Misery in the Mountains

"Hey, Roku, wake up," I heard a hazy voice say, and as the fog cleared rather quickly from my head, I realized I had fallen asleep, probably an hour or so ago. Someone was shaking my shoulder, and I muttered "Fuck off," but didn't open my eyes. I heard a laugh. "That's a great way to start the day," they said, and I couldn't tell if it was a tease or a scold. Reluctantly, I opened my eyes and looked up to see blood red eyes staring at me, exact mirror images of my own. I blinked a few times, and the rest of Gojyo's face and our surroundings came into focus. "What the hell?" I asked.


"Right back at ya. I've been trying to get your ass up for fifteen minutes!" he said.


"Did you have a death wish that needed to be filled?" I asked as I sat up. He grinned and shook his head. "No, but Sanzo wouldn't give me back my smokes unless I woke your ass up."


"Yeah, so here," said Sanzo, walking into the cave and tossing Gojyo's cigarettes to him. The monk's robes hung around his waist, and he peered at me over his glasses. "Nice you could join the living again," he said. I was tempted to tell him to screw himself or give him the finger, but I just woke up, so no arguing until I had woken up sufficiently. Ignoring the redhead and monk, I stumbled past them and around the side of the cave behind a tree so I could take a leak. I shook my head, trying to shake away the fading dregs of sleep, and stretched. I was only wearing my jeans and shoes, and the morning air was crisp on my skin. Being shirtless didn't bother me, I never noticed the cold too much to care, anyway. Wandering back to the cave, listening to the bird song, then listening to the interuption of birdsong by Gojyo and Goku, arguing over something. It seemed Goku had eaten Gojyo's stash of chocolate, and the redhead was on a tirad from hell. I shook my head, chuckling to myself, seeing Hakkai working over the campfire, making coffee, Sanzo reading, and the other two wrestling.


We packed up pretty soon and were on our way. The morning sun's gentle warmth turned into uncomfortable heat by afternoon, but we kept moving. We breaked for snacks and rest, and Sanzo did not challenge me on the matter again, which surprised me. However, I didn't push it, and our day passed in this way. By the time dusk came rolling around, we have traveled farther than I had meant to, almost more than halfway across. The air was slightly cooler bause of the higher elevation, but it wasn't unbearable. I stopped and made camp under a huge oak tree, the only thing around in this particular stretch. Everyone was pretty tired; even Goku didn't whine so much tonight. I was exhausted, but still went on to make dinner for everyone, a simple rice curry.


"And what secret ingrediants should we be expecting tonight?" Sanzo said, staring at the bowl of food I gave him like he could see past some illusion I had created. I shook my head. "None," I said. "I'm too tired to do anything right now."


"That's not very reassuring," Hakkai said, "That our guide is this tired this early in our trip."


"It's a rare occasion," I assured. "Everyone just needs to get some sleep, so I suggest early bedtimes after dinner." I followed my own advice for once, and as soon I swallowed my last spoonful, laid back and fell fast asleep. I was looking forward to my calming, dreamless night of rest, so imagine my pissed off surprise when my sleep was made restless by weird dreams. It was so weird, seeing flashing images when I was used to nothing. There was no 'plot' to my dream that I can rememer; it was a messed up collage of Sanzo, Goku, Gojyo, and Hakkai, along with memories of my grandfather, and the day when my dad died, murdered actually, by youkai. I woke up in a sweat, and shaking slightly. What the hell was that about?


The rest of my night passed without a problem, but I still woke up really tired and a bit sad. The next day passed very much like yesturday did, and we seemed to be falling into a routine. Walk, walk, walk, rest, feed Goku, walk, feed Goku, walk, and walk some more before finding a camp. Again, we covered a lot of distance, and I realized that we would probably be out of the mountains by the next afternoon.


"Thank the gods," Sanzo said, sitting on the ground, looking almost bored. "Remind me to never do this again."


"Ah, the exercise will do you good. Don't want to become a fat little monk, do you?" I teased, and I saw Sanzo reach in his robes for something. I laughed at him and bounded away, jumping into a tree much like Goku would and hid myself amoung the thick leaves. "Son of a bitch, get back here!" Sanzo roared, running up to the tree. I snickered and simply climbed higher.


"Is it a game? Can I play, too?" Goku asked, watching me and Sanzo.


"Believe me, that's a game of tag you don't wanna join," Gojyo said looking up the tree.


"I think it would be a good idea to stay back," Hakkai said.


"Thanks for your back up, dickweeds!" I called down the tree.


"You're very welcome!" said a voice, a higher, almost snakish voice. Immdaitely, we looked around frantically. Who said that? There was no one we could see, but of course that didn't mean anything. Hakkai, Gojyo, and Goku stood back to back, their eyes scouring the place over. Sanzo looked around before I heard the familiar click of his gun cock. I looked through the dense branches of the tree, but even up as high as I was I couldn't see anything. I quickly climbed down the tree, jumping the last fifteen feet and landing as quietly as a cat. I gripped my arm, but suddenly decided to hold off drawing my sword in case I could use the surprise attack later.


"Well, look whose lost in the deep Trapdoor Mountains," the voice said again, and from a tree dropped a youkai. His eyes gleamed yellow, his claws were sharp and black, and his clothes were simple and ragged. He looked at us like a hawk does a mouse, and I had a feeling he had the same idea going through his mind: food.


"We're just passing through," I said, slowly backing up towards Sanzo and the others. "We don't want any trouble."


"I don't care if you want trouble or not. Just give us all your clothes and money, and I might let you live," the youkai spat.


"Well, it sounds like he doesn't know who we are," Hakkai said quietly to Gojyo and Goku.


"Living out here, this back woods hick probably doesn't even know how to count past twenty," Gojyo said back. The youkai turned his glare to the redhead, and spat "Want to say that to my face, you bastard?!"


"Not really. Your breath might finish us of," Goku pipped up.


"You're not exactly helping," I said, keeping a close watch on the youkai.


"We don't like smartasses around here," the demon hissed, curling and cracking his fingers menacingly.


"'We'? What 'we'? Do you have mulitple personalites or something?" Gojyo asked, and I caught movement from the corner of my eye.


"No, but he does have multiple hencemen. Move!" I said, and I could see the demons coming out of their various hiding places, and I saw one very large and cavemanish one with a sword, swinging it right at Gojyo's head. He didn't have enough time to dodge that attack, no way in hell. So I did the stupidest yet couragous thing I first thought of: moving faster than I thought I could, I leapt between Ugly and the redhead, whipping my sword out so fast it hurt, and sliced his head clean off.


"What the hell?!" Gojyo cried, jumping back, suddenly seeing me standing there, sword drawn, a youkai lying headless at my feet.


"You killed Roz, you'll pay for that!" the youkai yelled, and there was a whistling, followed by extreme, red-hot poker pain. I gasped when it hit, and dropped to one knee, looking down to see an arrow in my stomach. Blood was pooling on my shirt and spreading fast, yet the only thing I could do was watch in, almost hypnotized. The pain was the only thing that kept me conscious, but it took me a second to realize that a miniature war was being fought all around me, there was blood, and screams of pain, and other things shouted in the heat of the moment. "Roku!" I heard a hazy voice say, and I slowly looked up, but my vision was bluring, getting worse by the second. It hurt to move, I just wanted to lie down and take a nap. Yeah, a nap was sounding good right now...


"Roku, watch out!" the voice said again, and I slowly turned my head to see a youkai standing over me, about a plunge a knife into my back. "Ready to die?" he hissed.


"Not really," I said quietly, and something happened. The pain in my belly seemed to intensify, and fire seemed to flood through my veins. I had enough energy to run a hundred miles at that moment; I felt absolutely powerful, and with a roar stood up and sliced the youkai's hand clean off, finishing with his head as he fell to the ground. I looked up, seeing Goku bash open a head with his nyoi-bo staff, and Hakkai blast away a few demons with some sort of chi control, and Sanzo blow several youkai's heads off, and saw Gojyo cut and crush a few with a weird staff that had its blade attached to a chain. The air was reeking of blood. Hearing footsteps behind me, I slashed out, catching two in the chest as several more came. It became a deadly dance; I don't really remember much, except for the dodging and the felt of the blade as it passed through flesh and bone as easily as air. I knew that soon, though, the dance was over, and I stood alone amoung a sea of bodies, exhausted, the fire in my belly more intense and the edges of my eyesight became black and fuzzy. I only remember fast moving outlines and someone saying "Roku!" before I collapsed.