Gensomaden Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Crimson Craving ❯ Part Seven ( Chapter 7 )

Crimson Craving 7

Mrs. Rusalki

Standard disclaimers apply. [R] for language, nastiness and the un-betaedness

Hakkai had lain awake during the better part of the night. Gojyo's words were taking their toll on him. His awareness bordered on a semi-drunken state where thoughts of what could possibly come after this predicament and problems that became unrecognizable blurs floated like aimless flotsam and jetsam in his mind. They already had a plan in mind. Go back to the only place where kasalanans where purchased from. Get the information out of them, head to where the orchard of the fruit was and grill the owner to find out how they could get rid of Sanzou's welter of symptoms.

The owner of the inn had told them earlier that the fruit always had the same effects on its consumers but in a much lower level. Its symptoms faded away in a matter of days. However cases were more often innocuous when the fruit was taken in moderation. He had never before heard of a person go berserk for eating it. It was probably because no one had been able to afford more than a piece for each person. Sanzou bought and ate two clusters in one lunch hour made possible by the Three Aspects.

And not for the first time since they had come together, Hakkai wanted to clobber the monk senseless for being so senseless.

But that was the past… no use going bonkers over it. The important thing for him then was to get a good night's sleep because he had to reserve his energy for driving. He had no idea how far the orchard was and how much persuasion he needed to use to get its location from the fruit's local dealer.

His eyes traveled to Goku. He was sleeping peacefully after a good meal of beef and tofu. And maybe because, Hakkai had promised him that Sanzou would soon be well.

Liars go to hell.

It was the last sentence that rang in Hakkai's head before he went into an allayed sleepless dream of evil fruits, Gojyo and sex.

The next day, they were delayed by the opening of the store. Apparently, its storeowner rarely got the urge to head to the shop early because his monopoly made his products a sellout whatever the time of the day was.

"Excuse me sir but can I ask who the distributor this fruit is?" asked Hakkai as he held up an overripe kasalanan fruit in his left hand. They were standing outside the store with the big open window.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that sir," the real owner of the hut said. The person who had sold them the laxatives was just a houseboy who'd do anything for a bit of dough. The said medication was sometimes effective with flushing the fruit's substances out of a body's bloodstream if the fruit was taken in moderation. Apparently, no amount of crapping in a single day could swill out the pulp that Sanzou had gluttonously wolfed down.

This merchant was afraid that Hakkai was just another businessman who wanted his own stock of fruits for a cheaper price by buying them straight from the farm. There had been many potentially lucrative and more intimidating propositions that came from bigger merchants before who had been addicted to the miraculous fruit. He turned them all down. This guy with the skinny white dragon and his young cohort didn't look like they had enough brawn or money to pry the information out of him.

Hakkai's smile faltered and his eyes turned dull; the inflection in his tone as he spoke was clearly present. "Hear that Goku? The good man can't tell us what we need to know. Would you mind demonstrating how your fist works in this type of situation?"

"Sure!" The boy nodded enthusiastically. Goku punched the solid wooden wall supporting the left side of the hut with a smile. Time seemed to stop as his fist collided with its target. Seconds later, splinters were flying within an arm's length of the boy and a hole in the wall was letting in more light from the outside inside his hut.

Hakkai didn't usually resort to bullying but as the shadows on the ground increased in length his patience shrank at the same speed too. They had a mission to accomplish which they couldn't do without Sanzou and the distribution of the fruit despite its questionable nature should be stopped as soon as possible. It acted like a hallucinogen from what he had learned from Gojyo and had little or possibly no good effects at all to a person's health.

People who were passing the street were looking at them in puzzlement, and the remaining others who were more perceptive, in alarm.

Instinct told him to just tell this silently seething young fellow what he was after but years of tempering his business skills wanted to test the borders of the man's patience in order to get the best deal out of the given circumstances.

"You can break my whole hut down but the information is still not free," he stated firmly although his balls felt as if they had shrunk to the size of raisins.

He then realized that he had picked the wrong day… or lifetime rather to become a businessman.

Goku clenched his arms in a clear warning for physical injury that didn't leave out knotted intestines and ground livers in the process. Hakkai's smile widened just a tiny fraction but even a fool could see that it was not a good sign because that smile with the current expression of his eyes screamed bloody murder. His face tilted at Goku; his earrings caught the light of the setting sun and its flash left two bright red spots in the merchant's vision. It added significant unease to the already unnerving atmosphere.

He squinted and within a few seconds, Goku stood on the ledge of the window. Unconsciously, he stepped back but the boy had anticipated it. The neck of his shirt was grabbed and his feet were lifted from the ground easily.

"There is a cliff nearby and we'll be very happy to escort you to your death if you don't make yourself more useful to us," Hakkai said with a deadpan voice. He chuckled for no apparent reason and then said, "Of course, this place is always an option…"

And that was how Hakkai and Goku came about the location of the castle roughly 30 miles southwest from the inn. Their current searches hadn't brought them that far because logical thought pushed Hakkai to search the surrounding area for clues before arbitrarily choosing a direction and going straight ahead from the home base. At last, they were able to make a solid albeit small step towards the solution for Sanzou's dilemma.

For good measure, Hakkai burned the stock of the heinous fruits that the merchant had at the back of his store.

+++

There was nothing like answering to the call of nature while harmonizing with Mother Nature herself. The sound of the insects and far off wild animals brought in a welcome distraction to dim the sound of his thoughts. It was the day after the terrible dream.

He had tied his white dragon to a tree where it was close enough to be heard should a hitch take place and at the same time far enough to have his privacy. Animal or no animal, it still had eyes and a brain that could intrude his personal space.

'What am I doing?' he asked himself again. After the nightmare he had about his stepmother, he carefully weighed two questionable possibilities. He wanted to tell whether dreams happen for a reason or not. Kougaiji knew he was not a superstitious person, not by a long shot. He didn't believe in bullshit like signs, destiny or the unknown. However, when a 'sign' was presented to him at such a timely occasion, he was much obliged to defer his decision concerning Gyokumen's offer. At this point, he came to realize that anything was better than the initial way out.

Travel was a snore fest. He had the choice to teleport from one point to another but he wasn't sure if his destination would allow him to do so. Sometimes fortifications weren't just walls and moats. He had learned about it the hard way in the past and therefore took the safeguard of bringing a more reliable although cumbersome mode of transportation.

He still had an allowance of a few more days and this trip that he had worked out with Dokugakuji seemed like a sensible idea at that time because it might last for only a day or two maximum. He trusted his retainer that much. Dokugakuji would tell him if a plan was stupid (in a tactful manner of course).

The dream or what he could recall of it left little clues for him to start with but the fragments that he retained presented significant symbolizations to narrow down the location southeast of Togenkyou. The dilemma and Yaone's talents fit together almost perfectly.

If only he had Doku with him. Someone had to take care of Lirin, he supposed. He wasn't going to leave his sister to her mother. What a paradox. Besides, without anyone to keep an eye out for her, who knew what type of brainwashing Dr. Nii would try to dupe her with?

He was shaking his thing when he heard the low rumble of his dragon's throat. It wasn't as alarming as a high screech but his dragon was well-trained in stealth missions so in his case, the littlest noise should be taken into consideration.

Quickly but quietly, he finished up and turned his attention to dragon's location. He pressed his back as best as he could to the trunk of a fat tree. A woman with wavy, dark hair was untying the dragon's makeshift leash hurriedly while casting confident glances over her shoulder. She was able to undo the knots that Kougaiji-unknowing of any human interference-tied.

It was a wonder how she managed to pull that one off. Dragons were remarkably loyal creatures and were incredibly shy when approached by threats. Threat defined as anyone other than its master or its master's comrades. It often reacted violently or noisily. Sometimes both but this time the dragon, except its earlier low languorous rumble, did nothing to bring his master's attention to it.

Kougaiji separated from the shadows to catch the encroacher.

For one strange moment, while her neck was trapped in his right arm and his other hand held her wrists together, he knew that he wasn't the one playing captor. He pressed his face closer to hers.

"What's your business here?" he hissed.

The woman refused to speak. One end of her lips curved upwardly to create a smirk. Kougaiji was unnerved by this. The pace of her heartbeat his chest felt on her back didn't even quicken in the slightest.

"Answer me!" Impatience strewn with anxiety grew in his voice.

He sniffed loudly in frustration and he inhaled the scent of her hair. It was intoxicating, like something that induced the image of still waters. Once he breathed again for necessity he felt a dreamy lethargy of forgetfulness creep from his nose to his eyes. His lids felt heavy as if he were suddenly sedated.

It was not until much later that he found himself at the backseat of a quaint green Jeep with two other equally silent occupants when he realized the magnitude of his problems.

In faith he asked, "Are you by any chance heading to the castle some ways from here?"

+++

He eased out of his designated partner's embrace carefully. It was a strange sleep that he had.

It was good, lazy and best of all, dreamless… so unlike that of the past days.

The warm body with the innocent face beckoned to him. An unnamed compulsion drove him to place a kiss on a sleeping Sanzou's nose. It was the only innocent thing that had remained between them so far.

"Pretty," he murmured and quickly regretted it because it had awakened Sanzou. A trail of dry spit was revealed at the corner of his mouth as he yawned. For some forsaken reason, Gojyo yearned to lick it away.

And so he did.

Sanzou's eyes that couldn't have possibly gotten any wider stared at him in unmasked fury. An unexpected punch in the gut knocked the wind out of Gojyo. Next thing he saw was Sanzou fumbling under the pillow, unsuccessfully trying to locate his magnum.

Gojyo almost fell out of his bed. "Geez, I was just cleaning you up…" he complained.

"Get the hell away from me, pervert!"

Gojyo rubbed his eyes. "Are you well or is your situation deteriorating?"

Sanzou was for a second, incredulous but the flaring nostrils and blazing eyes designed to kill, quickly returned to shut Gojyo up. "Stop toying with me!" Sanzou accused and threw the nearest object at his bedmate. "You vile… you violated me!"

Gojyo's mouth hung open in an unflattering manner. He recovered when the pillow hit him and he went to the window with widespread arms. "Oh Gods of Heaven, please don't make me believe in you!"

He sunk to his knees and covered his face with his hands. He resembled a cold statue that had suddenly come to life because of loneliness. Of course, he should've expected Sanzou's reaction. Hakkai's warnings were reasonable. However, he couldn't help but feel that convincing Sanzou that things weren't as they seem was like selling pineapples in a place where the knife hadn't been invented yet.

'Shit, he had to use the word violated too…' A shudder spread across his shoulders horizontally.

Silence reigned as Sanzou contemplated the whys and wherefores of his current situation. That was being naked and sticky in what he remembered as Gojyo's bed.

For Gojyo who looked up from his troubled position, to see the real Sanzou back who was capable of contemplating matters of consequence (or at least that's how it appeared) was incredibly-but confusingly so-arousing. He slipped to the bathroom, very careful to hide his frontal.

He let two minutes pass by to calm his raging pet. The damned thing was possessed as far as he could tell.

Nothing except a rustle of clothing went on outside the bathroom.

'Sanzou getting dressed, probably…' He wanted to see it!

And he also wanted to bang his head on the wall several times for wanting to. He hated himself for being so powerless at stopping his libido from wedding his ego. The insane Sanzou was definitely not enough of an answer for him. He didn't want that Sanzou because it didn't present any challenge. He was more interested in the one behind this wall (that he had desperately searched for a hole) because this was going to raise hell just to resist his advances.

He opened the door, expecting to see Sanzou standing beside an open window smoking a fag as if it were his last one. What greeted him though were coruscating violet eyes and a mouth with a blatant invitation for a kiss.

Sanzou pulled Gojyo's face down and kissed him. It was deliberate and searching. Out of old habits, Gojyo cupped Sanzou ass which was now clothed with his stonewashed jeans but it was still his ass nonetheless.

And fervently willed himself to believe that this wasn't a fugue. Sanzou was happy about this. Sanzou wanted him in return.

But Sanzou pushed him away at once but not forcefully. "I should've known. You're a shallow animal who's just in for the fuck." The harshness of Sanzou's words of condescension was no match for his bitter smile. His eyes wandered to Gojyo's groin, they narrowed before looking back at Gojyo's face haughtily.

The monk touched his companion's cheek once. It swung sideways to slap Goyjo's face and then he walked out without closing the door so anyone outside could see the redhead's shameful nakedness

"Shall I take comfort in knowing that this situation couldn't have gotten any worse?" Gojyo demanded as he went to pick up his discarded clothing.

Who was he kidding? He dimly knew and guiltily liked what had happened between them last night. At that time, he could've tried to stop it, should've tried to stop it and would've tried to stop it… except he was enjoying himself immensely to even utter a word of refusal. Touches, kisses, penetrations… he couldn't just get 'well' in mid-fuck, could he?

Some semblance of control over his psyche had returned starting from the incident with Hakkai where his anus was so sore for shitting in an extended period. The laxative probably did some work but insanity won over that battle because its jealousy was sparked. He felt like the sailor who was forced to watch his ship get sucked into a giant whirlpool helplessly.

The itch being carried in his bloodstream was just too crafty to be resisted. Its demands resembled a deep song that invoked and enhanced the movements and capabilities of a body. Most troubling of all the facts at hand was that Sanzou knew deep in the bowels of his dirtiest yearnings that the fruit wasn't the only fuel for his wanting Gojyo to feel him up.

Slap him across the face indeed. 'How thick of me…' Without his magnum, it was the last protection he had. If he hadn't used it to push him away, he'd be lucidly screwing Gojyo so selfishly that there wouldn't be anything left for Hakkai.

+++

"I'm so hungry I could cry." Goku had finally started his whining thereby breaking the silence that was so heavy upon them since Hakkai affirmed Kougaiji's question.

Hakkai smiled. "Remember who we're doing this for, Goku."

"But the stomach doesn't have brains, Hakkai!"

Kougaiji laughed.

"Huh? What's so funny?" Goku asked. He turned to the backseat where Kougaiji was and blinked at him rapidly.

"So this is what life is like for the half of the Sanzou-ikkou. I never would've guessed."

"More or less… I'm glad that in light of the current situation we're not meeting at daggers drawn today. I sense a deeper need from you at the moment," Hakkai answered in his customary amenable manner.

"That's very perceptive of you, Hakkai-san. Funny, I get the same vibes from you."

"Would you care for a trade of stories? It might be helpful because it doesn't seem like we're at conflicting purposes. If mutuality isn't available, then entertainment always is."

"I think I'm making much from our mutuality already. How were you able to come by me? I remember seeing a woman deep in the forest attempting to steal my dragon but nothing more."

Hakkai's expression tuned to puzzlement. He then frowned in deep thought.

"We found you sleeping beside the trail!" Goku exclaimed. His excitement was funny but its source was unnerving.

Kougaiji sighed heavily and looked at a point far from them. What made the woman go through the trouble of leaving him near the road for other travelers to find out? And he had to ask: did she know that-of all the people who followed that treacherous trail-Hakkai and Goku would be the ones to find him?

'If we live through this day, will I become just another believer of fate?' Kougaiji asked himself.

TBC