Episode 01: Temple of Demons

''"They left without saying anything. They made sure we were okay then said, "See you", and that was it." - Taiga to the villagers''

Temple of Demons is the 1st episode of Saiyuki Reload Gunlock.

Synopsis
The Sanzo party stops at a village that is terribly rundown. As they enter the village, a boy named Taiga throws a stone at Sanzo saying that monks are not welcome. Taiga's sister appears and apologizes to them, suggesting that they to go to the temple, where people from neighboring villages have been taking refuge in exchange for offerings. The Sanzo party, though, were welcomed by the monks free of charge upon introducing themselves. Something seemed amiss, however, and their misgivings are confirmed when they learn that the temple is actually a facade, concealing a den full of youkai.

Plot
In heaven, the cherry blossoms are blooming. Jiroushin complains about if and when the Sanzo party will ever arrive at their destination in India. 

''“Oh, they’ll get there eventually. It seems like they only take detours, but they’re still unmistakably forging ahead.”'' Kanzeon Bosatsu answers.

In the lower world, the Sanzo party arrives at a village which is terribly rundown. As they were driving through the village, a young boy named Taiga throws a stone at Sanzo, saying that monks are not welcome and called them bad guys, just like the people in the temple. Taiga's sister, Reika appears to stop her little brother and tells him to apologize to them. Taiga refuses and runs away. Reika apologizes to the group in her brother's stead.

Gojyo begins to flirt with Reika, and was about to introduce himself when Goku interrupts, asking where to find food. Reika suggests that they go to the temple, since they are travelling with a monk. She explains that the temple is not bad at all since the Reverence protects the village from demons. According to her, the Reverence is a wonderful man who allows neighboring villagers who heard about him and fled to stay at the temple.

The Sanzo party go to the temple and find a long line of people offering goods. While they were walking a monk stops them and asks if they had already made an offering. Hakkai tells him that they were just hoping to stay for a night, but the monk refuses adamantly, saying that a request like that required a substantial offering. Later, the one whom Reika called the Reverence came and noticed the scripture on Sanzo's shoulders, and guessed correctly who he was.The Reverence welcomes them and has lunch served in their honor. As they enjoyed their meal, Hakkai galnces out the window, and sees Taiga sneaking into the temple grounds.

Taiga sneaks around and finds his way to the window of the Taoist's office, and overhears his conversation with the Reverence. The Taoist orders the Reverence to get the scripture of Sanzo at all costs. Before Taiga could leave, he is found out by the Taoist.

The sun was about to go down. Gojyo, Goku and Hakkai just finished taking a bath when they see Reika who is trying to get inside the temple to find her little brother. The monks, however, refuse her entry. Gojyo intimidates the monks to help Reika. She then tells them that Taiga hasn’t come home. Hakkai answered that he saw him in the compound earlier. Reika was about to say something when Gojyo, Goku and Hakkai sense an evil aura. They see the Taoist looking at them from a building across the lawn. They notice his earring and seem to identify it as a youkai power limiter, speculating that the Taoist is a youkai. Hakkai then suggested that they continue their discussion in private.

Back in their rooms, the Sanzo party tells Reika that the Taoist is a youkai, to the girl's horror. It was hard to believe, but then she recalled her little brother saying that he had seen his Reverence with a youkai. She regretted not having a faith in him.

“I think it started about half a year ago. People began vanishing one by one in the neighboring villages. Only our village was safe, protected by the temple so people came from all directions seeking help. But those who couldn’t make offerings…” Reika trailed off.

“… were turned away, huh?” Gojyo continued for her.

Her family will soon become unable to make offerings, she says, and her father went to plead to work things out somehow, but went missing. It was the reason why Taiga is snooping around the temple. Gojyo, Goku and Hakkai accompany Reika to continue searching for her brother. They begin to head to the source of the evil aura.

Meanwhile, Sanzo stays behind in the room. As he waits, the Reverence comes to his room to take a look at the Maten Scripture for future reference. Sanzo refuses, but the Reverence insists. Sanzo points his gun at him and calls to the Taoist to come out. The Taoist appears, and asks if there is something wrong. Sanzo tells him to quit the bad acting.

Meanwhile,Taiga wakes up in a cage in a room full of youkai. He cries out, and Hakkai, Gojyo and Goku burst in to rescue him, defeating all the youkai.

The Reverence and the Taoist hear the ruckus from the room. The Taoist then takes his power limiter off and, reverting to his original form, kills the Reverence. The Taoist and Sanzo are engaged in battle when suddenly, a huge trap door opens, and a giant hand from within grabs Sanzo, whisking him down into the gloom, leaving nothing but his banishing gun behind.

Gojyo and the others find the gun, as well as the dead body of the Reverence. Hakkai speculates that Sanzo might have vanished down the hole, when the youkai Taoist appears and grabs Gojyo, and telling him that Sanzo might be regretting the day he was born. Gojyo just laughs it off, thinking of how amusing Sanzo's face would be, while Goku decides to go down the hole to save Sanzo.

Underground, Sanzo is tied up, suspended from the celing by a sticky rope, when he encounters the ringleader of the youkai in the temple, a giant female whose upper body is that of a youkai, and the rest like a giant translucent slug. He realizes that the youkai is a human parasite who feeds off humans, and that all the missing villagers were with her. Suddenly, Goku drops in and pops a hole in the human parasite. Sanzo asks for his banishing gun, but the human parasite slaps Goku causing him to accidentally shoot the rope holding Sanzo up.

The priest is dropped down into the creature's slimy tail, floating in the water-like substance that made up its body. Little faceless baby-like creatures begin to swim towards him, apparently intending to feed. Sanzo calls upon the power of the Maten Sutra through the Makai Tenjou, killing the parasite, as up on the surface, Gojyo defeats the youkai Taoist.

All the people who vanished came back, including Reika and Taiga's father, all thanks to the Sanzo party, who left without saying a word except “See you,” to Taiga.