History rewrite
Sanzo is the son of a prominent politician from a town in the north and the young daughter of a tailor. Due to her age scandal ensued, and due to political pressure she fled the town and he disappeared. At the time she was pregnant. She died not too long after giving birth to Sanzo. Before she died, she placed him in a small boat and sent the boat down the Yangtze River. He was found by Koumyou Sanzo, who took him as his own and named him Kouryuu.
At the Kinzan Temple, Kouryuu was a quick study and was soon surpassing the older monks who resided there. Because of this they were jealous and were harsh on him, even talking about him with the boy still in the room. Kouryuu didn’t seem to care about the jabs and instead found it annoying. Koumyou treated him as a son and was open about his opinions no matter the harshness, a trait which Kouryuu picked up. Despite living in a temple the boy said he didn’t believe in god, preferring to follow his master and believe in himself instead.
When Kouyruu was 13, Koumyou announced that he would give the boy a title. One night he called him to his room to do so. Koumyou gave him the name Genjo Sanzo, and named him his successor. Unfortunately, at the same time the temple was attacked by demons seeking to steal the sutras held by Koumyou: the Maten and Seiten. Koumyou sacrificed himself to save the young Sanzo, and the Seiten sutra was stolen. The next day Sanzo revealed to the monks what had happened the night before, and left to search for the stolen sutra.
Four years later, Sanzo arrived in Chang’an to ask for the Three Aspects’ help in finding his master’s sutra. They agreed to look for information but instructed him to go to a nearby temple to work and wait. Their reasoning had been that his “eyes were dead” and that he needed to prove himself. He met the head priest of the temple, who smoked during the night and called him a demon from the moon.
Up to this point he had been wandering around China with only a gun for protection. He was attacked constantly and did what he could to survive, including killing his attackers. The guilt that had been building for years was driving him crazy and giving him horrible nightmares. The monks at the temple were weary of him, wondering what kind of man this priest was. Eventually Sanzo decided that he had enough of it all and decided to leave. He told the head priest that he was lost on being a Sanzo, and the priest gave him his cigarettes as a parting gift (despite the fact that Sanzo didn’t smoke).
Later that night a group of demons attacked the temple looking for Sanzo. The high priest claimed to be Sanzo and used spells to subdue the demons. Not too far away Sanzo was thinking about the meaning of Koumyou’s last words about the reason a Sanzo wears his sutra on his shoulders. He heard the alarm and raced back to the temple. The priest was mortally wounded, but when he saw Sanzo he commented that he was ready and the rest was up to him. Sanzo realized that the only reason to keep moving forward was to accept the guilt and move on. The next day Sanzo took over as head of the temple.
Not too long after that he started hearing a voice in his head calling for him. He followed it to Mt. Gogyou, where a monster was said to live. Instead, he came across a small boy in a cave who insisted that he hadn’t been calling anyone. Sanzo freed the boy only to find that he followed him back down the mountain. The boy said his name was Goku and he didn’t know why or how long he had been imprisoned in the cave. Since it looked like he wasn’t going to be rid of the child, Sanzo took him back to Chang’an. But a temple was no place for the boy so he hid him in a storage building. One night Goku was caught sneaking food by the monks, and when they tried to catch him he attacked. Sanzo arrived just in time to see that the boy he had taken with him was the Seiten Taisei, a great and powerful demon. Sanzo managed to subdue him and replace his diadem, and the next day let the monks know that the boy would be living at the temple from now on (much to the monks’ displeasure).
Sanzo was asked by the Three Aspects to bring in a criminal named Cho Gonou to answer for his crimes. Which Goku in tow, Sanzo came across Sha Gojyo, who Gonou was reportedly living with. When he brought Gonou to Chang’an, he spoke on the man’s behalf and Gonou was released and entrusted to Sanzo for monitoring. Gonou changed his name to Hakkai and lived with Gojyo not far from the temple where Sanzo worked.
Three years later, a calamity befell Shangrila. Demons were going berserk right and left due to efforts to revive Gyumao. The Three Aspects summoned Sanzo to go west and put a stop to it, and also told him that the Seiten sutra was being used in the revival. He was instructed to gather Goku, Gojyo and Hakkai and head out immediately. During their journey west the group has been attacked constantly by assassins, among them Gyomao’s son Kougaiji who is determined to take the sutra from Sanzo. They’ve encountered a man called “Kami-sama,” who nearly killed them in their first encounter and stole the Maten sutra. The second time was the charm and the group defeated him. During this Sanzo realized that this “Kami-sama” was in fact the apprentice of another Sanzo (Ukoku).
Then they encountered a man named name Hazel Grouse who could “raise the dead” and his companion Gat. Not too long after Goku is attacked and Sanzo leaves the group and travels with Hazel for a while, trying to find out who told him about the Seiten Taisei. He meets up with the three again, this time on opposing sides of a dispute between a demon village and humans. Upon further investigating Sanzo realizes that it was the humans who started the fighting in the first place, not the demons like he had been told. He and Hazel then leave the humans to fight the demons on their own.
They come across Ukoku, who had been following them for a while. They fight, and Ukoku reveals both Sanzo’s and Hazel’s origins and nearly kills them. Gat intervenes on Hazel’s behalf, and Goku, Hakkai, and Gojyo show up. Ukoku tries to use his sutra against them, but Varahal (the demon living in Hazel) starts fighting him. During this time, Hakkai heals Sanzo’s wounds and the three recuperate. Sanzo shoots Ukoku in the face, and Ukoku vanishes. All four are in bad shape but manage to get up and make it to the border of India.