An Unexpected Coupling
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+S to Z › Samurai Champloo
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
12
Views:
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Category:
+S to Z › Samurai Champloo
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
12
Views:
8,377
Reviews:
53
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Samurai Champloo, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Requiem for the Damned
CH 8: Requiem for the Damned
Jin closed his eyes in utmost concentration as he raised the tanto in a foreboding manner, his heart uncommonly frantic within his chest as he began to feel terribly sick to his stomach. By taking Kohza’s weapon he had silently vowed to carry out her plea and he knew this, yet by God, he wished that it wasn’t so.
With a baited breath, Jin brought the blade down in a jerky motion as if his arm were attached to a string, a low grunt escaping his lips the moment a short, sharp pain erupted throughout his torso like that of a searing conflagration. Shocked, the ronin dropped the tanto and immediately doubled over in anguish, his gaunt face contorting along with his deep incredulity as he felt as if the very life were draining out of him.
Reaching out an unsteady hand, Jin clumsily fumbled for the area of pain, only to feel his torso drenched with a warm and sticky substance…
Blood.
“Kohza” he choked out, “…why?”
“I had to, Jin” she whispered, her eyes filling up with tears. “The Yakuza ordered me to dispose of you, not Mugen, and if I refused to carry out this order I, too, would have to die.”
“So you chose sin…over honor?” he wheezed, his vision beginning to go dangerously in and out of focus.
Kohza inclined her head so that she was now gazing up into the dusky heavens above, her tone incredibly hushed as she ventured, “From up there we’re nothing but grains of sand, Jin. What do one’s decisions even matter when we live in a world where everything is so insignificant?”
“I don’t…believe that” Jin counterattacked, his ink black hair falling across his line of vision as he reached out a shaking hand and grasped her by the shoulder. “You are what you choose to be in this life, Kohza…live it to the fullest while you still can.”
“Jin…” the Ryukyuan whispered almost tenderly, her dark eyes pooling over with tears as she dared to run her fingers along the smoothness of his pale cheek. “I am sorry…can you ever find it in your eternal soul to forgive me?”
“I harbor no grudges” he whispered, only to stiffen the moment she embraced him.
On instinct, Jin’s daisho sliced through the space between them in a perfect arc, a foul spray of blood splattering his face and accentuating his doleful features as Kohza limply fell forward and into his arms.
“Jin…” she gasped, her eyes widening as her nails bit into the flesh of his wrists, “How could…why did you…?” Coughing, the Ryukyuan released a pitiful moan once her own blood began to ooze out past her lips and dribble down over her chin, her eyes shining with hurt and betrayal as she leaned into the ronin and shuddered.
“Thank you…” she suddenly whispered, thus causing Jin to glance down at her in utter amazement until it finally dawned on him as to why she was so eternally grateful. He had ended her life and that, in turn, had freed her from the shackles of her everyday trials and tribulations.
Placing a hand gently against the small of her back, the ronin pulled Kohza’s lifeless form against his chest and held her close, all the while wondering how on earth such a twisted soul could tug at his hardened heart so incredibly much…
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Fuu ran her slim fingers along the expanse of Mugen’s chest as they continued to lie tangled up together beneath the glowing lamplight of the hut, her appendages pausing over each individual scar and indentation as if trying to commit them all to memory.
He was like a trail map, she realized, and a very beautiful one at that. Each cut and puncture wound led to new and untold stories that she so desperately yearned to uncover, to taste, to experience. A great deal of them, however, were also because of her, and these were the ugly, puckered scars that left her heart bleeding tears of crimson.
How could she have ever been so stupid…so selfish? If it weren’t for her amazing ability to constantly wind up being kidnapped, Mugen wouldn’t have needed to get sliced open for her sake again and again. For once, Fuu decided, she would protect him, and that was a promise that she so desperately yearned to keep.
Running her fingers down along the bruised span of his unshaven cheek, Fuu felt her heart restrict painfully within her bosom once she thought of the possibility of never waking up to the warmth of Mugen’s strong embrace, again. She had grown to care for him so deeply, and now that the jaws of death had him close at bay, she was eternally afraid that he would be snatched from her clutches without so much as a warning.
The wheezing noises that he made when he breathed did nothing to quell her taunting fears, either, and she’d been finding more and more blood stains as of late on his clothing when she washed them.
Why was he trying to cover up his illness? She didn’t want him to die, and yet…
Fuu shuddered.
What if Mugen wanted to die? What if she wasn’t enough of an anchor to keep him from drifting away into the unknown? Maybe he no longer needed her…
Closing her eyes, Fuu slowly rested her head down against Mugen’s chest and fought back the bitter onslaught of tears that threatened to tear her apart in her very heart and soul, her fingers seemingly having a mind of their own as she slid them down along the Ryukyuan’s arm and interlocked her hand fondly with his own.
As luck would have it, this was the very moment that Mugen decided to awaken, his dark eyes peering back at her curiously before he groaned and released a wretched curse. “Shit.”
“Mugen?” Fuu questioned, her voice reflecting her apparent hurt.
“Shit, shit, shit” the Ryukyuan growled sourly in return, his muscular form shooting up like a spring before he thrust the covers from their nude bodies and turned his back to her in what appeared to be frustration.
“This should’ve never happened, Fuu” he muttered, still refusing to look at her. “When I said that our first incident was a one time thing, I meant it. I don’t know why I grabbed ya like I did, but I know that it wasn’t ‘cause I care or anything, so you can just go ahead an’ that idea outta your dizzy little head.”
“Mugen…” Fuu whispered, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, “surely you felt at least somethin-”
“Shut up!” he snarled, shocking her once he spun around and nailed her directly in place with his penetrating gaze. “I don’t love you, wench, and I never will, so quit blubberin’ like some sniveling harlot and get outta here!”
Torn, Fuu immediately burst into tears, the kohl from her lashes intermingling with the saline mixture and sliding down her cheeks in several charcoal-gray splotches of pain and woe. “I hate you” she finally whispered, her voice growing more and more resolute as she rose from her perch. “Do you hear me, Mugen!? I hate you!”
The Ryukyuan merely smirked in return. “Well good, bitch, ‘cause that makes two of us.”
Fuu stood there, then, absolutely astounded, the delicate strands of her heart snapping in accordance with her inner turmoil as she suddenly found it to be terribly hard to breathe.
Mugen…hated her? She had only said what she did out of defense, not truth – she loved the vagrant more than she’d ever willingly admit, and it pained her deeply to realize such a fact.
Just as Fuu opened her mouth to tell him this, however, a loud and hollow knock resounded from outside the front door, thus causing her to glance over to Mugen in disgust before tossing him one of the blankets and wrapping the other about herself for the sake of propriety.
Hoping that the caller might be Madame Haruka back from the village, Fuu eagerly opened the door in expectance, only to gasp in absolute horror at what she saw.
There, leaning weakly against the doorjamb was Jin, his raven-black hair falling out across his sorrowful features as he tenderly tried to support the small body of a young woman against his broad chest.
Kohza…
“Jin!” Fuu exclaimed, her eyes now falling upon the various splotches of blood on both the Ryukyuan and the ronin. “What the heck happened!? What are you-?”
“Please” Jin whispered, his tone incredibly hushed and pained, “all I ask is that we briefly postpone our trip to Nagasaki so that we can return to Ryukyu and give Kohza a proper burial. After all I have done, it is the very least that I can do for her.”
Mugen stiffened at the mentioning of his birthplace, yet he found that he could say absolutely nothing, his stomach giving an uncharacteristic churn at the sight of his childhood friend all bloody and lifeless like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been cut.
He had often suspected that Jin had a soft spot for Kohza, and now that the ronin was just about ready to shoot their mission straight to hell for her sake he was almost sure of it. And yet…somehow there was something missing…
“Mugen!” Fuu scolded, thus causing him to look up in an instant, “Give us a hand with the body…Jin’s hurt!”
“That body’s name is Kohza” the ronin returned in a surprisingly icy tone, Fuu now bowing her head in shame as Mugen moved in to take the Ryukyuan away from Jin’s protective grasp, but to no avail.
“Hey, what gives, Fish Face? I’m tryin’ to help ya out, here!” Mugen growled, only to grow silent the moment his eyes met with the desperate black pools in the ronin’s despaired irises. He actually cared about her…
“I can do it, myself” Jin murmured, his zombie-like state immediately melting away once he struggled to prove himself to the others. Wound or no wound, he would try to make it up to Kohza in the only way that he knew how: through the code of bushido.
Staggering so that one foot shakily crossed over in front of the other, Jin gritted his teeth and limped onward, nearly collapsing with relief once he reached Mugen’s cot and finally laid Kohza down to rest atop its scratchy surface.
The look upon her face was so angelic, so serene…it was truly almost as if she were merely lying down and taking a quick nap.
Bowing his head, Jin solemnly pressed his palms together in prayer and released a deep exhalation, both Mugen and Fuu watching on in silent discomfort due to not knowing what to say or do to help.
It was quite apparent to Jin that he had intruded upon them when something rather voluminous had occurred, yet he no longer cared now that he had actually slain a woman. True, she had tried to assassinate him, yet she had seemed genuinely remorseful, and for that reason alone he should have abided by his code of honor.
Finally fed up with the unbearable bout of silence, Mugen demanded sourly from the sidelines, “So when’re we goin’ to Ryukyu, Four Eyes? We’ll need a ship, so if we’re gonna get one we’d better leave now.”
Fuu gasped in absolute dismay. “Mugen, no! What about your illness? You need to stay here so that Madame Haruka can heal you!”
“Psh, screw that! I’m not gonna stay here like some pussy while you guys go off and bury that wench, so just forget it!”
“But Mugen, I-”
“Fuu” Jin suddenly interrupted, thus catching her completely by surprise, “we cannot do this without Mugen’s experience with ships, so please…as soon as we give Kohza a proper burial, I promise you that we can return and Mugen will continue with his treatment.”
Fuu appeared to be torn for a moment, yet when she looked into the ronin’s pleading eyes she knew that she could never deny him his request. She, too would have done the same if Mugen were in Kohza’s place, so with this thought searing across her brain like an indelible fire she finally agreed, “Very well, Jin…we’ll leave immediately, if that’s what you truly want.”
“I do” he whispered, his normally cool demeanor deteriorating as he bestowed the young girl with a warm and pleasant smile. “Thank you, Fuu-chan…I know how much Mugen’s recovery must mean to you.”
Fuu blushed, yet she purposely ignored Jin’s final comment, altogether, her tone firm and irrevocably resolute as she urged, “Alright, then…let’s go.”
A/N: ::sigh:: Welp, I hardly received any reviews for last chapter, but that’s ok…as long as those of you who ARE reviewing keep it up I suppose I can finish. It just takes a tad longer without inspiration, you know?
But anywhos, someone asked me how much longer this will be, and I estimate about 3-4 chapters more, perhaps? I honestly don’t know because this is taking on a completely different direction than I originally anticipated as it is, and I’ve got some fan art up for this fic and I’m rather excited about them since I did a decent job., ^^ Unfortunately, I will NOT show them to you yet since they’re spoilers!! Welp, PLEASE R&R if you want me to crank out these chapters faster! Love you!!
Jin closed his eyes in utmost concentration as he raised the tanto in a foreboding manner, his heart uncommonly frantic within his chest as he began to feel terribly sick to his stomach. By taking Kohza’s weapon he had silently vowed to carry out her plea and he knew this, yet by God, he wished that it wasn’t so.
With a baited breath, Jin brought the blade down in a jerky motion as if his arm were attached to a string, a low grunt escaping his lips the moment a short, sharp pain erupted throughout his torso like that of a searing conflagration. Shocked, the ronin dropped the tanto and immediately doubled over in anguish, his gaunt face contorting along with his deep incredulity as he felt as if the very life were draining out of him.
Reaching out an unsteady hand, Jin clumsily fumbled for the area of pain, only to feel his torso drenched with a warm and sticky substance…
Blood.
“Kohza” he choked out, “…why?”
“I had to, Jin” she whispered, her eyes filling up with tears. “The Yakuza ordered me to dispose of you, not Mugen, and if I refused to carry out this order I, too, would have to die.”
“So you chose sin…over honor?” he wheezed, his vision beginning to go dangerously in and out of focus.
Kohza inclined her head so that she was now gazing up into the dusky heavens above, her tone incredibly hushed as she ventured, “From up there we’re nothing but grains of sand, Jin. What do one’s decisions even matter when we live in a world where everything is so insignificant?”
“I don’t…believe that” Jin counterattacked, his ink black hair falling across his line of vision as he reached out a shaking hand and grasped her by the shoulder. “You are what you choose to be in this life, Kohza…live it to the fullest while you still can.”
“Jin…” the Ryukyuan whispered almost tenderly, her dark eyes pooling over with tears as she dared to run her fingers along the smoothness of his pale cheek. “I am sorry…can you ever find it in your eternal soul to forgive me?”
“I harbor no grudges” he whispered, only to stiffen the moment she embraced him.
On instinct, Jin’s daisho sliced through the space between them in a perfect arc, a foul spray of blood splattering his face and accentuating his doleful features as Kohza limply fell forward and into his arms.
“Jin…” she gasped, her eyes widening as her nails bit into the flesh of his wrists, “How could…why did you…?” Coughing, the Ryukyuan released a pitiful moan once her own blood began to ooze out past her lips and dribble down over her chin, her eyes shining with hurt and betrayal as she leaned into the ronin and shuddered.
“Thank you…” she suddenly whispered, thus causing Jin to glance down at her in utter amazement until it finally dawned on him as to why she was so eternally grateful. He had ended her life and that, in turn, had freed her from the shackles of her everyday trials and tribulations.
Placing a hand gently against the small of her back, the ronin pulled Kohza’s lifeless form against his chest and held her close, all the while wondering how on earth such a twisted soul could tug at his hardened heart so incredibly much…
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fuu ran her slim fingers along the expanse of Mugen’s chest as they continued to lie tangled up together beneath the glowing lamplight of the hut, her appendages pausing over each individual scar and indentation as if trying to commit them all to memory.
He was like a trail map, she realized, and a very beautiful one at that. Each cut and puncture wound led to new and untold stories that she so desperately yearned to uncover, to taste, to experience. A great deal of them, however, were also because of her, and these were the ugly, puckered scars that left her heart bleeding tears of crimson.
How could she have ever been so stupid…so selfish? If it weren’t for her amazing ability to constantly wind up being kidnapped, Mugen wouldn’t have needed to get sliced open for her sake again and again. For once, Fuu decided, she would protect him, and that was a promise that she so desperately yearned to keep.
Running her fingers down along the bruised span of his unshaven cheek, Fuu felt her heart restrict painfully within her bosom once she thought of the possibility of never waking up to the warmth of Mugen’s strong embrace, again. She had grown to care for him so deeply, and now that the jaws of death had him close at bay, she was eternally afraid that he would be snatched from her clutches without so much as a warning.
The wheezing noises that he made when he breathed did nothing to quell her taunting fears, either, and she’d been finding more and more blood stains as of late on his clothing when she washed them.
Why was he trying to cover up his illness? She didn’t want him to die, and yet…
Fuu shuddered.
What if Mugen wanted to die? What if she wasn’t enough of an anchor to keep him from drifting away into the unknown? Maybe he no longer needed her…
Closing her eyes, Fuu slowly rested her head down against Mugen’s chest and fought back the bitter onslaught of tears that threatened to tear her apart in her very heart and soul, her fingers seemingly having a mind of their own as she slid them down along the Ryukyuan’s arm and interlocked her hand fondly with his own.
As luck would have it, this was the very moment that Mugen decided to awaken, his dark eyes peering back at her curiously before he groaned and released a wretched curse. “Shit.”
“Mugen?” Fuu questioned, her voice reflecting her apparent hurt.
“Shit, shit, shit” the Ryukyuan growled sourly in return, his muscular form shooting up like a spring before he thrust the covers from their nude bodies and turned his back to her in what appeared to be frustration.
“This should’ve never happened, Fuu” he muttered, still refusing to look at her. “When I said that our first incident was a one time thing, I meant it. I don’t know why I grabbed ya like I did, but I know that it wasn’t ‘cause I care or anything, so you can just go ahead an’ that idea outta your dizzy little head.”
“Mugen…” Fuu whispered, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, “surely you felt at least somethin-”
“Shut up!” he snarled, shocking her once he spun around and nailed her directly in place with his penetrating gaze. “I don’t love you, wench, and I never will, so quit blubberin’ like some sniveling harlot and get outta here!”
Torn, Fuu immediately burst into tears, the kohl from her lashes intermingling with the saline mixture and sliding down her cheeks in several charcoal-gray splotches of pain and woe. “I hate you” she finally whispered, her voice growing more and more resolute as she rose from her perch. “Do you hear me, Mugen!? I hate you!”
The Ryukyuan merely smirked in return. “Well good, bitch, ‘cause that makes two of us.”
Fuu stood there, then, absolutely astounded, the delicate strands of her heart snapping in accordance with her inner turmoil as she suddenly found it to be terribly hard to breathe.
Mugen…hated her? She had only said what she did out of defense, not truth – she loved the vagrant more than she’d ever willingly admit, and it pained her deeply to realize such a fact.
Just as Fuu opened her mouth to tell him this, however, a loud and hollow knock resounded from outside the front door, thus causing her to glance over to Mugen in disgust before tossing him one of the blankets and wrapping the other about herself for the sake of propriety.
Hoping that the caller might be Madame Haruka back from the village, Fuu eagerly opened the door in expectance, only to gasp in absolute horror at what she saw.
There, leaning weakly against the doorjamb was Jin, his raven-black hair falling out across his sorrowful features as he tenderly tried to support the small body of a young woman against his broad chest.
Kohza…
“Jin!” Fuu exclaimed, her eyes now falling upon the various splotches of blood on both the Ryukyuan and the ronin. “What the heck happened!? What are you-?”
“Please” Jin whispered, his tone incredibly hushed and pained, “all I ask is that we briefly postpone our trip to Nagasaki so that we can return to Ryukyu and give Kohza a proper burial. After all I have done, it is the very least that I can do for her.”
Mugen stiffened at the mentioning of his birthplace, yet he found that he could say absolutely nothing, his stomach giving an uncharacteristic churn at the sight of his childhood friend all bloody and lifeless like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been cut.
He had often suspected that Jin had a soft spot for Kohza, and now that the ronin was just about ready to shoot their mission straight to hell for her sake he was almost sure of it. And yet…somehow there was something missing…
“Mugen!” Fuu scolded, thus causing him to look up in an instant, “Give us a hand with the body…Jin’s hurt!”
“That body’s name is Kohza” the ronin returned in a surprisingly icy tone, Fuu now bowing her head in shame as Mugen moved in to take the Ryukyuan away from Jin’s protective grasp, but to no avail.
“Hey, what gives, Fish Face? I’m tryin’ to help ya out, here!” Mugen growled, only to grow silent the moment his eyes met with the desperate black pools in the ronin’s despaired irises. He actually cared about her…
“I can do it, myself” Jin murmured, his zombie-like state immediately melting away once he struggled to prove himself to the others. Wound or no wound, he would try to make it up to Kohza in the only way that he knew how: through the code of bushido.
Staggering so that one foot shakily crossed over in front of the other, Jin gritted his teeth and limped onward, nearly collapsing with relief once he reached Mugen’s cot and finally laid Kohza down to rest atop its scratchy surface.
The look upon her face was so angelic, so serene…it was truly almost as if she were merely lying down and taking a quick nap.
Bowing his head, Jin solemnly pressed his palms together in prayer and released a deep exhalation, both Mugen and Fuu watching on in silent discomfort due to not knowing what to say or do to help.
It was quite apparent to Jin that he had intruded upon them when something rather voluminous had occurred, yet he no longer cared now that he had actually slain a woman. True, she had tried to assassinate him, yet she had seemed genuinely remorseful, and for that reason alone he should have abided by his code of honor.
Finally fed up with the unbearable bout of silence, Mugen demanded sourly from the sidelines, “So when’re we goin’ to Ryukyu, Four Eyes? We’ll need a ship, so if we’re gonna get one we’d better leave now.”
Fuu gasped in absolute dismay. “Mugen, no! What about your illness? You need to stay here so that Madame Haruka can heal you!”
“Psh, screw that! I’m not gonna stay here like some pussy while you guys go off and bury that wench, so just forget it!”
“But Mugen, I-”
“Fuu” Jin suddenly interrupted, thus catching her completely by surprise, “we cannot do this without Mugen’s experience with ships, so please…as soon as we give Kohza a proper burial, I promise you that we can return and Mugen will continue with his treatment.”
Fuu appeared to be torn for a moment, yet when she looked into the ronin’s pleading eyes she knew that she could never deny him his request. She, too would have done the same if Mugen were in Kohza’s place, so with this thought searing across her brain like an indelible fire she finally agreed, “Very well, Jin…we’ll leave immediately, if that’s what you truly want.”
“I do” he whispered, his normally cool demeanor deteriorating as he bestowed the young girl with a warm and pleasant smile. “Thank you, Fuu-chan…I know how much Mugen’s recovery must mean to you.”
Fuu blushed, yet she purposely ignored Jin’s final comment, altogether, her tone firm and irrevocably resolute as she urged, “Alright, then…let’s go.”
A/N: ::sigh:: Welp, I hardly received any reviews for last chapter, but that’s ok…as long as those of you who ARE reviewing keep it up I suppose I can finish. It just takes a tad longer without inspiration, you know?
But anywhos, someone asked me how much longer this will be, and I estimate about 3-4 chapters more, perhaps? I honestly don’t know because this is taking on a completely different direction than I originally anticipated as it is, and I’ve got some fan art up for this fic and I’m rather excited about them since I did a decent job., ^^ Unfortunately, I will NOT show them to you yet since they’re spoilers!! Welp, PLEASE R&R if you want me to crank out these chapters faster! Love you!!