Title: Dresses and Slaves
Author: GW Katrina
Disclaimer: Not mine, which they are probably glad about.
Archive and Feedback: Of course. Always nutritious and delicious.

A/N: End of chapter

Dresses and Slaves

"Where are they?"

Sweat poured down the man's face as the gun muzzle was pressed hard
under his chin. The icy stare made him even more nervous. Who knew
that this beautiful blond had the brains to figure out he had been
involved?

Behind the blond was a younger man, whose gold eyes made him as
exotic as his companions. He held a wine bottle in his hands, nose
screwed up. "Sanzo, something's wrong with this. It smells off."

Violet eyes moved to the side as the boy spoke, then returned to the
innkeeper. He pushed the gun harder into the fat neck. "So, you
served them drugged wine. At least I know how you were able to take
them down. I get the feeling we were suppose to drink this as well."

Impossibly, the innkeeper's eyes grew larger. Sanzo's expression
grew colder. "Ch. I'm going to assume that Kougaiji isn't that
stupid, so what are you? Assassin from the puppet master, or
something else?"

"Where are Hakkai and Gojyo? I don't smell blood." Goku's eyes were
as fiery as Sanzo's were cold.

The innkeeper decided to do the sensible thing.

He told them everything he knew.

"Gen…. Genma the Fleshtrader has them. One of his scouts saw you
coming, and he ordered me to serve you the drugged wine."

Something changed in Sanzo's stance. An eerie stillness filled his
body.

"Where is he?"

The monk's voice was dead. Goku suppressed a wince. He had heard
Sanzo like that several times before. Each time, Goku remembered, it
had to do with slavers.

Once, it had been slavers who had specialized in children. Young
children. That had been one of the few times Sanzo had returned and
hugged Goku. Nothing more. Just a long, hard hug.

Goku had learned over the years that Sanzo truly despised all
slavers.

The innkeeper must have seen death in Sanzo's eyes, because he spit
out answers as quickly as possible. "North of here. About a day's
ride. Please, don't kill me."

Sanzo pressed the gun even harder against the skin. "Why should I
spare your life? How many others have you sold and stolen their
lives?"

A loud whimper came from the man.

Gunfire, a single shot, echoed.

Eyes still clenched shut, the innkeeper slid down until he hit the
floor. Goku's nose wrinkled as the sharp stench of urine filled the
room. Sanzo just glared, then turned as he put his gun away. "If
they have come to any harm, I will kill you. If I discover you
continue this trade, I will kill you. If anyone else suffers because
of you, I will kill you."

The innkeeper curled into a ball, shivering as the monk paused only
long enough to carefully pick up a white form from the bed. The boy
smiled at the collapsed man, and the innkeeper wished he could
vanish. It was not a nice smile. It said that everything the monk
had just promised the boy would help deliver.

The pair left, and all he could do was cower.

///

Sanzo studied the scene below, eyes narrowed. How could those two
let themselves get captured like that? He could see that idiot Gojyo
falling for drugged wine, but he could have sworn Hakkai was smarter
than that. Hakuryuu too. But the little dragon had been curled up
asleep in a corner when they had returned to the room.

Hard to believe that he and Goku had been rescued by headache
medicine.

Shaking his head slightly, Sanzo returned his attention to the
present problem. It had take most of the night to get here, but they
were now looking down on Genma's castle.

Genma's extremely well guarded and heavily protected castle.

Morons. Had to get captured by someone semi-competent.

"Sanzo, how are we going to get Hakkai and Gojyo out of there?"

Was the monkey actually asking for a plan? Sanzo looked at his
companion from the corner of his eye.

Goku continued. "I mean, I can stop a lot of them, but Hakkai and
the dumbass might be hurt, and we can't carry them out and fight at
the same time."

"I do believe you've taught your pet common sense, Genjo Sanzo."

Spinning, Sanzo resisted the urge to groan. Before him stood the
Goddess of Mercy herself. For some reason, that made Sanzo feel
worried.

"He's not my pet," sounded at the same time as "I'm not a pet!"

"Ssh," smiled Kanzeon, her pale eyes aglow with laughter. "There are
all sorts of guards. One might hear you."

Settling herself on a rock, Kanzeon smiled. "You won't get in by
force, anyway. Genma has too many people loyal to, or afraid of, him
for that. This one should be won with subtlety."

"This coming from you?" The disbelief was clear in Sanzo's voice.
Goku could only stare.

Kanzeon's smile only grew larger. "Well, we can tell brute strength
will not win this. Besides, subtle never was my thing."

Warning bells went off in Sanzo's head. They grew louder as the
goddess pointed her finger at him. There was a brilliant flash, and
everything seemed to warp.

The world spun around him. Sanzo gasped for air as something heavy
seemed to drop upon him. Pressure reached the point of pain, then
stopped.

Blinking away tears he hadn't been aware of shedding, Sanzo found
himself on his hands and knees. Something was off. His clothes felt
different, but in a strange way. Both tighter and looser.

Nausea rolled over him, and Sanzo rose up until he sat on his heels.
His eyes closed once more, and he let his robe slide down to cool
off.

"San… Sanzo?"

He had never heard Goku make that tone of voice before. What the
hell had the old hag done to him?

Forcing his head up, Sanzo opened his eyes. "What is it…"

Was that his voice? It was so high-pitched.

Goku stood before him, eyes even bigger than normal. He was staring
at Sanzo. "What are those?"

Following the direction of Goku's finger, Sanzo looked down. A few
blinks followed. Trembling fingers reached up and brushed the new
things protruding from his chest.

Sanzo did two things that he would later regret. Things that if Goku
ever told anyone about, Sanzo would kill him.

Genjo Sanzo, guardian of the Maten Sutra, one of the highest ranked
Buddhist monks alive, squeaked. Then he, or, more gender
appropriately, *she* passed out without another sound.

///

Kanzeon's smile was almost too big for her face. As she looked at
her unconscious nephew, er, niece, the goddess actually giggled. She
reached down and made a few minor changes, such as growing Sanzo's
hair and modifying her clothes.

Finally satisfied, she sat up and looked at Goku.

"Oh, do calm down. I haven't hurt your precious Sanzo. Just did a
minor gender change. Nothing too big."

Goku gaped at her. "You gave Sanzo boobs! He's going to kill
someone!" The boy's voice was quickly reaching the same level as
Sanzo, without the benefit of a spell.

"Ch," said Kanzeon. "Details. Tell me," she smiled at Goku, who
froze in sudden, perfectly understandable fear. His eyes flickered
between her and Sanzo and quickly returned to her.

"How do you feel about playing boy toy, Son Goku?"

///

His head hurt.

A lot.

What the hell had happened?

"…boy toy, Son Goku?"

Those words, combined with that voice, made Sanzo growl as he sat up.

Then he felt his balance shift, and remembered what that insane
bitch of a goddess had done. Sanzo reached for his gun, not caring
that the hills were swarming with guards, or that the gun would have
very little effect. That woman was going to die."

"Joined the living once more, I see." Kanzeon said, amusement clear
in her voice. In her hand, she held Sanzo's gun. "Looking for this?"

Sanzo snarled as he lunged for his weapon. He stumbled, his current
form moving in unexpected ways. Only his quick reflexes kept the
blond from falling. Curing, Sanzo rose fully to his feet, eyes
almost black with rage.

"What did you think you were doing, hag? Change me back. Now."

Kanzeon only smiled harder. "Sorry, Sanzo-chan. It takes too much
energy. Besides," she leered. "You make a really cute girl."

Dimly, Sanzo heard Goku's "oh shit," as the dark-haired boy took
cover behind some nearby rocks. Nice to know that the monkey had
some survival instincts. Sanzo himself was too furious to even
speak, fingers twitching with the need to see if a goddess could be
strangled to death. He didn't care if she was the Goddess of Mercy;
he was going to kill her.

But, first, she had to take this damn spell off.

Slowly, bit by bit, Sanzo reined in his anger. The tension in the
air, however, barely lessened. Once he had calmed down enough that
he wasn't going to start breaking things (such as a certain someone's
neck) he glared at Kanzeon.

"How the hell am I being female supposed to help us free Gojyo and
Hakkai?"

///

As her niece began to calm down, and made her demand, Kanzeon
watched Goku creep out from his shelter. He moved to stand by Sanzo,
slightly behind and to the side. Reacting to Goku's presence, Sanzo
calmed further.

"I'm sure that your slaver is expecting two young men to show up,
ready to try tearing the place down."

"Ch, idiot," snorted Sanzo.

"But, Sanzo, weren't we going to… Mmph!"

Putting the fan back from wherever it came from, Sanzo kept Goku's
mouth covered by delicate fingers, cutting off the boy's yelp. "Shut
up, bakasaru. We have enough problems without you drawing the
attention of every guard in the area."

Sanzo's voice trailed off. Kanzeon suppressed a snicker as the monk
realized the height difference. Instead of being taller than Goku,
she had to reach up to swat the boy's head, as well as cover his
mouth.

Not letting Sanzo work up another chance to throw a fit, Kanzeon
continued.

"However, if a young woman and her `special pet' appeared, looking
to buy a few more pets, he wouldn't be expecting that." Pale eyes
fixed on Sanzo. "It's your best chance to get in and out with little
bloodshed."

Now, instead of sending the goddess death-threatening glares, Sanzo
paused. "That," she said reluctantly. "That sounds like a half-way
sensible plan."

Golden eyes bounced between the two. Finally, they focused on
Kanzeon. "So I'm supposed to pretend to be Sanzo's `boy toy?'" Goku
said before being cut off by the goddess.

"Please. Why pretend? I know why Sanzo insist on separate rooms that
are so far away. And it's not just to piss off the Sanbutsushin."

That choice bit of information earned her one extremely red face,
and one faint blush. With that image in her mind, she teleported
back to her viewing room.

This was going to be fun to watch.

TBC...

A/N: Didn't want to spoil the story, so I put these notes here.

The big thing I wanted to address with he/she thing. Sanzo thinks of
himself as male, as does Goku. They will continue to think of Sanzo
as male, so that's how it'll be written in anything from their POV.
Kanzeon is a perfect being (ignores Sanzo's laughter) and see's
nothing wrong with being referred to by one's outward gender. Anyone
who doesn't know Sanzo will refer to him as 'her', and Hakkai and
Gojyo... Well, you'll just have to see. There is actually fanart for
this, made before I got this far, so Sanzo-chan is a bit taller than
Goku.