The Bad Death of Souei

By Tsuzuki

Rating: R

Warnings: I do not own Saiyuki

Character abuse/death violence

Isn't exactly cannon, this comes from an RPG in which there is a relationship between Koumyou Sanzo and Zenon

There were things Zenon couldn't explain to Koumyou and there were things he shouldn't explain to Koumyou.

What he shouldn't explain to him was why he was walking the Earth. Telling someone of Homura's grand plan was a breach of security that would and should be severely punished. With the ultimately hair trigger violent temper Homura had, Zenon shuddered to think what would happen to anybody who spoke of their secrets.

But, this left a huge chunk of his present life he could not discuss with his lover. It was confounded by what he didn't know and dared not ask of his Koumyou. It was a can of worms he'd been avoiding.

What he couldn't speak of to Koumyou was his own personal vendetta. He'd located Souei. The youkai had been amazingly difficult to track down. Homura had given him leave to pursue and end the youkai's life and the project had taken away from him what precious little time he had with the beauty.

And Zenon planned to be away for some time. He needed to take his time with the youkai and savor his revenge. The animal had been allowed to live far too long- many years in excess of the time he had stolen from his wife. No amount of time should have been allowed for what was stolen from his son.

The desire to talk to Koumyou about it burned through his psyche sometimes. The need to confide was tremendous. However, he regarded Koumyou as a gentle being. He didn't think he would approve of the violence Zenon intended to perpetrate. He was not entirely sure the man would understand Zenon's need for vindication.

Koumyou never asked for answers. He never asked questions. And so, the two got to know each other in a limited fashion. Zenon didn't want to know his secrets any more than he Koumyou seemed to want his. At least, that is what he thought. He felt he needed to shield Koumyou from the violent creature he was.

They had taken an apartment. It seemed Koumyou was awaiting his son's arrival and that was about all he had said. Why he waited in such a fashion, positioning himself like a spider and hoping the boy would come to him Zenon didn't know. Zenon had offered to get him- if he knew who he was it would be a simple thing- but Koumyou had declined.

"He needs to come to me in his own time," Koumyou had said simply. Zenon wondered what kind of person this son of his was.

So Zenon stood for a moment over the bed. Koumyou slept peacefully, his hair splayed across the pillow silky soft. He murmured lightly when Zenon bent to kiss him. In many ways, his relationship felt like the one he had had with his wife. However, the experience had taught him a grave lesson and apparently Zenon hadn't learned it well enough.

Mortals that take up with Gods die violently. His relationship with the beauty had to end. Zenon was truly worried that if anybody found out about his lover, when Homura's war started it would be this wonderful man who would feel the pain. And Zenon had to waist some of what little time he could afford in pursuit of sadistic goals.

Koumyou's eyes fluttered open and he smiled a sleepy smile at Zenon. "My love," Zenon said, "I have to go for a while. A few days maybe, but I'll be back. Wait for me."

Koumyou murmured and Zenon kissed him again, opening Koumyou's mouth and slipping his fingers through that ethereal hair. And then he was gone.

Tracking a single youkai through the ages, especially in a time of great movement on their part was no easy thing even for a god. He'd gotten a name from a friend who was sympathetic but that was all. Helping Zenon that much was a risk he really couldn't ask of anyone. He knew the Jade Emperor had lurked behind the attack, or at least his minions had and it had been no random thing. People had confirmed this when Zenon had pressed them. The Jade Emperor was going to get his.

But first, Souei. The youkai had taken residence among the herd that gathered about Houtou Castle. They amassed there like some kind of malignant pack of animals at a dump. They set up makeshift camps when the barracks in the castle overflowed. They drove all other life forms away, killing whatever they could eat. Zenon stood on high, watching the throngs undulate around each other, and smelling the stink of too many youkai and too much of their aura in one place.

Even looking on them now, Zenon knew something outside themselves was causing it. They had previously resembled humans more than animals but that was no longer the case. Something had turned them savage but Zenon had little sympathy. To him, repaying that savagery with more violence was like taking out the trash.

He waded in among them. It was within his power to alter the senses of the youkai around him in such a way that they didn't recognize him. In fact, it would be scant seconds before they lost even a fleeting memory of his passage. He was looking for that specific one- the one he had a personal grudge against.

And he found him. Two days after he had left Koumyou he found the one who had killed his wife and small child. A baby that could have been a War God had the heavens allowed it killed by a lowly common youkai. Zenon was only happy the youkai had lived long enough for Zenon to kill him.

Taking the creature was a simple thing. He simply walked up, tapped him on the shoulder and phased out of the camps with him.

Nobody would miss him. There were a million others like him. But to Zenon, this one was special.

He'd set up his own personal workshop. It had taken some time for him to get it just the way he wanted it. It was filled with some things one would expect n a workshop such as hammers and saws. It also had more exotic items- like leather restraint systems and a structure designed to hold a humanoid body in stressful positions.

Wide eyed, Souei stared around him, having little idea how he had come to be in this place. It was half way around the world from Houtou castle. "What the fuck?" the youkai said.

"What the fuck indeed," Zenon smiled at him. The youkai stared at Zenon, trying to comprehend what was going on.

"Where are we?" he asked and Zenon said. "My workshop."

Glaring at him, he tried the door. Zenon had long since sealed it so that an army might be hard put to get through it. But it was amusing to see the animal tug at the doorknob.

"Let me go," he said, over his shoulder and he could smell the scent of fear beginning to emanate from him. Damn Zenon didn't know what Homura saw in these creatures.

Zenon chuckled and them simply said, "No."

Then he stepped forward, spun the panicky creature about and smashed him hard across the face. He heard the bone in his jaw snap.

Souei awoke stripped naked and bound at the wrists and ankles spread eagle. The surface he was on was upright and he hung from his binds a few feet from the floor. The surface was uneven, possibly made out of some form of concrete and it pushed into the small of his back and so that his hands and feet were pulled backwards. Even as he turned his head to see how he was tied, the position was creating an ache in his back.

He heard a stirring sound. The lights were low in the workshop and Zenon appeared as a loose pile of shadows punctuated by the burning ember of his cigarette. In the dim light he could almost make out the eye shine of a being designed to see in the dark, but only visible in one eye. He heard Zenon take a drag and watched the cherry dance before he spoke.

"Now I suppose you are probably wondering what you are doing here," he said matter of factly.

The youkai tugged at his arms. The panic in his body was clear. Zenon could hear his heart racing. He could smell the adrenaline from Souei's body.

"Y-yes," he said meekly. The sound came out more like Yesh because of his broken jaw.

Zenon approached and leaned in close- nose to nose with him. "Do you recognize me?"

The youkai stared at him, probably not feeling his discomfort for the fear Zenon bathed in.

He shook his head slowly, his eyes not leaving Zenon's face. "Of course you don't- we've never met!" Zenon smiled and offered him his hand, "Names Zenon!" he said as if introducing himself at a cocktail party. "You killed my family!"

The youkai's eyes grew wide. Zenon looked at his preferred hand and chuckled, "I suppose you are a little to indisposed to shake my hand eh?"

The youkai stammered, "You've got the wrong guy! I don't know your family, I – I how – you're a god?"

"Bingo!" Zenon laughed. "You win the prize!"

"No, I didn't – I couldn't have…"

Zenon pushed his face close to the youkai, taking in his naked body, narrow features and lanky hair. The long tapered ears sported several earrings and they garnered Zenon's attention.

"Ssssshh," he shooshed him, "I know exactly who you are. Don't you remember being approached by one not so different from me? Maybe a couple hundred years ago? We gods live long lives, my friend. Even longer than youkai. But humans- well their time is so much shorter."

The youkai's head was shaking, his body trembling as he writhed in his bonds. "No, no…" he kept repeating.

"You have a female, no?" Zenon said and was gladdened by the widening of his eyes the belied his words.

"No, no, I don't," he stammered.

Zenon smiled, "I'll find her and bring her to you before you go."

"I don't know who you are!" Souei screamed, his voice slurred with pain and swelling. He was starting to sob, "Please, you've got the wrong one!"

Zenon started by ripping out those ear rings.

"A human woman with an infant demi-god son. Somehow I didn't think that would be easy to forget."

The eyes widened again, the sobbing hitched and Zenon was certain he did indeed have the right one. He watched the blood pool in the curve of Souei's neck. The smell of blood triggered the awakening of Zenon's final retribution.

It took two weeks for the youkai to die. Zenon kept him alive as long as he could. When he was done and the last shred of life had escaped the body Zenon sighed and sat down for a smoke. He'd healed the creature, and then torn him again. It was a process. The animal wasn't as strong as Zenon had hoped and his mind failed him pretty quickly.

He thought it might have snapped when he brought the head of his female to him. She sat on a steak positioned where she could gaze with her undead eyes asking him Souei why. He doubted Souei was so merciful to his family. Zenon had killed her quickly- but not so quickly the head didn't have a nasty expression.

Still, even when language had left Souei, Zenon had continued. When he was done he'd left the burned, electrocuted, broken, partly dismembered and sodomized body hanging on the pedestal it had died upon. Zenon stopped short of raping the creature- having absolutely no sexual thrill in the thing or what he was doing at all. But there were objects for that…

And somewhere along the way, even after the youkai had lost his voice and his screams were like a silent painting that Zenon thought he might have lost part of his mind too. Sometimes, he blanked out completely, and didn't remember the less calculated onslaught he unleashed onto the pitiable creature. More than once he'd been hard put to save his life, not wanting his last shred of vengeance to end. His whole world revolved around the broken cries of a youkai who dared mess with a vengeful god.

His own mother wouldn't recognize him.

Zenon's mother wouldn't recognize him either.

He emerged from the workshop with weeks old blood soaked into his skin. Somewhere along the way he'd doffed his coat and left the stained thing behind. His bare shoulders were red and black with sticky half dried gore.

A rational part of his mind knew he wasn't entirely in his own mind any more. He'd driven himself crazy in his own sadism. The screams of the youkai- the first ones- the good ones before he tore his own vocal cords echoed in his head like a warped second personality.

It was not an appropriate state to return to Koumyou in.

But Koumyou wasn't there. How long had it been? He phased directly into the apartment only to find it empty. It had come furnished, and that was there but the satin sheets Zenon had bought for them to sleep in were gone. Koumyou's things were gone, and only Zenon's guns and small stash of clothes remained. They were piled neatly for him on the kitchen table. Zenon stared at them stupidly.

He appeared before the proprietor of the building. The sudden phasing in of a god inches from him wasn't scary enough- said god looked angry and was mostly covered in blood and stank like a battle field. The apparition was scary enough the proprietor screamed and backed away. Zenon followed him, in pursuit. His boots echoed loud clomps across the floor. Eventually he cornered the man, who was behaving in a way that did not cool his temper. He tripped, and fell to the floor and Zenon stood over him, watching him panic.

Somehow, Zenon missed that fact that he was presently a terrifying sight to a mortal.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he bellowed at the blathering Inn keeper.

The man responded by shrieking and putting his hands up. Zenon grabbed him by the wrist and hauled him up. Sticky blood smeared across that wrist and Zenon focused on it a moment. Suddenly he became aware of the terrified people around him. He became aware he was manhandling a human who had every reason to be afraid of him.

His voice didn't match his visage. There was sadness in it and he sounded more like a child imploring an adult. "Koumyou- where did he go?"

The man focused on him after Zenon shook him a couple times, "Koumyou?"

"He- he left a message for you!" the Innkeeper cried. "He said he had to go to another town to wait for his son!"

"Where?"

"I don't know!" the Innkeeper wailed. Zenon dropped him then, feeling like he'd taken a huge blow. He saw himself in a mirror. The image of him dangling this human, the blood, and what he'd been doing hit home. He couldn't look for Koumyou now. It would be immeasurably selfish.

And so, Zenon went back to his own kind. He went back to face Homura and he didn't know how he'd be taken back. It was fitting he be with a War God. It was his true place and Koumyou was better left alone.

He couldn't bear to have to avenge him too.

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