Day 35: Bus 1

[misterprince.livejournal.com]

Sanji woke up groggily to find his nurse already in his room. He gave a sleepy and half-hearted "Buh?" before realizing that nurse meant dayshift, and he'd fallen asleep after dinner.

"Shit!" He sat up abruptly, which gave his nurse a start. "Nami-swan!" How had he allowed himself to sleep through an entire night? What if she'd tried to return to the basement? What if she'd been waiting for him to appear and protect her? He'd let her down!

"There, there. Calm down." His nurse set a familiar flannel shirt down on the bed and Sanji eyed it with confusion. The last time he'd worn that had been... "Sorry I didn't knock or anything, but I was so excited~!" A pair of jeans followed the shirt. "Today is the field trip into town! Aren't you looking forward to it?"

The chef had to admit, the town had been an interesting enough place the last time he'd been. If he could find Nami early on he might even be able to lead her around... So he didn't complain too much as he changed into the other outfit (which he really wished they'd let him keep - anything was better than the regular gray) and was led out to the first of the buses.

He took a seat near the front, hopefully easily visible to any of his crew - especially to a certain member of his crew.

[for Usopp!]

Comments

[31st-of-china.livejournal.com]

"He's not my friend."

Sanzo's reply was almost instantaneous. Friends always implied some attachment, implied that he had to watch out for something other than his own back. There was a difference, Sanzo figured, between friendship and having someone forced upon you. That someone was also either too stupid to leave after all the shit Sanzo put him through, or he liked it.

With Goku, he couldn't tell.

"I just got him out of the hole he somehow got his ass into. It's a long story." Sanzo's tone was a very firm 'let's-leave-it-a-that'. He'd been somewhat vague to Goku's friend, but he didn't want it spreading all over the place. Somehow that moment seemed deeply personal, and not just for Goku.

Sanzo changed the subject. "You mentioned you had a student. There's more like you here?"

[qui-gonjinn.livejournal.com]

A touchy subject, it seemed.

Qui-Gon didn't press the point about Sanzo's friend.

Instead, he let the monk guide the conversation, changing the subject to something else. To Obi-Wan.

"Yes," Qui-Gon said. He might have a differing view than Sanzo on some things, but he trusted the monk; he didn't think he would betray Jedi. There were, of course, some things he simply didn't need to know and the Jedi Master skirted smoothly around anything particularly sensitive to his mission. "He's a friend as well as a former student. I traveled with him and worked together before Landels, back on Naboo."

There he had died in Obi-Wan's arms. Qui-Gon might have forgotten some moments of his own death, but he remembered Obi-Wan's arms cradling him, surprisingly gentle, and remembered looking up into his face. It had been only a few seconds, but those seconds stretched into eternity, more than enough time to notice the blue of his eyes, the quiver in his voice when he realized what Qui-Gon had already realized when he'd hit the floor: his Master was dying and there was no hope for him, only the Force.

That mission was over. But, in some ways, they were still dealing with the repercussions from it. Anakin Skywalker and his training. Qui-Gon's own death-that-wasn't. Among other things.

[31st-of-china.livejournal.com]

Good, he was dropping the subject. He was even learning a little something about the Jedi in the process.

Chances were, that man who joined them the night they met Jack face-to-face was that very student of Qui-Gon's.

Taking on students didn't surprise him, even they took on acolytes back in China. But it sounded like they worked in mandatory pairs while they were out. On missions, maybe?

With that kind of weapons training, Sanzo doubted it was confined to giving sermons.

"So your partnership doesn't end when he leaves your wing, is that it?" First he was a student, now Qui-Gon was referring to him as a former student. It sounded like he still hadn't quite gotten used to the change. Whatever the ritual or whatever it was that determined that status change, it was probably recent.

[qui-gonjinn.livejournal.com]

"It's not unheard of," Qui-Gon said. "Once a student becomes a Jedi Knight, it's possible to be assigned to missions with his or her former Master. But others also go their separate ways: it depends on the relationship of Master and Padawan."

Sometimes it happened. Sometimes it didn't: his relationship with his own Master, Dooku, had always been one of distance and while Dooku was a great, wise Jedi, Qui-Gon hadn't seen him much since they parted ways when he himself became a Knight. Qui-Gon still took all his lessons to heart except the last one, the one where Dooku told him not to connect to other beings, to always be ready for betrayal. He trusted Obi-Wan Kenobi with his life, with everything he had to give and though Obi-Wan had once before betrayed the Order and his trust as a boy, Qui-Gon viewed that incident as something that bound them closer together. Just because he had been betrayed by Obi-Wan and Xanatos didn't mean he would be unwilling to connect to others. He would be more careful, but the galaxy was not so simple that one betrayal was like the other.

You are always alone, Padawan, and betrayal is inevitable.

Betrayal may come and go, but the answer isn't distance, Master.

I am not alone. The Force is with me. There are many beings in the galaxy and I am not ever truly alone. To heed your final lesson, Dooku, is to distance myself from all beings and I will not do it, not even for you.

Qui-Gon gazed out the window, collecting his thoughts. He turned back to Sanzo, brushing his mane of graying hair over his shoulder.

"I'd imagine you have something similar in your order? Not that Goku is your disciple - or your friend," Qui-Gon said with a twinkle in his eye, almost but not quite smiling; he didn't believe Sanzo's harsh words.

[31st-of-china.livejournal.com]

I've never been much for it. Too much of a pain in the ass."

There'd been that one kid, Dougan or whatever. Aside from dealing with Goku, Sanzo remembered Dougan the most from back in China, and that was mostly because he'd been annoying on another level. It wasn't quite like Goku; as irritating as it was at times, Sanzo could understand (somewhat) where the kid was coming from. Dougan, on the other hand... the neediness was mixed with something else. He'd trailed after the monk like a dog, looked for approval just like one too. Dougan had begged Sanzo to let him come along on the mission.

Dougan thought he hid it, but to Sanzo, it was always pretty damn obvious, especially when he'd see the monk with Goku or the others. Jealousy.

He'd turned him down for a reason. Wherever he was, sooner or later, Dougan would figure out why he was unfit for the job.

"There was one, but I turned him down."

[qui-gonjinn.livejournal.com]

Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow. "Really. Is there a specific requirement to become a disciple for your order? Or did you feel that becoming a teacher was not your calling?"

For the Jedi, an initiate had to be chosen to be a Padawan before the age of thirteen, otherwise they would be shipped off to aid the galaxy in another fashion, such as with the Agri-Corps. The common practice was for individual Knights to come to the Temple from time to time and observe the initiates in training before they chose. He wasn't sure how it worked for Sanzo and his Earthian monks, but he imagined the feeling of rejection and frustration at having been turned down was the same, regardless of which planet. Those feelings would go away in time.

"How do you know if someone is...spiritually sensitive?" Qui-Gon asked. According to Sanzo, there were Force Sensitives on Earth, but their training was different. He didn't know about the abilities that the Jedi had. By learning about these monks, perhaps it would be possible to share different perspectives on the Force - no matter what name it went under.

[31st-of-china.livejournal.com]

"There are some," he admitted. He could teach if it came down to it. He did it decently enough. Sanzo just didn't care to do it.

Even so, he'd always made it pretty clear that he didn't take on students. At least with the intimacy or attention Dougan had craved.

Goku was the one exception.

At Qui-Gon's next question, Sanzo raised an eyebrow.

"It tends to manifest early. Usually as an aptitude towards tantras or whatever: they pick it up faster and have an easier time with them." Koumyou had noticed it in him early on, but that sensitivity hadn't exactly won over the other monks and acolytes. Not that he gave a shit what they thought, but they had a way of making things unpleasant.

"As for the one I turned down, it wasn't about whether he was spiritually sensitive or not." The kid had been relatively talented enough. That hadn't been the problem. "He had some issues."

[qui-gonjinn.livejournal.com]

Qui-Gon wasn't sure exactly what a tantra was. He assumed it was possibly some kind of monk exercise. But, like the Jedi, these young would-be monks exhibited their abilities at an early age, possibly being able to do seemingly unnatural things. He was curious as to why the other Earthians hadn't mentioned seeing any of this and then the answer came to him: the monks could be secretive, far more than what the Jedi Order was, and their existence was not known by many. Or it could be that Earthians as a whole were uncomfortable with the strange and unexplained. They didn't ask. They didn't want to see.

The Jedi Master was about to ask what kind of issues one would have to be turned down as a disciple when he noticed the buses were pulling into Doyleton. The flashes of the trees and the winding road he'd been subconsciously keeping track of even during the conversation gave way to signs of civilization. This discussion would have to be assumed another time. Qui-Gon was glad to say while Sanzo looked weak, he looked like he would recover.

The buses pulled to a stop in Magnus Park, one after another, and Qui-Gon turned to Sanzo. A polite smile crossed his face as he stood up.

"I'll contact you when we're ready to make our move," he said. The basement was deadly in ways the upstairs was not. He would need to talk to the other artifact holder, Callisto, and Obi-Wan as well. Obi-Wan had insisted on staying with his former Master for his final mission and Qui-Gon knew he was his equal. He would be in on this.

"May the Force be with you."