Memory

Disclaimer: I don't own Saiyuki, Saiyuki owns me!

Note: This story will ultimately contain spoilers for Saiyuki Gaiden. Some knowledge of Goku's backstory and Goyjo's past reincarnation is useful.

Gojyo was more than halfway resigned to the fact that he was dead. His left leg was broken, his shoulder was dislocated, his entire body was covered in bruises and the odd burn mark, and perhaps more to the point, he hadn't stood a chance against the Seiten Taisei at full strength in the first place. With one leg broken he hadn't tried to run. But he decided that even without a weapon he would at least bite the evil bastard once before he got his throat ripped out. He thought he might have nipped him in the arm (oh, the irony) before being head-butted into unconsciousness, which was a small comfort. If he was going to be eaten by a crazed yokai, he wanted to at least get a little of his own back.

It was a surprise to open his eyes again, and not only because for a second he thought he had four arms. But relief at being alive didn't last long past the realization that he was being dragged into a cave by the Seiten Taisei, probably as a late night snack. The yokai formerly known as Goku was tugging him along by his unbroken leg, small mercy, and had so far only banged his head into a rock twice. There was a wetness on his forehead, his vision kept blurring and multiplying, and dimly he was afraid for Hakkai.

If it had been Sanzo who had been ill, Gojyo wouldn't have been nearly as worried. To be frank, His Holiness was always being poisoned or stabbed or dropped off cliffs, and so many yokai had tried to take bites out of him it was a wonder he didn't look like a piece of swiss cheese, yet he was still alive. Yes, Sanzo was your standard damsel in distress. But Hakkai was made of sterner stuff, so when he went pale and still while bleeding whole pints out of his stomach, Gojyo became very worried.

That was why he'd volunteered to stay behind and deal with the Seiten Taisei, and that was probably why instead of calling him an "idiot" Sanzo had nodded sharply and thrown Hakkai into the Jeep. But a rampaging Goku (after some fool of a yokai had thought he would become weaker without his diadem) was not something Sanzo could deal with right now when he was holding in Hakkai's guts, and with Hakkai looking like his vine-and-claw self there was little chance of the nearest town letting him in or agreeing to treat him unless the Great High Priest Sanzo was there to ram him down their throats. So there had really been little choice.

Gojyo hadn't intended to fight the Seiten Taisei—he wasn't stupid. He just needed to hold him off until Sanzo and Hakkai got away. In the middle of the desert there were few travelers so Gojyo hadn't needed to stop psycho-Goku from attacking anyone. As soon as the monk was off safely he'd simply run like hell. He hadn't wanted a fight—it was the Seiten Taisei who had decided to start hunting him.

And had caught him. Gojyo had an image of cats playing with their food flash through his mind. It was enough to make him weakly attempt to break free, but he might as well have been trying to break the grip of a tornado.

Then they were inside the cave. It was dark and damp and about as exciting as most caves Gojyo had ever seen. There was a trickle that could almost be called a stream and some of those pointy things that he never could remember which were stalactites and which were stalagmites. But the coolness was a bit of a relief after the hot sand, and at least the wet ground meant that psycho-Goku would have more trouble starting a fire if he intended to cook Gojyo before eating him. Always look on the bright side of life, that was Gojyo's philosophy.

At the moment the brightest thing in his life were the white fireworks behind his eyes. He blinked, and his vision cleared again. Psycho-Goku with his creepy slanty gold eyes was looming over him, reaching down clawed hands. Instinctively, Gojyo threw up his one working arm to bat the hands away. The Seiten Taisei kicked him sharply in the stomach in order to put an end to that meager resistance, and then grabbed his broken leg.

The pain that followed was immense, and Gojyo screamed because there was no one around to call him a wimp anyway. But as red ants crawled out from behind his eyes before the world spiraled down into black, the last thing he was aware of was that, to his surprise, the Seiten Taisei had set his leg straight.

Consciousness came back to Gojyo like a boyfriend returning before he'd had time to get out of the girl's house. The first thing he was aware of was that his forehead was wet. When he raised a shaky hand to his face, it appeared that it wasn't blood but pieces of wet cloth lying all over his face. There was something stuffed under his head as well.

He waited for the pain to hit him, and it didn't. So he forced himself to open his eyes. Bright sunlight was streaming in through the entrance of the cave, but Gojyo was lying far enough back that the back of the cave that it was still dim. The ground wasn't as hard as it could have been, because he was lying in a puddle of mud. Both arms were now working, meaning someone had popped his shoulder back in its socket. He tried one leg, then with unwarranted optimism the other, but his broken leg wouldn't respond at all. He forced himself to sit up a little just to make sure that he still had a leg, but it was definitely attached, just numb.

His slow attempts to sit up uncovered two revelations: he didn't hurt nearly as much as he should, and it was very hard to move his body. Some paralysis poison? Odd, the Seiten Taisei didn't seem like the type to not want his prey to squirm.

His movement caused a few cloth rags to fall off his face. He picked one up. Judging from the blood on it, the cloth had been covering his injuries, like a bandage made by someone who didn't realize that bandages should be tied around a cut instead of just plopped on top. The brown cloth had also been soaked in something sticky and green.

This looked like a piece of his shirt. That would explain why his chest was bare, sans a few miscellaneous pieces stuck to his back. Hakkai returned Gojyo's jacket to him pristine clean from bloodstains, claw marks, and dirt of all colors, but he didn't think even the genius housemaker would be able to save it this time.

Gods, but he hoped Hakkai was still alive.

When sitting up failed, he managed to lift his head a bit to take a look around the cave. His ability to turn his head was limited but he could see sunlight streaming in from the wide entrance straight ahead. If only he could get to his feet, and find something to use as a walking stick, this might be a great time to make a run for it, before his favorite crazed yokai made a reappearance.

Speak of the yokai, and he appeared. The Seiten Taisei ambled through the cave opening dragging an ugly looked horse with a hump on its back. He quickly set about skinning it with more skill than Goku had ever demonstrated. It was great for Gojyo to know that he wasn't on the menu tonight, not so encouraging to see how easily the Seiten Taisei managed to start a fire—just by snapping his fingers. Since when could Goku do that?

Then, of course, he was strolling over to Gojyo. The half-yokai tested the limits of his strength and found that his reaction times were sluggish, but if he waited until the Seiten Taisei got close then he would probably be able to get in at least one elbow to the face before his impending death. Gojyo liked the idea of going down fighting. Admittedly, the fact that he'd be hitting something that still at least looked like Goku removed a considerable amount of the fun of being vindictive.

Gojyo silently sent a prayer to the merciful goddess that if Sanzo and Hakkai somehow made it back and subdued Goku, then at least the monkey wouldn't remember killing him. His past experience with the aforementioned deity hadn't left him too impressed, but if she bore even the tiniest resemblance to her name, then surely that wasn't too much to ask?

The Seiten Taisei stopped, and dropped to his knees next to Gojyo's broken leg. Alas, this made it hard for Gojyo to elbow him without sitting up, and his magnificent but temporarily crippled body was telling him that was a definite no-go. Well, hitting the monkey wasn't that much fun when he wasn't in his right mind and wouldn't sputter with indignation. He composed his mind and offered a few prayers to the gods (most of which began with "f" and ended with "uck you").

The Seiten Taisei had his hands on Gojyo's leg. An odd tingling sensation went through the broken limb. Gojyo forced his head up again just enough to see, and there was a flow of golden sparks going from the monkey's hand to his body. Instead of increasing, the pain in his leg was fading.

It looked like the same flow of energy from the earth that had the pesky tendency to heal all of psycho-Goku's wounds when they were trying to get his damn diadem back on. But since when could Goku—the Seiten Taisei—heal anyone but himself? Equally to the point, why?

The Seiten Taisei let go of his leg, which Gojyo suddenly had full sensation in. He tried to get his legs under him so he could stand up, see if the break really was healed. The Seiten Taisei shoved him back to the ground with the strength of an earthquake, slamming Gojyo's head into the ground with a sickening crack. Then the Seiten Taisei's hands were on him again, and the pain in his head began to fade, along with various other aches and bruises expressing themselves all over his body.

When the Seiten Taisei got to his feet again, Gojyo felt invigorated. Almost ready to fight another round if he didn't know that he'd only get himself curb-stomped again. He did at least allow himself to stand up and inspect his body (clarifying that his pants were still hanging on but almost as unsalvageable as his shirt.)

The Seiten Taisei went over to the fire where the four-legged beast was roasting. He pulled off a slab of meat, then marched back to Gojyo, carrying it.

When the meat was thrust into his face, the message was clear. The Seiten Taisei didn't intend to kill him yet. He had also possibly developed an immunity to heat along with his other weird abilities at some point, because the meat was still slightly on fire yet it didn't seem to bother his hands in the slightest. Gojyo wouldn't have dared touch it himself, but arguing with the crazy yokai didn't seem like a good idea either, so he sacrificed his headband (which wasn't as clean as he would have liked) to scoop the meat up until it stopped billowing smoke.

This apparently satisfied the Seiten Taisei, who began walking back to the rest of the meal. Why? Why bother to feed him and heal him and generally not kill him?

Hesitantly, Gojyo called, "Goku?"

The other whirled around, and Gojyo was suddenly pinned by a pair of golden eyes. He took a step back, and found that his legs were shaking.

Goku was looking at him with naked hunger.

Gojyo had been the target of hungry eyes before—people who wanted to kill him, or fuck him, or be him. But these were different. Mostly, it reminded Gojyo of the way Goku looked at meat buns. There was a creepy thought, given that psycho-Goku had proven quite capable of trying to take a bite out of him in the past.

Just a little, the look reminded him of the way the monkey sometimes looked at Sanzo. That was an even more disturbing thought, not the least of which because Gojyo didn't like to draw any parallels between the Goku who used to be, and the monster in front of him now.

Sure, it was sugary sweet that the Seiten Taisei had healed him and all. But that didn't mean that Gojyo was going to forget who had been the one to inflict all his injuries in the first place. Or the way that same someone had been screaming with pure joy as Gojyo's leg snapped.

One brief meal later, carefully watching the Seiten Taisei in case he moved from the fire, Gojyo began to plan.

Gojyo's first priority was finding Hakkai and Sanzo, confirming that Hakkai had his guts back inside his body (oh please merciful goddess) and bringing Sanzo and his wonderful diadem-creating powers back to Goku so they could get their monkey back to normal. All of these necessitated leaving the cave.

He considered just walking past the Seiten Taisei out of the cave. Why not? The crazed yokai hadn't tried to harm him or bother him (past almost killing him in the first place). Maybe he wouldn't even notice if Gojyo just sort of meandered off.

Goku followed him with those creepy eyes as Gojyo walked past, but made no move towards him. The half-yokai placed one foot down in the outside sunlight before a hard weight came crashing into him.

When he opened his eyes, Goku was sitting on his chest. The monkey leaned close, so close that Gojyo could smell the scent of earth on his breath, and bared some when-did-they-get-so-sharp teeth, scrapping them ever so lightly across Gojyo's neck. Where he was fairly certain Hakkai had said an important blood vein was located. Yes, there were definitely days when Gojyo wished he paid more attention to what Hakkai said, instead of asking him to "please stop talking your work at the health clinic over dinner." Because right now it would have been great to remember what he first aid he was supposed to do when bleeding profusely from the neck.

Luckily, the teeth retreated without even breaking skin. His point made, the Seiten Taisei picked Gojyo bodily up (at least he wasn't dragging him this time) and deposited him back in the mud puddle that had previously served as his bed.

As usual, the monkey didn't know his own strength. Gojyo saved himself from a return to unconsciousness by making sure he got a hand under his head before he hit the ground.

So much for that idea.

Gojyo had always known that Goku ate a lot, but there was nothing to drive the point home quite like watching him eat an entire horse thing in the space of a few hours (minus Gojyo's piece) and then go out and bring in another one. Gojyo didn't even get any of that one, although he didn't have much of an appetite.

The sun was only starting to dim when Goku went out hunting for a third time. This time, Gojyo stayed put. The first time he'd been left alone he'd quite naturally made an escape attempt, because there was no way he was going to sit around waiting to be rescued—if Sanzo had to make a detour to go looking for him again then he would never be allowed to live it down. (There was also the possibility that the monk wasn't coming because he had already landed himself and Hakkai in more of the trouble that following him as if he was a magnet, but Gojyo was trying not to think about that.)

Unfortunately, the hunting trip didn't take very long, his disappearance was quickly noted, and the Seiten Taisei had proven much better at tracking then plain old Goku. As in, he hadn't gotten more than half a mile before an irritated Great Sage threw a boulder at him. In retrospect, going into a desert when he'd lost all his water containers hadn't been the best move he could have made. Because sure, they were only ten minutes' drive in, but the trip became much longer when you were on foot and you had lost all your supplies. And although psycho-Goku had kindly healed his ankle and ribs after breaking them into several pieces with a giant freaking rock, Gojyo would still rather not go through that experience again. No, this time he was waiting for a better chance.

He had cause to regret that when the monkey did return.

This time, the Seiten Taisei was dragging a whole cart behind him, one that looked like it was meant to be pulled by at least two animals. It was loaded down with items: trunks, cloth, two wooden chairs and of a broken-off half of an oak table, and judging from the smell there must be food in there somewhere. There was definitely a whiff of cooked meat.

Gojyo swallowed nervously. "And where did that come from, might I ask? I was under the impression there weren't many people around." He surreptitiously examined the haul for bloodstains. He didn't see anything but didn't feel reassured. It did not seem likely that the Seiten Taisei had gotten away with this bounty unchallenged, and Gojyo didn't know how Goku would deal with slaughtering a bunch of innocent people when his sanity returned.

He was concerned enough to voluntarily come closer. The Seiten Taisei didn't seem to have any blood on his clothes either. Perhaps Gojyo could hope that this meant whoever he had encountered had enough sense to run.

Crazy-Goku was unloading the cart. Gojyo approached with great cautiousness, remembering what animals had been known to do to anyone who got close to their food, but Goku did not seem to mind, and eventually he steeled his nerve to start sorting through the cart as well. His fears aside, a brutally pragmatic part of him said he might find something useful for an escape.

He wrestled the broken table out of the cart, which promptly flopped over. Goku came over and picked up the table, then rammed it into the ground with such force that it stayed upright.

It was merely a coincidence that Gojyo started looking for something that could be used as a weapon right after that.

His own shakujou hadn't returned to his hand since psycho-Goku had snapped it in two then ground the blade to dust. Sanzo was going to be pissed once he found out that Gojyo had lost one of the temple's sacred treasures. He didn't know what had happened to Goku's staff either, just that the monkey wasn't swinging it around anymore. Maybe he'd get lucky and Goku had broken Nyoibou too: then he would only have to dodge half as many bullets before Sanzo had to reload. But no, the monkey never seemed to use his staff when in psycho-land, which meant the sacred treasure was probably lurking in limbo somewhere.

Oh, well. Gojyo had a suspicion that the majority of the bullets fired by an enraged Sanzo would always end up going in his direction, regardless of his share of the actual blame.

Gojyo found a small knife wrapped in a belt under a chair, and then a shirt, which was too plain white for his tastes but made him feel a little less naked. Feeling something hot rising from the cart, he tossed items out a little faster and found the food, which was buried in huge tin boxes towards the middle of the stack. (It made Gojyo wonder who had put the food there, because was the Seiten Taisei sane enough to understand the concept of packaging? He hadn't seen any evidence of long-term planning capability the last few times they'd met.)

The tins had kept the food hot, and it sure did smell good to someone who had a very scare sustenance after a very rough day. Not surprisingly, food attracted the monkey away from his interior decorating. Goku started piling food onto the table, which wobbled but remained upright after the Seiten Taisei gave it a very nasty look.

Something tumbled out of the haphazardly-packed cart. Gojyo leaned over to take a look.

It was a kodamo. A child's toy. Suddenly, Gojyo felt violently nauseous, and not hungry at all. He pawed through the cart, but found nothing but regular household items: a bundle of clothes, a hoe, books (including ten copies of the Farmer's Almanac), and a completely uprooted bathtub. He didn't know what he was looking for, just that he hadn't found any explanation at all.

He was alerted by a tug at his arm that an impatient Seiten Taisei was standing at his shoulder. Nothing like survival to knock you from a funk. Moving in the direction of the tug seemed like the best way not to lose an arm, and letting himself be shoved into a chair was a great way to still have unbroken legs. Goku handed him a giant fork that was probably meant for serving not eating, a badly cracked plate, and settled into the other chair, raising an eyebrow in a very un-Goku-like way. If Goku had started picking up Hakkai's mannerisms after going psycho then this confirmed a few of Gojyo's long-held theories about the correlation between cleanliness and crazy.

He didn't feel like quarrelling for food with someone who might actually try to eat his hand, so he waiting for the Seiten Taisei to begin. But this only got him an impatient look, and a wave of encouragement.

Goku, letting him eat first? Now he knew that the being in front of him was definitely not his monkey.

The food did look good (pork buns, noodles, fried rice, and thick bread) so he took the plunge. The Seiten Taisei only watched him eat, which was not quite creepy enough to put him after his appetite. Then, once he'd eaten his full, the monkey proceeded to inhale everything left, which was still the majority of the victuals. So he hadn't held back because he no longer ate normal food. Given how worried Gojyo had been about someone being eaten (hey, Goku had tried to bite off his arm once when the diadem was off) it was a bit of a relief to watch him gorge himself. Admittedly, it got a bit weird when Goku started eating the pans as well. Normally he just settled for licking them.

But dinner wasn't over with that. Goku went back to the cart and dug out something else, then almost shyly presented it to Gojyo. It was a bottle of wine.

Now there was something Gojyo could have used a few hours ago. Right now he was trying to stay clear-headed for the night to come. But then, one bottle had never been enough to make him drunk. (And even when he was acting nonaggressive, it was a bad idea to argue with Goku when he had claws. Or Hakkai when he had claws. Or Sanzo all the time.)

The monkey nodded contentedly as Gojyo threw back his head and took a long sip of the wine. Not for the first time, Gojyo wondered just how much he understood. This was different from the Seiten Taisei he knew, that simply attacked everything living in sight. And it certainly wasn't following normal Goku behavior either.

He peered into the bottle, looking at the deep red color. It was familiar. An odd thought occurred to him, and he took a sniff.

This wine was almost the exact same flavor and color as Gojyo's favorite. Goku knew full well what wine Gojyo liked as he made obnoxious comments whenever Gojyo tipped one into the shopping basket in a passing town. But Goku would also have read the label and known that this was a different, if similar smelling, variety. So which was it? Did he remember or not remember?

Goku chose that moment to pounce.

It was over very fast. Gojyo was lying on the ground—he'd never really had a chance to react—with Goku straddling him, and something hot was burning into his forehead. The monkey held his head down with one hand, and his fingers moved fast.

Then the Seiten Taisei stood up, expression radiating satisfaction, and offered Gojyo the rest of the wine.

Gasping with the aftershock of pain, Gojyo raised a hand to his forehead. He felt nothing. Why would the Seiten Taisei attack him and heal him right away? He hadn't even been doing anything that would provoke, had he?

Moving slowly, he accepting the bottle back again. This time his senses were on full alert, but with this the Seiten Taisei seemed to have completely lost interest in him. When he turned away, Gojyo spotted a box in his hand. It had a picture of a tattoo on it.

Keeping a careful eye on the Seiten Taisei (who was now going back to unpacking the cart) Gojyo made his way over to the stream. Bending over, he tried to make out his reflection.

There was something black on his forehead. It appeared to be a dot with two triangles on either side, like an eye. It didn't rub off, but then tattoos generally didn't. The only thing that made him not completely certain what had happened was that this didn't look like fresh ink. Gojyo suspected that if he walked into a tattoo parlor and tried to get this removed, he'd have trouble convincing anyone that it hadn't been there for years.

Behind him, Goku started singing. It was startling, because it was the first sound he'd made that wasn't a scream or a growl. It was also in some language Gojyo had never heard before.

As soon as the psycho-monkey fell asleep, Gojyo had his escape plan ready. It had been hard resisting sleep now that the Seiten Taisei had brought back actual blankets, piles enough to make a bed out of; in fact, he suspected that the only reason he was still on his feet after a day of running around and a few broken bones was that whatever the Seiten Taisei had done to heal him had also filled him with energy. The monkey himself dropped off to sleep as soon as the sun was completely down.

He might be pressing his luck a bit, not even waiting one day. But it wasn't only that he was worried about Goku swinging from violently crazy back to murderously crazy, or that the Great Sage had had the nerve to put permanent ink on his perfect face. No, he had a bigger concern. The fact that the Seiten Taisei might have stumbled on civilization, and people, during his last trip outside did make it a lot more urgent to find Sanzo and fix this, fast.

It wasn't that he couldn't handle Goku himself, Gojyo thought as he stumbled through the dark cave, trying to remember where he'd left the bottles of water, compass, and the knife he'd set aside earlier. It was just that the great and mighty Sanzo and the Seiten Taisei clearly deserved each other. And it was someone else's turn to do the babysitting duty.

It had occurred to him that the Seiten Taisei would only follow him again, and that the yokai was a lot faster than he was. He could make it out of the desert and maybe to a town by daybreak, but it could take longer to find Sanzo and Hakkai, and what if Goku woke up in the middle of the night? He had to find a way to delay pursuit.

A way had come in the form of a long length of steel chain at the bottom of the cart. What it was doing there, Gojyo didn't know, but then he didn't know what Goku wanted with the butterfly collection or the stuffed dog either.

Thankfully, this incarnation of Goku was also a very deep sleeper, and didn't notice when his hands were chained to a stalac—pointy thing in the ground. The thought had crossed Gojyo's mind that this might not be enough, that it might be smarter idea to bash his head in while he was still unconscious (because they knew from last time that the Seiten Taisei could survive some intense wounds, and it was definitely for the greater good to put him out of commission a bit). He had to balance that against the fact that being attacked would wake Goku up, and that he didn't really want to do it.

But when he looked at Goku sleeping, curled up with the stuffed dog toy (so that was what he'd wanted it for?), that plan was straight out. It was all he could do to fight off the urge to go find an extra blanket to put over him.

Right, escape now, bedtime stories later.

He moved as quietly as he could towards the cave mouth, although Goku was such a deep sleeper that it wasn't likely to make too much difference.

As he quickly found out, it made no difference at all. Because it could not be a coincidence that the exact moment he placed a foot down outside the cave, he heard a deep growl behind him.

There were two options: freeze or run. Gojyo's preferred choice was to run, but he'd tried that last time. Let no one said that his brother had raised a slow learner.

So he turned around, very slowly.

Goku no longer looked the slightest bit cute. He was crouched on all fours, claws extended, his hair twisting around his face as if it was alive. And his eyes were wide open and glowing like golden balls of fire. Something else was glowing too—it was the melting metal hanging off his hands. Goku shook his claws, and the makeshift manacles simply flaked away.

Okay, he'd known that steel wouldn't hold Goku for long, but he'd been hoping for an extra hour, not five seconds. On the bright side at least Goku didn't seem to have been harmed despite having raised his body temperature to the heat of a smith's forge. Was that a bright side?

The Seiten Taisei raised himself fully to his feet with the grace of a mountain rising. And between the space of one blink and the next, he disappeared.

A hot gust on the back of his neck told Gojyo exactly where he'd gone. "Oh, sure, appear behind me, like no yokai has ever done that trick before," he mumbled (under his breath) as he turned around.

Goku was standing between him and the exit, glaring at him, arms crossed like Hakkai when Gojyo came home after forgetting to lock the door. It was a glare that seemed to say, "I am very sick of being woken up and sidetracked and constantly having to go looking for you," and it scared Gojyo because any sign of intelligent thought from the Seiten Taisei only made him more adrift about his current situation. Because if he was dealing with someone intelligent that wasn't Goku, then who was it?

The Seiten Taisei took a step forward, and Gojyo took a step back. He didn't want the yokai to think he was trying to run, but then he didn't want to risk that the Great Sage might still be flammable. His escape plan was trashed now anyway, so only one response left.

"I was just stepping out for a little fresh air. Going to relieve myself. You know how it is, a male-type being like yourself, right?"

The Seiten Taisei just stared.

"And I'll be going back to bed now. Don't worry about the bathroom break, I think you scared the piss out of me."

The Seiten Taisei just stared. Gojyo chose to take this as a positive sign. Back to his filthy pile of blankets it was, then. He only tripped once on his way over (damn stalacwhazits).

Except Goku didn't go back to sleep, which made it rather hard for Gojyo to do so either, still being nervous about being murdered and all. He watched the Seiten Taisei prowl around the cave, examining the smoldering ruins of the chain Gojyo had found (and the half-yokai really hoped there were no hard feelings about that, it wasn't as though Goku had really been inconvenienced.)

Then there was a high-pitched squeal, and Gojyo gave up any pretense of being asleep to sit bolt upright.

It was still very dark out. In point of fact, the only light Gojyo was able to see by was Goku's glowing eyes, which was pretty creepy now that he stopped to think about it. The Seiten Taisei didn't seem bothered by darkness at all, perhaps having the aforementioned glowing eyes helped. In the dim glint coming from that part of the cave, Gojyo could see Goku crouched over a small furry animal that looked like a rat. It had the hairless tail, anyway.

Goku looped a piece of rope around one of the thing's paws, then let go. Naturally, the rope slid off and the rodent made a squeaking run for freedom. It was easily recaptured, and the next time Goku tried a few loops, then tucked the spare bit of string under. This also unraveled with a few tugs. Goku watched placidly as the rat freed itself, then one hand shot out and he caught it again. This time, Goku tried wrapping the end of the rope over and under in a makeshift knot. It took another attempt before he realized that he needed to knot twice in order to make it stay. Finally, the rat ran in circles shrieking as Goku calmly held the other end of the rope.

Gojyo would be tempted to cheer this epic odyssey of learning, but the implications of this had not escaped him. He'd inadvertently taught the monkey how tie stuff up. Charming.

What was most interesting about this exchange was that it demonstrated that Goku—the Seiten Taisei—was not a stupid and unthinking beast, but nevertheless lacked the basic understanding of the world that one would expect anyone over the age of five to have. In other words, the killing machine was even more socially clueless than the monkey had been. But a fast learner. He understood enough to conduct an experiment, apply cause and effect, and reason out a solution. This version of the Seiten Taisei was not stupid—just very inexperienced, like a blank slate.

The bad lighting made it hard to make out an expression, but Gojyo was certain that Goku was gazing at the imprisoned rat with a distinct look of satisfaction. Then he turned his head and looked directly at Gojyo. It was a look that left no doubt that he could see in the dark, and knew he was being watched. Deliberately, he walked towards Gojyo, and held out the rat for inspection. In his other hand a long coil of thick rope.

The message was plain: cause me any more trouble and I know exactly how to deal with you. So the Seiten Taisei had also learned how to make threats.

Oh, the long way he'd come since the infantile creature who had unreasoningly tried to eat Gojyo's forearm. It was almost enough to make Gojyo feel proud, in a terrified sort of way.

The rat squeaked frantically, clearly not happy at being dangled in the air by one foot. Goku eyed it quizzically. Then he reached towards its neck with two clawed fingers.

"Don't," Gojyo said impulsively.

The Seiten Taisei raised his head to look at him with wide unblinking eyes.

"Don't. It's just a rat. We don't need to food right now, so just…let it go."

Daring to come closer, Gojyo stuck out one hand and cupped the animal with one hand (careful to keep the jaws held shut) as he began to pull at the rope around the rat's paw, hoping this was not about to become the incident that would forever hang him with the nickname "Stumpy."

But his hand remained intact, and instead off ripping off a limb for presuming to touch him, the Seiten Taisei helped him tear off the rest of the rope with sharp claws, then tossed the rat aside. It hit the ground with an "eep" and had the sense to put paw to dirt at top speed.

"Thanks," Gojyo said. He couldn't say why this made a difference to him, not being a huge defender of vermin before (he had mousetraps, or rather let Hakkai put up mousetraps), except that this incident made it a bit easier to go to sleep knowing that he was in the same cave as the Seiten Taisei.

Okay, he still waited until psycho-Goku had crawled back to his own bed on the other side of the cave to let himself close his eyes. But at least now he could feel like he had a reasonable chance of waking up the next morning.

In retrospect, this incident might have lulled Gojyo into a bit of a false sense of security. True, there was a limit to how secure you could feel around a monster that had been known to glow from the eyes, but Gojyo had at least thought he'd settled that the Seiten Taisei wasn't likely to kill or maim him at the moment. Somewhere, the merciful goddess was probably laughing about that.

The day started out so normally. First there was breakfast. Goku found some meat buns and Gojyo helped him heat them up over a fire. The monkey ate three-quarters of them and didn't wait for Gojyo to eat first, all of which held a certain sense of normalcy. Then Goku went back to sorting the cart. A great deal of what was on the bottom seemed to be broken glassware, dented metal items, and ripped-up cloth, as the packing of this illicit haul had not been well done. But they did eventually manage to separate out piles of metal cookery, dented but still functional furniture, cloth ranging from clothes to sheets to curtains, books and other paper, and completely unrecognizable junk. But the last pile was actually the smallest—most was in still functional if not pretty shape. The food was already out, of course, and it figured that Goku had managed to bring that back without so much as a bottle broken. The food pile was also the largest, big surprise. Gojyo ended up packing a few perishable items back in tins and putting them in the stream, hoping to preserve them for a bit longer in the coldest part of the cave.

Food preservation was something Gojyo had picked up from Hakkai, because nothing could put you in the doghouse with Hakkai quite like ruining the food he took great care to make, and no one could be smilingly terrifying quite like Hakkai. He wasn't sure what the Seiten Taisei made of him sticking perfectly good food underwater, but the Great Sage Equaling Heaven seemed to have adopted an attitude of amused tolerance towards anything Gojyo as long as he wasn't trying to make a break for it.

After lunch, Gojyo started trying to repair some battered furniture. It wasn't easy when he didn't have any tools, but a broken pot made a reasonable hammer and he managed to turn a combination of serrated glass and a smoking fire poker into something that served the purpose of a saw. Soon he had the two-legged table turned into a tripod, which was for the best since that table had a tendency to sag a bit when Goku wasn't glaring at it.

He hadn't even tried to run off when Goku slipped out of the cave for some hunting. Repeating the same failed tactic wouldn't change anything; he had a new plan. He had already started setting aside a few ingredients from the cart.

Goku came back with two rabbits. Rabbit meat was tough and stringy, and Gojyo wished Hakkai was there to work his cooking miracles on it. He did his best with a few loose spice jars he found. He used to live alone, after all. And there had been a time in his life when he'd eaten worse—it was much harder to make edible, say, a rat.

That evening, Goku found a pair of scissors, and set about cutting his hair. Gojyo stopped trying to stitch a ripped shirt to watch in amusement as Goku sliced off his ponytail, only to have it grow back again. Undeterred, the monkey set about cutting again, but within moments his hair was the same length. And again.

Was this another feature of the Seiten Taisei's healing vitality? It did seem to Gojyo that Goku's hair had grown remarkably fast since he'd lost his limiter.

After a few repetitions, Gojyo concluded that Goku was actually growing his hair back deliberately. Perhaps he wasn't satisfied with his haircut?

Setting aside the shirt, Gojyo called, "Come over here, kid. I'll cut it straight for you."

The golden eyes raised to his were blank and uncomprehending, and Gojyo was reminded that the Seiten Taisei didn't seem to understand human speech. But while he was making vague hand waves, Goku stood up and walked over, silently holding out the scissors.

His hair was almost down to the ground, but within a few minutes Gojyo had it back at its normal length. He took a bit longer to make the cut straight. Then he tied it back in a ponytail again.

"I haven't found a mirror so you can't tell, but you look like your old self again."

However, Goku seemed uninterested in what his hair looked like. He extended a hand for the scissors back, then impatiently gestured for Gojyo to turn around.

"What, you want to cut my hair now? Well, I suppose fair is fair. Just not too short, all right? My long red locks are my favorite way to send a universal fuck-you to everyone who knows what 'half-breed' means. Plus, the ladies love them. Sometimes they even give me extra groceries because I look cute, and you know you'd hate to have to explain to Hakkai why I'm not bringing back extra groceries anymore."

Goku's deep look of disgust had definitely been lifted off of the almighty Sanzo. Laughing, Gojyo turned around and presented his hair. He had every reason to suspect he was about to get a bad haircut, but who cared?

Sure enough, Goku instantly started cutting his hair right at the top of his head. "Geez, monkey, you want to shave me bald? Missing baldie Sanzo that much, are you? I could hit you with a paper fan for old time's sake."

Pretty soon, Gojyo had what he suspected was a ghastly cut, little bits of hair sticking out everywhere. Well, it wouldn't be the first time—he'd done a similar horrible job to himself in the bathroom after he'd thought that Hakkai had died (thanks to that jerk Sanzo, with his interpretative "Cho Gonou is dead" crap.) Goku was growling in frustration.

"Well, you could grow it out and try again," Gojyo suggested kindly.

Goku began to attack the remaining bits with a vengeance. He really did want to shave Gojyo bald.

The scissors scraped along Gojyo's scalp and he winced. "Hey, Goku be a little more gentle, would you?"

Goku only cut faster. Gojyo realized there was blood on his head now. "Cut it out!"

The scissors were cutting into only skin now. Gojyo tried to wrench free but Goku's hand on his shoulder had a grip of iron. He elbowed him in the face, got a grip on one arm and wrenched it out of its socket, and managed to knock the scissors flying, but Goku merely walked over, picked them up, and came back at him with implacable will. His face might be dripping with blood, his arm hanging limp, and his stomach imprinted with Gojyo's bookmark, but the Seiten Taisei had completely healed in the time it took him pin Gojyo to the cave wall. Even if Gojyo hadn't pulled the kick that would have broken his neck, the Seiten Taisei would have healed that too. In the end, there turned out to be little Gojyo could do except scream as Goku scalped him.

He was aware that it was over when he began to feel a familiar prickle of energy trickling through his anguish. After that, the pain receded. The very fact that he could feel the Seiten Taisei's hands on his head proved that he had skin again.

He ripped those hands away and staggered to his feet. "Get away from me!" Perhaps it wasn't smart to turn down healing when he could still feel blood trickling down his neck, but no one had ever accused Gojyo of being a genius. "Try to touch me again and I swear I'll bite, claw, spit, do whatever it takes to make both of us miserable."

The Seiten Taisei was just staring at him with those blank, burning eyes. "I'm not your fucking rag doll, you don't get to cut me up and have mommy sew me back together again. From now on, don't come near me unless you feel like breaking my bones again because that's the only kind of communication we'll be having."

Barely able to stand on his feet, Gojyo forced himself to stagger over to his makeshift bed. He pulled the covers over his head.

At least the Seiten Taisei didn't make any move to come near him. From now on the thing in the cave was the Seiten Taisei—he wouldn't make the mistake of thinking of it as Goku again, or even psycho-Goku, because whatever intelligence this might have, there was nothing of the monkey in it. And the only reason why he cared whether it stayed breathing was because Goku would want that body back.

He hadn't intended to go asleep until he thought the monster was sleeping as well, but his body overruled him and once his eyes shut his brain followed.

He dreamed he was standing under cherry blossoms drinking sake, then a friend of his came out and gave him a cigarette and they both went to go tease a stuck-up paper pusher about the pet monkey he'd been saddled with. A pile of books fell on him, a sad-eyed boy punched him in the arm, shouting voices yelled goodbye, and he laughed because he had no regrets. Then a bear with tusks was eating his face. Don't you leave even a bone!

When he woke up, his hair was spiky and black.

To be continued

Author's note: If this story so far has confused you, remember these three things: 1) Goku is finally tapping into his full power as the child of the earth, which was always suppressed by his diadem and the manacles forged by the heavenly gods, and has now gone unrestrained for the longest period ever since he was born. 2) Goku remembers his life in Heaven, and remembers Konzen, Tenpou, and Kenren, but does not remember anything starting from Sanzo coming to free him from his imprisonment. 3) Goku is completely insane.