STUCK
Fuu couldn't see through her tears as she dragged Jin's body down to the beach. All she could hear was the crashing of the waves and the roar of blood pounding against her own ears. Jin and Mugen… they both had been fighting crazy strong guys, but they always were, right? Their opponents were a little tougher than those they usually fought, but they always ended up on top in the end, right..?
So why did they both look like they were going to die?
Why?
Fuu gingerly placed Jin next to where Mugen had already collapsed on the beach, his face far paler than usual. She was still weeping as her legs finally gave out beneath her, crumpling from the strain of pulling the heavy man down from the cliff. Blood wouldn't stop pouring out of the wound in Jin's side, and no matter how she pleaded, it kept gushing out, pooling in the sand beneath him. Helpless and bleary eyed, she wailed to the skies, crying out for somebody, anybody to help her bring back her two samurai and make the river of red stop flowing from their cuts. Mugen looked like he'd been torn to shreds. Soot and bits of wood, where a church had collapsed on him, covered his clothes and she made a small choking sound as she saw three angry red cut marks across his cheek, an oozing trail of blood making its' way down his jawline.
What was she supposed to do? What could she do? All she had to bind their wounds was what she was wearing, and even if she were to use it all, it still wouldn't be enough to cover all the gouges.
They were going to die.. Fuu suddenly realized, just like her mother and father had, right in front of her.
Cries of anguish and pain began to pour out of her, and she shook with great heaving sobs, unable to control her body. All alone and helpless to save them, only the waves answered her desperate cries. And yet, as she lay in between the two of them in the sand, footsteps, lilting and deliberate, sounded off the beach rocks and reached Fuu's ears. She jolted to the side a bit, feeling a great roiling chill crawling up her spine. Her mind told her it was Government's samurai, the one the Shogun had sent after the three of them, miraculously alive again aand back to finish his grisly mission. He alone was responsible for the wound in Jins' side… and also her fathers' death. Determined not to let him see her pain and anger, Fuu whirled around to face him, holding a nearby stone at the ready…
But the beach in front of her lay empty.
She lowered her rock slightly, confused, but unfazed. She knew what she heard. Standing up, she started cautiously in the direction of the footsteps. She was only a few paces away when a far closer sound rang out from behind her, back where her two bodyguards lay. It was a high, piercing sort of laugh, one that only comes from the very top of the throat and made all the hairs on Fuu's neck bristle wildly. She flinched and whirled around, rock raised in defence. She almost dropped it in shock when she saw what had made the cry.
Standing between her friends, was a man, or what seemed to be a man, although far taller and slimmer than any man she had ever seen. He was clad in a billowing black haori and matching hakama, tied together haphazardly with an obi the color of dried blood. His movements were unbalanced, and he kept hopping about between the two of them, crouching as if to get a better look at one, then, like a crow, bouncing over excitedly to inspect the other. She couldn't see his face for the thick woolen scarf he had wrapped around it, and only a pair of great wide eyes could be seen glinting gleefully from beneath his matching black sedge hat. Fuu was dumbstruck. She could only stand there glued to the spot and watch this ridiculous creature loom and bounce about over her boys. Only when he planted his bare feet in the sand and let out another high pitched cackle did Fuu jolt from her trance and start towards the man, rock raised once again.
"Hey!" she cried out, "get away from them!" and lobbed the rock in his direction, nearly catching Jin on the side of the head. The strange man stopped his jig and fixed a single gleaming eye on the shaking girl. "Good," she stammered, hoping to appear far braver than she felt, "now go on and leave us alone, they need help, not you dancing around them, freak!" At this the stranger's bony shoulders bounced as if he was laughing as some joke she'd just told, and returned his focus to the men at his feet. Incensed, she called out again, "HEYYY, are you listening? I told you" - as she stooped to pick up another rock- "to leave them"- and straightened to take aim "ALO-"
And couldn't say another word, for as she looked up, the man had disappeared from his place behind Jin and Mugen and had materialized immediately in front of her, one hand cupped over her mouth and the other beneath the nape of her neck.
If it had not been for his hand supporting the back of her, she would have fallen backwards in terror. His hands were uncomfortably dry and held no warmth, yet seemed to possess terrifying strength that Fuu sensed was being restrained. Her pupils dilated in fear, lips parted to choke out a muffled scream, but the hands simply clamped down harder on her neck, bringing her face up to meet with his. From this position she felt his great wide orbs scanning every inch of her, tearing into her shamelessly with their gaze. Her face went red with fury as his eyes rested briefly on her less than developed bosom and seemed to laugh all by themselves, although the man himself was completely silent. This anger seemed to give Fuu the strength she needed to reach for the hand covering her mouth and tear it away, the stranger letting it dangle limply by his side while still keeping the other hand positioned firmly on her nape. His eyes grinned again as he brought Fuu's ear right next to where his mouth was. "I can save them both, you know," he rasped.
Fuu froze. Behind them Mugen let out a pained groan and shifted agonizingly in his position, cradling his obviously broken arm. Fuu panicked slightly, but stared defiantly right back into her oppressor's globular eyes. "What do you mean you can save them?" she hissed, "look at them, they're nearly dead!" Hot angry tears began to stream again as she looked at them and she cursed herself quietly. She was always the one crying. " Even the most skilled doctors in Edo couldn't save them, what makes you think you could?"
To this he released her neck and simply pointed a spindly finger skyward, gesturing for Fuu to look up. As she did, a small white butterfly suddenly came flopping clumsily by. Like a strike of lightning, the black-clad man unsheathed a wicked looking dagger from deep within the copious folds of his haori and sliced the insect in two, making a tiny "snkt" noise where the two objects made contact. Fuu didn't even follow the movement, and she couldn't believe it even if she had. This man had drawn his weapon and replaced it faster than she had ever seen Mugen or Jin do, not to mention hit such a small target without so much as a glance in it's direction. Without bothering for a response, the masked man hopped over to the halved butterfly, giggling with excitement as he picked up the two sides. He shuffled over to her with the poor thing cupped in his hands, bringing it right up to her face. When he opened them, Fuu had to stifle a yelp, as a perfectly whole butterfly darted out from between his clammy fingers and flitted off into the fast approaching twilight.
"That- that's impossible…" she stammered, following it's tiny figure into the sky. She had just seen him cut it in two, and yet she also just saw it fly off.. perfectly whole. Another seismic chill shot it's way up her neck, and she looked back the man, heart racing wildly, as a realization started to surface within her. "You're.. not human, are you?" she said quietly. Even as she said it her mind tried to rationalize otherwise, but her in her heart she already knew the answer. This statement seemed to invigorate the figure and he bounced and skidded excitedly across the beach, churning up little sand waves as he went. Then suddenly he was right before her again, gesturing broadly in the direction of her boys. "This is your chance" he thundered suddenly, "They lie here dying before you and yet you can do nothing." A violent wind picked up suddenly, kicking up sand that stung her uncovered legs. " I can save them," he continued, "but a price must be met. Forge a deal with me, and they shall live." "I don't know!" Fuu wailed over the wind, "what deal?" He was suddenly inches away from her face, eyes roiling with intensity. "I am the only one who can save them," he screeched, "In exchange for their lives, you must carry with you my memory until the moment your soul parts from your body. THOSE are my terms, there IS no more time, CHOOSE, or damn them to hell!" He punctuated by reeling back and sending out another banshee cackle.
The winds had reached a feverish pitch now, sending the sand biting into her bare legs angrily, slowly wearing her skin away. Behind the howling figure, she caught sight of her body guards, already half buried in sand, being torn apart by the gale. A sudden image of her covering the rest of them up in a grave raced through her mind like a scream, an image that terrified her and motivated her at the same time, because she was not going to be the one to bury her friends if she could help it, no matter what the cost.
"Alright!" she shouted, "I'll remember you, now just don't let Mugen and Jin DIE!"
At her last words the howling winds and sand dropped their feverous dance, and the demon, for now she realized that's the only thing he could be, stood before her, stock still with a single gloved hand extended towards her. "You chose wisely, girl," was all he said. His voice had fallen to a low lecherous timbre and something deep within the pit of her stomach churned with unease. But her mind was made up, if indeed he could do what he had done with the butterfly to Jin and Mugen, she would deal with anything else that happened later on, as long as they were alive.
Steeling herself for another contact with his dead, lifeless grip, Fuu clutched her hands in a tiny ball against her chest before grasping the outstretched glove before her. An explosion of sand drowned Fuu's cry of surprise and pain, and swept her along with its' torrent as blood dripped down her palm. There had been a long, felt like metal, spike right in the center of his glove, and as she grasped it he gripped her hand tighter, pushing the spike in. The hole was bleeding profusely but she couldn't make out any place to shelter herself as sand pelted her from all sides, blurring her vision and suddenly depositing her in front of her now completely buried companions, the sand piling on top of them forming dunes.
On the verge of tears again, Fuu cried out to the howling winds "We had a DEAL, so what now, HUH?" To which the wind roared even higher. Then, right next to her ear, came the demons' feral response, whispered through the winds. "A drop of your blood for each man~." Her mind was too strained to even question his arcane directions, and instead she crawled blindly up to where she had seen Jin lay. A single tear sprung from her eye as she outstretched her injured palm to squeeze a drop on top of the mound, wincing visibly as it fell, and then crawling over to Mugen to repeat the process. With a weight unnaturally heavy for a droplet, each one made a small crater in the piling sands before sinking like lead in water, burying itself into the sand. For a agonizing split second, nothing happened..
Then, all at once, all the grains of sand swirling about her halted altogether, suspended in the air like bubbles in a frozen pond. Fuu blinked, and shifted her head slightly to get a look around. The second she moved, though, all the sand reacted as one living thing, throwing themselves at the two mounds, which had become twin sinkholes before her. A great rumbling roar shook the earth as the sound of millions upon millions of sand grains rubbing and bumping into each other filled the air. It was sort of whining, high pitched wail, a sound not unlike the demon's laugh. All the airborne sand was being sucked onto the vortexes into the ground and Fuu strained against the current to avoid being sucked down with them. The force was immense, and she fought with all she had, but her legs were already giving out. With one great final roar, the last of the sand buried itself into the pits, filling in the holes with a muffled growl.
Free of the current, Fuu was on her feet immediately, running unsteadily to reach where Jin and Mugen had been. Had been.. She gasped as loud as she could with a mouth full of sand and scrambled desperately to the now empty stretch of beach. "They're gone," her mind told her, but she ignored it and began digging up clods, stained a deep red from where they had lay. They couldn't be gone, she begged, after all we've been through, they just couldn't… But they were, and as she continued to dig, the rational side of her brain began to win out and she collapsed, perhaps for the last time, onto the beach. He body heaved and shook with strained ragged gasps. Staring straight up, it appeared to be getting quite late.
The sky looked like it had been slapped in the face, and there were strips of orange and red streaking across it, highlighted against the wings of gulls as they glided lazily by. The gurgling of the waves beating against the shore finally reentered her consciousness, making the small girl sigh a shaky sigh and clutch her filthy sounded so normal. Despite all she had just seen and heard and felt, the rest of the world continued to move on, indifferent to her misery. Had it not been for the stabbing pain that still shot up from the hole in her palm, she would have been happy to believe what she just saw was just a horrible nightmare.
She smiled oddly to herself at the thought, and closed her eyes, imagining dreamily her tiny frame jolting out of bed in a sweat, inciting Mugen to laugh at her and call her a scared little brat. Then he would hand her her share of that night's catch, a smoked fish on an improvised spit, and they would all sit around the campfire eating in comfortable silence before Jin would give in and ask her what her dream was about. She would then spend the entire night nearly talking about it, far after both men had fallen asleep, just relieved that it was over and they could go on just as they had, cutting out a weary existence, but a happy one, traveling all about Edo with only each other to worry about. A bitter twilight breeze brought Fuu out of her dream and back into reality, all lingering curls of warmth from her fantasy fire chased away.
She looked again to the sky and was shocked to see some early stars poking through the curtain of nightfall, winking coldly down at her. How long had she been out? Fuu sat up, much to her cramped back's objection, and looked around. Dull pangs of despair tinted the edges of her vision as she realized she was still alone, and once again on her own. Hunched in a shivering ball, Fuu had no tears left to cry. A numbness was all that was left after all she had seen, so she stood up, wobbling a bit, and started to walk away, hoping perhaps her sandals weren't buried completely in sand. The question she was trying to distract herself from kept popping up though, the question, "What now?" She had no one else to go to, no family to take her in or friends left livi- she shook her head before she had the chance to finish that thought, fearing her stability if she thought about it any further. The tea shop keeper and his wife had always been nice to her, maybe she would go back to the town where she had started out and try to find them again.
Judging by the looks of the sky, she had about another half hour or so of light left, so for tonight she would try and find shelter at that old man's house where her father… passed. Fuu didn't know if she would be able to sleep in the same room, knowing that was where he had been murdered, but the increasing chill in the air kept her feet moving. Had she not paused for a moment to investigate a rock that kind of looked like one of her sandals, she would have missed the soft hiss of sand that came from behind her. Unable to feel anything but a dull type of wondering, Fuu looked over her shoulder in the direction of the sound. Although it was assuredly the shadows playing with her sight, she saw two lumps of sand rising from the turf a little ways off. That can't be right, she thought numbly, perhaps some sea turtles got caught up in the storm trying to get back out to sea. I've never seen sea turtles up close before, so I might as well go see them now, her head told her. Her weary legs strode stiffly over to the shifting mounds, shaking slightly as she stooped to try and uncover the larger one, extending her uninjured hand to brush away the dirt.
A hand shot like lightning from the mound and clamped onto her wrist like a vise, holding her in place as a blood curdling scream she didn't know she could manage anymore ripped from her throat. She tugged at it furiously but the hand was anchored to something still within the sand. She dug her heels in and pulled harder, slowly bringing up with it an arm, then a shoulder from the ground below. A small blossom of hope sprang up involuntarily in her chest, but she pushed it down. It was a fisherman, she told herself, that had been caught up in the sandstorm. She was going to pull him out and he would thank her and be on his way, leaving her again in solitude. But no, "look," her heart whispered, "look again." Breathing heavily from the adrenaline, Fuu stopped struggling and paused, lifting up her arm to closer inspect the tanned hand that held her. She stared at the whitened knuckles, taking in the scars that criss-crossed the expanse of them, moved carefully on down to the top of the hand, and then the wrist, where her heart stopped cold. She strained her eyes incredulously at what she thought were two bracelets, but were in fact two blue loops circling the wrist and forearm. She allowed her injured hands' fingers to ghost over the surface of the lines, meeting nothing but soft skin. Tattoos, she realized, blue ringed tattoos around the wrists. In this whole world she only knew one man who had tattoos like that, and he was dead, or so she thought…
For a dead man, Mugen had one hell of a grip.
Laughing blearily at the insanity of it all, she gingerly gripped his wrist with her wounded palm and pulled as hard as she dared. Sure enough, from the mound came the frayed edges of his grey shirt, his tanned neck, and then finally, his head, still partially covered with sand. His eyes were shut but as Fuu let him down gently back onto the ground, his face screwed up in a grimace and he coughed violently, spewing sand and dirt that had filled his lungs only a few hours ago. She could have cried right then and there if not for the sand pile next to her bucking and throwing off sand, reminding Fuu that if Mugen was here, so might Jin. Exclaiming in excitement, Fuu crawled over to Jin's mound, getting the reddened sand caught in the inside of her butterfly sleeves. Handfuls of sand and dirt went flying as she dug with renewed energy, praying with all her might for what she might find beneath, and, in that instant, God heard her, for suddenly her nails made contact with something solid and warm. She was crying again as she swiped the sand off Jin's chest and sides, making him jerk slightly beneath her touch. Scooping an arm beneath his back, she managed to pull him midway out of his shallow grave. Unable to control herself, she held him close to her, despite him being over a head above her, and listened to beautiful steady thump of his heart beating against his chest, spreading heat and life throughout the friend she thought she had lost.
A great heaviness she hadn't realized she'd had, lifted off her then, and all the emotions that were frozen by grief began to thaw, seeping out of her in great heaving sobs of joy and relief. The nightmare was over and she had her friends back. Jin stirred in her embrace and awoke with a jolt, gasping and coughing for a moment, then looking down at the shaking girl beneath him wrapped around his bare chest. The last thing he remembered before passing out was stabbing that Kagetoki man, fatally wounding him at the cost of his own life… Something didn't make sense, he should be dead right now, and yet he was living enough to feel the cold night wind splaying across his bare back. Jin shivered a bit. Snapping out of her own embrace, she released him, blushing slightly but still smiling. "Fuu," Jin murmured, "what is going on?" There was a pause, and the brunette looked away for a moment, rubbing her hand soberly before looking at him again, smiling. "Does it matter?" she said, " you guys are alive and that samurai you fought is history." Jin closed his eyes, "Mmm, I see.. and what of your samurai, the one who smelled of sunflowers?" At this Fuu bowed her head slightly and shook it, whispering into her kimono, "He didn't make it."
From out of nowhere, a giant crack of thunder splintered across the sky and Mugen jolted out from beneath the sand, freeing his legs and torso which had been previously buried. "What the hell, Fuu, we almost meet our fuckin' maker and you go and bury us on the beach? Where the hell is that wheel chaired bastard, I'm gonna slice his ugly mug right off," he declared, reaching behind him for his sword. To Fuu's surprise, his hand found the hilt and he drew it, slashing the air where his prospective victim was to be enthusiastically. Confused, Fuu mentally went back to when she had first dragged Jin down to the beach. Mugen was lying on his back with his sword lodged deep into the sand a few meters away, so how did it end up back in it's hilt? She sat there and watched him, bewildered until there came another flash of lightning. It was such a booming thunder that even Jin looked up to the skies in alarm. Far off out to sea, they could hear the approaching curtain of rain threatening to soak them all if they didn't find shelter soon. The three looked at each other in the pitch darkness, and agreed instantly that the beach was definitely not the place to be caught up in a storm. So, with the help of Fuu and Mugen, Jin was freed from his sandy prison and the trio started to make their way up the beach path that hopefully lead towards the old man's hut, where they would to take refuge for the night. Fuu lagged behind a bit, hoping secretly that never ended up finding the house. She didn't want to see the aftermath of the shogun samurai's work.
They wandered blindly along an adjoining path they had found in a flash of lightning for a few minutes before it started to pour. Mugen cussed out the sky angrily as their trail very quickly became a river of mud. Fuu could tell Jin was scowling miserably in the dark but she couldn't help but laugh out loud, knowing that things would soon go back to normal and they were on their way again. The path led uphill for another few minutes or so before opening up to reveal the far off shore to their right, and the forest at their back. Completely drenched and exhausted, the trio paused for a moment to wait for the next flash of light to gather their bearings. When it came, it illuminated what looked like a fisherman's cabin situated snugly in between twin giant camphor trees next to the trail up ahead. Relieved to be getting out of the rain, Fuu and Mugen made a scramble for the door. When they reached it, Mugen wasted no time even bothering with the lock, a thick leather strap cordoned to the handle, and ripped the whole assembly off the door itself. "Honestly Mugen, you couldn't just cut the lock?" Fuu sighed. In the dark she thought she saw him grin. "Not my style," he replied, and they all crammed inside, grateful to escape the downpour. The stench of fish in varying stages of decomposition was the first thing they became aware of, but the shack was dryer than it was smelly, and its' stink dissipated a bit with the door let open. Wooden shelves mounted high on the walls held a messy assortment of hooks and weights, as well as thick rings of twine and rope, presumably for repairing fishing lines. Jin opened up a wooden chest near the back of the shed and pulled out a finely woven net that would serve nicely as bedding for the night. He even found a small blanket stored beneath the chest for Fuu. Mugen took the nets and cleared away debris from the middle of the room, kicking it industriously out the door. Plopping the rougher nets and ropes in a large circle, he fashioned a sort of nest, building it up with those first and then laying out the finer nets on top like a birds' down. They could barely see it in the dark. It looked wide enough for all three of them, but just barely. Fuu squinted and her eyes widened, "Wow, Mugen, this actually looks great," she marveled, "it's like you've done this before."
"Just get in girlie, I'm beat," was all he said, and collapsed onto one side of the makeshift nest, issuing a gruff "oomf" before beginning to snore almost instantly.
"He really has no self-control," Jin sighed, and took the side farthest from the vagrant, settling himself in. Fuu stood in front of the nest for a moment, wondering bemusedly at the two. They were so completely different, yet so alike. One was quiet and refined, and carried himself like an emperor, while the other was wild and vulgar, but they both made the same soft tired noises as they settled down into the bedding, exhausted no doubt from the ordeal they had just lived through. Her thoughts ran back briefly to when she had first met them both at the tea shop one evening, and she marveled at how much since then they had grown. Once a divided bickering group of strangers traveling on the same path, they had grown to look out for each other and behave as one unit. She smiled to herself in the dark and sighed. Finally, after she was sure they both were deep in sleep, she slid herself in the space between them, pulling the blanket Jin had given her appreciatively around her soaked shoulders. It was silent in this space, save the steady drumming of the rain against the roof and soft constant breathing in and out of her two bodyguards. She couldn't help the happy tear that escaped the corner of her eye as she took in the warmth radiating from both their backs, despite their attempted distance. She closed her her tired lids at last, and readjusted a stray rope from beneath her side, causing Mugen to stir in his sleep beside her. Rolling over, she unconsciously snuggled up to Jin's broad back and let his warmth lull her in, finally joining them in a deep well deserved sleep.
That night her dreams were filled with darkened skies, the sun blotted out as it was by great clouds of sand that filled the air. They flowed on their own like migrating birds, humming and whirring as one when they streaked by her unshielded ears. She was a little girl again and despite the clouds she could see her father and mother up a little further on the beach, walking slowly with their backs turned to her. A sunflower in hand, she ran after them, wanting to bury herself in her dad's flowing gi and escape the biting storm. But as she ran after them, the swirling sand obscured their forms, distorting them until they were one giant blur. She stopped and clutched her flimsy dress, confused and hating the way the grains bit into her face and legs and made them sting. All she wanted was to be safe again in her parents arms. Calling out to them, all she got in response was a mouthful of sand. Spitting it out, she took up running again while wiping her eyes, crying a bit as little children do. Looking up, it seemed that they were suddenly a lot closer than they had been, and she hurried towards them, happy to be sheltered beneath their arms at last. Her voice reached its' mark this time, making the blurred mass pause from its' pace and turn towards the shivering girl. The sand obscured much of what she saw but as Fuu neared the figure she stopped dead in her tracks. Before her were not her parents, indeed not even two people, but rather a single massive figure with billowing black sleeves and a blood red sash. The demon raised a single clawed finger to his scarf and pulled it down past his chin, revealing the same manic, fanged grin she had heard in his voice and seen in his eyes only a few hours before. An older Fuu stood stock still in the sand, dunes piling up over her feet and rendering her immobile, but it was likely even without it she wouldn't have been able to move, so paralyzing was her fear. His presence was as suffocating as the storm that whipped around her. She couldn't speak or even raise a hand to guard herself against him as he neared her face, his breath too hot on her cheek. "Be sure to give my sincerest thanks to Mugen and Jin, will you dear?" he leered, "as well as an apology for the… extra features, hehehe, they're just a little something to remember me by." Being so close, Fuu saw in terrible detail the rows of inhumanly sharp teeth, canines peeking out over the chapped curve of his lips. She wanted to call for help but she felt like a deer cornered in the forest, a wolves' glittering fangs the last thing she saw before they closed down over her neck.
~End of chapter One~