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“Mister Glasses…. Mister Glasses! ”
“HAKKAI!!”
It all happens almost too quickly to process. One minute, the two youkai are locked in battle, moving at a speed beyond comprehension. And then, Glasses turns to him with a clarity that scares him, asking for Gat. He has a plan , and Red seems to know it, for all his attempts to dissuade him. It doesn’t work - it never works, he thinks - and with the next bolt of lightning, all three of them are taken out. By his design.
Gat comes first - Gat always comes first - but then he turns, and Glasses isn’t breathing. He’s not alive , not responding to the usual names Hazel throws at him, and he feels a grip at his chest that hits him as soon as Red’s hands do, throwing him aside to get to Hakkai. Red starts in on Glasses, compressing his chests with a frantic yet regular rhythm, and Hazel doesn’t know what to do with his own hands.
He’s useless.
He has a soul still in his pendant, he knows he does, because Gat didn’t need it as badly this time, and maybe he can still help. He reaches, pulling the familiar energy with a practiced instinct, a motion he’s done so many times before.
“He’s not dead. He’s not fucking dead!”
The grip becomes a vice, weight hitting him in the chest as he stumbles, the nearby wall providing support. Useless, just like the plant. (Ironic, that Glasses controls vines, or perhaps a sign.) Useless, just like his teacher. Useless, worthless, pointless.
And then, Glasses breathes , gasping for air with a fervor. He is alive , for better or worse, and Red looks ready to collapse himself. And Hazel… Hazel has done nothing but watch them, as Sanzo does, as they pick up and manage to hobble their way past and out of town.
He can’t fathom what might be going through Sanzo’s head as they leave him behind, when he turns to Hazel and tells him “let’s go,” what feelings the lines of his back possibly hide. Clutching the well worn pendant, he’s not even sure he knows what’s in his own mind.
He helped… but why? To save the humans in the town, perhaps. To intervene before more damage took place, sure. Youkai had no place in this world. They were better off without one or two more. The motion of his hand, however, had never been to take, but to give . To give life back into the familiar body of the man he’d claimed was an enemy, manners or not. Perhaps it was better that Gojyo - Red - had stopped him. What was it, if not a temporary moment of insanity? He couldn’t forget his purpose, after all.
The bounce of the pendant against his chest seemed heavier than usual as he turned, falling into step behind Sanzo, Gato’s silent presence suddenly stifling. Imagining their retreating backs, he resisted the urge to turn again. It was too late to change paths now, and there was no choice but to press on forward.
In time, maybe the pain would fade, and it would be easier to breathe again.