Chapter 2: Pursuit

Hiei continued through the town and wandered into the marketplace. "Perfect..." She said to herself. She began looking for the most expensive thing she could find. She finally found a silk sash for sale in a small shop, with an extremely high price. She walked into the store and pretended to look around for a moment. She then waited until the man looked away as she delivered a punch to the side of his face, throwing him to the ground. She quickly grabbed the sash and ran out the door, darting into the marketplace.

"Thief! Stop Thief!" He began to scream as he stumbled to the doorway, waving a broom with one hand and holding his throbbing cheek with the other. He looked around frantically, trying to see if anyone would go after her, and bring back the sash.

Jin heard someone yelling about thieves and walked to the scene out of curiosity. He stepped up to the manager who was carrying on and swinging a broom like a madman. "What happened here?" He said in a cool tone, raising an eyebrow. 'Maybe I could get some money out of this...' He thought to himself.

"Can't you see? I've been robbed! There is no justice here!" He yelled, then looked over the man, rubbing his whiskered chin, "Hmm...You appear to be a samurai, find that thief and bring her back dead or alive! Preferably dead!" The store manager said with a smirk. "If you do I will reward you greatly with gold, even more so if you bring me her corpse."

The second the word 'gold' left the man's lips, Jin was walking hurriedly down the street, after the girl who he saw running from the store. "I'm on it." He said simply, heading quickly in her direction. While he was particularly against killing a woman, his better judgment was blotted out by his extensive hunger.

Hiei laughed at the man's hollering, "Fool." She said, looking at the sash, "What a nice prize, I can resell this for a hefty price, maybe even higher than what that bastard was selling it for." She mused, then noticed that the man's yelling had ceased. She looked back to see what had shut him up, and saw a man in blue with two swords at his hip heading in her direction, fast. "Oh shit..." She cursed to herself as she looked around and darted into an alleyway, trying to lose him.

Jin watched the woman take off, and began running also, "She is fast..." He said to himself. He too ran in the alley and caught a glimpse of her running out onto the street, then disappearing around a corner. As he exited the alley, he was thrown to the side as she rammed into him, using her two katanas in an X formation to push him, rather than slice him.

While he was off balance and regaining himself, she quickly turned and ran, disappearing into another alleyway, laughing at her cunning. "Hah! They'll never catch me!" She yelled triumphantly as she bounded forward

Jin was able to stand balanced on his feet, and ran after her once more, 'She is good, I never even noticed her there.' All that was on his mind was the gold he would receive, and the food it would bring. He kept on playing the equation in his head, Thief money food. Food + Jin Happy Jin. Oh how he longed to have food in his stomach...

Hiei overturned barrels, crates, whatever she could to slow him down. None of it worked, he only leapt over them and picked up speed as she seemed to aggravate him more. "Gotta lose him!" She said to herself, continuing to dart from alley to alley.

Jin dashed after her. "She will not be able to get away from me." He muttered to himself. He followed her into another alley where they ran for a while. "It is time to end his chase." He saw planks of wood being held between the buildings by ropes tied to the walls. He unsheathed one of his katanas and cut the ropes as the planks began to fall one after the other in front of Hiei. Jin stopped kneeled down as a pile of wood stood in the girl's path. After a while he sighed then said "Are you done running?" He held his katana to his side, which gleamed in the sun, as he stood straight.

Hiei looked stared at the pile of wood in her way and shielded her face from the dust, coughing a little. She then, reluctantly, turned to face Jin. She was somewhat nervous, and could tell by looking at this man that he was a skilled swordsman, and she wasn't in any condition, due to her hunger, to fight him. 'Damn! What am I going to do now!' She thought nervously, sweat forming on her forehead as she took a step back, stopped by the pile of wood, and swallowed hard.

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A/N: Yeah, another short, crappy chapter. But you see, the reason I like to have short chapters, is that they'll be easy to read, and I like to leave them at cliff-hangers so you keep coming back! Marvel at my brilliance! Bwahahahaha! And never fear, the story does pick up! ...At some point xD

Peace!