"It sounds like I'm taking more care of my life than you are of yours," Hakkai said flatly. He wasn't the one planning to casually throw his life away because he was too proud to accept a master, after all.

He'd been tempted after Elsa left, but the sting of choosing a new god was soothed by the knowledge that refusing one would be the end of him, sooner or later. And the end of him for no good reason whatsoever. He'd never be as casual about it as Sanzo had chosen to be, but he could bow to someone, if he had to.

It helped that neither Gojyo nor Elsa had ever wanted subordination.