I don't own Saiyuki etc etc etc and I'm broke anyway. Suing me would be like suing Faye Valentine - there's no assets, only debts.

Rating is for violence, self-inflicted injury, angst, enough cynicism to peel the paint of a car at twenty paces, and Gojyo swearing for three lines straight.

I had originally -INTENDED- for this to start around the same point Isil Elen's "Here Lies Gonou" did…then Sanzo decided to start at an earlier point in time. So I figured I'd at least make the first chapter break around the same event. Then, when that hit 14 pages, I realized that not only was I adding a good day almost onto the time covered, but that there were long periods where Gonou was unconscious/incoherent/not really saying much, while Sanzo was rather occupied, nevermind Gojyo being Gojyo in all of his Gojyo-ness and taking unfair advantage of the period when Sanzo did not have a gun to shoot him with. I hope he knows how lucky he is to've lived through that first chapter.

----------------------

----------------------

Cho Gonou had one accomplishment right before he was no longer Cho Gonou that nobody ever heard about.

Cho Gonou brought one stupid monk back from the dead.

I had died maybe a week before I found Goku. Everything I'd tried to do had turned to ash; everyone I'd tried to help had suffered, most had died. When I stood between those stone bars, the morning sun rising to my right, the light drowning out my bleeding hands, the ragged state of my robes, that I was leaning on the rock so as not to fall over, and Goku looked up almost in disbelief that I was there - I felt like I had walked into a divine joke. My reflection in those big gold eyes was everything I should've been, a reminder of what I could never live up to. "Stop calling me. It's getting annoying, and you're driving me nuts." I'm not a savior, I'm not a saint. Don't rely on me, I can't be what you want.

When I climbed the mountain, it was because I had made a promise to Koumyou not to walk away when someone called for my help, whether they knew they were calling or not. He made it a very serious thing, and didn't put illusions to it - he'd told me it would hurt sometimes, to never turn away. I climbed the mountain intending for that to be the last thing I ever did; I would find out what I needed to do, and when it was done, it'd be over. After all, everything else I'd touched had died, so it couldn't last that long, right?

Ha. Ha. Ha.

So for a long time, I limped on; a Sanzo is supposed to be strength for others, and I had responsibilities that wouldn't go away thanks to a certain talking thistleburr, so I walled everything back to die in the dark; when I came across something I needed to help with, I did what was necessary and walked away. I even started spending time in the temples again, not because I have any fondness for them, but because it was responsibilities I could attend to, nipping at the heels of the priesthood to punch holes in their hypocrisy now and then, walking dead without feeling anything.

I intensified my long tradition of not listening much to the other things I Heard anymore; sealed up my own empathy, that sense of overhearing emotions, intentions, who someone really was, save for knowing when someone was a threat, being able to predict ambushes, and being able to tell when a stupid hannyou was lying to me.

"No, haven't seen him. Why're you asking?"

I caught that startled pause behind guileless red eyes and the mental 'eep' just past a calm, unwavering voice. He's a good liar, it's just too bad I'm paying attention to the parts one usually doesn't need to train for deception.

"He's wanted for the murder of two clans of youkai." That was a warning; a nudge of how serious this was, to tell me the truth.

"Really? Hunh." He's leaning slightly against the door, closer than I'd like to stand but he's not moving because he's trying to block me from the door without making it look like he's blocking the door, smoking nonchalantly; although there was a glimmer of surprise at my words, it's not as much as I would've expected. "So what do you want with him?"

"I'm here to bring him back to the Temple of the Setting Sun for trial." No flicker of shifting intention; he's blocking the door, and knows what - who - he's keeping me away from. "Whatever you're hiding, it won't do any good." He doesn't even seem to care about the needling; I don't register as a real immediate threat yet.

The door cracks, behind him, and I catch green eyes over his shoulder, dark hair, a startled blink, and an aura louder than normal gradually blending out of a jangling, mismatched state; youkai but doesn't look like it, but it's not hard for me to recognize the ear-cuffs as limiters, even without the strange aura.

So it really did work, to become youkai by killing a thousand.

Gojyo's hands go to the doorframe as a visible panic hits and he snaps, "Get back ins-", just as my knee hits him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Before I can get by him, almost before he's caught his breath, he's standing in my way again with a fierce snarl; now he's angry.

I take a swing, hoping to get him out of the way before he's recovered; he blocks, some surprised wobble but he holds now that he's realizing he's in for a fight.

He ends up looking down the barrel of my revolver, a warning shot going off past his head aimed upward; I'm not going to drag this out any more than I have to. "Get out of my way or I'll kill you." If I'd really wanted him dead, I wouldn't have warned him, but it still wasn't an idle threat; I knew just enough to know that this wasn't a situation I could take lightly. Gonou's still holding the door partway open, a tinge of fear for Gojyo's sake and a stifled, "Gojyo!", and it starts to occur to me that there's something else to this.

Gojyo's eyes narrow, and I've just gotten the "threat - serious threat" tag that was missing earlier - then there's movement, he's actually ducked and twisted my wrist with one hand, the gun goes off hitting the doorframe as I'm forced to drop it; he's faster than I'd expected, outweighs me half again, and is no stranger to a fight. That registers as he shoulders past me, knocking me off balance, pulling my wrist with him so that it's bent behind my back, and I end up eating dirt with his knee buried in the small of my back, one hand holding my wrist behind my back, the other around the base of my neck holding me down. He doesn't like me; really doesn't like me, there's disgust and contempt, I can almost hear the words 'hypocrite' or 'liar' attached to my robes. Feh, he should see the ones that aren't open about their faults.

"Go, get out of here!" - he's going to hold me down so Gonou can escape, and Gonou was hesitating in the door, unsure how to react. Gonou runs, but doesn't get ten feet before there's a familiar blur from the woods tackling him; he actually manages to kick Goku off as they fall.

Goku lands on his feet, skidding back with that reckless feral grin. "Hey, you are strong!" Of course he's strong you idiot, he killed that many youkai, doesn't it register that "he's strong" means "you could get hurt or dead"? It doesn't bother me that he's helping, but that damn careless attitude...

And Gonou picks himself up out of the dirt, with a shift of something in his aura and his eyes as he's cornered; it's something cold-blooded, deadly, a suspension of remorse, something I've seen the kid brother of surfacing in my own mind a few times - I wouldn't toy with mine, and this is off by a couple powers of ten.

And my pistol's barely a foot from his hand.

I start struggling, snarling, trying to throw Gojyo off; he digs his fingers into the back of my neck, putting more weight there to pin me, and when that doesn't stop me, he moves my wrist up half an inch, enough that if I move, it'll either hurt like Hell or start tearing part of my elbow.

Not like I'm paying attention to the "hurt like Hell" part.

Goku dives, I can see the flicker as Gonou notices my pistol and snatches it, I wince and freeze, going mostly limp as Goku realizes what's going on too late and practically runs face first into it, I'm not looking but waiting for the gunshot that'll be the end of the one thing that's truly forced me to live for years now -

And there's no gunshot; I'm left with a flicker of a pulse back behind all those walls, a brief pang that maybe everything under my routines isn't as dead as I'd thought, and there might be something alive enough to care in me yet; a realization that I was afraid for him.

Goku's still standing frozen, staring down my revolver stuck in the moment of dawning recognition. Gonou's looking up, breathing hard - pain? - I can see him reining in the beast, dragging it back, trying to hold his aim steady as his shoulders shake.

"Please..I have...one thing I need to do...just let me finish this one thing, and I'll come back and turn myself in, I'll accept whatever punishment awaits." He's speaking haltingly through pain, but the words are bleeding out of him; he's not lying, he's throwing everything on our mercy.

He staggers to his feet, not moving his aim off Goku; backs into the woods, then turns and breaks into a stumbling run.

Goku blinks, almost relaxes, then snaps around to face Gojyo; Gojyo's relaxed his grip on my neck and wrist, and is...watching my face with a sense of total confusion, trying to make sense of something that doesn't match what he'd seen previously, the hostile intent's gone behind the new puzzle.

He waits until Gonou's footsteps can't be heard to cautiously let go of my wrist and neck and stand up, warily; the active hostility might be gone, but he's still aware that I'm a possible danger. I sit up, dusting off the front of my robes as if it'd brush off whatever he saw in me. Goku's attention is focused on him behind me.

I could do the cautious, strict to orders thing; leave Gojyo to Goku to deal with, stop Gonou and just take him back to the Temple and get this over with. Even if it came to a fight, he's wounded, I should be able to manage. I could stick to the base responsibility I was given, leave no openings for him to escape, strangle that flicker of a pulse and make sure I never felt anything again.

Instead, I stood up, turned to Gojyo,and demanded, "What's going on here?"

"That's funny, I was about to ask you the same thing."

"How much do you know?"

"Not a whole lot, apparently." He's pulled out another cigarette and is lighting it to replace the one that got lost in the fight. "Don't think we wanna talk about it out here in the middle of the street, though." He walks back to his door, pushing it open, and half-mockingly motions to usher me in.

A few minutes later, I'm sitting at a small, cluttered table in the front room of a cramped apartment, leaning on folded hands; there's an almost overflowing ashtray in the middle, a lot of empty bottles and cans, and Goku's attacking a bowl of apples Gojyo gave him open season on. Gojyo's barely fighting off a nervous pace.

"So what are you, the temple's hired assassin or something?"

Bloody Hell, I just had this argument with the damned temple before I came out here, and the only reason I was even out here, was that they'd managed to convince me that wasn't the kind of work I was doing. Sort-of. Gah, this is why I'd taken off into the wilderness that first time... There is no amount of profanity that could accurately convey my response to his question, so I settled on the kind of glare that caused temple acolytes to wither where they stood.

His cigarette shifts in his mouth, he raises an eyebrow that disappears into bright red bangs in speechless silence, and I think his entire mental description of me in that moment collapsed down to 'What the fuck?' "Oookay, maybe not."

"How much do you know about him?" I was quite pointedly not acknowledging the existence of his question.

"Shouldn't I get to ask first since I'm the host?" I brush off his annoyance with another sharp look. "Alright, alright." He leans on the doorframe, looking down distantly, counting off. "His name's Cho Gonou. I found him bleeding to death in the rain not too long ago. Brought him in, fixed him up, got a doctor in, made sure he'd survive. He's quiet, polite, doesn't talk much, and didn't expect to live; he never offered any explanation, and I never asked. He has nightmares, bad ones, gets kinda morbid occasionally, and there's a name he keeps mumbling in his sleep. That's about it." Gojyo's not entirely trusting, I got that from how he dealt with me and the sense that he's still not saying everything, yet he had no problem taking in a stranger without any explanation; there's something there I'm not going to guess at except to realize I can't predict his actions. "You?"

"I was sent to retrieve him, because he killed at least one thousand youkai, from Hyakugan Maoh's clan and the Dark Crow; decimated both of them. I was given a description, and that was about it; I was not told anything more. That he had the potential to be dangerous was a foregone conclusion."

"And you brought the kid with you for something like that?" He raises an eyebrow at me over his cigarette. Goku looks over with a piece of fruit in his mouth half-forgotten, realizing he's become the topic.

"Goku can take care of himself, and he would have terrorized the other monks if I'd left him there alone. Besides, he insisted."

"If I were going just by what you knew, I'd call that pretty irresponsible of you. But then, what would I know, eh?" He's acting like he's blowing it off, but he's definitely fishing; trying to get a reaction.

"I'm supposed to care?"

My reputation here just clicked another step back towards "son of a bitch", but he's still holding off on that for something. "So what're you going to do now?"

"Do you have any clues where he's going?"

"Nope." Half-truth; nothing specific but it seems he's got a few clues.

"You honestly have no clue where he's going?"

"None at all." Gojyo's stubborn.

The direction he'd fled...there's only really one thing that way that I know of that'd be relevant. "I think I know." I stand up. "Goku? We're going." He looks up, nods, and runs outside ahead of me, the door falling back shut behind him.

"What're you going to do when you catch up to him?" Gojyo shifts in the doorframe, so that he could easily block my way out if he wants.

"I'm not sure yet; it'll depend on what he does."

"If you take him back - what's the temple going to do?"

"That's not my issue; they're Buddhists, so I doubt they'll call for an execution, but it won't be taken lightly."

"And if he decides not to surrender?" He's gone serious, quiet.

"He's killed before; he's a fool if he thinks he could make that choice without setting himself up for conflict. If it's not us, it'll probably be someone striking for revenge; he won't get away from this cleanly." I wait a moment for that to sink in, gauging his reaction; he doesn't particularly seem to care, he's gotten involved and obviously isn't walking away. "You can't protect him forever."

Things border on a staredown; he's half-blocking my path, seriously considering his chances if he tries to stop me. He straightens a bit closer to his full height so he's looking down at me - he's half again my size. He's resolutely refusing to be intimidated, too annoyed to let me win, and I'm too used to being outnumbered and outweighed to be bothered. Some of his attention is on the door; doubtless wary of Goku intervening.

"Guess I'll just have to tag along then." He grabs a polearm that's by the door by a simple strap-harness, slinging it over his left shoulder, then turns to open the door and let me out; but when I reach the door, he stops me with his hand on the door handle.

"You know, the kid could've gotten killed back there."

I stare at the door, hissing through my teeth slightly. "He was being careless; it would've been his own damn fault." It's not like I hadn't realized that, and if he had...

"It's funny; you say you don't care, but the way you were acting a minute ago, I would've sworn you were the one staring down a gunbarrel."

"That wouldn't be my problem; I meant what I said." I look up with a harsh glare, warning him off. If the gun had gone off, it would've killed both of us; Goku is the one thing I've been forcing myself to live for that isn't looking more and more like a hopeless wild goose chase with each passing year, and I'm not going to deal with this topic any further.

The latch clicks and he pushes it open. He seems determined to tread on every nerve of mine he can.

Goku keeps running a bit ahead, then coming back to where I'm walking; Gojyo hangs about fifteen feet back. I can feel that he's watching me, gauging me, trying to figure out what to expect, how much I'm hiding - what's under the stoneface.

If anyone had asked at the time, I'd have said he found nothing he could puzzle out because there wasn't really anything to find; masks left running on long after the face under it had died and rotted away, a position that wasn't a person anymore.

For a moment, Goku gets far enough ahead that I almost lose sight of him, and I remember that Gonou still has my gun and came within an inch of shooting him before. "Hey, idiot, don't get that far ahead!", I snap, calling him back.

Goku stops to wait for us to catch up, then starts pacing me, walking right next to me with a whiff of annoyance. "So...what's with him? He seems like an okay guy." He's trying to keep his voice down, a slight tilt of his head Gojyo's direction; Gojyo can probably hear him anyway.

"He's still a threat; you don't need to be evil to be dangerous." I'm trying to keep my voice down anyway; my back is to him, and the gaze on my back just twitched, so he must've heard enough to tell something of what I said.

"Sanzo...what's going on here?"

I can't give him clarity. "A mess; that's all you need to know." I can't tell him who the bad guy is; I'd stayed silent when I was first told he'd killed Hyakugan Maoh's clan, because I didn't think "That's a problem?" or "Good for him" would go over very well, and there's something we haven't been told yet about why..."and there's a name he keeps mumbling in his sleep"...that could mean a lot with that clan, and I'm getting the feeling if I knew the details, I might end up siding with Gonou. I haven't gotten any indication from Gojyo that he'd act on malice; there's been nothing more sinister here on Gojyo's part than a stubborn protectiveness. The more I can figure out about this job, the more I think I'm standing by the law not because of justice, but because of the magnitude of Gonou's actions; maybe just because he's probably better off with the temple's punishment than with the vengeance of Hyakugan Maoh's allies or any potential survivors. We've walked into a big, foggy grey area, where there isn't really a definable "Justice", only a lot of wreckage to untangle.

"Y'know, you're about the unholiest monk I've ever seen; were you a mob enforcer in another life?" I'd kill Gojyo, but that'd be giving him the reaction he wants. "Come to think of it, how do I even know you're really a priest?"

"If I were lying about being a priest, I'd actually be trying to live up to people's stupid unrealistic expectations." When I look over my shoulder, he's smoking; it seemed like he'd walk to his death with a cigarette in his mouth. It irked me with a twinge of a craving made worse by raw nerves, but I wasn't going to fumble with it in a situation like this.

"Or you might be a bad liar. Not real rare, for hitmen to be lousy liars." Great, now he thinks I'm with the mob.

"Sanzo's a priest, and an important one, really! Sometimes all he has to do to get the others to shut up and listen is look at them, and I haven't really seen anyone that outranks him, he lives at the temple most of the time except when he gets too annoyed at them 'cuz they won't let him drink or smoke or eat meat and they get really upset when he scares the acol-" I cuff him upside the head while he's walking sideways to yammer at Gojyo, sending him stumbling briefly with a sharp "Shut up!"

"What, it's the truth, you say yourself that you really don't get along with-" He doesn't quite manage to duck although he tries, although now that he's expecting it, it doesn't bother his balance.

He mutters and glares at me indignantly, and I glare right back, but honestly, the mumbling outrage is easier for me to take than the times he gives me that look of absolute faith and trust. That continues for a few minutes as we walk in silence.

"I still say you act more like a hitman than a monk."

I whip around, threatening him with the pistol half-reflexively. "Now listen, if you want to die that-" And the cold snarl dies a quick death as I realize I'm sighting down empty air; Gonou still has my gun. Gojyo raises an eyebrow with an odd, cold twitch at the corner of his mouth; if the situation were a little less serious, he'd probably be laughing at me right about now.

Anything else I say will only damage my dignity further, so I turn back to continue walking with a huff; I can't believe I've already let him goad me into making a fool of myself.

After another ten minutes or so, I hear a click and rattle from the polearm's harness, and start paying a bit more attention to what he's focusing on and if there's the slightest flicker of hostile intent towards me. The blade's whistling through the air as he's toying with it; his attention is on me, distrusting and analyzing, but nothing actively violent - he's testing me. I tense at the snap and rustle as he takes off an overhanging tree limb with it, but don't look back; I can get enough off his aura to know if he turns threatening, and until then, I'm not going to give him a reaction. After a few more swings, I hear him put it back.

The further we get, the more unnerving the calculating gaze between my shoulder blades gets; I'd tune it out more, but I'm still not sure he won't try anything, and watching for any warning flicker of active hostility is more important at the moment than shrugging off the nerves, particularly when he's periodically toying with his weapon behind me. If he decides to try anything, he could kill me, and I'll likely only get a second of real intent of violence off his aura in warning.

Goku finding signs of blood rubbed off on one of the trees, still damp, is only a momentary distraction; none of us were hurt, it has to be his, there must be some preexisting injury, which would make sense with how he acted earlier. It seems like he's trying to ignore it, and if he's bleeding enough to lead a trail, there's a chance he might not get to where he's going…

I try to pick up the pace after that, but quickly get reminded of the eyes on my back, the weighing sense redoubled for some reason. It's like he's trying to read every move I make, and even the paranoid jabs would be preferable after a while to the silent, appraising stare.

I ignore it as long as I can, until it finally gets to me. "Look, if you're going to insist on tagging along, you may as well do it where I can see you."

Something amused crosses his face. "Whatever you say."

The walk continues in silence, him walking beside me now; the only real change is that now we're both watching each other out of the corner of our eyes, while trying not to look like we're watching each other. It's a good thing Goku's good at tracking, I don't think I'd be able to find shit and still deal with Gojyo.

A long period of quiet ended when Goku froze. "Did you hear that?"

Of course I didn't hear whatever he just heard; he could hear a pin drop from two city blocks away, and even though I've stopped to listen, I can't catch anything more than wind in the leaves. "What was it?"

"It sounded like -" He tenses suddenly. "I smell blood!", and he's off, sprinting full-tilt into the woods with Gojyo and I struggling to catch up.

I can just catch a quiet murmur of Gonou's voice, another aura cold and hurt and hostile, before he's drowned out by Goku shouting ahead somewhere -

"STOP IT! Damnit, what the Hell do you think you're doing?!"

I come to a stop around a corner in the path; Goku's just tackled Gonou, who's on the ground in a moment of stunned shock, the fingers on his right hand bloodied, blood streaming down his face from his right eye; at first it looks like it might be missing, but it's just been cut into and so red-drenched that it's hard to see. "You've got nice eyes, you should be trying to keep them, not get rid of them!" That confirms it; he was trying to take his own eye out. I bite back a sickened twinge; this is already a wreck, it'll only be harder to deal with if I start caring. Goku still doesn't seem to grasp the reasoning behind self-inflicted injury, he's confused enough by simple lack of caring, much less outright trying to hurt one's self; Gonou's trying to shrink from him, hands returning to normal. There's blood starting to show from his side, the injury from earlier; he's dropped my gun next to him.

And a sense of surprise briefly interrupting the blanket hate from the youkai I'd just almost run into; there's two more on either side of him, and they're between Gojyo and I, and Gonou.

Not that it takes them long to react to our presence; the one in the middle whips around to face me, and the other two - humans - sidestep to where they can watch us and Goku at the same time.

"What the Hell - is this kid yours?"

I give a curt nod, looking up at pale eyes; he's a good head taller than I am, dark figure, black-feathered mantle, and looks like he's probably at least not clueless in a fight. I hate fighting youkai unarmed.

"Listen, this is none of your business; we don't have any fight with you people. Just walk away."

There's a brief, weak, "You don't have to-" from Gonou that I ignore, completely.

"I can't do that; I don't want a fight with you, but this has already been made my business. You walk away or else." I've already committed myself to this one. This'd probably be the kind of fight where it wouldn't be a bad idea to invoke the Makai Tenjou, except that I'm barely two feet from him, and most youkai tend to recognize holy magic of a certain scale and that it's a good idea to interrupt the poor sot chanting before it has a real effect if they can, usually by inflicting a large degree of injury.

He glowers at me, then to Gojyo next to me, not really taking his eyes off me - "You, with the red hair - Taboo brat!" There's a sharp, angry intake of breath from Gojyo; the human on that side flinches. "Stay out of this!"

The human steps closer with a hand raised trying to motion for calm. "Aah - listen, Gojyo, this isn't what it looks like, and we could probably use your help here - give us a hand and I can explain every-"

"Just shut the fuck up already - I know plenty, and you shit-for-brains assholes can go fuck yourselves up the ass with a rusty poleaxe if you think I'm going to be your little fetch-bitch, and if you hog-reaming horsefuckers so much as lay a finger on Gonou I swear to the Gods I'll-"

"You may as well leave now, if you don't want a fight; neither of us are going to walk away." Not that I wasn't…impressed with Gojyo's creativity, but I didn't think they'd let him continue much further anyway.

The youkai takes a swing at me, already showing claws and shifting partway, feathers and partial-wings off the arms; I dodge back, but almost run into Gojyo, so that while it doesn't hit me, it does catch the front of my robes, enough to lift me off the ground. Before it can do anything else, Goku's kicked it from behind, knocking it stumbling so that it drops me; Gojyo's got the one that recognized him, the other one's trying to stop me as I dive for my pistol.

This is slightly delayed by Gonou, aiming very shakily at the youkai, clicking the trigger rapidly in confusion; it's not that hard to note that he doesn't seem to realize the hammer needs to be cocked for a revolver to fire. The youkai wheels around to pursue either me or Goku as Gonou drops it, getting to his feet to fight barehanded. Before he can go after the youkai, I've already retrieved my gun and fired. The youkai falls against a tree, a large hole in one shoulder that nearly took off the arm; Gojyo raps the polearm on the ground, the man he'd been fighting on the ground unconscious. The last one is frozen, realizing how close the shot that'd just hit the youkai had come to him, and that he's now got our full attention; he turns and bolts without a second thought.

I stand up, putting my gun away and dusting off my robes with a sharp look at the wounded youkai. "You have a chance to leave here alive; don't do anything stupid."

When I turn to help Gonou up, I end up catching a glimpse of him dashing into the woods after the one that bolted, the patchwork jars sticking out sharply. Before I can say or do anything, I see fast movement from Gojyo's polearm, directed off out of my vision - Goku's aura, impossible to mistake.

For a moment I hold the aim on the back of Gojyo's head; he's put the polearm's blade into the bushes, but not hit anything, Goku's griping at him and he's dropped the weapon, holding both hands up mumbling an apology. He turns around just as I'm putting the gun away, again, and there's a glimmer of recognition that he almost just got shot; Goku hops back into the clearing, asking where Gonou went to.

I start to turn back to look the direction he went, but of course the world's insane, so the idiots in it have to follow suit; I know there's trouble when I start hearing a broken, weak chuckle from the youkai, on the ground barely a foot behind Gojyo, and there's definitely violent intent but I don't think it's got a clue who to direct it at. I slide a tired glower over, to see it standing up behind Gojyo with his polearm in one claw, moving to either use him as a shield or kill him with his own weapon, I don't think it's even sure which at this point, it's snapped; I can just see its head over his shoulder, its other claw in the process of grabbing his arm, and while he's realized what's going on, he's in no position to move fast enough to get away from it.

A split second later, there's a gunshot that cuts close enough to Gojyo's head to leave a few strands of crimson red drifting away, and it falls dead, dropping the polearm; Gojyo blinks widely and nervously at me, and the gun in my hand, and the twitch I'm starting to develop.

"Does anyone else feel like doing anything stupid?" My snarl isn't directed at any particular conscious target, pistol aimed in the air; this entire night has been one long trend of the world trying to tread on every single nerve I have, and I'm getting sick of it. "I'd like to know before I bother putting this away again."

The breeze whistles through the leaves, with no other answer. I put the pistol away, and turn to Goku. "We're going to have to track him down. Again."

Gojyo lags behind Goku and I while he replaces his polearm in the harness, then easily keeps up with us. Goku takes up the trail through the woods, following it at a fast pace; between blood and broken branches, even I could've followed this. At one point Goku stops suddenly with an "Eeggh!", then stops in front of us, pointing to the side with a "He went this way!"; I don't know why he even bothers, since again even I could follow the trail without trouble, but I humor him just to get through this faster. It doesn't take long to catch up to him, limping ahead slowly.

I don't think he even realized Gojyo and I had almost caught up to him; we fall in on either side of him behind, matching pace. He doesn't pay attention to us, but any time we try to catch up to walk beside him, he starts pushing himself harder.

"We're going with you." No options given.

He glances back just long enough to see the Ultimate Glare Of I'm Already Pissed So Don't Push Your Luck, and continues on anyway.

"Who knows, we might be able to help.", Gojyo adds; his refusal of argument is more friendly sounding than mine, but no less adamant.

He's not arguing, but he doesn't stop trying to keep ahead of us; finally we just settle into following behind like jackals, staying just far enough behind that he doesn't struggle to outpace us again.