Gensomaden Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ The Smile I Hide ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Finally!!! Sorry it took so long!! I had a HUGE writer's block and had to get my friend to help me. Thank you!!! Finally, after a long wait, it’s the remake of the Hidden Scars series. Hopefully this one will turn out a little better than the last one.

Chapter 1

A yawn crept over me though it was only mid-day. The sun was out as usual, shining down on my desk where piles of documents sat just waiting to be reviewed and signed by my pen, which was currently being balanced on my upper lip. It was scary sometimes what boredom could do to even gods like myself. I normally wouldn't be caught dead playing with a pen. I sighed as the pen fell to the ground with a small clatter. Sometimes the life of a god could be so boring. Most of the time, I spent my days signing off document after document, doing the same thing over and over again until it became routine, but having to do it for years...that was just punishment.

The only difference now was that I had Goku around. The little brat was loud and a wild animal, but he stirred up trouble that was sometimes welcomed by some of the gods here in heaven, including myself. It was something different than the usual routines of others greeting each other and going about their usual activities. Right now the little chimp was lying on his stomach on the floor practicing his reading with a book that he probably pilfered from Tenpo's library. It wouldn't be long before he got bored with it and tried to drag me outside to play or something.

Looking out the window, the sky was clear without a cloud in sight...as usual. The birds in the trees were singing without a care in the world, as if they didn’t do it every single boring day up here. The life of a god could be so dull. Sometimes I'd wish that someone, anyone, would stir up some kind of trouble. Just once, I wish rain would fall and break up the shining monotony of the day, making everything all dark and dreary like so many days in the human world, and ruin the perfect smiles and greetings and manners and polite insults that happened so often that you could pretty much predict what everyone was going to do before they did it. My eyes wandered around the dull office that I saw every single day and then landed on the small messy area around Goku. He looked like he could never be bored with that book in front of his face. Glancing away again I scowled darkly at the sky.

'Rain you stupid clouds!' I yelled, glaring at the white puffy clouds floating across the eternally blue sky. 'Just one day! One day of rain is all I ask!'

"Ne, Konzen?" I blinked and turned to where Goku's voice came from only to almost be nose to nose with the little monkey who had decided to sit on my desk with his legs crossed, carefully keeping his legs away from the stack of papers. I took a deep breath so as not to give into the temptation of shoving him off the desk and to the floor in irritation for him constantly sitting on my desk no matter how many times I've told him not to.

"What?" I snapped. He ducked his head reflexively as if anticipating me loosing my temper and hitting him.

"Could we go outside please? I'm getting bored and you aren’t doing anything. Besides. You can't sit in here all day else your joins will get all creaky." I had to grudgingly admit that he had a good point but I hit him anyway for that joints comment.

"Ow! What was that for?!" he cried rubbing his head and jumping off the desk quickly to avoid any more blows.

"I told you that the next time you sat on my desk that there would be a penalty for it, baka saru." I said getting out of my, admittedly comfortable, chair.

"But I didn't knock anything over this time!" He protested. I ignored him and allowed him to speed out of the room in search of whatever would relieve his boredom. I sighed as I followed him out at a much slower pace. The little monkey could be so damn hyper sometimes. I sighed again as I headed down the hall he took off in, already out of my sight. I continued walking as another god passed by me, going on about his boring life. All of the other gods and goddesses were the same. All of them were snobby and had a "mightier than thou" air about them. Sometimes it was just too much to stand.

Turning the corner, I stopped in my tracks at the sight I saw before me. There sat a woman, hair as dark as the night sky but eyes as bright as the sun. She was dressed in a black and red kimono with black prayer beads strung around her neck and shoulders, a leather bound book in her lap with her sandalwood shoes on the ground below her. Most gods wore overly bright, if not plain white, colors. And while most of the gods gave off the snobby type of personality, she seemed to be more....depressed than anything. No smile was worn upon her face nor any life in her eyes. There she sat in the sun, hands reaching towards Goku, who stood facing the woman, as though he was in a trance. Gently she touched his cheeks, her hands pale against his tan skin. It was a strange sight to see.

I had never in my life seen this woman before. I didn't know her name nor anything about her. Neither did Goku, but he walked into her outstretched arms as though he did know her. It was like an instant trust between the two. Most Gods did their best to stay clear of Goku, being that he was neither God nor mortal. Though he wasn’t human, the gods looked down on him as though her were just as low, and here this god was now wrapping her arms around Goku as though he were her child.

Looking past them, I saw several Gods walking towards her. I was surprised to see them quickly change directions as they came towards her, only to stop and stare at Goku as though he had two heads. He had sat down next to her, her arms gently wrapped around him while his head lay on her shoulder, looking up at her with his usual dumb look on her face. Something about the way the gods stared at them told me that it wasn’t because the woman came near Goku that they were surprised, but that he had come near the woman. It seemed as though they thought she was even lower than Goku.

As I walked towards them, Goku looked up at me with that stupid grin on his face. “Konzen! Come meet this nice lady!” The woman looked up at me with her stone cold yet bright as hell eyes. As I stood beside them, her arms dropped from Goku’s shoulders, her hands folding in her lap over the book. The title read something about heaven, but her kimono covered the rest of the gold letters.

“Let’s go, Goku.” I said, keeping my eye on the woman. She stared back at me, her face not revealing any of her thoughts or emotions. She turned away, looking out the window to the people below.

The grin on Goku’s face faded at those words. “Aw, but Konzen.”

“Now, Goku,” I replied, my voice becoming more stern as I turned to him. He shrinked back slightly before standing, looking back at the woman who still sat watching the gods below go about their business.

Something about this woman gave me a strange feeling. I didn’t know what it was, but it bugged me to death. What rattled my cage even more was that I know nothing about this woman, but I knew where to find out. And getting information out of him also meant explaining why I needed it, which I didn’t know. And just to add another link to the chain, if I didn’t know then he had to dig into it till he got an answer. Which then made me very annoyed that he’s digging into something to find a reason that I don’t have about what’s bugging me.

Later that day found me at the one place I wasn’t sure I wanted to be, right in front of Tenpou’s door to book central…or chaos, however you want to look at it. Normally when that idiot of a general Kenren helped him organize this place, it’s complete disaster a week later. Out of all the books he could pull out of his bookshelves, why can he not put them back? It would mean less chaos and less cleaning up after him. Not to mention how much time he’d save trying to find all this stuff under the piles of books and papers. It made me wonder sometimes if he even slept sometimes. He’d be a lost cause if it weren’t for Kenren, which was strange since Kenren wouldn’t be general now if it weren’t for Tenpou.

I sighed as I knocked on the huge doors. Even thought I didn’t want to be here, Tenpou knew almost everyone here in heaven. He was the one to go to for information. “Tenpou! I know you’re home! You hardly ever leave this place!” I yelled as I pushed open one of the wooden doors carefully, watching out for falling books. It took me a few minutes and a few good string of curses to get past the first obstacle of piles of books and papers. Now the only problem was finding Tenpou. Knowing him, he was engrossed in yet another war book from the lower world. What he found so interesting about the way the lower world fought was beyond anyone’s understanding.

Sure enough, as soon as I located him, he looked up from a pile of books laid out around him, open to pages showing some type of wooden horse. They actually used those things? How pathetic. “Konzen, what a surprise. You never come down here unless you’re being forced to. To what do I owe the pleasure?” he said, gracing me with one of his ever so pleasant smiles. Sometimes it made me wonder how he can smile. Even if it was one of the worst possible times he could smile as thought it were any normal day. Only Kenren could tell what he really felt.

“I need some information on someone.” Quick and to the point. That’s how I wanted to keep it, but knowing Tenpou he’d want an explanation.

“Oh? And you came to me for that information? That’s a surprise, but I guess I can’t pass up the chance on helping the great Konzen,” he replied with a small laugh, setting his apparently very interesting book on his lap as he flipped the page. “Who is it you need information about?”

“That’s the problem. I don’t know who she is. Goku and I ran into her earlier today. She was sitting out on the window seats above the marketplace,” I replied, not liking where I knew this would go. He hung out with Kenren too long to pick up some of his taunting tactics.

The look on Tenpou’s face wasn’t one I wanted to see. He stared at me with his deep green eyes as though I had two heads. “’She’? As in a woman? Konzen, the nephew of Kanzeon Bosatsu, the god who has been known to hate women, is now interesting in knowing about a woman?”

I felt my eye twitch in annoyance and I wished I had something to hit him with. A book was too hard and might knock him out, meaning I’d have to wait longer to get this information and get a lecture from him afterwards. It was just too much of a pain in the ass. “Can you help me or not?”

Chuckling a bit, Tenpou set his book aside and stood. “I think I can. What can you tell me about her? What was she wearing? Did she say anything? Did she do anything?” As he spoke, he pulled out a pen and paper, sitting down on one of the only chairs not covered by piles of papers or books.

Sighing I leaning against the side of one of those hug bookshelves, slightly afraid of having a book or two coming down on my head. “She has long black hair and bight hazel eyes. She wore a black and red kimono and had black prayer beads. She didn’t say anything, hell she didn’t even smile.” I frowned slightly in thought as I replayed in my mind what had happened. “When Goku came over to her, it was like an instant bond between the two. We had no idea who she was, but she held Goku as though he was her child.” Looking up, Tenpou was giving me that look again. That shocked yet very thoughtful look. “What?”

“Hold on,” he replied, standing up and walking very quickly down the rows of bookshelves. Frowning, I followed him to find out what he was looking for. Coming around the corner, I saw him digging through a very large stack of papers on the table. After a few moments of cursing and digging, he pulled out a picture looking it over for a few moments before handing it to me. “Is this the woman you saw?”

Looking down at the picture in my hand, I was not only amazed to see the woman but also about the quality of the drawing. It was a pencil sketch, showing the woman from the chest up, a broken set of black prayer beads strung out around her neck and her kimono hanging off one shoulder. In her hand was a porcelain mask, and she held it as though she was about to put it on, looking off to the side. Just as the real thing, no smile was place upon her face. The picture held the perfect sense of depression and sadness yet the expression of complete emptiness that was held around her. In the lower corner was a signature that I couldn’t make out.

“Her name is Izumi. She’s known as the guardian of childbirth and children, but that’s all that’s really known about her.” Looking down at the picture, Tenpou sighed slightly. “No one understands why she and her three comrades would cut themselves off to the rest of the gods but would go out of their way to help the people of the lower worlds.”

Staring into the eyes of the woman in the sketch, I became intrigued. A woman who cut herself off from the rest of the world and was willing to help the people of the lower world more than any of the other gods do. She was a woman no one knew anything about, and that meant she was the only one that held the information I needed to satisfy this feeling that bugged me so much. This was going to be a major pain in the ass.

Yay!! Finished!!! Boy did that take a while. I hope you guys like it!! Thanks so much for reading!! Please review!!