Closed RP: Hakkai and Sanzo

[worldly_monk]

Things at Hogwarts seemed to have quieted down a little in the last week. Apparently the 'Holiday Season' madness was over. Even so, habit had brought Sanzo to a vacant classroom in an isolated part of the castle so he could get some reading done

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[polite_sinner]

Hakkai wandered down a corridor with a few books in hand, having just left his empty dorm room; he had let Hakuryu out to get a bit of exercise earlier that day, and Hakkai assumed that Gojyo was doing whatever it was he usually did when he was out. (Not that he really minded Gojyo coming and going as he pleased -- it wasn't really his place to give his roommate a bedtime, after all.)

At first he passed by the classroom entirely by accident, but after a pause, he walked back and peeked in. He smiled apologetically and cleared his throat softly to get Sanzo's attention. "Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude like this," he said, rubbing the back of his head a little sheepishly. "I thought I should return these books to you before I forgot about them, but you weren't in your room. Ah, I hope I'm not bothering you?"

[worldly_monk]

Sanzo looked up from his book and shook his head. " You're not a bother," he replied. "I'm about ready to throw this book out a window." He wondered, not for the first time, if there was really any point to this quest. He wouldn't put it past the Sanbutsushin to have sent him here for some other reason. Something annoyingly obscure and mysterious. Maybe some kind of stupid 'life lesson'.

Frustrated enough to actually ask for help, he waved Hakkai into the room. "I can't decide if this book is written in code, or just some obscure dialect. Are you any good at languages?"

[polite_sinner]

"My, you really shouldn't throw something out of a window," Hakkai replied, more joking than nagging. "You might accidentally hit some unsuspecting person passing through below. It's better to aim for something sturdier and not as liable to shatter, I think. Personally, I've always found a nearby wall to be an ideal target."

A little surprised by Sanzo's request for assistance, Hakkai made his way over, leaving his books on the table. "I have a bit of working knowledge, I suppose, though I'm not sure if I can be of much assistance." He held out a hand for the book, and when he received it, he began peering at the text. After a few quiet moments, he looked up and offerred an embarrassed grin. "Ah, is it safe to assume that you're looking for a spell to find missing things? I only gave this a quick glance, but I believe that's what this passage is about -- well, it's either that, or it's a description of the best way of drawing a pig. . ."

[worldly_monk]

Sanzo quirked a half-smile at Hakkai's joking suggestion. "Good point. I wouldn't want to hit someone accidentally." The slight emphasis was intentional, since, as Gojyo and Goku knew very well, he usually preferred to hit people on purpose. He handed the book to Hakkai, glancing at his notes while Hakkai examined the page Sanzo had been trying to read.

"Yes, it's supposed to be a spell to find things," he confirmed, frowning and pulling a second book over. "Someone gave me this book about hidden treasures as a Sorting bribe a while back, and it mentioned that one as a source of some of the finds. I suppose it would have been too easy if that one had turned out to be useful."

He pushed back from the desk a little and picked up his cigarettes, lighting one with the lighter that had been his birthday present from Hakkai. "Maybe I should take another look at some of the spells from the other books."

[polite_sinner]

Hakkai looked the text over again, this time a bit more carefully, before shaking his head. "I'm not sure, I think I can only offer a very general summary of what this particular book says, which is probably no better than what you, yourself, could figure out. If you still would like some assistance anyway, I'd be glad to help." He paused before laughing a little, and he added, "At the very least, I'd be happy to split the headache with you, if you'd like."

He shrugged, smiling another apologetic smile, as though he would take the blame for it. "No, I don't suppose anything like this would ever be so simple, I'm afraid." His expression was neutral when Sanzo lit up a cigarette -- as it usually was, except in cases where he had cause to protest, -- and his only comment in regards to it was an absent, "Please be careful not to get ashes in the books."

Hakkai glanced Sanzo over with mild concern, though he was careful not to let it show too much. The priest never did seem to appreciate it when someone offered him anything that could be

[worldly_monk]

"If you're bored enough to want to read this shit, I'm not going to tell you no." Sanzo didn't need the help of course, but if Hakkai wanted to volunteer then Sanzo wasn't going to turn him down. He tipped the ashes off his cigarette into an ashtray, privately amused by Hakkai's near-obsessive concern about neatness

[polite_sinner]

Hakkai smiled, slowly nodding his head in a manner that said It can't be helped. "It's very kind of you to share something for me to do. I suppose I just like to occupy myself with things that woud generally give most other people migraines." Like caring for and looking after rowdy, lewd, or obstinate children. "Be sure to tell me if I end-up monopolize all of the work, though. I would hate to accidentally leave you with little to do

[worldly_monk]

Sanzo flipped through his notes again, and handed Hakkai a page with a few simple spells written on it. "Here. Those are the basic ones. I memorized the one for finding people, thinking it might be useful back home. Although I'm not sure it would even work on Goku. He might qualify as magical too, being what he is. And that's assuming this magic even works when we go back."

Sanzo looked somewhat amused by Hakkai's answer. "I'm not sure studying is something students usually do in school, at least judging by some of the students at the temple. They seem to want to avoid studying as much as possible." His brow furrowed as he tried to remember what scarves Hakkai was talking about. Deciding it probably wasn't important, he went back to reviewing his notes, and finally found the spell he'd been looking for.

He shrugged in answer to Hakkai's question. "Just curious." He wasn't surprised that Hakkai was making the most of his time at Hogwarts.

[polite_sinner]

Hakkai took the page with a quiet, "Thank you," and examined it absently. He frowned a little when Sanzo commented on whether or not the spells they were learning at Hogwarts would work back home. The thought hadn't really occurred to him, since he had been working under the assumption that magic was magic, and this was simply a different way of utilizing it. "Hopefully this magic does work when we return," he replied thoughtfully, "but I suppose I shouldn't be too disappointed if it doesn't, hm?"

He laughed when Sanzo talked about the students at the temple. "Well, yes, I suppose you're right. I've always had, ah, atypical studying habits, I suppose you could say, in that I actually have some." He smiled teasingly, just to show he was joking. "It's nice to be doing something academic, at least. I think it's a nice change of pace, don't you? Or have you gotten tired of it? You've been here longer, after all."

[worldly_monk]

"It might still work. There's no way to know until we get back." Sanzo put his notes down and looked over at Hakkai. "Believe it or not, it was something Gojyo said that made me think about that possibility. Remember the book about China and Japan I was reading on my birthday? I was pointing out how many errors there were, and he said something about their China not being the same as ours."

Sanzo tapped his pen on the table, momentarily distracted by the idea. "It made me wonder, if we walked out of the gates and just went east, would we end up at home, or in some China we don't even recognize?" He realized he was looking out the windows, as if he could see the answer from here. He shook his head and turned back to the books.

"I suppose it's a nice change to not have a bunch of idiots expecting me to take an interest in every stupid detail of running the place." He glared at the stack of notes in front of him. "I'd be enjoying it more if I thought I was actually making any progress."

[polite_sinner]

"Well, Gojyo is capable of intelligent thinking when the occasion calls for it, so I'm not too surprised." . . . Though he sometimes wished that those "occasions" cropped up more often, but that was only on days when he was particularly annoyed after finding cigarette burns on the furniture.

Hakkai frowned as he considered the idea, and he said slowly, as though still trying to think it out, "Do you suppose, then, that we're in something like a parallel universe? I suppose it would make sense, given how amazingly different everyone's respective homes are. That would mean that Hogwarts is some sort of nexus point, wouldn't it?" He stopped short before breaking into an ostensibly cheerful smile. "My, it sounds like something out of a science fiction book."

He glanced over at Sanzo's notes, and he looked a bit impressed by how much work he had done. "I'm not sure, that rather looks like some progress to me," he replied, gesturing towards the stack. "Have you not been able to find anything of particular use, then?"

[worldly_monk]

"Hn. Gojyo's a lot smarter than he pretends to be." Sanzo shrugged at Hakkai's suggestions. "I've never read any science fiction, so I'll take your word for it. Parallel universe makes as much sense as anything when you have people arriving from all over time and space."

He gave a short laugh when Hakkai indicated his research. He resisted the urge to fling the pages off the table and instead he flipped through them for Hakkai's benefit. "Simple spells that didn't work." Flip. "Spells that require some rare ingredient." Flip. "Requires a complicated incantation or ritual." Flip. "Requires a certain phase of the moon, or an eclipse, or some planetary conjunction." Flip. "Looked promising, but there's some parts that I can't translate." The rest of the pages fell onto the stack. "And so on. And that doesn't include the ones I didn't bother to write down, like the ones that require sacrificing a human, or an animal."

[polite_sinner]

Hakkai chuckled, nodding his head. "That's certainly an interesting way of putting it." He wondered briefly how Gojyo would react to these sort of insulting compliments, but then thought it was probably best that he wasn't there right then to hear them. "It's just a general theory, in any case." Smiling a bit wryly, he added, "After all, we can't really rule out the idea that it's simply magic at work, can we?"

He noted Sanzo's obvious frstration with a slight frown -- probably one of sympathy, rather than disapproval. "My, I see your research has been rather extensive." Falling silent for a second, he said, "Some of those still seem like they would be worth a try, at least. For instance -- ah, just how complicated were those spells and rituals you mentioned?"

[worldly_monk]

Sanzo didn't bother to elaborate on his opinion. Gojyo liked to give the impression that he only thought about drinking, gambling, and sex, but there was a lot more to him than that. "Well whatever this place is, magic is probably the easiest explanation for how people get here

[polite_sinner]

Hakkai looked the first spell over, glad that Sanzo was accepting his offer of assistance for once, rather than stubbornly insisting that he could work everything out on his own; he thought it made everything much easier this way. "No, I don't suppose this is one that can be depended on, given the circumstances, but perhaps it would be more conducive to try something like this anyway. I don't suppose that there's a spell with a shorter waiting period, is there

[worldly_monk]

Sanzo stared at Hakkai in surprise, cigarette forgotten for the moment. "You can't be serious. You think the three of us should try the spell? Has Gojyo even touched his wand since he got it?" His mind stumbled over the mental images for a second (stupid innuendo), but he managed to get it back on track. He shook his head in denial. "I don't think so. We'd probably end up with Gojyo the tiger again. Or worse