Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Shades of Time ❯ Oddities ( Chapter 5 )

 

Sanzo trudged back along the path, with the young woman falling silently into step beside him. Thank the gods she wasn't a chatterer like most of the females they'd run into were. Of course, that could be due to trauma and shock considering what had almost happened to her. Still, she had seemed to be holding her own fine and probably wouldn't have had any trouble at all if there hadn't been two of them. He noticed that she kept glancing back over her shoulder the way they had come.

 

“What?” he asked sharply.

 

“Nothing. I just wish you'd have let them kill those bastards,” she said with no small amount of venom. “It would have saved my sister the trouble of hunting them down later. It's worse than it was last time,” she said, trying to subtly adjust her torn clothes under the robe.

 

One of Sanzo's eyebrows went up in question. “This happens a lot?”

 

She shrugged. “Not often but enough. Usually only when they're on a bender. They think every pretty female in the vicinity should fall at their feet since their father more or less owns the next town over. When one doesn't, they try to take what they want,” she said, shaking her head at the idiocy of it all. “Rei's never going to let me out of the house alone after this.”

 

“And Rei is . . .”

 

“My sister. She's the half-breed they said your friend looked like. Though I don't see any resemblance other than the coloring of their hair and eyes.”

 

“Thank the gods!”

 

“Thank you, by the way.”

 

“Don't thank me, thank the rest of them. I wouldn't have been able to stop them without shooting them,” he said. He waved her into the back seat, taking his usual spot in the front. “Just tell me the place where you live has a general store or something and sells cigarettes.”

 

“It does and they do as far as I know.”

“Fantastic,” Sanzo said, and turned around, ignoring her all together.

 

She studied the back of his head interestedly for a few minutes before glancing down at the robe she now wore. It was far too big for her but at least she was covered from where her clothes had been torn. As she looked at it, she realized something she really hadn't put together before. The robe was a monk's robe and that combined with the red mark on the blond man's forehead marked him as a fairly high ranking priest. Interesting. She had always thought all monks shaved their heads but that was definitely not the case with this one. He was certainly the oddest priest she had ever run across if that were the case. Not that she'd had contact with too many of them as they usually cloistered themselves away and the ones she did come across were pious and annoying.

 

“You should let Hakkai look at your injuries when he gets back from breaking those loser's legs,” Sanzo grunted from the front seat.

 

“Which one's Hakkai?” she asked, trying hard to remember the faces of the other men.

 

“He's the smiling boy. Creeps me the fuck out,” he grumbled. “No one can smile that damn much all the time.”

 

“Ah, he's the smart one.”

 

Sanzo shrugged. “What makes you say that?”

 

“He talks like my sister does and she's really smart. It stood to reason.”

 

They fell into silence again. A few minutes later the other three were spotted making their way back to the jeep.

 

“Are they dead?” Sanzo asked, not really caring one way or the other.

 

“Sadly, no,” Hakkai said, still smiling. “But it will take them some time to get out of the forest considering a good amount of their bones are broken.”

 

“Their pride's hurt pretty bad too,” Gojyo said, lighting a smoke.

 

“Yeah! We pounded `em good!” Goku said enthusiastically.

 

Hakkai had come around to the other side of the jeep and was looking over the young woman assessingly. “Young lady, if you'd like; and if I'm permitted to touch you, I can heal your injuries. I can't remove the bruising but I can take away the swelling and most of the pain.”

 

“That would be great. It'll save me from Rei trying to stick leeches on me.”

 

“Leeches! Bleh!” Goku said. “Why would he wanna do that?”

 

“She says it helps with the bruising. Something about removing the excess blood from broken vessels before it has a chance to seep and clot. Or something like that. But she says it usually has to be done in the first few minutes after the hit or it doesn't help,” the young woman said.

 

“She's right about that. It's folk medicine, Goku. Like putting moistened, moldy bread or honey over shallow wounds to keep them from getting infected. It's usually passed on through healers and midwives,” Hakkai explained. “Would you hold still for a moment? Your name is Anya, correct?”

 

“Yes,” she said, holding very still while watching in fascination as Hakkai's hands glowed a little. He gently touched her face and the swelling just below her eye immediately went down and the pain faded. “That's a neat trick. Thanks. For everything, I mean.”

 

“You're very welcome. You seemed to be fending them off fairly well actually,” Hakkai said, sounding admiring.

 

“Not that great. They actually got me down this time. My sister, Rei would have had both of them on their knees begging for mercy in about a minute.”

 

“She's your older sister, I'm guessing,” Gojyo said.

 

“Yeah,” Anya said with a smile. “How did you know?”

 

“I know older sibling hero worship when I hear it.”

 

“I guess so. I can't count how many times she saved my life before we all got adopted. She ran away from the orphanage when she was about nine. Said she didn't like them and they didn't like her because of her eyes and hair. Didn't find me or any of the others until later though. Dad . . . he adopted all five of us because we didn't want to be separated and he said it was really dangerous for girls especially to be out on the streets alone.”

 

“Why'd she run away?” Goku asked.

 

“She was probably beaten and or starved there,” Gojyo said somewhat bitterly remembering all too well what it was like to go hungry and hurt as a child.

 

“Why?” Goku asked again.

 

Gojyo cuffed him in the back of the head lightly. “I'm guessing she's like me, monkey boy. They wouldn't have wanted her around the other kids.”

 

“I'm not a monkey. And there's nothin' wrong with you bein' what you are. If you don't count that you're a pervy cockroach.”

 

“Why you little . . .”

 

The click of a gun being cocked gained everyone's attention. “Be silent or die! Hakkai, if you're finished, can we go now?”