Fic Update - Two Graves
Apr. 17th, 2007 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessTwo Graves
D M Evans
Disclaimer – not mine. All rights belong to Kazuya Minekura et al, no profit made, just a little fun
Rating – R (for language and graphic violence in later chapters)
Timeline – hmm, let’s say soon after the Snow Drop arc, definitely manga verse
Pairing – none really, friendship between Goku/OC
Summary – Stuck in town by a series of unfortunate events, Hakkai develops an interest in a series of killings while Goku finds a few friends.
Author’s Note – Thanks to Mjules and evil_little_dog for the beta
He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself” - Chinese proverb
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Gojyo sat up, hearing the door between the rooms opening. He doubted he’d been asleep an hour and from how quickly Goku sat up, the half-breed didn’t think the boy had slept at all.
“Did they find her?” Goku asked hopefully but Gojyo could see the kid tremble as he read Hakkai’s face.
“They found her, on the steps of the town shrine,” Hakkai said gently, his hands clenched into fists.
Goku’s gold eyes dimmed, disbelief washing over him like a tidal wave. “But we looked there, Hakkai. We looked everywhere. She wasn’t there.”
“I know, Goku. He must have known where we all were in the town and moved her there when everyone went home,” Hakkai explained, his hand skimming over Goku’s head comfortingly.
Sanzo peeked around the door frame. “He must have been out there with us.” Coming inside the room, Sanzo first clasped Goku’s shoulder then touched Hakkai’s back. “We should go.”
“We’re going to see if there’s anything we can do to help,” Hakkai explained for his friends’ benefit. “Gojyo, could you stay here with Goku?”
“You don’t have to ask,” Gojyo said, his face grim.
“But I want to help, too,” Goku protested, struggling to his feet.
Hakkai gently pushed Goku back down. “We heard from the townspeople, not the paper. They haven’t moved her body yet, Goku. It was the killer…and you don’t want to see her like that, do you?” Hakkai’s eyes gleamed with pain.
Goku shook his head, tears trickling over his cheeks. “Sanzo, we’re not leaving here until we find who killed her.”
“That’s the plan,” Sanzo assured him, almost taking the boy by surprise.
“Thank you,” Goku muttered, watching them go. He curled up, pressing his knees to his chest where he sat on the edge of the bed, a raw sob tearing out of him. Gojyo got up and sat next to him. He put his arm around Goku. The boy unfurled slightly, looking at Gojyo as he scrubbed a hand over his eyes. “I feel stupid for bawling like a baby.”
Gojyo pulled Goku closer, dropping his head down against Goku’s thick mass of hair. “It’s okay to cry sometimes. My brother taught me that. You lost a friend.”
Goku shuddered, tears still trickling. “But I barely knew her…and yet it still hurts so bad.”
Gojyo’s hand rubbed up and down Goku’s tense back. “Sometimes time doesn’t matter, kiddo. You liked her. Hell, you never get a chance to make many friends, stuck with the rest of us losers. You’ve seen a lot of death but mostly your friends make it out okay. This time is different. You know what kind of horrible things this person did to that sweet girl. So, don’t fight it. Cry if you need to.”
Goku wrapped his arms tight around Gojyo, weeping against his friend’s chest. He didn’t see the anger flashing through Gojyo’s eye, a hot fury for a life taken far too soon.
X X X
“This is not good,” Sanzo said, seeing a crowd in the courtyard gathered outside their hotel windows.
“You are a master of understatement, Sanzo,” Hakkai said, hurrying as best he could on the icy sidewalks. Shao hadn’t allowed them to get too close to the murdered girl, not that the refusal took them by surprise. They hadn’t seen Tai-Shan, either, but assumed he might be home consoling his family. What Hakkai hadn’t anticipated would be that the young man would have gathered what sounded like a lynch mob, demanding for Gojyo to send Goku out of the room. Gojyo’s rude remarks were lost to the noise of the crowd. “What is going on?” Hakkai demanded loudly.
“There’s one of them!” someone cried, arms flailing in Hakkai and Sanzo’s direction. “No one we know could do things like this.”
“But one of them is a priest,” someone protested and a murmur went up as the mob took a gander at Sanzo’s robes.
“And we weren’t even in town when the killings started.” Sanzo pushed into the crowd, heading for Tai-Shan. He glared at the law man. “And you know it.”
“What I know is that the last time anyone saw my sister, she was with him!” Tai-Shan stabbed a finger at the window where Goku and Gojyo watched the crowd.
“I didn’t hurt Lan. I couldn’t do things like that,” Goku cried through the glass.
“It has to be strangers. No one who knew those girls could do that,” someone else asserted and the crowd muttered its approval of that idea.
“And Goku was out there looking for Lan all night,” Hakkai said to Tai-Shan. “You saw him. He wasn’t alone. Do you think all of us had a hand in this? Days before we even came to this town?”
“Enough!” At the sharp bark, the crowd’s attention shifted. Huan stalked up to his son. “We don’t need this. Do you think your sister would want,” he gestured to the crowd. “this? They came after the first three girls were killed. That young man did not kill your sister.”
“Are you so sure, Father?” Tai-Shan’s entire demeanor thrummed with his agony and Hakkai knew the young man wasn’t thinking straight. He had to trust that Huan could talk sense to his child.
“They could have been staying somewhere else!” someone shouted. Another cry of approval went up from the crowd.
“And could we have missed their vehicle, or the dragon he has?” Huan gestured at Hakkai. “Or that one of them is a priest who smokes and drinks? That sort of gossip couldn’t have been hidden. They were not here when the first three girls died. Now please, go home. Leave me and my family to our grief.” At Huan’s demand, the crowd started to shuffle off
“Who knew your immoral ways would be our saving grace, Sanzo,” Hakkai whispered.
“Gojyo is rubbing off on you,” Sanzo growled back edging toward the window.
“Let’s go inside, son.” Huan laid his hand on his son’s shoulder.
“Do you want us to leave the hotel?” Sanzo asked. “We will if you want us to.”
Huan looked back at him. “Where would you go? The only other inn is a place I wouldn’t allow dogs to stay in. We have enough staff to run this establishment while my family grieves. You may stay.”
The window creaked open and Goku leaned out. “Is it okay now?”
Sanzo rested a hand on Goku’s shoulder. For a moment the priest regarded Goku’s red, swollen eyes then gently pushed the boy back and climbed inside. “It’s okay.”
Goku squeezed Sanzo’s arm briefly then leaned out the window again to address Lan’s family. “I’m so sorry about Lan. I really am. I want…I don’t want to leave until we find who did this to her. I want to help.”
“I still need to talk to him,” Tai-Shan gestured to Goku. He still didn’t look like he entirely believed that Goku was innocent. “You really want to help? Come with me.”
“Why should trust you?” Gojyo asked, protectively laying a hand on Goku’s shoulder.
“He’s the last person I know of who saw my sister. He was with her all morning, right?” Tai-Shan asked and Goku nodded. “He may have seen someone hanging around watching them. He knows who else was with him and my sister. I don’t. Maybe if he takes me through the morning, it’ll turn up a clue,” he added beginning to sound more like the detective he was.
“I…I could do that,” Goku said hesitantly, almost as if expecting a trap then remembered there wasn’t much one human could do to hold him. He was far stronger than that.
“I’ll go with you, Goku,” Hakkai said, shooting Tai-Shan a look that dared him to say no.
Goku pulled on his cloak then climbed out the window. Hakkai rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder as they followed Tai-Shan into town. Sanzo slumped down at the table fumbling for his cigarettes. Gojyo shoved a lighter at him and Sanzo sucked on the filter until the cigarette flared.
“Terrible,” Gojyo said, looking tired and somehow older.
“Goku yelled at me once for torturing a murdering youkai that had already poisoned me. For anyone to think he could have taken that girl apart like that…” Sanzo shook his head and neither man mentioned what Goku could do without his limiter. It wasn’t an issue. Constrained, Goku was easily the sweetest among them, even with his penchant for fighting. Sanzo stared at the still wet stain on Gojyo’s shirt. “You held him together.”
“Couldn’t let the runt go to pieces,” Gojyo said sardonically, taking a drag on his cigarette. “But he is, inside. This took the knees out from under him. When the numb and the pain wear off, he’s gonna want revenge.”
Sanzo shrugged. “Then we help him get it.”
X X X
They came back from eating at a restaurant several blocks from their hotel, a small out of the way place, hoping no one would recognize them. If anyone had, nothing was made of it. No one had much of an appetite and Goku barely said two words through the meal. As they entered the hotel, they saw Huan and Tai-Shan standing outside their door preparing to knock.
“Oh, forgive the intrusion,” Huan said, seeming somehow embarrassed and nervous.
“Is there something we can do for you?” Hakkai shot the men a curious look.
“I wanted to speak with you about Lan’s funeral. I don’t have a lot of money to pay you Sanzo, but if you were …” Huan said and Sanzo held up a hand.
The priest glanced over to Goku who regarded him with wide, reddened eyes. “I don’t do death rites but I do sing sutras for those left behind. You don’t have to pay me.”
Huan’s shoulders slumped with relief. “Thank you, sir.”
“Was I any help?” Goku asked Tai-Shan, cutting off anything Sanzo might have had to say to that.
The young man shook his head, looking aged a decade since the morning. “Not yet.” He gave Goku a hard look. “I’m sorry if I was unreasonable or too rough on you.”
“It’s okay. I mean, you listened to what I had to say and you know most of it’s the truth since you can ask Lan’s other friends. They’ll tell you the same. I wish I could have done more. I know you have to be pissed,” Goku said, his shoulders slumping. “And sad and stuff.”
“You couldn’t understand if you haven’t lost a sister,” Tai-Shan said sharply.
”My sister was kidnapped, tortured and ultimately killed,” Hakkai said softly. “It’s why I started looking into this.”
Huan and Tai-Shan both favored Hakkai with sad looks. The son said, “Then you know…and I’m sorry that you do.”
“Thank you.” Hakkai favored them with a sad smile, his green eyes fading in brilliance.
“Thank you for your help. We won’t bother you further,” Huan said and he led his son off.
Sanzo opened the door and Hakkai went to give Jeep his meal. Goku kicked off his snowy boots and pushed past them all. “I’m…” the boy sighed. “I’m just exhausted.”
“Go get some sleep,” Sanzo said, patting Goku’s back. “There’s nothing more you can do tonight.”
Goku just bobbed his head and went into the other room. Gojyo sat at the table and lit up. “I thought that mob was going to try and kill Goku and I had no idea what he might do.” Gojyo wrinkled his nose. “He didn’t look interested in putting up a fight.”
“I think he blames himself,” Hakkai said, running a hand through his hair. “I know how it feels. I wasn’t there when they took Kannan. I know logically that it wasn’t my fault but it feels like it. If Goku hadn’t let Lan go back into town, he thinks she’d be alive.”
Gojyo nodded, taking a long drag. He gave Sanzo a hard look. “You are going to see this through, Sanzo, right? You’re not going to call it off as soon as Hakuryuu feels better.”
Sanzo didn’t look at the redhead, taking his gun out for a cleaning. He seemed eager to put it to use. “We may never find who did this. They’ve been looking long before we got here. But, we’ll stay as long as reasonable.”
“Good.” Gojyo snuffed out his cigarette. “I’m making it an early night, too. We were all out in the snow searching last night and…” He shrugged, glancing toward his room. He didn’t have to say he didn’t think Goku should be alone.
When Gojyo went into the room he shared with Goku, the boy was lying face down on his bed, crying softly. The blanket had fallen to the floor. Gojyo stopped and picked it up. He tucked it around Goku and patted the boy’s head before slipping into his own bed.
D M Evans
Disclaimer – not mine. All rights belong to Kazuya Minekura et al, no profit made, just a little fun
Rating – R (for language and graphic violence in later chapters)
Timeline – hmm, let’s say soon after the Snow Drop arc, definitely manga verse
Pairing – none really, friendship between Goku/OC
Summary – Stuck in town by a series of unfortunate events, Hakkai develops an interest in a series of killings while Goku finds a few friends.
Author’s Note – Thanks to Mjules and evil_little_dog for the beta
He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself” - Chinese proverb
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Gojyo sat up, hearing the door between the rooms opening. He doubted he’d been asleep an hour and from how quickly Goku sat up, the half-breed didn’t think the boy had slept at all.
“Did they find her?” Goku asked hopefully but Gojyo could see the kid tremble as he read Hakkai’s face.
“They found her, on the steps of the town shrine,” Hakkai said gently, his hands clenched into fists.
Goku’s gold eyes dimmed, disbelief washing over him like a tidal wave. “But we looked there, Hakkai. We looked everywhere. She wasn’t there.”
“I know, Goku. He must have known where we all were in the town and moved her there when everyone went home,” Hakkai explained, his hand skimming over Goku’s head comfortingly.
Sanzo peeked around the door frame. “He must have been out there with us.” Coming inside the room, Sanzo first clasped Goku’s shoulder then touched Hakkai’s back. “We should go.”
“We’re going to see if there’s anything we can do to help,” Hakkai explained for his friends’ benefit. “Gojyo, could you stay here with Goku?”
“You don’t have to ask,” Gojyo said, his face grim.
“But I want to help, too,” Goku protested, struggling to his feet.
Hakkai gently pushed Goku back down. “We heard from the townspeople, not the paper. They haven’t moved her body yet, Goku. It was the killer…and you don’t want to see her like that, do you?” Hakkai’s eyes gleamed with pain.
Goku shook his head, tears trickling over his cheeks. “Sanzo, we’re not leaving here until we find who killed her.”
“That’s the plan,” Sanzo assured him, almost taking the boy by surprise.
“Thank you,” Goku muttered, watching them go. He curled up, pressing his knees to his chest where he sat on the edge of the bed, a raw sob tearing out of him. Gojyo got up and sat next to him. He put his arm around Goku. The boy unfurled slightly, looking at Gojyo as he scrubbed a hand over his eyes. “I feel stupid for bawling like a baby.”
Gojyo pulled Goku closer, dropping his head down against Goku’s thick mass of hair. “It’s okay to cry sometimes. My brother taught me that. You lost a friend.”
Goku shuddered, tears still trickling. “But I barely knew her…and yet it still hurts so bad.”
Gojyo’s hand rubbed up and down Goku’s tense back. “Sometimes time doesn’t matter, kiddo. You liked her. Hell, you never get a chance to make many friends, stuck with the rest of us losers. You’ve seen a lot of death but mostly your friends make it out okay. This time is different. You know what kind of horrible things this person did to that sweet girl. So, don’t fight it. Cry if you need to.”
Goku wrapped his arms tight around Gojyo, weeping against his friend’s chest. He didn’t see the anger flashing through Gojyo’s eye, a hot fury for a life taken far too soon.
X X X
“This is not good,” Sanzo said, seeing a crowd in the courtyard gathered outside their hotel windows.
“You are a master of understatement, Sanzo,” Hakkai said, hurrying as best he could on the icy sidewalks. Shao hadn’t allowed them to get too close to the murdered girl, not that the refusal took them by surprise. They hadn’t seen Tai-Shan, either, but assumed he might be home consoling his family. What Hakkai hadn’t anticipated would be that the young man would have gathered what sounded like a lynch mob, demanding for Gojyo to send Goku out of the room. Gojyo’s rude remarks were lost to the noise of the crowd. “What is going on?” Hakkai demanded loudly.
“There’s one of them!” someone cried, arms flailing in Hakkai and Sanzo’s direction. “No one we know could do things like this.”
“But one of them is a priest,” someone protested and a murmur went up as the mob took a gander at Sanzo’s robes.
“And we weren’t even in town when the killings started.” Sanzo pushed into the crowd, heading for Tai-Shan. He glared at the law man. “And you know it.”
“What I know is that the last time anyone saw my sister, she was with him!” Tai-Shan stabbed a finger at the window where Goku and Gojyo watched the crowd.
“I didn’t hurt Lan. I couldn’t do things like that,” Goku cried through the glass.
“It has to be strangers. No one who knew those girls could do that,” someone else asserted and the crowd muttered its approval of that idea.
“And Goku was out there looking for Lan all night,” Hakkai said to Tai-Shan. “You saw him. He wasn’t alone. Do you think all of us had a hand in this? Days before we even came to this town?”
“Enough!” At the sharp bark, the crowd’s attention shifted. Huan stalked up to his son. “We don’t need this. Do you think your sister would want,” he gestured to the crowd. “this? They came after the first three girls were killed. That young man did not kill your sister.”
“Are you so sure, Father?” Tai-Shan’s entire demeanor thrummed with his agony and Hakkai knew the young man wasn’t thinking straight. He had to trust that Huan could talk sense to his child.
“They could have been staying somewhere else!” someone shouted. Another cry of approval went up from the crowd.
“And could we have missed their vehicle, or the dragon he has?” Huan gestured at Hakkai. “Or that one of them is a priest who smokes and drinks? That sort of gossip couldn’t have been hidden. They were not here when the first three girls died. Now please, go home. Leave me and my family to our grief.” At Huan’s demand, the crowd started to shuffle off
“Who knew your immoral ways would be our saving grace, Sanzo,” Hakkai whispered.
“Gojyo is rubbing off on you,” Sanzo growled back edging toward the window.
“Let’s go inside, son.” Huan laid his hand on his son’s shoulder.
“Do you want us to leave the hotel?” Sanzo asked. “We will if you want us to.”
Huan looked back at him. “Where would you go? The only other inn is a place I wouldn’t allow dogs to stay in. We have enough staff to run this establishment while my family grieves. You may stay.”
The window creaked open and Goku leaned out. “Is it okay now?”
Sanzo rested a hand on Goku’s shoulder. For a moment the priest regarded Goku’s red, swollen eyes then gently pushed the boy back and climbed inside. “It’s okay.”
Goku squeezed Sanzo’s arm briefly then leaned out the window again to address Lan’s family. “I’m so sorry about Lan. I really am. I want…I don’t want to leave until we find who did this to her. I want to help.”
“I still need to talk to him,” Tai-Shan gestured to Goku. He still didn’t look like he entirely believed that Goku was innocent. “You really want to help? Come with me.”
“Why should trust you?” Gojyo asked, protectively laying a hand on Goku’s shoulder.
“He’s the last person I know of who saw my sister. He was with her all morning, right?” Tai-Shan asked and Goku nodded. “He may have seen someone hanging around watching them. He knows who else was with him and my sister. I don’t. Maybe if he takes me through the morning, it’ll turn up a clue,” he added beginning to sound more like the detective he was.
“I…I could do that,” Goku said hesitantly, almost as if expecting a trap then remembered there wasn’t much one human could do to hold him. He was far stronger than that.
“I’ll go with you, Goku,” Hakkai said, shooting Tai-Shan a look that dared him to say no.
Goku pulled on his cloak then climbed out the window. Hakkai rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder as they followed Tai-Shan into town. Sanzo slumped down at the table fumbling for his cigarettes. Gojyo shoved a lighter at him and Sanzo sucked on the filter until the cigarette flared.
“Terrible,” Gojyo said, looking tired and somehow older.
“Goku yelled at me once for torturing a murdering youkai that had already poisoned me. For anyone to think he could have taken that girl apart like that…” Sanzo shook his head and neither man mentioned what Goku could do without his limiter. It wasn’t an issue. Constrained, Goku was easily the sweetest among them, even with his penchant for fighting. Sanzo stared at the still wet stain on Gojyo’s shirt. “You held him together.”
“Couldn’t let the runt go to pieces,” Gojyo said sardonically, taking a drag on his cigarette. “But he is, inside. This took the knees out from under him. When the numb and the pain wear off, he’s gonna want revenge.”
Sanzo shrugged. “Then we help him get it.”
X X X
They came back from eating at a restaurant several blocks from their hotel, a small out of the way place, hoping no one would recognize them. If anyone had, nothing was made of it. No one had much of an appetite and Goku barely said two words through the meal. As they entered the hotel, they saw Huan and Tai-Shan standing outside their door preparing to knock.
“Oh, forgive the intrusion,” Huan said, seeming somehow embarrassed and nervous.
“Is there something we can do for you?” Hakkai shot the men a curious look.
“I wanted to speak with you about Lan’s funeral. I don’t have a lot of money to pay you Sanzo, but if you were …” Huan said and Sanzo held up a hand.
The priest glanced over to Goku who regarded him with wide, reddened eyes. “I don’t do death rites but I do sing sutras for those left behind. You don’t have to pay me.”
Huan’s shoulders slumped with relief. “Thank you, sir.”
“Was I any help?” Goku asked Tai-Shan, cutting off anything Sanzo might have had to say to that.
The young man shook his head, looking aged a decade since the morning. “Not yet.” He gave Goku a hard look. “I’m sorry if I was unreasonable or too rough on you.”
“It’s okay. I mean, you listened to what I had to say and you know most of it’s the truth since you can ask Lan’s other friends. They’ll tell you the same. I wish I could have done more. I know you have to be pissed,” Goku said, his shoulders slumping. “And sad and stuff.”
“You couldn’t understand if you haven’t lost a sister,” Tai-Shan said sharply.
”My sister was kidnapped, tortured and ultimately killed,” Hakkai said softly. “It’s why I started looking into this.”
Huan and Tai-Shan both favored Hakkai with sad looks. The son said, “Then you know…and I’m sorry that you do.”
“Thank you.” Hakkai favored them with a sad smile, his green eyes fading in brilliance.
“Thank you for your help. We won’t bother you further,” Huan said and he led his son off.
Sanzo opened the door and Hakkai went to give Jeep his meal. Goku kicked off his snowy boots and pushed past them all. “I’m…” the boy sighed. “I’m just exhausted.”
“Go get some sleep,” Sanzo said, patting Goku’s back. “There’s nothing more you can do tonight.”
Goku just bobbed his head and went into the other room. Gojyo sat at the table and lit up. “I thought that mob was going to try and kill Goku and I had no idea what he might do.” Gojyo wrinkled his nose. “He didn’t look interested in putting up a fight.”
“I think he blames himself,” Hakkai said, running a hand through his hair. “I know how it feels. I wasn’t there when they took Kannan. I know logically that it wasn’t my fault but it feels like it. If Goku hadn’t let Lan go back into town, he thinks she’d be alive.”
Gojyo nodded, taking a long drag. He gave Sanzo a hard look. “You are going to see this through, Sanzo, right? You’re not going to call it off as soon as Hakuryuu feels better.”
Sanzo didn’t look at the redhead, taking his gun out for a cleaning. He seemed eager to put it to use. “We may never find who did this. They’ve been looking long before we got here. But, we’ll stay as long as reasonable.”
“Good.” Gojyo snuffed out his cigarette. “I’m making it an early night, too. We were all out in the snow searching last night and…” He shrugged, glancing toward his room. He didn’t have to say he didn’t think Goku should be alone.
When Gojyo went into the room he shared with Goku, the boy was lying face down on his bed, crying softly. The blanket had fallen to the floor. Gojyo stopped and picked it up. He tucked it around Goku and patted the boy’s head before slipping into his own bed.
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Date: 2007-04-20 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 11:34 am (UTC)