Alone in the Dark.

Chapter 3: Heading Out

Mugen shot up in his bed, waking hastily from his sleep. His chest was heaving and his hand reached for his sword. Something wasn't right, he looked around the room. It was the same one mat room he had fallen asleep in the night before. A cold sweat remained on his brow as he tried to calm himself. In his haste he had knocked his "companion" off of the futon, but she was still fast asleep. He could've swore he had heard it, a scream. Not just any scream, Fuu's scream. He mumbled curses to himself as he laid back down, arms folded behind his head. The journey was over now, it had ended almost a year and a half ago. Why was he still having premonitions that Fuu wasn't okay? He had calmed down a bit, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Fuu was in danger. He closed his eyes and his imagination produced quite a few different scenarios with the same theme. Fuu being kidnapped, Fuu being forced to work in a brothel, Fuu being kidnapped and then raped, Fuu trying to escape from a brothel but getting caught, then beat, and then raped. His lips formed a scowl at all the different scenes he imagined. He decided that after a few more winks of sleep he would set out to find Fuu. At least then his mind would be at ease knowing whether she was okay or not.

Jin sat on the bank of a river, swords at his side and a fishing pole in his hands. His stomach was tied in a knot. He had seen several signs on his way to the river bank, all of them telling him that Fuu was in trouble. His gripped tightened on the fishing pole as he recalled the signs he saw earlier that morning.

The first was a dead rodent on the road ahead of him while he walked to the river banks. At first it didn't seem to bother him, but as he got closer he could see that the rodent was a squirrel. This then reminded him of Fuu's pet squirrel, Momo. A slight frown graced his usually blank face. The second sign was a vase sitting on a window pane. It was white and held three sunflowers. Just as Jin walked past it, it fell from the window crashing to the ground. The liquid spread on the ground and formed a symbol. Maybe his imagination was working overtime, but to Jin the symbol looked similar to the one Mugen had created when he was learning to read. His frown deepened as he continued to walk. The last sign was a little girl, no older than five, sitting in front of her house crying. She wore a pink kimono similar to Fuu's and as Jin approached her he decided to stop and ask her why she was crying. She looked up into Jin's dark eyes with her own big, brown, watery eyes. She hiccuped and pointed to her sandal, the thong had snapped. Jin smiled kindly as he kneeled down and fixed the girls sandal. She studied the sandal after he had placed it back on her foot, she then jumped up and threw her arms around his neck and let out a squeaky "awwigato" and then ran back into her home.

Jin set his fishing pole on the lush grass, with his eyebrows furrowed in concentration he decided that he would set off to find Fuu. Something inside of him told him she was in some sort of danger. He had ignored this "something" at the crossroads when it told him to stay with her. He regretted it from that day on, but today was a new day. He wasn't going to keep regretting things that he should have done, he would never leave her alone again like he once had.

Fuu stared at her hands as she sat outside of the Okeono's tea house. Her body was still trembling, and the image of the old couple's lifeless bodies had burned itself into her mind. Keisuke had guided Himiko and herself outside, he had heard Fuu's scream while he was at a food vendor in the marketplace. It felt like an eternity had passed while the village elders with the help of Keisuke blocked the house off from prying eyes. A group of villagers had formed outside of the house. She could hear the whispers of the old wives...

"Such a pity, they were such nice people..."

"Who would do a thing like this, Aki and Keiko were always kind hearted...?"

"I heard that old man Okeono owed a debt to the Yamimoto clan...It was a long time ago, but maybe he still owed them...those people are nothing but barbarians! Killing a kind old man and his innocent wife!"

Fuu couldn't believe what she heard. Could this be right? She had heard story of the Yamimoto clan, one of the worst gangs to ever terrorize this village. Jiisan had told her stories about them, but she thought that was a long time ago. Wasn't it? The were cruel and never discriminated, they killed anyone and everyone who stood in their way. But why now, why would they resurface now? She pulled Himiko to the far side of the yard.

"Himiko..." Fuu began with worry filled eyes.

"I know Fuu, I heard the women. What are we gonna do?"

"We have to get out of here," Fuu's mind was racing. She knew what happened when a gang took a new territory. Travel was shut off, and the girls were made whores if they were lucky enough to be kept alive. "Who knows what will happen if we stay and if what they say is true. You saw how they were killed, that wasn't some punk newbie gangster.."

"Fuu, but where will we go? We don't have any money and we're two girls traveling alone." Himiko panicked. "I'm sure we're just as big as a target here as we will be on the highway."

"I know," Fuu sighed, "But I know if we can just find them..."

"Find who, Fuu?"

Just as Fuu was about to answer Keisuke had walked over to them. His eyes were ice blue, and he was just as tall as Jiisan. His hair was dark and short, but his bangs fell slightly over his eyes.

"Fuu, the elders are sure that this is the doing of the Yamimoto clan." Keisuke looked into her eyes, "They also said that you were the next of kin since the Okeono's have no living family in this village. Therefore, you now own the tea house and the belongings therein."

"Thank you, Keisuke..." Fuu murmured.

"You can go into the house now if you like, the bodies were taken to the burial ground and the mess has been cleaned up..." Keisuke put his hand on Fuu's shoulder and squeezed it slightly, "Fuu, I don't know what is going to happen now, but I know that whatever it is it has already broken the peace that had once graced our village. I just want you to know that you have nothing to fear. Jiisan was like family to me, and I know how happy he was when he took you in. I won't let anything happen to you...Fuu, I will protect you until I have breathed my last breath..."

"Keisuke," Fuu looked away from him, her own tears forming in her eyes, "Protect this village. I-I have to leave this place, but I promise that I will come back with help."

"Fuu, why?" the look of worry crossed his face, "It isn't safe for you-"

"It isn't safe for me to stay here! I know some people that will be able to help us. We need all the help we can get or this village will be crushed by the Yamimoto clan!"

"I...Fuu, I lo-"

"Please don't, Keisuke" Fuu stopped him, "Just let me go...please."

Keisuke nodded in silence, and with that Fuu and Himiko entered the house. Fuu went straight into the kitchen, and moved a few logs from the burner. She lifted up a heavy stone in the center of the burner. Below it was a small wooden cash box. She dumped the contents onto a cloth and wrapped it up. Himiko stood behind her with big eyes.

"Here," Fuu handed the cloth wrapped money to Himiko, "Hide this on you."

"Wha-where?"

"In your bindings,"Fuu whispered as if someone were eavesdropping, "Yours are bigger than mine. If I try to hide it robbers will see it from a mile away."

Himiko, more than a little flustered, huffed and hid the money in its designated spot.

"Okay that takes care of the money problem..." Fuu mentally checked her list of things needed for their journey. She then turned and started randomly grabbing all sorts of food.

"You haven't changed a bit, still a heffer." Himiko commented dryly.

"I prefer to be called a growing girl," Fuu shot back while gobbling down some steamed dumplings.

"Yeah, right. I think you're as grown as you're gonna get..." Himiko giggled while she helped her friend eat some of the food she was randomly packing away.

It was now mid afternoon and not too long ago Mugen had just awakened. He scratched his stubbly chin as he rose from the futon. His "companion" from the night before had already left, leaving Mugen's clothes folded up at the end of the futon. She also left him a bowl of rice, a nice size river trout and a bottle full of sake. This was the morning ritual Mugen had grown used to for the past four months. He had met her at a hole in the wall tea house in the bad part of town. She was only a waitress, but was getting bullied by some of the drunk patrons. Mugen just so happened to walk in as a gruff man had slapped her (more like punched her in his drunken state) down to the floor. Blood flew from her mouth onto Mugen's foot. Now Mugen was never the type to give a damn about bitch getting slapped, but this bitch just spewed blood on his foot. Of course it wasn't her fault so Mugen did what he did best.

"Yo, dude, you just got this bitches blood all over my foot..." Mugen growled, his usual scowl taking place upon his face.

"Look, you scrawny son of a bitch, does it look like I give a shit? Better move yo' ass out the way next time or it'll be you coughin' up blood...hahahaaa!" The drunk man laughed with the rest of his buddies as they pushed past Mugen and grabbed the waitress.

Now Mugen knew he was not having this. Nobody talked about his mama, it didn't matter if he didn't know her long enough to know if she was a bitch or not. Mugen rolled his shoulders back and cracked his knuckles.

"I tried to be nice..."Mugen said as he nonchalantly stabbed the man through his throat, "But that shit just ain't me..." the man choked on his own blood. "Ha, who's coughin' up blood now?" Mugen turned to the rest of the group, cleaning his ear with his left pinkie, holding his sword with his right hand. A smirk formed on his face, and with that the group cleared and scrambled through the door. He sheathed his sword and took a seat at the closest empty table that didn't have a skewered man laying atop of it. To his surprise, the girl came over to him and began to clean his feet with a wet rag.

"Yo, I'm a big boy, I can clean myself. How about some dumplings, and a bottle of sake?"

She scurried off through the doors leading to the kitchen. Mugen knew he was being too nice, but...she had eyes like Fuu's. He never cared to much for beating women, that was for men too weak to fight other men. That wasn't to say that he wouldn't kill a bitch, but it had to be something life threatening. Something like she was trying to kill him, or she tried to steal his money or something. Damn Fuu was making him feel all sorry and shit. He was surprised when the waitress came back holding a plate with a mountain of dumplings and two bottles of sake. She told him to eat as much as he liked and that her name Mako. Shortly after that she let Mugen live with her in exchange for protection. Free meals, free boose, free room and free ass. He even got to rumble every now and then when some punk wanted to challenge him.

But that was all in the past., he had to leave Mako now and look for Fuu. He found a piece of parchment and began to scribble down a note. It was the least he could do. He didn't love her or anything, and he knew she didn't love him either, but she looked out for him. She went out of her way to do for him, she helped him continue to learn how to read and write and he felt that she at least deserved an explanation as to why he was leaving. Out of respect, not love.

Mugen left the note on the table next to the dishes he emptied, he put on his white shirt and red jacket. He walked to the entrance of the room and stepped into his metal lined geta. He threw his sheathed sword over his shoulder, stuffed his hands into his pocket and stepped out into the bright sun. He walked through the throngs of people filling the street, and began his journey to find Fuu. About an hour later Mako returned to the room to find Mugen and his belongings gone. She looked at the table full of his dirty breakfast dishes and saw the note. She picked it up and read it, a smile gracing her lips. It read:

Hey Mako,

Thanks for puttin' up with my ass these past few months. I have some personal shit that I gotta go deal with. Im gonna miss that tight ass an' those nice tits, but I know you'll probably meet some nice guy and everything will be a'ight.

So long 'n shit.

ยง (Mugen).

Hey guys this is chewbecky. I'm not sure if the symbol will show or not, but if it does, I know thats not the one Mugen used as the symbol he created for himself in that one episode. Its kinda like it though, so what did you guys think of this chapter? I hope you liked it. Shout out to everyone who left a review! Thanks guys, it means a lot to me. Don't be afraid to make suggestions, im open for anything. Please R&R!