Chapter 1

It had been three years since Fuu had parted ways with her unlikely bodyguards. The Pirate and the Ronin. She sometimes questioned whether she had made the right decision splitting from them, but then she thought about how independent she had become. She had taken control of her life. She had a job, a permanent home, she even had a regular grilled eel stand that she went to once a week. But sometimes, she couldn't quite ignore the wanderlust, the urge to just leave it all behind, to go on adventure, to see everything that she could possibly see before it was too late. But she couldn't do that anymore, she couldn't just leave. There was no excuse, no reason for her to go on any sort of quest. Her quest was over. There were no more samurais that smelled of sunflowers. That had been done. There was no more for her to do except to settle in one place and wait to be married. Already the customers she served daily at the teahouse questioned why she was not married already. Fuu couldn't say exactly why, but every man that seemed to show any sort of interest in her seemed to always, well, fall short of her expectations. When she married, that would be for the rest of her life, which is no small commitment. The man she married should be able to provide for her, care for her and especially love her.

Fuu automatically took the food and tea to and from the waiting customers with a smile fixed on her face. Before she realised it, the end of her shift had arrived. Fuu bid goodnight to the other waitresses who also worked at the teahouse and slowly made her way to the place she called home of the edge of the city. In her mind it had made perfect sense to finally settle down in Edo. There was lots of work, places to stay, so much to see and do and not to mention the food. Fuu couldn't help but smile whilst remembering the eating competition she had participated, and almost won,when the trio first arrived in Edo.

Fuu didn't have her own place to live but instead shared a house with a sweet elderly woman by the name Akemi. It had quite a few rooms with a large kitchen and even a separate bath house. Akemi and her late husband had built the house themselves when they first came to Edo. Unfortunately Akemi couldn't conceive children, thus the couple remained childless, so now Akemi was alone in this world. Akemi had been walking home from the market when a thug decided to try and mug her. Akemi had started to hand over the money she had when the screaming started. Both Akemi and the thug turned to watch a teenage girl in a pink kimono come barreling towards them with her fists in the air whilst screaming at the top of her lungs. Looking back on the scene, Akemi realised that the thug was mostly shocked that a crazy person was coming towards him more than being frightened of a teenage girl wanting to stop him from mugging on an old woman. But after that, Akemi and Fuu became fast friends. Akemi offered for Fuu to live in her house if Fuu would help Akemi with the cooking and cleaning required for a house that large. Akemi's reasoning was that she was getting far too old to take care of things by herself and she was starting to get lonely without her dear husband. Fuu readily agreed.

Fuu had just settled down for her evening meal when there was a loud thumping at her door.

Even though there had been no more kidnapping attempts in the three years she had been by herself, Fuu still carried her tanto with her at all times.

Fuu slipped the blade from a pocket in her kimono and silently crept to the door. Before Fuu could open the door and confront her would be attacker, the pounding on the door resumed.

"Fuu….please open the door," came from the other side of the door.

Fuu froze at the sound of that voice. Even though three years had passed, Fuu would recognise that quiet, even voice anywhere.

"Jin…" she whispered before whipping the door to a figure from her past.

Fuu stepped forward to embrace her friend, but before she could do so, a small toddler peaked its head out from behind the folds of Jin's hakama. Her eyes travelled the length of the small toddler who looked to be no older than three. The boy's straight black hair, pale skin and piercing eyes made him an almost spitting image of the man who was standing next to him. Fuu's eyes locked with that of the child, before the boy quickly retreated behind Jin.

"Uh...Jin, who's child is that?" asked Fuu, raising her eyes to Jin's face.

Jin sighed deeply. Jin's hair was still in his trademark ponytail but he no longer wore glasses after he had lost his first pair in the fight with Kariya Kagetoki, 'The Hand of God'. He had a troubled look on his face as he looked down at the child, who was sucking his thumb, and peering again at Fuu with dark, wide eyes.

"His name is Meiyo….and he is my son," replied Jin in his quiet, even tone as if what he was saying wasn't life changing.

After seeing the resemblance between Jin and the boy, Fuu had already had her suspicions, but she still drew in a shocked gasp after hearing it straight from Jin's mouth.

"Oh...uh..And the mother?" asked Fuu, looking between the boy and the man before settling on the man.

At Fuu's question, a slight blush stole across Jin's cheeks as he finally made eye contact with Fuu before looking away.

"Well, uh, do you remember Shino?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck whilst still not making eye contact.

Fuu thought back to three years ago, her eyes widening when she remembered the woman Jin spoke of.

"Ooohhh…..yeah." There was a beat of awkward silence before Fuu continued. "Where is she?"

Jin's shoulders seemed to droop, before he took a deep breathe a looked Fuu in the eye.

"That's why I am here. As you may remember, I dropped Shino off at Enkiri-dera so she could fulfill the temple's requirements of a three year stay there before she could be divorced legally. Well, when I went to collect her, she was missing." Jin paused with an indescribable look on his face.

"Why don't you come inside?" suggested Fuu, before gesturing into her tiny home. "Can I get you anything to eat or drink?" she asked, stepping into the kitchen to cook something else to add to her own small dinner.

"If you don't mind, we have been travelling for a few days and I didn't ration food for the both of us." Jin sat at the table where Fuu's dinner already sat.

Meiyo hesitantly stepped into the apartment, taking off his tiny sandals as he went, but never relinquishing the thumb from his mouth. He slowly wandered around the room, eyes taking in his strange surroundings. Jin's eyes tracked his son's progress around the room, a faint smile gracing his lips. Meiyo reached the small futon that Fuu slept on, which that morning she had run out of time to fold out of the way. Meiyo removed his thumb from his mouth, crouched down and ran his hand across the futon almost reverently. He then stood and turned to look at his father. Without saying anything, Jin turned to Fuu and asked, "I apologize Fuu, but Meiyo is not accustomed to travelling long distances. Is it alright if he rests on the futon?"

Fuu looked from father to son and back again. It amazed Fuu that Jin knew exactly what Meiyo wanted without him saying a single word.

Well maybe he doesn't know how to speak she thought. Like father, like son.

"Oh, uh, sure! You rest there Meiyo and then I will get you something to eat. How does that sound?" she said, smiling at the stoic boy.

Meiyo waited for his father's confirming nod before he pulled back the blankets on the futon, hopped in and promptly fell asleep, the thumb returning to his mouth.

Jin seemed to deflate before Fuu's eyes as his shoulders drooped even further and the ordeals of the past few weeks caught up to him.

"Oh Jin, are you okay?"

Jin ignored her question. "I need your help Fuu. I don't think I can do this by myself."

"Do what Jin?" Fuu sat down next to Jin, resting a soothing hand on his arm.

"I need to get Shino back. I believe she has been kidnapped." Jin started to rub the bridge of his nose, where his glasses used to sit.

"Kidnapped!?"

"Yes, when I arrived at the temple, the nuns told me that Shino had already left with a man, but had left Meiyo behind with instructions for him to be given to me, his father, when I arrived. Shino would never leave her own child behind. I tried to get more information from the nuns but all they could tell me was that the man she left with had a group of men escort Shino and the man out of town and towards the south."

"Oh no! Who do you think the man is?" asked Fuu, as she scrambled to the stove to make sure their dinner wasn't burning.

"I believe it was her former husband. But I do not know about the group of men or where they were taking her."

"What are you going to do?" asked Fuu as she placed a bowl of soup in front on Jin. She wasn't sure whether she should wake the boy up. Without raising his head from his soup, Jin said "Leave him, he needs the rest. He can eat when he awakes."

Jin and Fuu at their meal in silence. Fuu, pleased with the company of an old friend, but worried for his being and that of his new found son, whilst Jin continued to formulate a plan to retrieve Shino.

After their quiet meal, both Jin and Fuu decided it would be best for each of them to get some rest. Jin went to move Meiyo from Fuu's futon but Fuu halted his movement.

"Leave him be, I can sleep on the floor for one night," she said as she went to gather blankets.

"Hn," was the stoic man's reply.

Hours later, Fuu was still wide awake, thinking over the events that had transpired. She never would have thought to see Jin this way. She had always assumed that one day that both Mugen and Jin would burst into her life, much like they did the first time. But she never expected Jin to come to her for help. She had always seen him as the mature one, the wisest, who had everything figured out. But now she could see him floundering with the new responsibility of having a child, and the worry that crossed his face every time he looked towards his son, worry for Shino.

Fuu's thoughts turned to Mugen. Where was he? Had Jin seen him? He didn't make any mention of encountering the pirate, but Jin was never really much of a talker. In fact, this may be the most that he had ever spoken to her.

Fuu sighed, giving up on trying to sleep and decided to get up for some water instead.

"Mama?" came a quiet, high pitched voice from the futon.

Fuu froze before turning around to look at the sweet boy rubbing the sleep from his eyes before turning to look up at her. "Ah, no Meiyo, it's me, Fuu."

"Oh….Where's Mama?" he asked, his eyes getting wider in the moonlight streaming through the window.

Fuu's mind scrambled for a response. She wasn't sure what Jin had told the toddler about his mother disappearing. "Uh, well, she was taken away by a bad man, and, uh, we have to go find her. But I'm sure she is okay and she misses you very much."

Meiyo was silent for a few moments, seeming to process Fuu words.

Fuu sighed in relief when he nodded, accepting her words.

"Can I please have some water?" he asked after a heavy pause, climbing off of the futon.

This is the most polite kid I have ever met! she thought, glad he had stopped asking about Shino. She was confused as to why he wasn't asking Jin, but from what she could tell, the relationship between father and son was a touch strained. Partly because of Meiyo's lack of interaction with men, especially one as tall and intimidating as Jin, and partly because of Jin's wariness and inhibition of expressing his emotions to others, especially to his surprise son.

"Come on then," she said after a moment, before walking the boy to the kitchen area to grab some water for him and herself.

"You hungry?" she asked as he sat quietly drinking his water. He nodded in return, still utterly polite and adorable.

He is a mini Jin! she thought, smiling to herself. And he looks so much like him!

The resemblance between father and son was uncanny. Even their personalities were the same. Meiyo was the quietest toddler Fuu had ever met. He mostly responded in shakes or nods of his head but every now and then he would make a 'Hn' or an 'Ah' the exact same way Jin does. It was somewhat unnerving for Fuu. It was very rarely that glimpses of Shino would shine through the boys face, like in the small dimple near the corner of his mouth when he shyly smiled, or the rounded softening of his chin, giving him a slight cherubic look instead of the lean harshness of Jin's face..

He was very cute and all in all, Fuu was completely enamoured with the boy.