Fic update- Two Graves

[cornerofmadness]

Two 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, worksafe)
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




Chapter Five

“What do we do if we find this guy…and he’s human?” Goku asked hesitantly as he finished the last of the congee which had been brought up to the room. “I’ve never really wanted to hurt a human on purpose…but I want this dick to pay as painfully as he gave to all those girls.” Goku hesitated, eyeing his friends almost ashamed. “Is that wrong?”

“Vengeance instead of justice?” Sanzo poured himself more coffee as a concession that he knew Hakkai was too upset about the dead girls to be bothered waiting on him. “Sometimes one is better than the other.”

Goku looked at Sanzo in surprise then turned his gaze to Gojyo and Hakkai. Gojyo merely shrugged.

“There’s a saying, Goku, ‘he who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself’,” Hakkai replied thoughtfully, passing some fried devil dough to Jeep.

Goku sighed, his shoulders slumping under his cape. “But I’m not sure it’s always wrong.”

“I killed a thousand youkai to avenge my sister,” Hakkai replied softly, scratching Jeep’s head as the dragon nudged him. “I’d be the last person to say it’s wrong. I’m just saying we need to be very careful and very sure before we do anything.”

Goku mulled that over then asked. “Where are we goin’ to look today?”

“It would help if Tai-Shan and Shao talked to us,” Gojyo said, reaching for his coffee. “So we wouldn’t be wasting time.”

“I don’t think they entirely trust us,” Hakkai said ruefully as Jeep fluttered back to the bed. “On a more positive note, Hakuryuu seems to be feeling better.”

“Good,” Sanzo murmured, missing Goku’s panicked look as the boy worried Sanzo would make them move on before they knew who killed Lan.

“Maybe if we talked to people who knew the girls that would help,” Goku suggested, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice.

“It’ll be a little ghoulish for the family,” Gojyo said with a scowl.

Goku shook his head. “No, we can talk to that teacher dude. Lan said he taught all the girls.”

“Rakesh?” Hakkai nodded appreciatively at the boy’s thought processes. “That’s actually not a bad idea, Goku. He should be at the school and he would be uninvolved enough to be able to talk to us without stirring up too much pain. Who knows if they all have something in common, we might be able to figure out who snatched those girls. Rakesh would have to be very non-threatening or someone the girls knew.”

“Lan was terrified of this ass-face,” Goku said, pounding his fist down on the table, making the dinnerware jump. “She wouldn’t have gone off with just anyone.”

“Some guys can talk you into doing stupid things. Trust me on this, I’ve talked plenty of girls into doing things they probably normally wouldn’t,” Gojyo said with a rueful expression as if he almost regretted some of the things he had done over the years.

“Like being seen with you,” Sanzo offered and Gojyo curled his lip at him. The priest glanced at Goku. “Starting with the teacher sounds like a good idea.”

After polishing off the remains of breakfast, they headed out the front door. Hearing someone calling him, Sanzo turned around to see Huan. “Can I speak to you about the funeral?”

Sanzo sighed and looked like he was going to refuse. However, at Goku’s pleading expression, Sanzo nodded. “Go on without me,” he said to his friends.

When they got to the school, they had to wait for a break between the classes. Rakesh, while surprised to see them, ushered them into his office. The room seemed almost too austere, Hakkai thought. The books, was few there were, had been lined up neatly. No decorations, no personal items were to be seen other than a pretty blue ashtray and a map on the wall behind Rakesh’s little desk. “What can I do for you gentlemen?”

“We understand that you knew all the girls who were killed,” Hakkai said and was shocked when the man’s dark eyes hardened. It wasn’t the reaction Hakkai was expecting.

“What of them?” Rakesh rasped out, reaching for his cigarettes. He didn’t indicate for any of them to sit in the single chair in front of his desk but Hakkai did so anyway.

“We just wanted to know if they had stuff in common,” Gojyo said, holding out his lighter. “Didn’t mean to imply anything.”

Rakesh took a deep drag, lighting his cigarette. “Of course not. That would be nonsensical, after all. There’s nothing to imply. I’m just a humble teacher, you know how that is.”

“I used to,” Hakkai said, a bittersweet tone to his voice. He glanced out the window at the kids playing in the snow at recess. “I taught the little ones. I know how close kids can be and how close they can get to their teachers. I miss that actually.”

“And we thought you’d know stuff, like maybe somethin’ they all liked to do, somethin’ that might have made this jerk-off pick them,” Goku said hotly an Hakkai shot him a look, hoping to quiet him because he could see Rakesh didn’t appreciate their questions.

Rakesh eyed Goku very intently. “Why are you asking? This isn’t your job. You’re strangers in town.”

“Sanzo has been asked to investigate crimes before,” Hakkai said, placatingly. “And we saw no harm in trying to help.”

“Besides, Lan was my friend and I ain’t stoppin’ until I find who killed her,” Goku added, his golden eyes flat and dull.

“I’m afraid there’s nothing I can tell you,” Rakesh said, smoke curling out his nostrils.

“Can’t or won’t?” Gojyo asked and Hakkai winced, wondering not for the first time if he should have come alone. Goku and Gojyo were short on finesse.

“I have to get back to class.” Rakesh stubbed out his cigarette. “I wish I could help you. Well, I do know one person you could talk to. His name is Balram and he had spent a lot of time with all those girls. If anyone would have easily been able to get close to the girls, it would have been someone their own age.”

“I know Balram. He helped us build that snowman, remember, Gojyo?” Goku glanced at his friend who nodded.

“Yeah, guess we can talk to him next,” the kappa remarked.

“Thank you for your time, Rakesh. I’m sorry if we seemed a little forward,” Hakkai said, getting up.

Rakesh shrugged. “You’re just trying to help.”

The trio headed back out into the snow. “Do you think it could be a teenager doing this?” Gojyo asked doubtfully, tapping a cigarette out of the pack.

“I wouldn’t think he’d have the confidence,” Hakkai replied after a moment’s consideration.

“Rakesh is lookin’ at us,” Goku said, raising a hand to Rakesh who stood stern-faced in the window. “Think he was hidin’ somethin’?”

“Might not like us insinuating he knew something more than he does.” Gojyo shrugged. “In this town, would you want them to think you’re involved in these killings?”

Remembering the mob with death on their minds who had come for him, Goku shuddered. “No. So we talk to Balram next?”

Hakkai nodded. “That would be the logical thing to do.”

X X X

Goku wandered into the restaurant alone. The talk with Balram had gone less than spectacularly. The boy talked more than Rakesh but between him being defensive and distraught over losing so many friends, he didn’t have many ideas about who could have done it, at least none that made any sense.

Gojyo and Hakkai had moved on to do more investigating. Goku stayed behind with Balram and the other teens, thinking maybe the kids would tell him things they wouldn’t tell the adults. Goku wasn’t sure what he learned; probably nothing. The girls were good in school, liked by their teachers and several of the boys had really liked the girls, trying to convince them to go out with them. Some of the boys were even a little jealous of Lan’s interest in Goku and weren’t afraid to tell him that, Maidar particularly.

He slumped down at the table, not really hungry but he saw no benefit in starving. Goku ordered a moderate lunch and ate listlessly. He mulled over his next step. He knew he could go looking for his friends to find out what they had learned. Hakkai would naturally be better at this than him, right? Still, Goku couldn’t escape thinking there was something he had forgotten to ask and that he should go back and talk to Lan’s friends again. The idea knocking around his skull now just hadn’t occurred to him earlier, not until he watched the two waitresses. Who would a girl trust? He didn’t know, not being a girl. He couldn’t think like one and Gojyo said they thought differently than guys. Gojyo was probably right about that. He knew women. It might not have occurred to Hakkai to think like a girl, either.

Sucking absently on the skewer of his kushiyaki, Goku figured Gojyo would say that girls could be talked into trusting someone. He’d already said something like that. It could be the killer was a smooth talker like Gojyo as opposed to someone more sour like Sanzo. Then again Sanzo’s priestly garb might put them at ease. Goku wondered if they just weren’t afraid of the killer because of his profession. People trusted monks, for instance.

He dropped the kushi and rubbed his head. The deep thinking was making it swim. Goku decided definitely to go back to talk to Lan’s girlfriends. They could answer those questions. He’d just finish up his imoni and head off to find them.

“You’re alone.”

Goku looked up from the soup bowl, surprised to see Rakesh standing there. He wondered if the teacher ate every meal at the restaurant. “Yeah, just finishin’ lunch.”

“Are your friends still poking about, asking questions?” Rakesh sat down uninvited. “You don’t mind, do you? I hate to eat alone.”

“I was almost done,” Goku hedged, thinking he wanted to get back to his questioning.

“I’ll buy more if you’d like. Maybe I could tell you more about the girls. I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t expect you and your friends to turn up at the school,” Rakesh offered. “People talk, especially at a school. I’d rather no be gossiped about, especially about something like that.”

Goku thought about it and decided maybe he could learn more if he stayed and talked to Rakesh. It was worth it. “Thanks.” Goku ordered another round of everything while Rakesh got something a little less substantial. “I was thinkin’ that the girls must have trusted this guy and was trying to think who in town they might have trusted.”

“What did you come up with?” Rakesh asked, as the waitress hustled over with the meal.

“Well, their friends for one, you know kids their age. I guess it could be some boy they went to school with, like you suggested. That was a good one. I mean people thought it was me.” Goku shrugged, digging into a steamed bun. “Then I thought maybe someone from the local temple or the law keepers or maybe someone like you. They’d trust their teachers, right?”

“I suppose you have a point but I don’t really see any of those people doing something like this,” Rakesh said, gesturing at Goku. The boy didn’t see something liquid tipping out of a tiny bottle in the man’s hand and into Goku’s drink. “Have you and your friends totally discounted youkai?”

“Nah. It could be them but we just haven’t seen any,” Goku said, frustrated. He wanted someone to hit for this. “I know the townspeople pretty much think the killer is some youkai who keeps sneakin’ in from the woods. Is that what you think?”

Rakesh sipped at his sake cup. “I’d have to say that I do.”

“But there aren’t any in town, right?” Goku said, ‘barring us.’ “The night Lan died…the killer had to know where the search parties were and know how to hide in the town. How would some outsider youkai know that?”

Rakesh brushed his dark hair back and smirked, “Because, dear boy, they used to live here before they all went mad.”

“Oh, well that makes sense.” Goku’s brow knit. “Only, it would make more sense at night, where they could sneak in and no one would see them. Youkai stand out you know, with the ears and claws.” Goku winced, thinking on the last time he had his claws out. He might not remember it but he saw the aftermath. Rakesh shot him a curious look at that wince. He wondered if Rakesh thought he was afraid of the youkai, oh well. Like it mattered. “Lan was taken in the afternoon. What about the others?”

Rakesh frowned slightly. “I don’t know. But that would also put a hole in your theory about it being some adult they trusted. Most of them would be working, except I suppose for lunch breaks. I think that makes it even more likely it was someone their age.” He smiled wryly, waving a hand over the table. “Mind if I smoke?”

“You actually ask permission?” Goku’s eyes widened. “Sanzo and Gojyo just blow smoke in my face.”

“A sanzo priest smokes?” Rakesh’s eyebrows arched. “I thought tobacco was forbidden. Well, I suppose he also did have a gun and I know those aren’t exactly allowed by the order either.” He shrugged and lit up. “Was Balram helpful at all?”

“Yeah, sort of. I’m not sure he had anythin’ to do with it.” Goku looked out the window and saw it was snowing again. “Damn it, does it ever stop snowin’ here? I was goin’ to go back and talk to Lan’s friends some more.”

While Goku’s attention was on the window, Rakesh tapped the remains of the tiny bottle into Goku’s soup. “It’s a rough winter.”

Goku shrugged and went back to eating. He paused with the spoon to his nose. “Smells funny.”

“They use local spices,” Rakesh said with a shrug as he lit up. “It might take a finer palate to appreciate it.”

Goku wrinkled his nose. Had he just been insulted? He sucked down some of his soup. “I just wanna find Lan’s killer, snow or no damn snow.”

Smoke curled past Rakesh’s lips. “And then what?”

Goku rubbed his eyes. His head was swimming. What was wrong with him? Did he have Jeep’s cold? “I’m gonna pound that ass-face until there ain’t nothin’ left of him.”

A little smirk flicked across Rakesh’s face. “A little fellow like you? Are you sure you’re up to it?”

“I’m plenty strong,” Goku said hotly. His stomach flipped, a sensation he wasn’t all that used to and, for a moment, it felt like he was falling out of his chair. Goku’s hand flailed for the table’s edge to steady him. He rested back against the chair. “I think I’m comin’ down with somethin’.”

“Maybe you should finish your drink,” Rakesh suggested, pushing the spiked glass closer to Goku. “Fluids are important if you’re sick.”

Goku complied. “The guy deserves what he gets, you know?”

“I’d say most of the town would agree with you. Hmm, lunch time is almost over and I need to be getting back to the school.” Rakesh stood up. “Are you going out to meet Lan’s friends now?”

“Yeah.” Goku got up and stumbled. The room whipped around him, lightning fast. Every part of him felt too heavy, too leaden. “Something ain’t right.”

“Well, that’s what you get for drinking my sake,” Rakesh said too loudly.

“But I didn’t…” Goku wanted to lie down right on the floor and sleep. He felt Rakesh’s arm slipping under his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you back to your room.”

Goku wasn’t sure why Rakesh was helping him or where they were going. He stumbled along after the teacher, too weak to protest. Goku was unconscious by the time Rakesh heaved him into his donkey cart and covered him over.