She haunted his sleep. She haunted him during the waking hours too, always lurking just on the periphery of his consciousness. Her infectious smile and overwhelming perkiness fixated in his mind as perfection. But he was tied down by a sickness that was not his own. Because there was a woman before her and her name was mother.
It was only when the freshly tilled earth was raked over the grave that he could blot his tearstreaked face and set out for Nagasaki.
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"Where will you go?"
She regarded him with wide doe eyes, looking over his handsome features before smiling with conviction.
"We are headed to Nagasaki."
In a flurry of rage Mugen whirled in like a tornado of flailing arms and limbs, knocking the small time thieves around as he headed for Shinsuke. Fuu leapt before him and planted her small hands on his chest.
"Let him go Mugen."
The pirate snarled angrily, his fingers itching to crush the kid's windpipe.
"Why," he whined.
"He was just helping his mom Mugen."
With a beleaguered groan he kicked out the window in tandem with Fuu's excited squeal.
He deftly ascended to the window sill.
"Fuu, I'll repay you for this one day."
"Don't forget me Shinsuke."
"You don't forget me either."
Fuu watched as he evaded the police and melted into nothingness down a side alley, half heartedly listening to Mugen raging in the background, still kicking the thieves.
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"Fuu, I'm hungry."
He had used his most pitiful whine, the one that made her want to strangle him when she thought about it."
"Then get a job you freeloader."
He snickered and ruffled her hair, easily evading her enraged outburst. He had long since decided he liked it here in Nagasaki. Especially since Fuu more or less let him use her hut as an inn, to bad she wouldn't let him drag his conquests back.
"You hardass."
He hefted himself to his feet and ambled out of the teahouse to lighten a few wallets smiling at her frustrated sigh.
He had blown in about six months ago, intent on seeing if the brat was still alive and hitting up some premium cathouses. In very short order he recognized this for the boon it was and more or less refused to leave what he had claimed as his room of the hut.
Fuu sighed at his foolishness and busied herself with wiping down tables in the back.
Her ears perked up and the rag stilled as she heard an oddly familiar voice in the background.
"Does a girl named Fuu work here?"
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