Ep 26. Don't Cry ~ close your eyes ~

After the flashback: Monster Arm Hazel piles into the SI, who fight back but take a pounding from the huge arm's power. Hazel completely loses it, morphing into his cat-demon form, roaring and snarling as he lashes out at the ikkou. He throws off Gojyo and Hakkai's attacks and charges at Sanzo, who aims but finds he's out of ammo; HG&G stare stunned as MA Hazel barrels toward their unarmed leader--

and a huge firebolt comes from nowhere to plow MA Hazel into a mesa, which collapses into dust. Who do we know that can throw huge firebolts? Might it be that tall redhead on the flying dragon? Yup: Lirin-sama has kept her promise, and the Kou-tachi is here to help the Sanzo-ikkou dust Hazel. =)

Sanzo, reloading, demands to know what Kou & Co. are doing here. The prince retorts that they shouldn't think he's become their ally; that man is an enemy to all demons, and he'll gladly finish him off if the SI is just going to stand there. ==Hazel picks him/itself up and steps out of the dust cloud; Doku and Yaone decide they oughtn't get involved, while Lirin cheerily yells back that Sanzo ought to let her brother handle it. Sanzo cocks his pistol and says "screw that." Lirin's surprised, but the ikkou strides forward, Gojyo calling up to the 'tachi "sorry guys, but we'll settle this" and Goku adding that they have a promise to keep. Kougaiji gravely surveys the scene, including the heap of dust and clothing that's all that remains of the late Gatti Nenehawk [[may he rest in peace]], and intuits what's happened here. Lirin asks what's going on, but her brother tells her to let them be. --The grim, battered ikkou line up to face the advancing Hazel--who, as he becomes visible, has his human face and form back, and looks dazed and exhausted. I remembered everything, he says.

The Kou-tachi watches over the scene; there's such calm sympathy in the prince's face. Hazel looks as if he's walked through hell barefoot. I killed my master, he says; I became a monster and killed him. [[I can hardly imagine what it costs him to say these words; even Sanzo looks moved.]] Master, he chokes, falling to his knees; suddenly he clutches his head in pain, we see the glowing sphere of the Seirei wink out, and Hazel gasps that the Spirit is dead. The ikkou draws back in alarm. Hazel's pendant begins to glow--

--and for miles around, every person that Hazel 'saved' by raising them with youkai souls suddenly gasps, collapses and crumbles into grey dust like the shikigami they are, their souls speeding away from them in streaks of blue light, groaning and sobbing as they fly. Hakuryu, on a mesa above the scene, sees the shower of blue spheres pouring toward them and cheeps in alarm. Hakkai and Goku look up and react as the stream bears down, and then the torrent of souls pours into Hazel. The souls of the people Hazel resurrected, says Sanzo darkly, as Hazel sobs in anguish, saying the monster is stealing the souls to increase its power. I don't want this, I don't want it! not after--he cries. Tears are streaming down his face. The lives I saved--

His voice devolves into grunts and snarls, and the ikkou arms up, ready to fight a new monster manifestation: white-feathered wings burst from Hazel's back, glowing and beautiful, as if he were about to become a blue-eyed angel in truth: but his red cat eyes return, and he fires his feathers like darts into the ikkou. The Kou-tachi reacts with shock and anger, and Yaone appeals to Kou, but he says, "Not yet." [[man, what perception and understanding he shows. Gods, he's so great.]] --Hazel stands grinning, gloating over the fallen ikkou. Sanzo yanks one feather-dart from his chest, sees the blue stain it leaves. Poison? he wonders. He raises his gun--

Sanzo is the only one standing, the ikkou pierced with a dozen feathers each; but when they see him standing, facing Hazel alone, Goku grips his staff and they struggle to rise. Sanzo starts to pull the trigger, and Hazel grins, sure of winning; but Goku yells "extend, nyoi-bo!" and the staff punches into Neko-Hazel's chest so hard he chokes up blood--

then there's a shrill "Kyuuu!" and a small dragon flying overhead becomes a half-ton Jeep that drops onto Hazel without warning. Feathers fly as the demon-angel bellows in rage and pain. Sanzo fires, cutting away half of one white wing, and it looks as if Hazel is on the ropes: but then, unbelievably, Neko-Hazel begins to chant the same prayer he always used to resurrect a human, and the amulet glows==

and Sanzo's had enough.

He matches the demon bishop's prayer with the sacred syllables of the sutra chant, and the kyoumon billows forth and envelops Hazel. Youkai souls pour out of the gold pendant; Neko-Hazel's face turns back into the innocent face of the blue-eyed angel, and he falls into the dust. Gojyo and Goku look on in exhaustion and grief; the Kou-tachi witness. Yaone, says Kou, give them some antidote; we can repay our debt to them. Hai, she says gladly.

Hazel draws himself up and faces the muzzle of Sanzo's shoreijuu; shoot me, Sanzo-han, he says. We see his memories: people crying out that his 'saved' humans were monsters, helpless youkai begging for their lives. I thought I was doin' the right thing, he says, purifyin' the world of demons. Purifyin'...his memories overwhelm him, and he begs Sanzo to shoot him. [[OK, I take it back: I don't hate him. He's just another poor, messed-up, twisted little thing like so many in this series. I tell ya, no series will teach you simple Buddhist compassion like Saiyuki.]]== Kill me, Sanzo-han, begs Hazel, tears streaming down his face; everything I did was pointless.

Sanzo says, "Nothing in this world is pointless. Everyone is needed." Is that true? asks Hazel, and Sanzo says it is. And again Hazel begs Sanzo to kill him, still on his knees in the dust; and this time Sanzo says, "All right." Much obliged, says the blue-eyed angel.

Sunset. The Sanzo-ikkou and the Kou-tachi stand over two burial mounds, one decorated with Gato's headband and pistols, one with Hazel's hat and pendant. So in the end, who was he? asks Kougaiji; and Lirin unexpectedly answers, "He was someone who wasn't wanted," as tears streak her face. Doku and Yaone are surprised; she wipes her eyes, and says yes, he was unforgivable, but he was so alone that I felt sorry for him. [Goku notes this.] Yaone gently tells her that his soul is free from torment now, and is probably laughing with Gato'san's.

The Kou-tachi mount their dragons and take their leave. Still on his mesa, Doctor Ni shrugs that it didn't work, but then killing demons to bring back humans was a totally pointless idea anyway.

And Gojyo says, "so, he wasn't a demon or a human?" Hakkai positively says he was human, even if only because he tried so hard to be; but Sanzo says--with the air of one settling this once and for all--"There isn't much difference between youkai and humans." They all turn to look at him, and he exhales smoke and smiles. (Yes, really smiles.) "A man is a man," he says, "and that's all there is to it. --Let's go."

And as they walk off toward their patiently waiting jeep, we go back to the Merciful Goddess and Jiroushin, watching the lotus pool in the Heavens. Yare yare, they're finally past that detour, s/he says. What will happen to them now? he asks, and s/he laughs and says, why even ask? what makes them interesting is this: no one can alter their fate as long as they're together.

Amd we see them, headed into the sunset, headed West.