Stanza 2 Part 1.

"You should go to the teahouse over in the other town." The voice seemingly wasn't directed at anyone, but a stranger picked up his head slightly in acknowledgement. "Girl there, prettiest in the province must be, an' isn't scared of anyone, ronin, ryukyuan, yagyuu. But that all's not important, it's her voice. Voice makes gozes cry, it does."

The stranger finally faced the speaker, and a chill ran down the man's spine. The stranger had ryukyuan markings and all, but the terrifying part was the smile that split his face. Downright menacing. He gave a pat as he stepped out, and the man with the tip could feel the underlying power. Good thing he'd sent him over.

Mugen made his way over to the other town, not much of a walk, to be honest. After all the walking he'd done with those two, walking from village to village in such a small province seemed almost too easy. He walked through the town, aimlessly, only to find throngs of people, men and women alike, surging towards what seemed to be an ordinary teahouse, chattering at top speed.

"Is she singing tonight?"

"Yeah, think she's already started."

"Why doesn't she ever say beforehand? It's not like she does it frequently either."

"Well, she's not there to sing is she? The fact that she does it should make ya satisfied."

"True, true..."

He found himself being swept in with the crowd, till he found himself standing in a nook at the far edge of the room. He could only make out the silhouette of the singer, but it didn't really matter. Her voice had reached him first, and it had seized hold of his heart. His hand had unconsciously crept towards his chest, as if in fear that his heart would stop any minute and that he would have to resuscitate it by grabbing himself by his gi throwing himself off of the nearest cliff.

She was singing a seemingly ordinary song, something about dressing up her loved ones in her kimono, but her voice was beautiful and so so so very sad, and every warble jerked something in his chest until he found himself breathless. His lungs had seized, as if they were being filled with ocean water, and he had to force his chest to move. Tears pricked his eyes, ready to fall at any second, and in the back of his mind was a frenzied rage, rage to kill someone, anyone, whoever had made her go through so much pain that every note and every line that flowed out of her mouth was like a thousand velvet coated needles pinning his soul to a board and then stabbing him repeatedly. He was dimly concious of what was happening to him, but no more able to control it than if someone had told to him to stop being. He was thankful, to whom no one knew, that he was basically in no ones eyeline, as he bent over, hands on his knees, as he struggled to breathe in air by the mouthfuls, because apparently his nose was simply for pushing snot out at this point.

He stayed in that position until the song finished, as did the performance. His brain seemed to be writhing, ripping itself into two at this point, one part needing the performance to never finish, and the other to repeatedly sighing in relief that the sensory overload was over. The hush that had blanketed the crowd as she had sung was gone, with people either leaving or settling down onto the tables, but he stayed put in his corner, untrusting of his own body for the first time in his life.

After she had finished singing, Fuu was putting her biwa away when she heard the squabbling between two other waitresses.

"You go!"

"No way! You owe me anyway, remember?"

"I'll pay you back another way, so deal with it this time please!" She clapped her hands and bowed her head in request.

"What's the matter?" Fuu asked as she made her way over.

"Okami-san wants us to check up on that man over there, but we're both a bit scared."

Fuu squared her shoulders, "I'll go, it's ok. Instead, you guys start taking orders in my stead."

"Thank you!" the girls chimed as they scampered away.

Fuu made her way to the silhouette that nobody wanted to confront when a huge arm blocked her.

Mugen was aware of the singer coming his way, but he hadn't moved away. Or rather, he didn't know where to move to, because the only way out of the corner was to walk right into her, and he was not going to let anyone see his face in the state that he was. It was then that he had realized that two hulking men had blocked the singer's path. He had quickly wiped his face with a corner of his haori and placed a hand on his sword, when he realised in surprise that he wasn't going to really need it.

Fuu looked at the offending arm, almost as thick as her thigh, she mused. She looked up at the owner, a full-length sweep up and sweep down, with the best expression of mixed boredom and disgust she could manage. The arm still didn't move. Instead, a grating voice called out "Well sweetheart, why don't you come sing for us?"

Fuu was trying to remain calm. She had bet that she could go a month without causing a ruckus, and it was day 22. Really, why did doltslike this have to make it so hard for a super cute girl like her? She was about to ignore them and duck under the arm when the other guy grabbed her upper arm in a bruising grip and whispered an obscene sentiment in her ear.

And, so naturally, Fuu saw red.

"Ooohh, what a big strong hand you have, sir~" She purred as she disentangled his hand off her arm. "You must have a big strong mind too, ne~?" She gripped the wrist in her hand as she unfurled fingers of the arm that had moments ago been clutching her, a grinning, cocksure face flashing through her mind. "Now let's see if that big, strooongg mind can understand this~ See, now, imma count on your fingers until 5. Now, if at 5 you don't leave me alone, I'll make sure that you regret it." Guffaws had followed her statement. At least, until she started counting.

She focused all her strength into her index finger against the index finger of the hand she was gripping, like she had once watched someone do. "One," She announced, as everyone within a 10 metre radius heard a resounding crack.

"Two," she repeated the process on the middle finger, bending it back till it broke. The man who had initially blocked her way finally snapped out of the shock he was in, realised what was happening, and drawn out her sword. But Fuu was prepared. She kicked the man in the crotch and then knocked the sword out of his hand, making it fly in some random direction. She then drew the sword of the man who's hand she was still holding, and stabbed the swordless oaf with it. She loosed the hand from her grip as she stood in an open stance against the two men, and uttered one word.

"Run."

The men fled without further persuasion. Fuu giggled under her breath as she wiped the sword on her apron. She thought that the day would go bad initially, but that encounter had lightened her mood immensely. She then realised with a start that she had been on her way to doing something before the interruption, and re-started going towards the stock-still silhouette.

"Sir, can I-" the words died on her lips when she saw who it was she was addressing. She went still for a full minute, mind in utter incoherence. Then her body surged into action. The sword clattered onto the floor as she shrieked "MUGEN!" like some god-forsaken demon baby and headbutted herself into his chest.

Mugen still didn't understand what was happening to be honest. He was half-inclined to believe that this whole day had been a dream, some vapid wish-fulfilling hallucination, and he tried to recall if he'd had any wild mushrooms within the past couple of days. At this point point the only thing which kept him from thinking he had gone completely high was the nail from the beam that he'd landed on that was digging into his back.

It was Fuu. His Fuu. Fuu. Fuu'd remembered him. Fuu'd remembered the trick he used to pull. Fuu'd learnt to fight. Fuu was beautiful. Fuu's voice had done something to him. Again. The thoughts kept circling through his head at breakneck speed, each jostling the previous one before it could even be fully thought-out, with "Fuu" being the most prominent one of all, flying through his head in magenta wingdings till his head was almost hurting from it all. He tried to marshall his thoughts, but had to go through many surreptitious throat clearings before he was able to say "I missed you too, brat."

At the sound of his voice, Fuu shrieked a bit more, and snuggled herself deeper into his chest as his arms wrapped around her. He'd never hugged her before this, he realised. He had been an idiot for it, because the way she felt wrapped against him was perfect. It was then that he saw that the whole teahouse had gone deathly silent, and that all eyes were riveted to them.

"Hey," he lowered his head down to her ear, "how about I get my dango now?" She'd laughed (sounding like a bell, he'd noted), at that, and looked up at him with adoring eyes that stabbed at his heart.

"Mmkay, come sit over here!" She dragged him over to the table nearest to the kitchen, and then practically skipped into the kitchen. As soon as she had stepped out, it was as if they teahouse had let go of the collective breath they had been holding, and they all started speaking at once.

"He's the one Fuu talks about?"

"The singer loves that kind of guy?"

"No way, is he the one who taught her how to fight?"