07 A Twilight Farewell

A Twilight Farewell is the seventh episode of Gensoumaden Saiyuki  and the second part of  Rikudo Arc

Summary
"Sanzo! I can't believe he did this to you! Sanzo, NO... Sanzo [3x]" - Son Goku

Goku's horror and rage are so intense that his power-limiting coronet shatters, and we see him for the first time in his true near-divine form, Seiten Taisei Son Goku, a beautiful holy terror with a thin fierce smile. Gojyo and Hakkai stare, stunned; Gojyo has only heard about this from Sanzo, but never seen it before. Son Goku sets about pounding the daylights out of Rikudo, who quickly realizes his powers are no match for the Monkey King's fury, and teleports the hell out of there, yelling that he'll be back to destroy them.

Hakkai, concentrating on stopping the bleeding and closing Sanzo's wound, tells Gojyo to stop Goku. How the hell can I do that?!--demands the hanyou, and Hakkai says he doesn't know, only Sanzo would, but he as to be stopped somehow or he'll lose all control and destroy everything. Gojyo gives it his best shot, but it's no contest, and things look bad until from nowhere a golden ring of light descends and settles around the Goku's head. It solidifies into his coronet, and he instantly morphs back into his wide-eyed-kid self and slumps into Gojyo's arms, unconscious.

Their benefactor is the Merciful Goddess, Kanzeon Bosatsu. Then, and without permission, she steals a kiss from Gojyo as well a few pints of AB-, after which he collapses. After performing her own form of a blood transfusion, she barely avoids getting a reflect triggered slap a cross the face. Afterwards she departs, giving her own band of encouraging words.

Sanzo wakes in bed and sets out after Rikudo only to find Gojyo has been set to guard his door. Go out the window so I can pretend I don't know you left, Gojyo says; not like I care, but there are two other guys who'll be really upset if something happens to you. He guesses correctly that the prayer beads were once Sanzo's, and wonders if they aren't the only thing holding any thread of humanity inside Rikudo. [--big points for the hanyou's intuition here.]

Sanzo and Rikudo duel, and in the course of their fight the beads shatter; the talisman's power is eating him alive. He blames Sanzo, who says no: the temple massacre may be his fault but the use of the Spell of Araya was Shuuei's own choice. For revenge's sake he's left himself nothing. As he delivers the final shot Sanzo remembers a story of their master's about the freedom of birds, how freedom to fly is meaningless without a place to land and rest.

He's still thinking about it as he walks out of the woods toward the waiting Jeep and his companions. He settles into his seat: I'm going to sleep and anyone who wakes me is dead, he says. Of course, replies Hakkai, and bids him good night.

Quotes

 * "No, please! Please Don't! Please don't erase me..." - Shuuei to Rikudo


 * "Without the limiter, he's reverted back to his original form. A creature conceived in a giant stone where the earthly ores gathered; The Great Sage, Goku." - Cho Hakkai to Gojyo


 * "You! With the long purple hair and lots of spare blood, get over here! Come on, move your ass!" - Kanzeon Bosatsu to Gojyo


 * "If you want to thank me, give me your body in return. That's all the payment I need. This wasn't about charity. The fact is, you're on a very important mission right now. And honestly, it wouldn't be any fun if you died today. Tata for now." - Kanzeon Bosatsu to Gojyo and Hakkai


 * "Such an unruly band of misfits. You know, they just might make it after all." - Kanzeon Bosatsu


 * "I remember the blood gushing from Sanzo's stomach. Then the world turning white. All sorts of ideas started spinning through my head. Come to think of it, I wounder who that was? He looked like Sanzo, yet... Different. I can't remember why I was imprisoned for so long. I had to have done something truly terrible though. I mean, why else would they lock me away in Mt. Gogyo with nothing to do, but watch the sky for years and years in some craggy prison cell until a gold light finally reached down and saved me? He was the ray of sun I'd been longing for. Sanzo's always been my savior, even though I can do nothing to save him." - Son Goku


 * "Well, I think the one thing that you can do for him, is to be sure to never let him down. Don't you remember what Sanzo told us? He said that we would never die. We should take care not to do anything reckless so that we can see this mission through to the end." - Cho Hakkai to Goku


 * "Sanzo's unconscious, Gojyo's still anemic, and you're in a funk, so I guess the only thing left for me to do is cook." - Cho Hakkai to Goku.


 * "What do you know. Sanzo, you're the only person who could've gotten Goku that depressed. Do me a favor and don't reopen the wound we worked so hard to close. I'd really hate for you and I to be left with the same scar." - Cho Hakkai to Sanzo


 * "Hey droopy eyes. I don't suppose you're planning on going after Rakudo, are you? Well if you are, then feel free to just go through the window in there. They told me to keep an eye on ya, but who am I to get in your way, right?" - Sha Gojyo to Sanzo


 * "Yep, everybody loves me..." - Genjo Sanzo


 * "When you struck, it wan't Goku I was trying to protect. I was another wound that has yet to heal... Willing to die for no one. living for no one except myself. Vowing to never again care for someone so much that I couldn't bare to lose them. This is my mantra." - Genjo Sanzo


 * "Aw, look Kouryuu. It seems that the birds are returning to the north. I wonder, who do you think it was that decided that the birds are actually free? Even if they can fly where they please, however if they find that there is no end to their journey nor no safe place to rest their weary wings, they may regret having those wings at all. Perhaps true freedom, perhaps true freedom is having a home to return to." - Koumyou Sanzo to Kouryuu


 * "And so our little band of misfits continues their journey to the west. These guys would rather bit their own tongues off than bee forced to dance to someone else tune. Some people don't change in five hundred years, no matter how many times they die, no matter how many times they are reborn." - Kanzeon Bosatsu