"Eh. Soon. After he calms down a bit." Tenpou replied, amusedly as he sat himself down by Gojyo's feet and leaned his chin upon the other's knee. Gojyo froze. "I think I angered him. Don't you think so, Gojyo?"

The redhead shrugged. "How the hell would I know?"

"Be it of friend or foe." Tenpou recited with a twinkle in his eye. "One cannot help but see, a third set of footprints in the snow."

"Damn you!" he lifted his hand to angrily strike him away, "Maybe one good knock on the head'll send you back!" but it was caught by Goku's fierce grip.

"Stop! Gojyo don't! Not Ten-chan!" he held on harder as he repeated the name.

He didn't know how he knew. He just did. All the questions that were asked of him...

Who taught you how to read, Goku?

It wasn't Sanzo, was it?

Then who?

...and so he began to think really hard about it. Who? Who? Who? For three nights, he'd been asking himself, finally resorting to asking the goddess of mercy (wherever she...he was)...who?

And so that night he dreamed about a library, a comforting hand upon his shoulder as another one pointed out the squiggles laid out on the paper before him. "Read it out loud with me, Goku..." Faceless, but in the shiny reflection of the book, he saw someone he thought he recognized.

"I won't let you hurt Ten-chan! It's probably not his fault that he's here. I don't know what happened, but you can't hurt him! I won't let you! Never!" Goku was starting to sound like a small child.