Saiyuki Reload Gunlock Fan Fiction ❯ Forty Days ❯ Washing Away My Sins ( Chapter 2 )

Day One

 

The dark clouds had moved in fast after that. Thunder had shook the sky as lightning danced in graceful arcs.

 

For a while, that's all that happened, the thunder and the lightning. Then the rain began to splatter on their noses, sporadically at first before becoming a torrential downpour. They were forced to take shelter in the trees . . . until the rain started to form puddles around their feet. The water made it impossible for them to make camp. Before too much longer, they had been driven onto higher ground and taking refuge in a cave.

 

'At least it's dry,' Goyjo thought as he stood at the cave's entrance. He pulled a cigarette out and lit it, watching as the rain drenched the world with its wetness. For a moment, he found a moment's worth of peace in watching the grey-ish clear droplets come down from the sky. Peace from his traveling companions, peace from their quest . . . peace from the world in general.

 

It was a peace that wouldn't last.

 

* * *

 

Day Five

 

“I can't believe this!” Goku cried out. “I can't!”

 

Sanzo fought back a groan as the monkey youkai's wail filled the cave. Five days had passed since the rains had started come down and had showed no signs of relenting.

 

And that left them with enough food for nine more days. After that . . . well, he really didn't want to think about that right now. Goku, however, had a different idea about the food situation, and it was grating on everyone's nerves. Sanzo's hand inched for the inside fold of his robe, his fingers grasping for his trusty paper fan.

 

Sure, Goku had gone five hundred years without eating and was justifiably hungry all the time. However, he wasn't the only one in the cave that needed to eat, either. Fortunately, for the monkey, Goyjo interceded for Sanzo. Unfortunate for the rest of the group, as it always led to a fight between the two. Sure enough, the insults were flying within a space of seconds.

 

“Shut up, you stupid monkey!”

 

“Water sprite!”

 

'They really need to come up with some new insults for each other,' Sanzo groaned to himself. He eyed the cave's entrance, noting Hakkai standing there, his tiny dragon resting on his shoulder. Ignoring Goyjo and Goku for the moment, Sanzo got to his feet and made his way to the melancholic youkai.

 

“Something the matter, Hakkai?” he inquired the moment he reached the man.

 

For a moment, Hakkai didn't answer. He just stared out at the rain, his expression pensive. Then he turned his head and offered Sanzo one of his usual cheerful smiles.

 

“Nothing worse than usual,” came the reply. “Why do you ask?”

 

“You keep staring outside,” Sanzo stated.

 

“Oh . . . yeah . . . just wishing for the rain to stop. That's all. It's not normal for it to rain like this.”

 

“No,” Sanzo agreed, his gaze going to the grey and wet world outside. “It certainly isn't.”

 

* * *

 

His companions had all fallen asleep, their soft breathing filling the cave while the rain continued to pour down. The fire had started to go down, the dying embers the only light and warmth to be offered. It would be a few hours yet until daybreak, though one could barely tell through the rain clouds.

 

'We're not going to last long if we don't get more firewood and food,' he thought as he crept as quietly as he could to the cave's entrance. 'They'll kill me if they know that I'm doing this but what choice do I have? I don't want to see them starve to death. I couldn't bear that.'

 

Visions of a small yellow bird danced across his mind as he walked to the cave's entrance. He remembered what it had been like to wake up that one morning and to see the bird lying on the ground, its body void of any life. The bird had been his friend when he'd had no one else and it had torn him up inside to see it there and unable to get to it.

 

There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for his friends. Goku knew that. If it hadn't been for Sanzo, he'd still be in that prison. And if it hadn't been for Sanzo, he'd have never met Hakkai and Goyjo. He'd never admit it but he'd be lost without them, even the half-demon. They were his family, the only ones that he could recall.

 

So he'd risk the rains to find the firewood and the food that they'd need. Anything to ensure that they'd survive. He'd risk Sanzo's wrath and his paper fan because he didn't want to lose them. Not ever.

 

'And maybe . . . maybe I can remember something from before,' he reasoned as he stepped out of the cave, the rain soaking him within moments. 'That's all I ask for. And for the rain to wash away whatever sins I may have done to have been locked away like that.'

 

Quietly, Goku crept along, searching for the firewood and food he and his companions would need to survive. He had a funny feeling that they'd be there for a while. Quite a while.