Part 1
Pain wells in her jaw as he strikes her again and she tastes blood in her mouth. The crazed man before her chuckles with sadistic delight at the sight of the crimson staining her lips. Suddenly, the all too familiar clip-clopping of steel-lined geta meets her ears and there he was. Dripping wet with angry red cuts marring his face and blood slowing oozing from the palm of his left hand. She could barely see him through the glare of the sun on the ocean behind him, but she could tell he was angry. No, he was downright pissed off. He had always been short tempered, but there were very few times when she saw pure, blinding rage radiate from him.
"You're going to give her back." It wasn't a question or a statement. It was an order.
Fuu jerked awake with sweat brimming on her brow. That dream. Why was she still having that dream? She thought that being back together with her two bodyguards would get rid of it once and for all, but no. It still plagued her like a persistent cough. She took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves before looking across the dying embers of their campfire at his sleeping form. Mugen had rolled onto his back with his mouth wide open and all four limbs splayed out in different directions as he snored louder than a bear.
She briefly wondered if he had any nightmares about that horrible day. The day they finally found her father, the samurai who smells of sunflowers, and all three nearly died at the hands of two separate parties both out for revenge. For some reason, she couldn't imagine Mugen tossing and turning in his sleep as internal demons ate away at his dreams. With one last deep breath, she stood from her bed roll and walked over to the small stream nearby to drink. When she had returned, she found that she wasn't the only one awake.
"What's wrong?" asked the calm voice belonging to her ronin bodyguard, Jin.
"N-nothing. Just a bad dream," she replied after a moment's hesitation.
"About that day we found the samurai who smells of sunflowers?" he guessed.
"How did…?"
"You talk in your sleep," he replied to the unfinished question.
Fuu felt her face burn red in the darkness. She had no idea that she talked in her sleep. What did she say? She hoped she never said anything she would regret.
"You mainly talk about your mother," Jin said as if reading her thoughts. "You also worry about us a lot. Mugen more than me, though."
Shit. The blush in her cheeks grew hotter.
"Don't tell him," she begged softly.
"I won't," he said after a pause.
"Oi, oi! Wake up or we're gonna leave your skinny ass behind!" a rough, Yanki voice called, waking Fuu from the dreamless sleep she had fallen into.
Fuu groaned softly and rolled over to slip her flat, wooden zōri over her feet.
"Yeah right," she mumbled grumpily. "Every time you leave me behind, you end up having to save me."
"Stop drawing so much attention to yourself and we wouldn't have to save you so much!" Mugen snapped.
Fuu fell silent having no retort to that last statement. Instead she busied herself with rolling up her sleeping mat and gathering what she could from around the campsite.
"'Bout damn time," Mugen grumbled as she finally caught up with him and Jin walking down the dirt path to the road.
Fuu internally chastised herself for worrying about this jerkwad all the time. Why should she? It wasn't like he ever needed rescuing. Patching up after a particularly nasty fight, sure, but never did he need someone to come to his rescue.
"How much longer until we reach town?" she asked through the growing pain in her temple.
"Not long," Jin answered quietly. "We should be there by noon."
"Good, cause I'm starving," Mugen chimed in with his arms folded behind his head.
"Well, first order of business is earning some money for that food," Fuu pointed out. "How can you constantly forget we're always broke?"
"Easy. I just plain don't give a fuck," he chuckled.
Fuu rubbed the throbbing spot on her temple and held her tongue before she caused another argument.
They were traveling south after having run into each other while Fuu was working in a hotel and Jin had become the personal bodyguard of the local daimyo. It was a pretty comfortable four months living in one place stead of on the road with a steady income and source of food to fill them. Until, that is, Mugen rolled into town and wreaked havoc like none other. It would have only been him fleeing town had Fuu and Jin seen the carnage and recognized the perpetrator. Personal bodyguard or no, Jin was immediately outcast when it came to light he had a history with the man who burned down no less than six buildings and slayed most of the samurai employed by the daimyo at the time. As for Fuu, she was doomed the moment she spoke Mugen's name as they carried him away in shackles.
No one knew what they were going to do once they found a town to finally settle in, but Jin and Fuu had resolved to do whatever they could to restrain Mugen. Hell, maybe they'd tie him up in a closet and feed him through a doggy door twice a day. That'd surely keep him from destroying any public property for a little while. Nevertheless, once more they were traveling together towards no destination in particular, simply trying to stay out of jail. Well… two of them were.
Part 2
"Welcome," said a quiet voice from the back of the shop. The speaker was a woman donned in a deep blue kimono that stopped mid-thigh and had loose sleeves that draped over her hands. Her legs were wrapped in bindings and her feet were bare. Her dark hair was tied into a single braid down her back and she didn't look up as the trio entered her shop.
Fuu, Mugen and Jin stared at the woman in her strange clothing before Fuu pulled them all together into a huddle.
"The ad on the front of the shop says that she's offering lodging and work. Don't fuck this up, Mugen," she said quietly.
"Me?!" he asked offended at the accusation.
Jin merely nodded sagely in agreement with Fuu.
"Just… browse around the shop for a little bit, I'll go talk to her about the ad-." Fuu was interrupted by the shopkeeper shouting.
"Put it back, thief!" she bellowed angrily.
The only other patron in the shop, a young-looking man with an oily face, jumped from his spot beside a table full of assorted books.
"W-what? M-m-me?" he asked shakily.
The woman was across the shop in an instant, glaring at the man with brown eyes that blazed with rage.
"Put. It. Back." She ordered once more.
"I-I have no idea what you're talking about, you crazy bitch!" the man yelled. "They're the suspicious ones!" He pointed a shaking finger at Mugen, Fuu and Jin to which Mugen growled and lifted a hand to his sword.
"Don't!" Fuu warned grabbing his bony wrist.
"You have five seconds to take the book out of your sleeve and place it back on the table," the woman said in a dangerous voice. "One…." The man jumped slightly and gulped. "Two…." He scooted back a bit towards the exit. "Three…." The woman took a step forward. "Four…." The man ran from the store crying for his mother. "Five!"
Before the young man had made it a foot away from the threshold, the woman had kicked him with a heavy foot in the back so that he rammed headfirst into the neighboring building. When the man had regained his footing, the shopkeeper did a flip into the air and wrapped her ankles around his neck to slam him down into the dirt and then stomp on his wrist after he finally conceded to remove the stolen book from his sleeve. He screamed in pain as the woman ground the broken bone into the dirt so that the bones creaked and splintered audibly.
After he had run off down the street cursing with tears streaming down his face, the woman used her foot to flip the book into a cloth satchel on her hip and walked back into the store. Once back inside, she looked the trio up and down before apologizing for the spectacle and encouraged them to continue their shopping. All three wore varying degrees of shocked expressions as they watched her place the book back onto the table using only her foot yet again.
Fuu was amazed at the speed she displayed when crossing the shop to the thief. Jin wondered why she didn't use her arms or hands and silently praised the skill which she employed to kick the man clear across the street into the building across. Mugen, however, was more than impressed by the whole show. Nothing turned him on more than a woman able to handle herself in battle. Unless, of course, she was succeeding in trying to kill him.
"Um… excuse us," Fuu spoke up after a minute of silence. "We were interested in the ad on the front of your shop?"
The woman looked up suddenly and Fuu jumped slightly but settled when she saw the woman's expression of rage was now replaced by a calm one. Her eyes, previously blazing, now glittered excitedly in the dim light of the shop.
"Really, now?" she asked. "All three of you?" The trio nodded numbly. "For how long?"
"We're not sure… until we have enough money to move on," Fuu replied uncertainly. Or until Mugen gets us all wanted by the authorities, again, she added silently.
"Alright. My name's Ashi," she replied moving behind the counter. She bent down and began rummaging around.
"What are your rates?" Jin asked.
"For you three?" Ashi straightened to examine them once more. "One ryō a week plus two meals a day."
Dollar signs lit up their eyes and they found themselves signing the documents Ashi produced outlining the details of their jobs in the shop. When the three of them had signed their names (or in Mugen's case, scribbled a rough outline for the symbol of 'infinity') Ashi tucked the documents away and led them through the back door to show them their temporary home. Across a small, fenced in courtyard stood a pair of stout shacks connected by a narrow walkway leading to a bathhouse.
"The one on the left is mine, the one on the right now belongs to you for the time being." They followed her over to the shack and watched her slide the door open with a foot. "There's a cooking pot there, firewood can be found along the back wall of the shop. Cut your own logs for baths and cooking." She closed the door once more and pointed a foot towards the fence gate. "I close the shop at midnight and leave the back gate unlocked until three a.m. After that, if you're left out, you're shit out of luck for the night. I don't open back up until nine a.m."
Ashi lead them back into the shop and closed the door. "Now, then… as for meals… I can provide you each with about half a pound of rice a day along with assorted meats and vegetables. It all depends on what I have in stock or what I buy at the market that week. But for now, this first meal's on me. Care to join me?" She finished the question with a small smile as she watched them staring at her.
"Food?" Mugen asked breaking the silence.