Ep 4. Encounter ~fake~

As the youkai mob descends on the villagers, Goku goes into full asskicking mode and takes out half of them within seconds. Who the hell is this kid? they demand of each other, and then, 'better call the others!' Damn, there're more of them? says Goku; he orders Kon to get the villagers back into the cave, as far as they can go. You're gonna defend them all by yourself? the demons jeer, but Goku says he sure is, and then smashes the cliffside, sealing the villagers inside the cave. Now they're safe from you, he says, and grins at the demon army, saying he'll take them all on.

The still shirtless H, G & S look around what seems to be an endless cavern full of bones and torches. Can it truly be an illusion? it looks so real...Sanzo draws and aims at the strange youkai, but he grins and says Sanzo can't do any harm with that melted gun. As soon as he says it, the shoreijuu seems to glow red-hot, and Sanzo drops it, staring at the half-puddle of metal on the cave floor. Do you see now? all three of you are in the palm of my hand, says Zakuro. They look at each other in alarm, and Zakuro adds that if they keep zoning out like this, they'll be paralyzed by snakebite. Right: at once snakes materialize from thin air, draped all over the ikkou-minus-9. Sanzo gets it: this is all psychological, he says, but mental and physical damage are linked here--so if they believe what's happening, it really does happen. He's using a hypnosis technique! Hakkai yells, don't listen to Zakuro! [heh, Hakkai --like us--must have read the manga, since the enemy youkai's name hasn't yet been given here.] --That's easier said than done, chokes Gojyo, sounding badly rattled. Zakuro grins, and announces that looking at the snakes more closely, he sees that they're actually human hands. And [eeew...] of course they are: a slithering mob of disembodied arms, crawling over the ikkou and grabbing up from the ground, hauling them down.

Back up on the edge of the cliff, where they still are in reality, Doku and Yaone watch the ikkou struggle and fall under the invisible-to-them assault. What's happening? Doku asks Yaone, and she replies that this is Zakuro's power [OK, there's his name =)]--he can control what they imagine with his words, and in effect cause your own mind to harm you. His illusions are so real that they physically feel whatever they hear. --Doku stares in horror as Gojyo, gasping, tries to rise from under the wave of unreal attackers. He strides forward, grabs Zakuro's shoulder and says that it was Kougaiji's assignment to kill the Sanzo party--Zakuro was only supposed to obtain the sutra. Zakuro smirks, and says they're all too soft: that's why you were unable to protect your lord, he sneers, you're nothing but worthless trash. --You bastard, growls Doku, and Zakuro, still grinning, says, that reminds me--this guy is your brother, right? Doku glares, and Zakuro leans over him. Hey, Sha Gojyo--he says--look how well your arm burns. And Gojyo sees his arm burst into flames, and howls in agony.

Goku has opened his second or third can of whupass on the youkai mob by now, but the damn things keep coming, and even the practically unbeatable saru is starting to get a bit winded. He's backed to the edge of the cliff. The demons taunt him, asking if he's ready to quit yet, and Goku worries that if he doesn't unseal the cave soon the villagers will suffocate. And the guys-- Then he gets an idea: he drops backward off the edge, bounces off a convenient branch to launch himself high into the air, and comes down with a huge byoi-bo strike to drop the whole cliff-edge, youkai and all, into the river below. That's that, Goku says to himself as he crawls wearily back up over the edge of the cliff. Now I have to hurry up and open this cave...and how far downstream did those guys get swept anyway?...and I'm so hungry... He sits down at the rubble-blocked mouth of the cave for a moment, wondering aloud why all this is happening to him, momentarily too tired to notice that someone has walked up to stand behind him: someone with long red hair and a bar-code tattoo. Uh-oh. Yaone and Doku's biggest worry of the day has come to pass.

Zakuro chortles as Gojyo tries futilely to beat out the flames of his blazing arm. Hakkai yells desperately for Gojyo to ignore what he hears, but Zakuro insists that he can feel the heat and that the fire is spreading; your arm is going to fall off, he says. Don't listen! screams Hakkai, but Gojyo sees his arm sever at the elbow and fall to the ground; he drops to his knees, howling. Yaone runs to him, trying to tell him that there's no fire and it's only an illusion, but Doku says "they can't hear our voices now". It's hard to believe his suggestions are so powerful, says Hakkai. But Zakuro has zeroed in on his target: the only one, apparently, too suggestible to resist him. Why, Sha Gojyo, he needles, aren't you going to fight back? Why don't you use your shakujou? [the subtitle says 'scythe', but Zakuro clearly calls it by its right name.--well, technically it's really a yueyachan and not a shakujou, but n'mind.]. --Yaone gasps in dismay. In the illusion, Gojyo stands, glaring, and summons up the weapon. Sanzo yells for him to stop, that it's a trap, and Hakkai just cries his name, but no use: the blade flies, and Gojyo sees both Hakkai and Sanzo fall, blank-eyed and streaming blood. [In the manga--man, this is bad--the blade takes off both of their heads.] Zakuro laughs uproariously: your aim's terrible! he jeers. Look, idiot, you've killed your own friends!--The redhead drops the weapon and stares at his hands. No--I didn't--he says, voice shaking. Hakkai is literally screaming at him that they're both alive, but he can't hear it. There's no escape from my illusions, says Zakuro smugly, you can only go on suffering...

Doku can't watch his brother be battered any longer, and stepping up to him, delivers a solid punch to his gut. [Rock it, big bro.]--Gojyo drops, out cold, and in the illusion world, Sanzo and Hakkai are astonished to see him vanish. Damn you, Dokugakuji, snarls Zakuro. Doku says that the only way out of these illusions must be to either die in them or to be knocked unconscious. --What good will that do you? Zakuro challenges, and Hakkai dryly observes that losing consciousness in front of an enemy isn't always the best idea. Sanzo growls that, unlike Gojyo, they aren't simple-minded; we won't fall for your tricks so easily, he says, and Hakkai smilingly agrees that "we're the intellectual type" =) But (after some punning on 'hippocampus' and 'hippopotamus' =) Zakuro says that he can reach directly into the brain and draw out memories, and that that's significantly easier with people of higher intelligence. He effortlessly draws out the memory of last night's meal to prove it, and then tells them that today--why, today they drowned in the river.

--And just like that they're back in the brawl with the water youkai (last episode), only they're sinking helplessly to the bottom. There's no water! this is an illusion! cries Hakkai, and Zakuro smoothly points out that talking underwater only allows water into your lungs. You can't breathe; it's the end for you, Cho Hakkai, he says, and Hakkai vanishes. Sanzo, startled, calls his name and, likewise, seems to have inhaled water. It's your end too, Genjyo Sanzo, smirks Zakuro, but...water, Sanzo thinks, the sound of water...the river...darkness... Then he sees a vision of Koumyou, and remembers the hands that reached in to pull him from the river, the fingerless black gloves like his own; remembers that he heard a voice. =) And he gets to his feet in the cave of skulls, with a dry chuckle. Zakuro is rocked back, stares at him in disbelief. " 'Kouryuu, of the river's flow' " (kawa-nagare Kouryuu), says Sanzo [and you've never heard his voice more beautiful than this; it's pure silk] --"you chose the wrong image to use on me." --He picks up his banishing gun, perfectly whole and unharmed.-- "What I saw," he says--and, with him, we see Koumyou's calm, smiling face, haloed in a golden glow--"was light." --Zakuro backs off, badly shaken: I told you that gun melted! it's useless! It didn't melt, says Sanzo. The trigger's jammed! I'm telling you you can't shoot me! stammers the panicky youkai. But Sanzo cocks the trigger, absolutely sure of himself. I'm telling you that I can, he says, and the force of the shot hurls Zakuro over the edge of the cliff and into the river far below.

Everything clears. Hakkai and Gojyo get to their feet, and Sanzo says with calm satisfaction, "Kore wa genjitsu da"--'this is reality'. =) [--Applause, please.]=== [The jerk's exit isn't so neat in the manga, but...well. =) ]== Gojyo thanks his brother for saving his life, but Doku's already walking off, wondering aloud if brainwashing--or hypnosis--can be that easy to break. Yaone knows what he's thinking...

Kon is digging at the rockslide barehanded, worried that Goku is fighting for them all alone. The adults are still afraid of facing the youkai, but when Kon's little sister, Rin, joins him in digging, they all pitch in and soon have a clear passage. Kon scrambles out and is relieved to see Goku still standing--and then, before his startled eyes, the saru falls at Kougaiji's feet...