And They Would Take Me Home
By: TheWildFooL
(I do not own Samurai Champloo, nor do I own the amazing three MC's.)
Breathing heavily and bleeding heavily, Mugen limped his way down the dirt road. Blood was everywhere on him – face, back, arms and legs. His normal outfit was now torn to shreds and blood soaked. His right shoulder had a huge gash as he drug his sword. Arrows, broken and intact, stood out. He left a trail of his blood and an indented mark from his sword.
He panted heavily as his thoughts drifted off to the fight he had earlier. It was an evenly and easy match, until back up for the Tokugawa Shogunate arrived, along with unmarked assassins who had claimed to have been hired by the Japanese Wardens who inhabited his home island, Miyako.
It had been almost an ordinary, until a pickpocket had stolen his pouch from him. He had done honest work and rightfully earn his coins and wasn't about to allow some lowly thief take it. So, he had gave chase, however somewhere in the back of his mind he had knew something was wrong, but ignored that feeling and kept on his pursuit.
The chase was breathtaking and ragged, as both he and the thief began tripping and stumbling over tree roots and branches. When the thief had stumbled again, Mugen had taken the opportunity to leap at him and land on his back with his steel geta. As soon as he had done that arrows had come flying from all directions, and then – a blur. Everything after the capturing of the thief and the arrows was a blur, all he had known was that he won, but not without receiving some deadly wounds.
He gasped and winced at the stinging on his right side. He clasped his left hand over his side applying pressure. 'Shit...it's getting worse...' he thought grimly as his consciousness began to fade in and out. Though he fought the feeling to pass out and continued to walk the quiet and memory filled pathway.
The crows had been on the pursuit for him the whole week. With their sudden interest in watching and following him, it had given him a bad feeling. Not only that, but several people had died, none that he had known or was even remotely close to, but child and women – hanged and burned alive for what appeared to be no reason to him. He had been no stranger to senseless violence, but as he aged it had bothered him to see people like that get dragged into meaningless violence.
When death had started to roll in every direction he walked, he had started to put himself on his alert to try and prevent any unwanted harm coming his way. His brows furrowed as he smirked sadly, he was unable to prevent that and now he was paying the price.
Stumbling as his limp had worsened; he came upon a fork in the road. The old sign that he had destroyed before meeting Fuu and Jin, had been repaired, with new carvings of the name of the villages that was less than a few miles away.
He turned to his right as his mind had begun to cloud over. To him, it felt as if he had already been dead when the crows had begun their stalking upon his very being.
'I'm...almost...there...Fuu...' he had unconsciously smiled to himself as he told himself that silently.
...
Fuu had silently finished up her end of her businesses, sweeping the entrance way to her tea shop. She had decided that she would let her good friend Daisuke and Bunko close up for her that evening.
"Alright, Miss Fuu," Daisuke started off as he waved at his boss, "Have a goodnight, we'll be alright here!"
Bunko also stood by his side, waving at the young tea house owner. "Yeah, what Dai said; don't worry about a thing. You have a goodnight! And who knows, you might just see that wild man that you always keep talking about." She casually smiled.
Fuu nodded, "Okay, well goodnight!" As she had scurried off to the direction of her home, she slipped deep into thought and frowned 'Mugen...' she then quickly shook herself to be more alert and held back her tears. Jin had always come to visit her and would stay for weeks out of three months. However, lately he had been coming less and less. Anytime he would be able to visit, they would always end up on the topic about Mugen's welfare. The conversations would always end with her crying and lately she had been having dreams of Mugen.
The dreams would be bright – as if they were near heavens gates, and Mugen wouldn't say much but would smile so sadly and start to walk away. Fuu would cry out to him, hurling anything that came to mind at the Ryukyuan, but it never seem to reach him and he would continue to walk, leaving her crying.
She once again, shook her head clear as she came upon the exit to the village. Her house was outside the village, but not too far away. For some reason the thought of living in a crowded village did not appeal to her. After her experiences of somehow getting herself into trouble and ending up kidnapped, strayed her away from ideas of leaving within a village, but living not too far outside seemed to pique her interest.
She was quickly snapped back into reality when she heard a couple of panicked travelers. They had bumped into and ran past her.
"M-monster!"
"Run away!"
"Wait! What's going on what's down that way?" Fuu shouted to the two men, but they ignored her as they scrambled away.
Fuu raised her brow in confusion, "What was that all about...?" She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the sound of steel dragging against the ground. She jumped into defense mode, as she became more alert – but she had gasped at the other sound she heard 'G-geta?! Mugen?!'
"Mugen..." She whispered, in silent hopes that the wind would deliver her calls, "M-mugen..." tears began to form in her eyes. She cried out his name a third time, voice wavering slightly, "Mugen!"
Mugen jumped at the sound of his name being called. Two travelers had got his nerves jumping when they had snuck up on him, or at least that was what he had thought. He looked up through clouded and blurry eyes 'Fuu...' he questioned himself silently.
During his clouded walk, he had been seeing images of both Fuu and Jin, but more of Fuu. She would smile at him and beckon him to follow her, by running off. He would always extend his hand towards her, but she was never in his grasp. No, matter how much he walked she just seemed out of his reach. Maybe, it had been her that led him on this path.
Yet as he came closer and closer to the girl, she did not run off giggling – wanting him to chase and play with her. Nor was she smiling. Slightly puzzled at the girl before him, he cursed to himself – desperately trying to tell himself that he was seeing things. That it was a mirage. That it was not real.
"Mugen!" Fuu shouted out hysterically. She bit the bottom of her lip as tears spilled over. Unconsciously, her legs began to move without second though, she went with her protective instinct – to meet Mugen half way.
Hearing his name being called once more, he snapped his head up to look at the girl in pink and red. It was then he realized, "Fuu..." He called out weakly. Somehow, through the immense pain he pushed himself to move faster, soon finding himself falling into her arms.
Fuu caught him, as they both went down to the ground – her sitting with his head in her lap. He had let go of his katana, to wrap his arms loosely around her waist. "Mugen...it's you. It's really you..." Tears fell from her eyes as she bent her back over to bury her nose in his hair. He had still smelled of the green earth they stood on and the salty ocean. However, another smell stood out – much stronger, much bolder. Blood. It had stung her nose but, she did not care.
"It's you...the real Fuu..." Mugen muttered slightly incoherent. "…finally…caught you…" A small satisfied sigh escaped him.
He had begun to mumble some more – his words mixing and running together. He then began to coughing violently, nearly choking on the coppery substance that came trickling down the corner of his mouth. It then turned in to short ragged gasps for breath.
"Mugen...what happened to you...?" She questioned loud enough for him to hear. She didn't expect him to answer; from so much blood loss she was surprised that he was still conscious or even remotely alive. It was then a light popped on in her head, "I've got to get you home. I've got to get you home!" She exclaimed loudly as if professing herself to someone.
Fuu then tried to lift up the dead weight of her friend. "Come on, Mugen...work with me, you're bleeding badly and I need to tend to your wounds." She cried out to him, tears still flowed from her eyes. She budged once again, but Mugen still had not moved or made a sound. "Mugen...please get up..."
"Hmmm..."
Fuu nearly jumped out of her skin. A man in blue stood before them. His face was cover by a tengai and his katana's bind to his hip, with a sash.
"You're...a warrior monk...?" Fuu questioned as the man drew closer and closer. Quickly she whipped out her tanto. For all she knew, the man could be an assassin following after Mugen, it hot pursuit. 'If he's in pursuit of Mugen...then why is he walking so calmly towards us...?'
Gripping the hilt of her tanto, she used her free arm to pull Mugen as close as possible. "Don't you dare come any closer!? I'm warning you…if you try anything funny, I'll cut you down!" Fuu barked through her wavering voice. Her grip also tightened on Mugen's tattered shirt.
The man had immediately stopped in his tracks, sensing the tension in the air. He sighed as he showed the young adult what he had in his possession. He then tossed the familiar sheath to Fuu's side. Silence had carried on between the two, and he could tell by the look she was giving him that she seemed a little more comfortable.
However, the silence between the two was still strong with uneasy tension.
...
Fuu sat there by Mugen's side. All of medical supplies laid out on the floor. Three bowls, one with cooling water, the next room temperature water and the last was boiling water fresh from the kettle. In front of each bowl were two separate cloths, one of each for dabbing and the other for dry wipes. She also had three buckets filled, one filled with cool water, another hot water and the last empty. To the side of all the cleaning supplies, she had also had some ointment to place on the wounds to keep them from getting infection – though it may had already been too late to apply. His gashes had a purplish, blackish, and a tint of blue around them.
The fire from the fireplace pit illuminated against their skin. "Can you grab my kit for me? So I can stitch up his wounds please..." Fuu exclaimed sadly to her other guest. The man silently nodded and scurried off to grab her kit. With a deep sigh, her eyes started to tear up.
Questions ran fast throughout her mind. Why would someone do this? Who did it? Were they a hired killer, by the Tokugawa clan? Did they want him dead so much? Or maybe Mugen had started something with a big shot yakuza boss and ended up getting chased down and beaten half to death.
Fuu wanted to get him cleaned up as quickly as possible, but the only thing that stood in the path of recovery was his shirt. The shirt had molded into his flesh, soaked in blood and sticking to his skin. It made her want to puke.
She had brainstormed many ways of easily loosening the shirt from his skin and flesh, but she quickly worried on how he would react. Would he scream in pain? Would he squirm around to escape her helping hand?
A box had dropped next her as well as a few other items. Fuu jumped as the noise scared her out of her current thoughts. The box wasn't the only thing she had seen. Her eyes began to travel up to the man that stood, over towering her. He still had his tengai on and suddenly began to walk away towards her door.
"Wait!" Fuu cried out, tears falling, "How can you just help me drag him here and stay for only a few moments?! What if I needed help...or someone was to break in here...an assassin could have been after him!" Her fists were balled up as she furiously began to wipe the tears away.
Standing near the entrance, the man had sighed and kicked off his roped sandals off. He sat near the doorway; katana's leaning against his shoulder. Fuu had looked back at the man with clouded eyes and bit her bottom lip.
Silence had settled between her and the man across from. He stared attentively at her as she had soaked one cloth in each bowl. He was nearly startled by her voice when she had spoken up after twelve minutes of silence.
"His shirt..." she muttered almost incoherent, "Can you take off his shirt, please?"
Silently nodding, he laid his katana's down where he had resided. When he was close enough to Mugen's side, he had propped the unconscious man up into a sitting position. As if somewhat of a signal Fuu scooted herself to position herself behind Mugen and held against his weight, but not without issues.
Slowly but sure, the masked man began to peel off the tatters of Mugen's shirt. It was difficult and attentive process, but within less than four minutes the shirt was off and Mugen was laid back down on the futon.
Fuu had taken her original spot back and reached for the soaked cloth within the room temperature water and rung it out into an empty bucket. As carefully as she could manage, she then began to dab lightly at the mangle flesh. With so much focus on caring for Mugen, she jumped at the sound of him moaning.
"I'm sorry..." Fuu said silently, but hoped that he heard her.
"He is unconscious. So he will not hear you." Fuu jumped again, but at the new but somewhat familiar voice that filled the silence, "Then again, they do say that even when a person is unconscious they can still hear a voice from afar."
Fuu continued on quietly. She placed the rag in one of the buckets that was filled with hot water. Reaching for the medical kit, she opened it up and began threading the needle.
"Alright, here we go...bear with me Mugen..." Fuu said silently. Positioning the needle over Mugen's rough tanned skin, she then began to weave in and out of the skin – to connect and close the wound.
It took over a few hours to stitch up Mugen's gashes. Fuu had taken linen clothes to act as a bandage for the young Ryūkyūans' wounds. Moments later she found herself cooking food for the three of them.
Fuu stood outside at the small fire. The man with the tengai sat between the entrance that lead outside to where Fuu was and inside to Mugen.
"Why won't you take the tengai off?" Fuu questioned dully.
"I am not supposed to be here." He replied nonchalantly, "Some of my peers have not yet to give up on looking for me, nor did the shogun."
Fuu's head perked up when she heard him speak of the shogun. "...You said the shogun..." She continued to keep an eye on the food as she waited for a response.
"They are still after the both of you, and of course know that I have traveled with the both of you..." Fuu had cut him off when she had thrown her arms around him. She was shaking violently, but it didn't take a genius to realize she was crying. He took off his tengai and wrapped his arms around her waist – pulling her closer to him. "Shhh...there is no need to cry Fuu."
Fuu forcefully pushed out of his hug. Through tears, she glared at him, "There's no need to cry?! You've been away for so long and left me waiting. I thought something bad had happened to you! And then Mugen shows up injured badly! Tell me Jin, is that really something I shouldn't cry over?!"
Jin nearly winced as Fuu raised voice. "Both of you..." Fuu dropped her head – looking at her lap, "You guys really are a couple of jerks. Showing up injured...or with bad news. It's almost like...a dysfunctional family..." She balled her fist up.
Jin had only been surprised when she had started to throw punches at him. They were weak and fragile, but still she seemed to have packed something underneath her knuckles. Jin sat quietly allowing her to take her anger out on him, until she grew tired. He lifted up both his hands and wrapped them gently around the small wrists.
"It's not right...not fair!" Fuu shouted hoarsely and trembled, "You two get to go and leave me behind for God knows how long...and you left me to worry?! Why..." She felt Jin wrap his arms around her, "You both know...that we are all we have! So, why…why do you do this to me…? I don't want you two to leave me forever…"
Jin was pained by her heartbreaking words. All was true – they were like a family awkwardly enough and all they had was each other. Neither of them relied on the outside world for help of any sort. They only relied on each other, for everything. Jin knew that Mugen was the same way, felt the same way that both he and Fuu felt.
"I'm afraid that one of you is going to leave me early…" Fuu muttered into Jin's kimono, "I don't want to be alone…" At that point, Jin had tightened his embrace and closed his own eyes, a part of him wanted to cry with her because, he too was afraid of being left alone. The other part of him, told his emotions to stay strong – for Fuu and assure her that everything would be fine.
Jin had known better than to lie to the girl. Not once, has ever lied in his life – especially when it came to dealing with Fuu. He knew that even if he tried anyone one could see through his bluffs and cover ups. In all truth, the only thing he could do for the girl was to keep a tight hold on her – until her convolutions had ceased. No words would help ease a worried soul.