Gensomaden Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Seiten and Maten, Two Worlds Collide! ❯ The Second World:Seiten ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

“So Kougaiji told us you were dead….I suppose that way…mother doesn’t know what he did.” Mei and Lirin sat side by side in the back of Hakuryu slowly eating a couple of meat buns that they had bought. Since both Hakkai and Gojyo left to rejoin Sanzo and Goku, Mei volunteered to watch over the jeep so that she and Lirin could talk without being disturbed.
“So Kougaiji is covering for his mistake….but was it really….did he not really mean to leave me alive?” Mei glanced back to Lirin. She sat staring at the half eaten bun her gaze distant and unsure.
“What’s the matter?”
“That’s just the problem.” Lirin started.
“Kougaiji’s plan didn’t work. She knows what he’s done…and …haven’t you felt him?” For a split second, Mei’s stomach turned inside out and the cold feeling of fear shot up the back of her neck.
“What do you mean Lirin?”
“Mother….she sent an assassin to follow Kougaiji to make sure that he killed you…and when he didn’t, she sent the same one after you and Bald Sanzo to keep track of your position.” Mei thought back to when she first started traveling with the party, the feelings that kept creeping into her stomach during the late hours of the night, disturbing her dreams and setting her hair on end.
“You don’t mean that he’s been following us….” Lirin nodded.
“Lirin…” Both girls whirled around to find the group returning from their supply run. Lirin smiled when she saw Sanzo, her favorite out of all those unwilling to play with her.
“Mei….” He grumbled.
“Why is she here?” Mei turned to face him and opened her mouth to explain the situation, when she stopped.
“Nothing, she was just worried about me…that’s all.” Turning to Lirin Mei finished.
“I think it’s about time you went home Lirin, you don’t want Yaone to worry about you.” As Lirin nodded and leapt off the lowered tailgate of Hakuryu, Mei stopped her again.
“Thank you for telling me about our little problem….” She bent and wrapped her arms around Lirin’s shoulders, embracing her for a short moment. She leaned next to Lirin’s ear and whispered her warning.
“And tell Kougaiji that he’d better watch his back….Rurik’s ruthless if you get in his way.” They separated and Lirin disappeared not wanting to spend another minute away from home and risk getting into worse trouble than she already was.
“This is bad.” Mei muttered to herself as her young friend left.
“If he’s here then…” She whirled suddenly aware of the pressing presence of her companions.
“What are you getting so worked up over Mei?” Gojyo asked as he noticed her wide eyes.
“Oh…it-its nothing. We’d better get going….” With a unanimous nod, the group once again piled into Hakuryu and drove off into the unrelenting world.
The moon rose full and bright as the party made their way into the deeper parts of the land, passing desert and forest alike. Hakkai was silent for most of the trip but finally he perked up with a personal question.
“Mei?” He started. She turned to him from where she had been gazing into the brilliant sky.
“Yes?”
“It’s been bothering me for sometime now…why is your limiter…marked with the sign of Maten?”
“Oh Ho!” Gojyo quipped from his reclined position.
“So the owner finally gets around to asking about the pet eh? Geeze Hakkai, how long have you been beating about the bush?” Mei shot a quick glance towards Gojyo in order to express that this was no time for wise-cracks then went about trying to explain as best she could.
“Well…..it’s difficult to explain….it was a….a…”
“It was a reminder wasn’t it?” Mei turned to Goku and stared.
“How did you--” He smiled.
“Because you act just like Gojyo, Hakkai, or even Sanzo when they try to talk about this stuff….It reminds them of their past…I…think….” With a small nod, Mei confirmed what Goku had only guessed.
“Yes Goku, it is a reminder…you four didn’t look very well at the band when you had it in your possession, did you?”
“Why should we go looking around something as trite as a band on a demon’s power limiter?” Sanzo huffed from the front seat.
“Because it’s not just marked with ‘Maten’.” Mei removed the choker and noted only the surge of power as if a huge chain were being lifted off her as the change took place. She then carefully turned the band over and pointed to a small carving in the bottom left-hand corner. It wasn’t like the rest of the band; the mark had been scratched into the surface by something small and sharp.
“Hey…that looks like it says…’Seiten’….” Gojyo and Goku remarked when Mei extended the band to show the symbol.
“Do you know what ‘Maten’ and ‘Seiten’ are?” She asked replacing the limiter around her neck.
“It’s two Founding of Heaven and Earth Scriptures right?” Goku sat eagerly forward, expecting another nod of approval.
“That’s not what she means you idiot.” Sanzo turned in his seat and faced the other three.
“There’s a meaning behind that. Is that it?” Mei nodded.
“The term ‘Maten’ can be translated as ‘Youkai Heaven’ or ‘Infernal Land’ while ‘Seiten’ is often said to be ‘Holy Heaven’ or ‘Celestial Land’.”
“Yeah, yeah, we can skip the language lesson Mei just tell us why the hell would you want to be marked with some stupid shit like that.” She smiled and held up her hands, palms forward and fingers spread.
“There exists in this world as in any other, a balance. To every left there is a right, to every light there is darkness….and to every man…..there exists a woman…..”
“And thank God for that.” Gojyo interjected smiling inwardly at the memories that he held of such opposites.
“When I first joined with Kougaiji and the others…I came from a little village where the madness had not spread yet. When I heard of the demons gathering to the west, we--I decided to investigate what would make the others of my kind become so angry at the Humans. When I entered my first village outside of my home….I found out why.” Mei’s eyes grew dark and she focused her gaze to distant memories as she stared at the jeep floor.
“The Humans could only greet one like me with hostility and malice. I had made up my mind then and there to never become like them, or like the demons that made them that way. So to remind myself of…my self and my purpose…our--my limiter was marked with the two worlds in which I was forced to exist in. I chose the outer ‘Maten‘because that was where I owed my allegiance, Houtou Castle. I scratched ’Seiten’ into the band to remind me of where I came from. So that maybe…I could go back.” She chuckled and then turned to look at the darkened scenery around them when her thoughts were interrupted by a sharp question posed by Sanzo.
“You keep yammering about ’Opposites’ and ’to every man there is a woman’…what I have to ask now….is who holds the ’Seiten’ Limiter?” Mei’s eyes grew wide and she whipped around to face the Monk.
“I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about Sanzo.” She laughed nervously and only succeeded in pissing him off even more.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about damn it! Now SPILL!” The air was tense as Mei sat silent. Goku and Gojyo’s eyes flicked back and forth wondering whether Mei would break under Sanzo’s stare or would Sanzo give up…neither seemed likely.
“Even if there were a holder of the ‘Seiten’ Limiter, I wouldn’t tell you!” Mei’s gaze snapped to Sanzo’s and their eyes met in a clash of green and violet.
“I don’t answer to you or anyone! Not about that…..” Her gaze fell and Sanzo sighed.
“Now come on you two. Mei, Sanzo didn’t mean anything by what he said, he’s just curious…a little more than the rest of us but you shouldn’t take it too hard.” Hakkai smiled and adjusted his rearview mirror so that he could catch a glimpse of his ward. He saw her head dip in a nod and she turned away to face the back.
“I’m sorry….” She mumbled as Sanzo groaned and resumed his sulking.
“But….” As she gazed out the back, Mei thought she saw a slight silhouette in the moonlight.
“You are the only ones who pose a threat to the one I have to protect….the one that I….I…” The reflection went unnoticed as Gojyo and Goku started another argument over the last bit of sweet buns that were left.
Mei woke with a start later that night. She sat up straight in the bottom of the jeep and looked around. Goku slept peacefully leaned back against the side of the jeep to her right, and Gojyo sprawled out on the seat to her left. Amazingly, Hakkai and Sanzo managed to sleep sitting in their perpetual upright position in the front seats. Mei sighed and got out for a moment, if only to stretch her legs, as she rationalized. The truth was, the same feeling of the cold fear and the creeping sensation that something chilly and slimy was crawling up her body, had found its way into her dreams and she needed to walk it off. Mei groaned and headed for the woods when a voice sounded behind her.
“Be careful.” She turned and found Hakkai’s smiling face gazing after her. Mei nodded and smiled back.
Making her way into the woods, Mei found it getting colder and colder the further she went. She could no longer see the jeep when she felt as if she would die of frostbite.
“So…the little traitor finally decides to show her face to me eh?” Mei gasped audibly as the voice sailed over the trees.
“Who are you!? What do you want with me?!” She jerked in every direction waiting for the assassin to make their move.
“What do you mean? What could I not have to do with my little lover?” Mei felt the voice right behind her and she turned quickly to see a shadow emerge from the trees.
“No…” She whispered as the figure stepped into a ray of moonlight.
“When Lirin told me I had hoped….”
“Hoped it was all a nightmare? That I hadn’t really given myself over to Lord Gyumaoh? What a pathetic little creature you are Mei.” The young demon faced her with a smirk of pure hatred plastered on his face. His dark hair fell in cascades down and over his broad, tan shoulders. The ice-blue eyes stared hard at her, the color almost white. He wore only bracers on his forearms and lightweight pants belted with a strip of leather. His boots were knee high and a plate of metal covered the toe.
Mei took a step backward as she looked to his right eye and saw the unmistakable proof that this was who she thought. Mei’s blood boiled as she lingered over the black slash that started at his eyebrow and fell to the top of his cheek bone. Mei wrapped her hand around her choker and jerked, letting the broken Limiter fall to the ground.
“Demons are born different, just as every Human…we all have a different mark on our bodies and that damn emblem only serves to make me face what I was trying to deny all this time….Rurik!” She summoned her Dai-Katana and lashed out at the man in front of her. She missed as he jumped backward, summoning his own clawed gauntlets.
“Well, well, Mei. And here I thought I’d get a warm welcome from you. Not even a little kiss?”
“Kiss my fist you bastard!!” Mei ran at him, fist extended, forgoing the use of her sword to leave it lying on the ground. Rurik only smiled and dodged her attack to swing around with the long claws covering his knuckles and drive them deep into her back. Mei only screamed once.
“Did you hear that?” Goku asked sitting up in the back.
“It sounded like Mei….” Hakkai and Gojyo stood outside the jeep while Sanzo and Goku were at the edge of the woods Mei had entered.
“Damn it… as if I didn’t have enough problems chasing after you all the time.” Sanzo grumbled as he loaded another round into his pistol.
“Sanzo, if you would, we’ll need to split our efforts, Gojyo and I will head to the North and if you and Goku would head to the West, we may just find her.” Hakkai mentioned as Hakuryu transformed back into his dragon state to rest on his shoulders.
“Let’s go!!” The group then headed in their respective directions and secretly Hakkai prayed that they would find her soon…and safe.
Mei flew back into the trunk of a tree denting it severely. She cried out as she hit the ground with a thud. Rurik advanced upon her quickly, not allowing her time to get back up and fight. He kicked her hard in the ribs and sent her skidding a few yards to stop on her face, coughing up blood and dirt alike.
“Rurik?” She growled as she saw a blurry figure advance.
“I’m not gonna let you…” She stood to her feet just as he aimed another kick to her neck. Mei blocked it but the force caused her to stumble back a few paces. She squared off and then placed her hands together one on top of the other facing opposite directions.
“Oh, so then all those sparring lessons with Kougaiji paid off huh? Well Mei, go ahead and summon your fiend, though it won’t do you much good.” Rurik paced himself a small distance apart and waited for Mei to finish.
“Eye of Flame, Pillar of Light, I summon you from the Nether World to do my bidding, from the depths of Hell I summon thee! Come Engokuki!” The surrounding woods were lightened as the Fire Fiend shot forth from the area around Mei, the Demon snaked itself around the clearing and around Rurik. He smirked and lashed out once with his deadly claws, the Fiend fell into slashed ribbons at Mei’s feet before being banished back from where it came.
“I told you Mei. Summoning a Fiend won’t do you any good; you’re far too weak for that.” Mei fell to her knees, stunned that her attempt to destroy the one who now strode confidently towards her had been thwarted by only a single stroke.
“Is this…how far I have fallen? Could I have even hoped….no dreamt to beat him…?” She stared up at Rurik as he wrapped a hand around her neck and lifted her limp body off the ground in one smooth motion.
“Am I…going to die?” Mei gasped for air and the edges of her eyes began to grow white. She clawed at the vices around her throat, futilely trying to free herself from their grasp.
“Hakkai….san….” She choked as she thought back to the promise she’d made when the quiet Demon Slayer had fought for her sake against the wishes of his friends.
“Since my life is no longer my own, I’ll follow the one who holds it as well as the one who holds the Scripture….” Mei looked down at Rurik and his blood-crazed eyes.
“That’s right, I’ve forgone that life to follow the Scripture to keep that damn woman from having what I treasure most….but its ironic…The one thing I’m trying to protect is the one thing that is--”
“Mei!!” With a final effort, Mei turned her head to the left to see Gojyo and Hakkai running towards her.
“You…idiots…you shouldn’t have…followed me…” The words formed in her mind but, her body couldn’t comply. Rurik squeezed harder when the party arrived, but had to relinquish his grip when three bullets sped past his face. He chucked Mei to the side and she hit the dirt next to where Goku stood.
“Hey! Mei! Are you okay?” Goku shook her shoulder slightly, but could get no response; she had passed out after the final squeeze, her body already under the stress of asphyxiation.
“Damn you!” Goku snarled, glaring at the demon before them.
“What the hell did you do to Mei!?” The demon only laughed.
“Traitors will not be allowed to live. My Master’s orders. Now if you will Genjou Sanzo, give me the Maten Scripture!” Sanzo lit up another cigarette and blew a plume of smoke out into the air.
“I don’t feel like it thanks all the same.” He replied in his usual droll tone. The demon smiled baring his fangs.
“Then die.” Sanzo readied his pistol and was about to fire as the demon made a rush at him, but found his arm weighed down by a heavy burden. Mei stood there her face blank and her eyes shallow and dark, much like how she had looked after Kougaji had had his way with her.
“Wait….please…”
“A subconscious reaction?!” Sanzo had just enough time to push Mei out of the way before the demon struck him head on. Ripping a gaping hole in his robes, the claws only grazed Sanzo’s side, but it was deep enough that he fell to his knees.
“Damn that BITCH!” He cursed as the demon made another pass at his throat, but this time Sanzo was assisted by a large chi blast that turned the claws from its intended target to the ground.
“Sanzo!” Hakkai cried coming to his friend’s side.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah.” The Monk muttered as he stood.
“Listen, who is this guy any way? He’s not one of Kougaiji’s regulars that’s for sure.”
“It’s…him!” Both men turned to Goku who had joined them after being pushed back by the assassin.
“Remember when Mei showed us her sketch book? …He’s the guy that she made the excuse for….she said he was just a passerby, but I overheard her whisper that he was who she had to protect….he’s changed, but its still him.”
“If he’s so important to her then why the hell is he trying to kill her…and us!!?” Gojyo batted his arm away as the assassin made a grab for his neck.
“That’s the sixty-dollar question isn’t it?” Sanzo hissed, laying a hand to his bleeding side.
“But we can’t afford to waste time thinking about it! Hakkai get that damn dragon of yours and get us out of here!” Sanzo made a leap for Mei as Goku and Gojyo blocked the assassin’s attempts to attack once more, and Hakkai sped past them as they leapt into the jeep to escape into the night. Rurik stared after them with a content smile across his mouth.
“You may have believed that you escaped me, but that is not so Sanzo party, I have let you go…after all the hunt would not be as rewarding if you were to die here.” He chuckled and faded back into the darkness as the laugh dissipated into the air.
Hakkai was the only one around when Mei woke in the bottom of Hakuryu’s jeep bed. She sat up and looked around. Blocking her face from the bright sun.
“Where are we?” She asked trying to move. A pain ripped through her back and Hakkai turned back to her from the driver’s seat.
“You shouldn’t move just yet.” He chided.
“We’re outside a village where Goku and Gojyo took Sanzo to have his side treated…How are you feeling?”
“Damn it! I feel like shit….” She glared at him.
“How many more lives am I gonna owe you before this damn trip is over!?” Hakkai chuckled.
“Not many more I hope, we may turn into another Sanzo and Goku.” They snickered at the inward thought of what was happening with the two at the moment. Goku would be worried about Sanzo and would pester the doctors who were attending him, which in turn would make the doctors angry and then Sanzo would get pissed, and…the vicious cycle would continue.
“Oh come on, we’re not that bad.” Mei laughed under her breath and then grew serious.
“So…?”
“So, what?”
“They know don’t they?…About Rurik?” Hakkai’s face grew solemn and he stepped to the back and sat down on one of the benches.
“Yes. Goku noticed he was the same man who was in your book. Now, we can only speculate what you two mean to each other, but I fear we would only graze the surface. Care to fill me in?” Mei leaned back against the opposite bench and then wrapped her arms around her knees pulling them to her.
“When Sanzo asked about the holder of the ‘Seiten’ Limiter…I was afraid. Afraid that if you found out then…there would be no hesitation in killing him if he came after us, but I had to be sure! And I had to be the one to deal with him…if what Lirin told me was true.” Mei’s hand went to her neck and rubbed the raw marks where she had broken her limiter.
“He’s given himself over to Gyumaoh, and willingly taken his Limiter and thrown it away…but its more than just becoming a bloodthirsty assassin for that bitch…in throwing the Limiter away he’s thrown me away too….” With a sigh, Hakkai slid into the bottom of the jeep.
“If you two really meant that much to each other, then he can’t have thrown you away. Nor will you be able to throw him away…so that means you can quit the tough act and tell us shit that you’re worried about from now on. Okay?” Mei nodded and then hid her face as she began to cry.
“I should have told him! I should have warned him about the rumors, we didn’t need the job that badly!” Hakkai started.
“What job? What are you talking about?” She gained some composure about her and then slowly Mei lifted her eyes.
“I lied. When I said that I came from a village where the madness hadn’t hit, I lied. My home was right smack in the middle of the damn thing. Rurik and I…we didn’t care what happened to anybody else, so long as we had each other. But when Humans began making raids on Demon homes, afraid of the sickness that might have hit them, we grew angry at them. We hated the Humans for hurting innocent demons whether or not they had actually shown signs of changing. Then we heard about the demons making their way west, to find a place where they didn’t have to worry about that, so we packed and left heading westward. To Houtou Castle. We arrived and were given Limiters, Rurik was the one who decided on the labels, and I was just happy to be there with him. In order to find our niche we became assassins out of all the occupations…we had to be assassins. We trained and trained hard. When you were finally given the title of ’Assassin’ you were put on a waiting list. Waiting for your chance to have a go at the Sanzo party.
Each day the list dropped by the thousands, every demon you killed was a place dropped from in front of me. Rurik was supposed to have come before me, but one day that She-Fox called him into her den. She was supposed to have been giving him the details of his assignment, but then not ten minutes later, I was called in. Rurik stood there beside her, face glazed over in stupidity. I was given his assignment instead. It was an easy job, and I completed it without a hitch. From then on, I was given intense training lessons with Kougaiji and Dokugakuji, but each time that I returned from a job, Rurik seemed to be more distant, more hesitant about being with me and more intent on serving her….” Mei’s tears came more forceful than before.
“I should have killed her then! Then we wouldn’t be in this mess!!” She sobbed and her shoulders shook violently.
“You can’t forgive yourself, or them for leaving you….can you?” She jerked up and found Hakkai’s face off to the side gazing distantly into the Horizon.
“You want so bad to be able to go back and save that moment when you had the chance to do something…to …protect the one that you loved….yes…it seems Sanzo was right when he said you were like me…outwardly we seem to have nothing in common, but inside we carry the same scars… “He paused and then drew a hand across his belly before lifting the end. Mei gasped when she saw the ugly scar that ran across the steely muscle.
“I’m just glad that your scars can be removed…or at least eased.”
“I’m sorry…I didn’t….Gods…” Hakkai smiled and then tucking his shirt back into his pants, reached into a pocket and pulled out the newly crafted white band that was marked with the gold plate from Mei’s last limiter.
“We found the plate where you fell; the other band was too far gone to be saved so while you slept I…I made a new one.”
“Thank you.” She whispered.
“Please don’t tell the others about this…I would hate for any one of you to try to go after Rurik for information…he’d kill all of you.” He smiled in that annoyingly simple way and merely said:
“Come on; let’s go see if Sanzo is able to travel.” Mei nodded and extended her hand to accept the Limiter when she stopped and looked into Hakkai’s jade stare.
“Hakkai-san…Do… you…believe I am a traitor? I haven’t lived for anyone or anything besides what I considered close to me…so have I really betrayed anything?” She slipped the limiter around her neck and felt it chain her power once more, noting the silken fabric used for the band.
“…why do you want to know?”
“Hell if I know, just a thought.” Mei chuckled and leaned back against the jeep side.
“What’s so funny?”
“I know my answer, I haven’t…I have nothing to fight for now so anything I do…it’ll be for me.” Jumping from the back to land on the dirt road, she smiled back towards Hakkai and shuffled around from one foot to the other testing her balance.
“Of course I’m still gonna look out for you guys, but that’s because you’re like family now.” She laughed again before heading towards town muttering to herself.
“I wonder how Sanzo would take to having a demon as a cousin?” With a sad sigh Hakkai stepped out to follow her. He hung his head slightly as he walked thinking how much it hurt to see the same smile on another as he held to cover up his pain.


A/N: By this time you’re all probably wondering why, if they had one of Kougaji’s assassins already there, why didn’t the Sanzo party just ask them to tell them what was going on? Well I have a simple answer and a complex answer which do you want to hear?….That’s what I thought. Well I-- No not you guys again I told you that I was sorry for that Roy thing! ACK!
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