Gensomaden Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Familiar Bonds ❯ Part 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: Gensomaden Saiyuki and the characters belong to their rightful owner. Yes, yes, nothing belonged to me, except the twisted, dirty scenario I had planned for them * grin *.

Note: This is the sequel for "The Beginning of the Journey" fic I wrote months ago. I recommended you to read it first. It can be found easily in Fanfiction.net or in my site, Forbidden Love.

Familiar Bonds

A fanfiction by Sumeragi Sakura

Nothing beat the peaceful hour of the early morning. It was the time when the sun had risen but not as high as to warm the day. It was when dews were still dripping wet from the tip of the leaves in the temple yard. It was when you found yourself alone, enjoying the chirping birds whose songs you wouldn't be able to hear once the rest of the world had awaken. It was when you could sit under the pouring, still-timid sunlight, blowing your first smoke of the day, reading the gazette in silence without having to worry to be disturbed.

It was when the clock struck six thirty.

It was my free hour before the morning service in the temple.

I had always enjoyed my free hour alone. I usually hid myself in my private chamber until right before I had to do the morning service with the other monks. My first breakfast was this fresh cigarette. My first refreshment was the morning's gazette, brought to the door of my chamber by the temple servants. Quietly, along with the real breakfast of rice and veggies I tended to eat after the cigarette.

The cigarette was great, as usually. The gazette wasn't.

There were some news of the upraising youkai movements in the many places of Togenkyo. Nothing big. Just a few scratches of disputes between the youkai and the people. If I were not someone of my rank, I wouldn't consider them to be quite bothersome. They would be just some minor disturbances in the far away provinces that would only rob so little of my attention.

But being who I was, I knew more things that others weren't aware of. That was why, the news made me wary. Right now, the disputes were still minor and not-too-harmful. But soon….. Soon, they would grow into something big.

Something big and really bad.

"Ch', what a troublesome…..," I caught myself sighing.

I took another sip of the thick, fresh smoke. The Three Buddhas had warned me about something like this. They knew something was awakening. But they haven't given me much more than that. Soon, I guessed, soon I would know about it, probably more than I would want to know.

But right now, it was still my free hour. I didn't want to spend it over something I hadn't yet had a clear view of. Not now. Today was today. Today, after the morning service, I would go to the villages around here to serve my dharma.

Ch', it would be a tiring day today.

I thrust the butt of my cigarette on the ashtray. I began to poke the thing served in little plates on the wooden tray, that was called my breakfast. Rice and veggies. A good monk should always remember the teaching of Buddha, never to indulge themselves in the worldly desires of human beings.

But I wasn't a good monk.

I want some meat, red, juicy meat.

Or some crispy, oily salmon.

I wasn't a good monk at all, but no one would believe me if I told them that. They only saw the title I bore and formed their ideal image of me. Not the real me. Hmph, if they would ever found out about the real me, I was sure they wouldn't believe it anyway. And I didn't really care of what they thought about me. As long as they stay out of my private life.

So, why bother?

I picked the withered, green veggie with the chopstick. It looked inedible, especially with the yellowish, cheap grease dripping from it, forming a yellowish puddle that instantly killed the little appetite I had in me. I dropped it back to the plate, to let it joined the rest of its family.

Ch', self-indulgence was one thing, but if I couldn't get some decent, real food soon, I would not only be a bad monk, but a dead one.

Might as well skip the lame breakfast and prepare myself for the morning service. I might manage to get something edible in the village.

I pushed aside the gazette I had been reading on the table. I got up and took my neat, freshly laundered holy monk robe. I put it on, over the skin-tight, black leather sleeveless top I had already worn. I let the silk-smooth robe fell down to my ankle, covering the back leather pants I used to sleep in. One thing I hate about robes was that they were very loose in the inside, without any confinement to cover my lower body. Without the leather pants, I might as well flash my naked legs every time the robe fluttered when I walked. So much for private security…..

Finished with the robe, I put on my sutras on both side of my shoulder and the monk headpiece on my head. Now, I was really ready with for my morning dharma service.

I took my first deep breath as a monk today.

Ja, iku zou….

BANG!

The door to my private chamber was banged open. I spun around, hand on my gun in offense-ready mode out of reflex. With caution I glared at the impertinent intruder, who had barged into my solitude morning without respect.

It was a middle-aged monk, the one who was in charge of the temple's kitchen.

"TA…TAIHEN, SANZO-SAMAAA!" he shrieked.

"What's wrong?"

"The…the food…the food for the mass-breakfast….THEY'RE ALL GONE, SANZO-SAMAAAA!!"

I sighed. There went my peaceful hour in the early morning.

It was not hard at all to find the culprit behind the missing food. I had a very strong suspect in mind already, at the mentioned word of "food". But I followed the panic-stricken monk to the kitchen anyway and found it in an awful state of mess. The pans and pots were overturned. The cooking tables were dirty with food leftover. A stack of used plates was piling up in the sink. The floor was stained with the leftover of porridge and drinks, it was sticky and smelly. Some sloppy footprints were left in many places of the floor, mostly gathered near the food cabinet, where the ingredients of the food were kept.

With one quick glance, I easily traced the footprint's trail. It went from the kitchen door, going around all over the kitchen floor and then disappeared near the window again. Outside the kitchen window, stood a large, thick-branched tree with the perfect height for breaking into the window.

Ch', whoever planted the tree, obviously never thought that it would be used in such a disgraceful act of crime.

"Sanzo-samaaa…., what are we going to do?" wailed the monk. "Breakfast must be served in one hour. How are we going to feed the four hundred monks with scraped food leftover?"

I knitted my brow. This was not supposed to be something I had to worry about. I was the Sanzo, damn it! Why should I worry about how to feed the monks!

I gritted my teeth. Even though, I might, indirectly, held responsible for this.

Ho Tse, the second monk in command of the temple, appeared by my side. He went into a frightening fit of fury. Frightening, even for me. He growled, he hissed, he snorted and he banged his fist on the wall.

I stared mutely at him, more amused than impressed. I plauded him silently at heart when he struggled to swallow his anger up by taking a deep, very, very deep, long breath. Then he turned his glaring eyes at me, framed by the thick, bushy brows. His bald scalp shone brightly in the morning sunlight. I suspected I saw a shade of angry red creeping up from the back of his neck, to the top of his glistening head.

"Sanzo-sama," he said with carefully, suppressed voice. "We must find the one who did this."

From the way he glared at me, and the way he choked his anger with his strained voice, I figured he had already guessed who did this. And I presumed, his guess was as good as mine.

"Certainly," I responded calmly, if not cheerfully. But then again, when had I ever been cheerful?

"Well, how should we decide who the culprit is, Sanzo-sama?"

"That's easy. Just follow the trail of the food he dropped. You might get something over it."

"I won't be surprised of what I might find."

"Me neither."

"This is not a laughing matter, Sanzo-sama."

"I don't see anyone laughing here, Ho Tze."

"You might not like what I would find."

"I might not."

I turned around, feeling I was late for the morning service. But I hadn't had the chance to walk more than a few steps when Ho Tse's voice was heard again. This time, he put more strain in it, it sounded as if he was going to die out of air.

"I think we both know already who the culprit is, Sanzo-sama."

"Then you know what to do, Ho Tze," I told him without turning.

When I turned at the corner at the hallway, I heard him muttered under his breath.

"Hmph, I definitely know what to do."

The signs were weak. But they were definite. I could sense it in the air, the strangling sensation of darkness that was not here yesterday. It was growing stronger every time I felt it. Sickening. Maddeningly disturbing. I sensed them everywhere, dangling in the air like the stench of something dead. They were weak, but they were there.

The signs didn't come from the surrounding villages of the temple, though. But it came from far, far away, as if they were carried here by the frustrated winds. I sensed a lot of restlessness, but the people here hadn't aware of them yet. Yet. Soon, things would change. And the people would suffer for their ignorance.

Should I let them know about these signs?

The Three Buddhas hadn't given me any orders concerning it. In fact, they hadn't been contacting me for the past couple of weeks. Which meant, I should wait longer, until they made up their minds of the situation at hand.

But for how long? How long will these nagging disturbances should be ignored? How dangerous would they be? Will the people's ignorance cost them sufferings, more sufferings than they already had?

"Sanzo-sama."

I jerked in surprise. I suddenly realized that I was not in a very safe place to lose my self in reveries. I was horseback riding on the green trail from the Dan Chou village back to the temple. In front of me, a couple of armed guards of the temple rode as guidance. Behind me, there was another couple. Beside me, a young monk who was ordered to accompany me during my services outside the temple, calmly matching the pace of his horse with mine.

"Sanzo-sama, we will be arriving at the temple very soon," he said again, smiling cheerfully at me.

That smile. The friendliness. It reminded me a little of Cho Gou No, no, Cho Hakkai, a prisoner I once took into custody to the temple, for the crime he committed. He was a friend now, living in the country miles away from here, with another friend, the bastard, Sha Gojyou.

"Yes, I'm aware of that, Yu Men."

"I don't mean to be disrespectful, Sanzo-sama, but you seem to be preoccupied."

I forced a smile. Friendliness had never been my style, especially with a fellow monk. But I sensed earnestness in this youngster's words and respect. I decided he deserved the same respond from me.

"I'm just thinking about things. Sorry, I've made you worried."

"Please, don't mind me. It is my job to be concern on your well-being during this kind of dharma-trip."

I mentally sighed. So much formalities. So much, they choked me on the throat. But the kid didn't mean any harm. He was just doing his job. Like I should be, doing mine.

"I'm sure he will be all right," Yu Men remarked, the gentle smile was still glowing on his lips.

"He?"

"Goku-sama. No matter how the Elders reprimand him, he will be all right. Because he is Goku-sama. However naughty he is, he never means any harm. Isn't it, Sanzo-sama? Please, forgive me if I am being rude."

So, gossips did run fast, even in a temple community.

Ch', what an interfering boy. Like, I needed him to tell me something I had already known. Naughty? I snorted. What did he know about Goku? Except as a wild kid I picked up roaming on the street like a stray dog. That was the faked truth I let everybody knew about. The real truth was in my own possession and mine only.

So I let Yu Men thought I was thinking about Goku. Thinking about Goku made me forget of other things troubling my mind.

There was never enough time, or rooms in my head, to think about Goku. He never occupied a small part of my reverie, with all the troubles and mischieves he'd been giving me. He had done nothing right. I completely regretted I picked him up in the first place.

If only I could just let him rot in his prison in the rocky mountain, I would be spared of all this headaches.

If only I could just leave him.

If only I could.

" MOU HANASHITEEE! ORE WA HARAHETA DA YOOOOO!!"

The annoying wail stopped me dead in my track. Every single drop in my vein told me to turn and walk away. But there came another wail and another, reverberating in the empty hallways of the temple, filling the air with ear-hurting high shrieks.

Ch', this had got to stop.

"HARAHETAAAAAAA!!!"

I sped my pace along the hallway, stopping only after I reached the bolted door guarded by one frustrated temple guard, whose face looked as if he almost chew his own ears if I had not come for his rescue. He pleaded me with so much gratitude in his eyes that I thought he would weep the next second.

With a jerk of the head, I dismissed him. I could hear him whimpering his gratitude while scampering away, not even bothering to look back.

Poor, poor guard.

Whoever lived five minutes near Goku must had a strong will and an incredibly sane mind to avoid long-term, if not permanent, mental madness. I was a Sanzo. I had the strongest will of them all, although I wasn't very sure about my sanity. But I would survive where most people wouldn't.

I opened the bolt blocking the door and entered the monkey's cage.

Literally.

The room was a wreck. There were the corpses of pillows, shredded to pieces, scattering on the floor. The feather stuffing covered most part of the floor near the bed. Some of it was still floating on the air, a sign of a recent shredding of pillows. Earthen pots and clay ornaments were overturned, some were lying in broken heaps in the corner.

It looked like the room had suffered the effect of the war of the gods.

But the truth was, there was only one cause why it was in such condition. The cause was sitting sprawled on the floor, wrapped with the white bed sheet, blinking its big, watery eyes to me.

The next second, the bed sheet was thrown in the air. A small figure leaped out from its wrapping, right into my arms. Son Goku was hugging my waist with tears running down his cheek and another brain-killing wail.

"SANZOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

If I hadn't been partly deaf, partly stupefied, by his wail, I would have been able to snap his hand around my waist and threw him across the room. But since I was temporarily brain-dead, I let him did it.

"SANZOOOOOO, they're sooooooo meaaan! They accused me bad things and locked me in here for hours! And that's not the worst part! THEY WON'T LET ME EAAAAAAT! I'm SOO HUNGRY, SANZOOOO! HARAHETA, HARAHETA, HARAHETA, HARAHETAAAA!"

SMACK!

I managed to produce my holy fan from the fold of my robe and hit his head hard with it. A major headache had begun to form in my head, poking my brain in the most painful areas. This little brat!

Goku crouched on the floor, whimpering in pain while rubbing his wounded head. His teary, goo-goo eyes were staring at me again in an unbearable way. But at least, his wail had stopped.

"Iteee, Sanzo! Why did you hit me like that?" he pouted.

"Baka Saru! I told you to stop wailing like a baby!"

"Sanzoo, I'm not a baby!"

"Then stop acting like one!"

"But I'm hungry!"

"You can't be hungry, you ate so much last night! No, not just so much, YOU ATE THE FOOD PREPARED FOR FOUR HUNDRED PEOPLE!"

His eyes bulged so big, I thought they would fall off their sockets and went rolling on the floor. He leaped to his feet and confronted me.

"WHAAT?! You thought I did too, Sanzo?! How could you?!"

"What do you mean how could I?! Who else in this temple would break into the kitchen and ate the food in the amount of four hundred portions?! And you're still whining about being locked up and not being fed?!"

"But I didn't do it!"

"What?"

"I DIDN'T DO IT!"

"You didn't break into the kitchen last night and eat all the food?"

"Well…..,"

His voice trailed off. He stared down at the floor, while wringing the front of his shirt in a childish way. A boyish way of showing guilt. I sighed. He was, after all, just a boy. A boy with an attitude of a wild monkey and an appetite of an elephant.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest, impatiently waiting for him to continue. I still kept the holy fan in my hand, just in case he would say something stupid and I had to smack his head again.

"Well,….," he moved his right foot, scratching the floor with the tip of his toe. His head was still bent down.

I gritted my teeth. If there was ever any championship for the most patient man alive on earth, I would definitely won first place.

"Well what, Goku?"

"Well….," he started again. "I did break into the kitchen last night."

SMACK!

"ITAAAAI! Don't hit me like that again, Sanzo!"

"You're really testing my nerve!"

"I said, I did break in and I did ate some food…"

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! And a kick in the head.

"BAKA SARU!"

"Nooo, waait! Let me finish, Sanzo! I did break in and ate some food. But I didn't make the mess! And I didn't eat ALL of the food!"

"What, are you saying you have a twin brother who did it for you?"

"NOO! I don't know what happened there! And noo, I don't have any twin brother!"

My chest was heaving after my vicious beating on him. I glared at the stupid monkey in anger, only to find that he was staring back at me. His big eyes imploring me to believe him. Those big eyes. The same eyes that pleaded me to free him from his confinement in the rocky mountain. The same eyes, filled with so much emotions enough to strained my chest and choke my throat.

He really was a brat, a scoundrel, a greedy, mischievous little demon.

But he never lied.

Not to me.

Ever.

So I stared at him in confusion. If he wasn't the one who did it, then who was it? Who else in this temple who would steal for food? The monks? It wasn't impossible. An apprentice monk, whose will was not strong enough and whose worldly desires were still rooting inside his heart, might find it hard to live on the temple's diet for the first few months. They might break the rule, stole into the kitchen and secretly filled their stomachs. Secretly. But the mess I saw in the kitchen this morning couldn't be done by someone who secretly broke into it.

And most importantly, who else could eat the whole ransom for four hundred people in one night, if not Goku? Maybe there were a lot of thieves, but how many…..?

I shook my head. Damn it! I was a damn Sanzo. I shouldn't be bothered with this kind of stuffs. Let Ho Tze and the kitchen monks worried over this. All I had to do was convince him that Goku was telling the truth.

That alone, was harder than finding who the real culprit was.

Since the day that I took him in, Goku hadn't been liked by everybody in the temple. They saw him as a wild brat, someone impossible to teach manners to, let alone the Buddha teachings. He always caused troubles, so many times it was automatically natural to point accusations at him every time something went wrong.

I sighed again, suddenly feeling very tired.

I crouched in front of him. He followed my movement with his unblinking eyes. I cast a smile at him. I reached out my right hand to him, rubbing his head gently.

"I'm sorry," was all that I needed to say.

His face bore a series of expression, from frustration, to astonishment, to expectation and lastly, to joy. A wide grin cracked on his lips. He leaped like a monkey into my arms, hugging my body tightly.

"Go…Goku…"

"You believe me, Sanzo! Sankyuu!"

He buried his face on my robe-clad chest. Gone was his frustration, gone was his trouble. He could easily do that, this monkey brat. He even seemed to forget that he was hungry. He held me so tight, with a trembling shoulder.

There was a huge urge in me to wrap my arms around him. To hold him back, tighter than he did to me. To stroke my hand on his hair and whisper comforting words to his ear. To kiss his temple and tell him myself that I believed him.

Ch', why was I always been this weak when I was near him?

"Maa, don't get too emotional over this, " I tried to free myself from his wrapping arms.

But he didn't want to let go. His hold around my body was even tighter than before. He didn't raise his head from my chest.

"Oi, Goku…"

He didn't say a word. A weird thing for Goku. Was he THIS glad that I believed him? Did it really matter so much for him that I believe him?

These kinds of thoughts were floating in my head before I realized that I had put my left arm around his body. I stared at my own hand with astonished bewilderment. Then I smiled, weakly.

Yes, this was why I picked him up from the first place.

I was weak against him. There was something in his eyes, in his smile and in his words that drew me to him. And without my realizing it, he already stole inside my heart.

My cold, shut-from-the-rest-of-the-world heart.

I stroked his hair with my right hand, while kissing the top of his head gently. He smelled good. Like the fresh smell of the sun in the morning, like the sweet smell of grass in the summer, like the sugary smell of honey from the buttercup flower.

I raised his face with my hands, finding his eyes were half-lidded in dazzle. I kissed his temple with my lips, gently, as I would've treated a glass-like figure. He closed his eyes while whispering my name.

I stole a kiss from his lips, rough and needy, in contrast of the gentle gesture I showed him earlier. He responded in boyish sloppiness, opening his mouth in eager compassion. Like the first time I kissed him, I sucked his tongue as if I wanted to suck away all of his sadness, his troubles and his despair. He melted in my mouth, giving away everything that I wanted to take.

This little brat. Without condition, he was giving me everything that he was. So openly, so trustingly. Without neither fear nor hesitance. Without holding back. Just a pure compassionate trust.

I broke the kiss with a contented smile. He was breathing cute, little puffs of breath, still eyeing me with those brilliant, eyes. I rose to my feet, gently drawing him with me. I took his hand and took him out of the room.

"Sanzo?" his voice was questioning, wondering.

"C'mon. I'll take you to my room. You can't possibly stay in this wreckage, can you?"

He grinned and scratched the back of his hair.

"And after we got into your room, will you give me something to eat, ne, Sanzo?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose with frustration.

"Baka saru….."

on to Part 2

Author's Note: For everybody who has been waiting for the sequel of The Beginning of the Journey, I'm sorry it took me this long to came up with it. I really hope you still want to read it. ^___^. This sequel consists of a few chapters. I will post the second chapter next week, I promised. (Don't worry, I'm done with half of the second chapter anyway by the time I post this one in FF.net ^___^)

See ya in the next chapter! Oh, and don't forget, please, put in some reviews if you like this. (You can also put in some reviews if you hate it! ^___^)

Oh, one more thing, since English is not my first language, I'm so sorry for all the annoying typos and grammatical errors I must have made. This is the best I can manage. All of my fics scream, "I need a Beta Reader now!", so if there's anyone out there who are willing……*big, watery eyes staring at you with expectation*. I'm poor, I won't be able to pay with money or stuffs. But I can write a fic just for you! And of course, send you hugs and kisses! ^_*. Just drop me a line here!

Thank you all for reading!