Mugen frowned as he approached the house, wrestling with second thoughts all the way up to the door, then stood for a while trying to think of what to say. Finally he pushed the door open. "Yo, lady. You in there?"
There was no answer and he opened the door all the way, sticking his head in the room and looking around. His eyes widened at the sight of the woman lying in the middle of the floor, staring sightlessly at the ceiling. He had seen death too often to be mistaken about it, but he knelt beside the body to check for signs of life, then sat back on the floor. Great. He came all this way and now the stupid woman was dead.
There was a gasp from the doorway and the Ryukyuan leaped to his feet, seizing a man who was backing away and shaking him violently. "What happened here?"
"I didn't know anyone was here!" The man tried to pull away and Mugen tightened his grip, then dragged him into the house.
"I asked you what happened here." Mugen slammed his captive to the floor, gesturing to the few poor belongings thrown around, the worn futon slashed down the middle, the holes dug in the floor. "You do this?"
The man quailed before the chilling violence in the Ryukyuan's eyes. "It wasn't me! I just wanted to see if anything was left."
"Talk sense," snarled Mugen.
"Yumi….she'd been sick for a while….that's why Shinsuke turned to crime…."
Mugen kicked the man. "I know that. Get to why she's dead and her place is trashed."
"Shinsuke was killed a few days ago….one of Yumi's neighbors went to check on her, and she was dead." The man flinched as Mugen raised his hand, then rushed on. "I don't know how she died! I swear….maybe she died of her sickness, or maybe she killed herself….Shinsuke was all she had left…."
"And this mess?"
"Well….some of the townspeople….they came to see if….if she had anything valuable. Maybe something she was saving for Shinsuke, you know? They didn't find anything, but I thought…."
"Yeah, I get it. You didn't do anything to her. You just wanted to see if they missed anything." Mugen leaned over and the man cringed, covering his head with his hands, but all the Ryukyuan did was pull him to his feet. "Come on."
He hauled the man outside to the little garden shed in back of the house and selected a worn shovel, then looked around the yard. A plum tree was in full bloom and he headed for it, slamming the shovel into the man's chest. "Dig."
"Dig?" The man's face drained of color.
Mugen backhanded him. "You heard me. Dig! I want a nice deep hole."
The man whimpered, then started digging as the Ryukyuan balled up his fist. Mugen stood for a few minutes, then sat under the tree, pulling out his sword.
The sun was just setting when Mugen got to his feet. "All right, that looks good. Come on." His captive climbed out of the hole and dropped the shovel, then followed meekly into the house. A threadbare blanket was crumpled in a corner and Mugen wrapped it around the old woman's body, then lifted her in his arms. The man backed away as the Ryukyuan went through the door, then climbed through the window and took off in the opposite direction.
"Hey!" Mugen briefly considered going after him, then shrugged and laid the body in the hole, taking out the letter. "Well, lady, looks like you won't get to read this after all, but I guess it don't matter now." He dropped the letter in the hole and started shoveling dirt in, his eyes dark.
Mugen filled in the hole, stamping down the dirt, then slung the shovel away. He looked speculatively at the house, then walked inside, piled everything he could find in the middle of the floor, and set it on fire. He waited until the house itself was in flames before going out to sit under the tree next to the grave, watching until everything had burned to the ground.