one foot front of the other one o one o ti with the celestial ary's dru beat one o as if he were gog to war boo boo it never ceased, an echo of the soldier's heart as he is thrown to the heat of battle one o and as long as it rung clear the distance, he uld be sure that others were fightg right next to hi, that he wasn't alone one o the ke was gettg nearer, he uld sense it

then the sound of drus wasn't only his d he uld actually hear it fatly over the howlg ds boo boo slow this ti, like a death arch and so he journeyed, as if to his death becae it was this beat of heaven which he followed so doggedly through the sall tenpou rounded the hill and there it was- a ke with a crater frozen yet solitary nobody was there, but sothg about the ke beckoned to hi holy water

with one st burst of energy, tenpou sprted towards it and fell at its icy shore the ds seed to blow less harshly here as if the powers of the earth had no pce on his knees and with shakg hands, he reached out and touched the gssy surface it stung, but he refed to break ntact leang forward and cleang the scattered snowfkes off the ice, the arshal felt as if his heart sped beatg starg back was his reflection tenpou gensui's reflection his real reflection

a strong gt suddenly washed over hi, ade the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end the beatg got stronger closer it ca aga, with enough speed that he was knocked off is knees and to a snowbank and a ist was risg around hi then ca whispers- at tis distguishable fro the ds that carried the

"arshal tenpou" they said "arshal tenpou, you've e!"

tenpou t have bcked out for a ute or o, but when he opened his eyes, he was on the surface of the ke, surrounded by kenren's thirty soldiersor at least as left of the

it all went right back to ch lishou, the feelg anyhen you see soone and yet you don't it was pissg hi off should have jt shot hi through the head this orng, sanzo thought dolefully or through the heart give hi a few sends to say where hakkai really is but the strange thg about it was that this was hakkai, not so strange spell ade to look like hi and dait, he needed a driver no e killg the real thg

the siplest ncsion would be to say that he was possessed, sanzo ed as he looked up fro the paper and towards the wall a crack ran through it as if sothg fro the other side had stricken it hard

there were jt so ntal freencies that were siply hakkai's- see it the sile, hear it the tone of voice, and especially his silence hakkai's silence was pletely, utterly self-ntrolled he would jt vanish with hiself and vanish fro the roo altogether until he willed hiself to speak like agic and he would be there aga like a fairy godother/other hen at your service now the silence was different it was unbearably loud- worse than goku callg out to hi fro the ounta

this was sobody screag at the of his ngs

"sanzoooooooooo!" goku shouted fro the hallway, his footsteps boundg closer, shakg the floorboards

shiiiiiiit right when i had a bit of peace please, " hell"

and soon gss was flyg the beside hi shattered to a thoand pieces as ice arrows perated the gss followed by streas of fire, ickly akg the rickety wooden lodge to a burng ferno goku burst to the roo, pantg heavily

"the vilge is beg attacked!"

"no shit sherlock!" he snatched his gun and loaded "let's go before this piece of crap lpses on of !"

outside, they were t by bloody carnage people were runng every which way nobody fightg the onsught of snow youkai that swept the streets like a pgue sanzo spat "people who live without danger turn to chickenshit pretty fast"

beside hi, goku suoned his staff "we have to do sothg, sanzo"

"don't be so eager!" the onk snapped as he phed the both of the to the shadows of a nearby buildg "and shut up"

the youkai possessed little features, lookg no ore than ice statues with furio be eyes so possessed gs looked like white oths fle spat out fire spat out ice one of the ade another round their direction, screechg furioly with practiced cal, sanzo raised his gun, aid right beeen the eyes a loud crack of thunder and it distegrated to snowfkes

"at least they don't leave a ss when they die"

"i wonder how any there are" said goku, pokg the pile of snoith the end of his staff

"a lot it t be an entire cn out there"

"why?"

"siple they need food and they're desperate"