(Author's Note: If you've gotten this far, I send a big cyber e-hug out to you! This is the last chapter before Jin tells his life history, which is rather stereotypical but a good piece of writing, in my humble opinion. Thanks to all who reviewed.)

CHAPTER SIX

"You little bitch."

Eyes of hard, cold steel. A voice like grating blade.

He felt a tough hand grab his chin and wrench his head up, forcing him to look into that hard, cruel face. "Scared to look at me?"

Yes, he was. Of course he was. How couldn't he be? He was shaking with fear like he'd never felt before, fear of what he'd become, fear of how little control he really had. He'd never been more scared in his life.

"Going to say good-bye?"

He couldn't talk. He bowed his head.

"You're useless." Absolute disgust. Completely understandable. He was disgusted too. Everyone should be disgusted with him. He was disgusting.

Fingers released his hair; he felt his body hit the ground. "Good luck showing your face in public again, you freak. You'll probably need these." Next to him, a pair of glasses clattered to the ground. "By the way, don't bother coming back to the dojo. They already burned all your stuff, and Yukimaru would probably kill you on sight. So, sayonara, uke. I'll see you again someday, I'm sure…"

Jin gasped like he was surfacing from water and tried to sit up. He couldn't hear anything or see anything. That is, he saw shapes, white light and soft edges, movement and shadow. He heard murmurs and bird calls, footsteps, static. But he might as well have been blind and deaf. It was like waking into a world with new senses, senses he couldn't begin to perceive in the last.

He groped for his swords automatically.

"Jin! Lay down!" Strong hands pushed his chest, burying him back into the sheets.

"Where am I? What day is it?" he demanded, still fighting to rise.

"It's morning, Jin, lay down!"

Jin forced himself to lie still and control his breathing, but looked around, trying to focus his eyes. He saw Fuu above him and heard Mugen say, "Damn…"

He groped beside him and felt his glasses; he took them and put them on, even though he didn't need them to see. He still couldn't sit up; every time he tried, more hands pressed down on his chest.

"Lay down!" chorused three female voices at once.

He was still, mind buzzing. Someone put a hand on his forehead; it was so cool that he closed his eyes gratefully. He groaned when it left.

"His fever's broken!"

"Oh, thank you, thank you…"

"I told you…" Mugen's face appeared hanging over Jin's. He grinned. "How you doin', buddy?"

"Where am I?" asked Jin.

"Whorehouse," said Mugen dismissively.

Jin tried to sit up to see his surroundings. Mugen pushed his back down as if he were made of paper. Jin felt angry at his own weakness. If he'd had his swords…

"Where are my swords?" Everything was coming back, slowly and fuzzily. "Did he get away?"

No one answered. Jin puzzled. Had it been a dream? He turned his head and saw it was morning; leaves were dripping with water. It was misting outside, but the sun was shining brightly. He could hear wet, slapping footsteps on the street below. Was he out there somewhere?

"Did he get away?" repeated Jin.

"You put his eye out, okay? Seriously, lay still or we'll strap you down, man."

Jin ignored Mugen and groped around. "Where are my clothes? What time is it?"

"Jin, please, hold still!" begged Fuu. She reached for him; he saw a curtain of pink and orange flutter over his eyes and then felt a reassuring coolness on his forehead. He closed his eyes. He felt nauseous, weak and disoriented. Part of his body, or maybe his whole body, was throbbing with a dull, insistent pain. He had a sudden flash of déjà vu, his life as a continuous loop, coming back to this moment, these sensations; he fell back into his troubled dreams, unsure of whether any of it was real or not.

Fuu insisted on helping. Kura and Kagami looked at her suspiciously, but let her be there when they changed the bandage. They pulled back the sheets to reveal Jin's leg, giving him as much privacy as possible even though he was unconscious. At first Fuu thought it was odd, that they, as prostitutes, should be so careful to make sure he was covered; but then, she thought, perhaps they understood better than anyone.

She covered her mouth when they peeled away the bandage. The cause of his fever was, of course, infection; the night in the mud and rain had not done well for the deep cut. It oozed yellow, fuzzy and swollen with red streaks all around it. Kura and Kagami cleaned it and rewrapped it; when Jin whimpered, Kura's hand fluttered over his face and touched his closed eyelids.

Mugen had left after Jin had gone back to sleep. He went out to earn more money; how, Fuu didn't know, although she had a pretty good idea. She couldn't argue with him about it; they needed to pay for the room, and for Kura and Kagami's services, and for food. When Mugen returned with money, neither one spoke of it. They turned it over to the matron, and she didn't question its origins, either.

By the night, Jin was sitting up, against everyone's will. He accepted some soup but spent more time grilling them with questions than with eating it. He ignored their questions and forced them to answer his own. Mugen and Fuu agreed, after he'd fallen asleep, that they half-wished he was still delirious. Once he'd found out all he wanted to know, he had retreated inside himself once more, and shed no light on what had happened between him and the other samurai.

"Maybe," theorized Mugen, "that guy is from his dojo and he swore to kill Jin because Jin killed Enshido and Jin's trying to kill him first."

"Uh-huh," said Fuu, unconvinced. "First of all, it's Enshirou, not Enshido. And secondly, Jin's never gone after anyone before unless he had a really good reason, and I don't think 'killing him first' is a very good reason."

"Well, I don't see you coming up with any brilliant theories!"

Fuu glanced at Jin's sleeping form. Her eyes migrated from his motionless body to his neatly folded clothes beside him.

She looked at Mugen. Mugen looked back at her. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah."

Both of them lunged at Jin's things. There was a short tussle over Jin's journal.

"You can't even read!" she whispered loudly

Mugen let go of it. Fuu went sprawling over backwards. She sat up and glared at him, then flipped it open. "It's only fair," she said uneasily. "He read mine."

"Yeah," agreed Mugen. "Besides, we've got to know what's going on."

Fuu hesitated.

"C'mon, girl! He read yours, didn't he? And he kept this knowing we'd probably read it too. We're not doing anything wrong. Hurry, before he wakes up!"

Finally, slowly, in a hushed and guilty voice, Fuu began reading. "This is the last entry. 'We're traveling west, towards what I hope will be my final destination. I'm so tired of traveling, in my body and mind. Perhaps the last safe place is waiting for me at the next town—'"

"Bor-ing," said Mugen loudly.

"Shh!" hissed Fuu. "If he wakes up, he'll kill us."

"Not with that leg, he won't," replied Mugen smugly. Fuu slapped his arm and hushed him again.

"'—once I've taken my revenge and restored my honor—'"

"Geez, is he always on?"

"Shh, Mugen! '—restored my honor, I'm unsure what purpose I will have for living, or even for wielding my sword. I must seriously begin to consider whether I want to continue to live, or at least, to exist, or whether I would do better to avenge my family by ending my life and—' is he serious? '—and thus preventing myself from coming to further shame.'"

Mugen made a swipe at the journal. "Maybe he wrote that while he was delirious."

"Shh!" hissed Fuu. She flipped through the pages. "What the heck is he talking about?"

"I dunno. I think he's just crazy."

"'I wonder if he will know me immediately, or whether I've changed too much for him to recognize me.' Who?"

"He doesn't even write the guy's name?"

"I don't see—"

Jin turned. Mugen and Fuu both jumped. "Quick!" whispered Mugen urgently. "Find out what he means about the honor and shame thing!"

"There's nothing," said Fuu, disappointed, leafing through the pages. "It might as well be in code. He doesn't even say who he's looking for." She turned the journal sideways. "Hey, Mugen, listen. 'I hear the owl call; lost and mournful it seemed, alone, unanswered. Yet the moon is still serene, knowing well this old story…' Isn't that incredible?"

"Lame," said Mugen with a shake of his head. "I'm telling you. He's crazy."

"Crazy people don't write poetry that beautiful!" said Fuu defensively.

"What'd you know about 'beautiful?' You look like something a dog threw up."

"WHY YOU—" Jin turned over in his sleep again. Fuu quickly reached out to put his things back, while glaring at Mugen. He just smirked and shrugged, and sauntered out without a word.

On the second day, Jin decided it was time to go. He got out of bed, despite the fact that his leg was still heavily bandaged and couldn't support any weight, and was stopped only when both Fuu and Kura dragged him back to bed for rest.

"No excitement!" Kura warned him.

Mugen burst through the paper screen panting. He was soaked again (he'd had to cross a ditch to avoid the people he was running from) and covered in blood again (he'd torn his hand and chest on a fence he'd hopped over).

"Mugen!" they both screamed.

"No… time… explain!" he gasped, grabbing his side. "Angry… mob… pick-pocketing… long… story!"

"Ah-ha!" said Jin, happy for an excuse to get out of bed. He stood up, the sheet his only clothing, and pitched forward. Kura grabbed him.

"No, not 'ah-ha!'" yelled Fuu. She grabbed the front of Mugen's shirt and gave him a good shake, putting her face so close to his that she could see every hair on his chin. "What did you do?"

"Got… caught… coming… after me!" gasped Mugen. "Like a hundred!"

"Let's go!" said Jin, trying to peel Kura off him.

"You can't go! You nearly died!" yelled Kura.

"Gotta go! No time!" said Mugen, jumping to Jin's aid and trying to pry Kura off him.

"We're not going anywhere!" screeched Fuu, hurrying to help Kura. All four struggled for a moment; Jin buckled every few seconds under their combined weight, and they all rushed to tug him back up before trying to tug him apart again.

A man walked past the splintered screen and glanced in. All four froze; Jin had one hand on Kura's chest and one on the bed for balance; Kura had one hand on Mugen's arm and another on Jin's sheet; Mugen had one hand on Jin and another on Fuu's head; Fuu had a hand on Jin's sheet and one over Jin's hand, on Kura's chest.

"Heh-heh," said Fuu, smiling innocently.

"I don't think I'm in the right brothel," said the man, confused.

"This isn't what it looks like," said Mugen, holding up his hands to shrug. In doing so, he let go of Jin, and the sheet dropped.

"Definitely not the right brothel," said the man.

Kura, Mugen, Jin, and Fuu all gave him big, awkward grins, and scooted as a single unit across the room to resume their fight in front of a screen that was still intact.

"You can't travel like this!" hissed Fuu.

"You can't stop me!" hissed Jin back, reaching for his clothes. Mugen handed them to him and said, "We haven't got a choice! I've got a freakin' mob after me!"

Fuu started to argue, but then heard shouting downstairs and something breaking. She suddenly remembered the fortune teller's advice about water and red. Mugen was still dripping, and still bleeding.

"See!" he yelled. "They'll bust my balls!"

"Actually, that might be doing the gene pool a favor."

"Shut up, man!" said Mugen, pushing him. He wobbled and began falling over; Mugen grabbed the neck of his kimono and pulled him back up. "Come on, come on, hurry!" With one arm slung around Jin, Mugen helped him hobbled toward the torn screen. He poked a head out, then ducked back in. "Window!"

"What? Mugen! I'm not jumping out the window! I'm putting my foot down! I'm absolutely not going out that window!"

"Whatever rocks your boat!" said Mugen, ripping open the window. He and Jin leapt out. She heard Jin yell; the impact on his leg must have been painful.

She ran to the window and looked out; Mugen and Jin were limping down the street like participants in a crazy, three-legged race.

For a moment, she stood wringing her hands; then with a noise of disgust she climbed out the window after them. She landed of a cart of hay and picked herself up, strands in her hair and clothes. She charged after them. "Hey, wait! Wait for me!"

"Jin!" shouted Kura out the window. Jin stopped but Mugen didn't; both pitched face-first into the street. Mugen hopped up and kept running; Jin rolled over onto his back and looked up. Kura leaned out the window. "Take good care of that leg!"

"I will!" yelled Jin back. Kura blew him a kiss; he responded with a small smile. Fuu picked him up and the two hobbled away as quickly as they could, zigzagging through the city to avoid the crowds screaming for a thief to bring to justice.