Mugen didn't act like somebody that had just been let out of prison. Fuu didn't know what she'd expected - for him to turn handstands, maybe, or literally bounce off the walls. Instead he walked hunched over and kept to the shadows, somehow more detached out of jail than he had been on the inside.
Fuu gripped the sleeve of his ragged red hakama – honestly, was he really still wearing that thing? – and followed him anxiously down an alleyway.
"Mugen, we should probably leave town right away," she said nervously. "That guard said we've got to keep from being seen."
Mugen grunted. "Got no place else to go."
"I already thought of that, we're going to Shimonoseki!" said Fuu importantly. "Jin and Shino are waiting for us!"
If she had been expecting a reaction, she didn't get one. "Huh," said Mugen. "He really went back for her, eh? I kinda figured him for a fruit."
"WHAT?!"
"Well, he hardly touched a woman the whole time we were travelling." The first sly, slow smile crept across Mugen's face. "An' he was into poetry n stuff, reading old scrolls, and he had those sissy glasses. I just figured, maybe it's cuz he's really – you know."
"He IS NOT! I'll have you know he's married now . . . well, at least kind of."
"Uh huh. Guess I'll believe it when I see it." Mugen walked with his hands on his head and Fuu had a flash of déjà vu – maybe she was still fifteen years old, wearing that same pink kimono, still believing that her father was out there somewhere with an explanation that would satisfy her. Maybe Jin was waiting for them just around the bend, and they would start looking for a place to spend the night, and a way to make a little money for the road.
"What'd you give that guard to make him let me out?"
That's when Fuu remembered that she wasn't a little girl anymore. "Oh, I just paid him off," she replied airily. "I have lots of money left after my husband died."
This wasn't true; although she had sewn several ryo into the lining of her kimono when she left the village, it was mostly spent by now. And she noticed that she had just blurted out to Mugen what she had carefully concealed from Jin. However, she knew that diversion was a powerful tool.
"You were married?" said Mugen skeptically. "Who the hell would marry you?"
"Hey! I'll have you know I was considered very desirable by lots of men!"
"Uh huh." Mugen did not look convinced.
"Some thanks I get," sniffed Fuu, "saving your sorry butt – again! – with my hard-earned cash. You know you owe me a favor now. I practically saved your life!"
A snort. Mugen was studying the storefronts that they passed with a speculative eye. "I want a drink," he announced. "And a whore. You wanna lend me the money, since you got so much of it?"
"That's disgusting, Mugen! We don't have time for that kind of thing, we've got to get to Shimonoseki right away or we'll miss Jin and Shino."
"Don't care," said Mugen. "I ain't going."
"What? What do you mean you're not going? They're waiting for us!"
"Nobody asked me if I want to go, and I guess what? I don't. I'm stayin' right here." Mugen scowled, and Fuu got a familiar sinking feeling in her stomach. She knew how stubborn he could be.
"Oh come on, Mugen, it's not even safe here! You'll end up back in prison or dead. You said you had nowhere in particular to go, so why not just come with us? Just for a little while! Please?"
Mugen was about as moved as a rock.
When wheedling didn't work, Fuu switched to violence. "You owe me!" she shrieked. "I saved your life back there! If you don't promise to come I'll . . . I'll go back to the magistrate right now! I'll report you as an escaped prisoner!"
"I don't think so, girlie," said Mugen, supremely confident. "You'd have to admit that you were an accomplice in my escape. Nope, I think you're going to lend me that money and I'm going to stay right where I am."
"I don't have any more money," Fuu admitted. "I gave everything I had to that guard." Well, that was at least kind of true.
"Why?" Mugen was studying her like a prospective wrestling beetle. "What'd you wanna do that for?"
"Because! Because . . . it's a really long trip down to Shimonoseki and I'm afraid to go by myself. I need a bodyguard for the road or else I'll probably get robbed or wind up in a brothel or something . . . and it would be really lonely all by myself. And when I heard you were here I just thought, maybe . . . maybe we could go there together, that's all. But if you don't want to come I guess I can't make you."
"You just happened to be in the same crummy town?" said Mugen skeptically.
"Well I was, you know, passing through . . ."
"You're still a really crappy liar," said Mugen finally. "Fine, I'll go down with you to that S- place, but only because I wanna see if Jin's got himself a woman."
A crappy liar, huh? Fuu got the feeling she was just good enough.
