In a church: organ music plays as people pray and mourn a dead child who lies on the altar, blank blue eyes staring into nothingness. Such a sweet little girl, so young, they say... Behind her, a young clergyman stands up and opens his arms wide; lights spiral around the gold pendant he wears, his hands glow, and he touches the girl and quietly tells her, "open your eyes." [Um...they were open...yet now they aren't.] The girl's eyes obediently open--they've turned golden--and she sits up and walks away from the altar. A miracle! cry the people. The Bishop--a slight, handsome fellow with clear blue eyes, prematurely silver hair, and a satisfied smile--stands back and basks in the praise and acclaim of the congregation. [He won't be introduced for awhile yet, but I'll tell you now that his name is Hazel Grosse.] He glances back and smiles at a tall, American-Indian looking man who stands farther back from the altar, but the man doesn't return the smile. His eyes are golden-amber.
[Digression: this awkward business of the open/shut/open eyes was apparently invented just to make the point of the color-change. In the manga, which are in black-and-white, the girl's eyes are closed the entire time, and Hazel simply says "Now, child...rise." (--presumably "Talitha cumi".)
[Digression II: Hazel's pendant in the manga is a six-pointed star--a Star of David--but I guess they didn't want any accusations of Jewish references, as the pendant in the anime has been redesigned to a four-pointed floral design.]
--and here's the SI, driving along. Goku complains that he's hungry, Gojyo scolds him, Hakkai says they'll reach a town soon and Sanzo is silent and thoughtful. A typical morning in the Jeep...and then the road is blocked by a gang of implement-wielding, grim-looking townspeople. Do we look suspicious? asks Gojyo--but the lead villager says "Kill the youkai!" and, charging the jeep, tries to throttle Goku! He's shoved back, but the zombie-like humans, all droning "Kill youkai, kill youkai" and all with the same yellow eyes, storm Hakuryu and battle is joined. The SI fight back without deadly force, sure that their opponents are human; but they're too strong and near-invulnerable to be mere mortals. Goku says they remind him of Chin Yisou, that he can't sense the presence of life in any of them. Sanzo's eyes narrow; he takes his shot, and the man Goku's fighting falls to the ground--and shatters like a shikigami. As I thought, says Sanzo. Shikigami? more assassins? asks Gojyo, and Hakkai--who's understandably a bit pale--says he might have thought so, if not for what they were saying. But Goku's gleeful to learn that the attackers aren't human: he can cut loose on them now! and cut loose he does, but the men still get back up when knocked down. Enough is enough; as Gojyo vaults into the back seat, Hakkai calls for Goku to get in too, and they make a run for it.
Sanzo--who's been troubled and watchful from the moment we saw him first--is still watching the fallen men, turned back in his seat as they drive away. What the hell was that? demands Gojyo, and Sanzo, folding his hands into his sleeves, says quietly that a storm is coming. (Dark clouds are indeed gathering, but I bet you dinner that's not what he means.)
In Houtou Castle, Lady Gyakomen tells Dr. Ni that what he's just said had better be true, and he replies in mock-injury that he's never lied to her. A heretical power, she muses; if we had control of that, we could finally resurrect my beloved. He's already arrived in Tougenkyo, adds Ni, after voyaging far over the sea from the lands in the West... he smirks. Aoi me no tenshi, a blue-eyed angel, he says.
As the ikkou walks into town, Hakkai asks Goku to wait for food until they locate lodgings. The hungry saru decides that finding an inn that has a restaurant will settle both issues at once, and charges on ahead--only to gallop past the silver-haired bishop and his silent companion. A gust of wind whips the man's three-cornered hat into the air; Goku easily leaps up to catch it and hands it back with a grin. Much obliged, young'un, Hazel replies in a soft Western accent. [As is typical in anime, the distinctive accident of Kansai, Japan's West, stands in for an American Western drawl.] Goku's still puzzling over what the heck he said when Sanzo wallops him with the harisen, griping that he shouldn't've gone off by himself--and then the storm breaks. Caught in a downpour, the SI rushes off to find an inn ("with a restaurant!" insists Goku), but Hazel and Gato --the big guy--just stand in the rain watching them. [NOTE: in the manga, his name is usually given as Gat. However, in the anime, his name is both subtitled and audibly prounced Gato, 'cat'. I'll probably call him both. His full given name is Gatti Nenehawk.] Those people... says Gato, and Hazel says they'll bear watching.
Hakkai brings a stack of towels to the ikkou's room, and they dry off, G&G quarreling about dinner as Sanzo remains lost in thought. Hakkai asks if he's concerned about the shikigami earlier. Sanzo asks if he's sure they were shikigami, and Hakkai admits that no, he's not, as he didn't notice any mediums. He clarifies to Goku that shikigami need a medium, like Chin Yisou's majong tiles and paper charms, to bind them to their controller and transmit the controller's power to them. --Gojyo's sure Goku didn't understand a word of that, and the resulting quarrel is shushed by gunfire and Sanzo roaring at them to cut the retarded bickering and get to sleep NOW-- with which they agree in panicky chorus! Hakkai pronounces lights-out, and all is quiet. [Not that I imagine Sanzo is going to get a second's sleep with this much weirdness in the air and a night of pouring rain to boot, but at least he can worry in peace.]
Dream flashback: bells tolling in a large, European-looking city, a silver-haired boy--young Hazel--running through the street. Master, he gasps (in English); a shadow falls across his face, there's a terrible roar, and the boy screams.--Hazel wakes, gasping for breath; Gat, standing motionless and watchful by the window, says he was having a nightmare. Hazel sits up in bed. Master, he says, I've finally arrived in this accursed land.
A PoRY breaks into the ikkou's room and plunges swords into their beds, chortling that they'd let their guard down; but Gojyo kicks the door open, and there are the guys outside, Hakkai adding sweetly that they must have thought the storm would mask their youkai energy. They kick butt with their usual efficiency, but when a hole is knocked in the wall they see to their shock that youkai are rampaging through the street killing at random. You thought we were only after you? taunts one. Goku rushes out to save a man, but is too late, and charges the responsible youkai only to find someone there ahead of him--Bishop Hazel, who kicks the demon's ass with unexpected skill, and then unleashes Gato (it's the first time they've seen the huge native, and they're impressed --he towers over Hazel) on the rest. The big man draws two six-guns and rushes the remaining youkai, picking them off at speed with startlingly fast and accurate shots and reloading on the run. The ikkou, accomplished demon-demolishers though they be, have nothing to do but stand in the street and watch the performance.
--Hazel raises his gold pendant overhead and begins chanting a prayer, and as he does, green lights like those we saw in the first scene rise in streams from the fallen youkai and flood into the medallion. The youkai's souls?--gasps Hakkai. The demons still standing see this and charge Hazel, but Gat blocks their way and shoots them down despite blades plunged into his chest and arms (in the manga he loses one arm at the elbow). He pulls out the blades and drops them one by one, while the shocked ikkou wonder if he's immortal. Hazel raises the pendant; its glow heals Gato's wounds, and he expressionlessly returns to shooting down youkai as Hazel harvests their souls.
The rain has ended and dawn has come by the time the last youkai falls, and the street is heaped with bodies. A girl runs out and gathers up her father's body, crying; Hazel smiles reassuringly and holds his hand over the man, and as the fingers glow with green light--and light from above streams through the breaking clouds, nice special effects there-- the man's eyes, now golden, open again.
The ikkou can't make any sense of what they see, and Goku finally asks, who are you?
The blue-eyed man introduces himself and his companion. -- Hazel-san, Gato-san, desu ka?--it would seem you come from another country, says Hakkai. That's true, Hazel-san amiably replies; we come from a faraway western land, on a mission to exterminate all demons and create a world just for human beings.
--The ikkou are quite (understandably!) taken aback by this: Goku stares wide-eyed, and Gojyo and Hakkai repeat his sentence, stunned, while Sanzo's glare is arctic.
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