Disclaimer: Don't own Champloo, but neither do you.

Chapter Two: The Boy

It had been seven days straight now, and she was not dead yet. She had seen seven new mornings, she had trespassed into the demon's forbidden domain for seven days straight, had trespassed right into the place she had seen the creature and she had not been harmed. Kohza was convinced now. The demon was not an evil one. He might, in fact, be a kind soul under his terrible eyes.

After the first day, Kohza had left the half-eaten rice ball on the flat rock as an offering of thanks. The next day, when she had returned to the same dark, unholy place in the forest where she had first seen him, she went to the rock to see if the demon had accepted her offering.

In the place where she had left the offering, a wild rose, unrefined and still heavy with dew on its thorns, was left in its place. It had been sliced cleanly from a branch, the sickly green livelihood of the plant still dripping from the stem.

It had been a difficult situation for any eight-year-old to maneuver through. If she did not take the gift the strangely forgiving creature had left for her, she would anger him, and he would surely kill her the next time he had the chance to meet her in his Hell Forest. But if she took the gift, she would have to hide it from her brother, and she could never hide anything from him. If he found it, he would throw it away, would likely beat her until she told him where it had come from, which, in turn, would result in even more beatings. She would have to come up with a plan.

On the floor of her tiny bedroom, one of the rotten boards was soft enough to move. In the middle of the night, when Mukuro had fallen asleep in a drunken stupor once again, she hid the precious gift from her brother's hand, pressing the wildly beautiful thing between the pages of her journal.

On the third day, Kohza went to the forest again. After gathering all that she needed of herbs and plants for her household, she left a roll of hot dumplings, still wrapped in the napkin, at the flat rock. When she returned the next day, the napkin and the dumplings were gone, but a shiny black stone, almost perfectly round like a river rock, was left in its place.

That night, the second gift found its place beside the first one. Mukuro would not take either of the gifts from her.

On the fifth day, after using the untamed woods for her chores once again, she was able to leave the greatest gift she had left the demon thus far: a bottle of homemade sake she was able to trade for a half dozen rice balls in town the day before. It was a very risky move, trying to do something like this for the demon. If Mukuro ever learned that she had spent their precious rice this way, he would surely beat her, probably the fiercest beating he had ever given her. But Kohza was an extremely careful and tactful young eight-year-old, and she knew how the spread the rice out to make it look as though she had taken none. She left the bottle beside the flat rock once again, and prayed that the demon would be pleased with her gift.

The next day, the sake and the bottle were gone from the now not so unholy spot in the angry, profane jungle. He had been pleased: so pleased that he had left an equally great gift in return. A large, sleek, black rabbit pelt was found draped over the flat rock like an altar cloth. When Kohza saw it, she could not help but study her reflection in a pool with it, it was so pretty. More than any of the other gifts, she wanted to be sure that this one was never taken from her.

That night, instead of hiding the rabbit pelt under the floor with her other two treasures, she tucked it in between her blankets and cuddled with it through the night. It was so warm and soft: she wished she could keep it pressed here to her chest forever. She could swear that she could feel the demon's heart beating right beside hers, could feel his eyes, now kind upon her, watching over her all through the night. Those once terrible golden eyes had taken on a beautiful, almost celestial tone.

When she saw the sun rising through the window in the morning, Kohza made a decision.

She would meet with the demon today.

Now, her basket on her arm, she waited. Sitting down on the flat rock that had become the altar of their communication, she gazed up to the heavens that should have been above her. The dark shadows that covered the ground from the deep canopy was strangely beautiful now, even though the ugliness was still as potent as it had once been. Just the fact that the demon lived here made it more beautiful.

Even though it was possible that the demon would simply kill her once he took her food, Kohza was no stranger to risks, and this one seemed worth it. It was better than living alone with her brother Mukuro for the rest of her life, which was obviously a fate of lifelong misery. At least the demon had shown some affinity for kindness, which she was coming to doubt in Mukuro. Somehow, the beatings were coming to convince her that even though brothers always loved their little sisters, they may not particularly like them. It was not the most happy of lives, but without her brother, Kohza would surely perish…

In many ways, the twisted forest was much like her own life. It was desperate because it was smothered from growth. Fighting with itself was the only way to survive.

As much as she hated to admit it, Kohza suddenly realized that she was also very like the island on which she lived: the ugly, terrible island on which she lived. That must mean she was ugly, too…

Suddenly, above her head, the canopy stirred. It rustled and moved in ways that were not unlike the wind, yet could not be the wind, as only a few branches moved. It rustled in ways that were not unlike some animal, yet she had seen neither beast climb the tree nor bird alight the branches. The demon! Trying to swallow her excitement, she clasped her hands and waited for him to emerge. As she watched with bated breath, the canopy opened up to reveal a figure cloaked in the shadows.

It was not what she had expected to see.

It was so strange to see that she had to look twice to actually be sure of what she was seeing. The figure was that of a young boy, balancing with large, barefooted feet on the tree branches with the poise of a tree monkey. His skin was dark with mud and soot, his wild hair tangled uncontrollably with leaves and twigs hanging in them, like the charms plaited in the hair of young rich girls. The boy was bare-chested, skin ripped with young, sinewy muscles and scars alike, many looking like they had remained long untreated. The only article of clothing that clung to his body was a pair of thin, ragged pants, short ones that ended just below his knees, the color of which was unidentifiable. With his body on such display, Kohza couldn't help but see the strength that life had beaten into this body. He was small and wiry, but he looked strong in a strange way, his leg muscles flexing as his toes gripped to the mossy, grimy surfaces as if they were a second set of fingers. Strapped across his bare back by way of a wide leather thong was a single sword; a strange-looking short thing of the like she had never seen before.

If it had not been for his eyes, she would never have recognized this boy as her demon. But there they were: those golden orbs glaring down at her as if he could spring down upon her and slit her throat at his very whim. He had noticed her, and there was an angry realization in those eyes that he had been noticed, too.

There was an animal in those eyes, yes: there was the very spirit of a jungle in those eyes, the soul of the very essence of what is animal. He was a beast, a predator, a killer: she did not want to imagine how many this young being had already killed in his young existence. He had probably done things that would have given Kohza nightmares for years. But behind, underneath all of that…there was something human; a deep sadness, a loneliness, a fear, and yes, even a rage.

For a moment, they sat there, two beings staring at one another, a standoff. Suddenly, the wild boy made a quick, acrobatic flit around the thick branch he stood on, landing so he faced the other direction, and started to slide back into the shadows.

"Wait!" Kohza called out. "Please wait!"

The strange boy stopped his retreat and slowly turned to glare down at her once again.

"P-Please…please don't run away," she stammered. For some reason, the idea of talking to a boy was more nerve racking than talking to a demon. "I'm not here to hurt you."

The boy did not make any response, but also did not disappear into the trees again. He was still clinging to the branch with arms and legs, almost in a protective stance. Kohza had never imagined that the boy could be nervous too. Smiling her best, she lifted her hands in a placating motion.

"Please don't run away," she half whispered. "Please come down now."

The eyes contracted. A fire alighted in them: a fire the like that Kohza had never seen in the eyes of Man. She could not tell if it was fear or anger or surprise or pure murderous intent, and she was very nervous. Most girls her age would have turned and run away. Kohza stayed where she was, smiling her best.

The boy stared at her one last time.

There had to be something human in those eyes…

With barely a sound, the boy suddenly leapt off the branch. For a moment, he seemed suspended against the backdrop of the canopy, and it took her a second to realize that he was indeed falling. He was a creature of incredible, terrible grace, his posture keeping perfectly in synch with the laws of nature. When he landed, he landed heavily balanced on his two feet not two yards away from her, an acrobatic feat to say in the least. When the cloud of dust and leaves settled down, his appearance became real again.

Kohza was breathless. The boy had been a sight far away, but up close, he was a hard, vicious, striking reality. Up close, she could see just how many angry scars covered his person, just how much strength seemed to be bound up in the lean, wiry body. This was a body that told a story: a story of a life that had been much harder and fiercer than her own, which was hard to imagine. In many respects, he resembled a beast, his skin covered in a cake of grit, dust, sweat, mud, all in varying tones all over his body. His hair was a forest of entanglements, leaves and twigs matted incredibly flush with the mass of tangles. His face wore an expression of a sort of muted aggression (or was that defensiveness?), lips drawn tight together and nostrils slightly flared. His whole person spoke of something so unlike what she knew to be human that she could barely conceive that it was the same thing.

The eyes, those golden eyes…they were so close now she swore at any minute they were going to leap out at her, as if they alone were their own creatures. Such anger, such sorrow, such fear, such total, raw emotion there… if she hadn't known better, she really would have thought him to be a demon.

For a long minute, the silence of the forest surrounded the two figures in a womb of half sacredness. For the first time in her life, the forest was not an ugly, twisted place, but a place that was surely holy, somehow. It lasted but a moment before it was gone, but surely both felt it.

"M-…My name is Kohza," she extended a hand to him, palm down, almost as if she were coaxing a dog to take in her scent. Indeed, he seemed to almost sniff at it, but his nose was quickly finding its way to her basket instead, his meaning being clear. Kohza smiled a little and pulled one corner of her napkin back to reveal one of four rice balls, still sticky from the pan. Immediately, the boy grabbed at it, taking a giant bite out of it without saying a word.

"I wonder if you can speak?" Kohza asked entreatingly as she watched her 'demon' eat for the first time. "If you did, perhaps you might tell me your name?"

The boy suddenly stopped, holding the last bite of the rice in his mouth for several seconds before swallowing. He stared at her intensely for several seconds, as if searching for something like treachery…Finally, in a low, powerful sort of voice that she still had to strain to hear, he spoke a single word:

"Mugen…"

A/N:

Yes, Yes, Yes indeed. I know this chapter was coming late, but hey, readers didn't exactly give me much inspiration. Hopefully, this story will continue. I'm not demanding reviews, but I do think it will help to inspire me if I get them. Thanks to all who have reviewed. Hope this chapter and those to come give you as much enjoyment as the first.