Hi guys!

Chibi.x.Love: Thanks for waiting. I'm really sorry it took me months to update. Really sorry...here's the new chapter!

Animango: Okay, to recap! Tasuki found Mayumi on the forest in the moutains. She's a daughter of a murdered man in the village at the foot of the moutain. The man who killed her family is her uncle and he's been hunting her down ever since. Now here's the next chapter!

He-Yan: You know, sooner or later, I'll have to make you co-author here. I know that this story is typical of a Tasuki romance fic, and I know that there would be people who read those all the time and get bored of it. I'm not too sure if I'm doing a great job in making mine stand out, the best idea I could come up with was making this fic read like it was written by a person who has the complete knowledge of the English language, already I got bashed for my other fic in Slam Dunk, it did hurt, but I am doing my best. If you or anyone else for that matter have comments that can make this fic different from the ones that are already posted, let me know, and I'll incorporate them in some way. Okay?

Sorry, I'm not really in a cheery mood. The bashing was long and harsh, it didn't leave me angry, just sad...

When You Meet Your Match

"Those guys were right!" cried Tasuki happily, walking on the forest floor, leading his gang, "they were loaded!"

He grinned to his left, where Kouji was. His smile slowly faded when he saw that Kouji wasn't even looking at him. Instead, his best friend was staring at the ground, most likely his feet, and didn't seem to take in a word that he, Tasuki, was saying.

"Oi!" cried Tasuki, nudging him on the shoulder.

"Huh?" said Kouji, looking up and to his side. "Oh, yeah, seriously good job. Spiffing."

Tasuki looked memontarily taken aback. "Excuse me? Spiffing?" he asked. "What the hell is spiffing?"

Kouji smiled at Tasuki. "I heard those foreign people saying it," he said.

"Well then stop saying it!" cried Tasuki, "You don't need a vobabulary lesson from those devils."

"Ooh, vocabulary, big word."

"Shut up."

Tasuki turned to the way they were going, not thinking much about anything except what Mayumi's reaction would be once they reach camp. He hoped that she would feel incredibly jelous, since he knew that she badly wanted to come with them. He could just see it now, her seething eyes, forced to miss out on all the fun, him gloating all night about it…

"Hey, Kouji – " he turned to his friend again, but again to find him in a gloomy state. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded. "Ever since we finished the raid, you've been staring out into space! You didn't even look like you were enjoying the rewards of our efforts!"

"I did!" retorted Kouji, though there was a slight alarmed look in his eyes. Tasuki grew even more suspicious. Before they went ahead, Kouji had disappeared for a few minutes, he didn't say where he was going or what he was going to do, and when he reappeared, there was a mysterious smirk in his face. During their sneaking also, he kept looking everywhere, and didn't focus on their target, making them slip up twice.

"Well then what's the matter?"

"It's nothing, just – oh look we're back!" said Kouji. Sure enough, they were back. Tasuki still looked at him suspiciously, but turned back into the camp anyway.

"Mayumi!" cried Kouji to the camp in general. "Mayumi we're back!"

Tasuki had expected that as soon as they were in sight, Mayumi would come charging into them, or he had hoped that she would come charging into him personally, knocking him down and pinning him under herself, demanding what happened. Then he would remind himself not to let his imagination run away with itself.

"Mayumi!" called Kouji again, "where are you?"

"We're back!" called Tasuki, his impatience growing.

Kouji turned to him, a small smile in his face.

"What?" asked Tasuki defensively. "Is it so wrong to let her know that we're back?"

"Mayumi!" called Kouji again.

"Maybe she's at the lake," suggested one of their men. "She always likes it there."

Kouji nodded and hurried toward the lake. Tasuki then entered his tent, and for one crazy second, he thought that maybe Mayumi was in there, but he was quickly disappointed to see that she was not.

When he had tucked the money safely, he went out to the camp, where he found that Kouji was back. He had a frown in his face. "Well?" he asked.

"She's not there," said Kouji, "I don't get it."

"Neither do I," said Tasuki, "maybe she followed us? I kind of half expected her to."
Kouji shrugged. "She should be back then by now," he said, "we are."

"Tasuki-san?"

Tasuki and Kouji then both turned to see one of their bandits behind them, a nervous look in his face.

"Yeah?"

"It's about Mayumi."

"Where is she?"

"I don't know, boss," he said, "but we found this on the forest floor –"

With that, he produced, from his back, one of Mayumi's knives, it had her name on, and its bloodstained hilt.

When Mayumi woke up, what struck her the most was how painful her stomach was. Her first instinct was to rub her stomach furiously, but she quickly found that doing that would be impossible.

She opened her eyes. At least, she thought she did. She blinked, making sure that her eyes were open. She couldn't see a thing. It was dark. Not the kind of dark associated with a night sky, but the darkness of one closing their eyes. There was hardly a difference between her opened eyes to closed ones.

She also found that she was leaning on a cold wall, and her wrists and ankles were tired. The chain clanked when she tried to move her hands, and her ankles. She cursed. Wherever she was, she was sure she was taken by that man that she stabbed. She hoped that he was hurting bad.

But before she could think of the many ways that she can punish that man for abducting her, the door opened.

She was surprised that there even was a door. She thought that she was trapped in a cement box, and that they were just gonna let her die from hunger or thirst, whichever came first. She of course, knew who did this, who else can be so twisted as to think of something like this anyway.

Her confirmations were held true when she saw who was at the door. At first, she couldn't see a thing. The light that came from the door blinded her instantly, since her eyes were getting accustomed to the darkness. She tried to hide her eyes with her hands, but the clanking of the chains proved once again that she cannot to do that.

Instead she winced and closed her eyes. After a few seconds, her eyes became just as accustomed to the light and she could see the tall imposing figure by the door.

"My dear niece," said the figure in a drawling voice, "welcome."

Mayumi just snarled.

"Welcome," he said again, in that drawling mocking voice, "to my home."

Mayumi glared at the figure as he came closer. It was no doubt, her Uncle Kito. It was the same tall lanky figure, with the same greedy eyes and that annoying sneer in his face. She didn't say anything, she merely glared.

"I hope that you're comfortable?"

She dearly wanted to stab the man.

"Now, now, Mayumi," said her uncle, pressing on her cheeks, making her look up at him. "Surely your parents taught you manners, did they not? Or how about your brother?" Here, Mayumi's eyes narrowed into slits as her uncle sneered victoriously, "Did he just let you go around disrespecting people everywhere?"

She didn't answer him, she merely glared, hoping that he would just keel over and die.

Kito didn't like this, and pinched her cheeks together, drawing her closer, making her shoulders stretch out painfully towards him."You will answer me when I ask you a question, do you understand?" he said, in his menacing voice.

Mira spat at his face.

"You wrench!" he declared, slapping her hard, making her spit out some blood. "You will learn to respect me in my house!"

This time, Mayumi managed to find her voice. "Your house? I will have you know that this is my house!"

Kito leered. "Look at you," he said, "you're helpless, tied up and on the verge of death, yet you still possess that irritating arrogance that you got only from your father."

"That's because this is my house," said Mayumi, with equal leer, "and I must say you've done a poor job of redecorating."

Kito made a grab for something that Mayumi could not see. Pretty soon, however, she felt what he made a grab for.

She cried out in pain as the whip lashed out into the air, hitting the side of her stomach. She looked up at the ceiling, as her eyes started to water. He hit her repeatedly, saying loudly, "This is my house! Mine! Everything here belongs to me! This was never yours nor will it ever be! This is all mine!"

Kito only stopped when he saw the tears that flowed down Mayumi's face. She didn't make a sound, the only indication of any reaction was the silent tears in her face. He dropped the whip, and looked at her, his lips only inches from her own. The thought that her uncle would so something to her sexually was terrifying her more than the whip, and she turned her head away from him.

"Yes it hurts, does it not?" he whispered menacingly to her.

"Kill me now," she said, "just get on with it and kill me."

"But where would be the fun in that?" he asked, turning her head to face him. "Personally, I want you to suffer, do you really think that we'd just let you roam around the forest by yourself? Don't worry my dear, eventually, I will order your death, but right now, I think that I should have some fun with you, ne?"

Mayumi's eyes widened in horror as she turned away from him. He left the room, leaving the door open, and as he did so, another man came in, and grabbed the fallen whip.

Mayumi's cries echoed across the house for an hour. The torturer had left the door open, to make sure that her uncle can hear her painful cries. The sound comforted Kito, and it mulled him to sleep.