Nightshift 20: M71-M80 Hallway

[secret_memory]

“Where is that damn flashlight?!” Kuronue muttered to himself, shoving the remainder of the cookie that he was given into his mouth as he was quite nearly about to tear his room apart if the stupid thing didn’t show up sooner or later

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[opposingheaven]

Well, this was a barrel of fucking laughs. Kenren sighed, closing the last door on the corrior behind himself. No-one. Nothing. Zilch. A whole bunch of rooms, all identical, and more importantly, all empty.

He was getting really bored of this.

He kind of felt like he should make a flag (out of... something, he really hadn't bothered to think about such a dumb idea too closely) and gone around waving it just to say that he was here. A big one, with 'TRAITOR TO HEAVEN' written on it in big letters. It would at least have been distinctive.

He headed back down towards the room he'd woken up in. Maybe trying that turn off might b a good idea.

[damned_ivy]

((coming from here.))

Something was definitely here. It wasn't even that he knew so much as it was a feeling. Unfortunately, that didn't give him much to work off of.

Resting against the wall was helping slowly, but perhaps getting out of the way of anything else that might decide to prowl the hallways would be a good idea. He pushed himself away from the wall and stumbled a bit farther down the hall before he registered footsteps fairly close. He pressed back against the wall, attempting to not look like he was about to fall down.

Damn it, he would never think ill of not being human again.

[opposingheaven]

Kenren stopped dead when he noticed the figure against the wall near the end of the corridor. So there were other people here. Which made him feel slightly more confident. He took another couple of steps forward, feeling... something. He wasn't sure what, but it felt familiar. Like a well known presence.

Another couple of steps and the person was mostly in view, albeit his features hidden in the shadows. Still Kenren knew that profile as well as he knew his own face in the mirror. A broad grin spread across his face, relief washing over him.

"Tenpou!" he said, moving just a bit closer. "You know, I figured that reincarnation would be a bit more interesting and less... well, wasn't expecting to remember everything really." It was always like him to make light of whatever situation. "Where's Konzen and Goku?" he asked next, slightly more seriously.

[damned_ivy]

This person was definitely the 'someone' that had drawn him here, and the familiarity tugged at something in his memory that he couldn't quite grasp. The smile that slid across his face wasn't one of his nicest ones, but it wasn't one of the ones that signified imminent death, either, so there was probably no immediate danger from it.

And then there was the little matter of him being weak as a kitten, but that was beside the point.

"I'm afraid you seem to have me confused with someone else. I'm not sure how you know about Goku, either, but I haven't seen him here, yet."

[opposingheaven]

Kenren frowned slightly as the man rebuffed him and looked a little more closely. Same voice, same posture, hell, same aura as Tenpou, but something was a little off. "You cut your hair?" he murmured, mostly to himself. And this face lacked some of the hard edges of Tenpou's.

"Who are you then?" he asked, trying to fit things together in his head. "You certainly sound like Tenpou, feel the same too." He turned and leaned back on the wall, only a few inches away from the familiar stranger, and felt entirely comfortable doing it too.

He snorted at the Goku comment. "Of course I know Goku! Ch', all of Heaven knows about the monkey." he turned his head slightly and grinned. "Ever since Kanzeon Bosatsu pawned him off on Konzen." His expression turned more serious. "I have to find him before those bastards lock him away. Fucking politics!"

[damned_ivy]

He blinked at the other man. Perhaps he had met one of the people actually supposed to be in this place. "Not for some time, no."

And then there was backing away because, why hello lack of personal space. "I'm afraid I don't know who this 'Tenpou' is. My name's Cho Hakkai." More blinking. "Wait.. in Heaven? You know of the Merciful Goddess?"

[opposingheaven]

He stifled a soft chuckle as the other man backed away slightly. Couldn't be Tenpou then. The two of them were comfortable enough with each other that a few inches meant nothing.

"Tenpou Gensui, Field Marshall of the Western Army of Heaven," he recited in a sing-song way. "And I'm Kenren Taisho, General of the same." He flashed the other man a grin. "Which does not explain where the hell this is considering I'm supposed to be dead." That was still a puzzle, not that he was upset about still being alive, just surprised. And maybe a little worried.

Now it was Kenren's turn to blink. "Well, yeah. Who doesn't know the old hag?" Admittedly, there were plenty of people who wished that they didn't know her, but that was beside the point. "Even the people in the lower world, humans and youkai, tend to have at least heard of her."

[damned_ivy]

Hakkai studied.. Kenren.. closely, an odd smile playing across his face. It wasn't exactly welcoming, but it had lost the edge of the earlier smiles. Then again, it's just as likely that Hakkai decided that smile wasn't conducive to furthering the conversation and switched masks. "Dead, hm? That seems to be a common condition for this place."

"A pleasure to meet you, Kenren Taisho." Subtle wheels had begun to turn, connecting the brash, open character of the man in front of him with... well, someone else. He wasn't entirely sure he liked where that thought process was going, either. "I'm afraid where you are is a bit hard to explain. You...mentioned reincarnation?"

[opposingheaven]

The smile was a little disconcerting, but Kenren had had a lot of practice at dealing with a similar smile and it had lost a lot of it's effect over the years. The thing about being dead was rather worrying though. "Common condition?" he pondered. "You've been here long

[damned_ivy]

"Ahaha, no, I'm afraid not. I've only been here since this morning, although it has been.. ah, quite an enlightening experience so far."

Listening to Kenren's story, the answer seemed to dance right in front of him, but he was hesitant to actually admit that it might possibly be correct. "I'm afraid you have the wrong tense. There is no 'going to.' Goku was imprisoned in a cave for five hundred years before Sanzo found him. That is, of course, assuming we're talking about the same Goku."

He glanced back down the hall to the junction. It seemed deserted. He pushed away from the wall. No more wobbly. That was good. His color still hadn't come back, leaving him white as a sheet, but that didn't affect his ability to run from giant scorpions get around. "There are certain conditions here that do not encourage remaining stationary for an overly long time. Your story is quite interesting, though we should perhaps take this conversation elsewhere?"

[opposingheaven]

"You have somewhere in mind?" he asked, scanning the darkness for any sign of ill intent. He still didn't have a clue what the hell this place was or the enemies that it would hide. Still, he'd faced some pretty terrible things in his time.

The information about Goku made him stare in shock for a moment. Five hundred years? How could that be possible? He'd only been with Goku a day or so ago. He had to make sure, although he wasn't sure that there would be two creatures with the same name. "Monkey boy," he said, slightly more subdued. "Son Goku, cute little thing, brown hair, big wide innocent gold eyes." The eyes of a heretical creature. "Golden diadem on his head." He smiled fondly. "Naive as they come."

He shook his head. "But I just saw him about a day ago, when they sentenced him."

[damned_ivy]

"No, I don't. I was looking for someone, but I have no idea how to go about finding him here." He smiles politely yet apologetically, as if he's sorry to be taking up Kenren's time. He wasn't exactly worried about Sanzo so much as...

Alright, he was worried about Sanzo. After what he'd mentioned had happened to him the night before, Hakkai would be stupid not to worry.

He briefly considered telling Kenren about the last time he'd seen Goku. Somehow he doubted a person who had the sort of mental image of Goku as Kenren seemed to would take at all well to how he'd finally managed to stop Seiten Taisei. "I.. saw him not long ago myself. He's somewhat less 'little' now. Less naive, as well, though he doesn't always show it."

Talking about Goku so casually like this was oddly surreal.

[opposingheaven]

"Well, I'm really not much help," Kenren replied, slightly sheepishly. He'd been here, what? Half an hour at most, so he was even more in the dark. And he wished he knew where the others were. And how this guy thought that five hundred years had passed.

He sighed, turning to Hakkai again, a slightly rueful smile curling his lips. "Five hundred years, you said? Means he spent five hundred years locked up alone, without his friends, without Konzen. Konzen is... was Goku's sun. The one who named him." He looked away, as though remembering. "I can't imagine him being the same after that." It hurt to think of it, the monkey having all those cares placed upon him when they had no right to be there.

[damned_ivy]

"Ahaha, no, no. Of course not. I didn't mean to imply that I expected you to be." Hakkai seemed equally sheepish, the smile shifting into one of embarrassment. "I'm afraid it's a case of blind leading the blind."

The familiar feeling wouldn't go away. In fact, the longer they stood there, the stronger it became. Then Kenren described Konzen. It didn't make sense, yet it did. He was getting a headache.

"Goku is special." Images of mahjong games and fights over meatbuns played through his mind. "I don't think you need to worry about him."

Unless he was here. Which meant he was without Sanzo. Speaking of which...

"Konzen was Goku's sun. An interesting turn of phrase." He turned away, on the pretext of checking the hallway again. "Konzen... he didn't happen to have.. ah, something of a temper, did he?"

[opposingheaven]

Kenren snorted in laughter. "I'm used 'ta it." Half the time he suspected that Tenpou didn't have a clue what he was doing either and was just making it up as he went along. Besides,made things more interesting, right

[damned_ivy]

"Is that so?" Hakkai couldn't help laughing in response. That sounded familiar. When one had been traveling for over a year with no more direction than 'go west,' it was bound to become a common complaint.

He sobered quickly, though. "No, it's really not. I'm almost positive it hurts him as much as it hurts those he faces, as well." Hakkai had taken down Seiten Taisei, he knew he was defeatable, but it took more than most would be willing to give. Hakkai should have been dead. He might be dead, for all he knew. Goku... "Still, that's quite an admirable promise. I hope you are able to keep it."

Hakkai's smile was no more or less real than it had been at any point in their conversation, so there was no tell-tale sign of the pieces finally clicking all into place. The Merciful Goddess had called Sanzo 'Konzen,' this Kenren had known Goku over five hundred years ago, he was being confused with someone named 'Tenpou'... "Ahaha, indeed. That would."