Categories > Anime/Manga > Saiyuki > Roads not taken
unheimlich
The 30th Toa Koumyou Sanzo, it is generally agreed, had been many things - a great Sanzo, a wise counsellor, a patient teacher, a gentle master, a good man - but he was rarely accused of being kind. One has only to consider his care for his young charge, the foundling who would become the 31st Toa Genjyo Sanzo, to learn better.
Not that he was neglectful or cruel, no; nor did he fail to love the boy as all children should be loved. But he was in every wise a master and teacher; a Sanzo, guardian of the Seiten and Maten Sutras; not a parent, nor should he be, for these duties were in conflict, and - a parent was not necessary.
Thus Koryuu: the boy drawn from the river by Koumyou Sanzo and cultivated as his successor, teased and shunned by other children, subjected to the fear and malicious gossip of idle townsfolk, envied and resented by his fellow monks for Koumyou Sanzo's presumed favour; called an unnatural child, catamite, /rakshasa/, god... No, if the treatment Koryuu received from all moved him in the slightest, he made no sign and never intervened, beyond offering the troubled child his patient counsel as needed.
And Koumyo Sanzo's teaching proved true, for Koryuu would grow to become Genjyo Sanzo, greatest among Sanzos, who served during the terrible time when the holy Seiten Sutra was lost and youkai were driven mad by the Minus Wave, turning on their neighbours, their friends and their loved ones. He had disciples, followers, but he would never need the approval or support of any other to stand confident before all obstacles, for he was sufficient unto himself, as wise and strong as his teacher before him.
A story tells that in his youth, Genjyo Sanzo used to hear voices. Or a voice; the details of what he heard are not clear. At any rate, he was called, and he answered, following the voices or voice to a cave in the mountains, barred and sealed with powerful wards to keep both the captive chained within and prying intruders away.
What he found there no one knows for certain. With such strong protections, surely it could only contain a terrifying monster capable of destroying heaven itself. Yet some whisper that it was only a child, an innocent monstrous child, held endlessly prisoner for fear of what he was, what he could become. So Genjyo Sanzo came, and the two children, more and less than human, looked upon each other from within their respective prisons, and - can you imagine, what understandings, what confidences they might have exchanged that day? Perhaps he said to the child, You are better off in there; perhaps he put the suffering monster out of its misery. No one will ever know, because Genjyo Sanzo walked away alone, and he never was troubled by voices again.
Of the 31st Toa Genjyo Sanzo, much has been said that is unflattering and disparaging - that he was violent, quick to anger, given to vices such as smoking and gambling, and there are whispers of even more shocking and licentious behaviours - but they also say, and on this point none will differ - he was nothing if not kind.
The 30th Toa Koumyou Sanzo, it is generally agreed, had been many things - a great Sanzo, a wise counsellor, a patient teacher, a gentle master, a good man - but he was rarely accused of being kind. One has only to consider his care for his young charge, the foundling who would become the 31st Toa Genjyo Sanzo, to learn better.
Not that he was neglectful or cruel, no; nor did he fail to love the boy as all children should be loved. But he was in every wise a master and teacher; a Sanzo, guardian of the Seiten and Maten Sutras; not a parent, nor should he be, for these duties were in conflict, and - a parent was not necessary.
Thus Koryuu: the boy drawn from the river by Koumyou Sanzo and cultivated as his successor, teased and shunned by other children, subjected to the fear and malicious gossip of idle townsfolk, envied and resented by his fellow monks for Koumyou Sanzo's presumed favour; called an unnatural child, catamite, /rakshasa/, god... No, if the treatment Koryuu received from all moved him in the slightest, he made no sign and never intervened, beyond offering the troubled child his patient counsel as needed.
And Koumyo Sanzo's teaching proved true, for Koryuu would grow to become Genjyo Sanzo, greatest among Sanzos, who served during the terrible time when the holy Seiten Sutra was lost and youkai were driven mad by the Minus Wave, turning on their neighbours, their friends and their loved ones. He had disciples, followers, but he would never need the approval or support of any other to stand confident before all obstacles, for he was sufficient unto himself, as wise and strong as his teacher before him.
A story tells that in his youth, Genjyo Sanzo used to hear voices. Or a voice; the details of what he heard are not clear. At any rate, he was called, and he answered, following the voices or voice to a cave in the mountains, barred and sealed with powerful wards to keep both the captive chained within and prying intruders away.
What he found there no one knows for certain. With such strong protections, surely it could only contain a terrifying monster capable of destroying heaven itself. Yet some whisper that it was only a child, an innocent monstrous child, held endlessly prisoner for fear of what he was, what he could become. So Genjyo Sanzo came, and the two children, more and less than human, looked upon each other from within their respective prisons, and - can you imagine, what understandings, what confidences they might have exchanged that day? Perhaps he said to the child, You are better off in there; perhaps he put the suffering monster out of its misery. No one will ever know, because Genjyo Sanzo walked away alone, and he never was troubled by voices again.
Of the 31st Toa Genjyo Sanzo, much has been said that is unflattering and disparaging - that he was violent, quick to anger, given to vices such as smoking and gambling, and there are whispers of even more shocking and licentious behaviours - but they also say, and on this point none will differ - he was nothing if not kind.
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