Counterparts Part III
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Gensomaden Saiyuki › General
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Adult +
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Category:
Gensomaden Saiyuki › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
6
Views:
1,176
Reviews:
4
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Gensomaden Saiyuki, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Counterparts Part III
COUNTERPARTS / PART III
Secret Touch – Rush (Lifeson, Lee, & Peart)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5mKrcOCzc8
The way out
Is the way in
The way out
Is the way in...
Out of touch
With the weather and the wind direction
With the sunrise
And the phases of the moon
Out of touch
With life in the land of the loving
With the living night
And the darkness at high noon
You can never break the chain
There is never love without pain
A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart
Out of sync
With the rhythm of my own reactions
With the things that last
And the things that come apart
Out of sync
With love in the land of the living
A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart
A healing hand, a secret touch on the heart
There is never love without pain
Life is a power that remains
Chapter 8
Neither Hakkai nor Sanzo had been disappointed to have the Houtou Castle party put off their arrival until the following day. Both were quite tired and emotionally drained after the visit with the doctor earlier that day. The fact that it was now steadily raining did nothing to improve either of their moods. This concerned Goku, and around five in the afternoon he stuck his head tentatively in the door of Gojyo’s room.
Sanzo was in his usual perch in the windowseat, puffing away on a cigarette and staring mindlessly out of the window. Hakkai was seated at the table, straining in the fading daylight to read a medical book he had had messengered over from a clinic in a nearby town. Hakkai looked up and beckoned Goku to enter. He looked at Sanzo and hesitantly came in, staying near the door.
“I saw the weather was getting crummy, and I just wanted to offer in case you guys needed me to go for anything. I could go bring you some dinner – any kind of carry-out you feel like tonight?”
He tried to sound quietly cheerful, but not too much – he knew how easy it was to annoy Sanzo these days, especially when it rained. So far the monk hadn’t even acknowledged his presence.
“Thank you Goku, it is very sweet of you to offer,” Hakkai said, putting down his book. He took off his monacle and rubbed his eyes, “I just can’t seem to get anywhere with this book.” He was obviously both fatigued and exasperated.
Goku switched on the lamp nearest Hakkai and a soft light flooded the table.
“Well, no wonder, with you sitting there reading in the dark like that! Aren’t you always the one telling us we’ll ruin our eyes if we do that?” he teased gently.
Hakkai smiled a tired smile, “You have me there, Goku. I know I have said that a million times just to our Sanzo here.”
At the mention of his name Sanzo’s head whipped around. He had been a million miles away, back in better times with Gojyo again. He looked at the young man standing by the door and was struck by how much older he looked… that couldn’t be Goku. The Goku he had taken out of the cave in the side of the mountain, and herded along on this infernal trip, and thumped with his harisen a thousand times - that Goku was a boy, a puppy, a punk.
This person standing by the door was a young man, almost fully-grown. He wasn’t the squirmy hyperactive saru that Sanzo thought of when he thought of Goku, either. He looked at the young man in silent wonder, and felt guilty about all the things he should have done for him over the years as his mentor and guide. When he should have been teaching him the finer points of how to behave in society and expanding his formal education he had instead brought him along on this fucking trip, exposing him to the worst kinds of violence and the dregs of society. Sanzo sighed deeply, his mind reaching a point of saturation – one guilt trip at a time he told himself. Get Gojyo straightened out and you can deal with the monkey later.
“How are you doing, Goku?” he asked him in a low, somewhat detached voice.
“I’m ok Sanzo, I’m fine, really. Don’t worry about me,” he said, as if he read the monk’s mind.
His golden eyes, as they looked at Sanzo, were filled with concern, “you just take care of Gojyo and take care of yourself – I’ll be ok.”
Sanzo locked eyes with Goku for a moment, nodded in wordless understanding, and looked back into the rainy twilight outside.
“Thank you, Goku,” said Hakkai. “I know he appreciates that.”
Goku’s eyes went to his fallen comrade on the bed, and he couldn’t hide his worry and the pain it caused him to see Gojyo fallen so low, lying so lifeless.
Hakkai noticed immediately, and stood up. “I think I will have you go get us some food. I believe I left Sanzo’s AnEx card in my room – come with me and I’ll go get it, and I’ll tell you what to get us. Excuse us, please, Sanzo,” and he herded Goku out into the hall.
They sat down on a couch in the lobby of the inn and Hakkai began telling Goku about the visit from the doctor earlier in the day, Sanzo’s reaction, and how he felt about it all. Now that he had had a little time to think about it, Hakkai had come to the sad conclusion that the doctor was probably right, that there was no way Gojyo was ever going to come out of this. And even if he did survive, he probably would be a vegetable, someone that would have to live out his days in a state-run hospital, his every physical need being tended to by medical staff. As much as he could hear his friend making a dirty joke out of that idea, he knew the cold reality of it would appall him, and it would be the last thing a vital lion of a man like Gojyo would ever want.
Goku listened intensely to everything Hakkai had to say, asking an intelligent question here and there when he needed clarification on a point. When he had finished relating all the basic information to Goku, Hakkai asked him if he had any further questions.
“So what do we do now?” the young man asked, more deadly serious than he had ever been in his life.
“What do you mean?” asked the healer.
“I mean where do we go from here? Gojyo can’t go on like this! Sanzo can’t take much more of it, and Gojyo wouldn’t want to live like this. I know him. He would rather be dead.”
Hakkai sat in stunned silence and looked at the young man before him. For all of his own theorizing and reading and thinking about the situation at hand, he had not been able to get a handle on it, to distill it down to it’s essential crux. Goku, the youngest and most inexperienced among them, had just done it in five seconds. Of course.
“Well, Goku,” he began slowly, “basically you are absolutely right. Unfortunately there are a few things that make it not quite that simple, but in essence you hit the nail right on the head.”
“What do you mean?” Goku asked.
“Well, I guess the main thing is we have no way of knowing what is going to happen with Gojyo’s condition. He is still… fluctuating. Because of the nature of the brain and what it does when it is injured and it swells.”
“But that doctor said there was no way he could ever get any better than he is now, right?
Hakkai looked down at his shoes. This was the hardest part… he felt like such a failure, to Gojyo, to all of them, “yes, Goku, that’s what he said.”
“And do you agree with him?”
“I don’t know Goku… I know I have done everything I can possibly do for him and nothing seems to help. The doctor has had a lot more training than I have and he seemed to know what he was talking about. I also know I am very tired of seeing Gojyo like this… it’s just so unbearably sad. And you are right. It’s just killing Sanzo.”
By the time he ended his voice was down to a whisper and there were large tears in the corners of his eyes. Cho Hakkai had not cried since that day long ago when his wife had taken her life in that dank dirty cell. But he was reaching his limits, dealing with the pain of his friends, as well as his own.
Goku thought for a minute, and spoke in a voice that sounded more like a man’s voice than Hakkai had ever heard from his young friend before. “Hakkai, you know I love Gojyo like a brother, right? He means the world to me, and I would give my life to make him better now if I could. But it seems to me if nothing’s gonna bring him back to us the way he was, then the best thing we can do for him is to let him go. And we are going to have to help Sanzo let go of him, too.”
“Oh Gods, Goku…” Hakkai was so overwhelmed by the gentle wisdom and the ultimate import of what his young friend had said that the dam finally broke. All the tears that he had been holding back since Gojyo had been so gravely hurt came flooding out and his slender shoulders shook as he sobbed.
Goku put his arms around him and held him, totally heedless of what any passers-by might think as he comforted his friend. “You let it go, Hakkai. You have been so strong for so long, you always take such good care of all of us, let me take care of you for once. I know how much he means to you and how hard this has been for you.” He hugged the slender man close to him and held him close while he wept.
After a few minutes Hakkai started to regain his composure and was immediately embarrassed by what he had done.
“Oh my, Goku, I’m sorry for putting on such a display,” he said as he sniffled and pulled a pocket square out of his tunic pocket. “It’s not like me to be so overcome.” He tried to put on one of his brave smiles as he blew his nose as delicately as possible.
Goku smiled broadly at the healer – it was so unusual to see him so discombobulated. He ruffled his dark chestnut hair and teased, “maybe you should do it more often! Prob’ly be good for you!”
Hakkai smiled at the turnabout of their roles, Goku usually being the one getting the lecture and the hair-mussing. He had to admit he did feel better for having let out the pent up tears.
Goku looked him up and down and said,”you look like you could use a good meal, and from what I saw of Sanzo up there, he looked like he hadn’t had one in months – or a good nights’ sleep, either.”
“Yes, I suppose I should eat. It’s not so easy to get him to, though. It’s almost like he has decided he won’t eat until Gojyo is eating with us again… The Gods know, I’ve tried.”
“Well, you know he wouldn’t listen to me – I’d just piss him off.”
“I don’t know about that, saru,” Hakkai replied, smiling and ruffling the young man’s thick brown hair exaggeratedly, “I think if we can ever get him to snap out of this funk of pain that he is in and really notice you, I think he is going to be very pleasantly surprised and proud.”
******************************
Dear Hakkai,
Just wanted to let you know that we arrived during the night, having been able to resolve the situation at home and get away earlier than we anticipated. Sorry I was unable to explain the situation in the telegram, but please allow me to clarify it now.
Apparently Lady Gyokumen Kyoshu got wind of the fact that we were planning to come to this village in order for Dokugakugi to visit with his brother. We don’t know how she found out. Lirin was under strict orders not to tell anyone, but between Dr. Ni and Dr. Hwang, they are frighteningly good at getting information from people sometimes, so that may have been how it happened.
We were preparing to depart when Lady Gyokumen summoned my Lord Kougaiji to her quarters and began giving him royal commands, claiming he was not to have any interactions with the Sanzo-ikkou without her express permission. She also vexed Lord Kougaiji greatly by telling him that if he did have any interactions with the Sanzo-ikkou at all, he dare not return to Houtou Castle without the Maten Scripture, or face her wrath. When he argued this point with her and explained that we were only going to accompany Dokugakuji to see his gravely ill brother, she ordered her minions to stable all of the flying dragons in hidden locations until Lord Kougaiji would concede to her demands.
Needless to say, this vexed both Lord Kougaiji and Dokugakuji to the extreme. Fortunately Doku was able to locate the stable hand that had actually hidden the dragons, and with the appropriate application of force, the foolish man revealed where they were hidden and we were able to leave as planned, albeit a little behind schedule. I don’t envy that stable hand when Lady Gyokumen Kyoshu rises this morning and realizes we are gone. I expect he will be on the receiving end of new uses for the riding crop that he had never experienced before!
I am so very sorry for the reason we are here, but I am glad we have finally arrived, and I must admit I am truly looking forward to seeing you, Hakkai.
Yours,
Yaone
Secret Touch – Rush (Lifeson, Lee, & Peart)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5mKrcOCzc8
The way out
Is the way in
The way out
Is the way in...
Out of touch
With the weather and the wind direction
With the sunrise
And the phases of the moon
Out of touch
With life in the land of the loving
With the living night
And the darkness at high noon
You can never break the chain
There is never love without pain
A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart
Out of sync
With the rhythm of my own reactions
With the things that last
And the things that come apart
Out of sync
With love in the land of the living
A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart
A healing hand, a secret touch on the heart
There is never love without pain
Life is a power that remains
Chapter 8
Neither Hakkai nor Sanzo had been disappointed to have the Houtou Castle party put off their arrival until the following day. Both were quite tired and emotionally drained after the visit with the doctor earlier that day. The fact that it was now steadily raining did nothing to improve either of their moods. This concerned Goku, and around five in the afternoon he stuck his head tentatively in the door of Gojyo’s room.
Sanzo was in his usual perch in the windowseat, puffing away on a cigarette and staring mindlessly out of the window. Hakkai was seated at the table, straining in the fading daylight to read a medical book he had had messengered over from a clinic in a nearby town. Hakkai looked up and beckoned Goku to enter. He looked at Sanzo and hesitantly came in, staying near the door.
“I saw the weather was getting crummy, and I just wanted to offer in case you guys needed me to go for anything. I could go bring you some dinner – any kind of carry-out you feel like tonight?”
He tried to sound quietly cheerful, but not too much – he knew how easy it was to annoy Sanzo these days, especially when it rained. So far the monk hadn’t even acknowledged his presence.
“Thank you Goku, it is very sweet of you to offer,” Hakkai said, putting down his book. He took off his monacle and rubbed his eyes, “I just can’t seem to get anywhere with this book.” He was obviously both fatigued and exasperated.
Goku switched on the lamp nearest Hakkai and a soft light flooded the table.
“Well, no wonder, with you sitting there reading in the dark like that! Aren’t you always the one telling us we’ll ruin our eyes if we do that?” he teased gently.
Hakkai smiled a tired smile, “You have me there, Goku. I know I have said that a million times just to our Sanzo here.”
At the mention of his name Sanzo’s head whipped around. He had been a million miles away, back in better times with Gojyo again. He looked at the young man standing by the door and was struck by how much older he looked… that couldn’t be Goku. The Goku he had taken out of the cave in the side of the mountain, and herded along on this infernal trip, and thumped with his harisen a thousand times - that Goku was a boy, a puppy, a punk.
This person standing by the door was a young man, almost fully-grown. He wasn’t the squirmy hyperactive saru that Sanzo thought of when he thought of Goku, either. He looked at the young man in silent wonder, and felt guilty about all the things he should have done for him over the years as his mentor and guide. When he should have been teaching him the finer points of how to behave in society and expanding his formal education he had instead brought him along on this fucking trip, exposing him to the worst kinds of violence and the dregs of society. Sanzo sighed deeply, his mind reaching a point of saturation – one guilt trip at a time he told himself. Get Gojyo straightened out and you can deal with the monkey later.
“How are you doing, Goku?” he asked him in a low, somewhat detached voice.
“I’m ok Sanzo, I’m fine, really. Don’t worry about me,” he said, as if he read the monk’s mind.
His golden eyes, as they looked at Sanzo, were filled with concern, “you just take care of Gojyo and take care of yourself – I’ll be ok.”
Sanzo locked eyes with Goku for a moment, nodded in wordless understanding, and looked back into the rainy twilight outside.
“Thank you, Goku,” said Hakkai. “I know he appreciates that.”
Goku’s eyes went to his fallen comrade on the bed, and he couldn’t hide his worry and the pain it caused him to see Gojyo fallen so low, lying so lifeless.
Hakkai noticed immediately, and stood up. “I think I will have you go get us some food. I believe I left Sanzo’s AnEx card in my room – come with me and I’ll go get it, and I’ll tell you what to get us. Excuse us, please, Sanzo,” and he herded Goku out into the hall.
They sat down on a couch in the lobby of the inn and Hakkai began telling Goku about the visit from the doctor earlier in the day, Sanzo’s reaction, and how he felt about it all. Now that he had had a little time to think about it, Hakkai had come to the sad conclusion that the doctor was probably right, that there was no way Gojyo was ever going to come out of this. And even if he did survive, he probably would be a vegetable, someone that would have to live out his days in a state-run hospital, his every physical need being tended to by medical staff. As much as he could hear his friend making a dirty joke out of that idea, he knew the cold reality of it would appall him, and it would be the last thing a vital lion of a man like Gojyo would ever want.
Goku listened intensely to everything Hakkai had to say, asking an intelligent question here and there when he needed clarification on a point. When he had finished relating all the basic information to Goku, Hakkai asked him if he had any further questions.
“So what do we do now?” the young man asked, more deadly serious than he had ever been in his life.
“What do you mean?” asked the healer.
“I mean where do we go from here? Gojyo can’t go on like this! Sanzo can’t take much more of it, and Gojyo wouldn’t want to live like this. I know him. He would rather be dead.”
Hakkai sat in stunned silence and looked at the young man before him. For all of his own theorizing and reading and thinking about the situation at hand, he had not been able to get a handle on it, to distill it down to it’s essential crux. Goku, the youngest and most inexperienced among them, had just done it in five seconds. Of course.
“Well, Goku,” he began slowly, “basically you are absolutely right. Unfortunately there are a few things that make it not quite that simple, but in essence you hit the nail right on the head.”
“What do you mean?” Goku asked.
“Well, I guess the main thing is we have no way of knowing what is going to happen with Gojyo’s condition. He is still… fluctuating. Because of the nature of the brain and what it does when it is injured and it swells.”
“But that doctor said there was no way he could ever get any better than he is now, right?
Hakkai looked down at his shoes. This was the hardest part… he felt like such a failure, to Gojyo, to all of them, “yes, Goku, that’s what he said.”
“And do you agree with him?”
“I don’t know Goku… I know I have done everything I can possibly do for him and nothing seems to help. The doctor has had a lot more training than I have and he seemed to know what he was talking about. I also know I am very tired of seeing Gojyo like this… it’s just so unbearably sad. And you are right. It’s just killing Sanzo.”
By the time he ended his voice was down to a whisper and there were large tears in the corners of his eyes. Cho Hakkai had not cried since that day long ago when his wife had taken her life in that dank dirty cell. But he was reaching his limits, dealing with the pain of his friends, as well as his own.
Goku thought for a minute, and spoke in a voice that sounded more like a man’s voice than Hakkai had ever heard from his young friend before. “Hakkai, you know I love Gojyo like a brother, right? He means the world to me, and I would give my life to make him better now if I could. But it seems to me if nothing’s gonna bring him back to us the way he was, then the best thing we can do for him is to let him go. And we are going to have to help Sanzo let go of him, too.”
“Oh Gods, Goku…” Hakkai was so overwhelmed by the gentle wisdom and the ultimate import of what his young friend had said that the dam finally broke. All the tears that he had been holding back since Gojyo had been so gravely hurt came flooding out and his slender shoulders shook as he sobbed.
Goku put his arms around him and held him, totally heedless of what any passers-by might think as he comforted his friend. “You let it go, Hakkai. You have been so strong for so long, you always take such good care of all of us, let me take care of you for once. I know how much he means to you and how hard this has been for you.” He hugged the slender man close to him and held him close while he wept.
After a few minutes Hakkai started to regain his composure and was immediately embarrassed by what he had done.
“Oh my, Goku, I’m sorry for putting on such a display,” he said as he sniffled and pulled a pocket square out of his tunic pocket. “It’s not like me to be so overcome.” He tried to put on one of his brave smiles as he blew his nose as delicately as possible.
Goku smiled broadly at the healer – it was so unusual to see him so discombobulated. He ruffled his dark chestnut hair and teased, “maybe you should do it more often! Prob’ly be good for you!”
Hakkai smiled at the turnabout of their roles, Goku usually being the one getting the lecture and the hair-mussing. He had to admit he did feel better for having let out the pent up tears.
Goku looked him up and down and said,”you look like you could use a good meal, and from what I saw of Sanzo up there, he looked like he hadn’t had one in months – or a good nights’ sleep, either.”
“Yes, I suppose I should eat. It’s not so easy to get him to, though. It’s almost like he has decided he won’t eat until Gojyo is eating with us again… The Gods know, I’ve tried.”
“Well, you know he wouldn’t listen to me – I’d just piss him off.”
“I don’t know about that, saru,” Hakkai replied, smiling and ruffling the young man’s thick brown hair exaggeratedly, “I think if we can ever get him to snap out of this funk of pain that he is in and really notice you, I think he is going to be very pleasantly surprised and proud.”
******************************
Dear Hakkai,
Just wanted to let you know that we arrived during the night, having been able to resolve the situation at home and get away earlier than we anticipated. Sorry I was unable to explain the situation in the telegram, but please allow me to clarify it now.
Apparently Lady Gyokumen Kyoshu got wind of the fact that we were planning to come to this village in order for Dokugakugi to visit with his brother. We don’t know how she found out. Lirin was under strict orders not to tell anyone, but between Dr. Ni and Dr. Hwang, they are frighteningly good at getting information from people sometimes, so that may have been how it happened.
We were preparing to depart when Lady Gyokumen summoned my Lord Kougaiji to her quarters and began giving him royal commands, claiming he was not to have any interactions with the Sanzo-ikkou without her express permission. She also vexed Lord Kougaiji greatly by telling him that if he did have any interactions with the Sanzo-ikkou at all, he dare not return to Houtou Castle without the Maten Scripture, or face her wrath. When he argued this point with her and explained that we were only going to accompany Dokugakuji to see his gravely ill brother, she ordered her minions to stable all of the flying dragons in hidden locations until Lord Kougaiji would concede to her demands.
Needless to say, this vexed both Lord Kougaiji and Dokugakuji to the extreme. Fortunately Doku was able to locate the stable hand that had actually hidden the dragons, and with the appropriate application of force, the foolish man revealed where they were hidden and we were able to leave as planned, albeit a little behind schedule. I don’t envy that stable hand when Lady Gyokumen Kyoshu rises this morning and realizes we are gone. I expect he will be on the receiving end of new uses for the riding crop that he had never experienced before!
I am so very sorry for the reason we are here, but I am glad we have finally arrived, and I must admit I am truly looking forward to seeing you, Hakkai.
Yours,
Yaone