Fuu decided to stay in the same room with both Mugen and Jin. As they checked out the bare room upstairs Mugen began to question Jin about Shiroko. "So was she like hot when you were young? Was she like your little girlfriend or something?" he asked as he lay down on the futon that was prepared for him. Mugen's limbs stretched out and Fuu gave him a dirty look for continuing to interrogate Jin.

"Mugen!" said Fuu. "don't be so…so…don't question him like that!"

"She was not" said Jin. "She was my father's comrade's daughter. She had a crush on me, but I did not return the affection."

"Why not? She's a babe!" said Mugen as he rested his head back on his arms.

Fuu said "She seems awfully nice."

"Hm…but…" said Jin.

"But what?" asked Mugen looking up at the other man.

"She was…"

Fuu and Mugen leaned fin closer "What?" they asked in unison.

Jin closed his eyes in an attempt not to roll them "Round".

"Fat?" said Fuu. "Aren't kids kind of rolly polly sometimes?"

"No, not like this…" said Jin trying desperately to find a way to get out of this conversation. "Really round."

Mugen laughed "Ha haa! You mean really FAT! Hahaa! Tell us," he said sitting up. "How fat was she?" he grinned.

Jin answered "Really fat" not as amused by this as Mugen.

"Like what kind of fat?" asked Fuu, morbidly curious.

Jin sighed and said "She looked swollen all over like she had just been stung by a swarm of bees." Fuu tried to stifle her laughter, but it was no use. She soon joined Mugen in unbridled laughter. Jin continued. "Yukimaru, her brother, and I called her Piggy." Another wave of laughter louder than the first came over Fuu and Mugen. Jin said with a straight face "I was only a child, yet accomplished with origami. I used to maker her pigs and leave them outside her door."

Fuu's laughter began to subside "Oh hoo hoo, but that's so cruel! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The corners of Jin's mouth perked upwards ever so slightly "No, looking at her was cruel. Don't worry, her feelings were not hurt because she wasn't bright enough to realize they were insults. She took them as signs of affection."

Mugen gasped between his wheezing laughter "Please….I….I…I can't take….anymore! HAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

"It wasn't funny. Yukimaru and I would spar often in a field near his home. One time I lost a match and thus a bet. I had to escort her to a Sakura festival due to my loss and it spurred me to never lose again."

Fuu had reduced her laughter to giggles at this point, but still pictured a fat little girl holding a origami pig.

Mugen regained some breath and clacked his metal geta on the floor. Jin continued "In truth there was nothing redeemable about her. She was a spoiled brat who dreamed impossible dreams. I would never become Piggy's lover."

As Mugen heard Shiroko's childhood nick name again a renewed attack of laughter seized his lungs. Fuu didn't want to, but soon found her self giggling uncontrollably at the same thing. "Piggy!" said Fuu with a high pitched squeal. She leaned over forward, her stomach now hurting from all the laughter. Mugen lay on his back occasionally stomping his foot.

Jin continued. "Yes, Piggy. Yukimaru and I would make a game of guess how many sweet buns she could cram in her mouth at one sitting." The corners of Jin's mouth raised slightly upwards. "She always exceeded our expectations and earned that nick name fairly."

Fuu sat up again and gasped. Mugen slowed his laughter and looked up "Eh?"

Shiroko solemnly entered the room. She had three extra blankets in her arms. "I…I have brought extra blankest." Her eyes were cast strictly on the floor as she explained "There is a crack in the wall here" she pointed "so I suggest not sleeping near that wall. Also if it rains that corner has a leak in the roof. Jin, you may want to move your swords. I will be in the next room over staying with the owner and his wife if you need anything."

Fu said "Uuuummm…" trying t find something appropriate to say, but Shiroko quickly got up and walked out of the room.

Shiroko said over her shoulder "I will leave the door cracked open if you require anything during the night.

Jin turned his head to look at her, but she left before he could see her. Fuu fidgeted and said to Jin "Maybe you should go apologize. I know I'd like one if I heard people laughing about me."

Mugen shifted and Jin's eyes slid towards the ruffian. "Yeah" griped Mugen "you should. We don't want to miss breakfast." Mugen scratched his crotch let out a few more blips of laughter and rolled onto his side.

Jin lowered his head for about a minute. Fuu watched him carefully and she furrowed her own brow thinking about the situation. Jin nodded once to himself then got up and left.

Jin closed the screen behind him and took one step towards the next room, then stopped. Their light was already out, but he saw Shiroko. The moonlight came in their window and shown down on her form.

Jin felt impolite coming to her at this time of night, but his companions would travel better with full stomachs the next day and he would not have to listen to them complain.

He took a look at her forearm, resting beneath her head. 'Was her skin always that fair?' He curled his fingers around the screen's frame and whispered her name. "Shiroko?"

Shiroko was not asleep and looked up at him. 'He doesn't think he'll get breakfast after humiliating me in front of his friends.' Shiroko sat up and soundlessly walked to the door.

Jin stood back and she closed the screen behind her. "What do you need? Are you hungry?"

"No."

"Then what? I have to wake up early"

"I came to apologize" he said frankly.

"No need, you and your companions will have your breakfast tomorrow" said Shiroko, irritated.

"I don't want any" Jin's stomach growled loud enough for her to hear. His eyes shifted to the side then back to her.

She stepped back towards the room, but Jin caught her wrist. She turned a cold angry pair of eyes on his calm visage. His blank gaze startled her. "Tell me" he said "how you landed here. Your family was a powerful one I would have assumed your marriage was arranged. What happened."

She looked at him, a tad unbelieving. "I was never married. I would have been if …" she said, looking at the floor. She leaned her forehead gently on the door frame and closed her eyes. Jin let go of her wrist and watch it hang limply at her side. She continued "My father was not a wealthy man and couldn't support us all." Shiroko never spoke of the events that sent her away from home before. This was the first time since it happened that she spoke of it at all. "I was sent away."

Jin stepped closer to her, curious about her story. He found he didn't know this woman, who had grown out of the girl he once knew so well. 'How different is she from the girl I had known?'

Shiroko whispered. "I was the right choice. Mariko was to be married soon anyway, but he still needed to support Yukimaru at the dojo with you. I was… sold to a…to…a brothel."

"When?" he asked trying to align family's events with his own passage of time.

"I was young. I think twelve."

"It is an all too common story." Jin didn't like the Shiroko he had known, and surely didn't understand the woman before him. He was uneasy with her, but it did not diminish his sympathy for her. He wanted news on her family, especially her older sister. He already knew what became of Yukimaru.

She told Jin "A long term patron helped me escape, but was killed in the process. He was a nice fellow, but I didn't care. He was a patron after all and I wouldn't have cared if any of them got stabbed to death like that."

Jin was not the type to gasp, but when Shiroko noted his silence and she knew she had surprised him. She turned and looked into his sober eyes and said "I'm sorry…that was…" she turned her gaze to a scroll on the wall. "Well, I ran away and found myself on the very road you used to get here. I must have passed out from hunger. When I came to the owner's wife explained she found me on the road.

Jin was patient, not expecting this deluge of information. Her face was sad and her eyes defeated. She said "While I was at the brothel I would retreat into my memories. I would think of the field of wild flowers you and Yukimaru used to spar in. When the nights became particularly unbearable I would bring the Sakura festival to mind."

"I'm sorry I—" 'What can I say?'

Shiroko lifted her eyes to meet Jin's and whispered calmly "No, I'm glad you cleared up the confusion. I would have gone through the rest of my days having put my hopes in false memories so it is better this way."

He opened his mouth to respond, but realized he could not be the man in which she could have faith. He had killed her brother, after all. He quickly said "But I am only one man."

"Yes, only one man. You've grown up quite a bit, but you still have that child in you, Jin. I can see it." Shiroko was not visibly upset. She kept her voice even not belying her feelings.

"Shiroko, you've grown as well." 'She looks a lot like Mariko. Though I want to know about Mariko, now is not the time to ask.'

"Please, do not tell anyone about my past, Jin. That part of my life is my most terrible secret." He nodded and she then closed the door between them.

Jin stood in the dark thinking about what his words to his traveling companions must have done to Shiroko. 'In her darkest moments she thought of me? Was her crush that strong? I've shattered the few warm memories she had.'

He thought back to sparring in the field with Yukimaru. He could see his childhood through a gauzy curtain of sunlight. He could hear the clack of their wooden swords. He heard a girl giggling. He turned and saw Piggy, dressed in a green kimono decorated with white chrysanthemums. She crouched her chubby form behind tall wild flowers. Her blue black hair stuck out in thick buns and was dotted by the tiny yellow flowers surrounding her.

Jin wiped his nose with his scrawny arm and remembered hearing Yukimaru say "Ignore my sister, Jin, she's just being dumb."

Little Shiroko lifted her chubby cheeks over the flowers and sternly said "I'm not dumb!"

Jin cringed and backed up at the sight of her. "Yeah you are" said Yukimaru. He followed up with "and you're fat too!" Jin recalled how funny he thought it was. He had laughed and went back to sparring with Yukimaru.

He also remembered Shiroko's eyes getting a glassy look, but her tears never fell.

Soon Yukimaru's older sister, Mariko came to collect the little girl. Their sister was a truly gorgeous young lady. "Shiroko! Shiroko!" her voice was like a bell on the wind. Jin thought about how similar Shiroko and her sister looked now that Shiroko was a grown woman.

Back in the present Jin opened up the screen to his own room and saw Mugen and Fuu sitting next to a lamp. They had their backs to him, but looked up at him when he entered.

Fuu said "Mugen found something." As Jin walked closer he saw a small wooden box. she said "Mugen stomped on the floor and this board popped up!" Jin raised an eyebrow and gave a questioning look to Mugen.

Mugen responded to the look with "I dunno, I was asleep." He looked back at his booty and said "It's not important, point is that we might find something we can sell." Jin kneeled down next to his companions and looked on. "Hey heeeeey. Lookie here" Mugen said as he picked up a jade necklace.

Jin said "Put it back. It's not yours."

Jin's mind returned to the field of wild flowers. He remembered Shiroko's sister, Mariko, coming to get her. Yukimaru whacked Jin's arm hard as he gawked at Mariko's beauty. Jin dropped his sword in the grass near the pair of sisters. They were arguing.

"You must stop wasting your time spying on your brother and his loser friend Shiroko! Mother then wastes my time with making me come find you! I could be combing my hair right now!"

Jin scampered over to pick up the sword wiping his nose again. He bowed to the ladies and remembered being impressed by Mariko's necklace. The same one that Mugen was holding now.

Mugen brought him back to the present with the words "What's up yer ass? Do you know how much Tempura this could buy us?"

"No" said Jin smartly "Do you?"

Mugen's bottom lip tightened and he snapped "No. Not exactly. But I bet a whole lot!"

Fuu reached down into the box and picked up a folded piece of paper. Jin snatched it from her hand with amazing speed. Fuu was left staring at her own empty palm. "huh?"

She watched Jin examine the paper. "These are Shiroko's belongings" he said. "We should leave them where they are. I know for a fact they're precious to her."

Mugen wrapped his filthy hands around the precious stone necklace in his hand. Jin saw the movement and said "I mean it Mugen. Put it back where you found it."

Mugen was too tired for a real fight so he grunted and acquiesced to Jin's demand. Mugen dropped the necklace back in the box and said "So what's that paper thing? Origami or something?"

Jin looked at it unblinking. He remembered making it. The colors of the paper and ink had faded, but Jin recognized it none the less. It was a butterfly he had made for Mariko.

He had only been a child, and she a young woman, but he still wanted to express himself to her. She had giggled at his gift and made him blush.

As Jin dreamily thumbed the butterfly Mugen picked out an origami pig form the box. "Oink Oink! AH HAA" said Mugen shaking the paper swine at Fuu.

"Stop it moron!" she said and slapped his hand away.

Mugen turned to Jin and said "So it is her stuff…oink oink, heh. Man you were wrong. She must have been in love not just crushing on you to keep this shit. Damn."

Jin tried to casually flick the butterfly back into the box, but Fuu saw right through the act. During their travels she had begun to learn to read Jin's eyes since he never spoke with is voice. She decided not to pursue the questions she had for Jin at that time, and tucked them away in the back of her mind. "Okay guys" she said "Time for more sleep."

Mugen was already snoring and Jin was sitting himself against the wall. He thought of Mariko and how pretty she was, but his mind kept wandering to Shiroko and how much she had grown and how beautiful she had become. Or was it he was just simply glad to see her?