It suddenly dawned on Goku. "What about Gojyo and Hakkai! They don't know what's going on."

"They'll find out soon. We're outnumbered though. The best we can do is fight it out with them until those two idiots come back."

There was more screeching in the distance, mingled with the screams of humans and the . gut wrenching sounds of limbs being torn off and eaten. Goku grit his teeth. "That's no way to get food. It's so gross...And those people..." He took off at a sprint, Sanzo at his side.

***

He recognized one of them as Gen, the sergeant which had taken Kenren's place. The other's were just vague faces in his memory, blending in with the rest of the Celestial army's manpower. "Marshal Tenpou! What in the world are you doing here?"

"I still have yet to figure that one out." Tenpou replied, willing his aching muscles to move. "What are you doing here? You all have been filed as missing." Thirty specters floated about him, pushing and shoving each other to get a look at their marshal. It's been so long.

Gen's expression was grave. "Surveillance round."

"I know that."

"We were passing this very lake when we were attacked by an army of snow youkai. They seemed to have been waiting for us...an ambush."

Tenpou rubbed his cheeks. They were quickly getting numb. "I could point fingers, but the most accusing would have been towards myself. I shouldn't have taken Kenren Taishou-"

"But it was for the best that you did!" Gen interrupted. "Nobody would have survived this...this...damnation!" He sounded contemptuous as he looked down at his arms and feet- translucent now. "When the youkai attacked, the lake started to glow...it was strange indeed. It pulsed, got brighter and brighter until...we all fell unconscious. When we woke up, we found ourselves trapped in the bodies of the youkai who attacked us."

"A switch!" Tenpou's mouth fell open. "Which means that the youkai are in heaven now. In your bodies."

The sergeant lifted a brow, his arms folding over his stout form. "I wouldn't exactly say now. Five hundred years have passed after all...who knows what could have happened already. We were hoping that you were able to do something about it. Apparently, you seem to be stuck in the same situation."

It seemed a waste of time to explain his own situation. It was irrelevant, There were more important matters at hand. "How do I get back?"

"Now?" asked Gen.

"Now. Right now. This very moment! Please tell me you figured out a way to do this." He was near begging.

"We did, but it was too late. Our bodies were already dead. Too late for us, not that we could have done it while alive. As you can see, this lake is a giant mirror- a mirror to heaven as the locals call it. But to be practical, call it a teleportation mechanism for souls as long as there are receptacle bodies that can facilitate them. Hence the need for a 'switch'." the sides of his mouth turned down as Gen stroked his beard thoughtfully. "But to activate it, a great surge of power is necessary. Do you have that?"

Tenpou remembered the mirror in his hotel room. The earcuffs. Yes, that's it!

"I think I do."

"Then we can proceed."

I'm sorry, Kanzeon sama, but a week is too much for me.

****

Dammit. I can't see a thing. Gojyo cursed loudly to himself. Damn Hakkai with his damn ideas to go out in the middle of a fucking storm to go fucking ghost busting.

/"Stop treating him like your little wife. Hakkai can take care of himself."/

Little wife. He spat. Hakkai ain't my wife.

"The fuck?!" he shouted before falling into a ditch of five foot snow. "Damiiiiiittttttt." Gojyo crawled out and with a growl of frustration, whipped out his weapon and sent the surrounding snow into the air.

He plowed forward, holding his arm up against the wind. "Don't do anything stupid, Hakkai..." It sounded cheesy, but maybe if he said it enough, Hakkai would hear because Hakkai's sensitive like that and he would never do anything against Gojyo's will. "Wait for me..."

****

Tenpou gazed into lake's water where Gen had his men break the ice. It sat there, bleak and gray. Forbidding in its eerie stillness.

"I have to..." Tenpou's mouth suddenly went dry. His hand immediately went to the earcuff, clutched, unclutched. Let go. "...in there?"

Gen nodded severely. "Then do whatever you need to do to get that power before you're paralyzed. To switch the souls of thirty youkai and thirty gods, about fifty of their clan jumped into the lake and sacrificed themselves. It was apparently enough."

Litouten must have bribed them with some twisted promise of power, Tenpou thought sourly before gazing over the horizon to where the village was located. Nothing more than blinding whiteness. "Tell me...what happens after the switch? I'm back home in my study- cozy and all but..." His eyes switched to his bandaged hand which hid the lifeline he wasn't going to think about. "What happens to this body?"