Hello again! Long time no see, and thanks to all the reviews from the previous story. You guys make my world go round, I tell you.

Unfortunately, this story will be far slower on updating than the last. I have no rhythm anymore and that is rather upsetting, so instead of giving you half-assed stuff, I'll give you my best I can do at a slower rate. Please don't kill me?

On another note, this is just the prologue and an intro. Read over it for my sake at least.

DISCLAIMER: Saiyuki is not owned by me. It will never be owned by me. However, my perverted fantasies will remain mine and mine alone, unless I share them with you and then you might either be scarred or... let's not go there. Did I say that out loud? Oh, crap.

A Friendly Introduction:

This is the follow up for A Seriously Messed-Up Series and picks up where Reload begins, though I will be doing some prequel to the 'Cape Incident' scene. The prologue is mostly catch up and reiteration for those who care, though there will be some extra mixed in. Rather than using book titles again, I will be instead using the names of songs as well as a small blurb of music just after the title.

For those returning on reviews, thank you. For those who are new, welcome. Enjoy… And if you are new period… go read the first story, please! A lot more will make sense even though I did include a very, very brief summary of what happened before.

TTFN.

—Khait Khepri—

LANGUAGE KEY:

"Hello." Language Understood

"Hello." Language Not Understood

"Om." Chant

"Hello." Disembodied Voice, as in completely different place, not just around the corner (or emphasis)

Prologue: Musical Notes Reverberating

Roxanna Marie Sanchez was your average, ordinary girl, aged seventeen. She was normal, had a car, and was totally accepting of her fate. She was quite happy about it, actually. This teenager was to have her birthday in a few days and she was supposed to have a big bash with her friends and family.

Unfortunately, that never happened. Roxanna was swept into a world where demons exist and she was woefully short on how to speak the lingo that was Chinese and Japanese. Roxanna didn't even know how to speak Spanish, so it was no real surprise that she didn't know how to speak Chinese. What was even stranger was that it became apparent that the world she was in was not an average one at all. It was, in truth, a comic book series that her brother loved very much.

As such, it would only be natural that she met a group of very strange, very boisterous, very handsome men and they took her in to keep her safe from the demons that could and probably would easily end her life out of fun and for food. Not that she knew that at first. Being unable to speak the language made it very difficult for her to learn what the situation was. However, things took a turn for the worse when a psychotic man harmed the leader of the group.

After a visitation from Kanzeon Bosatsu, Roxanna was blessed (or was that perhaps cursed?) with the ability to speak Japanese and Chinese as well as the gift (or burden?) of having the power over lightning. She was subsequently forced to learn how to fight and defend herself, but didn't have to go it alone as the Great Kannon had ordered the Sanzo-ikkou to take her with them. After several adventures, none of them very easy it seemed, Ana discovered that she had fallen for Sanzo and, after a very long dance between the two of them to try and avoid going further than a crush in respect for a certain priest's feelings, Sanzo came to realize his own affections for the eighteen-year-old. After the incident with Kami-sama, Sanzo put aside his own reservations against falling for a young woman and let himself fall for her, though he was still his usual abrasive self save for quiet one-on-one alone time.

Today, however, would not turn out to be one of those one-on-one situations… And if that doesn't sound ominous to you, I don't know what would.

They were in a small city mostly undamaged by the Minus Wave and those it affected. As it was nearing the end of July, the weather was warm but not unbearable. People milled in the streets and paid little heed to a young woman with dark brown hair and even darker brown eyes who roamed the streets and occasionally entering various shops or examining various stalls whenever one caught her eye. Well, most people paid little heed. One person was paying an exceptional amount of heed to her and was curiously following her through the streets at a discrete distance. Finally, after mustering up some courage, this person approached the young lady with a hopeful smile.

"Hello?" came a hesitant voice from out of seeming nowhere to Ana's ears and she turned to find herself looking at a young man around her age in some surprise. She noted his Asian features and his rather good looking face before pretty much assessing that he wasn't nearly as nice looking as her… Squeal! …Boyfriend, Sanzo. A cursory glance told her that there wasn't any visible jewelry to tell her if he was youkai or not, but likely not as that kind of thing tended to be obvious.

"Yes?" she asked after her moment of observation.

"My name is Shan and I couldn't help but wonder if… you were new in town?"

"Oh!" she said in slight surprise. "Yes, I'm new." She grinned. "But don't worry. I'll be out of town by tomorrow. My friends and I are just passing through."

"No! No!" exclaimed Shan, a blush covering his cheeks at her smile as he waved his hands frantically to disabuse her of the notion. Ana had to push herself back a bit to keep from being potentially hit. "That's not what I meant! I thought you were very pretty and thought you'd like an escort! A pretty girl like yourself should have someone protecting you."

She blinked at him slowly. "I don't need protection. I can take care of myself," she told him, a slight blush staining her own cheeks. "Thank you for the offer though…" Ana turned away slowly and began walking from Shan, wondering what exactly she did to deserve any kind of attention. And now that he had spoken to her, the people around them were beginning to eye her with curiosity. A hand touched down on her shoulder and it took everything in her to not zap the unsuspecting person for startling her. The members of the Ikkou all knew to inform her of their presence before ever touching her with any kind of force without her seeing the movement.

"Please, at least allow me to escort you back to your hotel?" asked Shan, who had stopped her yet again. She gave him a look over her shoulder and sighed.

"Fine. Why not?" she said. "But if you get me in trouble, your ass'll be grass." In Chinese, the normally rhyming phrase did not sound as good and it irked her how much was lost in translation between English and Chinese.

"Thank you," he said, graciously as he walked beside her. Ana was embarrassed. Highly embarrassed. What was she supposed to do if the two of them walk right up to the inn and the guys see her with some dude she didn't even know? Deny all together that she was with him for a short while? And what would Sanzo do? Ana had inadvertently found out that he was a very jealous individual and didn't like her to be too friendly with others… he only tolerated Gojyo's fake passes at her because he knew the kappa didn't mean it for real (Gojyo having more honor than that, surprisingly).

And the way she had found out? She had bumped into a guy who was walking down the hall at the previous inn and both of them apologized and eventually were laughing a bit at the whole thing. Sanzo came in on the laughing part, assumed she might be getting to friendly with this stranger, and firmly 'escorted' her back to their rooms for the night and proceeded to give her his own version of the Spanish Inquisition before she had calmed him down enough to actually pay attention to what she was trying to say ('It was an accident and he meant no harm!'). Afterwards, there was a nice little make-up session that was cut short by Goku barging in the room and wanting to see what Ana had been up to.

Needless to say, Goku got the crap scared out of him when Sanzo tried to shoot him for the interruption and the impromptu PDA for an audience of one. And Goku found himself swearing rather fervently that he'd always knock before entering a room so that he wouldn't get shot.

"So… why would I get you in trouble?" he asked after a moment's silence.

"Nnnh…" she mumbled. "You wouldn't understand the situation even if I told it to you, so don't worry about it." She just wanted to get away from him. She didn't want to get in trouble. She didn't need this guy shot.

"Okay…" he said, looking at her. She didn't seem very eager to let him be near her. He caught a glimpse of a shaved ice vendor and grinned. "Wait here," he told her and she complied while blinking incredulously at him. He went over and quickly bought two cups of shaved ice. One was cherry and the other was plum flavored. He brought the two treats over to her and her eyebrows arched upwards. "Here!" he offered, holding up the ice.

"Uh…"

"Come on… take it!" He put the red colored ice in her hands and she sighed, feeling the cold of the ice seep through the cup and into her fingers. "I got it just for you." Shan smiled brightly at her and she decided to not just put it back in his hands. She really didn't want to eat it, though. Her mom told her to never eat anything given to you by a stranger. The only reason she had accepted the food from her friends originally is because she knew that an inn's food would likely be uncontaminated and she could eat it with little fear… just wariness.

She did, however, keep moving in a direction that wouldn't lead her past the inn they were staying at. It did have an unpleasantly close side effect, though.

Hakkai was shopping in the market with Gojyo playing pack mule. They spotted Ana and Shan, the former looking embarrassed and the latter seeming a tad bit friendly.

"Oh, dear," murmured Hakkai, seeing the cup of shaved ice in Ana's hands and what the chattering Shan was doing, though he didn't know the boy's name.

"Ooh," said a granny from the stall he was next to at the moment. "Looks like that kid finally took an interest in someone!" she cackled. Gojyo glanced at her and realized she was looking at the teenager that was next to Ana.

"What's his name?" he asked, pointing at the pair.

"Oh, that's Shan. He's a pretty good kid, but his parents were killed not too long ago. Made him draw into himself. Me and my husband have been watching out for him as have a few other families. He must really like her, hm? Wonder who she is… I've never seen her around here before."

"Oh, dear," Hakkai said again. "Sanzo is not going to enjoy this one bit…" He cast a glance at Gojyo, who nodded his head in agreement. "What do you believe we should do?"

"Break up the party?" he suggested.

"You two will do no such thing!" shot out the granny, angry that they'd ruin a good thing. "Shan's happy!"

Hakkai frowned at her. "And suppose they run into her boyfriend, Ma'am?" he said seriously.

She blinked at them and still frowned hard at them, her wrinkles definitely emphasizing the look. "If that girl can make him happy for a little while, then I still say leave them alone!"

Gojyo didn't care what the granny had to say as he was already moving to join the two teenagers. "Yo! Ana-kun!" he called, attracting Ana's attention. Ana's face changed quickly from surprise to horror when she realized it was Gojyo coming towards her… and Hakkai looked to be not too far behind but was being chewed out by some old lady in a stall, his smile gone which was not of the good.

"Do you know him?" asked Shan of her, looking over to see the undeniable look of worry and fear on her face. The undeniable friendly add-on to her name was also a high indicator that she indeed knew him.

"Yeah… he's… a good friend," she told him, her face taking on a deeper reddish tone as she blushed harshly at being found out.

"What's up?" the kappa asked, a fake-but-real-looking smile on his face. "Who's your friend?"

"Um… this is Shan," introduced Ana.

"I was escorting her back to her inn," he said to Gojyo, observing this potential threat. To him, a 'good friend' meant a 'boyfriend'. Especially with the pause Ana had put in there. The man was obviously older, good looking, with unusual red hair and… red eyes? He had no idea what exactly the red eyes meant but if it wasn't important enough to remember off hand, he wouldn't worry about it.

"An escort, huh?" Gojyo said, not liking the sound of this. To the inn, the kid had said. Which, judging from their position, Ana hadn't been headed back to the inn. The girl knew of the dangers involved if she had done that. "Ana-kun? You too scared to come back on your own?" he 'teased' her.

Ana knew she was in deep shit. "I didn't exactly ask around for one. You know I can take care of myself." Her eyes were fixed on the cup of ice in her hands and the ice was beginning to drip to the ground.

"Mmmhmm," murmured Hakkai, finally having come up behind Gojyo, holding a bag of non-perishable items. "Hello, Ana-dono," he said, his own smile back and betraying a slight amount of worry.

"Hi, Hakkai!" she chirped in a false-bright tone. Shan wasn't liking the looks of this. Two guys, both undeniably good looking with unusual eyes and older, knew Ana and were greeting her very causally. "Doing some shopping?"

"We have to. Goku ate everything we had save that last can of Spam…" He saw the disgusted look on Ana's face and chuckled lightly. "Don't worry. I won't make you eat it, Ana-dono. And I didn't buy any this round."

"Is one of you her boyfriend or something?" Shan asked, curious. He watched as the brunette gained a shocked, blushing look… the sweetheart kind, then, he guessed… and the red head began smirking at him before leaning forward some.

"And if we are?" Gojyo said in a pervert type of voice. "Sorry dude, I don't do threesomes where the third is a dude."

"Sha Gojyo!" squealed Ana, her face red as was Shan's and Hakkai was muttering an 'oh, dear'. "You pervert!" she hissed.

"Just doin' my job," laughed Gojyo as he straightened, his grin wide.

"You dirty old pervert!" she added.

"Hey!" protested the kappa. "If I'm old, what does that make boyfriend-chan?" he teased. It earned him another indignant squeal, 'oh, dear', and one highly confused look from Shan. Next thing the kappa knew, he was forced to dodge a cold bomb of cherry flavored ice as Ana pitched it at him. However, he couldn't dodge fast enough and the cold ice impacted on his arm, earning a yelp and him backing off.

"Call him that again and he'll shoot you, kappa!" snapped Ana, wanting to shock him just a bit.

"You've been spending way to much with Baldie… come join us nice, normal people some time!" jeered Gojyo, deliberately riling her up before turning and bolting from Ana, the young woman hot on his heels.

"Get back here, you perverted piece of shit!" she shouted after him. An instant later, her foot slipped out from under her and she crashed into the ground. It cleared her mind just enough to hear the murmurings of the crowd around her, all of them shocked by what was a display of pretty much normal interaction between the members of the Sanzo-ikkou. "Owww…" she moaned as she registered her extremities pain and worked her abused lungs. The impact had taken the breath right out of her.

"Ana-dono!"

"Ana-chan!"

Two voices called out and two people came up, worried about her. "Are you okay?" asked the two in unison.

"Yeah… just the breath knocked out of me," mumbled Ana as she lifted herself up slowly, her palms protesting. Once sitting, she saw that her hands and forearms had gotten minor scrapes with dirt and grit pressed into them. "Great…" she said flatly.

Hakkai sighed and set down the groceries as he knelt down beside her. "You know better than to let Gojyo get to you, Ana-dono," he said to her. Lightly brushing away the debris, he saw that they were just mostly scraped, a little blood from the deeper stuff, and otherwise would bruise and be rather tender.

She sniffed indignantly. "He shouldn't be making those jokes then."

"He's Gojyo. If he suddenly stopped being a bit… perverted, then it would be unnatural… like him not being with the group." She remembered all too well what happened without Gojyo there. For one, Hakkai was scary when worried out of his wits. At the face she made when she remembered the situation, Hakkai actually chuckled. "I see you remember."

"Is there anything I need to get?" asked Shan, worried. "Some bandages or…" He trailed off and looked between the two that were very close but obviously not in a boyfriend-girlfriend fashion.

"That would be good," Hakkai decided, choosing to take care of her injuries via chi in private. "Some gauze and hydrogen peroxide would be very good."

"All right," Shan said as he straightened and moved to get the supplies.

While he was gone, Ana looked at Hakkai. "You know I didn't pick him up, right?"

"I know," sighed Hakkai. "And you're too nice to just tell him to go away. How on earth are you going to get him to leave you alone before Sanzo spots you two?"

"I was hoping you'd help me out there."

"I'd rather not get involved," he said sternly. "And Gojyo shouldn't either. You know that." She sighed in resignation. Hakkai would have said more but Shan came up at that moment.

"I got the stuff," the teen said, kneeling down next to them. There was something extra in his hand… a small bouquet of simple wildflowers. Hakkai and Ana gave each other a long look. "It's a get well soon type of thing," Shan said, slightly embarrassed as he laid them down next to her. "Here's the bandages and the peroxide," he told Hakkai, giving over the stuff. "Is there anything else I can do?"

"No, no…" waved off Hakkai. "I'll just doctor her up and then get on with my shopping. If you two are safely away, then that means Gojyo will come back and help me carry this stuff to the inn."

"Hey, Hakkai? Where's Hakuryuu?" asked Ana, suddenly.

"He's asleep at the inn. That last bit tired him out," informed Hakkai as he began pouring some of the peroxide along her left arm, causing her to hiss as the wound stung at her. "And when you get back, I'll fix these up better for you."

Once Hakkai had finished patching her up, Ana stood as did the two men and Hakkai nodded to her before walking off to see if he could find Gojyo again.

"So… he isn't your boyfriend?" asked Shan curiously.

"No…" she sighed. "Som—"

"Don't forget your flowers!" Shan said, picking up the bouquet still laying on the ground and handed them to her. "What were you saying?" he asked cheerfully.

"I have a boyfriend," she told him flatly. "That's what Gojyo was going on about." He looked taken aback. "And Hakkai decided to be mean and let me take care of the entire situation when he could have saved me a good deal of embarrassment."

"But…"

"The only reason I didn't say anything was because I wasn't sure how to say it. You try telling someone that you have someone else sometime when they're interested in you. It's hard…" She looked away, embarrassed. "I'm sorry."

He remained quiet for a moment before speaking up. "At least let me take you back to your inn," he said quietly, crushed that the pretty girl had someone, though he shouldn't have been so surprised.

She sighed. "Sure… but I suggest you leave pretty quick… I don't want you getting in trouble, okay?"

"With who?" he asked.

"Sanzo. Who else?" she said as she walked forward, towards the inn instead of circling it. He came up next to her and then blinked in sudden shock.

"Sanzo?" he yipped. "The Sanzo as in Genjyo Sanzo who's exterminating youkai?"

She blinked at him before wrinkling her nose and said sarcastically, "No, it's some dude using the Sanzo title as a name!"

Shan was apparently none too bright because he instantly relaxed. "You had me worried there," he said, making her stare at him in absolute confusion. "Have you heard about Sanzo and his party?" She continued staring at him, only in more of a 'you've got to be joking' manner. "He's a great holy man that goes all over China with his four attendants and exterminates the evil youkai… and why are you laughing?"

She had fallen against a nearby wall, giggling like crazy. Especially at the 'holy man' part. The 'four attendants' was exceptionally funny, too. "N-noth-thing!" she laughed. "K-keep going!"

He looked at her for a long moment before continuing as she had told him to. "Well… his attendants are three men and he's even got a woman with him! It is said that she's his maid or something-"

"What?" shrieked Ana, standing up straight and looking majorly pissed. "Who the hell said that?"

"It's just a rumor!" he said, cowering back. "I don't know how much is real, but if the stories are even half true, they—"

"They're not," Ana said flatly as she marched away angrily. "God! I hated the rumor mill in school and I think I hate it even worse now!" she spat in English.

"Wait! What did I say?" Shan asked, going after her. "And what did you say?"

"Nothing to worry about," she told him, reigning in her annoyance and turning back to him. Maid, indeed. Pah. She folded her arms over her chest. "You were just repeating a bunch of bullshit and I really suggest you stop listening to idiots."

"Do you mean you've met Priest Sanzo?"

"Yes, I have."

"And his attendants?"

"They're anything but. I can assure you the girl you're talking about would probably punch you if you told her she was a maid to her face," she said drily as she tacked on mentally, 'That is, if I didn't already have very good control of my temper ten seconds ago.' "Oh, and the guys would probably take it a step further and try and kill you and leave your body in an embarrassing situation."

Shan blanched. "Er… Oh."

"Yeah. Oh," she said, turning back towards the inn.

"What would Priest Sanzo say to the rumors?" he asked warily.

She frowned. "I don't know. He's something of a mystery." And with that, they emerged onto the proper street right before the inn. Ana turned, unaware of the violet eyes that had happened to be looking out the window of their rooms at that moment, and said, "This is my stop."

"Oh… okay," said the suddenly saddened Shan. "So you'll be leaving tomorrow?"

"Yeah. We've got to go on this stupid journey thing and I can't get out of it, so…" She shrugged. "Anyway. Goodbye."

"Good bye," he said with a final, defeated tone to his voice. He turned and walked away, vanishing back into the crowd. Ana frowned after him and looked at the pathetic bundle of flowers. She looked around for a trash can and held on to them as there were none available at that moment. Walking inside the inn, she spotted one and tossed them into it with a sigh. It was a bitch to break some guy's heart. Their egos were too easily shattered by a woman.

But she did the right thing. She had spent months pining after Sanzo and now that she had him, there was no need to be unfaithful.

Ana smiled. At least nothing bad came out of the bit of peaceful interaction… now if only her scrapes would stop throbbing some.

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