On Ukoku, Sanzo, and Lol Camp.
THE BEGINNING
Koumyou and Ukoku first meet while Koumyou is visiting Goudai Sanzo (the former owner of the Muten Sutra). Although Ukoku was not Ukoku, then. His name was Kenyuu and he was the most talented of Goudai's disciples, excelling in martial and Buddhist arts, and with a PhD at 17. Goudai, however, isn't terribly fond of him, and he thinks Kenyuu only acts the way he does (easygoing and sociable) as part of an act.
Later, we find out that Goudai is sick and thus, planning to pass on his title soon, which is why he called Koumyou to the temple in the first place; so he could act as a witness. Unfortunately, Kenyuu turns out NOT to be one of the candidates and he attacks Goudai, demanding to know why he wasn't picked. Koumyou stops him, and then while Kenyuu is locked they share a heartfelt conversation in which we learn about Kenyuu's death wish and how Koumyou seems to be the only person who understands him.
The next day, Kenyuu shows up during the trial and pretty much slaughters all of the other candidates and Goudai. Koumyou, while watching this scene, wonders if Goudai knew Kenyuu would show up, and if this was his way of telling Koumyou that he would be in charge of Kenyuu (now Ukoku) from then on.
And! We can easily infer from canon that he did, since they became good friends and even spent about a year travelling together. To say they were close, would be an understatement.
THE BET AND MY TAKE ON IT
During one of Ukoku's visits, Koumyou tells him that a high priest once compared them to the darkness of the night at the moon. Ukoku, amused, says that he wonders which one of them will get swallowed up first, and Koumyou asks him if he would like to make a bet.
The wager? The next rising sun (which is also obviously a reference to Sanzo).
Now obviously, with Koumyou dead one would think the bet is over and Ukoku was the winner, but Nii doesn't seem to think the same. More than once, he comments on how neither of them has lost the bet yet, and just a month ago canon echoed that conversation again, as the ikkou was getting ready to fight Ukoku.
I've been theorizing a lot about this, rambling at Katy at length and... we've come up with a few theories. I think the most acceptable one so far is that Koumyou proposed the bet in order to give Ukoku something to keep him from becoming bored and... well, at the same time, something to satiate his death wish. I honestly doubt Koumyou knew he'd die relatively soon when this conversation took place, so it's not as if putting Sanzo againtst Ukoku was his plan all along. Did he actually intend to kill Ukoku, eventually? Iiiii want to say no, but that's my personal opinion and I'll ramble at length about it further below.
"But Floor, the wager was Sanzo!" Yyyes but no. I mean, it's obvious Koumyou was playing with the whole darkness/moon-sun theme and the logical consequence to the night ending is of course, for the sun to rise. IT'S ALL A VERY PRETTY SYMBOLICAL THING, MINEKURA LOEV SYMBOLISM, BUT THAT'S IT. As I said, I really don't think Koumyou had Sanzo in mind when he made the bet, things just somehow... ended up working that way.
KOUMYOU ON UKOKU
... sob this is the part that will make me cry.
Okay, as I mentioned before, Ukoku and Koumyou became very good friends across the years. Crazy psychopath or not, Koumyou never once judged Ukoku. He's always been fully aware that he has issues that are very different from most people's issues, but this never made Koumyou treat him differently to anybody else. On the contrary! Koumyou would be very blunt with him all the time, telling him he must be a very boring person, and how the crickets stopped chirping because he showed up.
Again, Goudai sort of left Koumyou in charge of Ukoku. Maybe because he could understand him, or maybe because he was hoping Koumyou would be able to get to him and make him a good person, who knows! The point is, that even though it was kind of a responsibility for him at first, Koumyou eventually ended up becoming attached to Ukoku. Far too much, perhaps!
Koumyou's life back then was almost completely devoted to Kouryuu (which is a great deal of why Ukoku hates Sanzo we assume), but what he shared with Ukoku was something completely different. Kouryuu was like a son, but Ukoku was more like a friend; an accomplice of sorts. Both of them were special snowflakes and this is probably what drew them closer. A murderous young prodigy, and a quirky gentle old man -- they did a good job of balancing each other out.
(Now, this is the part where headcanon kicks in, because Minekura loves being a tease vague.)
Ukoku's death wish never really went away, I think. And Koumyou just happened to be the only one who really understood it. The way Katy and I see it, Koumyou never bored Ukoku and that's a great part of why he wanted him to kill him. He was different to everyone else, and while at first Koumyou refused because he said he didn't like getting involved in other people's affairs, I do honestly think by the end of his days it was only because he cared for Ukoku too much.
Which just opens a whole new can of worms because Koumyou knew that dying would make Ukoku happy and that would be good! But there's also this little selfish part of him that wanted him to stay alive, that kept hoping Ukoku would find something interesting, something to care about. Something that would end his boredom with the world without ending his life. This is why I think that when he made the bet he didn't actually intend to kill Ukoku, but more like... give him hopes for something, in a way.
Lolol so now that's out of the way, you may notice that we've been playing the Ukoku/Koumyou relationship as a sort of unrequited thing. Ukoku has wanted Koumyou since forever and Koumyou, while not outright rejecting his feelings, has never actually reciprocated them either.
My theory? On a certain level, Koumyou knows he's not boring to Ukoku and he strongly suspects this is due to the fact that he won't openly return his feelings. IT'S A CIRCLE OF FAIL YES, but-- well. Koumyou fears that if he were to let Ukoku know just how much he means to him, Ukoku would become bored with him and move on to someone/something else.
This is bad not only because it would make Koumyou a sad panda, but also because he'd lose whatever little... power? Influence? He still has over him. THIS ALL MAKES KOUMYOU SOUND LIKE A MANIPULATIVE BASTARD, I KNOW, BUT. It's all part of walking this thin line between keeping a bitchy Ukoku by his side and having him go and negate the entire humanity.
Except, now, he's starting to realize his influence over him is not that strong anymore and that scares him. He is immensely grateful for the moogles and the fact that camp seems to be isolated from everything else, because otherwise who knows what Ukoku would be doing right now.
HOW THIS ALL RELATES TO SANZO AND WHY KOUMYOU NEEDS A HUG
A little backstory, first! Once upon a time, Koumyou heard a voice calling out to him. This voice belonged to a baby that he rescued from the river current and raised as his child. Kouryuu grew up in the temple, as one more of Koumyou's disciples, and was bullied big time for his looks and for being Koumyou's favorite. One night, we don't know how, Koumyou sensed his time was close and called Kouryuu to his chamber. There, he passed on his title to him and shortly after was attacked by a group of youkai thieves. He used a spell to prevent Kouryuu from moving and shielded him with his own body, dying in the process.
To say Kouryuu-- Sanzo is the most important thing to Koumyou would be an understatement. He always enjoyed babbling about him at length (much to Ukoku's chagrin), and he chose to make him a Sanzo when he was still a child for a reason. Arriving to camp and finding out that he had been here before, and hearing stories about him had him completely delighted.
And then they met up and things were awesome until Koumyou found out about his rivalry with Ukoku. Slowly, he started piecing things together and becoming more and more concerned, because it was obvious that his relationship with both of them would become a problem in the long run.
Koumyou was pretty determined not to meddle, because, after all, he's supposed to be dead. He wanted to remain as neutral as possible, but the fact that Ukoku broke Sanzo's leg, then killed Goku (again), and attempted to negate Sanzo's existence really put him in a difficult situation.
He'd promised Sanzo he wouldn't die for him again, but the reality is he would do it again. And again. As many times as necessary. Koumyou really can't stand seeing him hurt, and he told Ukoku as much. Sanzo is his business and he will become involved if necessary.
In a way, I think, Koumyou still has a hard time thinking of Sanzo as a grown man. Someone who can make his own decisions and take care of himself. It's not that he's completely blind to it, but he can't help being protective of his son. The problem is... being protective of Sanzo implies putting himself against Ukoku and l-lol.
So now, Sanzo's confronting Koumyou about his friendship with Ukoku and all that jazz and it's INCREDIBLY AWKWARD for him. It's making him realize that the bet is still on, but he's not actively participating anymore. Sanzo is now the one who has to defeat Ukoku and give him the death he wants, and there's... really nothing Koumyou can do about this.
He can't even be angry at Ukoku, because the reason why he's fighting Sanzo is his own fault in the first place. Maybe because he never gave him as much attention, or because he never had the spine to kill him. The point is, the bet was his idea and Ukoku is just playing along, he still wants to die, and he wants Sanzo to be the one to do it.
Koumyou is very reluctant to tell Sanzo about the bet, because it looks like Sanzo feels enough like a tool as it is and he really really doesn't want to make things worse. As I was telling Katy last night, it's like everything he did before came back to bite him in the ass and he has no clue of how to make things better.
Ukoku keeping at the flirting game doesn't help much, either. Koumyou is pretty much trapped between a rock and a hard place, he still doesn't want to become boring for Ukoku but at the same time he feels like a terrible person for never giving him what he wants (DESPITE, YOU KNOW, RECIPROCATING HIS FEELINGS). Ukoku won't believe a word he says, and Sanzo has all the right in the world to be angry at him too. TRUFAX: Accidentally setting up your two most important people against each other in an epic deathmatch can never end well, no matter what.
Aaaand, that's where we are, right now. Koumyou feels really bad, but he won't say a word about it because he's supposed to be a master of zen and also it's all his own fault, anyway. :( As per usual, I'm probably forgetting stuff, so feel free to ask/remind me. Hau hau hauuu, Koumyou is hard to play.