damned_institute | Nightshift 42: The Bookworm

Worst Case Scenario: they got stuck in town when night came.

He hated being right.

It started out subtle. Hinamori had barely finished her sentence before he realized that the sunlight had all but died. Things got a little cooler, wisps of grey marking their every breath. Peter turned to the window in horror. A splatter of blood blossomed before his eyes on the glass, welling up from the centre and drying as soon as it was born. Beyond it, the paved street cracked. Half-fleshed hands sprouted from the divide, pulling up even more gruesome bodies behind them.

"GAAAH!!" he shrieked, clutching at his throbbing head. His spider sense was going psycho, harder than it ever had. He tasted blood, leaking in a thin trail from his nose to his lips.

Get up get up get up

He pushed past the sensation, shooting a look up to Hinamori, then to the rest of the store when the floorboards started to creak. The clerks behind the counter didn't look so friendly now.

"Zombies," Peter whispered in disbelief, rising from his chair. "Oh my god, they're all zombies..."

The pain in his head began to fade. He took no solace in that.

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"Shit, don't move," Kenren protested when Sanzo rolled onto his side. What the fuck was he trying to do? Make it worse? It meant that Kenren could get a better look at the extent of the damage though, but after a moment he kinda' wished that he couldn't. A few strips of cloth was not going to make this any better. A whole infirmary probably wouldn't make this better and even a healer would be pretty hard pressed assuming that Kenren could just nip outside, grab one and drag them in her right this second. Maybe day would come. For the first time since coming here, he really really hoped that day would come.

He started when Sanzo grabbed his wrist, although the grip was weaker than Kenren had ever thought it would be. Fuck. "Fuck that," he snapped. "You have things to do you crappy monk. You think Gyumaoh is just gonna' kill himself?"

Sanzo just tried to glare at Gojyo. No shit. It wasn't like he could move much more as it was, even if he'd wanted to.

It was weird hearing the roach actually talk about the mission like that. Sanzo'd been doing this for so long, searching for the sutra, probably before the roach even knew where his dick was. Not to mention that half the time it seemed like Gojyo and Goku considered the damn mission as just a joyride. He'd never thought he'd see the day where the roach was actually talking about responsibility.

Except Sanzo knew it wasn't going to be just a matter of will power here. Maybe it was some buried instinct, but he knew it wasn't that easy. Every limb felt weighted to the floor. He could barely concentrate. Everything seemed like he was watching it from another room. He could feel the thick blood welling up slowly again, leaking past his mouth.

"You think...I don't know that..?" Sanzo gritted out. Normally Gojyo would be enough to rile him, get him to stand up just to prove a point to the bastard. Now he just felt tired.

Kenren glared right back at Sanzo, narrowing his eyes dangerously. He wasn't allowed to give up, he wasn't allowed to die. What would he ever say if Goku turned up again? Him and Sanzo might have had their differences, but the kid needed Sanzo around. Other people weren't supposed to die. It was supposed to be him who kept them safe so that they could do what needed to be done. It left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"So don't just give up!" Kenren snapped, trying to ignore the blood that he could see on Sanzo's lips. If he was ever going to die, it should have been to go out fighting at least, not on the floor in a bookshop of all places.

Sanzo's eyes had started to droop. At Gojyo's loud voice, they fluttered back open. For a moment, they were unfocused, before they centered up at the roach. Kenren was glaring down at him. He was too exhausted to muster up the strength to glare back. He just let out a labored breath.

The idiot couldn't really think it was as easy as deciding not to bleed all over the place? Sanzo'd always been a firm believer in sheer will power, mind over matter, but it only went so far. Will couldn't stop him from bleeding all over the floor, only take some focus off the agony.

His breathing was coming in pained, hitched gasps.

The monk tugged the sutra off his shoulders and with unsteady hands, rolled it up, before pressing the bundle hard against Gojyo's chest. He didn't say anything. The message was clear. Sanzo's fingers lingered for a moment longer before he let go of the scripture.

He wasn't even glaring. That was a bad bad sign and Kenren's hands curled into fists at his side, knowing that the inevitable was coming. He didn't want to accept it, but he had no choice. Even if he could get Sanzo out of here, there were those creatures outside and Sanzo couldn't run or fight. Kenren couldn't run or fight if he was carrying the monk either.

He gave Sanzo a surprised look when the monk pulled something from around his shoulders and pressed it to Kenren's chest. The god took it, holding it tightly in his hands. It felt like cloth and it felt powerful albeit in a muted way. It wasn't something that Sanzo would give up easily. He grabbed the monk's shoulder, shaking it lightly. "I'll take care of it," he said because he couldn't even pretend that this could turn out any differently. "You have my word on the lives of my comrades."

"If you don't lose it first..." Sanzo mumbled. He didn't look at the sutra. He'd just entrusted the the mission to Gojyo. He might give the bastard shit constantly, but when push came to shove, when shit got serious, he could get something done. The question was whether he really understood the responsibility just yet.

Sanzo took a sluggish breath.

It was strange. He'd been so consumed with the journey West and the sutras that it would've made perfect sense for it to be the last thing on his mind. It wasn't.

There was that worry about Goku, the one he hadn't ever been able to fully squash. All he could feel was regret, dread now. He'd always bitched about how fucking annoying the monkey was, how he didn't have a single moment of peace and quiet, thanks to the dumbass. Early on, he'd tried to just tune him out. That never worked; no amount of meditation or training block out that shrill voice. Sanzo would've been glad to get a few minutes in without Goku's voice chattering.

Now there was just a heavy silence in his head.

"Goku..." Sanzo tried raggedly. His eyes looked up at Gojyo through his bangs, fingers digging into Gojyo's wrist. " I can't...hear..."

He never finished. The monk let out a small sigh of breath. His eyes drifted closed as he slowly went limp. The grip on Gojyo's wrist relaxed, bit by bit.

"Tch, fuck you," Kenren murmured, although there was no bite in his voice. His words were practically coming automatically by now as he tried and failed to process what was going on. People died, they had died, but it wasn't supposed to be like this, not here, not now. They had things to do, battles to fight, and they couldn't fucking do it without Sanzo!

His hand closed more tightly around the sutra, a white knuckled grip as though he intended to never let go of the relic.

He barely heard Sanzo when the monk spoke again, but caught the whisper, leaning closer so that he could hear the rest.

Goku... figured that would be the last thing on his mind. It was reassuring in a way. He was Goku's sun and Goku had to be important to him. It set Kenren's mind at ease about that at least. He gripped Sanzo's hand firmly, giving the monk a fiercely determined look. "He's waiting," he said. "You'll hear him yo-"

He broke off with a harsh noise, anger and hurt and more emotions that he couldn't really put a name to at that moment. He only let go of Sanzo's hand when the monk finally stopped breathing altogether, resting it carefully at the monk's side.

Nightshift 42: The Bookworm

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