Disclaimer: I don't own Saiyuki. I own Rin, though.

Author's Note: My only full-length, finished Quizilla story.

God Child

He was in the middle. He was in the middle and the four of them were around him. He attacked them with beads. They retaliated. He attacked again. They repaid him in full.

It was too difficult to watch.

And so, Rin, as she was so accustomed to doing, came to her Master's aid. They were calm, tentative steps, but they made their way all the way to the center of the fray. With taunting, half lidded eyes, she gave Sanzo a teasing smile. "Four against one isn't very fair," she said simply.

"Rin, are you okay? They hurt you outside-I'll kill them!" Kami-sama snarled, and Rin turned, planting her lips on his forehead before turning back around, humming something quietly.

"Sanzo," Goku complained, "I dun wanna fight 'er!"

"That's too bad, now isn't it?" Sanzo shot back.

Something stopped the argument. A talisman, on the arm of Goku. And then, another on Sanzo. Chanting. Chanting of two voices. Kami-sama had joined in-he knew what she was trying to do, and vaguely wondered why he hadn't thought of it before.

"...W-wha...?"
"Sanzo, what's happening?!"
"...Paralysis...Tech..."

He couldn't get the words out. Every muscle in his body was locking up, unable to move. Hell, he couldn't even blink. What was worse was Goku had been paralyzed with his eyes closed.

The chants were done, and the two rounded onto the dumbfounded remaining enemies. Gojyo and Hakkai."Hey, Sweetie, don't you think you're acting a bit, oh, I don't know...like him?" Gojyo asked, jerking his thumb towards Kami-sama, who huffed.

"Coin operated boy,
All the other real ones that I destroy,
Cannot hold a candle,
to my new boy and I'll
Never let him go,
And I'll never be alone,
And I'll never let him go..."

She was singing again. Same song, different verse. And it almost seemed threatening this time. Hakkai hardly knew what to do. "Rin, I understand how you're feeling, but I think you should just calm down and step aside," he said, attempting to reason with the girl.

"This bridge was written to make you feel smittener
With my sad picture of girl getting bitterer
Can you extract me
From my plastic fantasy?
I didn't think so..."

With that, Rin trailed off. The next words were, "But I'm still convincible," but she didn't feel very convincible right then. Or, at the very least, she didn't want to be convincible.

"Dammit, Rin, move!" Gojyo shouted, impatient as always. Only...

Rin's eyes widened. It was a flash of silver that she didn't recognize. A blade, a chain. An attack.

The chain wound around her, but didn't miss her. As soon as she saw the blade pass her, she made an instant grab for the chain. Instead of pulling it, it pulled her. Kami-sama moved out of the way, and she fell to the floor, with the metal still wrapped around her arm. That's when she saw it. The wound that the attack inflicted upon her.

A pile of blue. Messy and carelessly dropped.

"Are you okay? Rin?" Her Master's voice was strained. He was concerned, but he was also pissed beyond pissed.

No answer. Rin was too busy staring at the majority of her hair on the ground in front of her.

They really were trying to kill each other .And they weren't thinking twice about killing her in the process.

Something glowed in the corner of Rin's eye, and she was able to push her Master out of the way in time. Unfortunately, she took an almost direct chi blast, sending her flying.

The battle began to rage on again. The charms wore off soon after she fell. Four against one again. And yet, Rin laid there, tears streaming down her eyes.

She couldn't move. The pain made it impossible to move. More than a few ribs were broken, and her leg was bending at an awkward angle. There wasn't any blood in her mouth, but it was all over her chest. Oh, wait. One rib wasn't broken. It was just poking out of her.

Crying out, Rin shakily pushed down on the bone, and it disappeared from sight, leaving only a bloody gash.

"It didn't matter how hard I tried," she whispered. "I was too weak to protect him..." It was insane how much it hurt, but somehow, she was moving.

"It's been a long game of tag," Gojyo said somewhere behind her. "Now you're finally it!"

"No, please," Rin whispered, somehow managing to stand up. Slowly, she began to stagger towards the scene.

Goku was rushing Kami-sama. Rin had already gotten to Gojyo's fallen body.

Just a little further...this pain is nothing...it'll be worse if he dies... Ragged, panting breath. One eye shut in a constant wince. One hand placed above the puncture wound, catching the blood coming out and putting pressure on it.

"Just a little further...Master!"

Rin had smiled once she found that she was standing next to her Master. The gunshots didn't register. Not immediately. Not even when she saw him fall.

It was only when she looked down, and the three bloody spots on his torso. Her eyes were widening in horror, and they stung with the tears that had stopped when she had gotten up.

She fell to her knees next to him. He exchanged his words with the others. She couldn't even think.

"But...no! I don't get it!" Kami-sama said, finally snapping Rin out of her daze. He also had tears threatening to spill, but he wiped his away before he let them. "I don't have anything. You have all kinds of things! You have so many things! It's not fair. Hey..." Rin was crying now. Master understood what she felt for him. "Won't you give them to me?"

It was almost as if Sanzo was mocking him. "I won't," was all he said, and Rin broke into sobs, clinging to her Master.

There was a rumbling noise, and the group was confused. Rubble began to fall, and Kami-sama explained to them the meaning of the game. The consequences of losing.

That was when Gojyo yanked Rin up, and, after she managed to stay standing, Kami-sama as well. "I've had it with your bullshit!" He shouted. "This is Kinkaku and Ginkaku all over again. You manipulated the piss out of us. Good for you. Now get the hell up!"

Just as Gojyo got the Sanzo to his feet, he pulled away and coughed. "...I want to wait here," he said sadly. Rin made a motion to kneel next to him, but he jerked his head up and glared. "You aren't," he said sternly. "Rin, you're going. I won't let you stay."

"Please Master-"
"The game's over. We can't play anymore. Go home."

A giant piece of the ceiling fell, and the Sanzo party jumped backwards while Rin was narrowly missed. Instead of leaving, she crawled over to the kneeling Sanzo and wrapped her arms around him, tears falling freely.

"Coin operated boy.
He may not be real experienced with girls,
But I know he feels like a boy should feel.
Isn't that the point?
That is why I want a coin operated boy,
With a pretty coin operated voice.
Saying that he loves me,
That he's thinking of me.
Straight and to the point.
That is why I want
a
Coin operated boy."

She gave him one last kiss on the lips before she shakily stood up. "Order me," she said. "If you don't, I won't be able to do it."

Her Master closed his eyes. They stung too bad to keep them open. He would...miss her. More than anything else. "I order you to go and don't look back," he said, his voice wavering.

Rin bit her lip and turned her back. She walked to the door, not the one the boys took -they were always doing things the hard way- but a different and quicker door.

By the time she was outside and away from the castle, Rin heard it collapse behind her. She felt the debris and the shards of glass fly by, hitting her and making her bleed more. She heard the boys elsewhere afterwards. And she walked to them.

The first thing she heard from them was the last thing she wanted to hear.

"I'm hungry!"

It was only natural that everything came out then.

"You BASTARDS! After all you've put me through, that's all you have to say?! Don't you have any shame? Any shred of humanity?! You just killed the only person I had in this world and all you say now is you're hungry?! Don't' you even care about what you've done?! My entire life has just been destroyed within the course of two hours! I might as well kill myself now, since you're not going to finish the fucking job!"

Rin was on her knees, panting by the time she was done. She had shouted at the top of her lungs the entire time, which wasn't very wise. "What are you going to do about it?" She demanded. "Tell me what you're going to do to try and fix this."

Sanzo glared at the girl, and said, quite clearly, "Absolutely nothing."

Not the answer she was looking for. Out of pure rage, Rin took the closest piece of rubble and threw it as hard as she could at Sanzo, who, surprisingly enough, caught it. "If you're that hell-bent on getting us to do something, I'll tell you what to do," he said grumpily. "Stop with the Buddhism; you suck at it. Go into the village, get healed. After that, you're on your own."

"But-"

"Listen," Goku suddenly shouted. "Livin' for someone else is stupid! Sure, you can be loyal and' stuff for the person, but you gotta live and die for yourself!"

Rin's eyes widened and she stared at Goku. "...Live and die..." She repeated.

And that's when she fell unconscious.

- - - - -

The bed seemed awfully familiar. And so did the voice above her. Rin groaned as she realized that she was back where she was the last time she got hurt.

"Excuse me, miss? Are you awake?" It was the barkeep.

"Yes. Did they leave?" Rin asked. She felt like crying again-she knew they left.

"They did, I'm sorry. They asked me to take care of you until you get on your feet again," the barkeep said, and Rin smiled faintly. "They also asked me to tell you, "Sorry for all the trouble we've caused.""

The trouble they caused? Yes, there was trouble. Trouble that needed to be apologized for.

So why was it so funny?

Rin had begun to laugh. She laughed and she laughed and she laughed. The barkeep was even beginning to question her sanity. Finally, she began to calm down. When she did, she put a hand over one eye and stared out the window.

"Do you think we'll ever see them again?" She asked. Wow. What a coincidence.

"I'm not sure..." The barkeep answered.

Outside the window, the sun was setting in the West.