Synopsis
The SI drives into a dusty town, so run-down it doesn't even have an inn. Goku can't wait till they reach the next village to eat, so Hakkai and Gojyo go off with him to locate snacks and pick up some cigarettes for Sanzo. The monk waits for them, leaning on Hakuryu and puffing one of his last remaining smokes. A lot of crows are about...the wind rises ominously... someone is sneaking closer and closer to the jeep--someone who looks oddly small--and then approaches Sanzo, whose eyes widen in alarm.
When H, G&G return, both priest and jeep are gone, but Hakuryu's frantic kyuu-ing from above points the way...And we see a creepy Gothic-looking mansion on a hill, with rooms full of jointed dolls, mostly unfinished [the BJD Workshop from Hell!]. A blank-eyed Sanzo is sitting in a room gazing at a TV monitor which clicks through shots from a battery of surveillance cameras outside [huh? since when did the Saiyukiverse have this sort of technology?]. Behind him a finished doll appears--a silver-haired boy in traditional dress--, saying that Sanzo's face is beautiful, and he's sure many people loved him. [--Well, he's half right.] The doll's annoyed to hear the screech of brakes as Hakuryu and the trio pull up outside. Gojyo complains about Sanzo being the only one invited to the mansion. The gate creaks open by itself: Hakkai says grimly "looks as if they want us to come in", while Gojyo grumbles that this is no way to treat guests ("Self-service?" he complains in English. =) . --inside the gate they're greeted by rows and rows of Chinese mandarin dolls who stand silently watching them pass. If this has been written by someone who knew the series both Hakkai and Gojyo would have Chin Yisou flashbacks and be deeply creeped out, but *sigh* this is Tomonaga-san's first Saiyuki script, so Hakkai just chuckles and reassures Goku that they're only dolls. G&G are really uneasy, which isn't helped by Hakkai adding spookily "the dolls are laughing at you" [--evil 'Kai. =)], and they completely freak out when Sanzo's captor doll appears in the doorway and says they won't be allowed to enter. Karakuri ningyo?--a mechanical doll? wonders Hakkai astutely. [Karakuri are intricate clockwork automatons, created in Japan since the 17th century.] Goku demands to know if he's the one who took Sanzo; he begins to laugh, and the Mandarin dolls echo his laughter as they rise into the air. Hakkai looks really ticked off now (maybe he is having those flashbacks)' as G&G arm up; the dolls sprout rings of blades. Hakkai calls up a ki sphere, and the battle is joined, with resulting showers of doll parts.
A violet-haired girl doll, resembling the first one but less finished, beckons them inside, and they follow (as the now gruesomely shattered Mandarins take flight again). She tells them her name is Junfa and she was born in this room, created with great love and care by her master. (All dolls have souls, she adds.--She stands on the table to address them; she's about the size of a Super Dollfie 17.) Junfa explains that after her master's death a demon took over this mansion--Shudo, the one we saw with Sanzo. He possesses a human soul, and is obsessed with beauty, killing men with beautiful faces one after another and tearing off their faces to wear them. You must save your friend before it's too late, she pleads; you're the only ones who've been able to enter, you may have a chance of defeating him.--suddenly she covers her face with her hands and cries out; Hakkai steps forward, but Junfa cries that they mustn't come any closer, leaps to the floor and runs from the room, Goku gives chase, but when he reaches the door she's vanished.
In Sanzo's room, he stares without emotion as the surveillance camera shows Goku looking down the hall. I thought they'd leave, but it seems they plan to rescue you, says Shudo. It must be wonderful, being so beautiful and so loved...He faces the door angrily. Before I take your face, he says, I'm going to teach them a lesson about the pain of being betrayed by a loved one.
As the ikkou-minus-3 run across the front lawn of the mansion, Sanzo appears on the balcony above the front door, accompanied by Shudo. Goku calls to him, but he faces them without expression (they realize something's wrong here) and then draws a bead on Goku and fires. Shudo laughs and says "that's his way of telling you three to leave." Hakkai deduces he's been hypnotized, and Gojyo snides "that dumbass actually fell for something like that?" --Give Sanzo back! yells Goku, and Shudo taunts, how does it feel to have someone you love point a gun at you?--they all react: Goku says "that's pretty cold," Hakkai remarks that he doesn't even know where to put the punchline, and Gojyo retorts "that stupid monk points his gun at us all the time, and we sure as hell don't love him!" Lies, says the doll. Its eyes glow; Sanzo's eyes glow as well and he aims at them again. Hakkai arms up with a ki sphere, and tells G&G to attack Sanzo as well, saying resolutely that they'll snap him out of this.--Gojyo and Goku grin evilly and agree that it would be major fun to kick Sanzo's ass. =)=) Hakkai smiles, says "here we go!" and go they do.
Gojyo and Goku gang up on the monk, Gojyo griping that there's nothing that great about Sanzo's face; I'm much better-looking! he says, and Goku agrees that Sanzo's always scowling and has such droopy eyes. Shudo is horrified, yelling for them to stop attacking before they ruin his face. But the guys are having too much fun to quit, and keep on throwing attacks until Sanzo's eyes clear--and then he shoots at them again for attacking him! As the trio try to explain that they were trying to rescue him, more gunfire follows ("He's scarier when he's normal!" wails Goku, and Hakkai wonders if they weren't better off leaving him hypnotized) until Shudo, glowing red with rage, demands to know how they dare interfere with his plan.
What's this thing? asks Sanzo, and Gojyo smartasses that he's the one who wanted to take Sanzo's pretty face, which the monk finds disturbing. Shudo insists that face is now his, and gets a bullet for it. You're dead if you don't get the hell away from me, snarls Sanzo. --Shudo howls, and the flying Mandarin army reappears, wheeling around the ikkou...
Shudo yowls in pain and turns into Junfa; Hakkai says "so they're the same doll" and guesses that the demon's spirit possessed not the mansion but the doll's body. Junfa says that she gained the power of speech when Shudo possessed her form, but he never listens to her. She argues with Shudo, changing form back and forth.
Shudo finally confesses that his father's obsession with dollmaking robbed him of love and attention, and that he hanged himself in despair, saying he could only regain his father's love by placing his spirit inside a doll body. But his father, realizing that his fixation on his dolls had caused his son's death, destroyed all his creations one by one, and when he was about to smash Junfa--who was now Shudo--Shudo killed him in self-defense. It's his punishment for never loving me! he cries. [Is this script weird or what?] Junfa disputes this, saying that the master only wanted to make Shudo happy, and that all his dolls, including her, were made in Shudo's image. It's a lie! he says, but she replies "if you remove all the faces you've taken on, you'd see." She holds up a photo of father and son together, saying that the master cherished it. ==Shudo says he's forgotten his real face and doesn't want to remember; all he wants is revenge on all dolls, and on people whose faces are as beautiful as dolls' faces. [Isn't it interesting that only Gojyo has disputed Sanzo's right to be called beautiful--and Gojyo only by saying 'but I'm prettier"? =)]
Sanzo puts two shots through Shudo; as he falls, the Mandarins fall too. Junfa is still saying that Shudo's father loved him and Shudo is still insisting that's not true. "How long are you going to keep this up?" says Sanzo; and he walks over to Shudo and pries off his layers of faces. Sure enough, his original face matches the boy in the photo. He made the doll look like his son, but in the process forgot something much more important, says Sanzo. [Wow, Sanzo gets that?] Hakkai reads the back of the photo, on which his father has written a plea for Shudo's forgiveness. Shudo finally understands; 'Father,' he says with his last breath, and departs. Gojyo quietly says that he's sure Shudo's father is awaiting him in heaven.
As the ikkou drives off, Gojyo teases that he can't believe the doll wanted Sanzo-sama's face--its prettiness is just ruined when he loses his temper! and then has to dodge a bullet as he yells indignantly that it was a joke =)
