Under the Weather

Reentry to the World

UNDER THE WEATHER

Chapter One : Reentry To The World

By: Author 2

A/N: This is the introduction to this story, which happens as the Sanzo party is on their way back from defeating the Gyu-Maoh expirement.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Saiyuki. I own the OC’s. Author 1 and Colorfulbubble12 are my editors.

In the burnt remains of what was once Hotou Castle a piece of rubble shifted, followed by another, and another. Ni Jianyi- sometimes Ukoku Sanzo- kicked his way through the debris. He clutched his bunny, still intact and nesting his scripture, and looked around. A disappointed sigh escaped him as he surveyed the carnage around him. Even the huge stone statue of Gyu-Maoh had been reduced to rubble rock. Gyu-Maoh, the Youkai his precious Gyokumen Koushu had loved enough to destroy the world for. No… Precious was too strong a word to describe something so worthless. He laughed and thrust aside more ruins to expose Koushu’s body-bloody, mangled, and most certainly dead.

“Pity..,” Ni said unfeelingly. He stepped over the mountains of the castle wreckage to a deep gash in the earth not too far away. Anyone who hadn’t been therewhen Seiten Taisei had lost control of his powers, due to what had seemed to be Gyu Maoh’s killing blow to Sanzo, would have passed it off as an ordinary gorge. Anyone who hadn’t seen Seiten Taisei single handedly take down the Ox Youkai King wouldn’t have believed such a large scale of damage could be done by a mere Youkai. It had gotten Ni to thinking that perhaps Goku wasn’t just a mere Youkai without his limiter. Perhaps, the legends of the Great Mage Equal To The Gods were true.

“Prince. Princess. Hello?” Ni called down lazily, not at all surprisedat the lack of response. It was nearly impossible to survive a fall from that height. Then again, it was also nearly impossible to survive the collapsing of a castle while inside. He chuckled at the irony.

Making his way over to the remains of his private lab, Ni located the four test tubes he’d been experimenting with. All four were broken, and the inhabitants- whatever they may have been- had escaped.

“Well…” Ni turned and began walking east, towards the rising sun. “Adaptation is key….darling little Kouryuu…”

At the bottom of the gorge, Princess Lirin shakily lifted herself from the ground.

Hopelessly, she shreiked, “Big brother!” A gasp came from behind her. As she turned, she threw herself towards a pile of stones and desperately began flinging them away to reveal the bloody form of Prince Kougaiji. Lirin pressed her hand to his neck, trying to find the place where Yaone had said you could find someone’s pulse.

“Lirin..,” Kougaiji mumbled, cracking his eyes open a bit. Lirin gasped and awkwardly hugged him, coaxing a pained chuckle from his lips.

Kougaiji smiled and said, “Doku and Yaone…will take…care of you. Try not to…give the humans…a hard time,” Kougaiji slowly lifted his hand to Lirin’s cheek and wiped away a tear.

Lirin shook her head and said, “I don’t understand, big brother. You can take care of me just fine! You just gotta get up and I can get Y-yaone to stop you bleeding!” Kougaiji’s hand slowly dropped back to his side as he went completely still, eyes devoid of anything. Lirin choked on a sob.

“Doku?” She croaked miserably. The body a foot away from her stayed limp, a razor-sharp rock protruding from its middle.

“Yaone?” She called, willing a clawed hand to place itself on her shoulder, and a soft voice to tell her it was all just a dream.

No such thing happened, and Lirin looked up into the sky, squinting at the sun. East, she decided. She would go east, and help the youkai whose lives had been destroyed by the minus wave that Kougaiji had been blind to. He would like that.

In the middle of nowhere, tensions ran high as the Heroes of China traveled back the way they had come.

“Food…”

“Chicks…”

“We really shouldn’t have lost that map,”

“Shut up or die,”

“Food…”

“Chicks….Woah! Hakkai, stop the Jeep before you run over them!” Gojyo was the first to see the cross-legged figures in the exact middle of their path. None of the four angel-like women even batted an eyelash as the jeep skidded to a halt perilously close to them. Sanzo, Goku, Gojyo, and Hakkai stared as the blond stood, extending a small black box towards Sanzo. He took it hesitantly.

“I thank you for saving our land. This is a gift, from the farm I grew up on,” She said, her voice like that of a harp.

Next, a redhead walked over to Gojyo and passed him a pink box, saying, “Thank you for bringing pride to your kind. This is a gift, from the river valley I inhabit,” Gojyo gave his most charming smile and handed her a slip of paper with his address on it.

The brunette shyly went over to Goku and shoved a golden box in his face, her own face flushed a bright pink.

“Th-thanks for destroying the bad guys! This is a gift, too, from the ranch my parents own!”

Goku jumped up, hugged her, and excitedly exclaimed, “Yeah, thanks! It smells really good!”

The last woman, with black hair, gently offered Hakkai a green box.

“You have my gratitude for representing the Youkai race. A gift from my mountain village,” She said. Hakkai smiled politely and thanked her.

The women bid them farewell and disappeared into the woods.

“Well that was awfully nice. Although I’m not sure we deserve it, considering how many towns we destroyed!” Hakkai laughed brightly, ignoring the paranoid side of him that wanted to chuck all four boxes at the ground. Sanzo grunted.

“Just drive. I want to be home as soon as fucking possible,” He muttered.