Through Hell and Back

A/N: SHUGO are officials appointed by the Shogun

CH 3: The Hunt Begins

The Heavens roared angrily overhead as Mugen stared out the window from his spot on the floor, his glower only widening in its intensity as Fuu continued to clean and dress the wound on his head. Finally fed up with her incessant coddling, he muttered, “You don’t hafta do this, ya know…I can take care-a myself.”

“I know” Fuu mumbled despondently in return, her eyes dark and somber as she smoothed a drop of ointment across the small gash over his eyebrow and sighed.

Hissing in pain, Mugen sent the girl a dirty look that would cause most men to piss their pants, yet she promptly brushed it off and reached for the homemade bandages that she’d snatched from Ayame’s cupboard. Now turning back to her ‘patient’, she gave a firm “Hold still”, to which Mugen sourly – and remarkably – complied.

As Fuu began to wrap the dressing about his head, she couldn’t help but allow her gaze to innocently travel down along the strong features of her former bodyguard. Something about them seemed harder…colder, almost, and for that she couldn’t help but become frightened. This was the face of a cold-blooded killer – correction, a Rebel, and because of this she knew that he now viewed her as the enemy.

“What’re you starin’ at me like that for?”

Jumping over being caught during her blatant investigation, Fuu stubbornly averted her eyes and finished tying the knot to Mugen’s bandages with a weak “Nothing” as her highly unconvincing reply.

“Bullshit” the vagrant brusquely accused, his eyes glinting oddly within the candlelight as they suspiciously roved across her face. “You wanna tell me why you’ve been actin’ like I’m gonna kill ya this evenin’? ‘Cause if it’s about earlier, I just wanted the money.”

Fuu sadly shook her head ‘no’. “I…I suppose I just wish that you’d have remembered me this afternoon, is all, because….I remembered you.”

“I did remember ya, Fuu, butcha grew some tits and it madeja practically unrecognizable” Mugen teased, grinning from ear-to-ear when she sent him a murderous scowl.

“Mugen, you rat! I’m trying to be serious, here!” she wailed. “For once in your life, could you please just treat me with respect and let me be your friend!?”

The Ryukyuan immediately soured. “I ain’t got no friends, Fuu, so it’s best you started rememberin’ that.”

“But Mugen, I-”

Irritably rising in answer, the vagrant removed his soiled haori and tossed the garment to the floor, his arms now spread eagle at his sides as if putting himself on display for the whole world to examine. When Fuu gasped he nodded in triumph, returning gruffly, “There, ya see? Becomin’ a Rebel came with a high price…no real friends woulda tortured their fellow man inta showin’ their loyalty.”

Wordlessly rising so that she could now meet with his vacant stare, Fuu approached him and gingerly reached out toward one of the offending areas, her heart aching once she touched the puffy scar across his left pectoral and felt him cringe beneath her touch.

“Don’t do that” Mugen warned, his tone cold, yet somehow retaining an apprehension that he had never allowed her to hear before.

Completely empathetic to this, Fuu entreated softly, “How did it happen, Mugen?”

“What, the cut?”

“No…your becoming a Rebel.”

“It’s best you don’t know that” he muttered, now folding his arms across his broad chest before sullenly leaning back against the wall. “In this world, some shit’s just better left unsaid.”

Fuu allowed the darks of her eyes to travel along the rough contours of the Ryukyuan’s face at this admonition, her hands now clenching into two tiny fists as she fought not to wrap her arms around him and insist that everything would be alright. Something about him just seemed so distant…so injured.

Growing rather uncomfortable with her intense examination, Mugen finally growled, “Will ya quit it? You’re weirdin’ me out!”

“Sorry” Fuu apologized, immediately averting her eyes so that they rested upon the warped wooden floorboards beneath her feet. “I-I guess I’m just really happy to see you, you know? It’s been at least three years since I’ve last seen your face…”

Mugen scowled. “Yeah, well that don’t mean ya hafta stare at me like that…it’s creepy.”

Instead of retaliating as he wished, however, Fuu nodded meekly and turned toward the sliding door in order to make her leave. He hadn’t changed at all…

His eyes widening at her unexpected behavior, Mugen resentfully watched her lissome figure egress the dimly lit room in a manner that very much suggested that she had been internally wounded. Although Mugen was a relatively indifferent man, the moment Fuu turned back to look at him with her large, sorrowful eyes he felt as if a part of him had died…

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Fuu bent over a teahouse table as she half-heartedly washed its pine surface, her eyes soft and devoid of all her inner light due to the monstrous ache that laid within her soul.

Mugen had been the same, and yet he had also been completely different. His eyes still retained their feral luster, only now they seemed much colder and uncaring. Oh, what had the Rebels done to him to take away his infectious spirit? Initially it was this very spirit that made her despise him so, yet over time it also became the one thing that attracted her to him.

At one point Fuu thought she was in love with Jin, too, but she was fifteen at the time and she now realized that it had been nothing more than a foolish infatuation. Girls at that age, after all, tend to base ‘love’ on physical attraction opposed to actual chemistry and character, so it was truly no surprise that she thought she had been head over heels for the ronin.

Fuu suddenly frowned. According to her assumptions, Jin was the one who she should be in love with, and yet…she wasn’t. Perhaps it was because she knew that the moment Jin left to rescue Shino she had lost him forever. That was the day her childish fantasies had gone up in a cloud of smoke and forced her to accept the cruel reality: she and Jin could never be together.

Now placing her rag back into the basin at her feet, Fuu straightened out her back and gratefully released the kinks that had been plaguing her since the beginning of her shift.

‘All this work and not a customer in sight’ she realized, glumly glancing about her at the small and unbearably empty space. ‘Maybe Ayame will just let me off early…or maybe I can just-”

“Fuu!”

She gasped, nearly toppling over due to the shock of seeing her boss come barreling in through the teahouse flaps like a frightened animal. “A-Ayame” she choked, “What on earth’s happened? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost!”

Ayame bitterly shook her head. “There’s no time to explain, Fuu-chan…the Rebels are seeking you out because they think you killed Mugen. If we hurry now, we can escape without being spotted!”

Fuu blanched. “Wait, what? Why on earth do they think that!?”

“I’ve already told you…there’s no time to explain! Just come on!” Ayame urged, her cheeks rosy from her apparent anxiety as she hurried Fuu along toward the entrance. Just as they were about to egress the teahouse, however, a large and burly man wearing nothing but a vest and black hakama pointedly blocked their only means of escape.

“Kasumi Fuu?” he boomed, his baritone sending shivers through the girl’s spine as she nodded weakly.

“Hai” she acknowledged, “I-I am.”

Smirking amidst his own self-assurance, Burly remarked, “I’m afraid you’ve gotta come with me, girly…there’s blood to be repaid.”

Instead of denying the charges, however, Fuu proudly stood tall and nodded. “Very well, sir…do what you must. Just please promise me that you won’t hurt my friend.”

“I don’t make no promises to stupid little wenches like you!” Burly shot back, his fist curling about his longsword before unsheathing it and placing the blade abruptly beneath Ayame’s chin.

Meeting with Fuu’s terrified gaze, Ayame knowingly shook her head to indicate that she would be fine, yet before the poor girl could tell Fuu to leave, Burly had already delivered an unexpected blow to her chest with the hilt of his sword.

With a startled yelp, Ayame went sprawling out across the wooden floor, her eyes squeezing shut in pain as she curled up into the fetal position and coughed up a small puddle of blood.

Crying out, Fuu moved to go to her friend, but Burly seized her by the wrist and forcefully slammed her hand down against one of the tables to keep her in place. Trying desperately to squirm free, Fuu released a petrified shriek the moment Burly placed the blade of his longsword against the joining of her wrist and smirked. “Sorry, babe, but rules is rules…I need yer blood.”

“No, please! I-I’ll give you as many dumplings as you want!” Fuu desperately cajoled, her voice now laden with a fear so deep that one could drown within its strength.

Burly merely laughed in return at her plea, his beady eyes flashing with a sick bloodlust as he raised his weapon and quickly brought it down.

Squeezing her eyes tightly closed, Fuu winced the moment speckles of blood sprayed out across her face, neck and kimono, her astonishment over feeling no pain causing her to immediately open her eyes and shriek. There, lying lifelessly before her was Burly, only not in the way she remembered him. His sword arm had been hacked clean off from the clavicle down, as well as his right ankle. Embedded deeply within the Rebel’s back was a blood-stained shamshir…Mugen’s shamshir.

Gasping, Fuu stumbled to her feet amidst her blatant shock and whimpered, her eyes wide and fearful as she fixated them upon her aberrant savior.

Mugen’s strong features were stony and covered with the grotesque make-up of a freshly killed cadaver, yet the murderous look in his eyes was what truly chilled her to the bone. “Did he hurt you?” When Fuu merely shook her head in return the Ryukyuan snorted, his agitation quite evident upon his scarred face as he sheathed his bloody sword in the scabbard on his back. “Looks like we should head out, then…it’ll be gettin’ dark soon.”

Fuu looked up at him with wide eyes. “H-head out?” she reiterated, her mouth now unspeakably dry. “But Mugen, I can’t leave! I owe Ayame my life!”

“What, so all the crap I did for you in the past means jack shit? C’mon, Fuu, quit bein’ stupid! The Rebels are gonna be after you ‘cause-a your helpin’ me, so if you’re smart, you’ll let me take you outta here!” Mugen growled, thus causing Fuu to pipe down in an instant.

Submissively bowing her head, she finally agreed, “Very well, Mugen…just let me at least say good-bye to her. She’s done so much for me these past three years…”

Rolling his eyes, Mugen tromped out of the room and into the adjacent hallway in what appeared to be his way of saying ‘hurry the hell up’, a light smile now tugging at Fuu’s lips as she realized that he hadn’t changed so much, after all.

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From Jin’s vantage point, Mugen looked relatively unchanged. A tad more muscular in build, perhaps, but other than that he was basically the same misguided miscreant he’d always been. Now Fuu, on the other hand, had changed tremendously since their last exchange at the crossroads. Her willowy movements very much reminded the hatamoto of a flower in the wind, and her dark eyes and long hair that billowed down her back in tumults of silk made him smile. The thought of even harming a hair on that head made him desperately ill, his dark brows drawing inward upon his gaunt face as he forced himself to look away.

How and why his friends had reunited Jin wasn’t quite sure, yet he had to admit that he was unconventionally relieved to find that they were together. Mugen would protect her, of that he was certain; no matter how much the vagrant had complained about Fuu in the past, Jin always knew that deep-down he actually cared a great deal for the girl. His intuition had only been reaffirmed by Mugen’s constant impulsiveness when it came to rescuing their friend time and time again. Either way, Jin figured that the Ryukyuan either really loved to play hero, or he was secretly (and most likely) fond of the little brat.

‘Shame on me for thinking such thoughts…Mugen’s not even here to defend his honor’ Jin light-heartedly scolded himself before turning and smiling. As soon as he did so, however, the hatamoto found himself face-to-face with his overseer.

“Kourumi-sama” he breathed, now trying his best to still the apprehension on his face, “with all due respect, sir, why are you here? Surely you know that there are many angry peasants in this city? They are still very upset with your decision on taxing them for their land.”

Tokugawa smirked. “Well I am sure that there are also many hans whom are willing to defend my honor alongside you, Jin-san. Such trivial affairs mean nothing to me…you know as well as I as to why I am here. I’ve come to check on your progress.”

Jin slid a careful sideways glance toward the direction in which Mugen and Fuu had taken, only to release a barely audible sigh of relief upon discovering that they were long gone. Now returning his cool and collected gaze back to his master, he returned, “From what I have gathered from the locals, senpai, Kasumi Fuu has been spotted living here in a teashop owned by a young woman named Ishida Ayame. Fuu has recently caught word of being a target, so she and a former bodyguard have begun journeying somewhere west of here. To my misfortune, no one could tell me exactly where they were headed.”

Tokugawa absently rubbed his chin. “But this girl had a friend, you say?”

“Hai.”

Smirking, the roju acknowledged, “Very good, Jin-san…what you have divulged pleases me very much. I would like you to gather up our men to go and question this Ishida Ayame.”

Jin stiffened, but the motion went completely unnoticed by his senpai. “With all due respect, sir, I was hoping that I could interrogate this woman on my own accord.”

“Nonsense, Jin-san! If Ishida Ayame is a friend of Kasumi Fuu’s, we’ll need all the intimidation we can get. Now either you send for the others, or I march in that teahouse and do away with the girl, myself!”

“Hai, Kourumi-sama” Jin returned, his lashes lowering darkly in order to mask his inner turmoil.

As he turned to take his leave, Tokugawa turned to one of his Shogu and ordered, “I want you to gather up some men and start heading east…I’m nearly poisitive that that fickle hatamoto is lying straight through his teeth.”

“Yes, sir!”


A/N: Whoo, this chapter is FINALLY over!!! It’s not even that long when I read over it, but jeez, did I have writer’s block out the wazoo! For some reason it’s always with the Mugen/Fuu scenes…guh.

And no, Mugen and Fuu obviously don’t know that the Shogunate is after her, yet. :)

Anywhos, sorry if this fic is relatively boring so far, but I PROMISE that it gets waaay better…in fact, the rumor has me so excited that I wish I could just skip right to the end right now! But…I won’t. lol Anywhos, if you like it I’ll continue, if not…guess I’ll just keep the little rumor to myself. LoL REVIEW, PLEASE!!!