“I bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.” Gojyo cups his hands to his mouth and flicks his lighter, the flame a sharp glowing point in the cool fall of dusk. “Unless it was filled with hotties.” Smoke escapes the corners of his mouth in ghostly tendrils.
“I hardly see how this is relevant,” says Sanzo, snatching the lighter from Gojyo's fingers and using it to light a Marlboro. It's impossible taking Gojyo anywhere, even to the local pub, without some ridiculous, inane commentary.
“I guess it'd be pretty scary if you were there, erokappa,” Goku puts in under the scuff-scuff of his boots on the dusty, oak-lined road. Sanzo gives a soft snort of agreement.
“You'll be scared in a minute, shortass.” Gojyo skips a pace so he can shove Goku in the ribs with his elbow.
“Ah, piss off!” Goku stumbles sideways, goes barrelling into Sanzo.
“Fuck's sake!” Sanzo grumbles, almost dropping his cigarette.
“Honestly,” mutters Hakkai, who's keeping a safer step or two behind them. “Can't we get from point A to point B without any broken bones?”
“Not in our line of work,” Sanzo mutters, aware it isn't quite the answer to Hakkai's question, but true nonetheless; at every turn lately, there've been ambushes and attacks. Catching a night off is a rare luxury, a night to simply relax and have a few drinks and not end up scratched and bruised and covered in blood and brains.
Sanzo realises he should've been more cautious of premature, idealistic thoughts. There's something on the road up ahead, framed against a backdrop of village lights like floating embers in the dimness. People-shaped things. The others seem not to have noticed yet, their regular, tedious horseplay too much a distraction. Sanzo figures small things entertain small brains.
“I suppose you're right,” Hakkai says. “But we should be able to get down the road before hurting each other, at the very least.”
“I ain't hurt,” says Goku, kicking wildly at Gojyo's shin and then hop-stepping to catch up to Sanzo.
“Hey, watch the fuckin' merchandise, man! Ladies don't appreciate bruises.”
“Oh dear. What was I saying about getting from point A to point B?” Hakkai squints into the distance.
Now they're closer, Sanzo can make out two tall figures standing on the road outside a cluster of small, close-knit cottages. If it wasn't for the silhouette of long, pointed ears, Sanzo wouldn't pay any further attention.
“Aw, shit, 'Kai. Did you just jinx us?” Gojyo perches his cigarette between his lips, a gesture Sanzo's familiar with; he, too, sets his cigarette at the corner of his mouth to free up his hands.
“I'm terribly sorry about that.” Hakkai edges out so that they're now walking in a line, no obstructions.
Eventually, one of the youkai looks over and spots them, then mutters to the other. They turn together, their yellow eyes shining in the sparse light from the stars above. Automatically, Sanzo slides his left hand into his robe pocket and curls his fingers around the butt of his Smith and Wesson, his heart picking up pace, his senses unfolding to full-alert mode. Sounds get that little bit richer, every movement of the trees and surrounding countryside pulls his attention, but he keeps his gaze fixed on the youkai.
“The Sanzo ikkou!” one of them yells, a burly guy with shoulders like twin football fields.
“Ch, can't you bastards get a new opening line?” It's then that Sanzo spots a couple of shorter, compact figures standing just behind the taller two. As they draw to a halt, two rounded, wide-eyed faces appear and peer up at him. Faces soft and wondrous, much like Goku's had been when he was young and Sanzo had first brought him to Chang'an. “I guess if you had nobody your own size to bully―” Sanzo continues, but Goku leans in close.
“Sanzo,” he whispers, “those're youkai kids. I don't like this.”
Now that he looks more carefully, Sanzo notices the razor incisors set in the childrens' faces, the elongated ears. “I'll handle this,” he tells Goku, then narrows his eyes at the youkai. “Don't be idiots. You don't need to stoop so low as to bring kids into this―you won't get the sutra either way.”
“What are you talking about?” says the other youkai, a woman.
“We just want to get to the pub so we can have a drink,” Hakkai tells her, with his accustomed reasonable tone. As if youkai ever listen.
“We're not stopping you,” says the man.
Sanzo glares, but the guy only stares back with a look of vague annoyance, impatience, and something like exasperation. “We don't want any trouble.”
“Good one.” Gojyo steps up, his cigarette bobbing as he speaks. “What's the trick? You think we're stupid enough to turn our backs on you?”
The youkai guy snorts. “Do whatever the hell you want, halfbreed. We're off tonight.”
“Off?” Goku frowns, glances at Sanzo as if he has the answer, then asks the youkai, “What d'ya mean, 'off'?”
“I mean,” says the guy slowly, as if he's talking to a bunch of twelve year olds, “we're not interested in fighting you for the sutra tonight.”
Sanzo huffs. “What are you trying to say, that you're just out here for the trick or treating?”
One of the little ones gasps at this and steps around the woman, coming into better view. Pink-cheeked cherubim thing that he is, there's excitement etched in his eyes, an eagerness in his manner. Clutched in his sharp little fingers is a bag with a childish pumpkin drawn in bright orange on the front.
“You've got to be kidding me,” Sanzo adds with incredulity.
“I suppose it makes sense, in a round-about way,” says Hakkai, smiling at the kid. “Taking tonight off from your usual rampage of blood and violence and horror. My, is that sweets in there?”
“Don't encourage them, Hakkai,” murmurs Gojyo.
“Uh-huh!” The kid nods his head with so much enthusiasm Sanzo thinks it might topple off at any moment. “I got some Pocky from my mum an' some Jaw-Breakers from my cousin Raidon an'―”
“Hush, Shig.” The woman nudges the little boy and he falls silent.
“Well, don't let us disturb you.” Hakkai begins walking again.
Sanzo keeps his eyes on the youkai, but hears Gojyo follow Hakkai after a second.
“I guess it's okay, huh, Sanzo?” Goku whispers beside him.
Dubious, Sanzo shrugs. “Whatever. This is a waste of my time.” As they walk past the youkai, his senses remain alert, but no attack comes, no foul play or ambush. Sanzo cannot deny he's surprised.
“That was... weird,” Goku remarks a little farther down the road, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “I was kinda lookin' forward to kicking some ass. 'Til I saw those kids.”
“Mm,” Sanzo says, non-committal. A little stone of adrenaline sits heavy in his gut, nowhere to go. A quick glance over his shoulder reports the youkai adults have sent the kids down someone's garden path. As Sanzo turns back to the road, he hears small fists rapping on a wooden door.
“You've gotta admit, those little tykes were kinda cute,” says Gojyo.
“They were. Did you see the plastic bats they'd attached to the ends of their ears on strings?” says Hakkai.
“You two sound ridiculous, like doting dads.”
“Aw, man, I wish I coulda joined in,” laments Goku. “Get some free sweets.”
“You get free sweets anyway, man, whenever Cherry-chan decides to stop being a tightass with the Gold Card.”
“Fuck off and die.”
In the distance, Sanzo hears a chorus of joyous, high-pitched voices chime, “Trick or treat!”
Followed by a piercing scream and the sudden slam of a door.
“I have to say, Halloween gets stranger and stranger every year,” remarks Hakkai, as they approach the end of the road and the warm glow of lamps.
Sanzo doesn't reply, though he finds he's inclined to agree.
~Fin~
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