AN: This is inspired by a wmg on tvtropes, that is, like Sun Wukong, the character from Journey to the West that Goku is based on, he will become a Buddha or I guess a god in the terms of the English anime? (Seriously go check out that page, there's some pretty artwork that is the reason I fell in love with this theory.)

Well anyway. Not being an expert on Buddhism, I just stuck to the way that the English version of the anime explained things.

So now when I tell you that this is ALSO probably not even canon-compliant, you're gonna be like, "what are you even writing?" I swear, it's still our four darlings and the Merciful Goddess herself.

It was the end. They were there at Gyumaoh's base, had managed to barely make it through the skin of their teeth, and everything was falling apart.

Sanzo fell to the youkai, a simple straight stab through the chest. The power of the scriptures had run out, and Sanzo only had so many bullets. He was quickly overpowered. A moan, and he slumped over.

Really dead this time.

Goku could smell his blood and the stopping of his heart, though he was incapable of bringing himself to face the body. The end of Goku's world was short and clean, and he could not look at what was left of it. Hakkai and Gojyo didn't see it, didn't realize it, and so it was that Goku's power limiter broke and nobody was near enough to realize what that meant.

And this time, when the world went white, Goku knew it had only stopped, allowed him to stay in this moment. He kept his memories... all of them, the long unbroken chain, missing parts visible again stretching back for countless eons, and he held onto the end of it.

But it doesn't matter, Goku realized. Nothing matters. Sanzo is dead.

And he let go.

"Not," said a low but definitely female voice, "so fast, Son Goku."

He unfolded his hands and opened his eyes, brushing away flower petals.

His nails were long. He reached up to his forehead to find that his power limiter was not on.

Weird.

"Where am I?" he asked.

There was a woman sitting by him, cross-legged, with her dark hair touching the flower petals they were both sitting in. She didn't seem to have sunk down into them the way that Goku had. He tried to sit up, but only sank further down.

"How deep do these go?"

She smiled, and shrugged. "You tell me."

She had pretty purple eyes, Goku realized, kinda like S-

"No," she said sharply, "don't think about it just yet. A little while longer, Son Goku. Then you can go back."

"Why do you call me by my full name?"

"Because it won't be your name for much longer," she said. "Soon you will be Seiten Taisei."

"I thought that was already my name," said Goku.

She paused, thinking.

"Yes," she said, "that has always been who you will become. So you have been called it. But it was not who you were."

There were about five bajillion easier ways to have said that, Goku thought, and then he remembered that Hak- Wait, who? Whatever- that someone had once told him that the gods didn't think of time in the same way that humans or demons did.

"Okay," said Goku. "I think I get it."

"Things are about to change," she said, somber now. "I like things that change. I've known this particular change would be coming for a very, very long time. The other gods will be upset, but it must happen. They're a bunch of stuffy old men, anyway. But I have to warn you, Son Goku, when you go back, you're going to be very different."

"Why?"

He knew she wouldn't answer, though.

"You'll make it through the task I gave you," she said, getting up, hips swaying gracefully as she walked across the petals towards him (and how did she do that? Goku seemed to remember that it was impossible, but it seemed like centuries since he'd tried it), "but I'm going to give you two gifts with which to do it, all right?"

"What?" he asked, but she just pressed a finger to his forehead.

It burnt, where she touched him, but he didn't feel it as pain. Rather, he remembered the sensation of being burnt, but he had no desire to pull away.

"That's one," she said. "The second, well... you'll see. Technically you don't need it, but I sort of figure, I've put you all through so much. I separated you once. And, Son Goku, I cannot bear to do it again. It's against the rules, but oh well. Rules are made to be broken, and I make the rules."

Goku found that moderately frightening, but didn't say anything.

She smiled at him.

"And besides, it'll just be fun to see what happens! You guys have been so much more entertaining than I expected. No. Do not sit up. Lie back down, and close your eyes again."

He did so, and suddenly he was a part of the petals, and now he knew how far they stretched- he knew forever, and he was a part of the air around the petals, which stretched infinitely in the other direction. He knew, if he wanted, that he could get up and walk around on the petals as she (Kanzeon Bosatsu, he now knew) did, but he didn't. Instead, he kept his eyes closed, and breathed.

"I'm very fond of you, Seiten Taisei," she said, smiling down at him. The petals began to swallow him up. He got the sensation that it wasn't so much that he was falling as it was that the petals were moving upwards, and Kanzeon Bosatsu with them. "And of your friends, too. I like the general and the captain, but I have to admit, I'm most fond of Konzen. You can tell 'em. Actually, Konzen can be told about all of this. And tell the others I've got plans for them."

Goku had no idea what she was talking about. There was nothing but petals. There had never been anything but petals. It had begun to feel like he was falling, though.

"Go back," she said, although her voice was very faint now, "and finish the task that was given to you." She was still saying something, but then he couldn't hear it.

He fell through the petals faster and faster to the end of forever, and woke up.

After that it was very simple.

His range of vision didn't just include what he could see with his eyes anymore, or that's how he would have explained it if anyone asked, and everyone else moved so slowly that it was positively ridiculous. It felt like hours, although probably based on how slowly everyone else was moving, it took minutes. He destroyed everything in his path, including an odd-but-definitely-unpleasant mechanical thing. Which was like taking a weight off his shoulders, like a ringing in his ears that had lasted so long he'd forgotten about it, had gone away.

Half the demons must've felt it too, because they ran off.

That made fighting easier, but it was already a piece of cake. At the end of it all was Gyumaoh, and Goku destroyed him, too.

He picked up a blood-stained cloak on the floor in front of him, Gyumaoh's, and it was torn at the ends and looked pretty badass, so he pulled it on over his shoulders. He knew he was still in his demon form when he had to pull out his long hair from inside of it- matted at the ends with blood, ew- and his hands brushed against his pointy ears. It was long, but it didn't quite brush the floors. He felt taller.

And when it was all over he turned back and stared at the three men and/or demons that stood before him.

"...Goku?" asked Gojyo. They all looked terrified.

"Yeah, what?" Goku asked, and- holy shit- his voice was deeper! He didn't sound like a kid anymore!

They all looked relieved. Goku reached up. His forehead felt completely different. There was a sort of bump in the middle, strangely shaped, and there was a new band across his head. Not his old power limiter, and it had a smooth round stone in the center. So definitely not anything like a power limiter he was used to, and he was still in his demon form. But he was still conscious of who he was. It felt... good.

Sanzo stepped forward, and through the hole in his robes, Goku could tell he was completely healed.

"That's a chakra on your forehead," Sanzo muttered, reaching out to touch it. Goku closed his eyes and leaned into the brush of Sanzo's soft, not-calloused fingers across his forehead, pushing his hair out of the way. "You're..."

"A god," finished Hakkai wonderingly. "How did that happen?"

"Don't," said Sanzo, "he can't explain."

Sanzo looked at him with wonder, an expression that Goku had never seen on his face before. It was almost beautiful.

Goku grinned at them, leaning on the Nyoi-bo.

"Do we just... leave?" asked Gojyo.

"I guess so," said Hakkai. "Back through the swath of destruction we... or, mostly Goku, I guess, cut."

Sanzo was still studying Goku. Goku felt strange under Sanzo's gaze. He'd always wanted it on him, to be fair, but now that he had it he felt uncomfortable. But yeah, okay, it was kinda nice to have Sanzo's full attention. He just didn't know what to do with it.

Old habits, of course, die hard.

"I'm hungry," Goku said, partly to break the silence and partly because he really was. He fiddled with the cloak around his shoulders and tugged at his shirt, trying to make it settle in a way that wouldn't mean the blood on it stuck it to him. He really wanted to get to an inn to change.

"What a surprise," said Gojyo.

"A god," said Sanzo, "and yet still a stupid monkey."

"Hey!" said Goku, scowling at Sanzo. He didn't mean it, though.

"So," said Hakkai, "I feel much better now. I think we probably destroyed the source of the Minus Wave, too." He pointed to the mechanical thing Goku had absentmindedly punched through.

"Oh," said Goku, "is that what that was?"

"Yeah," said Hakkai. "Well, I think so, anyway."

"Huh," said Gojyo, rubbing at his head. "It's like I had a migraine and all of a sudden it's gone. I guess that makes sense."

Sanzo shrugged. Goku sank down onto the ground- suddenly exhausted. Did gods still get exhausted? Whatever. He was. And he was soooo hungry. Seriously. He was gonna starve.

"So," said Hakkai. "Where do we go?"

Sanzo smiled, and it looked like there was a weight off his shoulders. God, Goku was so happy to see him alive.

"East."