Conclusion

[voidtreckermods]

Thank you.

For those inside the system the voices of the Great-Seasons ring out around them once the red mass has vanished and the blue plinth it was smothering is freed once more. They don't have all that much time to reflect on that before they find themselves waking up once more in their bodies around the tree trunks.

Or at least, around the tube that is the Great-Season they entered through. All illusions have vanished now, all that is left are pipes and metal.

The Great-Seasons allow them passage out from the centre, no sentries or pipes attack them this time. Everything seems to have been put to rights, the walls in the Autumn sector have stopped moving, there is no strange weather effects in the Summer Sector, no engineering problems in Winter and all the camaloid creatures in Spring are calm. Any Helpmates they come across are doing their jobs and no longer malfunctioning.

After a small amount of time, enough to check that all is well, their SCA's light up. All Passengers are to return to the Voidtrecker Express.

Considering the vast distances involved it is probably best that they use the evacuation function to return to the Luggage carriage.

Once all Voidtreckers have returned the train returns to the Void once more.

Comments

[bakegarasu]

"It really does. ... Unless you're old, I guess." Huh. Maybe they just didn't want to feel awkward about their hair. "I think a lot of traditions were probably 'we decided this and too stubborn to change it'."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I've known quite a few young monks with shaved heads. I swear some of them even polish their scalp!"

Koumyou's always here to make fun of other monks.

"They probably just like the traditional look. It's not for me, though."

[bakegarasu]

"Yeah, you'd probably look weird with a shaved head. Meanwhile I'm probably going to keep this look for a few hundred years, knowing me."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I would look super weird and I would super hate it," Koumyou declares accordingly. But as to the few hundred years crack... "What, you don't think you'll get bored?"

[bakegarasu]

"I mean, no idea how much my body is preserved like it is. I didn't exactly get to chitchat with my predecessor when my first mission was to kill him."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Well, there's always wigs," Koumyou points out cheerfully, "if you get too terribly bored."

[bakegarasu]

"I... guess? Or a hat. All yurine wear goggles for some reason, so why shouldn't I get a hat?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Or both!"

Yes good, let's get Koumyou fixated on how you'd look with different wigs and hats, Otoha. This could never end poorly.

[bakegarasu]

He snorts and splashes a little water towards Koumyou. "I'm not so eager to play dressup yet. I have two outfits I like and that's about it."

Hm. "Maybe I should see if I can buy my other outfit."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Wow, two whole outfits?"

It is a joke but it also isn't. Koumyou's only willingly worn the one uniform for the last twenty three years, and before that he wore whatever temple uniform was relevant.

[bakegarasu]

"At least in the winter. When it's warmer I switch to something a little lighter, but I still cover up. I don't sweat much so it's not like I smell bad."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Ah, well if you did, the trick would be to have more than one copy of your uniform! Then no one would ever know."

Koumyou adds with amusement, "It helps especially with blood stains, when most of your uniform is white like mine."

[bakegarasu]

He can't hlep but chuckle. "Oh, I know how that goes. My 'business suit' was white with a purple shirt, and given what my 'business' usually was..."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Well, there you go, then," Koumyou smiles his usual squinty smile, and relaxes a little more back against the edge of the pool behind him. "I would say something like 'I don't know why someone thought Sanzo robes should be white, when we're tasked with protecting such dangerous artifacts from every greedy idiot on the planet', but I know why."

This is absolutely not a mystery to the youngest Sanzo of his era, or to the first and only Sanzo to protect two sutras... and to do so for longer than many lasted protecting one.

The singularly most hunted man on the planet for most of his life.

"...It's because everyone who hasn't had to do it themselves, assumes we Sanzos, who are so very holy, why... we must defend our sutra with stern words. And maybe by shaking a finger here and there," Koumyou illustrates by shaking one bony finger at Otoha, "It's like one big, shitty joke."

It's a violent world, and violence requires violence in turn.

[bakegarasu]

"Artifacts? Huh." Well. Interesting. "In my case it was because it was very expensive and a power move... and to keep it clean and white it took a lot of expensive dry cleaning. My brother might have been the one who gave me these...

He gestures to the small round burn scars on his right arm. "But I was still the younger brother of the group's boss and I was expected to look like it."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Why did he bother with that if you can't feel it?"

Like, it would have been a shitty move either way, but it seemed kind of... extra pointless? To torture someone who couldn't feel pain?

Koumyou, as per usual, has no issue with revealing what the paper always on him is. Usually draped across his shoulders, and now stuck in scroll form by his hip in the waistband of his swim trunks. He reaches under the water and produces the scroll in one hand, lifting it for Otoha to see.

"This is the Seiten sutra. It's one fifth of that which made everything and nothing, life and death, good and evil, and everything in between."

The priest lets go of the scroll, and rather than dropping back into the water, it... hovers in the air. "To say it's tempting for those who crave power is an understatement. But to claim a sutra, one must kill the Sanzo protecting it, and I'm much better at murder than those who have tried me."

[bakegarasu]

"Oh, it wasn't for me, it was to make other people laugh." It always took the new people by surprise. "And to prove I'd do what he said, so they'd know that if he told me to kill them right there, I'd do it."

He's spent some time thinking about it, especially recently.

The explanation gets a tilt of his head. ... Huh. "Well, good thing they picked someone who's not shitty at it. I know at least one person who probably would have loved to get his hands on it, and I don't mean anyone in the yakuza." If Eko'd had access to that kind of power, even Otoha probably wouldn't have been able to stop him.

Also... "Oh. Wait. Sanzo's your title, not your family name."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Ah, a power move." What a piece of shit. But Koumyou's not terribly surprised by that revelation, with what he already knows of Otoha's... 'family'.

The priest reaches back up and takes the scroll from the air, and tucks it back down against his hip. It's rarely ever out of arms reach, and never in another room from its protector.

"Yes. 'Koumyou' is my homyo, or holy name. So using it with Sanzo is basically just being specific, like, 'that Sanzo in particular'. Just calling me 'Sanzo' is kind of vague, but still accurate. There's never more than five of us alive at once -- four, in my time -- and we're rarely ever in the same place."

So, it's rarely a problem.

[bakegarasu]

"Oh. What's your given name?"

Wait. "Or is that rude to ask?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I don't have one anymore," Koumyou says with some of his usual, gentle cheerfulness.

And it's true. Houmei had been... essentially, metaphorically, sacrificed to create Koumyou Sanzo.

The position of Sanzo demanded everything, and often took more.

[bakegarasu]

He sits there and stares at Koumyou before sighing. He tilts his head back and chuckles. "... You got taken and made into a weapon, like me. Just a shield rather than a sword."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I suppose that's accurate, yes," Koumyou can't exactly fault that comparison.

And, because he's rarely beyond making jokes, "...A shield who's supposed to wear white."

How ridiculous.

[bakegarasu]

"There's some white metals out there. I think. Pretty sure." He has no idea.

He looks back at Koumyou and then sinks down slightly into the water. "... I ordered a picture of Reiji. Well, a pair of them. One for me, one for... whatever memorial I end up doing."

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou smiles at the suggestion and shrugs one bony shoulder. "I don't actually mind. I've gotten very good at scrubbing the blood out over the decades."

That last comment, though, gets a moment of serious thought from Koumyou. "...Yeah?" And he tilts his head to one side, a little. "I'm still willing to help with that, if you want."

[bakegarasu]

"I don't know how to do laundry by hand, I've always used machines. The suit had to get special treatment, though."

He submerges himself for a moment, blowing frustrated bubbles. When he resurfaces he flicks his wet hair out of his eyes. "I don't know what I want to do with it. I'm still thinking about it. ... I think Ryo said he was willing to help, too. I just... don't know."