WARNING: This chapter is not for kids. Theres no lemon specifically, but yeah. Call it lewdness not suitable for children and people who get disgusted with that stuff easily.

Chapter 2: Mugen

Mugen picked his teeth with the toothpick. He took one last swig of his sake and flipped a coin to the waitress. He got up and walked lazily out of the eating house. Outside, he stretched and then walked the town at random, looking for something interesting to do. He wondered if this town had a brothel. By its size, it should.

Suddenly, he saw a girl in a pink kimono with brown hair. Fuu? He grabbed the girl by the arm, but when she looked back at him, he saw that it wasn't her. The girl didn't look anything like Fuu. Her let her go. She just looked at him with wide eyes and ran off. "Shit." He swore. Why did he do that? Who cared if some bimbo looked like Fuu from behind? He kicked a rock. What a buzzkill. Who wanted to think about that whiny, flat chested brat?

After a little searching, he found the town's biggest brothel. It wasn't hard to find, with the crowds of men in front. A bunch of whores and sakes later he was feeling a lot better. This was more like it.

The next thing he knew, he was opening his eyes on glaring daylight. "Owww." He had a massive hangover. And he was lying face down in the street. He got up and dusted himself off. 'What a crazy night. Couldn't even make it to an inn.' He grinned, and then winced. Everything was too loud and too bright. And it was already hot out. He yawned and stretched. He walked for a bit before coming across a shrine. He strolled under the roof and curled up behind the altar for a nap.

When he woke, it was still day. He was hungry, so after stealing the money placed at the shrine, he sauntered casually through the towns market and helped himself to whatever wasn't kept a strict eye on that struck his interest. He swiped a meat bun, four red bean pastries, two plums, a handful of beans, and half a grilled eel. He nearly burned his fingers and got caught at the same time while trying to pilfer the eel, but fortunately for him, the stall was busy and the man who manned it would only have noticed if he hadn't choked back the yelp when he burned his fingers on the hot eel. Not a bad meal, and he hadn't even spent a mon. Mugen burped and scratched his side.

He used the money to buy some food and wandered out of town heading north at random. The town was okay, but his feet itched to keep moving. He walked through a forest along with merchants, travelers and people on errands. After a few hours of walking he got bored and tried to amuse himself by picking up small rocks and hitting the small cart that was in front of him. Whenever the man pulling it looked back to see what was hitting his cart, Mugen looked at him blandly. The man couldn't decide if he was being harassed by the man with the hard eyes, or if nuts were falling from the trees above them. He hoped it was the latter. He didn't want trouble. Mugen eventually got bored again. The thoughts came back. Thoughts of a time he hadn't traveled alone. "Fuck that!" He said loudly, causing the man to jump and turn around. "Pfff. Smell you later!" He told the man, before bending like a sprinter on starting blocks and running fast, past the cart man, as the wind he caused whipped the man's clothing. "Thank goodness. My, but he's fast." The man muttered to himself as he watched the young vagabond run down the road. At the next intersection of roads, Mugen turned right down a lesser used path. "Hey mister! That's bandit territory!" The cart driver yelled after him. But the young man was already gone. The cart man shrugged.

It was growing dark and Mugen had slowed to a walk again. He had been aware of people following him in the woods for over an hour now. He stopped. "All right. I can smell you guys, so get out here already!" He called. He was always up for some fun. A bunch of bandits stepped from the trees to surround him. They looked rough and mean. But no match for him. Hopefully, they'd give him some exercise before they died. "Give up yer money and we might spare you." One told him. "Pfft. No thanks. Just fight me already, or I'm walking away." Mugen told them with a grin.

A few hours later Mugen was counting the change he'd pulled out of one dead bandit's pockets. "Man this area sure has a lot of bandits. I wish at least one of them at least had some decent amount of money. " He wanted to hit up a brothel in the nearest town big enough for one. But for right now, it was pitch black in the woods, so he decided to stop for the night. He made a fire with the lighter one of the bandits had on him, sprawled out, and pulled out some paper from his pocket. He put aside the books and focused on a folded piece of paper. He flipped it open and looked at the ukiyo e print of Fuu posing for Backwards Beauty. He stared at it for a long time. Tracing the outline of Fuu, he suddenly remembered the other print that artist guy had made of Fuu. The one with not just her shoulders bare, but her breasts and butt free for all to see. The guy had left the country with that print; otherwise Mugen might have tracked it down. But there was no way Fuu was that well-endowed. It was just Fuu with bigger boobs than normal. He felt his pants get tighter. "Fuck." It was just some picture. It's not like the real Fuu could have this effect on him, he told himself. She was flat as a board. It was just the memory of that tight ass and nice boobs in the lost print that was affecting him. Unable to take it anymore, he proceeded to relieve the tension in his nethers.

"Damit! Where'd the little bastard go?" Mugen said, looking around the city. He turned to the nearest person who was a sweet vendor. "Have you seen this kid? Scrawny, about this high?" "No mister." The vendor said. "Tch!" He ran off looking for the kid. The little shit had swiped his dumpling. Sure, he had stolen it from a local food vendor, but he stole it fair and square! It was his!

He spotted the street urchin and cornered him in an alley. "Gimme my dumpling, you brat!" They boy handed a dumpling with a bite in it over to Mugen wide-eyed. "Whats this? You ate some." "Sorry mister!" The kid ran away out of the alley. "Tch." Then Mugen shrugged and stuffed the stolen food in his mouth. It wasn't his lookout if some kid was all skin and bones. He knew better than anyone that life was shit and you either got tough fast and got quick or you died. He had learned long, long, ago to treat each day as his last. That kid probably already knew that. Mugen smirked. What a pansy kid. 'He won't last long.' He thought to himself. "Hey, wait!" He felt for his money, but it was gone. "Little fucker. I guess I was wrong." He grinned. Then he ran out of the alley to look for the kid and get his money back.

"Fucking troublemaker. He'd better stay out." The burly man tossed an unconscious Mugen bodily out of the red light district. He laid there where he landed in the road until the next day. When he woke up he groaned. "Why's the sun gotta be so bright?" He mumbled, struggling to sit upright against the wall to the district. "Naturally, it's always this bright." A voice said. It sounded familiar to him, but the man's features where hidden by the light behind him. "No shit? And here I was thinking it was usually dark." Mugen retorted sarcastically, agitated by his massive hangover. The person didn't answer. After a pause the person spoke again. "What have you done to be kicked out of the Red Light District this time?" "Who gives a shit? What are you, some…wait this time?" Did he meet this guy someplace before? Then it hit him where he'd heard the voice before. "No fucking way. Jin?" He squinted harder at the person. The sun was killing his head. "Hn." Jin moved out of the glare of the sun. Mugen struggled to his feet. "How the fuck are you here? How does that even make sense?" Jin shrugged. "I just came in yesterday from Ezochi. I was looking for work." "At the red light district?" "If necessary." Jin push up his glasses. Mugen looked around. "She's not with me. I haven't seen her since we all split up." "Oh. …Wait, who?" Jin mentally rolled his eyes at this. "Fuu." "Why would I care if she was here or not?" Jin shrugged. If Mugen wanted to pretend he was fooling anyone, then fine. "So why were you kicked out?" Mugen ran his hand through his hair. "I drank more than I could pay for." He told Jin. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised by anything you do anymore." Jin replied. Mugen grinned. Normally, he'd tell the person to fuck off and who the fuck were they, but he didn't feel like it with Jin. He stretched and linked his hands behind his head. "I'm hungry. Let's grab some grub." Jin arched and eyebrow. "Only if you're not planning on dining and dashing." Mugen grinned. "It's not like I got any change left." "I can buy you a meal." Mugen frowned. "Fuck no. I don't take handouts from no one. No one." He emphasised. It was Jin's turn to grin. "Fine. Then you can pay me back. There's a job, but it called for two man job, not one. I just saw the sign, and was thinking about applying alone anyway, or if I should just try somewhere else when I stumbled across you. If you get the job you'll be able to pay me back in no time." Mugen scratched his stomach. "Fine, sure. I ain't got anything better to do anyway." He slung his sword over his shoulder and followed Jin.

Some days later Mugen was sitting on a rock on a beach, staring out at the sea. Jin walked up behind him. "You really like the sea." Mugen didn't reply. "Let's go." Mugen jumped down and walked down the beach and back to the road after Jin. He had no idea why he had decided to follow old four-eyes after their job ended. But it was probably because he had nothing else to do. No other plans.

He stuck his hands in his pockets and felt the paper in there brush up against his knuckles. He pulled his hand out like it was burned. Stupid broad. He put his hands behind his head. Sometimes he couldn't stand touching that stupid ukiyo e print. Especially lately. But he found he couldn't toss it. He scowled. Jin noticed and wondered what had pissed Mugen off. In one swift movement, Jin reached into the offending pocket and pulled out his prize. He unfolded it. "What the fuck! Give that back four-eyes!" Jin looked at it. "Why do you have this?" He asked as Mugen grabbed the picture and stuffed it back in his pocket. "Bastard." He glared at Jin. "You better lay off. I just do." He grumbled. Jin said nothing. So he still felt something for Fuu. Jin thought Mugen might have not still have a thing for her after all this time. Now he knew. He wondered if Mugen was even aware of his feelings for her. It was a toss-up with Mugen who had a good poker face, but was also equally clueless about some things.

He hadn't reacted as strongly as Jin would have expected or put up a pretense about the picture either. For anyone else, he would have ignored the person or beat him up. So Mugen trusted him, did he? That was unexpected. He pushed up his glasses and began walking.

"Why the hell did he even trust me to find decent digs?" Mugen mumbled and kicked a stone. He was on his way to meet up with Jin, who was looking for work while Mugen looked for an inn. They were supposed to meet up afterwards at a shrine near the center of the city. It was almost a year later since he had met up with Jin again, and he still found himself traveling with the stoic ronin. He had kept telling himself he should just walk away, but he never had. His fingers absentmindedly brushed the print in his pocket which triggered a memory. He pulled out his hand and swore loudly. "Annoying brat." He muttered. He couldn't even escape her when she was gone and he'd never see her again. Then he heard the most impossible thing ever. "Mugen?" a familiar voice said softly. He whirled around. It was Fuu. She was a little taller than he remembered, and her curves were slightly more pronounced through her pink kimono. But it was her. She was holding a bulging cloth bag with leeks peeking out. The surprise on her face mirrored his own.

-The formatting they let you do on here is terrible, so my end notes will start with a dash (it won't save more then that), so you can tell it from the story.

I was rather lost as to how this story would go until this point, where I figured some things out. So sorry for any weirdness/ disjointedness because of this.

Mugens a pervert. Haha.

For clarity: The picture of Fuu he carries is NOT the one with all her parts hanging out. The artist guy took it with him when he left Japan remember? I thought it was too implausible for Mugen to know he'd never made it out of japan and so Mugen couldn't have gone looking for the picture if he wanted to. The one he has is 'Backwards Beauty'. It just reminds him of the other picture that is gone. (He remembers dirty things easily.) By the way if I talk about ukiyo e prints and say call them Shunga, I mean erotic art. (Thats the Japanese name for them. Not to be mistaken for just porn.)

I know I said there will be lemons (and there will. Muhuhaha) but its not going to be constant. Its going to be where its part of the story. And I will warn you at the being of the chapter in question.

Please rate and review! Thanks! Let me know if you think anyone was too out of character (and what they were doing that was OC).