Saiyuki Snippet for Pyitara: Something Strange, G, Hakkai/Gojyo

[louiselux]

This is for pyitara, who asked for something with Gojyo getting in touch with his kappa heritage.

This gave me a problem. I always thought that Gojyo just got called kappa as a nickname, not that he actually was one, and that it was a reference to the original character in Journey to the West being a water demon. It's never really talked about in the manga, although maybe something got lost in translation. Perspectives on it would be much appreciated.

Saiyuki snippet:

Something Strange

He'd known Gojyo for more than three years before he dared ask, late one night when the others were sleeping, 'What was your father like?'

Gojyo blinked at him in the firelight, then dropped his head so that his hair swung down to hide his face.

'He left when I was a baby,' he said, raising his shoulders in a shrug. 'Who knows?'

*

The body lay in the dried-up river bed, frail and helpless looking. It was small, only the size of a child, but it had webbed feet and drab, scaly skin that now stretched like dried leather across its skeleton. Matted hair fell over its curved, beak-like nose. It had curled up in a ball, perhaps knowing death was close.

'What is it?' Gojyo asked, prodding it with his boot.

'Don't you know?' Hakkai said, staring at him.

Gojyo scowled. 'Why should I?'

'It's a kappa,' Hakkai said.

Gojyo took his boot away and didn't reply at once, but his mouth turned down as he stared at it, then he walked away. 'So what? Why should I care?' But he didn't mention their find to Sanzo or Goku.

A few weeks later Hakkai bought him a book: A Spotter's Guide to Youkai and Other Supernatural Beings. It was a small volume, pocket-size, but it was up-to-date and all its facts were correct. Hakkai had checked it himself. It had everything Gojyo needed to know. Gojyo looked at him like Hakkai had grown three heads when he handed it over, but he took it away and later that week Hakkai was pleased to see him flipping through it.

'My nose,' Gojyo said to Hakkai, one day at dinner, 'it's not-- beaky, is it?'

'You have a very attractive nose,' Hakkai said.

Gojyo stared at him for a few seconds. 'Well, thanks.' He flattened his hands on the table and spread his fingers. 'Do these look webbed to you?'

'Not even slightly,' said Hakkai. 'I'm also fairly convinced you don't have a water-filled dent in your skull--'

'I wouldn't be so sure,' Sanzo muttered. 'He's got a water-filled brain.'

'Screw you. I never asked for your opinion.'

'And I'm reasonably certain that you'd never attempt to suck out our entrails through our anuses,' Hakkai said.

The spray of Gojyo's beer reached the next table over.

'Please excuse him,' Hakkai said, as Gojyo choked. He gave its occupants a big smile.

Sanzo lit a cigarette. 'I hate you all,' he said.

'Hakkai!' Goku cried, 'that's really put me off my dinner.'

'Kappas can do a lot of good too,' Hakkai went on, patting Gojyo on the back to help with his coughing fit until Gojyo shoved his hand away. He was very red. 'They can be very kind and trustworthy.'

'I'm not a fucking kappa,' he yelled. 'I don't eat people and I hate cucumbers and I don't smell of fish!'

The restaurant fell silent. Gojyo just sat there, not looking at them, staring at the table instead. He seemed to be trembling slightly.

'You're as stupid as one,' Sanzo said. That seemed to be everybody's cue to start talking again and a buzz of conversation rose around them.

Goku looked from Sanzo to Hakkai to Gojyo. 'Well, we call you that, I know. But-- who cares if you are or not? I don't. As long as you don't try the entrails thing,' he added.

Gojyo frowned. 'That's not the point.'

'Isn't it? There are worse things than smelling of fish. Not that you do. Often.'

Gojyo put his head in his hands.

'Gojyo, it's not like any of us are normal, even for youkai,' Hakkai said, softly.

'Speak for yourself,' said Sanzo. 'I'm human, remember. You lot keep forgetting that.'

'Maybe that's why we all get along so well,' Hakkai went on, ignoring him-- he was only looking at Gojyo.

Gojyo shook his head, then his shoulders slumped and he ran a non-webbed, long-fingered hand through his hair.

'Yeah, well, you're obviously from another planet,' he said, but his mouth was curving up now and the scowl was going.

Hakkai nodded.

'It wouldn't surprise me at all,' he said solemnly. 'It feels that way sometimes, travelling with you.'

'A stranger in a strange land,' said Goku.

They turned to stare at him.

'Shut up,' said Sanzo.

'I knew it was a mistake to give him your library card, Hakkai.'

Gojyo grinned then and drank more beer, and eventually they made him take his boots off to prove his feet weren't webbed either and Hakkai was happy to take each strong, arched foot into his hand to check the toes personally. Nobody could find a water-filled dent anywhere on his person and his skin wasn't the slightest bit scaly. He didn't smell at all fishy.

'Oh god. Get a room,' muttered Sanzo. He appeared to mean it, so Hakkai did.

*

He just wanted Gojyo to talk and for himself to listen. From the other bed, Gojyo's voice was low and unguarded with impending sleep, pitched only for Hakkai's ears. It was like being wrapped in soft wool on a winter night, or warm flowing water. His voice filled the quiet, dark room. He'd been talking for a while now, and Hakkai felt he could listen all night.

'Mom never said anything about him-- you know, what he was. I guess-- I mean, I thought-- maybe he looked like Jien.'

'I've always thought you and your brother have the same smile. Your father probably had that too.'

'We smile the same?' Gojyo said, after a long pause.

'Sometimes, yes, it's exactly alike. A mischievous kappa smile,' Hakkai murmured, hooking his pillow close to him with one arm and pressing his face into it.

'Hakkai,' Gojyo said, softly, 'I don't really mind being called that. You can call me it-- I won't be insulted.'

'I know.'

'S'not like you ever do, though,' he said.

'Would you like me to?'

'I'm just sayin' if you ever did I wouldn't mind.'

'I wouldn't want to. I like Gojyo best.'

'Oh.' More silence, and Hakkai was sure he was asleep, until Gojyo said, 'D'ya really think I've got an attractive nose?'

Hakkai smiled into his pillow and bit his lip. You've got an attractive everything, he wanted to say, but he didn't. There were lots of things he wanted to call Gojyo, but not yet.

'Go to sleep, Gojyo,' he whispered, instead.


******

Cultural notes: kappas are river imps. One defining characteristic of the kappa is a shallow depression in its head that holds water, and they get their strength from this water when away from home. They can be snake-like, ape-like or turtle like, with a beaky nose and webbed hands. They are also reputed to suck out people's entrails or livers or souls through their anuses-- said to be a way of explaining the swollen anuses of drowning victims. Gojyo would never do anything like that, I'm sure.

Comments

[darkfire-blade.livejournal.com]

Yay for Gojyo meeting kappas (even if this one was sort-of almost dead in this story...) :(

Gojyo's always been just a little insecure about something in his life right? I can see him worrying about this kappa thing pretty easily ^-^ and oh yes, Gojyo's voice actor love!

Great fic, you make me one happy person every single time I read one of yours. ^^