Jin's first priority was to steal clothes for and Fuu and himself. The cart man's son and his wife were a great help with that, as they were both occupied with brow-beating his father to notice them sneak through the house. It was a pretty impressive amount of yelling and stomping to not see two vagrants who reeked of sake drag a bleeding man through the middle of their house. Jin took the son's very best hakama as a small act of vengeance on the part of the old man. Fuu tucked their own clothing into a tight bundle on her back. Once Jin got his bearings in the opposite ally, he realized their good luck.
"We're only two streets away. We can go behind these gardens to get there. Come on."
Get where?, Fuu wondered.
They retook position under each of Mugen's arms and Jin covered his friend's head with his ronin-gasa. Halfway down the street Fuu realized they were drawing curious looks from locals. A discrete getaway was out of the question, and killing a bunch of people wasn't going to solve their problems, despite what Mugen thought.
Fuu remembered the poor, beleaguered man she had recently knocked unconscious. "Drunk again?" She shrilled in her best nagging voice. As a practiced nagger herself, it came out the perfect pitch of shattered glass. "Every town we get to your first thought is to get wasted! It took me all morning to find your stupid carcass. Now you reek of sake! What am I going to tell the children? Hmm? What do you have to say for yourself, you bum."
Fuu even managed to produce tears to match her wailing. She would hate to admit out loud how good it felt to yell at Mugen without him in a position to yell back. If it weren't for the immediate peril they were in it would feel like a dream come true. At the end of the second street Jin stopped without warning at an ancient stone gate.
"In here."
"Here?" They were at the threshold of an impressive if aging estate Fuu guessed was meant to house the family of an esteemed samurai. The facade was showing signs of wear with chipped wood beams and fading paint, and the whole structure leaned slightly to the right. Still, the walkway was clean and the porch recently polished. The home was well kept and gave the impression of a cherished elder well cared for in its later years.
Jin was already turning inside the gate and the still bewildered Fuu had to follow or risk losing her grip on Mugen. Before they even arrived at the steps, the door flew open with a clack. A round-edged woman with a wide, open face and paradoxically beady eyes buried within it appeared. Her arms resembled looped dough slung across her chest and imposing hips flared under her kimono like the trunk of a well-rooted tree. She folded her dough arms and glared at them from the threshold. "Who are you and what do you want?"
Jin bowed as best he could with Mugen's weight. "Good morning. I am a- I know Takeda Daiki and I- my friend is in need of a-."
To Fuu's surprise, Jin wilted under the woman's stare. He had faced unblinking Kariya Kagetoki, but the beady-eyed woman had stolen his composure. Maybe the hunger was getting to him. It was certainly getting to her. Fuu flicked him in the arm with her free hand.
"What he's trying to ask is may we come in?"
The woman's eyes narrowed to slits, wholly focused on Jin. He attempted to look friendly, but wasn't sure how to go about it.
"Yeah sure. Why not?" She turned back into the house, scolding them as she went. "Another of Daiki's sword-happy friends, eh? What happened: got some trouble with gambling debts? You're not the first of that no-good fool's rabble to stumble on my doorstep. He sent you here, didn't he? Typical. He's probably rolling out of some whorehouse gutter this very second."
A meek girl about Fuu's age with long, drooping features that gave her a dreamy look appeared in the open space the woman left at the door.
"Go home for the day, Shiori. For the next few days. Take Takashi with you." The girl's head tilted on a slow hinge from her mistress to the three strangers. She didn't seem particularly interested in any of them, or in obeying the woman. Fuu found that remarkable, as her gut jumped to comply every time the woman opened her mouth. "Go, Shiori!" The girl finally disappeared in no apparent hurry.
Jin pulled Mugen toward the steps without sparing Fuu a glance.
"Are you sure about this?" Fuu asked, and urgent worry lifting her voice a few tones.
"No." He replied without slowing his progress.
She led them to the back of the house and into a bare tatami-floored room.
"Lay him here." She slid back a door and pointed to a futon inside. "I'll get bandages and water. You're on your own from there."
"Thank you." Fuu disentangled herself from Mugen who fell with a grunt. "My name is Fuu and this is-"
"Sousuke." Jin interrupted. "My name is Sousuke."
The woman ran her tongue across the the uneven surface of her top teeth. "Sure it is. I'm Yuki, Daiki's unfortunate wife."
She slammed the door shut and left them stunned.
"What a strange lady." Fuu said.
Strange enough to let us in without a single question, Jin thought.
Fuu pulled off Mugen's gi with swift but gentle hands. "What an idiot. What was he thinking?"
"Running isn't in his nature. It was inevitable."
"It isn't your nature either, but you're not charging every samurai and ninja in the mountains."
"But I would not step aside should one approach me. That is not in my nature."
The wound was worse than either of them thought. Mugen was cut through to his shoulder bones and ribcage. Fuu held her breath to keep her hands from shaking as she plucked larger bits of grass and leaves out of it. As she pulled away crusted blood Mugen made unconscious sounds that were something between a whimper and a growl. After a few minutes the formidable Yuki re-emerged with water and a bundle of rags.
"What did you do, roll him down a hillside first? On top of that I don't know if we can get the stench of sake out of him if we threw him in the river. Some friends you are." But despite her tone she pressed the rags tenderly into the deepest part of the cut, pulling back when he winced. "He's really out of it. Can't blame him. Fuu, was it? You a prostitute?" Fuu opened her mouth to protest, but Yuki steamrolled ahead not giving her a chance. "Nevermind, I don't even want to know. Just don't practice your trade back here. Help me lay these out."
Fuu pressed down her indignation to focus on the task at hand. She hurried to Yuki's other side and spread the clean bandages out so they would be ready to use. It was bothering Fuu that Mugen had said so little since the sake incident. Sure, he usually communicated with grunts and growls like a wild animal, but those noises were usually accompanied by curses.
Yuki gave a low whistle as she inspected the wound herself. "We'll need to wrap him up as soon as possible. That's a lot of scars he's carrying around. Must be a lucky guy."
"Something like that." Fuu said.
As Fuu busied herself with with task Yuki set for her, Jin receded into the corner of the room and sunk into deep meditation. There was nothing for him to do at this point, and he had a feeling much would be required of him later. He would watch for signs of danger, for now.
Fuu ran her palm across Mugen's cheek. "He's burning up."
She began cleaning the wound in earnest with the hot water Yuki brought.
"Yeah, but there's not much to do about it. Keep him cool. You keep an eye on him and he'll be fine. From the way you're working it looks like you've done this before." Yuki stood, drying her hands absentmindedly on her kimono. "Without Shiori the domestics are up to me, so I'll leave you to it." With that Yuki left them.
The quiet room was sonically disjointed. Jin's eyes were closed and his breathing was steady with his wrists resting on his knees, while Mugen's breathing was a rasp. The unmatched cadence was getting on Fuu's last nerve. She wiped the gathering sweat from Mugen's hair and directed her frustration toward Jin. "What good are you, you jerk? Can't you do something?"
Jin opened one eye. "You are the more skilled in this field. I leave it to your ample knowledge." He closed his eyes again.
Fuu tossed their last coin that happened to be in hidden in her bindings at Jin and nailed him in the middle of his forehead. Even though he didn't flinch, she was quite pleased with herself. Her aim was becoming excellent.
Fuu grabbed supplies from her pack and rummaged through them until she found a jar of green paste. "Yeah well, I didn't get that skill by choice, did I? Why can't you two keep all your body parts intact? It's not that hard for normal people."
"Hn."
Fuu had more important things to do than yell at Jin, but he made it so tempting.
