An Unexpected Coupling

CH 9: The Wicked Truth

A dark and foreboding surfeit of clouds gathered amidst the crimson horizon of the eastern sky, Mugen’s eyes narrowing considerably once an old sailor’s shanty suddenly came to mind:

‘Red sky morning, sailor’s warning.’

“Looks like we shoulda waited until tomorrow to set sail” the pirate grumbled, a deep frown gracing his lips once he abandoned his position at the quarter deck and hopped down next to Jin by the hatch. “Is Fuu downstairs in one-a the cabin thingies with Kohza?”

Jin glanced up at him, yet he said nothing.

“Hey, I’m talkin’ to you!” Mugen growled, taking the ronin abruptly by the collar and giving him a rough shake. “Just ‘cause your stupid little girlfriend bit the dust doesn’t mean that ya hafta act like there’s a stick up your ass!”

That did it.

In a flash, Jin’s fist connected with the side of Mugen’s stubbly face, the stunned vagrant falling flat on his rump before staring up at the ronin with wild and angry eyes.

“What the hell was that for, you dumb ass? I’m just tryin’ to help ya snap out of it!”

“Have you been toying with Fuu, again? Remember that I saw you when I arrived at Madame Haruka’s yesterday evening.”

A wild conflagration blitzed out across Mugen’s aphotic irises in accordance with this unanticipated attack, his voice low and gruff as he snarled, “That’s none of your damn business, Jin! Quit tryin’ ta change the subject!”

The ronin seemed to take no mind in the pirate just having used his actual name, yet his tone grew cold and clipped as he frigidly returned, “You’ve forced Fuu into early womanhood, Mugen. She is just a child, yet you robbed her of her untouchable innocence and forced her to wait on your every need. Men of your caliber are the ones who rape innocent children and slay helpless mothers, so I hope you can live with that.”

The salty breeze whistled through Mugen’s wild hair as he allowed the magnitude of Jin’s accusation to finally sink in, his eyes cold and distant as he gruffly turned about on his heel and stormed off in the opposite direction, truly not giving a damn as to where he ended up.

As he passed the entrance to one of the cabins, however, a sweet and melodic voice beckoned to him in such a sorrowful manner that he was compelled to stop and listen.

‘Non nobis Domine, non nobis,

Sed nominee tuo da gloriam, propter sed nomine tuo de gloriam,

Propter misericordiam tuam, propter fidelitatem tuam’

Pressing the door open a crack, Mugen peered into the dank room and rested his curious gaze upon Fuu’s dejected figure, tears streaming down along her cheeks as she continued to light the plethora of candles all about Kohza’s peaceful form in mourning.

‘Quare dicant gentest, quare dicant gentes:

“Ubinam est Deus eorum? Ubinam est Deus eorum?”

Dues noster in coelo est;

Omnia, omnia quare voluit, fecit’

It was then that Mugen realized that Fuu’s attention wasn’t focused on Kohza, but the mortar and pestle that she held possessively within her nurturing grasp. As he continued to observe her she began to mash several herbs and spices together into a green mixture, her tears now transforming into soft sobs as she placed the concoction off to the side and desperately folded her hands in prayer.

“Heavenly Father, please guide me toward the right path, for I am terribly confused. I can’t seem to remember all of the ingredients that Madame Haruka instructed me to give Mugen, so please help me to do so, Lord. I don’t want him to die…”

By this point Mugen couldn’t listen anymore, his heart uncharacteristically heavy as he forced himself away from the door and scowled. Something about Fuu praying for his well-being like that made him feel weird, and he didn’t like it one bit.

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It took a few hours before Mugen finally quelled his anger and discomfort, a low snort of acknowledgement escaping his throat as he nodded toward Jin’s general direction with severe disinterest. By this point the two were merely tolerating one another’s presence, so any actual vocalized words were most certainly out of the question.

Although Mugen’s pride was still considerably bruised from what had transpired between them earlier on that day, there was still no way in hell that he’d let Jin know this. That, after all, was accepting defeat, and he would never give the pencil neck the satisfaction.

As Mugen was contemplating all of this, the ronin happened to glance over in his direction as the Ryukyuan leaned in against the siding of the boat. The samurai’s eyes closed in meditative appreciation once he realized that his silence wasn’t to be disturbed, the serenity suddenly being shattered the moment a pitiful sniffling sounded from the captain’s cabin.

Raising his disconcerted gaze up toward the source of the noise, Jin felt himself momentarily stiffen upon the realization that it was Fuu…crying.

“Ugh, what now?” Mugen groused, immediately dismissing her with a wave of the hand. “If it’s not one thing with you, it’s the other – this deck ain’t for any pussified emotions.”

Instead of heeding his suggestion, however, Fuu miserably withdrew the parchment that she had been hiding out from behind her back, Mugen’s previous outrage immediately dissipating into nothingness upon spotting the note within her grasp.

“It’s from Kohza” Fuu explained, thus causing Jin to give an unexpected jolt upright. “She wanted you to read it aloud, Mugen…”

Placing an unreadable scowl upon his face, the Ryukyuan swiped the letter from her outstretched hand and snorted. “Psh, no way! It’s too frickin’ long!”

“Just read it” Jin snapped, shocking both Mugen and Fuu due to his insistent tone of voice.

Rolling his eyes, Mugen muttered a vindictive “fine” before begrudgingly beginning:

“Dearest Mugen,
I trust that since you are reading this that I’m now officially dead or close to it. You may not believe this, but I only accepted the Yakuza’s proposal so that I could end up being ‘accidentally’ killed in the line of duty, thus bringing me to the main point of this letter.

“I never told you this, Mugen, but when we grew up together Mukuro often raped and beat me, thus why I always had bruises and other questionable marks on my body. This in turn is why I wasn’t a virgin when we first made love, but believe me, if I could make it so that you would’ve been my absolute first, I would’ve done so without a second thought.

“Not long after you left Ryukyu I discovered that I was two months pregnant. Fearing that it was Mukuro’s, I went to the local clairvoyant who cheerily revealed to me that it was yours. I hope you don’t mind, Mugen, but after I gave birth to our beautiful baby boy I named him Jin. I know that this might seem a little odd to you, but before I got to know him for his true beauty I found him to be very sweet and honorable. That, and he finally rid me of my ties with Mukuro…Jin freed me, Mugen. He allowed me to live again in ways that I never knew possible.

“Sadly, as you have probably already perceived, my happiness over little Jin was incredibly short-lived. When he was three weeks old he broke out into a mysterious fever where he’d have chills and nightly sweats. Within a week he had lost all of his appetite and developed a terrible cough that caused him to have shortness of breath. Incredibly frightened (as you can well imagine, I’m sure), I took little Jin to the witch doctor, only to have him tell me that our child had a severe case of tuberculosis in the lungs. When I asked him how on earth my son could get such a terrible disease he told me that I had been the carrier. Upon that very moment I had a sudden epiphany: Mukuro had shown similar symptoms while raping me, so I must have contracted the disease and then passed it on to little Jin. I then put two and two together and realized that, if this were the case, that I, too, was destined to die.

“As you might have guessed by now, when I finally met up with you I tried my best to get either you or one of your friends to kill me as underhandedly as possible. I mostly wanted to die not only so that I could be with my child again, but because of the reason that I was the initial cause of your illness. When I found out that you were sick I began to panic…I knew that what you had was an automatic death sentence and I didn’t want to be around when it happened. Whether it be three weeks or three years, your time could come at any given moment, which is what brings me to the most important portion of this letter.

“If there’s one thing that you’ll ever oblige to, please let it be this, Mugen: let Fuu care for you. She’s your only hope and she loves you more than life itself, just as I once did. Believe me when I say this, Mugen, because I recognize the look in her eyes when she’s with you; she’s happy and I want that to last. Let her love you…only then can you both find true happiness, and you both more than deserve the blessed opportunity.

“And Jin, if you ever find out anything else about me, just know that I love you very much. It’s hard to think about how deeply I’ve fallen for you after only a mere matter of weeks, especially when I already know that our love can never be. No fairytale, after all, has ever had a noble samurai and a terminally ill Ryukyuan fall in love and live happily ever after.

When you sit on the beach think of me – remember how we’re all grains of sand from up there in the stars, just as I’ve remembered that you said we are all in charge of our own destinies. Unfortunately for me, my destiny has already been decided, but you, Jin, still have your whole life ahead of you. Live it to the fullest, just like everything you do.

Devotedly Yours,

Kohza”

Slowly lowering the note Mugen regarded both Fuu and Jin with indecipherable eyes, revealing lowly, “That’s it…that’s all she said.”

Jin said nothing as he closed his eyes, the wind whistling through his hair as he wordlessly rose from his perch and made his way toward Kohza’s cabin.

Fuu moved to go after him but Mugen caught her by the wrist, his gaze firm and unwavering as he accused coolly, “You told her to write all that bull about us, didn’t you?”

“What? No, I-”

“Did you honestly think that it would work?” he continued, giving a disbelieving snort. “God, Fuu, sometimes you make me sick with your unrealistic views on love and other cooty-ridden shit. When will you just wake up and realize that I can’t love you?”

Fuu balked, yet she still managed to whisper stiffly in return, “Maybe I’ll wake up when you learn that you actually do deserve love, Mugen. You’re not as much of a monster as you make yourself out to be.”

Mugen frowned deeply, something alien and completely intangible flashing out across his stormy irises before he let out a frustrated growl and turned in order to make his leave.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought” Fuu snapped, her voice gradually rising in volume as she stared him down. “It’s such a big surprise that the courageous Mugen-san is running away – he never stays and faces his problems like a man because he’s nothing but a big, stupid coward!”

“What did you say?” Mugen demanded, his eyes flashing dangerously as he rounded about on her in an instant. “If you’ve got somethin’ to tell me, wench, speak up!”

Fuu appeared to be defeated for a moment, the vitality in her pupils uncharacteristically weak as she bowed her head and mumbled, “Never mind, Mugen…I’m sorry.”

The vagrant gave her a cocky smirk. “Yeah, that’s what I thought, bi – ugh.”

In a flash, Mugen was on his knees, a terrible cough racking his body as he fought tooth and nail to stave off the terrible dizziness that currently held him by the throat. He was losing ground, and fast.

“Mugen!” Fuu shrieked, dropping frantically down and to his side, “Mugen!”

“Stay back!” he growled, shuddering as a small trickle of blood dribbled down past his chin and landed with an dull plop onto the hard wooden floor. “Trust me on this one, kid, if you get too close, you’ll get it, too.”

“I don’t care anymore” Fuu whispered, her eyes shimmering with an overwhelming amount of fondness as she tenderly cupped his cheek. “As far as I’m concerned if you die, I die.”

“Fuu…”

“No, it’s true” she insisted, leaning in and giving the vagrant a fierce embrace about the middle. “Please don’t leave me, Mugen…I need you.”

Something within these words made the otherwise indifferent Ryukyuan grunt, his heart feeling heavy within his chest as Fuu began to sob softly into his haori.

“Cut that out” he grumbled, his tone amazingly lacking all conviction.

“Only when you promise that you’ll overcome this disease” Fuu agreed, her irises shimmering with earnest as she gently encircled his hand with her own.

Mugen smiled, yet it lacked all mirth. “You know I can’t do that, Fuu. If Kohza and our freaking kid couldn’t even make it out alive, what makes you think I can?”

“Because I can cure you” Fuu insisted, her tone now soft and pleading. “If you just agree to take my medicine, I swear that I’ll leave you alone and won’t press the issue any further.”

Due to having overheard her prayer Mugen knew that she was lying about knowing how to make him well again, yet he decided to shut her up about it by assuring her that he’d at least try to stay alive.

Upon this declaration Fuu buried her face affectionately against Mugen’s broad chest, the steady undulations of his breathing comforting her since with every breath she knew that he would stay alive at least one moment longer…

A/N: Oh, yay, another angsty chapter from yours truly! :-P lol Welp, hopefully you enjoyed it – SO sorry for the long delay. College work and whatnot…but now it’s fall break, and I cranked this out just in time! I actually finished it during a class, but my professor doesn’t have to know that. ;0) I honestly don’t know if people still read this anymore, so show me your support, please! That’s how I get the chapters out faster, and there are only ::GASPETH:: two chapters left!!!!!!!!!! The next one’s a reeeeeeal doozy, so hopefully you won’t kill me too hard and you’ll enjoy. LOVE YOU!

Here’s the translation to what you read – I felt it fit in with Mugen’s situation since it’s saying how people (in times of need) ask where God is, but that in the end God does whatever pleases him. Hmm, that sounded kind of offensive…I DO believe in God, so don’t think I’m slamming Him by my explanation, if it sounded sacrilegious! Oh, and I only know this song (by Johannes Brahms) because we’re singing that in my University’s choir – SOOO pretty! :)

Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
But to they name ascribe the glory,
For thy true love and for thy constancy.
Why do the nations ask,
“Where then is their God?”
Our God is in high heaven;
He does whatever pleases him.”