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 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."

He quirked an eyebrow at Sanzo's relatively violent disposal of his cigarette, but he supposed it was good that the monk was making use of the ashtray, rather than the covers of any of the nearby books. "I'll have to ask you for that spell for finding missing socks," Hakkai said lightly. It'd probably make things much easier, whenever he had to go back home and go back to doing the laundry. "I expect that would make sense. There must be some sort of interference caused by magical things, then -- or perhaps the Sutras are special cases."

Chuckling softly, Hakkai shrugged his shoulders in resignation. "I apologise, I didn't mean to seem like I was babying you or anything of the sort." He blinked a few times at Sanzo's question and his candid curiosity, before he replied, "Ah, the usual things students do in school, I expect -- studying, mostly. It's not often that one gets the chance to learn magic, so I'm taking advantage of the opportunity." Pausing, he flashed Sanzo a bright smile and added, "And I've been knitting those scarves, too. Why do you ask?"

[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."

Sanzo stifled a sigh as he pulled several pages out of the pile. Hakkai was trying to help, and as much as he hated to admit it, he probably needed it. If nothing else, it would help to have a second set of eyes looking it over. "Some of them weren't really that complicated, they just take a long time. Like this one." He pointed to one of the spells. "You have to set it up and let it sit for forty-nine days, and the object has to remain stationary the whole time. I can't be sure the Sutra isn't being moved around."

He pulled out another page with a spell that took up the whole sheet and continued onto the back. "This one looked interesting, but it takes three people to cast it. The incantation has to be chanted in alternating phrases that overlap, and you have to have two people lighting various candles in a specific order while the third does the wand movements." Sanzo pushed the whole stack away from him and reached for his cigarettes again. "Sometimes I think it would be easier to go back to searching on foot."

[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?"

Pausing to look over the other page Sanzo had pulled out, he read over the spell carefully and said brightly, "How convenient for us that we just so happen to have three people." He continued to examine it, not looking up as the monk moved to light another cigarette, but he did offer an amiable smile. "If you do decide to go off on your own again, please do let us know in advance." He glanced up for a second, before turning his focus back on the spell. When he spoke again, his tone was dry and amused. "Gojyo, Goku, Hakuryu, and I could keep you company, that way. I'm afraid it won't be so easy to just leave us behind, next time."

[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."

He finally managed to light his cigarette, only to have Hakkai make another ridiculous suggestion. He glared at Hakkai through the smoke. "Absolutely not," he said flatly. "The last thing I'd ever want to do is take Goku and Gojyo on a road trip." He could just imagine that. Goku whining for food every mile. Gojyo wandering off in search of his favorite hobbies every evening. Not to mention Hakkai's 'suggestions' about excessive smoking and drinking. Hakuryu would be certainly be useful, but the dragon wouldn't go without Hakkai, and Hakkai wouldn't go without Gojyo. And unfortunately Hakkai was probably right about not being able to leave Goku behind again.

"There might be a spell with a shorter duration. I don't honestly remember." Sanzo pushed the stack of pages over to Hakkai. "Feel free to read through them." At this point, all of the spells were running together in his head.

[polite_sinner]

"I'm completely serious," Hakkai replied sunnily, gracefully sidestepping the innuendo. "You should have a bit more faith in us, Sanzo. With a bit more training, I think we could manage it."

He stopped to consider it for a short moment. "Maybe." He laughed lightly and shrugged his shoulders. "In any case, if something gets out of hand, I'm sure the three of us are capable of handling it ourselves. And if not. . . ah, perhaps it wouldn't be amiss if we decided to use our time now to familiarize ourselves with locating the Hospital Wing."

Setting aside the spell he was currently holding so he wouldn't lose it in the pile of papers, he started flipping through the pages. The monk tended to take careful notes, from what Hakkai had seen, and he wondered if that meant that Sanzo actually enjoyed doing this sort of paperwork. "Oh, I'm not so sure," he said absently, half-distracted by looking over the numerous spells. "Personally, I think the trip with the four -- ah, sorry, five -- of us would be a fun experience." He stopped going through the spells and smiled. "We could meet new people, and the four of us could use the time to get to know each other better, don't you think? We rarely ever talk, these days, and you're always so busy. . ." Hakkai trailed off, and while he said it with a straight face, he was probably joking. Probably.

[worldly_monk]

"I guess we still have the cancellation spell if things go wrong," Sanzo agreed reluctantly. "Maybe we'll get lucky this time and turn Gojyo into something small enough to keep as a pet." He almost smiled at that idea, then turned serious again. "The real question is, would Gojyo be willing to do it? It would take some work to get the words and the timing right. We wouldn't want to take time away from his drinking and flirting." There might have been a slight edge to his voice as he commented on Gojyo's habits, but it was probably just his usual sarcasm.

Hakkai was still stuck on the road trip idea, but Sanzo was looking a little bewildered. "You want us all to talk? About what? What would you want to know?" As soon as he said it, he realized he'd left him self open. Well, he didn't have to answer. He gave Hakkai a sharp look, still wondering if he could be serious about the idea. " You know all Goku would want to talk about would be food."