- Title: Eclipse
- Author: Meicdon13
- Pairing(s): Sanzo x Kougaiji, Gojyo x Hakkai,
Kenren x Tenpou
- Rating: PG-13
- Summary: Sanzo's reincarnation works for Kanzeon
Bosatsu. While he searches for the three remaining sutras and the reincarnations
of Hakkai, Gojyo, and Goku, he comes across someone else from the past that
might be able to help him out. What he doesn't know is exactly what Kougaiji
was to his past life.
- Chapter summary: Kougaiji becomes slightly philosophical
and offers help that Jinhai is wary of.
- Website: http://meicdon13.livejournal.com/
- Notes: Many thanks to darksage29, riffology, and
xcerpted for helping me with this, be it as a sounding board or giving
suggestions.
Chapter Two : Religious Perspective
"You're the youkai emperor."
"Yes." Kougaiji smiled at the brunet. It was small but it still
seemed to unnerve…Jinhai. He had to get used to that name. "I thought we
cleared that up already."
"The news says you're from India."
Kougaiji had gotten pretty good at reading between the lines. "I'm not
purely Hindu anymore," he said, answering the unspoken question. Doesn't
that make you a Hindu? And if so, what the fuck are you doing in a Catholic
church?
Jinhai raised an eyebrow. His eyes drifted towards the fallen coat on the
church floor and he used his foot to drag it closer to him before picking it
up. The redhead watched everything with lilac eyes.
"When you've been around for almost two millennia, you start finding it
hard to remain true to your original religion. I've been baptized in almost all
of them. Right now, I'm trying out Roman Catholicism."
The brunet snorted and the youkai decided to take that as amusement. Outside,
the rain beat down stronger and the temperature inside the stone church dropped
a little more. Absentmindedly, he flicked his wrist and lit all the candles
inside the church.
Wary purple eyes looked at him and Jinhai's hand moved a fraction towards his
holstered gun. Kougaiji laughed. "Didn't you know I could do that?"
he asked.
"The answer should be obvious, shouldn't it?" Jinhai snapped.
Kougaiji laughed again, remembering the times when he had summoned Engokuki in
front of the ikkou. "That's funny. Sanzo used—"
"I'm not Sanzo!"
The anger in the brunet's voice surprised him. He hadn't expected the intensity
of it or the glint in the purple eyes that glared at him from across the aisle.
Jinhai had stood, his fists clenching and unclenching as if he were resisting
the urge to draw his gun and shoot Kougaiji. His black hair (Sanzo had been
a blond) fell across his forehead, shadowing his narrowed eyes.
"That old hag keeps calling me 'Konzen'," the brunet said, voice
filled with an emotion that the youkai couldn't identify, his body tensed as if
he were preparing himself to attack. "You keep calling me 'Sanzo'. And I
keep telling you to stop that! Can't people see that I'm not either of
them? I'm me. Nobody else!"
You have the same temper as Sanzo, Kougaiji was tempted to say but he
didn't think that the human would appreciate that comment. Instead he kept his
mouth shut and waited for Jinhai to calm down. He had forgotten how sensitive
reincarnations could be when things turned towards their past lives. But this
was a bit too much.
"Is there something you want to tell me?" the redhead asked softly
after the human had sat down again, his coat on the church pew beside him.
"Hn," was the only response he got.
"Well?" Kougaiji knew he was prodding but he still saw this brunet as
Sanzo and Sanzo had been…important to him. A friend. He repeated that to
himself again and again as he waited for the human's response.
"Are you going to tell me that you're a psychologist too?" Jinhai
finally said, the sarcasm evident in his voice.
"I haven't pursued that course yet," Kougaiji said. "I may take
it up after my FA course." He sighed. "Jinhai, I'm asking as a
concerned individual. I know you don't want to hear this but Sanzo was my
friend and I'd like to help you."
The laughter that erupted from the purple-eyed man was short and sharp.
"Like Hell you do."
It hurt the youkai to hear how cynical the brunet's voice sounded. Jinhai
looked young—around his mid-twenties (Sanzo had been barely twenty-four when
he first met him)—and he should be looking at the world in a positive
light. Or so Kougaiji believed and he wondered what brought about that change
in the human's perspective.
"It's one of the teachings in the Bible that you try to help your
fellowman whenever the opportunity arises."
The sound of his own voice surprised him and the look that Jinhai shot him made
it obvious what the brunet thought of what he was saying, but he went on
nevertheless.
"I suppose it's kind of funny that a youkai like me would be part of a
religion like this. A religion where we're condemned into eternal damnation in
Hell for joining sides with Lucifer." Kougaiji fingered a loose thread in
his shirt. "I think I'm trying to be an angel even though I know that
there's nothing for me there." He smiled. "If I had wings, they'd be
red with the blood that's on my hands."
A cell phone rang.
Jinhai fished it out of his pocket and answered it. "What do you want
now?" he snapped.
Superior youkai senses or not, Kougaiji found it bad form to listen in on
someone's conversations. He looked up at the figure of Jesus nailed to the
cross above the altar. This was a religion that he actually liked. He admired
their Jesus and he thought that it was a shame that he had come into existence
after his death; if he were a real person, Kougaiji would have liked to meet
him.
The muttered curses were his signal that Jinhai had finished talking to whoever
it was on the other end of the line. Purple eyes met his curious lilac ones and
the brunet said, "It was Kanzeon Bosatsu. Se said that the sutra had left
a spiritual signature or something here and that's what had made hir think it
was still hidden here."
"If you don't mind, I'd like to help you look for the sutras," the
redhead offered.
"Why?"
Why indeed? Why help this human who apparently was still on a mission from the
gods? Why should he care at all?
Why did I ask my men to look for the soldier who got the sutra from the
altar? Kougaiji ran his hand through his maroon hair, pushing the bangs out
of his eyes for a moment.
"Sanzo was my friend." It was the truth and that's what he believed
and really, who wanted to analyze their motives? The point of life was just to
go ahead and do what you wanted to do.
"Is that your excuse for everything?" Jinhai asked. "'Sanzo was
my friend'?"
Kougaiji smiled. "Not for everything."