BORDERLINE - Revised.
By sf

Original : Dec 28, 2001 - May 01, 2002
Revision : Dec 06, 2002

Summary : The Sanzo-ikkou is separated by a sneak attack, landing them on opposite sides of a human-youkai conflict.

Rating : PG-13
Rated for violence and language.

Foreword :
Begun almost a year after the original version of Borderline was written and released, the first revision was done to correct (in my opinion), a truly horrendous piece of writing, and to bring it somewhat closer to my current (and pre-2000) writing style. While the storyline remains largely the same, some minor details in plot have been altered (usually, removed), to give way to a great deal of detail and less, but sharper, dialogue. In accordance to my change in taste, main changes can be briefly summarized as a shortening of the fight scenes and the removal of a lot of (trivial) banter, which gives the work a more serious flavor.

It is not my intention to rewrite Borderline from scratch, although that is true for the earlier chapters, as the reader can tell at one glanced. Lines retained from the original? Probably about 5 in the entire first chapter. However, since I perceive the writing to have dramatically improved in later chapters, my inherent lazy streak hopes that I can reuse more material and write less.

For now, however, Borderline exists as an entirely new story, reusing an old plot. Feedback is still very welcomed .. writing the revision has been like writing a new fic, and I'm very interested to know what the readers think of the changes. The original Borderline has been stored at
http://division-stormwind.org/sf/works/border.asp

Happy reading,
sf, December 8 2002.
How fast time passes...

CHAPTER 1
Where the problem arises.

The road wound its way around the mountain range. It was ancient beyond legend, carved by both humans and youkai, the legacy of a time where cooperation still existed between the two. It was a path that sliced across the harsh landscape to link green fields that had once housed youkai settlements, and a lush valley populated by humans. A link, in more ways than one.

As the two races became enstranged, the road began to fall into ruin and disrepair. Yet sections endured, just enough to make the way a little easier for travellers through the mountains, a bittersweet reminder of earlier days.

Jiipu traversed the path with relative ease. Sounds of bickering from the back seat mingled with the muted whir of its engine, until the former was cut shot by the characteristic thump of a paper fan meeting two heads.

The sun was setting in the distant west, fading gold turning to brilliant red. Far in the east, the first stars could be seen.

Sanzo stared at the setting orb, irked at their lack of progress. They had been stuck in the range for several days already, forced to walk in places where the road was too narrow to drive, or where it had been worn away. It seemed that they could look forward to yet another night in the open. As the last of the sun dipped below the horizon, he sighed in defeat and signaled a stop.

"Dinner!" Goku crowed, leaping out of the backseat and brushing off the dust from more than fourteen hours of straight travel. As the other passengers disembarked, Jiipu shimmered once and vanished, taking the form of a small white dragon. With a quiet sigh of fatigue and relief at the halt, he alighted on Hakkai's shoulder.

"You call that dinner?" Gojyo said in annoyance, gesturing at the dried meat and bread that served as their rations, this far from civilization.

"Shut up and eat," Sanzo replied wearily.

"Na, Sanzo, you're in a bad mood tonight," Goku pointed out, and received a chilly stare from the priest in response.

"We should be able to reach the valley by midday tomorrow," Hakkai pointed out. "I'm sure that there are villages down there."

"Good," Gojyo replied, leaning against an outcrop of rock.

The conversation faltered after that. While the prospect of a real bed and real food the next day was enticing, it was also half a day of travel away and, for the moment, not worth dwelling on. And tired and irritable as they were, there seemed to be nothing worth conversing about at the moment.

The silence did not last long. Goku made a grab for the last slice of bread at the same time that Gojyo did, and they paused, eyeing each other. Then the fighting started.

"Mine!"
"Hands off, bakazaru!"
"Who are you calling a bakazaru?!"
"You don't deserve it, bakazaru!"
"Yeah?! You don't deserve it more, cockroach!"

By now, Goku was flinging punches at Gojyo, who was attempting to hold him at arm's length. The original object of their contention was forgotten.

Sanzo glared at both parties, massaging his forehead in a vain attempt to drive off the rising migraine. Hakkai watched him out of the corner of his eye, anticipating the explosion.

Which finally came, delivered in the form of a single pistol shot in the air. Goku and Gojyo froze, eyes going comically wide at the site of the priest holding his smoking Smith and Wesson.

"One more sound and you're dead," Sanzo said softly. He studied their expressions a little while longer, then ground out a curse and stormed away to stand by the edge of the slope. Behind, the guilty parties slowly thawed, and settled onto the ground with a thump.

"He's in a really bad mood," Gojyo muttered.

"Yeah," Goku seconded.

Abruptly, Hakuryuu squeaked. Hakkai was on his feet in an instant, calling out, but the warning arrived too late. The shadows came alive with movement, and one hurled itself at the priest, slamming bodily into him and sending both of them rolling down the mountain side. Goku cried out in alarm, summoning Nyoibou.

"Goku! No!" Hakkai cautioned, but the youth ignored him. In a burst of speed, he eluded both attackers and Hakkai to rush to the edge, staring down at the slope in horror. Then, without a word, he leapt off.

"GOKU!" Gojyo yelled.

"Watch it!" This time, the warning gave Gojyo enough time to leap back. The heavy blow from the attacking youkai's club, intended to split his skull, crashed across his gut instead. Then there was a splatter of blood as Hakkai sniped the youkai through the heart with a ki blast.

"Are you okay? Gojyo?" Hakkai called, and the half-breed gave him a grin and a thumbs up, even as he decapitated two more assailants with his shaku jou. "I'm fine. It's pay back time."

***

They rolled down the slope, the youkai crowing in triumph and Sanzo cursing, trying to draw his revolver.

"You're dead, human," the youkai sneered. "I'll gut you and spill your entrails all across the mountainside. Unless, of course, I decide to eat them instead."

"Eat this, moron!" Sanzo snarled, sending a bullet through the youkai's gut. The youkai howled and they ran out of slope then, slamming onto a shelf halfway down the mountain. Sanzo rolled aside and snapped off a second bullet straight through its skull. His attacker fell and didn't move again.

"Sanzo!"

He glanced up.

"SANZO!"

A brown shape slipped and tumbled, head over heels, down the course that he had just taken. Goku crashed into the ground, hard.

"Idiot! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Goku stood up and blinked owlishly, cradling his head in pain. "I didn't think..."

"Typical."

Sanzo stood, wincing at the bruises and abrasions. Rolling down a mountainside was not his idea of fun.

"Sanzo.. the world's tilting funny," Goku mumbled.

Sanzo glanced up, brow furrowing. Concussion?

"And there are these lights..." Goku looked up, leaned backwards, and fell over.

Sanzo was at his side in an instant, catching him before he could go crashing into the ground again. His hand brushed the brown hair and came away wet with blood. Damn. He cracked his head on the way down. Grinding his teeth, he looked up. There was no going back the way they had come, not with a slope that steep and that high. It had to be a good two hundred meters up. It wasn't a climb that he wanted to attempt anytime, let alone at night, with an injured companion...

He sighed and glanced at the youth in his arms, truly frustrated by situation.

"Dumbass ape."

***

"That's the last of them," Hakkai reported, nudging the latest corpse with his foot.

Gojyo was standing by the edge, staring down into the darkness. The youkai side of his heritage lent him superior night vision to the average human, but he was still unable to discern anything in the darkness. "Think they fell all the way to the bottom?"

"I hope not," Hakkai said softly, coming up beside him. "It.. I thought I heard voices, but I couldn't be sure."

"No way in Hell I'm going to attempt that in the dark. And I'm not going down the way those two did," Gojyo muttered, trying to ignore the flaring pain in his ribs from the earlier blow.

Hakkai glanced at him. "Let me take a look at that injury."

"I'm fine," Gojyo lied.

"Oh?" Hakkai darted forward and poked him -- hard -- in the ribs. Gojyo fell back with a curse and slapped his hand away. "Alright, so it's not okay. I think I cracked a rib, or something. And since you can't heal broken bones, I don't think there's anything we can do about it."

"True," Hakkai sighed, glancing back down the slope. "I guess.. we should stay here until day break. I don't know how we're going to find them in the dark, and you should rest."

"I don't know how we're going to find them at all," Gojyo said.

"We'll think of something."

***

There was nothing he could use to bandage the wound, Sanzo realized, unless he used his robe. So here he was, standing somewhere high on the mountainside with the bakazaru bleeding all over his sleeve. Without supplies. Several adjectives describing the gods' sense of humor came to mind, none of them polite.

Goku's injury necessitated action, specifically, moving towards civilization, where he could get treatment. He had an open head wound, a nasty, nasty business that was inconveniently life-threatening, even for a youkai. Besides, an exposed cliff-side was not a good place to spend the night, not with hostile youkai on the prowl.

Goku stirred. Golden eyes flickered open and he blinked blearily at Sanzo. "When's breakfast?"

Sanzo gnashed his teeth at the sheer idiocy of it all. "There's no breakfast. There isn't even any damn food, since you didn't have the foresight to bring it when you jumped down."

"Jumped down?"

A little bit of surprise, then. "You don't remember what happened?"

"No... where are we?"

"You leapt off a cliff." He shrugged irritably. "We're somewhere on a mountain-side."

"No food?"

"No, idiot!"

"So what do we do?" He stumbled to his feet. "...dizzy..."

Sanzo barely got out of the way before Goku abruptly fell to his knees again and retched, throwing out most of dinner. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he sat back on his heels with a groan. "Hungry..."

It was amazing, Sanzo mused, how the kid could still feel hungry after puking his guts out. "Can you walk?"

Goku blinked at him.

Sanzo nodded in the general direction of the valley. "The sooner we start, the sooner you get fed," he said, throwing out an irresistible lure. He was not disappointed. Goku leapt to his feet, staggered, then summoned his staff to act as a walking stick. Leaning on it, he chirped, "Let's get going, then!"

The corners of Sanzo's mouth twitched in what might have been a smile, albeit vestigial. "Very well."

It was the coldest part of the night, several hours before dawn. Goku was limping, breathing heavily. "I .." he stumbled, and stopped altogether. He stood there, swaying unsteadily for a moment.

Abruptly, his knees just gave out on him.

Sanzo spun at the thud, gun in hand. And swore. "Oi, Goku!"

The words echoed down the mountain side, but there was no other response. Stepping forward, he nudged Goku with his foot. "Wake up, saru!"

When he was greeted with silence a second time, he shoved the gun back into his sleeve pocket and dropped to one knee beside his companion. A careful examination of the wound proved that it was still bleeding. "Damn idiot," he muttered, for the umpteenth time that night. "Damn, stupid idiot!"

He did it for you, an annoying little voice nagged at him.

I never asked him to, he replied, a standard response.

Does it really make a difference?

Go away, he told it wearily.

***

They slept, or at least Gojyo slept, while Hakkai kept watch. Somewhere near dawn, Hakuryuu crawled sleepily to his side and laid his head in his lap. "He may have internal injuries," Hakkai said. "Gojyo, I mean."

"Kyuu?"

"We need to find help. But I don't know.. do we leave here or do hang around and hope that Sanzo and Goku will find us? And our provisions won't last long either..."

"Kyuu.." Hakuryuu murmured, closing ruby eyes.

Hakkai smiled at the dragon. "Yes, you might as well get some rest. We have a long day ahead of us."

***