the heat felt good on his skin. the excess of it breaking the tepid balance of sensation in this unsensaitonal place. and he liked the feel of cold metal against his skin. the excess of it reawakening the part of him that lived for bloodlust. hakkai unsheathed the sword and headed for the door that lead to the demons' wails and screeches...

burn them into nothing...so that you cannot even mourn the ashes.

burn everything into nothing...so you cannot convict me for an act you were too cowardly to commit yourselves.

burn everything down...and feel the heat from down below that you have so ignored.

the heat of karma is very sweet, is it not?

****

they rained down upon them like locusts, appearing to be a gray smear on the darkening sky. one after another, whenever a youkai was killed there was always another to replace it. hundreds and hundreds of them...and those that were shattered remade themselves.

"can't. they. just. stay. dead?" sanzo spat out between shots.

gojyo ducked as one swept down to decapitate him. "hey, monk, don't you have a sutra to take care of things like this? or are you just waiting until we're totally fucked up?"

"like trying to swat a fly with a hammer." the priest replied.

it wasn't the same; fighting without hakkai. he had to watch his back more because...and he hated to admit it so he didn't...hakkai took it upon himself to always be at sanzo's back. the feeling was as reassuring as having an extra set of his own eyes behind his head- maybe even better because he didn't have to think too much about what was going on beyond his line of vision.

there was no way in hell that he'd give tenpou that responsibility.

energetic shouting over to his far left indicated where goku was having his fun. just a bit over the hill must where gojyo had run off to; the glint of whiplike metal shining through the snow was an assurance that the man was still going at it. now where was the other idiot?

they were starting to get separated. not that it worried sanzo any. everyone could take care of themselves, but still...if he had his choice of battle scenarios...it wouldn't be anything like this one because:

#1. he was running out of bullets.

#2. he needed bullets.

#3. he needed time to load the fucking bullets

then there was something warm and solid against his back. green light like fireworks shot in all directions and not a youkai could get within five feet of either of them. he reloaded, as usual taking his dear sweet time. "mmh. thanks." sanzo muttered.

"am i doing a good job being hakkai?" tenpou smiled. it was almost starting to look like a hakkai smile too.

"i'd give you a 'b+' for effort."