Notes: Um, tried some humor here? Idk, unsure that I pulled it off - but I thought it was about time to try something new, and what better occasion than for Ep 9, "Beatbox Bandits"? TRACK 09, "GLOWED UP," by KAYTRANADA and Anderson. Paak. Also, many many thanks to my consistent reviewers Ladroone and Firiare! Your support means the world to me.
Lost in Japan, A Remix | A pirate and a ronin walk into a young girl's teahouse… sounds like the start of a bad joke. [Collection of in-series drabbles, one for each episode; includes in-between moments, exchanging looks, midnight conversations, unreliable narrators, episode fix-its, some Fuugen of course, and plenty of self-indulgent little scraps]
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TRACK 09. GLOWED UP
Gone are all my worries, I'm looney, absolutely out my dome
Stackin' my capital, while carving my legacy
Now tell me, is you with me, with me, with me?
/
The field is on fire.
Mugen blinks, takes a deep pull from the air into his lungs. It smells — purple, somehow; herbal, but still spicy, like brewing tea and liquor together. His head lolls a bit and he forces it back up, takes another deep drag. Fire crackles up his nostrils and down his spine, like someone's set him aflame. He feels warmth in the pit of his belly, a tingle in his fingers.
The land around him tips sideways, rears up into a curve like the whole world is a hill, and Mugen is entranced. Is that the sun there yonder, turning blue, the sky turning ochre? He thinks of Fuu's sunflowers, the way she spreads her fingers out when she describes how big and yellow and soft the petals are, and the warmth spreads.
But a Tengu is screaming at him; his voice arches thinner and higher: "You destroyed our holy grass!"
Pfft, grass isn't holy, he wants to scoff, but sunflowers might be. Anything with petals so big and wide, like she said — His ears are ringing, and he actually giggles when he's never giggled, not once, in his damn life. He actually has to clutch his belly to stop the shaking.
Mugen watches in fascination, as the Tengu raises his weapon; it all happens in slow motion, like he's dreaming it backwards. He's always hard sharp eyes, but this is something new, something unreal, and even through the haze of smoke and fire he knows it's in his head somehow. Can a fire burn in your brains, your lungs?
He greedily snaps up more air and when he exhales he feels like his skin is melting off. Mugen's never really wanted to cast off his body before, but it's pleasant, like being weightless. Has he ascended, and he just doesn't know it? He's all teeth and hair and fire — he thinks he sees the stars even though the sun hasn't set yet, there's definitely something bright up there, shining and falling, shining and falling, and maybe that's Venus, or whatever they used to call it on the island, he never really listened to the old man's stories anyway. Once Jin had pointed it out through the trees on a particularly clear night, and he gave it some fancy name, but Mugen can't remember the words, his tongue feels too thick and heavy in his mouth. Let Four-Eyes remember that stuff, Mugen has better things to do anyway.
Mugen charges, but it's more like flying — he's lighter than air and faster than a bird, and when he shoots through the sky he aims for the Tengu. But his grip on the sword is sloppy. He has to squint through the smoke, and his eyes start to tear. Why are they fighting again?
The earth seems to give under his feet. The Tengu's face swims in his vision, and his mouth twists in the wrong direction. Suddenly he's not grimacing, but smiling, or laughing? The Tengu reaches out with an empty hand.
/
When Mugen comes to, it's with Fuu's fist connecting to his jaw.
"Stupid jerk, scumbag, idiot, bozo," she calls him every name she can think of, trembling from head to toe. He looks up at her face set against the bright blue sky, clear of purple smoke; she's flushed and frowning so deeply it has to hurt. It pulls a laugh from his throat, and she frowns even deeper, so he laughs again despite his raw, raw throat.
Over her shoulder, Mugen sees Jin's face, twisted into an expression of ice-hot fury. He knows he's better off facing Fuu's rage.
He breathes in short, staggering breathes, coughing and spluttering, but she doesn't let him go, and she doesn't stop the barrage of insults. She shakes him for good measure, and he stays limp in her grip. "Asshole, moron — I can't believe you!" Mugen nods along to her ranting, lets her strangle him in her grip.
Finally he says, dreamily, "You gotta show me those sunflowers sometime."
At that, Fuu blinks, so taken aback she drops him.
/
"What I wanna know," she says for perhaps the hundredth time, "is why you were kissing him when we found you."
Jin coughs to hide his grunt of laughter, but Mugen shoves more food into his mouth. "You're makin' that up, girlie, I got no memory of that."
Fuu and Jin exchange glances, which they've been doing more and more often since the "Summer of Love" incident (dubbed by that weird little official with the glasses; he couldn't stop romanticizing it). True, Mugen has essentially no memory of that day and night (nor, to be completely fair, of the few days leading up to the incident either; Jin thinks it's been "burned right out of his tiny brain"). True, when they'd found him, he was surrounded by the weird priests wearing Tengu masks, and they'd been... friendly. He doesn't recall a fight, and he doesn't find any bruises or slashes on his skin in the days after. There might have been some singing and dancing. Light petting. Who knows.
But it's been nearly three weeks, and whenever Mugen thinks she's forgotten about the Hakone Checkpoint and hers and Jin's near-execution, she brings it up again with a sly smile and a meaningful glance at Jin. Now, in a teahouse several miles from Edo, over their first meal in two days, she wants to start it up again. Around them, the teahouse is full of patrons. They pay them no mind, though when they'd first entered, a couple families took in Mugen's tattoos and earrings, hurriedly paid, and scampered away.
Fuu looks more and more smug by the minute, and Mugen wants nothing more than to smack that grin off her pie face. He glares over his bowl but never stops eating and making noises to drown her out.
"You see," Fuu goes on, heedless of the danger, "Jin and I had to risk our lives and escape with no help from you whatsoever, so we were thinking you had gotten into trouble or something."
"Girlie—" Mugen warns, garbling around his food.
Her hands flutter as she talks. She is still grinning, lips tipped sideways and one eyebrow arched. Mugen's nostrils flare. "Or, at least, perhaps you had a really good reason for being delayed—" Jin coughs again.
This time Mugen slams his bowl on the table, and it shatters in his hands. The small teahouse goes silent, all eyes trained on them. Mugen leans over the table and grabs Fuu by the collar of her pink kimono, ignoring the blood on his palms. She flushes deeply and tries to escape his grip, "What are you doing, Mugen—?" Next to her, Jin blinks in surprise but doesn't move in time.
And Mugen angrily slaps his mouth over Fuu's, then almost immediately shoves her away. Everyone in the teahouse stares, still as statues, as he holds her with his glare and wipes his mouth with the back of his arm.
"There," he huffs, "now you've had my tongue and that asshole Tengu's tongue in your mouth too. See how you like it, brat." Then Mugen snatches his sword and stalks out the door. A few people yelp and move out of his way.
Fuu, in her, seat sits shell-shocked and white as a sheet, unable to make eye contact with anyone. Slowly, after no one makes another move, the teahouse begins to chatter again, albeit this time much more cautiously, as if preparing to witness more drama. People whisper and point in Fuu's direction, loudly asking, "Are they in a love triangle?" and "What was he talking about, a Tengu?"
Jin finally reaches over and pours her a cup of tea from the pot.
"I suppose," he finally chokes out, "you can't tell him that it was all a joke now."