Chapter 06 - Cleaning Beauty

Cleansing Beauty is the sixth chapter of Saiyuki.

Summary
Goku and Gojyo get into a fight over a card game in Jeep's back seat, and when Sanzo gets involved, Hakkai becomes distracted by the squabble and Jeep ends up tipping down a hill and dumping the Sanzo-ikkou into a river. Shunrei, a young woman who is doing laundry in the river, laughs at their antics and invites them back to her village to dry their clothes and have tea.

At Shunrei's house, she gives them clean clothing to wear while theirs are drying. Sanzo wonders why she has so much men's clothing on hand when she apparently lives alone. Shunrei's neighbour, Auntie Pan, arrives with lunch for everyone.

After lunch, Auntie Pan tells the ikkou that Shunrei used to have a yokai lover. Even though relations between humans and yokai are frowned upon, the village accepted them. However, when the yokai began to go berserk a year ago, he voluntarily left Shunrei and the village before he had a chance to completely lose himself and has not been seen since. Shunrei has kept his clothes and washes them regularly. When Auntie Pan reveals that Shunrei's lover's name was Jien and that he only arrived in the village four years ago, Gojyo reacts with surprise. When asked if he knows Jien, Gojyo says he isn't sure.

A little while later, Sanzo, Goku, and Hakkai are relaxing in their room after having been invited to stay the night. Goku convinces Hakkai to tell them about Gojyo and Jien. Hakkai explains that Jien is Gojyo's half-brother who went missing when Gojyo was eight years old after saving Gojyo's life.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Gojyo asks Shunrei is she has any photographs of Jien. Shunrei does not have any, but she tells him that Jien was a good person. She says she feels that the yokai turned violent as a punishment for a human and a yokai falling in love. Gojyo tells her that attitude is like giving up on Jien, but Shunrei is adamant that she still believes in him. Gojyo tells he that he is also part yokai, and the fact that she is not afraid of him shows that being different isn't a big deal and that she should just keep doing Jien's laundry. He comforts Shunrei and tells her not to cry.

In the other room, the rest of the ikkou continue to discuss the situation. Hakkai reveals that Jien is a full-blooded yokai and is the son of Gojyo's father's legal wife. It was she who tried to kill Gojyo because he is the son of her husband's mistress and a half-blood child of taboo.

Shunrei thanks Gojyo after their conversation, and early the next morning she goes back out to do laundry. On her way to the river, she overhears other villagers saying that some yokai have been attacking people in the woods, and that one of them looks like Jien. Shunrei drops her laundry basket in shock.

Back at the house, Auntie Pan barges into the room where the ikkou are still asleep and wakes them up to help search for Shunrei, who has gone missing and is believed to be out searching for Jien on her own.

As Sunrei runs into the forest, the ikkou drive off in Jeep to look for her.