyo to ragging on the boy. I ignored them and pulled my book out of my pocket.

“What’re you reading?” Goku asked, breaking off his fight with Gojyo.

“Porn,” I said.

“What?!” Gojyo asked as he leaned around to look at my book. “I didn’t think you went for that kind of shit.”

“Well, I suppose it isn’t really porn. It is a trashy romance novel, though. Porn for women, according to my friend.”

“You have friends?” Goku asked me in surprise. The fact that he was seriously asking if I really had friends made me snap my head up.

“Of course I do!” I said defensively. “If Paul or one of the Jonathans heard you say that they’d kick your ass so hard you’d have to sleep on your stomach for a month. They may be teddy bears, but they can pound me into the ground – metaphorically speaking, of course.” In reality they can knock me out, acting together as Yin to my Yang.

“You’re missing them,” Gojyo observed.

I swallowed and tried to remove the sad look from my face. “They are my family. They aren’t blood, but they’re my family.”

“They are very lucky to be with you,” Gojyo said as he leaned in close to me.

I felt myself stiffen as I thought about my loved ones and the events of our lives. We always had fun performing musicals and goofing off during rehearsals, but my many positions and roles in the magical community often broke in and screwed with this happy part of my life. Just a month after I adopted Jason I was ambushed and beaten unconscious while the six-year-old was kidnapped. My Dance Troupe had performed for kings, acting as a distraction while the other Sages and I put a dangerous plan into action. My students have been attacked on a number of occasions in an attempt at drawing me into a trap, not to mention assassination attempts and people seeking to steal my power.

“I’m not entirely certain that association with me is always in my friends’ best interests,” I said softly. Then I smiled warmly at another memory: I had just been introduced to the man who had already destroyed my life and not one of my friends would leave my side. “But they are good for my sanity.”

Gojyo leaned in for a kiss, but stopped just before his lips touched mine. Then he pulled back. “Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked.

“I have a husband,” I said softly. “No boyfriend on the side.”

“I would never ask you to cheat, babe, but I’m surprised that you never mentioned your man.”

“Don’t call me babe,” I said softly. I have plenty of pseudonyms, so I don’t need other people making up nicknames – especially since Gojyo called all girls babe. “Normally I hold a policy when dealing with strangers: volunteer nothing. If people don’t know details about my life and loved ones, they can’t be threatened. It also keeps people at a safe distance away, emotionally.”

“Why would you want that?” Gojyo asked. That’s when I realized that the redhead was searching for love and acceptance, and my rejection had actually hurt him very deeply. Seriously, why else would someone sleep around as much as he supposedly did (although throughout the entire Saiyuki, Saiyuki Reload and Saiyuki Reload: Gunlock series, you only actually saw him with a woman one time, according to Hai).

“My reactions when I loose things are… severe,” I explained hesitantly. I had never explained this to anyone before. My family knew this about me from experience, so explanations weren't necessary. “Here, I’ll give you an example. When I was fourteen I had two… mentors, I suppose. Claire and Bartholomew were both Sages – Chief’s fifth and sixth, respectively – and had treated me like a granddaughter since I received my first Call at the age of ten."

"Is any of that supposed to mean anything to me?" Gojyo demanded.

"Um... they are very powerful and very highly ranked in the magical community," I explained briefly before continuing my story.

“We had gone to fight in a war on the side of one of our military friends. Their forces were weak and the mageborn unit had already been decimated in an earlier battle, so all six of us sages were there as the only support to the non-magic terran warriors.

“Things went badly. I sent Paul and the Jonathans to lead the terrans to a cave, which would let them escape. Claire, Barty, and I fought to give them a chance. We three fought against thousands of terran soldiers and a couple hundred warrior mages who were at the back of the ranks as per traditional war tactics.

“Claire was a dance mage, even though she was eighty-three years old. Barty was an eighty-four year old defense mage that she was bonded and married to. The mages attacked as one, breaking through Barty’s defenses and killing them both instantly. I watched it happen like it was in slow motion. Then, when time sped back up, I released a wave of power, killing the entire enemy before me. I killed 3,500 people in 2.59 seconds.”

Gojyo leaned backward and nearly fell over. “That’s a lot of power,” he said after a minute in a breathless voice.

“They were mentors,” I said as if Gojyo hadn’t said anything. “Imagine my reaction if someone more important to me was killed? That happened once and I went back in time, which is completely illegal by the way, and prevented the event. I don’t want to overreact like that for someone I’m never going to see again. I’m not strong enough to survive those… ripples.”

“I don’t know… you seem fine to me,” Gojyo said, wiggling his eyebrows in a weak attempt at humor. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and smiled.

“And I am a mighty fine woman, too. My husband has no complaints! Hell, he was singing me praises in front of my sex-goddess of a mother. Oh, and by the by, never ask a sex goddess a question about sex unless you want a lecture.”

“Did that happen to you?” Gojyo asked. I rolled my eyes.

“I’d had the sex lecture a couple of times already from two different women and one man, but I had a question – just one question! Did sex hut the second time? It was a simple yes-or-no question that got my mother into a three hour lecture which covered heterosexual sex, gay sex, and lesbian sex. In the end, the bitch never answered my fucking question!”

“You know, the second time…”

“I know,” I interrupted. “I am a married woman. I have since discovered the answer for myself. That lecture just managed to put me off the idea of sex for over a decade, is all.”

“And…?” Gojyo prompted.

“And what?” I asked innocently, knowing full well what he wanted to know but not willing to say anything. My sex life was none of his business.

“Did it hurt the second time?” Goku asked me. I had nearly forgotten that he was there.

I snorted. “Go to hell! I don’t kiss and tell!”

Wow, that rhymed.