Chapter1

I Remember the Promise

A/N: I got the idea for this story from the closing credits of the show. In it Fuu was sitting next to some hidden lady who was sitting by a vanity putting makeup on. How I could get a whole story from that, who knows, but hey, I'm awesome ^_^. This is just the first chapter and it's a little of the past so it's kinda short and angry. Sadly I do not own Champloo, really wish I did, but oh well. I hope you enjoy this. I promise it will be very good! Please R&R.

It was so hard for her to believe. At the age of ten, it's possible to tell when someone is leaving and never coming back. The day was beautiful, and didn't portray even the slightest bit of foreboding. It was summer and the air was warm, the smell of sunflowers was heavy in the breeze and it blew her chocolate hair softly.

She remembered having her eyes closed, when he kissed her forehead. But she also remembered how sickening it was to her that he could be so sweet about this. She squeezed her little cousin's hand as he pat her head, his daughter's head, and told her he loved her. Fuu was young, six, so all she could do was stare at him with big, warm, chocolate eyes.

Her aunt was crying, begging him not to leave. A woman of beauty broken by the simple yet powerful gesture of being left behind. She felt that she didn't deserve to look so much like her loving aunt, especially when it made her own mother hate her.

She hated her sister, and ultimately her daughter, her sister's spitting image. She hated her niece too, and her niece's good for nothing father. His leaving only made it easier to taunt him.

The young girl stared after the only man in her life, the closest thing to her father, as he walked away. He was the only one who protected her from her mother, and there he was, leaving.

Fuu pulled from her cousin's grasp, running after the man whose stride was too much to keep up with. Her aunt came to the door, still crying, and coughing, looking sick and pale. She tried to figure how they would make it, if they would make it at all.

She could laugh about it now, almost. She didn't blame her aunt, cousin, not even her mother. She blamed HIM, it was his fault that her mother sold her to that damn whorehouse. Just like this day, she remembered that day too.

"Get back here you little bitch!" Nai winced as her mother harshly grabbed her arm. "I hate you!" A hard slap landed on her face and she turned away with the force.

"Sukumi please stop it! She's your daughter!"

"Shut up Sikumi! You raise your daughter, let me raise mine." Her aunt's futile attempt to save her made her spirits die.

There was another blow to her stomach. "You are such a whore!"

"I am not." It came out softly, not as defiant as she meant for it to be. But her mother caught the hint.

She had never done anything wrong, she was still innocent, and she wanted to stay that way. Despite how much her mother insisted that she did dirty things with the boys in the village.

A sinister laugh filled her ears, "Oh. Are you talking back now? Well, we'll have to fix that."

Burning. Intense pain as hot coals landed on Nai's back. She screamed so loud that even her mother yanking her from the floor by her long beautiful hair didn't silence her.

"A whorehouse! Exactly where a whore belongs!"

Nai kicked and screamed against her mother as she dragged her down the hall, "I'm prepared to give every penny I have to send you away!"

"N-Nai." The soft fragile voice made Nai open her eyes. Her mother yelled at the small girl. "Fuu! You stupid child! Go in your room!"

Tears welled in the Fuu's big eyes. "B-but, aunt Sukumi. You're hurting her."

Nai bit her lip, "It's ok Fuu. I'll come back for you, I promise."

"Shut up!"

She watched helplessly as her little cousin's form disappeared as her mother dragged her away to a future that would break her.